784(3)

Palatinate www.palatinate.org.uk | FREE

Thursday 5th May 2016 | No. 784

The EU goes under a microscope

in SciTech

Film & TV

prescribe your procrastination viewing

‘A Better Durham’ campaign want Durham SU to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students (NUS).

Photograph: Tom Harwood

A Better Durham launches NUS disaffilation campaign

• 50 Durham student leaders sign open letter calling for disaffilation • DUS hold emergency debate on NUS disaffiliation Charlie Taylor-Kroll News Editor The campaign - “A Better Durham’’ – was launched last week by pub-

lishing an open letter addressed to the Durham Students’ Union’s trustees imploring the Durham SU to consider holding a referendum as to whether Durham SU should remain affiliated with the NUS.

The letter was signed by 50 ‘Student Leaders’, including the co-Chair of the Labour Club, Tom Purvis, President of the Conservative Association, Piers MacKenzie-Baker, and the leader of the Students for Brit-

ain campaign, Tom Harwood.

It read: “Recent moves made by the NUS, culminating in the election of Malia Bouattia as president, serve to misrepresent, divide, and marginalize

many Durham students. We feel that a failure to act is a tacit endorsement of the disturbing direction in which the NUS is drifting, as well as Malia’s deeply Continued on page 4...

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Editorial Change must come from within I must begin by apologising that if you are yet to feel engulfed by referendum talk, today may be the day that changes. In our latest edition of Palatinate we shift the referendum discourse away from the European Union to another organisation many label as “bureaucratic”, “undemocratic” and “unrepresentative”, The National Union of Students (NUS). It has been an explosive past couple of weeks for the NUS following the appointment of new President Malia Bouattia, culminating in our reporting of the creation of the ‘A Better Durham’ campaign which is calling for disaffiliation from the NUS alongside over twenty-five other Universities.

You will have read various accounts of Malia across the media over the past fortnight, and while I wholeheartedly understand the concerns expressed by Jewish students at campuses across the country, I believe it has largely been unfair to stigmatise Malia as the embodiment of the all the imperfections and woes of the NUS. Malia’s appointment as the first black and Muslim woman President of the NUS marks an incredible landmark in student politics, and something which has sadly been under celebrated in favour of sensationalist narratives.

The concerns expressed by the students of the ‘A Better Durham’ campaign have been omnipresent across the organi-

sation for years. Last summer a Palatinate survey (774) found that 75% of Durham students consider the NUS to be irrelevant.

However, this is a time when we need a united National Union of Students more than ever, we are facing one of the most difficult eras to be a student in: £9,000 per year tuition fees, accommodation crises across the country- particularly in Durham -, the abolitionof maintenance grants, extortionate international tuition fees.

We need a strong union that is able to stand up and represent students on these defining issues of significance to the everyday lives of students. I will be first to accept that the NUS have not enacted upon these issues with the imminence and magnitude they warrant in the name of all students.

However, I struggle to see beyond the rhetoric of those who are advocating disaffiliation from the NUS. I ask what is the alternative? The NUS provides students a unique arena, encompassing over 600 student unions and seven million students. A united student body will always hold more potential for change than a fragmented ilk of new organisations scattered across campuses around the country.

I will wait patiently until I am offered an argument compelling enough to legitimate Durham’s withdrawal from the epicentre of student politics. I welcome

the intervention of ‘A Better Durham’ into the NUS debate, but for now I return back to the EU and the slogan continuously professed by the Remain campaign that it is more advantageous to seek change from within rather than outside the NUS. This will not be the last time referendum talk dominates the student politics discourse but in the same manner we reported on last term’s Durham Students’ Union elections, Palatinate will continue to approach this issue fair-minded, representing a cross-section of views held by Durham students. Editorials and comment pieces provide an essential space for debate on important and decisive issues. Yet to engage with all students there needs to be a pragmatic debate surrounding the NUS, something with hasn’t been offered in the past by other publications, Palatinate will thus remain at the forefront of the debate surrounding the future of the NUS.

Olly Mawhinney

Thursday 5th May 2016 | PALATINATE

Inside 783

Editorial Board

News pages 3-8

Editors-in-Chief Alex Cupples and Oliver Mawhinney editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Ryan Gould and Charlie Taylor-Kroll news@palatinate.org.uk News Features Editor Holly Bancroft news.features@palatinate.org.uk Deputy News Editors Emma Pinckard, Anna Tatham and Sophie Gregory deputy.news@palatinate.org.uk Politics Editor Mason Boycott-Owen politics@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Politics Editor Kate McIntosh and Mirriam Brittenden deputy.politics@palatinate.org.uk Profile Editors Will Fremont-Barnes and Lily Boutler profile@palatinate.org.uk Science and Technology Editor Bruno Martin scitech@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editor Dan Fox comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editor Adam Cunnane deputy.comment@palatinate.org.uk Sport Editor Kieran Moriarty sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Charles Richardson, Matt Roberts and Kishan Vaghela deputy.sport@palatinate.org.uk Indigo Editor Ellen Finch indigo@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Indigo Editor Yongchang Chin deputy.indigo@palatinate.org.uk Features Editor Isabelle Culkin feature@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Features Editor Cristina Cusenza deputy.features@palatinate.org.uk Food and Drink Editors Charlotte Payne and Ariadne Vu food@palatinate.org.uk Travel Editor Laura Glenister travel@palatinate.org.uk Fashion Editor Sally Hargave fashion@palatinate.org.uk Film and Television Editor Rory McInnes-Gibbons film@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Film and Television Editor Hugo Camps-Harris deputy.film@palatinate.org.uk Stage Editors Sofya Grebenkina and Simon Fearn stage@palatinate.org.uk Music Editors Jacqueline Duan and Will Throp music@palatinate.org.uk Creative Writing Editor Sarah Fletcher creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk Books Editors Hannah Griffiths and Ellie Scorah books@palatinate.org.uk Visual Arts Editor Jane Simpkiss visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk Chief Sub-Editor Marianna Mukhametzyanova sub-editing@palatinate.org.uk Sub-Editors Sarah Boreham, Ollie Mair, Ciara Murphy, Maddy Winnard and Becky Wilson Online Editor Kat Hind online.editor@palatinate.org.uk Web Editor John Morris Photography Editor Grace Tseng photography@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Photography Editor Verity Rimmer Illustrations Editor Kenzo Ishida illustration@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Illustrations Editors Faye Chua and Olivia Howcroft Events and Publicity Officer Collette McKenny Advertising Officer Sian Round advertising@palatinate.org.uk Social Media Officer Beth-Ellen Hewitt

Politics pages 10-11 SciTech page 12 Comment pages 13-15 Profile pages 16-17 Sport pages 18-20

indigo

Editorial page 2

Features page 3

Books pages 4-5 Visual Arts page 6 Stage page 7

Travel page 8-9

Food & Drink page 10 Fashion page 11

Film & TV pages 12-13

Music page 13

Creative Writing page 14

Letter to the editor(s)!

Disagree with something we’ve published? Want to put your views forward on a specific article? Think we’ve made a mistake? Send us a letter at editor@palatinate.org.uk and we will print it in the next edition,.

The best of Palatinate Online www.palatinate.org.uk

COMMENT We need a new National Union of Students - a National Union for all students Sam Bentwood shares his views on the NUS.

POLITICS This is the end for the super-injunction

PROFILE Reclaiming language in an interview with Mary Beard

VISUAL ARTS Catching the Light: Turner’s Durham

Does the super-injuction still have a place in media?

Mary Beard in conversation with Palatinate’s Lily Boulter.

Let us remind you of Durham’s beauty as captured by one of Britain’s best artists.

Palatinate is published by Durham Students’ Union on a fortnightly basis during term and is editorially independent. All contributors and editors are full-time students at Durham University. Send letters to: Editor, Palatinate, Durham Students’ Union, Dunelm House, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3AN. Alternatively, send an e-mail to editor@palatinate.org.uk

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th May 2016

Union President’s Column At the start of my tenure as President, I wrote a column for Palatinate about NUS. I posited that NUS was far too often irrelevant to students at Durham, but that the only way to fix this was from within.

Now, the question of relevance is being asked more widely. In the intervening year, I’ve gained greater experience and knowledge of NUS, how it works and – crucially – how it doesn’t.

Seeking to live by my own rule that if we recognise there is a problem with NUS we should fix it from within, I’ve used the platform as much as I can to push for change. I’ve been elected to, and sat on, NUS’ Union Development Zone Committee, holding the Vice President to account and ensuring that SUs are pushed to be at the heart of NUS’ work. I’ve contributed to NUS Project 100, the organisation’s strategic planning project for the coming six years, again pushing for SUs to be at the top of agenda as NUS reforms and rethinks its tactics. I’ve campaigned hard for the candidates who I believe will do best for Durham students to take office at a national level.

We can’t achieve national change without the support and example of other students and institutions, and without our national union calling upon the government for action, with the voice of seven million students behind it. This year alone NUS has been leading on work on sexual violence on campus, researching experiences of LGBT+ students in sport, campaigned and won PG loans for mature students, amongst hundreds of other important wins. These are the kind of issues we shouldn’t seek to change just here in Durham. I am immensely proud to have been able to support and influence the direction of actions on these kinds issues for students around the country.

The importance of being engaged and campaigning for change on issues, not just for us here at Durham, but for students everywhere is what I’ve taken away from this experience. It may be that the student body feels NUS isn’t the platform for this, and if so I will fully support our members’ viewpoint. But I’d encourage you then to seek out those platforms that are right for Durham, and to use them to advocate for diversity, accessibility, affordable accommodation and many more of the big issues.

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News

News

@PalatinateNews

Flowers in bloom at Durham’s Botanical Garden

Photograph: Grace Tseng

Durham Union Society holds emergency debate on NUS

New hotel and restaurant to open in Old Shire Hall

Sunderland High School set to close—student looks back

Photograph: Peter Bonnet / Creative Commons

Photograph: Tom Bastin / Creative Commons

Photograph: Venus Loi

Turn to pages 5 to read more

News in brief

Turn to page 7 to read more

Turn to page 8 to read more

HIGHER

DURHAM CATHEDRAL REVAMP REVEALS ‘HIDDEN SPACES’

DURHAM SU TO HOLD REFERENDUM ON EU VOTE

Graduates in England face higher debts upon graduation compared to their peers in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the Sutton Trust has said. The charity says those who graduated from English universities last year under the £9,000 fee levy owed an average of £44,000. Average debts in other English-speaking countries ranged between approximately £15,000 and £29,000. (Via BBC News)

As part of a £10m revamp, Durham Cathedral is to provide public access to previously hidden spaces. The new exhibition provides a new route to the monks’ dormitory and the great kitchen. The revamp also includes an improved shop and will be unveiled on 23rd July.

Durham Students’ Union is holding a referendum to determine its position on the EU vote. Voting opened at 8am on Tuesday 3 May, and will close at 5pm on Friday 6 May. Members can vote on the following question: “What position, if any, should Durham Students’ Union take in the EU referendum?” For a position to pass, it must receive the majority of votes from at least 5% of the members.

ENGLISH GRADUATES FACE GRADUATION DEBTS THAN PEERS

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The election of Malia is merely a symptom of the fundamental and structural problems of the NUS.

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to the attention of over 300 heads of Jewish Student Societies.

Further comments from the now NUS president have included condemning ‘Zionist led media outlets’. Her appointment as President has lead nearly 50 Jewish societies nationally to write an open letter to Ms. Bouattia, expressing their concerns.

Jack May, Leader of ‘Let Cambridge Decide’, the Cambridge University NUS disaffiliation campaign, described the appointment of Ms. Boutattia as “a horrifying message to Jewish students in the UK.” Ms. Bouattia has strongly de-

nied the allegations put to her that she is anti-Semitic. In a statement she said: “I have a long track record of opposing racism and discrimination in all its forms and actively campaigning against it. Jews have faced horrendous persecution over thousands of years and Jewish students on campuses and elsewhere continue to face antiSemitism.”

However, for the ‘A Better Durham’ campaign, along with similar campaigns at other universities, the motivation behind the desire to disaffiliate with the NUS goes beyond the controversial appointment of Malia Bouattia, although this is a significant factor.

