843

Beaver

Issue 843 | 8.12.15

the

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

SU Criticise School Intervention On PalSoc Event Ellen Wilkie Executive Editor

THE LSE HAS RECEIVED CRITICISM for its intervention on an LSESU Palestine Society event that took place in October.

The event received criticism at the time which was dealt with by the Students’ Union, who released a statement drawing a line under the event. The School’s fresh intervention on this matter has been alleged to have been following lobbying by The Board of Deputies of British Jews.

The protest, that took place in the Saw Swee Hock Centre on the 22nd October, was intended to ‘commemorate the Palestinians who have been killed over their resistance to the Israeli occupation’. The protest was surrounded by handwritten signs stating ‘Trigger Warning’, warning students that they may be distressed by the images of violence that the Exhibition included. In the course of the event there was a confrontation between the Palestine Society and members of the Israel society, that saw a member of the Israel Society record himself ask Palestine Society’s members whether they would condemn one of the Palestinians that they were commemorating who killed three Israelis in the street.

The complaints were dealt with at the time through an investigation by the Students’ Union. This investigation concluded with a statement that conceded the SU’s ‘need to review [their] framework for how [they] facilitate activities of a sensitive nature in the SU building in the future.’ Both the Israel Society and Palestine Society

were satisfied with this conclusion to the disagreement.

On Wednesday 30th November the school released a statement declaring that they were ‘deeply troubled’ by the exhibition. This perspective of the school was that ‘This is not a matter of free speech within the law, which the School is obliged to uphold across its premises: the law was not broken. Neither is it in itself a concern that offence was caused. The concern is that both the content of the exhibition and the manner in which it was displayed, together with related activities off campus and on social media, caused serious harm to relations between sections of our community on campus. The apparent celebration, even if unintended, of violence and perpetrators of violence caused significant distress to students who identify with victims of that violence. As a university we are committed to encouraging the free exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect. The School asks that all Students’ Union societies act with respect for the views and feelings of all their fellow students.’

Nona Buckley-Irvine, LSESU General Secretary, stated in response that ‘It is deeply disappointing that the School has sought to engage with the political activity of a society beyond its legal responsibilities’.

Her statement continues to say ‘Since the decision [that concluded the investigation] has been made, there have been a slew of lobbyists engaging with the School and the Students’ Union regarding the exhibition.

We are not answerable to lobby groups..

Continued on Page 3

LSE Men’s Football Club Sixth Team dress as Margaret Thatcher and striking miners for AU Carol 2015

Comment: We’ve Already Lost The War With Syria

Perdita Blinkhorn Collective Chair

FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY’S vote in the House of Commons in favour of bombing Syria, I feel lost, angry and empty. In all honesty, part of this is the burning knowledge that this military action will be carried out in my name and that of my country; but the truly devastating realisation is that there are so many people in this world today who will die as a result of it, as a direct consequence or otherwise.

Immoral, inhumane and inde-

fensible, all of us “terrorist sympathisers” (according to David Cameron), must unite to make it known that we do not condone these Western acts of violence, and make the MPs who voted aye hear us say “Not In My Name”.

It should first be noted that this action by our government is a huge win for ISIS or Daesh, as it reinforces the rhetoric of an aggressive, power-crazed West they wish to portray to civilians they are trying to recruit to their

Sport

The Carol Awards!

Where did your team come in?

Page 30

cause. In the words of Nicholas Henin, a journalist who was held

by Daesh for 10 months while witnessing the execution of his colleagues, "We are just fuelling our enemies and fuelling the misery and disaster for the local people." He notes how the extremists become weaker the more we dismantle their world view, citing how, when much of Europe united to welcome refugees into our lands, Daesh were left without a leg to stand on as it showed the

humanity and care for our fellow man they would have Syrians believe the West is void of. Choosing to violently attack Syria in a way which will certainly have yet untold civilian causalities merely supports the propaganda ISIS perpetuate and helps them get locals onside, as it were.

Over the centuries, Britain has had more than its fair share of wars and yet it refuses to learn the lessons from even our most...

Continued Page 8

The Big Christmas Quiz .

We Got 100 Problems and the Paris Attacks Ain’t One? Page 21-23 NEW: LSE Tribes

Room 2.02, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, LSE Students’ Union London WC2A 2AE Executive Editor Ellen Wilkie

editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Managing Editor Megan Crockett

Beaver

the

the

Beaver

Established in 1949 Issue No. 843 - Tuesday 8 December 2015 - issuu.com/readbeaveronline Telephone: 0207 955 6705 Email: editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk Website: www.beaveronline.co.uk Twitter: @beaveronline

managing@thebeaveronline.co.uk

News Editors Shwetha Chandrashekhar Suyin Haynes Greg Sproston

Ellen Wilkie on Calhoun’s aeroplane expenses, and crawling home for Christmas

Comment Editors Mali Williams

From the Executive Editor

news@thebeaveronline.co.uk

comment@thebeaveronline.co.uk

PartB Editors Kemi Akinboyewa Vikki Hui Flo Edwards

partb@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The City Editor Alex Gray

city@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Features Editor Alex Hurst Taryana Odayar

features@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The Nab Editor

nab@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Sport Editor Alex Dugan

sports@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Online Editor Gee Linford-Grayson

online@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Collective Chair Perdita Blinkhorn

collective@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The Collective:

A Doherty, A Fyfe, A Laird, A Leung, A Lulache, A Moro, A Qazilbash, A Santhanham, A Tanwa, A Thomson, B Phillips, C Holden, C Loughran, C Morgan, C Hu, D Hung, D Lai, D Sippel, D Tighe, E Arnold, E Wilkie, G Cafiero, G Harrison, G Kist, G Linford-Grayson, G Manners-Armstrong, G Saudelli, H Brentnall, H Prabu, H Toms, I Plunkett, J Cusack, J Evans, J Foster, J Grabiner, J Heeks, J Momodu, J Ruther, J Wurr, K Budd, K Owusu, K Parida, K Quinn, L Kang, L Kendall, L Erich, L Mai, L Montebello, L Schofield, L van der Linden, M BanerjeePalmer, M Crockett, M Gallo, M Jaganmohan, M Johnson, M Neergheen, M Pasha, M Pennill, M Strauss, N Antoniou, N Bhaladhare, N BuckleyIrvine, N Stringer, O Hill, O Gleeson, P Amoroso, P Blinkhorn, P Gederi, R Browne, R J Charnock, R Huq, R Kouros, R Serunjogi, R Siddique, R Uddin, R Way, S Ali, S Crabbe-Field, S Kunovska, S Povey, S Sebatindira, T Mushtaq, T Odayar, T Poole, V Hui, Z Chan, Z Mahmod

To join the Collective you need to have written for 3 or more editions of The Beaver. Think you’ve done that but don’t see your name on the list? Email collective@thebeaveronline.co.uk to let us know!

Any opinions expressed herein are those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the LSE Students’ Union or Beaver Editorial Staff.

The Beaver is issued under a Creative Commons license.

THE CRAIG CALHOUN Question Time event this week was sadly underattended, even though -as Nona correctly pointed out- there was a bigger turnout than most UGMs. Only around 20 students, in the end, were there to bear witness to some of the absolutely unacceptable things that the Director of the LSE had to say in response to the genuine concerns of his student body.

Predictably, Calhoun referred to his expenses claim for £60,000 of business class flights as absolute ly essential to the running of the school. What I found worrying, however, is what Calhoun considered non-essential. His attitude towards the provision of support for Disabled Students was that it is subject to constraints on the schools budget. The school does have limited funds, so it is understandable that finance must to be taken into account. There is, however, an uncomfortable contrast between what the Director deemed essential; namely his own

luxuries, and what must be traded off within the school budget; the minimum legal requirement of Disabled Student Support. This lack of basic human compassion finally gives us an explanation for why our student satisfaction scores are as low as they are. Can Craig really not sacrifice his own luxuries even half of the time, to serve the needs of his student body?

The event also saw Craig deny all knowledge of the interception of The Beaver’s emails and his apparent condemnation of Freedom of Information access serving the needs of reporters. I obviously have a vested interest in the freedom of the press at university, but this apparent willingness to undermine that freedom at any point gives The Beaver the impression that there’s still something to find, if we keep digging (which obviously we will).

Craig Calhoun, with his white beard, hearty laugh and cheerful (if somewhat sinister) disposition, provides a neat segue to the fact

that Christmas is coming!

The end of term is on its way, finally. I’m writing this Editorial 20 minutes before The Beaver’s print deadline because Megan has managed to rip a ligament in her ankle and isn’t able to come to The Beaver office. That means I’ve rounded off the year doing two people’s work in the same time frame as I’d usually only just manage to finish my own. At the beginning of term I’d have collapsed under the pressure and this paper would have had to go out half finished. Somehow though, this term has made me more resilient, efficient and hardworking (even if that hasn’t necessarily reflected onto my actual degree). The Beaver is a huge challenge, but I’ve come out the other end of 11 Editions tired and ready to crawl back up North to my family home, but very proud of the paper that I and the Editorial Board have managed to pull together every week. Merry Christmas to them, and to the rest of the student body!

From the Managing Editor Megan Crockett on term coming to a close (finally!)

TIS THE LAST WEEK OF Term and I’m not going to lie I am feeling burnt out, overworked and perhaps a teeny bit festive. This last term has been full of tests, and I think the fact I’m still stood here now, as Managing Editor, proves that I have come out the other side.

These past eleven weeks have taught me how to manage my time.

Sometimes The Beaver consumes you, all of you, and you start to neglect your classes (the real reason you’re at LSE), your friends and yourself. There have been times when I hit the wall, I’d walk into the office and I had had enough, but I think we’ve all been there. Regardless of what societies you’re part of, what sports you’re playing, what course you’re studying, I know that we’ve all had that one day where we’ve thrown a massive wobbly because your to do list is longer than a formative

essay and you just want to curl up in bed, hibernate and throw the towel in. Congratulations guys, the fact you’re reading this editorial, in week eleven, proves that you have made it through.

We can do this. LSE is scary, I think uni can be scary in general, but I know deep down we can all pull ourselves out of our end of term slump and carry on. I’m not sure about you, but the thought of sitting watching shitty christmas films, eating far too many mince pies and getting perfectly merry on eggnog is the only thing getting me through these last couple of days at uni.

I should be in the Beaver office writing this editorial but I’m not, I’m sat on my sofa with my ankle bandaged because I incurred an injury at netball and can’t put any pressure on ankle. I’m worrying a little bit that hopping around my house is going to leave me with an

extremely muscly leg (I massively overthink EVERYTHING and I’m a total hypochondriac so that might explain that!). Anyway, I’m not divulging this information for pity, it’s a self-inflicted injury and sympathy is not what I want. The reason I’m telling you is because it means that our wonderful Executive Editor, Ellen, is putting this paper together single handedly this week and I can not thank her enough for that!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas “holiday” (inverted commas as we all know that Christmas is when you catch up on all that reading you didn’t really do and cram in as much dissertation work as possible) and I’m looking forward to what LSE will throw at us next term! The thought of only have two terms left at The School is terrifying, I just hope those last two terms are as amazing as the past seven have been!

TWEETS OF THE WEEK George Greenwood @GeorgeGreenwood @beaveronline @craigjcalhoun Flights are reasonable business expense to market LSE globally. But business class is just not a necessity. marthy christmas @mysterymartha forever only picking up copies of the beaver that I’ve written for LSE Students’ Union @lsesu .@joshhitchens_uk raises @ beaveronline email interception - @nonajasmine: will be discussed with data protection committee #UGM Nona Buckley-Irvine @nonajasmine UK gov do nothing on female oppression in UK but now a political tool to promote war. Hypocrisy. #SyriaVote #DontBombSyria Aysha AF @AyshaFekaiki Calhoun the director has Confirmed that LSE will be raising fees in line with inflation #greenpaper #lse Confused Orientalist @Habibline @Aysha Fekaiki one of the main reasons why I had to scrap applying to LSE George Harrison @George_Haz People who make political statuses on Facebook need to get in the bin though George Burton @George_Burton #YouAintNoMuslimBruv is a double negative. I admire the effort through. #LeytonstoneStabbing The Beaver @beaveronline “This is better attended than a UGM” (with about 20 in attendance) - .@nonajasmine @lsesu #ccqt Katie Budd @klebudd Had an early night postrugby match and woke up to this horrible, but sadly unsurprising, news. When will we learn? #DontBombSyria

Tweet us @beaveronline to see your 140 characters in print!

SU Criticise School Intervention On PalSoc Event Ellen Wilkie Executive Editor

...only to our members, the 10,000 students studying at the LSE. My response will not change in light of external pressure.

Unfortunately, it seems that the School’s continued fear of reputational damage means that they have responded to these lobby groups, and external pressure has resulted in this statement which is unbalanced and falls outside of their remit. This sets a worrying precedent for the School engaging with the political affairs of our Union and its societies.’

Reporting by The Jewish News makes clear that the school’s statement has come as a result of lobbying done by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Jonathan Lehner, the Board President, provided a statement to The Jewish News detailing his meeting with the ‘Senior Academic Leadership’ of the LSE. Buckley-Irvine’s statement concludes by stating that ‘The School should be mindful remember that beyond legal obligations, our societies are not answerable to them, and neither are we.’

The LSE’s Policy on intervention in the Union is that ‘The School will not normally intervene in the affairs of the Union unless it believes there is an important reason to do so. An important reason will normally concern issues of financial management, legal compliance, health and safety, reputational damage and/or good campus relations.’

The LSESU Palestine Society have commented that ‘On behalf of the LSESU Palestine Society, we would like to express our disgust at the recent statement released by LSE about our event on the 22nd of October 2015. Allow us to clarify the reality of the situation, which the University has so blatantly ignored in bowing down

to the demands of external entities. The University must be under the impression that our organisers are naive, and are not aware of the political nature of the Palestinian cause. There could be nothing further from the truth. We find it utterly disturbing that such a statement was even drafted following an investigation and exoneration by the Students’ Union. On Thursday December 3, 2015, LSESU General Secretary Nona Buckley-Irvine released a statement expressing her disappointment that the School has sought to engage with the political activity of a society beyond its legal responsibilities.

It is embarrassing, hypocritical, and outright offensive that the ‘School’ is bowing to external pressures to maintain an image. We find this particular sentence to be extremely troubling, “The apparent celebration, even if unintended, of violence and perpetrators of violence caused significant distress to students who identify with victims of that violence.” This is not only one-sided but it also inherently ignorant to the reality of those who suffer under the longest and the most brutal military occupation in modern history. The audacity of the drafters of this statement to belittle the suffering of the Palestinian people is shameful, and a disgrace to LSE’s progressive academic and political environment.

We, as students who make up the Palestine Society, are not interested in maintaining ‘relations’ with factions of the campus community who are willing to defend and support a regime that practices illegal occupation, colonisation, ethnic cleansing, siege, blockade, massacres, apartheid, institutionalised racism, indiscriminate targeting of civilians, and incessant home demolitions. Why hasn’t the University addressed the harm and distress Israel apologists have had on our members? What about the

harm caused to our members who were subjected to cameras being shoved in their faces? Or the harm of circulating videos that have severe repercussions to our Palestinian members who have to return to Occupied Palestine and go through illegal military checkpoints? Your silence is deafening! Your silence is shameful! Your silence is a reinforcement of the very problems we aim so desperately to address!

Your hypocrisy in placing forth a ridiculous standard to which is essentially only applicable to the Palestine Society will not stifle our right to free speech or free expression. Allow us to reassure you, your intimidation tactics will be fruitless, we are not easily intimated as you clearly are.’

The LSESU Israel Society commented that ‘We at the LSESU Israel society are abhorred by Nona-Buckley Irvine’s, shamefully biased and irresponsible statements following the recent commemoration of stabbers of innocent Israeli Jewish civilians by the Palestine society. The very first name on the Palsoc commemoration list was Muhannad Halabi, a 19-year-old Palestinian that killed two UltraOrthodox Jews and injured two others including a 2-year-old baby in the old city of Jerusalem. Also on their list was Thaer Abu Ghazaleh, who stabbed and wounded four civilians and one female soldier in Tel Aviv. There were many more such people commemorated for their ‘resistance’. Many students at LSE have friends and family that live in Israel and were horrified to see the names of those that would happily kill them ‘commemorated’ on campus (in an exhibition facilitated by their SU). Nona has consistently refused to apologise for the way the exhibition commemorated these stabbers of innocent civilians and has only apologised for the graphic images on display. In failing to do so she has shown no regard to the

welfare of Jewish or Israeli students that she is also supposed to represent. Worse than that, when the school took up this issue due to the failure of the SU to deal with our complaints appropriately, she then condemned the school for doing so. She is wrong for arguing that the schools statement ‘falls outside their remit’. In fact, they had a legal responsibility to deal with our complaints in accordance with the LSE/SU MOU section 5.4, which states “The School will not normally intervene in the affairs of the Union unless it believes there is an important reason to do so. An important reason will normally concern issues of financial management, legal compliance, health and safety, reputational damage and/or good campus relations.” We thank the school for publicly showing their disdain to such a vile exhibition and showing the moral decency that Nona so very much lacks.

This is just one further moral stain on Nona’s already dirty and biased record of dealing with Israel issues on campus. To the Palestine society, consider this a plea to change course. Why can’t you advance the Palestinian cause without celebrating violent murderers that kill innocents our members identify with?

Why can’t you campaign for Palestinians without intimidating Jewish students and delegitimizing the state of Israel in its entirety? Why can’t you engage in a dialogue with us, host joint events with us and join forces in supporting the creation of a peaceful Palestinian state side by side to a secure Israel (the solution that LSE students overwhelmingly voted for during a recent debate)? Maybe we are being optimistic but should you decide to stop endorsing violence, stop employing intimidation tactics and ruining our events with shouting and fire alarms, we will be there, excited to engage with you in a productive and healthy manner’.

Mali Williams Comment Editor

THE WAY WELSH STUDENTS are funded is ‘unsustainable’, according to Universities Wales, a body representing higher education institutions in Wales.

Since the UK Government raised the tuition fee cap in 2012, the Welsh Government has paid a tuition fee grant of around £5,000 a year to each Welsh student, wherever they study in the UK, including at the LSE. Yet, according to Universities Wales’s manifesto released ahead of the Assembly elections in May 2016, the tuition fee grant ought to be replaced by a means tested grant. The Chair of Universities Wales said that a means tested grant would enable resources to be focused on areas of need, such as students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those studying expensive courses like medicine.

The Welsh tuition fee grant has

been criticised in the past by many involved with higher education in Wales. Universities in Wales have argued that the tuition fee grant sees millions of pounds of Welsh public money crossing the border to fund higher education institutions in England.

The Higher Education Green Paper released last month by the UK Government’s Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, suggests that universities in England could raise their tuition fees in the future if they can demonstrate a high quality of teaching. According to Universities Wales, adding to the cost of the tuition fee grant (currently around £135m a year) would lead to an ‘uncertain’ and ‘unsustainable’ future for higher education institutions in Wales.

Despite this, the Labour government in Wales maintains that the tuition fee grant is an ‘investment in young people’. It said that, to the contrary of arguments made

by Welsh universities, the higher education industry in Wales has seen growth over the last few years, despite the current economic climate. Moreover, the tuition fee grant sees Welsh students £17,000 better off than their counterparts in England over the course of an undergraduate degree.

Section Editor: Shwetha Chandrashekhar Suyin Haynes Greg Sproston Deputy Editors: Joseph Briers Bhadra Sreejith

News

Funding Of Welsh Students Is ‘Unsustainable’

News | 3

The Diamond Review into higher education funding and student finance arrangements in Wales is still ongoing, and is due to be published after the Welsh Assembly elections next year.

In the meantime, prospective students in Wales face an uncertain financial future.

4

LSE Student Awarded Prestigious Military Medal | Tuesday 8 December, 2015

Joseph Briers Deputy News Editor

LSE MASTERS STUDENT Geoff Faraday has been awarded the New Zealand Gallantry Star for his heroic actions whilst serving as a part of a UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan. Major Faraday displayed astonishing courage during what turned out to be a treacherous fortnight for the Kiwi.

Within a matter of weeks, he risked his life to save thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) and also managed to secure the safety of 72 of his crewmates when a barge they was travelling on came under attack from rocket propelled grenades.

Faraday says he is “deeply honoured” by the award, though he insists he was “just doing the job I was trained to do”. Though the international development student’s modesty does nothing to diminish the awe that his actions in South Sudan will surely inspire once one

learns of the extraordinary details of his time in the war-torn African nation.

