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PA L A T I N A TE

Freshers greeted by chaos

Students stressed and confused by poor organisation

Nicole Wu Editor-in-Chief

During Freshers’ Week this year, freshers were greeted to Durham with a host of administrative and welfare issues. Confusion regarding the number of freshers arriving in Durham put pressure on a number of college’s Freshers’ Representative Commi ees (freps) as well as college staff and caterers.

The University made the decision to reopen Riverside accommodation on the main site of Hild Bede College less than two weeks before Freshers’ Week began. In a message from the Hild Bede SCR President, freps were told “we’re looking at a potential 160 extra students, and with that, some very significant challenges around how we run the week.”

In light of this news, the Hild Bede frep team made the decision to a empt recruiting 10-15 lastminute freps in order to manage the increase in numbers. They were also required to restructure Freshers’ Week in preparation for the entire Caedmon complex to reopen including the bar, hall and dining rooms.

Due to increased numbers of students, the University also chose to open other college’s rooms which were intended to be closed for this academic year in order to carry out maintenance. 36 of the 90 rooms in Deerness Block at Van Mildert College were scheduled to be unoccupied but these plans have since been postponed and the rooms have been allocated to incoming students.

The University responded: “We made the decision in early September to re-open some accommodation on the Hild Bede Riverside site, in order to ensure that all first-year undergraduate

students who wanted to were able to benefit from living in Collegemanaged accommodation in Durham City, having experienced an exceptionally high demand for University accommodation.”

“The Hild Bede college community responded brilliantly to enable the accommodation to be made ready at short notice, and to prepare to welcome additional numbers of freshers to the College.”

Upon arrival at Durham, many students experienced administrative issues, including extensive delays for students receiving campus cards. Typically, students are able to collect their campus cards and finish enrolment after move-in day; in many cases it took the whole week this year for freshers to receive their campus cards. This caused stress and confusion amongst students, with one first-year remarking: “I have my first induction lecture on Tuesday and don’t even know how I’ll be able to get into the department building without a campus card.”

In an email sent out on Tuesday 27th September, three full days after freshers had moved into college, an email sent to students at Van Mildert College said “We know that many of you are still waiting for your campus cards and we’re working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible with CIS and Student Registry.”

Some students were asked to move rooms mid-Freshers’ Week to a completely new college after already moving into a collegeallocated room with all their belongings. A student who was told to move from St Aidan’s College to Van Mildert College described the process as “disorientating” as they felt left out of their corridor’s

Overworked and underpaid: plight of Durham’s Postgraduate Researchers

Waseem Mohamed News Editor

From leading seminars to marking first-year essays, Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) form the backbone of Durham University’s teaching provision. Even though they face the additional challenge of balancing their teaching duties with a full-time degree, many PGRs are extraordinarily passionate about their work, and without them the University would likely cease to function.

However, a recent Palatinate investigation has uncovered a series of issues surrounding the working conditions of PGRs. Over the past few months, several PGRs from a range of

departments have anonymously reached out to the paper to reveal their individual experiences with working conditions, and the consequences this is having on their own wellbeing.

Some PGRs reported issues with their contracts, such as the use of casual contracts instead of fixed-term employment contracts - a practice the University said it would review back in 2020.

Many PGRs also said that their required workloads means that much of their work often goes unpaid, as their contracted hours do not reflect the time that PGRs actually need to prepare for their teaching duties.

PGRs also mentioned a multitude of administrative problems within their

departments. Some PGRs have dealt with their pay being delivered considerably late, and several departments have had problems with communications to PGRs. While there are signs that some improvements to overall working conditions have been made, every PGR who spoke to Palatinate reported large issues with their current employment.

A University spokesperson said that Durham values “the work that our PGRs undertake in the University on teaching and related work.” The University says that they are taking steps to improve conditions for PGRs, such as holding a monthly meeting with representatives from the University

PALATINATE INVESTIGATION

St Mary’s College freps line the way as freshers make their way to matriculation (Laura Murphy)

Welcome to real Durham

Durham University gets by on its reputation. The University survives by concealing itself in darkened cloaks of historical traditions and archaic rules. Upon the gilded throne of supposed elitism is where Durham must remain if it is able to maintain its prestige, honour and - most importantly - its wealth.

Durham presents a delightful picture to prospective students: before joining, the city is picturesque and idyllic. Reaching its worn, cobbled streets, students are hit with a very different reality. We reported in our last edition that this year’s incoming freshers have been hit by extensive delays to being assigned college accommodation, some students received their room licence fewer than eight days before they were supposed to move to Durham. Due to what the University describes as “exceptionally high demand,” there was a mad panic from the University to reopen Hild Bede at the beginning of September which included reinstating staff and caterers, organising more freps and sorting rooms.

These types of issues are not unique at all in Durham, the last two years have been exceptional in terms of the amount of administrative

delays and continued lack of support from the University from both a current student and incoming fresher perspective. I remember being outraged by the lack of phone number or contact details on results day in 2020 when my algorithm grades failed to result in a place at Durham. After two years and a global pandemic, nothing has changed - there is still not a phone number or email address that you can access as an incoming student to this University. How long can the University continue to blame the effects of the pandemic or other ‘unexpected’ situations?

to 2am for no pay, and in some cases no provided food either?

The outdated culture at Durham manages to permeate through each new batch of freshers. Again, it will come as no shock to any students here that racist, homophobic and sexist slurs were scribbled onto freshers’ T-shirts at a Freshers Week event this year. Instead of commenting on what steps the University may take to protect and prevent Freshers being exposed to offensive slurs, the University instead chose to focus on “Welcome and Orientation Week [as] an overwhelmingly positive time.”

As a Person of Colour myself, I experienced my first tangible racism in my first term at Durham - this came from a member of staff with a duty of care to students who remarked that “my English was good” and that I “looked pre y for someone foreign.” In this city, you do not have to search to find similar stories of abuse based on identity or background.

from Rod Liddle’s appearance at the Christmas formal? I would consider this far beyond the deadline of mid-January. As we’ve reached the second week of term, housing contracts will have suddenly begun for all students looking for next year’s accommodation. Durham has one of the most frantic competitions for any accommodation, regardless of college-organised or private. First-year students will have barely moved on from induction lectures and meeting new people in their block before they are suddenly thrust into the mad dash for accommodation next year. It’s already abundantly clear that in the coming years, anyone who hasn’t turned up preprepared, or has the money, will be immediately priced out of Durham accommodation.

Nicole Wu Editor-in-Chief

Freshers’ Week at Durham is so heavily intertwined into the reputation of Durham’s college system and frepping that we now fail to question its legitimacy: where else would condone mostly 19-year-olds working non-stop from 7am

It is disheartening and frustrating that incoming students will likely be exposed to their version of my story in these first few weeks. It is further maddening that the University will often gloss over these issues or chalk them up to outside organisations. Where is the report of the investigation

Editors-in-Chief

Joe Rossiter & Nicole Wu editor@palatinate.org.uk

Deputy Editors

Elle Fitzgerald-Tesh & Adeline Zhao deputy.editor@palatinate.org.uk

News Editors

Daniel Hodgson, Emily Doughty & Waseem Mohamed news@palatinate.org.uk

News Reporters

Charis Lim, Anna Calzada, Freddie Corrin, Holly Barry, Katie Keillor, Nina Bu erfield, Paul Ray, Louisa Barlow & Tiffany Chan

Investigations Editors

Frank Kelly & Emily Lipscombe investigations@palatinate.org.uk

Satire Editors

Sascha LO & Rory Cronin satire@palatinate.org.uk

Comment Editors

Josie Lockwood & Josie Sherman comment@palatinate.org.uk

Deputy Comment Editors

Holly Downes & Duru Akin

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Christian Vince & Arjun Seth profile@palatinate.org.uk

Science & Technology Editors

Cameron McAllister, Patrick Stephens & Will Brown scitech@palatinate.org.uk

Politics Editors

Madeleine Ballay & Jacob Cousens politics@palatinate.org.uk

Deputy Politics Editor

Sebastian Braw-Smith

Puzzles Editor

Sophie Sherra puzzles@palatinate.org.uk

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Oliver Jervis & Sanjay Suri sport@palatinate.org.uk

Deputy Sport Editors

Maddie Parker & Joe Harston

Indigo Editors

Samuel Lopes & Miriam Mitchell indigo@palatinate.org.uk

Deputy Indigo Editor

Melissa Rumbold

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Isobel Tighe & Roshni Suresh Babu features@palatinate.org.uk

Creative Writing Editors

Ella Al-Khalil Coyle & Elizabeth Buckley creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk

Deputy Creative Writing Editor

Theo Mudhir

Stage Editor Alexa Thanni stage@palatinate.org.uk

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Cameron Beech & James MacFarlane visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk

Books Editors

Ruhee Parelkar & Annie Pickup books@palatinate.org.uk

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Agnes Shu & Caitlin Ball fashion@palatinate.org.uk

Food & Drink Editors

Millie Adams & Eve Kirman food@palatinate.org.uk

Travel Editors

Lydia Doye & Lily Lake travel@palatinate.org.uk

Film & TV Editors

Charlo e Grimwade & Alice Purves film@palatinate.org.uk

Music Editors

Annabelle Bulag & Tom Benns music@palatinate.org.uk

Interview Editors

Lara Moamar & Emilia Williams indigo.interview@palatinate.org.uk

Becke

Thomas Tomlinson &

Rosie Bromiley,

Freshers were exposed to racist, sexist and offensive comments

Continued from front activities and chose to continue to participate in the Freshers’ Week events at St Aidan’s College instead of opting to purchase a brand-new Freshers’ Week event ticket for Van Mildert events too.

The University responded to these issues “Due to the exception ally high demand for University accommodation, there were delays with the college allocation and reg istration processes affecting some students.

“We are also aware that there have been some problems with students not receiving their cam pus cards is a timely fashion. We are sorry for the frustration and inconvenience this has caused and have been working hard to resolve these issues both for current stu

dents and for next year.”

During Freshers’ Week, one of the organised events at St Cuth bert’s Society had reports of “racial ly, sexually, and politically offen sive comments” being drawn onto students’ shirts during a white teeshirt party.

In an email to all St Cuthbert students, the college’s Vice-Prin cipal, Dr Jon Warren described be ing “shocked and disappointed” by the reports. The email continued, “This is unacceptable, our commu nity does not tolerate discrimina tion in any form.

“Any incident of this kind will be taken with the utmost seriousness and a misconduct investigation will be carried out. Any student found to have commi ed discrimi natory acts will be subject to disci

plinary sanctions. Such sanctions can include being asked to leave college and expulsion from the University.”

A Durham University spokes person said: “Welcome and Ori entation Week has been an over whelmingly positive time for our new students, and for the Univer sity as a whole. The University ar rival period, which includes the Welcome and orientating Week, saw the arrival of some 7000 new undergraduate and postgraduate students to Durham.

“Over arrivals, College staff and Frep teams gave a splendid wel come to the Durham community, and much positive feedback was received about the overall welcome experience from parents and stu dents alike.”

Chad’s students left without hot water after temporary heating system overwhelmed

Emily Doughty News Editor

Students living at St Chad’s College have experienced issues with water temperature and supply at the college.

In an email to students, the Finance and Operations Director of St Chad’s College said that the temporary heating facilities which had been used while the boilers were being replaced as part of a “major project”, “had not proved to be sufficient for the demand” in the days leading up to the email.

However people living in college who spoke to Palatinate have said that the issues with water supply and heating had predated this, with them saying that the issues started from arrival.

In a statement to Palatinate, Alastair Jenkins, said “We began major works this summer and made both new and returning students aware that there might be an initial period of disruption as this project neared completion.

“As part of these planned works a further issue was identified with the provision of hot water to a small number of showers in a particular part of the Main College building.

“Having consulted with our students, we quickly brought forward work to switch to a new hot water supply on Monday 3 October. This caused disruption to supplies for most of that day.

“We informed students where they could find alternative shower facilities until the water could be reinstated. We also provided bo led water in the morning and further supplies were freely available throughout the day.

“A further small issue was resolved on Tuesday 4 October and hot water was fully available by 11am that day.

“We apologise to students for any inconvenience caused and thank them for their patience as we continue to invest significantly in improving our facilities for the long-term benefit of all our students.

Durham and Teesside Universities announce joint £11m hydrogen decarbonisation project

Paul Ray News Reporter

Durham University has announced a collaborative project with Teesside University, which aims to use hydrogen innovation to aid in the decarbonisation of the Tees Valley region.

The development project, which is worth £11 million and will last four years, is led by Teesside University with the Durham University’s Energy Institute (DEI) providing research expertise.

The project aims to combine the research strengths of both universities to work together with industrial partners to identify challenges facing the region and how to overcome them, both with industrial issues and policy barriers this technology faces.

It will also include outreach and engagement programmes to local

primary and secondary schools to promote opportunities within the hydrogen sector.

Tees Valley currently produces 50% of the UK’s hydrogen, with professional services company KPMG suggesting that the industry could add up to £7 billion to the Tees Valley economy and create up to a 1000 jobs by 2050 if the technology is harnessed correctly.

The project received £4.8 million in funding from the Research England Development fund, part of UK Research and Innovation. The rest was funded by the universities themselves, and Industrial partners.

Professor Roskilly said, “We are very excited to be working closely with industry and the Tees Valley community to see them benefit from environmental, economic, and social opportunities that a hydrogen economy could deliver.

“This project builds on our existing industrial decarbonisation collaboration with colleagues in Teesside and provides the opportunity to directly stimulate innovation through a cohort of industrial and social research fellows.”

Colin Bain, the Pro-ViceChancellor for (research) at Durham University, echoed the excitement saying “Durham Energy Institute has an active portfolio of technical and social science research which brings together hydrogen expertise from across the University to drive innovation through the supply chain and tackle social, market and regulatory barriers.

“This project is another good example of the universities of the North-East working together to tackle regional and national challenges.”

One student who spoke to Palatinate said “At the price we pay for College provided student accommodation in Durham this has been frankly ridiculous, I’ve had maybe one hot shower during the week and a half I’ve been here. The rest of the time it’s been a mixture of low pressure lukewarm water or no hot water at all.

“They’ve had the entire summer to sort out any issues with hot water but instead of ge ing it sorted for us long term tenants when it was convenient, they prioritised making the facilities available for weddings and shifted the burden on to students to save money.”

The impact of this situation has also impacted some students’ experiences, with another student saying that “It has been really difficult se ling into college when I’m constantly worrying about how cold I am and how hard it is to properly shower at these temperatures.”

Alternative toilet and shower facilities were provided for those in the Main College Building, the accommodation impacted by these issues, during the replacement of the boilers last week.

However, the students Palatinate spoke to also said that the alternative arrangements offered during the period when no water facilities were available were not signposted to them from their arrival.

“The College does not prioritise its commercial business over students. Funds from our commercial activities are ploughed back into funding improvement works to ensure that our facilities continue to be of a high standard.”

Ma Moran, JCR President at St Chad’s College echoed this message, saying: “I believe Chad’s College has kept me as informed and involved in the decision making about these works as possible. As soon as we realised the works to resolve this issue could be an option I was asked for my view and I consulted other students.

“The staff team do an amazing job looking after our beautiful buildings, but dealing with old buildings often comes with challenges. This was something that had to be done and I believe College handled it in the best way possible.”

I’m constantly worrying about how cold I am

We continue to invest significantly in improving our facilities

Students enjoying a Freshers’ Week event at Grey College (Adeline Zhao)

From late pay to admin woes, PGRs describe

Continued from front and College Union (UCU) to deal with issues with pay and contracts.

This is not the first time the University has made a statement over working conditions. Following a claim submi ed by the UCU regarding casual work in February 2020, the University and UCU signed a joint agreement which pledged to review and act upon issues related to casualisation.

However, this investigation suggests that li le progress has been made since that agreement was signed some two-and-a-half years ago.

Casual Contracts

In the joint agreement, the University also said it would “proactively monitor and manage the use” of such contracts.

However, one PGR from the Modern Languages and Cultures (MLAC) department explicitly told Palatinate that staff are given casualised contracts from the University instead of proper parttime employment contracts, which is “contrary to what was agreed during the relevant dispute between employers and the Union.”

Palatinate has learned that several departments do not offer employment contracts as expected by the University’s Human Resources (HR) guidance. The MLAC, Biosciences and Music departments continue to offer casual contracts, while until recently, PGRs in the Maths, Physics and Engineering departments were not issued wri en contracts at all.

they were changing my contract retrospectively.”

After raising the issue with the University and with support from the UCU, the PGR said they had been given a full apology for the contract error.

Not Enough Hours

As part of their role, PGRs may be expected to prepare materials for all their seminars and lectures that they teach, as well as mark hundreds of first-year undergraduate essays and conduct some administrative tasks, like sending emails to students.

In the joint agreement, Durham stressed that “everyone engaged at the University must be fairly paid for all work that they are required to undertake,” with the University’s own HR advice stating that “all work reasonably required to be undertaken must be paid for.”