Tom Harwood told Palatinate: “The election of Malia is merely a symptom of the fundamental and structural problems of the NUS, and its consistent moves to the extremes, misrepresenting students.”

Similarly, Harry Samuels, an NUS delegate for Oxford University explained on BBC’s Newsnight programme that the appointment of Ms. Bouattia was the ‘straw that has broken the camel’s back.’

A crucial problem with the NUS is that many of the issues it tries to tackle are not the pressing relevant issues that the student populations face around the country, according to various members of the ‘A Better Durham’ campaign.

Problems with the NUS as an

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Continued from page 1.. troubling actions.”

The letter concluded by imploring the trustees to “let Durham decide, this term. We cannot stand by any longer as students are misrepresented and marginalized.”

Tom Harwood told Palatinate: “We want the Durham SU to decide, this term. We have had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to our campaign and believe we can definitely win, as long as people can put their dislike of the NUS into action.

“The reaction from universities around the country speak for themselves. Now over 25 universities have credible movements to disaffiliate. Students have had enough.”

Jade Azim, another coordinator of the campaign also told Palatinate: “We will be talking to students across campus to get their support for the referendum itself.

When that goes ahead, we will be out on campus making the case for leaving.”

‘A Better Durham’ campaign has been one of a number of student union campaigns nationally that have been established amid growing discontent with the NUS, sparked by the controversial election of the new national president, Malia Bouattia.

Ms. Bouattia has faced allegations of anti-Semitism due to actions that have dated back a number of years. In 2011, she co-authored an article where she referred to the University of Birmingham as “something of a Zionist outpost in British higher education”. At the time, the letter came

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We should have a union that spends all its time talking about real student issues.

organisation were outlined in an article written by Sam Bentwood, a member of ‘A Better Durham’ campaign and former member of Durham University’s Jewish Society (JSoc). The article can be found on Palatinate Online.

In the article Sam said an effective union is one “that is truly democratic, open and appeals to all, not just a narrow few.

“We should have a union that spends all its time talking about real student issues, not one that spends so much time debating grand geo-political issues that are the business of other forums.”

Jade Azim reiterated this failing of the NUS in her personal blog “On why I’ll be campaigning to leave the NUS” by suggesting the organisation could be improved by “Recognising the limits of an organisation for students, and

Thursday 5th May 2016 | PALATINATE

identifying what motions benefit campuses within the capacity of the NUS.” Speaking to Palatinate, Azim also said, “The NUS is a liability, rather than an asset, in getting our voices heard nationally.

“Durham has enough prestige and name recognition for us to stand on our own two feet. It’ll probably improve our reputation to distance ourselves from the NUS.” When asked about the Durham SU’s reaction to the campaign, Sam Bentwood told Palatinate: “The DSU officers understand their role is to care about what the students care about. They see the strength of the feeling on this issue and feel a referendum is appropriate.”

Outgoing President of the Durham SU, Millie Tanner, also told Palatinate “If our student members vote to leave the NUS, I will of course support that decision, recognising the importance of our student body having confidence that they are accurately and fairly represented at the national level.”

“On the issue of relevance, I completely agree that NUS is not relevant enough to students at the moment. But I believe that walking away isn’t the answer – we need to stay in, stay involved and fix it from within – just like if you don’t like the way your JCR/MCR is being run, you pass a motion, or run to be President, or hold the offic

-ers to account. Our Students’ Union has considerable influence within our own University but will never have a voice on a wider level without the agency of our national union.”

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th May 2016

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Durham Union Society hold emergency debate on NUS disaffiliation Anna Tatham Deputy News Editor The Durham Union Society held an “emergency debate” on the increasingly disputed issue of whether Durham Students’ Union should disaffiliate from the NUS. The Friday Night Debate was led by strong arguments from both sides, debating whether Durham should accompany numerous Students’ Unions across the county and break off from the National Union of Students. Distaste for the NUS has made headlines recently upon the election of Malia Bouattia as its new President.

Bouattia’s appointment has evoked questions about the NUS’ election system, as well as concurrent qualms surrounding her alleged antisemitic and ISIS-sympathetic stance.

The debate featured four prominent speakers from the Durham political scene: proponents included Mackenzie Young, Durham Psychology student, supported by Jade Azim, President of Durham University Labour Club and former candidate in the running for Durham SU President. On the opposing side, advanced debater George Walker was accompanied by Harry Cross, Durham’s delegate to the NUS Conference.

Whilst turnout was rather sparse, those who were present were emotive in their responses to arguments, particularly those raised by Azim and Cross.

The debate opened with Young confidently criticising the NUS and its questionable “democratic” nature. Young picked apart the NUS’ claims to represent the voice of seven million students and highlighted the lack of student involvement, something he stated is heightened by the somewhat circular election system of elected representatives electing further representatives.

George Walker admitted that there are issues with the NUS, yet stated that they can be corrected.

Walker claimed that disaffiliation would be a divisive move, and highlighted that previous attempts to form alternative unions away from the NUS, such as the United Students’ Union, have proved unsuccessful.

Jade Azim retorted by branding the NUS an “ineffective shield,” and

Pemberton Buildings, Durham Union Society

argued that there is little hope for universities affiliated with managerial unions. She commended the passion shown by Malia Bouattia in her NUS presidency, however attacked the NUS for holding debates on distant conflicts such as Syria.

Cheers were heard from the chamber as Azim blamed the irrelevance of NUS debates as a key reason for the deficit of participation. She stressed the need for activism to solve issues beyond consultation, to make headlines and protest for real change.

Harry Cross offered an interesting perspective on the debate, as one of Durham’s delegates to the NUS. Cross praised the NUS and noted its successes, such as reducing the increase in Durham rents by 3.5% compared to the proposed 9%, and contended that the vast majority of work done by the NUS does not filter through to national media.

The debate then opened up

to the floor, and DUS members were eager to put forward their thoughts about the NUS. One member insisted on putting issues with Bouattia aside and instead asking the question, “What does the NUS actually do?”, and stated that Durham Students’ Union functions effectively without NUS backing.

It was evident that many members felt the views of the seven million students which the NUS represent inevitably differ and responsibility should be handed to individual university unions.

As neatly summed up by George Jackson, President-Elect of DUS, it was an “insightful debate.” The outcome was in resounding support of the motion.

The queue for the following Discussion Panel on Western Involvement in the Middle East was out of the Pemberton Building doors, whereas significantly fewer members attended the NUS debate.

Photograph: Peter Bonnet

“Down to the Woods” music festival comes to the North East Bands including Primal Scream, Chase & Status, and Catfish & The Bottlemen are set to play in the North East this summer as part of the Down to the Woods Festival, which takes place in the grounds of Hardwick Hall over 13th and 14th August.

With an impressive line up in its first year, Down to the Woods is set to be an exciting annual addition to the UK’s festival calendar and the only festival of its size and calibre in north-east England.

On the Saturday, Primal Scream will headline the 10,000 capacity family-friendly festival, while Sunday will feature Chase & Status.

Other acts across the weekend include Catfish & The Bottlemen, Echo & The Bunnymen, and many more.

Weekend tickets for the Down to the Woods Festival are price at £99 per adult, £28 for young people aged between 13 and 16, and £15 for children aged between 3 and 12.

The line-up for a third stage, the Badgers Den, will be announced shortly and will have a focus on DJs and live comedy.

You can view the current line up here: http://downtothewoodsfestival.co.uk/lineup.

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Thursday 5th May 2016 | PALATINATE

Majority of racist incidents on campus are not reported

Following a racist incident in a Warwick University halls of residence Palatinate collaborated with student newspapers across the country to investigate racism on campus.

This survey uncovered a trend that strongly suggests a large proportion of racist incidents that occur in Durham go unreported.

90.6% of students who said they had ‘experienced racism directed towards them or anyone else while at Durham’ said the incident was not reported to the University or the Students’ Union.

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Students took part in the Palatinate survey Concerns expressed also highlighted that not enough was being done to ensure fair BME representation in colleges and the Students’ Union. 70.2% of respondents said they felt the colleges and the Students’ Union should improve BME representation.

In early April, Warwick firstyear student, Faramade Ifaturoti, posted a photograph on Twitter showing a bunch of bananas with racial slurs written on them. This photograph was widely shared on the Internet and the incident has since been reported on by a number of national news outlets.

It lead to criticisms of the way in which universities deal with racism on campus.

A short survey was subsequently released across the country to collect data on students’ experiences of racism at UK universities.

This results of this survey in Durham uncovered statistics suggesting that the majority of racist incidents that occur here go unreported. It also revealed that students feel there is an underrepresentation of BME students and staff at the university.

Just 15 of the 160 students in Palatinate’s survey who said that they had experienced one or more racist incidents in Durham reported them to either the University, the Students’ Union or both.

A Freedom of Information request submitted to the University by Palatinate requesting the number of reported racist incidents over the last three years revealed that each year less than

5 incidents were reported by students. There have been no cases of staff reporting racist incidents in the last three years.

When asked what was being done by the University to encourage students to come forward and report racist incidents.

The Univeristy told Palatinate “We understand that racist incidents in society are underreported. Where such incidents are reported to the University it is likely that they would be categorised as hate crimes.

“Students would be actively encouraged and supported to report these to the Police where there are dedicated officers in place to respond to them.”

The University stressed that “staff are well placed to respond to any incidents brought forward by students and we would encourage anyone affected by these issues to seek support via the Student Support Office in their College in the first instance.”

The survey run by Palatinate also found that 70.2% of the students who took part felt that colleges and the Students’ Union should improve BME representation.

One student, in response to Pa-

90.6%

who had experienced racism while at Durham did not report it

<5

incidents of racism are reported to the University each year latinate’s survey said, “I feel that Durham really needs to actually do something about representation and issues of racism. There is no help or support on the Students’ Union website and most of the college welfare officers are white and thus will make a person of colour uncomfortable at times to disclose racism.”

Neither the University nor the Students’ Union currently has a Code of Conduct specific to preventing discrimination of BME students.

The University sent Palatinate a generic ‘Respect at Study Policy’ when asked about this.

When asked for comment on the low intake of BME students at Durham, the University said “the

Many BME students face microaggressions on a daily basis University’s Access Agreement recognises that the University receives a low proportion of undergraduate applications from BME applicants, which results in a low percentage of entrants.

“However, when they do apply, BME applicants are equally likely to receive offers of admission as white applicants. The challenge for the University is to increase the number of applicants from this cohort.”

The University told Palatinate “we are expanding the scale of our targeted outreach activity with schools with a higher than average proportion of BME students, which is helping our understanding of what activity is likely to deliver the greatest impact.”

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Nothing particularly violent has happened - just the usual microaggressions

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Alex Cupples Editor-in-Chief

They added, “we are delivering an ‘Increasing Diversity’ project

whose aim is to broaden the ethnic diversity of undergraduate students by building sustainable relationships with teachers and pupils in schools which have been identified as having a high proportion of learners from minority ethnic groups and who are likely to achieve the entry requirements to come to Durham University.”

The incidents of racism described to Palatinate in the survey were varied.

They occurred across the University from “in a nightclub”, to “walking on the street”. However, 33% of these incidents occurred in college.

Many students who completed the anonymous survey highlighted that they face microaggressions on a regular basis.

One student said “nothing particularly violent or severe in nature has ever happened- just the usual microaggressions.”

Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate negative messages to peoples based solely upon their BME status.

Some students at the University have been campaigning to raise awareness of microaggressions through a campaign run

by Durham University Feminism Society, I, Too, Am Durham.

I, Too, Am Durham told Palatinate that the project aims

Photograph: Grace Tseng “to raise awareness of the microaggressions and discrimination which minorities and marginalised groups in Durham can face as a part of their everyday experience.

70.3%

feel that colleges and the Students’ Union should improve BME representation

“The main aim of the campaign was to provide information on what microaggressions are, why they’re common, and how to make the University a safer community by eliminating them. Additionally we seek to raise awareness of the prevalence of these experiences, and encourage people to think about inclusivity and diversity.”

Despite the number of racist incidents highlighted in Palatinate’s survey, reported or otherwise, 57.6% of students who responded to the survey did not feel that racism is prevalent on campus.