“There were approximately 5000 IDPs in the camp when this mob breached the camp perimeter and began to attack them. They were shooting randomly into the crowd of fleeing women and children”. According to the citation released, Faraday, despite being entirely unarmed, ‘at one stage attempted to personally intervene while under threat by an armed attacker. Without regard for his safety, he reported on the situation to the United Nationals Mission in South Sudan Headquarters and was able to guide the quick reaction force to counter the penetration of the camp perimeter’. Once the attack, which left 53 civilians dead, was over, Faraday continued his attempts to keep safe those who had been sheltering at the camp as ‘one of the few people who went out into the camp to search for those in need of medical attention’.

Just a week later, Faraday saved countless more lives, helping to fend off an attack by the South Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), on a barge carrying crucial supplies to a UN camp. ‘Major Faraday took control of the situation, though he had no command authority over the UN soldiers or the civilian barge crews…He exposed himself to enemy fire on a number of occasions to maintain his situational awareness and provide regular reports to the UN Force Headquarters. Realising that assistance would not be available, he made the decision to abandon the two fuel barges, transfer the personnel, casualties and stores to the two ration barges’, a decision that would prove key in preventing severe loss of life.

Faraday was keen to pay tribute to both the British and New Zealand Armies for the training he had received, as well as the Nepalese troops on board the barge whom he credits with ensuring ‘that the

casualties were kept to a minimum on our side’. He also looked to shift focus to the Sudanese people, who he says “have borne the brunt of the violence in the region”. “It is a fascinating part of the world that few from the West understand…

The people are incredibly resilient, after all the years of conflict they have gone through they continue to find hope”.

Geoff Faraday has undoubtedly already given a tremendous amount to both the effort to end conflict, and those who bear its most disastrous costs. Yet his time in Africa has only spurred his aspiration to cultivate peace. “My experiences in South Sudan very much influenced my decision to pursue my LSE Masters course and my long-term desire to work for the United Nations. I sincerely believe in the mission of the United Nations and am very grateful for the opportunity to have served with the UN mission in South Sudan as a member of the NZDF”.

Have Your Say On EDI LSESU Launches HE Consultation Suyin Haynes News Editor THE EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND Inclusion (EDI) Taskforce is looking for opinions from the LSE community on EDI related matters and is currently conducting an open survey where all can voice their views.

Established earlier this year, the EDI taskforce’s mandate is to conduct a root-and-branch review of EDI issues at the School, to generate policy proposals, and to initiate changes around the institutional architecture and campus culture in order to maximise equity, diversity and inclusion across the School.

The new survey initiative aims to get suggestions and ideas from members of the LSE community on EDI related matters, encompassing the themes of gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, alternative learning needs, mental health and wellbeing, as well as much more.

Professor Carola Frege, chair of the EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Taskforce, told The Beaver: “The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Taskforce started in September 2015. Its purpose

is to conduct a thorough review and initiate proposals on how the School can improve the diversity and inclusiveness of student and staff experiences on campus. We are particularly interested in how to make the School a better place for students and staff with minority identities. Using the ‘Have your say on EDI at LSE’ suggestion form on our website, we would like to invite you to send us your suggestions and ideas on how the School can develop as a welcoming, inclusive and encouraging environment for all. The form is available on the EDI website, or it can be found by searching for ‘Have your say on EDI at LSE’. We are really keen to ensure that members of the School have a real say in the process and would love to hear your ideas on what you would like the School to do, as well as to learn about any of your negative experiences in relation to gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or other factors.”

If you would like to share your suggestions about EDI at LSE, feedback is welcome from all and the submission will remain open until Monday 29 February 2016.

Greg Sproston News Editor THE SU HELD SEVERAL consultations on the government’s higher education paper this week.

Focusing on three areas of the policy document which were deemed to have the most pronounced impact on students, separate sessions were organised, with the first concerning freedom of information, students’ unions and ministerial power; the second on implications for widening participation and access to education; and the third on the teaching excellent framework and fees.

LSESU will use student feedback to craft a coherent response to the green paper, which has been criticised to varying extents by Universities UK, NUS, The Higher Education Policy Institute and The Guardian amongst others.

Thus far, LSE students seem to be primarily concerned with fair access and the teaching excellence framework (TEF). The TEF will allow ‘high scoring’ universities to raise their fees, something which one first year undergrad described as ‘pretty shocking, you’ll just get an even wider gap between Oxbridge and Russell groups, and then the rest,’ before cynically adding ‘oh well, it probably won’t affect us because the teaching here is crap!’

The measures aimed at promoting social mobility and widening access are being taken with a pinch of salt, too. One second year didn’t have much faith in the policy document, stating ‘Well, I don’t really see the point of...these proposals, getting rid of the maintenance grant is a massive barrier and none of these suggestions address that’.

There is also concern over the Government’s design for student unions, especially in the context of its draconian treatment of labour unions with legislation it is currently proposing. The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts fears that proposals for ‘increased transparency’ of union funds is merely a smokescreen for undemocratic meddling by the Government. Coupled with the potential exemption of Universities from the Freedom of Information Act, the ability of student bodies to hold their institutions to account could soon be a thing of the past.

Despite the negative implications for students, it’s not all bad news. This government was initially unable to even agree a date for the paper’s publication; it is fair to assume that the journey from poli-

cy document to legislative act will not be plain sailing, particularly given that the government has no majority in a House of Lords that has demonstrated its willingness to defy convention In a further boon for students, HEPI Director Nick Pearson notes that the paper ‘is surprisingly green’ or, in other words, that a lot of the proposals - particularly TEF - are largely notional and nonspecific at present. This gives us a fantastic opportunity to be part of the narrative that shapes the eventual document. Whilst the SU consultations are finished, its final response will not be delivered until 16th January 2016. If you have any concerns, ideas, or suggestions relating to the Higher Education green paper, please email them in to su.generalsecretary@lse.ac.uk.

A Happy Nordic Marriage: LSESU NordicSoc Rounds Off Year in Style

Silke Juul-Sorensen and Olli Castrén LSESU Nordic Society

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE academic year, LSESU witnessed the coming together of two societies in holy matrimony. The Finnish Society and Scandinavian Society merged, establishing the new and improved Nordic Society.

After a split caused years ago by a disagreement among the Finns and Swedes of the original Nordic Society, they have once again found themselves together.

Over the previous summer, both the President of FinnSoc and the Vice-President of ScanSoc, agreed that both societies were stagnating.

Doing the same things over and over again, neither society felt particularly inspired. FinnSoc had become a small careers club for all Finnish students, and ScanSoc was mostly known for throwing a massive boat party every year - which, granted, has earned a reputation for being memorable.

Moreover, there has been a contingent of students who either belonged to none of these national groups (e.g. Iceland) or who were generally interested in both cultures but felt that “Scandinavian” sounded slightly exclusionary. As a result, both society executives decided to execute a merger, and based on the initial feedback, which sounded, ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before?’

With initial concerns and trepidations, the Nordic Society took its first steps into student life.

Consisting of an enthusiastic and dedicated committee at its helm, they have successfully reached many of their goals for the term.

Membership has grown, not only in numbers, but also in composition.

The society now has more nationalities represented, both Nordic and non-Nordic and has an almost equal representation of undergraduate and postgraduate members. This new interest in the society has been the driver behind the committee’s dedicated work this term.

Over this past Michaelmas Term, the coming together of the NordicSoc has proven to be a valuable addition to the LSE Students’ Union. The society has managed to host two intimate Q&A sessions with Nordic politicians visiting the European Institute for leading public lectures. Members had the opportunity of meeting with Former Prime Minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt, when he visited the LSE in October.

Reinfeldt was at the LSE to speak of the perspectives on Europe.

Duly, the NordicSoc arranged for a meeting prior to the lecture, where a select few could meet Reinfeldt and ask relevant questions.

When Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for Competition, came to LSE a couple of weeks ago, NordicSoc once again facilitated a session with her before her talk.

Both meetings with Reinfeldt and Vestager were a great success, and together, they have strengthened the academic profile of the new Nordic Society.

The NordicSoc has not lost touch with the spirit of the old ScanSoc. On December 1, the society hosted its very first Christmas Dinner to start off the festive season. The sold-out event was hosted in the Finnish Church, where 45 people from the UK to Åland to Malmø to

Dubai, shared a traditional Nordic Christmas meal. The event met with success, encouraging all who attended to sing along to Nordic and English songs, as the dinner was planned in Finnish style.

NordicSoc ends this term on an elated and ‘hungry’ note. They recognize their ability to ‘do so much more.’ Looking forward to Lent Term, the society has planned a Nordic movie week in collaboration with the Film Society, some potential academic/ career events both in London, and Helsinki. Further, they look forward to carrying on the tradition from the ScanSoc of the ever-popular Scandi-Latino boat party.

The marriage between the Finnish Society and the Scandinavian Society has proven to a success, with members looking forward to the coming year.

Hall Rents Fight Not Yet Over James Clark Staff Writer

IN APRIL 2015, LSESU announced a successful lobbying of freezing rent rises in shared rooms within LSE Residences. Yet with continuous rises in rents at LSE Accommodation, the LSESU and General Secretary Nona BuckleyIrvine are launching a new campaign to freeze rents against further rises in all types of rooms, and also to ensure accommodation is made more affordable.

Currently the lowest rent level available is £100.80 for a room shared between 3 people in the Undergraduate Hall Passfield, with a total yearly rent of just under £3,000 for 30 weeks of the year, yet the highest rent in a standard single room available to LSE students is £10,569.71 in Urbanest’s accommodation Westminster Bridge for 50 weeks. The effects of the yearly rise in rents (ranging from an average of £4 to £12 per room)

contributes to a significant burden on financial situations of students at LSE. More often that not, for Home/EU students who receive maintenance loans and grants from the Student Loan Company, their rent can take up a large proportion and at times, the full amount of the money received, leaving many to turn to jobs and facing cutbacks in other areas of student life.

Buckley-Irvine has specifically stated that the inaccessibility of LSE in terms of financial accessibility is one of her main issues of focus this year, covering both Accommodation and Tuition Fees in general for both Home/EU and International Students.

However, as the estimated 200 undergraduate students receive the full student loan grant for students with parental income under £25,000, it is important to note that this is not only a serious concern for this group of students, but also for students from the “squeezed middle-class.” Further,

this does not cover those parents who have children who are disabled and are compelled to afford accommodation on top of health care which could leave their child in a similar achievement level to abled students.

In addition, during the LSESU’s ‘Your Hall, Your Call’ survey in 2014-2015, there were various issues noted about WiFi and general issues in terms of maintaining the general standard of LSE’s Student Accommodation.

An unnamed student within CarrSaunders Hal shares: ‘rent has now increased by £30 pounds over the last two years and is no longer value for money.’

The question students are asking now is, if the LSE Planning Unit is having reviews on LSE Departments such as Information Technology, will they also facilitate a review on the escalating prices charged by LSE Residential Services for ‘basic rooms which cannot be described as affordable.’

News | 5

London Uni Roundup

King’s College London will offer sanctuary scholarships from 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 which will support talented refugees for three years of undergraduate study. The student societies Students4Syria and Student Action for Refugees are planning charity based incentives to help refugees. Applications for sanctuary funding will be invited from 2016. According to Dr. Newman, vice-principal of King’s, “King’s is committed to doing all that it can to ensure that those caught up in this desperate situation do not have to face a bleak future”.

Researchers from UCL have found out that teenagers who use websites such as Facebook within thirty minutes of bedtime tend to perform worse in class. They state that this might be because the exposure over-stimulates the brain, making it difficult to fall asleep afterwards. The students who used Facebook before bedtime achieved grades which were twenty percent lower in GCSE and A-level exams than those who did not. The research, which was carried out by the UCL Institute of Education Lifespan Learning and Sleep Laboratory, found a lack of sleep on weekdays was strongly associated with poorer academic achievement at school.

DASH Magazine has teamed up with London College of Fashion Fashion Illustration students to create an illustration campaign that discusses gender, conformity and the dressing of different sexualities. The campaign is called, ‘Gender / No Gender.’

The illustration campaign is designed to be a train of thought on gender, underlining artists’ opinions through illustrations.

Dash will run an illustrator per week on their website throughout the campaign.

6

| Tuesday 8 Devember, 2015

UGM Motion To Condemn Paris Attacks Fails To Reach Quoracy Alina Ryzhonkova Postgraduate Student THE UGM ON THURSDAY, December 3, followed in the wake of several strongly worded comment pieces in The Beaver which debated not only UGMs, but the future of democracy at LSE. Although the UGM has now been relocated from the previously criticized ‘noisy’ café, attendance was weak. Poor attendance is possibly attributed to the stresses of Week 10 of Michaelmas, rather than any fundamental faults with the democratic processes at LSE, as one student shares.

The UGM was well organized and the platform it provided for elected officers to share updates and answer questions was valuable for those who were in attendance.

The motion proposed did little to improve the recently tarnished reputation of the UGM. Instead of bringing a pressing issue into focus and encouraging healthy debate, the motion to condemn the terrorist attacks in Paris seemed unnecessary and redundant in light of the outpouring of sympathy and support from the LSE and the wider LSE community following the attacks in November.

A day after the controversial parliamentary vote on U.K. air-

strikes in Syria, the issue of retaliation and bombing Syria was discussed at the UGM. The issue did not arise in the form of a debate, but rather as an amendment, which took any potential reference to such policies and reactions out of the motion.

One student at the UGM shared, ‘I hope the debate on airstrikes in Syria is actually arranged for in the future and is not instead swept under the rug for fear of controversy.’

While the motion is a commendable gesture, as sympathy and support are certainly in order in light of the unfortunate events in Paris, calling for an official con-

demnation of a terrorist attack and encouraging debate at the LSE was widely questioned by students.

While it is doubtful that the student body would vote against condemning terrorist attacks, the lack of controversy generated by the motion does not make it any less important in the grand scheme of

the democratic processes in place.

The UGM remains an incredibly important platform for student debate and for interaction between the elected officers and students.

More students are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to get involved and make their opinions heard.

LSE Annual Fund LSE Director Grilled By Supports PuLSE Radio Students At Question Time Joseph Donaghey Undergraduate Student

THE LSE ANNUAL FUND raises charitable donations from LSE alumni, governors, parents, staff and friends of the school, to support student projects across campus that would otherwise not receive funding.

This year, the fund has aided 180 Degrees Consulting, a new LSESU society focused on helping nonprofits and social enterprises overcome challenges they’re facing and prompting them to create their greatest possible social impact. Alex Dugan, cofounder and driving force behind the new LSESU society, has had a busy year after he was successful in receiving financial support from the Annual Fund for two projects.

The first project titled #whatdidyoudo, was aimed at enlightening people to recognize that their every action can make a real and significant difference.

This was done by releasing balloons together with written tags describing participants’ meaningful actions.

Dugan’s vision of the project seeks to travel beyond the usual student campaign. “The typical student campaign begins and ends at the university, without doing much for the wider issue. That’s where our campaign differs, we want to go beyond the walls of LSE.” #whatdidyoudo provides an opportunity for self-reflection and shows students that they can make a difference, no matter how small an action they take.

The second project which received financial support from the Annual Fund was for a 180 Degrees Consulting showcase event, which hosted an evening conference that included a speech by the CEO of 180DC International, Nat Ware. Following the event, membership for the new society has increased ‘by approximately

75% and applications to become Megan Crockett a consultant have increased by Managing Editor 50%.’ The success of the event has also allowed the society to A HANDFUL OF EAGER enter negotiations with Emzingo, students gathered in The Venue on a leadership development Tuesday 1st December, keen to quesdesign firm, about a potential tion the Director of the London partnership.

School of Economics (LSE), Craig Dugan’s ambitious plans Calhoun. Question Time with Craig anticipate 180 DC to have an Calhoun was hosted by Nona Buckeven more successful following ley-Irvine, General Secretary of the year. When asked about future LSE Students' Union (SU) and was plans, he shared his plan to launch open to all students to attend and more social impact campaigns, pose questions. more events for members, and After a short introduction by also “potentially leverage our Buckley-Irvine, Calhoun began takpartnership with Emzingo ing questions from the floor. The first to provide members with the being "will you stop spending money opportunity to do virtual and on on business class flights?" following the ground consulting projects an article by the Daily Mail which either in Lima or Johannesburg.” 'exposed' the expenses of high paid The LSE Annual Fund also university presidents and bought to helped Pulse Radio this year. light the fact Calhoun claims expens‘PuLSE is back and we’re better es for business class flights despite bethan ever.’ With new equipment ing on a £394,000 salary last year. as a result of the Annual Fund’s Calhoun responded to the quescontributions, PuLSE has tion by highlighting the fact that The significantly increased its output, Council is responsible for making deas well as quality. Listenership cisions about whether or not a flight has escalated this year and for should be business class. Calhoun the first time, the station now has added that if he did not travel busia full schedule. Last year, several ness class he would require 'days to students were not aware of the recover', suggesting that flying busistation’s existence, whereas now, ness class is most time efficient. many tune in to catch a show.

The next question came from From the Wednesday night LSESU Divest. Following their rerecap, ‘Let’s All Go to The cent success within the School they Zoo’, and ‘Listen with Lauren,’ were keen to know whether not comPuLSE is beginning to offer more panies such as Shell and BP are into its listeners, crediting the cluded in the companies the School is funds they have received from divesting from. Calhoun assured the the LSE Annual Fund. With its group that '[we] will try to work with recent success, PuLSE has now other universities ... for funds that alstarted hosting events at The low us more flexibility to exclude cerNest, with their ‘Welcome Party’ tain classes of investment'. witnessing a full room, and lively The focus then shifted onto the music. PuLSE, an organisation Higher Education (HE) Green Paper which encourages all students proposed by Jo Johnson. Calhoun and community members to get claimed that it 'is a partisan docuinvolved, now offers training to all ment' adding that 'LSE probably those ‘brave enough’ to want to won't take a political stance in camput on a show. paigning [as] The School doesn't If you have an idea for a LSE take partisan stands'. However, CalAnnual Fund project, you can houn emphasised that LSE 'need to apply in Lent Term 2016. maintain the ability to set [it's] edu-

cation policy ... which includes but is not limited to fees'. With regards to fees, the Director told the audience that 'LSE will be supporting the rise of fees inline with inflation'.

The discussion continued to focus on tuition fees as Damien Kemfac, International Students' Officer, posed the next question to the Director, asking about fees for international students. Calhoun suggested that 'freezing fees whilst you study is a reasonable proposal' before bringing to attention the fact that the School's costs have gone up faster than international students' fees, increasing by 6.8 per cent and 4 per cent respectively arguing that the rise in international tuition fees is inline with general increases in costs. Calhoun also reminded the audience that the School is unable to rise fees for home students as they are set by the government.

According to the Director, 'the fees [paid by students to study at LSE] pay 51 per cent of the cost of running the LSE' emphasising the fact that student fees' 'aren't paying for all' of the running costs of The School. Calhoun suggested that the fact these fees pay for the majority of The School's running costs 'gives us incentives to make sure we're value for money'.

The focus on fees did not end there, Calhoun said he believed 'bursary payments should increase in line with the increase in fees' before adding that he is 'worried by approaches that call on some students to pay more so that others pay less'. The Director argues that 'we could abolish bursaries, raise the fees and still fill all the places [at The School]'. However, it was clear Calhoun was uneasy with this, arguing that he wants 'the best and the brightest not just the best and the brightest with rich parents' at LSE. The focus then shifted away from the discussion of tuition fees as a audience member told the Director he used to 'giggle to himself' thinking about the fact he was going to attend

the LSE, but he does not 'giggle' anymore as student satisfaction is so low at The School.

Calhoun recognised that fact there was an 'embarrassingly poor showing' at the National Student Survey but highlighted the fact that 'students don't have major complaints about lectures ... We are top ranked in career placement ... we don't do as well at educational experience'.

The Executive Editor of The Beaver, Ellen Wilkie, asked a question regarding Calhoun's comments against Freedom of Information access serving 'reporters needs' as well as the interception of The Beaver's emails. Calhoun was visibly stirred by the question, interrupting Wilkie's question midway through and denying all knowledge of any interception of emails at the school.

The final and perhaps most contentious issue raised was around wellbeing and counselling services at the School. The Director claimed he was 'proud of the wellbeing and counselling services' we have at The School although he agreed with students stating that 'appointments ought to be faster ... there's lots of room for improvement'.

