Palatinate 834

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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | No. 834

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Science & Technology offers a special feature on climate change

Interview talks to the President of Durham Action for Refugees

‘Ripped Off’ demands win further support Students’ Martha McHardy and Max Kendix News Editors Durham Students’ Union has voted to support a motion demanding that the University cut the cost of renting college accommodation.

The motion, which was supported by 90% of Durham SU Assembly, resolves that the SU supports the demands of the ‘Ripped

Off’ campaign for the price of a standard, single, catered room in college to be capped at £6,746, and will support “as far as possible” action taken to bring about the demands.

Other demands in the motion included a discount on accommodation fees for returning students living in college to allow the University to meet its aspiration of housing 50 to 55% of students in college-affiliated accommodation by 2027.

It also demanded that 25% of college accommodation cost 50% of the maximum maintenance loan (£9,203), in line with the National Union of Students’ (NUS) recommendations. SU officers will now be mandated to communicate these demands to the University.

The motion noted that the cost of college accommodation fees have risen above inflation rates and are higher than the average maintenance loan. The NUS recommends that a quarter of first-year

accommodation costs half of the maximum maintenance loan, a target that Durham does not meet.

The ‘Ripped Off’ campaign is also calling on the University to publish an annual breakdown of how college accommodation fees are spent. According to previous Freedom of Information requests, around half of the fees are spent directly in college.

Continued on page 4

▲ Durham University is encouraging students to book regular Lateral Flow Tests at one of its three testing sites before going home (Mark Norton)

Mental health investigation reveals toll of Covid-19 pandemic on students Tash Mosheim and Martha McHardy Editor-in-Chief and News Editor As a result of lockdown, Durham students have reported feeling “isolated”, “abandoned” and “alone”.

Data collected by Durham Polling revealed that students would feel “scammed”, “devastated” and “depressed” if

face-to-face teaching were to be removed.

When asked by Palatinate what support they were given during periods of isolation, students said they received “none”, “very little”, or that their friends brought them food and they were given links to Zoom welfare calls. One student disclosed that “the welfare team emailed me once at the start of the isolation

period”, whilst another said they only received moral support from their housemates who were also isolating.

In particular, students highlighted their sense of loneliness. One said: “I feel isolated and not cared for by the University.

I worry for my future.” Some pointed to “a pervading sense of uncertainty”, “feeling trapped and overwhelmed”, and “disputes with

housemates over how strictly to follow rules”, as reasons for their declining mental state.

Students also commented on the “lack of interaction with people, the monotony of days”, and the “limited social life, limited exercise, and no change of scenery or spontaneous events”.

Continued on page 3

Union condemns Durham Union Society

Patrick Stephens News Editor Durham SU Assembly has passed a motion “to condemn the actions of the Durham Union Society”, with 93% voting in favour.

The Assembly Notes accuse the DUS of failing “to prevent and effectively penalise incidents of racism/misogyny amongst both its membership and leadership”.

The motion of the text alleges that “the failures to combat discrimination by the DUS are due to the institution actively choosing to protect senior members who hold discriminatory views over the welfare of its own membership”.

The motion also argues that “the DUS is capable of causing significant harm to students from marginalised backgrounds due to its lack of safeguarding systems including an effective complaints process, code of conduct for its senior leadership and refusal to acknowledge or penalise the discriminatory actions of its members.”

The SU Assembly resolved, in response, to “ban the DUS from participating in our events and to strongly encourage Sabbatical Officers not to participate in DUS events.”

The resolution stated that DUS events will not be advertised or promoted, and DUS events will not be hosted in Dunelm House.

Yash Raju, former Equalities Officer at the DUS, brought the motion to the SU Assembly.

They told Palatinate: “I am absolutely delighted that the SU have decided with an overwhelming majority to stand with the victims of years and years of abuse.”

Continued on page 4

Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

2

Editorial

A different kind of ending

I

t feels a bit strange writing my farewell editorial at the end of Michaelmas Term – I’m being forced to start saying goodbye, and reflecting on my time at Durham, less than half way into my final year. But here we are, my two terms as Editorin-Chief very nearly complete and, in accordance with tradition, I’m offering a few parting words (no wisdom guaranteed).

It’s a big time for endings right now. The end of my time at the newspaper, the end of term and, of course, the end of the bizarre year that has been 2020. While I don’t subscribe to the belief that the calendar year is to blame for the mess we find ourselves in, I’m holding out hope that 2021 will offer some kind of improvement.

The things we used to take for granted, even in the good old days of Tier 2, are what make university life more than just a degree.

Freshers, I hope you get to experience those things as soon as possible, even if that just means a messy night in Klute.

I’m holding out hope that 2021 will offer some kind of improvement Usually, this editorial is where I’d say “despite the ups and downs, I wouldn’t change a thing about my time at Palatinate” – however, in light of the way the world is, it goes without saying that, if I could relive my nine months as Editor in a coronavirus-free world, I absolutely would.

A lot of Palatinate relies on routine and tradition, things I watched past Editors-in-Chief do that just haven’t happened in 2020. I never got to sit at the

head of the table in an SU meeting room, over forty people squashed in, and go through their content ideas; I never did the endless hours in the office during print week, hunched over one of the desktops lovingly named Jeremy Vine and George Alagiah (yes, really); I never got to call “Swan?” at the end of a meeting, as we bundled ourselves down Elvet to get to the cash machine.

Instead, I’ve done my entire shift as Editor-in-Chief – save one precious week in March when I started – online. Everything you’ve seen Palatinate do in the last nine months, every article, newspaper or social media post, is the product of countless Zoom calls, emails and Facebook messages. It breaks my heart to think that I’ve never actually met half of the current editorial board in person.

Yet, here I am – and while it hasn’t been the Editor-in-Chief experience I wanted or expected, I’m proud of it none the less. Palatinate hasn’t just survived 2020, we’ve done some really important work along the way. Since March, we’ve published breaking news stories that were picked up by national papers, brought attention to and commented on abusive behaviour among the Durham community, and given scores of students the chance to see their work published for the first time.

Palatinate has been the single most important, consistent and time-consuming thing I’ve done at Durham – with an important caveat that, yes, my degree is all of those things too, I promise. I joined the editorial board as Deputy Features Editor in October 2018, a wide-eyed fresher who just really liked writing but was

too scared to say much in meetings or join the older students at the pub afterwards. Fast forward to March 2020, and I was standing up to give a very anxious hust for Editor-in-Chief. Now, in December, I’m preparing to pass the baton to someone else.

I’ve been surrounded by brilliant people who managed to make it fun.

Thank you to this term’s editorial board – it’s been a real pleasure working with every single one of you, and I will miss all the group chats dearly – but especially to my fellow Editor-in-Chief Tash, and Deputies Toby and Tim. Even during the late-night Zoom calls (and there were many) when we spent half an hour moving columns by millimetres, or debating the colour scheme for the front page, or hastily fixing the website we had accidentally crashed during the redesign process, I’ve been surrounded by brilliant people who managed to make it fun.

Thanks also to Tom, who was Editor-in-Chief alongside me in Easter and taught me pretty much everything I know, as well as Jack, Oscar, Shauna, Faye, Hugo, Millie, and all the other editors I’ve been able to work with in the last twoand-a-bit years.

This term has been a difficult one for absolutely everybody.

But now, at the end of week nine, we’ve nearly finished it. Whether you’re already safe at home, getting ready to leave or planning to stay in Durham – well done.

We’ve survived online classes, Zoom fatigue, isolation, deadlines, mass testing, and the constant uncertainty of being a stu-

Inside 833 News pages 3-6 Comment pages 7-9 Profile pages 10-11 SciTech pages 12-14 Politics pages 15-17 Sport pages 18-20

indigo

Editorial page 2 Books page 3 Features pages 4-5 Film & TV page 6 Creative Writing page 7 Visual Arts pages 8-9 Interview page 10 Fashion page 11 Food & Drink pages 12-13 Music page 14 Stage page 15 Travel page 16 dent in the time of Covid-19. If we can get through this, we can get through next term too, and all the terms after that, whatever 2021 may throw at us. And, as I shall trust to my successor and the rest of the team, Palatinate will be there to document it, every step of the way.

Imogen Usherwood

Palatinate Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief Imogen Usherwood & Tash Mosheim editor@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Editors Toby Donegan-Cross & Tim Sigsworth deputy.editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Martha McHardy, Patrick Stephens & Max Kendix news@palatinate.org.uk News Reporters Richard Waters, Keziah Smith, Kiara Davies, Sophie Garnett, Orlando Bell, Jess Jones, Poppy Askham & Isabel C. Davis Investigations Editors Luke Payne, Katie Tobin & Heather Rydings investigations@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editors Cerys Edwards & Harrison Newsham comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editors Abigail Brierley & Ellie Fitzgerald-Tesh Profile Editors Will Entwistle, Isabella Green & Izzy Harris profile@palatinate.org.uk Science & Technology Editors Ewan Jones, Faye Saulsbury & Elise Garcon scitech@palatinate.org.uk Politics Editors Sophie Farmer & Aisha Sembhi politics@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Politics Editors Anna Shepherd & Lilith Foster-Collins Sport Editors Matt Styles & Luke Power sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Ben Fleming & James Reid Indigo Editors Hugo Millard & Millicent Machell indigo@palatinate.org.uk Features Editors Elle Woods-Marshall, Immy Higgins & Aadira Parakkat features@palatinate.org.uk Creative Writing Editors Meadbh Ni Mhorain & Jemima Guerney creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk Stage Editor Isabel C. Davis stage@palatinate.org.uk Visual Arts Editors Emma Tucker & Carys Stallard visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk Books Editors Sol Noya & Millie Vickerstaff books@palatinate.org.uk Fashion Editor Emily Potts fashion@palatinate.org.uk Food & Drink Editors Meghna Amin & Constance Lam food@palatinate.org.uk Travel Editors Gracie Linthwaite & Emma Johnson travel@palatinate.org.uk Film & TV Editor Madeleine Rosie Strom film@palatinate.org.uk Music Editors Katherine Pittalis & Martha Lily Dean music@palatinate.org.uk Interview Editors Claudia Jacob & Aimee Dickinson indigo.interview@palatinate.org.uk Sub Editors Chloe Waugh & Naomi RescorlaBrown sub.editors@palatinate.org.uk Photography Editor Mark Norton photography@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Photography Editors Beatrice Law & Amana Moore Illustration Editors Amber Conway, Verity Laycock & Samantha Fulton illustration@palatinate.org.uk Social Media Officers Sophie Dove & Theo Burman social.media@palatinate.org.uk

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

3

PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

News

Castle MCR pledges £25k to acquire Palace Green almshouses Luke Payne Investigations Editor

Seun Twins

Durham Students’ Union President

We made it!! We made it to the end of term and we made it to the end of the year. I cannot emphasise enough how much survival is an achievement for each and every student. Sarah (your Postgraduate Academic Officer) always says this to me and every day it becomes more and more true. In my matriculation speech, I said that “2020 is a year of chaos, flux, and existentialism” and upon the review, it looks like I was right.

To say it has been a tough year would be an understatement.

I wish that everyone would take the time to reflect on this year and lessons learned. On a personal level, I have learned to be patient with myself and that my mental health should come second to none; as a President, I have recognised the sheer toll of Michaelmas Term, not just on students but on student volunteers, marginalised students and other student leaders.

As a member of the Durham community, I have seen morale and the excitement that comes with the wider student experience take a real hit. It is true that Durham not only looks but feels a lot different. To be honest about how you are feeling is truly the only way to get through a once in a lifetime crisis like a global pandemic.

I believe that we have all come to recognize that we are only as strong as our more vulnerable students and it is up to us to care for us. Students adhering to Covid-19 restrictions, volunteering as Covid-19 stewards, delivering food parcels or even just setting up an online Zoom quiz are truly the students we should be thanking and honouring.

Now, I am under no illusions that 2021 will be our wildest dreams but what we can say is that we got through 2020 and it is looking like there may be a light emerging out of this very long and very dark tunnel.

I wish everyone a safe and well end to the term and make sure that everyone takes a test before they travel.

Stay safe, Seun xx

Castle MCR is planning an ambitious expansion of their existing common room facilities into Bishop Cosin’s Almshouses, also known as Café on the Green. The common room has committed £25,000 to the total cost of the acquisition and all necessary refurbishments required. Despite the significant cost of the proposal, the common room’s ordinary members have yet to be consulted.

According to the MCR Treasurer’s most recent report, the common room sees the building as a long-term investment and plans to use it for exclusive additional space for its members. The plans have been in the works for some time. The previous President and Treasurer commenced work on the project. The executive hopes

the acquisition will be finalised early next year.

Castle MCR is one of the wealthiest common rooms, but the sum pledged to the building will represent a substantial portion of its finances. Its acquired wealth has recently been the subject of controversy. Last year, Palatinate revealed it had historically profited thousands of pounds from its annual charity balls.

“They are not very transparent with budgets” An ordinary member described the plans as “unfair”, believing they had no say on where their money goes and commented; “They are not very transparent with budgets. We have been asked to pay membership fees this year and received little in return. It feels like our money is being used to refurbish something for future students.”

The refurbishments of the building will likely be extensive and costly, as the building’s roof requires replacement. Reports acquired by Palatinate suggest that the building’s loft space is filled with asbestos, which will require removal by professionals. The Almshouses’ listed status and location on a world heritage site will likely increase these costs. The common room may also face stiff competition from other University departments, as Palatinate understands there are multiple parties interested in acquiring use of the building.

The building dates from 1668.

Almshouses were buildings that provided accommodation for people who could not afford to pay rent. The Almshouses have, until recently, been the home of Café on the Green, a Universityowned business.

When approached for comment with respect to the acqui-

sition, the Castle MCR President said: “The MCR has grown significantly over the last three years, averaging 270 members. The Maurice Tucker Room is currently insufficient to meet the needs of the MCR and so the previous exec decided to investigate options to expand our physical space. After the lease of the Café on the Green ended, the University decided to start exploring other uses for this building and the previous Castle exec and Principal investigated this as a possibility for the new location of the MCR. “Before taking this proposal to the MCR, we first needed to establish that the space was in fact available which, as of today, is still not confirmed. No decisions have been made regarding use of this space since nothing has been confirmed. However, the exec will engage in a broad consultative process should it be decided to proceed with this acquisition.”

Dale, Director of Student Support and Wellbeing, and Joanne Race, Director of Human Resources and Organisation Development.

They said, “The health, safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and the wider community is always our first priority. We remain extremely mindful of the impact that Covid-19 restrictions, which are necessary to limit the spread of the virus, have on our University community, and we are committed to supporting those affected through it. All students have full access to a range of pastoral support through their colleges and professional support services such as our counselling team.

“To ensure these services are Covid-secure they are currently being delivered predominantly online. Our advisers are also trained to signpost to telephone

or digital services including those used by the NHS. We also have supportive structures and services in place for our staff, ensuring they can raise problems and seek help – be this from their line management, Occupational Health, Health and Safety, the University Counselling Service or HR and Organisation Development.

