Issue 2

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MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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25th SEPTEMBER 2017 / ISSUE 2

From highs to lows in Welcome Week Despite society membership rising to an all-time high, with just under 5,000 signing up since last week’s Welcome Fairs, Freshers have had to contend with drug dealers and muggings in and around their halls, respectively. Read about it on pages 2 and 3.

Manchester alumnus sparks outrage at Student Leaders Conference Comments about dating geeky girls and making friends with suffers of OCD to ‘get ahead at uni’ left some students aghast Hana Jafar News Reporter University of Manchester alumnus Tomas Paulik was the guest of honour at a confe The Student Leaders’ Conference, organised by The University of Manchester Students’ Union, involved a morning and afternoon session of talks, workshops, and networking opportunities for committee members and student leaders at the University.

One of Paulik’s comments made during the morning session encouraged students to network and “make friends with weird people,” with “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder” listed as an example beneath an image of a person washing their hands. Also listed were those who suffer from “Asperger’s Syndrome” and “introverts.”

The speaker had another slide that encouraged

students to “date a geek girl” alongside an image of a woman in glasses and a schoolgirl uniform.

This featured beside the quote: “never sleep with a girl who doesn’t know Fourier transforms.”

Some students and staff members at the Students’ Union were seen looking visibly uncomfortable and surprised by the slides. Shortly after he rushed through the rest of his presentation, a Students’ Union staff member who organised the event apologised and explained that these comments did not reflect the views of the Students’ Union.

An upset attendee, who chose to remain anonymous, commented that the incident was “absolutely disgusting to someone like me who struggles with a chronic mental illness... fetishising mental illnesses diminish their seriousness as psychological conditions that are distressing and difficult.

“He came across as ignorant and insensitive, so

Blair calls on Manchester to march for EU

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I couldn’t take anything he said seriously,” they added. Shortly after the slides had been shown, the University’s part time Transgender Officer and member of the UoM Feminist Collective tweeted the following: Their tweet read: “yikes here’s why you should check through your guest speakers’ PowerPoint before inviting them to do a talk.” The tweet was re-tweeted 42 times and favourited over 200 times. Some of the responses included comments like “mental Disorders are not quirks” and “I can’t believe this is even real.”

Rob also spoke with The Mancunion about their experience, saying “I feel really frustrated about the whole situation because the event was otherwise pretty good, and I know the SU do decent work to support disabled students elsewhere, so I was really shocked at the content in the presentation.”

“It’s also pretty ironic considering how strict the

Fallowfield dealers Songs to move in to P3P4 handing out samples

SU are about societies booking speakers in for events”, they added.

The Students’ Union, and The National Union of Students as a whole, has a policy whereby speakers can be ‘no-platformed’ if enough people raise concerns about the content, and has been criticised in the past for restricting the right to free speech.

The University of Manchester Students’ Union released a statement commenting on the events at the conference, saying that they “would like to acknowledge the impact and apologise for any offence caused during the slides within the aforementioned presentation.

“With a very clear brief provided and no concerns regarding the speaker’s background, the Students’ Union felt confident that we did not need to vet the speaker’s presentation and content.”

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Interview: Septembercomedian dining deals Daniel Sloss

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Manchester Mexican Society raise funds for those affected by earthquake Kirstie O’Mahony Editor-in-Chief

Highlights

Following the destruction of the earthquake in Mexico, the Manchester Mexican Society are holding various fundraising events to raise money for those affected.

The earthquake has so far claimed 227 lives and wreaked havoc on not only Mexico City, but dozens of small towns in neighbouring states such as Wahaca. 21 children and 4 adult staff members are thought to have perished in a school in the capital as a result of the quake.

Treasurer of the Manchester Mexican Society Noel Natera Cordero told The Mancunion that fortunately “no one’s family [in the society] have been affected” but there are still friends and acquaintances who are in the midst of the devastation.

He continued “it’s terrible being so far away from your friends, your family and your country” at a time like this, but made clear that now is the time for action and organisation in the face of such adversity.

The Mexican society are planning various events such as movie nights and a football

tournament, but are open to more ideas from anyone who wants to get involved.

Noel also mentioned that the Holy Name Church, opposite the Students’ Union on Oxford Road, are helping organise a catholic mass in remembrance of those affected.

The Manchester Mexican Society have set up a Just Giving page where people can donate to the cause. They also have a Facebook page where you can keep up to date with all the fundraising events they’re organising.

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Food & Drink p22 The best places to eat when you’re hungover

Photo: UoM Student

The Union’s G eneral Secretary Alex Tayler also stated: “I would like to thank the students who had the confidence and skills to challenge this incident; as a Students’ Union this is something we will continue to support and encourage.

Following the initial presentation, we were able to use this as an opportunity to guide the presenter for future reference.”

The speaker in question graduated from the University of Manchester in 2012 with a degree in Artificial Intelligence and was awarded the Kil burn scholarship for academic excellence. He is a software engineer and has given lectures as a guest speaker at various prestigious academic Institutions. When asked for comment on the incident, Paulik told the Mancunion “ The presentation is using elements of modern marketing, due to its targeted audience — students interested in entrepreneurship — and is to some extent of a humorous nature. “ The organisation did not inform me

about the conservative nature of the conference and its audience. Should I have known this, I would adapt the content accordingly.

“It was definitely not my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable with the presented content, and I would like to express my apologies, should that have happened.

He added that “immediately after my talk, the organisers played a video which was focused on leadership. The video features nine males and zero female leaders. If a line-up of white male role models presented by the Diversity Officer is being considered as appropriate content, then I don’t understand how my talk can be subject of such inadequate criticism [sic]” The Students’ Union have encouraged anyone who feels affected by the subject matter of this article to contact their free and confidential Advice Service.

Muggings on the rise in Fallowfield Fashion & Beauty p17 The cap is back!

Criminals reportedly target students as they return to Fallowfield and Withington from University or nights out this week Cameron Broome Head News Editor Police said they have seen a “spate of personal robberies” around Wilmslow Road, Platt Lane and Platt Fields park, the Manchester Evening News have reported.

Over the last two days, a group of teenage boys are said to have taken iPhones, iPads, money and other electronic devices.

Incidents are reported to have most commonly occurred between 1.30am and 3.30am.

On the 22th of September, GMP Fallowfield reported that a student had been

Contact Editor-in-Chief: Kirstie O’Mahony editor@mancunion.com Deputy Editor: Tristan Parsons deputyed@mancunion.com Head News Editor: Cameron Broome Deputy News Editor: Rosa Simonet Deputy News Editor: Amy Wei E: news@mancunion.com

Music p14 Foo Fighters are not on top form according

Science & Technology Editor: Kieran O’Brien E: science@mancunion.com Features Head Editor: Catherine Bray Deputy Editor: Raine Beckford E: features@mancunion.com Head Opinion Editor: Sam Glover

mugged near Platt Fields park around 1AM, with his phone and wallet taken.

In some of the incidents, the group have told victims they have a weapon, and have kicked or punched people who have refused to hand over items.

According to The Manchester Evening News , the offenders have been described as black males, around 18-years-old wearing black and white clothing with one wearing a blue bubble jacket, and have been seen hanging around opposite the Platt Fields entrance.

A statement from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said: “We are aware of these

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attacks and investigations are underway.

“We urge you to share this with friends or any student family in and around south Manchester and avoid the Platt Fields entrance when walking alone.

“Only carry devices on your person in this area if absolutely necessary.”

Any witnesses or anyone with further information can call GMP on 101, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111 quoting log 265 190917.

This is a developing story. Anyone who has any further information, please contact news.mancunion@gmail.com

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Dealers hand out business cards outside halls Whilst these cards are no new entrepreneurial trick, attaching small amounts of product to them is taking some students aback Kirstie O’Mahony Editor-in-Chief Dealers in the Fallowfield area are giving business cards to freshers, and some are attaching free samples of the drugs they sell.

One fresher, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Mancunion that these people have also approached them in their halls of residence, “as we were just leaving the dining hall.”

He also pointed out that one of the cards “took the ‘ingenious’ step of blanking out two numbers with I believe the guy saying ‘four, five, six’, meaning if the card ever got dropped… then the police wouldn’t immediately cotton on.”

Students who have lived there for a while know the cards are no new trick — one student commented on the article that “If they ain’t using business cards, is it even Fallowfield?”

But attaching free samples of weed to the card is something new, and a bit more bold than in the past.

One person tweeted saying that Fallowfield dealers “don’t give a f**k” anymore, whilst another commented that it sums the area up.

Jacob Thompson, a 2nd year English Literature student at the University of Manchester, told The Mancunion that “dealers have been offering samples in the Granville Road area; a guy leapt out of his car to offer a friend of mine some free sample, but he was too nervous to accept.”

The Students’ Union are “reminding students to be extra vigilant”. The Wellbeing Officer Saqib Mahmood told The Mancunion “the Students’ Union has a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal drug use. We will work with GMP and the relevant Local Authorities to tackle the issue.”

Superintendent Dave Pester from Greater Manchester Police’s City of Manchester Division, said: “We have increased patrols across the area as part of our student safe operation. It includes a targeted initiative aimed at identifying drug dealers who we know are pursuing our students, who are potentially already vulnerable in their new environment.

“We are aware that business cards have been used in the past and this is a matter we will look into further.

He continued: “The city is full of new experiences and we want everyone to enjoy their time while here, however, we would like to make it clear that we won’t tolerate drug dealing or drug use in the city and our officers on the ground will take action.”

People are encouraged to call 101 if they see any instances of drug dealing in their local area, or 999 if it’s an emergency.

The Students’ Union are also encouraging anyone who’s been affected by such an incident to go to the Advice Service for free and confidential advice and support.

Photo: UoM Student

Manchester to celebrate NHS’s 70th birthday with exhibition and films

“The forthcoming NHS 70th anniversary is a perfect opportunity to celebrate its past and reflect on its present and future”, Project Director said Cameron Broome Head News Editor Marking the institution’s 70th anniversary in 2018, The University of Manchester will create the first shared social history of the National Health Service (NHS), thanks to £785,000 of National Lottery Funding.

The Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine (CHSTM), part of the university’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the ‘From Cradle to Grave: The NHS at 70’ project.

The grant will allow the multi-partner project to train volunteers to gather stories from the NHS’s patients and workers, as well as politicians and the general public, recording its unique place in everyday, post-war British life.

Commenting on the award, Project Director, Stephanie Snow said: “We are thrilled to have received National Lottery funding. The project has huge potential to transform

engagement with the NHS’s history across the UK and beyond through digital tools, and through the contributions of volunteers and communities.”

A major component of the project will be the creation of an innovative new website which will allow the public to submit their stories of the NHS by uploading recordings, photos, and documents. The website will act as a hub for existing and previous histories of the NHS. The project will also create a touring exhibition, a programme of events, and 40-minute feature film.

“We urgently need to capture the memories of the first generations who worked and were cared for by this unique institution, as they are now in their 80s and 90s”, Stephanie Snow said.

160 people will be trained to gather stories and artefacts from the NHS’s 70-year history, while 70 young people aged 14-25 will act as Community Reporters, filming stories in their local area.

These testimonies, from everyday users and workers in the health service to key policymakers, MPs, and trade

union officials, will contribute to a multimedia, publicly accessible record of the NHS, filling existing gaps in its history, and recording the personal stories that make the service so unique.

“The funding is a mark of the high regard with which Manchester is viewed in healthcare”, suggested Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress said: “The NHS is the people’s health service. It is a bond between all of us — patients, staff and communities. Everyone has a story about how the NHS changed their lives. Those stories need to be told, need to be captured and celebrated. We’re delighted to be involved with this project and can think of no better way of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the NHS than bearing testimony to the millions of people that have contributed to this wonderful national institution.”

Mental Health First Aid course now available for students The mental health support course is initiated as Andy Burnham tells The Mancunion “support often isn’t there for people in crisis moments”

Amy Wei and Hana Jafar Deputy News Editor and News Reporter The organisation Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA UK) has launched a training course designed to “enable students and staff to recognise the signs and symptoms of mental health issues.”

The one day course is designed for “anyone who works or studies in a university environment.” Objectives include being able to spot the signs of mental health issues, offer first aid and signpost students to appropriate services.

Developed in collaboration with organisation Student Minds, it is now available to universities all over England, including the University of Manchester.

It has been piloted at 16 Universities so far and is a paid course, valued at £200, but costs vary by location and instructor. Each cohort is limited to 16 people, to keep participants “safe and supported.”

Mental Health and well-being are a growing concern among students in the UK. It is estimated that 75% of mental illnesses develop by the time individuals are 24 years old.

In a press release from MHFA, the director and Higher Education lead Caroline Hounsell commented that “although students fall into a particularly at-risk group, early intervention and support can reduce many long-term impacts of mental ill health including academic failure, drop-out and limited employment prospects.”

Growing awareness has prompted a demand for more accessible mental health services on campus, putting additional pressure on University counselling services that are often overbooked and underfunded.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, is keen to en-

sure his new Greater Manchester mental health strategy, which will put £80 million pounds into youth mental health support, channels funds specifically into university counselling services.

Speaking to The Mancunion , Burnham stated: “We’re working with the universities on how and where to provide those services. So, yeah, a work in progress but the issue has absolutely been grasped at the very top.”

He and Greater Manchester’s chief health officer, Jon Rouse, “recognised, working with the university, that there is a gap in provision, and that support often isn’t there for people in crisis moments.”

Burnham was careful to restrain his commitments, however: “I wouldn’t want to claim that it’s all going to be miraculously fixed and it’ll be perfect from now on, I don’t think it’s as easy as that.”

Lauren Goodfellow, from the Open Mind Network society at the University of Manchester, was equally cautious with regards to the progress made in the implementation of MHFA’s training course.

Speaking to The Mancunion , she said “it’s not widely accessible and therefore doesn’t go far enough to try and tackle the mental health epidemic that is currently wracking the nation. But it is a step in the right direction.

“It’s so normal for students to struggle when starting University as it is a huge new step in their lives. Often it involves moving to a new city or a completely different country. Hopefully, this will be the first of many schemes that increase awareness and build a valuable support network for students who have mental health issues.”

The Mancunion is currently conducting an extended investigation into support provided by the university counselling service, particularly for victims of sexual abuse. Any readers with experience with the service can contact The Mancunion confidentially at news@mancunion.com

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Andy Burnham to crack down on private landlords Caps on rent and strict regulations are in order because student housing is “way below standard,” Andy Burnham tells The Mancunion Amy Wei Deputy News Editor Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, is planning to implement a ‘Good Landlords’ scheme in Greater Manchester to protect students from dodgy contracts.

The scheme will “set basic standards for what is good practice in terms of being fair to tenants, in terms of rent prices, but also in terms of the safety of the accommodation, and also its energy efficiency.”

Speaking to The Mancunion, Burnham disclosed frustration with private landlords and the government for not taking care of student tenants.

“We’ve got a private renting sector in the UK that isn’t regulated in any meaningful way, so what we’ve got to try and do at the [Greater

Photo: Hannah Brierley

Manchester] level is to introduce a scheme that puts pressure on them.”

Manchester City Council does not currently operate any landlord accreditation scheme. Manchester Student Homes, an organisation co-owned by the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, runs an independent landlord accreditation scheme, but the mayor is unsatisfied with its current standards.

He continued: “I have real concerns that a lot of the student housing in the city is way below the standard it should be — from a simple living point of view, but also from an environmental point of view… that is, I think, quite a big issue that we need to confront that we probably haven’t done.”

Burnham hopes that accrediting quality landlords in the scheme will help students determine which landlords to avoid, and motivate sub-standard landlords to make significant changes to the housing they let to students.

Burnham called on the city’s universities to work together with him to make the ‘Good Landlords’ scheme a success. “One specific that I think the university could help with is challenging private landlords who provide accommodation to the university students.”

“If all four universities within Greater Manchester were to work with us on the Good Landlords scheme, I think it would deliver significant benefits to the students.”

Many students at the University of Manchester have been exploited by private landlords in the past.

A PhD student who occupied a sub-standard house-share letted by IdealHouseShare told The Mancunion: “My room last year got black mould and damp, and even my clothes in my wardrobe which were clean got mould on them even though they were clean. I had to throw them out. All through this, the agency kept implying it was my fault.”

IdealHouseShare representatives were allegedly “patronising” and then claimed that a surveyor came and reported that there was no damp. Eventually, the student “threatened to report them to the council for letting out accommodation not fit for human habitation,” after which “they paid for having a dryer installed downstairs as a compromise.”

“I have real concerns that a lot of the student housing in the city is way below the standard it should be” Another student came forward to The Mancunion after renting a house-share from an independent landlord. “She was very shady concerning her identity: she never signed off her e-mail and never told us her real name.

“Our contracts were all wrong for many reasons: she was saying we were lodgers but she wasn’t living with us; plus on some contracts she said that the bills were included in the rent, on others she said they were not included. She also changed the price of the rooms during the year and forced some people to sign new contracts. Some people also never had a contract. She was literally treating everyone very differently.

“She promised us at the start of the year that she would show us the bills if we required it. We asked her several times, and I even confronted her, but she never showed them, obviously because she was charging us way too much.”

Burnham affirmed that he was familiar with such cases: “Yes. I’ve heard that call when I’ve been at the university, and I think people are right to say they deserve better.”

While the ‘Good Landlords’ scheme is still being discussed, Burnham stresses that the University of Manchester will be “a very, very important partner for us in making that happen.”

Photo: Hannah Brierley

Blair calls on Manchester to march for EU

People of Manchester should “speak up now before it is too late” at the ‘Stop Brexit March,’ former Prime Minister Tony Blair tells The Mancunion Cameron Broome Head News Editor “Brexit is the defining issue for the future of our country,” Mr Blair tells The Mancunion, ahead of the upcoming ‘Stop Brexit’ march in Manchester.

Part of a planned ‘Autumn of Discontent’ by pro-EU campaigners, the ‘Stop Brexit’ march will take place on the 1st of October, beginning at All Saint’s Park and marching along Oxford Road to the Convention Centre, where the Conservative Party Conference will be in full session.

The march is an opportunity for Brexit sceptics to “speak up now before it is too late”, Mr Blair told The Mancunion.

The former Prime Minister recently made headlines after arguing that Britain doesn’t have to leave the European Union to control immigration, both in an article and a podcast based on his Institute’s recently published policy paper.

Directly appealing to young people and students, Mr Blair told The Mancunion: “For young people, this decision is particularly acute; there are genuine concerns about this generation’s prospects being worse than those of generations before them.

“Students in Manchester and elsewhere are no longer sure that academic success will lead to professional success. Brexit will exacerbate not solve this problem.”

Tony Blair strongly encouraged students in Manchester, and the people of Greater Manchester more broadly, to attend the march.

Speaking to The Mancunion, he said: “Manchester is a remain city.

A warm and welcoming city, with a spirit like no other. Those who feel passionately that their future is in the hands of others who do not have their best interests at heart, who feel this decision will harm our country for generations to come should take this opportunity to demonstrate their strength of feeling against this Hard Brexit.”

Blair was particularly concerned about the impact a ‘Hard Brexit’ would have on British universities, echoing Angela Rayner’s recent comments to The Mancunion that “universities and students cannot be sacrificed to a disastrous Brexit designed to appease hard-line Tory backbenchers.”

Mr Blair said: “The damage to higher education will be significant if we continue down this path. Our universities are world leaders. If they can’t attract the best and brightest from around the globe, then

if we carry on with Brexit, like Britain, their standing in the world will diminish.”

However, the former Labour leader accepted that Brexit may go ahead, stating that “if the will of the British people remains as it was last June, then Brexit will happen.”

He added: “if the will of the people changes, then we must change course with it.”

Using a Manchester-specific football analogy to explain his position, Mr Blair said: “If we go ahead with this, we will have taken the unprecedented decision for a major country to relegate ourselves, like United

“Manchester should

take this opportunity to demonstrate strength of feeling against Hard Brexit” or City deciding to play in the Championship. This is madness.”

Mr Blair’s comments come after his former colleague, Alastair Campbell, put out a similar call to action for the ‘Stop Brexit’ march in The Mancunion: “I hope Manchester students, and the people of Manchester more generally, turn out in force to make sure the government understands the depth of concern and anger about Brexit, both the false prospectus sold, and the mind-numbing incompetence of the ministers in charge of the Brexit process.”

Nonetheless, Mr Blair was clear that “we won’t be able to stop [Brexit] until there is a groundswell for change.”

Explaining his position and Institute’s research in more detail, Mr Blair said: “Post-financial crisis we haven’t regained our footing. Austerity is biting, the poorest are suffering, middle incomes are stagnating, and our country is deeply divided.

“We need to deal with the anxieties behind Brexit; finding the solutions that won’t cause the tremendous damage that a Hard Brexit will.

And to bridge the divide we must persuade enough people to change their minds.

“That’s why my Institute has come up with ideas to reform freedom of movement, controlling EU immigration in a way that meets the anxiety behind the Brexit vote, without casting aside our values or causing economic self-harm.”

Mr Blair added: “there is a real anxiety that our country is becoming a more closed society. We can’t set aside the discussion of EU immigration from Brexit, but the reality is: we need people to continue coming to work and study here, otherwise our country is going to suffer a serious economic hit.

“By putting in place sensible policies which answer the concerns that people have around pressures on local public services or rapid cultural change we don’t pander to populist sentiments. We need to provide answers, not ride the anger.

“This decision is the biggest decision our country will take since the Second World War. It will define not only this generation, but many generations to come.”

Mr Blair called for sceptics to “deal with the underlying causes which led to the Brexit vote, whilst continuing to make our voices heard in opposition to it.”

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Manchester second most entrepreneurial UK city Photo: Bill Boaden @ Wikimedia Commons

Amy Wei Deputy News Editor Manchester is one of the best cities in the world for startups, a new study suggests. While the UK still ranks the 8th most entrepreneurial country in the world, a new analysis finds that Manchester is its biggest driver of business growth, after Brighton.