With regards to services for disabled students, Calhoun suggested that these come out of the same 'budget pool' as study space and proposed coding classes, and therefore is in the 'same category'. BuckleyIrvine disagreed with the Director claiming 'we can't put this isn the same group as study spaces ... it's a question of empathy'. It is worrying that Calhoun sees his own business class flights as essential, but provision for Disabled Students to be subject to budget constraints. With the poor score The School received in the NSS for student satisfaction, one would hope that LSE would realise that certain areas can not be subject to budget constraints, however it seems the constraints may be in the wrong places if student satisfaction was a priority of The School.

How Will AI Affect The Professions?

Shwetha Chandrashekhar News Editor

CAN MACHINES THINK, feel, create, and innovate? Centered on the implications of this question, Daniel Susskind and Professor Richard Susskind, coauthors of ‘The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts,’ examined the impact of artificial intelligence and consequences for the world of work as we know it, during the evening of Monday, November 30, in a public lecture hosted by the Department of Management at LSE. Richard Susskind is ‘IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England, President of the Society for Computers and Law and holds professorships at the University of Oxford, University College London and Gresham Collage.’ His son, Daniel Susskind is a Kennedy Scholar and a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Oxford.

The duo began their presentation with a thought-provoking question for the audience: will there be any jobs left for traditional professions as we know them? Followed by, ‘what can humans do that machines cannot?’

Richard Susskind noted that the medium-term effects of artificial intelligence would primarily impact craftspeople, empathizers, R&D workers and knowledge engineers among many others. Continuing that pessimists are creating a notion of the ‘lump of labour fallacy,’ he concluded that a job is not an indivisible lump of work.

Citing the example that a nurse today is far different than a nurse

decades back in regards to role composition, Richard emphasized that it is overstating to say jobs will be eliminated due to technological advances, as they are only changing in nature.

Daniel’s remarks highlighted that thinking clearly about tasks can broaden our understanding on what it is humans can continue to do. Prompting his following comment, that the best and brightest human professionals will last the longest, he noted that creativity, judgement, and empathy, which constitute non-routine tasks, will outlive routine ones which are easily automated by AI. However, he continued by shedding light on the AI fallacy: ‘to assume non-routine tasks cannot be performed by machines.’ To the audience’s surprise, he stated that

many machines can still perform tasks which require the human element of creativity, judgement and empathy, in ‘an unhuman way, without thinking.’

Arising a key question on what kind of future we want to create as a global society, both Richard and Daniel prompted food for thought when asking the audience, ‘do we want a computer system deciding on a life support case, or a court settlement involving a life imprisonment sentence?’

Shifting the debate to another end of the spectrum, the audience was left to reflect on which tasks would make humans most uncomfortable in relaying to the discretion of AI. Questions from the audience elevated the debate to consider implications for the meaning of hu-

man life itself. One attendee asked: ‘What is left for worker identity if all tasks will be taken over by artificial intelligence?’ Pressed for time, Richard Susskind redirected the evening’s lecture to focus on questioning what exactly we are training professionals for. He discussed the focus of higher education today teaching its students to be a twentieth century professional rather than a twenty-first century worker, concluding that current curriculum doesn’t touch on emerging issues.

With a consensus that professions attribute to the ‘good functioning of society,’ Richard and Daniel Susskind closed their talk by leaving attendees with a new direction to consider, ‘sharing expertise in our society should be the new focus.’

THE TEACHING AND LEARNING Centre (TLC) at the LSE has launched a new range of bite-sized podcasts designed to aid students in refreshing and consolidating core skills after the mid term point.

Podcasts were uploaded every day during Week 6 of Michaelmas Term, and as we approach the Christmas holidays with coursework deadlines looming, students can easily use these short clips as key study aids to tackle those

News In Brief All Undergraduates to Study ‘War on Drugs’ The LSE has announced that it is going to be the first University in the world to teach all undergraduate students about the ‘war on drugs’. Current First Years will be the first to experience the School’s innovative curriculum through a new module on the LSE100 course. The new module is part of an attempt to maintain the topical curriculum of the course, as Cofounder of LSE100 Professor Michael Cox says: “In 2016, the UN General Assembly will hold its first Special Session on Drugs in almost two decades … this is exactly the kind of high impact policy analysis and training that LSE has earned a global reputation for.” There is also talk of establishing the first ever Master’s module in ‘International Drug Policy Analysis.’

LSE to Have Great Impact at COP21

Teaching and Learning Centre Launches New Podcasts for Students

Kallum Pearmain Staff Writer

News | 7

daunting essays.

Hosted by the TLC’s educational developer Dr Helen Green, the podcasts cover a range of topics that frequently crop up in students’ worries and concerns, from reading for academic purposes to planning and structuring essays.

Regarding the decision to launch the podcast initiative, Green said “the Teaching and Learning Centre runs many events to help students develop their study skills and discover new ways to think about and approach the material they are learning. There large events typi-

cally held in large theatres with a few hundred students, group workshops such as our MSc Thursday workshop series with a few dozen students, and of course, one-to-one support. But we also wanted to experiment with a format that could reach more students and provide the support they need when they need it - so the idea of creating podcasts as a flexible alternative came up.”

The podcasts are also accompanied by transcripts so the information and advice is available both orally and in writing, as well

as a summary of key points, further resources and worksheets for students, making them accessible to a wide audience. Intended for undergraduate and taught master’s students, this set of podcasts are geared more towards those undertaking essay based work but also can aid quantitative students who will certainly need to use the same skills at some point throughout their degree.

Students can access the podcasts via this link: lse.ac.uk/tlc/ podcasts, and explore the TLC website for further resources, infor-

As the world’s focus turns to Paris for the critical COP21 Climate talks, the LSE is in on the act. Running the show is Christina Figueres, UN Climate Change Chief, ‘the woman tasked with saving the world from global warming,’ and an LSE Master’s graduate. LSE experts are lined up to give various keynote speeches and have been commenting rabidly across the media, be it Lord Stern in the Guardian, Bob Ward in the Washington post, or Tim Forsyth on Al Jazeera. Whilst it is not clear how many connections LSE has with COP21, it is obvious that the School is saving the world, and commenting on its heroics whilst doing so.

LSE Vies for Festive University Challenge Title This year, the LSE will take part in the University Challenge Christmas special in which notable alumni traditionally populate teams. Those representing the school include former BBC Washington correspondent and Today Show host Justin Webb, money-saving expert Martin Lewis, and barrister come Tory MP Bob Neill. They will be joined

by LBC radio host and occasional Newsnight anchor James O’Brien and can expect to face other famous faces such as Louis Theroux for Magdalen College, Oxford and author Lynne Truss for cross-capital rivals UCL. Will the Christmas spin-off offer a golden opportunity for the University to shake off its woeful history in the competition?

Let’s hope snow.

8

|

Tuesday 8 December, 2015

Defend Our Right To Information Contrary to the green paper, universities should not be exempt from FOIA Mali Williams Comment Editor

“The government’s proposal is a perverse attack on students’ right to hold their universities accountable.” institutions on the same footing.

Not only is this a very unsubtle attempt to further privatise higher education, but it is also an alarming assault on students’ right to know how universities spend their tuition fees. Whatever the government may say, universities are hugely important public institutions.

Their research, their values, the diversity and equality of their students and their staff, their environmental policy, and the way they spend money, are highly significant in terms of public interest. The reach of universities

regardless of any future privatisation of higher education institutions.

It is not difficult to be cynical about the government’s increasing attempts to curtail the powers conferred to individuals by the FOIA, given the many embarrassing scandals that have been exposed as a result of the FOIA. If the government of the day had anticipated the disclosure of MPs expenses, the Iraq War legal advice, police use of Tasers on children, and the Black Spider Memos, it is almost certain that it would not have passed the FOIA in its current form. And yet we have it. Furthermore, we ought to defend our right to information against the government’s attempts to restrict it.

Although the government and other public bodies often complain about the burden placed upon them by the FOIA, it is the price we pay for democracy. As far as we are willing to defend the administrative burden placed on public bodies by the Human Rights Act, we ought to extend our defence to the FOIA. On the whole, the FOIA is well used, particularly by the media. Past FOI requests to the LSE, for instance, have included evidence of a gender pay gap, cases of sexual harassment, diversity, the salaries of LSE’s highest earners, and the LSE Council minutes following Gaddafi’s £1.5m donation to the school. The public interest, and our student interest, in having this information disclosed far outweighs more trivial requests made to the school.

The LSE has not yet taken

a stand on the recent green paper on higher education reform, but when it does, it should not extend its support to curtailing the FOIA. Given the LSE’s apparent willingness to intercept the emails of its staff and students, it should also be willing to disclose certain information to the public. If a higher education institution wishes to have the confidence of its students, it must commit to a culture of openness. This entails lending its fervent support to the FOIA. If the LSE is to learn anything about its past, it is that transparency is a greater protection of good decision making than secrecy will ever be.

“Given the LSE’s apparent willingness to intercept the emails of its staff and students, it should also be willing to disclose certain information to the public.”

In the meantime, students ought to express their concerns about this proposal outlined in the higher education green paper, and now, more than ever, ought to defend their right to information.

Credit: Flickr: Anderson Mancini

Comment

Section Editor: Mali Williams Deputy Editors: Nina Webb Dina Nagapetiants Hakan Ustabas

THE GOVERNMENT’S proposal to exempt higher education institutions from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the recent green paper on higher education reform is a perverse attack on students’ right to hold their universities accountable. According to the government, because private higher education providers are not subject to the FOIA, public universities should also be exempt, in order to keep all these

into other spheres within society is extensive, and it this is done by using public funds.

The recent success of the LSE Divest Campaign has shown us that the LSE listens to its students. Though, without the FOIA as a tool of oversight, it is questionable whether the LSE would feel the need to listen in the future. Losing the use of the FOIA would allow universities to get away with a lot more and would exacerbate a culture of secrecy within higher education institutions.

The FOIA was introduced as a moderniser; to promote honesty, openness and transparency within pubic bodies. Its aim was to improve the quality of decision making, to enable meaningful discussions, and to strengthen the individual’s position. As long as students’ right to information about their universities is protected, and as long as universities conduct their decisions in accordance with the public interest, students are able to have confidence in higher education institutions.

The FOIA in England and Wales is actually one of the world’s more restrictive pieces of information legislation. In Scotland, for instance, where FOI is devolved, there is greater protection for individuals’ right to information. In light of this, the FOIA in England and Wales should not be restricted any further by exempting higher education institutions, but rather should be extended beyond its current scope to include privatised bodies serving a public function or receiving public funds. This would protect students’ right to information

Comment | 9

Intersectionality And Pro-Choice Debates

Why do we fail to address intersectionality within pro-choice abortion debates?

Purvaja Kavattur Undergraduate Student LAST SATURDAY, THE LSESU Women’s Officer Lena Schofield and I attended the Abortion Rights Student Conference in Birmingham. Having spent my summer interning at an abortion clinic in India, and working on my dissertation about American women’s use of abortion services, it would be an understatement to say that abortions are simply of interest to me. I was looking forward to the event and to meeting like-minded individuals interested in constructively critiquing the direction of our movement’s past, present, and future. However after the event I was left deflated, dejected, and debating whether or not I even want to pursue a career in sexual and reproductive healthcare.

The conference aimed to answer both what is the future of, and what are the main threats to abortion provision. However, as the day progressed through its workshops on medical and surgical abortions and its panel discussions, it became evident that the questions weren’t being addressed critically as they focused too closely on the pitfalls of the anti-choice movement without addressing the problematic history of the prochoice movement. For example in the morning panel there was a great deal of discussion on working class women’s use of services.

Yet I couldn’t help but notice that these women, though they were the subject and object of the dis-

cussion, were not the speakers. So I posed the question about how to extend the pro-choice debate beyond academic circles, which are predominantly occupied by the middle classes. However instead of being critical of our movement, the question was unanswered.

“I posed the question about how to extend the pro-choice debate beyond academic circles, which are predominantly occupied by the middle class.”

Following lunch, we were given the opportunity to either go to a workshop on campus activism, or one on abortions within medical curriculums. I chose to attend the latter. During the workshop, in small groups, we were asked to devise what we believed would be the ideal abortions curriculum for medical students. I was paired with a member from the Abortion Rights UK team. I brought up the need to dissociate the terms ‘woman’ and ‘female’ within curriculums as such language in itself erases Trans and non-binary people from the agenda. I raised the point of how this language has severe repercussions on such communities’ use

of abortion services, echoing the point made earlier that it is always safer to have an abortion than to carry out an unwanted pregnancy.

To this, my partner replied, “Well you’re interested in abortions, because you’re a woman, because you have a vagina.” This response was problematic, and not just because it was extremely intrusive.

Firstly assuming my performance of femininity in some way mirrors my reproductive system is cissexist. Also, last time I checked, the hallmark of misogyny is viewing a woman as nothing beyond her vagina. I later again raised the problem of medical Trans erasure to the rest of the room, and once again my point wasn’t written down and was ignored.

After this workshop and as we all regrouped, it dawned on me that I was one of the only three people of colour in the conference of over 30 people. So I chose to challenge this when the final panel was opened to the floor; explicitly referring to how anti-choice proponents are taking advantage of our history in eugenics and how should we make amends for this.

For the most part the panellists acknowledged their privilege, however two very problematic comments were made by two of the speakers, and it is deeply worrying as these two speakers were part of the organising team. I was told that there was a Black women’s conference happening at the same time hence why more diversity couldn’t be accommodated on the panel, because these women have to choose between both movements,

“It dawned on me that I was one of the only three people of colour in the conference of over 30 people.” in turn suggesting that the various components of our identities are competing goods. A second speaker interjected saying too much diversity would lead to the organisation speaking on behalf of BME groups, advising me, an Indian woman, that I must never speak over women of colour. Feeling insulted, Lena and I decided to leave. However before I did, I left a note to the second speaker about how abortion and race rights cannot be achieved without each other. The woman followed us out of the conference and confronted me and told me that I chose to be offended by her words and that I was insulting all the black women in her abortion rights company. She reminded me once again that it is not tokenisation to say you have a black friend, it means you’re not a racist.

Throughout the conference I felt a growing animosity towards me from the panel as I continued to ask ‘difficult’ questions. However unlike my questions my motive in raising my voice was not to be difficult. Rather it was to bring to the forefront of the debate the issues of

race, gender identities, class, and their various intersections. It was to decentralise the dominant narrative that the norm is those who occupy a white, middle class, and/ or cis-gendered body. It was to understand that this is a category in itself, and to be able to truly expand abortion provision, we need representation from all groups in our political spaces. For to think that racial liberation, Trans liberation, and pro-choice activism are divergent causes, is a failure to understand the very core of the fight for bodily autonomy – for all movements reject the state’s policing of our bodies and demand the right to self-narrate our bodies.

“If my pro-choice feminist activism isn’t intersectional, it’s bullshit.”

So I will continue to ask these difficult questions, to decentralise whiteness. I will continue to ask these difficult questions, to slash class hierarchies. I will continue to ask these difficult questions, to stand in solidarity with my Trans and non-binary friends. And I will continue to ask these difficult questions because frankly, like Joan Jett, I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation.

Because if my pro-choice feminist activism isn’t intersectional, it’s bullshit.

We’ve Already Lost The War With Syria Perdita Blinkhorn Collective Chair Continued from Front Page Over the centuries, Britain has had more than its fair share of wars and yet it refuses to learn the lessons from even our most recent history. Many of those on both sides of the House who voted for the action last week were key in supporting the (very illegal) Iraq war in 2003, which lead to over 50,000 civilian deaths according to the Stop the War coalition. In fact, many now recognise it was the war torn postIraq war climate that fuelled the creation and development of extremist groups such as Daesh, as it created so much pain and anger against the West as to invoke hatred perpetuated through violence. Such bombing campaigns will kill innocents and only cause more pain to the people we are currently providing asylum to.

This is not a war about land or religion, but politics and (inevitably) money. This group are made possible by the civilian support they have, so naturally we feel that the best way to defeat ISIS is to murder said civilians. I say once more, ‘Not In My Name’.

“Britain has had more than its fair share of wars and yet it refuses to learn the lessons from even our most recent history.”

The Prime Minister suggested that UK action will be supported by 70,000 anti-government militants he described as ‘moderates’. Essentially, we have no idea

who these unofficially fighters are, how they are operating or what they will do with the military supplies we have been providing them. Indeed, until this point, Britain has played its part in pumping more arms into the country and putting them in the hands of unknowns who are entirely unregulated by British military standards.

I’d also appreciate knowing why are we getting into yet another war? What on earth makes us feel we have the right to get our White Saviour Complex on and go marching into the Middle East again, thinking our intervention will magically bring world peace? Many have attempted to use Paris as a defence justification for our intervention in the war, but 6 of the attackers were European nationals; it is unrealistic to think that bombing Syria will kill the extremists who attack residents of Europe. One writer who opposes the action is Huffington Post writer Daniel Ma-

rans, who stated that the Paris attacks were orchestrated largely to provoke an ‘overreaction’ from the West, so Muslims would agree

“We take military action in Syria, and we play right into their hands.

They win.” that there is an irreconcilable ‘clash of civilisations’. In other words, we take military action in Syria, and we play right into their hands. They win.

So how do we defeat this enemy, unlike any other we’ve encountered before? The answer is far simpler than many would have you believe. Firstly, we need to stop supplying guns and other arms to the middle East, as they often end up in the hands of ‘the wrong people’ and (if we’re be-

ing honest) guns are never a good thing, especially when channelled into a politically and socially volatile area. Secondly, we need to accept more refugees. By doing this, we are immediately undermining ISIS’s propaganda as those who flee their regime, which ISIS believe is a haven, are given refuge by their supposedly evil enemy, Europe. Finally, we must act to stop islamophobia in Europe as it alienates Western Muslims and the fuels the small amount of radicalisation that does exist here.

Empathy and compassion, as cheesy as it may sound, genuinely are our greatest weapon in this battle of ideologies. Without it we cannot hope to overcome Daesh and, indeed, we will be the cause of much death and bloodshed ourselves. I thus must refuse to sit idly by and allow my country to take this endlessly damaging course of action; I ask reader to stand in support with me to tell them ‘Not In My Name’.

10

| Tuesday 8 December, 2015

A Decisive Victory For Labour In Oldham

Although painted otherwise by the media, Labour’s victory reinforces Corbyn’s leadership Frank Morley Undergraduate Student

“It was a bad night for the Conservatives, a terrible night for UKIP, and a great night for Labour.”

And now, once the election has been won with Labour not being ‘wiped out’, but increasing their share of the vote by 7%, the same media want to play down what

they previously called a ‘decisive’ by-election. Now Labour has won, by-elections obviously now mean very little. Well it is either decisive or it isn’t, you can’t have your cake and eat it. And of course there is no mention in the Tory press of what a dismal night it was for the Conservatives, with their vote collapsing and shrinking to 3rd place.

Now with desperation for some attention in his fading spotlight that the media is willing to give him, Nigel Farage states that our democratic process is fraudulent because only 23% of Oldham voters are either painfully misinformed or outright xenophobic Ukippers.

It was a bad night for the Conservatives, a terrible night for UKIP, and undoubtedly a great night for Labour. It had a strong local candidate who was widely respected in the Party. But he is a moderate so of course the media will seize on that and paint this as a win for Blairites. But don’t be fooled, despite being apparently ‘well known’ in the constituency, in Parliamentary elections people rarely know who their local candidate is and usually vote on nation-

al issues. And this is the crux of the matter, and the reason why the victory today was so profound. Jeremy Corbyn, despite what everybody says about him being too left-wing and unelectable, is far more electable than the socially awkward Ed Miliband ever was. Corbyn is a principled, charismatic and popular. People gravitate towards his personality as well as his policies, and this is why he was able to blow is opponents out of the water dur-

ing the Labour leadership election.

The road certainly isn’t clear for 2020. Many more obstacles, real or imagined by our press, will face Labour in those five years.

Next year’s local, mayoral and Scottish elections will be the biggest test of Labours electability, and if they fail the strategy will have to be re-thought. But for the moment, Labour should keep Corbyn, and Corbyn should keep his strong socialist message.

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

IN THE SHADOW OF THE airstrike vote on Syria, on a rainy Thursday night in a small inconspicuous town in Greater Manchester, history has been written.

After months of relentless attack by the media, the Tories, and infighting within the Party, Labour has won a decisive victory. Although the vote would have indeed been decisive either way, with the right wing press nailing their colours to the mast with characteristic fanaticism.

Despite polling months before the election that Labour was set to win, up until Thursday night headlines from all the major newspapers stated that ‘supporters in Oldham ditch Labour for UKIP’ (Times), ‘Labour braces itself for slashed majority’ (Mirror), ‘In Oldham, Jeremy Corbyn is another face of ‘poncified’ Labour’ (The Guardian), and ‘Labour in a spit of bother in Oldham West by-election’ (Spectator). My favourite is from the last bastion of

all knowledge and hope for Broken Britain, the Express. ‘Ukip will END Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Leadership with by-election win’. This is meant to be written by people who make a living analysing politics. Instead of looking at opinion polls, which are flawed but the only way to realistically measure public opinions, they instead reverted to the same dogmatic right wing bias which picks so called facts out of the air.

