Thursday 16th June 2016 | No. 785
www.palatinate.org.uk | FREE
Visual arts
In or Out? Politics
reveal the results of our exclusive EU Referendum poll
provide a tour of Europe’s best galleries
Durham SU remains affiliated with NUS following referendum Charlie Taylor-Kroll News Editor
Members of St Cuthbert’s Society take part in Durham Pride on 30 May
Photograph: Harriet Rawet
Investigation into JCR finances reveals Hild Bede SRC debt of £21,570 • Several colleges closed 2014-2015 financial year with losses • Hild Bede: “Unplanned” spending a “fundamental factor” Ryan Gould News Editor The College of St Hild and St Bede closed its accounts for the 201415 financial year with a debt of £21,750, Palatinate can reveal. As part of a wider investigation into the financial state of the University’s Junior Common Rooms (JCRs), Palatinate found that there were numerous instances of nota-
ble overspending across JCRs, with several colleges closing the 201415 financial year with losses. Significantly, Hild Bede Student Representative Committee (SRC), the College’s JCR equivalent, opened the 2014-15 financial year with a balance of £30,184, but incurred expenses that totalled a negative figure of £52,557 in expenditure net receipts. Hild Bede SRC reported a spend of £157,207 on activities in 2014-
15, but earned only £112,221 in revenue from those activities. Similarly, the SRC spent £36,682 on clubs and societies, but earned only £25,534 in revenue from those clubs and societies. When contacted, a member of the 2014-15 Hild Bede SRC executive committee provided a statement to Palatinate that explains how the “financial situation at the end of the 2014-15 academic year was due to a variety of reasons.”
The executive committee member said that the most significant factor in the SRC’s losses was the “fact that there was a succession of different treasurers,” with the “first leaving towards the end of the first term, and the third coming into office at the beginning of the third. “This resulted in a persistent lack of communication, causing payments to go uncollected and invoice to go unpaid. Continued on page 6...
Durham University students have voted to remain affiliated with the National Union of Students (NUS) following a recent referendum held by Durham SU. 11% of the student body (2,102 people) voted in the referendum, surpassing the 5% quota that was required for the referendum to pass the motion. 1,299 votes were cast in favour of remaining with the NUS, compared to the 830 votes in favour of disaffiliation. A referendum on whether to disaffiliate or remain with the NUS was sparked by the emergence of the “A Better Durham” campaign, which was launched earlier this term. The “A Better Durham” campaign published an open letter addressed to the Durham Students’ Union imploring the Union to hold a referendum in order for Durham students to decide whether or not the Union should remain affiliated with the NUS. The letter was signed by 50 student leaders. The letter read: “Let Durham decide, this term. We cannot stand by any longer as students are misrepresented and marginalized.” The disaffiliation campaign partially came into existence due to the controversial election of NUS’ new national president, Malia Bouattia. Ms Bouattia had faced allegations of anti-Semitism earlier in the year due to actions that dated back a number of years. In 2011, she co-authored an article where she referred to the University of Birmingham as “something of a Zionist outpost in British higher education.” Continued on page 4....
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Editorial ‘Remain’
Since our last edition, Palatinate has been criticised by Durham’s political activists for our unbiased position on all subject, particularly those relating to the University politics. We strongly support that only in exceptional circumstances should the newspaper take a stance and you can read the arguments for both sides online. However, this does not apply to our editorials. I am writing today to strongly encourage you to vote remain in the EU referendum. This week the Politics team have run a piece on how Durham students will be voting in the referendum on the 23rd June. 67% of you said that you will be voting to remain in the European Union on the 23rd June with just 21% voting leave. This is largely representative of the trend amongst young people to vote remain. I thoroughly recommend you turn to pages 10 and 11 and read the extensive breakdown of results as well as comments from students about why they have chosen to vote the way they have. As young people we must stand up and support the EU. It provides vital funding for UK education, it supports science and research. Without it there would be increased
www.palatinate.org.uk border checks, visas and we could lose our free health care abroad, making travel more restrictive and shrinking our sphere of opportunity. The Brexit campaign is based on fear-mongering and fabricated facts about immigration and the economy. The EU is not without problems, of course, but without a clear, positive plan for a Britain outside of the EU, leaving is not a risk we should be taking. For the sake of education, employment and the environment, vote to remain in the EU. There is simply not enough security in leaving and it is tour futures that will suffer. It is also young people who statistically will not vote. It is too late to encourage you to register at this stage but if you have registered already please do not waste your vote. Do not leave your future in the hands of the older generation. They are not voting for you and it is important that you have your say. The national referendum on our membership to the European Union is not the only referendum featured in this edition. The less hyped but nevertheless important recent referendum held by our own Students’ Union regarding affiliation with the NUS resulted in the decision to remain af-
filiated. I was pleased with this result. Like the EU, the NUS may not be perfect but it provides us with support and a stronger voice. I do hope to see a change in the NUS in the future and hope that by holding a referendum, Durham and other Universities have signalled the need for reform. Also this in edition we’ve got a story on JCR accounts. Through a Freedom of Information request Palatinate found that Hild Bede JCR closed its financial year for 2014-2015 with a debt of £21,570. Profile interview Alan Johnson ahead of the EU referendum and Comment discusses the use of negativity in the news and the misrepresentation of reality. This final edition of the academic year is packed with exciting investigations, stories and comment. We hope that you enjoy your final weeks in Durham and good luck to everyone who is graduating this year. Alex Cupples
Thursday 16th June 2016 | PALATINATE
Inside 785
Editorial Board
News pages 3-8
Editors-in-Chief Alex Cupples and Olly Mawhinney editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Ryan Gould and Charlie Taylor-Kroll news@palatinate.org.uk News Features Editor Holly Bancroft news.features@palatinate.org.uk Deputy News Editors Emma Pinckard, Sophie Gregory and Anna Tatham deputy.news@palatinate.org.uk Politics Editor Mason Boycott-Owen politics@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Politics Editor Kate McIntosh and Miriam Brittenden deputy.politics@palatinate.org.uk Profile Editors Will Fremont-Barnes and Lily Boutler profile@palatinate.org.uk Science and Technology Editor Bruno Martin scitech@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editor Dan Fox comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editor Adam Cunnane deputy.comment@palatinate.org.uk Sport Editor Kieran Moriarty sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Charles Richardson, Matt Roberts and Kishan Vaghela deputy.sport@palatinate.org.uk Indigo Editor Ellen Finch indigo@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Indigo Editor Yongchang Chin deputy.indigo@palatinate.org.uk Features Editor Isabelle Culkin feature@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Features Editor Cristina Cusenza deputy.features@palatinate.org.uk Food and Drink Editors Charlotte Payne food@palatinate.org.uk Travel Editor Laura Glenister travel@palatinate.org.uk Fashion Editor Sally Hargave fashion@palatinate.org.uk Film and Television Editor Rory McInnes-Gibbons film@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Film and Television Editor Hugo Camps-Harris deputy.film@palatinate.org.uk Stage Editors Sofya Grebenkina and Simon Fearn stage@palatinate.org.uk Music Editors Jacqueline Duan and Will Throp music@palatinate.org.uk Creative Writing Editor Sarah Fletcher creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk Books Editors Hannah Griffiths and Ellie Scorah books@palatinate.org.uk Visual Arts Editor Jane Simpkiss visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk Chief Sub-Editor Marianna Mukhametzyanova sub-editing@palatinate.org.uk Sub-Editors Sarah Boreham, Ollie Mair, Ciara Murphy, Maddy Winnard and Becky Wilson Online Editor Kat Hind online.editor@palatinate.org.uk Web Editor John Morris Photography Editor Grace Tseng photography@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Photography Editor Verity Rimmer Illustrations Editor Kenzo Ishida illustration@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Illustrations Editors Faye Chua and Olivia Howcroft Events and Publicity Officer Collette McKenny publicity@palatinate.org.uk Advertising Officer Sian Round advertising@palatinate.org.uk
Politics pages 10-11 SciTech page 12-13 Comment pages 14-16 Profile page 17 Sport pages 18-20
indigo
Editorial page 2 Features page 3
Creative Writing page 4 Stage page 5
Visual Arts pages 6-7 Books page 8
Fashion page 9
Food & Drink page 10
Travel page 11
Film & TV pages 12-13
Music pages 14
A Day in the Life page 15
Join the team! Want to write for Durham’s independent student newspaper? Numerous vacancies for roles across Palatinate open in the coming weeks. Visit the Palatinate Facebook page or email editor@palatinate. org.uk for more information.
The best of Palatinate Online www.palatinate.org.uk
SPORT Djokovic: Human not Robot, Accomplishes Greatest Ever Feat in Men’s Tennis? Matt Roberts asks whether Novak Djokovic’s French Open win cements his status as tennis’ greatest athlete.
FILM & TV: Top Gear: still stuck in first gear?
STAGE: American Buffalo: “tense and violent”
Hugo-Camps Harris argues that the newly relaunched Top Gear is struggling to reach the heights achieved by its predecessors.
Hannah Sanderson reviews David Mamet’s tense and violent drama.
MUSIC: Live Review- Nightline presents: ‘Ballons’ by Jason Kwan Sofya Grebenkina reflects upon Jason Kwan’s live performance at Empty Shop.
Palatinate is published by Durham Students’ Union on a fortnightly basis during term and is editorially independent. All contributors and editors are full-time students at Durham University. Send letters to: Editor, Palatinate, Durham Students’ Union, Dunelm House, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3AN. Alternatively, send an e-mail to editor@palatinate.org.uk
PALATINATE | Thursday 16th June 2016
Union President’s Column
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News
@PalatinateNews
After almost a year as President of the Students’ Union, this is my final column in Palatinate. Mostly writing these columns has been a challenge of trying to make the work we do for you sound interesting in the hopes that you will read it and realise that this whole time we really have been working like crazy for you! It doesn’t always sound interesting – even when the issues are things most students care about, but I do hope a few have caught your eye as something that could have an impact on you.
The big issue that the officers have campaigned on and continue to campaign on for students this year has been accommodation fees. I’m enormously proud of our success in pushing back on the University’s proposed accommodation fees increase of 9% and getting it reduced to 3.5% for 2016-17, but I believe that students need and deserve much more from the University on this than they’re getting. Another big part of what we’ve achieved as officers this year is the restructure of the Students’ Union. We now have a team from a wide range of fields bringing their expertise and knowledge to bear on the challenges faced by our Union and our members. I’m really impressed by how far we’ve come and where we can go from here. We’ve run some great campaigns and made changes that are already improving things – from micro to macro. We’ve had a puppy room and bouncy castle to help you destress, run an alcohol safety campaign and seen a significant decrease in the aligned dangerous drinking behaviours. We’ve increased study spaces in Dunelm House and lobbied the University and got commitment to a process of support and reporting around sexual violence. We’ve got your student experience at the top the VC priority list – the facilities you use, our amazing student groups, your IT needs etc. It’s a wide and varied list, and it’s not always the glamorous or big ticket items – but looking back I’m confident that we’ve made improvements, got your voice heard more and had a positive impact.
Flowers in bloom at Ushaw College
Photograph: Grace Tseng
LGBT+ President: ‘There’s a long way to go’ to improve diversity
Lumiere set to return to Durham for second year in a row
Queen’s Campus and referendums for change: Term in review
Photograph: Harriet Rawet
Photograph: John Lord | Creative Commons
Photograph: Kenzo Ishida
Turn to pages 5 to read more
News in brief
Turn to page 8 to read more
Turn to page 6 to read more
DURHAM MP URGES COUNCIL TO REJECT TAKEAWAY PROPOSAL
DURHAM TO HOLD SCANNING EVENT
BRAIN
STUDENTS DOUBT RISE IN UNIVERSITY VALUE FOR MONEY
A Durham MP has urged Durham County Council to reject the proposal to allow takeaways in Durham to open later on Friday and Saturdays . Roberta Backman-Woods MP believes that allowing the takeaways in Claypath to open until 3am on Friday and Saturdays will turn Durham city centre into a “giant nightclub.” She said: “For the sake of the future of the city these applications must surely be refused.”
Brain imagING techniques are being debated at a public event, hosted by Durham University at St. Mary’s College. Leading experts will be talking to the public about brain images as part of a conference which includes a host of academics around the world.