The Students’ Union was unable to comment on the survey but they did say they felt the issue of racism on campus was ‘important’.

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th May 2016

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New hotel and restaurant set to open in Old Shire Hall Emma Pinckard Deputy News Editor Old Shire Hall, the Grade II-listed property on Old Elvet, is set to be renovated over the next fifteen months and transformed into a Hotel Indigo after a £15 million agreement.

The building, originally constructed in 1896 to house Durham County Council, was used as the administrative headquarters of Durham University until 2012.

Old Shire Hall will be renovated and converted into a four-star hotel, which will include a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar and Grill.

Shire Hall, which was bought by commercial property developer Kevin Brown in 2014, will be refurbished by Mr Brown and localbased developer Shaun Crawley, alongside Maven Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm in the UK. The plans for renovation include the creation of 81 bedrooms, but the building’s Victorian features, such as the marble staircases, stained glass windows, and wood panelling, are to be retained—along with the debating chamber, which will become a cocktail bar.

Mr Brown commented: “From the outset it has been

Old Shire Hall on Old Elvet

Photograph: Tom Bastin / Creative Commons

vital to find the right partners to produce an outstanding hotel for the city and equally as important to secure Shire Hall’s future and prevent any further deterioration and damage to the building.

“Durham enjoys strong demographics in terms of local spending power, with a key role played

by Durham University, one of the best in the UK with an enviable international reputation.”

He continued to explain the advantages of the hotel for Durham, stating: “On completion, the new hotel should attract up to 21,000 new visitors to the city annually and guests will enjoy the fantastic views of Durham Castle and Cathedral in the heart of Durham’s historic city centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site.”

Ramsay Duff, an investment director at Maven, said: “We anticipate that the Hotel Indigo at the historic Shire Hall will not only become a ‘must visit’ destination, but also address the demand that exists in the city for more high-quality hotel accommodation.”

The new Hotel Indigo will have the effect of creating around 60 jobs for the local area, and is scheduled to open in autumn 2017.

Durham graduate University falls one place in wins Virago New latest Complete University Statesman award Guide rankings Sophie Gregory Deputy News Editor An award launched last year by Virago and New Statesman to combat the prevalence of male voices in the arena of political and economic writing has named Durham Economics and Politics graduate Frances Weetman as its winner.

The entrants were required to write a 3,000-word proposal that would later be developed into a 20,000-word essay.

The winner receives a contract to publish an extended essay as an eBook with Virago, whilst an excerpt from the essay will also be published in the New Statesman, a prestigious political magazine.

Frances’ essay, entitled “Eco-

nomics is a Religion: Now it Needs its Reformation,” views economic theories as very similar to religious principles: unable to be scientifically verified.

She argues that, when these belief systems are pursued too confidently, they could have detrimental effects on our economy and our lifestyles.

The judging panel consisted of Gillian Tett, the US Managing Editor of the Financial Times, Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, Tom Gatti, culture editor of the New Statesman and Lennie Goodings, publisher at Virago, a publishing house for female writers.

All four of these respected figures unanimously chose Weetman as winner; they commended her work for showing “originality and rigorous thinking.”

Emma Pinckard Deputy News Editor Durham University has been ranked the sixth best university in the UK by the Complete University Guide in new results published today.

Although the University has maintained a strong position within the top ten, the results show that Durham has fallen in the league table by a single space.

While Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial and St Andrews have all retained their rankings from first to fifth place respectively, Durham has lost its previous position of joint fifth with St Andrews.

In sixth place, the University

ranked above Loughborough, Warwick, Lancaster, and UCL, who complete the top ten.

The Complete University Guide Rankings take several criteria into account, including entry standards, research quality and intensity, spending on academic services and faculties, and the ratio of students to staff.

In addition to this, the guide compares the universities in relation to graduate prospects, degree completion, good honours awarded, and student satisfaction.

The assessment across these specifications gave Durham University a strong score of 916.

While Durham lost its place in the top five to St Andrews, the results indicate that Durham’s entry

standards were higher, as well as ranking better in terms of Durham’s research quality, graduate prospects, and faculty spending.

This follows the University’s recent publication of faculty spending details which revealed big distinctions in spending between the Arts and Sciences faculties.

Durham University was also highly positioned in the individual subject rankings, seeing Mathematics and Politics rise to fifth, Computer Science to fourth, Classics and Ancient History to second, and English retain its position at first place.

In total, thirty different departments at the University ranked in the UK top 10.

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Sunderland High School set to close An old student remembers his time there before coming to Durham

Marcus Cassop Thompson

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...new pupils join, and teachers change yet still the school

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derland High School, will close its doors after 133 years. It is a wellknown school in the region, with many students going onto further study here at Durham, including Headteacher Dr. Angela Slater. The shock announcement left many past and present students, parents and members of the community shocked and saddened. The school’s shrinking class sizes was noticeable when I left 4 years ago and had eventually become unsustainable, and it was announced

Photograph: Venus Loi

that teaching would cease at the end of this year.

Personally, I loved school - but that’s not to say everyday was fantastic. I wasn’t exactly a super-cool kid, whatever that means anyway, but in my own head I was just the average person who generally enjoyed lessons and seeing friends.

People have different experiences at school, which obviously aren’t identical to mine. But among friends and the large majority of comments on social media, feelings of sadness and loss poured out. When we are loyal to an institution we become part of it and it becomes a part of us, we take on its ethos and what we stood for.

But what was that?

The school’s motto: Timor Domini Principium Sapientiae - “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” always served as a reminder of its Anglican roots, but this in itself didn’t exactly resonate for me as a non-religious person.

Yet despite my lack of faith I remember Dr Slater reading the par-

able of the talents, as well as the sheep and the goats, and appreciating the message behind them.

The size of the school was small, and relationships between pupils and teachers were strong. Everyone was known as an individual and not ‘just another face.’ As we grew older these relationships evolved and by the end of sixth form most of my classes were no more than 10 people where teachers and pupils talked like friends while still appreciating the work we had to do.

The school did a lot for the community and charity in general. I will always remember the school’s long standing expeditions to Malawi which, in my final year, I was lucky to go on and will remember forever. The independently organised trips, by husband and wife team teachers Phil and Ann Wayman, saw all money raised going directly and locally to the small village of Nkhotakota.

Academically, I always regarded the teaching standards as very-

Illustration: Faye Chua high, and in a small school to name a few is to directly exclude others; but of course I am always grateful to my A-Levels teachers, Mr Tem-

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When the school finally comes to an end in a matter of months, something really will have been lost for the lives which were tied to it.

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How we become who we are is to me a profound and interesting question. Very often life’s experiences and what they mean become clearer as we move further from them. Kierkegaard pointed out this ironic paradox to life and the effect on the person we become, saying, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” The self is formed slowly, with a multiplicity of interacting factors; family, friends, foes, experience, biology, society, culture, institutions and chance all shaping its evolution. These factors come together and play out in the formative teenage years within the walls of our schools.

Despite the decline of institutions, our school remains an enduring and relatively fixed part of our society, a remaining external referent that goes beyond the modernist introspective view and to which we attach a part of ourselves and become one of a community of people. It, in turn, changes us. While we pass through the halls, make our friends, gain our education and finally say goodbye, new pupils join and teachers change, yet still the school persists. Something we can point to as ‘ours.’ But what happens when this foundational referent disappears?

What exactly does it mean?

This is the question I find myself asking lately, with news local secondary school - my school - Sun-

ple, Mrs Probets, Mrs Bowmer, Mr Percy and, an institution in his own right, Mr Hedley.

Reflecting more broadly on why exactly the slow decline in numbers occurred should make anyone pause for thought and wonder what the school’s closure means for the city at large. Growing up very close to the centre of Sunderland meant many days walking around with my Gran, whose memory and knowledge for local and national history somehow trickled down to me.

Moving around the city often seems to speak of this history. Many great buildings have stood for years unoccupied and/ or derelict, whether than be the old synagogue on Ryhope road or across the street the old home of the Backhouse family, both shoulder to shoulder with SHS buildings. Through two World Wars the school endured, with some of its oldest building’s narrowly missing German bombs, which instead decimated the end of our street, and others blowing apart the local museum.

Living right by the school, it’s strange to walk past it when I’m home, as students I no longer know pass me by. When the school finally closes in a matter of month,s something really will have been lost for those lives which were tied to the school.

With my family moving out of the region and witnessing many of my closest friends already having done the same, many of the things that bound me to the city I spent 19 years in are disappearing before my eyes with only memories remaining.

But where an institution ends, we persist, we carry forward what we valued and this manifests in our lives. What the school stood for is not necessarily lost but rather, remains within you.

Sunderland High School is a private school for boys and girls aged 2-18. The school is due to close because of falling student numbers and financial loss. Nunbers have fallen from more than 580 pupils at the independent school in 2006 to around 280 today reflecting a decline across the North East. However, parents are hopeful that they will be able to prevent the prestigiopus school from closing. The Save Sunderland High steering group believes it would need 170 pupils to stay on at the school in order to keep it open. The closure impacts the community hugely as the school has been an intergal part of the Sunderland education system for over a century. Sunderland High School opened in 1884.

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Politics

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Thursday 5th May 2016 | PALATINATE

The Durham Bubble - Politics News in Brief Goodbye, Ken!

Mason Boycott-Owen Politics Editor Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour Party over his comments regarded by many as anti-Semitic. These comments stemmed from his attempted defence of Naz Shah, MP for Bradford West. Her predecessor in the constituency was Respect MP and fan of hats George Galloway, who was defeated in 2015. Mr Galloway has recently come out in defence of Ken Livingstone’s comments as ‘fact’. For some, this indicated a disturbing trend of anti-Semitism within the party, something Jeremy Corbyn has vehemently denied. Yet, for many, the press coverage looks like another attempt to smear and oust Mr Jeremy ‘unelectable’ Corbyn.

Photograph: Brisbane City Council via Flickr

Child Refugees Turned Away

Junior Doctors’ Strike

Photograph: Tracy Hunter via Flickr

Back of the Line: Obama’s Visit

Dominic Walsh

Kate McIntosh Deputy Politics Editor Plans to provide refuge for 3,000 unaccompanied children in Europe were snubbed by the Tory government last Monday, when a House of Commons vote defeated an amendment to the Immigration Bill by a margin of 18. Cameron reiterated that the UK will take 3,000 children from camps outside of Europe over the next four years, suggesting that taking more would belittle our continental neighbours. But two days later the amendment - championed by Lord Dubs, a former child refugee - was lauded in an impassioned speech

by Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who reminded the House that 10,000 children have vanished from Europe since the start of the crisis.

The Donald and Mrs. Clinton

On 26th and 27th of April the UK’s Junior Doctors withdrew emergency care for the first time in the history of the NHS. The Health Secretary and the BMA had failed to reach an agreement on contract changes imposed on all Doctors below consultant level. Thirteen prestigious medical institutions wrote to the Prime Minister warning that the dispute spelled the downfall of the entire health system. Conversely, Hunt claims the new contract is a necessary and fair step on the road to a seven day NHS, with one government source suggesting he would not back down for fear of further public sector walkouts.

Photograph: NHS Confederation via Flickr

Donald Trump moved ever closer to securing the Republican nomination on Tuesday, sweeping the board in five north-eastern primaries. The billionaire front-runner won with over 50% of the vote in Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. This brings Trump to 994 delegates; 1,237 are needed for the nomination, with 572 still to play for. For the Democrats, Hilary Clinton cemented her commanding delegate lead by triumphing in four of the five states. Her rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, secured victory in Rhode Island.

Clinton is now just 218 delegates short of the Democratic nomination, with 1,243 still available.

Photograph: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Barack Obama was at the centre of a media storm last Friday after he publicly endorsed Britain remaining in the EU during a diplomatic visit to the UK. The American President said that EU membership was a matter for the British people to decide, but added that Britain would be a ‘bigger player’ on the world stage as an EU member. He also said that a Britain outside the EU would go ‘to the back of the queue’ for trade deals with the US. His words sparked anger amongst Brexit campaigners, who felt he had no right to intervene. Notably, Boris Johnson caused controversy by suggesting that the ‘part-Kenyan’ Obama might harbour an ‘ancestral dislike’ of Britain.