“All staff also have access to our Employee Assistance Programme which provides a wide range of support, including access to telephone counselling.

We are developing a Health and Wellbeing Strategy, with the aim of creating a more responsible, attractive and productive place to work and study. We look forward to announcing further initiatives in our whole University approach to health and wellbeing.”

(Amana Moore)

10% of students sought counselling in 2019

Continued from front One student mentioned that “in the past, coming back up to Durham could feel overwhelming but I always knew where I stood, whereas now that all the norms we rely on have been uprooted it’s hard to know how to ‘do uni’ in this context.”

Another suggested that, in order to help improve students’ mental health, the University “could publicise [access to mental health services] better”, for they “don’t put anything about it in the emails, as far as I know.”

However, the majority of the students surveyed by Palatinate said they know how to access University mental health support. Half of the students also said they would feel comfortable talking to welfare services about their mental health.

Data by Durham Polling also shows that 53% of students would feel negative if face-to-face teaching was removed completely.

Data collected by savethestudent.org showed that two in three students nationwide say their mental health has suffered due to Covid-19, with 49% of students saying they worry about loneliness. 67% of students nationwide want at least some inperson teaching right now.

Data published by Durham University reveals that the number of Durham students seeking counselling is increasing each year. In 2019, one in ten students sought counselling. By comparison, in the 2014-15 academic year, 8.7% of the total student population was known to the counselling service, whilst in 2015-16 it was 9.1%. Over the

last five years, nearly two thirds of students who sought counselling were female.

“The health, safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and the wider community is always our first priority” The number of third year students who seek counselling from the University is around seven times higher than first year students. In the 2018-19 academic year, 114 first year students sought counselling, as opposed to the 798 third year students.

In 2014-15, there were 81 first years compared to 616 third years.

In response to Palatinate’s findings, Durham University issued a statement on behalf of Sam

4

Thursday 3rd December 2020| PALATINATE

News

University income from international students doubles over five academic years

Toby Donegan-Cross Deputy Editor A Freedom of Information request by Palatinate shows that the University has nearly doubled its income from international students in the last five academic years, compared to an increase of around 11% from students from the UK and EU. In the 2015-16 academic year, the University collected £54.7 million from international students, compared to £101.7 million in the 2019-20 academic year.

In total, the University collected almost £62 million more from tuition fees in 2019-20 than in 2015-16.

This partly reflects larger fees charged to international students. While UK students enrolled are charged £9,250 for full time undergraduate tuition fees annually, EU and international students fees vary depending on the subject.

Fees are set according to three bands: band one includes all humanities, as well as Sport, Sociology, Maths and Business; band two includes most sciences except Maths; while band three covers most social sciences.

For a full time course in Eeronautical Engineering, international students will be charged £27,350 per year from 2020-21, while for Business and Management, one of the University’s most popular courses, students

will have to foot an annual bill of £22,900.

However the increase in tuition fee income also reflects the University’s strategy to increase the proportion of international students at Durham.

As part of Durham’s 10 year plan, the University’s vision for a ‘Global Durham’ stipulates the ambition to increase international students from 22% of its intake to a minimum of 35%.

These proportional increases are on top of the University’s broader initiative to increase Durham’s student numbers from 17,500 to a maximum of 21,500 by 2027.

In the 2019-20 academic year, oversees students made up 64% of the Business School’s intake,

“Accommodation costs at

Durham are absurd”

Continued from front The motion means that Durham SU now believes that the price of college accommodation “prices out lower-income students, contributing to a longstanding elitist culture at the institution” and that “last year’s rent increase did not even benefit staff in colleges, who are facing unprecedented cutbacks and a culture of disrespect”.

St Aidan’s SU representative, Emily Jolliffe, presenting the motion, said: “All of these demands are based on extensive SU research and NUS recommendations [...] and students have a right to know how their money is spent.”

She admitted that “the University has [not] been particularly receptive in the past” but stressed that “this gives us the best chance to go to the University and actually get something done” to “reduce the stupidly high accommodation costs in Durham”.

“It is important that more pressure is placed on the University to lower accommodation fees.”

Kathryn Ellison, Chair of the SU Representatives Committee, told Palatinate: “It is important that more pressure is placed on the University to lower accommodation fees. Accommodation costs at Durham are absurd compared to other North Eastern universities and cutting the rent will have a huge benefit to JCR communities and social integration.”

The news comes soon after a successful rent strike by students at the University of Manchester, who occupied a university building in protest. Having campaigned for a 40% cut, the students won a rebate equivalent to four weeks’ rent, or 30% of fees.

The decision, which came as a result of negotiations between the striking students and the University conducted through the Students’ Union, was accompanied by several other concessions by the university, including a commitment not to penalise those that participated in the strike.

Though the ‘Ripped Off’ campaign has not called for a rent strike, Ms Jolliffe told Assembly: “If we have clear demands, then we can potentially do direct action, and we would actually have something to ask the University for, as opposed to just saying ‘we’re going on strike, please reduce our rent’”.

Palatinate asked St Aidan’s ‘Ripped Off’ what their plans are if their demands are not met, and whether they will initiate a rent strike.

Joe McGarry, St Aidan’s JCR

‘Ripped Off’ President and Ms Jolliffe, who is also St Aidan’s JCR Outreach Chair, commented: “After three years of campaigning at Durham on this issue, it is clear to us that nothing short of radical direct action will bring about change. A rent strike is always the nuclear option for any student group, and we’ve always firmly supported the idea of a rent strike. However, it is important to only threaten one when you’ve done all of the legal research and have the momentum to be able to carry it out.

“We don’t want to be a group that constantly promises to engage in specific direct action with no capacity to follow it through.

“Historically, this has happened in Durham, and sometimes it can reduce the effectiveness and legitimacy of a campaign because it can trivialise something which is a very important issue for some students, especially those from a lower-income background, if the campaigning you do seems to be based on your image as opposed to a serious commitment to action.”

(Amana Moore)

compared to 23% of social science students, 10% of humanities students, and 15% of science students.

Professor Claire O’Malley, ProVice-Chancellor (Global) told Palatinate: “Our University Strategy aims to increase the proportion of non-UK students studying at Durham to 39% by 2027. We want Durham to be a globally networked university, recognised around the world as an outstanding place to study and work and a significant contributor to international research and innovation agendas.

“The experience of international students plays a key role in the development of universities’ reputation internationally and serves to build a virtuous circle

to continue to attract and grow future cohorts of international students. The University’s ambitions to grow its international student body also has a positive impact on the experience of UK students. We will therefore make every effort to ensure a diversity of students in terms of nationality, ethnicity, faith as well as socioeconomic background.

“We deliver an exceptional quality of education for all our students, and need to ensure the financial viability of delivering these programmes. The fees we set allow us to invest in our students, staff and campus to maintain our global reputation for excellence, whilst securing the financial sustainability of the University.”

DUS: “We are very disappointed”

Continued from front The motion follows allegations of bullying and bigotry uncovered by a Palatinate investigation in July 2020. In this, the former Steward of the DUS described the society as a “safe haven for racists, demagogues, and colonial apologists”.

During the Assembly meeting, DUS President Tristan Pahl spoke against the motion. He said: “it’s not for me to deny that there’s evidence that different individuals have expressed offensive or hateful views within our Society, but I can categorically state that the vast majority of our executive are against racism, homophobia and other sorts of bigotry. I certainly am, and have been actively against that as has my successor for next term.

“Racism is a problem endemic in our society” “What we would like to do is to just have some great debates and addresses, and invite speakers to Durham for that. And this term we’ve done that - we’ve had great numbers of people of colour and women coming to talk to our society [...] I think that it’s a positive thing, and I think we can do more to iron things out.”

The President of Durham People of Colour Association, Dan Takyi, questioned the comment that the “vast majority” were not racist. In response, Mr Pahl replied that: “I think racism is a problem endemic in our society and that racists are in every institution and the Durham Union

is unfortunately no exception to that.”

“If they express anything and I’m chairing the meeting, the procedure is that they are removed from the meeting [...] and if they do so in other avenues, the procedure is there and they can be removed from office, and that has happened in the past”

“We will take decisive action to deal with any such accusations” In a statement, the DUS told Palatinate: “we are very disappointed and strongly disagree with the motion that the SU has passed.

Racism and misogyny have no place whatsoever in the Union or in Durham University and we will take decisive action to deal with any such accusations made.”

“Contrary to what the SU motion states, the Union does have a comprehensive Code of Conduct for officers of the society as well as a Complaints Procedure to hold people to account. Both of these were also overhauled towards the beginning of this term.”

“It is firmly in the interests of Durham students for the SU and the Union to work together, and so we regard this motion as completely counterproductive. Our President was allowed to attend the SU meeting to defend the Union from these allegations but was only permitted 2 minutes to speak.”

“In light of the motion passing, we have written to the SU to ask what actions they think the Union should take to deal with the very serious allegations that they have made, so that the motion can be lifted as soon as possible.”

PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

5

News

Collingwood students complete distance to Durham, USA in charity challenge Orlando Bell News Reporter Collingwood College students are running, cycling, and swimming the distance from Durham, UK, to Durham, North Carolina.

The 3754-mile journey is being undertaken via Strava, in order to raise money for charity during lockdown.

The campaign aims to raise £3754, £1 per mile, across the lockdown period. Student Minds will receive 50% of the funds raised with a second charity being chosen by the college club or society that travels the most miles.

few charities that focuses on student mental health. Lockdown put a spotlight on the challenges faced by students and the importance of Student Minds’ cause.”

In an effort to promote the challenge, students have been participating in the ‘3,754 Challenge’. This is a social media based challenge in which participants are encouraged to run three miles, nominate seven friends,

and donate £5 for charity. Over £950 has been raised, with over 300 students and alumni participating in the challenge.

The college have comfortably succeeded in their challenge and have now run over 10,000 miles, nearly covering the distance three times over. Students and alumni have contributed internationally, completing their miles not only in Durham but also in

Belgium, Hong Kong, and even Collingwood in New Zealand.

The campaign comes weeks after College’s football club completed a 24-hour run in aid of RSAC (Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre, Durham). A remarkable effort that saw the club raise £3,677 for charity.

The campaign finished on 2nd December.

News Online

Durham Christmas Festival goes virtual for 2020

(Amana Moore)

University Challenge team win second match

“We created the challenge to get students out of their rooms and keep the college spirit alive”

Durham and the Chorister Schools to merge

The Collingwood College Sports Captain, Arjuna Rupasinha, told Palatinate: “We created the challenge to get students out of their rooms and keep the college spirit alive. It was an excellent way to combine promoting student mental health and keep sport running.

“Student minds is one of the

Durham placed under Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions

(Images from top: Linda Vine, BBC, Creative Commons, Mark Norton)

Gin Distillery to Library supports local charities for Christmas open in city centre Martha McHardy News Editor The Bill Bryson Library has launched its annual Christmas Wish Tree initiative, which supports local charities.

Staff and students are being invited to donate an amount of their choice to the charities Children North East, who work with children and young people in their families, schools and communities, and REfUSE, a community café in Chester-le-Street, who intercept food before it becomes waste and use it to make food to serve.

Library users can scan the QR codes for the donation pages of the two charities on the Christmas Wish Tree, which is located on Level 2 of the Bill Bryson Library, until 18 December. The QR codes are also available on posters displayed across colleges.

So far, just under £300 has been raised for the two charities. £112 has been raised for Children North East, and £184 for REfUSE.

The library runs the Christmas Wish Tree initiative every year.

Usually, gift tags are placed on the Christmas tree, and University members can participate by buying the item on the gift tag they choose and leaving it wrapped under the Christmas Wish Tree.

The items are then donated to the chosen charities.

In the past the initiative has supported charities such as Rain-

bow Trust, Action Foundation and St Cuthbert’s Hospice, as well as DASH and Age UK County Durham in 2018.

On their website, the University commented: “Due to Covid-19 restrictions, our Christmas Wish Tree will be a little different this year but will still provide muchneeded support to two local charities, especially during these uncertain times.”

(Amana Moore)

Sophie Garnett News Reporter Durham Distillery, makers of the much-loved Durham Gin, are set to open a distillery attraction in central Durham. It will be located in the former Bank of Scotland building in Prince Bishops Shopping Centre.

The new distillery is predicted to be a great visitor attraction, the 6,000 square foot space will house a shop and ticket office on the ground floor. It will also hold a still room, bar and visitor space on the basement floor set underneath the Durham streets.

“We love Durham and we are proud to be at the heart of the city” The founder, John Chadwick commented: “This is a massive moment for the distillery. We have been working hard for years to get to this moment. We love Durham and we are proud to be at the heart of the city.”

The distillery will open the retail shop in time for Christmas, with the distillery and visitor space launching early next year.

Once fully open, the plan is to run interactive distillery tours, cocktail masterclasses and private events, hoping to cater to a wide range of groups and ages.

Richard Toynbee, centre manager of Prince Bishops Shopping Centre, said: “This is one of the most exciting and innovative new retail projects happening anywhere in the UK, and we are incredibly excited to have Durham Distillery here in the centre as it reflects our strategy to welcome local, independent and entrepreneurial businesses.”

The opening of the distillery also mirrors a complete rebranding for the company, which will include new bottle designs and logos, as well as the introduction of Durham Whisky, the North East’s first ever single malt whisky.

HEARD ANYTHING NEWSWORTHY? Email news@palatinate.org.uk

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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

News

Durham graduate donates nearly £40,000 to support art development at University

Kiara Davies News Reporter A Durham University law and politics graduate has given nearly £40,000 to support art at the University.

Richard Roberts studied at Durham University in the early 1980s, before qualifying as a solicitor. He is now Director and coowner of Gedye and Sons, which is based in Cumbria and at the Old Bailey in Durham.

from familiar fells through memory jogging scenes to the contemplative or the surreal.

“Art provides a solace, and an escape, a point at which to start creatively imagining, a memory trigger, it can provide humour or sadness. I want to encourage students to relax by being creative or to enjoy the creative product of fellow students, to stop and take time out to creatively imagine, to allow one’s thoughts to wander and create.

“In setting up the Student Art Prize I wanted to create something commensurate with the University’s world standing, hence prizes totalling £3,000, and after last year’s success I am very pleased to sponsor it for the next 12 years.”

Last year’s Student Art Prize had the theme “Diversity” and was won by Alice Stubbings, a law undergraduate at St Mary’s College for her painting “Hands of Acceptance”. Shortlisted entries

are currently being displayed outside the University’s Bill Bryson Library.

“I want to encourage students to relax by being creative or to enjoy the creative product of fellow students” The theme of this year’s Student Art Prize is “Heroism”. Students are invited to interpret the theme however they choose and submit works in any form of art,

including photography, film and sculpture.

The winning entry will receive £1,500, and their piece will be added to the University’s art collection. There are also prizes of £1,000 for second place, £500 for third, £100 each for two highly commended entries and £250 for a people’s vote winner.

