Palatinate 788

Palatinate Thursday 3rd November 2016 | No. 788

Women in science under the microscope SciTech (p.14-15)

University sexual violence strategy praised in national report

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& Indigo Features explore today’s post factual world (i.3-4)

Sport interview Rafa Benitez Champagne

Society placed on probation following summer ball Ryan Gould News Editor

Nightline, It Happens Here, Feminist Society crucial to helping meet objectives Emma Pinckard & Hugo Harris News Team Durham University has responded to the publication of the UUK Taskforce report, which examines “violence against women, harassment, and hate crime affecting university students.”

The “Changing the Culture” report makes a number of recommendations for UUK and universities across the country, focusing significantly on methods of prevention and effective response because “all university students…are entitled to enjoy a safe and positive experience at university.

“UK universities have a duty to ensure that outcome.”

Set up in September 2015, the Taskforce has, over the course of 12 months, considered information provided by several universities, the National Union of Students, the Union of Jewish Students, Rape Crisis, Tell MAMA, and Stonewall.

The report demonstrates that many universities have already taken key steps towards addressing issues of violence against women and hate crime, but also that “not every university had all of the necessary building blocks in place for effective prevention and

response.”

It also makes a series of recommendations in order to tackle the problem in universities both inside and outside the UK. The report highlights the need to engage and interact with students to discuss matters of violence, harassment, and hate crime on a regular basis, and establish an environment that actively encourages students to talk.

It recommends using senior leadership, the police, specialist services, and community leaders to tackle these issues from multiple angles.

It also emphasises the impact that can be achieved through working with students’ unions in order to influence and effect change across all areas of a university, highlighting the desire to adopt an “institution-wide approach.”

In order to do this, UUK promote the necessity of having “effective governance, data collection, and staff training” in addition to “robust risk management and regular impact assessments.”

It also recommends ensuring that there are established and accessible ways for students to report incidents of this kind.

The report has been identified as “the completion of the first...

Continued on page 4...

Photograph: wikimedia via creative commons

Durham University Champagne Society has been placed on probation by Durham Students’ Union after “serious concerns” were raised about the safety and conduct of the Society’s 2016 summer ball, which took place at Hardwick Hall following the examination period in June.

The Students’ Union received correspondence in July from then Pro-Vice Chancellor (Colleges and Student Experience), Professor Graham Towl, and the Chair of Durham City Partnership, expressing concerns about the conduct of the ball.

In documents distributed to Palatinate as attendees of an open Students’ Union Assembly meeting last Thursday, the Students’ Union notes that its Chief Executive was asked by the University to investigate the events of the ball “on the basis of the potentially life-threatening combination of excessive alcohol and students entering the water at Hardwick Hall.”

The Society deemed this “an isolated event.”

“Whilst the Champagne Society Exec engaged positively with Students’ Union staff, the police, and Hardwick Hall in the run up to the event, it became clear that the risk assessment put in place had not been delivered on the night,” the Students’ Union stated.

The Champagne Society has told Palatinate that it disagrees with the claim that the risk assessment put in place for the night was not delivered.

The Society said that it had agreed with the venue that any glass would not be taken outside of the marquee area, that there would be a member of security staff patrolling the outside area including the lake, that the quantities...

Continued on page 5...

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Editorial Champagne Society provide a reminder for all our societies In a student environment, it is inevitable that once in a while a story will emerge regarding alcohol-induced chaos at an event hosted by a student society.

Last week an eventful Students’ Union Assembly provided an inquest of the events at the Durham University Champagne Society ball in June. “Serious concerns” were raised regarding the safety and conduct of the event by both the Police and University.

As outlined on page 5, Champagne Society were eventually issued with a probation order but importantly their much anticipated Winter Ball will continue as planned. Following a damming verdict by the police, some may feel that Champagne Society had a lucky escape, particularly in comparison to the fates delivered to other societies recently for bad behaviour. The assertive response of the University and Students’ Union provide a reminder of the responsibilities all societies have in relation to conforming to the expectations that accompany the University banner.

The University and Students’ Union are increasingly proactive in their crack downs against badly behaving societies. All of us as students at Durham are still haunted by the tragedies that have blighted our student body over the past few years. This new approach is both understandable and reassuring.

However, as the biggest ball in Durham the scrutiny placed upon Champagne Society is in part an anomaly and I am reassured that we cannot expect undercover police presence at most socials.

Larger events inevitably yield the risk of more issues, but in discussions about the notorious June ball it is apparent that the vast proportion of the 1300 guests had a night to remember. Of course the manner of the night to remember could have easily switched.

While lessons must be learnt from Champagne Society, I am pleased that this edition of Palatinate has highlighted the positive contribution societies can make here at Durham.

It is welcome news to see the University sexual violence strategy praised nationally, imperative to this success has been the consultation of societies including Nightlife, It Happens and the Feminist society. These societies have raised awareness of important issues, such as consent on campus .

News Features (p.7) shine the light on the recently established Durham People of Colour Association. This Association provides an important source of representation, especially in a University regarded as less diverse in comparison to other campuses.

University societies enrich the student experience, they provide

opportunities and friendships, experiences and memories. I believe that is also true of Champagne Society in aiming to throw their biggest party. Consequently, it is important to ensure that momentary chaos and flashes of irresponsibility do not threaten this existence, and this is true for all of our societies.

Getting involved with Palatinate has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of University and testament to the positive experience that societies can create. It has been encouraging to see so many new contributors to Palatinate this year and we encourage you to get involved and raise article ideas with the relevant section editors on the side column of this page.

While we may not host the balls that other societies do, I must direct you to the interview we hosted with Newcastle manager, Rafa Benitez (p.18-19)- it is a great read!

It is this diversity of content across Palatinate which like all societies is inherent to our uniqueness.

Olly Mawhinney

Thursday 3rd November 2016 | PALATINATE

Inside 788

Editorial Board

What’s on page 3

Editors-in-Chief Oliver Mawhinney and Charlie Taylor-Kroll editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Ryan Gould and Emma Pinkard news@palatinate.org.uk News Features Editor Holly Bancroft news.features@palatinate.org.uk Deputy News Editors Hugo Harris, Sophie Gregory and Anna Tatham Politics Editor Mason Boycott-Owen politics@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Politics Editor Kate McIntosh and Profile Editors Lily Boulter and Jack Reed profile@palatinate.org.uk Science and Technology Editor Luke Andrews and Tommy Pallett scitech@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editor Adam Cunnane comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editor Scarlet Hannington Sport Editor Nick Friend sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Reece Moore and James Martland Indigo Editor Yongchan Chin indigo@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Indigo Editor Olivia Howcroft deputy.indigo@palatinate.org.uk Features Editor Sophie Paterson feature@palatinate.org.uk Food and Drink Editor Divya Shastri food@palatinate.org.uk Travel Editor Charis Cheesman and Naoise Murphy travel@palatinate.org.uk Fashion Editor Victor Schagerlund fashion@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Fashion Editor Emma Denison Film and Television Editor Simon Fearn film@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Film and Television Editor Eugene Smith Stage Editors Sofya Grebenkina stage@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Stage Editors Alison Gamble Music Editor Rory McInnes-Gibbons music@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Music Editor Beth Madden Creative Writing Editor Anna Gibbs creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk Books Editors Ellie Scorah and Aaron Bell books@palatinate.org.uk Visual Arts Editor Jane Simpkiss visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Visual Arts Editor Lolita Gendler Chief Sub-Editor Marianna Mukhametzyanova sub-editing@palatinate.org.uk Sub-Editors Harriet Cunningham, Jack Heeney, Inka Karna, Grace Long, Ollie Mair, Ciara Murphy, Violet Nicholson Online Editor Kat Hind online.editor@palatinate.org.uk Web Editor John Morris Photography Editor Grace Tseng photography@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Photography Editor Dai-Khue Le Duong and Max Luan Illustrations Editor Faye Chua illustration@palatinate.org.uk Advertising Officer Sian Round advertising@palatinate.org.uk Social Media Officer Elizabeth Watson Digital Coordinator Craig Bateman

News pages 4-7

Comment pages 8-10

Profile page 11 Politics pages 12-13 SciTech page 14-15 Sport pages 18-20

indigo

Editorial page 2 Fashion page 3-5 Music pages 6-7 Film & TV pages 7-8 Books page 8-9 Features page 10-11

Stage page 11-12 Visual Arts page 13 Food & Drink page 14 Travel page 15

Creative Writing page 16

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

COMMENT: We must support the Durham teaching assistants in their struggle Comment contributor Jack Hepworth argues for support for County Durham teaching assistants following plans to make redundant 2,700 TAs.

MUSIC: Review: Jamie T at Newcastle 02 Academy Kelly Norways welcomes the return of indie-rocker Jamie T to a packed crowd in Newcastle, performing a collection of old and new songs.

VISUAL ARTS: History of Art A-Level is not a soft subjectTrust me, I’m an engineeer Following the announcement that History of Art A-Level will be scraped, Ellen Coleman mourns the loss of the popular course.

FILM & TV ‘Black Mirror’ is fabulous, feel-bad TV Matthew Hilborn reviews the return of Charlie Brooker’s dark and speculative thriller ‘Black Mirror’.

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

PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd November 2016

Union President’s Column Recently the University have announced College accommodation fees for the 2017/18 academic year, with the cost rising by 1.6% from the previous year. I’m pleased with and recognise the efforts that the University has made in the last year to improve their consultation on accommodation fees, something that students having been calling for strongly.

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What’s On

Palatinate’s pick of the next fortnight

Unsurprisingly however, I still feel that we have work to do. We pay a premium rate for a varied quality of accommodation with limited choice and financial support system. University consultation needs to continue recognising the burden the overall level of these fees places on students and the fact that the new grants, while an improvement, are still below the levels offered by many other universities. Based on the progress made this year I’m optimistic that we can continue to work with the University to address these issues.

Alice Dee is President of the Durham Students’ Union

POLITICS US Presidential election night

The rate of the increase is significantly lower than previous years, and lower than we expected when we began campaigning, and I believe this is due to the strong student opposition to the rises and the increased efforts of the University to recognise student feedback.

The Students’ Union and Common Room Presidents have gathered student feedback and have successfully demonstrated to the University the inconsistency of these fees across different accommodation, which has also lead to exemptions and discounts for some rooms.

I understand that the base level of accommodation fees still represents a significant strain on many students. I also believe that the cost of accommodation should not be a barrier to access for prospective Durham students - and that it currently is. I welcome the University’s move to offer additional support to financially disadvantaged students in the form of accommodation fee discounts. The increase in support for students with a household income below £26,500 is really great progress.

Fisher House Bar 08/11/16; 21:30

Photograph: Creative Commons

SPORT

MUSIC

Men’s Floodlit Cup Robocobra Quartet Maiden Castle 09/11/16; 20:00

Empty Shop 09/11/16; 19:30

Men’s Floodlit Cup returned last week, with St Aidan’s edging past Stephenson on penalties after a 0-0 stalemate down at Maiden Castle. The first round continues every Wednesday between now and the end of term before the quarter-finals take place in February. This Wednesday (9/11/16) sees 2014 winners Hatfield take on Trevelyan on the Old Crumb. An 8pm start and never an occasion to be missed.

With a sound they describe as ‘free-punk’, this jazz-infused medley have earned themselves a strong reputation as a live act.

Hailing from Belfast, Robocobra Quartet have caught the attention of BBC Radio 6 and Rough Trade, as well as featuring in DIY and Loud and Quiet magazines.

A great opportunity to see an accelerating band at a unique and intimate venue.

VISUAL ARTS Hearing Voices

Palace Green 05/11/16 - 26/02/17 Hearing Voices, Palace Green’s latest exhibition explores the significance of, unsurprisingly, hearing voices, sound without images. Voice-hearing is typically recognised as being a symptom of mental disorders such as schizophrenia, but beyond this has a significant role in the way we understand and experience our lives.

Analysing voice hearing from its role in mysticism through the ages to imaginary friends to the role of the our own inner narrators when we write this exhibition explores the complex, mysterious and often strange phenomenon of hearing without seeing.

Ustinov Global Citizenship Programme will be hosting live US presidential election coverage.

Starting at 9.30pm the event will take place at Fisher House Bar in Durham City. This event is an opportunity to engage with the most controversial and divisive election in American history. And with polls still relatively tight, all eyes will be on states like Colorado and Florida where experts predict the result will be decided.