Only about a third of UK students think that they get good “value for money” from their university course, according to an influential annual survey. The survey of 15,000 students shows perceptions of “good value for money” have fallen to 37% from 53% in 2012. The survey suggests that a lack of teaching hours for some courses is causing this sense of disappointment. (BBC News)
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Continued from page 1.. Campaigning from both sides for the referendum began on the 6th June, lasting a week. “A Better Durham” campaigned to disaffiliate with the NUS, while “NO to disaffiliation, YES to NUS” campaigned for Durham SU to retain its affiliation. Following the referendum result, Harry Cross, a prominent member of the remain campaign, told Palatinate: “We are very pleased with the fantastic result. Our strategy was to explain the day-to-day benefits of the NUS beyond misleading media headlines and we had very rewarding conversations with students throughout the week.
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“I am very grateful to my dedicated and supportive campaign team.” Durham Students’ Union President-Elect, Alice Dee, also echoed the delight of the remain campaign in the result. She said: “I’m absolutely elated with the referendum result. Not only was the turn out good, but the percentage
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dent body is comparatively low. He said: “We should also make reference to the big winner of this
While it’s good that we voted to remain part of the NUS, it remains largely irrelevant organisation
of students voting to remain in the NUS has given a clear message of support from Durham. “I’m looking forward to working with the NUS to develop our Union and to tackle national and local issues affecting Durham students.’’ Shortly following the announcement, Durham Students’ Union commented: “The Union would like to thank campaigners on both sides for informing, debating, and promoting the voice of the students on this issue.” Ten colleges had an overall majority in favour of remaining affiliated with thew NUS, with the greatest proportion of remain
voters at St Aidan’s College, where 256 voted to remain, compared to 67 who voted to disaffiliate. On the other hand, University College, St Mary’s College, Josephine Butler College, Stephenson College, John Snow College, and Grey college all voted overall for disaffiliation, although only by small margins. Turnout in the election was highest at St Aidan’s College, where 25.28% of students voted. In conversation with Palatinate, Tom Harwood. a prominent member of “A Better Durham”, said: “It’s a shame that the NUS won this time, but it has to be said that they
exhibited very impressive organisation. Well done to them. “We hope that we can work with Durham SU in the future to fix some of the issues highlighted in this campaign, and help make the Union more representative, despite being held back by the NUS. “We would like to say a big thank you to St Mary’s, John Snow, Stephenson, Grey, and University College, who all had a majority of votes for A Better Durham.” Harwood, however, was concerned about the low turnout of votes. Despite being double the required quota, 11% of the stu-
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We hope that we can work with Durham SU in the future to fix some of the issues highlighted in this campaign
Thursday 16th June 2016 | PALATINATE
referendum—apathy—which was touching 90%.” Isaac Abraham, who wrote an opine for Palatinate Online, also said: “Durham” hasn’t really chosen to stay in the NUS. Rather, 2,129 somewhat interested students decided to vote in a referendum that failed to engage with the vast majority. “While it’s good that we voted to remain part of the NUS, it remains a largely irrelevant organisation with major institutional problems that need to be addressed.” Durham University joins a host of other universities including Cambridge, Exeter, Oxford and Warwick, who have recently held referendums and chosen to remain with the NUS. Ten universities nationally still await a referendum to see whether they will remain with or disaffiliate from the NUS. Meanwhile Hull, Newcastle and Lincoln University have recently voted to disaffiliate from the NUS.
Durham Researchers predict Euro 2016 based on life expectancy
Durham researchers have based their predictions for Euro 2016 winners on unexpected statistics, the life expectancy in the respective countries from 2013. Starting from the round of 16, Durham researchers from the Centre for Health and Inequalities Research have concluded that the champion of Euro 2016 would be Switzerland, with an average life expectancy of 85, whilst Russia would struggle to win anything having a life expectancy of only 63 years. England’s chances are high in the ‘European Health Champion-
ship’ as they would perform best in their group due to their high life expectancy of 79 years beating Slovakia (72 years), Wales (78 years) and Russia (63 years). However, England would eventually be knocked out by Iceland in the quarterfinals. Though the life expectancy of ‘health champions’ Switzerland is equal to that of Iceland for men, both averaging 81, the average life expectancy for women is slightly higher, securing Switzerland a victory through penalties. The Durham University led research exposes the great disparity between the health of the east and the west of Europe. Clare Bambra, Professor of Public Health Geography and Director of the Centre for Health and In-
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By using football we can help to highlight these unacceptable differences in health
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Sophie Gregory Deputy News Editor
equalities Research at Durham University, said she hopes that “by using football we can help to
highlight these unacceptable differences in health amongst European countries.” Research led by Durham University as part of the international project HiNews aims to find out why inequalities of health persist in Europe and what can be done about them. Bambra’s book, ‘Health divides: where you live can kill you’, is due to be published as part of this project. It asserts that “where you live can kill you but what is more important is that places can be changed for the better through the decisions made at local, regional and national level within countries. “The factors influencing the health of people and places are politically determined”
EuroHealthNet’s Managing Director, Caroline Costongs, commented: “This European Health Championship clearly demonstrates that we can only win by protecting and promoting the health of all. “In order to be competitive in football, or more generally in any endeavour in Europe, we need to ensure the health and wellbeing of everyone and to not leave any people behind.” Research is on-going regarding the disparity between the health of Europe’s east and west, particularly seeing as the greatest life expectancy gap is greater than ten years.
PALATINATE | Thursday 16th June 2016
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LGBT+ President: “There’s a long way to go” to improve diversity Anna Tatham Deputy News Editor
LGBT+ President and PresidentElect have expressed that “there is a long way to go” to improve diversity at Durham University. Joanna Gower, current President of the LGBT+ Association, has stated that Durham is “lower in diversity than other universities in the UK, and that needs to change.” She has expressed concerns about the representation of minority students within the University, particularly those amongst minority ethnic groups. According to its website, the LGBT+ Association “exists to provide welfare services, campaigns, and socials to anyone who identifies as being under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.” The Association is currently led by Joanna Gower, with Ted Lavis Coward being recently elected as her successor for 2016-17. Joanna describes the Association as “a base for students to explore who they are,” but reiterated that membership was not compulsory for those who identify as LGBT+: “It is a personal choice, but we’re here to represent them if they would like.” The Association runs welfare services such as a confidential listening service and free sexual
A window in support of Durham Pride Photograph: Harriet Rawet
health supplies, as well as holding popular socials, attracting members from both within and outside the university. Transphobic comments have recently been left on articles published by The Tab Durham, particularly on an article about whether Durham SU should give free sanitary products to girls. “Apparently it’s ‘political correctness gone mad’ for everybody to have accessible hygiene in 2016” says Ted, protesting that the article was trans exclusionary, and the comments by users were “disgusting” as well as “ignorant” of discrimination faced by the transexual community. Other issues have arisen this year; in January, for example, Hatfield College made the controveersial decision to retain the title of ‘Senior Man’ rather than follow suit of other colleges to change to the gender neutral name of ‘Senior Student’. “They seem to think the way things were is always going to be the best way,” Joanna commented, as she reiterated how language plays a crucial role in how we think. “For someone who identifies as trans, it could potentially change your entire university career, how comfortable you feel in your accommodation, your living environments by talking to the exec,
people who voted against changing the name.” Moreover, the decision has been criticised as ascribing positions of authority solely to men, without considering how other individuals may identify. Joanna also spoke of the difficulties with terms such as ‘Male Welfare Officer’ and ‘Female Welfare Officer’. As a non-binary individual, she described the requirement to wear a t-shirt branded ‘Female Welfare Officer’ on some occasions “like wearing a label of someone else’s name.” There are also concerns with how Durham University staff members understand gender and sexual orientation. Joanna has delivered presentations about gender identity to the psychology department during staff training, and explained that even a lot of social psychologists do not understand the terms. Joanna remarks, “Staff members need to reach out to the resources that we have,” to which Ted adds, “if the staff don’t really understand it, how can we expect students to?” The LGBT+ Association encourages Durham students and staff to “ask us the awkward questions” in order to eliminate ignorance about gender identity. Ted states that “there’s a lot of unconscious bias in the language we use and the way we act that will take generations to filter out.”
“Concerned Counsellors” warn of adverse changes to counselling provision
A number of Durham University counsellors, who have remained anonymous, have composed an email warning about the negative effects of proposed changes to the counselling service at the university. The proposed changes involve transforming the counselling service into a “Counselling and Wellbeing Service”. As a result, students will be offered a longer initial assessment including a therapeutic consultation, which can be up to 90 minutes long, as well a 15-minute minute follow-up session a month
later. The new scheme also includes greater provisions for mental health, with two new mental health advisors being recruited in order to assess and refer students with enduring mental health problems. The email emphasises that the new form of counselling will be based on wellbeing, “meaning students will be given, in the first instance, self-help materials and general, theme-based workshops, but not ongoing therapeutic work.” The current model of counselling service at Durham University, in comparison, offers time-limited therapeutic support of six sessions for each student per academic year.
The current system also includes the presence of a mental health advisor, whose who was to assess and refer students with enduring mental health problems to the relevant service in the NHS. According to the email deputy academic registrar Sam Dale said in a speech that, “All services are moving towards shorter interventions and an emphasis on self-help, with clear referrals/ signposting towards the now available NHS psychological therapies.” The letter from the members of the counselling services outlined their concern with the changes that were proposed. It read, “The proposed new model of support will significantly reduce the counselling support
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provision for the students and may result in further possible negative
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Charlie Taylor-Kroll News Editor
Durham students deserve better than a menu of guided self help
impacts on their personal, social and academic life. “There is a movement in the university’s stance in recent years
to focus on students fulfilling their academic potential, often disregarding the fact that academic growth and achievements do not come in a vacuum, separate from personal and social development.” The letter concluded. “We believe that Durham students deserve better than a menu of guided self-help and signposting as a first option, with dedicated ongoing support only available to a few. “A ‘one size fits all’ model conflicts with the aim of emerging from university as fully rounded individuals who are equipped to contribute positively to the communities in which they work and live”.
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The most recent internal financial statement of the JCR shows that it has, as anticipated, repaid those borrowings and is in a healthy net positive position.
income subsequent to 31 July 2015 sufficient to repay those borrowings. “Indeed, the most recent internal financial statement of the JCR shows that it has, as anticipated, repaid those borrowings and is in a healthy net positive position,” the university said in a statement. Eleven JCRs across the university operate under the Durham Student Organisation (DSO) framework, which was developed
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The number of DSO JCR accounts provided to Palatinate by the University jointly by the University and Graduate and Junior Common Room (G/JCR) presidents in 2011. Outside of colleges, other DSOs include Team Durham, Durham Stu-
dent Theatre, and Music Durham. Under the framework, G/JCRs operate within the organizational and governance structure of the university, but “maintain their own management structure and executive bodies who report to their college principal and college council,” the University said. “The key officers of each JCR receive training and support from the university to assist them in their management and especially with regard to financial affairs. In addition, Colleges staff are always available to offer assistance and guidance as and when necessary.” In a separate note to Palatinate, the 2014-15 executive committee member drew attention to unavoidable losses incurred as part of the SRC’s annual summer ball. “After the SRC had planned the ball and committed to a large part of the expenditure, the police greatly reduced the number of tickets we were permitted to sell. This resulted in a significant loss of income. “Whatever financial planning had been undertaken for the ball could not have been rectified giv-
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I also think it’s bad that all college students aren’t aware of the debt. I think the SRC should be more open...