The deadline is in February, with shortlisting taking place in March and the winner announced in June.

Roberts’ donation will spondor the Student Art Prize for the next 12 years Last year, he funded the prizes for the inaugural Durham University Student Art Prize. His donation is going to sponsor the Student Art Prize for the next 12 years.

Mr Roberts, who lives in Durham city centre, said: “Although I grew up in a house with virtually nothing on the walls, I have always had a strong desire to acquire original works of art depicting everything from views

▲ Submissions from the 2019/20 competition. Left to Right: Wisdom of Age (Anna Horwich), Ascension (James Bailey), We oppose (Jasmine Kaler)

New footpaths and cycle routes open around Durham

Sophie Garnett News Reporter A multi-million pound project aiming to improve travel around Durham University has reached a key milestone in its development, all cycle and footpaths now completed.

This is the first section of the

University’s investment of £6.5 million in its infrastructure improvements project. The project ultimately aims to support the safe movement of pedestrians, cyclists and road users around Durham’s campus. The completion of section one includes all works to create new, and to improve existing, cycle and footpaths.

The improvements centre on

the South Road area of Durham City, between Stockton Road, near the University’s Bill Bryson Library, and Mount Oswald, where the University recently opened two new College facilities.

The project also includes work to many popular public routes so will benefit University students, staff and local residents alike.

The works had been planned

around key dates in the University calendar and city events. However, the University’s contractors, Colas, were able to speed up the works as fewer University students and staff were on-site during the earlier stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first section of the University’s investment of £6.5 million in its infrastructure Colas were able to continue works safely during the first national lockdown. The University and contractors worked hard to minimise disruption and keep university students, staff and local residents informed on progress, including through a monthly newsletter.

“The project also includes work to many popular public routes so will benefit University students, staff and local residents alike”

(Amana Moore)

Work has now begun on section two, to create a new 215-space University car park on the Upper Mountjoy site. This is behind the University’s new Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science building, due for completion soon. It will be accessed via South

Road and Hollingside Lane and will have a number of electrical vehicle charging points.

David Loudon, Director of Estates and Facilities at Durham University, said: “We have invested significantly in the Infrastructure Improvements project because the safety of our students, staff, visitors and members of the public is of utmost importance to us.

“It is very pleasing to see all the new cycle and footpaths completed. Some of the routes go through some beautiful woodland – perfect for the daily exercise we’re allowed to take outdoors during lockdown.”

The University hopes the project will enable more students and staff to choose active travel options; during November the University is promoting active travel, including by sharing resources from the walking charity Living Streets and working with Recyke Y’bike, a North East charity that specialises in refurbishing donated bikes and selling them at affordable prices to fund its charitable objectives.

The new car park currently under construction will mitigate the removal of parking spaces elsewhere on the University site.

Its location was chosen to support efforts to reduce congestion closer to the city centre.

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

Comment

Lateral Flow Tests: another policy error Joseph Charlotte Monaghan Austin The end of term draws near, and so too does one of the government’s headaches – students going home.

With the mass movement of students due to take place within the second peak of infection rates, there is the potential for another wave of unintentional virusspreading at a time when the NHS is under the most strain.

The solution in which the government has decided to put its trust is the Lateral Flow Test, a rapid-testing system piloted at Durham and De Montfort Universities and, on a much wider scale, in the city of Liverpool. These tests will allow students to travel back home in a travel window from the end of lockdown from the 3rd to the 9th, allowing a 14-day isolation period for positive tests before Christmas.

Credit where it’s due – the scheme will vastly reduce the number of students leaving with coronavirus and avoid the initial plan to make students isolate for 14 days at university before

being allowed to leave, which would have had a catastrophic effect on students’ mental health.

It’ll also mean that students with vulnerable family members will have increased confidence in being able to return home safely.

The testing scheme will, in all likelihood, greatly mitigate the spread of the virus – but mitigation is not prevention.

It cannot be taken as a given that students will return to university in January There are several assumptions underpinning the travel scheme which don’t hold up. Key among these is that receiving a negative test will guarantee that it is safe to travel and result in no isolating upon arrival. However, the LFTs only catch 76.8% of cases (although this does rise to 95% in cases with a high viral load), meaning that up to 23.2% of students with the virus could take it home – and the presence of a negative test would mean that some would act with less caution and potentially spread the virus.

The travel window taking place

in the tier system rather than in the lockdown period also means that, with more businesses open, this spread from false negatives would be greater than it potentially could have been. This also assumes that everyone will receive an LFT – some will forego it, and some may not be able to access it due to supply issues.

There’s also the assumption that this helps students avoid disruption; far from it. The travel window ending before the majority of universities have finished term means that face-to-face teaching and labs scheduled for the last one or two weeks of term have been moved online or cut off. It also puts most students into a reducedcapacity public transport network in a very short span of time, which has the potential to result in a chaotic mess of unbookable trains and cancelled travel plans.

The government’s assumption that ‘many students would have their own transport or be collected by parents’ is a statement divorced from a reality in which parents still have to work and the majority of us, surprisingly, don’t own a car.

There’s also another issue lurking under the surface which

the government’s myopic fixation on Christmas has blinded them to: January. It cannot be taken as a given that students will be allowed to return to university in January; we thought we’d all be back here in May and look how that turned out.

With the lockdown being lowered to a tier system and restrictions being severely relaxed for five days over Christmas in a move that quite blatantly puts popularity with voters over the need to control the virus, it is possible that the infection rate in January will exceed the most recent peak.

In this scenario, the country would be facing the mass movement of students once again, but this time with much less ability to test them before that movement. If this plays out and the government decides it’s unsafe to let us move again, then students will be trapped in an inferior learning environment, cut off from university resources, and stuck renting accommodation we have no way of using.

The picture that builds up from all of this is that the government clearly pays no attention to detail with students. The travel scheme isn’t a bad one, but it isn’t a fully thought-out one either. While it

will work for the majority, those that slip through the cracks and their families who may end up unintentionally exposed to coronavirus will have been severely let down, and this group of people will mainly be composed of those who have suffered enough this year – those with vulnerable family members, with no money to spend on last-minute train tickets, and without a stable environment to study in if it all goes pear-shaped.

“

The government pays no attention to detail with students

”

With some more preparation, resources and foresight, these issues could be avoided; the failure to do so or provide any assurances means the government has once again fallen short.

A vindication of the role of statues today Sol Noya Carreno Having done a deep-dive into Mary Wollstonecraft’s life and work for one of my favourite modules earlier this year, I was excited to hear that she was finally getting her own statue – and then rather disappointed when the statue was revealed.

A scholar and revolutionary, it’s at first surprising that Wollstonecraft has had no statues to celebrate her work, her activism, or her life, which was tragically cut short by an infection after giving birth to her second child, Mary Godwin (perhaps you know her better as Mary Shelley). The collective forgetting of Wollstonecraft’s legacy for the first century or so after her death is usually attributed to the publication of her husband’s tellall memoir of her, which, in the eyes of Georgian and Victorian society, tarnished her reputation irreparably. As a result, though she influenced many prominent women from Jane Austen to Millicent Fawcett, scholarship on her work only really bloomed in

the second half of the twentieth century.

It does seem disheartening, then, that the first and only statue of Mary Wollstonecraft, who lived her life defying conventions of what a woman should be, should fail to capture her presence or her anger. The statue doesn’t depict Wollstonecraft in any recognisable way, with the only full woman with a face on it being a silver, nude and conventionally attractive figure. This female figure is dwarfed by the six-foot swirl of vaguely female forms she rises out of. The now-contentious statue, granted, is titled A Statue for Mary Wollstonecraft – not of.

But in a country where fewer than 3% of statues commemorate a named, non-royal woman, why can we not have a single statue commemorating the mother of feminism as she was?

Defenders of the statue have argued that it is supposed to represent women generally and the start of the feminist movement, rather than Wollstonecraft. The intention was honourable: to capture her legacy. And with all the debate we have rightfully had on statues this year, there is a case to be made

for statues celebrating ideas and not individuals. When a statue

depicts a person, larger than life, with only their name and the time they lived in, with no information about the complexity of who they were, it runs the risk of idealising figures who were as, and often more, morally grey than you and me.

Statues are sturdy, more permanent and visible than other types of art, and it’s reasonable to assume that not everyone’s legacy will stand the test of time. Think of the statue of Edward Colston, sculpted in 1895 and thrown triumphantly into Bristol harbour this summer.

The durability of statues gives them perhaps unique potential to revisit history and evaluate a person’s and a society’s legacy, provoking important debate.

Statues of people whose legacy is inextricable from slavery, genocide, and other such crimes are far better placed in museums or at the very least, ought to be recontextualised – this would allow us to understand properly their background. Surely a statue in a public place, with nothing to indicate its story, is more an erasure of history than one standing next to a sign or in a museum with information that

shows that history for what it is.

In the case of Britain, that has to include the atrocities that the British Empire brought with it.

With all this in mind, perhaps it is better that statues in honour of someone depict their ideas and their consequences, rather than themselves.

However, Mary Wollstonecraft was no Colston. She was radical, to be sure, and her ideas were not uncontroversial. Yet, making a statue commemorating her today is wholly different to sculpting a person’s likeness very shortly after their death, when time has yet to do its work in unravelling the legacy of their life. It is undeniable that Wollstonecraft laid the ground for the fight for women’s rights – a fight that is still ongoing. Arguably, she is one of the few figures of her time of which there definitely should be a statue. Just her, not every woman she inspired, tall enough and recognisable enough, perhaps not unlike the statue of Millicent Fawcett that stands in Parliament Square. History has erased her long enough. Are we to make the same mistake?

(Anna Kuptsova)

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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

Comment

Is loneliness at university a taboo subject?

Olivia Moody Loneliness is an emotion that we’ve all almost definitely experienced at some point while at university.

It’s something that rarely gets acknowledged: considered as taboo, loneliness gets grouped as an ‘off-limits’ topic alongside similar emotions like anxiety and depression.

However, as we find ourselves amidst the current global pandemic, more attention should be focused on normalising loneliness and signposting the symptoms, particularly in a climate that denies us a quick trip home.

Many people, myself included, come to university with a set of (very naïve) expectations. We’ll find our friends for life within the first week, get on perfectly with all our housemates, and always be busy. Of course, this is rarely the case.

Whilst it’s not something I recognised at the time, loneliness is an emotion I faced frequently in my first year. Like many, I’d moved over 300 miles north, knew quite literally nobody in Durham, and didn’t really have much in common with my flatmates. I spent most of my free time in my room, and could go days without seeing a flatmate. What made things worse was seeing my friends from home posting all over social media just how much fun they were having at their own universities.

What’s ironic about this is that I undoubtedly wasn’t the only one feeling unhappy – the lack of communication in my flat probably meant my flatmates were feeling isolated too, and we know to never trust Instagram or Snapchat to give an accurate portrayal of someone’s life. But nobody offered suggestions of how to approach the subject, and there’s never an alternative image of university being anything other than the best years of your life.

Unhappiness at university needs to be destigmatised

Loneliness can take the form of prolonged, often self-perceived, isolation, but it can accumulate, with a person increasingly withdrawing on their own accord over time, often without realising that this is even what they are doing.

This makes management difficult: when it becomes evident, it seems too great to overcome.

The mental health charity Mind offers suggestions for coping with loneliness. They propose the best starting point is easing yourself into what’s on offer around you. Though difficult given current restrictions,

it can include taking yourself out to a café or a walk through town – or even spending an afternoon outside of your room, away from the pressures of university work.

Mind also suggests looking after yourself – a simple and somewhat obvious step we all often neglect.

Sleep, diet and exercise massively play into how we feel, and implicating a self-care routine away from university life is essential. The charity explains the benefits of exercise and getting outside, and once you take steps to prioritise yourself, there’s a chance you’ll feel up to implicating more changes to

This shouldn’t be the case, though. A 2018 survey showed that 46% of UK students experienced loneliness when at university, a figure likely to have increased now that many of us have spent two weeks confined to our rooms.

Likewise, during March and April of this year, UK Nightlines saw a surge in calls. One in six calls dealt with loneliness – triple the service’s usual rates.

Unhappiness at university needs to be destigmatised. Yes, colleges offer welfare support, and calling your GP may lead to talking therapies – but for either of these resources to be utilised, steps need to be taken to help people recognise how loneliness might manifest. It goes beyond simply being alone: you can feel alone in a group of people – a misunderstanding that means loneliness continues to go unnoticed.

manage feelings of isolation.

These steps, the charity understands, won’t fix feelings of loneliness, but they will almost certainly help to manage them.

The most important step, though, is to identify how you’re feeling – something which is difficult but essential, especially when facing the possibility of imposed isolation. Starting a conversation about loneliness at this moment is crucial. This will help to recognise what it can entail, and hopefully destigmatise it within the university environment.

(Amber Conway)

No domestic abuse victim should be ignored Daisy Robinson

On 2nd November, Johnny Depp lost his libel case against The Sun in London’s High Court over claims he beat Amber Heard, fuelling the fire created when he was found guilty of 12 out of 14 reported incidents of assault reported by Heard. The results of this trial have gathered a lot of media attention over the last few weeks due to debate over who the real victim of this case is.

Perceptions of men as strong and silent are inherently dangerous Depp has vehemently denied Heard’s allegations since she first made them in 2016, and claimed he was the victim, declaring to a judge that Heard committed “innumerable acts of domestic violence”. Depp’s solicitor backed up this claim, finding it “bewildering” that an array of evidence presented was disregarded.

However, the Centre for Women’s Justice has hailed the court’s decisions as important ones that prove that fame and financial resources cannot silence female survivors of domestic violence.

Although the general public do not have access to the full array of evidence provided in court and therefore cannot make a fully informed judgement on which side of this case is correct, its high profile has sparked conversations in how our society view male victims of domestic abuse.

In 2018, 576,000 men were victims of partner abuse; nearly half of these victims failed to tell anyone. Men are three times less likely to tell someone than women, feeling out of fear that they are less likely to be believed, or it will damage their masculinity. We may be moving forward as a society in dismantling toxic masculinity, but perceptions of men as strong and silent are inherently dangerous.

Men will stay in an abusive relationship for three years on average before reaching out, often because they doubt their validity as a victim. Putting up with abuse for this long understandably does not

make the problem disappear, and can therefore lead to more drastic consequences, such as suicide.

The charity Men Standing Up was specifically created to deal with another of these severe outcomes: homelessness. Without their support, an anonymous survivor reported states that “it was killing me from the inside…

If it wasn’t for Men Standing Up, I wouldn’t have known what to do – I could’ve been dead.”

For male, female and non-binary victims of abuse, it is never their fault, and what they undergo can be bewildering and traumatic.

Anyone with an ounce of compassion should sympathise with a victim of abuse of any gender.

However, stereotypes of men and women have been detrimental to all perceptions of abuse, and society is more likely to understand female victims than men. Assuming that men’s strength means they can take physical abuse both trivialises the pain they undergo, and equally distorts what feminists mean when they talk about empowered women.