In a surprising study conducted by office space broking company Impact Offices, the city of Manchester has the second highest rate of business growth, proportional to population size, in the UK. Brighton takes the top spot, but both cities have a total entrepreneurial index of 11 per cent. Furthermore, in 2017, only 24 more businesses were started in Brighton than in 2016. In comparison, 8,458 more new businesses were added to Manchester over the number of new businesses started in 2016.

Speaking to The Mancunion, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham revealed aims to overtake Brighton. “We’ve got a very vi-

brant digital and tech sector, like Brighton, but ours is really growing quite fast. Our aim should be to be the top. We want to be the UK’s leading digital city.”

Burnham believes his ambitions to make Manchester the UK’s leading sustainable city will encourage small business growth in Greater Manchester: “The Green City ambition is part of building a modern economy. If we are going for a low carbon future and accelerating the speed with which we’re getting there, I’d argue that we’re making the [Greater Manchester] economy attractive as a place to work.

“It’s about having a clear vision on low carbon, digital sustainable living as an attractive place to live. Manchester doesn’t like being second-best at anything, and our aim is to be the most entrepreneurial and most vibrant.”

London, meanwhile, only ranked as the 12th most entrepreneurial city in the UK. John Williams, Head of Marketing at Instant Offices, persisted in a public statement: “According to many ranking systems London has

been hailed as the greatest city in the world… and for entrepreneurs, in particular, the capital continues to be an international draw with relatively low corporation tax, an ever-growing pool of talent and strong global client base.

“You cannot put a price on its vibrancy and the collective buzz that drives business, perhaps more than in any other time in its wonderful history.”

Contradicting this, the results of the new study suggest London is no longer the focal point of British entrepreneurial innovation. In 2017, both Nottingham and Leicester experienced 50 per cent higher rates of business growth than the capital.

In response to the headliners of the study, Williams said: “I can understand the appeal of Brighton and the south coast of England.”

Williams did not acknowledge Manchester. The accreditation he gives to the south coast of England stands up poorly considering out of the 15 leading entrepreneurial cities in the UK, only two cities lie in the South of England — Brighton, and Bristol, which stands in 8th place.

Tim Martin: lower VAT in pubs is good for students, economy and government “Pubs are an important part of the social fabric of the UK”, Tim Martin told The Mancunion ahead of Wetherspoon’s ‘Tax Equality Day’ on the 20th of September Cameron Broome Head News Editor Branded ‘Tax Equality Day’, Wetherspoon’s pubs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be cutting the price of all food and drink by 7.5 per cent on Wednesday the 20th of September.

At present, all food and drink in pubs is subject to 20 per cent VAT, compared with food in supermarkets which benefits from zero-rate VAT. As a result, supermarkets are able to use that saving to sell alcohol at a discounted rate, pubs argue.

Pubs also argue that supermarkets pay around 2 pence per pint of business rates, whereas pubs pay about 18 pence.

Explaining why students should support the campaign, Tim Martin, Wetherspoon’s chairman, said: “Students can continue to support the campaign for tax equality by making sure they understand these 2 facts: pubs pay 20% tax for food sales and supermarkets nothing. That is unfair, and also pushes up the price of a pint or meal in a pub versus a supermarket.”

“Staying in... student digs all the time would drive anyone mad”

“Since pubs generate more jobs and tax per pint and per meal anyway, it makes economic sense for the government to tax pubs and supermarkets at the same rate”, Mr Martin told The Mancunion ahead of the campaign day for lower VAT in the hospitality industry.

Tim Martin hopes that students will join him in his pubs, claiming that “staying in halls of residence or student digs all the time would drive anyone mad.”

However, Mr Martin did jokingly tell The Mancunion: “But don’t stay so long in our pubs that you get behind with your studies, I beg you… my son went to Manchester University and lived in Fallowfield, so I’m speaking from experience…”

The Wetherspoon’s chairman suggested that “pubs are an important part of the social fabric of the UK”, providing “a melting pot for local communities, which all social classes can enjoy.”

“This unfair combination of taxes has meant that pub prices have increased at a far higher rate than supermarkets over the years”, something which Mr Martin told The Mancunion has “resulted in customers — including students — being unfairly encouraged by tax policies to buy beer and food from supermarkets, so thousands of pubs have lost trade and closed in the last decade.”

Mr Martin said: “In a nutshell, we believe the government will create more tax and jobs if it equalizes tax, and will also benefit the UK socially by reversing the alarming trend of pub closures. Students and others will pay a lot less for pub and restaurant meals if the government supports tax equality.”

Photo: Adam Bruderer @ Flickr Photo: Chatham House @ Flickr

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Photo: Flickr

Fifth of Greater Manchester Police PCs run on Windows XP

The city’s police force also saw little risk in revealing this information in responding to the BBC’s Freedom of Information request Tristan Parsons Deputy Editor-in-Chief Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has revealed to the BBC that one-fifth of its computers still run Windows XP, though the force says that they are “continually” reducing their reliance on the operating software.

This was revealed as part of a wider Freedom of Information request by the BBC. Microsoft ended nearly all support for the operating system in 2014. Since then, experts have warned that it is vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Last year, NHS systems were attacked by malware known as Wannacry. The virus left many files inaccessible.

GMP said that its use of a small number of specialist applications meant that it was necessary for many of the 1,518 PCs in question to run on Windows XP. Christopher Boyd, an expert in malware at Malwarebytes, told The Register IT news outlet that, “we must ask how healthy these [specialist] apps are. Do the developers still even support them with security patches, or are they essentially ‘abandonware’ with no comparable equivalent available?”

“Given budget constraints, it seems they are being forced to slowly find replacements while dealing with increasing amounts of duct tape to keep everything ticking over, he said” In contrast to GMP, the Police Service of Northern Ireland have five PCs running on Windows XP, 0.05 per cent of their total.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service was one of the Police forces that refused to provide up-to-date figures. The BBC has appealed this refusal. However, in June it said about 10,000 of its desktop computers were still running XP. At the time, the Service claimed that revealing more information “would reveal potential weaknesses and vulnerability.”

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police, however, said that “the decision to share the figures on this has been made as the simple numerical response would not pose a significant increase to our organisational risks.”

Others disagree. Infospec expert Alan Woodward told The Register that, “by running so many XP machines, the police is effectively leaving more door handles exposed for hackers to rattle.

Hackers are not targeted, so not disclosing this information won’t prevent attacks.

“From what I know this proportion of machines still running Windows XP is endemic across the public sector.”

6

Science

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

The important and interesting stories from the university this week.

Kieran O’Brien Science & Technology Editor

as little as one metre in some areas.

Their icy composition explains why they are so visible, and can be seen from Earth with only the aid of amateur telescopes, as the ice reflects the sun’s light.

Another major component of this groundbreaking mission was the sending of another probe — Huygens, named after the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Saturn in 1655 — onto the surface of Titan. Huygens successfully landed on Titan’s surface on the 14th January of 2005, and from this made important discoveries such as the composition of Titan’s atmosphere, and the presence of liquid lakes of methane and ethane in the polar regions of the moon.

Perhaps one of Cassini’s most famous and recent events was in 2015, when it flew through a vapour plume erupting from the surface of another of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus. These plumes were first discovered a few years previously, and various

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

UoM study paves way for treating form of dwarfism Kieran O’Brien Science & Technology Editor

A study carried out in mice at the University of Manchester — in collaboration with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, and the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University — has led researchers to believe the drug carbamazepine, used commonly to treat epilepsy and bi-polar disorder, could also be useful in promoting bone growth for people with metaphyseal chondrodysplasia type Schmid (MCDS) (commonly referred to as ‘dwarfism’).

This disorder causes skeletal dysplasia, which impedes bone growth and leads to disproportionately short limbs.

Administering mice with carbamazepine was shown to mitigate the effects of the MCDS, leading to a potential treatment for people with dwarfism.

Human trials are said to be taking place at the end of the year.

University of Manchester biochemist Professor Ray Boot-Handford who led the study, said: “The indication from this study is that carbamazepine might work in a number of other conditions, where the same process involving mutant protein accumulation takes place.

“But clearly, the next stage is to test it in humans.”

Photo: Johsua Poh @Flickr

Another researcher, Professor Michael Briggs, from Newcastle University said:

7

UoM academic news this week...

Cassini’s grand finale On Friday the 15th of September, the Cassini probe was purposefully directed into Saturn, burning up in its atmosphere almost instantly and bringing to an end an almost 20-year mission to study the gas giant.

Launched on the 15th of October 1997 as a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, the Mariner Mark II spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit on the 1st of July 2004, and spent the following 13 years studying the planet’s famous rings and natural satellites.

Throughout its 13-year orbit of Saturn, Cassini discovered seven previously unknown Saturnian moons, whilst making detailed observations of Saturn’s rings, and largest its moon, Titan.

The rings were discovered to be composed of mostly water ice, and whilst extending a phenomenal 80,000 km away from Saturn’s equator, were found to be on average only a few metres thick, and even

Academic

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“It exemplifies the power of drug repurposing for rare diseases: there has been no involvement of big pharma and this inexpensive drug has had a great safety record since the 1950s.”

MCDS is caused by a mutation in ‘collagen X’, a protein responsible for cell differentiation and bone growth. It is believed that the introduction of carbamazepine degrades the mutant form of collagen X, allowing the cells to differentiate and grow properly.

In the mice studied, three weeks of drug administration showed a marked reduction of hip dysplasia and misallignment. The results are published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

This is not the first time that drugs used for one disorder have been found to treat or cure other, seemingly unrelated disorders; Sildenafil (or ‘Viagra’) was originally developed as a drug to treat pulmonary hypertension, but was also accidentally found to treat erectile dysfunction.

Faculty of Science and Engineering criticised over merger Rosa Simonet Deputy News Editor

On the 10th of May 2017, Naa Acquah, previous General Secretary, posted a video on Facebook addressing students from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE).

She asked for their thoughts on the FSE review and the likely merger of the nine schools.

“That’s when it all kicked off,” says Emma Atkins, Education Officer.

There were two options for students to consider. Naa stated that the first option involved “going from nine schools to three schools.” This would include a school of engineering with “MACE, EEE, Materials, Chemical Engineering, and Analytic Sciences all in one.”

The second, “names to be decided,” would be of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Finally, there would be a school of Mathematics and Computer Science. “Those would be three schools.”

“Four schools would involve a smaller school of engineering,” (MACE, EEE, and Materials), “a school of Physics and Earth Environmental Sciences, a school of Chemistry with Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences, and a school of Mathematics with Computer Science.”

The possibility of a merger was immediately criticised by students, who reported their feedback to the Dean of FSE, Martin Schröder.

The report highlighted the weaknesses of the merger including concerns of a “loss of the unique nature and independence of some courses; which for some students was a key reason for choosing Manchester.”

Many also disapproved of being left in the dark throughout the review process, having only heard of the likely merger through Naa’s informal Facebook post.

Emma Atkins stated: “Students were not intentionally left in the dark. The review was first discussed in University Senate and a consultation form went out 16th March until 29th March.” With only 157 responses, the Students’ Union asked for the consultation to be re-opened. The senate dismissed this, stating in their minutes they “would continue with consultation via other mechanisms throughout the review.”

The release of the consultation and Naa’s original post referred to a “wealth of data” being considered in the review but both failed to outline how the changes would impact students and staff. The consultation itself asked students and staff “how effective” their schools were in relation to the research/ teaching and learning and social responsibility goals “outlined in the Manchester 20/20 strategy.”

Photo:Rosa Simonet @ Mancunion

Emma Atkins attributes the Exec team’s lack of action to the “open and vague” nature of the questions. She said, “for FSE it was never clear what feedback they wanted […] and we didn’t want to confuse students when we didn’t have the information ourselves.”

After sending the feedback report, students were told to expect the full report from the Dean of FSE from the 28th June. The Educational Engagement Manager, Lisa, who works with student reps, said she was “sure no decisions had been made yet” but did not have a copy of the report. This was also the case for students from the FSE. Despite not being 100 per cent certain, Lisa said: “the current situation is that the group have written an analysis of all the pros and cons of how everything works in the faculty and this has been sent to the Dean of the faculty who will decide on his next steps.”

She then directed The Mancunion to William Carey, Head of Education and Advocacy, who will be informing the paper on the issue next week.

Emma Atkins criticised the actions of the FSE: “we assumed FSE were doing their job.”

The FSE apparently failed to notify students and student reps despite showing concern over the review’s lack of transparency.

Emma went on to criticise the lack of student focus groups throughout the process, adding that Alex Tayler, current General Secretary, is currently setting up such focus groups. According to Emma, “when we’re in charge of feedback for students it goes well”. In previous cases, the exec team have arranged better feedback mechanisms.

Lack of student and staff involvement left many worried about their future at The University, particularly as meeting the 20/20

strategy recently resulted in over 150 staff cuts. However, Emma Atkins believes the likely changes are purely administrative and “students won’t have to change courses or share their space with other schools.”

However, once the full report is made available to students, The Mancunion will review whether the merger is compliant with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and its impact on current and future students.

This article is part of a wider investigation on the FSE review and the University’s 20/20 strategy. It will be followed by information from Will Carey and the University and College Union (UCU) next week. If you would like to share your thoughts on the FSE review and/or the merger please contact The Mancunion at news.mancunion@gmail.com.

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Features

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Features

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Photo: YolanDa Brown

What’s in store for the future for Pangaea?

Interview

With the new building works in the SU, Ruth Squires talks to the activites and development officer Kitty Bartlett about the beloved Pangaea Festival and how organisers are finding creative ways to keep the night going, hopefully for many years to come Ruth Squires Contributor As students flood Fallowfield, the beating heart of the city returns.

You can’t walk more than a metre without having an abundance of flyers shoved in your face and free Domino’s forced down your throat.

This can can mean only one thing: it must be freshers week.

Pangaea is the pinnacle of freshers, whether you are a fresh faced first year or a weary fourth year. It all started in 2006 when some students wanted to throw a big party in the SU, but they probably never realised it would become the massive event on the social calendar that it is today.

I interviewed Kitty Bartlett, the activities and development officer, last Thursday, the 21st of September, to get all the juicy Pangaea info and find out about its future.

How would you describe Pangaea?

“It’s the best thing ever; a night of incredible music, incredible décor and incredible people...It’s a magical event that happens three times a year in Manchester.”

“There is only going to be two Pangaeas this year. The ongoing building work will mean that we aren’t able to fully host a Pangea in January. It’ll be too cold to expect everyone to stay outside the Union Building all night so there will be something a bit different this year.

It’s all very up in the air at the moment about what it will be but it will definitely be an event in January — it’ll be something a bit different and exciting. It’s a great opportunity to create a new event which may then happen every year.”

How are the SU building works going?

“I’m really liking the new food court areas and stalls but it’s still a bit plain down there at the moment, so I’m waiting to get some art up and make place feel bit friendlier. I’m hoping to get some student art up but that will come with time. The next six months is going to be harder... everything has moved around a bit and many staff don’t have desks so are having to work from home or around the university. But I feel like everyone is mentally prepared for it so it should be okay.

“We’ll be nearly back to full size by June if all goes to plan. It’ll be an exciting time after the current little step back. Hopefully we can grow again and create the hype for Pangea that we had two years ago when it was the event was the go-to and it was all anyone talked about.”

How is Pangaea organisation going?

“Yeah it’s going well; everything is set. We’re just doing final checks and last-minute décor, along with making sure timings are right and artists are going to arrive on time.”

How did the theme come about?

“Last year was down the rabbit hole — it was really great. There are always so many great themes that are kind of overlooked. Wonka was a suggested theme in previous years but we decided to do it this year since it’s a little smaller and gives us more chance to focus on décor.

The Wonka theme is very accessible and easy for first years to dress up for without having to buy lots of new things for their outfit. The September Pangea is the most tame out of the three in terms of fancy dress. Lots of freshers are reluctant to dress up at first and don’t understand the effort that other people go to in terms of fancy dress.

Do you have a favourite Pangea?

“Lost city was one of mine. I dressed up as a swimmer caught in a net that had turned into an octopus; I still have my outfit now.”

What is there to expect for the future of Pangaea?

How did you get involved with Pangaea?

“After my first Pangaea I enjoyed it so much that I messaged the Facebook page walking home saying how much I loved it and asking how I could get involved. Through working for team Pangaea I’ve realised I want a career in working in events and event management.

“If other people want to get involved, it’s open to all students. Most people don’t know this but it’s even open to MMU students — we had three students from MMU on team Pangaea last year! It’s not technically a society and it’s not really volunteer work, but we want to make it more like a society and organise other events as well as Pangaea. It is also a great opportunity for developing your CV and organisation skills. Working for Pangaea is more than just getting a free ticket; it’s a great chance to get to know some fun people and be a part of something unique.”

When will you start planning for the next Pangaea?

“We haven’t started planning for the next one yet because this week has been a bit manic. We will probably wait a week after this event before starting. We will hold some open meetings to get ideas. All the info for the meetings will be posted on the Facebook page so people can contribute their ideas for the January event.”

What have you done differently to previous years?

“The silent disco is back. It’s been absent for the last two years but there has been big demand so it’s great that it’s coming back. And this year we’ve hired some giant props, which is going to give to give the décor that extra edge — it’s something we haven’t done before.”

How long does the décor take to make?

“About a month. For the last week and a half I’ve spent every day here in the SU making decorations and being covered in paint! We’ve been limited due to the building works so for one room we’ve only just been allowed in one room to do decorations in. There is a massive range of decorations as we have some really arty people on the team that have made some incredible things from massive mushrooms to top hats.”

different music, different décor and different vibes; Try the food. The food stalls are good, cheap, and definitely worth it; Try and stick it out to the end if you can. Obviously it’s a long night but the music in final hour is always really good; Pangaea isn’t just for people who drink but is really good and interesting experience for people who don’t. Last year we had students performing in bands on the band stage and that was really cool too see.

Photo: Kitty Bartlett (third from the right)

Your best Pangaea moment?

“My first ever Pangaea. I had had quite a negative fresher’s week and was ill; I didn’t really want to go but my flatmates dragged me out and i thought it was amazing from the moment we walked in.”

Your worst Pangaea moment?

“I projectile vomited on a radiator in Academy 2 in front of everyone.

I was dancing, then felt sick (but didn’t think would be sick)... then it was too late.”

Pangaea top tips?

“Dress up and get a fab costume. It’s what makes Pangaea stand out from other events and festivals and its even better when people really get involved and embrace it; Although this September’s event will be small r than previous ones, make sure explore all of the spaces you can. Each room and stage has

The Creative Space

And the line up?

“This year we have Wiley vs. Dirty Good which is a UK premier, and is exclusive to only Pangea and Bristol which is exciting.

“To bring Wiley in we used a company called VMH Events Management — they help smaller festivals and students approach bigger artists. Our polls after last year’s event showed that Wiley was an artist that plenty of people wanted to see at Pangaea, so we were pleased we managed to get him.

The other DJs are decided through team Pangaea. They’re either acts that people have seen before or ones that have been voted in.

Obviously we have to juggle money and find artists who will play for the right fee, and we have to be extra careful as Warehouse project has exclusivity rights on their artists in Manchester, which means that are options are narrowed.”

“One of our massive pushes has been on getting more female artists to play. Anu is an up-and-coming female DJ and is predicted to blow up in the next six months. One of our more interesting DJs is Jaguar Skills, who is a bit older but plays really good tunes; he was the artist with the most votes from team Pangaea. He plays a whole variety of genres so it will be interesting to see what style he goes for on the night — he always works the crowd really well.

Pangaea should be an amazing night; a lot of hard work has gone into planning and preparing for it. It would be such a shame to lose the beloved festival as it’s one of the events that makes Manchester so special. Make sure you get your ticket here and keep an eye out for opportunties to get involved.

The Creative Space is a new monthly profile showcasing the best of the University of Manchester’s original talent. Are you a singer, songwriter, filmmaker or designer? Do you have a poem, short story, play or illustration you’re dying to share? Send it to us at: features@ mancunion.com and we will feature the winner at the end of the month!

YolanDa Brown: the UK’s leading Saxophonist Two-time MOBO winner for ‘Best Jazz Artist’ YolanDa Brown takes the time to chat to Kizzy Bray about her new album, tour and how her double life as a musician and business student at uni made her passion into a success story Kizzy Bray Head Features Editor Passion is what keeps the world spinning. It’s what makes you get up in the morning and really want to partake in all this life stuff. After the release of ‘Love Politics War’ — her latest album this past June — YolanDa Brown, the UK’s leading saxophone soloist and two times MOBO award winner, took the time to chat with me about how she did what everyone dreams of: how she made her passion become her livelihood.

Much has changed for YolanDa since she picked up the sax at the age of thirteen. Self-taught and well versed in other instruments like the drums and piano, YolanDa’s love for music would stem from needing an emotional outlet, not for a grade or any kind of kudos.

“It was like writing in a diary,” YolanDa tells me. “As a teenager sometimes it’s pretty hard to process emotions! I could play what I wanted, improvise to how I felt.” Growing up in East London and later attending the University of Kent to study business, YolanDa was just like any other student, working hard and trying to enjoy her time. Making money out of her closeted talent wasn’t her first thought, but the music never took a back seat.

“I didn’t think about playing gigs, instead I just played for myself,” she tells me. “I tried to find clubs to join at my freshers fair but found the brass band was just too clinical. It was all about what grade you had. It wasn’t about the music really. I found myself shying away.” I’m sure students with a secret passion can relate. So many people I know are in bands, DJ on the side of studies or love singing in the shower. When you’re only 18 or so you might not have much money for music, which can be a pretty expensive hobby.

“Leaving university I started a fund, called the YolanDa Brown music award with the University of East London when they awarded me the Honorary Doctorate of Arts award. This was my way to give back to students as I know funding really helps. It’s important for young musicians to look for ways to get financial support as that’s what normally stops people from being able to play.”

“I remember standing in the room at the end thinking, ‘this is it, I get it now.”

Being able to find the time to sort out gigs can be pretty daunting, too. If you don’t find like-minded people at uni — which at first YolanDa didn’t — it’s a big deal to seek that out, to put yourself out there, and to discover what the world has to offer in music, but YolanDa urges you to try. For her, it wasn’t until she took an Erasmus year abroad in Spain that she truly felt like she belonged in a musical community. “That was the first time I found music to be played for the love of it, everyone was just there having a good time, that’s what I had craved all along.