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Continued from page 1. The statement also highlights instances of expenditure mismanagement, with “unplanned” spend ing being “an additional, more fundamental factor.” It points out that “at no point did the president.. consult the treasurer on budgets, meaning that expenditure would frequently exceed income.” In the same statement, the executive committee member highlighted that the size of the SRC’s cash flow meant that the “magnitude of the overspend was by no means insurmountable.” The “negative effects” of the mismanagement are reported to have been mitigated by various members of the SRC. “The current president has been able to minimise damage to the student experience, and throughout his tenure has rigorously budgeted all events, ensuring that such an occurrence doesn’t happen again,” the statement reads. Hild Bede SRC’s status as a Durham Student Organisation (DSO) “also served to help the student experience” where “payments could be made initially by the University, and then paid by the SRC at a point when impact was minimised.” When contacted by Palatinate regarding Hild Bede SRC’s financial situation, the University echoed the 2014-15 executive member in stating that “the financial statement of the SRC of the College of St Hild and St Bede shows that it had borrowed from the broader university as of 31 July 2015. “This arose because the Common Room incurred expenses in advance of income being received. This does not signal a financial problem as the JCR was reasonably able to anticipate receiving
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Thursday 16th June 2016 | PALATINATE en the notice provided by Durham Police,” they said. Reference was made to the SRC’s annual ball by a member of Hild Bede when asked about knowledge of the SRC’s financial situation in April 2016. The person, who will not be named to protect their anonymity, told Palatinate that “a lot of ball money is spent on ‘big name’ acts,” alluding to the likes of Scouting for Girls and The Hoosiers. “In my opinion, it is completely unnecessary. There are so many talented acts within the university; I just don’t see the need for them to spend so much on hiring these mediocre bands. I think less should be spent on these ‘big’, almost cringe-worthy acts that contribute very little to the ball experience,” they said. “I also think it’s bad that all college students aren’t aware of the debt. I think the SRC should be more open about the issues it is facing.” Another student at Hild Bede also spoke about the general lack of awareness about the SRC’s financial situation, stating that they were “completely unaware”. “I don’t understand how this debt has come about or how it has been allowed to accumulate to such an extent. The events seemed appropriately priced, if not a little overpriced, so I am curious as to where this money has been spent.” Separately, Josephine Butler JCR closed their accounts for the 201415 financial year with a loss of £19,272, incurring expenses that totalled a negative £16,877 net receipts. The JCR spent £53,934 on activities, but earned only £25,570 in revenue from those activities. The picture is similar at University College, where Castle JCR
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The events seemed appropriately priced if not a little overpriced, so I am curious as to where this money has been spent.
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opened their 2014-15 accounts with £77,386 before closing with £39,661, reporting a negative figure of £42,420 in expenditure net receipts. Stronger JCR accounts include St Mary’s, St Aidan’s, and both Queen’s Campus colleges, John Snow and Stephenson. St Mary’s JCR opened the 201415 financial year with a balance of £95,499 and closed at £122,009, while St Aidan’s JCR opened their
£17,680
The salary paid to Collingwood’s JCR President in 2014-15 accounts at £87,305 and closed at £101,514. Disclaimer: All figures quoted in this article were obtained from copies of DSO JCR accounts provided to Palatinate by the university under a Freedom of Information request.
Lumiere to return to Durham for the second year in a row
Emma Pinckard Deputy News Editor Lumiere, Britain’s largest light festival, is set to return to Durham for the second year in a row after its £9.6 million success last November. The festival, which previously has only taken place every other year, attracted around 200,000 visitors to the city over the weekend last year. An independent report has found that the festival contributed almost £10 million to the region’s economy, showing an increase of almost £4 million in comparison to 2013. After the first Durham Lumiere festival took place in 2009, it has grown increasingly popular and debuted in London this year. Attendance has almost tripled since the first Lumiere in 2009, which drew in 75,000 people.
Last year the city hosted twenty-nine installations, which included the projection of the history of the universe onto the front of the Cathedral and a whale in the River Wear which could be seen from Elvet Bridge. Previous years have exhibited the work of various artists, including that of Tracy Emin in the 2011 light festival. Durham County Council have been asked to contribute £600,000 to commission Lumiere for the fifth time this Autumn. Simon Henig, leader of the Council, has called the festival “a world class event”. He continued to emphasise the positive economic impact of Lumiere, saying: “When we commissioned the 2015 festival, we did so based on sound economic benefits which demonstrated a clear and significant return on our investment for the county, businesses and residents. “It’s tremendous to see that this
“These benefits are ongoing for us and we know that events like these allow us to showcase our offer on a world stage...” was translated into even greater benefits not just in financial terms but also by creating that ‘feel good’ factor which you can’t put a price on. “These benefits are ongoing for us and we know that events like these allow us to showcase our offer on a world stage, attracting new business, creating jobs and boosting our visitor economy”. He also claimed: “Not many organisations can enjoy a return on investment of nearly 1,400 per cent and make people happy at the same time.”
Old Shire Hall lit up for Lumiere 2015 Photograph: John Lord | Flickr
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Queen’s Campus and referendums for change A look back at the bigger news items of the term
Holly Bancroft News Features Editor
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move on behalf of students both at the Queen’s Campus and Durham City sites. Natalie Chigariro, a second-year Psychology Stockton student, in conversation with Palatinate, said, “I think the move is a wonderful idea as Stockton students are isolated from Durham University. Students would definitely benefit from it, it’s a bit of a chore having to do a two-hour round trip to engage in sports and societies or go to Church.” This term has also been one of referendums as we saw the
Durham SU officially support remaining in the EU and the NUS disaffiliation debate kick off. The discussion over disaffiliation is not a new debate. It was only in 2010 that Durham did vote to disaffiliate themselves from the NUS and in 2011 when it voted to go back on this decision and re-affiliate. This time the issues are, conceded, slightly different as they centre around the appointment of Malia Bouattia as president. However they do reflect the age old problem of the National Union of Students failing to represent minorities or the diversity of its student members (Bouttaia herself breaking these stereotypes by being the first black NUS President). Bouattia faced allegations of antiSemitism in 2011 after likening the University of Birmingham to ‘something of a Zionist outpost’. Cambridge University voted at the end of May to remain affiliated with a 5% margin between those who wanted to leave and those who wanted to remain. However, in classic student fashion, this may not be the end of the issue as Peterhouse College is seeking an individual referendum on disaffiliating from CUSU (Cambridge University Student’s Union) as a show of protest at the result. Oxford University is set to vote this week and Durham’s vote to remain affiliated was announced on Friday. Newcastle’s Student Union has already
decided to drop it’s NUS membership. The recurrent history of upset with the National Union of Students throws doubt on it’s viability as an institution in general and it’s ability to represent it’s student body. The reason why Durham disaffiliated in 2010 was because of aggressive actions of the NUS which caused a debate about multiculturalism at the Durham Union to be cancelled. Despite the negative brush with which the NUS seems often to be painted, it does provide vital Disability, LGBT, welfare and drink awareness training and campaigns. Despite the outcome of the vote, it can probably be guaranteed that the issue of disaffiliation or reaffiliation will be brought up again in a few years time. While this in-out argument sparks in British universities, the decision to leave or remain part of the EU has split the whole of England. Durham SU decided to wade in by holding a referendum on the issue which very unsurprisingly resulted in the SU officially supporting the remain campaign. According to The Telegraph the decision for University Student Unions to take sides on the issue goes against Charity Commission guidelines which state that universities must be politically neutral in the run up to the referendum.
Illustration: Kenzo Ishida The guidance states that campaigning for a yes or no vote is only acceptable in “exceptional circumstances” and adds that in a referendum “a university should still avoid overall support for a yes or no”. However, whether the decision is against regulation or not, it is no surprise that those universities which have taken a side have overwhelmingly voted to remain. The Graduate career app Debut surveyed 12,000 stu-
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Stockton students will be able to more easily participate in Durham life
For the first time, the student contingent could swing the campaign
dents from its user base last month and 81% of those who responded plan to vote for the UK to stay in the EU. Although the Durham result is not unexpected it does point out the fact that, for the first time, the student contingent could swing the campaign for the remain campaign. According to a recent
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70.2% of students who took part felt that colleges and the Students’ Union should improve BME representation
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As the term comes to a close and students come out of the exam-revision haze we take a look back at the bigger news items of the term. The major news regarding the university has been about plans to relocate Queen’s Campus to Durham City. The Chair of the Queen’s Campus Working Group, Professor Anthony Long, has announced that ‘the majority of academic and all college-based activities’ will be relocated to or near Durham. This is excellent news for departments who will now be able to use Stockton resources, for example, Psychology which can now merge with Applied Psychology which used to be at the Queen’s Campus site. It also means that Stockton students will be able to more easily participate in Durham life. However many of the plans have yet to be finalised or released to the public. The relocation is not going to commence until September 2017 but has promised to ‘mark the stage of a new phase for the university’. The Medical School at Stockton could also be moved to near Durham City. However, the option to move it to Newcastle University is also in the pipelines. It will be exciting to see Durham grow by two colleges, but the influx of new students raises questions about accommodation. Overall the move seems to be a great
opinion poll carried out by the Independent if 60% of the population turns out to vote on polling day, Leave will win. On page 10-11 Palatinate’s Politics further contributes to the EU debate with an exclusive poll of Durham Students on the EU referendum debate. With the university reflecting on it’s relationship with the NUS and holding referendums for change, it seems only natural to wrap up with Palatinate’s own reporting on racism on campus. Alex Cupples uncovered a trend at Durham which strongly suggested that the majority of incidents of racism go unreported. 90.6% of students who said they had ‘experienced racism directed towards them or anyone else while at Durham’ said that the incident went unreported to the Durham Student’s Union or to the university. The editorial team behind
the Boar newspaper in Warwick spear-headed the nation-wide survey into racism at universities after a Warwick student scrawled racial slurs on a bunch of bananas. The incident echoes the occasion last year when Oxford Union passed the motion that it was institutionally racist.w Seeing as the survey run by Palatinate also found that 70.2% of students who took part felt that colleges and the Students’ Union should improve BME representation, there seems to be substantial work to be done by university faculty members to create a more-diversified student body. This is not only apparent in ethnic representation but is also reflected in how international students integrate into the university, as Yongchang Chin reflected in his article on international students’ experiences. Although this term’s news has been focussed on affecting change, there is still more to be done. Palatinate is the perfect platform to voice your ideas on wbig issues and functions in reflecting the discussions of the student body.
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Palatinate EU Poll: The Results Mason Boycott-Owen & Kate McIntosh Politics Editor & Deputy Politics Editor
Do I stay or do I go?
Bored of the EU coverage yet? Even we’re starting to flag. But after reading the results of our referemdum poll, with 412 Durham students voting, it reminded us of genuine conscerns outside of the scaremongering of the official and unofficial campaigns. As expected there were some results which seemed expected: the majority of participants were from London and the South East for one. Yet there were a few surprising finds. Firstly the fact that the undecided voters only made up 3% of the responses is impressive given the swathes of dodgy and contradictory facts the public has been fed. Yet this low undecided score was not replicated in political party support with 10% more people supporting no political party than the highest supported party - Labour. In addition to this the highest result for figures trusted on the EU referendum was ‘none of them’ (49%) with Jeremy Corbyn coming a distant 2nd to apathy. Com-
Male/female remain\leave voter split
bine this with how only 20% of recipients thought neither campaign used unreasonable means to win votes, this seems to speak volumes on student engagement with poli-
have themselves come from EU member states where pro-EU sentiment may be the norm. The 85% of international students who support Britain’s EU membership cite economic factors as well as the cultural benefits of the European Union as the reason for their decision. Lots of our international respondents explained that they had benefited from the Erasmus programme, which relies on European Union funding. If the UK were to leave the EU the future of the scheme is uncertain, which may also help to explain why international students are so pro-EU. Conversely, some did express worry about the European Union and the UK’s place in it; a small minority suggested that British fears about the functioning of the EU could be put to rest if we vote to leave. On the whole however, most echoed the responses of British students who support EU membership. The responses we received also revealed an interesting trend in terms of gender and support for the EU. Whilst around 70% of men said they supported continuing EU
Would you say you are an active supporter of a UK political party?
tics - engaged on issues but not the process as a whole. A quick look at the Labour/Tory split within their voters shows unsurprisingly a Tory party divided on the issue but more suprisingly a far more united Labour party not what the rest of the media has been pedalling. Of the international students who responded to Palatinate’s poll, only four stated that they wanted the UK to leave the European Union. Given Lord Ashcroft’s recent poll, which revealed that people globally overwhelmingly support the UK’s EU membership, this perhaps is not a surprise. Moreover, many of these students
membership and around 30% said they opposed it, only about 10% of the women who responded said that they supported leaving the EU compared to the masses in comparison that said they wanted to remain. These findings point to a more extreme version of a national trend. Women tend to be more supportive of the European Union than men, with some commentators suggesting that women have more to benefit from continuing EU membership. Other have claimed women are more likely to base their decision based on arguments surrounding human rights and culture and men are more
Split of Labour supporters
concerned with democracy and economic independence. Green MP Caroline Lucas called for undecided women to vote remain in order to protect their ‘hard won rights’. Whether or not this type of campaigning will be a success is unclear, but the data collected in Palatinate’s EU poll suggests that in Durham men are much more likely to support leaving the EU than women. The results of Palatinate’s poll suggest that most Durham students will be voting to remain in the European Union on June 23rd. Many responses described the EU as a source of peace and cohesion. A St John’s first year explained their view. ‘I have no love for the EU, it’s neo-liberal policies, or its lack of democracy’ they reported, ‘but I’d rather live in a safe Europe, than one rife with little-nationalists and far-right neo-fascists.’ A University College graduate claimed that the EU ‘is not about a few people dictating to countries but rather nations coming together and mutually agreeing on what is important. I hope never to experience a world war, and a union such as the EU is a great example of people of different nationalities being able to coexist.’ Others emphasised the EU’s role in defending workers’ rights. A Chad’s finalist claimed that it is
Split of Conservative supporters
‘essential to ensure our current and future governments can’t negatively impact on workers rights, human rights and the environment.’ The economic consequences of leaving the EU also featured frequently in the responses. A final year student at Van Mildert said ‘I have not heard one coherent argument for leaving the EU. Why risk economic stability? We stand to lose far more than we might gain.’ Nonetheless, the ‘Remain’ campaign has not convinced everyone. The most common concerns among the anti-EU responses were inefficiency and lack of democracy. Some emphasised a wish to have the UK govern itself, and as a St Mary’ post-graduate student explains, ‘to re-establish the legal primacy of UK law in Britain.’ AVan Mildert graduate claimed ‘the EU is failing us and not fit for purpose.’ A second year student at St Mary’s suggested that ‘the EU is corrupt, remote from voters, undemocratic and a gravy train for politicians. Britons should have the power to elect who governs us’ they claim, ‘but the real power is held in Brussels and the power there is held by unelected and unaccountable commissioners.’ Data and poll parameters are available upon request, please email: politics@palatinate.org.uk
Which area would you say has most influenced your decision?