However, PGRs across several departments say that this is not the case, since their contracted hours for which they are paid do not in fact come close to covering the actual time PGRs need to perform their duties.

One PGR in the Geography department, for example, was required to mark 400 essays last academic year paid at a rate of £7 per essay, provided that they could stick to the time limits given in their contract.

However, the PGR says that “to do a good job, we often have to work way over the times allo ed to us, which means we either end up having to give our teaching duties and marking less a ention than they deserve, or work for free.”

In the English department, PGRs were recently offered to be paid for hosting their weekly office hours in an improvement to their contracts (This has not been applied to all departments). Despite this, a PGR from the department explained that other administrative tasks that are equally important remain unpaid:

Administrative Problems

Unions have long campaigned to an end of casualisation at UK universities, as workers on casual contracts are more vulnerable to job insecurity and poorer pay conditions. During the wave of UCU strikes last year, staff called on the University to resolve casualisation as part of its “Four Fights” campaign.

One PGR from the Music department is all too familiar with contract issues: “The original contract I received did not include the full workload I had agreed with academic staff, and the next one I received also had the workload of another PGR of the same name on it.”

After being issued the correct contract on the third a empt, the PGR was then left confused when they found that, having completed their contracted teaching duties in February this year, “I was sent a le er to sign to release me from my contract (which was actually due to end in June). Although they had already paid me the full amount owed, I felt confused as to why

“TAs are still not paid for teaching administration and communication with students. Every student email I write is unpaid work, as is the administrative work that formative essays and feedback sessions entail.”

Several PGRs highlighted that the time they are allocated to prepare for seminars and lectures is not enough, which means that a lot of their preparation time goes unpaid. In the English department for example: “TAs are paid one hour of preparation for the first group and half an hour for any additional groups per tutorial. This is already tight for experienced TAs who have teaching materials in place from previous years and/or teach various groups, but it is simply not enough for new TAs who have to prepare their teaching materials from scratch.”

A PGR from the Music department described how “for a lecture, I am expected to spend 5 hours preparing materials, and that is what I have been paid for, however it always takes at least 8-10 hours to prepare this. Likewise with seminars, I am expected to take 1 hour to prepare, but it usually takes 2-5 hours.”

On top of the pressures PGRs face with precarious contracts and pay conditions, many who spoke to Palatinate described personal ordeals which they had to spend several hours dealing with as a result of administrative errors by the University.

The PGR also described having “loads of issues with my pay being wrong (at one point Durham owed me literally hundreds of pounds, which took months to resolve),” and suggested that the issue is “endemic” within the University.

During the recent summer break, several PGRs took to Twi er to criticise the University over late pay issues, after many found that they did not get paid for their work at this year’s Summer Schools on time.

There have also been problems with communication between PGRs and some departments which has allowed for further administrative issues with contracts to occur.

A PGR in the Computer Science department said that while their experience in the department is “essentially good,” issues do remain which “largely stem from miscommunication.”

said that “there is no clear procedure to determine how PG teaching hours are allocated. We don’t know who is ge ing what, nor under which criteria. We don’t even know who to contact and when to provide our availability for teaching.”

Worth the effort?

The PGRs who reached out to Palatinate were unanimous in saying that they had experienced problems with their working conditions in their respective departments, but some were keen to mention that despite these issues, they remain enthusiastic about their research and teaching.

PGRs routinely experience issues with being paid later than planned. A PGR from the Geography department explained how “When we sign up to teach on a module there are often significant delays to our contracts being issued,” and in their case, the PGR was not given their first paycheque until December last year, even though they started teaching a module from

Issues included PGRs “not being properly briefed by lecturers,” issues with pay progression with contracts and “the absence of renewed contracts” for continuing PGRs.

The Computer Science department is now in the process of creating a postgraduate “Demonstrator Representative” role to avoid these issues from occurring in the future.

Similar issues with communication were reported in the MLAC department, where a PGR

However, in light of the cost-ofliving crisis, when PGR budgets will be squeezed even further, some have started to question if the additional effort of teaching represents value for money. One PGR said that they “absolutely love teaching undergrads but I am considering whether it is even worth the stress,” this year.

Another PGR, who is self-funded, said that they have “cried at least once a year because I found myself in a financial situation where I didn’t know if I would be able to afford to continue the PhD for the next year,” and said that the time they spend on securing short-term grants and jobs to keep them afloat has impacted the progress of his PhD research.

Postgraduate Teaching Assistants are being urged to vote in favour of UCU strike action in the current ba October that year.

I felt confused as to why they were changing my contract

To do a good job, we often have to work way over the times alloted to us

work conditions

Last month, the Postgraduate branch of the Durham UCU launched their online presence through Twi er and have increasingly put pressure on the University to resolve some of the problems with working conditions. They are also encouraging PGRs to vote in favour of strike action in the current round of UCU ballots, which will close on 21st October.

The revelations about postgraduate working conditions comes after the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) body and Durham University announced that they would increase the minimum stipend for postgraduate researchers by an additional 10%, which is on top of the previously announced 3% rise to the stipend.

Over 15,000 signed an open le er calling for the UKRI to “immediately raise doctoral stipends in line with current levels of inflation and protect current and incoming PGRs from the rising cost of living,” although some postgraduates already want the UKRI to review the next increase to the stipend sooner in the coming year.

On the issue of working conditions, a Durham University spokesperson said: “In 2020 the University launched Casual Working Principles in partnership with UCU. This includes an employment relationship as a default for work

undertaken in the University, pay in accordance with the University pay-scales and agreed guidelines as to how tasks such as marking exam papers should be paid.

“We continue to work with UCU to ensure that these principles are applied consistently throughout the organisation and to tackle any issues when they are raised with us. A full review of the Casuals Process is being undertaken with stakeholders from across the university including PGRs and representatives from UCU involved. Monthly meetings with a UCU representative are held to ensure any issues with pay and contracts are picked up and dealt with in a timely manner.

On the stipend, Durham said that “The UKRI minimum stipend is being implemented for all PhD students in receipt of stipends from Durham University,” and they believe that the 13% increase is ahead of current inflation and “should give PGR students reassurance that they will be able to cope financially this year.”

Local hospital trust’s autism care rated “inadequate” following CQC inspection

Daniel Hodgson News Editor

A health trust has been told to improve care for people with autism and learning disabilities at two hospitals specialising in mental health.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected Lanchester Road Hospital in Durham in May and found it was inadequately staffed. The damning report found that staff “didn’t always understand how to protect people from poor care and abuse.”

The CQC said that inspections took place over the course of three weeks after a whistleblower raised concerns about staffing levels at Lanchester Road. Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust said it was disappointed by the findings.

Inspectors found staff did not receive the right training to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs, with training in learning disabilities, autism and alternative communication methods not mandatory for all staff

During the previous inspection in 2019, the care of people with a learning disability or autism was rated good but is now inadequate overall, inspectors said. The trust’s overall rating remains as requires improvement. Karen Knapton, CQC head of hospital inspection, said there had been a “significant deterioration in standards of care” at Lanchester Road.

She said: “We found some people didn’t have the opportunity to lead inclusive and empowered lives due to overly restrictive practice on both sites, which must be addressed as a priority to keep people safe.

“It was concerning that Lanchester Road had insufficient, appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs, due to high levels of vacancies and staff sickness.”

The second site inspected was at Bankfields Court in Middlesbrough, where the report found that some staff were not properly trained in restraining patients, which resulted in injuries.

A damning indictment of the decline of our health service

They also found staff did not always provide kind and compassionate care or protect and respect people’s privacy and some people were staying in hospital for too long with no clear plans in place to support them to return home or move to a community se ing.

Ms Knapton added that inspectors were concerned that Lanchester Road’s recent records revealed three people were injured while being restrained and 32 incidents where healthcare assistants were injured when carrying out restraints.

However, the CQC did find that some people’s care and support plans did meet their needs. She said Trust services would be monitored closely.

A spokeswoman for the hospital trust said: “Given the previous good ratings for this service this is clearly disappointing.

“We are commi ed to improving the experience for patients in our care and we are delivering an urgent action plan that is already showing we are making improvements.

“We immediately commissioned an independent peer review into the service after the inspection

in May and acted swiftly on its recommendations.

Durham MP Mary Foy reacted to the findings by saying: “It is incredibly concerning that Lanchester Road Hospital has been rated as ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission. The report makes clear that wards for people with a learning disability or autism fall well below the expected standards in support, care and culture.

“I have requested urgent meetings with both Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust, and the CQC Investigations team who conducted the review.

“That the service at Lanchester Road did not have sufficient, appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe are a damning indictment of the managed decline of our health service.

“I will be raising the report and its findings with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and local NHS leaders urgently and I would urge any constituents with concerns to contact me without hesitation.

“I know patients, their families and my constituents in the City of Durham will share my view that this report is unaccePGRble and that significant changes are needed to ensure the Trust delivers consistently good and safe levels of care across the service.”

Foy has since met with the chief executive of Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS trust last week. She said: “Mental health services are failing County Durham residents across the board.

“Last week I met with the Trust and made clear on behalf of patients and constituents that this reports was unacceptable and change was needed.

“The Trust have sought to assure me action is now being taken & plans put in place rectify these failings.”

llot, which is scheduled to close later this month (Thomas Tomlinson)

Green movement shortlisted for 2022 sustainability award

any Chan News Reporter

Durham University’s Greenspace Movement has been shortlisted alongside ten other finalists for the 2022 Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland, in the Student Engagement Category. The prestigious award is a mark of recognition of the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the world.

Greenspace, representing Durham, is up against other prominent universities like Falmouth University, Lancaster University, the University of Exeter, and the University of London.

The Greenspace Movement was created in 2010 to unite the University’s environmental plans, policies, and procedures. Over the last 12 years, the movement has grown to encompass support networks, resources, campaigns, and events, with the goal of achieving net zero emissions within the university community.

Greenspace has remained consistently active in encouraging student and staff-led climate action at all levels. They have initiated projects such as Bailey Wardrobe, a formalwear swap scheme that promotes slow, sustainable fashion and accessibility and inclusivity at formal events.

In addition, the MyGreenspace app encourages students to be more sustainable from day to day. Users can report recycling,

St Mary’s College (Beatrice Law)

shopping second-hand, or volunteering activities.

The app features a leaderboard in which the leading college or department taking part receives winnings that can be donated to a charity of choice. As of now, over 700 users are on MyGreenspace, completing an average of 382 activities each week.

Apart from engaging with students at the everyday level, Greenspace’s Energy and Sustainability Team have worked with students to support the creation of new societies that will foster the transition to a sustainable campus, such as the DU Beekeeping Society and the Natural History society.

If Greenspace wins the award,

they will be automatically entered for the International Green Gown Awards.

David Loudon, director of Greenspace’s Estates & Facilities, said: “Winning the Green Gown Award would be fantastic recognition for Durham University, signalling the progress we have made delivering our Greenspace Movement. The award would celebrate the hard work of the University community; our staff environment champions, student environment representatives, and the hundreds of people signed up to our My Greenspace platform.”

The winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony at Loughborough University on 9 November.

Oriental Museum opens new exhibitions

Anna Calzada News Reporter

This month, two new special exhibitions have been welcomed to Durham University’s Oriental Museum. The museum is home to a collection of over 23,500 artifacts and is the only museum in the North of England entirely devoted to the archaeology and art of North African and Asian cultures.

‘There was Light’ provides a detailed insight into the family life of Tutankhamun, or ‘the boy king’, who ascended the Egyptian throne at the age of nine. Although his rule was short-lived, the pharaoh became a household name when his tomb was discovered by the British archaeologist Howard Carter.

Tutankhamun’s tomb remains the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever excavated in the Valley of Kings.

On the 100 year anniversary of this historic excavation, the Oriental Museum offers visitors an intimate insight into the family life of Tutankhamun and his grandfather Amunhotep III.

The exhibition also includes personal possessions owned by citizens of ancient Egypt, allowing visitors to imagine the domestic urban lives of the men and women who lived along the Nile over three millennia ago.

The second exhibition, ‘Guardians of the Silk Road Heritage: Women of the mountains of central Asia’ presents the textile works of craftswomen who

continue to produce traditional folk art from the mountains of central Asia. Cultural pieces created by professional female artists are displayed alongside photographs of the women practicing ancient artisan techniques developed by century-old knowledge.

The Silk Road played a key role in facilitating political, economic and cultural exchanges throughout Eurasia as a network of trade routes that spread ideas and culture just as fluidly as material goods. Over time, the importance of these routes has shrunk, with more emphasis being placed on sea and steam trade.

This exhibition, however, shines light on the recently proposed idea of establishing new silk roads by the Chinese ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ which aims to reconnect the Eurasian land bridge.

Lead curator Altyn Kapalova, from the Cultural Heritage and Humanities Unit, University of Central Asia, said: “This exhibition showcases the work of the professional artists and craftswomen who do so much to preserve and transfer traditional knowledge and skills, adapting them for new audiences and popularising Central Asian folk art.”

The Oriental Museum, located on Elvet Hill, opens from 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday (with the exception of a later 7pm close on Thursdays) and 12pm to 5pm on weekends. Entrance to the museum and all exhibitions is currently free for all visitors, with no booking required. Both exhibitions will run until May 2023.

“Staggering around” but not breathalysed: student experiences of breathalyser checks at Durham’s venues

Emily Doughty News Editor

The introduction of breathalysers has been met with mixed results with many students reporting that they are not being breathalysed on nights out.

The scheme, which was brought in ahead of Freshers’ Week, was designed to keep people safe and stop the culture of pre-loading on drinks before going out. This was done to allow drinkers a be er chance to make informed decisions while on their night out

and to reduce violent crime.

Breathalysers were given to several venues in the City and operate on a light system based on how much a person should consume for “sociable drink(ing).”

However many students have said that breathalysers were barely used throughout Freshers’ Week and beyond, with most students continuing to pre-drink before going out to bars and clubs without being breathalysed.

One student who spoke to Palatinate said that they “hadn’t heard of anyone having to do it

and haven’t seen it happen,” with another saying that their visibly drunk friend was allowed in, even when they believed they shouldn’t have been.

Two freps, students who a ended club nights sober to support incoming students, also reported that there was disparity in who was ge ing breathalysed among the few cases. One frep reported to Palatinate that despite three people all “staggering around”, only one got breathalysed (and denied entry) even though they were all the same level of drunk visually.

Durham Constabulary have previously said that the devices are a guide and it was up to individual door staff to decide who to perform the checks on.

When contacted, Durham City Neighbourhood Inspector Dave Clarke told Palatinate that the breathalysers were “just one tool that door staff have to judge whether people are too intoxicated to come in.”

He went on to say that the team “spoke at length about the use of the devices as they were being distributed. Door staff are highly trained and it is their decision who to allow entry. We also spoke

about how to ensure anyone who is turned away is safeguarded –which will be further supported by the use of the dedicated welfare staff

“Breathalysing everyone would be too time-consuming, they take a pragmatic view and would use them as an additional objective measure of intoxication.

[Breathalysers are] part of a much larger scheme and only time will tell. It’s certainly been one of the safest and most enjoyable Fresher’s Weeks we have seen…so all things being considered I’d call it a success!”

Inspector Clarke also commented on the view that breathalysers weren’t being widely used: “Interestingly, I have personally been spoken to by two sets of people over the week who were angry as they had been refused entry to bars and believed that they were set ‘too low’, so they must be ge ing used somewhere!

“I think door staff should have the right to turn anyone away who they believe is too intoxicated to be in their premises.”

Breathalysers are part of the wider “safer streets” project which includes increasing street lighting in areas of concern, identifiable

welfare officers and a Safety Hub based at St Nic’s Church. The Hub was designed to be a safe space for people feeling unwell, vulnerable or a victim of crime to get the relevant support.

Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen said: “This initiative is a welcome addition to our night-time economy and a step in the right direction for keeping our revellers safe.

“When used appropriately this scheme will ensure that whilst the public can enjoy an evening out, they also don’t exceed a safe limit of alcohol consumption leading them to put their own health, safety and the public in danger.

“As part of my plan, the safer stresses from the safety hub and we will proceed in the hope that our other additions can make further strides in improving our city centres for all in the community.”

All things considered I’d call it a success!

(Daniel Hodgson)

Ti

Despatch from Overseas

Lizzie McBride talks Russian Winnie the Pooh and intense language learning as she reports on her time in Tbilisi, Georgia

24th February made any study abroad placement in Russia completely unfeasible.

However, as I had forgo en that you needed a valid passport to apply for a Russian university until one day before the deadline, I was in an unique position, fueled by my own ineptitude, of the UK cu ing all ties with Russian universities having li le impact on my chances of reaching the country.

I have grown to accept that the Russian langauge is something I will never truly master

with a renewed passport in hand – I naturally jumped at the opportunity.

I have been in Tbilisi since July, sharing a flat with a teetotal Georgian wine seller, whose pastimes include ge ing high while watching Disney films; his Ukrainian girlfriend, who became a refugee in Georgia at the start of the war; a girl from Sochi, who thinks I am a mute due to my highly limited Russian; and a guy from Kaliningrad, who is escaping mobilisation and lives behind our hallway bookcase.