When I got back, between my undergrad and PhD I decided to join a band. For a while, it still wasn’t a career for me, but a passion. I started playing gigs in London, odd ones like a comedy night where I would be the only musician there, so it was a bit of an unorthodox introduction to the scene! But that’s how I grew my audience and they’ve been with me ever since.”

Being able to grow your audience is probably one of

the most challenging but rewarding parts of being a musician. Knowing that other people appreciate what you do is what keeps the fire of your passions going, keeping you on track to keep creating. “We’re living in a totally different time where you can build your own audience.

What with social media, you don’t have to study music to have a career in it. If you love playing music you will find those people who love it too and who really want you to succeed.”

“I had a sort of double life with my PhD at university and touring, spending my time growing my craft, audience and music. My first concert was in 2007 which had a capacity of 600 and we sold out. I remember standing in the room at the end thinking, ‘this is it, I get it now.’

This will be my 10th year as a solo saxophonist and I haven’t looked back.”

It seems YolanDa really has taken the world by storm.

Now a two-times ‘Best Jazz’ MOBO award winner, she talked to me about how it feels to be recognised for your talents and where that’s taken her.

“It was amazing. An award is something great to hang onto, something you can see as a way to say ‘keep going’. The best part about it all was the fact that the MOBO was publically voted rather than decided by a panel of professionals. That gives you that encouragement that people actually want to hear what you have to say!”

With two wins in her pocket, YolanDa hasn’t changed who she is or why she plays. She still sells out shows and makes new music by being who she is and doing what makes her happy — the music. Her new album ‘Love Politics War’ came out this past June and you can really hear the love that went into it. Wonderfully soulful with an exciting combination of reggae beats and a jazz style, the music is a beautiful overflow of different cultural influences. YolanDa tells me this all came from her own upbringing, with Jamaican heritage and her parents’ varied music tastes, the album totally encapsulates her love of experimentation and a wonderfully warm nostalgia that will get you dancing.

“Different music styles were what I naturally listened to growing up, my dad had collections of all different types of music. He would play a lot of reggae, Cuban music and Latin jazz, as well as things like gospel. I would always go to the ballet and musical theatre as well. It means I play what I feel, anything I like. Which is why maybe my first album was too much of a mish-mash of that!” She laughs. “But my new album has the variety which works well at live gigs, there’s definitely something for everyone!”

With the new upcoming tour this autumn and a gig at Band on the Wall in Manchester on the 29th of October, YolanDa told us about previous times playing in the powerhouse of music that is our city.

“I played in Manchester on my tour with Billy Ocean, and a year ago I performed with special guests, so this year is my first time just me and my quartet. Mancunians are definitely vibrant! I played at Bridgewater Hall where you would expect a certain type of person but there was so much variety. Everyone was dancing, which I highly encourage! Definitely, Mancunians all get into the vibe of the night!”

I’m sure the night at Band on the Wall will be as much fun as her beautiful new album ‘Love Politics War’ which you can find on both Spotify and Apple Music. I can’t wait to see the crowds getting funky and having a groove along with YolanDa herself!

If you’d like to also ‘get into the vibe of the night’ see YolanDa’s website: http://www.yolandabrown.co.uk for news and updates about new music and the upcoming tour.

9

A student life column

Founder of the Fallowfield Students Group Photo: Matthew Freestone

Raine Beckford, Deputy Features Editor, chats to Matthew Freestone, founder of the Fallowfield Students Group, about Manchester, marketing and making connections Missed out on tickets to Motherfunkers? Looking for Parklife set times?

Found a decapitated pig’s head outside your window? Chances are you’ve used the Fallowfield Students Group. I sat down with the man behind it all to find out where it all started.

Matthew Freestone is friendly and confident. A History and Sociology graduate originally from Guildford, Surrey, he’s more than happy to talk to me about the group. From its inception to its current state of 19,000 members and growing.

On creating the group, he tells me “Initially it was called Fallowfield buy/sell because at the start of my second year I thought there were a lot of communities based around halls but there wasn’t a group that was just for students in Fallowfield.” His main intentions were to create a community for students in Fallowfield and to make it easier for them to trade tickets.

As we chat the group hits 19,000 members and we consider the ways it has evolved. Freestone says “I never expected it to grow as much as it has and I also didn’t expect it to diversify in terms of the content. It recently changed to Fallowfield Students Group because people are using it to ask questions, look for train tickets, and even advertise room vacancies. It’s become a platform for anything student related.”

Having recently graduated, the group has become his brainchild. He tells me “I’m still very involved in terms of moderating the group but I also have 3 students from Fallowfield who help me run things. They help me to control who can get into the group or who gets banned. This usually only happens if the content isn’t what I’m looking for or if it isn’t student related”.

The concept continues to grow. Freestone himself has had a hand in this, running frequent giveaways within the group. There are even now groups for Oxford Road and Salford and he hopes to unite the three soon. This way, he thinks, more students can come together to help each other solve problems and continue to trade tickets.

Whilst the group has become wellknown around campus, it is still operated independently. When quizzed on input from the university Freestone stated “I don’t have much input from the university currently. I’m hoping to advise them on how they can improve their own outreach, particularly surrounding freshers week. After speaking to a lot of students I feel like there’s often a lot of confusion for students arriving at university, mostly in terms of event organisation like which events are official and which aren’t. I definitely think I can help with that.” He hopes this approach will develop into a collaborative effort with the students’ union.

His personal aspirations, however, are

decidedly less vague. He wants to work in marketing noting “I’d like to work at a start-up because I feel like I have quite an entrepreneurial mind. Hopefully what I’m learning from the Manchester student community will be useful and will eventually help me develop something more profitable.” Currently, he makes no profit from the Fallowfield Students Group.

When asked for tips for other students

“If you put your mind

to it and seek out the right people, you reall can be sucessful” hoping to launch their own projects or platforms, Freestone is shrewd and sure. He reflects. “Starting something as a student with other students can create friction. There will always be people who don’t understand what you’re trying to do and who are going to try and put down your ideas. Ignore them.

More often than not they’re not the people you should be asking. You should seek the advice of people who know what they’re talking about and don’t let negativity hold you back. If you put your mind to it and seek out the right people, you really can be successful”.

His advice for current third years however, is short and simple. Networking. He says “when you’re in third year you really need to try and figure out early on what it is you want to do and what your interests are. Because in third year you’ve got to balance the stress of a dissertation or a final project with finding a job. My advice for people who already know what they want to do and what their passions are is to start networking and use university alumni to help you. Things like linkedin are invaluable because you can reach out to people who’ve been where you are.

They can help you and they’re usually very happy to help. Something like 70% of jobs are found through networking so it’s good to make contacts for the future”.

Back to the group, we trade laughs.

His favourite posts range from the funny (the time someone had a fish posted through their letterbox) to the helpful (someone was once able to locate the people who had helped them escape a mugging in Fallowfield). My personal favourite remains the person who left Squirrels only to find that someone had chained a bike to theirs in Owens Park.

Readers looking to find Matt can follow him on instagram @fluff_freestone or, simply look up admin in the Fallowfield Students Group.

Opinion

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Get in touch Facebook: /mancunionop Twitter: @MancunionOP Email: opinion@mancunion.com

Have an opinion?

Come to our meetings: Monday 5:15pm, first floor of the Students’ Union

Calling all opinionated people!

Do you have an opinion you want to share with the Manchester student community? The Mancunion is looking for regular contributors for its weekly paper edition and for its day-to-day updates on its website!

From thought-provoking insights into contemporary feminism to rants about movies, we want hear what you have to say.

Simply come to our weekly opinion section meetings on Monday in the Student Union, or message our two editors: Sam Glover and Jacklin Kwan about your interest in writing.

Great for your CV, and a platform for your ideas, we at the Mancunion will be waiting for your contributions!

Email us at editor@mancunion.com

Sam Glover Editor

The defiance of secession– Catalan independence

A fight for self-determination in the face of insurmountable odds.

Contributor Mark Montegriffo We are coming up to eighty years since the publication of George Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’, in which he described Barcelona as “a town where the working class was in the saddle … There was much in it that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for”.

The Spanish civil war ended up as the prequel to World War Two and the fascistic trio in Europe of Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy and Spain under Franco. In the midst of severe national division, Orwell writes of Catalonia as a functioning state that was run by every leftist radical party from the socialists to the anarchist: “Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties... Every shop and café had an inscription saying that it had been collectivised...

Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal”.

But by January 1939, Barcelona fell to the fascists. Half a million refugees crossed the border into France, Catalan political autonomy was abolished, and Catalan Christian names were forbidden. Even the Catalan language itself and the Sardana (Catalonian cultural dance) were outlawed. Mediums of communication, such as books and newspapers, were requisitioned or burned. The white terror of Franco was a limpieza (cleansing) of anything and anyone that they perceived as leftist, anti-Catholic, anti-monarchy, an-

archist, intellectual, liberals, Protestants, separatists, and more. The White Terror death toll was far greater than the Red Terror before it with an estimated 400,000 murdered at the hands of the Franco regime from 1939-1975, from Andalucia up to Aragon and everywhere in between.

Fast-forward to present day and the right-wing Partido Popular (PP) government, which owes its roots to the Francoist minister Manuel Fraga, still denies Spanish historians access to government archives which would allow them to investigate the White Terror more thoroughly and ascertaining the fate of the victims.

There are families across Spain and beyond who at least have a relative who was a victim. Yet, due to systemic corruption from the main parties (both PP and PSOE), right-wing nationalism maintains a strong position in Spanish mainstream politics.

It may be a reaction to the long-held influence of secession movements, especially the Catalonian variety, though some will suggest that the reaction is opposite.

In the early hours of Wednesday 20th September, just 10 days before the electorate of Catalonia vote on the independence question in another referendum deemed illegal by the Spanish government, the Guardia Civil (the infamously heavy-handed national police which acts at the direction of Madrid’s interior ministry, the equivalent of the Home Office in the UK) stormed into Catalonian regional government departments arresting politicians and their aides. This was a response to the first round of hearings for over 700 mayors in the region who are under investigation for supporting the referendum.

Opinion 11

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Don’t call the altright losers, call them racists

The worst thing about fascists marching in Virginia is the fact that they are fascists, not that they might have unfulfilling social lives.

Photo: @Liz Castro @Wikimedia Commons

The President of the National Assembly in the region, Jordi Sanchez, retorted with “the time has come. We resist peacefully.

We come out to defend our institutions with non-violence”.

This defiance has been a consistent feature of the Catalonian secession movement, and a necessary one given the indefatigable attempts by the Spanish national government to silence them. This auspicious month in southern Europe’s political history also marked the 50th anniversary of the Gibraltar sovereignty referendum, where the people of Gibraltar voted to reject Franco’s fascism. The result was seen as a provocation towards Madrid by the Franco regime. The outcome was a closed frontier by order of Franco from 1969 to 1985, making the people who voted to remain British just as defiant as the Rock of Gibraltar itself. This defiance is a source of pride and strength in Gibraltar, and the same applies to pro-independence Catalans, young and old. The right-

wing elements of Spanish politics have led to solidarity between those negatively affected by it through the time.

Notwithstanding the debates of self-determination, sovereignty and nation-state legitimacy, this defiance is a factor that cannot be ignored when one anticipates a majority vote for independence which is rejected by the Spanish government as illegitimate. Four years removed from the previous ‘illegal’ referendum for Catalonian independence, it does not look like the regional governing parties, and the Catalan people, will ever give in to the political (and, at times, physical) pressure exerted upon them from Madrid. Barcelona may be a much different place to Orwell’s Eden of leftist radicalism in many ways, but there are aspects of the revolutionary spirit that appear to have lingered in the psyche of the region at large.

Earlier this month, an assortment of NeoNazis and White Supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia carrying Swastika flags and Tiki Torches, and allegedly chanted “Blood and Soil”, and “Jews will not replace us”. Heather D Heyer, a 32-year old paralegal, was murdered for opposing fascism.

What kind of response should this march provoke? Unqualified condemnation. Praise for those brave enough to risk their safety to oppose it. Legal repercussions for anyone who broke the law. Serious thinking about the reasons that people who despise other races feel that the environment is ripe for them to hold this kind of rally. Questions about the response of the President. All of these things are necessary and important.

But there was another response to this public demonstration of fascism, and one that has become a weirdly common weapon in the Twitterverse’s arsenal against anyone who is disapproved of.

Instead of expressing horror at the racism and violence, some people jumped online to give their armchair psychoanalysis: these guys say and think horrible things because they are sweaty losers who are either virgins or can’t satisfy their partners.

LBC presenter Stig Abell tweeted, referring to the marchers, “not one of these men is in a mutually satisfying sexual relationship.”

Other, similar tweets received hundreds of thousands of retweets. Similarly, in the Presidential election campaign last year, statues popped up in Manhattan, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Seattle, depicting a naked Donald Trump with a tiny penis.

Most of the tweets in the aftermath of the rally were from the left, but ironically, this is a tactic straight from the playbook of the right (and alt-

right), both in America and Britain. After the attack earlier this year in Manchester, President Trump branded the attackers as ‘evil losers’. Boris Johnson claimed that men who go off to fight for the Islamic State are “literally w**kers”, who turn to extremism when they are “rejected by women”, and are “obsessed with porn.”

There are a few reasons that this kind of response to fascism or terrorism is an undesirable one.

When the immediate response to hearing about Neo-Nazi marches or the killing of innocent people is to construct a humiliating caricature of those involved, we undermine the actual faults of these people and the downplay the horror of their actions. Islamic terrorists aren’t worthy of our condemnation because they watch porn, they’re worthy of our condemnation because they murder children at a pop concert. Nazis aren’t odious because they’re not having sex, they’re odious because they hate people who aren’t white.

“Instead of expressing horror at the racism and violence, some people jumped online to give their armchair psychoanalysis: these guys say and think horrible things because they are sweaty losers who are either virgins or can’t satisfy their partners.”

There’s another reason that the ‘loser narrative’ is undesirable: it’s baseless. There is, understandably,

In the light of the recent London terror attacks, it is clear that the UK should do more to win the hearts and minds of British Muslims.

Editor Jacklin Kwan a despotic government. The collateral damage of airstrikes and bullet-fire has left a trauma so profound that it has resulted in a massive refugee and humanitarian crisis, fertile ground for extremism.

The West’s response has been pre-occupied with pure repressive strategy implemented by a variety of security forces meant to prevent and mitigate terrorist attacks. These policies include higher obstacles to free immigration, sophisticated urban policing, and overseas, fighting Islamist extremist forces through the targeting of cell leaders (‘decapitation’) and curbing sources of funding. No one is going to deny that these strategies are valid, and in certain cases, incredibly effective. The war on terrorism is indeed partly military, but it is also political, economic, psychological, and civic; and it is these dimensions that lack proper engagement.

The UK’s counter-terrorism apparatus ignores making long-term commitments to social integration and safety nets for groups more vulnerable to radicalisation. Its formal attempt is Prevent, one of the four elements of the government’s Contest security strategy. Meant to respond to the ideological challenge that the UK faces from terrorism, it was formulated to prevent people from recruitment by radical cells through administering support in a range of sectors such as justice and education. However, its broad mandate on an issue as difficult to practically implement as social cohesion meant that it’s been largely unsuccessful. The Prevent strategy was said to have a “chilling effect and added to a strong sense of grievance” in the local Muslim communities, which saw it as a thinly-veiled spying programme that treated them as enemy suspects in their own state. With it was often a greater use of ordinary criminal law (e.g. drugs, fraud) to take those who

Photo: Anthony Crider@ Flickr

a tendency for people to find every way in which people they don’t approve of are unlike themselves.

We take solace in the idea that we could never have these abhorrent views because we have friends and satisfying relationships, and we don’t sit in a dark room, face lit only by the screen of a laptop, and say horrible things about people who we’ve never met. But it’s not really true: fascists and the rest of the alt-right have families and friends. And to caricature them as losers makes it easier to fall down the rabbit hole. By being aware of the fact that there are people on the far-right who aren’t so different from ourselves, we can be more vigilant when we encounter far-right rhetoric and propaganda.

The most serious problem with the ‘loser narrative’ is that it increases the appeal of radical ideologies to people who are feeling alienated.

On online alt-right message boards, people with normal social lives and satisfying relationships are resentfully known as ‘normies’. By calling these people losers, we play into their narrative, and advance the view that people who are isolated and unhappy will inevitably be the advocates of extremist positions. We make it easier for the altright to target people who are feeling despondent and frustrated, and those feelings are channelled into hatred and violence.

We have plenty of things we can say about those who marched in Charlottesville. Their views are vile and hateful. They are opposed by all compassionate and rational people. They, and their views, will be defeated, as they have been before. They may or may not be losers, but they are certainly racists, so why not say so?

Britain needs to appreciate the contribution of its international students

Failures of the West’s counterterrorism strategy

“Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”

These are the words of George W. Bush as he launched the war on terror: a war with no isolated enemy, no borders, and no foreseeable end. With this speech, delivered ten days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a political legacy that would continue to distort the reality of terrorism began. There is a culture of speaking about terrorism as isolated events committed by aberrant individuals, dangerous figures that are simply mad. Media outlets from across the political spectrum depict even home-grown terrorists as outcasts and undesirables, socially disaffected and destructive. I am not denying that these depictions have a vein of truth; any person willing to commit such atrocious acts of violence on innocent civilians is probably not a well-adjusted individual. However, with this being the only dominant media narrative of terrorism with no acknowledgement of its deeper social and political roots, there has been little public pressure to reform the UK’s counter-terrorism apparatus at the home-front and overseas.

I wish to be very clear, this is not an attack on the UK’s Islamic faith group. If anything, it is a criticism of the state that has betrayed them.

Young Muslims in the UK face enormous social mobility barriers– they experience Islamophobia, discrimination, and racism that is almost unparalleled in any other faith group. And despite their deepening political and civic participation in Britain, sincere attempts to address their interests have always been peripheral. In the backdrop to the dysfunction at home, a war in Syria and Iraq wages on between numerous rebel factions and

Photo: Ed Everett @ Flickr

Contributor Elizabeth Rushton

Photo: @UoMSalcStudents @Twitter

Photo: @Wikimedia Commons

Jacklin Kwan Editor were identified as extremists out of circulation, an unsettling policy shrouded in secrecy that disproportionately polices particular faith groups.

In its confused and disingenuous attempts to prevent terrorism, the UK has marginalised itself in the hearts and minds of its own citizens.

“The UK’s counterterrorism apparatus ignores making longterm commitments to social integration and safety nets for groups more vulnerable to radicalisation.”

Though political slogans forward the Islamic faithn as a religion of peace, attempts to profoundly change culture and identity to be more accepting and open-minded are superficial.

There arguably needs to be better-recognised spaces for faith communities in secular society, which are long overdue. In this year alone, several primary schools in East London disallowed its

students to observe Ramadan, stating that fasting was unnecessary and inappropriate. Meanwhile, mosques and individual Muslims have been increasingly pressured by local politicians to condemn terrorist attacks and “do more to root out ‘men of hate’” within their midst, suggesting that they were somehow complicit in the recent violence and that they were not already taking appropriate measures to alienate radicals in their communities.

The UK isn’t alone in its feeble attempts to address home-grown terrorism. The US and much of Western Europe faces immense resistance to a more comprehensive response to radicalization.

Anti-interventionist backlash to Syria and Iraq parallels a hesitance to invest too heavily in longterm reform at home, exacerbated by political divide. And we are all the poorer for it, stuck with a lop-sided war strategy.

Counter-terrorism is ultimately a “struggle to control a contested political space” where political results are arguably more significant that tactical successes in battlefield. The West is losing the bid to win hearts and minds of the most important populations at home and overseas.

Photo: SMPAGWU @ Flickr

Our university is home to almost 40,000 students, and supposedly proud that the 10,000 it welcomes from overseas and constitute the largest intake of international students in the UK. Yet anyone who read last week’s Mancunion could easily have been fooled otherwise by the case of Agnes Harding, a Physics fresher who has been forced to crowdfund her degree after finding she would not receive any student loan due to her residency status, despite having lived in the UK for the majority of her life. We’ve also learned that the numbers of students who stay in the UK after finishing their degree is shockingly lower than expected – 97% of international graduates in 2017 left the country after finishing their degree, wildly at odds with government statistics stating that a fabricated army of 100,000 students overstayed their visas to prey on our already saturated job market. In reality only 4,600 actually did this.

You could ask what the problem is with students

coming here with the goal of achieving their degree, doing just that, and then returning home with enviable efficiency and directness of purpose.

One doesn’t need to look far however, to see that a failure to support students during and after study is part of an altogether larger failure. In Europe, where fees are not sky-high and subsequently students – especially those from abroad – are not seen as cash cows to be milked for all they have over a three or four-year period, international students make their study destination a second home at dramatically higher rates than they do in the UK. In Finland for example, where a high number of courses are taught in English and approximately 12,000 international students enjoy studying without the burden of tuition fees, around half of these will stay on to find work after graduation, and 44% still find themselves in employment there 5 years later. Finland’s high international student mobility affords it the benefits of a wide range of

international experience, and remaining foreigners offer enrichment from public services to start-ups.

The same is true across countries which serve as popular destinations for students and trainees, and Britain is no exception.

In our case, block-headed nationalism won’t disprove the facts regarding the contribution of international residents here. Some of our most vital sectors face dramatic consequences if the fall in remaining international students contributes to the wider withdrawal of foreign residents from our workforce. The NHS is one – 12% of all staff hail from abroad, but this figure is higher among nurses at 16%, concerning given recent figures revealing that nursing applications from EU citizens have fallen by 96% since the Brexit vote. Elsewhere, applications from EU seasonal workers to work as pickers on UK farms fell by 17% this summer. Supply and demand was satisfied this time, but that won’t remain the case with further drops – some farmers have speculated that we could see food rotting in our fields from next summer’s harvest. For the UK, the situation is clear – under-appreciation of the contribution of foreign workers, which seems to have become chronic lately, will strain healthcare services even more, and prices for home-grown produce will be driven up while quality falls.