A Comment On Mass Culture And Art

How we can use mass culture, art and aquired taste in our maturity into adulthood?

Dolly Ye Undergraduate Student WHO HASN’T BEGUN LIFE as an idealist and been left to their own devices to mediate the daunting gaps in both the world’s condition and their honest self-evaluation? After realizing that one is not as talented and original as one’s younger self thought, the best exit strategy out of this harrowing conclusion seems to be to drown one’s mediocrity in a socially validated system. Technically speaking, mediocrity is a statistic necessity, since geniuses don’t emerge out of a vacuum but out of lowbrow masses; their bright arcs across the night sky of our civilizations testify to the existence of a social norm.

As parts of the norm, our essential social identities are consumers of the geniuses’ creations. But behind every grim subjective reality lies an infinitely interesting evolutionary story.

What enables our species to complete the incredibly intricate structural and conceptual transformation, from prehistoric australopithecine to a postmodernist agent born with inalienable rights, within the short time span of about six million years? The powerful mechanism is cultural transmission, which consists of an initial stage of creative invention–sociogenesis, a modification process, and a prolonged stage of social transmission to retain the progress until a new

modification is made.

According to Tomasello’s hypothesis in ‘The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition’, children grow up in the artifacts and traditions of diverse cultures, and the maturing process corresponds to the ‘[internalization] of certain types of discourse into skills of metacognition.’

Mainstream culture provides a universal frame of meaning within which we acclimatize ourselves to the recurrent concepts, motivations and reward-punishment system of our respective societies; for example, Disney characters and values have occupied the imaginations of millions of American children.

The endearing Disney productions probably have a stronger role in injecting certain moral values in the mental lives of American children than Bible has.

Adorno, the critical theorist who coined the term ‘culture industry’ with Horkheimer, was horrified by the deluge of sentimental Hollywood movies and the alluring but essentially empty advertisements when he first came to the United States in 1941. He contends that mainstream culture, by unceasingly churning out standardized, interchangeable products, spotlights the shallowest instincts of a society’s collective sensibility. Just like most reality TV viewers would experience an upsurge in confidence after observing that they are smarter than any participant in the show, most products of mass culture are beneath everyone.

In his definitive book ‘Aesthetic Theory’, Adorno defines art in three dimensions: a true piece of art, first and foremost, has to unpeel a protective shell of complacency and provoke audiences to see society in a new light ‘rather than complying with existing social norms’; secondly, it should be lifeaffirming even in the most vivid depiction of despair; thirdly, it should keep discreet distance from the commoditized culture industry. His definition seems to run counter to our egalitarian impulses. After all, haven’t we heard the conventional exchange when two parties have differing opinions on a piece of art: “Oh, it’s just a matter of taste.”

Most people would admit that the literary merits of T. S. Eliot’s ‘Wasteland’ are on a whole different scale from the poems that appear on their Facebook feeds, but they couldn’t reconcile it with the fact that they like an aesthetically inferior work more, having to conclude that artistic taste might just be an arbitrary preference. But when making comments like, “he has a good taste in music,” we are saying that he is a discerning judge of music. Therefore, once stripped of its elitist undertone, a good taste is the result of one’s sustained efforts at cultivating expertise by constantly exposing oneself to consummate artworks and comparing the artistic fiber of different works.

In short, we can all give ourselves a privileged adulthood by actively acquiring a connoisseur’s taste

through sustained efforts.

In ‘The Metaphysics of Morals’ Kant advises that when we perceive a blind spot in someone’s thinking, we should ‘not censure [him]… but suppose that in such an inept judgment there must be something true, and to seek it out, uncovering, at the same time, the deceptive illusion, and so, by explaining to him the possibility of his having erred, to preserve his respect for his own understanding.’ So, if you discover that your close relative is an avid reader of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ you can attempt a lively conversation to find out what elements of the story appeal to them while discussing social and cultural implications of its central message, while perhaps slipping a highlighted version of ‘The Nicomachean Ethics’ into their bag.

“We are ages from our first human ancestor and centuries from the Enlightenment, but are we truly enlightened?”

Although natural selection creates human brains with circuits that are easily stimulated by highcalorie food, nevertheless, it gives rise to consciousness, a thorough-

fare where self-reflections would serve as a firm dam in the ebb and flow of uncensored thoughts. For instance, the scarcity of food in the Paleolithic age wires brains to crave for high-calorie and sugary food, but our scientific understanding of our bodies’ needs mostly prevents us from eating in this manner.

We are ages from our first human ancestor and centuries from the Enlightenment movement, but are we truly enlightened beings released from immaturity? In order to take full advantages of modernity and not operate automatically by our evolutionary instincts, we need to reevaluate the distorted values of our market-driven reality. Do you have a deeper need than becoming a millionaire and a glamorous globe-trotter? How would these potentially socially indoctrinated needs shape the path of your life?

In the Matrix, Neo’s choice between a blue pill that ushers him into a happy, illusory world and a red pill that airdrops him into a ghastly reality mirrors our daily conundrum. We only have to make one choice, but a lifetime of critical decisions await us, such as whether to dismiss this piece as fear-mongering irrelevancy. The good news is we don’t have to be exclusively Darwinian animals or abide by every Kantian principle to be aware of the rationale behind every decision and how that rationale fits in with our continuously renewed value system.

Comment | 11

Cameron’s ‘Terrorist Sympathisers’

Why the Prime Minister lost his temper over the Syrian airstrikes vote last week Hugo Bromley Undergraduate Student DAVID CAMERON LOST HIS temper. It has been known before.

He had been furious with Andrew Mitchell over the ‘Plebgate’ fiasco.

He had been furious even way back when he had a rather large row with George Osborne, when the latter was found on a yacht with Lord Rothschild, trying to elicit money from a Russian billionaire, before Lord Mandelson (also present) got there first.

Ever since he entered Parliament, to a Party enveloped in Michael Howard and Iain Duncan Smith led obscurity, he has been a man on a mission, desperate to remove from the Party the image of the ‘haves and the have-yachts’, so as to focus voters’ minds on the policies he believes are best for Britain and the planet. Remember hug a hoodie? The fact that the current Cabinet is one of the most diverse and representative in history? Even gay marriage? All play into this drive, and this goal

he believes he has almost achieved; hence, I suspect, his decision to stand down before the next election. All that’s left of the party of cataclysmic defeat is the haughty presence of John Redwood demanding a Brexit for brunch; a victory in the EU referendum and his task is complete.

“To do nothing is to aid those who would attack British citizens, and would therefore be totally unacceptable.”

David Cameron may be socially liberal, but, unlike many on his wing of the Conservative Party, he would not have been a Liberal with a capital L. He is, I suspect, an old school High Tory, believing

in One Nation, the Union, and the belief that the Tories are indeed the ‘party of working people’, a line which is as much Disraeli’s as of One Nation Conservatism.

This perhaps explains his desperate (and successful) promises to stave off Scottish independence.

Salmond thought he might quite like the removal of 40 or so Labour MPs ‒ no chance. Cameron believes in ‘the Union’.

To finally reach the subject of this piece, this means there is another group of people he doesn’t like: libertarians. Led by David Davis, who was, remember, his arch-rival for leadership of the Conservative Party. They are his precise opposite with regards to foreign policy, and have thus been marginalised to a quite remarkable extent over the past five or so years; reduced to obscure select committees and angry remarks at the 1922 Committee. Thus, when they stood up on Tuesday night to attack his foreign policy again (they being the core of the people who defeated the Government last time), Cameron lost his temper, accusing them

of voting with ‘terrorist sympathisers’ (something I am sure he now regrets bitterly but which they then leaked to the press).

“Which of us, after spending a day in the library reading research papers on our chosen subject, have never lost our temper with someone who just doesn’t get it?”

Don’t get me wrong, it was a very stupid thing to say, and he should have apologised in debate on Wednesday. Yet that is, I think, quite close to what he believes. The first duty of a government is to protect its citizens, and air strikes allow the security services to blow

up the resources of, and, to put it bluntly, kill those who are planning to commit various atrocities.

To do nothing is to aid those who would attack British citizens, and would therefore be totally unacceptable. Furthermore, for Britain to justify its international status, it must be part of an international group; specifically, the group our closest allies are in. This group is bombing ISIL Daesh.

As it happens, I don’t agree with Cameron on this. As someone who would, back in the day, have been a Liberal, I would rather see troops on the ground, sorting the wheat from the chaff in terms of the discordant 70,000, and keeping Syrians safe. But I accept Cameron’s position as morally justifiable based on the legitimate premise that the priority of a government must be to serve its own people, and I have sympathy with his loss of temper. After all, which of us, after spending a day in the library reading research papers on our chosen subject, have never lost our temper with someone who ‘just doesn’t get it?’

Bursting The Left Wing’s Own Bubble The only political group in this country who are out of touch is the Left Hakan Ustabas Deputy Comment Editor I WAS SHOCKED BEYOND all my senses the other day. I stared in disbelief towards my uncle, who had uttered a sentence that I never thought such a person would dare string together.

Allow me a moment, if you will, to paint a picture of my relative. In his fifties, with half a life of manual work behind him, my uncle typifies what it is to be a working class man. Having spent decades employed by construction corporations, he knows exactly what it means to work excruciatingly hard for a living.

“Having spent decades employed by construction corporations, he knows exactly what it means to work excruciatingly hard for a living.”

What are his perspectives of the economic system? Surely pessimistic? I mean, he is of the class of backbreaking labourers, undertaking physical work hour after hour, while the greedy fat-cats at

the top never so much as touch a tool and yet skim the profit from the backs of the poor.

“High welfare will not help the working class who are actually working.”

“I’m sick of all this health and safety regulation,” he grumbled.

“All the fun has been taken out of the job.” I was struck by a rare moment of silence, before a self-righteous smirk emerged upon my face.

His criticism of the intervention continued, as he argued that increasing the liability for businesses in such a way has led to them devising more stringent due diligence tests, which fall on the employees to operate. The entire process has become dull, and undoubtedly inefficient, because of the regulations which are designed to do good.

I don’t cite this anecdote to express my disdain for construction regulations (what an exhilarating topic that would be), but to critique the source of these well-intentioned policies.

Another example might go further to demonstrate my point: high welfare will not help the working class who are actually working.

A person such as my uncle would receive no financial gain were benefits to be increased even by

a fairly substantial standard. On the reverse side, I find it doubtful that fully-employed working class people would show sympathy to increased support for those who are not undertaking the same level of work as them.

Surely, these policies are aimed to improve the lives of the working class. And yet, the working class express contempt for them. How can a good intention miss the desired result by such a high standard?

We need look no further than the Left today. Many left-wingers are either part of (and I hate to use the phrase) the political elite, or are supposedly ‘intellectual’ students, who have never worked a day of their lives, and probably never will in a traditional working class role. Universities can be the perfect place to develop ideas, but they can also lead to isolation in

“Universities can be the perfect place to develop ideas, but they can also lead to isolation in a world of theory and principle... far removed from common sense.”

a world of theory and principle, which is so far removed from the world of common sense. As one learned friend said to me, “LSE is where socialists come to be part of the 1%.” Neither of these groups know how the true working class live. They envelop themselves in a bubble, in which their ideas get more and more radical, as they try to work out how best the state can intervene to rescue the poor working class from capitalist oppression.

“Should we tax the rich?”

No. The hardest working of the working class are proud, not envious. They know what it is to earn money, respect what others have earned, and would wish to be respected in the same way. “Should we increase welfare?” Not going to help, as already stated. “Free university education!” Getting colder.

Never do I hear a left-winger call for a tax cut. It is as if they make the insulting assumption that the government knows best on how to spend the money earned by the working class of the country. But for someone like my uncle, a tax cut would be precisely the policy which would improve his financial position. What’s more, he would be happy in the knowledge that it is money he has earned, not someone else’s money ‘charitably donated’ to him through taxes.

Undoubtedly, some poorer people in this country do vote Labour.

But they are not in the traditional working class. They are often unemployed or underemployed, who have a distorted view of the ‘cor-

rupt’ government. They are often part of a heavily unionised workforce, who don’t want to understand the practical realities of the modern economy. The majority of the real working class support common sense economics, low tax, and reduced government intervention. The Conservative Party would not have gained a majority in the House of Commons for its low-tax, low-welfare promises without the backing of the traditional working class.

“Unless somebody bursts that bubble, the Left will float away into obscurity.”

At the end of the conversation with my uncle, I chuckled smugly. The Labour Party under Ed Miliband (remember him?) had attempted to brand the members of the opposite bench as ‘out of touch’. The result of the General Election revealed which political wing was really out of touch with the country’s opinion. What’s more is that the left-wing groups in their very own bubble — the students, the elite, and the unions — have just elected a leader who strays even further from the desires of the true working class. Unless somebody bursts that bubble, the Left will float away into obscurity.

12| Tuesday 8 December, 2015

Sabbatical Officers: What

The officers elected in the 2015 Lent Term elections are now half way through their terms in office. Looking back on the last 11 weeks, what have they achieved, what has stood in the way and what do they hope to do after the Christmas break?

Nona Buckley-Irvine LSESU General Secretary

The Union

IT’S BEEN A CHALLENGING year so far, with lower student satisfaction in the NSS, the dire situation of room bookings and timetables and the construction work taking hold. However, we are seeing some really positive changes start to take effect across campus.

What has been achieved this year?

A lot! At the beginning of the year we got the School to scrap the £50 Masters application fee for third year undergraduates, we were also successful in lobbying for divestment from tobacco, indiscriminate arms, and coal and tar sands.

We have got the School to shift their priorities and actually start to put students first.

That’s not a vacuous statement - in their strategic plan for the next few years, teaching has been put as the #1 priority for the School, and equity, diversity and inclusion #2. I cannot overstate how significant this is, as LSE has never before committed to placing teaching as on a par with research. Jon, Education officer, has been working on developing the strategy while I’ve been working to keep the priorities on you and your experience.

LSE has also agreed to introduce an affordable rents strategy which needs a lot of fleshing out, but the very fact that they acknowledge the concept of ‘affordable rents’ is a step in the right direction.

Union-wise, we’ve introduced £3 entry for Saucy and a free queue-jump for LSE students before 11.30pm, as well as had a rebrand of the Union and redesigned the website so it is more friendly and accessible.

Katie Budd LSESU A&D Officer What were your highlights?

Giving out hundreds of thousands of pounds and funding loads of incredible student-led projects with LSE’s Annual Fund. This is going to kick-start so much student activity next term and I’m super excited to see what comes of it!

Apart from that I loved being part of one of the SU’s most busy, successful and diverse welcome weeks yet – with a smooth running fresher’s fair, record-breaking RAG band events, and a full programme of alternative night-time activity.

What were your low-lights?

Finding out that the school had failed to deliver a proper room booking system in time for

Our food continues to be cheap and we changed our pie suppliers so that students can buy a pie for under £3!

What didn’t come off ?

It’s not that nothing has come off, but we are waiting to see the benefit of work that has been put in so far. We’ve raised fees and financial support as an issue but it’s definitely a long project that will take a lot of time to convince the (elitist) LSE to buy into.

What obstacles have you overcome?

The obstacle of reticence to students! For the first time in meetings, I’m hearing the university actually talk about students in a relatively meaningful way. Timetabling has also been a challenge and it would be disingenuous to claim it has been ‘overcome’ per se, as unfortunately LSE has had a totally inadequate response.

What are your plans for the future?

We have to push on with the student experience and making sure that LSE makes a plan that makes commitments to making tangible improvements to your time here. We have to make progress on overseas study, on the quality of education, and also the quality of support while you are here.

For me, the inaccessibility of LSE in financial terms is unacceptable and I will be using the rest of the year to challenge that as far as possible and deliver some real change to how fees are structured and what support is available.

We are also dealing with the government’s plans for the higher education sector, as detailed in the HE Green Paper. A great deal of my time will be spent lobbying against changes to HE as detailed in the paper. the start of term, and realising the huge impact that this was going to have on our societies. Despite our pressure, the school has still not found a solution, and this is continuing to stifle the activities of our societies.

My biggest obstacle Time! There’s never enough of it, and I don’t get to go to as many of the amazing events run by our societies, clubs and campaigners as I’d like to.

What have been your wins so far?The school committing to divest from the most harmful fossil fuels, tobacco and indiscriminate arms. Next challenge is to make sure the policy is implemented properly!

We launched the participation fund, which is there to make sure

Aysha Fekaiki LSESU C&W Officer MICHAELMAS TERM HAS been a great start to the year! I’ve really loved being a sabb and working with such a huge variety of students – this really is what LSE is about.

What were your highlights?

As you might have guessed, Black History Month has really been the highlight of this term for me as it was the biggest we’ve ever put on!

It brought together all the part-time officers, many society presidents and a wide range of students (over 1100) to our broad range of events. Herstory week was truly special, as it celebrated the amazing Black women we have at LSE through creativity which I felt has been missing at our institution. Raising £800 for women’s sanitary items through Black sisters’ spoken word, performances and academic talks was beautiful and an activity I hope to continue.

What were your low-lights?

Last week, I have to say, has been tough. Dealing with the attacks around the world in addition to the Islamophobic backlash has been consuming and difficult. You cannot just leave your job for the week.

However, being a Sabb has meant a great support network at university that I hope other students are accessing when they go through tough times. Remember we have an array of support services.

The biggest obstacle I have overcome has been attempting to disconnect my personal life from my sabbatical officer job. It’s near impossible, because the things I care about and work on at the union are the same issues that affect my daily life and the issues that make up my identity. I’ve learnt that it’s okay to take a break!

What have been your wins so far?

My wins so far have been the biggest ever Black History Month, ensuring that the LSE Nursery will stay that finance is not a barrier to anyone getting involved in our societies and clubs.

Our activities team also launched the new online training system for societies and clubs, which has made committee members’ lives much easier, while providing a one-stop shop for all their needs.

What are your main priorities for next term?Next term I will continue pushing the school to produce a functioning room booking system, or at the very least an interim solution. On top of this I will work hard to make sure that all society’s rehearsal room needs are met, while we still lack bespoke rehearsal facilities.

Looking to facilities on campus in the long term, I will push to finalise a commitment from the

until 2020 through our campaign, the first ever joint Chinese Development Society and Students’ Union event, almost tripling postgraduate engagement and seriously putting mental health and wellbeing on the map. This was done by creating free wellbeing workshops every Monday, handing out 750 wellbeing packs, and creating a welfare survey to go out in January to lobby the School. I’ve also successfully put on Green Week and Inter-faith Week, engaging hundreds of students. On a personal level, my biggest wins have been hearing the feedback from students who have been positively affected which gives me the energy to carry on!

What are your main priorities for next term?

1. The launch of ‘EMPOWERED’: a BME empowerment programme running over 3 months which will include: • At least one public speaking workshop • Some BME students’ ‘Thinking of Standing for the SU Elections’ sessions • At least one career mentoring workshop • At least one ‘Activism Through Writing’ workshop 2. Launching the Welfare campaign through a survey to collect evidence to lobby the school for: • Remove the 6-session cap • Increase investment for more mental health counsellors • Reduce the waiting times 3. Continue the Wellbeing Project through two weeks of wellbeing and mental health activities and awareness, specifically: • Liberation-specific workshops for mental health • Working with the LSE Library to create Wellbeing Packs around exams and dissertations Thank you all for everything you have done so far. It has been a pleasure to work with you, and I look forward to doing more of that next term! school for music practice rooms, a rehearsal studio and sports facilities to be included in the project brief for 44LIF. We’ll also have the official launch of the Arts Network, with LSESU’s first ever Arts Festival in Week 2. This will showcase the best that our arts societies have to offer, and turn the campus into a hub of creativity!

I’ll be consulting widely on what how sports should be run at the SU, and by the end of the term we’ll have a clear sports strategy for the next four years. This will address everything from gaps in participation, to financial accessibility, to how we communicate what we have to offer.

Finally, with the AU Exec I’ll be looking to organise LSE’s first ever Varsity. Watch this space!

The Union | 13

Have You Achieved This Term?