Expect suspense and drama as the American people finally put the question to bed: Trump or Clinton?

STAGE Pick of the fortnight Swallow, presented by Piccolo Theatre, The Assembly Rooms, 8pm; 3-5/11/16

Journey’s End, presented by DUCT, City Theatre, 7.30 pm; 3-5/11/16 The Graduate, presented by HBT, Caedmon Hall, 7.30pm; 9-12/11/16

The Ladykillers, presented by Oook! Productions, The Assembly Rooms, 7.30pm; 10-12/11/16 S Sweeney Todd, presented by DULOG, The Assembly Rooms, from the 16-19/11/16

PICK UP YOUR NEXT COPY OF PALATINATE ON THURSDAY 20th NOVEMBER

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Continued from page 1 ...stage of what will be an ongoing programme of work for Universities UK,” highlighting that there are still many areas that must be given attention, particularly online harassment and hate crime.

It also raises concerns about the guidance available to universities when a student’s disciplinary offence may also be a criminal offence. It concluded that the existing guidance, the Zellick Report, requires review and a new report will be published in Autumn 2016.

Clare McGlynn, a Professor at Durham Law School with particular expertise on the legal issues involving violence against women, told Palatinate that “2016 marks a welcome departure from the outdated Zellick guidelines.

“We now have clear guidance that universities have legal obligations, arising from equality and human rights law, to investigate complaints of sexual violence and misconduct.

“It is important that when we consider sexual violence and misconduct within universities, we are talking about the whole of the university community and not only students.”

It Happens Here Durham

Professor McGlynn suggested that ‘‘the most important task now for Durham University is to speedily implement the recommendations of the Sexual Violence Taskforce, which focus on introducing new policies and practices, providing support, and undertaking prevention measures.’’

She added: ‘‘We have recognised that [sexual violence] is a serious issue that requires senior level commitment and resourcing, and we now need to follow-through on our commitments.

“The international university community is watching us; we

Photograph: It Happens Here

need to live up to our reputation as leading in this area.”

Durham University itself made a significant contribution to the new ‘Changing the Culture’ report.

Its Sexual Violence Task Force (SVTF), a body founded in 2015 and chaired by Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Colleges and Student Experience) Professor Graham Towl, was cited

by Universities UK (UUK) as an example of a high-level strategy currently underway that sought to prevent and respond to incidents of violence against women, harassment, and hate crime.

The SVTF, beginning their research from the perspective “that no person should suffer the effects of sexual violence or misconduct alone,” was specifically praised by the UUK for providing ‘‘invaluable’’ feedback on ideas to combat sexual violence.

Consultation of groups such as Nightline, It Happens Here, and the Feminist Society was said to have been crucial in order for this objective to be met.

The Sexual Violence and Misconduct Operations Group (SVMOG), subsequently established by Durham University to deliver the recommendations of the SVTF, had aimed and indeed have found the resources to introduce three main initiatives over the last six months.

These were set out in the SVTF’s final report in July, the very report which launched the University’s SVMOG itself.

These initiatives included a doubling of the amount of specialist support offered to students through the Rape & Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre (RSACC).

From the 1st May 2016, the University arranged the funding for a specialist counsellor, for two days and one evening per week, to be on

“

Many of the points made in the UUK report confirm the recommendations put forward by the SVTF.

“

“

“

2016 marks a welcome departure from the outdated Zellick guidelines.

“Silence is not consent,” a campaign by It Happens Here

site in the Counselling Service.

The second initiative has seen an increase in levels of staff and student training, “to ensure that, as a minimum, there will be a member of staff with specialist training in sexual violence in each college to respond to disclosures (of sexual violence).”

Finally, the SVMOG has overseen the appointment of a Student Support and Training Officer (Sexual Violence and Misconduct). This role, held by Clarissa Humphreys, is the “first of its kind in the country.”

It involves “supporting the work of the SVMOG, focusing particularly on the implementation and delivery of training in the first instance.”

A University statement expressed that “the recent Universities UK (UUK) report ‘Changing the Culture’ cited the positive work undertaken at Durham University and listed it as a case study.

“Many of the points made in the UUK report confirm the recommendations put forward by the SVTF.” The University also noted that the “issue of sexual consent and

Photograph: Jade Correa

respect towards others was discussed as part of the safety talks given to first year students during Induction Week and additional workshops and online modules that discuss consent are being developed.”

Separately, Durham Students’ Union Community Officer, Joanna Gower, stated at the latest SU Assembly: “I will change attitudes about sexual violence and harassment because all students have the right to live without fear.”

She announced that the Students’ Union is working on a collaborative campaign with the University to tackle issues of sexual violence and harassment. This includes working directly with the newly appointed specialist counsellor.

Gower also emphasised the need to focus specifically on education as a method of prevention to reduce the number of incidents at the University.

To identify specific areas of risk at the University, Gower also announced her desire to set up an online reporting system for sexual harassment, similar to “Hollaback.”

Hollaback allows users to add a pin to locations where they experience harassment, making it easier to identify and tackle the problem on a smaller scale.

Gower would use the system to create a “comprehensive picture of where hate crimes happen in Durham,” in order to identify and reduce race, disability, and religion based harassment by working with bars and clubs to ensure they have a zero tolerance policy.

She expressed that it is essential to raise awareness that these are not “one-off” incidents, and that it happens more often than many students are aware.

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Society “determined to tackle the causes of issues” Continued from page 1, col 5... ...of alcohol had been pre-approved by the police, and that St John’s Ambulance would be present on the night in the event of any unforeseen circumstances.

Background provided by the Students’ Union in the Assembly papers emphasises that it has “taken this matter extremely seriously and recognises the potential legal and reputational challenges presented.

“As a student-led organisation, the Students’ Union believes it is important for student leaders to debate this matter and decide what, if any, sanctions are to be taken against the Society.”

The documents outline how a number of police officers, many of whom “were not actually on duty and therefore attended without being paid,” attended Hardwick Hall on the evening on the Society’s ball due to the “number of incidents reported and because they had serious concerns about the safety of students in attendance.

“Initially a small number of [police] officers attended to monitor the event, however they had to call for back up due to the severity and volume of incidents.”

Questioning the “severity and volume” of the incidents, the Society told Palatinate that only one ambulance was called to the venue, by the St John’s Ambulance team, at 2:40am.

The Students’ Union has held “several constructive meetings” with the police, with its Policy Manager, Governance Director, and President having viewed police “bodycam footage” recorded on the evening of the ball.

Summarising what was apparently witnessed on the night, the document states that “a number of female students were unconscious due to being so intoxicated [sic],” with two students taken to hospital.

The Society stated that the cause for two students being taken to hospital is unclear.

“The St John’s Ambulance volunteers in attendance were ill-prepared for the levels of intoxication and struggled to respond to the more serious incidents,” the document reads.

“In one piece of footage two volunteers are seen carrying an unconscious student up a flight of stairs in a blanket.”

“The police reported that the volunteers did not know what to do whence faced with students losing consciousness and simply called 999.”

The Society reiterated that “only one ambulance was called by St John’s. The fact that they were not able to deal with the incidents is not our fault due to the fact that we implemented our risk assessment by having them present.”

Among other concerns, the document questions the amount of alcohol that was consumed by some members of the Executive Committee.

“The video footage taken by the police officers can under no circumstances prove that members of the Exec were under the influence of alcohol. There were no breathalyser recordings taken. We strongly refute this.”

It is also alleged that “in another piece of footage, police officers are expressing deep concern for students in the pond [at Hardwick Hall]. On a number of occasions, officers can be heard ordering the students to get out of the water.”

Some of the students who entered the water were reportedly naked.

Separately, a letter sent to Professor Towl by the Chair of the Durham City Partnership, established following the river deaths of three Durham University students in 2014/15, claims that “students vomited on police officers and others due to excessive drinking.”

The same letter also states that the police “informed the Partnership that Hardwick Hall do not appear to be taking the concerns they have raised with the venue seriously. The police have serious concerns about the way in which the event was managed by the Hall.”

The Students’ Union has emphasised that the new Executive Committee of the Champagne Society has cooperated and engaged since the June ball, with a meeting held between the Students’ Union and the Society in early October.

“The new Executive [sic] seemed conciliatory and aware of the failings of the summer ball. They understood the severity of what happened in terms of the safety of students and accepted that the failure to properly implement the risk mitigations was the responsibility of the Champagne Society and specifically, the Exec,” the Students’ Union states in the papers.

In response, the Champagne Society said: “For many of the students whom attended, this ball was the highlight of their Durham experience.

“The Champagne Society has a history of throwing fantastic balls, which is something we wish to continue.”

The Society also questions “whether the failure to implement the risk assessment was all of [their] responsibility.”

The Students’ Union highlights that the Society were “honest about the fact that there were excessive amounts of champagne available on the night” due to the fact that “magnums of champagne—as opposed to bottles—were delivered in error.”

A magnum of champagne, containing 1.5 litres, is equal to two standard bottles.

In addition to the champagne provided, the Society said that the venue “neglected their responsibility to stop serving students whom had clearly already had too much to drink. This was something that we had briefed [the venue] on.”

Responding to the allegations raised by the police and the Durham

City Partnership, the Society has stated they are “fully committed to working in close alliance with both the police and Durham Students’ Union in order to create events which are fundamentally safe for the student body.

“We are determined to tackle the causes of the issues which have been raised and are fully committed in preventing these from happening in the future.”

Assembly members voted in favour of “education and probation” for the Champagne Society at the meeting, with the other options being a formal written warning, suspension, or de-ratification of the Society as a whole.

“Champagne Society will be put on probation until Epiphany term,” the papers state. “To avoid further sanctions, the Society will have to demonstrate improvements in the implementation of risk assessments and their commitment to student safety.”

As part of this measure, the Society

will be required to engage in training on events planning and management, liaise with the Students’ Union and police regarding future events, and work with the Students’ Union “to develop an action plan for the year ahead—including plans for future events and improvements that are going to be made.”

Alice Dee, President of Durham Students’ Union, told Palatinate that “the concerns expressed from the police and other organisations are sufficiently threatening to student safety that the Students’ Union has to act.

“Fundamentally, being student-led is at the heart of everything we do, which is why myself and the Officer team felt that the Champagne Society Exec should be given the opportunity to address the concerns raised, but also that Assembly should shape the SU response,” Dee said.

“It’s important that student groups retain the right to use the name ‘Durham University’ in their title, and it’s

not fair for the actions of one group to affect our other student organisations.

“I’m looking forward to working with the Exec and reviewing the lessons which will hopefully be learnt following their Winter Ball.”

In the Assembly papers, the Society states: “Fundamentally, the ball that we threw on the 5th June was the largest ball that has ever been thrown by any Durham University Society in recent times.

“Due to the sheer nature and size of the event, the amount of problems which occurred were always going to be greater than that of other events.”

In a separate statement to Palatinate, Durham University Champagne Society said that it “welcomes the decision of the Durham Students’ Union.

“We look forward to working with them and other supportive bodies in the future, to help ensure that our balls are run safely and enjoyably.”

Applications

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University Commission on Divestment releases first statement Anna Tatham Deputy News Editor

Durham University’s Commission on Divestment from Fossil Fuels has released its first statement in relation to its decision to consider divestment from companies “that participate in the extraction of fossil fuel reserves.”

The Commission was established by the University Executive Committee (UEC) on the 19th July 2016 with the aim to review investment in the fossil fuel industry and evaluate the possible consequences of divestment for the University.

The debate surrounding fossil fuel divestment at the University has been a significant topic since March 2015, when Palatinate found that the University had invested over £4.5 million in fossil fuel companies.

Following the release of this information, a number of student organisations including People and Planet and Durham Young Greens have pushed and campaigned for the University to reconsider their policy regarding these investments.

In addition to these student demonstrations, former leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, signed three letters to the University, Durham Cathedral, and Durham County Council asking them to withdraw any investments in fossil fuel companies.

Initially, the University told Palatinate: “We have no plans to withdraw from investing or engaging in research financed from fossil fuel companies.”

Student groups have campaigned for divestment

ties,” therefore tackling this issue ty’s Chief Financial Officer, and the However, following a consulta“needs to consider the interests of University’s Director of Governtion with Durham Students’ Union relevant stakeholders across the ance and Executive Support. the Commission will now be conwhole of the University.”