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Voter Matrix: What You Said David van Rooyen St Mary’s, PhD Student
Andrew Taylor University College, 1st Year
Current debates, to the effect that a ‘Brexit vote’ may have on the British economy, are akin to greedy men squabbling as to what price to sell their principles. If the British vote to ‘remain’ in the EU, it will be the first time, in 800 years, that English law – with the consent of the people – is subject to a higher legal authority. The voluntary dispensation of our ability to self-govern is a cheap betrayal of the sacrifices made by previous generations who fought to prevent that ability being taken by force. As did those who came before us, we have a duty, not just to ourselves, but to posterity, to maintain and preserve those institutions that render us free.
Let’s dive into the deep end. The EU used to represent 37% of world GDP in 1973. That figure will stand diminished at 22% by 2025. Spanish GDP: -1.3%. Portugal: -1.4%. Here’s one for the Thursday pub quiz: -3.3%? Clue, it begins with a ‘G’. Vive la France? Proud Deutschland? Both around zero. The EU is a bloc in decline. This month, Britain will have the the choice to be the laissez-faire, world-leading, talent-churning, soaring economy that it used to be, or remain with the aforementioned basket cases, stifled by Merkelesque control. But hey, let’s remain - we will all get cheaper phone calls abroad.
I will vote to leave the EU. I do not wish to remain in a ‘union’ which constricts the United Kingdom’s personal autonomy; refuses to invest in British interests and hampers true democratic progress because of a dilatory, bureaucratic system. I have debated in Strasbourg before as a high school delegate and it was no less shambolic then. I support international cooperation, but one should fit one’s own life vest before aiding others. The EU has, sadly, deviated so far from its original aims. Leaving a partnership is not always easy, but sometimes it is the right thing to do.
Final Year Grey College
Final Year St John’s
Most of the economic arguments are neither here nor there. It is likely that leaving the EU would damage Britain’s growth in the short term, but this is entirely based on the assumption that the EU will continue to exist as it does. Of course leaving the EU is bad for the UK economy - just as India’s independence from the British empire was, or Kenya’s and so on: they all left a protective tariff zone in the pursuit of political independence. Of course the stakes in those cases were far greater, but the principles are the same. Insofar as my vote to leave is a step towards dismantling the E.U. as it currently exists (that is, a tradebarrier zone) it is a vote for longterm prosperity. There is absolutely no justification for favouring trade and migrants from an elite collection of Western countries over everybody else.
We, as voters, should be able to have a say in our laws, by voting for a party. If someone we haven’t voted for makes a law, and say it benefits some of Europe, or most of Europe, but damages us, whom do we hold accountable? The E.U literally undermines the founding principals of democracy, something which we fought many wars to keep. With regards to immigration, we absolutely need it, it is the only thing keeping our ageing population from stagnating, and leaving or staying won’t really affect it. With the correct laws, such as anti-benefit immigration as we have, and new laws and policy to encourage integration, the immigration problem isn’t a problem.
Final Year Grey College
First Year St Chad’s Climate change is the single biggest threat facing humans today. If we want to combat it, we must do so together, with uniform rules to abide by and goals that all countries must strive to achieve. The EU has been a champion at enforcing and creating environmental regulations and it would be a tragedy would it fall apart and all the individual countries would more than likely fall back to their old ways of polluting and using more fossil fuels.
First Year St Cuthberts A vote to leave is a vote for nostalgia, not for a viable national future. Those who vote to leave wish to return to a version of Britain that can no longer exist in this era of globalisation and international cooperation. It is not the 1920s, and we are not the singular global power we were historically. I also feel that Europe, while not perfect, influences Britain positively, providing farming/arts subsidies and improved labour laws, which we risk losing should we leave.
Stephanie Redfern-Jones St John’s, Postgraduate
There has been a substantial lack of proper debate about the ideas that lie behind the referendum from either side. The public debate so far has amounted to petty, personal, opportunistic or political point scoring. The Remain side seem intent on pushing a vision of fear, whilst the Leave campaign insist on making increasingly petty personal attacks on Cameron and others. There has been a substantial but completely indefinitive discussion of the economic impact of Brexit, which has been muddied by accusations of fabrication from both sides. At this point, I feel it necessary to look into, by myself, important ideas that should be the focus of the public discussion, namely: British and European identity; the place of Britain in the world and the impact on British sovereignty. Until these issues have been addressed, I will remain undecided.
International Postgraduate St Aidan’s
The Leave campaign is using so much unsupported by evidence propaganda that they don’t actually have anything to say about what is going to happen to the UK once it leaves the EU. Whilst the IN campaign tells us the realistic view: EU protected workers rights and once UK leaves the EU the majorities such as infamous Cons majority will be able to decide all laws uncontrolled. The same applies to economy - the ties are so great that even if UK leaves, it still would have to follow the EU laws.
William Penn Hild Bede, First Year Being raised in a background where pluralism was a fundamental, I cannot align with the fearmongering espoused by Brexiters which is so easily directed at a loose brand of foreigners. Furthermore, a key part of the leave campaign hinges upon the democratic deficit of the EU; whilst I do agree with this, one has to consider the loose terms in which they make such claims. One of the biggest shows of lack in democratic process was Greece; I hardly believe that right leaning politicians really disagreed with the overruling of austerity. People should vote to remain but also be compelled to reforming Europe.
First Year St Cuthbert’s As a Hungarian, I can say that my country’s EU membership made a huge positive impact on my life; I would not be able to study in Durham without it, for example. In a wider sense, I believe being part of the EU is not just an economic or political belonging but it can enlarge one’s own identity. I am proud to be a citizen of the European Union and I think that this is the only identity that I am truly “proud” of. The UK leaving the EU would encourage anti-EU movements and might lead to even more disintegration and disagreement between members, which would just slow down the process of finding possible, mutual solutions in the ongoing refugee crisis for example.
First Year St Cuthbert’s I certainly don’t believe the E.U. is perfect, but would say that the benefits do outweigh the drawbacks. We have gained a lot as far as creating a fairer and more equal society is concerned by being a member of the E.U. Europe does need reform; the idea of a collection of left-wing socialist countries working closely together and looking after each other may be an idealistic one, but for me it is a very comforting and pleasant one. I dream that one day there will be a ‘United States of Europe’, and, as such, live in hope.
Sam Courtney-Guy Grey College, Finalist One of the worst things to come out of this referendum is its reflection of just how little democracy is valued today. The idea often gets floated that we shouldn’t even be having a referendum because of a ‘misinformed’ or ‘ignorant’ public, and recently I’ve seen this disturbing attitude produce views such as that we shouldn’t be allowing the elderly to vote (apparently because, with fewer years left to live, they’ve less of a stake in society) or that Westminster should ignore a Brexit vote and remain. These half-baked arguments are of course mostly levelled at what is perceived to be the ‘wrong’ outcome and, if applied to elections at large, would be a slippery slope towards authoritarianism.
What does this mean? It seems that Durham University students on the whole do not support Brexit and are voting to stay in the European Union. This may perhaps put paid to the idea that the DSU should not have taken a stance on the referendum given the small numbers either unsure or backing Brexit. The poll is limited by being only a sample of the Durham student population yet it does not seem to be taken from any specific college, gender or political persuasion. What we have learned however is that many
students are still disengaged with not only politics as a whole but also the way this referendum has been conducted. With around half of recipients not supporting any political party as well as half again not trusting any figure on the referendum it is unlikely that the idea that young people do not vote will change any time soon. In just under a week’s time people will start to vote, we’ve seen the arguments, dubious as they may be, time to vote. Vote on Thursday 23rd June.
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Special issue: Durham University research
Dogs trained to detect malaria Philip Myers There is no doubt that dog-owners are prone to make crankish claims
about their animals’ abilities to predict lottery numbers, or the outcome of a football match, or whatever. But in recent years their apparently bonkers assertions have turned out
to be, in some cases, surprisingly close to the truth. In 1989 a paper was published claiming that ‘Dogs can be trained to distinguish patients with bladder cancer on the basis of urine odour more successfully than would be expected by chance alone.’ The research began when an owner pointed out her dog’s persistent interest in a skin lesion that later turned out to be a malignant melanoma. That such claims were taken seriously and opened a fruitful area of investigation provides yet another example of the weird ways in which breakthroughs in science often occur. Since then, the power of dogs to detect a number of different diseases has been shown experimentally, and they are now used to help diabetics monitor their sugar levels, and even to pre-empt narcoleptic attacks. Malaria is the latest target of research, and Professor Steve Lindsay of the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences here in Durham has recently been awarded a prestigious Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to look into the possibility of using dogs to detect infections. In conjunction with the charity Medical Detection Dogs, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Gambian Medical Research Council
Unit, his research, it is hoped, will be useful in the final stages of eradication of the disease, which caused almost half a million deaths globally last year. The problem is that when the number of infected individuals drops, the difficulty of detection using the normal invasive methods (such as collecting blood samples) increases, and the infection rate could easily rise again—a pretty grim cycle to be stuck in. Professor Lindsay, who has spent much of his career working on the eradication of vectorborne diseases, has explained that using trained dogs could allow large numbers of people to be screened easily, allowing relatively rapid detection and treatment of infected individuals. This research could play a key role in the drive to eradication, which would surely constitute one of the greatest public health achievements in history. I accept that this may seem a little over the top, but the grant wouldn’t have been awarded to a more prosaic project, with less at stake. Ultimately, the basis of all this is the extraordinarily powerful sense of smell which dogs possess, largely thanks to the hundreds of millions of smell receptors in their noses. For the sake of comparison, humans pos-
sess something closer to six million of these receptors. Additionally, dogs have many more different types of receptors, meaning they experience smells that we don’t even know exist. And on top of all that, there are many specific physiological adaptations that enhance these remarkable abilities. It has been suggested that they have wet noses to help trap transient molecules for better smell detection. They can also smell in stereo, allowing them to locate the origin of a scent more precisely—a rare kind of navigational tool. And while we breathe in and out through our disappointingly simple nostrils, dogs exhale exclusively out of the side of theirs (that is, through the side slits that any dog-owners among the readership are probably aware of), creating turbulent air patterns that draw new odour molecules into the front of the nostrils. Even the olfactory bulb of the brain is, in relative terms, many times larger in dogs than in humans. That millions of years of evolution have produced these extraordinary and beautiful adaptations is remarkable enough. That we may be able to use them to help eradicate the deadliest disease ever known is even more astonishing, as far as I’m concerned.
sity’s involvement in the new EPSRC National Center for Energy Systems Integration. The new £20 million center is funded by the EPSRC with Siemens and Newcastle University, and will bring together experts in the field to understand how we can optimize the energy network and inform government policy. With it, experts will be able to, for the first time, study and test the entire energy system in real time: gas, power, renewables, heating and cooling. This will pave the way to a flexible smart infrastructure that will allow industry to meet the new low carbon targets. Durham University’s Jon Gluyas, Professor in Geoenergy and Carbon Capture and Storage, says: “There are many challenges that need to be addressed in order to secure future supply, for example adequate energy
storage, effective roll-out of smart electricity and gas systems, adapting energy networks for the bi-directional power flows needed for distributed generation and better use of waste heat and heat networks. Durham University’s contribution to the project will include the development of new holistic statistical models for energy networks which are required for this radically different approach to energy; assessing the ethical implications of how these models are developed for future system-users; evaluation of the economic implications of future energy systems; and comprehensively mapping the current and future UK sources of energy supply, including sources of heat. “We look forward to the challenges that this project offers and to contributing to delivering back to the nation a secure and lower-carbon energy future.”