Jon-Rhys Foster LSESU Education Officer

IT HAS BEEN AN INCREDIBLY busy term with some major developments, which will have a huge impact on things in both the immediate and long term. Listed below are just some of the major things that have been going on over the last 11 weeks…

Education Strategy & ReImagining Perhaps the most important thing I have been working on this term has been in relation to the new Education Strategy that the school is introducing for the period 2015-2020. In light of recent NSS scores and general student dissatisfaction, LSE has no choice but to make education and teaching its top priority. This term I have been in communication with the school over what this strategy should look like and the impact it should have on the LSE Educational experience. I have also engaged in widespread consultation with students, asking what they want from their time at LSE. Over 400 people have taken part in the SU’s online consultation, in addition to the dedicated ‘Re-Imagining Your Education’ Series we have run throughout the term. This term has seen three ‘Re-Imagining’ events, covering dozens of topics. The findings of these events will be combined with departmental consultation and the

results of the survey, to shape the recommendations the SU will be presenting to the school. These recommendations will have a direct impact on the way the strategy is implemented, and our report will be launched early in the Lent Term.

Beyond the Classroom A major project I have been working on this term has been the planning and launch of the Students Unions ‘Beyond the Classroom’ programme. Beyond the Classroom has built on the SU’s Employability and Development sessions from last year and sought to expand the content which is on offer. Since week 4 of term we have been hosting weekly skills sessions which have thus far been extremely successful. We have also launched a careers related, issues based SU lecture series entitled ‘SU Talks’ – the final SU Talks event of term will take place on Wednesday 9th December at 7pm in the 6th Floor Studio and is entitled ‘What Should be the role of a public broadcaster?’

It promises to be a great event with speakers including Professor Charlie Beckett and BBC Trust member Suzanna Taverne. Next term the programme promises to go from strength, with 5 more SU Talks being planned and the re-launch of the Students Unions shadowing scheme!

Course Reps One of the things I am proudest of this term is the engagement our incredible staff team have been

doing with Course Reps! This year we have trained more reps than ever before and have held a brilliant, first Course Rep Congress of the year. I am incredibly excited for Lent Term, for us to help reps do more than ever before and to continue improving how we as a Union can support them.

Study Space As always at the LSE, one of the most fundamental problems is study space. There has been some good news with the launch of the dedicated PhD Academy, the re-opening of the Parish Hall as teaching space and the opening of over 270 new study spaces on the 4th floor of the Library.

Unfortunately, none of this can negate the disruption caused by the building works currently underway – I have been in contact with the school and those departments most affected, helping to try and accommodate the development in the best way possible. If at any point you wish to make a complaint regarding the building works then please do email me at su.education@lse. ac.uk and will ensure to pass it on to the school. I have additionally been part of the consultation process on the Centre buildings and 44 Lincoln’s Inn, pushing for the best possible teaching and learning spaces – I’m happy to report that the process is going well, and both buildings should turn out to be great new spaces for students on campus.

Finally, I am delighted to be able

to announce that following on from last year, the Students Union has been able to book dedicated study space in 32 Lincolns Inn Fields for the Easter break and the full Exam period. This means that there will be at least 8 rooms booked every day for a full 10 weeks for student to use!

Timetables & Exam Timetables A less positive area this term has been the ongoing debacle surrounding timetables and room bookings.

I have been in close contact with the school throughout the process and am now sitting on the working group responsible for the project. I am hopeful that the school will be able to make an announcement on this subject before the beginning of Lent Term. Once a successful outcome has been reached, I, along with Nona and Katie will be forensic in our quest to identify how this issue has emerged and to push for adequate student compensation.

On a related note, I have also received assurances from the school that the problems with timetables will have no impact whatsoever on the release of the Summer Term Exam Timetable – the exam timetable is constructed using a completely unrelated piece of software.

Throughout the term I have been lobbying for a significantly earlier release of the exam timetable, and the recent UGM motion, only further illustrates how important this issue is to students. Although it is too early at this stage to make any

announcement regarding the Exam timetable, I am confident of being able to secure a positive outcome.

Other things to consider Throughout the term I have been working on a number of other projects. I have been closely coordinating with our Part Time Officers to feed into the schools ongoing Dean Review. We are pushing for a comprehensive rethink of the system, and encouraging the school to include specific advisors for LGBT+ and BME students. The Dean review group is scheduled to report back to the first Academic Board of Lent Term and I look forward to feeding back to students in the near future.

I have also been working with Aysha and Jasmina, our AntiRacism officer on our BME Education project. We are producing research looking into the diversity of reading lists within the school and providing closer analysis of the BME attainment gap. In Lent Term we will also be launching a pilot BME mentoring scheme in a limited number of departments, which promises to be an exciting new initiative.

It has been an incredibly busy and exciting term. Lent Term will be challenging, but ultimately I think we will be able to accomplish a lot. If you have any questions about anything this term or anything coming up then don’t hesitate to get in touch at su.education@lse. ac.uk Have a wonderful break!

14 | Tuesday 8 December, 2015

PARTB

14

WHAT’S ON

THE BEST QUEER EVENTS IN THE NEXT MONTH (NO ALCOHOL NECESSARY!) Sadie Hale DESPITE LONDON’S REPUTATION FOR HAVING AN INCREDIBLE gay scene, it can sometimes feel like queer events mostly centre on alcohol.

You’d also be forgiven for thinking that She Bar in Soho is your only option when it comes to seeking female-female spaces in Europe’s largest capital – after all, Soho is unashamedly geared towards young gay males who want to party, so it can be difficult to find LGBT+ events if you’re not the ‘G’ in that acronym!

But there are plenty of events out there for queers who don’t fit the gay male clientele, and many that don’t involve drinking, either.

Here are some of the best I could find in the next month or so. For more, www. themostcake.co.uk is a great place to start, and don’t forget our own amazing LSE LGBT+ Alliance, which does a fantastic job of putting on an array of interesting and alcohol-free events right here on campus!

Queer Fayre Xmas Market – 13:00-17:00, Saturday 5th December, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, £2 LGBTQ+ Crafts Market showcasing the creativity within London’s Queer Community. Daytime family and dog friendly event with a bar and great indie rock tunes abound.

Queer Women in Love: The Wedding Song – 13:00-15:00, Sunday 13th December, Picturehouse Central, £10 students/£13 other Part of SQIFF (see below). Film screening set during the Nazi occupation of Tunis, when young friends Nour, who is Muslim, and Myriam, who is Jewish, live in a humble neighbourhood where their communities live in harmony. Myriam’s mother attempts to marry her off to a wealthy doctor in order to save the family from Nazi oppression. But Myriam and Nour, who have an ambigous, sensual bond, conspire to scupper the wedding plans.

Queer Women in Love short film screening – 19:00, Tuesday 15th December, Royal Vauxhall Taven, £3 students/£5 other As part of SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival), there will be a short film screening starting promptly at 20:00. Get on down there! “cLAMS oN wHEELS” BUMP Rollerdisco – 19:00, Thursday 18th December, Southbank Centre, £8.50-£12.50 An amazing night of rollerdisco down at the Southbank Centre.

Carol – ongoing, various cinemas, £various Film starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, already tipped for Oscar wins.

Set in 1950s Manhattan and based on the book The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, it’s a stylish effort that’s been 11 years in the making – you don’t want to miss it.

Female Masculinity Appreciation Society Gathering – 20:00, Friday 8th January 2016, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, £8 on the door, £5 after midnight Event encouraging all those who fit the above to meet, greet and appreciate each other! Featuring arm wrestling, music and a show. A great way to kick off January.

!WE’RE SORRY!

It has come to our attention that our recipe from the previous edition contains instructions to rinse raw chicken, which SHOULD NOT be done. Washing raw chicken will spread campylobacter, the most common source of food poisoning in the UK! Cooking will kill the bacteria but washing will spread germs by splashing.

For more information, please consult the Food Standards Agency website: food.gov.uk

part

B

PartB

Flo Edwards Kemi Akinboyewa Vikki Hui

fashion Jamie Lloyd Maria Maleeva music Rob Funnell Will Locke

film

food & lifestyle

literature

Sarah Ku Alexander Lye Camila Arias Tom Sayner Caroline Schurman-Grenier Buritica Sean Tan technology theatre visual arts Edward Tan

Noah D’Aeth

Hanna Lee Yo-en Chin

MUSIC Will Locke

EDITORS’ PICK

p a r t 15

TOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2015? B

Will’s List

Rob Funnell 1) DJ Richard: Grind (Dial)

DJ Richard’s debut album Grind is my album of the year because it encompasses almost everything I appreciate in music. The albums I enjoy most are ones that defy the pre-existing moulds and inhabit gaps between genres and movements. Grind is such an album, due to DJ Richard’s clearly meticulous ear and taste, allowing him to cherry-pick elements from techno, ambient, noise, and even trance to create a stew of influences like no other I’ve heard this year. Despite Grind’s avant-garde approach, it still manages to find balance: between functionality and experimentalism, between the club and the living room, between minimalism and maximalism, and between variety and cohesion. An album that ticks all the boxes for me, and one I’ll go back to in years to come.

2) Oneohtrix Point Never: Garden of Delete (Warp) By far one of the weirdest albums released this year, Garden of Delete is loosely based around conceptual character Ezra, a young boy whose background is fleshed out by a carefully constructed web of Easter eggs found in odd blog posts, videos, and Twitter feeds. Needless to say, this album is deeply conceptual in this sense, as Oneohtrix Point Never attempts to juxtapose the real and the fake in such a way that they become entwined irrevocably. He samples and meshes jarringly-contrasting sound bites to create both moments of unexpected beauty and harsh ugliness. Despite this, Oneohtrix Point Never manages to make the album not only listenable, but actively engaging, which is a feat that no other album has accomplished this year. A truly unique album worthy of the runners up spot.

3) Tame Impala: Currents (Modular) This album actually alienated a lot of Tame Impala’s fans due to its change in style from their vintage psych-rock jams towards a funkier and more synth-heavy sound, influenced and championed by dance music producers and DJs, and for that I’m glad. Tame Impala has never existed to champion a particular niche genre, nor did it gain its value from doing so on Innerspeaker and Lonerism. What makes Tame Impala one of the most exciting bands in the world is the musical skill and conceptual genius of frontman and songwriter Kevin Parker, and that’s never been more obvious and focused than on Currents. Every track has been personally crafted with pain-staking detail, with no note or beat out of place, and every component contributing towards this varied and hook-laden monolith of an album. As impressive as it is enjoyable, Currents is one of the most accomplished albums released in the last five years, let alone this year.

4) Owiny Sigoma Band: Nyanza (Brownswood) Owiny Sigoma Band is a collective of musicians of whom half are tribesman from Kenya, with the rest of the band based in London. This mixture of African and western influences manifest in the music that the band creates, as evidenced on Nyanza, so called because it was recorded in the Nyanza province of Kenya, the home of band members Nyamungu and Owoko. This trip to Nyanza provided the narrative for the album, with the gunshots heard on opener ‘(Nairobi) Too Hot’ referencing the violence in the city, and my personal highlight ‘I Made You / You Made Me’ being influenced by the joyous pop the group heard on the radio. These organic African experiences are channelled through a variety of palettes which include house, techno, electro, and pop, all whilst preserving a level of authenticity to the region this album was inspired by. Much alike the band’s road trip through Nyanza, the album is a varied and enriching journey which celebrates the meeting of two cultures to fantastic effect.

5) Nils Frahm: Music for the Motion Picture Victoria (Erased Tapes) Nils Frahm is something of a trailblazer in popular music. A classically trained pianist, he has helped spearhead a classical music resurgence. His atmospheric and incredibly moving productions meant that he has frequently been asked to score films, and he finally chose Victoria under promises from director Sebastian Schipper that his creative process would not be inhibited. The story of Victoria centres around a girl of the same name who becomes romantically involved with a man who unwittingly involves her in a violent and tragic heist. It’s a story of tension, dread, and youthful abandon, and upon hearing Nils Frahm’s score for it, you might think he watched a different film. The soundtrack is full of pregnant pauses, lonely piano refrains, and tape hiss, creating an eerie and spacious atmosphere, rather than one fraught with energy and action.

Nevertheless, as an individual body of work, it’s the most beautiful album released this year, and a continuation of Nils Frahm’s fine form.

Rob’s List

1) Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell Compared to Sufjan Steven’s previous sprawling behemoths, Carrie and Lowell is stripped down entirely in every sense, and all that is left is the raw emotion that the artist attempts to convey in relation to the relationship (or lack thereof) with his late mother and the extreme sense of depression and melancholy that such a loss had on him. The Elliott Smith influence is palpable and all for the better, as taken as a whole the relatively brief 43 minute length (compared to his previous sprawling opuses that went past an hour) addresses mortality, acceptance and grief, not only at the death of his mother but also the ephemerality of his own life. From slowly repeating “we’re all going to die” at the end of ‘Fourth of July’ to the softly sung request for forgiveness in ‘John My Beloved’ that ends with a sharp breath that speaks more than word ever could, Sufjan created an emotive and revealing masterpiece that cannot fail to have an impact on the listener.

2) The Wonder Years: No Closer To Heaven The Wonder Years have consistently released genre-defining albums, and their 2013 attempt The Greatest Generation was rightly viewed as the pinnacle of the pop-punk genre and truly marked the resurgence of a genre that has been maligned for excessive simplicity and its repetitive nature in the past. However, their latest effort No Closer To Heaven yet again shakes up the scene by being their most mature and developed album to date, containing the best lyrical content the band has done thus far. ‘Cigarettes and Saints’, that simultaneously deals with with the death of a friend, the concept of heaven and the malevolent and inhuman manipulation of the American pharmaceutical industry, ends with an incredibly rousing and powerful high that makes it one of the most impactful songs of the year. ‘Cardinals’, another highlight, goes more towards poppunk but has possibly the catchiest and most compelling choruses that the band has ever done. The future is certainly bright if The Wonder Years can continue to do the inconceivable and improve on this stellar effort.

3) Arcane Roots: Heaven and Earth Arcane Roots’ latest release isn’t technically an album but instead an EP, however it’s so incredibly brilliant it is deserving of a mention nonetheless. What must be surely the next British breakout rock band, Heaven and Earth is the amalgamation of the virtuosity of Muse (who hand-picked Arcane Roots to support them on their last European tour) and the accessibility and edge of Biffy Clyro with a frenetic buzz normally only found on djent and mathcore type songs which creates extremely lively, pulsating and most of all epic brilliance throughout. ‘Slow Dance’ is the best evidence of this and a particular high point - starting off restrained and melodic, it explodes into high-paced riffing and falsetto to build into a truly monumental climax. Their live show is exceptional as well - any fans of any sort of rock or alternative should keep tabs on Arcane Roots, as if Heaven and Earth is anything to go by, their next full length album next year will be their best yet and propel them directly to mainstream success.

4) Fightstar: Behind The Devil’s Back Since this album was reviewed for The Beaver, Charlie Simpson of Fightstar rejoined the punk-pop boyband Busted and raised numerous questions, the most prevalent being what this would spell out for the future of his post-hardcore outfit that originated out of his initial frustration at the musical direction of the latter band. However, regardless of what happens Behind The Devil’s Back is a fantastic note to end on, as it enhances and hones their sound to create songs that are mainstream and accessible while still holding true to their roots. ‘Behind The Devil’s Back’ and ‘Sharp Tongue’ in particular merge heavy, pulsating verses reminiscent of Deftones at their peak with ridiculously catchy and entertaining choruses , with fantastic haunting vocals that alternate seamlessly between these two different dynamics. While the length is a disappointment and ironically representative of Fightstar’s career as a whole, one can only hope that in the future, the individual members take as much care and interest in this side project and produce an album of similar quality to this.

5) The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die: Harmlessness Don’t be put off by the artsy cover or comically pretentious band name (it was an ironic joke among the members) - Harmlessness is a fantastic pioneering of the Emo Revival genre and is full of songs that truly resonate and connect with the listener. From the very beginning of ‘You Can’t Live There Forever’ that starts the album on a sober and melancholic tone though innocently peaceful guitars, to the epic closing duo of ‘I Can Be Afraid Of Anything’ and ‘Mount Hum’, the band create an album with many personal themes and messages from mental illness, death and living. The one song that is an exception to this pattern ‘January 10th 2014’ is one of the best songs of the year, raising the topic of retribution and evil though the story of the vigilante ‘Diana the Hunter’ who took revenge against bus drivers who had committed sexual abuse. A confusing but impactful and memorable classic.

1614| Tuesday 8 December, 2015

VISUAL ARTS

WHAT’S ON

SOARING FLIGHT: PETER LANYON AT COURTAULD Hanna Lee

Image credits: The Guardian

OBSCURITY AMONG LAYMEN IS A FATE ENJOYED BY MOST BRITISH POST-WAR PAINTERS. True to this law, Peter Lanyon is no household name, even in Britain and let alone internationally. However, this may change - well, among Londoners at least. For the first time in London, the Courtauld Gallery brought us the exclusive line-up of his works, entitled Soaring Flight: Peter Lanyon’s Gliding Paintings. The retrospective may lack the name-recognition that glistens on the walls of more marketable artists, but it is just as breathtaking as any.

Stylistically, his paintings are teeming with broad strokes and Turneresque tonality (he admired Turner in particular), bound with the compulsion to transfer West Cornwall coastline onto the canvas. He is uninterested in hedgerows and breakwaters and winding Tarka the Otter country roads. It is the idea of being inside his beloved landscape that comes out most forcefully.

There is very little inhibition here, one participates in the very spatial freedom that Lanyon must have felt during his flights.

Flights? Yes. Peter Lanyon’s method of seeking inspiration was uniquely gorgeous and inimitable; gliding. It may be difficult to make out the exact Cornish landscapes in his near-abstraction, but then, anything handdrawn falls short in the era of Google Maps satellite imaging. Each piece is a geographical encounter: the roughness of the terrain and the relentlessness of the sea are mere backdrop to the pilot on-air. Multiple textures are at work here, without being reliant on impasto where each dab of paint shyly raises its edges to the viewer as if saying, I am no facsimile. Scumbling of unexpected colors touch the canvas in unexpected places.

It is an altogether sensory experience. At that point, one almost feels that it would’ve been strange had Peter Lanyon not died from a gliding accident in 1964.

The exhibition closes on 17th January, so why not open up a slot in your London life and run right across the road to the Courtauld Gallery?

Admission: £8.50, concession available.

Hours: 10am - 6pm.

WHAT’S ON

HISTORY AND THE LESSON FOR HARMONY AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM Francesca Bucchi THE EXHIBITION “EGYPT: FAITH AFTER THE PHARAOHS” DISCLOSES PRECIOUS INSIGHTS FOR CURRENT ISSUES OF RELIGIOUS COEXISTENCE “Egypt: faith after the pharaohs” is an exhibition that is currently being hosted by the British Museum and that presents the evolution of beliefs in ancient Egypt.

Starting from the Roman conquest of Aegyptus, the exhibition offers a chronological account of the coexistence of various religions in the country, from the Roman and Egyptian deities to the final assertion of monotheism under Islam. The curious visitor is accompanied in his journey through time by numerous artifacts, some of them displayed to the public for the first time, reflecting the development but also the extraordinary merging of religious cultures in the land of the pharaohs. From the Egyptian god Horus dressed like a Roman soldier to the Old Testament written in Arabic script, the exhibition demonstrates how indefinite the borders among various faiths were in ancient Egypt. Because of this very blurriness, religious coexistence appears to have been the norm for a long time. Even when monotheism was finally asserted under the Fatimid Caliphate, partially affecting this perfect balance, the existence of minorities was not so significantly disrupted, allowing Christians and Jews to continue their lives while maintaining their faiths.

Understandably, it is the sparkling gold of Byzantine Christian artifacts or the sinister aura of the “exorcized” bust of the Roman general Germanicus that capture the eye of the visitor. Yet, everyone, crossing the doorstep of the last room, will acknowledge that there is something more to be taken from the exhibition as a whole.

All the objects on the display, organized according to careful criteria, try to convey an important lesson for every visitor: religious harmony is possible. Egypt, the cradle of civilization, is but one of the examples that history has preserved and, in truth, various faiths still coexist more or less peacefully within its modern borders. In an era where religion has become probably the most exploited banner for violence, the exhibition “Egypt: faith after the pharaohs” seems to express the hope that, in fact, there is an alternative and this does not need to be forged ex novo. History has already provided us with all the tools and examples one may need to understand the mechanisms behind religious harmony. The British Museum has just collected some of these in order to remind us of our capacity for coexistence.