The statement released on sidering divestment from compaUpon its establishment Pro- the 25th October 2016 encournies utilising fossil fuel reserves. fessor David Cowling, Pro-Vice- ages University staff, students and Within this first statement the Chancellor of Arts and Humanities, alumni to submit their opinions Commission stressed that it “recstressed that “all staff and students on the possibility of Durham Uniognises and welcomes the engagewill be given the opportunity to versity divesting from companies ment of the Student’s Union with contribute to the review.” involved in fossil fuel extraction, this important issue.”

The Commission is comprised despite its current involvement in The Commission has admitof faculty representatives, a rep- renewable and green technologies. ted that the issue of divestment resentative of the University ReIt also highlights that “Durham is “broad, complex and multifacsearch Institutes, student body University currently has no dieted involving many different Unirepresentatives, Durham Universi- rect investment holdings in fossil versity departments and activi-

Photograph: James Ennis

fuel companies. Its investments are held in funds administered by investment management companies.”

Feedback is also welcomed in order to decipher how the University “as a catalyst for change can engage in the debate about responding to climate change.”

Interested parties can submit their views online.

The consultation will close on the 31st December 2016.

Student housing laws extended to protect family homes Sophie Gregory Deputy News Editor Laws regarding student housing have been extended in order to discourage family homes from being rented out as student accommodation.

Already introduced in Durham, planning rules and regulations have now been extended to include Framwellgate Moor, Newton Hall and Pity Me. Those landlords who do wish to convert homes into homes of multiple occupation (HMOs) will now be required to apply for planning permission.

Framwellgate Moor councillors Mark Wilkes, Amanda Hopgood, and Mamie Simmons are encour-

aging of the scheme as they believe there is a great threat posed by HMOs, which are causing increasing problems in the local areas.

Councillor Hopgood reported that “parking issues in some areas are becoming dangerous” whilst Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for economic regeneration and culture, Councillor Neil Foster, admitted that “student accommodation is a key issue for residents.”

Foster stated that “the contribution students make to both the culture and economy of Durham cannot be underestimated but it’s essential that we have balanced communities across the city and beyond.”

Fears remain however around the influence of students and Dur-

ham University on the town of Durham itself.

Alongside the announcement that the University expects an increase of 5,700 students living in the city by 2017, the proposals for a £350 million investment in buildings, new colleges, and two new teaching hubs are causing worry.

Douglas Pocock, Chair of the City of Durham Trust, voiced these concerns: “They’ve got a huge estate, it’s the biggest in the city.

They’ve got the land but can our little town really withstand that?

Should the city adjust to the university or should the university adjust to the city.”

Student housing laws have been extended

Photograph: Venus Loi

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Durham: A racially homogenous university? The set up of the DPOCA Holly Bancroft News Features Editor

“

We aim to create a real life space, holding discussion around topics of sensitivity

“

students were not being discussed or represented and created the association as a place people could turn to if they faced issues of racism. The great majority of Durham’s faculty are also white and so, as they point out, it is hard to report racially motivated incidents to University staff.

Iris, talking about the plans of the association said, “We are going to start weekly socials, a place where you can share experiences

The first AGM of the Durham People of Colour Association

and discuss. When people have been on the receiving end of racism they need a safe space where they can kind of vent.

We aim to create a real life space, holding discussion around topics of sensitivity, for example cultural privilege.”

Currently the group are running a number of Black History Month events which the Durham Student’s Union had actually asked them to plan.

The girls’ main point of contact at the DSU is Jo Gower, the communities and welfare officer, who like many, on hearing about the DPOCA, agreed that this association is something Durham has been needing for a long time. In fact the DSU seems to be really behind the set up of the association.

Although the DSU saw that there was a gap of BME student voice, it has been hard to do anything about that without an increase of student will.

It is hard to set up an association representing people of colour if you yourself are not a person of colour. The emergence of this association is exactly what many have been wishing for, and it’s finally here.

So what does ‘association’ mean? It is not very common for an association to be set up because unlike a society, which comes together to celebrate common inter-

est or culture, an association is a representative body.

As Iris said when talking to Palatinate, “They exist to represent a community of people, liase with the DSU and affect change.”

Other associations in Durham include: LGBT, International Students and Mature Students. The DPOCA has crafted their own constitution and alongside support from the DSU have developed plans for sustainability and longterm, as well as short-term, aims.

Their first big aim is to develop an equality and diversity code of conduct because the University doesn’t actually have one.

This code of conduct, Tra My Hickin said, “outlines a procedure for dealing with racially motivated incidents, equality not just in terms of race but every facet of someone’s identity.” Although most London universities have something like this, it would be something new to Durham.

Their other aims include getting more BME students working as Open Day ambassadors. “When people evaluate Durham they also look at the social make-up of the University.”

Prospective students choose where to go based on how welcoming the community feels and whether you can identify with people already there.

When speaking to Palatinate,

Photograph: Sankirtana Soc

Iris said, “It is incredibly important to see people from the same background as you that you can look up to, who are similar to you.”

A lot of the interest in DPOCA has come from older students.

It seems that 3rd and 4th years, having been in Durham for a few years, recognise that Durham profoundly needs more representation from people of colour and that a homogenous student make-up is not a good thing.

Their first AGM was held at the Empty Shop and was run as an open mic event where people

“

It is incredibly important to see people from the same background as you, that you can look up to, who are similar to you

“

The year is 2016 and for the first time ever Durham University has got a Durham People of Colour Association.

Despite an intake of around 4000 Black, Minority, Ethnic students each year, Durham has continuously lacked any form of representation for this group.

Something which is so important in a University community which is known, comparatively to other British universities, for not being very diverse. Palatinate had the fantastic chance of talking to the founders behind this student association. Finally a safe space has been created for people of colour in Durham to gather together, promote their cultures and uniquely discuss an often tough shared experience.

The founders of Durham People of Colour Association are Iris Lang, Tra My Hickin and Nancy Huang, second years from Van Mildert and Cuths. The association was borne out of an idea they had in June, “Our first years were coming to an end and we felt like there was a big absence of racial dialogue.”

Because Durham is so racially homogenous, race often gets overlooked because it is assumed to not be a big issue here. The three recognised that the issues of BME

came and performed.

There was a variety of music in different languages from their own cultures, and some performance poetry. The event went down really well with the venue being full to bursting.

Their plans are not limited to their own association either.

They are currently liaising with the Feminist society and the Documentary and Film society to create original content for Black History Month.

In fact there are other people in the process of setting up an African and Caribbean Society which is still in the fledgling stages.

This seems to be part of a promising a new movement to recognise the minorities that Durham does have in it’s student base, not only through rejoicing in the rich contributions they can make, but also to have their views represented.

That is what makes the DPOCA so unique. “We are more politicised in a way, we deal with more serious issues.

We are not just focussing on celebrating our cultural heritage but also discussing the issues that being from a unique cultural heritage brings us. There are a lot of people who don’t fit into separate societies.”

The DPOCA aims to be an allencompassing place where people can mutually encourage each other and see their views change the university in which they live and study.

Palatinate asked the University for comment on racist incidents in it’s reporting last academic year.

They said, “We understand that racist incidents in society are under-reported. Where such incidents are reported to the University it is likely that they would be categorised as hate crimes.” Hopefully the DPOCA will be a more accessible platform in which people can give support to each other as these issues are tackled.

The survey run by Palatinate in May found that 70.2% of the students who took part felt that colleges and the Students’ Union should improve BME representation. The want and will is now here, hopefully this means a new awakening of the BME student voice.

Palatinate really care about these issues and want to be a platform for all voices from varying backgrounds. Flick to the Comment section for personal accounts of being a BME student in Durham and if you want to write for us please email news.features@palatinate.org.uk with any ideas.

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Thursday 3rd November 2016 | PALATINATE

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The UK should decriminalise cannabis Durham Council’s progressive attitude should be matched by the rest of the UK

Durham County Council has stopped arresting casual users of cannabis

Archie Vaughan The legalisation of cannabis has become an increasingly contentious issue in the last few years, with the Liberal Democrats becoming the first mainstream party to advocate a regulated legal market for the drug. Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Norman Lamb suggested that “Parliament is a long way behind the public” in its outdated perception of cannabis.

Claimed to be the last fundamental piece of prohibition, with the storming success of recreational legalisation in now four of the US states, it seems inevitable that the movement will gain serious traction in the next few years in the UK. Durham County itself is pioneering a more progressive outlook by decriminalising cannabis through no longer arresting casual users and ending the pursuit of small-scale growers. The recognition that smoking a joint isn’t going to transform you into an anti-social maniac has allowed the reallocation of police resources to more significant crimes.

Economically, the feasible tax rewards of legalisation are outstand-

ing with estimations that the UK government could raise one billion pounds in taxes a year (Washington State alone raised $70m last year from marijuana sales). It would also free up vast prison expenses, as it costs £40,000 for each year a prisoner spends incarcerated.

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Economically, the tax rewards are outstanding

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As prison populations continue to climb spearheaded by minor drug offences, overcrowding is becoming yet another unnecessary issue prompted by the war on drugs.

Through more in-depth study of the natural herb itself, scientists have discovered its overwhelming medicinal and recreational attributes. By manipulating the quan-

tity of a chemical called Cannabidiol during growth, the plant has been known to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, reduce seizures and relieve pain. Commonly used to treat ailments across the United States ranging from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Epilepsy, the legitimate medicinal benefits of cannabis cannot be refuted. Users across the world have also pointed to cannabis’ alleviation of symptoms of depression, anxiety and agoraphobia which evidences its socially beneficial qualities.

The anti-legalisation campaign has, naturally, raised some serious concerns. Primarily with regards to the negative health side effects of chronic cannabis usage. The UK government’s staunch belief that the drug is a cause of detrimental mental health issues, and that legalisation would merely propagate access to a toxic and dangerous substance, epitomises popular fears.

Fundamentally, cannabis has only been proven to be dangerous because of the unregulated criminal market in which it currently exists and the lack of education about how it can be safely used. There has been a plethora of studies that prove both alcohol and tobacco to be more in-

Photograph: deviat_ed via creative commons ternally damaging, but there have also been studies that claim the opposite. The truth is, because cannabis is scheduled as a Class B drug, research into it is greatly hindered and so no progress is made.

What lies beneath the surface is also important and often overlooked. The war on drugs, declared

by Richard Nixon in 1971, has been a failure. It has caused mass incarceration in the United States, political destabilisation and violence in Latin America. Through attempting to eradicate the supply of drugs, we have ignored the fact that the drug market is not price sensitive, as consumers will pay for them regardless of the cost.

The American Drug Enforcement Agency has thus had an efficiency rate of less than 1% in terms of stopping the flow of drugs into the US. “No criminal is interested in your welfare. So regulating the sale of cannabis, controlling the potency and taking the trade away from criminals makes sense in terms of public health and community safety”, Norman Lamb effectively summarised.

The international consensus still, from the surface, seems predominantly negative towards taking a different stance to the failed war on drugs. But both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have

publicly expressed support for state legalisation for medicinal purposes, but waver on the benefits of recreational use, frequently resorting to outdated comments such as “it’s causing a lot of problems out there” (Trump, 2016). It also seems in the interests of big pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol companies who fund presidential campaigns to prevent legalisation at all costs, based on the flawed presumption that it would damage their revenues. When realistically, Colorado, within 18 months of legalisation, witnessed no fall in the sales of alcohol.

Legalisation seems to be inevitable. The marijuana market is going to be huge across the world, and I hope people accept and embrace it in a constructive way.

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The War on Drugs has been a failure

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd November 2016

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Free speech: on no-platforming and infantilisation In order to strengthen tenets of our society, we need to challenge them Matthew Chalmers The modern Left, which I am prepared to heavily associate myself with, has developed a singularly annoying trait: the trait of chauvinistic infantilism. Let me clarify what I mean. Chauvinistic infantilism refers to what Person One exhibits in this sample of dialogue: Person One: What did you vote for in the EU referendum?

Person Two: I voted for Brexit.

Immigration has introduced a lot of pressures into my community. I just want my children to have good jobs, that’s all.

Person One: How could you say that? You’re racist!

Person Two: I’m not racist, I just told you that I’m facing real problems and…

Person One: (Screaming) RACIST! Such behaviour is infantile. It shows zero engagement with anything that contradicts the speaker’s views. It results in labelling people with charged, emotional and unneeded terms (racist, fascist) because one’s infantile approach refuses to acknowledge deviance

from the liberal, left-wing canon as anything more than cryptoBNP support. It is chauvinistic for the same reasons; any critics of one’s position are immediately exposed as undercover SS corporals who feast on the flesh of im-

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There’s a culture ... of being nannied

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migrant c h i l d r e n .