“Some of our most vital sectors face dramatic consequences if the fall in remaining international students contributes to the wider withdrawal of foreign residents from our workforce.”

It says little good about us as a country that we are deliberately squeezing the opportunities we offer people who come here with a vision of

the UK as a place of opportunity and personal advancement. It’s a strong national reputation that continually brings foreign students here despite fees many times higher than what they’d be saddled with in their countries of origin – with that disparity potentially set to rise even more for EU students – and universities shouldn’t rely on it lasting as Brexit looms. Non-EU students are hardly encouraged to stay here post-study, given only four months to find a suitable job, and jump through a number of financial loopholes of saving and salary in the process. Agnes’ case is part of a growing picture across British society which shows it’s the cash, rather than skills and potential, that foreign residents bring with them that is really valued.

It’s clear that something is going wrong in the UK’s international appeal. Last year in Helsinki my friends and I went with a Russian friend to a flat party hosted by his Indian colleague, where the other guests included some fellow Brits, South Africans, Swedes, Ukrainians, and of course Finns. Everyone spoke English. The image of such a relaxed multicultural gathering was one comfortably associated for many years with London, had it not been for the home sauna in the corner. It’s this that represents what the UK stands to lose by not valuing the potential of the individuals who choose to study at its institutions.

With low tuition fees and the joining of people and ideas from different corners of the world, European universities entice foreign students to venture somewhere new and then inspire them to stay and offer their skills for the benefit of their newfound home. It’s about time Britain realises it will find itself out in the cold very soon unless it starts doing the same.

12

Music

Top 5 Ultimate Manc Tunes

Wolf Alice

by Hannah Brierley

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The album opens with ‘Fugitive’, notable in part for being the source of lyrics tattooed on the chest of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. With a

co c k s zz

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Another song with a waltz-like beat is ‘Reunion’. Like ‘Fugitive’, it was written by Amy Ray, and it reflects upon a school reunion she attended. Her attitude shifts from annoyance and confusion to acceptance and affection.

There are then the darker Ray songs: ‘Touch Me Fall’, ‘Dead Man’s Hill’, and ‘This Train Revised’. All three are excellent, though a long way from light listening.

Emily Saliers provides six songs, which follow her trademark formula of gentle love song plus a touch of sass and humour. ‘Least Complicated’ is poppy and slickly-produced, while ‘The Wood Song’ builds up harmonies to reach an epic conclusion. The famous ‘Power of Two’ is essentially a lullaby and has a timeless kind of beauty.

ppy Mo

Those familiar with folk-rock duo Indigo Girls will be aware that their album Swamp Ophelia is a huge fan favourite. Released five years after their self-titled breakthrough record, Swamp Ophelia certainly catches the pair — Amy Ray and Emily Saliers — at a pivotal time in their career, and contains a remarkable number of their best-known hits.

gloriously simple waltz-like rhythm and soaring, angsty vocals, this track sweeps the listener into a passionate and doomed relationship.

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te - S p

Elizabeth Gibson Music Reporter

Elizabeth Gibson looks beyond the hype to the quiet beauty of Indigo Girls’ fifth album

Morrissey’s lyricism is perfect for a rainy mancunian day (which is most days lets be honest)

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Record Reappraisal

6/10

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At so many times and in so many ways the album sounds like a pale homage to something else.

‘T.A.M.E.D’ was described by the band as “Our ver-

Fortunately they’re sure to be around experimenting for a while yet.

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It’s moments like these when the influences are so boldly obvious, comparable to Errol Alkan’s psych inspired side project, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, which never feels bored of the music it brilliantly pastiches. It leaves you wondering what Mount Kimbie would achieve if they tuned out everything else and focused on the music inside their own clearly brilliant minds.

26th September 2004 - Green Day scored their first UK No.1 album with ‘American Idiot’.

R5 are an American band who are aptly named; the members are made up of Ross, Riker, Rocky and Rydel and their friend Ratliff (honest, I’m not even joking).

Before the gig was even due to begin the O2 Ritz, R5 uploaded a tweet congratulating some of the fans who had been waiting in line to get in since 4am. There’s something to be said about having fans who are willing to wait outside in the pissing rain for hours just to get a good view.

As the band leapt on-stage and began to cover the intro from ‘I Need You Tonight’, the O2 Ritz filled with girlish screams, and excited faces. At first, I assumed that this was a nice little pop band for pre-teens. How wrong I ended up being.

The riff from ‘I need you tonight’ rolled effortlessly into their next track, and showcased some upbeat, mesmerising tunes. As the show went on the group proved they were much more layered than initially thought; they had elements of electronic synths and strong catchy, feelgood disco vibes.

The band ooze pop-rock in every way, from their ironic not-so-ironic sunglasses, the pink bob wig, synchronised guitar jump kicks and finally the icing on the cake, or more accurately, the glitter… everywhere.

Now let me reiterate that some fans had been queueing since 4am. Their dedication never wavered as

the night went on, and I have never been so impressed with an audience knowing every. Single. Word. It was so lovely to see a band have such a strong alliance with their fans. It was magical when their singing along coupled with lead Ross Lynch, who has a breath-taking voice and is genuinely great fun to watch. His clean cut vocals were assured throughout.

The band like to take something well known and turning it on their head, with intros from the Stranger Things theme tune, and Fleetwood mac’s ‘Break the Chain’ before cleverly mixing it into their own songs. The sampling was exhilarating and was effortless.

Then, out of nowhere, Ross pulled out his tap dancing shoes and had a tap dance vs drum solo stand-off. So bizarre, but somehow worked!

The funky fresh five-some finished the show by saying that they genuinely love what they do, as you never get to see so many genuine smiles in one place before smoothly transitioning into the track ‘Smile’.

I had my reservations, but I left with songs stuck in my head and ready to go buy their album… they’re definitely my new guilty pleasure.

8/10

27th 1984 - Avril Lavigne was born. (Or Melissa?... who knows?)

28th 2002 - Madonna was voted the greatest female singer of all-time by 75,0000 music fans in a VH1 poll. But critics and music fans were unhappy with the position of Kylie Minogue who was voted into second place beating Diana Ross, (12th) and Annie Lennox, (14th).

29th 1979 - The Police had their first UK No.1 single with ‘Message In A Bottle’.

30th 1995 - Mariah Carey made chart history when she started an eight-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Fantasy’.

Album

t -

But of course they still have an incredible attention to details that bring sections of the album to life.

There’s something oddly hypnotic about the sounds of Audition, like Joy Division covering the cold, robotic sounds of Warp label heavyweights Autechre.

Need I say more?

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sion of a pop song; a really deranged pop song”, which must be code for ripping off Metronomy and hoping no one notices.

part - J

musicians who have compromised between being background producers or a band led by the instrumentation.

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Photo: Album Artwork

is a lif re

The first guest vocalist, King Krule, arrives on the next track. ‘Blue Train Lines’ is, unsurprisingly, a very Krule-esque track. Like most of the other guest vocalists on the album, the real surprise is that Mount Kimbie sound like the featured artists in their own songs. Most of the album comes across as two

Love

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Who the “you” is, is up to us. “We wanted to make it open to interpretation so that anyone who was frustrated at something or someone could have it as their anthem,” explains Ellie.

She herself was inspired by “being sick and fed up of certain expectations; for me, a lot of it is about being a young woman. Even the everyday wolf-whistle thing. As I get older, I feel like ‘Why have I always put up with that?’ When I sing that kind of song, it’s everything that I want to do when stuff like that happens.”

There isn’t a huge female presence in the rock music genre, so for a lot of hopeful female musicians, she is a huge role model. Ellie told me

It contrasts with the love drunk rhythms of the next track, ‘Marilyn ft. Micachu’, which strikes the emotional high point of the album. This one will be streaming from many a late night crooning playlists for years to come.

Bu

This Bolton band sums up how we’ve all felt at least once in our lives, and for all you freshers, trust me it’s coming.

Mount Kimbie – Love What Survives

Gone are the stripped back and precise sounds of old; this is the messy, raw sound of Mount Kimbie injecting their music with the joy of playing instruments without the pretence of making a dance record.

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VISIONS OF A LIFE’ is out on the 29th September.

Album

There’s a brief but beautiful moment in the opening track, ‘Four Years and One Day’, where after building for most of the track, the synths break off from the kraut-rock inspired guitar crescendo, only for the guitars to smash back in with a resemblance to Joy Division’s ‘Shadowplay’.

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intimidating but at the same time also really empowering ”

25th September 1999 - Everybody’s favourite Oasis singer, Liam Gallagher was stopped at Heathrow airport and was fined for not declaring a fur coat he had bought in America.

... I mean come on, would I be doing my job if i didn’t put this on here?

n in Lo

“It’s always going to be

Week two already! Freshers week is dying down, and freshers flu is rampaging in the air, so now might be a good time to see what our music greats were doing this week in history

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Wolf Alice are set to release their eagerly anticipated album Visions of a Life which is released on the 29th of September. The group are also going on a worldwide tour which includes a UK tour starting in November this year.

I asked leading lady Ellie Roswell a bit about the groups’ background and origins: “It’s a pretty boring story if I’m honest’. Ellie told me the fourpiece met through a mutual friend, and laughs that she wishes it was a more exciting beginning.

The name itself though comes from a book by Angela Carter called The Bloody Chamber.

This summer has been a slightly quiet one for Wolf Alice, as they have been working on this new album release. However, they did find the time to do a surprise 30-minute set at Reading and Leeds (R&L).

“I love that festival because everyone is so much fun and up for anything.” She went on to explain that R&L is full of people celebrating as most of the people attending have just either finished their GCSE’s or A-Levels; it’s just a massive party.

She added that festivals like Knee Deep and 2000 Trees are great to go to too, despite them being a lot smaller in capacity: “everyone is there for the music, they appreciate it more”. However, it is Glastonbury festival that has a special place in Ellie’s heart as it was the first festival she ever

“there’s nothing to stop girls changing it, it is always going to be intimidating but also at the same time really empowering.”

But for her, working in the music industry has really opened her eyes to the widespread bias and inequality, but as it is so ingrained in our culture sometimes it is easy to normalise and shrug things off.

“To change it, you just need to be the best you can be. Raise other women up along the way.”

The talented singer and guitarist, finished up by talking about the new release coming up that she recognizes that it is a lot mature, as they have all grown up along with it but it still has a fun side. “It’s hard to summarise your own music it’s so hard to do it justice.”

“The past two years were such amazing highs and then really extreme lows that we’ve never encountered before,” says Ellie. “That’s this album.”

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Photo: Dirty Records

attended, though if she could put together her own festival, her dream headliners would be: Kanye West, Nick Cave and Tame Impala. Who’d have guessed?

The new album itself has changed in many ways whilst remaining true to Wolf Alice’s sound that has been so successful, and that people know and love. They experiment with styles in guitar pop and rock and keeping the grungy undertones throughout. The album radiates with punk rage, that’ll want you to keep the album on repeat.

As comebacks go, a punch is hurled by the exhilarating rage rush of previously released single ‘YUK FOO’, briskly laying waste to all it meets in a little over two minutes. “You bore me, you bore me to death,” Ellie screams, “Well, deplore me. No, I don’t give a shit”.

Rewind This week in music history

Hannah Brierley Music Editor

o n de r w

Hannah Brierley Music Editor

Live Review

W

OASIS

Ellie Roswell tells Music Editor Hannah Brierley that whilst sexism and inequality in the music industry is still rife, it’s the duty of women like her to “raise other women up”

Music 13

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

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Interview Album

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHETSERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Swamp Ophelia arrived in the world in 1994, making us the same age. I always felt some- Grab your bucket hat and Parka and stick thing of a connection to it as a result, and this song on, and now you’re an honarary with its range of styles and consistent qualmanc! You’re twisting my melons man! ity, I really do recommend it.

Mancunian music is taking inspiration from the past

1st October 1967 - Thieves broke into Mick Jagger’s London flat and stole jewellery and furs belonging to his then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull.

Yasmin Duggal Deputy Music Editor

Here’s five new artists to watch who have been influenced by their northern cultural surroundings It seems inadequate to limit Manchester’s musical prowess down to a few of the most successful bands this country has seen. It seems insufficient to caption the music history of the city as Liam Gallagher’s cagoule-clad swagger, or Morrissey’s rainy day lyricism. What Manchester has to answer for is a cosmic shift in British pop culture which has inspired a wealth of innovation in new artists. Manchester is aspired to; its Ian Brown attitude, its Gallagher audacity, its New Order electricity.

Here’s some of the best new music to emerge from the city this year, not only taking inspiration from the city’s roots, but immersing itself in the natural progression of Manchester alternative sounds.

Photo: Album Artwork

Cabbage Post-punk giants Cabbage have stunned audiences this year with their explosive, unforgiving live presence and uncensored brutal honesty on the austerity en-

forced by a Tory government. The channelling of societal rage into ferociously satirical guitar music echoes Greater Manchester’s punk history of bands like The Buzzcocks. Their swagger and reckless bravado seems to stem from a long line of Manchester frontmen who do as they please for whoever will listen. It’s not how many are listening or where their tracks lie in the charts, it’s what they have to say.

Pale Waves This local band have already built up a cult following in Manchester and are set to make it big in the industry. Their debut single ‘There’s A Honey’ was produced by The 1975’s Matty Healy and George Daniel. That classic Mancunian alternative-ism is evident in their tracks, and they are definitely followPhoto: Album Artwork ing in the footsteps of Manchester’s indie heritage. Guitar-ridden electric pop at its best, for fans of The 1975, Churches and Wolf Alice.

The Blinders Influenced by punk poets, beat writers and literature, The Blinders are on a mission to make psychedelic punk rock with a political punch. Neither mainstream nor everyone’s cup of tea, the band eschew the mainstream, and they are everything you want from a punk band. If you like eccentric live shows and don’t mind an assault on

popular culture, The Blinders have it in them to transport you back to the 70s, when less bands were afraid of challenging the norm.

Photo: EP Artwork - SonicPR

Jordan Allen Drawing comparisons with Jake Bugg’s bluesy vibes, Jordan Allen from Bolton is exciting fans at a local level. He has played on BBC introducing stages, and his single ‘Too Much Too Soon’ has been compared with the wise lyricism which has saturated the North West for decades. The young singer has definitely captured that Mancunian musical observation of real life. (Performing at The Ruby Lounge 15th Dec 2017)

Dantevilles This four-piece are raw, uplifting, northern indie pop. Their single ‘It Might Be Tomorrow’ was selected as Hew Stevens BBC Radio 1 Tip Of The Week, and they are intent on making fresh music with a groovy, soulful backbone. With groovy sounds and original ideas, this band are one to watch.

Why not give your ears something new to listen to?

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Music

Games 14

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Album Review: Foo Fighters Concrete and Gold

Feature Album

The Ubisoft Rebrand

Jeremy Bijl Games Editor

The world’s biggest rock band returns with a mixed bag of over-the-top and underwhelming material Jay Plent Contributor Foo Fighters are over 20 years old now. Let that sink in.

It’s impressive that they’ve maintained such a dedicated consistency in material and delivery over the course of their career, in no small part due to the vividness of David Grohl’s vision. His dedication to hard rock-and-roll combined with glitzy accessible pop staples is like... well, Concrete And Gold, actually.

You certainly can’t fault the Foo Fighters’s resolve, and although it’s still difficult to actively dislike the group themselves, the material on this, their ninth studio album, doesn’t get let off quite so easy.

To cut right to the chase, Concrete and Gold’s tracks are hit and miss; not to the extent that they’re dreadful songs, but in that they consistently underwhelm after the initial impact of their first few minutes. There are a few crucial symptoms to the illness.

First and foremost is the predictability of the album. Nearly every track follows the same structure. Like the beats in a Marvel movie, it recycles the same plot points over and over and expects you to feel just as elated as the first time you hear them.

For example, there are at least 2 occasions where the band tries to pull off a folky misdirect, starting gentle then ambushing you with a wall of amp-bursting guitars. They do it on ‘T-Shirt’, then again on ‘Dirty Water’, and are clearly tempted to do it thrice on ‘Happy Ever After’.

uating an idea someone else has had without engaging with it on any meaningful, creative level.

The final problem is the production. Yes, it’s glossy and full, all the instruments sound great, indeed this might be the best sounding Foo Fighters record since Echoes, Silence Patience and Grace. However, the album is so oppressively loud most of the time, with little to no dynamic shift between the verses and choruses, that unless you were off your face AT a Foo Fighters show, or had an allergy to music under a certain decibel level, you’d find this album very hard to listen to continuously.

“The band tries to pull of a folky

As talented a producer as Greg Kurstin is, I can’t help but wonder if it’s his pop-flex muscling in on the quality of Concrete and Gold. In truth, the aforementioned ‘folky-misdirect’ tracks on the album are the most listenable only because they have some semblance of sonic variety.

The tracks are so thickly stacked with instruments for so much of the time that they have nowhere to go. They start on 11 rather than starting on 10, leaving no headroom for the tracks to grow. Old Foo Fighters tracks had light and shade, peaks and troughs. Concrete And Gold is like Salar de Uyni in Bolivia: really fucking high, and really fucking flat.

misdirect, starting gentle then ambushing you with a wall of amp-bursting guitars ”

Although this structural shift works on the tracks individually (‘Dirty Water’ is by far the most interesting track on the album), as a whole, it makes the album predictable. We’ve heard the punchline to this joke already: you can’t tell it twice and still expect a laugh.

And speaking of oral delivery, Grohl’s lyrics are another drawback to this album. Increasingly, the once fiery teen who led a revolution in 90s rock is relying more and more on tried and true clichés when it comes to his poetics, and it just edges the material that much closer to becoming really corny dad rock.

There are highlights of course: ‘Run’ is fun, and the lyrics for ‘The Sky Is A Neighborhood’ and ‘Dirty Water’ feature some nice extended metaphors about storms and communal strife, but for every high there’s a low.

The half-arsed attempt at a political statement in ‘La Dee Da’ is the most dire: “Turn up the American ruse…white house, death in June”.

Really?

It’s not so much the fact Grohl tries to address the turmoil in American politics, it’s that he has nothing meaningful to say. It’s akin to throwing in a funny meme reference in a conversation, you’re not really saying or inventing or contributing anything, you’re just perpet-

“Concrete and Gold is like the

Salar de Uyni in Bolivia: really fucking high, and really fucking flat ”

on ‘Sunday Rain’.

What’s more, the features this album boasts all mesh superbly with the texture of the album; I genuinely didn’t imagine adding Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman to proceedings would work, but lo and behold it sounds great. And of course there’s some rock royalty in there to in the form of The Kills’ Alison Mossheart. All these additions make things more fun, basically.

Concrete And Gold is an album that will certainly please die-hard Foo fans, but holds little of interest to anyone outside of that sphere who’s looking for music with a little more invention or depth. The playing is excellent, the production, whilst squashed and compressed, sounds huge and rich, and the featured artists, generally, are exciting editions to the band’s canon.

That being said, why they decided to include Paul McCartney playing drums is beyond me. Paul McCartney sucks at drums. Shout it from the rooftops. His playing on the album is one of the worst bits about it.

Overall, this is a largely accessible, Concrete and Gold shows underwhelming effort from the Foo Fighters. They take some admirable risks, some pay off and some don’t, and even if you don’t enjoy the album, it’s reassuring to see that people still love a good old fashioned blast up with some nice blokes who can still kick some amount of ass this late into their career.

5/10

“why they decided to include

Photo:BagoGames @Flickr

Watch Dogs 2 did not reach the lofty heights predicted by Ubisoft

What are they and why should you care?

Chris Glover Reporter

M

Photo: Album Artwork

Despite fairly slim pickings, music reporter Callum Pinder has rounded up the cream of the crop of music events to show your face at this week

HANNI EL-KHATIB - RUBY LOUNGE, 28TH SEPTEMBER: The LA-based vintage rocker will be playing alongside the Holy Oysters. His simple, clean bluesy sound reflects his association with Dan Auerbach. If you’re looking for some old fashioned rock and roll this week then this is the night for you.

whilst For Honor’s online mode has been upgraded from peer-to-peer networking to having dedicated servers.

Old habits die hard, though, and Ubisoft attracted ridicule by announcing an $800 (£589.52) ‘gold edition’ of Origins made up of mainly tat and pointless collectables in line with Ubisoft’s tradition of calling something a ‘collectible’ in the hope that it creates the illusion of future value.

Nonetheless, Ubisoft’s rebrand is one that should inspire hope rather than disdain. Although it came out with the usual corporate spiel — “The swirl and the letter O are both deliberately created to be reminiscent of hand-drawn shapes and represent our human qualities of enthusiasm, curiosity and the grain de folie that Ubisoft is known for” — it marks, at the very least, an acknowledgement that something has to change, even if that something is a simple step of detaching future titles from the errors of the past.

One might reasonably hope, then, that this detachment begets the eradication of the decisions that have landed Ubisoft at this crossroads in the first place.

Perhaps most significant is that the latest rebrand coincided with the announcement of Beyond Good and Evil II, just as the previous one coincided with the first game. Ubisoft, then, will be hoping the new logo brings a new renaissance just as it did fourteen years ago. Whilst this depends heavily on the eventual quality of Origins, Far Cry 5 and Beyond Good and Evil II, the rebrand is cause for cautious optimism.

Or, at the very least, a sign that Ubisoft have finally got the message.

Microtransactions: the Scourge of the Gaming Industry

What’s on this week?

TRANSMISSION FUNK PRESENTS BRADLEY ZERO & HIDDEN SPHERES - SOUP KITCHEN, 27TH SEPTEMBER: The founder of Rhythm Section International will be DJing alongside the Manchester based Hidden Spheres. If a week of Freshers nights has you pining for something a little different, then come for a night of real deep house grooves at the Northern Quarter gem.

In May of this year, Ubisoft unveiled a new logo, replacing their old logo — above left — with an updated, minimalist redesign. However, the news has, in general, remained under the radar. And perhaps this is with good reason — it may be a superficial tweak after all — but one with potentially seismic implications.