Photograph: Marc Nozzell via Flickr

Naz Shah: Anti-Semitism and Labour Archie Hill Oh, how they cheered. The roars from both benches filled the Commons when, last July, Naz Shah, the newly elected Labour MP for Bradford West stood to make her maiden speech. The man she had replaced, George Galloway, was surely the most universally disliked man in Westminster; a delusional bully and rampant narcissist who, when he wasn’t too busy dressing up in a spandex cat-suit on Celebrity Big Brother, spent his time cosying up with every dictator from Baghdad to Benghazi. He now stalks the streets of London as a candidate for the Mayoral election; a fedora-clad has-been, occasionally yelling at passers-by, currently slumping at 0% in the opinion polls.

But, in July 2015, this was all still to come. For now, MPs were celebrating the new member for Bradford West. Unlike her predecessor, who had built a political career out of stirring up racial enmity in constituencies with a large Muslim population, Ms Shah seemed a more tolerant, inclusive representative. In her speech she attacked Galloway’s more openly

offensive statements, in particular his unabashed anti-Semitism, hidden none-too-well behind the mask of what he and so many other bigots call ‘anti-Zionism’.

As has been written elsewhere in Palatinate recently, this barelyconcealed prejudice towards Jewish people is spreading; amongst the censorious left-wing as well as more hard-line conservative Muslim communities.

And so the arrival of Naz Shah into the House of Commons seemed such a relief: out with the demagoguery and bile, in with pluralism and common decency. Hooray, cried the honourable members, the bogeyman was slain.

And yet. And yet. With an inevitability worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy (or perhaps comedy would be more fitting), the giantkiller has been hoist by her own petard. After a recent impassioned speech condemning the rise of anti-Semitism amongst members of her party, the new member for Bradford West seems depressingly similar to the old one. Facebook posts from 2014 have surfaced, in which she likened Zionism to alQaeda and calls for the ‘transportation’ – a hugely, painfully loaded word considering the context – of

Jews from the Middle East. They could, she said, relocate to America. There was plenty of room for them there. She would lobby the Prime Minister. ‘Problem solved!’ she posted. She even added a smiley face for good measure.

As a member of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee currently conducting an inquiry into the rise of antiSemitism, this now raises the none-too edifying prospect of seeing Naz Shah forced to investigate herself for these alleged crimes. It also raises a fairly serious question: what next? If even those trying to heal the divisions in society aren’t above the occasional inane and ignorant burst of prejudice towards Israelis, as well as Jews in general, then what hope is there?

Unlike Galloway, a man so preposterous that practically everyone ignored him anyway, Naz Shah’s position as an elected representative is significant. She matters.

Bradford is a traditionally leftwing stronghold with a fast-growing Muslim population, which currently stands at just under 25%.

The vast majority of them are of Pakistani heritage, Ms Shah being one of their number. Given the intense hostility of many Pakistanis

towards Jews in Israel and around the world, coupled with the rise of hate preaching amongst Wahhabis and other conservative Islamic sects in Britain, people like Naz Shah are needed more than ever to fight the anti-Semitic ignorance and lazy prejudice.

Now the cheers which once greeted her have died away: like so many politicians before her, she sewed the wind; now she is reaping the whirlwind. But all is not lost for the new member for Bradford West. She could apologise and try to move on as quickly as

possible, or she could address the conflict head on. If she truly believes in saving her party and her country from the poison of antiSemitism she could – and should – go back to all her old friends with whom she was busily sharing Zionist conspiracy theories on social media, and show them the error of their ways. When she posts this rubbish she speaks, whether she knows it or not, for large swathes of the ill-informed and prejudiced.

If they don’t listen to her, what chance is there for the rest of us?

Bradford West MPs have a knack for controversy Photograph: Vince Millett via Flickr

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th May 2016

Palatinate E.U. Opinion Poll Palatinate Politics Team

#votepalatinate

It’s voting season! Although we have not reached the peak of General Election fever, the referendum on the U.K.’s membership of the European Union is looming on the horizon. In light of this, Palatinate Politics will be conducting an opinion poll of the voting intentions of Durham University Students in this upcoming referendum.

With compelling arguments on either side of the debate, many of which we have published in the

paper, we are hoping to get some interesting insights on how Durham students, from different colleges, are planning on voting, or even abstaining. Keep an eye out on Facebook, Twitter and your university emails for when polling opens.

From the response, we hope to gain enough information to publish the results of the poll in or special E.U. edition of the Palatinate this term. It will include indepth analysis into voting preferences from gender, college, county of resident and year of study - and posibly party-political persuasion.

11

Politics

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The Race for London: YouGov Puts Sadiq Ahead

Palatinate Politics Polls London, though lying far from the Durham bubble, is the home of a great many Durham students – not to mention the destination of choice for those wishing to join the world of work, whether you are investment banker, lawyer or accountant. The issues that the campaigns are fought on will certainly

impact Durham students, with housing being perhaps the most pressing question. Therefore many Durham students may well be voting in this election. The current standings by YouGov (pictured below) show Sadiq Kahn at around 20 points ahead of Zac Goldsmith, with the remaining candidates lagging behind considerably. Though a probably Kahn victory, the media’s attempted implication of Sadiq Kahn in the Labour party’s

internal anti-Semitism woes, coupled with Goldsmith’s campaign fought on undermining Kahn’s Muslim background, thought unsavoury by his detractors, may yet have an impact. This result, along with the E.U. referendum and council elections will be a testing time for Labour, the Tories, UKIP, Lib Dems, and the Greens – all desperate for a good showing.

Photograph: Jonathan Oakley via Flickr

Impeached: For Better or for Worse?

Sam Harrison As the spotlight turns to Brazil for the Olympic Games this summer, an embittered political backdrop sets the scene: the coalition government is slowly disintegrating, president Dilma Rousseff is threatened with being torn from power by the very people she governs, and the political figures to take her place are just as unsuitable for the job thanks to their irreversible branding with corruption.

Such a call for impeachment, as pressured by a series of nationwide protests over the past 12 months, is a result of Rousseff’s negligence of public funds, her inability to recover the freefalling economy, and her involvement with the Petrobras scandal: the largest corruption scandal in the history of Brazil, in which state officials were charged with ascertaining more than 10 billion Brazilian Reals through money laundering.

The latest step towards Rousseff’s ever-increasing likelihood of

impeachment came on the evening of April 17, as officials of the National Assembly came together to vote overwhelmingly in favour of passing the charges of impeachment to the Senate for trial. With 367 votes for the motion and 137 against, it is apparent that her support from both the people and the government is rapidly dissipating.

Estado de Sao Paulo, a newspaper that has been tracking voting intentions, predicts that 46 out of 81 senators will support the vote for an impeachment trial. If the vote goes as expected, vicepresident Michel Temer of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) will be first in line to take Rousseff’s place for up to 180 days. This means that the Olympic games in all likelihood will not be overseen by the incumbent leader. If the vote reaches a two thirds majority, Temer will hold office until Rousseff’s term ends in December 2018.

Temer seriously runs the risk of being impeached himself, rendering his case for presidency unsound. Firstly, the PMDB is primarily responsible for the Petrobras

scandal which has been a major cause for rioting in Brazil, and Temer is closely allied with an affiliate of the scandal, Eduardo Cunha.

Having a PMDB president closely associated with those accused of corruption would be no more likely to satisfy the people. The lower house and a Supreme Court minister have filed an impeachment charge against the vice-president,

Democracy in action?

which has lead to an investigation by the Supreme Electoral Court into his alleged employment of graft money to fund his 2014 election campaign. If found guilty, he will be ousted from the race before he gets the chance to run for power. Not only does the government want him out, but the polling institute Datafolha found that 58 percent of Brazilians also want the

Photograph: Michel Temervia

vice-president impeached.

Whoever is to take the presidential reins next will have masses of social and economic mess to clean up: under Rousseff’s tenure, 1.8 million jobs have been lost, the budget deficit reached a staggering 10.8% of GDP, and the Brazilian Real almost halved in value.

Rousseff has put the country through the worst economic recession since 1901, which will severely restrict the possibility of spending cuts to curb the budget deficit, and with a Congress made up of 28 parties, Temer may find it virtually impossible to push reforms needed to revive the $2 trillion economy.

David Fleischer, a politics professor at Brasilia University, says “It’s going to be rough on the streets…

It is almost mission impossible for Temer to turn the economy around”.

Brazil will simply have to embrace its economic dire straits until the its next elections in 2018. Until then, the government’s only hope is to find a suitable leader before it plunges itself into anarchy.

12

SciTech

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Thursday 5th May 2016| PALATINATE

The EU under a microscope: does UK science want in or out?

As a scientist, I’d prefer every decision to be informed by accurate, unbiased, and reproducible data. We can all agree, ironically, that politics does not work this way. Nevertheless, science is entangled in the political battleground of the EU debate— research hangs on the political agenda .

S c ienc e , however, has not been at the forefront of the debate, despite being a source of national pride. We are the world leaders in it, officially. We don’t win on the global stage at many things: not in sport, material industry, economy… but science is something the UK excels at and it should be a major player in the EU debate.

Following the example of fellow scientists I will begin by declaring my own position: I intend to vote for the UK to remain in Europe.

Here’s a quick analysis of the current situation. EU science is successful and growing. The proof is that the EU lead the global research publication output with 27.5% at the end of the last funding period, according to the National Science Foundation, and that EU investment in science has trebled since 2002. But it’s not just about the statistics—the EU cultivates a fantastic environment for research because the system is designed for multi-national collaboration. A communal funding pot allows money to be set aside for scientist travelling costs (the Marie Curie grant for example) and the freedom of movement policy facilitates projects, as any undergraduate can study and any researcher can work at any university in the EU es-

sentially hassle-free. The best part is that the UK is in the ‘driving seat’: we won the majority share of EU fund-

Illustration: Kenzo Ishida

ing over the last full funding period (2007-13) and have lead coordinators in more projects than any other nation in the current period (201320). As a full EU member we also enjoy a prominent role in shaping the policy of the European Research Council. The current situation is good. What, then, is the logic behind voting to leave?

I have searched for a good reason to vote Brexit, but finding arguments online with factual grounding was not straightforward. So, I attended the Science Council’s EU debate in a quest to find some first-hand Brexit motivation. That didn’t go well: one panellist was “falling asleep for a moment”, in his own words, and another compared the EU to the USSR, claiming that if we don’t leave “we’ll end up like Animal Farm”. Both were professors—I can’t say they inspired me.

Their saviour was the youngest of the vote leave panellists, who tried to convince the audience that leav-

ing the EU opens us up to the world.

His arguments had some merit: our collaboration with the rest of the world has suffered by our financial obligations to our European counterparts. But “suffer” is possibly the wrong word, and we shouldn’t have to sacrifice our joint ventures with Europe to engage globally. In fairness, since it was one against three (discounting the deluded McCarthyist and the unconscious) it was an uphill struggle for vote leave.

The ‘Brexiteers’ often found themselves in a muddle too. They claimed, for example, that we published most papers in collaboration with the USA and hence the EU is not instrumental to UK success. This contradicts their argument that the EU prevents us from working with the rest of the world. In fact, the implication is that there is another reason for the limited partnerships with non-EU nations: Europe spends more money on science and engineering than central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Oceania combined.

Perhaps the vote leave campaign just isn’t very articulate. Some online digging presented a report by the Royal Society that revealed only 3% of UK research expenditure came from the EU in the 2007-12 period compared to an enormous 45% from businesses. However, this is not only —according to the report itself— an underestimate due to technicalities on the classification of research, but also undermines the EU injection of money. As an example, the EU funds the majority of the European Space Agency as well as the majority of the International Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor (ITER) experiments. The UK is heavily involved in both.

The questions of funding everything ourselves or buying-in to EU programs (the standard vote leave arguments) are complex. Firstly, will our government, which has steadily slowed its investment in science and will be facing an economic slump in the wake of a Brexit, suddenly decide to boost its interest in research funding? Do we trust our government to make the right financial policies for UK research? The ‘Academy Schools’ and failing NHS are sterling examples of its success to date. As for buying-in as an associate member, this relies on us maintaining freedom of movement, which will be unlikely following a vote leave victory.