Whether my Russian level has improved is debatable. Our lessons are more intense than at Durham, where my favourite class involved discussing an episode of the Russian Winnie the Pooh.

appreciative nods for my correct use of the subjunctive, my practical Russian knowledge remains nonexistent. Yesterday, my flatmate got incredibly confused after I mistook him asking me if I wanted bread for an imperative for me to make bread.

I have grown to accept that the Russian language, with three different words for “year”; two verbs for every one in English, changing if the act is in progress or not; and a necessity to modify every noun ending, depending on the role of the noun in the sentence, is something I will never truly master.

So when, in April, Durham presented us with an opportunity to teach English in Georgia and be paid in cryptocurrency –

Some of the more memorable questions our teacher in Tbilisi has asked us include: “What would you do if two of your children were murdered and you had to continue living for the other?”; “What are some coping mechanisms for women in Siberian villages suffering domestic abuse?”; and “How would you react if you lived in a Kazakhstan village in the 80s and someone stole your girlfriend?”.

While my answer to the first – that I think I would fall into a deep depression – was met by

Demonstration to take place against Immigration Centre

Nina Bu erfield and Laetitia Eichinger News Reporter

A national demonstration against Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) is set to take place on Saturday 15th October from 12-2pm. This will be the third national demonstration against the controversial facility, used by the Home Office to detain female refugees and asylum seekers, since its opening in December last year.

The demonstration is organised by national campaign group

The People’s Assembly, national charity Women for Refugee Women, and local protest group No To Hassockfield. They demand Derwentside’s closure and an end to immigration detention everywhere.

A number of speakers with experience navigating the UK’s immigration system will be present, whilst local singer Bethany Elen will share songs wri en by those with experience of detention.

Protesters see the situation as a human rights issue. In March, protestors told the BBC that the majority of women detained in IRCs are “survivors of rape and other

gender-based violence” or victims of “trafficking and modern slavery.” They said detention “resurfaces trauma and renders women especially extremely vulnerable.”

No To Hassockfield estimates that the average cost per detainee per year is almost £100,000 and argue that it would be “more humane” and “cheaper” to house women within communities whilst they undergo asylum applications. Protesters also noted that the majority of those detained are never actually deported, but released once it has been established that they have the right to remain in the UK.

A Home Office fact sheet about Derwentside IRC states: “detention must only ever be used sparingly and for the shortest period necessary. There is a presumption in favour of liberty for all individuals and 95% of those facing removal are managed in the community.”

The Home Office also claims that “detention makes a limited but essential contribution to tackling illegal migration and protecting the public,” and that “In order for detention to be lawful, there must be a realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable timescale.”

Anyway, outside my flat there is no urgency to speak Russian – quite the opposite. Trying to learn Russian in a country, where 20% of its land is occupied by Russia, is naturally problematic. An exodus of men over the border since mobilisation has intensified existing anti-Russian sentiment in Tbilisi. As the citizens of their occupier seek refuge, Georgia is placed in a unique position.

Some landlords will not rent to Russians, graffiti bears slogans such as “Russians go home”, and one bar has set up a visa system in which Russians must agree to a list of statements condemning their country before entering.

Since mobilisation I hear more

Russian on the streets – but I am also more hesitant to try and speak myself.

A poll from March stated that 87% of Georgians consider the war in Ukraine to be Georgia’s war too. The Russian invasion into Georgia was, after all, only 14 years ago, and Russia still occupies the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.

While the UK is not detached from the war, government sleaze was dominating the news when I left the country in July. In Georgia the historical and geographic links to Russia and Ukraine make the war inescapable in everyday life.

My Ukrainian flatmate often

speaks of the friends she has left behind. One of my Russian teachers paused class so she could take a call from her brother, who is trying to flee the draft. A family I met at a language exchange showed us videos of Russians bombing their town. Another teacher is in Tbilisi after the Kremlin declared her a ‘foreign agent’.

A Ukrainian student I teach speaks only of going home: a place where he could be drafted to fight as his home is Crimea.

As a mural in central Tbilisi declares: ‘Georgia is Ukraine’. Here, there is no Etonian inept enough for the war to be swept away.

From the Archives

In June 1954, Palatinate enlightened its readers on the process of bringing the paper to print.

After sending a team member to the printing presses, the article reports that on arrival, “a reader checks up on bad typing and possible illegibility,” before “the script is taken into the keyboard room.”

To print the pages, “the wri en copy is translated into a roll with holes in it, a hole punched in a certain position representing a le er.”

The foreman of the press tells the writer that one of the News Editors once “got tied up in what he was saying,” leading him to press too hard on the edge of the tray holding the arrangement of the page for pressing and send it flying. One hopes that such editors nowadays are less destructive.

Mistakes happened, of course, with the author recounting “one occasion when the Palatinate copy was lost for two days, and eventually found covered with grime in the basement of a derelict house, next door to the County Press.” If you do end up reading this, know that our week is going much be er.

(Poppy Askham)

Professor-student affairs are declining

Kieran Molloy

The student population is devastated as a time-honoured Durham tradition is at risk of disappearing completely. The professor-student affair has been a staple of Durham life since the 1800s, pre-dating many of the colleges and even the marketplace Tesco. As of 2022, the number of affairs has reached a record low. Palatinate sources have uncovered that it is a concentrated effort by the University. The University has gone on record to say: “While we do treasure those traditions that make Durham a special place, some traditions are simply meant to be le in the past. Maybe students can embrace other, more wholesome, Durham traditions like spiking.” Some people believe that this decision has been spurred by the hot, anarchist philosophy professor’s wife going away to her parents’ for a week.

The elimination of professorstudent affairs has sparked debate amongst the student body. An anonymous second year said that “I think it’s good that it’s being phased out. How

am I supposed to compete with someone that has a PhD?” Alternatively, a finalist stated that “I think it’s really unfair that it’s going. It’s been a stable of my, and many others, experience here. It’s really helped my academic career.”

lecturer that recently celebrated his wife’s 50th birthday said that it was an “outrage” and that “it defeats the point of being an academic.” Another said that “it would seriously impact the number of students attending my lectures as well as seriously impacting my performance… at my job, obviously.” Finally, a senior academic said that “many of my colleagues, here and at other institutions, wouldn’t be where they are today without it” and that it “enables students who aren’t traditionally gi ed to get ahead of her, I mean, their peers.” There are even reports that some departments, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, are considering strike action over the decision.

to stay, then [Lecturer name redacted] should accept my Facebook friend request.”

It's impossible to say if the phasing out of professorstudent affairs will result in other Durham traditions disappearing. Rumours are that the annual Elitism Ball is also at risk of being phased out.

Orla Cowan

Like finding sushi in the reduced aisle, or the death of a monarch, it was a red-letter day for Cuth’s FemSoc. The Collingwood rugby captain had, unbeknownst to him, got himself muddled and stumbled into St Cuthbert’s Feminist Society’s biggest night out; a Bailey bar crawl (with a side of dense second-wave feminist literature, but mainly shots).

The start of the new academic year heralds new opportunities for relationships. Whether you are a fresher who has just recently gotten over your unorthodoxly attractive frep or a returner with a new, albeit seedy, lust for university life, the city is your oyster. But this new beginning can be permeated by a moral quandary like no other, in the form of college family incest.

Many teaching staff at the University have expressed scepticism towards scrapping the affairs. An anonymous

At the end of the day it’s a socially constructed label, so why does it feel like it should come with a jail sentence and nationwide register?

It appears appropriate that things as messy and informal as college marriages should lead to the Freudian trainwrecks that college family incest facilitates. The cringey initial reach-out to college children is steeped in awkwardness that any other meet-up would fail to muster. The mundane conversation starters of where they are from and what course they are studying are dusted off and wheeled out in a variety of perfunctory college bars. The whole thing is bad enough

Which member of a society exec are you?

Which society are you a part of?

A. Champagne society

B. Your college's football team

C. DUCFS

D. Tone Deaf Theatre Company

What subject do you study?

A. Economics

B. Physics

C. Ancient History

D. English

Where do you study?

A. TLC

B.

C.

college's

lectures

The Students’ Union has issued support for scrapping the tradition. A representative said that “It promotes a colonial, patriarchal and anti-queer worldview,” and that “it pushes the elitist narrative that only educated people from certain backgrounds can get rawdogged in a faculty office at 3am by someone old enough to be their father.” The representative finished his statement by saying that “If the tradition wants

as is without the somewhat harrowing realisation that you also happen to fancy your college children.

So what is worse? A walk of shame from a single bed in college back up to the viaduct where you belong, or the feeling that you would be more at home at the kink society than as a college parent. Both seem to conjure up feelings of self-resentment. I argue that this shame is not the result of whatever misadventure occurs within the college family, but rather the notion of a college family itself. Why beat yourself up about liking your college child when they may also happen to be older than you in age?

What is your love life like?

Admittedly, this isn’t the most fashionable argument to make. I’m not coming out to bat for the most prolific of Durham sharks here, but humdrum Durham problems relegate college family incest to the lower shelves of student concerns. With clubs now breathalysing people like some Orwellian nightmare, with woodgates now priced at five whole pounds, and with Rod Liddle planning on making his return to the proverbial crime scene, we all have bigger fish to fry. It’s the last days of Rome, so shag whoever you want, even if they do happen to be your college parent. I really couldn’t care less.

A. Your partner (of 4 months but you're Instagram official) is a fourth year who plays lacrosse.

B. You’re in the background of your friend’s Instagram post where they’re smiling and you’re getting off with someone in Babylon (absolute banter).

C. No time for a love life, although you are snapchatting your childhood crush from home.

D. You shag everyone in your friendship group

Where are you from?

A. 'North londonish' B. Surrey (the real answer to A) C. Devon D. Edinburgh

In Chad’s bar, FemSoc Pres eyed up her new co-feminist, trying very hard to think feminist thoughts while examining the enormous biceps before her. “So,” she began, “tell me Ted, what’s your take on today’s topic, we are talking sex workers, hookers and prostitu…”

He was greeted by twenty claw-clipped fem-soc heads

He interrupted, only hearing the middle word, and began, “I mean hookers are essential. Hookers have to be the most reliable people in the game.”

Ted sensed something was wrong. He was greeted with twenty, swivelling claw-clipped femsoc heads. Built like a tank but with the common sense of a small spoon, the penny finally dropped for Ted as he realised he had mistaken a debate about prostitution for his favourite position out on the field.

He le urgently, vowing to invest in a better dictionary and spend more time in the Billy B. Heartened by the experience, this very same rugby player was found the next Wednesday in another college bar, hoping to attend ‘Women without Borders’.

IF YOU GOT:

• Mostly As: You are a treasurer! You are the organised one on the exec. Always on the move with several spring weeks lined up.

• Mostly Bs: You are a social sec! You're here for a good time and a 2:1 in your degree. Keep snogging in Jimmy's.

• Mostly Cs: You are a vice president! Nearly there, keep your eyes on the prize honey. If you keep this up, you'll be top dog next year and people will finally respect you.

• Mostly Ds: You are a president! You are ambitious but also have the least work on the exec. You got where you are today due to your hard work and good looks.

A note from... The Collingwood rugby player who went to Cuth’s FemSoc

Molly Mihell

College familyincest: Honey,I sharked the kids

Caleb Tutt

It pushes the elitist narrative that only educated people from certain backgrounds can get raw-dogged in a faculty office at 3am by someone old enough to be their father

Comment

Rod Liddle's return to the Durham Union

Becks Fleet

RodLiddle’s back. Remember him? Yes, the newspaper columnist and infamous controversial guest at South College’s Christmas formal last year is scheduled to return to Durham in November, to speak at the Durham Union.

Liddle’s last visit to Durham didn’t go particularly smoothly; he was invited by South College Principal Tim Luckhurst to speak at South’s Christmas formal last year, and delivered a speech many considered full of transphobic discourse (“a person with an X and a Y chromosome… is scientifically a man, and that is pre y much, scientifically, the end of the story”), defence of colonialism (“colonialism is not remotely the major cause of Africa’s problems”), and inappropriate comments on a ‘lack of sex workers’ in the room at night. Predictably, his speech angered many students at the formal – some of whom walked out mid-speech, only to be labelled “pathetic” by Luckhurst – and throughout the University, and led to major protests in the weeks and months that followed.

Another controversial figure to be invited to the Durham Union is Julie Bindel, who has had scheduled visits to the Union cancelled in

the past. She’s best described as a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist), in that she has progressive views regarding women’s rights and gender roles, but not for all women, apparently.

Inviting two notably transphobic speakers to the Durham Union is certainly a bold move, and one which is sure to be criticised heavily by much of the student body. However, I’d argue that the Durham Union is a much more suitable place for Liddle and Bindel than a college formal.

They are not intended to become debate chambers. Liddle’s presence at the formal – especially when many transgender students were present and unaware of his speech beforehand – was massively inappropriate and went against many students’ expectations of what a formal should be.

prepared and ready to challenge Liddle’s bigotry, in an environment where this is permi ed and encouraged.

The same applies to Bindel. Although she’s not spoken at the University before, her views will likely be well known to a endees of her debate (about the rise of OnlyFans), and therefore she can be challenged on those views appropriately.

While I don’t agree with many of Rod Liddle or Julie Bindel’s views, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be invited to speak at the

University whatsoever. However, the nature of their views means that many students would likely feel uncomfortable listening to their speeches, especially when their presence was unexpected. It’s hugely important that, if speakers such as Liddle and Bindel are invited, it’s in an environment where they are expected to speak and where they can be challenged and debated. As a venue for such speakers, the Durham Union makes much more sense than a College formal.

(Anna Kuptsova)

One of the major issues with Liddle’s presence at South’s Christmas formal was the nature of the event. My understanding is that Liddle’s appearance wasn’t well communicated by the College beforehand, meaning students a ended (and paid for) the formal not expecting his speech, and formals just aren’t the sort of place where inviting controversial speakers makes sense. Formals are usually intended to be enjoyable, fun occasions where students can relax, drink wine and be with their friends.

However, his presence at a Durham Union event has been announced well in advance, meaning that those a ending know exactly what to expect, and can choose not to a end if they don’t want to endure another night of bigotry.

And at least this time, he won’t be left unchallenged; the event Liddle has been earmarked to a end is a debate about the University, where he’ll be opposed by student debaters and Conservative MP Richard Holden. Unlike at a Christmas formal, the Durham Union is full of students

What late accommodation allocations say about Durham's superiority complex

something more concerning about Durham’s ‘superiority complex’ as a prestigious university.

Shortly after receiving their A-level grades and being accepted into university, many students begin the long-anticipated preparations for moving to a new city. Flocking to IKEA and joining Facebook groups to meet future flatmates are standard practices for most prospective undergraduates in the summer before term starts.

However, this year at Durham University, that was not the case. Instead, many freshers were allocated accommodation only eight days before Fresher’s Week. What’s more, some were asked to make a £200 deposit to secure accommodation before even knowing which college they had been allocated. Aside from a general lack of organisation and empathy for students’ peace of mind, this suggests

The first thing this tells us about the University is that it does not take into account the impact of increasing student admissions on the actual student experience.

The University claims that accommodation was allocated so late due to a very high demand for college rooms, though that simply leads to the question of how admissions are managed. With top A-level grades rising this summer and the prestigious reputation of Durham University unwavering, it is no surprise that more people will be applying to the University. Furthermore, the college system is one of the very aspects that a racts prospective students to Durham.

Therefore, the University must rethink its admissions process and start limiting the numbers of students accepted in order to ensure that accommodation can be allocated in advance. If it doesn’t, it will become increasingly clear that the University cares more about

money than its students.

The second thing we can learn from this is that Durham University doesn’t consider the circumstances of its poorest students. Although the situation was undoubtedly inconvenient for all, it probably affected students from lower socio-economic backgrounds the most. This would not be the first time that the University’s a itude towards students from low-income households was tone-deaf at best and elitist at worst.

For example, their website specifically explains that first-year students cannot be moved from a catered college to a self-catered college if they cannot afford it, though the current price for a catered college room is £8,074, with the current maximum maintenance loan set at £9,179. Provided that a student receiving the maximum loan was also eligible for the Durham Grant, this student would be left with just £3,105 for the academic year.

This must cover the cost of

a range of things like academic books and equipment, their JCR levy, fees to participate in sports teams, Fresher’s Week and other social events, nights out, gym memberships and transportation.

For students from low-income backgrounds, it is likely that their loan will also have to cover the cost of their train or coach ticket to and from Durham at the start and end of term, as well as the cost of homeware items needed to move into halls as a fresher, as well as a hefty house deposit in first term as many houses start to be snapped up for the following year.

So, to not even know which college you would be living in, how much your accommodation would cost, and having to prepare for a move to university in just eight days and before student loans have come in would disproportionately affect students whose families have li le to no disposable income.

To me, this situation suggests that Durham University has a superiority complex. Despite the stress that these late allocations

have caused to parents and students alike, it is unlikely that much will change. For academically-driven students, working hard to achieve top grades and a end a university with a reputation like Durham’s means that many will accept the lack of organisation and support evidenced in situations like this.