Ubisoft’s blue swirl arrived in 2003, featuring most notably in its infancy on Beyond Good and Evil, and ushered in a new age of success for Ubisoft. Over the next decade, Ubisoft would go on to establish some of their games amongst the top global franchises, including the Assassin’s Creed Series, the Far Cry series, and the various Tom Clancy games, among many others.

Fast-forward to May 2017, however, and we find Ubisoft in somewhat of a rut. The last three Assassin’s Creed games — Rogue, Unity and Syndicate — performed poorly, selling well below older titles such as Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed II, despite an increased pool of consumers.

Concerns about poor sales weren’t assuaged by critical acclaim — all three games were largely panned, holding review averages of 74, 70, and 76, respectively, on Metacritic — a decidedly mediocre set of scores in today’s climate. For Honor, one of Ubisoft’s other more recent titles also performed poorly in both reviews and sales relative to expectations.

Although Ubisoft’s unilateral sales and stock prices remain high, it is fair to say that the France-based company is running low on consumer goodwill.

They faced heavy criticism for apparently mismarketing Watch Dogs, another game which reviewed very poorly after a lot of preceding hype, as well as their hyperbolic marketing, ridiculous

pre-order bonuses, and employment of microtransactions, which seem transparent attempts to make some extra profit off already premium priced games.

For Honor was the most shameless example of this: Reddit user bystander007 calculated that all its DLC would cost $730 (£541.50) to purchase, or else take two and a half years of constant playing to fully unlock.

Perhaps most frustrating, though — especially for those who genuinely enjoyed the early Assassin’s Creed games — is Ubisoft’s tendency to churn out games rapidly and with little respect for the product itself. When Assassin’s Creed: Origins releases, we will have seen ten games from the series in as many years.

Far Cry 5 will mark the seventh major instalment of the series, while Tom Clancy games are almost as abundant as they are forgotten. These are just the major releases: spin-offs, downloadable content, and in-game microtransactions are also plentiful.

This attitude was best exemplified by Ubisoft’s half-baked way of announcing Origins, Far Cry 5, The Crew 2 and South Park: The Fractured but Whole: The four were announced simultaneously in a trite statement that read: “In 2017-18 we will see the exciting returns of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, The Crew and South Park”.

Ubisoft, though, are starting to feel the consequences of a business model which prioritises aggressive marketing and corporate greed over game design. This came to a head with Watch Dogs 2; the slightly anticipated sequel of the much-maligned Watch Dogs. The sequel reviewed reasonably well but sold fewer copies than the original, which, in a ‘grow or die’ market is catastrophic. The irony of this is that Watch Dogs 2 is actually a decent game and a huge improvement on the first, but that’s karma.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft seem to have cashed in the trust consumers once had in them, and now face the task of rebuilding it. The rebrand, then, may not be as superficial as it appears, but a statement of renewed intent and a willingness to improve.

Some early signs of progress are already being made: Assassin’s Creed: Origins has been given two years in development,

Feature

Paul McCartney playing drums is beyond me. Paul McCartney sucks at drums.”

Despite these drawbacks, I wouldn’t say this album is hateful. As I said earlier, the performances are still phenomenal, and the band do take some risks and bring in some new elements that pay off.

Although it somewhat contributes to the flatness problem, the chunky synths interspersed throughout are a welcome addition to the band’s palette, and it’s nice to hear Taylor Hawkins’ vocals again

Ubisoft has changed its logo, but will it change its stripes?

LORD OF THE TINGS AND FRIENDS - HIDDEN, 27TH SEPTEMBER: Two Manchester nightlife classics collide. Hidden nightclub will play host to the best local Dancehall, Grime & Garage night in the area. Come along and start the term right whilst also supporting local talent.

SONICATOMIC AND GUESTS - NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, 26TH SEPTEMBER: SonicAtomic play a psychedelic blend of krautrock, postrock, and jazz. It’s an innovative, interesting sound to get lost in. At £6 a ticket, you’re not going to find a better value event this Tuesday.

MC DEVVO ONE-OFF SHOW - RUBY LOUNGE, 30TH SEPTEMBER: Okay I’ll admit, it’s a quiet week so I’m casting wide net here. But come on, why wouldn’t want to see your favourite beer drinking, pidgeon kicking, Yorkshire YouTube star live in the flesh. You never know, it might be fookin’ sick mate.

icrotransactions — you’ll no doubt already be aware of them, even if not by name.

The term refers to any small payments of real money for which players receive virtual goods ingame. A staple in free-to-play games — and thus a huge presence in the mobile games industry — the wily business model generates heaps of profit by gnawing at the Achilles’ heel of every gamer: their patience.

To this end, video games driven by microtransactions employ all the psychological manipulation techniques in the book to prise open the wallets of the more suggestible members of their player base, ensuring a sustainable influx of cash long after release. Microtransactions invariably occur via an intermediate currency.

Players of Candy Crush Saga, for example, use real money to purchase ‘gold bars’ which can then be used to buy extra lives, moves, or levels.

For developers, the benefits of this devious pay-structure are manifold. Players lose track of real-world value with this unfamiliar currency, obscuring the true extent of their spending, and bulk discounts on in-game currency encourage even higher spending whilst further blurring the real-world value of in-game items.

Craftier still, deliberate disparities between the quantities in which virtual currencies are bought and the cost of items ensure that players often have a small amount of currency left over. Not enough to buy anything with of course, but enough so that they might as well go ahead and buy more currency to bring their wallet up to a usable amount — I mean, it’d be a waste otherwise, right?

So yes, free-to-play developers use deliberately exploitative mechanics to squeeze money out of their

players — but why on earth wouldn’t they? Microtransactions in free games simply allow players who enjoy the product to support developers.

Plus, the traditional pay-to-play system of gaming generally doesn’t work with mobile games — data has shown that consumers are reluctant to buy mobile games outright. I, for example, would have turned my nose up at Pokemon Go had it cost £2.99 on the app store, but just a few weeks down the line I was more than happy to fork out £15 for items which gave me a slight edge over my 11-year-old rivals from the local park.

Photo: Stux @pixabay

Pokemon Go is a free-to-play mobile game driven by microtransactions

It didn’t take long before AAA publishers took note of the microtransaction goldmine and had the audacity to start including them in paid titles.

Being pestered again and again to hand over money is acceptable in free-to-play games because it’s the price you pay for enjoying an otherwise free experience. The same pestering in a game you’ve already paid for is, quite frankly, outrageous — though not everyone thinks so. It was reported last year that Rockstar games have made over half a billion dollars — that’s billion, with a ‘b’ — through microtransactions on GTA V’s multiplayer mode.

You wouldn’t buy a house and be expected to pay ex-

tra for the “enhanced experience” of having windows.

Nor would you pay for a flight, board the plane, and be asked if you’d like “exclusive access” to your designated seat for just a few hundred Jet Tokens. You wouldn’t pay £9,000 a year for a university education, and then be expected to pay to use their printers - just kidding, that last one is completely reasonable.

Now imagine instead of simply buying that plane seat, you were offered a random, mystery box which could contain any one of hundreds of items of plane-related paraphernalia. Upset that you got a soggy ham-andcheese toastie instead of a seat? That’s okay, just go ahead and roll the dice with another mystery box and maybe then you’ll get the item you wanted.

This exact system — designed to foster gambling tendencies in children and exploit players with addictive personalities — is employed by countless full-priced titles such as Fifa, Overwatch, Destiny 2, and Call of Duty, the developers of which have succeeded in the impresive feat of making ‘microtransactions’ an even dirtier word than it already was.

Photo: EA Sports

FIFA 17’s intermediate currency is creatively named ‘FIFA points’

Whilst there aren’t enough Gold Bars or Pokécoins in the world to silence my criticism of microtransactions in pay-to-play games, there are many gamers who don’t see them as a problem; who would tell you that my

house and plane analogies are unfair and invalid as most microtransaction content is “optional” and “not an essential part of the experience” like windows on a house or seats on a plane.

I will — begrudgingly — admit my analogies err on the side of hyperbole, but consider this: perhaps the true insidiousness of microtransactions in pay-to-play games is that despite how “optional” and “purely cosmetic” their content may be, the game is often still built carefully around this system, affecting even the players who choose not to buy them.

This renders any frustrating aspect of the game as a potentially deliberate inclusion: one of many ploys in a war of attrition designed to make you think spending a few extra quid to improve your experience is the smart thing to do. They’ve sold you a house with windows, yes — but those windows let in just enough of a draught that you pay them for some new ones anyway.

So what can be done to combat the ever-growing presence of microtransactions in full-priced games?

Regrettably, not a whole lot. The big companies lining their pockets with the system are very good at making people believe microtransactions are just innocuous additions to their games which provide optional extra content. Cynical individuals such as myself can continue to vote with their wallets and not partake in microtransactions, but as long as they continue to generate inordinate amounts of cash, the microtransaction model will continue to spread like the disease it is.

Tommy Palm, the creator of Candy Crush Saga, once said that in the future, every game will be free-to-play and driven by microtransactions. I fear he may only have been wrong about the “free-to-play” part.

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Fashion & Beauty

ISSUE 2 / 25TH SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Designer vs high street: the fashion week edition

Now that the New York and London fashion weeks have come to a close, our designer wish lists are longer and more unlikely than ever. Rather than waiting to win the lottery, head over to the high street and shop for the most iconic looks now. By Fashion and Beauty Editor Talia Lee-Skudder

For those of us who can’t afford to take out a loan to blow on the hottest looks straight from the runway, here are the strikingly similar top picks from our faithful high street. If it’s cheaper, then surely that means we can buy even more right?

With designers jumping on board with the see-now-buy-now runway collections, there is even more demand for high street retailers to keep up to date with the best trends from the catwalk and get them into stores while there’s still a post-fashion-week buzz. The purpose behind these see-now-buy-now collections is to prevent shoppers from turning to replicas of designer items during the agonising wait from runway to store. Yet it seems our high street is just too good; earlier this month when Kourtney Kardashian posted on Instagram a photo of her in that Gucci-inspired-but-really-its-H&M tracksuit, within days copies were popping up on online retailer sites such as Missy Empire.

If buying straight off the runway is just a hopeful but distant dream, fear not, because the high street has got you covered.

Burberry The trench coat is synonymous with Burberry, and this season we’ve seen a spin on the classic style of what you and I would call a raincoat. Yes, it is still plastic and waterproof, but it has been given the more luxurious name of a ‘car coat’ because if you’re wearing Burberry then why on earth would you be walking in the rain? If you don’t have a spare grand, then ASOS have a great selection of rain/car coats to satisfy all of your travelling needs. Rains macs and Monki, in particular, are great.

Erdem The London show was a nod to the 50s silhouette, cinched in waists and full skirts with a cardigan draped over the shoulders. In true Erdem style, the collection plays with textures and patterns from floral to feather and fringing. Spring Summer 2018 is a beautiful collection for Erdem. Whilst it is near impossible to find items on the high street that have the same exquisite detail as Erdem, take inspiration from the shape of their clothes and the prints. All hope is not lost, however, because Erdem is collaborating with high street juggernaut H&M this season. Expect the signature style but at a fraction of the price. The collaboration hits stores on the 2nd of November.

JW Anderson Patch-worked fabrics and raw hems in muted tones were the main features in this season’s show, as were cropped peasant tops paired with flowing cotton trousers and skirts. Of course, no JW Anderson show would be complete without an assortment of corset style tops, and this collection has seen the fail-safe style revived in leather and knitwear. Check out ASOS, or you can head over to Uniqlo and shop their collaboration with JW Anderson.

Fashion & Beauty 17

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Guess who’s back, back again Sophie Walsh, Deputy Fashion and Beauty Editor explores the return of Burberry’s most iconic piece that made it’s come back at London Fashion Week On Saturday 16th September, Burberry held its London fashion week runway show at the former court house, Old Sessions House in London.

Walked by models of the moment, Adwoa Aboahson, Jean Campbell, Kaia Gerber and Lennon Gallagher (Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher’s son), the show inspired a youthful, contemporary and exciting atmosphere. Chief creative Christopher Bailey said, the “collection finds the humour, and the beauty, and the pathos, and the sheer glorious eccentricity of the British way of dressing.”

The British label has a rich heritage, reaching back to 1856 when Thomas Burberry established the company as a maker of quality outerwear.

Since then, the label has sheltered the soldiers of WW1 from the rain with its aptly named trench coat and earned the royal warrant.

In the show, we saw this beloved piece alongside colourful plastics, oversized statement jewellery and Argyll wool. Think: a Scottish farmer meets Dallas.

However, there was also another nod to Burberry’s past. Something we thought we’d locked in a seal tight container and thrown away the key. A relic of a bygone era.

Fashion player of the week: Adwoa Aboah Deputy Fashion and Beauty Editor Amy Nguyen delves into the off-duty work of model and activist Adwoa Aboah as she is crowned our fashion player of the week.

• • • • •

•

Photo: Burberry.com@Instagram

The Burberry cap. IT’S BACK. The controversial cap in the infamous Nova check print is the black sheep of the Burberry family. To this day, for some the very name Burberry still conjures images of buzz cut lads in check baseball caps, perched on walls or playground swings swigging cans of red stripe and shouting profanities. This is because in the late nineties and early noughties when Nova check was a staple in every celebrity wardrobe, thousands of cheap Burberry replicas flooded the market. Their staple print covered all manner of products from the infamous cap to dog collars (guilty) and became readily available. Soon the Burberry cap was adopted by so called ‘CHAVS’ and became a symbol for aggressive street culture, even initiating a ban of caps from shopping centres in 2005.

What happened next? The cap was taken off the market in disgrace and the infamous print relegated to coat linings, never to see the light of day. Until now.

Whether the shows court house venue is a nod and a wink towards this dubious past is unknown. What we do know, is that with Bailey’s self-confessed humorous collection, the print has been reclaimed with confidence, splashed on not only caps but coats, bags and scarves too. A decade ago this would have turned our stomachs, but now we celebrate the irony and call it vintage.

Is Burberry then commenting on the fickleness of fashion in general, and its never-ending cycle of break ups and make ups?

Whatever their intention, Burberry has managed to make their infamous cap look like a heritage piece.

Whether you dare the trend is down to you, but bear in mind though they’ve stuck a £195 label on it.

Or of course, you could buy a knock off down the market, but that might start the whole cycle again.

Occupation: Model and Activist Age: 25 Nationality: British (Ghanaian Origin) Walked for: Dior, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Burberry, Kenzo, Topshop, Coach, Fendi Featured on: Business of Fashion, British Vogue, Italian Vogue, American Vogue, I-D Magazine, Love Magazine, ES Magazine Campaigns for: H & M, Dior, Calvin Klein, Miu Miu, Gap, Versace

There is no dispute that Adwoa Aboah is strikingly beautiful. However, she is far more than meets the eye.

Awarded GQ’s Woman of the Year and pinned by the Business of Fashion as one of five hundred figures to be shaping the $2.4 trillion dollar fashion industry, Adwoah, we can fairly justify, is this season’s Photo: Adwoa Aboah@Instagram MVP. Gracing the covers of Vogue, Love and I-D Magazine as well as walking the runway for Dior, Chanel and Burberry, her resume couldn’t spell out supermodel more if it tried.

It is not simply her beauty that has gained the attention of the industry and its peers alike but her repertoire of work off the runway that has brought Adwoa universal appeal.

Her story is one that is compelling in nature. Following her own battles with depression, addiction and attempted suicide, she created a network and online community named Gurls Talk which provides a voice to young women and raises issues of race and feminism. In conjunction with Coach, Adwoah hosted an event in London in July as a manifestation of this community and was attended by over 700 people.

The platform that she has created encourages conversation between the younger Generation X to look beyond the realms of Instagram to matters of higher importance such as racial equality, female sexuality, and addressing the taboos and stigma regarding mental health issues. It is her innate honesty and bravery in talking about her own experiences that I find most appealing about her character. It is this exact openness with her own personal struggles that promoted Dazed to define her as “the real thing.”

Under the new leadership of Edward Enninful and his strive for Vogue to become a voice for all different cultures, Adwoa will now be a contributing editor of British Vogue. Her authenticity, uniqueness, and encouragement to raise issues for those that do not have a voice signal to me that simply being conventionally beautiful isn’t enough anymore.

Photo: Burberry.com

Photo: asos.com

Photo: erdem@instagram

Photo:topshop.com

Photo: JW_Anderson@instagram

Photo: asos.com

Fenty Beauty on the brain

Amy Nguyen, Deputy Fashion and Beauty Editor, reviews the eagerly anticipated launch of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna.

Photo: Harvey Nichols

SOS, please, someone help me. It’s not healthy for me to feel this way! Let’s talk about Fenty Beauty by Rihanna.

As if 12 American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 8 Grammy Awards and 8 record breaking studio albums don’t quite cut it, our favourite Barbadian girl can take a bow and add beauty mogul to her never-ending portfolio of girl boss achievements.

Since its launch a fortnight ago, Fenty Beauty is causing serious Disturbia in the cosmetic industry. It’s key messaging and objective focuses around inclusivity and the celebration of diversity through its extensive shade ranges as well as encouraging users to have fun and be creative.

This is immediately apparent when I was invited to discover the collection at Harvey Nichols. With over 40 shades available in the Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longer Foundation, Fenty Beauty instantly ticks boxes many cosmetic brands fail to.

RiRi’s Fenty Beauty assortment fulfils all of your beauty needs, whether it be the Pro Filt’r Instant Retouch Primer, Killawatt Free Style Highlighters, or the Match Stix Skinsticks, which are available in matte and shimmery colours.

The ‘fenty glow’ is best personified with my favourite product from the collection — the Glass Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer. Its single shade was purposely designed to suit all skin colours, and its rose and nude tones ensure your lips shine bright like a diamond throughout the day and evening.

The Fenty Beauty team are equipped with compatibility charts which upon selecting your correct foundation shade, can immediately suggest which shades of products in the range can be used to conceal, contour and highlight to compliment your look. This is a fabulous time saver and acts as a great referencing point if you wish to purchase one item and return for the rest at a later date.

Every aspect has been carefully considered and the collection boasts a variety of tools for application that include beauty sponges, brushes, and blotting paper. Portable mini versions of the brushes have been created as the perfect accompaniment when you are on the move.

Did I mention all the packing is magnetic?! The entire range is also completely cruelty-free — an increasingly important factor when it comes to selecting our best in beauty.

As far as price points go, the collection ranges from a very reasonable £8 to £26.

Photo: Amy Nguyen Fenty Beauty by Rihanna is here to stay and is available to purchase exclusively at Harvey Nichols nationwide and online. So jump on the closest bus or taxi and order them to shut up and drive to your nearest Fenty Beauty counter which can be located at: Harvey Nichols Manchester, 21 New Cathedral Street, Manchester, M1 1AD

Fashion week: Diversity takes centre stage This London Fashion week saw diversity celebrated on the runways but the spotlight was on London based brand Teatum Jones, writes Fashion and Beauty Editor Talia Lee-Skudder The fashion industry is now making a concerted effort to embrace diversity and celebrate real women; from Ashley Graham to Winnie Harlow and Halima Aden these women are part of the changing face of fashion. The appointment of Edward Enninful as the new Vogue Editor-in-Chief earlier this year heralded a new era for the magazine as he completely re-shaped the predominantly white team of his predecessor, Alexandra Shulman.

Enninful’s new team consists of big-name stars such as Naomi Campbell, Pat McGrath and model of the moment and activist Adwoa Aboah. This new team celebrates inclusivity and diversity.

However, it is not just Vogue that is making waves, a number of fashion houses are trying to make their runway shows more diverse. Alex Bruni represented the older models and participated in diversity in fashion workshop at Somerset House as part of the week’s events. Bruni, 59, only began modelling in her 40s and it is her trademark silver-grey hair that is part of her allure and what makes her the unique, sought after model that she is.

Further, following walking for labels such as Tory Burch, Marc Jacobs, and Oscar De La Renta this NYFW, model Teddy Quinlivan has revealed publicly that she is a transgender woman. Quinlivan stated that she felt obliged to come out as transgender given the political climate and to express her support for the LGBT community. Quinlivan said: “If being transgender is something that gets attached to my name throughout my career, then it’s for a worthy cause. But I look forward to the day when it doesn’t matter.”

However, the spotlight was on brand Teatum Jones who had two physically disabled models walk in their ‘The body part two’ show. The line up included model Vicky Blach, who lost her leg when the ride at Alton Towers malfunctioned in 2015. She looked stunning as walked the runway in an olive green knitted dress with minimal makeup. Model Kelly Knox took to the runway to walk for the brand for the second time. Later she tweeted “Kat and Rob are the most beautiful souls who truly believe in diversity.”

The show was a follow up to the AW17 show in February this year which was entitled ‘The Body, Part One’. The first show was memorable for its soundtrack that featured Meryl Streep’s critique of Donald Trump mocking a disabled journalist. Designers Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones’ goal is to focus on disability fashion and gain representation for those with a disability.

Whilst there is admittedly still a long way to go, with brands like Teatum Jones and Edward Enninful leading the way the future looks bright for a more representative and inclusive fashion industry.

Animal rights protest at London fashion week

Deputy Fashion and Beauty Editor Sophie Walsh explores the moral issues behind using real fur for fashion A large group of animal rights activists protested the use of animal fur in the fashion industry, outside the Burberry show on the 16th of September. Footage from the scene shows some 250 impassioned protesters confronting celebrities entering the show, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour, grime star Stormzy, and supermodel Kate Moss.

Smeared in fake blood and shouting the word “Shame”, the protests set the show back significantly. Ironically, the show itself was absent of any fur.

Animal rights and particularly fur for fashion is a seasoned issue and protests of this kind are common around fashion week. However, this was one of the biggest anti-fur protests fashion week had seen, with protests earlier that day at the Gareth Pugh show and a three-day demonstration at the British Fashion Council.