Professor Colin Macpherson, Head of Durham’s Earth Sciences department, encapsulates the view of the majority of scientists in the UK (83% in the most recent Nature survey): “access to and engagement with European research is vital to the health of the UK science community”. As far as Durham University students are concerned, Palatinate SciTech ran a poll of 114 science undergraduates and the result was also conclusive: 87% said they would vote to remain in.

Declared voting intentions of Durham science undergraduates in the EU referendum.

I want to finish by leaving aside the figures and the politics, and instead implore you consider the wider issues at stake, and the attitude cultivated by a Brexit. Durham University Physics professor and Director of the European Reference Laboratory for Fusion Energy, Damien Hampshire, decisively states that “to overcome many of the critical challenges on the

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Engagement with European research is vital to the health of the UK science community.

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Tommy Pallett

scientific roadmap to success will require large scientific, commercial and political collaborations. Throwing in the towel on the possibility of developing large-scale partnerships within the EU… is just too defeatist”.

I agree: we are in a far better position to tackle big issues such as climate change, cancer, energy sources and antibiotic resistance as part of a wider community such as the EU. Leaving the EU, putting up this metaphorical wall at our border, will also make the UK less attractive to academics, both local talent and internationals. It will isolate us, and if we are to learn anything from our past it’s that communication is the key to success. Furthermore, the panel of debaters highlighted the ideological divide in the Brexiteers, who are as uncertain as anyone about what would happen in a post-EU Britain. For me, there’s enough division and uncertainty in the world already.

The EU is not perfect, but we shouldn’t sacrifice all its benefits as a result. The best way to improve it is from the inside, where we can contribute to policy and find a way to make it work for us. I will leave you with one last insight from Professor Hampshire: “As part of the EU, the UK is helping to develop a political framework for a safer, fairer and richer world… [we should] want the UK to continue to take a lead in the EU, particularly when the challenges are tough”. I agree.

Do you have an alternative view? If you think UK science is better off outside the EU and would like to challenge Tommy’s arguments, write to scitech@palatinate.org.uk

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th May 2016

13

Comment

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In defence of trigger warnings Simon Fearn

Isn’t it awkward when the President of MIND tells victims of abuse that ‘your self-pity gets none of my sympathy’? Aside from the staggeringly insensitive comments which grabbed the headlines, however, it’s worth understanding why people like Fry feel so threatened by trigger warnings and left-wing students.

Fry was interviewed by Dave Rubin, host of The Rubin Report, an American talk show for people who ‘care about free speech’ and are ‘tired of political correctness.’ Rubin, a self-confessed leftie (albeit in the American sense of the word), invites celebrities to discuss ‘the regressive left that seems to be coming after language and speech.’ The rhetoric Fry and Rubin were using, comparing what they see as political correctness to the vicious censorship of V for Vendetta and Nineteen Eighty Four, is a fair indication of the

threat Fry thinks students pose to freedom of speech.

Fry’s argument is that rape and abuse are ‘terrible things that have to be thought about,’ and trigger warnings prevent this necessary discussion from happening, a sign of ‘the deep infantilism’ within our culture. He protests that hypersensitive students are attempting to police language, and ‘the word rape is now even considered a rape.’ Then, to his host’s growing discomfort, he complained that abuse victims are too sensitive to appreciate Titus Andronicus and Macbeth because of the themes of rape and child murder, and ought to ‘grow up.’

The trouble with this argument, aside from the horrendously patronising tone, is that no one is saying that Titus Andronicus should be taken off the curriculum because of its potential to trigger victims of sexual abuse.

This, ironically, is what trigger warnings are for: to give vulnerable people the choice to opt out of a potentially harmful discussion,

whilst still leaving the topic open for those able to contribute. Last term, an article condemning trigger warnings in Durham’s branch of The Tab also made the same mistake, equating trigger warnings with no-platforming, which is an entirely different debate and can legitimately be said to challenge some aspects of free speech.

I really cannot see how anyone can be offended by trigger warnings, which do not in any way prevent us from discussing difficult topics and save some people a lot of pain. Thinking that abuse victims should be able to cope with reminders of their traumatic past is a little like expecting someone with a broken leg to run a marathon. Despite the progress we’ve made, we still don’t seem to understand that psychological hurt requires as much time and assistance to heal as a physical ailment.

Fry, who himself suffers from bipolar disorder, should understand that.

Durham, despite a lukewarm amber rating on Spiked’s Free Speech University Rankings, is

actually very good at dealing with difficult topics, despite Fry’s tidings of doom. One need only think back to Palatinate’s balanced and controversial discussion about the acquittal of Louis Richardson, or, to follow Fry’s theatrical examples, the handling of child abuse in Fourth Wall Theatre’s The Pillowman and rape in Bailey Theatre Company’s Blasted. On a different note, neither of these plays came with trigger warnings, and there is an argument to say that they should have.

Durham English Students are expected to sit through lectures and tutorials discussing Lavinia’s rape in Titus Andronicus (although we did get a trigger warning about bestiality with regards to part of the lecture on A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Most lecturers tend to send emails out in advance about upcoming lecturers and preparatory reading, so it wouldn’t be too hard to add a trigger warning to warn of sensitive material. A lecture on Freud, for instance, may be difficult for victims of child abuse, with the idea

of a child’s sexuality developing through their relationship with their parents.

Most criticism of Fry has understandably picked up on his belittling language and his equating of mental illness with ‘self-pity’, but, if we’re honest, how often do we consider if a discussion or art form is likely to trigger an abuse victim? Not enough probably. And how much effort would it be to include a trigger warning in an article or on the Facebook group of a student theatre production?

Fry and Rubin seem very eager to lampoon trigger warnings as a sign of ‘the regressive left’ without really considering what harm they are meant to be doing. Our aim should be to create a culture on campuses, and hopefully in society at large, in which trigger warnings are considered the norm.

Julie Bindle, Milo Yiannopolos all suffered a similar fate to Greer.

To keep up with the news I had to learn a new vocabulary: safespaces, trigger warnings, SJW, regressive, micro-aggression. At the same time a similar conversation was and is evolving with people describing a feeling of a split occurring within the left.

The interesting thing to me is that the blame was being levelled at a certain force within the ‘left’ by another faction on the ‘left.’ Is this term even useful anymore?

Those who hope to preserve free speech certainly cannot define themselves through this prism of thought.

Of course as a young person, I’m still trying to work out exactly what I think, which is why the principle that must be defended is challenging what we see as bad ideas with good ideas instead of suppressing speech. Despite how uncomfortable some things might feel. Someone else’s right to speak is also my right to hear it. There may be some difficulty in pointing to what exactly binds people who seek - whether explicitly or not - to shut down speech. But

the emergence of trigger warnings and safe spaces is something that should make us all think, as well as more frankly odd behaviour such as jazz-hands replacing clapping, air horns being used to drown out speakers, pointing and raising hands being ‘aggressive’ as well as demanding the resignation of academic staff for voicing differing opinions. People asked: are our generation more sensitive and intolerant to opinions we don’t like? Are we coddled? Too emotional?

But finally this developing trend collided with the popular world surrounding Stephen Fry and the BAFTAs and a joke between old friends. After a whirlwind of ridiculous backlash on twitter Fry left the social media site. In the following weeks Fry appeared on Dave Rubin’s ‘Rubin Report’ to discuss free speech and what he saw as elements of a hypersensitive generation, in the context of recent campus controversies. The 11 minute 28 seconds interview soon gained a lot of media attention, with forensic analysis based on words Fry made within the last minute of the show.

Being a fan of the Rubin Report I watched the interview from start to finish before it gained the attention of the media. Without adding to further and unessecary dissection of what Fry actually said, in writing this I have had to re-listen to the interview several times. Admittedly the last few seconds are confusing in isolation and to me represent an obvious and genuine case of miscommunication as Fry himself expressed later. Of course a fairly obvious response could have been to ask Fry for clarification, but instead a whirlwind of denouncement, Chinese-whispers, quote-mining and pseudopsychoanalysis attributing beliefs to Fry that he had not necessarily himself expressed.

In the end, however, a discussion about free speech and life on the campus was ultimately lost in favour of an attempt to mind read. Rather than hitting out at victims of abuse, Fry and Rubin tried to explore the fact that some students - often not victims of abuse themselves - attempted to shut down ideas and police the syllabus, based on their own belief of protecting others. They at-

tempted to blur the lines between recognised mental health issues, and the hurt feelings of students intolerant of diverse opinions. In this way it is they who do not truly respect mental health.

While I actually do believe that there is a genuine debate to be had about trigger warnings in certain contexts, and I think it’s fair for teachers at their own discretion to warn about potential graphic content, formalisation of this process and an expansive domain of just what is ‘triggering’ eventually becomes a problem. I don’t think it’s practical or even desirable to forever avoid the things that make us uncomfortable, and it is true to say life doesn’t come with a trigger warning.

The idea that the mere presence of Germaine Greer or Christina Hoff Sommers or Richard Dawkins on a campus is enough to induce severe psychological anguish in students is something I cannot accept. An appeal to hurt feelings for speech we do not like will simply not suffice. Again we must ask ourselves ‘what is a university?’ It must remain a place of challenge.

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An appeal for freedom of speech

Marcus CassopThompson

Universities in one sense were always a part of my life. Woven into some of my earliest childhood memories were days when I’d follow my dad around at work, visiting his office, or the library.

My first experience of a university class was around 4 years old, only able to vaguely grasp that a university was a place of learning and ideas. Yet, this seemed to stick with me as I grew up.

Today there are more universities, more people going to them, and the motivation for going has similarly multiplied and shifted.

But are the values that universities traditionally stand for eroding? Observing events such as those seen at Yale, and the Christakis’s, Missouri or Oberlin College has made me wonder about free speech, but it was the controversy surrounding the attempt to stop Germaine Greer that finally fixed my attention on this conversation.

With some minor details changed.

Peter Tatchell, Richard Dawkins,

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Kids with guns

Rory McInnes-Gibbons explores the terminal of terror that haunts Europe today

Rory McInnesGibbons

The threat of terror has seen the rise of the military state. If we believe a solution to security lies in soldiers on the streets, then we are much mistaken. A solution to our security needs to come from society itself.

If you believe the chap over there with the gun hoisted high on his hip, the man who has an improbably high kill-to-death ratio online, is going to avert the next terrorist catastrophe, you’re not living in the real world.

The idea of a tank outside a railway station or someone’s son sitting silently with that gun, playing the ‘hero’ and stopping the next suicide bomber is simple fantasy. The stuff of Messrs Bean, Bourne or Bond. Farce.

Perhaps a realist stance dictates that the necessary response to such acts of terror - as we have witnessed in Paris and Brussels over the past few months - is to put soldiers on the streets of our cities. But this response is viewing security through the sights of a gun. A gun trained on its next victim. And that could be you or me.

I am not trying to stoke terror in the minds of the Durham student

population. Don’t worry, I cannot disclose an impending IS attack on the Bailey. Sadly, neither can our secret services. A situation that leaves the security forces trailing the terrorists in a never ending charade of cat and mouse.

Only this mouse has a sting. The unpredictability of terrorist attacks makes an increase in security a simple display of force; a self-reflective show of strength to satiate the mania of the masses (not to mention the media). Armed police and military are the shop window of security.

They are not a preventative, nor prohibitive, ploy, they are merely actors in a play of which we find ourselves protagonists.

Enter the star of our show. Arriving by plane at Brussels-Charleroi, just a day after the March attacks, I soon realised the plain vanity of the situation. On departing through Arrivals or arriving through Departures (I always get those muddled), I was promptly funnelled through an armed police cordon, before being spat out of the station. (Airport seems a little hyperbolic for those not familiar with Charleroi: ‘Plane Station’ seems more apt.) Shivering in the unseasonably cold air, it was not the warm welcome to which I

had grown accustomed on arrival in Belgium.

Waiting at the bus stop for my transportation to arrive, the urge for a relief break suddenly sprung with the utmost urgency. Fortunately, there was an international airport lurking just behind. Here was the problem. Charleroi is perfectly wellserviced, with modern, flushable toilets. But there was a man in blue in front of the loo. And he had a gun.

Standing between me and the facilities was a six foot three soldier.