Where has all the thought gone? Where’s the civility, the debate, the critical thinking?

I am of course being more than a little facetious, and I generalise my comrades far too meanly.

Moreover this problem is not endemic to the political Left.

But it is disappointing to see the

above attitude in so many people.

I think, for one, there’s a culture, which we help grow at university, of being nannied. Of feeling entitled to being protected from nasty ideas, or even contradictory ideas.

It can be quite an arrogant culture, the type that pooh-poohs UKIP as a fringe protest movement, as if it didn’t get nearly four million votes in 2015, because nobody could possibly be that stupid.

The NUS’s policy of no-platforming undesirable speakers encapsulates this culture, and indeed promotes it. The ‘free-speech for some for the safety of others’ policy they promote is patronising and intellectually insulting.

The childish desire to be protected from scary ideas, and to dismiss Nigel Farage and co. as phantasmagorical bogeymen is not entirely our fault. It is natural to seek out others who agree with you, and one can easily become immersed in a bubble of friends, especially at university, who all broadly support your politics.

However, I am bored of furiously agreeing with my brothers and sisters on the Left. I want hard debates back, ones which ignite our tempers, make us grind our teeth, scratch tables with fury,

to speak with burning passion. I want to become more militant in my resolve and to do this I need to battle some disgusting ideas.

What I mean is let’s toughen up. I love and celebrate secularism, LGBT rights, women’s rights, anti-fascist movements, democracy, welfare.

These are cornerstones of leftist ideology; I want these cornerstones to be crudely challenged so

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Where’s the critical thinking?

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we can rediscover why it is we upheld those ideas in the first place.

This, in my view, will help breed a tougher, more critical and more fiercely independent generation of

students, be they left or right wing.

This is the kind of spirit we need out there in the world, not the sluggish, boring moan of the ‘I’m offended therefore you’re wrong’ attitude I’m growing tired of hearing.

The old liberal theory that in a free market of ideas the best will emerge triumphant still holds weight.

So I say let loose the fascists, the Islamists, the homophobes. To cower behind the skirts of no-platforming is to admit that you haven’t any confidence in your belief system.

To say ‘I find your beliefs so detestable that I won’t let you speak’ is ultimately a painfully weak position, and an obvious insult to free speech.

Say rather ‘I find your beliefs so detestable that I will not hold back in dismantling every filthy lie you can muster’.

It’s the difference between locking the monster in the attic and bundling it into the incinerator.

No more no-platforming and no more chauvinistic infantilism.

Let’s come together and engage in challenging, aggressive debates in which no stone is left unturned.

Sexual repression is not the only cause of sexual harassment Dana Jaf The passport I gave to the U.K. immigration officer at Heathrow is second to none in the list of worst passports in the world.

Basically, I need a visa to get out from Iraq to anywhere and everywhere on planet earth. I stayed one week in London before collecting my bags and heading towards a town which is the exact opposite of London; Durham, to study for a Masters in Anthropology.

As a newcomer to this land, I found it impossible not to try to understand the society and to compare this society to my own.

One major difference between my society, a conservative Muslim Kurdish society with strict traditions related to marriage and sex, and an open society like that of Britain, is the topic of relationships between men and women. Living in college and seeing the normal access of girls and boys to each other in a very normal and natural way allowed me to see this aspect more fully.

Coming from a society where all unmarried boys and girls, that includes me as well, are expected to be virgins, and sometimes the very public mention of topics related to sexuality is considered impolite or even taboo, what I saw was new and interesting.

My country has a high rate of sexual harassment and I had always believed that this was caused by sexual repression (data from a Muslim country like Egypt shows there is no difference between girls with or without the hijab when it comes to being sexually harassed).

Seeing young girls and boys talking, sitting, and hugging normally and also sleeping together with no feeling of fear or shame was a kind of confirmation that if people were allowed to live their sex life the way they want, then sexual harassment will be an issue of the past.

While I made a conscious decision to resist the temptations of the freshers’ week and stay a virgin, I was happy to see a hypothesis I had come true.

However, it took very few

days to understand that the normal relationship between boys and girls I was witnessing from

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An open society should not fear debating its problems openly

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outside was only a small part of the picture as articles one after another on rape, consent, and harassment proliferated in Durham’s student newspapers.

Further to this, knowing about a case of attempted rape of a girl I had met in my first week made me rethink my constructed model of sexual relationships.

The question was, if sexual repression leads to boys expressing their desires in violent ways and exploiting any opportunity to reach the body of the other sex, why in a place where sexual freedom is at its ultimate level, is sexual harassment still a problem?

One of the major claims made by some Europeans with anti-refugee discourse is that these refugees are sexually repressed and once they reach the freedom of the West, they attack, harass and rape the beautiful Western women.

It is true that many boys in sexually repressed societies such as mine have sexual fantasies about the West and that may lead to abhorrent acts as well, however, that alone does not answer the question of the roots and reasons of sexual harassment.

The fact that a heated debate at a university like Durham which has a majority of white British students is sexual harassment tells us that the causes underlying sexual harassment are too complicated to be seen as a topic for scapegoating a particular community or way of life.

One thing I appreciate though is the ability of people, including victims of sexual harassment, to speak up and openly talk about it.

This is something victims of sexual harassment in sexually repressed societies do not have. Everything happens in secret; the assault and the agonies of the victim.

An open society should not fear debating its problems openly. Sexual harassment and rape are things which should not exist on a university campus, and if they do, it means there is something hugely wrong with how things are understood and done.

I am happy to be gaining some experience and training as an Anthropology student to better understand this question and other questions directly related to culture and society.

P

Have a different opinion to share? Email comment@palatinate.org.uk

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Thursday 3rd November 2016| PALATINATE

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Political ideology is the biggest threat to Britain’s railways Danny Walker The summer of 2016 was tumultuous for British politics. On June 23rd, the UK voted to leave the EU, ending its 43-year association with the political and economic bloc. We then experienced a change in leadership with Theresa May replacing David Cameron as Prime Minister, as well as much of his administration. Finally, both the second- and third-largest parties by vote share in the 2015 general election, Labour and Ukip, undertook particularly gruelling leadership contests. George Eaton had a point when he argued, writing in the New Statesman in July, that 2016 is “one of the ruptures...the UK is given roughly every 35 years.”

Yet one policy area has stimulated debate just as frequently as our EU membership: our trains. Britain’s railways face two competing but blinkered ideologies, manifesting in calls for nationalisation or privatisation. Jeremy Corbyn has renewed left-wing, ‘nationalising’ approaches to public transportation, which effectively cites ‘government’ as the panacea for all ills – inefficient services, strikes over pay and rocketing fares. However, Corbyn was recently undermined by his ‘Traingate’ video debacle, in which he exaggerated the extent of overcrowding on a midmorning East Coast service. In the face of evidence which suggested overcrowding is a time-specific problem, Corbyn chose to generalise and misrepresent this situation in order to advance his ideological cause: more government to ‘fix’ our railway crisis. The Conservative Party are no better. Today’s neo-Thatcherites are poles apart from Corbyn’s Labour; yet like the Left, the Right are driven deeply by ideology. The Tory-led coalition highlighted their dogma with the privatisation of the East Coast (EC) main line. East Coast actually generated a profit for the taxpayer under public ownership, albeit with the convoluted system whereby the government subsidises the operator, Network Rail (NR), directly, thus reducing EC’s contributions to NR. Nevertheless, the profit enabled the government to charge more affordable fares and mitigated the Department of Transport’s contributions to the

national budget deficit. In addition, East Coast had a far-from-stable governance under past private operators GNER and National Express – they both cancelled their franchises for financial reasons, evidence which debunks the right-wing argument that privatisation always raises efficiency.

Virgin has operated the franchise since 2015, administering two fare rises this year. The second, 1.4% in September, was described as ‘blatant profiteering’ by Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald. So the government would ostensibly rather taxpayers and commuters were worse off than suffer the ignominy of running public transportation.

Why do this country’s main political parties, unfailingly ideological in method, continue to attract such support? Perhaps it is a wider symptom of the death of ‘centrist’ politics. A balanced approach to public transportation between private and public railway franchises is not being articulated. Therefore the public must lend their support to the position

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Like the Left, the Right are driven deeply by ideology

riages for the Great Western rail franchise to Hitachi, a Japanese company operating in Italy – even after David Cameron had trumpeted the work as good for ‘local…highly-skilled manufacturing’ in Derby.

Moreover, Cameron’s misrepresentation of reality, just like ‘Traingate’, indicates the way in which both parties portray their own ideas as orthodox and moderate, whilst their opponents are caricatured as extreme ideologues. This merely worsens the division of voters into polarised camps, viewing the other as the enemy with whom they cannot compromise. In turn, the parties respond with yet more ideology. This catch-22 creates simplistic, unsolvable debates in the public sphere: with such competing, rigid principles, no one can be happy with the compromise. Theresa May’s government has a lot to do to abate this process.

Ultimately, the public deserves a more rigorous, evidence-based approach to such issues than that currently offered by the main two political parties:. The East Coast affair illustrates the Conservatives’ commitment to privatisation at all costs, whereas Corbyn proposes allowing all private licenses to expire and eventually renationalise, which will be expensive and require major structural changes. Is this policy

indiscriminately appropriate for all rail franchises? We need an approach that considers the nuances of the situation, such as why some franchises are more profitable than others, and the significance of time

political discourse, but this debate is significant because it illuminates the ideological limits to solving the biggest and most urgent problems of our day. Jeremy Corbyn faced a leadership challenge because he was seen as insufficiently defensive of the EU. Yet critics on the right also condemned him for having not ‘stuck to his principles’ of opposing further EU expansion as an MP since 1983, refusing to accept that his position had to change on becoming Labour leader. Michael Gove’s claim that ‘this country has had enough of experts’, preferring instead ideology and emotion, was the icing on the cake.

Less ideological and more evidence-based politics would benefit society, but do the political elites or indeed the body politic itself seek this change? It may seem anachronistic to call for moderate, compromising politicians in an era where the public appears to loathe the ‘PR’ image such of travel to public and private profits. individuals project – but this may be We need an approach that recognizes just what this country needs. that better-off consumers can benefit the economy, as can profitable private train companies, so long as they do Have a differnot charge exorbitant fares. We need ent opinion to an approach that tackles, not stigmashare? tises or celebrates, the sensitive issue Email comof strikes over pay. ment@palatiThe subject of our railways only nate.org.uk occupies a segment of mainstream

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This merely worsens the division of voters into polarised camps

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with which they broadly agree with and oppose that with which they broadly disagree. But from a governing perspective, surely it is important to consider whether public or private franchises, or some combination of the two, are most effective in each individual case?

Theresa May’s decision to permit the £24.3bn takeover of ARM holdings

by SoftBank of Japan, early in her Prime Ministership, has been argued to illustrate her ‘case-by-case [and interventionist] approach’ to privatisation. But then again, as Private Eye revealed in August, her government awarded the contract to build 63 car-

Illustration by Akansha Naraindas

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd November 2016

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Jordan Sheath: Between Law Studies and Song Lyrics The musician and Durham law undergraduate on finding the right balance in his life and why he isn’t just ‘lusting for fame’

The suited singer-songwriter

Sally Svenlén Going to university and choosing what to study is undeniably a lot of pressure. For many people it may feel like you are deciding upon what you want to do for the rest of your life.

For law-fresher Jordan Sheath this is hardly the case - not only will he be burying his head in contract law books this year, he will also be releasing his second album.

Born and raised in Southampton, Jordan made his musical debut at age five in his primary school’s Christmas musical as the singing postman.

It was his first time performing on stage and the positive reaction to his performance encouraged him to pursue his musical interests.

Jordan was never interested in taking singing lessons. Instead he started teaching himself guitar at the age of 14, partly because of one of his big music inspirations. “I saw Ed Sheeran, before he was famous, play in Southampton. And you could already see then that he was going to be really, really special. That was the first proper gig I went to. I think he’s brilliant because obviously nowadays in the industry it’s very rare that you get a famous singer who also writes all his songs without any help.”

Photograph: Sandra Kay Foster

Jordan’s first attempt to write his own music was when he was 9 years old. He wrote a song about the passing away of his grandma, which he sang for his parents. After that he continued to develop his writing, later adding chords with his guitar.