These embedded gender norms are ones some people un-

consciously retain, but are being worked against by many domestic abuse charities. However, the majority of this hard work has been carried out by female-centred charities or under the cross-government strategy aimed at ending violence against women. It was not until 2019 that the Home Office published a statement promising millions of pounds to support groups of male victims of all sexualities and to improve awareness campaigns.

This is a great start, but work still needs to be done in firmly establishing this support system for male victims, for example in providing more refuge spaces for men. Equally, support should be focused on helping men understand and recognise the seriousness of abuse. This work needs to be made structurally by the Government, but we also have a part to play.

In cases like Depp and Heard’s, we must listen to both sides of the argument and resist the urge to make assumptions based on either party’s gender. Domestic abuse should always be taken seriously and we must offer support to sur-

vivors through listening and believing them. Survivors of domestic abuse do not deserve to suffer in silence, and there are a variety of services, including the National Domestic Abuse helpline, to support whoever may need them.

“

We must listen to both sides and resist the urge to make assumptions based on gender

”

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

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Comment

John Lewis perpetuates festive consumerism Claudia Jacob It’s fair to say that the British public anticipates the John Lewis Christmas advert almost as much as it does the big day itself.

Never mind advent calendars, the John Lewis Christmas advert is the modern-day version of a countdown. First launched in 2007, the adverts have become more and more adventurous, both in terms of the ephemeral cinematic experience they create, and the budget, which is estimated to be a staggering £7 million per year.

The British public has become very attached to the messages of giving, friendship, and love, which push the boundaries of realism and draw us in. Nevertheless, the religious undertones have somewhat become undermined by the capitalist subtext, emphasised by the flurry of reminders to spend, spend, spend.

In 2014 we fell in love with Monty the Penguin and in 2015, the

Man on the Moon reminded us of those who aren’t fortunate enough to be surrounded by loved ones at Christmas. In 2013, the unlikely friendship of the bear and the hare proved just how meaningful small acts of kindness can be.

Religious undertones have become undermined by capitalist subtext But when we take a step back, the ulterior motive is, of course, to encourage us to spend money at John Lewis. The implication is that in order for us to practise these good qualities that Christmas appears to encapsulate, we must do so through the act of giving.

Whilst the aim of every advert is to spend money, the problem here is that the values of what is actually a religious festival (although we may sometimes forget it), are being manipulated in order to create a positive association with John Lewis. We were enchanted by the adorable Excitable Edgar in 2019, but even Edgar himself

was commercialised, sold at £15 per cuddly toy, and even expanded into a range of books, wellies and pyjamas.

At the risk of sounding like Scrooge, I tentatively add that slogans like: “Show them how much you care” (2019), “Give someone a Christmas they’ll never forget” (2013) and “Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of” (2014), imply through their imperatives that we must spend money as a tangible way of showing our gratitude for our loved ones. The message is latent, yet omnipresent. As a marketing technique, this is admittedly very intuitive, but there’s a sense that the constant encouragement to engage in materialistic habits is almost expected and perhaps even demanded of us in order for us to feel a sense of fulfilment within ourselves. Through highly persuasive storytelling, we’re being fed messages that Christmas isn’t about an abundance of gifts but, instead, about coming together and spending time with family and friends. But this is paradoxically

being done through an advert that ultimately aims to empty our pockets.

It’s worth adding at this point that John Lewis often donates a percentage of the revenue made from the merchandise related to the advert to a relevant charity.

This year, 10% of the revenue will go to FareShare and Home-Start, which will support young people and families fighting hunger and poverty, especially as a result of the pandemic. Nevertheless, there’s something to be said for using this psychology to the advantage of the retailer since, subconsciously, the public feels more inclined to purchase something from John Lewis. The sense of fulfilment achieved through the act of purchasing gifts will be heightened by the altruistic act of giving to charity.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the John Lewis adverts. Every year, I have a ritual viewing with my housemates, after speculating about which storyline could possibly tug at the heartstrings more than the previous one.

Nevertheless, Christmas has become commodified and enshrined within the institution of capitalism. Even the semantics surrounding the celebration: ‘Christmas list’, ‘Christmas shopping’, ‘Secret Santa’, have come to be associated with gift-giving, which is practically synonymous with the Christmas period. And whilst it’s nice to show your appreciation for others, this doesn’t always have to be done through monetary means.

Christmas has become enshrined within capitalism So, what about 2020? This year the sentiment of “Give a Little Love” permeates the charming vignettes, and it seems that now, more than ever, this “love” really is meant in the purest sense of the word. But this year, we’ve come to appreciate what money can’t buy.

Covid-19 has been a testing time for everyone and if ever there were a time for the meaning of Christmas to be recalibrated, it’s now.

Is ‘artistic license’ becoming contentious?

George Simms

I was about two hours into the new series of Netflix’s The Crown when something struck me. Having formed a toothier grin than I expected, I began to have my suspicions that it may not be the real Queen Elizabeth II on my screen.

After a fairly mentally-harrowing few hours of research, it transpired that The Crown is, in fact, not a documentary at all: it is a TV series and all of the royals are played by (don’t say it too loudly) actors.

Facetiousness aside, this appears to be a distinction that far too many people are failing to make, which highlights a serious problem in how we receive and process information nowadays. series four of The Crown is undoubtedly playing a part in how a new generation perceives the royals and potentially how previous generations remember them.

The fact that this is possible is the problem, not the show itself.

In a 2019 interview, Josh O‘Connor, who plays Prince Charles, said that he did not “really associate it with playing a part in history”. This notion of association is an interesting one.

When the actors are representing real people, the basic stage and screen principle of a suspension of disbelief appears to become positively an active and unerring belief in everything shown.

Once one considers that The Crown has been written by a screenwriter and playwright, not a historian, it should instantly be obvious to take everything shown with a pinch of salt. Because he’s written a TV show on the topic, we think that he must be an expert, and should therefore defer to his authority on the subject instantly.

It’s a similar problem that arose from the making of David Fincher‘s The Social Network, which has defined many people’s perception of Mark Zuckerberg.

People assume that by virtue of writing anything based in reality, the writer must have authority on the subject. This mixture of laziness and misplaced trust from audiences is allowing a new form of reality to form, which common sense should make impossible.

Peter Morgan, the show’s writer, has previously said that “sometimes you have to forsake accuracy, but you must never forsake truth”. This is the same concept as the wonderfully euphemistic ‘based on true events’.

His biggest issue is how deeplybased in reality some of it is, for example, verbatim recreation of well-publicised interviews. This demonstrates at least some loyalty to historical accuracy.

It is the personality and actions of those involved behind closed doors which is clearly going to, and does, fall foul of fabrication. In scenes where those involved have very famously never

spoken about their private lives, it should simply be clear that anything portrayed of those private lives is pure speculation.

The sticking point with The

Crown is that many of the people involved are still front and centre within the public consciousness. Not only that, but their very status is under serious scrutiny.

Of course, this becomes an evergreater issue as the series inches closer towards the present day.

It is the contentiousness of the subject matter which raises such great concerns over The Crown.

Support and funding of the royal family continues to be a muchdebated topic and those in favour of them are terrified by the potential ramifications of any negative depictions. Despite some obvious falsehoods, The Social Network is considered by many to be one of the great films of the 21st Century, because Mark Zuckerberg’s life is interesting rather than fiercely debated. Yet, anyone who is using a television show to contribute to their image of the royals and to the debate over the legitimacy of the Windsor dynasty really needs to reconsider how they are forming their opinions.

Well, what to do about it now? I have to say, I lay responsibility at the foot of the viewer, as opposed to the writer. Perhaps a warning about the obvious artistic license used is necessary. But it should not have to be. If the ability to use artistic license is so contentious, then the arts really are closer to death than we thought.

(Ellie Fitzgerald-Tesh) GOT AN IDEA FOR AN OPINION PIECE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

Profile

“We want to change attitudes towards charity” Thomas Cohen, Vice-President of Raise Durham, talks to Profile about the aims of Durham’s newest charitable group

Izzy Harris Profile Editor Raise Durham is a part of a national charity initiative that works to change the way students think about giving while raising money for the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF). Speaking to Thomas Cohen, the Vice-President of the group and a second year historian at St Cuthbert’s Society, was both inspiring and exciting as he explained Raise’s plans as they move forward at Durham.

“We have three main aims.

One is to make a big impact by raising money for the Against Malaria Foundation each year. We do this by asking students for a personally significant donation and by providing matched funding, allowing every single donation to have a very sizable impact.

“Importantly, we also want to change people’s attitudes towards charity, framing it in a positive way and as an important experience that can enrich your life.

“Finally, we want to make a connection between charity and celebration, showing people that you can celebrate by giving to charity and that it’s a really amazing and rewarding way to celebrate, at the end of the academic year.”

Raise aims to encourage donations of significant amounts from students, promoting a new culture of giving.

“You can celebrate by giving to charity” We are now in a stage of environmental consciousness marked by increased human awareness. Cohen cites “the fact that the whole world has put support into finding a vaccine” as evidence of humanity’s sense of collective responsibility.

Cohen details Raise’s the plans for the year ahead. “The main thing we want to do is encourage people to celebrate the end of the academic year by making a donation to charity. We ask for a personally significant amount with a recommended donation of £100 – so it’s a substantial amount. We hope that giving a significant amount changes people’s approach to charity, so that the donation is not an afterthought or obligation, but a deliberate and significant decision, however much that is for you. By really having to

engage with the charity and the impact one’s donation will make, and really having to think about joining Raise, we hope to create a long term mindset change whereby people are more likely to give to charity in the future.”

It’s an ambitious plan, and Cohen is clear in expressing that, although Raise has a £100 recommended donation, they are inclusive and take into account people’s different financial situations, and their ask is for a donation of personal significance.

The proposition that Raise makes requires widespread student participation and engagement with their ethos.

Cohen explained how they hope to garner interest: “to spread our message around Durham we are hoping to use social media.

We have a big community of reps in colleges who will have conversations with people and talk to them to spread our message and our philosophy. We also have some events hopefully lined up for next term and the end of the year as well.”

Next term, Raise will hold a launch in order to gain traction in the university and interest from students about their initiative. At the end of the year, there will also be an event where everyone who donated can come together to celebrate and reflect upon their collective impact.

“We hope that giving a significant amount changes people’s approach to charity” Raise aspires to foster a large-scale commitment to their philosophy. Cohen elaborates on the number of people currently involved as well as on how to join their community of giving. “We have 13 people on committee at the moment, we had a big applications process, with interviews for committee. We also have over 40 reps and are hoping to get even more.

“To get involved and be a part of the movement, all you have to do is engage with our message and make a donation to celebrate the end of the academic year.”

The movement is hoping for engagement from all across the university, and although they have a core of the committee and representatives, they want to foster a large community to be involved in their charity.

Billy Allday, a part of the Raise fundraising team in Durham,

stated that he got involved with the group as he was interested to be “more involved in the charity side of the Durham community.”

As a new group in Durham, Raise will be competing with many other more established charity initiatives at the University, both for donations and participation. However, Luke Stuart, a part of the publicity team for Raise, has stated that they are both “excited and motivated to alter people’s approach to giving and make as big of an impact as possible.”

Following on from this, Cohen illustrates why he believes that Raise will work in Durham: “there is a very big focus around charity in Durham with the Charity Fashion Show and DUCK, which are both really successful. We hope that our different approach to charity can make a big impact and catch on here as it has in other universities.

“We know that what we are asking for is quite a lot. £100 is likely more than what any student would have given to charity before, so it’s going to be difficult to try and show people why we ask for that amount. We hope that by having this large recommended donation, we can generate active engagement among students, and demonstrate the value of celebrating by giving.”

“We know we are asking for quite a lot… likely more than what any student would have given to charity before” Cohen goes on to explain the differences between Raise and Durham’s current charitable groups. “The big difference is

that with initiatives such as the Charity Fashion Show, you buy a ticket to the event. With both the Charity Fashion Show and DUCK, the emphasis, at least to an extent, lies on the event that is organised and not the donation. Raise specifically puts the emphasis on the donation, showing that donating in itself can be a very rewarding experience.

“Although we do have some events throughout the year, the donation to Raise in no way constitutes a ticket to such an event. The events we organise are externally financed, meaning that, thanks to our matched funding, 200% of your donation goes to charity.” He emphasises Raise’s aim to create a long-term change in people’s idea of feeling good and doing good.

The celebration philosophy is a big part at Raise, and the Against Malaria Foundation has a similar philosophy at its core.

Thomas explained that Raise recommends donating to AMF as it is “independently rated as one of the most effective charities in the world.” He goes on to explain that “by donating £100 you can help protect 230 people from malaria, which is an amazing impact.”

Students can get involved with the Raise initiative while supporting other charities, but all matched funding will still go to AMF. The matched funding is something that Raise Durham’s President Susanne Karbe prioritises, as it heightens the charity’s “potential for impact” alongside its long-term goals.

Raise is an initiative that operates nationally.

As a movement, it has already made over £150,000 and is working on

(Raise) expanding into more universities.

Cohen explains how the group is structured on a national level: “Raise is a national movement that started in Cambridge in 2018 and now has chapters at four different universities. There are Raise groups in Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow and Durham.

The national movement gives us support and the philosophy is constant throughout the four universities.

“We try and achieve the same thing but adapt to the different circumstances at each university.

We have a slightly different recommended donation and a slightly different way of framing everything.” The recommended donation at Cambridge is £150, which Cohen explains is linked to the prices of its May Balls.

“Although we suggest a £100 donation, we welcome any amount that is significant to you.”

Finally, Cohen hopes that Raise can build a community in Durham and make a big impact and change throughout people’s lives by encouraging celebration through charitable giving.

“The main thing I want to get across is that, although we suggest a £100 donation, we welcome any amount that is significant to you.”

Students can expect lots of social media activity and action from Raise throughout their first year at Durham University. If you are interested in finding out more, you can visit their Facebook page ‘Raise Durham – A Celebration of Giving’.

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

Profile

“There is more work to be done” Profile speaks to the students behind the anti-racism workshops at St. Cuthbert’s Society

Thalia Agoglossakis-Foley Racism in institutions like universities has become even more of a central point of discussion since George Floyd’s death in May. The way that British universities handle racism has been put under the microscope. What has also emerged, however, is influential student-led work against racism.

For freshers’ week this year, anti-racism workshops were carried out for new students at St Cuthbert’s Society for the first time. The workshops covered a wide range of issues, including definitions of racism and race, types of racism, white privilege, intersectionality, Black British history and racism specific to Durham University. They were designed to be both informative and a space for discussion about racism at Durham and in the UK more widely. Three students organised and led the workshops: Hannah Moore (Cuth’s Ethnic Minority Representative), Daniel Vogel, and Sachin Savur (Cuth’s Ethnic Minority Representative and Assistant from 2018-19, respectively).