Have they still a need to protest or have we seen a change in the industry? Well in recent years there seems to have been an increased moral awareness surrounding the fashion industry, with what appear to be reforming attempts. With Vegetarianism and Veganism at an all-time high, many cosmetic and clothing brands now offer plant-based alternatives to animal materials. For example, many major For example, many major designers, as well as large-scale retailers such as Selfridges, refuse to make or sell animal fur products, instead choosing alternative materials such as polyester. The British outerwear faux fur brand Shrimps founded by Hannah Weiland in 2013, even opened London fashion week this year.

Furthermore, on the consumer end fast fashion has meant that people are also more inclined economically to make faux fur purchases as they are significantly more budget friendly.

Nevertheless, statistics show that more than one billion rabbits are still killed annually for their fur, along with countless other animals.

PETA, an animal rights organization says that the animals on fur farms spend their lives ‘confined to cramped, filthy wire cages’, killed by the cruellest methods ‘including suffocation, electrocution, gas and poisoning’.

Although high fashion has largely reformed its fur poliPhoto: Flickr cies, animals across the world are still being slaughtered needlessly. Therefore, despite changes in the industry, fur farming is still a major issue and awareness is necessary.

Film

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Review

Review

Home Reapraisal

Mother!

Jungle Fever Jungle Fever is as powerful as it was 26 years ago Eloise Wright Head Film Editor

Photo: Jennifer Lawrence Films @ Flickr

From the director of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan comes an unrelenting nightmare starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem Jamie McEvoy Deputy Film Editor Darren Aronofsky has an interesting back catalogue. Artistic and dark features such as Requiem for a Dream (2000) and Black Swan (2010) are the front-runners, whilst more mainstream hits in The Wrestler (2008) and Noah (2014) are entertaining yet less inventive works by the American auteur.

Expectations were high for Mother!, with such a tremendous cast and premise.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as the wife to struggling writer Javier Bardem, who both live in an isolated, picturesque house surrounded by fields and woodland. Lawrence’s ‘Mother’ (the characters are nameless, and are credited simply with descriptors such as ‘Him’ or ‘Fool’) describes her home as a ‘paradise’, yet this self-made utopia is disrupted when ‘Man’ (Ed Harris) appears at their door, claiming to mistake the house for a bed and breakfast. Shortly after, ‘Woman’ (Michelle Pfeiffer) turns up – Man’s glamorous and femme fatale-esque spouse.

What follows is a tale of paranoia, deceit, and horror as ‘Mother’ faces a struggle to maintain her sanity, whilst attempting to prove to her naïve husband something is not quite right about the polite yet sinister guests who have arrived at their home.

Having watched the trailer and heard tales of audiences walking out of screenings in disgust, going into Mother! I felt I was prepared for whatever Aronofsky was going to throw at me. The film starts slowly yet the intrigue the director induces in the audience is off the charts. The first hour or so is reminiscent of an eerie, tension-ridden silence before a jump-scare in a horror film, and just as Lawrence’s protagonist does, the audience scrutinises every detail on the screen, ears pricked for the quietest of noises.

The relationship between Lawrence and Bardem is akin to that between Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – a wife who can sense malignant conspiracy

but whose suspicions are constantly rebuked and laughed away by her starry-eyed and narcissistic husband.

Once the tension rises to boiling level and inevitably explodes, the film descends into chaos. Without meaning to include any spoilers, it is possibly the most uncomfortable and oppressive stretch of on-screen action I have watched in my life. One scene in particular is horrifying, and just like how I had read beforehand, certain members of the audience evidently found it too much and left the auditorium.

Despite all the religious connotations and allegories to Genesis (in short, Jennifer Lawrence’s character is a metaphor for ‘Mother Earth’ and Bardem’s ‘Him’ is representative of God), Mother! is a nightmarish whirlwind which ultimately somewhat loses direction. The intrigue and tension which the film’s first act is ripe with, is seemingly tossed aside

by Aronofsky in the film’s later two acts. I could not help but feel that this was arguably a gratuitous attempt to merely shock the audience to an extent which surpasses the boundaries of ‘mainstream cinema’.

However, Mother! is undoubtedly an impressive artistic feat. Visually it is masterful, and regular Denis Villeneuve collaborator Jóhan Jóhansson has produced a chilling and understated score which perfectly encapsulates the mental torment of Lawrence’s ‘Mother’. The star-studded cast is equally fantastic, with Lawrence demonstrating her acting prowess by playing a very different character we have grown used to seeing her portray in the The Hunger Games and X-Men series.

A shocking and traumatic film which feels more like an artwork than a movie, Mother! is an oppressive, hellish ordeal which just about retains enough structure to avoid descending into pure havoc and terror. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, and even for those who deem themselves confident in the face of boundary-pushing cinema, take a deep breath before viewing.

“Jungle Fever” was Spike Lee’s sixth feature, first shown in cinemas in 1991. Recently shown at Home Mcr, the film was followed by a panel discussion with Akua Gyamfi (The British Blacklist), where we delved into some of the many layers of the film, such as the glass ceiling in the workplace, black women’s thoughts about black men, and of course how Spike Lee approaches what “jungle fever” actually is.

The movie begins one morning in Harlem, taking a look into the harmonious life of Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes), a successful architect who is happily married and is a wonderful father. On this particular morning, Flipper’s bosses introduce him to his new temp worker, Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra), a young and alluring Italian-American woman from Bensonhurst.

Their first interaction is not pleasant, as Flipper almost immediately strides back to his bosses’ office, angrily protesting he asked for an African-American to be hired, on the basis that he is the only person of colour in the entire office. “This sounds dangerously like reverse discrimination” one of the two bosses points out. The issue Spike Lee is tackling here is that the modern American workplace needs to normalize hiring people from all backgrounds, especially African-Americans.

When talking to his wife Drew (Lonette McKee) about his long overdue promotion to partner of the architectural firm, as much as she agrees he deserves it, she carefully warns him to be prepared. “Prepared for what?” Flipper asks. “In case they say no.” Flipper throws that statement to the wind, to him it’s all very straightforward, “Most of the money they make in the company, it’s because of me”. This glass ceiling is still hugely present in the workplace today, as many of the people confirmed during the discussion panel – one woman recounted her experience of deciding to leave her job to start her own business due to the very same problem Flipper faced almost 30 years ago.

Angie and Flipper grow increasingly drawn to each-other, creating a routine of working late and eating Chinese takeout together, one night finally giving in to temptation. It is quite obvious that the pair share more of a physical attraction than a romantic one, and the backlash their liaison causes quickly outweighs the fascination they held for one another.

It is this unhealthy sexual attraction that

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Spike Lee evokes as “jungle fever”, or the fetishization of different skin colours or ethnicities than one’s own. Both ruin the relationships they were in, Angie receives a vicious beating from her father when word gets out she is seeing a black man. Her boyfriend Paulie (John Turturro, also known for the role of Pino in Do the Right Thing) is a “nice guy”, their break-up scene is so well played that it is genuinely upsetting to watch.

Paulie’s friends or closer to what you could call entourage are quite intensely racist and attempt to push him to be angry not so much about the adultery, but more about the fact the man in question is black. Thankfully Paulie does not share this point of view, and quite soon asks a regular client out on a date. Contrasting with Angie and Flipper’s relationship, this was a nice addition to the story as Paulie is infatuated with her not only because he finds her beautiful, but also for her intelligence – He does not have “the fever”.

It is interesting how the pair’s different skin colours are recurrently seen as a larger issue than the adultery itself. Angie’s father is ashamed of her actions, throwing her out of his home because the man she is seeing is not white or Italian. Flipper’s wife Drew has struggled all her life being mixed-race, and for this reason feels all the more hurt upon discovering the other woman is white.

This opens up a discussion she and her friends have that evening. She is now convinced Flipper has always fantasized about white women, wondering aloud if it’s for her light-coloured skin that he married her. They criticise that men’s ideal of beauty is far too often the white woman. Growing up, the black girl is constantly surrounded with media and advertisements that push that stereotype. Lee and the actresses improvised this whole scene over the course of two days, and is one of the realest scenes of the entire film. It evokes what women of colour felt and experienced then, and as women during the discussion panel confirmed, reflects what women of colour feel and talk about now.

Many of the people at the screening confessed that the film didn’t ring as true as when they first saw it in 1991, but we all agreed that Spike Lee had once again brought together an incredibly talented cast and a realistic grasp of the tensions on the streets of Harlem and Bensonhurst that must be watched, shared and talked about continually.

Photo: Allocine

American Assassin James Gill Film Critic After a string of well received films by director Michael Cuesta, the Hollywood call for another risk-less, humourless franchise was just too strong to ignore.

Thankfully American Assassin will lay to rest with the other bare minimum attempts by Lionsgate to create a cash-cow replacement to the Hunger Games and the other 15 and counting novels in the same series will remain just that.

The biggest red flag is the four billed writers who produced three separate rewrites of the book adaptation. Four different people who wanted to leave their personal stamp, skewing the plot and tonality in their separate directions. The result is an incredibly self-serious film with a ludicrous storyline.

Dylan O’Brien, whose performance is only restricted by the material he has to work with, plays the main character of Mitch Rapp. On an idyllic beach in Ibiza he proposes to his girlfriend before heading to the bar for celebratory drinks.

From the overly-saturated shooting style it is obvious that violence is incoming and sure enough multiple terrorists slaughter holiday-goers in an horrendously explicit sequence. Rapp gets shot several times but makes it over to his nowfinacee just in time to see her become his ex-fiancee.

From here on in American Assassin becomes a vengeance-obsessed thriller and Rapp dedicates the next several months to become a MMA and gun-trained killer whilst simultaneously infiltrating an terrorist cell. When he travels to meet

Review

God’s Own Country Esmee Samsworth Film Contributor After a string of well received films by director Michael Cuesta, the Hollywood call for another risk-less, humourless franchise was just too strong to ignore. Thankfully American Assassin will lay to rest with the other bare minimum attempts by Lionsgate to create a cashcow replacement to the Hunger Games and the other 15 and counting novels in the same series will remain just that.

The biggest red flag is the four billed writers who produced three separate rewrites of the book adaptation. Four different people who wanted to leave their personal stamp, skewing the plot and tonality in their separate directions. The result is an incredibly self-serious film with a ludicrous storyline.

Dylan O’Brien, whose performance is only restricted by the material he has to work with, plays the main character of Mitch Rapp. On an idyllic beach in Ibiza he proposes to his girlfriend before heading to the bar for celebratory drinks. From the overly-saturated shooting style it is obvious that violence is incoming and sure enough multiple terrorists slaughter holiday-goers in an horrendously explicit sequence. Rapp gets shot several times but makes it over to his nowfinacee just in time to see her become his ex-fiancee.

From here on in American Assassin becomes a vengeance-obsessed thriller and Rapp dedicates the next several months to become a MMA and gun-trained killer whilst simultaneously infiltrating an terrorist cell. When he travels to meet them, the CIA, who have allegedly been ‘monitoring him for some time’, charge in and take them all out. Rapp in frustration stabs the dead body of one of them repeatedly before being dragged away. CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy, a role that wastes the talents of Sanaa Lathan, decides to hire Rapp rather than put him into prison, as any rational person would do.

A further step down into madness and Rapp’s character gets a quickfire training by former Navy SEAL Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) to be one of his ‘Orion’ operatives. His first task is to stop World War III. A person who two years prior was just an average joe now holds the peace of the world on his shoulders. Throw in Taylor Kitsch as ‘generic villain 001’, a nudity scene for the sake of the nudity scene and a finale with worse CGI than the James Bond glacial-surfing scene in Die Another Day and you have the makings of yet another 2017 flop film.

Although it isn’t addressed we can assume that many American people died in the climax to the film. None of that matters though because the main protagonist survives and the deceased aren’t introduced or developed as characters, going against the supposed main theme of the film that the death of innocent people is needless.

Through all the preposterousness you can kind of see what Cuesta intends, to find the gap between the young adult and crime genre’s hopefully attracting both demographics. The final scene is purposefully left open-ended to hint at a sequel but anyone who enjoyed this film may find themselves waiting a very long time.

WRITE FOR US Mancunion Film Contributors 2017/18 Email: film@mancunion.com Meeting time: Tuesdays 5:30pm Photo: iNews

them, the CIA, who have allegedly been ‘monitoring him for some time’, charge in and take them all out. Rapp in frustration stabs the dead body of one of them repeatedly before being dragged away. CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy, a role that wastes the talents of Sanaa Lathan, decides to hire Rapp rather than put him into prison, as any rational person would do.

A further step down into madness and Rapp’s character gets a quick-fire training by former Navy SEAL Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) to be one of his ‘Orion’ operatives. His first task is to stop World War III. A person who two years prior was just an average joe now holds the peace of the world on his shoulders.

Throw in Taylor Kitsch as ‘generic villain 001’, a nudity scene for the sake of the nudity scene and a finale with worse CGI than the James Bond glacial-surfing scene in Die Another Day and you have the makings of yet another 2017 flop film.

Although it isn’t addressed we can assume that many American people died in the climax to the film. None of that matters though because the main protagonist survives and the deceased aren’t introduced or developed as characters, going against the supposed main theme of the film that the death of innocent people is needless.

Through all the preposterousness you can kind of see what Cuesta intends, to find the gap between the young adult and crime genre’s hopefully attracting both demographics. The final scene is purposefully left open-ended to hint at a

Photo: Youtube

Review

Victoria and Abdul

Dame Judi can’t save this Royalist fantasy of exotic servant-hood

Photo: Judi Dench films @ Flickr

Isobel Trott Film Contributor Dame Judi Dench returns to the role she played in John Madden’s Mrs Brown in 1997 and brings another “unlikely friendship” to our screens. Though not between a Queen and a Scottish commoner this time, but a weary ruler and her devoted Indian servant. Victoria and Abdul sees Stephen Frears take on the final years of Queen Victoria’s life, portraying at first a depressed and haggard old women, who becomes transformed and bedazzled by a charming, young Indian clerk played by Ali Fazal. Victoria develops an obsessive fascination with Indian-Muslim culture, but Frears’ well-meaning period flick has a plain disregard for the wider international issues which shaped this complicit relationship with hierarchy, failing altogether to deliver a kind of resolution that you could feel completely comfortable with.

Dame Judi Dench is, as ever, wonderful at playing the same sultry, self-righteous, figure of authority. But even her performance is not enough to save this glorification of servitude and grovelling, which is at best disguised as some sort of aspirational, unexpected friendship defying all odds and countless taboos.

A stellar cast and strange moments of exaggerated comedy provided some light relief, Eddie Izzard playing stuffy Prince Bertie was the convincing villain of the story and Michael Gambon as Lord Salisbury gave some humorous one-liners, but the comedy was often nonsensical and simply added to the overall feeling of discomfort this film gave. I would question how appropriate and credible it was to include Abdul’s joke “at least I think that’s the right way around!” when introducing his wife and mother-in-law apart because they were both wearing identical full veiled burqas.

At first some of the exaggerated caricatures of pompous English aristocracy seemed like a promising satire, but this film was far from a critique or commentary, I think it was just trying to be “cute”. What it became instead was a validation of colonial servitude and seems to absolve poor old Queen Victoria of any responsibility. Yet it did try its best to uncover some defied taboos. The way Abdul’s wife slowly removed her burqa in front of the

Queen to reveal a stunning shimmery colourful dress and decorated face, was a quietly beautiful moment, a celebration and understanding of this aspect of Muslim culture underneath felt like something actually quite remarkable in this otherwise unremarkable film.

Victoria’s fascination for Indian-Muslim culture was a perhaps refreshing take on the era, but does little to erase the wider tensions of British rule in India – something I could not get out of my head for the entire hour and 52 minutes.

This film would (rightly) not have had the same capacity for charm appeal had the story been about a snooty King who develops a lustful and endearing fascination for an “exotic” servant. But despite being the other way around Victoria and Abdul fails to be as charming as it hoped.

The final scene is nearly as confusing as trying to understand why someone fought to tell this story in the first place. In a moment, I imagine, intended to hit hard with poignant and emotional resolution, Abdul leans down and kisses the foot of a towering statue of Queen Victoria, and as the camera zooms out we see that the statue resides in the gardens near the Taj Mahal. Victoria got her wish to go after all, and as this was a story much more about Victoria’s lonely and depressed final years, and her lust for life saved by her Indian servant, it felt slightly redundant and morally obligated, when the end credits explained “India gained independence from Britain in 1947.” Almost half a century after poor Abdul was whispering “Good morning” to a statue of the Queen of England.

Victoria and Abdul tries to be charming, endearing and heartfelt, but its emphasis on the Queen’s boisterous demands, inescapable loneliness and frustration with the advisors surrounding her, left little dialogue and focus on Abdul, who came across as a devoted, unquestioning servant. The Queen became his “most special person” for reasons never really explained.

Probably not much truth to be found here, and to be fair the film is honest about this. It had some lovely moments and gave some small laughs, but I doubt, however, that this was a story worth telling.

Books

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Feature

Review

Two Hundred Very Short Stories by Helen KeelingMarston This collection of quick reads provides an interesting commentary on the struggles of finding time for leisure reading Ayesha Hussain Books Editor The cover artwork of Helen Keeling-Marston’s Two Hundred Very Short Stories, illustrates the frustration, chaos and struggle sometimes involved with trying to finish reading a book. The piles of abandoned texts, held in place by very familiar dismissals like “Yes, I’ll read this one on the train to work” and “It’s fine, I can finish it later”, symbolise how for many of us, it is becoming increasingly difficult, being consumed by daily life, to enjoy a book from start to finish.

As an English Literature student, I am so regularly swamped with course reading that I rarely have time to read for leisure. When this off chance does arise, I find that when I do hopelessly try and return to page 337 of 892, of a novel, I spend a fair amount of time trying to work out why the main character is at a seemingly random wedding!

It is precisely this reason: being strapped for time, that Helen, a first-time author, decided to write this book.

“He was paralysed. His eyes were rolling and his throat had narrowed. But he came through it. Just as he always did. Just as he and over seven billion

What I learnt from starting a Literary Journal As we near Foxglove’s first birthday, Elizabeth Gibson calls on young writers to persue their dreams

other people always did every time they woke up.”

Story 117, pp. 112 This collection’s mix of flash-fiction and short stories take the reader on a tumultuous, rather erratic, emotional journey. Do not be fooled into thinking that the short length of the narratives is a reflection of the quality of them. The stories vary in length from a few pages to a few words and each of them, are intricate enough to take you on a journey that will make you think about the multiple layers of meaning within them, long after having read them.

The way in which Helen’s placement of the narratives, in a random order, with some evoking a smile and a laugh and others laced with a deep sense of irony is what makes this book such an interesting read. From story two, about a tooth fairy with questionable morals, story 20 about the Earth and story 129 about dog domestics, there is something for everyone. All 200 stories in this book can indeed be read in one sitting and some can even be completed in around thirty seconds.

Whether you have a break between lectures or are looking for a light read before bed, this is definitely a manageable, worthwhile read!

Photo: Elizabeth Gibson Elizabeth Gibson Books contributor

Photo: Photo: vandertroost@ Flickr

“I was putting something out into the world, sharing something I loved with others.”

Continued...Submissions began rolling in and I adjusted to life as an editor.I learnt how to say yes to people, how to say no to people but not upset them, and how to gently suggest small improvements they could make. Editing is definitely an exercise in people skills! I spent winter in France, then headed to Spain for my second placement.

Foxglove was always there, a constant among all the travels and adventures of my year abroad. Having a project that not only made me happy but made so many others happy, too – based on the lovely reviews and comments received – was really wonderful.

From just two poems, Foxglove has grown and blossomed. It has now featured over 150 pieces of writing – including poetry, short fiction and flash fiction in a multitude of styles, and writers from Australia, Canada, the US, Italy and Ireland among other places.

Posts tend to be uploaded every few days.

Very soon Foxglove will celebrate its first birthday. It is very hard to believe that it has been a year since that autumn night in Provence. I had no idea how much

Sending your work out to literary journals and magazines, in the hope of being published tends to be a large part of life for a developing creative writer. I myself have spent about five years trying to perfect the art of cover letters, biographies and layout. Reading and interpreting other people’s writing has been and still remains greatly enjoyable. It is a world I have always wanted to be a part of.

However, I did not anticipate quite how much I would learn and grow from founding my own magazine. I had no idea when I started out nearly a year ago, quite how much Foxglove Journal would bring to my life.

Foxglove came into being on a cold night in October 2016, in Avignon, France. I was there on my year abroad as a languages student, and maybe it was the lavender and cicadas that inspired me, or maybe just a random burst of motivation, but something

made me take the plunge and finally embark upon a project I had been planning for years: setting up a literary journal.

By the end of the night I had learnt to navigate WordPress and I named my journal Foxglove, after a plant that fascinated me.

I contacted my writer friends and encouraged them to submit some work. I set up Facebook and Twitter accounts for the Journal and did everything I could to spread the word. I posted Foxglove’s first two poems – one by me, about my travels, and one by a friend, about Pluto’s planetary status.

I illustrated each piece with one of my own photos that felt relevant. Suddenly, my journal was no longer merely a pretty – but empty blog, it now had writing on it, and art, coupled together in an interesting and new way. I was putting something out into the world, sharing something I loved with others...

Foxglove would come to meant to me, to its contributors and to its readers. I hope to keep the Journal going well into the future.

For that I need writing, so please consider submitting your work via the website.

As cheesy as it sounds, if you have a dream, pursue it. I pondered starting a magazine for at least two or three years, before suddenly making a decision and amazing myself by laying all the foundations for my new publication over the course of one evening. You will be amazed at how things can just fall into place if you pursue them and stop doubting yourself.

You can read Foxglove and send writing to it at https://foxglovejournal.wordpress. com. We are on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ journalfoxglove. We would love to hear from you!

“You will be amazed at how things can just fall into place if you pursue them and stop doubting yourself.”

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Food & Drink

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Fallowfield Freshers: your local guide to the best restaurants to visit with a hangover Daisy Tolcher Food & Drink Editor The Friendship Inn £ The Font ££

This pub is based in the heart of Fallowfield and is perfect for providing a ‘hair of the dog’ remedy for your hangover. Whilst it is better known for selling cheap pints, the Friendship Inn also serves a wide and affordable range of food. Dishes include hot wings, burgers and classic pub grub. However it is their range of pizzas and calzones which really make the visit worthwhile!