I approached the revolving door of truth. A smirk? A smile? No. I was met by a pained grimace on the face of my adversary. With nature calling, I naturally called, “Excuse me sir, would you mind awfully moving aside and allowing me to use the lavatory?” Silence. Pause for effect. “ID?” He uttered in a French tinged accent that betrayed Walloon roots. I hastily presented my documentation, feeling things were fast becoming a little too Grand Budapest Hotel for my liking.

The passport seemed agreeable.

Admittedly, I do have a rather dashing self-portrait contained within.

Next, there lay a boarding pass sized obstacle. “Boarding pass?” I shake and fumble, but within the tardis of

my trousers, no Ryanair Boarding Pass reveals itself. Like Klute on a Friday night, this bouncer denies me entry. The only thing bouncing now is my bladder. Back to the bus stop.

Inside, the glittering main hall of the airport is empty. A few sleepers await early morning flights. Soldiers stroke their arms in a sadistic fashion. And there was me. Left outside, alienated and all alone.

The bus arrived. I didn’t wet myself. I got to Ghent. But the question remains, why did I have to undergo this paramilitary experience? As a white, middle-class Durham student, I appreciate the necessity of airport security. I often faintly enjoy being felt up at security and the cries of anguish as another bottle of Verve Clicqout is confiscated from my hand luggage of champagne socialism. But why did I need to be denied entry to the terminal to use the facilities? I have no qualm with the soldier’s performance in this article, this was no dereliction of duty, he was just doing his job. But his duty was one piece in the giant jigsaw that has been our collective failure to respond adequately to the attacks.

As students, ‘overreaction’ is one of our favourite words. We might be constantly stressed, tired and hun-

gry, but we still love to have our say.

Just look at the discussion this article has provoked trending under #readpalatinate. That’s the problem. We can make something as small and meaningless as this article matter in an instant. The article represents a terrorist attack in the city of twitter.

Suddenly, in response to Brussels, Cameron calls for 10,000 troops to be placed on standby. A further 1,000 armed police for London. £143m for counter terrorism. Overreaction worthy of any Durham undergraduate. If security has become a commodity, we are its capitalist consumer.

All so we can fall softly asleep with Cameron cosily coddling us in his cot of security. £143m might buy us a few NHS beds, but such idle concerns are lost when we are reassured and dreaming deep of Arabian nights and Syrian summers. They are long distant realities that do not even drift into our thoughts. The nightmare of reality shocks. The only solution to the terrorists threatening our slumber lies in a conclusion to the Syrian Civil War. Unspeakably, this calls for a settlement with a triptych of terror that haunts Europe. Will Messrs Putin, Erdogan and al-Assad please stand up?

The DSU has no place in international politics Rhys Tanner

At the last DSU Assembly, our Student Officers attempted to propose that the assembly vote to endorse the ‘Stronger In Europe’ campaign for the upcoming EU referendum.

Once it was established that this move would be largely un-mandated (pesky democracy!), the assembly resolved to take the unprecedented step to hold a referendum on the issue. Yes, we find ourselves in the bizarre situation of having a referendum on the upcoming EU referendum. We will soon be asked whether we wish the DSU should endorse the ‘remain’ or ‘leave’ campaigns, or take no position at all.

I was naturally disappointed upon learning of the DSU’s decision, as somebody actively campaigning for ‘Vote Leave’. I loathe to be defeatist, but there’s such thing as an

Rhys Tanner criticises the DSU’s upcoming EU referendum uphill battle, and then there’s the Everest of traditional Europhilic sentiment among student populations. It doesn’t take an oracle to predict which way this is probably going to go. This means that my own Students’ Union will be actively campaigning against me, and many other Eurosceptic students, in a matter of weeks using resources which we financially contribute to via tuition fees. For a student body which claims to represent a broad diversity of people and views, they will hypocritically try to shut down the view which myself and many students passionately hold (albeit a likely minority). The tyranny of the majority will try to silence one viewpoint instead of fostering debate between the two opposing sides. It would seem the DSU’s constitutional objective of ‘providing opportunities for the expression of student opinion’ only applies to favoured thinking.

Whatever your politics on the

EU referendum, the DSU getting involved is bad news. I sincerely hope that the student body will endorse the ‘neutral’ choice, despite intensely wanting Britain to leave the EU, myself. Whenever there has been a national referendum such as AV in 2011, the Scottish Independence vote in 2015, or even general elections in the past, the DSU has rightly remained neutral in order to foster debate among students with panel discussions and the like. This has had a strong educative function for students, has facilitated broader political engagement, and has maintained the DSU’s commitment to defending diversity. So why is this going out the window now?

When ordinary people mock Students’ Unions, it’s often because they act high-mindedly and try to pass motions like prohibiting certain newspapers, banning soft drinks with alleged tenuous links to the arms trade, or censuring a middleeastern country. Sanctimonious,

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The role of a Students’ Union is to provide a forum for debate not to stamp out the minority view

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self-aggrandising, radical activist student representatives who see themselves as the campus’ answer to Arthur Scargill become a burgeoning source of satirists’ material.

The DSU runs a real risk of following this embarrassing trend. But what is much more severe than the image of the DSU is the fact that they will be diverting energy, time, and resources into fighting a national campaign, which is already in full swing among

rival university groups, instead of focusing on the student specific issues that matter. You know, the actual functions of a Students’ Union: fighting astronomical accommodation fees and tackling rogue landlords, to name a couple. They must realise that they have as much influence on international relations as the housekeeper who puts a chocolate on Angela Merkel’s hotel room pillow at EU summits.

It’s no secret that the Durham Students’ Union are gunning to back ‘remain’, but the damage will be done whichever side they funnel our resources into. So it is for these reasons that I will be voting for the DSU to remain neutral. The role of a Students’ Union is to provide a forum for debate on political issues, not to stamp out the minority view.

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TheLynntyrannies of media representation Ng reflects on the “What British Muslims Really Think” survey Lynn Ng

Channel Four’s broadcast of “What British Muslims Really Think” has been nothing short of controversial, and while the reasons for this are saddening, it can also be interpreted as a blessing in disguise as it does reveal the problematic representations the media is giving the mass public.

At the same time it highlights that segregated groups, British Muslims in this case, are never passive in their subordination and instead actively contest it as best as they can within their restraints in unorganised, informal and everyday ways.

The large-scale poll was fraught with statistical manipulations and the results were deliberately selective from the beginning, intended to present an already biased picture of Muslims.

Little attention has been given to the problematic justification behind the domination of certain research methods, notably quantitative ones like questionnaires and surveys which were the basis for this poll.

This is not to say that these methods are problematic in themselves, but they lack a qualitative complement.

Thus it is easy to interpret this data in simplistic terms and come to untrue deductions about their norms and morals. In the first place, surveys only contain questions set by researchers which inevitably contain assumption-laden phrases, such as the question on why British Muslims seem to be “out of line with mainstream society”, which regardless of respondents’ answers, already implies that their morals are inferior.

It is such taken-for-granted and unquestioned or normative privilege that “White” Brits have in setting the larger frameworks for the narratives of “Others” that does not receive sufficient acknowledgement. This can be deceiving as we create the illusion that British Muslims are expressing their heartfelt opinions but the tyranny of this is disguised by the very planners of the poll. This methodology, from its inception, was designed as a sort of symbolic violence to maintain “White” dominance.

However, despite the above being said, I make a more contentious and perhaps unsettling argument that we ought to reconsider our own

complicit roles in perpetuating the continuous social marginalisation of British Muslims among others.

The issue is not as simple as surveys/polls being problematic and non-representative, but perhaps researchers from elite universities and press agencies like ourselves are unconsciously contributing to this hate effect.

Over the Easter break, an academic project I was involved in required me and a few group members to head out to Glasgow for a week to explore the lives of the Red Road community whose flats were demolished, and our focus was meant to be on how they contest the stigmatisation of public housing by the council.

During this process I came to the realisation that although our research endeavours, even those that strive to be qualitative and give our subjects a voice, are also prone to their own tyrannies, which is always going to be an obstacle.

Even participatory approaches like allowing our subjects to dictate the research agendas is fraught with ethical concerns, for the members of local communities who are available for such purposes are typically not the truly marginalised. Thus it is ironic that despite the amount of

time and effort we put into studying and theorising about those less fortunate than us, we never really stop to think about whether this attention we lavish on them might unintentionally contribute to their stigma.

We are, after all, unable to discuss certain populations, including British Muslims, in a way that does not evoke difference or dissent. It is woeful that no solution has been reached for this problem, for respondents themselves have expressed that often they do not even wish to participate in our projects, since from its inception we, not they, identify the research questions and justifications. This presents a contradiction to our “feel good” research, but the truth is that we are not the good guys here, and those who express that such polls only serve to heighten existing divisions between “us” and “them” are right in this sense.

It is regretful that we have to acknowledge that no matter how we reformulate our research, it tends to reflect our interests as those in power instead of those we intend to help.

As an Asian living in Britain, I might not be able to share the perspective of stigma that British Muslims have, however I do get a sense of where

they’re coming from when they make the argument that they are constantly being misrepresented.

The hype over how the poll was presented to the public only shows that blaming the methods used is itself deflecting attention from the heart of the matter, which is how these findings are used politically by the relevant agencies. Focusing on the positivist tendency of surveys and their reliance on the neutrality of numbers, if you will, is counterproductive to the interests of marginalised groups.

Rather than falling into the trap of binary thinking regarding surveys of Muslims, and assuming that they should not be done, perhaps we should strive for keeping the conditions for any real politics possible.

That would be the closest we can get to free democratic expression, and this entails the possibility for any type of views or opinions to be aired, surveys or not.

If Durham intends to conduct any such studies in the near future, it is hoped that their planners take such considerations into account before finalising any publications about them.

Should Palatinate be more politicised?

In order to prove its editorial independence and ensure its survival, Palatinate must politicise itself Jade Frances Azim

I understand the sentiment of Josh Smith’s editorial on defence of old school student media. For one, it is not lost on me that Palatinate did indeed report on the causes that I championed during my campaign for DSU President. I often have written for Palatinate, using it as a platform for the causes I hold dear, and the causes of my society. It is a great sounding board and has a decent reach.

But there is a point when this editorial gave off a slightly snobby feeling, that of a reluctance to see Palatinate’s weaknesses and where it could improve, and how it can compete with new media like, but not limited to, The Tab. This is a question that haunts old media across the land. The latest casualty to the ruins of new media

was the near century-old Independent, cannibalised by its more concise and digitalised sister, the ‘i’. Outlets that do not recognise the danger are doomed to fail. But the challenge is identifying and diagnosing the problem, and understanding why more and more readers are drawn to newer outlets.

I think the answer is that we demand more and more provocation. As much as we may slander and hold disdain for outlets such as The Tab, we continue to read them nevertheless. Their controversies go viral, and they reap the reward in hits, regardless of the comments section. The greatest difference between Palatinate and The Tab is not what issues they cover, or covering ‘the stories you care about’; it’s how they cover them.

Palatinate, and most student media, prides itself on its independence. It kicks against the grain and should stir provocation against the powerful, as its job entails. It is the

prime platform for holding all forms of authority within the University to account. Campus campaigns are kick-started there. It gives exposure to issues and at its best, its investigative journalists find secrets we were not meant to see. But it is not enough.

While its comment section is rife with opinions, some of which elicit controversies, Palatinate itself leaves the controversies to its writers; Palatinate itself - like many of its counterparts nationwide - refuses to hold explicit positions of its own.

In some ways, this is to maintain independence, but in others, it betrays it. There is little doubt that the editorial board holds opinions. Whether that be an opinion on a presidential candidate, on the University, on the DSU, or on a campaign, the editorial board are as opinionated as you or I. Trying to suppress this is a mistake.

And denigrating other boards for the same is not a proof of prestige or a vindication of independence, it is

evidence of the opposite.

Readers like opinions and they like debate, no more so than in University. The Sun, as much as I as a Labour activist disagree with it, is read so widely because it reflects the views of a certain segment of the population. People read it to nod along to its words and to share it with friends and families in disgruntled ‘have you seen this?’.

Palatinate, in rising above the fray, condemns itself to that grey area of not being controversial or provocative at all. It is a weakness, not a strength.