Durham University part of new national Energy Centre Shubhi Sharma Durham University is part of the new National Centre for Energy Systems Integration, an entity that will explore ways of improving energy efficiency, reduce consumer’s energy bills and lower carbon emissions. The centre was announced on 11 May 2016 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). We face the challenge of reducing carbon emissions while maintaining current rates of economic and industrial growth. It is essential we develop new energy sources that do not contribute to global warming and help mitigate the future impacts of climate change. Durham’s experts are at the forefront of developing such energy solutions. This has been emphasized by the Univer-
PALATINATE | Thursday 16th June 2016
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Special issue: Durham University research
Are e-cigarettes
dangerous? Rosalind Tucker As smokers become “vapers”, the media’s comments on e-cigarettes range from warnings of their unknown effects on health, to praise of their advantage as an alternative to smoking. A recent study from Professor Fiona Measham of Durham’s School of Applied Social Sciences has concluded that most young people do not consider vaping as a form of smoking. How safe is it to let this opinion prevail? Are e-cigarettes really a safe alternative to smoking, or do their unknown impacts mean they are part of a dangerous bet to place on our health? Given their original purpose as a safer alternative to smoking, ecigarettes could be considered as a miracle product. The NHS claims that smoking tobacco accounts for more than 80,000 preventable deaths every year, and is responsible for 84% of deaths from lung cancer. The toxic chemicals within tobacco are accountable for its effects on the lungs, circulation, brain and heart function. As e-cigarettes are devoid of tobacco and do not rely on combustion to produce smoke, the majority of these health problems could potentially be avoided by vaping instead. The amount of nicotine, the addictive component of cigarettes, can also be modified in e-cigarettes. Tan, a regular vaper, says: “I’ve gone down from 6 mg of nicotine to 3 mg, and I have one for 0 mg which I will switch onto soon, and they say that
one of the addictive things is the actual action of smoking”. Tan also describes the other advantages to using e-cigarettes: “smoking is very expensive and the taste is not great, and most people don’t like to smell it on other people! Vaping is cheaper, and the range of flavours is great.” Another point to argue may be the fact that those who chose to smoke e-cigarettes instead of tobacco are, indirectly, causing less harm to those around them through second-hand smoking. However, those who turn to vaping in an attempt to quit smoking may be discouraged by the disapproval received from other members of the public. Complaints about vape smoke are very common. In an open letter to e-cigarette users regarding vaping indoors, Clair Lower argues that the absence of a ban doesn’t mean you should vape in the presence of non-smokers, as by doing so “you are being rude”. Tan agrees that this “hatred” is concerning, and expresses that people “are meaner to vapers than smokers even though we provide sweet, sweet smells!” We must remember, however, that tobacco smoking was once considered to be less harmful than we now know it is, and many research groups claim that a similar pattern may occur with vaping, as not enough research has been conducted in the area. Short-term damage to health has been found: the University of California, San Diego showed that human cells treated with the vapour from e-cigarettes induced DNA damage similar to
that seen from tobacco smoke, and died earlier than those which were left untreated. The exact chemical component responsible for this effect is unknown, although known carcinogens in e-cigarettes include formaldehyde and diacetyl. A study published in the journal Pedriatrics showed that the number of children aged under 6 poisoned by nicotine from e-cigarettes has risen by nearly 1500% since 2013, and those in contact with e-cigarettes are 5.2 times more likely to be admitted to hospital and 2.6 times more likely to have a severe reaction than those exposed to tobacco smoke. So despite being a much better alternative to tobacco smoke, it appears that vaping is still harmful. For those attempting to quit smoking, e-cigarettes are an excellent step forwards towards reducing the risk of lung cancer and other conditions. However, for those who do not smoke, taking up vaping is a step backwards. Tan raised an interesting point: “People are a lot more curious to try vaping than smoking. Lots of people have asked me if they can try mine”. Furthermore, with the long-term impacts on our health unknown, using e-cigarettes is a still a major gamble. There is a potential danger in young people regarding vaping as completely separate to smoking, as Fiona Mesham’s study shows—this view could foster the harmful misconception that e-cigarettes are completely safe.
by his start-up company P2i Ltd, these nano-coatings are also used to waterproof 75% of the world’s hearing aids. It’s no wonder his group’s research was included in Nature’s recent feature, The Leading Edge of Impact, detailing the cutting edge of British scientific research. Tiny as they are, nanolayers of this kind have myriad applications; in fog-collecting devices for clean drinking water
in developing countries, for antimicrobial protection of fabrics, and for industrial strength adhesives. The work of P2i initially began with designing military uniform fabrics with coatings that protected them from chemical and biological hazards. Many of these nanomaterials rely on the principle of surface wetting and the repelling of water and other liquids by the surface of the na-
Durham chemist elected fellow of the Royal Society Bryony Hockin You may not know it, but the research of Durham chemistry Professor Jas Pal Badyal has had an enormous impact on most of our lives. His work on functional surfaces has given us water repellent nano-coatings that have been applied to millions of smartphones worldwide. Commercialised
nomaterial. More detail can be found on Professor Badyal’s informative Youtube channel, a useful resource for understanding this occasionally challenging area of chemistry. Recently Professor Badyal was elected to the position of Fellow of the Royal Society. Only three other Durham chemistry professors occupy this prestigious position. Speaking about the Fellowship in April this year, Pro-
fessor Badyal said: “I am honoured to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of the wide range of novel surfaces invented in my research laboratory for societal and technological applications. These have included fog harvesting for clean drinking water in developing countries, antibacterial surfaces, and liquid repellency for the water protection of smartphones.”
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Arts students who question the value of their degrees are missing the point Tom Barber
Universities that deliver ‘excellent’ teaching will soon be able to raise their tuition fees in line with inflation in a move announced by George Osborne last year. This move will go some way to delivering the marketization of higher education that was intended when the tuition fee cap was raised in 2012. The least contentious aspect of the change is the linking of the prerogative to raise tuition fees with high quality teaching, yet this raises the seemingly unchallenged implication that universities exist primarily to teach. If this is the case, then rising tuition fees will be particularly galling for those studying degrees in the ‘soft subjects’: the arts and humanities. Indeed, it is something of a running joke that those studying these subjects are throwing their money away in the subsidisation of more expensive degree programmes. Tuition fees make up 43.3% of total income in UK higher
education institutions, with no financial discrimination between faculties at undergraduate level. Despite this, only 3% of expenditure goes on humanities, language studies, and archaeology, a mere fraction of the 19.4% of expenditure given to STEM departments (HESA). It is a crude slur to suggest that humanities students might look at such numbers with an expression of acquiescent befuddlement, but for some reason, courses in the arts and humanities are still being taken up in great numbers and with great enthusiasm, despite the disparity in teaching. So, when students embark on the not inconsiderable investment of a university education, do they really believe that they’re just paying to be taught? Shunning any claim to be representative, I took an unscientific scroll through The Student Room and was far from surprised by what I saw there. The first answer to the succinct question ‘is uni really worth it?’ was the somewhat more sarcastic ‘is a decent salary really worth it?’. Indeed, it seems that, for many, a university degree is a sensible in-
vestment in improved career prospects and higher salaries. Whilst the spiralling cost of university and increasingly tumultuous job market render the potential return of such an investment debatable, it is not a debate in which I intend to embroil myself. What we can all, however, agree on is the fact that those with degrees in the arts and humanities get less bang for their buck than their STEM counterparts: of the top 5 highest earning degrees 10 years after graduation, the only non-STEM subject to make an appearance is law (IFS). Despite the unavoidable realisation that those studying the humanities are investing a great deal of time and money in their university education, whilst getting very little in return, in terms of contact hours and graduate prospects, humanities students still attempt to justify their degrees to their usually exasperated parents. In a last ditch attempt to resist the tide sweeping them towards the inevitable law conversion or reluctant PGCE, they cling to that overhanging Bourdieusian crag of ‘social
capital’. But, of course, one would not find oneself in such tumultuous waters if one had not missed the boat in the first place, as there is no immutable link between arts degrees and the acquisition of ‘social capital’; an individual can come by social capital simply by virtue of studying at university or simply by being in the right place at the right time, without subjecting oneself to abysmal career prospects and endless hours in the library. So what exactly is left for those studying ‘soft subjects’ in a world where education for the sake of education is becoming less and less affordable? Humanities degrees certainly cannot be called a good investment or a project of self-betterment. Rather, those who are asking what they can expect for their tuition fees are asking a question which is motivated by self-interest, fuelled by the capitalist marketization of education, and ultimately misses the point. Indeed, I put it to you that an investment of time and money in a humanities degree is part of a thoroughly selfless social enter-
prise. To unashamedly perpetuate yet more crude stereotypes, those who study ‘soft subjects’ are politically active, culturally aware, and emotionally engaged; indeed, faculties of arts and humanities are involved in the creation of a highly educated general population, an endeavour which can only be applauded in a world where division fuelled by ignorance is increasingly rife. Thus, those humanities students who question what they stand to gain from their degrees seem, to me, to be failing to grasp exactly what those degrees should be teaching them: the importance of cultural awareness and social responsibility in combating the rising tide of general ignorance. No answers to this problem might be sought in the ivory towers of the natural sciences, or the darkest dungeons of computer technology, but only in the creation of a highly and broadly educated population. To ask, then, if the study of the arts and humanities is ‘worth it’, is, in fact, to ignore the social impetus which is at the heart of such a course of study.
that this is worth spending tons of money. With an ever more competitive job market, the argument goes, receiving a university education is getting to be a necessity, not just to stand out in front of a prospective employer, but merely to have the chance to be considered. This is the story of how we now accept as normal the fact that we are spending several thousand pounds to receive a kind of education that our parents were used to getting for free, when education had a less pragmatic and materialistic purpose. Don’t get me wrong: university studies are an enriching experience that will leave you an imprint as you would not find anywhere else. What is disheartening, though, is the amount of money that the simple act of studying now requires. Young graduates in the UK are now burdened with an unmanageable debt that will impair their life choices and prospects for the years to come. It is not just a matter of financial endowment and the opportunities this entails: paying to study, in fact, basically transforms the nature of knowledge itself - it leads to its reification. The summa of the hu-
man intellectual accomplishments has been reduced to the standards of ready-made meals: there no longer exists the pleasure to buy your own fresh ingredients, decide which ones to use and which to avoid to suit your own tastes, be tempted by new combinations of flavours or just decide what you actually want to eat. Now it is always the same tasteless and standardised food that we are forced to ingurgitate. This is the modularisation of knowledge, a standardisation of learning, inevitable with mass schooling. But why does such a state of affairs exist? What can be done to change it? If the first question is difficult to answer, the second is useless: no one will bother to acknowledge that university intended as a service to be sold and bought is a degeneration of the Enlightenment ideal of a knowledge to be spread. This is the major problem: the idea that a university degree is good per se, and that everyone, their actual skills and interests notwithstanding, ought to pursue one. This reality has a double root. On one hand, university has become a way to postpone the moment that young people enter the
job market. The decreasing need for labour by Western society has led to a structural rise of un- and under-employment, making compelling the search for ways to prolong the unproductive phases of life. On the other, there exists the belief that human existence without an elite education cannot be enjoyed, both from a financial and intellectual standpoint. While it is certainly true that university constitutes an intellectual pleasure, it is not ascertained that it is the only one. In such a state of mind whoever would feel entitled to ask for more while at university, perennially dissatisfied by the perception that their money is not getting them what they were looking for. And, needless to say, this made it possible for HE institutions to charge ever more for their services, to market the message that a degree from the university so-and-so will create a positive impression with future employers, that it will lead the graduate to stand out. The objectification of university has transformed the attitudes with which high-school students face the great leap. While not too many decades ago it was not a rar-
ity to hear someone wishing to learn for learning’s sake, to study to change the world for the better, now it seems that the majority of graduates aim at a prestigious job in a bank and a thoughtless life. How students think about the years 17-21 is both a cause and consequence of the reification of learning. Can all of this be changed? Yes, if we change our cognitive understanding of HE. Is it normal that college has become a fundamental step in someone’s growth process? Was Tony Blair’s desire for a student boom reasonable? No, to both questions. A containment of HE studies should be the priority. While this policy might annoy the university industry, it would be a strength for society. Young people would not be forced into unpayable debt, a wholly state-funded HE for willing and able students would finally be made (or remade) attainable, and higher studies would be tailored to individual needs and attitudes. No more modularised knowledge, standardised exams and mass-market textbooks that have turned students into profit-maximising robots.