Positioned directly opposite the Fallowfield campus and with prices well-situated in a student’s budget, you cannot go wrong with this restaurant/cocktail bar. Serving a variety of dishes from big burgers to even bigger fry ups, the Font never fails to be generous with its portion sizes.

Recommendation: ‘The American’ Stone-Baked Pizza £6.95 / Veg: ‘The Veggie Mighty’ Stone-Baked Pizza £5.95

Photo: Adam Bruderer @ Flickr

Recommendation: Full Fry up £7 / Veg: Harissa Roasted Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Flatbread £6.50

Revolution £ Who says the weekend has to end on a Sunday? For those of you starting the week as you intend to go on, a meal at ‘revs’ is a good solution for that Monday hangover - with 50 per cent off selected food all day. This offer includes their range of burgers, pizzas and sandwiches, which you can pair with a drink from their vast cocktail list.

Photo: Adam Bruderer @ Flickr

Dosa Xpress £

Recommendation: Brooklyn Chicken Burger £ 4.80 (with deal) / Veg: Halloumi Fish and Chips £4.90 (with deal).

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New menu at Las Iguanas: adding some spice to chilly autumn days Anokhi Shah Food and Drinks Editor Las Iguanas will launch a new autumn menu on the 26th of September 2017; 15 new additions will be heating up the menu, all bursting with the vibrant colours and bold flavours of Latin America.

The menu has been intricately designed by a team of highly-skilled chefs who love to discover unique flavours from across Latin America. They have their hearts set on bringing these flavours to life using high quality, fresh ingredients.

The new menu is full of exciting creations that will get your tongues tingling. For example, Ipanema Mussels — cooked in a lightly spiced lime, coriander, and coconut sauce and served with ciabatta to soak up the delicious broth.

The Seco de Cordero — a Peruvian-style dish that will have meat lovers drooling: lamb slowcooked in golden ale, red wine and Amarillo chilli sauce, and served with sweet potato mash and crispy chilli onions.

For those who would prefer a vegetarian alternative, the Cauliflower and Corn Quinotto — a Peruvian-style quinoa risotto with smoked cheese, roasted cauliflower, and charred baby corn — sounds absolutely dreamy.

If you still have room for dessert, there are several new sweet treats on offer to continue your journey across the continent. From the Banana Empanada, where traditional pastry is hand-filled

with banana, sweet plantain and glorious dulce de leche, served with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of rum flavoured syrup, to the Piña Colada Mess: piña colada ice cream served with caramelised pineapple salsa, crispy pineapple pieces and toasted coconut chips. These exotic tantalising desserts will have you daydreaming about tropical beaches!

To accompany taste-bud heaven, Las Iguanas have ALL COCKTAILS AVAILABLE FOR 2-4-1 ALL DAY EVERY DAY! Happy hour becomes happy days. Las Iguanas always use premium spirits, including their own award-winning, artisan Magnifica Cachaça.

With the addition of 14 new cocktails, there will certainly be a new and unique mix to suit all palates. There’s a Latin American take on the classic Porn Star Martini using Gosling’s Gold Rum, apricot, Funkin passionfruit, vanilla, pineapple, and a shot of cava, which sounds truly scrumptious. Additionally, a host of new sharing drinks are on the menu, for example the Alpaca Punch: El Dorado Rum, falernum, passionfruit, lime, and cranberry, topped up at the table with a bottle of Freixenet Cava.

The new autumn menu seems like the perfect excuse to bid farewell to summer or to round up your friends for a tasty, Latin-inspired catch up!

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Fallow ££

Although it is situated just outside of Fallowfield, Dosa Xpress is well worth the five minute bus ride into neighbouring Withington. Whilst this intimately understated restaurant specialises in dosas — essentially a south Indian ‘crepe’ — it also serves a wide array of vegetarian curries and other traditional dishes.

Expect to enjoy a main and sides for less than ten pounds.

Recommendation: Chicken Masala Dosa £5.99 / Veg: Spring Dosa £4.99

This restaurant serves food every day from 9:00 a.m.- 9:00 p.m., which makes it the perfect spot to cure that delayed hangover. The menu changes seasonally and includes brunches, burgers and sharing platters, to name just a few. Whilst the portions are a little on the small side, the prices won’t break the bank!

Recommendation: Philly Cheese Steak Ciabatta £9 / Veg: Middle Eastern Sharing Platter (feeds two) £12.50

Photo: Ewan Munro @ Flickr

Pizza dough used three ways

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Max Pixel @ Creative Commons

Anokhi Shah Food & Drink Editor

Basic recipe for the dough —

How to turn this dough into pizza:

Ingredients: 4 mugs of plain flour

Simply divide the dough into four and roll out into a circle on a well-floured board. This recipe will make four pizzas. Add sauce and toppings of your choice.

1 ½ tablespoon dried yeast

How to turn this dough into naan bread:

1 tablespoon oil

1. Divide the dough into 8.

1 tablespoon sugar

2.Roll out into an oval shape on a well-floured board.

1 teaspoon of salt 1 mug of warm milk and water mixed

3.Spread melted butter over the 8 naans (at this stage you can add toppings such as garlic, coriander and cumin on top of the melted butter).

Method

4.Heat a dry non-stick frying pan until it starts to smoke.

1. Combine the flour, yeast, oil, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

5.Put the naan onto the pan, it will only need 1-2 minutes on each side.

2. Add half the milk and water and stir the mixture with a spoon.

6.Enjoy your fluffy naan bread with a tasty curry or have as a snack with some hummus.

1 Salmon fillet (fresh or frozen)

3. Little by little, keep adding the milk and water slowly to the bowl. At this stage use your hands to bring the mixture into a dough.

How to turn this dough into dough balls:

2 Spring onions

1.Divide the dough into around 16-18 balls.

1 Clove of garlic

4. Use your own discretion regarding when to stop adding milk and water. If the dough becomes too sticky, don’t worry, just add some more flour.

5.Cover the dough with a tea towel and leave to rise for at least 2 hours.

2.Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.

6 Tablespoons soy sauce

3.Add garlic and oregano to some melted butter.

2 Tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

4.Dip the balls into the buttery heaven and enjoy.

(Additionally, the dough can be shaped into sticks and served with a garlic studded camembert)

4-5 Mushrooms

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Super quick and healthy salmon supper

Anokhi Shah Food & Drink Editor

Ingredients: Handful green beans 1 Pak choi Substitute any veg you like

3. Chop the pak choi and mushrooms and take the ends of the green beans.

4. Take a large piece of foil and place the salmon filet in the middle, on top of the salmon place the chopped vegetables.

Method: 1.Finely chop spring onions and garlic.

Handful spinach leaves

2. In a measuring jug, mix soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce and add the chopped garlic and spring onions.

5. Make a bowl shape around the salmon with the foil.

6.Pour the soy sauce marinade into the foil bowl then seal the foil around the salmon in a Cornish pasty shaped parcel.

7.Place on a baking tray and cook at gas mark 6 for around 20 minutes or 30 mins if salmon is frozen.

8.Remove from oven, open the parcel and serve with rice.

Tip: This dish is easy to meal prep, make extra parcels of salmon which you can pop in the fridge, ready to put in the oven.

NB: Feel free to substitute the salmon for any firm fillet of fish or a chicken breast.

Arts

24

Opinion

Feature

Interview: Comedian Daniel Sloss talks sociopaths and stand up Daniel Sloss’s dark humour takes centre stage in his new tour, posing the question - am I a sociopath?

Interview

Review: Remembering Partition with New North South Manchester Art Gallery brings together regional traditions with contemporary design

Beth Shaughnessy Interviewer Daniel Sloss is an English-born, Scottish comedian who has had an incredibly successful career from a remarkably young age — with notable success both in the UK and in the US. He is best known for his dark humour and strong opinions. The Mancunion had the opportunity to interview him regarding his new show.

Q. So you’re just about to start your new tour ‘NOW’ — what can people expect from the show?

A. “Jokes, and a s*** ton of swearing, cause I actually do find it big and clever... but I guess it’s about me trying to figure out whether I’m a sociopath or not, I tend to get called it a lot - but I personally don’t think I am!”

Q. You premiered the new show at Edinburgh Fringe, making it your ninth sell-out show there!

Does it still have a sense of homecoming?

A. “Oh yeh! One of the advantages of being Scottish is that it doesn’t matter where about in Scotland you’re from, you’re Scottish - anywhere I go in Scotland it becomes ‘local boy done good’” Q. You were doing shows such as Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow from when you were just nineteen, do you feel your style of comedy has shifted since the shows you did when you were younger? Photo: Press A. “Back then I was a young floppy-haired teenager and didn’t really have any opinions on anything, whereas now I’m a cantankerous 27-year-old man, and I have opinions on things. It doesn’t necessarily make them right, but I guess they are the ones the audience want to hear?”

Q. The Manchester show will be following the European leg of the tour, where you’re even visiting the likes of Latvia, Lithuania, Romania — do you feel the show’s format still works in a similar way in these places?

A. “I have to vary in that sense as I know for a fact there are some jokes that won’t translate overseas, purely because so some of my stuff is about love and relationships, and I bring that in with First Dates — but obviously Bulgaria and Latvia don’t have that show — doesn’t mean I can’t do the jokes, but it requires a little more explanation.”

Q. Do these audiences tend to differ from place to place?

A. “Ah no, I honestly find there’s more of a difference between a Monday night crowd to a Friday night crowd. ‘Cause comedy — unless you’re political or have local material — I find comedy is very very universal.”

Q. And do you alter your material throughout the tour, in relation to the audience’s reactions?

A. “No, no — I keep it all in. I mean the coward’s way would be to take it out, but the professional thing to do is think like how do I make them laugh at this joke which I know they’re not gonna like?”

Q. You’ve recently been seen even further afield in the US, with a record-breaking 7 appearances on Conan show - do you feel in America comedy is more rooted in these late-night comedy shows?

A. “I think the American live stand-up scene is still good, I think the Americans are just better at providing a platform for stand-ups, like in America they’ll be like right you’re a standup comedian and you’ve got a strong five minutes, here’s a television show where you can do a strong five minutes, whereas here it’s more like ‘oh you’re a stand-up — why don’t you come present this TV show or be on this panel show?’ I’ve got a lot of admiration for comics who are able to do that, but that’s not me, I didn’t do this stuff to be a personality

Theatre 25

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

ISSUE 12/ 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Review Cicely Ryder-Belson Arts Editor

Photo: Daniel Sloss

in any way shape or form.”

Q. So in England it’s much more about being a comic personality then being a comedian?

A. “Yeh completely, it’s great for some comics but that’s not why I got into this. My f****** expertise is jokes, if you want an opinion on something you don’t want a half formed one from my narcissistic f****** ego centric brain” Q. As live shows seem to have such a big influence, who’s been your biggest inspirations in comedy?

A. “Bill Burr, Ed Byrne is up there, erm Brian Regan really taught me that comedy can be funny without f******* swearing, but obviously I still swear cause that’s how it f******* is. But erm, yeah — just any standup that’s grafting for me is an inspiration. For me, that’s the comic I aspire to be.”

Q. So is that what you aim for — grafting — producing new material every year?

A. “Yeah, new material every year, you’ve got to challenge yourself.

You’ve got to do new things every time. That’s how you keep the love alive. You see so many comedians who hate what they do, or they’ve lost the love of stand-up. I feel like saying to them: just f******** stop then. If you don’t love it, then why f******** do it.

There’re so many people who do love this job that don’t have the opportunities you do, so if you hate it that much please for the love of God leave.”

Daniel will be coming to the Manchester on the 25th November with his tour at The Lowry.

Photo: The Lowry @Wikimedia Commons

As part of our ten-week feature following the New North South programme, we look at Manchester Art Gallery’s exhibition South Asian Design.

Set in The Design Gallery — the top floor glass space immersed in a skyline of Victorian rooftops — the exhibition South Asian Design intends to elevate the significance of craft to new heights.

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are all famed for their embellished textiles, regional costume, intricate ornaments, and surface patterns. Yet these regional crafts and processes seem to sit restlessly between being at once merely a habitual ritual of everyday life and yet also informing and producing contemporary design.

The collection draws parallels between design and craft elements to articulate how the traditions have been exported into our modern day conscious. The finer details of the historic artefacts are interspersed with contemporary functional designs from the likes of Spandana Gopal, creative director of the design studio The finer details of the historic artefacts are interspersed with contemporary functional designs from the likes of Spandana Gopal, creative director of the design studio Tiipoi. Yet she interprets the relation between craft and design as one which is constant yet underlying, she states: “Rather than say I am creating contemporary Indian design, which I may or may not be doing, I am going back and looking at where Indian design already exists in the

everyday. To me, good design is invisible to the eye — it’s taken for granted because it’s so effective.”

This gets to the roots of the exhibition’s intention, as rather than being an exercise in comparing and contrasting the traditional with the contemporary, it hopes to depict South Asian design as a united front which is constantly evolving.

However, at moments it still asserts itself as rooted in context and history by distinguishing the process which has propelled the region’s traditions into the contemporary art and design we see in Western culture. It proposes how these artistic practices at once remind us of a rich heritage, and yet a resilience amidst British suppression in the colonial era.

We see this in the most familiar instances of South Asian design, even the most popular motif in Western culture — the Paisley pattern — is an emblem of British colonialism. The term ‘Paisley’ was coined due to the East India Company importing patterned shawls and fabrics to Paisley in West Scotland, in which the scale of production came to determine to Asian craft.

The exhibition seeks to continually redress how these traditional crafts and techniques from the subcontinent are often dismissed or seen as detached from contemporary Western design.

Proving that tradition doesn’t have to resist the contemporary; not being a dialectical relation, but instead, one that is inherently interlinked.

South Asian Design is on at the Manchester Art Gallery from 19th of May 2017 – 10th of June 2018 Photo: The Whitworth

We need to talk about toilets Dealing with the seemingly banal problems of theatre will keep it alive - so why are theatre critics being so dismissive of them? Theatre Editor Sophie Graci explores.

Sophie Graci Editor Flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row is coming to TV this month, and whilst this should be a time for celebration (the arts!

On TV! Where everyone can see them!), this week its presenters have come under fire for their complaints about the state of British theatre. Not the lack of diversity on stage and in the audience, nor the insistence on an annual revival of Hamlet, but the practicalities of going to the theatre. Long periods of action without an interval, for example, uncomfortable seats, and inaccessible facilities.

This has caused outrage amongst critics, with the most vitriolic decrying the criticism as “lightweight” and “f*cking outrageous.”

Mark Shenton of The Stage at least admits that, “yes, these matters sometimes vex professional theatregoers too,” but argues that “the rewards far outweigh the inconveniences and irritation.”

But is this the case for all theatre-goers? For disabled patrons, accessibility is vital, rather than merely an inconvenience and irritation. For parents and shift-workers, it matters that theatre timings can be restrictive. These things are part of the theatrical experience, not just what takes place on stage. To be able put them aside is a privilege, not a default position.

There was snobbery around the reactions as well. BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan, one of the presenters, mentioned going to see Dreamgirls and School of Rock, and that his favourite theatre venue was The Globe. Theatre Twitter promptly tore into him — as if musicals are too mainstream for a critic, and The Globe too obvious.

The job of a critic is to communicate their assessment and opinion of a piece of work — not to be a gatekeeper of taste. The complaints show these critics to be out of touch, and exemplifies why theatre

comes across as so clique-y from the outside: if your tastes aren’t niche enough, you’re not a real theatre-goer.

Speaking to students about theatre issues that concern them, one of the things that came up was often that students must go to the theatre on their own because they can’t get anyone to come with them. How are you supposed to find someone to go to theatre with you, when most of your friends think of it as stuffy, long, and old-fashioned?

Another Drama student mentioned that his mum had never been to a play that did not have him in it, and that many of his friends felt excluded from theatre. The theatre can be an off-putting place, and rather than berating the presenters for their comments we should instead look to why theatre seems so determined to be stuck in its ways.

These are important issues, not petty ones, and we should care about them if we want to keep audiences coming in. Future theatre makers will need to deal with these issues if they want to keep it alive.

It is vital that the theatre continues to become more diverse — to invite theatre makers and audiences to be part of work in the spaces — but maybe all theatre producers need to do to get audiences in is make the toilets more accessible.

Review

Review: We’re Not Really Here Does the beautiful game belong on a field or a stage?

Jade Fox reviews a football opera.

Jade Fox Reviewer Football and theatre are two very distinct worlds. Luckily both can be found in great abundance in the city of Manchester. Now Contact has created a ground-breaking piece of performance that asks an important question: how can theatre and football work together to showcase the passion behind both?

At Contact Theatre a cast of Manchester City fans are performing We’re Not Really Here: A Football Opera. The fabulous diversity of fans presented here is not purely a diversity of age and appearance, but also attitude.

Each of the ensemble members brings with them a personal drive to attend these matches and a harmonious but individual style of match conduct. This is revealed onstage as a stand of people behave just as they would if they were watching a thrilling Manchester City game.

These now-performers are at no point phased that they are really being viewed by an audience. In fact, this drives them to project their energy past the audience and to their imagined playing field.

Peaks and troughs in the piece are provided by milestones such as goal scoring and half time — things even non-football fans will recognize. And

within the structure of the gameplay, the cast allow us to learn about them personally. Backstories range from funny to endearing, it feels authentic and the audience really gets to know some of the faces: meaning we can always spot a friendly face.

What is really impressive is the energy of the ensemble. Waves of excitement

Photo: Lee Baxter and devastation ripple across the stand of people: capturing the attention of the audience and never letting it go. They are all in perfect synch — never once did a

performer look lost within the action.

Just as they would within a real match the fans all fed off each other as they seamlessly moved from moment to moment — you get the feeling if one person decided Man City were going to get the goal, the other performers would have similarly followed suit.

This piece is less an opera and more of a celebration. Songs come near the end and are the perfect way to bring the story to a head. Although, that is not to say the performers are lacking singing ability — there are some beautiful voices that live up to the operatic description.

Thankfully we can breathe a sigh of relief — it does not keep an audience at arm’s length the same way some opera has traditionally done. The history of the fans and the city really are put out for all to see. One very poignant part is a moment of silence for the recent Manchester bombings — something felt in unity across the city, no matter where your passions lie.

This piece has truly succeeded.

Contact really has proved that there is theatricality to be found in football.

Alongside emotion, humour, and most of all, entertainment.

Get involved Another year, another 4 chances to procrastinate from your degree and do some theatre...

1

Drama Society

Drama Society brings student actors, writers, directors. producers and creatives together to create some of Manchester’s most vibrant fringe theatre. The society produces around 20 shows a year, and takes 2 shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

Musical Theatre Society

2

UMMTS provides a platform for both aspiring professional musical theatre creatives as well as those who just love the genre. The society produces four full scale musicals a year as well as a variety of opportunities to perform and direct.

3

Technical Theatre Society

If you’re more interested in the backstage side of things, you might want to join MUTTS. They supply lighting, sound, and technical services to other theatre societies, and provide an environment for students interested in technical theatre to gain training and experience.

Panto Society

4

Panto Society put on a number of pantomimes a year (not just at Christmas) and there’s opportunities to write and perform. Their last production was Mean Girls, so expect the unexpected...

26

Lifestyle

ISSUE 2 / 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Remembering the mother of marriage equality, Edie Windsor In the wake of the death of Edie Windsor, James Johnson pays tribute to a woman who - in the name of love - took on the American government James Johnson Deputy Lifestyle Adivsor

I n 2 0 1 3 , E d i e Wi n d s o r ro d e o n t h e b a c k o f a re d Fo rd M u s t a n g a l o n g F i f t h Ave n u e , s o a k i n g i n h e r g ro u n d - b re a k i n g v i c t o r y a n d re a l i s i n g h e r n e w c e l e b r i t y s t a t u s a s a n L G BT i c o n .

I t wa s t h e l a n d m a rk c a s e t h a t c h a n ge d t h e l ive s o f t h o u s a n d s o f A m e r i c a n s fo re ve r a n d t h e s t o r y o f a s m a l l , b u t m i g h t y wo m a n , wh o t o o k o n t h e S u p re m e Court of The United States — and triumphed.

I n t h e ye a r s b e fo re b e c o m i n g a n i c o n o f e q u a l i t y, E d i e Wi n d s o r c h o s e t o m a r r y h e r l i fe l o n g p a r t n e r, T h e a S pye r, i n t h e S p r i n g o f 2 0 0 7. A s t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s G ove r n m e n t we re ye t t o re co g n i s e s a m e - s e x m a r r i a ge , E d i e a n d h e r w i fe o p t e d t o m a r r y i n To ro n t o.

U p o n S p ye r ’s d e a t h i n 2 0 0 9, Wi n d s o r wa s o rd e re d t o p ay ove r $ 3 5 0,0 0 0 i n fe d e ra l t a xe s , a f t e r i n h e r i t i n g h e r l a t e w i fe ’s e s t a t e .

A l t h o u g h Wi n d s o r a t t e m p t e d t o b e n e f i t f ro m a n e s t a t e t a x e xe m p t i o n fo r s u r v iv i n g s p o u s e s , t h e D e fe n ce o f M a r r i a ge Ac t , o r ‘ D O M A” a s i t wa s t h e n k n ow n , p re ve n t e d h e r f ro m d o i n g s o. A r t i c l e 3 o f ‘ D O M A’ p rov i d e d t a x e xe m p t i o n s o n ly t o t h o s e m a r r i a ge s t h a t we re b e t we e n a m a n a n d wo m a n .

R a t h e r t h a n s u cc u m b t o t h e b a r r i e r s s e t fo r t h b y

No problem too big or too small

t h e A m e r i c a n G ove r n m e n t , Wi n d s o r b e c a m e t h e l e a d p l a i n t i f f i n t h e l a n d m a rk c a s e ‘ U n i t e d S t a t e s v. Wi n d sor’.