Many students aiming to be accepted into Durham may reject offers from lower-ranked universities, including turning down unconditional offers or lower grade requirements. It is clear that no ma er how much controversy Durham University finds itself wound up in, and what it puts its students through, it will remain a top choice for bright young people, year on year - and the University knows this, too.

The question now is whether this is an inevitable aspect of Durham University’s culture that will never change, or whether something has to give in the coming years.

Those a ending know exactly what to expect, and can choose not to a end

The Durham Union is full of students prepared and ready to challenge Liddle's bigotry

Ruby Davis

The Molly Russell inquest: it's time to shift the narrative

Helena Dobbs

Content warning: this article contains discussion of suicide and self-harm.

In November 2017, Molly Russell, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, took her own life after viewing distressing online content about self-harm and suicide on social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. In September 2022, an inquest reported that these platforms had played a key role in causing her death. It is the first time such platforms have been officially linked to the death of a child.

We have long been aware of the detrimental impacts that social media platforms can have as spaces that encourage comparison: quantifying personal value through likes, comments, and follows. However, Molly’s case draws our eyes to the way such platforms are terrifyingly unregulated. The inquest revealed she had “binged” on 200 posts and 138 videos romanticising self-harm, suicide and depression in the months before her death, all unbeknown to her parents. Here, we are presented with a clear opportunity to take action and reduce the direct negative impacts social media can have on the lives of children, for which I can suggest three main issues that should be addressed.

Firstly, platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook should have more effective age verification measures. Children’s commissioner, Dr Rachel de Souza, reports that tech firms are consistently underestimating the number of underage users on their platforms. I remember myself as a ten-year-old, plugging in 24/12/1998 to the Instagram app when asked for my birthday – a date that would make me the minimum user age of 13. I pressed enter and just like that I was in. I jumped the gate and walked straight past the guards –no questions asked. After a quick Google search, I find this is still the case eleven years later. However, my hope was restored on finding that as of June 2022, Instagram requires an ID and a reference from another person to confirm that a user is over 18. This ensures that those under the age of 18 access age-appropriate content only, while those of age access further content. Some argue there should be separate platforms for adults and children, however I see Instagram’s improvements to be a step in the right direction.

Secondly, and perhaps most pressingly, more comprehensive large-scale regulations should be placed on social media platforms to

protect the wellbeing of their users. Currently, all regulations that are legally imposed upon platforms regard advertising and copyright laws, implicitly making companies merely a corporate business which does not have significant impact on the lives of people. As stated by Liz Lagone – Head of Health and Wellbeing at Meta – platforms are only obligated to remove content that is deemed illegal, meaning that damaging yet legal posts are often left online in a bid to protect free speech and expression. The consensus that content regulation in big platforms carried by human moderators and artificial intelligence is ineffective must change.

(Victoria Cheng)

Our obsession with calories doesn't add up

Ellie Dyer -Brown

given the skyrocketing statistics regarding eating disorders. Research shows that not only do calories on menus exacerbate all types of eating disorders, but they can also trigger new ones, especially in young people.

only have half the picture?

Even with these improvements to online safety, it is possible that distressing content might slip through the cracks; not necessarily due to the incompetency of the technology, but because the reception of information is subjective. Who is to know whether a post of someone bravely showing their scars and spreading mental health awareness might be received by a vulnerable user as a romanticisation – perhaps even giving them ideas? It’s not to say that such content shouldn’t be online at all, but be er parental supervision technology should be in place in case it appears on the screen of a young person.

Since the online social space emerged, people have been warned of the detrimental impacts it can cause. We have adapted to the increasing prevalence of social media with online safety lessons in schools and be er access to counselling services for young people. Generally, users have been left to fend for themselves.

The message brought by the verdict of Molly’s inquest, blaming social media for her death, seems long overdue. We must shift the narrative. It is time for governments to apply pressure and for big platforms to take responsibility.

It's

2014, and I've become someone my parents hardly recognise. I've lost a lot of weight, my hair has started thinning, and my periods have stopped. I eat as li le in a day as I can get away with, whereas I used to love food and look forward to every meal. When I decide what to eat, I think about whether I can afford it. But this isn't a question of money; it's a question of calories. I count them in my head, keeping a tally all day.

I don't know what specifically triggered my disordered eating when I was a teenager, but I remember being strongly affected by the discourse of weight loss known as diet culture the belief that appearance (particularly thinness) is more important than physical and psychological wellbeing. I was young and impressionable, and I didn't understand how important it was to nurture my body with food. All I could think about obsess over, actually was being slim.

This story is mine, but it could have been anyone's. According to Beat, there are approximately 1.25 million people in the UK with eating disorders, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made things considerably worse. Data from NHS Digital shows the number of people admi ed to hospital with an ED climbed by 50% in 2021 compared to 2019/20.

That is why I was so surprised when, in April 2022, the government implemented a law making it mandatory for businesses with more than 250 employees to put calorie information on menus. This was a callous and tone-deaf move,

Even if the legislation was effective and seriously impacted obesity levels (which it isn't and won't), any public health measure worth its salt should surely have li le to no negative consequences for people outside its target demographic. By this basic litmus test, the calorie legislation fails.

There are other, less obvious, things to consider. When I recently discussed the legislation with my partner, he commented on the quality of food in restaurants. "I worry they will start swapping highcalorie ingredients for ones with low calories to make dishes more popular, even though that often means sacrificing flavour," he told me. Many low-calorie and low-fat foods also have chemicals added to them to make up for the loss of flavour, and highly processed food contradicts the basic principles of healthy eating. This is just another example of how warped our idea of which foods are good for us can get.

The impact on people with eating disorders is compelling enough. However, there are other reasons why introducing calories on menus is a flawed policy, starting with the Department for Health and Social Care's wellmeaning but ultimately misguided motivation for introducing it: “to help the public to make healthier choices when eating out.”

The most important thing to understand about calories is that not all of them are created equal. Wilbur Olin, the 19th-century chemist who calculated calories using energy intake, didn't account for the energy cells use to metabolise food. To put this into context, if you ate 100 calories of protein, you'd only absorb around 70. A balanced, nutritionally rich plate of food might contain more calories than a burger. Can you really make an informed choice about what is healthy when you

Today, I'm lucky to have a positive relationship with food and my body. Still, seeing calories on a menu is jarring and often impacts what I order, even though I believe it is an ineffective way of keeping track of my food intake. I usually go to smaller restaurants where I know there are no calories on the menu, so I can choose what I will enjoy eating rather than what I think I should eat.

The government is currently reviewing its anti-obesity strategy and looks set to scrap menu calorie counts by the end of the year. This is good news, but the reason behind the review a “drive to cut red tape” is disappointing. The policy is ineffective and damaging and should be recognised as such. If the government is serious about tackling obesity, it needs to take a more empathetic approach that focuses on education rather than weaponising people's guilt and fear about calories which perpetuates diet culture. Pu ing numbers on a menu without context is not educational, and our obsession with counting calories simply doesn't add up.

More comprehensive large-scale regulations should be placed on social media platforms

Content

Can you really make an informed choice about what is healthy when you only have half the picture?

Breathalysers: bringing control to Durham nights

Hannah Thompson

Whilst being on my year abroad, it is easy to feel quite far removed from the goings-on back in Durham. Most of what I hear about the ongoing university life comes from an amalgamation of phone calls with friends, Durfess comments and Overheard posts. Last week it seemed as though all anyone could talk about was the recent breathalyser scheme that is being implemented across the bars and nightclubs in Durham City.

Ensuring the safety of everyone on a night out should be a priority for all of us

of the same mind. It seemed a futile a empt to try and stop the inevitable ‘pre-ing’ that is as much an ingrained aspect of a student night out as the night out itself.

However, upon reflection, I could not help but think of how normalised drinking is as part of the notorious university experience and just how concerning this truly is. From the infamous ‘chunder chart’ that is a must-have decoration in most first-year kitchens to the myriad of initiations for sports clubs that almost always involve drinking, it goes without saying that inebriation is the norm for many students. Worryingly, drinking excessively is presented as such a quintessential part of the typical university experience that the problems it may cause run the risk of going unnoticed by students.

have consumed alcohol and those around them) then it is worth a shot.

It seemed a futile a empt to try and stop the inevitable 'pre-ing' that is as much an ingrained aspect of a student night out as the night itself

Pre-drinking : facing extinction at the hands of the breathalyser

Hannah Redman

It would be incredibly easy to critique this plan announced by the Safer Streets Scheme and Durham County Council in terms of its own stated aims. For example, suppose an individual has perfected the art of appearing sober when in fact they have consumed enough alcohol to be completely ‘smashed’ – how can the bouncer successfully identify they need to be breathalysed? Given that door sta ff have the authority to decide who to test or not, how can the Council guarantee that racial and genderbased prejudices will not play even a small part in the largely unregulated decision-making process of this scheme?

alcohol they consume. Given the behaviour of intoxicated individuals is driving this social initiative, it is surprising such integral details have seemingly been overlooked by its architects.

Although I do not know anyone who has yet experienced a breathalyser check, or indeed has been denied entry to a venue as a result, the general consensus amongst the student population appears to be unanimous. Most students would undoubtably deem this scheme an unnecessary and undeserved barrier to a good night out. At first, I was firmly

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good night out as much as the next person (Woodgate,anyone?), but when reports estimate that one in five university students could have a “diagnosable alcohol use disorder” it is surely time to take action. The negative effects of excessive alcohol use are wellestablished and undisputed, varying from long-term health issues to more immediate issues concerning increases in violence and anti-social behaviour.

Ensuring the safety of everyone on a night out should be a priority for all of us. If the use of breathalyser checks can go some way to help tackle the ever-present risks associated with dangerous levels of intoxication (both for those who

Of course, breathalyser checks cannot be used on their own: further steps are necessary to ensure everyone remains safe on a night out. For example, when bouncers refuse entry, it should be standard that there is a safe place for people to wait or that a safe method of ge ing home is provided. For example, The Hub at St Nic’s Church offers a refuge for those who need help on a night out and it should be the norm for door staff to escort those deemed too intoxicated to enter an establishment there.

Even if these checks put a stop to a good night out every once in a while, I believe it is something that we will eventually be grateful for.

As members of the public, we are also not privy to the numerical limits the Council has decided is too much alcohol to consume on a night out. Presumably this compact breathalyser device does not have the capacity to take biological factors such as height and weight into the equation either; science unequivocally highlights the impact of these factors on how well an individual can cope with the amount of

However, I believe this policy represents a broader shift in this country: a dangerous shift towards ‘nanny-state’ politics. Why does the Council not believe we, as adults, are capable of understanding what our individual bodily limits are when it comes to alcohol tolerance?

We are not deciding to drive a car, but deciding to enjoy a social experience with friends, in a hospitality space that thrives on the heady mix of individuals unburdened by the couple of drinks they’ve had before arriving there. Perhaps, underneath the noble aims of helping people keep themselves safe on a night out, tackling spiking incidents might be a be er place to start – there are darker forces at play.

It hardly seems a large leap of logic to assume Durham clubs will benefit financially from this breathalyser scheme: clubbers will not want to risk being turned away at the door, so will drink less, and then have to buy more drinks in the club to have the experience they want on a night out. It is troubling to think students with less disposable income may be priced out of the clubbing scene. Pre-drinking is a British institution, facing extinction at the hands of the breathalyser.

(Thomas Tomlinson)

However, I believe this policy represents a broader shift in this country: a dangerous shift towards 'nannystate' politics

We are not deciding to drive a car, but to enjoy a social experience with friends

(Rosie Bromiley)

Profile

Reproductive technologies: pregnancy and female autonomy in the 21st century

Durham Law professor Dr Chloe Romanis talks to Profile about the future of life, artificial wombs and Roe v Wade’s reversal

Christian Vince Profile Editor

Dr Chloe Elizabeth Romanis is an assistant professor in Biolaw at Durham Law school, with a research focus in the rights of pregnant individuals and reproductive technology. I came across Dr Romanis in the second year of my law degree in which she gave a series of four lectures discussing the prospect of being able to gestate a human inside an artificial womb. Following the overturning of Roe v Wade and being aware of the many questions that people are asking about its potential encroachment on UK law, I was keen to speak to Dr Romanis about all things pregnancy.

After gaining her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Manchester, due to their large medical law department, Dr Romanis enrolled on a PhD at Durham. Following the completion of her PhD mid-pandemic and a couple of years teaching and researching in Durham, Dr Romanis has now started a yearlong fellowship at Harvard to write a book on the artificial womb, a reproductive technology discussed later in the article.

As mentioned, I am keen to get an academic’s perspective on the overturning of Roe v Wade and its potential impact on other jurisdictions. One of the central issues raised by Romanis is the

“tendency to compare everything to the US.” She eloquently suggests that “almost accidentally, the US gets heralded as the example, when actually abortion rights aren’t good there and they never have been really.” I am interested to hear about how the US came to reach this decision to which Dr Romanis responds that, for a while now, the “abortion right has been slowly chipped away at.” She mentions the development of so-called “abortion deserts,” a name given to large expanses of land with no abortion clinic for miles, making access to abortion more difficult for pregnant individuals in these areas. As a result of this, “you can’t ignore the fact that the vast majority that are going to be impacted by the decision are marginalised groups, particularly black women … poorer people, people living within cities with less good infrastructure.”

Dr Romanis hopes that “instead of looking to the US for examples of a liberal legal abortion right, what we might start doing is thinking about broader questions like access to justice and maybe reflecting on what the US can learn from the situation here.” Dr Romanis caveats this remark by highlighting the pitfalls in the UK laws surrounding abortion. “I don’t think people know that abortion is a crime [in the UK]” and “if it were up to me, we would decriminalise tomorrow.” However, as much as Dr Romanis does not “love the law in the UK, … practically speaking, abortion here is far more

accessible and prosecutions are rare.”

is “a game changer for those with physiology to become pregnant because it means choices about pregnancy.” When Dr Romanis first came across this development, her thought process was “this is great! I can decide if I want to have a child without having to decide that I want to be pregnant for 9 months.” However, after a moment of thought, Dr Romanis quickly realised the issues that could arise from this development.

As a medical law academic, it is Dr Romanis’s job to ensure that the law is ready for this medical development and ensure that potential sociolegal ramifictions are considered.

Our discussion moves to Romanis’s research into reproductive technologies, namely: the artificial womb. This technology, originally intended as an alternative to current neonatal intensive care, emulates a traditional womb, providing the fetus with oxygen and nutrients needed for full development. I must admit, when I first heard of this technology, my mind darted to a dystopian baby lab like the one in Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’. However, Dr Romanis opened my eyes to this being a positive development as it

“The reality is that the technology as a replacement for neo-natal intensive care is coming and we are going to have to start making some really di Romanis develops, “science has this terrible way of being really quick at developing something that we almost aren’t anticipating so the law is always playing catchup with science.” Currently, the technology has only been tested on lambs however, “the team in Philadelphia are anticipating testing on humans in the next one to five years” which means Dr Romanis’s research is becoming increasingly important.

(Anna Kuptsova)

Finally, I enquire after one of Dr Romanis’s most recent projects involving research into assisted gestative technologies, notably: “surrogacy, uterus transplantation and artificial placentas.” We speak mostly about the second area as it is often forgo en as a way in which individuals can have children. “The first target group is biologically female people who are born without a uterus,” of which there are around 100,000 in the UK alone.

I ask after the key issues that could arise as a result of this technology being used on humans. A first point is the fact that “there are a lot of people who value [traditional] pregnancy and I worry that if we talk about artificial placentas as a “solution to pregnancy, that completely ignores those other people’s experiences.”

Another, scarier prospect is the biobag being used as “a tool for reproductive coercion.” Dr Romanis draws upon the potential capacity for those individuals who are not deemed as being “good enough pregnant people” to have their baby transferred to one of these biobags.

“Before the first transplantation in 2014, there was no option for people who wanted to get pregnant. You either had to use a surrogate or adopt.” Another target group is those who are not biologically female. “It could be a game changer for people who are transgender and wish to experience certain aspects of the female anatomy that they might not otherwise be able to.” Dr Romanis develops this further, “one day, we could imagine a world in which cis-gendered male people might gestate.”

Dr Romanis’s continued research into these developing issues and her “I go where the emergency takes me” philosophy, will certainly make a massive difference in the way in which society utilises these new and exciting technologies.

The law is always playing catchup with science

One day, we could imagine a world in which cis-gendered male people might gestate

An artistic interpretation of the artificial womb (Bram Saeys)

In conversation with Sir Anthony Seldon

Profile speaks to the historian, political commentator and former Wellington College headmaster about whether Prime Ministers have an impossible job and rethinking the education system

Arjun Seth Profile Editor

We arrange to speak over the phone on an early Wednesday morning. Anthony (“please don’t call me Sir,” he insists) is in a hurry – he is currently working on two new books that will hit the shelves next Spring.