Doing music professionally was not initially on the cards. Howeve, a school project involving producing songs gave Jordan a route into the music industry. Suddenly he was on the top iTunes chart between Ed Sheeran and One Direction (a screenshot his mum now proudly has on her wall at home): “it was the first time I ever thought: okay maybe I can make a career out of this.”

It was also around this time that he met his current producer, Olly. He helped Jordan produce his songs in his school project and they have been working together ever since. Jordan emphasises what an extremely important part Olly plays in the making of his music. Even though Jordan writes the music and lyrics, Olly is “the one who brings all these boring acoustic songs into life. A lot of credit goes to the production side of music because without them it would just be me and a guitar.”

Jordan has received support in his choice to go to university. “They actually find it quite funny I’m going into law because of the contrast. Think of the stereotypical idea of an acoustic

musician, a guy with a guitar, and compare that to a lawyer in a suit!”

Nevertheless, Jordan had always enjoyed school. His parents pushed him to prioritise studies over music, and he’s always loved writing and been a keen reader. This made law a suitable choice for his university degree: “I’m also very interested in how law effects everyday situations. It’s a subject that has a bearing on every single facet of society.”

Jordan is not shying away from the extracurricular activities on offer at Durham either. He is a member of Jam Society, a football team and charity-focused activities as part of CATSS and DUCK. Charity has played an important role in the development of his musical career too. Since the age of 16 Jordan has been travelling to Africa every year to help with disadvantaged children. On his first visit he decided to take his guitar and ended up performing his single ‘Superman’ for the first time in public to them.

Jordan used to be quite nervous performing: “My leg used to shake so bad, I was like ‘keep my leg still, keep my leg still.’’’ But ever since that special performance, he’s been comfortable performing around people. “It was their reception to it that caused me to think: I can actually release this on iTunes and Spotify and maybe make something of it. They gave me the confidence to do that. I try returning every year and just try to do my bit to help out. These kids are living in very difficult situations but they are really the happiest kids I’ve ever seen. They are a big inspiration for me.”

Aside from travelling to Africa, Central and North America during his gap year, Jordan was also in

Jordan taught himself to play age 14

Brighton recording his new album ‘Skip the Small Talk’, to be released in December or January. Jordan is honest about his albums, comment

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Think of the stereotypical idea of an acoustic musician, a guy with a guitar, and compare that to a lawyer in a suit!

”

ing on his first album that “my song writing was at that stage still quite immature I would say.” However his new album has really allowed him to grow. “It’s about a relationship I had this past year when I was 18. It basically goes through every single stage [of] that relationship. And it goes into quite a lot of detail, it’s quite revealing. And yeah I would definitely say my song writing has matured and started to reveal more and more about the emotional side of relationships.”

Until his album is released, Jordan is focusing on building up his fan base; “mainly in social media, releasing lots of cover songs, trying

Photograph: Sandra Kay Foster

to get people interested in my music.

It’s been three years since I released my first album so it’s been a big gap I’ve taken.” Jordan is becoming more aware of the fans he already has. One of his flatmate’s sister went crazy when she heard Jordan was living in the same corridor as her sister as she has been a big fan of his ever since he released his first song. She is coming up to visit soon, whether to visit her sister or to see Jordan I didn’t ask.

“That was surreal, you know, that I had a fan.”

Jordan loves Durham and the many social opportunities it offers, both through the college system and with its small size. “Anywhere you go in the city you meet someone you know. I like that community feeling.”

Having a lot of friends around you who you can talk to makes university life a lot more enjoyable, especially as most people have a lot of important decisions ahead. When his first album featured high up in the charts, he had the opportunity to choose going down the music route, but chose academia. If the same thing happens again with the second album, Jordan indicates he would choose to pursue academia again and at least finish his degree, in order to keep his options open.

Figuring out your life is like trying to write a song. You need to play around with the chords and melodies and tempos, the rhymes have to fit and the syllables have to fall in the right places. And then you need to find that hook in the chorus; the thing that makes it unique and stand out from all the millions of other songs. As Jordan explains “the music industry is such a hard industry to succeed in. My mum and dad have always told me to just treat it as a hobby. Don’t take it too seriously.

Don’t let it become something bigger than it is. At the end of the day, if you put too much pressure on yourself to try and become famous and make a living out of it, you’re not going to succeed because you won’t be enjoying it. The main thing is really to prioritise the enjoyment of it, rather than lusting for fame and celebrity.”

We might see Jordan in London at a law firm in five years, or we might see him performing on Wembley Stadium. For now, however, we’ll see him walking up and down the streets of Durham, half of the time with his guitar on his shoulder and the rest with a heavy backpack full of Law books, on the way to just another lecture, appearing to many onlookers as just another student.

Don’t miss Jordan’s new album ‘Skip the Small Talk’ coming out at the end of this year. You can also find Jordan’s first album ‘What would you do?’on both Spotify and iTunes.

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Thursday 3rd November 2016 | PALATINATE

Politics

www.palatinate.org.uk

The Durham Bubble: Politics News in Brief

Disco Balls: Image Rehab

Mason Boycott-Owen Politics Editor

Red States Reject Trump

Olivia Morrison

Philip Green Left Red-faced

Blue Passports for Brexit Britain

Kweku Bimpong

Geeks Teh

Lib Dem Gains in Witney

How we laughed when Ed Balls decided to do an Anne Widdecombe and go on Strictly. It looked like the most grovelling attempt to get the electorate to if not love him, at least not hate him after losing his seat in the 2015 General Election. After his wife Yvette Cooper lost the Labour leadership battle to Corbyn the household must have needed cheering up. To a lot of people’s annoyance he’s taken to it like a sparkly duck to water.

Not the dancing - but the popularity contest, odd for an MP. There’s a while till the next General Election but don’t be surprised to see Ed back in Westminster, tweeting his name for Ed Balls Day.

With Election Day looming, both parties are fighting for votes in Utah, Texas, Georgia and Arizona.

Though traditionally red, polls suggest these states might turn blue. Trump leads by 15 points in Utah, but in Texas Clinton is only 3 behind. She leads in Arizona and Georgia. Studies suggest that the rise in non-white voters is behind the red-to-blue transition.

Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric is seemingly costing him the significant Latino vote in Arizona and Texas, and Georgia’s large AfricanAmerican population. The chance of Hillary outpolling Trump in red states reflects the unpredictable nature of this election.

MPs have unsurprisingly voted to strip Sir Philip Green of his knighthood, and they have done so for a host of reasons. Primarily, it comes down to whether Mr Green deserves the title, considering his wrongdoing. The answer to that question is no. In voting to remove his knighthood the MPs have pressured him to be more cooperative with the pensions regulator with regards to the £571m hole in the BHS pension fund. One MP stated that Mr. Green shouldn’t have been given the title in the first place.

The Government announced in mid-September that British passports could revert to the navyblue colour following the Brexit vote. Home Office minister Robert Goodwill announced that the department was considering ‘potential changes’. Solihull MP Julian Knight spoke favourably of the colour change, affirming that the colour blue was a ‘symbol of our independence as a strong, proud nation’. The passport debate was first brought to media attention when Nigel Farage waved his passport in front of a large crowd in the final days of the EU campaign, calling for the blue covering to be restored.

David Cameron’s legacy was resoundingly felt with the Witney by-election result on the 20th of October. Although Robert Courts was returned as a Conservative MP, his majority of under six thousand pales in comparison to Cameron’s comfortable landslide of over twenty-five thousand. While Labour floundered, the Liberal Democrats continuted their post2015 fightback. Duncan Enright, the Labour candidate who also ran in the General Election last year, won just over fifteen percent of the vote. The Liberal Democrats nearly tripled their share of the vote, with Liz Leffman winning over eleven thousand votes.

Photograph: Mark Mozaz Wallis via Wikipedia

Photograph: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Photograph: Financial Times via Flickr

Photograph: Christopher Ellison via Flickr

Photograph: David Spender via flickr

Cruella De Chakrabarti Georgina Edwards When the Independent’s Jon Gaunt infamously described Shami Chakrabarti as ‘the most dangerous woman in Britain’, I thought he was being a tad melodramatic. But the title could not be more apt in light of her dubious elevation to the House of Lords (not just because the fur robes give the Baroness an air of Cruella De Vil).

The lifelong Libertarian’s readi-

“

Chakrabarti’s whitewashing of anti-Semitic abuse

“ ness to ditch political neutrality, join Labour (which under Corbyn’s authoritarian vice is a bit like Ken Clarke joining UKIP) and then accept a peerage – despite once advocating the abolition of the system – are just two minor acts of hypocrisy in an exceedingly long list.

Chakrabarti is opposed to the

expansion of Grammar schools and has made a career out of bashing the ‘establishment’, yet sends her son to an £18,000 a year private school – only after she was unsuccessful in getting him into Eton.

After Leveson, she fiercely defended the Freedom of Information Act and argued for increased transparency in all aspects of public life, yet refuses to release any correspondences regarding her own cabinet appointment. Finally, and perhaps most incredibly, the honourable lady for Kennington accepted a £1.5 million donation from Colonel Gaddafi’s son and right-hand man Saif al-Islam whilst director of Liberty. It is an organization which aims to promote ‘individual human dignity, equal treatment and fairness as the foundations of a democratic society’ - qualities I’m sure Libyans will agree Gaddafi had in bucket loads.

Therefore, as disheartening as it must be for those at the receiving end, we shouldn’t be surprised by Chakrabarti’s whitewashing of anti-Semitic abuse. In concluding that the party’s atmosphere was only ‘occasionally toxic’ for its Jewish members, and that their legitimate concerns should be combated with some ‘procedural rule changes’, her only success has been in the field of gross insensitivity and alienation.

First 100 Days of May - Our Verdict Cameron McIntosh If a week is a long time in politics, it follows that 100 days is something of an eternity. Though I doubt this landmark will be met with much sentimentality

by Theresa May, it represents an interesting opportunity to assess her performance to date.

On the steps of Downing Street our second female Prime Minister affirmed her desire to create a nation that works for all and not just for the privileged few. Her immediate priority, however, has been solving the Brexit shaped conundrum left by David Cameron.

‘Brexit means Brexit’ has become the familiar sound bite and speculation about our future relationship with the EU remains rife.

Although largely remaining coy about the details of negotiations, May’s leadership has been strong and the inclusion of prominent Brexiteers in cabinet signalled her intent from the outset.

Article 50 is to be triggered in early 2017, but questions about the UK’s future negotiating strategy remain unanswered. At this early stage she should be praised for putting aside her pre-referen-

dum doubts and making an unwavering commitment to delivering the democratic verdict of the British public.

Domestically the headline proposal has been on education and the extension of Grammar Schools. Undoubtedly this has won her many admirers on the Conservative right, signalling a clear break from her predecessor. However, this divisive policy has once again exposed ideological division within her party, with open critics including former education secretary Nicky Morgan.

Another Downing Street promise was to maintain the unity of

the United Kingdom. Unfortunately for Theresa May, the SNP looks poised to capitalise on the political anger caused by Brexit by enacting a second independence referendum.

On the domestic front, somewhat upstaged by the European issue, glimpses of May’s reform agenda have appeared but progress has been limited. Ultimately her premiership will be defined by the forthcoming negotiations and the true test of her leadership will be to manage this successfully, whilst overcoming the mounting domestic challenges that lay ahead, not least that of Scotland.

Photograph: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC via Wikipedia

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PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd November 2016

Politics

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Russia-US Tension Endangers Peace in Syria Maybe Donald Trump struggles with teleprompters, joked Hillary Clinton at a charity dinner this week, ‘because it’s harder when you’re translating from the original Russian.’ But behind the joke is a serious issue. Not only is Russia accused of trying to influence the outcome of America’s presidential election, but the two countries stopped communicating after the collapse of a ceasefire agreement in Syria.

If this reminds you of the Cold War, you are not the only one. Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN, said that relations between the two countries had not been as bad since 1973.

‘This needs to stop’, said Mikhail Gorbachev, the 85-year-old former chief secretary of the Soviet Communist party, who was largely responsible for ending the Cold War. ‘The world has reached a dangerous point.’

The principal victim of the deteriorating relations is Syria. In early September, Russia and the US had agreed to a ceasefire there.