LITERATURE

17

CHRISTMAS GIFT LIST Camila Arias Buritica

THE END OF TERM IS UPON US (finally) and the holidays are drawing near. You might be looking for a gift for your family and friends, and you might be struggling to find them something perfect. If that’s the case, a book could be just the right thing. There’s a book out there for everybody, whether they are into action thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, romance, historical fiction or anything else, and this list of books is proof of that. So if you don’t know what to get someone special for Christmas this year, consider this list.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web – David Lagercrantz This is the fourth instalment of the Millennium series, continuing Stieg Larsson’s trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest). This number one bestseller reunites Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, and the gripping tale includes spies, cyber criminals, and a violent criminal conspiracy.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – George RR Martin Although fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels will, no doubt, be pining for the next instalment of the series, GRRM’s novel, set in Westeros a century before the events of A Game of Thrones which brings together his first three official prequel novellas, will have to do. This story follows Ser Duncan the Tall, his small squire Egg who is hiding a precious secret that must be hidden from everyone he meets. The book also features over 160 illustrations which will transport readers to the Seven Kingdoms.

Trigger Warning – Neil Gaiman Gaiman’s new collection of short stories features a never-before published American Gods story sure to be a great delight to any of his fans and any fan of dark fantasy. This stories have witches, monsters, and pirates, in horror and ghost stories, science fiction, fairy tales, and poetry. It even includes a Doctor Who story written exclusively for the 50th anniversary of the show in 2013.

After You – Jojo Moyes Moyes’ 2012 novel ‘Me Before You’ is a must-read for any lover of romantic tearjerkers about friendship and love, and the sequel is a must-read for anybody who has already read it, taking the characters they know into whole new situations. We have seen Louisa open herself up to new experiences, and after the events of Me Before You, she is embarking on a new life. As is expected, Jojo Moyes will make readers laugh and cry.

The Versions of Us – Laura Barnett This novel is for people who are looking for something new. Louisa Barnett’s novel explores love, life, and those tiny decisions that can change everything forever. Eva and Jim, the central characters, meet at 19 while studying in Cambridge in 1958, and over the course of the book, we read three different versions of their lives after this initial meeting. It’s three stories for the price of one, each filled with enough to fill a book on its own, with each version following Eva and Jim over the next 60 years of their lives. It is exceptionally written and well put-together, with the three stories written in a believable way, like three parallel stories.

FILM Tom Sayner IN SEPTEMBER 2006 a small band of soldiers from 3rd battalion Parachute Regiment became trapped in a mine field. The harrowing events of that day are recorded in the 2014 film Kajaki. A low budget production that was partly crowdfunded by ex-servicemen and women it is understated but compelling in the extreme. By consulting the men who were really there that day in Helmand Province, Afghanistan director Paul Katis manages to convey the black humour, comradeship and suffering that defined the experiences of thousands of British soldiers in Afghanistan and this platoon of Paras in particular.

The men of 3 Para were tasked with the protection of a hydroelectric power plant near the Kajaki dam. They have two observation points, mortars and snipers but insufficient men to dominate the surrounding territory. On a patrol to disable a Taliban roadblock Lance Corporal Stu Hale stepped on a Russian landmine blowing his leg off up to the knee. A group imme

diately comes to Hal’s aid which is where the true horror of the day unfolds. Despite their tentative movements in the evacuation Stu Pearson also slipped on to a mine.

Corporal Mark Wright radioed for a helicopter only for the downdraft from the rotors to trigger a third explosion with the final detonating thirty minutes after that. While this was going on the remaining medic, Tug Hartley, acted with remarkable bravery. To reach Wright and Pearson, Hartley had to cover about 30 metres. He did so by throwing his backpack to the ground and then, if it failed to initiate a mine, leaping to the same spot. After 4 hours and 4 explosions two American Blackhawk choppers evacuated the men to a nearby military hospital.

Despite emergency CPR Corporal Wright died during the flight.

He was subsequently awarded a George Cross and several of the other men received gallantry medals.

The film is essentially apolitical as it never explores the wider context of the war, concentrating

FILM REVIEW

KAJAKI purely on one group of soldiers on one day of the war. This sense of self-containment makes it all the tenser and mirrors the claustrophobic environment of modern warfare. The movie does a sterling job of capturing the boredom soldier’s face on operations as they sit around, building makeshift weights, reading lad’s mags or sleeping. The stoically black humour of the Paras is on display with Wright declaring as he surveys his tattered arms that he will need to get new clothes for his wedding. The film’s strong screenplay, by Tom Williams, captures the tone of the soldiers’ dialogue authentically – tough, practical and witty, with any hint of sentimentality quickly cut down. “I’ll be legless every night now,” exclaims one of the wounded.

The cinematography of the film is not its centre piece but the dusty visuals and harsh landscape provide a fitting backdrop for the brutality of the events that Kajaki focuses on. Katis also uses noise, or lack of it, effectively with bursts

of silence interjected throughout the 98 min production, helping to emphasise the solitude of the Para’s predicament. But it is the strength of the performances that drives the film. David Elliott provides a sensitive but rugged portrayal of Wright with great supporting performances from a cast of relatively unknown actors. Kajaki was released at a similar time to American Sniper but the two films differ widely in their depiction of combat. The British production has tightly controlled direction and no

sense of the bellicose heroism that American Sniper deifies. Kajaki doesn’t try to offer any explanation or opinion on Western involvement in Afghanistan, though it does note the legacy of the many wars that have been fought in that scarred land. Instead it attempts to convey the tedium, brutality and courage that characterised the experience of one band of soldiers during the war. In this goal Kajaki undoubtedly succeeds and does justice to the men who lost lives and limbs that day in September.

18

14

THEATRE MISS SAIGON THE PRINCE EDWARD THEATRE | Tuesday 8 December, 2015

Noah D’Aeth

THE FESTIVE PERIOD CAN OFTEN BE A DISAPPOINTING one in London, especially when it comes to the weather. It is usually less a case of dashing through the snow than standing rain-soaked in a queue. The chance to escape the drizzle should thus not be missed, and the revival of Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward theatre offers just such an opportunity. Directed by Laurence Connor, the latest incarnation of the 25 year old musical is an epic of love and tragedy. It can at times be a bit too melodramatic, but this production is ultimately a good piece of entertainment.

We start in the hustle and bustle of 1975 Saigon. With communist forces advancing from the North, the last Americans are eager to get out and quit the country. The city is a den for desperate hustlers and down on their luck refugees, all trying to make a buck before the capital folds. One of the most impressive aspects of these chaotic early scenes is the swift changes of set. The design ducks and moves along with the action. It vividly recreates the tumultuous times in which the piece is based. Rickety bamboo stairs intermingle with rusty corrugated iron and the dim glow of neon signs. The smell of perfume hangs in the air as well, and adds to the aura surround-

ing Saigon’s last days. Against this backdrop of despair and disintegration, however, our two main characters, Chris and Kim, fall in love. He is a tall and broad shouldered US Marine, whilst she is a slight, rural Vietnamese girl, and

gone to plan. Vietnam is now under Communist control and in the grip of a totalitarian regime. To convey this point a group of Vietnamese soldiers perform a tightly choreographed sequence under a bust of Ho Chi Minh, in stark

tion however, ends in tragedy.

Eva Noblezada makes a convincing West End debut as Kim. Her voice fills out the role, finding all its various components, from optimism to passion to tragedy in equal measure. She is able to mag-

after a whirlwind romance the pair get married and it seem to be destined to escape Vietnam and settle down in America.

As we jump three years ahead, however, it appears things haven’t

contrast to the early scenes in Saigon. Unfortunately for Kim, she failed to make it out of Vietnam and is left pining for Chris who is thousands of miles away in America. Their attempted reconcilia-

nify her tiny stature and leave you wondering where such a powerful voice came from. Chris Peluso playing Chris opposite her gives a slightly more restrained take on his role. It would have been easy

RESTAURANT REVIEW CHOP SHOP Caroline Schurman-Grenier DO YOU LIKE EATING OUT? Do you need a break from the library? Do you want to discover an affordable restaurant that is only a 20-minute walk from LSE? If you answered yes to any, if not all of these questions, keep reading. I have just the place for you.

Chop Shop, located on Haymarket, right in the heart of central London, is by no means an overpriced tourist trap where we wish we hadn’t just spent 20 pounds on toast. No, Chop Shop is an American looking steakhouse with little British twists to it. Seriously, you walk in and you feel like you’ve magically been transported to New York City. The décor is trendy but simple, just like the presentation of the plates.

The first thing you see is the bar, and it’s a very cool looking bar, I must admit. With bottles reaching the sealing, you will have great difficulty choosing your cocktail, let alone your meal. Luckily, the

lovely staff is there to help. The service is amongst the nicest I have encountered in London. Everyone is smiling, and everyone wants to make sure you enjoy your night to the fullest. They are happy to give suggestions and know the menu really well.

The menu is actually quite varied. They have rib-eye steak, hanger steak, lamb chops, even chicken! Obviously, there are more red meat options, but fear not. Even if you’re vegetarian, you can enjoy this place because they have some fantastic vegetarian options on the menu, believe it or not. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that EVERYTHING is delicious. The artichoke spread is delightful, and the pulled pork sausage roll adds a little bit of Britain to this American steakhouse. The red meat is tender and full of flavor. You can tell they serve good quality meat, not just any piece of red meat. To accompany your main, you can have roasted veggies, chips, mashed potatoes, roasted garlic… the op-

tions are endless. They have loads of sauces to choose from as well, the struggle is real when it comes to choosing what to eat.

Now you’re probably thinking “that’s all great, but how much will the meal cost me? Because of #studentbudget, there’s no way I can afford a steak dinner.

Well, you’re wrong. If you want to spend 10 pounds on dinner, I am sorry but you should give up on living in London. Many of the main dishes cost under 20 pounds, sides are 4 pounds each, sauces 2 pounds, and starters are great to share! Sharing is caring, but sharing is also splitting the cost. Keep that in mind. You can easily spend less than 30 pounds on a full meal, but that may not include a drink, depending on whether or not you want a starter and dessert. Keep in mind that you are lucky enough to study at LSE, a world-class institution that happens to be located in one of the most exciting cities of the world. Try and enjoy it once in a while. You deserve it.

for the traumatised Vietnam veteran to fall into farce, but Peluso keeps his character above board admirably.

The piece can still dip into the overly melodramatic, however. As the second half develops, the rapid proliferation of various love triangles makes you start to doubt the basic relationship between shapes and romance, a love dodecahedron might be a more apt term.

Kim and Chris both have separate romantic interests and the dramatic consequences of these do seem a bit unnecessary.

Nevertheless, a number of grand set pieces rescue the play from absurdity. The appearance of a helicopter flying onto the stage in order to pick up marines is a typical example of the shock and awe staging used to amaze the audience. A giant white Cadillac also glides in at one point, flanked by dancing girls it can’t help but make you sit up and take notice.

This then, is ultimately what Miss Saigon is all about, it is a theatre blockbuster which is part spectacle and part love story. The end result is a play which, whilst ridiculous at times is entertaining throughout.

One of the only problems being that you have to step back into the rain once it’s over.

Miss Saigon is on until the 27th February 2016

FOOD For a nice low key night out with great food and fantastic service, head over to Chop Shop! You won’t regret it, trust me.

66 Haymarket, St. James’s, London SW1Y 4RF

FASHION

FASHION

FASHION

19

IS THIS A NEW TREND?

WRITINGS ON THE SHIRT Maria Maleeva

Image credits: ElleUK

AS I’M NOT USED TO CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS, on December 24th, I always feel quite amused by the festive decorations, which start to appear in November. Apparently, the more glitter and tinsel you’re covered in, the more dedicated you are to the holiday.

Constantly bumping into people in reindeer or Santa jumpers for almost a month makes me think about the new phenomena of the overexposure of affiliations through clothes.

It seems that, previously, it was only spread among some music group fans in order to show loyalty and form a subculture or as a sign of some political movement. Now it has become everything but that. Every event, university, political party, theatre or more or less decent eatery has its very own branded shirt. It’s not enough to say that you went somewhere or believe in something, you must wear the proof - otherwise your statement is not worth any attention. Sometimes, people don’t even know what they’re supporting. I myself once bought a t-shirt ‘Long Live Southbank’ - at the time of buying the 20 pound shirt, I didn’t even know what the fuss was about - truly supporting something is definitely not always a point. ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ on your t-shirt clearly does not transform you into a feminist; moreover, taking into account the conditions in which these shirts were produced, the writing looks like a mockery.

Maybe, at a time of swiping and liking, people need a way to quickly attract attention - it is more likely that the highly political/philosophical/moving quote on the t-shirt will be more noticeable and acknowledged than a large post on rights and wrongs beneath. It can be that we all have much less time to speak heart-to-heart so we tend to quickly broadcast the information through the first medium people pay attention to when they see us - clothes.

However, it can be also a reason of rejecting people, judging by the first impression and not giving time to disclose their true nature.

GOSHA SNOB

GOSHA’S NEW LOOKBOOK Jamie Lloyd THIS WEEK, RUSSIAN DESIGNER WUNDERKIND, Gosha Rubchinskiy, debuted the lookbook for his new collection entitled ‘1984’. The collection features familiar tropes from the creative, such as communist iconography (Hammer and Sickles predominate) and subtle nods to Soviet-era sportswear. The lookbook itself, featuring two Corsican models, is shot in a style that has become synonymous with Gosha and his unique aesthetic – the concept of youth is displayed and toyed with, almost luridly, through the series of photos, whilst an open and light-filled scene is presented to the viewer. The theme of ‘1984’, whilst an idea that contains a wealth of symbolism in relation to the Soviet Union is paid only lip service, however, the number itself being merely emblazoned upon a series of shirts – not the biting examination of Orwell’s work in a post-Soviet world that some would expect of the designer. Nevertheless, the lookbook and subsequent collection is sure to cement what

has been a meteoric year for the young designer, with his subversive clothing becoming ever more popular with streetwear enthusiasts and fuelling at least, this writer’s latent interest in the Russian language.

Gosha now has a dedicated Facebook fan-forum for buying and selling his pieces, creatively titled ‘Gosha Rubchinskiy Talk’. However, despite his ever-growing popularity, one cannot be unaffected by the depressive and passive manner in which word of the lookbook was deployed online. Major online streetwear outlets, such as Highsnobiety and Hypebeast, are respected channels for discussion and news but only inertly receive information such as the Gosha launch or the release of yet another designer’s hyped collection and merely slap a few pictures on it, write a few hundred words of hagiographic praise, and laud the designer as being either ‘the next big thing’ or ‘literally Jesus reincarnate fashionspeaking-wise’. Instead of a critical engagement with the work of the designer, an appreciation for the symbols they use and the manner in which they were expressed on

the fabric, all product is elevated to the plane of masterpiece – rendering any effective discussion of different designers moot and useless.

In the online environment of such publications, there is no room for a discerning consumer or critic – everything is just perfect, regardless of what you think.

Such outlets do arguably still serve a vital function in highlighting new releases and helping smaller designers to build their brands – but their constant propaganda regarding almost each and every release, highlight a critical lack of ‘buyer’s guide’ in the streetwear online domain. Furthermore, it brings into sharp relief the reality that such websites function purely as an elaborate advertising and marketing device - there doesn’t need to be any critical assessment of what each designer brings to the zeitgeist if the objective is monetary: we are not meant to discern because we are conditioned to consume. That said, I still want a shirt with Russian writing I do not understand on – but not because Hypebeast told me it was ‘cool’.

NUS EXTRA: THE ESSENTIAL STUDENT DISCOUNT CARD Available to buy from the LSESU Shop and online: www.nus.org.uk/en/nus-extra Collect yours from the LSESU Reception, 3rd Floor Saw Swee Hock Student Centre

AND MUCH MORE

Following Successful Motion* demanding 2/3 of SU Events Be Non-Alcoholic, LSESU Bar to be renamed as The Two Tuns

*lol JK, it’ll never reach quoracy

If LSESU Hasn’t Condemned It, Is It Really A Problem?

This week LSESU didn’t condemn the Paris Attacks at UGM. Here are 100 other things that we haven’t formally condemned which surely must then be okay?

1. People that stand on the left of escalators 2. ‘25’ by Adele 3. The Middle Classes 4. Coldplay 5. The Holocaust 6. Miranda 7. Onesies 8. Mrs Browns Boys 9. Rugby 10. Chairs 11. People that say ‘crimbo’ 12. Anchorman 2 13. Anyone that describes themself as a ‘Cat person’ 14. Ditto ‘Dog Person’ 15. Ditto ‘People Person’ 16. Starbucks 17. James Wurr 18. Amazon 19. All songs other than ‘Blurred Lines’ that reinforce rape culture 20. Discriminate Arms 21. Tuns House Wine 22. Management Students 23. ANUS

24. People that can’t define Neo-liberal, but use it in an argument 25. 9/11 26. The AU 27. The SU 28. People that don’t get their Oyster out quickly 29. TERFs 30. White People 31. White Privilege 32. Whiteboard Campaigns 33. Hashtag Campaigns 34. Live Tweeting 35. Cardboard cutouts of Nicholas Cage 36. Putting the D in Democracy 37. Re-Imagining Our Education 38. Katie Hopkins 39. The KKK 40. KCL 41. Stalin 42. Tony Blair 43. George Bush 44. The Green Paper

45. LSE Timetables 46. PTO Pay 47. The Economics Department 48. Applying to KPMG with a CV that says you’re FC not RFC 49. Clapping 50. Jazz Hands 51. LSE100 52. LSESU RAG 53. Democracy Committee 54. Hacks 55. People who make essay sharing groups on Facebook 56. Going as a Netflix series for Carol 57. Any variation of ‘Netflix and Chill’ 58. Telling people that they should watch Breaking Bad 59. LinkedIn 60. Anyone that campaigns outside of the SSH 61. Blairites

62. Brownites 63. Corbynites 64. Debating the EU in tuns 65. Houghton St building works 66. Saucy 67. Occupy LSE 68. Strangers who ‘borrow’ cigarettes in clubs 69. Racism 70. Sexism 71. Homophobia 72. Champagne Society 73. Ukip Soc 74. Tory Soc 75. People that wear suits to lectures 76. Networking Events 77. ‘Cheeky Nandos’ 78. Donald Trump 79. Gold Catsuits 80. Sitting on the stairs of SSH to eat Hare Krishna Food 81. Clare Market Review 82. London Globalist 83. Probably The Beaver, tbh

84. Jack Wills 85. Driving to university 86. Craig Calhoun 87. Craig Calhoun’s Expenses 88. The right to offend 89. Eating meat on any other day of the week 90. The Room Booking System 91. LIMITS 92. Sabbatical Officer Term Limits 93. Posting on social media about Game of Thrones 94. Spring Weeks 95. History students that refer to themselves as ‘an historian’ 96. Taking over the iPod at a house party 97. Late adopters of grime (you’re a #problem) 98. Ollie Hill 99. Napping in the library 100. The floor naming system in 32LIF

LSE Tribes: The AU Club Captain ‘Yeah mate, I need this FC duffel bag to fit all my water bottles, gym kit and my macbook. Classic mud stains on the outside from Berrylands. Missing Tour, tbh’ ‘Sorry yeah my bag does need another seat in the lecture theatre actually. No it isn’t empty, it has all my sports stuff in it. Yeah I am pretty hungover actually, Zoo was deece. Same shit, different Zoo tbh. I matched this girl on Tinder but didn’t chirpse, she stopped replying. Her loss but not worth the graft. Better than last week, mate I fell asleep on the bus!!! Got woke up by the bus driver in Walthamstow, 35 stops from home, top lad tbf. Yeah that’s 10 out of 10.

Deece. Any dange you can land me the notes for this lecture? Just been checking my Fantasy League the whole time mate.

Yeah bought my Carol cos-

tume too, we are going as Baywatch just to raise awareness and stuff, been rehearsing my lyrics too as captain it’s vital I lead from the front, chanting louder and more abrasively than anyone else in the team. If anything goes down at Carol don’t worry I’ve got you mate. Chat shit, get banged.

Deece. Wanna go for a fag? This one has been behind my ear for 3 hours now and I want to put my cap on backwards for a bit. Ah nah no worries another 2 hours won’t matter, I need to go and finish off my application for the AIC… nibble. More like a cheeky pint in tuns ;) Maate… where did you get

your Adidas ZX Flux from? In red, too? Shit they look pretty good, go well with the navy joggers, probably get them once I’ve worn these black ones out. Wait, you can get general AU stash as well as stash from individual clubs?? Nice one, might have to look into that, pretty bored of just wearing the FC hoodie. I reckon Slazenger is the next big thing, can’t wait for SS16 JME x Slazenger collab. Been listening to a lot more grime recently actually, really think Stormzy is pretty much the founder of grime.

Boy in the Corner? Nah not listened personally but I heard his song Holiday and it was deece.

Serious.