The first is called Past Peace –“it is about the path I am creating with colleagues across Northern Europe from Switzerland up to the North Sea along the Western front. That will hopefully become a major walking path for people of all nationalities who want to create bonds of peace rather than fight with each other” he explains.

“I walked that last Summer, and the book is about that 1,000-kilometre walk. I’m also working on a book about Boris Johnson and that is my 7th book about a recently departed Prime Minister.”

The job is certainly not impossible but the way Prime Ministers choose to go about it is

can work with – who respect, understand the role but are also independently-minded and, above all, highly competent.”

“They certainly should limit what they are trying to do down to just two or three big things. If they do, they might achieve just one but most Prime Ministers aren’t clear what they want to do. They come in with impossible aspirations that can’t be done, least of all in a single five-year term. You have to follow the rules. No one would take over a football or rugby club without knowing how to play the sport.”

We then move on to discuss education, Anthony’s other passion and I’m fascinated by how he dismantles the system.

“Does anybody seriously think that cooping young people up for eleven years in classes and validating them by si ing in rows in halls has anything to do with life? It damages their creativity, sense of identity and if the system is so marvellous, then why is it telling a third of young people that they failed at GCSEs when those third come from the most deprived backgrounds. A third of school leavers are reporting mental health problems and a third of teachers are wanting to quit early on. Unless an education system is helping young people live in their own skin then it isn’t working, and we aren’t doing the job properly.”

behaved too. It is very difficult if you are struggling every day to keep control in the classroom. Far more thought needs to go into making school an enjoyable experience so that young people want to be there and can treat each other and the adults they encounter with respect. Lessons can be far more stimulating if teachers can follow their own loves, passions and interests rather than having to grudge their way through a very tight and overly full exam curriculum narrowing it down to just three subjects at A-Level when we have the most narrow sixth forms.”

Anthony is a leading advocate of a Baccalaureate style sixth form in the UK.

“You study six subjects and looking at creativity, the theory of knowledge and understanding what the status of the objectivity of the subjects is being studied and how they relate to each other in an international context. Schools don’t do that partly because of expense and partly because why would they when the system values excellence at A-Level results and that’s how they’re measured.”

The world is far more wonderful than most people are led to believe by their school systems unless they are very lucky

educationists, Anthony was involved in the creation of The Times’ Education Commission, a cross-party panel made up of headteachers, politicians and experts to completely rethink the system.

“We brought in voices that weren’t usually heard in education such as the author Michael Morpurgo, Tim Schmidt of the Eden Project and Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal. Why is every child not learning about astronomy, philosophy and history of art? There is more in this world than the United Nations of the exam officials can possibly conceive.”

“Schooling should be about stimulating young people and helping them discover what they love to do, what they want to do and what their passions are. If you can work with that you can bring out the best in them and they can feel that school is something that is helping them rather than something being done to them. It is about the discovery of active learning. The world is far more wonderful than most people are led to believe by their school systems unless they are very lucky.”

Lastly, I ask Anthony what advice he can offer us students as young people who are about to enter the workplace.

Speaking of Johnson, I am keen to highlight that he is the country’s 3rd leader to leave office (much sooner than expected some might say) in the past six years. The decade-long premierships of Thatcher and Blair feel like a completely different era which leads me to ask Anthony whether we’ll ever have another long-serving Prime Minister again With humorous frankness he answers – “well, nobody knows.”

“There is no necessary reason why the recent premierships needed to be so short. The job is certainly not impossible, but the way Prime Ministers choose to go about it is because they don’t follow the 10 basic rules.”

“They include quite obviously securing the citadel. That means you bring in the very best talent into Downing Street and Cabinet posts rather than chums – those with real wisdom, knowledge and experience.”

“Secondly [Prime Ministers] should choose a Chancellor they

“We rush in when students’ lives go wrong, and they hit the bo om of the waterfall. And we rush in often too late, inappropriately and insufficiently and try and put them together. We are forge ing about the top of the waterfall and what can be done to help young people develop habits, skills and competencies at school that can help them make decisions that will prevent them from falling over the top.”

The fact that a third of teachers want to quit so early on is alarming which leads me to ask Anthony how the profession can be improved and whether, as long argued, bonuses should be considered - something that he categorically rejects.

“It would be hideous. It would distort education even more if everything was to be validated by exam results. Exam results are at best a means to an end not the end in itself. The profession has to become more enjoyable for people, more scope for creativity and less of an impression that they are dull operatives delivering a tight exam system and more freedom for them to be creative and be respected as professionals.”

“Students need to be be er

As one of the country’s leading (Candice McKenzie via Flickr)

“Embrace the sheer awe and wonder of life. Keep your curiosity and interest broad. Stick with what gives you energy and passion and find a job that gives you the opportunity to develop your love, passion and curiosity so you want to get up every morning, go to work and be with people who you admire. It can be the beginning of something even be er than university if you don’t lose touch of what is deeply at the centre of your life.”

SciTech

TikTok's trend? Failing to protect

Nicole Wu Editor-in-Chief

Every other week, it seems that TikTok hits media desks surrounded by scandal and disrepute. Whether it details potential links to the Chinese government or algorithms that analyse your every activity, TikTok as a dangerous platform has always been the reoccurring trend.

The latest in this series is that TikTok is facing the prospect of a £27million fine for failing to protect the privacy of children.

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) the app has been investigated under potential breached data protection law between 2018 and 2020. If the fine is issued, it would be the largest amount in the ICO’s history.

requires careful navigation.

TikTok's potential violation of privacy laws is not justified or excused by this perception of social media or the suggestion that nothing online can be safe again. But rather, it reignites important conversations surrounding regulation of media: maintaining a balance of social media platforms as vessels of progression, communication and acceptance for all individuals, while also understanding TikTok managed as a corporation for profit that can enforce its own strict and potentially trivial restrictions. The dichotomy between individual creative expression and maintaining a regulated and ‘safe’ platform undoubtedly fuels continued criticism against TikTok.

(Victoria Cheng)

TikTok: a weapon for politicians?

Paddy Stephens SciTech Editor

Many of America’s great political ba les these days are not fought on the Senate floor nor the plains of Boston, but on a new centrepriece of democracy: TikTok. Last month, Dr Mehmet Oz and John Fe erman traded blows on the platform about the price of vegetables which descended into esoteric insults about broccoli. The two are the respective Republican and Democratic candidates for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat. Keen though we might be to forget the prior three sentences, they underline the importance of TikTok in the midterms.

There are about 80 milllion active monthly TikTok users in the US, mostly young: about a quarter are not old enough to vote and around 30% are aged 20-29. The app offers significant benefits to those who know how to leverage it for political purposes, with obvious democratic challenges. My preferred and quasi-Luddite solution, ‘just delete the app and go do real things,' probably is not going to happen anytime soon.

If you are concerned about the impact TikTok’s dominance might have on American democracy, you are bang on. A Newsguard study last month found that almost one fifth of TikTok videos about key news events contained misinformation. In fairness to the platform, rivals such as Facebook and Twi er are not exactly paragons of veracity either.

Such platforms are worrying policymakers far from Capitol

Hill. Even Beijing is concerned. The fact that TikTok is not available in China, and that the local version also promotes educational videos probably tells you all you need to know about what Beijing suspects having a slot machine in their pockets does to childrens’ brains.

elected: political opponents will soon have TikTok in their sights. But the idea that social media, if that’s what TikTok is, should be free of political ads is an interesting one. When Musk described Twi er as the world’s ‘de facto town square’, we might assume that ads would be allowed, as in a real one. And it gets to the heart of the question: what is social media actually for?

The two main accusation points are, firstly, that TikTok may have processed the data of children under the age of 13 without parental consent, and failed to provide proper information to its users in a “concise, transparent and easily understood way.” Secondly, the ICO said that the app may have processed special category data –which includes ethnic and racial origin, political grounds, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, trade union membership and genetic, biometric or health data. It goes without saying how concerning these claims against TikTok are and as one of the most widely used apps out there, the legal duty that TikTok has to protect their users should be highest priority.

Their collection of special category data is concerning due to its lack of explanation. There is no need for TikTok to have information on ethnicity or health, for example, and this only increases the opportunity for certain groups to be unfairly targeted within the app in association with the illusive algorithm that can be deemed the reason for TikTok’s successes. In 2020, Time reported that activists on TikTok noticed their Black Lives Ma er content had noticeably less engagement and viewership. While TikTok claims it doesn’t use shadow bans, there are very strict regulations about what content can be posted without being taken down by the platform such as swearing and nudity.

But I digress. In preparation for the US midterms and under fire for promoting misinformation in 2020, TikTok has done two things. The first is a welcome far-cry from the usual whack-a-mole of misinformation by social media companies. The company has created its ‘Midterms Election Center’ which provides information in over 40 languages about how to register and vote, including for those in special categories such as deaf voters and overseas citizens.

The second has made more headlines. Ads with political content have been banned on the platform for years, but now it has turned off advertising features for accounts for politicians. Political accounts have been removed from eligibility for the ‘creator fund’ for those who make viral videos. Here’s the kicker: influencers have been told that anyone found producing paid-for political content will be removed from the platform.

The second point has stuck with me. TikTok probably just wants to avoid researchers claiming the platform led to candidates being

In a statement last month, TikTok described itself as ‘first and foremost an entertainment platform’. It has long tried to frame itself as that, not a social network, and with some justification: much of TikTok’s success relates to its algorithm, which unlike Facebook’s former model, does not base its recommendations on your circle of friends. But like Facebook, I’m told it has its own set of student ‘confessions’ pages. Because of the ease of creating content, compared to something like Netflix, anyone can make a video replying to something they didn’t like, starting a sort of conversation. Just because the format is solely video doesn’t mean it’s not a social network.

TikTok would love just to be a platform of silly dances and cute dog videos, because then they could portray themselves as harmless, far from the scylla and charybdis of American politics. However, they can’t. When you make it easy for users to create content, especially in the US, some people will speak their mind on controversial issues. I suspect this more cerebral content also helps the platform: it surely retains a lot of users who can justify their two-hour daily usage of the platform by the three educational videos they saw. So long as they can avoid the prolonged ire of lawmakers, they should be fine.

Not yet even teenagers, children can be exposed to any type of inappropriate language, content and themes once they are given access to the app. On a very severe note, they can become prey to predators online and there are endless cases of how online friendships can be manipulated and disguise motives. TikTok users under 18 are supposed to have their accounts set to private by default but a large part of ensuring these processes can occur is making it intuitive to guardians of young children.

Although most would agree regarding TikTok’s duty of care for under 13-year-olds, it is certainly less unexpected to the iGeneration. As the generation that doesn’t remember a time before massusage of personal technology devices such as smartphones and the internet.

Alongside the rapid development of personal devices and communication has been the rapid growth of regulations, restrictions and case studies detailing exploitative situations caused by social media. We are as desensitised to inappropriate and offensive content online as we are desensitised to the fact that these comments can have reallife consequences. It has become a reluctant acceptance that the online realm is dangerous and

Ironically, in addition to failing to protect young children, TikTok’s own algorithms have the ability to present a sterile, more palatable, experience for its users by removing alternative viewpoints and perspectives.

TikTok encloses users into their own space within the platform and algorithms ensure you remain there and continue consuming content of the same nature again and again. Combined with the special category data that TikTok has potentially been factoring into these algorithms, situating users in their own bubbles of satisfaction and confidence that the online space is filled with sameminded people produces a hugely biased mindset and further fuels intolerance.

There is no need for TikTok to have information on ethnicity or health

What is social media actually for?

Glycans: forgo en villain in the ba le against viruses

Milly Anderson

With the dawn of Covid-19 and the ever-present threat of continual viral evolution, an increased focus on viral structure in order to produce vaccines has never been more apparent. The phrase ‘spike protein’ has been integrated into everyday language, yet the role of glycans in viruses has been less mentioned. This begs the questions: what are glycans, why has their role in viruses been overlooked, and how important are they?

Generally, ‘glycans’ is an alternate name for polysaccharides. They are comprised of chains of monosaccharides, such as the singular sugar units glucose and fructose, which have been glycosidically linked together. This involves the covalent bonding of hemiacetal groups on a saccharide unit with a hydroxyl group of a neighbouring unit.

There are two discernible categories of glycans: N- and O-linked glycans. In eukaryotes (all animals, plants, and fungi), N-linked glycans are bonded to the nitrogen of the Asparagine (Asn) residue in the endoplasmic reticulum within cells, whereas O-linked glycans are assembled sequentially by one monosaccharide at a time from a threonine (Thr) or serine (Ser) residue of a peptide.

Glycans form important components of the surface of the virus to enable virus-host interactions, thereby resulting in infection. This occurs through

binding of the glycans to cellsurface receptors of the host cell, allowing mutual recognition between the two participants and thus membrane fusion. The virus can subsequently ‘unload’ into the host cell for replication. Using hostcell machinery, the viral N- and O-glycans are then translated and replicated for further infection.

varying degrees of infectivity and transmissibility of the virus. It has been found that Covid-19’s infectibility in humans could be accounted for due to the high degree of glycosylation of the ‘spike’ protein. This was determined through the mutation of glycosylation pa erns at the N331 and N343 residues of the ‘spike’ protein, which resulted in decreased severity of infection by Covid-19. Thus, it can be ascertained that glycosylation on the surface of the virus has implications on the transmissibility of the virus.

through binding specifically to viral glycans. The la prevent the spreading of virions by holding them on the surface of the host-virus interface. Tetherins on the host cell surface require N-linked glycosylation of their Asn sites in order to retain virions, thereby indicating the necessity for glycans and glycosylation in both the replication and repression of viruses.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded last week to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry." Be ozzi developed click reactions that could take place inside living organisms to probe glycans on the surface of cells, without disrutpting the cell's normal chemistry. Her win for these 'biororthogonal reactions' is a sign of increasing recognition of the importance of glycans.

Evidently essential for maintaining the cycle of replication of the virus, glycans also play an important role in ensuring virus transmission. Glycosylation pa erns within the glycans on the surface of specific viruses invoke

Alternatively, it has been seen that increased N-glycosylation of the HA protein of the influenza A virus causes reduced transmissibility of the virus by initiating the production of immune response proteins. Therefore, it can be suggested that both increased and decreased glycosylation of viral surface proteins can cause varying degrees of viral transmissibility, dependent on the virus.

Glycans therefore show promise in enabling the development of vaccines through their utilization as a target for treatments. For example, the reduction of N-glycosylation in SARS-CoV-2 through the removal of the ‘spike’ protein sites N331 and N343 could allow effective and universal vaccinations to be developed. Moreover, research into glycan inhibitors as treatments for viruses has shown that lectins and tetherin could reduce the transmissibility and infectivity of HIV. The former have been found to prevent membrane fusion between the virus and host cell

Despite the seeming enormity of glycans’ roles in viral infectivity, li research has been conducted into their importance prior to this century. This is likely due to a lack of advanced technology required to study glycovirology in order to analyse the structural components of glycans. Furthermore, biochemists largely focused on proteins in disease as the targets for antibodies, thereby resulting in li effort in the research of glycans. However, recent advancements in virology due to the emergence of Covid-19 has allowed the potential of glycans as targets to be revealed.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19. Spike glycoproteins are shown in turquoise, glycans in orange.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 (Alexey Solodovnikov and Valeria Arkhipova, CC BY-SA 4.0 License)

Durham team finds babies in womb react to taste

Helena Tagg

A team of researchers have produced groundbreaking evidence that fetuses can respond to smells and tastes whilst in the womb. The study was led by Beyza Ustun and Professor Nadja Reissland from Durham University’s Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab, in collaboration with Aston University and the University of Burgundy. Using 4D ultrasound testing, the facial expressions of fetuses during their final trimester were visualised in response to different flavors in the amniotic fluid, originating from the mothers’ diet.

Remarkably, the results affirm that fetuses can coordinate differential responses to flavours. In conjunction with prior research, this hints that the mother's diet during pregnancy is detected by fetal chemoreceptors, and that the response to a given flavour profile endures postbirth.

The sensing of flavour by a fetus is a combination of smell, taste and chemesthesis, obtained via ingestion of the amniotic fluid. It had been previously established that chemical compounds in the mother's diet do reach the amniotic fluid, and

that the fetal chemosensory system is sufficiently developed in the final trimester to respond to these flavourants.

Additionally, wider evidence of fetal sensory capabilities includes learning of the mother's voice, responding to audio played during pregnancy and familiarity with the odor of the amniotic fluid.

Multiple studies have indicated that neonates find comfort and recognise the scent of their mother, for example in breast milk, based on fundamental olfactory information gleaned in the womb.

This study aimed to unearth the intricacies of the fetal chemosensory development and its potential implications for informing parents’ nutritional choices.

A sample of 100 women between 32- and 36-weeks’ gestation were each given a single capsule containing either 400mg of carrot or kale powder, or formed a control group. These flavours were selected based on the assumption that the discrepancy in flavour would elicit different responses in the fetuses, as carrot delivers sweeter flavours, whilst kale is more bi er. The capsule was designed to limit degradation of the flavour prior to digestion and facilitate its movement into the amniotic fluid.