The deal required both sides to

Photograph: via flickr

halt all aerial bombardments, end attempts to gain further territory and allow ‘unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access’ to besieged areas in Syria. If the ceasefire held, the US and Russia would start planning joint attacks on IS. John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, was understandably cautious: ‘This is an opportunity, and no more than that until it becomes a reality.’ But it was an opportunity wasted. Talks fell apart when the US alleged that Russia attacked a

UN aid convoy; Moscow claimed it was simply ‘monitoring’ the trucks and suggested that perhaps they had ‘caught fire’. After the ceasefire collapsed, the US state department said it was suspending communications with Russia.

American voters may also feel the consequence of the worsening relationship, for Russia seems to be interfering in the presidential election campaign. The US government has formally accused Russian hackers of stealing nearly 20,000

‘Crooked Hillary’ Under FBI Scrutiny Paul Miller

News of the FBI reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails could hardly have come at a worse time. It seemed like the scandal had been put firmly to bed, with the recent leaking of the Podesta emails and allegations of shady co-ordination with liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change largely contained to online discussion and Fox News.

With Donald Trump’s “lockerroom” talk still dominating headlines and allegations of his sexual misconduct piling up, the Democratic nominee believes she has the election sewn up. However, with election day looming the resurrection of the email scandal will be an unwelcome surprise to the Clinton campaign.

The worry is that with the focus back on the emails, the Democrat’s message of progressivism and equality will be drowned out

by Trump’s description of her as an untrustworthy career politician – and this will drive down turnout and cause her to haemorrhage votes to third party candidates.

The content of the emails is as yet unknown, and it is unlikely that much more will be revealed before Americans go to the polls.

What is known is that the emails

were discovered during an investigation into former congressman Anthony Weiner’s inappropriate text messages to a fifteen-yearold girl. Mr Weiner is the husband of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides.

The news follows the episodic release of the Podesta emails – 20,000 pages of emails allegedly taken from Clinton’s campaign

The Podesta emails are not incriminating, but they suggest Clinton may have received townhall debate questions in advance and, more seriously, point to ties between the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One – a company controlled by Russian interests, effectively giving Russia control over one-fifth of US uranium.

The best outcome for Clinton is

Photograph: Marc Nozell via Flickr

chair John Podesta’s personal Gmail account in a March 2016 breach. These were the WikiLeaks that drove the Ecuadorian embassy to sever Julian Assange’s internet connection, on the grounds that he was meddling with US political affairs.

that she weathers the storm and prevails on November 8th – but even if the FBI’s conclusion in July does not change, the start of her presidency will be dogged by accusations of nepotism, backroom dealings, and pay-to-play.

emails, which were then released via Wikileaks. They revealed the details of speeches by Ms Clinton to Goldman Sachs. Even during the Cold War, Russia never tried to influence an American election.

Putin denied the claims, but didn’t put much effort into his defence: ‘Listen, does it even matter who hacked the data?...The important thing is that the content was given to the public.’

So why have relations deteriorated so badly? First, Putin’s aggression is probably a form of distraction. The Russian economy is shrinking, and real disposable income has fallen by 12% since 2014; its population is ageing, and is expected to fall by 10% by 2050.

Throughout history, leaders have engaged in adventurism abroad to help their people forget problems at home. It’s worked for Putin before. His approval ratings rose dramatically after he invaded Crimea, and he has presumably concluded that more foreign aggression will make him more popular.

Second, Putin probably does want to influence the outcome of the American election. It is generally assumed that he would prefer a President Trump, whose

‘America First’ isolationism is far more appealing to Russia than the interventionist policies of Ms Clinton, who has repeatedly called for no-fly zones over Syria.

Both candidates have accused the other of being Mr Putin’s ‘puppet’. If Hillary Clinton is his puppet,

“

The principle victim of the deteriorating relations is Syria

“

Anna Myers

she is a rather bad one: the two have a history of animosity. Putin blamed Ms Clinton for stoking up protests against him in 2011; Ms Clinton compared Russia’s actions in Ukraine to those of Hitler.

Mr Trump, however, has been far more complimentary: ‘He’s been a leader, far more than our President he’s been a leader.’

Mr Putin has returned the praise, calling Mr Trump a ‘very talented man’. Hopefully the relationship will not have the chance to blossom.

Bored of Brexit? I am.

Akansha Naraindas

A lot of what we see in mass media today is a repetitive warp of jumbled up news; nothing with much relevance to anything. If it’s not the impending doom of the US election, it’s the disastrous collapse of the UK’s largest trade partnership. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve heard it several times already and will hear it several times more as the leave becomes final - I’m talking about none other than “Brexit.”

But if not Brexit then what else? What about the refugees in Nigeria dying of starvation? Or the fact that Falluja has been liberated from the Islamic State after two years of captivity?

The fact is, Brexit news has pretty much overshadowed all else, almost used as a device to draw away from the other important happenings such as news of prospective rises in the student loans suddenly disappearing into what is commonly called a “digital quagmire.

The real question is, does the Brexit story really deserve the attention it’s getting? Truth be told, the breakdown of the trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union hasn’t just been detrimental for the economy, but has also caused unrest in

British politics, causing conflict between members of the Labour Party as well as a breakdown of stability within the Conservative Party, with several members being removed.

On the other end however, we see that the effects of the actual ‘leave’ may not be as hyperbolic as the media makes it out to be.

The two-year transition period allows many trade negotiations to formulate on a prospective new treaty of association, or even bilateral agreements between the UK and EU members.

The point is, even though Brexit is of utmost importance in the current economic climate, its effects are negligible. Therefore it may be time to let go of Brexit news at present and perhaps worry about more pressing issues with immediate effects.

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Thursday 3rd November 2016 | PALATINATE

Women in Science

Women in Science ‘We’ve G

Tommy Pallett SciTech Editor Last Thursday marked the 2016 Annual Women in Science lecture, which this year hosted a most prestigious scientist: the ‘Not Quite Your Average Physicist’ (as the lecture was entitled) Professor Dame Athene Donald. Fellow of both the Royal Society and European Academy of Science, President of the British Science Association for the 2015-16 term, winner of both the Mott and the Faraday medals of the Institute of Physics, and entitled with honorary doctorates from eight different universities.

This is someone who has achieved more than most, irrespective of gender, and quite an exceptional ambassador for women in STEM. The talk began with solid, comforting science. This was good, because it set a precedent for what was to come; when she gets around to talking about gender inequalities we knew we would get facts, we knew she would tell it how it is, based on the evidence of a lifetime of experience.

It was also important for other reasons. Athene Donald didn’t just experience discrimination because of her gender, but because of her research interests too.

Donald studied physics, theoretical physics in fact, but her research interests were not typical of this field. She started with the not-so-unusual study of the me-

chanical properties of polymers, but quickly moved into the study of starch granules and food physics. Already, she was losing the approval of her esteemed department at Cambridge. She then began investigating the optimisation of microscopes, and her department probably began to sigh with relief, before she then moved back on to starch and then onwards to genetically mutated starch and plant genetics. At this point she had lost them. Not only were they disapproving, but Athene recalled that “some of [her] companions were quite derogatory [about her], even a senior lecturer.” It didn’t stop her though, she went on to found the Biology and Soft Systems group at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and became the first chair of the Institute of Physics Biological Physics group.

Donald had many messages and words of wisdom to impart to us.

The first being that “what you do your PhD in, does not determine your career.” Her career has been diverse and driven by her interests, not dictated by the traditions of what she studied, or what anyone else wanted her to research.

Facing discrimination because of her research was only half the story, and one that but most greatly affected her in the early years. Her difficulties with gender inequality came later.

She said that though many women face discrimination of

gender early on in their careers (and this is often the most discussed), many others also face it later in their careers and that this shouldn’t be ignored. For Donald, it was when she “became more visible” such as after she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

At this point she couldn’t just be ignored, swept under the carpet; more than this – the honour of becoming a fellow gave her confidence in her work, but only served to expose more obviously when she was subjected to gender bias.

Speaking to her after the lecture, she expanded upon this, giving an example of a position she applied for. She explained that following her academic success and induction into the Royal Society, she knew she was more qualified than the other – male – candidate, yet she lost the position to him, with no particular explanation.

It is interesting to consider how gender inequality has changed over time. Donald is an enlightening figure on this, since she has been working in academia for over 40 years. Her overview was, in some ways, positive since she does not think there is “overt discrimination now” but rather what is termed “unconscious bias” which is where our brains make very rapid assessments of people or situations without us thinking about them in a conscious manner. Such biases can arise for many reasons: society, culture or

personal experience for example.

Something she said is still prevalent is the idea that “if you have a child you’re not serious” about your career. This of course, can be very frustrating for women. When

it comes to building a career, child care is a genuine problem, but one that can be significantly relieved with the absence of this view.

Academia is actually a good career choice for someone with child

tions to the body and grey-matter.

“These findings suggest that two evolutionary pathways have created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behaviour” said Richard Haier, who led the study.

This may help explain why some men are more likely to chose careers that require more local processing, such as maths, and why some women tend to excel in careers that require more integrating and assimilating information, such as that required for language facility. However, most interestingly, this difference does not affect scores for general cognitive ability, explaining why men and women still have similar IQ scores with little variation.

This difference in brain structure may not necessarily translate to better results during school studies. A meta-analysis of research published in the American Psychological Association showed that from primary school to university level there was a small

but significant female advantage across all subjects. The study incorporated results from 1914 through 2011 and included more than 30 countries. What was most fascinating was that the female advantage was largest for language courses, and the smallest advantage was in mathematics, supporting the previously mentioned study.

This suggests that even though male brains are perhaps slightly more inclined towards STEM subjects, women are still out competing men throughout all levels of education in STEM subjects. So, why are more women not pursuing careers in STEM subjects?

Previous studies have shown that in general the choice of a STEM career hinges on a high mathematical ability and a relatively lower verbal ability. In a study by Jeffrey Valla and Stephen Ceci, they discuss how males are more likely to have an asymmetrical cognitive profile (a proficiency in maths does not also correspond to a proficiency in verbal domains).

In contrast, females tend to have more symmetrical cognitive profiles, with a strong capability in maths and verbal communication. Therefore, women perhaps have more conflict when deciding to commit to STEM subjects since they are just as proficient in other areas of academia. This perhaps broadens their career choices and could be an under appreciated reason why fewer women are in STEM subjects. A more productive approach of increasing gender representation is to clarify to talented women that diverse career paths are available within STEM. We must not also forget to look at many other important factors that may contribute to the gender gap. Gender bias and a potentially sexist culture may be to blame in some STEM environments. Not too recently Nobel prize winner Tim Hunt told a room of high ranking scientists that the problem with ‘girls’ working in science is that “three things happen when they are in the lab… You fall in love

with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry.” Whether this was meant seriously or not, comments such as this are hugely influential to many young students and perpetuate a culture where some women perhaps feel unwelcome and less likely to chose a career in STEM subjects as a result.

Unconscious gender bias in the classroom may also be a factor – at a teaching level, in science and maths the majority of role models are men, which could affect young girls in not seeing a future in STEM careers.

There are many factors that have contributed to the gender gap in STEM careers, perhaps some aspects are simply unavoidable and some I have not mentioned. Nevertheless, more should be done in schools to encourage women to pursue careers in STEM; a change of culture, emphasis on more female scientists as role models and showcasing that there are diverse STEM career opportunities.

Professor Dame Athene Donald

Is there science behind the gender gap?

Cameron Lang It is no secret that women are massively underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. A report from the UK Government Equalities office found that women make up 46 per cent of the UK’s workforce, but only 15.5 per cent of the STEM workforce. What could possibly account for this huge disparity? Are there really that many fewer women interested in STEM subjects?

A study by UC Irvine found there is almost no difference in intelligence between men and women, but found significant differences in the brain areas in which males and females manifest their intelligence. Men had more grey-matter, and women more white-matter.

The former is responsible for processing and retrieving information whilst the latter is responsible for transmitting instruc-

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Thursday 3rd November 2016 | PALATINATE

SciTech

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Got a Long Way to Go’

Photograph: Grace Tseng

care intentions: research hours can be very flexible, hours are often not clocked at academic institutions, and weekend work is accessible to allow for early finishes in the week. Nevertheless, the success of Donald still rested upon the

incredible support of her husband, who all but gave up his research career as a mathematician to take on much of the child care Donald couldn’t. We must stop thinking about child care as a mother’s challenge and start thinking about

Women in Science

it as a couple’s. This was another incredibly important message conveyed to the audience, and a cultural shift that will be crucial to achieving gender equality.