The orginal aim of higher education has been lost
Simone Clericuzio
A university education is like love: if you have to pay for it, something must be wrong. In this sense the UK has turned into a loveless country where harlotry prevails. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has estimated that, in 2013 alone, a cohort of 314,000 new students enrolled in a university-level institution and that the Higher Education Initial Participation Rate for the academic year 2013-2014 was 47%. These figures show the willingness of people aged 17 to 30 to pay up to £9,000 per year to get an HE degree. The reason? Getting a decent occupation and afford a lavish lifestyle. Personal growth or making the world a better place now score badly among ambitious university students. Every year, around 300,000 young people in this country are fooled in to believing that a university degree is a necessary condition for them to find a job, and
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Cameron will become the next casualty of political centrism Alex Bromwich
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” - WB Yeats, ‘The Second Coming’
Without wanting to start on too bleak a tone, this quote from Yeats’ ‘The Second Coming’ resonates with the political scene today. As we find ourselves in heated debate on the EU referendum, we are often too swift to neglect the wider political context. It seems clear, even to the least erudite political observer, that Cameron is, as many are describing him, “a dead man walking”. But it would be too simplistic to attribute the Prime Minister’s impending overthrow to his desperate, and frankly idiotic, EU campaign. Cameron’s demise will be the crumbling of an entire political project, one that sought to bring the Conservatives into the electable grounds of the Cen-
tre. Some saw Blair as Thatcher’s greatest achievement: quite the opposite, the greatest legacy of Tony Blair was David Cameron. 1995 witnessed a radical change in direction of Labour Party Policy. Tony Blair adapted Labour’s vision of Socialism to the actualities of post-Thatcherite society and economy. He pulled a party deeply out of step with public opinion to political breakthrough and he did so by appealing to the centrist sensibilities of the average voter. Cameron too sought to drag a party for too long viewed as behind the times of modernising, liberalising society, to the centre. The Cameron ploys of hugging hoodies and huskies, and his notion of a ‘Big Society’ alloying the free market to a commitment to social justice and opportunity, witnessed Cameron occupy the centre ground - the centre was all beginning to look a bit crowded. With a Labour Party drawn to the pragmatic centre-Left, and a Conservative opposition dragged to a personable centre-Right, UK politics found itself confined to a rather narrow portion of the ideological spectrum. Whilst to some it represented a progressive departure from ideological politics,
focusing on the wants and needs of voters, to many it seemed a vacuous and lifeless form of centrism. From thence developed the political term ‘Blameronism’, a rather fatuous portmanteau denoting the supposed identicality of Blair and Cameron’s agendas. Even today you would not be hard pressed to find some UKIP MEP deploying the hackneyed platitude that not a “cigarette paper” could have passed between them. But ultimately, what both the 1997 and 2010 General Election proved to us was that, in a firstpast-the-post voting system, positioning oneself in the political centre-ground was effective. The public seemed to be wooed by a Labour Party liberated from the shackles of nuclear unilateralism and mass nationalisation, and it was courted by a Conservative Party that had abandoned its former draconian stances on welfare, the environment, and crime. Political centrism and electoral expedience were all the rage. But what today’s party politics is proving is that this was just a fad, a short-lived experiment ended by the Labour party membership, and soon-to-be ended by a Tory faction,
both of which seem more interested in returning to ‘ideological roots’ than embracing a vacuous and ultimately uninspiring form of centrism. Emanating from both the current Labour Party leadership and the Tory civil war over Europe is therefore the impression that both parties value ideology and political purism over electoral necessity. The Centre-ground is being rapidly vacated by a Labour Left and Tory Right striding in opposite directions. I am no fan of our current Prime Minister, and am equally sceptical about many of the policies, particularly regarding foreign policy, advanced by New Labour, but what Cameron and Blair recognised was a need to bring the party to the voters, and to apply the values of Conservatism and Socialism to the actualities of the modern world and, crucially, the realities of the voters. After the election of Jeremy Corbyn, Blair has been almost exiled from his own party in a similar way that the likely outcome of the EU referendum will see Cameron howled out of office. Whether the Tories shall be taken over by a more radically conservative leadership after June
24th seems unlikely - the Conservative leadership is selected by its contingent of MPs, the majority of whom are far from right-wing ideologues. Nonetheless, Cameron’s Europhilia has left many Tory MPs sceptical of a return to what many would see as metropolitan bourgeois liberalism and this may, in fact, embolden them to place their trust in politicians who may represent a more traditional strand of Conservatism, particularly in regards to justice, education, the environment, and immigration. In light of this, and of the leftwards shift in Labour Party direction, what the EU referendum will spell is the end of an era in which there existed a bi-partisan scramble for the political centre-ground. What may happen in 2020 is a General Election in which both major parties seem a world away from the priorities and beliefs of the average voter. 2016 will prove a chastening experience but, politically, what it will teach us is precisely what Yeats warned: that political parties will be simply unable to hear the demands of the voter, that the falcon will not hear the falconer, and that “the centre cannot hold”.
might be difficult to achieve, it is the “small things”, precious moments of intimacy, kindness and laughter that we can hold on to. Books like Orwell’s 1984 and Kafka’s The Trial provided insights into the arbitrary, alienating power of the state. They reminded me to remain watchful of incursions upon our freedom, more prevalent now than ever. And I cried at the end of Stoner, willed Holden Caulfield to call Jane Gallagher with all my might, fell in love with, and detested, Emma Bovary with equal measure. Feeling that Flaubert spoke for me too when he said “Madame Bovary? C’est moi”. Books were, and still are, my vehicle for understanding the world, helping to cultivate feelings of empathy, desire and grief. As Baldwin said, “it was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” Yet many people are no longer able to access these books, and
many others. Governments have been cutting library services for years, meaning that many who can’t afford to buy such books,are deprived of the knowledge they hold. This is probably because the government thinks no-one will care. Some areas in which cuts have taken place, such as disability benefits, have been rightly challenged. For other areas, such as libraries, a quick search on the internet shows that it is difficult to find a national campaign devoted to preventing library cuts. With all the access we have to the Bill Bryson library, we tend to forget that, outside the Durham bubble, many people can’t get hold of the kind of books we can. Let’s delve now into the statistics surrounding library cuts. According to the BBC, between 2010 and 2016, 8000 jobs in libraries have gone, which is ¼ of the entire workforce. Moreover, out of 343 libraries shut down since 2010, 132 were mobile library services, meaning that many with poor mobility are unable to access books. Once again, we see that the poor, marginalised and disabled are the
first to be attacked. This is not to say that libraries are not trying to adapt. David Fay, Head of Newcastle City Council’s Library Services, highlighted to me how his authority has looked towards a partnership with Newcastle College in order to reduce running costs for libraries. Ebooks too have been introduced to cope with reductions in stock. Yet, despite these adaptions, staff have been lost and opening hours are starting to be reduced. And for every council that is coping, others are struggling. For example, more than ½ of libraries in Sunderland have closed since 2010. Further exploration needs to be done into the correlation between library closures and the affluence of areas; a 2013 report (Sunderland Echo, 2013) showed that 17,000 children are living in poverty in Sunderland. Why, therefore, are the government closing most of their libraries, and further reinforcing this poverty? Protests against library cuts, I must confess, are not really that sexy. I don’t suppose I could
persuade anyone to man the barricades with me against an onslaught of library cuts. Yet, nonetheless, this issue is incredibly important, and woefully under-publicised. We rally against inequality on a daily basis, and lament the lack of social mobility in our society. Yet it is my belief that war against the poor and the underprivileged has a secret frontier. It is in library services. How can the government best oppress the least fortunate in society? Well, remove their books of course, remove their power to dream, to long for a better life. Remove their ability to form links with the rest of society, to empathise, to desire, to hope. Heinrich Heine wrote that “where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” They have not yet started to burn books, but they might as well have.
The government are waging war against the poor on a new, quiet frontier Adam Cunnane
Kafka once wrote that “we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” Books, more than anything, are tools for social mobility. They are bombs that tear apart our firmly held, yet misguided, views on society, life, and love. Books are facilitators of latent hopes and desires, with the potential to empower all. Looking at my bookshelf now, I think of all the things that books have taught me. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things pushed me to the brink of despair, before hauling me back. It helped me to realise that though long-term happiness
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The news misrepresents reality
We are drawn to negative news, and newspapers fulfill our demands
Josiah Odigie
In short: the news is observably predominantly negative. Radio, television and printed news certainly seems largely negative and there is evidence to back this up. The Big Think published an article focused on understanding this bias, writing that at the moment 90% of television and newspaper news was negative. So perhaps the more pertinent amended question should be why is the news predominantly negative? I have decided to begin from the most basic evolutionary point: survival. Fear helps us with
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During the 1990s overall crime rates decreased by 20% while news coverage increased by 83%
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self-preservation and within the limbic system of our brain lies the amygdala, the area responsible for both sensing fear and preparing for it. Although it may not feel that way, we as human beings are still hardwired for survival and in a modern society we are constantly bombarded with information – far more than we can possibly take in. Therefore, an internal subconscious filter that alerts us to the negative, endangering news while sifting out the more mundane certainly makes sense. Thus serving as a cognitive explanation for the phenomenon of dominant negative news. However, there remain myriad more factors to consider in what constitutes an eye-catching piece of news. Of course being in the public interest is a fundamental of journalism, but growing from that common denominator, a news item surely has to be topical, enticing in either a funny or shocking manner and truthful. Fear sells is a common phrase and
rings true among the mainstream newspapers of the UK. Simply Google search the three words ‘Daily Mail’ and ‘Muslim’ (a current hot topic within said publication) and you are confronted with nine articles all of which function as a warning of dangers that face you. Moving on to the Daily Mail’s main website there is a distinct dichotomy of news cov-
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Fear sells is a common phrase and rings true among the mainstream newspapers of the UK
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erage, namely a large section dedicated to the female celebrity anatomy and the latest, you guessed
it, articles warning of various impending dooms and people that are threatening your family. A peruse of the printed edition’s headlines echoes this diversity of focus. So one might conclude that, as well as our innate inclination to articles cautioning us against all manner of evils, we have the added bonus of major news companies profiting from this. Then there is the question of the often undeniable and glaringly obvious bias that underpins many news stations. Certain news stations, such as Fox News, gleefully spew vitriol week in week out about their favourite target groups within society – such disproportionate coverage begs the question of a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda. This phenomenon is evidenced in a report conducted in ‘Confronting racial and ethnic differences in American juvenile justice’. It is quoted to say “News media depictions of crime do not reflect either rates of crime generally, the proportion of violent crime, or the proportion of crime committed by minorities but instead systematically mis
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Media depictions of crime do not reflect either rates of crime generally...or the proportion of crime committed by minorities but instead systematically misrepresent reality
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represent reality”. Powerful and sadly accurate words, they shine a light on a society whose media still employs methods commonplace throughout our deeply iniquitous history. As a case study
example of this they write “During the 1990s overall crime rates decreased by 20% while news coverage increased by 83%, and homicides declined by one third whilst network news coverage increased by 473%”. Although staggering, they are still somewhat unsurprising given the relentless efforts of some of the more conservative areas of news coverage to inhibit social change every step of the proverbial way. So concluding a sobering, revelatory and relatively depressing combination of factors, it seems as if our innate leaning towards fear mongering news, the frequency of coverage of said news and the disproportionate coverage of newspapers and television on thesnegative topics, all add up to an overwhelmingly negative media. Illustration: Romina Swan
P
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Alan Johnson: “The perfect institution doesn’t exist.”
Labour In for Britain Chief, Alan Johnson joins Will Fremont-Barners to argue the case for remaining in the European Union.