Approximately 20 minutes after ingestion, a 4D ultrasound scan was taken to scrutinize the fetus’s

response. The researchers recorded 17 independent facial movements, which, when presented simultaneously, were classified as gestalts according to a coding scheme.

As hypothesised, there were significant differences among the frequency of gestalts between all three groups, with the carrot group showing more “laughterface gestalts,” and the kale group exhibiting more “cry-face gestalts.” Additionally, in the kale group, the complexity of the gestalts increased with age of the fetus. The authors propose that this was due to developmental maturation of the chemosensory system, allowing for a wider range of anatomically complicated facial movements. This pa ern was not observed in the carrot group, as the “laughterface gestalt” is intrinsically simpler to perform, and thus does not show scope for increasing complexity.

This study was unprecedented; directly proving that different flavours in the mother’s diet can rapidly stimulate fetal chemoreceptors and induce a specific response in utero. This sheds light on the developmental progress of the sensory system, as well as the potential long-term retention of responses to certain flavours after birth. Durham University are following up this study to test Beyza Ustun’s belief that “repeated exposure to flavours

before birth could help establish food preferences post-birth, which could be important when thinking about messaging around healthy eating and the potential for avoiding ‘food-fussiness’ when weaning”. They have hypothesized that babies who become accustomed to certain flavours in utero may show more acceptance upon tasting them after

birth. Modern techniques, such as the 4D ultrasound testing used in this study, are proving to be powerful tools in elucidating the mysterious events of human development, and these results are being recognised as a revolutionary piece of the developmental puzzle.

Durham research: the impact of melting ice sheets

Cameron Sco

The climate emergency is already posing existential threats to ecosystems and societies across the globe, a threat only increased by the continued use of fossil fuels that unlock catastrophic feedback mechanisms. Exponential warming of the Antarctic ice sheets is a critical example, and the danger is easy to understand. White sheet ice is an excellent reflector of sunlight, but when rising global temperatures causes ice to melt there is less to act as a protective mirror. Heat that would have otherwise been reflected now remains on Earth, further raising global temperatures and accelerating the decline of the ice sheets. The vanishing of the ice sheets will raise global sea levels, threatening to inundate many coastal areas.

However, recent research (conducted by the Geography Department of Durham University and published in Nature) has shown that the amount of sea level rise may still be within our hands to control. If humanity is able to remain under the upper limit of two degrees of global warming set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, then the melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is likely to add less than half a metre

to global sea levels by 2500. By analysing the effects of previous periods of warming on the ice sheet and combining the results of the computer simulations from previous studies, Durham’s researchers were able to predict that if emissions are significantly cut now then the EAIS may only contribute 2cm to sea levels by the end of the century - significantly less than that predicted to be caused by the ice on Greenland or West Antarctica. However, should greenhouse gas emissions remain high until 2100, the melting of

the EAIS could cause up to half a metre in sea level rise. If emissions remain high beyond the end of the century, between two and five metres could be added to global sea levels. Research published in Nature Communications in 2021 estimated that there are currently 267 million people living in coastal zones that are less than two metres above sea level with the number expected to grow to 410 million by 2100. The danger posed by melting sea ice is therefore evident.

Rising sea levels are not the only result of melting sea ice.

Fossil fuel usage results in a greater concentration of CO2 in the air, which is then absorbed into the ocean and results in the acidification of the seas. In water distant from melting sea ice, the natural alkalinity of the sea counteracts this acidification; but in water near the ice sheets the ice melt flows into the ocean and dilutes it. This reduces the ocean’s ability to resist acidification and leads to a rapid lowering of the water’s pH. The biochemistry of seaweed would need to adapt to

(Anders Jildén via Unsplash)

live in such acidic environs and this change would likely propagate all the way up the food chain. Wei-Jun Cai, a marine chemist at the University of Delaware and a co-author of a Science article into the acidification caused by melting ice, stated while speaking to The Guardian: “We are far from knowing what the cost is for biological systems. We don’t know what organisms could be affected.”

What is clear is that ocean acidification has already been shown to pose a threat to coral reefs around the world. An increased acidity reduces the concentration of the carbonate ions necessary to grow new coral. Coral reefs are a rich home for a diverse ecosystem of marine life and the risk posed by ocean acidification is a serious threat. When combined with the bleaching of corals due to rising ocean temperatures, the prospects seem bleak.

Consequently, the Durham research is particularly potent. If it is within our power to prevent the worst melting of sheet ice and reduce the devastating effects of rising sea levels and ocean acidification, it is humanity’s responsibility to try. The climate crisis is anthropogenic in cause and will be anthropic in effect. Keeping the world below the two degrees of warming targeted with the Paris Agreement remains absolutely crucial.

Are the AI Artists sowing chaos or creativity?

Sarah Kuszynski

We have all heard of deepfakes, but what about deep learning? Both deepfakes and text-toimage generators are powered by a method of training AI called deep learning, which relies on artificial neural networks to replicate the function of neurons in the human brain. This has resulted in the rapid progression in AI’s ability to mimic the ways humans naturally speak and communicate. Image generators then allow users to create images from descriptions or upload and amend images. Hence, these image generation tools come with transformative potential, but also additional risks to society: worsening the spread of misinformation, reproducing biases and a host of creative concerns. Namely, can AI-generated images be considered genuine art?

The most well-known AI image generators, including Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E, learn the underlying pa ern related to the input and use that to generate similar content which enables photorealistic images to be produced. Consequently, Midjourney and DALL-E are now able to imitate well-known artists and genres, to generate credible photorealistic images of real-world situations and be considered to create ‘original’ artistic content. Hence, these

platforms have been heralded as one of the most promising advances in AI, and led to experts predicting that as much as 90% of online content could be AIgenerated.

Yet in the art world, AI's ability to process vast amounts of art and spit out its own versions is significantly changing the role of the humans involved in the creative process.

That said, AI image creation has enabled dedicated art groups and digital galleries to appear. There is a very human desire to use AI to enrich and diversify the production of art and illustration. Yet, AI artwork has also been viewed as a form of theft and even a tool that risks sparking a decline in the overall creativity of humans if we become increasingly dependent on it for our creative ideas. Surely it is be er for AI to handle repetitive tasks and for artists to use AI as just one of the options to gain creative insights rather than allowing AI to dominate the realm of creative tasks?

easy to see how, when combined with effective use of social media algorithms, these images could be deployed by malign foreign actors or extremist groups to stir-up violence and unrest.

harnessed by authoritarian and oppressive regimes, reinforcing their censored version of history, to the detriment of society.

A notable example of this was the generative AI tool Midjourney being used to create the winning artwork in the digital art section of the Colorado State Fair, sparking accusations of cheating from other contestants. Although the artist was still initiating the creative process (via the text prompt), when it came to the images the role of the human has now been likened to that of a curator rather than a creator – merely selecting the best work from the huge amount of imagery the AI rapidly churns out.

Beyond the art world, AIgenerated imagery will likely influence various aspects of our online and offline lives. Most pressingly, AI-generated imagery has the power to shift our perceptions of what is real and true. This issue concerned many AI companies, including OpenAI, and consequently DALL-E prohibits images of celebrities or politicians to ensure users keep their text prompts ‘clean.’ OpenAI is thus a empting to reduce the flow of false or inflammatory images online. However, photorealistic faces are allowed to be generated by DALL-E and to be shared to social media, heightening the risk of physical-world consequences and dystopian outcomes. One such concern is that image generators can output convincing images of riots and protesting –comparable to the January 6th Capitol Hill protests. It is all too

AI-generated images are also able to distort our present reality, or reinforce false historical narratives. Chinese technology company Baidu designed a textto-image generator that expressly prohibits the creation of images of Tiananmen Square. Generative AI could very plausibly be employed to conceal other human rights atrocities such as those commi ed by Russia in Ukraine, or of Uyghur concentration camps in Xinjiang, China. AI is therefore being

AI has resulted in shifting perceptions of human creativity. Some artists embrace the new tools, whilst others balk at them. But the greatest concern comes from AI’s realitydistorting abilities: specifically, how they can (and already are) being hijacked by authoritarian governments and used to sow political discord. AI-generated imagery is a double-edged sword, contemporaneously pushing boundaries and creating chaos.

AI-generated imagery has the power to shift our perceptions of what is real

Politics

Student

No place like home: Durham University under fire for lack of student housing

Is the institution doing enough to help students navigate the private market?

Jack Newbury

Exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, the housing market squeeze is being felt like never before. In Durham, ambitious plans for University expansion seem incompatible with a small city already under significant strain.

The Durham student population was 6,500 in the 1990/91 academic year, swelling to 15,500 by 2013/14 and 20,000 in 2020/21. As the University headcount grows exponentially, a very basic supply and demand issue befalls Durham.

How does a limited stock of housing continue to satisfy an ever-growing student population? The answer seems to be increased rent costs. The competition for the same number of houses can only get worse as the University grows its ranks.

Demand and supply

Residents and students alike are bearing the brunt of current price increases. Locals, perhaps justifiably, see students as the root cause of rent inflation. Students did not come to Durham with the intention of saturating the housing market. Indeed, many locals now face the heartbreaking decision to leave their hometown as they get priced out.

The deep rooted supply issue means students can do nothing but accept well-above inflation rent costs. A typical house on Elvet Crescent faces a 20% rent hike from £149 per person per week to £179, all without bills included.

What next?

Since student numbers are the driving force behind the market failure, Durham University’s admissions policy is facing increased scrutiny. Indeed, the ‘Durham University Strategy 20172027’ gives an insight into the future direction of the housing market.

The University has laid out the following goals to be reached by 2027: first, an increase of 21,500 students. There is also an aim to integrate four to six new colleges, twinned with a goal to have 50% of students living in college. The fourth and final goal is to have 35% of the student body comprising international students.

The role of accommodationcollege

Upon closer inspection, the University’s goal to house half of all students in colleges shows that the University Council is aware of the ongoing housing problem. In current market conditions, only 35% of students are living in University accommodation. A 15%

The Durham student population was 6,500 in the academic year 1990/91, swelling to 15,500 by 2013/14 and 20,000 by 2020/21

As the University headcount grows exponentionally, a very basic supply and demand issue befalls Durham

reduction in demand for private renting would go a long way to ease supply issues and force down prices. To achieve this goal, the University has laid out proposals for ‘four to six’ new colleges by 2027. If the University achieved these goals the housing market in Durham would undoubtedly be significantly eased. However, the other figures present a more worrying picture.

The 21,500-student target simply seems unfeasible. The City of Durham Trust reported that the University’s provisional figures listed 22,200 students in the last academic year. The last avaliable data from the University (2020/21) recorded 20,000 students, a 900-student increase from the year before.

In fact, over the last five years the average yearly growth in the University has been 468 students. If we accept the Durham Trust’s figure of 22,200 students in the 2021/22 year and apply the average yearly growth of the last five years until the 2026/27 strategy expires, we find that the University will be home to 24,540 students – in other words – an overshoot of 3,040 heads.

If there were a significant overshoot in numbers the ‘four to six’ new colleges would pick up that overpopulation strain and would thus be largely unable to increase the percentage of total students living in colleges.

The international effect

The University seems keen to expand its proportion of international students, si ing at 25% in the 2020/21 year. The 2026/27 goal is 35%. The University make a point of ‘Global Durham’ with the official line of aiming to “be a globally networked university.”

Cynics would note that perhaps being able to charge international student around 250% the fees of home students (around £21,730 to £27,350) is the driver behind this ‘Global Durham’ goal.

A cynic’s take

Further, students who are cynical of the University’s motives have argued that the overshoot in student numbers, far from an accident, is the aim of the University. Certainly, it is hard to believe the University leadership could blindly blunder into this statistical dilemma. Instead, it might be argued that the goal of the University, far from alleviating stress on the renting market, is to cultivate a student population with enough money to pay whatever rent costs might be incurred as a result of Durham’s expansion aims.

Durham University student accommodation (MJ Richardson via Wikimedia Commons)

That level of cynicism may be unfair to the University, though one thing is clear: if the Durham housing market is going to get any be er, the University needs to carefully consider the consequences of its housing plans. After all, students need to have somewhere to live.

The budget and Conservatism

Does the Truss government’s ‘mini-budget’ mark a change in Tory doctrine as we know it?

Max Malone

In some online circles there is a quote humorously misa ributed to the father of British conservatism Edmund Burke: “The lower taxes the more conservatism there is.” This derisive broken English put in the mouth of their opposition expresses the bi er disappointment that many Conservatives hold for the government’s latest budget.

The ideological strands within the Tory party are numerous and complex. This government has advertised itself as the return to neoliberalism, sometimes called Thatcherism. This is the belief that the state should remove itself from the lives of individuals and allow the free market to fill the void, typically through cu ing taxes and spending. While it is hyperbolically presented that they believe this to be a panacea, it is not unfair to accuse neoliberals of responding to most problems with a tax cut.

This differs from Conservatism, which is based around governing pragmatically in order to balance the needs of the day with preserving the effective institutions and traditions of the past for the benefit of future generations.

Returning to the budget, the difference between the neoliberals in cabinet and the Conservatives throughout the party is stark. The ostensible reasoning behind this budget is the cost of living crisis. The government claimed that cuts to National Insurance and the five percent reduction in the top rate of income tax would free up much needed money in household budgets.

The la er policy lasted all of ten days, as the government faced pressure to ‘u-turn’ on the scrapping of the 45% upper tax limit. Nevertheless, the enduring elements of the mini-budget remain representative of a government commi ed to lower taxes.

This flies in the face of Conservative pragmatism. Those most affected by inflation aren’t those who make £150,000 or more a year. Additionally, the argument that we can grow our way out of inflation by cu ing taxes to free up money for private investment holds li le water. In the face of inflation

disposable income will be invested into assets with value outgrowing inflation like housing. The demand for this will be fanned by the cut in stamp duty, resulting in ballooning house prices and a spiralling cost of living. This insults modern Conservative tradition, particularly former Prime Minister Harold MacMillan’s notion of property owning democracy, by pricing many out of home ownership.

Furthermore, the cut to National Insurance appears to reject what Tories, most recently Kemi Badenoch in the leadership election, historically billed themselves on – tough choices and practicalities. Given the ever-increasing cost of caring for an ageing population, the previous government’s rise in National Insurance could be billed as a bi er necessity. Thus, to cut taxes is to acknowledge that it is the government’s policy to borrow in order to cover the cost, spi ing in the face of Conservatism’s core bargain between past, present and future by expecting the future to pay for the present’s needs.

This embrace of neoliberalism may seriously jeopardise the seats gained from the most recent Tory landslide in 2019. Discarding the Conservative priority of national unity and its policy of ‘levelling up’ suggests that the new cabinet is not interested in governing within the mandate acquired in 2019.

A budget that relaxes financial regulation on the City and rejects regional investment outside the South-East further economically divides North and South risking the eventural loss of the ‘Red-Wall’ seats.

Thus, the recent budget leaves Conservatives within the Tory party cold. With their principles rejected and their electoral future looking bleak is it any wonder that the Truss government’s first meaningful action has been so ill-recieved in Conservative circles?

With the hindsight of ten days, it would seem that much of the party is not in fact comfortable with this return to neoliberalism. Whilst prominent members of Truss’s cabinet continue to hope to one day see the permanent slashing of taxes, neither the party’s backbenchers, nor the country appears to support such radical policy.

The Bank of England (Steve Daniels)

‘Make Me Prime Minister’: TV’s gamification of politics

fix.

The new reality series Make Me Prime Minister is The Apprentice, but for politics. The show pits twelve “ordinary yet opinionated Brits” against each other to see who has “what it takes” to do the top job and take on difficult policy making challenges. The show is presented and judged by two “political heavyweights” Alastair Campbell and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

The stated aim of the show is, according to Baroness Warsi, to “find a new generation of political leaders.” In the run-up to the show’s premiere on Channel 4, there were debates surrounding the gamification of politics, about the risks of reducing its processes to evening entertainment.

Indeed, there is something to be said about this. By stripping politics down to pure personality, taking away factors like expertise or ideological underpinnings, the show may do a disservice to people’s understanding of the actual political processes in this country.

On the other hand, the show may well serve as a jumping off point for viewers to develop an interest in the pivotal debates currently underpinning our political climate. This could legitimately fulfil the show’s stated purpose, even if tomorrow’s new leaders are not discovered by the show.

However, the first episode suggests that the programme’s purpose is less to unearth political talent and more to provide a comic

It becomes quickly apparent that Alastair Campbell, Baroness Warsi and anyone else involved in the process of creating this show has li le interest in uncovering “a new generation of political leaders.”

Their main interest is to mock people who are out of their depth.

premise is most obvious. While the contestants are egotistical or, in many cases, borderline unlikable, their hearts are in the right place. They believe that they can improve and fix the UK. The hosts and producers take no time in punishing them for this belief.