And we need provocation right now, and we need it from a respected outlet. The University is getting away with murder; many students feel the DSU is letting it. The NUS embroils itself in division, while the government legislates for more damage done to our education. No matter what side of the debate Palatinate takes - though I fear it being a voice of the ‘Establishment’- it is

vital that, as a united voice, it takes a side to begin with: dedicating its front pages to ‘Palatinate endorses…’ this campaign, or that candidate; running its own campaigns and using its power and circulation to rally support. It can be so much more if it lends itself a voice.

This is by no means me saying ‘golly God, I wish they endorsed me!’. I don’t care much for that. On the contrary, had it endorsed my rival, that would have made the campaign every bit more interesting, and would have forced me to be a better candidate. It is about getting the most out of accountability, and ensuring students are every bit as powerful as the forces of the University. Palatinate is a vital instrument in that.

In order to prove not just its independence, but also ensure its survival, Palatinate must politicise itself.

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Amelia McLoughlan: “the chick in the wheelchair.”

Lily Boulter Profile Editor In her own words, Amelia McLoughlan is known around Collingwood as “the chick in the wheelchair.” Instantly you have a picture of her in your head that screams disability.

As President of Students with Disabilities Association (SwDA), Amelia is fighting that image and the idea of disabled versus abled.

Amelia started her role last summer; her manifesto stressed the need for an active conversation and

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The classic retort to a bad ‘joke’ about disability is ‘well, they didn’t look disabled’. “IT IS NOT A THING”; Amelia is very clear on this.

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strategy for the total emergence of disabled students into university life.

“The Exec are going to stand up and speak out. We have a responsibil-

ity to keep SwDA going because not many people are willing or able to.

Who will speak out if I don’t?” Amelia asks.

Before her, Amelia told Palatinate how there was no Students with Disabilities Association. Amelia explains this was a result of students having medical issues and time off academia,. Instead she aimed to “create consistency through a bigger Exec, which has worked quite well this year.” Amelia spoke with such enthusiasm about her job. “One of the privileges is going to the NUS Disability Conference” she tells us.

“No one has to justify their disability or what they are.” Amelia also founded the Wheelchair Basketball Team.

It is a mixture of able bodied and disabled. “Disabled sport is such a community. For the first time everyone is equal.” Durham’s disabled sport as a whole is something Amelia spoke so passionately about. Her pride for our Wheelchair team and Gemma Collis, student and Paralympic Fencing Champion, is evident.

Having completed a foundation year at Queen’s Campus, Amelia has experience of being a disabled student at both Durham campuses.

Amelia would tell you that it is a very different experience; “The community there is close-knit, there are more disabled students per college and the small campus is more accessible.” However for Amelia, the biggest difference is in outlook. She continues, “In Durham City, there is a pressure to get involved. Queens, as a self-contained campus, does as much as it can and the students can be as involved as they want.” The

expectation to be involved in extracurricular is intense for anyone, disabled or able bodied. Along with the added pressures disabled students have to deal with in terms of access, this can make it unbearable. Amelia argues that accessibility is an issue for Durham as an institution. “People are either going up the road or down the road. Newcastle and Teesside are so much more accessible.”

Shockingly, she revealed that many disabled students cannot attend all their lectures or essay hand ins because of access issues.

Amelia argues access is not just a problem for disabled students. “Access has to be visible – everyone has to know where it is.” Disability does not discriminate in terms of ‘who’; people are affected directly and indirectly for example having family or friends who identify as disabled.

“Being in an environment that alienates this group is a lot more harmful than you initially think.” The classic retort to a bad ‘joke’ about disability is ‘well, they didn’t look disabled’.

“IT IS NOT A THING”; Amelia is very clear on this. 70% of disability is invisible. Amelia also spoke about the lack of people declaring. Whilst it has increased from 8% to 10% this year, Amelia believes there are a still a lot more undeclared, especially being an elite university. If access is more visible, attitudes will change and the environment will be one of acceptance for all.

The label ‘disabled’ was something Amelia kept coming back to in her campaign for inclusivity. “Disabled

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In Durham specifically, we sell a student experience. As Amelia aptly points out “you can’t sell an experience that only able bodied people can get.”

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students get the same marks and want to do the same things; they just have a different health profile or access requirements.”

The perception of being either disabled or able bodied is a binary in Durham. For instance, Amelia reveals that no one goes to the SwDA’s forums or events because “they don’t want to be associated with the disabled people.” In reality the line is not

Each college has a Students with Disabilites Representative.

Above is Collingwood’s campaign poster . If you are interested in getting inolved, contact your college of Aemlia via the Students with Disabilites Associaiton Facebook Page. so clear. At the moment, the SwDA make connections through people they know because most people are not actively seeking help or selfidentifying as disabled. Amelia is fighting this. “It is natural that people do not want to be the odd ones.”

However she argues that at Durham we need to make difference more visible and more accepted. At the moment, “there is a ‘Durham student profile’ and disability does not work with this.”

In Durham specifically, we sell a student experience. As Amelia aptly points out “you can’t sell an experience that only able bodied people can get.”

She compares attitudes at university and school towards something as common as dyslexia. Commonality doesn’t diminish the issue but you would expect it to normalise it. In fact at university, Amelia believes she has encountered open discrimination. She quotes an anecdote of dyslexic students being ‘caught out’ for clapping out of time in a drinking game resulting in the “deathly silence when they answer the question ‘are you dyslexic or something?’ with a ‘yes’.” This illustrates the ‘us vs them’ attitude that Amelia is trying to break down. At the moment she believes “if they’ll pass for normal, they’ll pass.”

Discrimination in institutions runs deep and not just in students. Amelia told controversial horror stories of students essentially being thrown out of university, which breaks the law. She told us of a widely reported story of a Cambridge student, who was suggested to go on leave without coming back despite being a top performer. Controversially Amelia says she can “understand why” the DSA cuts are proposed. However her fear is that in the past universities have used the DSA as an excuse not to take action themselves. Now there is no one to bring the gap. Neverthe-

less, Amelia does believe that our university have been “good at letting us come into meetings and speak with the Equality and Diversity department and the Estates and Buildings team.”

Lastly, her advice to people for talking about disability, “just don’t be an arsehole.” She says that people are so scared to be offensive but “you

can tell the difference between not knowing and people who are just arseholes.” If people want to know more, the SwDA are more than happy to educate.

A highly interesting and interested woman, Amelia will strike anyone who meets her as the perfect person to campaign on all our behalves for inclusivity.

Photographs: Facebook If you want to get involved with Profile, contact us at profile.editor@palatinate.org.uk or search us on Facebook.

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In conversation with Hunter Davies The author, broadcaster and The Sunday Times journalist Hunter Davies reflects upon college life at University College in the 1950s and his time as Palatinate Editor-in-Chief

Florianne Humphrey

Stash, Ents, quaddies, rogue SNK, wavy garms, good chat…Durham of today is, of course, more than just its slang, but it is a good place to start.

There is also the beautiful cathedral towering out of Palace Green, the steep, heart-attack inducing hills, the distant Hill colleges, the quaint Bailey colleges, the DSU monstrosity, the high-security library, the historical viaduct, and the tiny, intimate clubs. But how much has changed from Durham of the past?

If you ever need to prove to your parents that a university education is the key to success, use Hunter Davies as an example. Raised in an unheated, crowded council house in Carlisle, Davies is now an author and journalist for The Sunday Times, the New Statesman, and the Guardian, famous for being the only official biographer of the Beatles. His other works include children’s novels, a history of the Lake District, and the autobiographies of Wayne Rooney and Paul Gascoigne. In 2014, Davies was awarded an OBE for his services to literature. Not only is this an impressive list of achievements, but he is also a Durham alumni from the 1950s and a former editor of Palatinate. Davies’ new book, The Co-Op’s Got Bananas, is a memoir of his life growing up in the post-war North, including interesting and hilarious anecdotes of his time at Durham.

Think back to that moment when you logged onto the UCAS website: heart pounding, dry mouthed, worrying that, after hours spent mulling over your personal statement, Durham has decided to reject you.

For Davies, there was no such anticipation; in fact, he never even applied. His Carlisle grammar school suddenly announced he was going to Durham, making him one of the 4% who attended university in the 1950s. If that doesn’t make you feel disgruntled, not only was Davies free of the eternal burden of extortionate fees, but Durham even paid for his train fare from Carlisle.

Davies was a member of University College, also known as Castle. The college back then had the characteristics of a true castle, with servants, a butler, ‘bedders’ to make beds and clean rooms, and a buttery that sold groceries alongside sherry embossed with the coat of arms. However, despite this, Castle was far from its current ‘rah’ stereotype. The college – and the rest of Durham – was relatively unpopulated by public school students. In fact, almost everyone came from a middle class or working class background and, even more surprisingly, there wasn’t the mass exodus from London and the southern counties.

Most students were from the North or the Midlands, which meant Davies was never aware of class differences. Davies, from a working class background himself, says he cannot imagine how council estate comprehensive students feel now when they come to Durham. Of course, some things never change. There were still the Oxbridge rejects, says Davies, who moped around resentful for the first few weeks until they got used to the idea of studying at a ‘lesser’ university.

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Davies says that writing for Palatinate completley changed his career path

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Durham in the 1950s was far smaller, with only ten colleges and 1,500 students, including King’s College, located in Newcastle. Davies’ main qualm about the demographic was the low ratio of women to men.

Durham boys, be thankful that gender equality has led to over 50% female attendance. In the 1950s, five of you would have competed for one woman’s attention, not to mention the single-gender colleges and the strict visitation rules. In Mary’s, then an all-girls college, if a resident had a boy for tea she had to put her bed in the corridor and they had to leave by 6pm. One of Davies’ fondest memories involved inventively surpassing these regulations. When visiting his girlfriend in Oxford – whom he later married – he disguised himself as a woman to sneak out of her college.

If you feel guilty about skipping lectures for a lie-in or going to Klute five nights in a row, you are no different to your predecessors. As his professor was ‘as dead as his subject’, Davies admits to spending his first-year History degree ‘going to the Buffs’, which was the Buffalo Head pub on Saddler Street. His only attempt at societies was the rowing team, which he joined exclusively because the end of term dinner was ‘a total piss up.’ And Davies exceeded expectations, by getting so drunk that he threw an orange through the medieval stained glass window of the Great Hall.

Davies’ first year results led to a demotion from the more prestigious

Hunter Davies, OBE

honours school to the easier General Arts degree. This was when Davies had the epiphany familiar to most Durham students: that procrastination had to make way for productivity, or he would be kicked out of university for good. So, when his roommate quit his job as ad manager for Palatinate, Davies was quick to take up the position. This opened up the opportunity to be a full-time contributor and in 1957 he was made Editor-in-Chief.

Palatinate in the 1950s was under the control of Hatfield students, with the office located in the Editor’s college room. It was a slim volume of just five to eight pages, with a circulation of 500. There were obviously no high-tech Apple Macs, just one typewriter that he stole and took back to his college room. Davies’ initial articles were first-person satirical pieces called ‘A Life in the Day Of…’, where he adopted the persona of various student stereotypes.

For example, there was the private school rower who, with an arsenal

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Photograph: Charlotte Kn

Davies says he cannot imagine how council estate comprehensive students feel when they come to Durham now

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of bad language., described rowing, drinking, and vomiting his way through the day. Davies still uses the idea now in his column for the Sunday Times under the same name.

Davies says that writing for Palatinate completely changed his career path and was the best experience of journalism he has ever had. Palatinate gave Davies the freedom that does not exist in professional journalism because there were no worries about circulation, advertising, or rivalry and, as no one got pigeonholed, he could explore a wide variety of topics. Typical of humanities students, Davies thought he would become a teacher and never even considered journalism because he thought he wasn’t clever enough.

After blindly fumbling through his first year at Durham with no clear ambition or passion, Davies finally found something he loved doing at a university that gave him ‘elation, anticipation, and hope.’

Hunter Davies will be at the Durham Book Festival on Saturday 8th October to discuss his latest book ‘The Coop’s Got Bananas: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Post-War North.’