Moore, Vogel and Savur all identify ignorance about racism as one of the central issues among the Durham student body.

As part of their JCR roles in 2018, Vogel and Sachur tried to face this issue by creating a short anti-racism workshop for leaders of societies and sport clubs at Cuth’s.

The content of it was very similar to that of the 2020 workshop, although shorter and less interactive.

The need for this workshop was fuelled in part by their personal views of racism in the University. As a member of a sports team, Vogel has found that “sport at elite universities lends itself to this insular echo chamber of ‘edgy’ banter.” He credits this damaging culture to “not ever being challenged or being exposed to the concept that these could be harmful.” Savur recalls being at a silent disco in freshers’ week and watching white students sing the N-word when the song ‘Gold Digger’ was played. He suggests that the informative content of the workshops (both in 2018 and 2020) would mean that “at the very least, they don’t have an excuse”. The workshop aimed to inform students how actions like these can be damaging in creating a safe space for students of colour.

Moore felt it was important to target freshers with the work-

shop. Her first experience of a “workshop-type” informative session was when she was a fresher in the college’s consent workshop. She found that it was the first time she considered issues like racism and consent to be a university-level issue, explaining how “education expects society and your friends and family to teach these things to you.” However, when students from different backgrounds are all brought to university together, there are clear inconsistencies in levels of awareness on issues such as racism – inconsistencies which the workshop aimed to level out.

“Sport at elite universities lends itself to this insular echo chamber of ‘edgy’ chamber” On a more personal level, Moore found it was important to express her experience and make others who are willing to learn understand it. This willingness to learn, she suggests, has only become more common since Floyd’s murder and the work of the Black Lives Matter movement, as now “suddenly everyone wants to know what is wrong.”

Thus, they designed the freshers’ anti-racism workshop for those who might be ignorant but have a willingness to learn.

A crucial way in which this workshop challenged ideas about racism was with its focus on UKspecific racism. The team found that it was necessary to engage with the energy created by the American Black Lives Matter Movement and apply it to, as Vogel puts it, “one, the academic context, and two, the British context.”

To reinforce the idea that racism is a critical issue both in Britain and Durham specifically, the focus of the workshop was largely on British history and politics, rather than American.

The purpose of this was, as Moore expressed, to confront the issue of how English people “tend to ‘other’ racism,” and bring to light how institutionalised it is in this country.

“Education expects society and your friends and family to teach these things to you” On the basis of this issue, Vogel felt “there was a lot of potential for good discussion.” They wanted the workshop to be more engaging, so that the freshers “feel like

they’re learning something and not just being spoken at,” as Savur said. However, it was also important to take a zero-tolerance approach; as Vogel explained, “it was not a space to discuss the existence of racism” and anyone with harmful intentions would not be part of the discussion.

This approach to the workshops seemed to receive a positive response. Moore, Vogel, and Savur all found that the college was particularly supportive of this workshop in providing the space needed to carry it out, as well as the necessary support: both through the JCR, with the help of President Saskia WoottonCane, as well as via the college and its Principal, Professor Elizabeth Archibald.

Outside of Cuth’s, other colleges’ Ethnic Minority Representatives followed Hannah’s initiative and have carried out or made plans for similar antiracism workshops, with the help of the Durham People of Colour Association (DPOCA). The freshers’ response has also been positive – Moore described how some students talked to her afterwards to thank her for doing it or to express how much they felt they had learnt.

“A lot of universities are scrambling to appear active” This all begs the question of what more needs to be done, a discussion which is difficult to navigate but incredibly important. The way that Durham University (and British universities generally) engages with students of colour is a crucial point for change. With racism in the spotlight, Vogel has noticed that “a lot of universities are scrambling to appear active” in their stance against it. Savur describes how “surreal” it feels, that it “takes the murder of a Black man in America to make the University try to take concrete action against racism”.

It is no surprise that this, Vogel explained, has often led to hurried and inappropriate decisions being made, which only frustrate the student body more. He suggests that the frustration stems from universities acting too quickly and overlooking the student-led anti-racist work which is already being done.

Universities do not “acknowledge that these figures, mechanisms, and institutions exist and have a broad base and connection with students of colour.” They should instead be consulting with

these students to create a more comfortable environment, Vogel argued.

“Expect staff to undergo the same training as freshers” Nonetheless, some efforts are being made. While Vogel would like the University to continue to be transparent with students of colour about the ways in which cases of racism are handled, Savur suggested that adequate welfare for these students should also be a primary concern. One idea could be to hire student support officers with the task of creating a more inclusive environment.

Savur’s experience as a student ambassador for Durham University shaped the way in which he sees the welfare of students of colour influencing the decisions of prospective students. As an ambassador, when he asked Black students whether they would apply to Durham, most of them said that the lack of diversity would not make it a comfortable environment in which to study. He suggests that, for this to change, current students need to be supported and the conditions improved, so that prospective students can hear about positive experiences in Durham.

Another way in which the move towards an actively anti-racist university can be established is through engagement with staff.

Vogel emphasised the small number of Black lecturers in Durham – only 25 out of of 4,360 lecturers (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2018/19). He explained that a change in policy here would show actual engagement with being anti-racist.

Moore noted that it is also important for current lecturers to be trained; there have been discussions about extending the workshop to staff. As Vogel suggested, it is only reasonable to “expect staff to undergo the same training that freshers do.”

It is equally important for students to stay engaged on an individual level. Savur clarified that he doesn’t “want people to do a 1.5-hour workshop and think that they’re done – there is more work to be done.”

To guide this engagement, the three are involved in Cuth’s new Anti-Racism Society. Savur established this society after finding over lockdown that all the reading lists on racism looked too similar, with the aim of helping students to engage more critically with the literature. It is important, Moore stated, to make clear that initiatives like these are not only for people of colour, but also for white allies. Ultimately, as Hannah expressed, they want to “get to the point where Durham University isn’t a university which has a bad reputation concerning racism.”

(Hannah Moore)

12

Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

On Climate A special feature

What on Earth is going on?

The untold impact of a single, subconscious click

Remember when Christmas shopping looked like this? (TheOtherKev)

Harrison Newsham At the beginning of the first lockdown, our Instagram feeds were graced with stories of dolphins returning to Venetian canals. The narrative went that fewer people travelling allowed the waterways a break from pollution, and Mother Nature could reclaim what humanity had seized from her.

We retreated into our comfy clothes, content with the thought that our isolation was creating some good out of the bad. But though stories like this offered some respite from the daunting weeks of lockdown, they were completely false.

Amazon hired 250,000 new couriers and warehouse workers between July and September Bored and restless at home, we began to engage in behaviours that were much more destructive to our environment than dropping litter into a Venetian canal could ever be.

Online shopping has been a consumerist revolution. Its massive environmental impact is the last thing on our minds when the convenience of a click seems to eclipse all anxieties.

It’s true: Amazon-

ordering and fast fashion did not begin with Covid-19. We’ve been regularly scrolling, clicking, and answering the doorbell for the best part of a decade. However, with the world in lockdown, many of us began to shop online at an alarming rate. Amazon hired 250,000 new couriers and warehouse assistants between July and September 2020, pushing their global workforce past one million people. Parcels now make up 60% of Royal Mail’s revenue – up from 47% before the pandemic.

So, what’s wrong with that?

Surely saving a trip into town to buy that pair of trainers reduces our carbon emissions?

Unfortunately, online shopping commits greater crimes than simply burning the petrol that powers most vehicles. Our orders come packaged in cardboard, Styrofoam, plastic bags, and bubble wrap (made from our convenient friend, crude oil), which is inevitably binned

and dumped in landfill. It then lays there for years, toxifying the earth.

Online shopping is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It appears harmless, but actually does serious damage Our desire for dopamine – call it addiction – makes fast fashion irresistible. But as we bulk buy kilo after kilo of clothing with the intention of sending back items which just don’t fit, we forget that 20% of online returns are sent to landfill because the retailer can no longer sell them. That’s not to mention the extra delivery trips to and from the warehouse.

Online ordering is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It appears harmless, but actually does serious damage to our already crippled environment. To combat this, we need to become m o r e

A single click (Adeline Zhao)

self-aware, to resist over-buying.

I may seem cynical, or preachy. But I can’t deny that I have shopped online, fallen for adverts, and smiled when I found a parcel placed neatly at my door (or shoved in a nearby bush) with my prized purchase inside.

I’ve then forgotten about that purchase a few weeks later. No one’s infallible.

I also cannot deny that online shopping has been a lifesaver for some people during lockdown.

Without supermarkets’ online order systems, many vulnerable people would have struggled to feed themselves during these months.

20% of returns are sent to landfill, not resold But as the light at the end of this pandemic-shaped tunnel brightens, what we need to do is shop more consciously. We n e e d to shop local, buy clothes only when necessary, and reduce the amount we return, even when it is more convenient to do otherwise.

Covid-19 is just one hurdle we humans will face in the coming decades.

In the marathon against climate change, the hurdles are predicted to get bigger and bigger.

Climate change makes the news more often than it did a decade ago, but it still does not dominate the news cycle.

That’s a problem. Climate change is not a ‘woke’ issue for the hippies and the young. Nor is it a policy conundrum that can be solved by making a loophole of ambiguous phrasing.

Climate change is the state of being that our generation, and the ones that come next, will have to grapple with for our entire lives.

We need to pay attention to climate change because we need to breathe clean air. 8.3% of premature deaths in the UK are linked to diseases (asthma, lung disease, stroke) which are themselves linked to air pollution.

We need to pay attention to climate change because we love seeing polar bears in nature documentaries. But scientists expect a 30% decline in polar bear numbers over the next 30 years.

Even our beloved coffee dates at Flat White are in danger. Half of land currently used to grow coffee could be unproductive by 2050.

We urgently need to educate ourselves on the impacts of climate change. That’s why the SciTech section has given over this edition to a collection of articles on the theme. Reading through the submissions, I have been shocked by some of the facts.

If you want to go further, I recommend listening to the podcast ‘How to Save a Planet’.

The New York Times’ newsletter ‘Climate fwd’ is also excellent.

But after reading ‘The Case for CDs’ on page 14, you might think twice before signing up to any more email newsletters!

Faye Saulsbury Science and Technology Editor GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Send your thoughts to scitech@palatinate.org.uk

13

PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

SciTech

Climate pledges are meaningless without foreign aid Faye Saulsbury Science & Technology Editor The shea nuts that go into your Body Shop ‘shea body butter for very dry skin’ come from the savannah belt of West Africa. This is a semi-arid ecosystem that spans the width of the continent, below the Sahara desert. Here grows the shea tree.

Shea trees provide shea butter, which is used not only in cosmetics, but also in cooking, soaps, and as a wood protector.

The impacts of deforestation will affect more than just your skincare routine But harvesting shea nuts is slow, manual work, and many areas of forest are being cleared to make way for intensive, modern agricultural practices.

Shea trees are also cut down and

used for fuel. And if the human pressures weren’t enough, climate change means this region will only become drier in the years to come. The impacts of this deforestation will affect more than just your skincare routine.

Shea forests are carbon sinks which means they take carbon dioxide from the air and store it for long periods of time. They also protect countries to the south of the Sahara desert, such as Ghana, from soil erosion.

The health of this ecosystem, therefore, is critical to agricultural productivity. And agricultural productivity is in turn critical to female empowerment in the region. 70% of Ghana’s agricultural activities are carried out by women, so they will be disproportionately affected by any decline in the sector.

Because of the environmental, social and economic importance of its shea forests, Ghana will receive $54.5 million over the next

five years from the Green Climate Fund. This is a UN programme to help poorer countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The Green Climate Fund is currently financing 159 projects around the world. In northern Ghana, funding will go towards restoring degraded land through re-forestation, and empowering women through better access to financial channels such as loans and access to banks.

The Green Climate Fund will avoid the release of 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide It is estimated that the Green Climate Fund will avoid the release of 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, and increase the resilience of 407.8 million people to changes in their environment.

But where does the UK fit into this story?

Well, the relatively high standards of life enjoyed by those living in the UK are a result of this country’s early industrialisation.

That same industrialisation has also exacerbated climate change in other countries, many of them ex-British colonies like Ghana.

The UK has a responsibility to help countries which are now feeling the delayed effects of our fossil fuel-powered industrialisation.

Slashing our foreign aid spending from an already ungenerous 0.7% of GNI to 0.5% not only undermines our climate change promises – it undermines our moral integrity, too.

Sending money overseas is never popular with voters.

But we have to remember that climate change is not a domestic problem, or a problem that can be addressed country-bycountry. In our interconnected world, how we live here in the UK has a complex impact on other

countries. That’s why we need to keep spending on overseas aid, some of which goes towards the Green Climate Fund.

Slashing foreign aid spending diminishes the UK’s credibility in the run up to the 2021 UN Climate Ambition Summit No fewer than five former Prime Ministers objected to the overseas aid cut. They knew that it would diminish the UK’s credibility in the lead up to the UN Climate Ambition Summit – which we are hosting in 2021.

If countries like the UK, which bear globally-reaching responsibility for climate change won’t make meaningful commitments to its mitigation, how can we possibly convince other countries to make their own pledges?

It’s not all bad: “landmark” coral reef found thriving prospect of total destruction from oceanic acidification. The impact of these dual threats are now being seen globally, spelling bad news for both marine life and mankind. Last month, The Guardian reported that 50% of our coral reefs have been lost in the last two decades, and 90% more are expected to perish by 2050.

Eve Kirman In the midst of today’s climate crisis, good news concerning the state of our planet is rare. Yet recently, a notable coral discovery has signalled hope for the future of our currently declining marine ecosystem.

In October 2020, Australian scientists from James Cook University (JCU) discovered a 500m tall “blade-like” coral reef during a seabed mapping expedition. The habitat, situated within Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is thought to be 1500m wide at the base, and rises up to just 40m below the water’s surface.

The Great Barrier Reef is valued at £40 billion, as it supports 64,000 jobs

The giant reef could easily tower over London’s tallest landmark The giant reef could easily tower over London’s tallest landmark, the Shard. In fact, it’s almost 200m taller. It’s a shock to scientists that the underwater reef wasn’t discovered sooner.

This discovery thus highlights the lack of knowledge we have regarding our oceans. Wendy Schmidt, of Schmidt Ocean Institute, said, “The state of our knowledge about what’s in the ocean has long been so limited.”

Could this finding be a sign that there are many other thriving corals still undiscovered?

Dr. Bridge, of JCU, has said the newly-found area has an “incredible abundance” of sea creatures and organisms – some of which could be entirely

undocumented species.

Coral reefs play an integral role in marine life. Thought to be the most diverse ecosystems on the globe, they provide protection for coastlines, a habitat for various organisms, and are an essential source of nutrients in the marine

Will this reef, too, one day succumb to bleaching? (Adeline Zhao) food chain. and recreation.

Furthermore, the human Sadly, the abundance of benefit from reefs cannot be diversity in this skyscraper-like understated. The Great Barrier reef is not representative of the Reef Foundation has valued the whole story.