The audience at home is invited to ridicule these people as they come apart under pressure

Upon hearing the policies put forward by candidates, Campbell joked that he would not “describe either of those as policies.” Having set a task which political leaders would normally face with the help of civil servants and think tanks, the contestants inevitably come up with halfbaked ideas that may sound good at first, but which eventually fall apart under the scrutiny of professional journalists.

The audience at home is invited to ridicule these people as they come apart under pressure while carrying out fantasy versions of roles stretching from press officer to prime minister.

The only contestant who has any experience in any level of government is Jackie Weaver, of Handford Parish Council fame; the rest have professions that range from hairdresser to marketing consultant. However, all the contestants seem to share the belief that the solution to any political problem is “just to apply some common sense to what we’re told was a very complex situation.”

This maxim is immediately put to the test as the first task of the series is to fix British primary education with a radical new policy. This is where the inherent cruelty of the

Make me Prime Minister is not a show about proving that any “ordinary Brit” can be prime minister as long as they have put their mind to it and apply “common sense”. It is about showing that they can’t. At the show’s heart there are two things: Firstly, there is a deeply cynical exploitation of the UK’s current political situation and the average person’s desire to do something about it.

Secondly, there is a technocratic undercurrent that signals to the audience that the average person can’t be prime minister and that we should laugh at those who think that they can be.

Kieran Molloy

Politics

COP27: doomed to fail? International

After the measures agreed at COP26, do unrelenting geopolitical tensions have the potential to derail COP27, and the global response to climate change with it?

Tom Raines

In li le over a month, delegates from national assemblies will be meeting for COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to build upon existing progress in climate change agreements. With COP26 hosted by Glasgow in 2021, clear momentum has been building in favour of a Net Zero world, epitomised by the 2016 Paris Agreement, where 196 countries agreed to limit global temperature rises to just 1.5°C. However, the effects on the global energy market arising from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, alongside changes in the UK’s environmental policy seem to have stalled this momentum, making COP27 a far less unified meeting.

leaders, alerting them to the fragility of the world and inducing a range of policy agreements. This was not just limited to the 1.5°C temperature limit, but also an agreement to halt deforestation by 2030, signed by over 100 countries, including Indonesia and Brazil. Given the high levels of deforestation in these two nations, COP26 appeared to demonstrate consensus between nations at different stages of economic development. The main cause for concern at COP26 was China and India’s unwillingness to “phase out” coal power, instead only announcing they would “phase down” its usage.

conference in Berlin, to 4.85 tonnes by 2020, perhaps a signal that world leaders are acting in the right direction to prevent environmental disaster.

The marked sense of urgency at the COP26 conference in 2021 led to it being one of the most impactful conferences in its 30-year history. The aftermath of COVID-19 acted as a wake-up call for many world

It is this hesitation from major polluting nations that seems to cap the potential success of climate change conferences. For many, particularly in industrialising nations that are yet to fully exploit their fossil fuel resources, the idea of industrialised nations in Europe and North Africa policing fossil fuel usage seems hypocritical and unjust. Accountability thus remains the stumbling block in reaching global agreements. Should industrialised nations have to do more in light of their historical emissions, or should industrialising nations have to sacrifice economic potential for environmental hope? Nevertheless, climate change conferences still can be effective in channelling a collective effort towards a Net Zero world. During a COP conference, environmental affairs have the ability to dominate the news cycle, placing pressure on governments to act on climate change. In the UK, CO2 emissions per capita have declined from 9.78 tonnes in 1995, during the first COP

Although UK environmental policy has been shifting in a more positive direction, recent decisions have created cause for concern for many in political circles. The recent decision to green-light fracking appears especially contentious, with prominent Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Jacob Rees-Mogg causing outrage in some circles by saying he would allow it in his garden. Much of this stems from the proposed decision to categorise fracking sites as “nationally important infrastructure,” which would allow fracking to begin without the consent of local communities. In a 2021 YouGov poll, 51% of Britons say they would oppose the opening of a fracking or shale gas extraction site, with many citing the risk of earthquakes and pollution that fracking can bring. In spite of this, the expansion of fracking may simply be a temporary measure designed to offset rising energy costs in the wake of the RussiaUkraine conflict, meaning that the UK’s energy mix is more resilient to shocks and global crises. Simultaneously, the announcement of “investment zones” has furthered this risk of environmental degradation. The “investment zones,” which would face fewer regulations and bureaucracy, are allowed to be set up in national parks, meaning that the strict legal framework on pollution and habitat protection could be relaxed. Current

In the UK, CO2 emissions per capita have declined from 9.78 tonnes in 1995, during the first COP conference in Berlin, to 4.85 tonnes by 2020

government documents provide no reference to environmental constraints when building in these “investment zones,” which might open the door for higher levels of water pollution and sewage discharge in national parks.

Despite this, less publicised actions do offer some hope for environmentalists. The ban on onshore wind was lifted in the government’s September 2022 ‘mini-budget,’ potentially allowing for a considerable expansion in domestically produced renewable energy. Even though most of the public support an expansion in onshore wind capacity, it remains very unpopular amongst Conservative party members, perhaps reflecting that the Truss government is steadfast in their plan to a ain a Net Zero economy by 2050. Equally, shifts in consumer behaviour reflect a growing appetite for the UK to reach its environmental targets.

The number of electric vehicle sales doubled in 2021 compared to 2020 (although still only accounting for 11.6% of total car sales in the UK), and record numbers of UK households are choosing to reduce their consumption of animal goods.

A more environmentally conscious consumer base is not only beneficial in reducing personal carbon footprints, but it additionally increases responsibility on businesses and MPs to act more hawkishly on climate change.

These conflicts, both within and between nations, will come to a head in November this year at COP27 in Egypt. The Egyptian government’s desire to create a “COP for Africa” will force the conflict between industrialised and industrialising nations to the front of the agenda, with the debate over who is entitled to use fossil fuels likely to increase. For the good of the world, COP27 needs to be successful, yet geopolitical tensions could impede this. In the same way that COP26 demonstrated a grassroots and governmental desire for action on climate change, COP27 might allow for the issue of accountability for climate change to finally be resolved, although there is a greater chance that global co-operation struggles to create significant progress.

The aftermath of COVID-19 acted as a wake-up call for many world leaders

The number of electric vehicle sales doubled in 2021 compared to 2020

Female leaders at COP26 in Scotland last year, which produced the ‘Glasgow Pact’ agreement (Sco ish Government via Wikimedia Commons)

Palstrology

Aquarius

20th Jan – 18th Feb

Stop waiting around for other people, be proactive and decide the group Halloween costume yourself this year.

Pisces

19th Feb – 20th Mar

Utilise your entrepreneurial spirit, clean out your closet as that Depop page is looking rather bare.

Taurus

20th Apr – 20th May

With the full moon approaching it’s time for you to rest and recharge, go watch Don’t Worry Darling - even if Harry’s acting is somewhat laughable.

Gemini

21st May – 21th Jun

You’re sure to have fun with your nearest and dearest this week, perhaps that questionably themed cocktail night you saw on TikTok is a good idea after all.

Aries

21st Mar – 19th Apr

Mercury in retrograde is coming to an end. Use this new-found calm to try to smooth over tensions within close relationships, perhaps let your housemates know that their walls are thinner than they think.

Cancer

22nd Jun – 22nd Jul

Start-of-term motivation means you might actually be bothered to do your extra reading this week, if you have any energy left use it to apply for internships or graduate schemes. You’ll be thankful in the long run.

Leo 23rd Jul – 22nd Aug

You might have escaped freshers’ flu thus far, however you can’t run from it forever. Stock up on Lemsip.

Virgo 23rd Aug – 22nd Sep

There may be lots of new experiences on the horizon, but remember not to put yourself in a situation where you won’t feel comfortable – whether that’s the fourth floor of the Billy B or a discussion about signet rings.

Libra

23rd Sep – 23rd Oct

You might start to feel groggy, why don’t you throw yourself into something active - go to Zumba or join the Canoe Club perhaps.

Scorpio

24th Oct - 21st Nov

Stop listening to that same old playlist on the way home from lectures, why don’t you branch out and try something different. After all, do you really want Ed Sheeran to be featured on your Spotify Wrapped this year?

Sagi arius

22nd Nov - 21st Dec

You may find yourself still feeling deep hangxiety from your last big night out, maybe go a li le less hard on the pres and this time you’ll be let into Klute.

Capricorn

22nd Dec - 19th Jan

It’s time to cut the toxicity out of your life, check your fridge for mould. And (if you’re living out) your bathroom, bedroom and kitchen as well.

Dear Violet, I’ve been talking to this boy over the summer, and I really like him. The only thing is that our zodiac signs are so incompatible! I’m a Cancer, and he’s an Aries – need I say more? My psychic also expressed her concerns, and my tarot reading suggested he might have commitment issues. He’s not stepped a foot out of line and has been absolutely perfect, but I don’t know if I can look past all these red flags.

A

Dearest love, I can entirely understand how upse ing this must be for you. I hear that Aries/Cancer couples do struggle with trust and communication. On that note, perhaps it’s best you voice these anxieties to your situationship. Any relationship will inevitably come with a bump or two, and how you two handle this deeply challenging issue will be very telling of the future of your partnership. Alternatively, maybe you could perform some cleansing rituals to clear both your and his energy. Light some incense, whack out the rose quartz, and dance in a circle. Don’t give up on a possibility for love! Join that 70%.

Q CUTHSDear Violet, I am in desperate need of advice. I suffer from a rare condition called synaesthesia, which means that I can taste people’s names. If I come across another Harrison, Benedict, or Horace, I genuinely might throw up. I don’t know how to control my reactions when someone’s name conjures a cocktail of manure, family heirloom china, and muddy wellies in my mouth. What should I do?

A

Dear poppet, I am ever so sorry for this debilitating struggle you must persevere through every day. I would say that it is fortuitous that you don’t live on the Bailey, where more people with the names you have mentioned seem to reside. I would recommend that where possible you stay firmly planted on Stevo soil, so that you lower your chances of crossing paths with them. Under absolutely no circumstances go to Invades. If it is any comfort, I know many people who also tend to steer away from these individuals where possible (for different reasons) so just know that you are not alone my darling.

Q STEVOAsk Aunty

PalatiDates

Lily on Sam

Initial vibes?

He was late but sincerely apologetic, had a remarkable resemblance to Sam Fender.

What topics arose?

Music. We’re both into jazz, so a Sunday night at Fab’s would be a great second date.

How would they describe you? A terrible flirt.

Describe them in three words Intellectual, kind, eccentric.

Most awkward moment Sha ering my wine glass all over my dinner...

Which Durham college would you place them in and why? Cuth’s - humble, free-spirited.

Did they meet your expectations? Any surprises? He exceeded them! I felt like I’d known him much longer than a few hours.

Is a second date on the cards?

Hopefully - when he finally replies to my message...

Marks out of 10: 8

Sam on Lily

Initial vibes?

Awkward at first but what first date isn’t?

What topics arose? Music - and a deep psychoanalysis of our families. Romantic!

How would they describe you? Dorky, but girls love a nerd, don’t they?

Describe them in three words Flirty, wi y, kind.

Most awkward moment A wine-spilling incident.

Which Durham college would you place them in and why? Chad’s. Great fun!

Did they meet your expectations? Any surprises?

I was surprised to hear that she keeps chinchillas in her uni house - I’m sure her landlord would be too...

Is a second date on the cards? I’d like to think so!

Marks out of 10: 7

Gabi Gordon and Eve Kirman, a prophetic pair, look to the stars to offer some essential second-week wisdom

(Images: Nicole Wu)

This edition’s date is between Lily and Sam. Will they find love over dinner at Zizzi’s?

Sport

Rugby Premiership: the product’s great, so why can’t we sell any?

Max Malone

From-behind victories, last minute winners and the lack of a clearly dominant side are persistent features of this Rugby Premiership season. It is fair to say, in my view, that this is the best top-flight English club rugby has been in recent memory. Thus, this begs the question: what keeps Premiership Rugby from achieving the commercial success its competitive quality merits?

Half-full stadiums are a common sight, even for potential title contenders such as Saracens, Sale Sharks and London Irish. Wasps, at the time of writing, have just escaped what would have been a fatal tax bill.

Worcester Warriors were not so lucky. The unvarnished fact is that people are not watching in sufficient numbers, and it is bleeding clubs dry.

This should not be the case. Across the Channel, the teams of the Top 14 play weekly to full stadiums. Moreover, English Rugby Internationals draw massive audiences, even when they are not on Freeview. It is manifestly apparent that Premiership Rugby has failed to cultivate a broad audience.

I doubt much of the sport viewing public - outside a few Rugby towns - are even aware of the league’s existence, let alone the quality of entertainment it provides. Cricket has faced a similar problem in recent years, which it addressed with the Hundred.

Rule changes to rugby, in the vein of the Hundred, would either be too shallow to be impactful or too all consuming to consider their product as a genuine form of rugby. Cricket’s advantage in this regard was the relative simplicity of its core gameplay loop and scoring system, rendering the arcane complexity which alienates casual viewers more easily streamlined and, therefore, accessible.

This is not an option for rugby. The various intersecting structures of the game - be it breakdowns, set pieces, the kicking ba le or open play - all have their own complexities, leading to a harsh learning curve for a new viewer.

The simplification of any one of these would have a wide-ranging impact, hamstringing the strategic depth that makes the game interesting. Additionally, Rugby 7s - Rugby Union’s li le sibling - might already be considered rugby’s Hundred. Though somewhat popular, it is doubtful whether it has driven many additional spectators to the 15-a-side game.

Another option for the Premiership is to embrace Freeview. Many a casual fan has been brought into the international game through major tournaments aired on BBC/ITV. An entry barrier lower than at present, where games are behind a Sky/BT-Sport paywall, may drive up viewership.

However, there are practical problems with this in the immediate and long-term future.

As it stands, Premiership Rugby has exclusive contracts with its current broadcasters which will be operational for the next few years.

Even if clubs can be healthily maintained to a point of renegotiation, the revenue these deals bring is significant. Placing matches on Freeview would compromise this vital stream of income for teams and the league as a whole, with no guarantee of compensating revenue generation from any gain in viewership. This, therefore, would cast doubt on the financial viability of such a plan.

Some have even called for the intervention of the national governing body, the RFU, to provide greater support for the professional game.

Advocates of this view point to Ireland, where the IRFU largely funds the four incredibly successful Provincial teams based on the revenue from the television rights to the national team. Yet, I doubt if such a model could be replicated by the RFU.

Manager poaching: side-effect of over-achieving

Football is a fast-moving industry, so it is no surprise that the revolving door manager market mimics its swift pace. Yet it does so in an unforgiving, cynical manner to the detriment of ambitious, growing clubs and favouring the rich who will nonchalantly make short-term fixes with their financial power.

Black Cats’ impressive start to the season certainly left Championship fans scratching their heads over the motive of the Scotsman’s move to Stoke.

seen as a success despite his subpar performances, simply due to the way it significantly damaged Liverpool’s a acking exploits in future seasons.

Firstly, Premiership clubs are far more numerous and independent than the Irish Provinces, which are effectively organs of the IRFU. In order to replicate the Irish model, the private owners and fan commi ees of the respective clubs would have to surrender control to the RFU.

It is disputable whether they would accept this. Furthermore, greater centralisation by the National Union may lead to less interesting rugby, as the clubs would be directed to play in the same style as the national team, as is the case in New Zealand.

Secondly, diversion of RFU resources to the top-flight professional game would have to come at the expense of its other functions, such as investment in grass roots rugby. It simply does not make sense for the sport’s national body to divert money from local clubs, children’s teams and rugby-in-schools programmes into commercial ventures with a far greater capacity to self-fund.

Paradoxically investing in the Premiership to grow the game would undermine its growth by removing support from the institutions that get young people invested in rugby.

As it stands, professional rugby in England is in an unenviable position. The means to grow the game present pitfalls which could scupper the league. For now, all there is to do is pray in hope that, if the quality of the game stays high, new fans will come.

Poaching a high-achieving manager from another team is nothing new and has been done by huge teams for some time, however as the practice extends itself prominently into the EFL this season, it leaves poorer clubs punished for taking a successful approach to making progress from a footballing perspective.

Preseason saw Rob Edwards’ and Neil Critchley’s departures from Forest Green and Blackpool which set the tone for the season – leaving their clubs in a far be er position than when they took over but also in turmoil as they abandoned their projects. Alex Neil’s and Paul Warne’s moves in the early stages of this campaign will likely leave Forest Green and Blackpool fans grateful that they had the decency to leave them time to appoint a replacement.

For context, each of these managers earned promotion with their respective sides. They were adored by their fan bases. In fact, Edwards and Neil gained promotion and were also lured away within a season of their appointments.

Watford swooped in for Edwards – a shiny Premier League-standard squad and a parachute paymentfunded contract dangled under his nose was the perfect bait. Uncharacteristically, the club even put on record their unwavering support: “We will be supporting Rob Edwards come hell or high water” their club statement read. Yet 10 games into his tenure he found himself jobless. Forest Green’s upward trajectory scuppered for less than a dozen gruelling games of Championship experience.