22

| Tuesday 8 December, 2015

The NAB’s Big

A Starter For Ten...

University Challenge Questions 1. If a tap leaks a millilitre of water every second, how many 10-litre buckets will it fill completely in a day?

2. Which of Shakespeare’s plays is the only one to be set in Vienna and concerns the city’s Duke adopting a disguise in order to observe the actions of his subjects, including his deputy Angelo?

3. Along with ‘Salmon Fishing’, the name of which country of the Middle East appears in the title of a prizewinning first novel by Paul Torday?

4. A river, Christmas, a moon and a pair of shoes all share what colour, according to Elvis Presley?

5. Which year saw the publication of Einstein’s first paper, on capillarity; the eleventh United Kingdom census; the births of Barbara Cartland and Louis Armstrong, and the deaths of President William McKinley and Queen Victoria?

6. ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’; which Romantic poet wrote these words?

7. First performed in 1958, which play by Shelagh Delaney concerns a working-class girl from Salford who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand?

8. For the Moon it is 2.4km per second, for the earth 11.2km per second and for Jupiter 59.5km per second. Which velocity is this?

9. Used in English since the First World War, which German term means a political policy determined by practical considerations, rather than by morality?

10. Giving the answer in roman numerals, which number is double DXC?

Spot The Difference

PuLSE Radio’s Puzzles

By Ollie Leese

1. Adele’s album 25 broke the record for the highest first week sales, who held it before?

2. Can you name the three Glastonbury headliners?

3. Which male singer sang the Bond theme tune for Spectre?

4. How did Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl break his leg in Gothenburg in June?

5. Which British boyband went to Number 1 in 82 countries and broke the record for the most first week streams in the UK with 2.03m plays, with their song ‘Drag Me Down’?

6. ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ is the seventh album from which major British band?

7. Which song spent 6 weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart from January 3rd to February 14th?

8. How many UK number one singles has Justin Bieber had this year?

9. Who released ‘Wilder Mind’ in May, their their studio album, after previously releasing “Babel” and “Sigh No More”?

10. Which iconic band announced four dates as Manchester’s Etihad Arena for next June?

There are 5 differences between these AU Naked Calendar shots. Can you spot them?

Christmas Quiz

Answers can be found on The Beaver website: beaveronline.co.uk

Question Time A Politics & Forum Quiz

By Hari Prabu

1. What movement did Abby Tomlinson start on social media before the U.K. General Election to boost Ed Miliband’s popularity?

2. What is the name of the youngest U.K. MP, the ‘baby of the House’, who was elected for the SNP in May at the age of just 20?

3. What same position did both Yvette Cooper and her recently made unemployed husband Ed Balls finish in their Labour leadership contests?

4. What was Justin Trudeau’s (elected Prime Minister of Canada in November) three word response to the journalist who asked him why it was so important to him that his Cabinet was gender-balanced?

5. When Facebook enabled its users to display a French flag over their profile picture to commemorate the Paris Attacks it was the second time it gave the option to create a temporary profile picture. The ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court this year on what issue prompted the first?

6. Which Labour MP was widely acclaimed for his speech in favour of bombing ISIL in Syria but was told by Alex Salmond that his own father would be turning his grave having heard it?

7. In which communist country did the U.S. re-open its embassy this year, 54 years after it closed?

8. The 70th anniversary of which devastating historical events were commemorated in Japan in August?

9. Which former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who led them to their highest ever number of seats in the House of Commons, died in June this year?

10. What did Alexis Tsipras, the Prime Minister of Greece, achieve both in January this year and again in September after accepting more E.U. imposed austerity measures?

SU Q’s

How much attention have you been paying?

1. What is the LSESU RAG Fundraising total so far this year?

2. PTO pay was introduced this year, how much are PTOs now paid per hour, and for how many hours per week?

3. How many candidates for GenSec were there in the LSESU Lent Term Elections 2015?

4. How many UGM motions for Free Education have there been in 2015?

5. In the Lent Term Elections, how did Au Engagement Officer Candidate Ahmed Cheema allegedly claim to understand Disabled Students issues?

6. Which word was spelled incorrectly in Nona Buckley-Irvine’s campaign video?

7. What has LSE agreed to divest from in the wake of lobbying from LSE Divest?

8. In the MT Elections, how many of the election winners were given #1 endorsement by LSESU ISoc? 9. In the terms of reinstatement for the LSE Men’s RFC, how many strikes are the club allowed before they are disbanded again?

10. Which body part was used as a slogan in the MT Elections (no, we’re never letting it go)?

The Beaver Brainteasers Complete these 2015 Headlines 1

4

2 5 3

24 | Tuesday 8 December, 2015

Section Editor: Alex Gray Deputy Editors: Henry Mitchell

Inside The Biggest Of The Four: Economics & Policy at PwC 2 The second part of an inside look at economics consulting with LSE alumnus and Economics and Policy team member at PwC Alex Gray City Editor LAST WEEK, I PUBLISHED the first of a two part interview with an LSE alumnus and member of PwC’s Economics and Policy (E&P) team, which is part of PwC’s broader Strategy& advisory team. This can be found online (www.beaveronline.co.uk).

Last week covered the application process, and what it’s like to work for PwC, whereas this week will look at how PwC is different from other consultancies, and then get Laura’s opinion on some of the biggest economic issues of the day.

The City

How is working at PwC different from working for the other “big four” consultancies?

We are the biggest of the big four, in terms of revenue, which means that we are able to work with some of the biggest clients, but perhaps more importantly for graduates is the fact that PwC uses a significant part of this revenue used to invest in its people and on exciting cutting edge market research and thought leadership.

PwC is absolutely committed to training and development which is one of the reasons that we have been rated Times Top 100 Graduate Employer of the Year for 12 years running. PwC’s training and development programmes don’t stop once you finish the graduate scheme, they run throughout your career. In fact, I’m just about to go on a three day leadership development programme in Cyprus called Altitude which PwC has created for its Senior Associates.

If pushed, would you say you were an economist, or consultant?

I think I would say economist, but working within PwC gives me a chance to work closely with clients, and drive change as a consultant using economic tools and theories.

I think that the E&P team has a real analytical economics focus combined with a consulting mindset. This means becoming advisors to our clients and providing solutions to their problems.

Another really positive thing about being part of PwC is that as your career progresses, there are opportunities to maintain and improve that technical side of your economic knowledge; we have real experts in areas such as computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling and competition economics. But alongside this, the E&P team are also working as part of bigger transformational projects where they are using other

skill sets. PwC gives you flexibility to choose how your career progresses.

What has been your favourite project to work on so far?

So far, my favourite project, and actually one that is still ongoing, is where I am working with a mining company in Africa to analyse the economic impact of their operations. It has been really interesting for a couple of reasons: 1) it meant I have learnt an awful lot about the country that they operate in and 2) it meant I got an amazing opportunity to increase my technical knowledge of inputoutput modelling, and impact assessments. These are skills that I will be able to use to help other clients, which is quite an exciting prospect.

On the project I was also able to mentor another team member, a fantastic opportunity for me to take on a more managerial day to day role. I was able to go to Africa and help the client with the project, engaging a number of different stakeholders to understand their thoughts on the results of the project. I think these kind of opportunities are something that you’d really be hard pressed to find in a smaller consultancy, or even one of the larger consultancies at such a relatively junior level of the company.

My favourite thing about working for PwC is probably the other people, the team within Economics are a really great, clever bunch of people. All really interested in other people’s thoughts and ideas.

Beyond that the people that I met during graduate training have become real friends. They form my network now, and I really enjoy sharing ideas and knowledge with them. It’s so important that I can just go for lunch with them or email then if I need help with something! The diversity of PwC really makes it a fantastic place to work.

Moving onto some more technical questions, Economics as a discipline has come under a lot of fire in recent times for having a ‘juvenile obsession with mathematical theory’.

How do you encounter this in your work, and what do you think it says about the discipline as a whole?

So although we do use a lot of mathematical techniques in our work, we are all about solving practical problems for our clients. Although some of our work is based on some theoretical economics we do a lot of sense-checking of results. Asking ourselves: is

this really applicable here? Is this really how the market operates in this case? Are we coming up with the right answer? Understanding the models, and the limitations of the theory is a key part of our work. Sitting behind each project is a lot of research into what best practice is in each case, and producing something that is workable and reliable for clients.

One thing to solve the “housing crisis”?

This is one where I do actually have a simple answer: build more homes! However that happens, whether it’s with a policy focus, or removing skills shortages in certain areas, it really is as simple as that.

Of course, that is not an easy task and there are a number of blog posts and reports on our website that do go into a lot more detail than that, and I’d really recommend taking a look at them.

I would like to thank Laura, and the rest of the team at PwC, for agreeing to the interview, and for their support and input in producing the articles. To find out more about working in Economics Consulting at PwC, visit: pwc.com/uk/work-in-economics

“is one of the reasons that we have been rated Graduate Employer of the Year for 12 years running. ” What is the working environment like at PwC, for example what time do you normally get home? Is there a favourite thing?

It really does vary an awful lot. We do operate normal office hours, but you do have a lot of flexibility to work as you see fit.

The focus is on deliverables and outcomes rather than time spent in the office. So we try to be very flexible in terms of accommodating working from home, clients offices, our offices etc. There are definitely days when we work very hard, but there’s that level of trust there which means that you’re very much able to manage your own time in a way that’s best for you.

PwC’s London Bridge office, the home of E&P. Credit: Flickr, Chas B

The City |25

Tsipras’ Recurrent Woes

Greece may be out of the limelight temporarily, but we are sure to hear more next year Aristeidis Grivokostopoulos LSE Undergraduate THERE ARE TWO OPTIONS regarding the Greek 40-year old prime minister. One, he is the greatest political genius of our generation. And by political genius, I am referring to the purely cynical immoral meaning of the word. Option Two includes the totally opposite scenario. That is, Mr Tsipras was a creation of European bureaucrats to have political capital when passing measures of fiscal consolidation, and more especially, when passing the structural reforms they are so determined to complete. This a scenario which places the strategic behaviour on the other side of the current field of war, an ongoing war between the past and the future. And indeed, the country’s youngest prime minister in its history is a member of the army of the past, which has either planned this situation all along or has fallen into a trap. The problem for us here in Britain, with our own political and geopolitical issues to worry about, is that either scenario brings about political instability. In other words, the inspiration for Corbyn’s rise and simultaneously the talk of the year in Europe, is not ready to be forgotten.

From a high school rebel or-

ganising school take overs by student bodies, to a left-wing representative in his university’s student union. From a prominent member in the European Left’s youth, party to leader of a coalition of a pro-European, but fractured left.

From leader of a non-parliamentary party to twice-elected prime minister. All this in less than 40 years. Tsipras is the embodiment of a left-wing career politician.

He is young, his relatives had no political career or sufficient political power prior to his entrance in politics, and thus he is also selfmade. In the scenario of Tsipras being a genius, the closest parallel that comes to my mind and can also be easily understood by non-Greek readers is that of Pablo Escobar, the anti-hero of the popular Netflix programme “Narcos”. The only difference between Tsipras and Escobar is that the former chose a more direct route into becoming his country’s head of government, and was successful at reaching the end of this route.

Tsipras wanted to become prime minister, it is not an incidence of luck that this rebel is sitting in the prime-ministerial office of the most leftist Euro Area country. Given the circumstances and the political environment, Tsipras chose the right party at the right time and not only supported

its views, he formed them. Voters were not suddenly amazed by his rhetoric, they were stolen from the clientelist centre-left by repeating of the promises of the past. He said “no” to the Europeans, and then said “yes” to them when the situation called for an agreement.

He was not driven by popular opinion, gaining and subsequently holding power by choosing to do what the polls dictated. Tsipras is better than this Merkelist approach to politics and power retention. Tsipras created the popular opinion from ground-up through coalition with trade union leaders and top-down through influential economists, e.g. Varoufakis, and a pro-active, even destructive, parliamentary opposition.

The aforementioned model of power gain has worked for him so long in opposition, so he decided to apply it in while in power. He is playing left-wing opposition politics while being the most austerity-imposing elected government of the past three. He is inviting workers to organise strikes against his own policies, making these policies seem like a result of external pressure from the troika. In that way, he will not lose political capital by voting for and imposing these recessionary, even regressive, measures. Not surprisingly, there is no parliamentary opposition

to Tsipras, as his opponents have fallen into the trap of emergency consensus politics, as if he were a war-time prime minister. Not to mention that the fact that he has shown his willingness to call elections and his ability to win them by large margins, when internal opposition arises and ought to be eradicated from parliament. The country is trapped by his genius and there seems to be no change, but rather a series of successful elections in the short-term, creating unproductive political instability.

On the other hand, Tsipras is George Papandreou 3.0, not Andreas Papandreou 2.0. He is a victim, not a master-planner. Observe a cyclical pattern: a populist opposition emerges and promises change. It is elected and starts negotiations with European officials and bureaucrats. Negotiations fail and a memorandum is imposed.

The government has no option but to vote for the poorly negotiated memorandum, a document in wide contrast to the pre-election promises made. Back-benchers rebel and parliamentary power erodes as these measures are voted and realised by politicians and voters. The prime minister calls for support from other pro-European centrist parties and a consensus government is formed. Opposition

parties, parties that form (New Democracy) or do not form (Syriza) the new non-elected government, strengthen through populism.

Eventually, elections are called and the pattern continues. European officials and bureaucrats need this pattern to continue, deeming parties and prime ministers as expendable items in a process of modernising and limiting Greece.

Papandreou, Samaras and Tsipras are only sources of temporary political capital, ready to be expended. In that point of view, there are many pieces that fit in the puzzle which makes up the picture. Why did the troika stop negotiating once Tsipras won the European parliamentary elections in Greece?

Was this part of a plan to bring Tsipras to power by forcing elections as the Samaras government became unproductive and selfdestructive? The latter scenario is a conspiracy theory, one of the many produced to portray Greece as a victim of extractive colonialism by the Germans. In any case, days ago the prime minister called for a meeting between him and various other candidates for coalition. Maybe the country is in another trap of political instability, either exogenous to Europeans or endogenous to its voting culture.

Only time will tell which scenario is true.

Too Much Maths In Economics?

A review of the debate, and the lessons to be learnt from it Rahat Siddique LSE Undergraduate ON T U E S D AY 24TH November the LSESU Economics Society and Economic History Society hosted their first debate of the year titled ‘Too much maths, too little history: The problem with economics’. The debate was chaired by Professor James Foreman-Peck, who introduced the four prestigious speakers of the evening: Lord Robert Skidelsky, Professor of Political Economy at Warwick University, Francesco Caselli, Professor of Economics at LSE, Dr. Ha Joon Chang of Cambridge University and Steve Pischke, Professor of Econometrics at LSE. On the proposition were Lord Skidelsky and Dr. Chang, while on the opposition sat Professor Caselli and Professor Pischke.

The event itself was oversubscribed, indicating the general appeal of the debate; economics is often accused of being an irrelevant social science underpinned by a plethora of unrealistic assumptions. Lord Skidelsky referred to this is as a sort of ‘physics envy’ that has shaped mathematical economics into its current state, whereas history acts as a ‘reality check’ for economics. Dur-

ing his opening speech Skidelsky quoted Robert Solow’s statement that with ‘a little cleverness and persistence you can get any result you want’, interestingly Robert Solow is most well know for the Solow Growth Model which is also based on many unrealistic assumptions. Although eloquent, Lord Skidelsky’s speech essentially asserted that economics, arguably the dominant social science, is completely unrelated to the real world and there is a serious need to study history to understand trade and economics.

Professor Caselli was the next to speak, and began by reframing the argument stating ‘economics in many ways is history… we [economists] are constantly looking at history, and data is a way of looking at history, so economists are historians more than anything’.

This bold claim was founded on Caselli’s belief that Lord Skidelsky’s description of economics was not the economics he knew; where mathematics assists economic intuition that already exists, as opposed to the other way round.

An example of this is LSE’s John Hicks Prize, which was awarded to two PhD students looking at the ‘impact of temporary trade pro-

tection from a technological leader on the long-term development of follower nations using evidence from 19th century Europe’ and the ‘impact of the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866 on the cotton trade’, both based on research that isn’t merely limited to mathematics.

Next to speak was Professor Ha Joon Chang, who as usual, gave a very entertaining and comical speech. He began by asserting that there is an ‘intellectual hierarchy’ within the economics disciple, where economic historians rank the lowest. This hierarchy has resulted in the mathematisation of economics, making the case for economists to study history ever more pressing, because history affects the present and allows us to question some assumptions that are often taken for granted. Chang continued by claiming that economics has killed a lot of people with policies such as central planning, thus to minimise these live experiments is a ‘moral duty’.

Finally Professor Pischke, gave the final word for the opposition; like Caselli he stated he hadn’t heard the speakers of the proposition talk about the field he was working in. The Clark Medal, a

prestigious award given to economists below the age of 40, has not been awarded to a theoretical economist for many years. As a Professor specialising in econometrics Professor Pischke asserted that there is now more empirical work and less theory in economics, and the standard of empirical research is becoming much better.

For instance, Bertrand and Mullainathan’s 2003 paper ‘Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination’ found that Black applicants need to send 50% more resumes to get the same number of callbacks as their White counterparts. This powerful study gave an insight into current labour market discrimination and presented the case for blind-applications.

UCAS is removing names from university applications, based on this research. To conclude, Pischke addressed the issue of why the image of economics is so bad, given the empirical research being done has a lot to say about the world in which we live; he closed by stating what’s taught in the classroom is behind what is going on outside meaning, the university syllabus concentrates heavily on

mathematics while current economic research has a more holistic methodology.

In the Q&A session Dr Judith Shapiro posed a question to the proposition that, even with an emphasis on development and governance and the problem of ‘assertion economics’, “how would we know who was right without the econometrics… how would we know if we don’t have evidence to argue it?” This key question identifies the issue with demanding an entirely historical foundation to 20th century economics; although the current university curriculum has more maths than previous years, there is still a need to use data to critically analyse patterns that have emerged in history. The debate on whether there is ‘too much maths’ or ‘too little history’ in economics is a discussion that will require more than a couple of hours in a lecture theatre to resolve, but it has to start somewhere and I hope it will continue. In a final vote by the audience, the proposition won on a margin, by what looked like a 60:40 split, indicating many still understood the importance of mathematical economics in telling us more about the world in which we live.

26 | Tuesday 8 December, 2015

The Economics of Innovation

Interviewing Industrial Economics maverick Dr Peter Swann.

Stefanos Argyros & Sebastian Shehadi Deputy Features Editors

DR PETER SWANN IS Emeritus Professor of Economics at Nottingham University. His research is focused on a plethora of issues within the field of industrial economis and the economics of innovation. In June 2005 he was awarded an OBE by the Queen.

Following his insightful lecture on “The Future of Innovation” at the LSE-UCL conference, we discussed his most recent and unconventional research, as well as his views on multi-disciplinary perspectives in economics and the role of Universities in fostering innovation.

(Q)Why do you think innovation is such an important topic in economic analysis? What made you interested in it as a student?

I was lucky enough to start studying this as a PhD student at the beginning of the personal computer revolution where the hype level, as in Judith Shapiro’s graph, would have been off the scale. But this one had no down swing - it just led straight on up.

I was always interested in computing; I’d studied maths and I’d studied computer sciences as an undergraduate.

I’d sort of done things with main-print computers which was quite fun but I didn’t want to spend my life doing it. So I sort of knew it was important.

I had no idea how important it was economically. It soon turned out to be not a very good subject to study if you wanted a nice and tidy econometric model. It just didn’t work very well, but I though it was interesting and I looked back into the history of economics and discovered that actually lots of big people in the world like Adam Smith, Babich, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill and so on and so on, thought it was potentially very important indeed. And then I think by the end of the PhD we too were starting to see that the personal computer revolution was actually very important. It wasn’t necessarily sowing up in productivity statistics but in terms of the amount newspeople were making of it.

(Q)How important and effective has publicly funded infrastructure and the National Measurement System in particular been in supporting innovation?

Ok, That’s a very well researched question because one of the more improbable topics I’ve studied, is ‘what is the role of standards and the National Measurement Infrastructure in

Features

Section Editors: Taryana Odayar Alexander Hurst Deputy Editors: Stefanos Argyros Daniel Shears Sebastian Shehadi

supporting innovation?’. Now, most people would say to the first: how do standards promote innovation? Surely they are all about constraining innovation?