Will Fremont-Barnes Profile Editor
One of the few leading figures to emerge with any credit from this long, bitter European Union referendum campaign is Alan Johnson. Whilst both sides have ramped up the rhetoric in recent days with alarmist pronouncements, Johnson has spearheaded the Labour Party’s campaign to remain with quiet positivity. Those who accuse Labour of lacking conviction in this debate are not listening to the man leading its campaign. Support for the European project, Johnson argues, lies at the very heart of Labour’s commitment to “internationalist solidarity”. For the former Home Secretary, this return to frontline politics was a calling, not a calculated career choice. “I hate the word ‘existential’”, Johnson says as he explains why he answered the party’s call, “but this was an existential threat”. Despite his determination to avoid being “embroiled” in frontline politics after more than five years on the backbenches, the “most profound decision” on the ballot paper for a generation convinced Johnson to take on a high-profile position witwhin the Labour campaign. The positive vision for staying in the EU has been conspicuous by its absence. In spelling out his case for Britain’s continued membership, Johnson stresses both the benefits of remaining and the perils of leaving. “The argument for remaining is about our prosperity, it’s about our security, it’s about Britain’s voice in the world”. The security benefits are particularly compelling from Johnson’s perspective. “Anti-terrorism has to have an institutional base… You can say the word ‘cooperation’ all you like; you can’t make it work effectively in counter-terrorism and policing unless you have institutional infrastructure. That’s what Europe provides to an increasing degree.” Furthermore, Johnson fears that, in contrast to those who voted in the European Economic Community referendum of 1975, the electorate takes for granted the sustained period of peace on the continent. “Those in their fifties had fought in the Second World War, and they’d come back looking for something better and different. The whole backdrop of their parents’ lives and their grandparents’ lives had been a war in Europe every twenty years.” Relations between EU member states have been peaceful throughout the postwar era. “Since 1975, we’ve seen military dictatorships in the south of Europe, and totalitarian rule in the east, transformed without a shot being fired. No one can deny the role of the EU in that.” In a referendum whose outcome rests on the ability of Brexiters to
convince the electorate that their post-EU vision is better than the status quo, the “paucity of the argument for leaving” has taken Johnson aback. “It’s crazy to think that wrenching ourselves away from the European Union in an increasingly interdependent world is going to lead to our sailing back to a sepia-tinted world of empire and brilliant trade agreements with whoever we damned well please. All of that is nonsense”, Johnson concludes with characteristic bluntness. Whilst portraying the campaign to leave as regressive, remain supporters seldom have engaged with the issue of national sovereignty. “Everyone has to accept that the perfect institution doesn’t exist”, Johnson acknowledges when questioned about the EU’s lack of democratic accountability. However, with an electoral system in Britain that produced a majority government with just 37% of the popular vote, and an unelected upper chamber, Johnson reminds Eurosceptics that “the way we do things at Westminster is less democratic than the way we do things in Brussels”. Johnson concedes that the rise of Euroscepticism in Britain reflects Labour’s approach to the EU during its thirteen years in government. Tony Blair wrote of the need to ‘slay’ the dragon of the ‘European superstate’,
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We haven’t made the case for Europe for years
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whilst Gordon Brown infamously borrowed a line from the far right with his pledge of ‘British jobs for British workers’. “We haven’t made the case for Europe for years”, Johnson bemoans, noting that the argument unhelpfully became bound up with the question of joining the single currency. Serving as Home, Education and Health Secretary, Johnson was a mainstay of the Labour governments between 1997-2010. He reflects with pride on the government’s approach to anti-social behaviour, one of its “great successes”, and his time in the health department, where he was given a considerable budget to improve the quality of NHS care. “We got on top of the problems and we were concentrating not on the finances, which we’d put right, not on the doctors and nurses, who we’d
Image: Creative Commons
Alan Johnson: Leading Labour’s campaign
recruited, but: ‘how do we go a step further and turn everything in the NHS world class?’”. It was Johnson’s misfortune that, just as he had reached the height of his seniority, the New Labour project seemed to have run out of ideas. “We did lose a bit of energy”, Johnson rues. “In a democracy there’s always going to be a change of government, and there’s always going to be that feeling of ‘time to give the other side a chance’, and we ran into both of those things in 2010.” Johnson wonders whether the change in leadership, as Tony Blair stepped aside for Gordon Brown in June 2007, was the beginning of the end. “I was a great fan of Tony Blair, but Gordon [Brown] was politics unspun, and people liked it. They liked the fact that he wasn’t slick and his hair was all over the place sometimes when he came on… The surprise was that Gordon didn’t seem to have thought through exactly what he was going to do.” Whilst Brown’s fate “rested on him not calling an election” in the autumn of 2007, Johnson praises his former colleague for his adept handling of the country’s finances. “We dealt with the biggest financial global meltdown the world has ever seen, and it was Gordon Brown who, in many ways, led the G20 countries as to how to deal with it, and it was Alistair Darling who got us back to growth.” If that is the case, then why is Labour’s economic credibility so low? “The narrative goes as if Osborne inherited a recession and delivered growth; it’s actually the other way around. By the skin of his teeth he avoided a double dip recession. That did for us not only in 2010, but again in 2015, because for some reason we weren’t prepared to even try to set the record straight.” The battle to restore Labour’s economic credibility is on hold as it attempts to rebuild its image as a pro-EU party. Johnson argues that
this requires a “principled stance” and a consistent message. “You can’t try to be talking out of one side of your mouth depending on what
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We’d be fooling ourselves if we thought it was the start of a more consensual type of politics
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geographical location you’re in, and perhaps say something different in London.” Johnson insists that being unashamedly pro-EU does not mean that Labour should ignore the genuine concerns of working-class voters. “People who have got concerns on council estates in Hull [Johnson’s constituency] shouldn’t be lectured to and told they’re talking rubbish, given that their concerns are about exploitation and fairness. It’s wrong that an agency should bring over twenty Polish workers when they’ve got a spiking demand, and leave twenty 18-24 year-olds going down to Jobcentre Plus.” Labour’s campaign for remaining in the EU has been complicated both by the need to stave off UKIP in its traditional heartlands, and Jeremy Corbyn’s tepid support for the remain campaign. During last summer’s leadership campaign, Johnson memorably described the eventual winner as having been “cheerfully disloyal” to the party for three decades. Has Corbyn fulfilled his promise of a more open and inclusive
orm of politics? “I think he, personally, is committed to that”, Johnson replies, praising Corbyn for his response to the “latest uproar over anti-Semitism”. Johnson has less time for the Corbynistas. “Some of his supporters are the last people who want a kinder, more gentle kind of politics”, he laughs, before reflecting on the serious point that Corbyn’s leadership has created a climate in which “anyone who demurs… is somehow a traitor to the cause. The culture of betrayal is back again”. Johnson is unconvinced by the idea that the gentler, kinder form of politics championed by Corbyn might come about as a result of cross-party collaboration during this campaign. “On the Alternative Vote, I found myself on the same platform as Vince Cable and Nigel Farage, for Christ’s sake”, he remembers of a referendum on electoral reform that did little to alter the political landscape. “We’d be fooling ourselves if we thought it was the start of a more consensual type of politics.” However, Johnson notes, the unity within Labour has been “remarkable”. As Labour failed to capitalise on the government’s unpopularity six months before the 2015 general election, rumours swirled around Westminster that discontented Labour MPs wanted to replace Ed Miliband with a senior, presentable figurehead. Johnson was the obvious choice. “I don’t blame you for asking”, he replies when asked why he did not pursue the leadership at this stage, “but I never have wanted to do it. It’s not been part of my ambition”. For someone whose approach to politics has been somewhat less intense than many of his contemporaries, Johnson has nevertheless achieved a considerable amount during his time in parliament. Convincing Labour voters to head to the polls on June 23 would form an important part of his legacy.
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College Festival of Sport: As it happened
Palatinate Sport guide you through an action packed day of sport at Maiden Castle
Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor
In the scorching June summer heat, another riveting College Festival of Sport unfolded at Maiden Castle. With competitions taking place across 16 sports, it was an undertaking beyond Palatinate Sport’s three humble sports reporters to try and keep track of all the action which was taking place. Nevertheless, here is an attempt to chart the day’s proceedings. Cuths were the first winners of the day, triumphing against Hild Bede in the badminton. Alongside the Badminton in the sports halls, the men’s and women’s basketball took place. The men’s basketball final proved to be one of the closest matches of the day, as Hild Bede won 7-6 by scoring their decisive point on the buzzer. The women’s match proved to be a less dramatic affair as Mildert eased past Butler to win 11-6 For those lucky racketeers and basketballers playing indoors, they were spared from the rising temperatures outside as Maiden Castle basked in the June sunshine. Out across the bridge in the cricket, Collingwood A raced to a comfortable victory against Aidan’s A, bowling out the latter for 45, before promptly securing the chase in just under four overs. A broken car windscreen from a huge knock for six was testament to Collingwood’s superb batting. In the biggest competition of the day which sprawled across nine pitches, numerous college football
teams participated in their own Euro 2016 tournament on the two rubber crumbs. One could only empathise with the organisers trying to process the deluge of results which were arriving at their tiny scoring desk. Such were the great numbers of participating teams, the competition was split into three separate awards; Cup, Shield and Plate. Teams were placed into the appropriate competition based on their standings in the group stages, guaranteeing every team at least five fixtures. Although Josephine Butler were the eventual winners of the Cup, the story of the day had to go to the bizarre Castle team captained by Max Fairhurst. Despite entering three teams, only six Castle players turned up for the 6-a-side tournament. This hardy six proceeded to play all of the group games of each Castle team, getting themselves into the knockout rounds of the Cup and the Shield in the process. Alas this would not be a heartwarming Leicester City story. The valiant Castle team soon received reinforcements but later crashed out in the quarter-finals. Nevertheless, no one could deny they got their £2’s worth of sporting action on the day. However, in the women’s football, there was a fairy-tale story to be told. CCWAFC capped off an incredible season with both their A and B Teams winning the Cup and Shield respectively, to secure an unprecedented ‘Quintuplet’ of silverware for the women’s football team.
In the Mixed Hockey, Hild Bede took the honours in a fiercely contested competition. Captained by Robin Wallich, the “river college” were able to overcome Chad’s in the final, courtesy of a Gareth Watkins goal. Considering the amount of finals in which Chad’s were involved yet were unable to win, the bailey college must have wondered whether it was going to be their day. However, they finally received their just rewards for their hard work by taking home the college lacrosse title by beating Mary’s. In netball and rounders, there were respective finals between Collingwood and Josephine Butler. Unfortunately for Butler, they were unable to defeat their neighbours in both matches, allowing the overall favourites of the festival to secure a substantial points haul to contribute to their college’s total. Considering their reputation as Floodlit Cup champions, it was no surprise that it was a Collingwood vs Collingwood final in the men’s rugby 7s. Once again, the one-two ensured another healthy injection of points to the college’s points tally, as Collingwood began to pull away from the pack. In the women’s rugby 7s, the amalgamated force of Greys and Aidan’s joined forces to beat arch (combined) rivals Milbut (Mildert and Butler). Despite being on the indoor courts and sheltered from the sweltering conditions outside, the squash competition saw its fair share of perspiration being shed for the cause.
In the final, Butler secured another important points haul by beating Hild Bede in the final. For the tennis players, there was no such shelter from the conditions. Channelling the professionals’ endurance in uncomfortable conditions, the players produced some excellent tennis. In the end, it was Mary’s who prevailed over Castle 2-1 to take the title. Credit must go to the pair of Kieran Walsh and Alya Makharinsky who managed to go unbeaten throughout the entirety of the tournament. In the sport which everyone wishes they knew how to play to a high standard, Butler proved themselves to be the masters of Ultimate Frisbee against Mildert, with spectacular throws and catches aplenty on display. While sandy beach conditions were not available at MC, the weather was certainly providing the per-
lege Sport Coordinator, it was impossible to resist selecting some of my highlights of this season which reflect the unpredictable nature of college sport. Whether that be Stephenson A beating St Aidan’s E 19 v 0 in the men’s football trophy but then hearing that same E Team had recovered only weeks later to record their first ever league win in two years. Despite the unfortunate result, who could forget the incredibly competitive York Varsity in which 320 Durham students participated? I am confident that we will avenge that defeat on home turf! Furthermore, the first ever Loughborough IMS Varsity saw the birth of yet another rivalry with Loughborough. College Sport is all about the friendships forged in victory and defeat. College sport makes Durham so unique and I am thrilled to have been a part of it.