Whether Neil’s departure from North East powerhouse, Sunderland will have a happy ending for any party is yet to be seen. However, the

Now, while both were successful at their former clubs, it’s fair to conclude that neither had the time to form an emotional a achment with their club and fan base. So as we turn our a ention to Po er and Warne, the immorality of manager poaching becomes suddenly apparent.

Upon his departure for West London, Po er had Brighton in the Champions League spots, and quite comfortably on track for the highest finish in the club’s history. However, he was lured away in familiar fashion in the same way he was tempted from Östersunds to Swansea and from there to Brighton. One cannot blame Po er for taking natural next steps in his career but it is very easy to become frustrated at the power that those at the top have, especially when his new team resides in the same division.

With managers having the luxury of free movement all year round – and top-level managers few and far between – there’s every chance that teams may begin to use this tactic.

One possible way of preventing this is by the FA imposing mandatory buy-out clauses within managers’ contracts, following a similar model to that which La Liga sets on all players. Managers could still have free movement throughout the season but a predetermined price tag would certainly have the potential to deter an increased rise in manager poaching.

A buy-out clause would also prevent managers from taking jobs as stepping stones to other clubs. Recently-departed Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder suffered a tenure on Teesside plagued with accusations that he was ready to up-sticks to a Premier League club at the first opportunity. Managers who worry about being locked in a contract due to a high buyout clause would tend not to take positions that they only intend to uphold for a short time.

Similarly, Warne left his beloved Rotherham on track for their greatest season in recent history as they challenged in the top half of the Championship. However, he was still willing to drop a division to take over at Derby after six years at the helm for The Millers.

So with this issue seemingly on the rise, is it about time football authorities intervene? After all, if clubs are forced to only replace players within the transfer window, why should managers be any different? Surely, it is far easier to derail a club’s season by depriving them of their manager than one singular player.

Chelsea have a history with throwing their spending power around in order to deprive their opponents as well as bolster their squad. Fernando Torres’ move from Liverpool in 2011 was still

Similarly, the FA could choose to set price floors on managerial transfers, particularly those during the season. It would yet again work as a deterrence for not only taking well-performing managers from smaller clubs but may also deter clubs such as Watford from frequently replacing managers.

Without implementing restraints for top teams, frequent manager movement is a worrying trend. While it remains an easy practice, it will become increasingly difficult for teams to enjoy significant growth through the means of a long-term footballing project.

If, as fans, we want to see variation in the top divisions in England, we should be opposed to clubs luring managers from their long-term projects and enjoy the continuity and upwards trajectory of smaller clubs.

Joe Harston

(Chris Smallwood via Flickr)

Investing in the Premiership to grow the game would undermine its growth by removing support

Frequent manager movement is a worrying trend

Issy Wong: “That’s the power athletes have”

Maddie Parker

There are few athletes making waves in their sport like Issy Wong in the world of cricket. From The Hundred, to the Commonwealth Games, to making her Test debut, ‘Wongy’ hasn’t stopped swivelling heads as she embarks on her bid to become the fastest female bowler in history.

After a whirlwind summer, the 20-year-old is yet to slow down.

On the move again from Lisbon to Madrid, Wong spoke to Palatinate about her sporting inspirations, turning her hand to punditry, and how it felt to be capped in all formats by England.

Before her days at Warwickshire and Birmingham Phoenix, the pace bowler first took up the sport in an after-school club where she tried to emulate some of her cricketing idols. “I think most young cricketers around my age looked up to Katherine [Brunt] as a female role model - to stay at the top of that level for so long it was pre y inspirational. From the men’s game, someone like Jimmy Anderson - the sort of control he’s got over the ball, I mean he’s the GOAT isn’t he?”

Since then, Wong has had the opportunity to play alongside Brunt, including in the 2022 Commonwealth Games - the first to feature women’s cricket. Despite narrowly losing out on a bronze medal, the experience of walking out in front of a sell-out Edgbaston crowd makes it a highlight of the summer. “When we had that semi final against India - to walk out at a home ground in front of 20,000 people, it was pre y surreal.

“We had played [Central] Sparks games where we had 10 people there and Hundred games where we had had up to 10,000, but to play in front of a literally packed out house was really special.”

Over the course of the summer, Wong had been selected to represent her country in all formats, opening the ba ing for the T20 side and showcasing her blistering speed on the world stage. Her England debut came at the end of June in the form of a Test match against South Africa, “first game for England in the whites - doesn’t really get much be er than that!

“My favourite to play I think has got to be the Test match - I was lucky that my first game was a Test match and it’s something that not a lot of people get to do. I think the fact that it was my first game heightened that, I thought it was amazing and I loved every second of it.

“In terms of which format suits me best, I would say I’ve just played more T20 cricket than the other two. T20 cricket is kind of short and sharp and you can kind of get away with a bit - it’s all about being one step ahead and you can chop and change whereas it takes a bit more patience to play one day cricket.”

Speaking of patience, Wong is widely regarded as one of the fastest bowlers in the women’s game and retains hope of one day being the first woman to surpass the 80mph barrier. “I think the way the game is going it’s only a ma er of timepeople are bowling quicker, hi ing bigger sixes, taking be er catchesthe game is moving forward and it’s a really exciting time to be playing.”

school to watch it - I remember Danny Morrison screaming on commentary and people smashing sixes out the park and it doesn’t get much more exciting than that. I always supported the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) so that would be pre y cool and it is amazing to have an opportunity to take part in it.”

People are bowling quicker, hi ing bigger sixes, taking be er catches

appealing to me as a ten year old and then me supporting CSK as a result and that’s the power athletes have. For us, as players, it’s really exciting to be a part of that.”

There’s no doubt that Issy Wong will continue to be a trailblazer in and around the world of cricket as she cements herself in the national side. Already a fan favourite and armed with her fierce right arm, you get the sense more than one record will be broken over her career.

To wrap it up, naturally we had to know the answers to a few burning cricketing questions. Kicking us off, what would Issy Wong prefer to win: the Ashes or the World Cup?

other sport goes though, it appears Wong will probably stick to cricket. “I love football and I am a massive Liverpool fan. I am not very good though - I’ve got what my dad calls a ‘Toblerone foot’ meaning the ball could bounce off at any angle! I played in goal when I was younger and loved throwing myself around in the mud and trying to catch the ball. I love the game but I am not sure I would make it!”

Being of Chinese descent, Wong spoke of how cricket could break through into East Asia, having already taken the rest of the continent by storm. “Obviously the Asia Cup was a really good chance for the Hong Kong side to punch above their weight a bit against some of the biggest sides in Asia.

“One of the exciting things about cricket is that the whole continent of Asia is, I guess, completely hooked by it and it would be great to see that spreading further into East Asia. I think cricket really has got that power to captivate the massive group of people that don’t get reached by too many other sports.”

As of March 2023, the inaugural Women’s IPL looks to fast-track the growth of the women’s game further and cement itself in the cricketing calendar. “I have always been a fan of the IPL - it is kind of everything exciting about cricket.

“I remember rushing home from

But the bowler’s cricketing exploits also extend off the pitch - when she’s not knocking the bails off, Wong has worked in the commentary box for both the BBC and Sky. “I’ve really enjoyed it! It sounds a bit strange but it helps me switch off when I am talking about other people playing cricket.

“It’s probably something that I didn’t expect to do this early in my career - you see a lot of people going into punditry post-cricket but there is a pre y big group now that have managed to get into it while we are still playing. Credit to companies like Sky and the BBC who are keen to get female commentators commentating on female cricket but also commentating on men’s cricket - it is great to see them both represented.”

One of the faces of We Got Game, Wong also acknowledges the responsibility of athletes in using their platform to raise the profile of women’s sport. “It’s a really exciting time to be a young girl starting my career in cricket and it’s a really good time to be a female athlete as well.

“We saw the platform that the Lionesses built for women’s sport over the summer and I guess the onus is on us as athletes to keep raising that profile. Showing your personality, you are more than just a cricketer and I think that’s how it’s going to grow.

“Like I started supporting CSK because I loved Brendon McCullum. That was him as a cricketer

“Oh that’s a tough question. I am going to say the Ashes because you have got to beat the best side in the world over all three formats. Also they have won it for the last few years so it would be nice to get one back!”

Score a century or get a fivewicket haul?

“I am actually going to say score a century because, as a bowler, I guess it is not that often that you get the opportunity to dig in and get a big score and I think I back my bowling skills more so it might be more rewarding to actually score some runs!’”

As far as a potential career in any

Having travelled to Paris for the Champions League final last year, the bowler had a final word to say on the Reds’ slow start to the season. “I think we have had an absolutely shocking season to be fair. Hopefully we can refresh over the World Cup period because my Fantasy team has been struggling as well because I have had Liverpool players for the first couple weeks and it has done me dirty!”

It’s reassuring at least to think that someone who is flying high in their professional career can at least relate to us humble sports fans on something. Taking wickets in front of 20,000 fans? Haven’t been there, I’m afraid. But having your own players let you down on Fantasy Premier League? It happens to the best of us.

The club possess zero points thus far in the 2022/23 season

Continued from back day one when we took over the management of the club that relocation to NFP would solve a lot of issues.”

Instead, ambiguous pipe dreams appear to account for the alterna tive wishes of the club’s hierarchy.

Former Newcastle United defender Olivier Bernard still stands as the owner of Durham City; nonethe less, this today appears to be noth ing more than a nominal position, with Tanner – who is based in Aus tralia – taking the reins and seeking to use them for his own designs.

In a recent statement by the club, “major football projects” in the making were alluded to. When

asked about these, the chairman said: “While we can’t say too much due to confidentialities, we do have a few ideas we are discussing with the club’s commercial partners, (including) a tournament focus ing on Durham County football, a broader agreement with our kit suppliers helping them (to) grow their footprint, using DCAFC as a conduit for younger overseas play ers, a relationship with a tertiary college or university, other teams within a growing club community under the DCAFC umbrella, and functions in collaboration with our partners.”

Yet, questions remain as to whether the club will survive long

enough to see such plans come to tangible fruition. One source who used to work for the Citizens in an influential capacity told Palatinate Sport:

“(The club is) flat broke - or at the very least, unable to access any funds. Bills were unpaid con sistently, from Willington AFC, Sedgefield School (training facility) - even a previous social media per son left without being paid what he was owed.”

Moreover, according to this source, the culture at the club is in no be er state than its finances: “I was asked to lie to the coaches and players about the ground plans for next year. I refused to do so, and

resigned. Lo and behold, what I was asked to say turned out to be completely untrue. It seems that the culture (at least visibly) is now much worse.

“Personally, I don’t believe the club can survive as it stands. Play ers come and go inside a month, and there is absolutely no continu ity. I confidently predict that the club will vanish soon. That said, it doesn’t have to happen. There are people who would step in - indeed, I would myself even in the short term. All of this has gone on “in plain sight.

“I cannot believe that Durham FA / Northern League / Wearside League have really just seemed to

turn a blind eye to the actions de scribed above. Enormous damage is being done to the reputation of DCAFC, and it can’t recover. But that damage extends to those peo ple who have glibly done nothing at all.”

On paper, the club seems to be plummeting without refrain to wards the fires of further football obscurity. However, those at the top insist a period of transforma tion is underway.

Whatever the truth may be, it is clear that the club is in trouble. Its significance for the city of Durham has waned substantially in recent times, and a bleak horizon is all anyone else can recognise for the foreseeable future.

(Issy Wong)

It’s a really good time to be a female athlete

Sport

What’s happening at Durham City A.F.C?

Oliver Jervis

Local football leagues are often packed with familiar names and places. The Wearside League First Division is no exception to this natural rule, with the inclusion of the likes of Gateshead Leam Rangers, FC Hartlepool, Durham Corinthians and Durham United FC – who during the earlier stages of this summer entered a partnership with Durham University Men’s Football Club.

Moreover, down at the foot of the table, resides the restless yet longfatigued Durham City AFC. The club, formed in 1918, possess zero points thus far in the 2022/23 season and have achieved the remarkable feat of a -96-goal difference after ten matches of play.

It has been a hard fall from grace for the Citizens, who can regard themselves as former football league members following their brief spell in the professional leagues between 1921 and 1928. Since then, grounds have come and gone, as well as players such as the notorious George Camsell.

We just need be er players - technically and mentally

Nowadays, even mere and actual survival is a struggle, with the club currently positioned embarrassingly as tenants at Leyburn Grove Houghton and si ing in step seven of the National League System. In more familiar terms, this translates to level eleven of the English football pyramid. The dizzy heights of professional football are beyond memory, therefore, and more existential worries plague the fans and staff of the club alike.

Since Palatinate Sport last covered the Citizens’ turmoil on and off the pitch, events of a cataclysmic a itude have taken place at the old hotbed of Durham-based football.

For example, several club secretaries have come and gone, there have been too many defeats with near-cricket score lines, a endances have seemingly reached an all-time low, last season’s groundsharing agreement with Willington AFC has been terminated, and an

almost incalculable overhaul of playing and non-playing staff has been enforced over the course of this summer.

Whether this is regarded as a form of evolution, revolution or devolution by the club is unknown. What is certain, however, is that it has not yet aided ma ers on the pitch and beyond.

When asked by Palatinate Sport what the long-term plans for the club are, Chris Tanner, chairman of Durham City AFC, stated:

“(It is) hard to focus on (the) longterm where there are so many things in our immediate future we are working on fixing. However, I think it’s fair to say we need to get more competitive on the park and start climbing the pyramid again. To do this, we need things working be er on and off the park, and we have stabilised much of our activity in the office and in the community. We need to grow in a commercial sense and a football sense.

“We just need be er playerstechnically and mentally. We fell into a trap of recruiting Sunday players to make up numbers. Sadly, that affected the culture inside the dressing room. We are working hard to turn that around.

“‘Sunday mentality players’ not

turning up for some of the most pathetic reasons has been the issue. We are now not in trouble with numbers, so we can focus on ve ing triallists and making sure the a itudes coming into the club suit our goals.”

Last season’s relegation –amounting to one victory and a crushing goal difference – has not helped ma ers. The club suddenly finds itself among others in the local area it once would never have comprehended playing on a regular basis.

However, history counts for nothing in this game and a mighty mountain leaves itself open for a daunting and near-impossible ascent. Despite the perilousness of the task at hand, the Citizens refuse to give up their hopes of one day returning to their old and historic home of New Ferens Park. On this particular issue, and the likelihood of a foreseeable homecoming, Tanner said:

“We’ve always had this on our list of immediate goals, but you obviously cannot kick out current tenants. Our plan was for next season, with maybe a few games this year.

We now understand that one of those tenants has vacated earlier

(Ken Fitzpatrick)

than everybody planned, so we intend to start discussions earlier. If those discussions are fruitful, I guess you could say, “not far (away)”.”

The club’s current – and supposedly temporary – home, Leyburn Grove, is equidistant from both Durham and Sunderland.

As such, travelling to see a side losing to the extent of 15-1, 14-0 and 13-0 at the hands of local, mostly amateur opponents has not been an exciting prospect for old and worn supporters.

Alongside the drawn-out poor form on the pitch, spectator numbers have dwindled to single digits. Upon this topic being broached, Tanner claimed:

“I put it down to our poor form and the lack of facilities at our current home ground, Leyburn Grove.

Of course we are worried about it, but we had to go with Leyburn Grove for a short interim period, until we returned home to New Ferens Park.

We’ve still got future plans for Leyburn Grove as a facility, and we are talking about some exciting things with Sunderland Council. However, we knew from

BUCS Fixtures Promising results for Durham in early round of BUCS fixtures

Durham University’s first round of matches in BUCS started with mixed results last week.

DURFC Men’s 1s were triumphant in a 29-14 away victory against Harspury University, whilst Durham’s Fencing team also defeated Edinburgh University when represented by the Men’s 1s, with a score of 134-106. Sadly, the Women’s 1s fell to a 76-135 defeat.

Meanwhile, the Volleyball Men’s and Women’s 1s both a ained 3-0 victories over Edinburgh.

On the football scene, the Men’s 1s lost 4-0 at the hands of Stirling University 1s.

Team Durham New Team Durham President announced

Alex Zimaras has been named as Team Durham’s student president for the 2022-23 academic year.

A Maths graduate from Grey College, Zimaras played football for the university and has ambitions to “bring back the Team Durham family” whilst overseeing the BUCS programme.

Cricket

Durham CC suffer during county season

Durham CC finished a disappointing sixth place in Division Two of the 2022 County Championship. In a season marred by too many draws, especially at home, their promotion charge never really got going.

Further controversy ensued after they were docked ten points due to Nick Maddinson’s bat being deemed illegal. England international Ma hew Po s continued to star with the ball, taking 58 wickets at an average of 17.87, whilst Durham University’s own Chris Benjamin made his Durham debut, scoring 82 not-out in his first match for the county.

Want more from Pal Sport?

What keeps Premiership Rugby from achieving commercial success?” Max Malone discusses the current financial climate faced by elite English rugby clubs

“It’s a really good time to be a female athlete” Maddie Parker interviews breakthrough cricket star Issy Wong

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