Barrier Reef to be worth just Today, our reefs face over £40 billion, as it supports bleaching from increasing ocean 64,000 jobs in tourism, fishing temperatures as well as the

So, how could this coral structure sustain life so well when countless reef systems around it wither?

Falkor, the ship that discovered the reef while surveying the northern Barrier Reef floor, is now coming to an end of its 12-month voyage; and in retrospect, it appears that this new-found, biodiverse reef is anomalous. Atypical to the “coral graveyards” charted by Falkor at the beginning of 2020, the thriving coral structure may just be a survivor doomed to the same fate.

However, in our ever-changing climate, this discovery gives hope that we haven’t yet reached a state beyond recovery. There is plenty more we can do to protect our oceans. Dr. Bridge said, “We know more about the surface of the moon than we know about what lies in the depths beyond our coastlines.” Who knows what more we will discover as we research how best to protect the future of marine life.

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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

SciTech

‘Big Oil’ is to blame for climate change, not us

Elise Garcon Science and Technology Editor The environment section of the paper is often dominated by preachy articles telling us that our Netflix addiction is killing the planet, or that now is the time to invest in reusable metal straws.

Although individual changes should not be ignored in the fight against climate change, the responsibility is not ours alone. Over 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are produced by just 100 fossil fuel companies.

This contribution is no mistake: at the same time as scientists warned against the catastrophe that rising carbon emissions could cause, companies such as Shell and Exxon spent billions of dollars on thwarting any action.

Over 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are produced by just 100 fossil fuel companies They funded politicians who denied climate change, halting any international attempts to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

They set up think tanks with the sole purpose of finding them

not culpable. Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway’s book Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how these companies spread misinformation and doubt to silence those who oppose them.

And yet they still try to present themselves as environmentally conscious. Shell’s recent ads, which mentioned climate change, had to be removed, as they violated Facebook’s transparency policy.

Companies such as Shell and Exxon funded politicians who denied climate change These companies champion their green energy schemes in their advertising, but when you look further, they are purposefully vague. Shell publicly promotes it’s low carbon technologies, but these were mysteriously missing from the 2018 report.

Investments in oil and gas, to the tune of $25 billion, however, were not.

Multiple studies have confirmed that it is unlikely that climate change can be curbed without retiring fossil fuel infrastructure all together, yet pressure is still put on the individual consumer: to buy local, to eat vegan, to pay for renewable

energy. While these efforts are important and commendable, they simply aren’t affordable or accessible to the average person.

Through skillful marketing, big oil companies have cast doubts on science Companies have exploited this, greenwashing themselves to turn a profit. Action feels futile, and we individuals feel responsible.

Climate change has been presented as an unstoppable force, but it wasn’t always this way.

An investigation in 2015 revealed that the oil company Exxon knew about climate change for decades before it was widely accepted, but concealed this, and continued to increase its emissions.

From this it is clear: these companies will say and do everything they can to keep

extracting and burning fuel.

Even at this crucial turning point, where we must limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celcius, the industry intends to increase production, spending $15 trillion on developing new reserves.

Exxon knew about climate change for decades before it was widely accepted, but concealed it We have been lied to; we are under the illusion of control, and are told that we as the consumer must make responsible choices to ensure that we do not fall into climatic catastrophe.

In reality, through skilful (Tatham Oddie via Flickr)

marketing, big oil companies have cast doubts on the science, convincing many that without oil that poverty reduction would be impossible.

They have captured our town planning and transport systems through financial influence on politicians, making good choices all but impossible. We are in a cycle of consumerism where a large amount of products are produced by a small group of companies.

Ethical options are difficult to find, and often inaccessible.

Action feels futile, and we individuals feel responsible I personally will not stop taking reusable bags to the shops, and I maintain that reducing our meat intake is the best thing we can do for our planet on an individual level. But companies like Exxon have taken the climate movement and corrupted it. Watching just one more episode on Netflix isn’t killing the planet: oil companies, and their greed, are.

GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Send your thoughts to scitech@palatinate.org.uk

The case for CDs: it’s all about your internet usage Jonny Tiplady The 21st century has seen mankind cross the threshold into a more digital world. Laptops, tablets and smartphones have made likes, retweets and leftclicks feel like a function of our brains. And in 2020, dependence on our digital devices has been almost impossible to avoid.

But as we all boot up our electronic appendages during isolation, we should reflect on the physical impact of our virtual habits. As you stream your favourite songs, rewatch your favourite Friends episode, or send a little ‘thank you’ email, do you know how you are affecting the environment?

You’ve probably received at least ten emails today already.

What might surprise you is that each email carries an environmental burden. A spam email can release 0.3g of CO2 emissions; an email with an attachment can contribute 50g of CO2. An average business user generates 135kg of CO2 each year from their emails alone. That is the equivalent of driving 200 miles. Cutting out unnecessary emails could reduce carbon emissions by over 16,000 tonnes

each year. So, those newsletters you signed up to five years ago?

They may have saved you 15% at ASOS at some point, but now it’s time to unsubscribe.

Despite now seeming outdated, SMS texting is still the most carbon-efficient way of communicating digitally. A text generates 0.014g of CO2.

Messaging on a third-party app like Facebook or WhatsApp, though, is almost as harmful as an email. Now that is probably something you did not want to read. As the most popular communication apps now, the companies running them have a burden to carry.

You would be forgiven for thinking that shifting online would make us more environmentally friendly. Fewer physical letters, records, DVD players and plastic pens surely mean we can save more of Earth’s materials. And it’s true, our plastic use over the last few decades has decreased.

Unfortunately, plastic consumption is not our main concern; greenhouse gas emissions are far more damaging.

Although the information we store has transcended from physical to digital, greenhouse gas emissions have dramatically increased. 2%

of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are produced through data storage. While this may not seem significant, it is the same as the global airline industry.

So, shifting online does not always bring the benefits you might think. If there’s a particular album you plan to play on repeat, buying a physical copy may actually be greener.

27 full streams of an album uses more energy than the manufacture of a physical CD. This is because streaming uses data stored on servers, which take a sizeable amount of energy to run.

Playing CDs and vinyl requires minimal energy. Whipping out the old record player may do more than aid your retro image; it may just save the planet.

Some companies, Spotify amongst them, have chosen to close their data centres in favour of using Google’s Cloud Platform.

This is a step in the right direction towards greener data storage.

Across the globe, 4.1 billion people – more than half the world’s population – use the internet. All the energy from these individuals adds up.

Internet activities account for 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is expected to

The guilty pleasure of white noise (Javier Hirschfield via Getty Images)

double by 2025.

Internet browsers are somewhat of a disputed topic.

While Google estimate that each search on their engine generates 0.2g of CO2, other, independent studies have estimated closer to 10g. This is a huge discrepancy, especially when you consider there are greener options. Ecosia, founded in 2009, is fighting the good fight on the Internet space.

They pledge to plant a tree for every 45 searches on their platform. This will be of immense importance in offsetting our ever-

rising carbon emissions.

If you isolate these examples, each seems fairly innocuous.

Yet, it is a sign of the dangers of excess which could plague future generations. This is not a plea to boycott the internet and its plethora of offshoots: we’ve come too far for that. Yet, if we all make an effort to curb unnecessary usage, like not playing Spotify for hours as background music, we can lead ourselves towards a greener space, both physically and online.

PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

15

Politics

Cronyism at the top: PM’s defence of Priti Patel Alex Marsh "We renew our place as the party of law and order in Britain." You would think that the irony of these words, spoken by Priti Patel to the Conservative Party Conference in 2019, would be self-evident in light of the release of a report into historic bullying allegations against the Home Secretary. Apparently, not so for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who told the Commons last Wednesday that he made "no apology for standing by Priti Patel".

His dismissal of a report, which concluded that Ms Patel, during her tenure at three different Government departments, breached Britain’s Ministerial Code through her behaviour towards officials, is incongruous with the claim that his party is committed to rooting out wrongdoing across the country.

The optics of such a move are hardly improved by the release of the report during the UK’s AntiBullying Week.

The dissonance between what members of the government say, and what they do has hardly ever been so apparent.

Priti Patel’s misconduct is

not an isolated incident. As International Development Secretary, she was forced to resign in 2017 by Prime Minister Theresa May after it was revealed she had held unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians.

This is also not the only recent incident of wrongdoing within his ranks that the Prime Minister has ignored. In March, Boris Johnson had a simple message for UK citizens to tackle the coronavirus pandemic – "you must stay at home". Less than a month later Dominic Cummings, a senior advisor to the Prime Minister, was not forced to resign despite it being revealed that he had broken the national lockdown to travel to his parents’ home in County Durham.

Priti Patel's misconduct is not an isolated incident The lack of accountability faced by the closest members of Mr Johnson’s circle lays bare his governing principle – one rule for his ministers and supporters, another for the rest of us. Any other employee would have been fired for behaviour similar to that exhibited by Ms Patel towards

her officials, many other Brits were fined for lockdown breaches similar to that of Mr Cummings.

But, aided and abetted by her party, as well as the rightwing press, Ms Patel has thus far managed to fend off calls for her resignation. Conservative MPs practically tripped over themselves rushing to the Home Secretary’s defence on Twitter, with Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons, tweeting that "Priti is an asset to government".

All these defences, including Ms Patel’s own, that the negative consequences of her behaviour were "unintentional", undoubtedly do enormous damage to our democracy.

Protesting Ms Patel’s

innocence on account of ignorance, stature or personal experience, fails to acknowledge the way power dynamics favour those who are most prominent within government. Only if the Prime Minister is prepared to hold his ministers accountable to the codes of conduct that check abuses of power can he prevent a collapse in confidence in our country’s leadership.

By not forcing the Home Secretary to resign, Boris Johnson has privileged the ideological allegiance Ms Patel has lent him over her questionable ministerial conduct and bullying ways, abandoning his moral duty at a time of national

(UK Prime Minister, Creative Commons)

crisis. If it were ever gone, there can now be no doubt that the ‘Nasty Party’ is well and truly back.

There can now be no doubt that the 'Nasty Party' is well and truly back The lack of remorse from the Home Secretary for her actions, and the Prime Minister’s unwillingness to hold her accountable for them, is unsurprising considering his government’s track record. Upon assuming office in July 2019, Johnson promised to defend the interests "of the forgotten people and the left behind towns". To the contrary, favouritism and cronyism run rife – the National Audit Office has found that suppliers of PPE were ten times more likely to win government contracts if they had close connections to senior politicians.

Far from seizing the moment "to give strong leadership", the Prime Minister has chosen to do nothing, exposing himself as a leader concerned only with the interests of the most wellconnected and the most powerful in our society.

A beacon of hope: Covid-19 vaccination developments Jake Roberts 2020 has been rough for everyone. Whether you have unfortunately experienced a personal loss, or have simply been affected by the worldwide isolation, I think we can all take solace in the fact that everyone has been going through the same thing – all wondering when it would finally come to an end.

In recent weeks, however, we discovered that Pfizer, Moderna, and Oxford University believe they have the answer: vaccines.

How efficient these vaccines are, assuming they are safe, iss down to the government Once these vaccines go through all the necessary paperwork and administration (and there’s a lot of it), they have the potential to end this pandemic once and for all. We have seen in recent history how vaccines can do this – think Edward Jenner’s (albeit old fashioned) vaccine that eradicated smallpox. Fast forward to today, and we have vaccines for diseases such as polio, mumps, measles, rubella, the list goes on.

The effects that this relatively new field of science can have on the world is monumental and

influences the planet for generations to come. How efficient these vaccines are, however – assuming they’re found to be safe – is down to the Government.

The NHS will be in charge of the vaccine rollout across the UK. We have already been told the running order for who will get the vaccines first: the vulnerable, NHS and care workers, the over-50s, etc. There is even talk that as long as the vulnerable are vaccinated, there is no need to vaccinate anyone else who is, for example, young with no underlying health conditions.

Regardless as to who gets it, the Government are overseeing the entire vaccination process, and have already taken steps to ensure its efficiency, such as pre-ordering over 100 million doses, mobilising the military to

assist with logistics, telling the NHS to prepare for a mass vaccination program. The concern, however, is if the Government will be able to follow through with what will undoubtedly be the country’s largest healthcare program in modern history.

We have seen time and time again the constant U-turns the Government have had to perform throughout 2020. From free school meals to the first attempt at a track and trace app to the exam results fiasco over summer, the Government has shown its inability to deal with highly important national issues.

Some say that U-turns are examples of the Government “listening to the concerns of the people”, but I personally cannot recollect a time where any sitting Government

has gone back on their word as much as this current one.

The vaccine rollout is something that the Government cannot afford to mess up. The lives of potentially tens-ofthousands depend on the efficient rollout of this vaccine.

If the Government is seen to have made a catastrophic error in this – something they’re used to at this point – not only will more people needlessly suffer, but their already weaning trust will be lowered even further.

This Government has already caused the needless deaths of thousands with their concerning pattern of taking action against Covid-19 too late – first seen in March when we entered lockdown about two weeks after the rest of Europe.

It is totally possible for the Government to do this correctly.

Not only that, but I personally believe that the country is capable of doing this. Not due to the Government however, more down to the military’s proficiency in logistics along with our fantastic NHS who have been tirelessly working throughout this whole thing. There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, and the Government simply cannot afford to make that tunnel longer.

(Marco Verch via Flickr)

From the Editors The past fortnight can be characterised as the epitome of political and legislative conflict.

Westminster's decision to ease the national lockdown in time for Christmas has seen both praise and criticism, further exacerbated by the increasingly hopeful developments relating to a Covid-19 vaccination.

International governance has similarily been defined by power and protest, personified perfectly by the continued refusal to concede by US President Trump. This zeitgeist is mirrored globally, as illustrated by power struggles in Peru, Ethiopia and beyond.

In this edition, our contributors assess the motivations of today's leaders involved in these civil conflicts and others alike, in an era in which bipartisanship is more valuable than ever.

Aisha Sembhi, Politics Editor GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE?

Send your thoughts to politics@palatinate.org.uk

Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

16

Politics

Civil conflict: What is happening in Tigray?

Jess Jones Abiy Ahmed was elected Prime Minister of Ethiopia in 2019, during the chaos of mass protests against the coalition government, headed by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). After years of what was largely seen as an autocratic rule, characterised by the severe oppression of political dissidents, Ahmed sought to reunify Ethiopia under his new Prosperity Party. His peace efforts with neighbouring country Eritrea won him a Nobel Prize in 2019. It is from this background that the current Ethiopian civil conflict has stemmed.

Ethiopia is an ethnically diverse country divided into 10 regions. The Tigrayan region has felt marginalised since Ahmed rose to power and deposed many TPLF elites from high positions in the government, even persecuting some on the grounds of corruption. Unfortunately for Africa’s youngest Prime Minister, this only earned him enemies and even an attempted assassination in 2018.

Although Ahmed pledged democratic reform upon his election, some Ethiopians feel that

he has not fulfilled his promises.