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Argentina’s fate serves as a rem

Third year Modern Languages student and former Palatinate Sport edit ing for the Argentine Cricket Association. Here, he talks about his time th Nick Friend

The last six months have been an eye-opener. You think of Argentina, you think football – Messi, Tevez, Maradona; you think food – beef, chimichurri perhaps; then you’ve got tango, the improving Pumas rugby team, Patagonia’s stunning glaciers and the almighty Iguazu Falls. Cricket though? Well, yes.

It would be easy to laugh at such a concept, given the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) apparent commitment to preventing expansion of its own sport.

Yet, it exists all right – and it thrives – albeit up against the gigantic arrogant barbed-wire obstacles erected by the ICC to fund the evercushy lifestyle of the BCCI and further increase the gap between full ICC members and its associate and affiliate friends.

Just seven years ago, competing in ICC World Cricket League Three alongside Afghanistan and Hong Kong – both of whom competed at this year’s Twenty20 World Cup, Argentina fell nineteen runs short against the Afghans.

Now the darlings of world cricket and flying the flag for the mistreated and neglected, pinup boy in-chief Mohammed Nabi, captain Asghar Stanikzai and head-banded opening bowler Hamid Hassan all featured at the Hurlingham Club in Buenos Aires in that crucial victory on Af-

ghanistan’s sojourn up the cricketing ladder.

Indeed, these are the minute margins on which seasons, livelihoods and careers are moulded. Nineteen measly runs. That, though, is sport.

What followed was a difficult period for Argentine cricket.

Relegation from Division Three was followed by similar falls from Divisions Four, Five and Six. And this is where it stops. Not because Argentina are languishing in World Cricket League Division Seven, but because there is no such thing.

Beneath Division Six lies a bottomless pit in which 71 of the 105 full, associate and affiliate members lie; clinging on for dear life, hoping beyond hope for a rope to be dangled down, for an opportunity to replicate the Afghan miracle.

Yet, as the sport’s Big Three get richer, so too do the rest get poorer.

The razzmatazz of the recent World T20, somehow, overshadowed the tournament’s shoddy planning and, frankly, abhorrent disdain for the associate nations.

The pre-Super-10 phase was a fitting tribute to an organisation whose interest in the game’s developing nations seems to diminish by the tournament.

Ireland, Oman, Scotland and the Netherlands all had their qualification fate decided for them by the rain, despite having qualified last year.

Attendances were nothing short of abysmal – perhaps not helped by the decision to begin sales less than

a week before the whole shebang began.

The ICC defended the pre-Super-10 phase, claiming it as part of the tournament proper.

Yet, the stats tell a different story.

The official tournament statistics ignored all wickets taken and runs scored in the less glamorous stage, preferring to present a Virat Kohliheaded list to the hundreds of millions of television viewers.

One of the main reasons for the ICC’s desire to remove associate nations from world events is the embarrassment caused by the one-sided maulings.

Once again though, the joke was on them.

Afghanistan were the only side to beat the eventual winners, the West Indies. South Africa couldn’t defend 229 against England and India were skittled for 79 by New Zealand in two displays so inept that even the most unproven of associate nations would have struggled to replicate them.

Meanwhile, runners-up England were perilously positioned at 85-7 against Nabi’s men, who also gave the South Africans an almighty scare.

The improving Bangladesh side

contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against the underwhelming Indians, and Mustafizur Rahman was unearthed as, by far and away, the best bowler of the tournament.

Ireland, so vocal in their desire for Test status, were humbled by little Oman – a Division Five side until three years ago.

What is amazing about all these stories is how, with even the schedulers against them, the little nations continue to thrill, continue to compete and continue to shock.

In reality, it appears that this is the big problem facing the associate nations today. Not their inferiority whipping-boy status, but the opposite.

As every giant-killing is egged on by neutral fans and raved about by broadcasters, each one hits the ICC like a dagger through an embarrassed heart – as if a proud parent watching his extensively coached child boxer getting knocked down by the raw streetfighter.

Their absence from future World Cups is, essentially, a punishment for spoiling the rich kids’ party.

In Argentina, cricket is far from the national sport of a country infatuated by competition and riddled with sport-obsessed youngsters; packed full of all the hand-eye coordination that so many of us Brits lack.

Football will always reign supreme and no number of runs or wickets will ever change that.

Rugby too, driven by the Pumas’ success at last year’s World Cup and the Jaguars’ addition to the Southern Hemisphere’s Super Rugby league, is providing yet another barrier to cricket.

Yet, in recent years, the two have learnt to coexist.

National captain and keeper Alejandro Ferguson played for the Pumas age-group teams until he was nineteen and Belgrano Athletic Club, the country’s biggest amateur rugby club, share their facilities with the national cricket ground.

The ground is a central hub for the sport, with a strong crop of genuinely talented young cricketers coming up through the ranks and into the club’s first team.

Pablo Ferguson, brother of the national skipper, leads the side featur-

19

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th May 2016

Sport

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minder of shameful ICC neglect

tor Nick Friend spent his year abroad in Argentina, coaching and workthere and the ICC’s attitude towards its associate and affiliate members.

and Tom Humphries of ICC Americas who, for all of their time and efforts, are puppets whose strings are being ever tightened.

Imagine, though, what could be done with a rational and fair budget!

Since its conception in 1995, Argentina have dominated the South American Championships, winning the tournament on eight of the twelve occasions of its hosting.

The level of the elite players, I am

“

It is undeniable that Argentine cricket is bursting with tradition.

“

ing several players in the elite players’ pool.

In head coach Daniel Sutton, Martin Siri, Lautaro Musiani, Lucas Paterlini, Esteban MacDermott amongst many others, Argentine cricket boasts some fantastic talent – all of whom can claim to having shared a pitch with England’s Darren Maddy and new MCC coach Steve Kirby as well as Messrs Nabi, Hassan, Stanikzai and Shenwari of Afghanistan.

New Zealand’s heralded coach Mike Hesson, too, honed his coaching methods as Argentina’s head coach, while the annual 3-day game – now in its 117th consecutive year and pre-dating the Ashes – continues to hold great significance in the cricketing calendar.

With a Uruguayan side coming over in 2018 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the continent’s first ever game between the two countries, it is undeniable that Argentine cricket is bursting with tradition.

And this is why the current predicament is so farcical.

Vanuatu, Botswana, Guernsey and the Phillipines – all of whom find themselves ranked above Argentina, would kill for a history as rich and fruitful.

Argentina haven’t even played since 2014, such is the ICC’s lack of interest in looking after the schedules of its developing members.

Tradition appears to count for nothing when it comes to maintaining the glory of the game outside of the world’s elite.

In the entire country, there are six astro-turf wickets and two grass squares.

Batsmen routinely hand their bat over to a teammate after being dismissed.

This image paints a grossly inaccurate and lopsided view of the country’s cricketing community. It is, and has long been, built on the wealthy classes, who discover the game as part of the English curriculum at their bilingual private schools.

Yet, this goes well beyond the point at hand.

Over the next seven years, the ICC are due to rake in $2.5billion in profit, with $586million of that going straight into the BCCI’s pocket.

Simply, it is a farce that verges on the fraudulent, especially when you consider that just 9.75% of the overall takings between now and 2023 will be shared amongst all 93 associate nations.

A five-minute highlights reel of the World Twenty20 proves that there is immense talent amongst the developing nations – and on the most meagre of ICC rations, even with the best efforts of both Wade Edwards

happy to admit, massively shocked me.

For, with the ICC’s total lack of promotion of the game outside of its money-spinning televised extravaganzas, how was I to know?

So strong are the Argentines in comparison, they now only send a development side.

Despite this, they crushed Brazil by eight wickets in last October’s final, chasing 135 with 5.4 over so spare.

All of this proves that the on-field

future is bright.

What goes on in the background, in offices thousands of miles away from the rough and tumble of beautiful Buenos Aires, is less obvious.

Funding for the associate nations is on the down and opportunity for international progress is at an alltime low.

What will not change though is the passion, competition and love of the game that makes Argentine cricket so unique.

I am immensely proud to say that

Photograph: Nick Friendw I was there and that I worked with and for some tremendous people in the most fantastic of countries. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

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Cricket in Argentina

Former Sport Editor Nick Friend gives an enlightening first-hand account of the rise of cricket in Argentina by exposing the embarrassing lack of finance that the sport receives in South America’s footballing hotbed.

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Durham denied Varsity hat-trick over Loughborough Matt Roberts Deputy Sport Editor

St Aidan’s College Boat Club won the inaugural Formula Rowing race in Stockton in late February.

Photograph: Ellis Wilkins

Formula Rowing: Turning Circles and Heads

Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor On the 27th February, Durham University launched a new sport Formula Rowing is a new spectator-orientated format of rowing, opening the next exciting chapter of a sport steeped in tradition.

The concept has received the goahead from the Northern Rowing Council and will be open to all when it takes to the water again on the 19th June.

The company’s whimsical #WeRowInCircles disguises some very serious technological and psychological changes to the sport.

Revolutionary patented steering does away with conventional rudders, replacing them with active surfaces similar to those used on fighter jets.

This allows racing boats to turn faster and more safely than ever before, creating an arena not witnessed since the last chariot race in ancient times.

There’s no more running down

the bank to cheer on your mates; everyone has the best seat in the house.

Formula Rowing hosted its first race on a cold Saturday on the 27th February in Stockton, seeing 90 athletes compete on the first circular rowing water track in the UK. St Aidan’s College Boat Club (SACBC) won the day, clinching both the men’s and the women’s races.

Starting in pole position for the men and in second for the women, they were driven to victory by their coxswain Patrick Alton, who executed four nail-biting overtakes.

In the men’s race coming back from third place at the end of the first lap, SACBC looks set to be the college to beat at the Formula Rowing Open, which will be held on the 19th June.

Formula Rowing also allows spectators to get closer to the action, as live camera feeds are beamed to audiences, capturing every cox, corner and cut up.

Bringing action and data normally lost to distance to the palm of the hand, colleges and crews can be followed from anywhere in the world.

Formula Rowing’s Proof of Con-

cept event last term was an overwhelming success.

Despite its introduction at the end of the season, 95% of participants polled enjoyed the day, saying it was more enjoyable than other formats they had seen before.

Formula Rowing fills the gap between sportsmen and athletes in a sport where the pursuit of perfection prevails.

Conceived by Dr. Benedict Douglas (lecturer in Law) and developed by friends at St John’s College Boat Club, the company is Durham University’s first sport spin-off company.

The idea won the Durham Blueprint Enterprise Challenge last year and has since been shrouded in secrecy whilst the idea was finalised and patented, supported by the northern rowing community and guided by the University.

A year later and still run by a Durham student (Tom Rowan - Engineering PhD student), the company is expanding rapidly and taking on more Durham students to bolster its ranks.

Although firmly rooted in the

North East, Formula Rowing is becoming increasingly national.

The great sporting presence that, for many, is at the very heart of Durham, has nurtured Formula Rowing.

Backed by significant support and advice from the University, there are high hopes that Formula Rowing will be the next global British sporting export, whilst retaining its historical Durham roots.

Kieran Moriarty was speaking to Formula Rowing pioneer Tom Rowan.

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For the first time this season, Durham failed to beat Loughborough University in a day of Varsity action, succumbing 5-2 to their East Midlands rivals last Saturday at Maiden Castle.

While the previous two competitions had involved the two BUCS powerhouses facing off in Premiership fixtures, last Saturday’s event pitted Durham’s colleges against Loughborough’s halls of residence.

Durham, having beaten Loughborough 13-2 and 8.5-7.5 earlier in the year, came into the day looking to complete a trio of wins.

However in this shortened, college format, Loughborough proved too strong.

The hosts lost all four men’s fixtures with only Hild Bede’s impressive netball side and Aidan’s women’s hockey players earning Durham some points, in respective 56-24 and 4-3 victories.

Defeat for Durham means the Palatinates have now lost each of their College Varsity events of 2016, with Saturday’s setback coming two months after a first ever loss to York back in February.

Nevertheless, College Sport Coordinator Sophie Bingham remained upbeat: “I was really impressed with the efforts put in by all the Durham sides on the first weekend of the final term and with exams looming”.

‘This was the first event of its kind and we want to see it grow to the scale of York Varsity”.

“We hope to travel there next year and look forward to adding women’s football and rugby, both of which are real strengths of our programme”.

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