I n h e r f i g h t a g a i n s t t h e u n c o n s t i t u t i o n a l g ro u n d i n g o f ‘ D O M A’ , Wi n d s o r s u cce e d e d i n s t r i k i n g d ow n t h e D e fe n s e o f M a r r i a ge Ac t , fo rc i n g 1 3 s t a t e s t o re c o g n i s e s a m e - s e x m a r r i a ge a n d p av i n g t h e way fo r t h e 2 0 1 5 r u l i n g t h a t l e g a l i s e d s a m e - s e x m a r r i a ge i n a l l 5 0 s t a t e s .

Photo : James Johnson

I n o n e o f m a ny h e a r t- re n d i n g s p e e c h e s a t E d i e ’s f u n e ra l i n Ne w Yo rk C i t y l a s t we e k , H i l l a r y C l i n t o n t o l d t h e co n g re g a t i o n “ t h a n k yo u fo r p rov i n g t h a t l ove i s m o re p owe r f u l t h a n h a t e ; fo r f i l l i n g u s w i t h a s e n s e o f p o s s i b i l i t y a n d p ro m i s e ” . C l i n t o n s p o ke o f E d i e ’s u nwa -

S t a t e s S u p re m e C o u r t i n h e r e i g h t i e s w i t h a d i f f i c u l t heart condition — and win.

E d i e Wi n d s o r ’s l i fe a n d p a s s i n g i s a p e r t i n e n t re m i n d e r t o re c o g n i s e t h o s e l ive s s p e n t f i g h t i n g i n t h e t re n c h e s fo r e q u a l i t y — h e l p i n g c h a n ge p e rc e p t i o n s a n d a t t i -

ve r i n g d e t e r m i n a t i o n a s b e i n g t h e re a s o n fo r h e r b e co m i n g s u c h a n i m m ova b l e fo rc e i n t h e h i s t o r y o f g ay rights.

E d i e s p e n t a l i fe b re a k i n g d ow n b a r r i e r s . S h e a c h i e ve d t h e ra re fe a t o f b e c o m i n g o n e o f t h e f i r s t fe m a l e c o m p u t e r p ro g ra m m e r s a t I B M . S h e wa s h o n o u re d b y t h e Na t i o n a l C o m p u t i n g C o n fe re n c e a s a P i o n e e r o f O p e ra t i n g s ys t e m s . L a t e r, s h e wo u l d t a ke o n t h e U n i t e d

t u d e s t h e wo rl d ove r. “ T h o u g h s h e m ay b e b u t l i t t l e , s h e i s f i e rc e ” , w ro t e S h a ke s p e a re i n A M i d s u m m e r N i g h t ’s D re a m . E d i e Wi n d s o r m ay h ave b e e n s m a l l i n h e r s t a t u re , b u t t h e m a g n i t u d e o f h e r p e r s i s t e n c e w i l l re m a i n f i xe d u p o n t h e s t e p s o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s S u p re m e C o u r t , a n d h e r e f fo r t s w i l l b e t h a n ke d fo re ve r.

Six tips to maintain your mental well-being

As the semester gets underway, James Johnson runs through some simple tips to help you keep track of your mental health and to flourish during your studies.

James Johnson Deputy Lifestyle Editor In the frenzy of welcome week and the beginning of a new semester, safeguarding your mental well-being is one of your greatest tools to ensure your own success.

Moving into a new apartment or student halls, adjusting to new classes and schedules, and socialising with new groups of people, are stress-free and exciting transitions for many. For some, this process can be testing. It is crucial to recognise that we all struggle from time to time; it is equally important to recognise that a struggle is not a source of embarrassment, but an opportunity to ask for help and to better understand ourselves.

Adapting to university is by no means an easy process but there are simple steps we can all take to ensure we are able to take the most from our time in Manchester.

Mental well-being is a process that is by no

means static; peaks and troughs are normal. Here are some simple tips that might help you adapt to

of benefiting from the latest take-out deal around town. But exercise doesn’t have to be the activi-

your new university life and may just help inject a little more happiness into your everyday.

ty that we should enjoy, but the activity that can aid our mental well-being. Try walking instead of hopping on the bus or take a weekend walk in the countryside. Manchester is always ready to provide you with a healthy dose of fresh air!

1. Step outside of your comfort zone — university may be the best place for you to step outside of your typical range of activities. Why not try something completely out of the ordinary and boost your self-esteem by learning a new skill. Visit a few new places in your free time or take a trip out of town. Go along to all and any social events — the anxiety of going will be ousted by your new connections and friends.

2. Take care of your physical health — the pace of everyday university life means it can be easy to forget to take care of our physical health. The thought of attempting to partake in some kind of physical exercise almost always loses to the idea

3. Take some YOU time — by the time we reach University, we are infinitely aware of the things that bring us joy and the things that do not. Taking some time out of your schedule to take care of your mental well-being is as important as ensuring you’re the most diligent reader in your seminar. Go watch that movie you’ve been wanting to see, go for dinner at your favourite restaurant, or just grab a great cup of coffee and finish that book you’ve been working on.

4. Seek advice and TALK — talking about our

mental health has certainly entered the discussion in recent years but often, we’re still plagued by the idea of pretending that everything isn’t always peachy – but often, it isn’t! The university has a plethora of resources available to you to discuss your options. Your academic advisors, support services, and the counselling service are but a few of the available sources. Consider talking with your friends over coffee about the things you’ve been struggling with, perhaps they may have some advice. The chances are, you’ll never regret starting the conversation.

ISSUE 2­/ 25th SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Travel Story: Mexico City

Sophia Macpherson describes her experiences during the recent earthquake in Mexico

Sophia Macpherson Deputy Fashion & Beauty Editor

No doubt all of you have read about the tragic earthquake that struck Mexico on the 19th. Following a 3 week trip to Mexico with my boyfriend, Tay, we decided to end it with a week in Mexico City eager to discover this museum-ridden city.

Out of all the places we visited on this trip, Mexico City was the most eclectic. There are contrasts in every corner of the city; in one instance, you will see an old Mexican lady making blue tortillas on a charcoal pit, in another, a young man will shout at you with his microphone urging you to buy hard drives for your MacBook.

The 19th of September started like any other day. We were staying in an Airbnb in Centro Historico. At around 10.30am, we left the flat to get breakfast. The air was heavy with pollution and the atmosphere was charmingly chaotic.

The day started with a few hiccups — I was told my card was void and Tay had already lost his. Our shining beacon of hope was that we had some money that we could change for Pesos.

For lunch, we decided to go to the area called Roma. Tay signalled one of the many taxis lined up on Madero and we quickly drove off.I sat on the I sat on the left-hand-side of the taxi as we drove up and turned into a large boulevard.

Menial concerns flooded my brain as I put my

and attempted to open the door. The door wouldn’t open and I saw I was alone in the car.

I am suddenly pulled from the other side of the car by Tay who drags me out and tells me we need to run.

As I leave the car, I am violated with the image of this grey beast of a building wavering from side to side above me. I feel violently sick as it looms over me. The trees shudder and parked cars scream for help. The ground is no longer something I can rely on. We are surrounded by fleeing bodies.

We try to run hand in hand away from the building but I find my balance fails me and my steps grow more pathetic. It was as if I had been unwillingly forced onto some sort of rodeo simulator and my body was being flung back and forth.

What felt like forever then, now only feels like a fraction of a minute. I find myself grasping for more memories, trying to recount more of what I had seen. Until now, I am cocooned in a layer of shock that I haven’t quite been able to shake.

“The atmosphere after the earthquake was unlike anything I have ever experienced.” ble rose into the sky. Lines of people clasping shovels and hard hats marched towards the devastation ready to help. The atmosphere was brim with tension and I found myself flinching at every sound.

I realise how privileged I am to be safe with a stable roof over my head, and I mourn deep-

phone away and looked out the righthandside window where Tay sat, worrying about our lunch reservation.

I suddenly see crowds of people screaming and running past me and I could hear this shrill siren which I initially assumed was an ambulance. I hadn’t felt anything; my brain was in pure confusion. I thought “why are people panicking over an ambulance...”. It was then that I felt the car violently vibrate and the taxi driver started shouting at us erratically in Spanish.

It felt like the car was being tossed from left to right over and over again. I started spewing random swear words as my brain panicked

ly for the people all over central Mexico that have not been as lucky.

As I lie here in bed writing this, I will only remember Mexico as the phenomenal and breathtaking place that it is because of the strength and uniqueness of its people.Please donate however much as you can to these worthwhile charities. Thank you.

Please donate however much as you can to these worthwhile charities (www.cruzrojadonaciones.org and www.topos.m). Thank you.

5. Eat happy, feel happy — eating your way to a better sense of well-being may sound too obvious to be true but your diet is a crucial part of maintaining your mood and energy levels. Inject a little colour into your plate or consider trying one of Manchester’s incredible health food outlets. And stay hydrated too — your skin and your brain will thank you!

6. Reassurance – in the sea of students here at Manchester, it’s easy to feel like the smallest fish in the biggest pond. Every once in a while, consider reminding yourself that you are capable of overcoming any challenge that arises during your time as a student. After all, you’re at one of the country’s greatest institutions for a reason!

Photo: Sophia Macpherson

When the tremors had stopped, and I could firmly anchor myself on the ground, I looked around to see vast swathes of people embraced in hugs and crying — scrambling to find the people they were with. I realise I have been thrust into some sort of cliched apocalyptic Hollywood movie scene.

Tears were imminent and I wanted desperately to go home. Tay’s face was painted with shock. He had no words.

The atmosphere after the earthquake was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

Streets that were normally filled to the brim with busy city goers were deserted. The only noise from the streets was the sound of news reports or piercing announcements on speakers from the police authorities.

The weather mirrored the sombre mood.

Dark bodies of cloud brewed over the city and a black smoke from the crush of the rub-

Photo: Sophia Macpherson

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Guardiola can not afford to repeat last season’s mistakes

O T S S E ACC

The start of the season has been impressive, but the Manchester City boss must be wary of last season’s failures

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Sam Cooper Sports Editor

With Pep Guardiola’s arrival to English shores, many sat eagerly in anticipation at the effect the most talked about coach in world football would have on the Premier League.

The Catalan’s arrival coincided with José Mourinho’s at Manchester United and the build-up to the new campaign focused on the locking of horns between these two managers.

City started last season superbly under Guardiola, winning the first six league games. This early season form had some already writing City’s name on the trophy, but a tumultuous October saw the Manchester club pick up five points out of a possible 12. The month began with an embarrassing away defeat at Tottenham in which the London club proceeded to pick apart City.

The end of October saw City still top of the league, but this was to be the last time, as a November draw at home to Middlesbrough saw them slip to second. It is always tough to succeed in your first season and managers such as Antonio Conte should be applauded as an exception to the rule rather than the standard.

For Guardiola, his task at City was an especially tough one given the contrast in his style to Manuel Pellegrini’s as well as the average age of his players. The summer of 2017 re-

quired a clear out and Guardiola strengthened well. City are no longer a team managed by Guardiola, instead, they are a team forged by him.

In the same vein as last season, the team have again started strongly in 2017/18. A 1-1 draw at home to Everton when the side was down to ten men is City’s only black mark so far and most pleasing for Guardiola will be the fluidity in which his team play.

Unlike last season where it was glimpses of Guardiola, this term it is more of the complete package. The Catalan has the players, has had the time to drill the training in and the benefits are being shown on the pitch.

After the 6-0 dismantling of Watford, Guardiola spoke of his happiness and how he believes this season’s opening good form is more substantial than last season’s. “There are many things we are doing now that we didn’t do last season.” the manager said in his post-match press conference. “Last season there was new enthusiasm with a new manager and new players and everybody expecting. Now we are more stable, we know each other better.”

One of City’s biggest problems last season was that they were not clinical enough. The style that Guardiola brings is one that produces many goal opportunities and in the 16/17

campaign, City produced an average of 12.68 chances per game, but only scored an average of 2.11. Fast forward to this season and while City create marginally more chances at 13.80, they score an average of 3.20.

This increase in goals has seen City steamroller many teams already this season. Between the 9th and 16th of September, the Manchester side scored 15 goals, with none conceded.

Perhaps the most pleasing part of that stat for Guardiola will be the zero conceded. City’s expensive search for a partner or even a replacement to Vincent Kompany has proved fruitless season after season but with a tactical switch to a back three, the team can rely on the sum of its parts rather than individuals.

John Stones has excelled in his central position. And while Nicolás Otamendi has looked vulnerable, with the help of the full backs, his weaknesses have not been fully exposed.

For Guardiola, maintaining this early season form is his biggest challenge. The manager is in the middle season of his three-year contract and for his time in England to be deemed a success, Guardiola knows he must avoid another embarrassing collapse this time around.

WRITE FOR US Mancunion Sport 17/18 Contributors Group Email: sports@mancunion.com Meeting time: Tuesdays 5pm, First Floor Students’ Union

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ISSUE 2 / 25TH SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Cafe Football Review A tasty change of pace from a trip to your local Spoons.

Photo: Elislike @ Wikimedia Commons Photo: Football Foundation

Ex-Premier League referee Chris Foy opens new pitch in Manchester The referee was back in the North West for the unveiling of a new 3G pitch Sam Cooper Sport Editor Hailing from St Helens, Foy refereed from 1996 to 2015 including 14 years in the Premier League and has since become the Head of Community and Public Engagement for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PMGOL).

The native Lancashire-man returned to the North West to open Manchester Communication Academy’s new 3G pitch.

The academy, which is located to the North East of Manchester, was opened in 2010 and is just 2 miles from Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. The pitch was funded by a grant from the Premier League and the FA Facilities Fund and has been unveiled in the hopes of boosting the number of people taking part in football in the area.

As well as the school’s benefits, the local clubs such as Moston Tigers JFC and Manchester Lions JFC will be using the playing field. The new surface will also be used by Manchester City in the Community as well as the Manchester FA as they conduct weekly outreach sessions and coaching education, respectively.

Speaking at the event, Foy, who refereed the 2010 FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth, said “this is a brilliant new pitch, and it was great to see it in action. Many professional players find their start at school and grassroots clubs. The pupils and local youth players here are really lucky to have access to this state-of-the-art facility.

The project was delivered by the Football Foundation — the largest sports charity in the UK. The foundation has awarded around 15,000 grants — worth more than £580m — towards improving grassroots sport and aims to develop new and refurbished grassroots sports facilities in order to improve the quality and experience of playing sport at the grassroots level.

Foy continued “I have been a long-time supporter of the Football Foundation’s work, and this is yet another example of how they are able to help communities through improving football facility provision. Their funding from the Premier League, The FA and the Government, through Sport England, is hard at work across the country making football more accessible for all.”

Martin Roberts who is the Assistant Principal at Manchester Communication Academy, said: “I’d like to thank Chris Foy for officially opening our fantastic new facility. This is a significant investment in the future of grassroots football in North Manchester, made possible thanks to the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund. We will work hard with our local clubs to maximise this opportunity afforded to us, to grow the game and in achieving wider social benefits along the way.”

Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “The Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund provides the investment necessary to improve grassroots football facilities. So, I am delighted to see Manchester Communication Academy join thousands of local clubs and organisations who have reaped its benefit, in this case through the opening of a new all-weather pitch. My thanks go to Chris Foy for taking the time to unveil the new facility.

“Having delivered over £1.4bn of grassroots sports infrastructure projects, the Football Foundation has developed a network of accessible, first-class facilities in areas they will have the greatest impact – thanks to money from the Premier League, The FA and the Government via Sport England.

“These facilities are more than places to play football at, these facilities are hubs of physical activity, the bedrock of local communities and ‘homes from home’ for so many who also use them as social outlets to learn new skills, gain work experience and other qualifications.”

Photo: Cafe Football

Sam Cooper Sport Editor The cafe opened its doors in June of this year and follows on from the existing Cafe Football in Hotel Football, located next to Old Trafford. Situated in the National Football Museum, you will struggle to think of many other venues that can offer as much history as Cafe Football can.

A short trip to the bathroom is accompanied by a wall of footballing memorabilia from signed shirts to signed boots and the amount of footballing royalty on display is impressive.

Upon entrance, you are greeted by the café’s unique aesthetic. Football themed menus, slogans, and table decoration make the café seem befitting of its name. With nine screens located around the venue, you would be hard-pressed to find a seat that does not have a good view. On these screens, you can see the face of Phil Neville, one of the owners of the café, along with the four other members of the Class of ’92: Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

At the launch of the café, Scholes was present and said: “It’s very much an English menu and it serves burgers, pies, all that kind of easy stuff which is probably not great for the diet but it’s comfort food and it’s what the people of Manchester like to eat.”

The food has adopted names to fit its style. The ’66, The Special One and Mara Donna are just a few of the dishes on offer.

At £6 for the cheapest burger, it was very much a step above the student’s favourite of Wetherspoon’s and the quality of the food in all fairness was matching. The burger was thick with plenty of salad to go with it as well as a portion of chips, unlike the standard you expect at the majority of football grounds across the country.

The hosts were welcoming throughout, greeting guests at the door, as well as being open for a chat about that night’s games.

With an Ipswich, West Ham, and Wigan fan present no one had

any particular favoured side in the Manchester United — Burton Albion game that we came to watch but that didn’t stop any chat from blossoming. Talk of how it could be a long night for Burton only increased after United’s first of four goals went in.

During the second half, a game that was becoming increasingly predictable was enlightened by a glance at the dessert menu.

The sweet treat of a strawberry sundae complete with chocolate brownie chunks had me bordering on the edge of a food coma, as the clock ran down at Old Trafford.

“It’s very much an English menu and it serves burgers, pies...not great for the diet but it’s comfort food and it’s what the people of Manchester like to eat.”

The game ended 4–1 to the home side, and as we entered back into the rain-filled Manchester night it was easy to see the appeal of watching the match here.

A chance to sit surrounded by relics of footballing past and actually have a relaxed, more comfortable viewing experience is there. But students may have to pick and choose which matches to go to as frequent visits could make a sizeable dent in your wallet.

“ I’ll be here as much as I can because this is definitely my type of food,” - Paul Scholes

Cafe Football Student Offer Cafe Football is offering a beer and a burger for £10 on presenation of a valid student card

Subject to availability, only avaliable at Cafe Football National Museum, not avaliable in conjunction with any other offer

Photo: Cafe Football

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Photo: Nic Redhead@Flickr

Bairstow inspires England to Old Trafford victory It was a routine win over the West Indies which gave England a 1-0 lead in the five match series

Arthur Salisbury Sports Editor Who could’ve predicted that it’d be so predictable? The green shoots of a West Indian recovery have shrivelled up in harsh tomorrows, a convincing defeat meaning the side now need to go through the qualification process for the 2019 World Cup. Hopefully, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will avoid pissing any more people off, and we can look forward to the sight of Chris Gayle taking guard against the Canadian quicks.

From an English perspective, Gayle was left to brew for just long enough at Old Trafford. Having been dropped by Joe Root on the third ball of the match, he slipped into his distinctive groove but was removed before the game became his plaything.

Gayle spanked boundaries and walked singles but ended typically abruptly when he whacked a Woakes delivery up high — high enough to come back down covered in both snow and foreign life — to be caught at the second attempt by Root.

Scorecard aficionados will be irked by the West Indian innings, the top seven recording 37, 11, 35, 17, 18, 23 and 41*, each getting in then getting out, threatening at momentum but never quite following up on it. The Windies (which, by decree of the WICB, is how the team are officially now known)

trundled along to 204 /9 from their 4 2 overs.

England — traditionally weaker in oneday than in tests — are arguably the strongest they’ve been in what Bishan Bedi once called “cricket in its most disgusting form”.

Their batters are un-Englishly assertive, and their fielding unnervingly competent, but I would say a question mark remains above the bowling.

“The West Indies bowling attack were simply not good enough against an in-form Bairstow and Joe Root” The Ashes will determine Ben Stokes’s long-term identity as a Freddie Flintoff for the Brexit age, or a recognised hero along the lines of Jacques Kallis but less of a prick. Woakes, Willey, and Plunkett, however, all offer broadly the same thing.

Back of a line, quick, uncomplicated bowling – understandable given the limitations of the white ball, but not what you’d turn to when you need to break a partnership. This was borne out on Tuesday night, the three

Chris Foy opens new pitch in Manchester

Cafe Football Review

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biggest stands being ended by Stokes, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali. The specialist quicks also conceded the worst economy rates. Michael Vaughan on Test Match Special suggested Mark Wood as the next-in-line, a player I like but not the stand-out quick à la Anderson/Broad that can deliver England’s first trophy in 50-over cricket.

That’s nit-picking though. Tuesday belonged to Jonny Bairstow, who this summer was awarded the status of An Integral Part of the Team. As 12th man Jason Roy rushed back and forth to deliver water during Bairstow’s unbeaten century, he must have been aware that he was hydrating a man in the process of stealing his place opening the batting.

Everyone else played the innings they always do: Hales clubbed 19 from 14 before giving a thick edge to gully; Root calmly played his way to 54 at roughly a run a ball — then from nowhere played on to a delivery from Kesrick Williams; and Eoin Morgan compiling a un-notable caught behind for 10, apparently. Ben Stokes, true to form crashed 23 from 10, hitting a six from off-spinner Ashley Nurse with one run required for victory.

The West Indies bowling attack were simply not good enough against an in-form Bairstow and Joe Root, on the verge of greatness this winter, the coolest head in

Photo: Cafe Football

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Photo:Football Foundation

town despite being only 13 years of age. His 54 took his ODI batting average to a remarkable 49.4 3, tenth on the all-time list. Although not yet world beaters, the one-day future looks fun for England.

“West Indies will need a dramatically better performance to get this five-match series back on track.”

West Indies future is as always uncertain.

They might’ve put in a more convincing performance had some of their better players been allowed to play – Carlos Brathwaite, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and the Bravo half-brothers are all unavailable to the West Indies on account of contract issues. Remember it’s only a year ago they became T20 world champions. Except for Jonny Bairstow, no player nor supporter will remember this ODI. But as in the test series, West Indies will need a dramatically better performance to get this five-match series back on track.

Last season’s mistakes

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