This wasn’t the only societal viewpoint Donald thought crucial to the cause, and this led to a discussion on the source of this lack of women in STEM, and the source of unconscious bias. So, with whom does the fault lie? Donald, who is now Master of Churchill College Cambridge revealed that the student demographic is 70% STEM, but only 28% women. This is telling, since it means the problem starts earlier than employment. Donald believes that “our culture is permeated with unconscious influence on young children.” A simple example would be that toy shops have aisles for boys, and aisles for girls; why could we not just have ‘aisles’? There is some evidence to suggest a biological basis to the gender gap, and the article on the next page explores this, but Donald is quick to provide opposing evidence. A higher proportion of women from all-girls schools end up in STEM subjects than at mixed schools, and this clearly implies a cultural root to the issue rather than an innate one. Donald expressed that “[she does] not approve of girls’ schools” but relented that “if you want to go into science that’s the way to do it.” And she would know; having attended an all-girls school.

One of the most interesting

parts of the talk, was on answering the question “how do you make something look normal?” We could fall into the trap of over-compensating. Donald recalled meetings with University officials in which she expressed the ridiculousness of publishing admissions brochures for STEM subjects filled mainly with photographs of women in an attempt to close the gender gap.

This is not only simply false, but also isn’t going to fool anyone. This spreads across the field to other minority groups within a subject, and it is a delicate balance in correctly reflecting the demographic whilst encouraging these minorities to apply. The issue of normality stretches further: no woman wants to feel as if they have been employed simply because they are a woman. There is no sense of achievement in that. Of course, a decision independent of gender is what we should be striving for.

Donald was sure to emphasise that this is not an issue perpetuated by men alone. “Women are as bad as men… with unconscious bias,” even towards their own gender. This is surely a clear sign that social attitudes are at the heart of gender inequality.

Gender bias has plagued Athene Donald’s career from student to president. But she did make it to president. How? She’s had luck and misfortune, but she has never given up. In her own words: “seize opportunities when they are given to you.”

thorship of scientific papers.

Surely this is counter-intuitive, and evidence of gender bias?

It could be argued that female scientists at a post-graduate level are faced with tough decisions; do they choose to raise a child, or further their career? Or is this an indication that institutions need to be more sensitive to the fact that women are, for some reason, not being able to take up more senior researc positions? Thirdly, and more terrifyingly, does it have something to do with sexual misconduct?

A Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE) report by the University of Illinois reported that of 700 scientists, 64% reported that they had been assaulted by a senior researcher or supervisor, and women were 3.5 times more likely to be assaulted than men. This is not okay. How can

we expect our female scientists to feel safe in professional environments, or to ask for a recommendation for promotion with the fear of what they might have to subject themselves to? The system is currently failing women.

To conquer this, we need to start at a young age. We need to remind girls in science classes at school that lab goggles don’t make them look ugly. We need to remind young women doing internships that they can dress however they want, and shouldn’t allow the fear of anyone eyeing them up stop them from proving their scientific prowess. And we need to assure women that it is okay to not be okay: speak out, and claim back your career.

Save someone from having to deal with what you dealt with.

An opinion from the inside

There are more female scientists now than there have ever been.

Fields such as medicine, psychology, and pathology all have more female students - even at postgraduate level - than male. Why then, do we so often hear the cry of ‘We need more women in STEM fields!’? STEM being science, technology, engineering, and maths.

As a new #WomenInSTEM blogger, I often consult with statistics to have more reasonably presented thoughts. For the sake of professionalism, I find myself needing a reminder to consider things from every perspective.

However, as a female physicist, my gut kicks in, telling me something isn’t quite right. Even at an undergraduate level, I regularly find myself feeling out of place,

“

I regularly find myself feeling out of place regardless of the fact that I am just as qualified

“

Anuradha Damale

regardless of the fact that I am just as qualified to be studying Physics as any of my male peers.

Studies published by the New Scientist magazine have shown that even though there is a new surge in women studying STEM subjects, there has been a severe decline in female-lead au-

Editors’ Column Luke Andrews SciTech Editor

Hello and welcome to this edition of SciTech, We had a number of ideas for the theme, but eventually settled on ‘Women in Science.’ It was all thanks to a very famous lady coming to Durham. The University organises events throughout International Women’s Week to help promote gender equality across its departments. This was stimulated by a study published a few years ago which revealed that Durham University languishes near the bottom of the league table for gender equality.

As part of all this activity, the University invited Professor Dame Athene Donald DBS FRS to give a talk entitled ‘Not Quite Your Average Physicist.’ Her academic work at Cambridge University, and the fact that she was blocked from opportunities owing to her gender, prompted her to start a blog on ‘Women in Science’ before going on to win the L’OrealUNESCO Award for Women in Science. SciTech was lucky enough to catch up with her to talk about her experiences (and get her autograph!) She talked to us about the gender divide in STEM subjects, that’s science, technology, engineering and mechanics. In many Universities this is very high, with few women entering these subjects at undergraduate level and then carrying on to postgrad and PhD. She puts this down to ‘school teaching.’ It’s all about how we are educated. She believes that in mixed gender schools young female students and young male students conform to particular stereotypes. This includes not going into science-based subjects because they are perceived as ‘boy-ish’. Teachers also unconsciously promote this gender divide.

You’ll find out what she said on these pages, Keep reading!

Follow us @PalatiSciTech Like us on “Palatinate SciTech”

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A perfect match: Rafa on Newca Nick Friend Sports Editor

Benitez watches over Christian Atsu during Newcastle’s 3-1 victory over Brentford

of, after so many years, dropping down from the Premier League, but because of the stature of the club, the support of the fans and wanting to be close to my family, no, it was not

“

I’d love to stay here for a while.

It would mean that we’re doing well and that we’ve been successful in what we’re trying to do

“

Just from walking through the gates of Newcastle United’s Benton training complex, it is clear that this is a very different club to the one that, until relegation was finally confirmed five months ago, found itself almost annually marooned in the bottom quarter of the Premier League.

Infighting had become the norm, the fans asking – not for a team that won, but for one that tried. Meanwhile, the club had banned portions of the local media for their reporting of fan protests against Mike Ashley’s running of the club.

Alan Pardew, John Carver and Steve McClaren had all tried and failed to galvanise an increasingly impatient fanbase – an entire city of football-mad Geordies pining for a cup run, a modicum of adventure, anything to lift them from an increasingly underwhelming slumber.

On 11th March 2016, one man woke them, taking them from the depths of a nightmare to the beginning of a dream. As I chat with Rafa Benitez, it doesn’t take long to understand how a club and a city have come to adore and trust him with their football club.

Those in the boardroom felt the same way – removing the shackles previously placed on the club’s managers, and handing total autonomy to the impressive Spaniard.

Player recruitment is in his hands; local media have been welcomed back, Benitez and his captain, Jamaal Lascelles, regularly and willingly attend events throughout Newcastle. The last manager to create such unity in this footballing hotbed was the late Sir Bobby Robson.

And while the self-effacing Benitez is reticent to compare himself to the former England manager, he is not shy in telling me of his love for the club and the support he’s received – even after failing to stave off relegation.

“I’m really pleased to be here”, he gushes. “When we came, we knew it would be a challenge and that we’d have to try our best. But then we couldn’t stay up.”

He openly admits to me that long discussions followed, as the twotime La Liga winner considered his next move. But the hardest decision of his career? Not a chance. The choice, he explains, ultimately was a no-brainer.

“No, no. After having so much experience, I’ve had so many situations in my career – but this one was [a decision made] to be close to my family, to be sure that I could do a job with a top side, with a side that could improve, and with the passion of the fans.

“Of course, it wasn’t easy in terms

so difficult.

“The fans, the city: you could see the passion there. And I’m really pleased that I decided to stay because you can see with the fans – the way they stay with us and support us - even when the team isn’t play-

ing so well. They still stay behind the team. And now we can see and feel the whole city behind us.”

These reasons behind dropping down into the Championship to stay with Newcastle are, in a nutshell, what captivates me as we talk.

For Rafa, a man with an almost unrivalled CV in this cutthroat business, the pull of genuine emotion from the stands and a genuine connection with a city is still what makes him tick.

He oozes class throughout our chat and it is difficult not to sense the obvious contentment and confidence etched all over his demeanour.

This is a chance for him to work with a different kind of player. When challenging for titles at Europe’s top table, nurturing and developing are not part of the job description; nor, indeed, is the independence that he’s been given to oversee Newcastle’s revival like the power he’s held at any of his former clubs – even at Liverpool, his hands were often tied.

Newcastle and Liverpool have often been compared because of the raw passion emanated by the clubs’ fans, as well as the impact that footballing success has on the mood of an entire city. This, Benitez explains, has always attracted him to the club.

“I can see the similarities: the city, the fans – they’re world-class people.

They support the team, they follow the team. There are a lot of similarities – that’s what I like.

“My memories of the Liverpool

Photo: Newcastle United Football

fans are amazing and my memories so far from here – though there aren’t as many yet, they are amazing too.”

‘Amazed’ he may be, but having visited St James’ Park with both Liverpool and Chelsea over the years, he is hardly surprised at the fervent noise on show.“I always knew about the passion of the fans. So, I’ve obviously been really impressed with the passion of the fans and how when we go away to every game, we have a full allocation every time and the same thing at home – we fill the stadium. I guess it’s not a surprise but, even so, I’ve been really pleased with that.”

It is a mark both of the love of the game in these parts as well as the respect for Benitez and the football his charges are displaying that even in a different division, St James Park is never anything but a packed house.

Indeed, 49,042 supporters came to watch Newcastle put six past Preston last week in an EFL Cup tie. Only Anfield, Emirates and Old Trafford produced bigger crowds in the competition’s fourth round.

Even more impressive perhaps, is the 5,700-strong away allocation that flocked to Barnsley on a Tuesday night last month – a show of cohesion between players, fans and manager that has been absent so often in Newcastle’s last decade.

The special bond that appears to exist here is no coincidence. Creating it is one of his greatest qualities though, by Benitez’s own admission, there is no special formula.

“It’s true, I’ve managed to have a very good relationship with the majority of the fans at the clubs I’ve been at. It’s been amazing here but it’s always difficult to say where it’s been best because I’ve had the same thing at Tenerife, Extremadura, Napoli – where I had very good relationships with all of the fans.

“It’s simple though – we are professionals, we try to do our best with everything, and I think that the staff, the players and also the fans and the press, they can see what we’re trying to do, they know we’re trying and they appreciate that.

“As professionals, we always work hard for the club, and that is the best thing for everyone here.”Throughout our conversation, Rafa highlights the importance of his relationship with the fans, citing a real desire to do well for them.

As we spoke, I found his charm and humility almost overwhelming.

Yet, it also puzzled me. Looking in from the outside, this is the man I’d always witnessed on Match of the Day, on the touchline, through his immense charity work. Yet, players have spoken of a manager more detached from his players. Steven Gerrard describes his relationship with his former manager as “emotionless and distant.”

It’s an assertion that, while not a criticism from Gerrard, who was equally happy to acknowledge that his best football came under the Spaniard, I struggle to comprehend.

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astle and his English love affair The Montse Benitez Foundation, set up in the names of him and his wife, is testament to the open-heartedness of a man whose commitment to his community is remarkable.

Having moved his family to Liverpool with him when he joined the club in 2004, they have never been uprooted, living on the Wirral for the

“

The city, the fans – they’re worldclass people.

They support the team, they follow the team

“

twelve years since.

“We do a lot of things for the community and for Merseyside through charity”, he tells me. “My wife works very hard with the Blind Society, with the National Autistic Society.

To be fair, we’re doing a lot of work with a lot of charities. I think that the fans – even the Evertonians, appreciate what we’ve been trying to do for the city.”

Indeed, when Benitez left Liverpool in 2010, he handed a symbolic £96,000 contribution to the Hillsborough Family Support Group, while continuing to support them through his Foundation. Similarly, following the murder of 11-year-old Everton fan Rhys Jones, Benitez donated a sum to his memorial fund.

All of this merely emphasises the Merseyside resident’s admiration not just for his home city but also England as a country. Despite having managed in Milan, London, Naples and Madrid since leaving Liverpool, it remains his home.“My family now are settled down in England, my daughters are both English – they both talk to me in English, not Spanish! I always say, it’s for them they’re English, and for my wife, who is really pleased here. On the Wirral where we live, it’s a nice place – the weather’s not so bad. We’re really pleased here and we’re really well settled.