He postponed the elections in March this year citing the pandemic as the primary concern, which has led to accusations that he is making a grab for power.

Ahmed took to Twitter to urge peaceful surrender As a result, the TPLF refused to acknowledge Ahmed as the legitimate leader of the country and held their own election illegally in September. In a stalemate situation, Ahmed also refused to recognise the results of the TPLF vote.

The TPLF’s constant efforts at undermining Ahmed’s government throughout its rule has now escalated into direct violence, with the party attacking two military bases in Tigray on 4th November. Ahmed’s government retaliated by sending in army forces.

Civilians who could not flee in time were caught in a lethal crossfire.

There have been reports of atrocities on both sides and even a massacre where hundreds were hacked to death. It is hard to know precise numbers or get footage of what is happening because the Ethiopian government has cut off all communications with Tigray, including roads, airports, phone networks and the internet.

On Sunday evening, Abiy Ahmed took to Twitter to urge the TPLF to “surrender peacefully within 72 hours”.

It followed a statement from Ethiopian military

(Statsministerens Kontor via Creative Commons)

spokesman Colonel Dejene Tsegaye, who declared army plans to surround Mekelle with tanks. He said, “We want to send a message to the public in Mekelle to save yourselves from any artillery attacks and free yourselves from the junta […] After that, there will be no mercy.”

This puts the approximately 500,000 people who live in Tigray’s capital Mekelle at a very high risk and human rights activists are concerned about the legality of the threat. Leader of the TPLF, Debretsion Gebremichael, responded that his people were “ready to die” defending their right to administer their region.

What does this mean for civilians? There has been a mass exodus of at least 40,000 people as yet, with the UN refugee agency predicting up to 200,000 if fighting continues. There is some concern that the war will continue to spread, perhaps even into Eritrea, and destabilise east Africa.

Refugees have travelled across the border into Sudan where camps are overcrowded and unprepared to deal with the excess of civilian displacement. There is relative safety but access to shelter, clean water, food and health care is compromised.

Sudanese authorities have expressed the need for more camps to be established and easy humanitarian access to them provided.

Sudan is already struggling with its own economic problems, so it needs the international community to pull together and help.

Thus far, Ethiopia has ignored American pleas for a ceasefire and peace talks. On Wednesday, Ahmed rejected attempts at international intervention from the African Union and the UN. It is going to be difficult for the civilians to be saved. Abiy Ahmed has promised the army would not be targeting Tigrayans.

face the difficult situation that the country is going through”. Sagasti has shown himself to be a promising President, one who will act upon the requests of the majority and seek to put an end to the overwhelming corruption that darkens Peruvian democracy.

The new President has already reacted to the overwhelming levels of police violence that occurred in recent weeks, retiring three lieutenant-generals and fifteen generals of the National Police whilst ordering further lengths of reform. This comes in response to the deaths of the two aforementioned students, Jack Pintado and Inti Sotelo, who both

lost their lives at the use of firearm projectiles.

Ethiopia has ignored US pleas for a ceasefire and peace talks Nonetheless, it is not hard to imagine a scenario where innocent people are killed or injured.

International powers need to place intense and consistent pressure on Ahmed and the TPLF to stop escalating the war further and they need to provide essential humanitarian aid in this time of crisis for Ethiopia.

Presidential turmoil follows Peru elections

Jack Graham November has been a month of immense political disorder in Peru; the nation has witnessed three presidents pass through the seat of power within a single week whilst protesters have taken to the streets of the capital in anger.

Thousands of furious citizens have crowded the streets of Peru and have stormed social media outlets, all under the communal banner of #TheyMessedWithTheWrongGeneration.

Three Presidents have passed through the seat of power within a single week In the face of an apparent constitutional crisis, the younger generation has sought to make their voices heard, pleading against the long trail of corruption that has tainted the highest offices within the Peruvian government for decades.

Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index has claimed Peru to be the 101st most corrupt nation in the world, whilst their southerly neighbours of Chile place 23rd.

Lima, the capital of Peru, continued to echo with calls for the

removal of Manuel Merino, the first replacement for the former president, Martin Vizcarra. Vizcarra was removed from office following an impeachment upon grounds of "moral incapacity", accusers have claimed that he interfered with corruption investigations and accepted numerous bribes from companies concerning public work contracts – all of which he has repeatedly denied.

His removal from office is being described as a coup d’etat by many, once more news outlets have been engrained with imagery of brutish clashes between protesters and police units clad in riot gear, armed with tear gas canisters and wielding rifles releasing barrages of rubber bullets into large crowds. The crowds awoke the city of Lima with the unceasing chant “Merino, listen up, the people reject you!” – a message that eventually got through to Merino, he resigned following the rising public opposition against him and the unfortunate killing of two protestors, Jack Pintado, 22, and Inti Sotelo, 24.

According to The Guardian, analysts have confirmed that Vizcarra’s removal from office was coordinated by his political enemies, opposers of his anti-graft reforms which sought to eradicate political corruption from the highest levels

of the Peruvian government.

The younger generation has sought to make their voices heard against corruption Vizcarra was one of the most popular Presidents of his generation, despite the Covid-19 outbreak. His approval rating had floated above 50%, causing political demonstrators to claim that Congress has deviated from the democratic norms and have acted against the will of the people.

Since Merino’s resignation, however, yet another President has taken up the mantle of authority. Francisco Sagasti assumed office on 17th November and faces an immensely difficult challenge.

The people of Peru now look to Sagasti to repair the damages caused by the ongoing turmoil, to act upon the furies of his protesters and to tend to the wounds inflicted upon Peruvian reputation.

Sagasti said his inauguration was “not a day of celebration”, stating “we can take action from Congress, from the executive, so that this does not happen again.”

Vizcarra has publicly shown support for Sagasti, tweeting “I congratulate Francisco Sagasti on his election as President of Parliament. Only a person with democratic principles will be able to

Sagasti has shown himself to be a promising President Time will only tell whether Sagasti will step up to the plate and do his nation justice, whether he will bring a cease to the overwhelming levels of corruption within his nation or if he will merely pass office without significant effect. He will remain in office for what was the rest of Vizcarra’s term, meaning that he only has until 28th July 2021 to refashion his government.

(Protestors Blur via Creative Commons)

PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

17

Politics

Terror attacks leave secular France at crossroads Matthew Lambert A series of terror attacks which have plagued France over recent months have been met with strong resistance from Emmanuel Macron, the French President. As a consequence of the attacks, which have included the beheading of school teacher Samuel Paty, the national debate surrounding French secularism has been reignited.

Since 25th September, where there was a stabbing outside of the former headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, the location of a previous attack in 2015, there have been a further three attacks. The first was the beheading of Samuel Paty, which has become the symbol of the current feud over secularism. Paty, having shown a naked image of the Prophet Muhammad (which is expressly forbidden in Islam), was attacked by 18-year-old Russian-born Abdoullakh Anzorov. It is alleged by prosecutors that Anzorov paid two children €300 to identify the teacher, with whom he then spent two hours before killing Paty.

Macron has responded by taking up a strong line against those he describes as supporting “Islamist separatism”. This was notable in the rhetoric he used in the national commemoration to Samuel Paty, where he

directly linked “political, radical Islamism,” to the killing and contrasted French, republican values to Islamic principles.

In total, fourteen children have been investigated by French police Though Macron has subsequently dropped a large part of this rhetoric, partially in response to the worldwide boycott of French goods by Muslim-majority nations, his initial offensive is one which is widely supported throughout France, with 79% of people in a Ifop-Fiducial poll agreeing that they believed Islamism “has declared war on France and the Republic".

Hard-line language from the French government has been accompanied by controversial plans for new laws. Already roughly 50 organisations have been shortlisted for dissolution, including controversially the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF). CCIF is currently the largest anti-Islamophobic organisation in France, and the move has been criticised by Amnesty International, who described it as “shocking”.

This has been accompanied by attempts by the Macron government to reduce home-

schooling, which has been perceived to be a method for radical Muslims to take their children out of the school system in order to not be taught French, republican values. This will be introduced in a bill to the French parliament on 9th December.

The government’s response returns the debate on laïcité, loosely translated to state secularism, and the extent to which the government should intervene to maintain religious neutrality, back into the spotlight.

Secularism is an integral part of the French national psyche and is largely not up for debate as a national policy which has been part of law since 1905. The law is understood to be the main backbone of French secularism and holds tremendous symbolic significance, simultaneously enshrining the right to religious exercise, whilst also limiting the role of religions within the public sphere.

However, recently there has been a greater level of scrutiny placed on the law, with many suggesting that it discriminates against Islam. Whilst the Catholic Church, the largest religion in France, remains somewhat protected due to its long-lasting prevalence in the country, the law has been increasingly used as justification to clamp down on Islamic symbols such as the ban

of face coverings in public spaces in 2010.

Whilst supporters of such measures claim that this is necessary to protect secularist society, others point to how Christian holidays and symbols still have significant influence within French society and suggest that laïcité has been used to justify state-sanctioned Islamophobia.

This debate has affected all parts of French society.

Children have found themselves increasingly involved in the series of events. On top of the two children who are suspected to have accepted money from Anzorov, four school children from Albertville, a French town in the southeast, were interrogated by the police on charge of supporting terrorism in a classroom debate. In

total, fourteen children have been investigated by French police regarding inappropriate comments during the national commemoration of Paty. This demonstrates, in part, the resolve of Macron in his hard secularist response. Children are not exempted from the French government’s pursuit to enforce what it views as religious neutrality.

With far right Marine Le Pen polling highly as we approach the 2022 presidential elections, some might sceptically say that Macron is appealing to the right in France with a strong response to Islamist terrorism. However, with 87% of French people believing secularism in France is under threat, it is clear that the clash between laïcité and Islam in France seems set to continue.

(Image: Sophie Farmer)

Eased lockdown restrictions cause controversy Kirsty George The announcement that England would enter a second period of lockdown came on 31st October, as Boris Johnson declared the move necessary to avoid the "medical and moral disaster" of the NHS being overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.

Highlighting the rapid spread of the virus, he outlined the potential consequences of not implementing preventative measures: a "peak of mortality" higher than that seen in April, and frontline workers "forced to choose which patients to treat, who would get oxygen and who wouldn’t, who would live and who would die".

The four-week lockdown ended on 2nd December, which raised questions about the motivations behind this timing. On the first day of the new lockdown, Johnson said he had been advised that four weeks would be sufficient for the new restrictions to make "a real im-

pact" on the spread of the virus, but infection rates were not the only factor influencing government decisions.

In his original statement, Johnson made clear that the lockdown was in part looking forward to the Christmas period: "If we follow this package of measures in the way that we can and we have done before, I have no doubt people will be able to have as normal a Christmas as pos(UK Prime Minister via Creative Commons)

sible and that we will be able to get things open before Christmas as well".

Johnson made clear that the lockdown was in part looking forward to Christmas While having "as normal a Christmas as possible" is crucial for bringing together longseparated friends and family and allowing businesses to take advantage of Christmas trade, the government’s focus on this holiday may appear inappropriate in light of its treatment of other religious celebrations.

Covid-19 restrictions have paid no heed to Rama-

dan, Eid, or Diwali, forcing millions of Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh families to pass these holidays isolated from their communities and loved ones. Anger was sparked in particular when the health secretary Matt Hancock

announced late in the evening on 30th July that from midnight families were not permitted to mix at home or in gardens. Coming just three hours before Eid al-Adha, the announcement devastated the celebrations of countless families, with Johnson being dubbed "The Grinch who stole Eid" on social media.

While Hancock denied that the move was intended to prevent Eid celebrations, for many it reinforced the view that ethnic minority groups are suffering disproportionately in this crisis; death rates from the virus have been highest among black and Asian people, with a Public Health England report revealing that racism and inequality may have amplified this disproportionality.

Defending the government’s special treatment of Christmas, Hancock said that while he was "sensitive" to the problem, Christmas should be treated differently because it is "a national holiday and it's the biggest national holiday we have". The government’s current plans for Christmas will allow people to form three-household bubbles between 23rd and 27th December. While Hancock’s defence is unlikely to satisfy many

of those from different faiths, easing lockdown restrictions over Christmas is also problematic in that it will necessitate harsher restrictions following the festive period: Public Health England highlighted that "for every one day of relaxation, five days of tighter restrictions would potentially be needed".

"For every one day of relaxation, five days of tighter restrctiond would be needed" The heavy cost the country will have to pay for a relaxation of restrictions indicates that the risk of transmission remains high, despite current lockdown measures.

Indeed, Johnson’s announcement that a "tougher" tier system would be introduced from 2nd December emphasises that the four-week lockdown alone cannot ensure public safety.

Nevertheless, as sacrifices continue to be made, many will look forward to the brief period of freedom over Christmas. The anticipation of a vaccine will likely sustain hope that more such freedoms and reunions between friends and family will soon be possible.

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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

Sport Sport

Experts or ex-pros: time for a change in football punditry?

Matt Styles Sport Editor For the past 14 years, the Oxford Dictionary have released their word of the year. In 2016, the year of Brexit and Trump, came “post-truth”, defined by the OED as “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. It diagnosed a sick age where empty visceral appeals have more impact than a serious investigation into the essential truth of a subject.

Football punditry has been displaying these symptoms for years.

The flashy studios of Sky and BT are arenas where cutting-edge insight and intelligent, objective approaches to understanding the game largely take a backseat.

Instead, the popularity of pundits such as Roy Keane exemplify how they are instead sensationalist hotbeds of provocation, characters, contrived narratives, feigned outrage and engineered polarities of opinion. And when it isn’t so highly-charged, viewers can almost invariably expect inane conversation, essentially glorified pub talk from a cast of ex-pros who rehash the same old tired clichés as they struggle for articulation and fail to unlock a deeper level of truth.

There are of course some anomalies, the likes of Liam Rosenior are considered a rare breed for their measured delivery and eloquence, but the prevailing consensus is that former players who were experts at playing the game are not automatically experts at analysing it. The vast majority rest on their laurels while others, despite their best efforts, scarcely captivate the audience or bedazzle with agile knowledge of the game at large.

Viewers can expect inane conversation, essentially glorified pub talk While there is certainly value in hearing the experiences from those who have played the game first-hand, many believe that the balance should be redressed; that the analysis should be reserved for external and objective voices who have devoted their lives to observing the game – the statisticians, the authors, the journalists – who are overflowing with specialist and inexhaustible knowledge on certain subjects.

These experts would

As football enters a more analytical era, the role of a pundit has come under scrutiny ([Ross] via Creative Commons)

undoubtedly be better equipped at stimulating the mind: offering originality and clarity of expression, thriving in debate as a result of their eclectic interest in global leagues, the cultural and political forces that influence events, drawing on history as a way of understanding the present, and in some cases knowing these ex-pros better than they know themselves. Such voices, however, seem exclusively reserved for podcast or radio – not fit for the screen, not good enough personalities, not visually appetising, not ‘entertaining’ enough.