My year as a ‘sabb’ was rounded off with a fantastic College Festival of Sport on a scorching day. Over 300 teams battled it out across every inch of grass and rubber crumb Maiden Castle owns, truly bringing the place to life following exam season. Collingwood emerged eventual winners as their 42 teams picking up the highest points tally across the board. On Saturday 4th June, Team Durham held its inaugural College Sport Dinner of Champions. This was the first event of its kind and celebrated the achievements of our league winning teams across the college sport programme this year. From women’s football to hockey, rugby to cricket, I felt privileged to watch these teams and captains accept awards, people whom I have had the pleasure of working with this year. However at the end of the day, the
Durham college sport programme is once again the real champion. As I mentioned at the start of this year, our Head of Sport Quentin Sloper always refers to College Sport as ‘the jewel in the crown’ of this institution. Following my experience as College Sport Coordinator this year, I could not agree more. With nearly 8,000 College Sport students contributing to a collective student participation rate of over 70%, the facts cannot be disputed! Even beyond our programme, teams have branched out in their own unique ways. Examples are branding exercises such as Team Mary’s, Team Hatfield and Team Mildert or organising their own localised varsities to further intensify already fierce college rivalries, such as Aidan’s and Mildert have done up on the hill. Even though I am sad to be leaving such a great team and place behind, I
fect setting for the Volleyball competition. It proved to be a final of two relatively unfamiliar colleges in this sport, as John’s and Grey contested for honours and valuable points. Despite some confusion with the scoring system, Grey prevailed 3024 winners over the Bailey college. Finally onto perhaps the least strenuous, but by no means less intense, sport of the whole day. This year marked the very first inclusion of table tennis in the annual Festival of Sport. Mary’s and Mildert had been the two best teams all day and were worthy finalists. Following some duels between Mary’s and Mildert players, it was the team in purple who emerged as winners. After many fixtures over 16 sports, it was Collingwood who emerged victorious.
Bingham’s goodbye after Festival success Sophie Bingham College Sport Coordinator As my year in office comes to an end, I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the College Sport officers who have kept track of our 570 teams this year, while always encouraging them to be their best. Thank you also to the sport managers and secretaries who have spent hours each week organising fixtures and teaching me the weird and wonderful rules of frisbee and futsal, the latter being the latest addition to our already incredible college sport rostra. To all of our referees and umpires who arguably do the most difficult jobs in sport, I would like to say you are truly important to us and sometimes we forget to tell you how much we value your services. Looking back over my year as Col-
cannot wait to see what is in store for Durham College Sport in the future. To my successors Jack Coates and Josh Males, I wish you the best of luck and can only hope that you enjoy your times as College Sport Coordinators as much as I have.
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CCWAFC wrap up season with unprecedented ‘Quintuple’ Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor As Collingwood Women’s Football Teams finished off their season in emphatic fashion, winning the College Festival of Sport Cup and Shield respectively, they managed to secure an unprecedented quintuplet of silverware. As a reflection of Collingwood’s incredible depth of sporting talent, CCWAFC were able to field three teams in the competition. Puting their resources to good use, As and Bs players were mixed together to form three formidable teams who would later dominate the day’s proceedings. Already a treble winner this season following League, Cup and Floodlit success, Captain Kate Petty’s desire to win remained as strong as ever. Following a serene progression through the group stages and a tense penalty shoot-out in the semi-final. Collingwood A were pitted against Chads A in the Festival of Sport Cup Final. The game itself was an
absolute thriller with six goals being scored. The final will probably be remembered as the Liv Smith final, as it was her hat-trick which propelled CCWAFC to victory. Despite spirited resistance from Chads in which they managed to pull back two goals, Esther Heath’s late goal sealed the 4-2 victory for the ladies from the Hill. However, the A Team would not be the only ones bringing silverware back up to college. In a mirror image of the Cup final, it was Collingwood and Chad’s B teams who were pitted against each other to contest for the Shield. As in the Cup Final, CCWAFC once again came out on top. In a more tight game, goals from Nada Rachlin and Lara Gibson sealed a 2-1 win which ensured it was joy for the Hill College and heartbreak for the Bailey ladies once again. Not a bad day’s work for a football club who had played in scorching weather conditions following a huge post AGM social the night before. In light of their incred-
ible quintuplet success, Palatinate Sport asked Captain Kate Petty about her thoughts on the club’s phenomenal season. Petty said, “As captain, my goal for the year was to win the Premiership. “We not only won that but we also retained the Floodlit Cup, won the Trophy and now we can add both the
Festival of Sport Cup and Shield to our silverware collection. “I’d like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to the whole team who have shown such a great level of commitment throughout this year. “What we have achieved this season is nothing short of amazing and I could not
have asked for a better year. It has been an absolute pleasure being A team captain.” While Petty may be retiring as one of the most decorated college football captains of all time, it is clear that CCWAFC have the squad to continue their dominance of women’s football for years to come.
Hoyle runs the show in college athletics showcase Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor With so much action taking place on the grass, courts and rubber crumb at Maiden Castle during the College Festival of Sport, the speedsters on the athletics track could have been easily overlooked. Based on reputation, DUAXC athletes are among some of the most dedicated in the whole university and many spend half of their lives pounding the track in gruelling sessions three times a week. However on this occasion, these athletes were not in training, but in fact utilising their staggering speed in several track events. While athletics is not part of the college sport roster, the College Festival of Sport presented the opportunity
for athletes to represent their colleges on the track. What emerged was an entertaining and high quality spectacle of racing, with some impressive performances across the board by individual athletes and teams, many of whom had not even raced together before. In the Men’s 100m, Jason Hoyle of Grey and Maranga Mokaya of Collingwood produced a blistering final in which both sprinters were separated by a margin of 0.18 second. Hoyle won gold with a time of 10.67 with Mokaya narrowly behind with a 10.85 to take silver. Will Ritchie-Moulin completed the medal winning positions with a respectable 11.07, making it a doublemedal haul for Collingwood in this event. In the Women’s 100m, Chad’s athletes did their
bit to help their team in the overall standings. Emily Sandbrook and Kate Handley won gold and bronze respectively, separated by a strong performance from St. Aidan’s Clarissa Lonsdale. In the Men’s 400m, Hoyle continued his medal-winning form by comprehensively winning gold with a time of 52.21. St. Cuthbert’s Society took the silver medal whilst Tom Castle of Castle claimed the bronze. Making up for the disappointment of his narrow defeat to Hoyle in the 100m, Mokaya finally got his gold in the long jump, overcoming competition from Grey’s Tim Tetlow and St. Aidan’s Jack Andrew. In the final event of the day, Collingwood produced a gold medal winning performance in the Men’s 4x100m relay, which would prove to be a happy omen
for their overall college result. In the Women’s Race, St. Aidan’s added to their commendable medal collection, winning gold with a total time of 57.6. Following the day’s proceedings, DUAXC President Neil Holloway had this to say: “The track saw an exciting day of athletics hosted by DUAXC, with events such as long jump, 400m, relays
and a hotly contested 100m being run. “Jason Hoyle from Grey proved his class by winning the 400m, 100m double although Collingwood demonstrated strength in depth, coming out on top with the most points overall. Overall, this event demonstrated the strong athletics pedigree we have throughout our colleges, which is good news DUAXC.”
Sport Reigning T20 Champions suffer sobering defeat Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor
Defending college Outdoor T20 Premiership champions St. Aidan’s A were unable to carry their league momentum into the College Festival of Sport, losing to Collingwood A in the final. SACC were looking to replicate their league success from last year and begun in the right fashion, winning both of their league games this season. However, against a very strong Collingwood A side who have also enjoyed a blistering start to the summer schedule, winning three and drawing one of their last four games, the college from the top of the hill came up short. Both sides had come up against each other in the group stages and finished with honours even on 47. However the final emerged as a far more one-sided affair, in which St. Aidan’s were blown away by Collingwood’s batting. After achieving a fairly disappointing 45-6, Collingwood rapidly chased down this total in 4 overs. A highlight of this chase was a massive six from a Collingwood batsmen which sailed into the car park and smashed the windscreen of a parked vehicle. While the owner was surely not too happy about it, such explosive batting performances can only be admired. St. Aidan’s Ricky Goulding and Tom Greenhalgh also narrowly made the game in time, following Greenhalgh being drafted in as a goalkeeper in St. Aidan’s A’s men’s football Shield quarterfinal match and Goulding hastily being asked to referee the fixture. Club Captain Will Legg was overseeing the cricket fixtures for the day as he prepares to succeed Simon Carey as Team Durham president next year. Legg had this to say about the result: “Aidan’s A are looking to retain the outdoor title. “We have made a positive start to the season with two wins from two but we still have the bulk of the season to play next week. Hoping for fair weather and more silverware for SACC!” With the cricket season gaining momentum, it will be over the next couple ofweeks in which SACC’s season will be defined.
Sport
College Festival of Sport
Thursday 16th June 2016 | PALATINATE
Palatinate Sport review a pulsating day of college sport, with reports from athletics, women’s football and cricket in addition to a farewell from College Sport Coordinator Sophie Bingham.
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Collingwood achieve college festival glory Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor
Collingwood College claimed the College Festival of Sport Trophy on a scorching day at Maiden Castle. The hill college’s enormous victory, which saw their closest competitors Josephine Butler over 300 points behind, capped off a remarkably impressive year of college sport. The competition reflects Collingwood’s dominance throughout the year, falling just short of 4,000 points in the overall points table. College Festival of Sport Results Table 2015/16 Volleyball in action during the College Festival of Sport
Photograph: Simon Carey
Carey bids farewell to Team Durham Presidency Simon Carey Team Durham President It is almost certainly a cliché that Team Durham is a family. However that does not mean it is anything but true. You see it in victory and you see it in loss that every club which wears purple is a family. This applies equally to all players involved with the Palatinates, whether that be those who have just finished their first year of their BUCS sporting careers, or those finalists who now step aside to present the opportunity for new talents to take their place. As Durham has proven over the last few years, the wealth of sporting talent which regularly arrives at this university every year means that our institution consistently vindicates its reputation as one of, if not the, best universities for sport in the country. I am always reminded of the reason why I wanted this role by the people who represent Palatinate. The past five years have given me
unforgettable memories. I can honestly say that I would not be the man I am today without the people with whom I had the privilege of playing sport. During my time in Durham, I was fortunate enough to be part of the meteoric rise of our American Football team. The bonds built through the blood, sweat and tears are stronger than anything else I’ve encountered. The memory of beating the defending champions on the opening day of the 2014/2015 season will always stand out among many as one of the highlights of my university sporting career. However, perhaps the highest points of my involvement with the Palatinates have transcended beyond my playing career and into my experiences as Team Durham President. How could I ever forget the sheer elation of doing the double over our arch rivals Loughborough in two BUCS Varsity events earlier this year? I have never been more proud to be the head of an institution who
comprehensively defeated, both home and away, a university who are often regarded as the best sporting university in the country. We have yet again rewritten the record books as the best Team Sport University BUCS has ever seen, a title we’ve had to fight for this year. I am truly confident that we will continue to build and develop to set ourselves clearly above the likes of Exeter, Nottingham and Edinburgh. We have secured second place in BUCS for a fifth straight year, a title only matched by Bath before us. As I said to all of our incredible sportsmen and women in my speech at the Palatinate Dinner, the sacrifices you make to be the best are not just paid back in medals and BUCS points but they will continue to pay back tenfold throughout your life. It is no coincidence that the traits learnt on the pitch, court and track make sportsmen and women exceptional in careers, in relationships and in life. Durham athletes are the epitome of this: whatever you chose to do, your time as a Palatinate will always
set you apart. You will always be something more. However, as my time as Team Durham President comes to an end, I have no qualms about handing my position over to the wonderful and capable Will Legg. Like our constantly regenerating sports teams, in which new talent arrives every year to replace those whom depart, I am fully confident that Will will preside over another fantastic year of Durham sporting achievement next season. Thank you to everyone who has worn the Palatinate purple this year and competed for our university, the staff and coaches who ensure that our sportsmen and women continue to be exceptional and to all of you, who have come to support our teams in our biggest matches of the season. Even though I am leaving Maiden Castle, I will always Bleed Palatinate.
1st - Collingwood (792)
2nd – Josephine Butler (459) 3rd – Hild Bede (364) 4th – St Mary’s (342)
5th – St Aidan’s (332) 6th – St Chad’s (311)
7th – Van Mildert (309)
8th – St Cuthbert’s (287) 9th – University (271) 10th – Grey (236)
11th – St John’s (223)
12th – Trevelyan (110) 13th – Hatfield (102) 14th – Ustinov (64)
15th – John Snow (58) 16th – Stephenson (0)
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