“When I first came here, a lot of Spanish people said: ‘Listen, why don’t you stay in Europe with the nice weather and everything?’ But we are happy here because the people around us are nice and they have respect for what we are trying to do here.”It is a comment entirely typical of a man totally immersed in English culture and makes his decision to

stay at Newcastle all the more logical.

Aged 56, and having won the FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, La Liga, UEFA Super Cup and the Coppa Italia, a year in the Championship gives him a different sort of challenge at a club that he clearly loves.

It is, of course, a myth that the lower reaches of domestic football are totally alien to Benitez. Indeed, his first two jobs in management saw him achieve promotion to La Liga with Extremadura and Tenerife. As a result, he hasn’t been surprised by what he’s seen, despite the outdated stereotypes that follow lower league football around.

“I haven’t been surprised too much because I was watching it before.

The only thing is that everyone talks about how difficult it is because it’s ‘traditional English football’ – physical, direct football, second balls. But it’s not. Most of the teams, they try to play and they pass the ball – it’s more continental that you would expect.

“The intensity, the physicality is there, sure – but this is obvious. But a lot of teams do play football and we were expecting it, more or less, to be this intense and physical. Maybe the amount of teams with a passing game has been a surprise –we were probably expecting to see a bit less.”

Championship sides have been playing with modern-day flair for some time now. Bournemouth won the title two years ago in fairly gungho style, while Tony Mowbray’s West Brom sides regularly ran rings around their opposition nearly a decade ago. The desire of opposition sides to go toe-to-toe with Benitez’s men has played somewhat into their hands. The 6-0 trouncing at Queens Park Rangers in September was the culmination of some exceptional football coupled with a naïve and over-exuberant opposition.

Benitez is quick to defend Rangers’ performance, claiming, “It was not because they were poor. I think it was because we were really good and working well.”

That victory came without Dwight Gayle, Mo Diame, Daryl Murphy, Jack Colback and Vurnon Anita. The strength in depth is unprecedented at this level – but necessary according to Benitez, who explains that while he has had to deal with playing twice a week throughout his entire career, the mental stress of having two league games in the same week makes a big squad crucial.

“We have had this with a lot of teams – Liverpool, Chelsea, Inter, Napoli, Real Madrid, in terms of Champions League, Europa League and cup football. In these situations, you also play two games a week so it’s not an issue for us.

“The difference is having to play two league games a week. That is quite interesting because when you play Champions League on Wednesday, and then you play on Saturday or Sunday – it’s a league game so

you can change your mentality, your players can change their mentality, the fans change their approach.

Everything’s different, even though you’re still playing two games.

“In the Championship, you play two league games and it’s always the same. Maybe mentally it is more demanding.”

With games coming thick and fast, Rafa suggests to me that his rotation policy that was placed under the microscope during his time at Anfield has had to come under review. Of course, with three points often on offer twice a week in this most competitive of leagues, resting key players is a risk – but still an essential one.“We know, more or less, who to use if we had to play a crucial game. But I think that the important thing is that, because we have so many games, we have to give everyone the chance to be there, to be ready, to be important for the team and to keep everybody on their toes. I think this is a positive more than a negative. It’s so long and such a difficult competition that you have to have a good squad to be sure that you can manage the whole season.”

The fruits of Rafa’s desire for a large squad were borne in one of the most accomplished transfer windows seen at any level of English football in recent years: twelve players brought in – eight from top-flight clubs, at a £30m profit – the direct result of the autonomy on recruit-

ment demanded by Benitez post-relegation. Daryl Janmaat, Gini Wijnaldum, Andros Townsend and Moussa Sissoko were sold for a combined £75m, leaving the manager, “really happy with the players that I have.”

We end our chat with a look ahead at early May. Has he set a points target for his squad? The simple answer is yes.

Three points on Saturday, he tells me, far too professional to look any further beyond. Setting a target, he emphasises, is pointless if another team gets beyond what you set out as success.

These are the words of a man who means business, a man with a desire to take this club and its immense fanbase back to where it belongs.

As we finish, I realise what a privi-

Speaking to Benitez, it would be foolish not to ask about the night that will forever define him as a manager, the miracle that will always have his name etched on it.

Three goals down against a fantastic Milan side – what happened next?

preparing my words for half-time, we concede a third goal [as Crespo ran through on goal]. 2-0 down – maybe we have a chance, but 3-0 down against that team – whoa! And I had to go and say to the team, ‘Guys, 3-0 down, nothing to lose – we’ve worked so hard to get here. Now we have 45 minutes to change things.

Keep working hard.’

“But the main thing we changed was the tactics – we went to three at the back, with Didi Hamann in front.

And then, when I was finishing my talk and organising the team and changing the position of the backline, I sent [Djimi] Traore to the shower.

But what I didn’t know was that the physio was working with [Steve] Finnan and then he told me that Finnan probably could not play another 45 minutes so we should change him.

So then, at the last minute, I had to change Finnan for Traore, who was in the shower! And I had Finnan who was not very happy with the physio.

“And then after scoring the goals and going into extra-time, we were much better and we did much better than them. And then it went to penalties. We knew we’d done a lot of work on penalties. And we knew four of the five Milan takers – apart

lege it is to be speaking to an oftenunderrated colossus of football management. Few have achieved what Rafa Benitez has done, and even fewer can have done it with such class, humility and outstanding values: a selfless individual in it for the long haul and to give a city the success that it deserves.“I like enjoying my job – and I really enjoy it here.

When you can coach the team and manage the team and you can see the players progressing and improving and the team and club progressing and improving, then I’m a happy guy. It doesn’t matter where.“I’d love to stay here for a while. It would mean that we’re doing well and that we’ve been successful in what we’re trying to do so I’d be really happy with that too.”

Photo: Newcastle United Football

Rafa on Istanbul...

“Obviously, it was my first year in England. My English is not the best now – imagine what it was like all those years ago!

“At the beginning before the game, I said: ‘Listen, they’re a fantastic team so don’t make any mistakes.’ Then they kicked off, we missed the first ball, we gave it away, conceded a freekick and then they scored – all inside one minute!

“So we’d made mistakes from the beginning, we conceded the second goal and then I was thinking about changes. But we’d also had Harry Kewell going off injured.

“So I’d had to change everything during the game. So then I had to write a list of notes that I would be able to say to the team in English, while losing 2-0 in the Champions League final against AC Milan – and they were so good.

“And then suddenly, just as I’m

from Tomasson. It was a great advantage – and of course, we had Dudek moving on the line as well.

“Because it was the final and the way that it all happened in the final, I’d have to say [that it was my best night as a manager].”

“Some people talk about luck.

But if you analyse it, we beat Olympiakos – a good team with Rivaldo, in the last game of the group stage to qualify.

“Then afterwards, we had to play against Bayer Leverkusen with Berbatov and Voronin. We had to beat Juventus with Ibrahimovic, Nedved, Buffon, Thuram. They were an amazing team. And after, we beat Chelsea in the semi-final – and they were champions of England.

“So we beat champions of Italy, champions of England and then we played against AC Milan with Cafu, Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Gattuso, Kaka, Shevchenko, Crespo. So I don’t think the run was lucky – it was [the result of] working so hard and doing so well.

In the last game it could be a little bit of luck. But I think that the way that we reached the final and the way that we played the final, I think that we deserved to win.”

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Thursday 3rd November 2016 | PALATINATE

Rafa Benitez Exclusive Interview

Sport meet the Newcastle United manager to discuss his life on Tyneside, his special relationship with the fans and that night in Istanbul (p18+19).

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Money raised for charity adds to delight of

late winner Ollie Godden

Mike King lines up a free-kick during Durham’s last-gasp victory over Stirling

Photograph: Dai-Khue Le-Duong

Report raises questions over safety of 3G pitches

James Martland Deputy Sport Editor In the last decade, rubber-based multipurpose 3G pitches have become a staple part of sports clubs nationwide. For universities such as Durham, they can be incredibly useful in all types of weather conditions.

Now however, studies have led to doubts being raised about the health risks of such surfaces, leading countries such as the Netherlands to start ripping up their pitches.

These revelations have called into question the FA’s aim to increase 3G pitches by fifty percent by 2020 and, by extension, may even raise an issue with the surfaces in place at Maiden Castle at the University.

In February, a story emerged of 18-year-old Lewis Maguire, a goalkeeper at Leeds United’s academy, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer.

Maguire was also a regular user of 3G surfaces in Darlington. His father Nigel shared the theory that this illness had been caused by the amount

of time Lewis was spending diving on a rubber crumb.

Although seemingly an outlandish suggestion, there is, in fact, an evergrowing amount of evidence to suggest that these rubber pellets found in 3G surfaces could be capable of causing cancer.

Various studies over the last ten years have placed a link between the small pieces of rubber added to artificial turf and carcinogens, substances capable of causing cancer in living tissue.

In 2006, a Norwegian study concluded that these pellets contained a considerable number of components which could have ‘a serious adverse effect on health.’ Two years later, chemicals such as arsenic and lead were discovered in samples.

The lack of knowledge about the contents of the rubber is concerning An article in The Telegraph last week asked how anyone could plausibly track the specific history of a massrecycled waste product.

Maguire, a former NHS executive, emphasised the effect of these con-

cerns in the same article.

“When the rubber crumbs are breathed in, ingested, or enter the body through the nose, ears, eyes or mouth, the tiny particles can get into the digestive and respiratory tracts.

The particles are minute, sharp and embed very easily. These surfaces also cause grazes or burns in a way natural grass and turf does not. Minor scuffs can be much deeper when suffered on artificial surfaces and so substances may enter the body through these abrasions.”

Moreover, a statistical study done

by Amy Griffin at the University of Washington adds further weight to the case against 3G pitches. By examining 200 regular users of these surfaces who had developed cancer, she concluded that 158 were footballers and more than half of that number were goalkeepers.

This number seems too great to be anomalous, especially given the extra contact that goalkeepers have with the ground, resulting in more contact with the potentially hazardous pellets than any outfield position.

When questioned on this report, Quentin Sloper, Director of Sport, Music and Drama at Experience Durham, played down the fears, claiming, “The safety of our participants is of the utmost importance.

All Durham University’s artificial sports pitches are certified to the highest standards of safety and our two rubber crumb surfaces are fully compliant with guidance from Sport England and RFU and FA specifications.”

Though reassuring to an extent, it does not quell any fears. Regardless of the specifications outlined by any governing body, the recent studies suggest a deeper underlying problem: that it may be impossible to track the safety and history of each individual pellet. Indeed, the history of the rubber pellets may render any guidelines futile.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, also called for an investigation last month. However, currently Sport England denies any problem, passing these surfaces as safe.

On Wednesday 26th October, Maiden Castle saw one of the biggest games of the season for Durham University Men’s Football Club. A clash between Durham, last season’s BUCS Premier North Champions, and runners up Stirling University also coincided with the club’s inaugural charity match for ‘Sport in Action Zambia.’ In a hard fought contest, Billy Hodgkinson’s injury time winner secured the points for the home side, to raptures from the record attendance, and crucially, a high turnout led to £350 being raised for Sport in Action Zambia.

The game started slowly, with neither side able to find any penetrating passes to break two well organised defensive units.

With 25 minutes gone, Tom Gilbey and James Philpott combined.

Philpott got up well and to head the left back’s cross towards goal, only to see the effort brilliantly saved.

With the rest of the first half mostly attritional, it was the visiting ‘keeper who was kept the busier, making an impressive stop from Dom Sarle after a driven shot from Philpott.On the stroke of half time, Durham came the closest yet, with Philpott striking the crossbar after getting on the end of a free kick.

Stirling started the second half better, however, with the pace at the top a constant threat. With 75 minutes gone, the Scottish side had their best opportunity they slotted the ball just past the post.

Durham came back strongly, however. King’s driven shot from the edge of the box clattered against the post. However, deep into stoppage time, substitute Billy Hodgkinson got himself on the end of a long ball. From the angle of the area, he lobbed the visiting keeper, the ball bouncing once before nestling in the net.

A clearly delighted Hodgkinson told Palatinate after the game, “I thought the team played quite well and nullified any Stirling threat In a game of few chances I managed to snatch a late winner and it will go down as one of my favourite ever memories in football.”