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have helped to advance tactical explorations and give football punditry a more serious and thoughtful face, but realistically the majority of their observations are intuitive; elementary in comparison to the stuff we might find on podcasts such as Tifo, or in publications like The Blizzard.

For all our complaints and yearnings for a more fair landscape, however, is this sort of thing really desirable on our screens? Is this what the average football fan truly wants from a football pundit: cool, logical, reasoned, rational?

This sort of “more profound, less energetic” analysis is not fit for screen, because logically it doesn’t correspond with the frenzied drama that we demand from watching football. Thus the drama continues in the studio in the form of lively verbal jousting, rather than a defusing the pace and calmly digesting what has

just happened.

However, is the role of television not one of visual stimulation and entertainment – an embracement of the false, a product designed to entertain rather than elicit intellectual ponderings? Where Brecht’s epic theatre was designed to elicit a ‘think not feel’ response, isn’t the act of watching football the exact reverse: an escape, an illusion, a conscious effort to resist the inconvenient truths of real life?

Football is a visceral experience. We enjoy being enraptured by the shiny lights of the studio, the funky touchscreen tactical boards, the dramatic music, and seeing our idols from yesteryear appear on our screens, no matter how vacuous they may be. They are trained in being characters, and their theatrical impulses, their performances, raise football to a suitable level of urgency and seriousness; we can unwind and not thinking too deeply but instead switch off and unconsciously buy into this colourful universe.

Fans come for the match and pay no real attention to the analysis – granted, because we have become accustomed to vapid discussions, and haven’t fully experienced an alternative – but fundamentally because it’s not really what we came to see. When watching a game on the tele we don’t come for the punditry, but the heart-racing moments, the on-field action, drawing our own conclusions and sharing instinctive responses in the group chat, or with others in pubs and communal spaces

where the post-match analysis is drowned out anyway.

History shows that we only remember and value the visually striking and the comic – Henry putting his hand on Jamie Carragher’s thigh, Kamara’s “dunno Jeff” or Jamie Redknapp highlighting a corner flag. So ultimately, while a panel full of Jonathan Wilson’s would be a feast for the mind, such discussions can’t be turned into hilarious GIFs, or provide opportunities for clickbait or fierce debates on social media.

In football punditry, nowdays truth is of little import Indeed, why would broadcasting companies strive for truth when they can perpetually reinforce engagement by inviting moral outrage, raising topics such as who should be England’s third choice goalkeeper to a matter of life and death? Clearly truth is of little import. It has got to the point where our anticipation of inane conversation and blunders overrides our investment in what is actually being said.

And do we really want an expert with an accent of authority when we can scoff at empty comments made by these expros, poking fun as they fumble over their points and resort to cliché? The longevity of Paul Merson and Steve McManaman would indicate that there is value in incompetence, as they serve the function of provoking

frustration and engagement from fans. I don’t believe we want substance; perversely, we enjoy the meretricious emptiness of it all.

But is this a bad thing? Do we need a culture shift? Can there be a single truth in something so partisan and divisive as football anyway? Why strive for it? Is this aversion to intellectual stimulation an indictment on us fans, that we would sooner embrace the post-truth unapologetically than make football a more intellectually demanding arena? I don’t believe so.

Football is inherently ridiculous, it is that opportunity to unleash the frustrations that build up throughout the week, get impassioned over things that by and large have no real consequence; the arena where you are justified to be irrational.

This is different, of course, when shining a light on social injustices such as racism, sexism and corruption, but these tend to be done well and taken seriously in its own time, and in fact expros act as authoritative voices on these issues; more conducive to change given that they are idolised by the masses.

But otherwise, when the politics is removed, football is essentially theatre, and companies exploit that through the many technological possibilities of television. Fans enjoy the illusion of football and it needs the theatricality, the controversy and the ideological divisions to sustain its illusions – or else it would run dry. This isn’t to say football shouldn’t be intellectualised at all, but punditry isn’t the appropriate arena for that. Such discussions are better reserved in retrospect for genuinely thoughtful modes like podcasts, books or newspaper columns – more solipsistic, personal experiences as opposed to the demands of entertainment when watching with your mates.

Though football punditry has its pitfalls – notionally it isn’t fair that ex-pros are automatically favoured over the experts – they don’t necessarily warrant an upheaval. Even if not the most articulate, fans ultimately enjoy seeing their footballing idols, who relay their charming anecdotes to satisfy our voyeuristic instincts, provoke debate through their bumbling incompetence and, ultimately, reinforce a sense of tangibility in our often disorientating footballing universe. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020

Sport

The FA Cup odyssey of DU’s Dudzinski United, and has been at numerous clubs since then.

During that time, he has fleshed out his CV with spells at various upper-level non-league teams, and is looking to get back into the professional game. Looking back on his University career, the St Aidan’s alumnus recalled some incredible footballing memories throughout the years.

“I have many brilliant sporting memories from Durham,” reflects Dudzinski. “We were an extremely good football side with great coaches, players and fantastic team spirit. I look back fondly on those years.”

Luke Power and Matt Styles Sport Editors Since the middle of last century, Oxford City have played in the shadows of their more successful neighbours, Oxford United.

Previously shouldering their way around the English footballing pyramid from the comforts of the same suburb, the disparity between the clubs was scratched onto our maps by United’s relocation to the swankier Kassam Stadium in 2001.

But as fans of the cliché would have us know, there is a certain magic to the FA Cup. Few other domestic cup competitions are as carnivalesque or inclusive of so many clubs, with pot-bellied Davids testing their skills against Premier League Goliaths. And for this FA Cup season at least, the Oxford hierarchy has been flipped, with non-league City putting together a brilliant run and outshining their rivals.

Dudzinksi’s story is one which will bring great hope to any aspiring footballers at Durham

Few other domestic cup competitions are as carnivalesque or inclusive of so many clubs At the heart of this story is Durham old boy Ben Dudzinski.

Signing this summer on the back of a National League campaign with Sutton United, Dudzinski arrived to high expectations but has thus far kept his cool and delivered.

Oxford City created something memorable in the FA Cup this season, beating four different opponents including League One side Northampton Town on the road to their Second Round showdown against Shrewsbury Town.

Unfortunately, Sunday’s clash with Shrewsbury signalled the

Ben Dudzinski in action for Oxford City FC (Ben Dudzinski)

end of Oxford’s FA Cup run as they fell to a 1-0 loss in extra time, at the hands of a well-hit strike from former Bournemouth man Marc Pugh.

However, the club deserve their fair share of pats on the back for getting so far: of the 160 clubs in the Second Qualifying Round where Oxford began, only six others made it as far in the competition as they did.

“It definitely reminds us what we’re capable of and the standards we should be setting ourselves in each game,” Dudzinski told Palatinate. “We’ve loved the cup run but right now

we’re incredibly disappointed.

Our run highlights the fine lines between the leagues and for me and many of the boys it provides motivation and inspiration to strive to move up the leagues.”

A three-tier gap separates League One Shrewsbury from the National League South outfit, but for periods of the game you wouldn’t have been able to tell and Oxford acquitted themselves well. As Dudzinski stresses, it’s a reminder of the tantalising proximity between the Football League and the divisions below – a shimmering curtain which is exposed in the FA Cup.

“I think with Covid and everything that has been going on with football, the magic of the FA Cup has definitely come alive.

If anyone needed reminding this year has done it and we’re only ‘two rounds’ in. Everyone’s missing the fans and the FA Cup is a competition for the fans, so it’s plain to see the beauty of the FA Cup.” Dudzinski’s story is one which will bring great hope to any aspiring footballers at Durham.

At the end of his final year at Durham, the goalkeeper signed a professional contract with then-League Two side Hartlepool

He also played for DU alongside his college adventures, and is known as a rare breed for transitioning from university level to professional environments. Unlike rugby, where you don’t necessarily need glistening credentials before arriving at university, football tends to require pre-existing pedigree.

“It’s a tough one. The pathway is certainly there with the setup, standard and coaching. It helps if you’ve got some good credentials prior to arriving but it’s not the be all and end all.

“If you apply yourself and use the opportunities provided by the DU coaches to experience some semi-pro football whilst studying and playing for DU you’ll build yourself a good base for when moving on from uni. Exposure to men’s football is important I think and DU football can provide a great environment to move into that area improve your ability.”

“We may not know the full impact until next summer” Continued from back page In the Hundred’s absence England still managed to take on West Indies in a T20 series, and there was the domestic 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, which as Mark pointed out “generated…more column inches than expected. Live online streaming helped with the fan engagement, as did BBC radio commentary on some games”.

Meanwhile Sky showed the final. Despite England’s 5–0 rout of the West Indies, and the Heyhoe-Flint Trophy’s success,

it’s hard to shake off the feeling that these did little more than fill a gap. While they might have helped to sustain interest, they won’t have had the exponential growth in terms of fan engagement that the ECB hopes the Hundred will have. The path ahead remains somewhat uncertain.

The path ahead remains somewhat uncertain.

This is not only the case in England, but worldwide too.

The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) finished with a Sydney Thunder triumph on Saturday,

and it displayed some significant spectacle and talent. This came not least from the likes of Heather Knight and Sarah Glenn from the English contingent. The WBBL provides strength in depth for the Australian national team – as Mark pointed out – whilst also allowing overseas players to participate in high class and competitive cricket against the world’s best.

But what about the countries that those players come from?

Outside of England and Australia, the picture is a little more worrying. “The worry in a postCovid world means that cashstrapped national boards are

most likely to organise bio-secure bubbles for their most financially viable cricket - and that means men’s internationals and T20 leagues, with women’s cricket sometimes an afterthought, as the lack of international fixtures since March shows,” said Mark.

The global women’s game outside of England and Australia faces a nervous wait The likes of South Africa were unable to fly out to England for a series this summer, even while

their male counterparts were travelling to the IPL. India and New Zealand have seen their opportunities limited since the pandemic started. As Mark told me, many of these problems stem from a lack of funding, which could potentially only get worse as time goes on.

The global women’s game outside of England and Australia faces a nervous wait. There is plenty of cause for optimism, as the WBBL and the upcoming Women’s Hundred demonstrate, but there are reservations too.

Only time will reveal the exact implications of the pandemic on the women’s game.

Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE

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Sport

Experts or ex-pros: football’s punditry problem

Matt Styles questions the current state of football punditry (page 18)

Ben Dudzinski on his FA Cup run with Oxford City

Sport chats to the Durham alumnus after his side’s second round tie (page 19)

The impact of Covid-19 on women’s cricket Ned Vessey

Durham men’s 1s lost only three games as they became the 2019/20 BUCS Super Rugby champions (DURFC)

Durham sport in 2020: a year in review Ben Fleming and James Reid Deputy Sport Editors As the year draws to a close, there is a somewhat sombre feel to the Durham sporting scene.

With all matches halted following the arrival of a second national lockdown and college sport limited to but a few, fleeting training sessions since March, there has been little to cheer about.

However, despite all of this, there were still plenty of sporting achievements for Durham sport throughout the course of the calendar year, and, in spite of the difficult circumstances, they deserve to be given the necessary recognition and celebrated to the fullest extent.

At the start of 2020, when the sporting calendar was still full to the brim, one of the first successes for Durham came on the rugby pitch as the University men’s first XV were crowned BUCS Super Rugby champions with a hard fought victory against Leeds Beckett. Losing only three games all season, and with starting flanker Fitz Harding now signed professionally to

Premiership outfit Bristol Bears, it was undoubtedly a successful campaign for DURFC. Premiership glory was prevalent elsewhere and most notably, throughout the Durham women’s lacrosse setup. The club, as a whole, won four leagues and one cup in the slightly curtailed season – another impressive return for the whole club, who also have nine players competing for international places over the course of the year.

Just a quick walk from the lacrosse pitches takes you to the hallowed AstroTurfs, the site of many successful seasons for the University hockey club who were named Team Durham’s club of the year for the 2019/20 season. The women’s 1s enjoyed an unbeaten league season, coming second in the national BUCS league and reaching the cup final prior to its cancellation. The men matched this achievement by coming first in their national BUCS league whilst also securing promotion to the England Hockey Premier League by winning their weekend league.

On a more individual note,

special mention must also go to George Bourne, Team Durham’s sportsman of the year, whose year was topped off with a gold medal in the men’s quadruple sculls at the U23 World Rowing Championships.

However, as the new season rolled around, Covid-19 was still wreaking havoc on sport in Durham. While some sports were given the go-ahead to start training, yet others remained on the side-lines.

DURFC’s men’s 1s began their inaugural season in the Premier League. It has been a tough start, losing all of their first four games, but this takes nothing away from the very achievement that is Durham’s presence in the league.

There is surely more to come.

Elsewhere, despite being unable to take to the pitch, DURFC have had further success with third-year Josh Basham making his debut for Newcastle Falcons in November.

Off the pitch too, DURFC, alongside a host of other clubs, have been busy raising money for charity. They topped the fundraising table, with Josephine

Butler Football Club and Hatfield Rugby Club close behind amongst many others.

There was sadness too, as rugby in Durham lost a legend with the passing of Fergus King MBE. Even where sport has returned, it has been very different. Contact is limited, balls and cones have to be sanitised, and social distancing is in place where possible. Yet the fact that it is back at all is surely hope for a more sport-filled Epiphany Term.

While college sport had hardly got its boots back on before being sidelined again due to the second lockdown, plans are now in place for a swift return should conditions allow.

Whenever sport does return in 2021, it will surely do so with a greater appreciation than ever before. So many of us have missed sport in Durham at all levels.

Whether that be representing a University first team or a college E team, sport is central to the experience of so many students here in Durhm and has been sorely missed.

Its return cannot come soon enough.

A great deal has been written about the impact of the pandemic on cricket both in England and elsewhere. Men’s cricket, globally, seems to be slowly recovering – currently Australia and India are battling out in front of 20,000 socially-distanced fans, and Mumbai Indians have recently been crowned IPL champions for the fifth time.

But what about the women’s game? What effects has this pandemic, which has changed so many aspects of our lives, had on a sport which was enjoying rapid growth amongst girls in England, and which back in March had 86,000 people watch the T20 World Cup final?

There is plenty of cause for optimism, but most of this optimism is in England and Australia, and there is perhaps a danger that the pandemic will have widened the existing gap between these two nations and other international sides.

Palatinate spoke to Mark Mitchener, who has covered women’s cricket for the BBC Sport website for over a decade and knows the game inside out.

There is perhaps a danger that the pandemic will have widened the existing gap He spoke about the Women’s Hundred, a competition which was meant to mark a new era for the English domestic game but has been postponed until 2021. Could this mean a year of lost opportunity? Interest in and exposure of women’s cricket has been swiftly picking up momentum before, and even more so since, England’s 2017 World Cup win. What are the potential effects of not having the Hundred this year?

Mitchener says it may be a waiting game, and that “in terms of fan engagement, we may not know the full impact until next summer” when the Hundred has actually been played.

Continued on page 19