What we actually discover is that standards support and constrain at the same time. Particularly in computer technologies, a lot of high tech industries’ standards make it easier to get your innovation to sell because you know what everyone else is going to do. It’s a sort of coordination device. So all I can say is that people who were a bit sceptical about the role of standards in the early days have realised, that actually, it is the foundation on which people add their innovations to the pot and know that they’ll work on what everyone else is doing because they are conforming to the standard.

As for the national measurement system, it’s always been said that: why can’t companies just do this themselves, why should public money be spent on it? And I think the key thing there is that you need to have something that is available both to producer and consumer at the same time.

Sorry, but as an individual, if consumer bodies on your behalf are going to test whether a particular product conforms to what it’s supposed to be doing and is performing as well as it does, then somebody has to have access to the sort of measurement technologies you need to be able to say if it is working.

So for example, if you’re buying some food and on the label it says this is the constituents of this, and if you have an eating disorder or an allergy you really need to know if these things are accurate.

Now that means that there must be a publically available measurement technology. If it’s only monopolised by a company, then how can you as an individual check that? So funnily enough, the national measurements infrastructure turns out to be incredibly important, if nothing else just as a means of saying, ‘this gives us something that demonstrates that this product which you are trying to sell me is as good as it says it is. This is important economically. Without that, I might not trust you.’

(Q)Which models on university-business interaction do you think are more conducive to innovation?

That’s a very good question also. When I was about your age - so when I was an undergraduate - there was something called the customer contractor model

for the funding of science. And basically the idea was that a government department or business would write a contract about what they wanted and then the scientist would have to deliver to that contract. It didn’t leave much open for blue skies thinking. I think my experience in collaborating with companies, and this is only in the area of economics, and in the area of hybrid economics I described in the lecture, shows that actually when I talk to companies I expect them to be most helpful with the very applied side of the work, but actually they are more helpful with the blue sky stuff because that is what they really want to talk about. They want to talk about how they might use this in a way that would transform a market, a company or open up a completely new application. So I’d love to see it as unstructured as possible, as far away form the customer contractor principle as possible, not too many contracts, and some nice blue skies thinking because actually I think that’s what companies want when they talk to academics. They don’t want consultancy from academics, they will go to consultants if they want consultancy. What they want is blue skies thinking.

(Q)How important do you find multi-disciplinary approaches in your own research?

I talked a bit about that in the lecture. I’ll blur over the distinction between multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary terms.

Am I interested in using lots of disciplines? Yes I am, and the reason for that at the beginning was when I tried essentially to use conventional economic models I couldn’t make much progress. The estimates that I got were simply not credible, they didn’t make economic sense and I suspected this was to do with some particular econometrics problems that could not be solved, whereas there were other techniques developed in engineering and physics and some ideas coming from the sociology of consumption which actually gave you a better idea of the question. I am strictly an Economist and I am none of the other things but I always find it useful, much like when you go to a library and say I’ll read about that and it will be helpful. I think in the economics of innovation the general consensus amongst most people working in the field, certainly in Britain and also in Europe, is that you cannot do it just from an economics perspective, you have to bring in some other collaboration.

Credit: Flickr: João Trindade

Answering the Big Questions

Features | 27

An interview with renowned Economist Professor Jagjit Chadha.

Taryana Odayar Features Editor

the projected risks facing the UK Economy in the future.

PROFESSOR JAGJIT CHADHA is Chair of the Money, Macro and Finance Research Group, specialist advisor to the Treasury Committee, and Economics Professor at the University of Kent. He has acted as an academic adviser to HMT, the Bank of England and many policy-making institutions around the world. His interests lie mostly, but not exclusively, with Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) modelling in which he works on developing richer financial mechanisms, such as incorporating money, bank behaviour, inventory and the term structure of interest rates. In this interview which took place at the LSE-UCL Ecnomics conference this year, we discussed the macroeconomic implications of a Brexit on the EU, as well as

(Q) The governor of the Central Bank of England, Mark Carney, explained the possible fiscal consequences of a Brexit in “The Bookend file.” What are the potential implications for banks and investors?

That’s a very big question! So when you think about it - what is the advantage of the UK being in the Euro area? There’s free trade, financial services integration and free migration - and all of those things seem positive to me as an Economist in terms of allowing specialisation of trade and cheaper goods and services that would otherwise not have been the case in the absence of competition. So if you remove competition, you’re going to lead to a world in which

the mark-ups are higher, its going to be more expensive to do things here, and its going to put across efficiency in a negatively persistent manner. Ultimately, I think over the medium term it will lead to lower incomes per head in the UK as we have to do things in a different way to what we might think is a better way of doing things. So overall it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

(Q) I suppose this is another big question, but what do you think will be the biggest risk affecting the UK Economy in 2016/2017?

Yes, its a big question, but I wouldn’t expect anything less! When you think about risk, economies have always faced risks. Every year we look at, there are risks. The question is really dependent on the frameworks that we have for dealing with risks. So its not so much to do

with risk per se, as it depends on the policy framework that we have in place. The policy framework that we now have in place is a Monetary policy committee, a Financial policy committee, a PRA (Prudential Regulation Authority), a Fiscal policy maker who is committed to reducing the level of debt to GDP, and a financial policy across the board which is trying to make the financial system more safe in response to shocks. So I think where we are now is a better position overall across the policy mixes than we were 10 years ago.

The shocks that may come along – who knows? I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow and I’m prepared to accept that. All I can do is think about a policy framework in place that’s going to deal with it. So we shall wait and see, shall we?

(Q) How much havoc would a

Brexit wreak on the European Union, especially in terms of economic threats to Eurozone growth?

Although the UK is not a member of the Euro area, the UK financial system is integrated into the European financial system in a very important way. And in many respects the city of London is the most important financial sector in the Euro area, even though the UK isn’t in the Euro area. So detaching the UK from the Euro area to become an offshore centre could result in different opportunities for the UK. But its not something I would necessarily like to see. I think the UK is very well integrated into the European system; there are many plans for regulation across the European system and it would be a great shame at this moment for the UK to detach itself from that by leaving the European Union.

Paris Attacks & 9/11: A Case of Déjà vu?

An analysis of the striking resemblance between the international and national responses towards 9/11 and the recent Paris attacks. Have we learnt from our previous mistakes?

Griff Ferris Postgraduate Student FOLLOWING THE RECENT attacks in Paris, President Hollande declared the atrocities ‘an act of war’ by a “terrorist army”, with the result that France was now at war with Daesh (ISIS).

Hollande has further called, in no uncertain terms, for a ‘ruthless’ response, asserting that France would ‘lead a war which would be pitiless’, while the Security Council of the UN responded with a unanimous show of support, calling upon member states to ‘take all necessary measures…on the territory under control of (Daesh)’.

There has been a distinct escalation of French bombing strikes against ISIS-held parts of Syria, under the auspices of the anti-ISIS coalition, as Hollande makes a show of strength to the French people, in shock after last weekend’s events. These retaliatory strikes were classed under the legal war-language we are used to after many years of Western drone strikes: justified as an act of ‘self-defence’, by the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.

There is a strong sense of déjà vu here. The national and international response to the Paris attacks has a close resemblance to another major terrorist attack: the September 11th attacks by AlQaeda. Paris, November 13th 2015.

New York, September 11th 2001.

Two key cities, in two major world powers, both subject to brutal and vicious terror attacks. Here again, was a key international power, a world leader in democracy and

liberty, subjected to a devastating loss of life by terrorist violence.

Here also, following the attack, were the calls to war from the President of the victim state.

President George Bush similarly declared that ‘enemies of freedom’, ‘terrorists’, had ‘committed an act of war’ against America. He went on to say that the Americans would fight the ‘war on terror’, and would not stop until ‘every terrorist group of global reach has been found’.

Bush justified the the eventual USled response to the threat of AlQaeda in Afghanistan under the NATO Charter, which noted that ‘an attack on one is an attack on all’.

It may not come as a surprise that the responses of two Western powers to a sudden terrorist attack use very similar rhetoric, nor that the response called for is the same – direct military action. However, we should hope that the western world has learned its lessons after the part-failures of Afghanistan and the later war in Iraq. While both campaigns were initially successful in their aims – to rid countries of extremist influences, and prevent further terrorist attacks at their source – both countries have been swiftly thrown into turmoil by resurgent extremism soon after US withdrawal. The post-war plans of the US were clearly not good enough, as the US left behind governments and security forces which were weak and ineffectual, ripe for the picking.

Following the complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in 2011, ISIS surged across the country, leaving forces of Iraqi troops many times its size in its wake, while in Afghanistan, the Taliban

has been making major advances, seizing its fifth-largest city, Kunduz, a major strategic hub, last month.

14 years on from 9/11, after which it was the US calling for western support to invade Afghanistan, perceived as the heart of Islamist extremism, France is currently rallying western support for the escalation of military action against ISIS in Syria. 14 years on from 9/11,

France, and indeed the many other countries involved in military action in Syria, must be wary of allowing similar events to occur following any such engagement in Syria.

Whatever actions the French, and indeed the UN take, they must ensure that when the war is over, an ISIS-free Syria can stand on its own against any extremist threat.

Before any further escalation of

the violence in Syria, plans must be made to ensure for post-war stability; a government resistant to extremist influence, and security forces capable of protecting themselves without recourse to external support. We must learn the lessons of previous chapters of the ‘war on terror’; we must not make the same mistakes this time.

Photo Credit: www.stratfor.com

28 | Tuesday 8 December, 2015

Fowl Play? Russia And Turkey Play Chicken Russia’s spat with Turkey puts a coherent response to the Syrian crisis at risk.

Capucine Cogné Undergraduate Student AFTER THE SHOOTING DOWN of a Russian Su-24 bomber by two Turkish F-16 jets on the 24th of November on the Syrian border, Moscow has imposed sanctions on Turkey.

On Thursday, during the annual state-of-the-nation address, Putin not only announced these sanctions, but also warned that Turkey will “more than once” regret shooting. Should Turkey be worried? What effect will these sanctions have on Turkey and the civil war? Which side is to blame?

The shooting of the jet has been claimed to be completely legitimate by the Turkish government, although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he wished the incident had not happened. Turkey has insisted that the jet was warned 10 times in 5 minutes that it was straying into its airspace. Meanwhile, Russia steadfastly maintains that the jet was shot down in Syrian air space. Although it is uncertain which country is lying, both seem determined to keep to their story.

Tom van Doorsslaere and Giovanni Lapenta have apparently found the answer: both sides are lying. These astrophysicists have supposedly proven this via physics analysis of the incident. Firstly, they have found (through the assessment of the speed and altitude of the plane) that rather than being in Turkish airspace for 17

seconds as Ankara has alleged, it was only there for 7.5 seconds.

Moreover, they have shown that Moscow’s distributed map of the jet’s flight path is wrong, owing to the 90 degrees angle it turned after being shot, which they say is impossible. However, these are still simply theories, as the scientists have yet to be peer reviewed. Ironically, both Russia and Turkey have published their findings in the media, but only those proving the other side is wrong! So who is to blame for the escalation of tensions?

“Regardless of which side was right, it seems that this conflict was inevitable.”

There is currently a lot of unease about Turkey’s actions within NATO and a sense that Turkey took it too far. It is understandable that after the 2012 shoot down of a Turkish military plane undertaking a radar system test in international airspace by Syrians (under Assad) has led to a stricter policy of aircraft coming from Syria, but was it reasonable of Turkey to shoot the jet down? After all, they would have known that this was a Russian jet, unlikely to cause much harm to Turkey.

In contrast, Turkey had previously warned the Russian ambassador this year to avoid future violation of Turkish airspace. This happened in

October after Russian planes “strayed” into Turkish airspace twice in one week, prompting Turkey to intercept the second flight. These actions were condemned by NATO, with the secretary general, Stoltenberg, being quoted by Reuters saying, “I will not speculate on the motives … but this does not look like an accident, and we have seen two of them”. In addition, even without previous warnings, this is a breach of international law, and although Russia has a tendency of doing so, countries should not get away with this easily, otherwise why have the laws?

Regardless of which side was right, it seems that this conflict was inevitable. Indeed, a RussoTurkish clash has been a longfeared crisis in Syria’s civil war.

Turkey first condemned Bashar al-Assad’s government over the violent crackdown on protests in 2011, requesting his departure from office. Since then, Turkey has trained Syrian rebels on its territory, with a group of them announcing the formation of the Free Syrian Army, under Turkish military intelligence supervision. Furthermore, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey provided this army with arms and other military equipment.

The country therefore holds a very antiAssad stance.

In contrast, Russia has from the very first and still steadfastly supports Bashar al-Assad. Russia has been an ally of Syria since 1956 and the country aligned itself with

the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. However, Russia’s main purpose for supporting Assad is resisting the West, making a political point against infringement on sovereignty.

Indeed Konstantin von Eggert, a political commentator in Moscow, has said that “sovereignty, to the Russian leadership, means an unlimited licence for governments to do as they please within their national borders”. Not only does the Russian leadership not want to back down under Western pressure, but they also want to put a stop the Western “regime changing “attempts. Of course, there are also other reasons behind Russia’s stance, like the defence of Tartus, Russia’s sole remaining naval base on the Mediterranean sea, and Putin’s wish to deflect attention from Ukraine, which seems so far to have been rather worryingly effective. Russian public support for the country’s involvement in Syria nonetheless remains low, with the bloody Soviet involvement in the Afghan war still in people’s memories.

These completely contradictory positions imply that the jet shoot down was a spark: the difference in the countries’ positions in the Syrian War and their proximity to and large involvement in the country meant that something was bound to happen and disruption of Russo-Turkish relations in some way, was unavoidable.

It is clear that an agreement has to be reached so that a

united front resists ISIL, but currently this seems remote, as Russia will not change its position on the matter. On the other hand, the West cannot support him, because of the widespread knowledge of the terrible breaches of human rights, from the repression of the freedom of peaceful assembly and violations of the freedom of information, to mass arrests, abductions, and acts of torture, under his rule.

Meanwhile, it has been estimated by rt.com that Turkey could lose $20 billion due to Russian sanctions. Although this is blatantly unreliable, considering we have no idea how long these will go on for and whether they will increase, these sanctions will clearly have a major impact on the economy of Turkey. Russia is a crucial source of tourism for Turkey and the ban on charter flights between the two countries and an end to Russian tour operators selling trips to Turkey will clearly affect the industry.

Moreover, the TurkStream project (designed to boost Russian gas exports to Turkey) talks have been halted, which will impact both countries as Turkey is the second biggest importer of Russian oil.

We shall soon see whether this will lead to more Russian sanctions or Turkish sanctions on Russia, but more importantly, whether this will have an effect on the efforts for world powers to find a solution to their conflicting interests and positions in Syria.

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey, Flickr

Keep On Spyin’ In The Free World

Features | 29

Surveillé, Securité, Inégalité : The new motto for our new Surveillance Societies.

Sam Earle Postgraduate Student WRITING IN 1928, ANDRE Breton expressed a fantasy to live in a glass house, ‘where you can always see who comes to call, where everything hanging from the ceiling and on the walls stays where it is as if by magic, where I sleep nights in a glass bed, under glass sheets.’ The idea of total transparency, of a world without privacy, will horrify many. But surely there is worse: to live in a world where some are forced to live in glass houses, while others, their enforcers, are free to continue their business behind closed curtains.

When the British government moves at once to introduce the so-called Snooper’s Charter, which will grant unprecedented access into the lives of its citizens, while also seeking to restrict the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), one of the few mechanisms available to those citizens for holding the government to account, that is the world they are creating.

New technologies have made an open, transparent democracy, in which all information can be readily accessible to all, a real possibility. But this potential is being applied unequally, and in the opposite direction. Whereas the surveillance systems against the public seem to grow in scope and sophistication with every passing law, those in power remain impervious to scrutiny.

The government is drawing its own curtains while tearing ours from their rails.

The FOIA was passed in 2000

by Tony Blair’s government.

Years later, echoing the sentiment of many other politicians, he called it ‘one of the biggest mistakes of his career’. This wasn’t because of its limited powers (ministers have a veto, for example, which has been used five times), but because, Blair said, it is ‘used as a weapon.’ A weapon against who, we might ask? This was the act which enabled the expenses scandal to be exposed, as well as many other important revelations. It is indeed a weapon, and, blunt as it might be, it is one of the few the public can wield against the state.

After similar denouncements from ministers, particularly following the stubborn release of Prince Charles’ letters, the government have now moved to limit the act, setting up a crossparty review committee. Leaving aside the shamelessly unbalanced make-up of its membership, the two key issues the committee will discuss are, first, whether the act is too expensive and, second, whether it is too intrusive.

Is it too expensive? A study in 2010 by UCL found that the Act costs £31m pounds per year to local governments. In austere times such as these, this may seem difficult to justify; but austerity is a matter of government policy. In any case, this amount is divided between more than 400 councils, who between them share total spending of over £170bn. For central government, meanwhile, it costs only £7.9m, which represents 0.0016% of its yearly expenditure. Not so difficult to justify.

Besides, none of these figures include in their calculation the potential savings achieved by the FOIA. For example, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which was set up in response to the expenses scandal, reported in 2013 that they have saved £35m by keeping tighter controls on parliamentary expenses.

But then there is the more interesting question: is it too intrusive? It is said that governments need a ‘safe space’ in which to develop policy. Jack Straw, who passed the Act as Home Secretary and is now against it (and, conveniently, sits on the review committee), has complained that FOIA forces governments to take important decisions by text message rather than in meetings, fearing that the minutes may be made public. He also says politicians worry that their ‘streams of consciousness’ could be released from their private secretaries’ notebooks.

Were it not for the irony, some might say hypocrisy, of this government earnestly questioning the need for such “invasiveness”, while also embarking on the most extensive invasion into the private lives of the public this country has ever seen, such concerns could be given some thought. As it is we are only left with the sour taste of double-standards.

Under the Snooper’s charter, the police will have access to all our online streams of consciousness, all our searches and emails, all our calls. Google, Apple and Facebook are required to keep year-long records, and to acquire the right to see them the police needn’t consult an independent watchdog or a member of the judiciary, or pass any effective safety check, they only need permission from a senior police official.

This is a worrying state of affairs. Though we should already know just how public and accessible the Internet is – it is, perhaps, the closest thing we have to Andre Breton’s fantasy of a glass house – it nevertheless manages to foster a strange sense of privacy and intimacy, so that we share online thoughts that previously we might have written in a diary or said to a close friend.

But when we combine the extent to which the internet is monitored with the extent to which we use the internet for thinking out loud, an Orwellian thought-police becomes frighteningly close.

Indeed, given what happened to the hapless Paul Chambers in

2011, Frankie Boyle’s recent joke, that we are all one typo away while asking Google how to make a bong from landing in jail, isn’t that farfetched. After his flight was delayed by snowfall, Mr Chambers joked on twitter that he would blow the airport sky high if they didn’t resume flights. The self-described ‘mildmannered man’ then found himself arrested by police under the Terrorist Act (who provided a printed out copy of his twitter page as evidence) and questioned for almost seven hours by detectives. He was released on bail, only to be suspended from his work pending an internal investigation. He was also banned for life from Doncaster airport. It was only over a year later, on the second appeal, that he was found innocent of any wrongdoing.

In this current climate, and especially in light of the Paris attacks, we are increasingly asked to sacrifice our rights of liberty and privacy for the sake of a vaguely defined security.

On the same basis, we are asked to accept the secrecy of government – if the information is accessible to the public, they say, it will be accessible to “the terrorists” as well. But not all the state’s secrets can be hidden beneath the amorphous cloak of security. Wikileaks currently has a $100,000 bounty on the release of a leak of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership documents – this is a matter of economic policy and, by essentially prohibiting anti-

corporation legislation, it will have profound effects on how our societies operate. Surely we should not have to bribe our way to such information.

What this says about our society is striking and unsettling; upon turning the handle, we find that the doors to our socalled ‘open’ democracy are firmly locked shut. Maybe this should come as no surprise.

Milan Kundera wrote over thirty years ago, long before the advent of these powers of mass surveillance, that as the affairs of a state become ever more opaque, it requires the lives of its citizens to become ever more transparent.

And yet why can we not say to the government what they say to us, and adopt that same tone of comforting condescension: you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.

Then again, maybe we would do better to accept our fate, to grow comfortable beneath the watchful gaze of government and learn to live in our glass houses. We could take on the new revolutionary slogan of our age, to shout from the rooftops, inscribe on our banners and etch in stone above the doors of our proud Parliament: Surveillé, Sécurité, Inégalité!

Interested in writing for Features? Email us at: features@thebeaveronline. co.uk

30

|Tuesday 8 December, 2015

The Beaver Presents:

The Carol Awards 2015

Best Dressed

Best Ensemble

Cutest Couple

Poorest Effort

Most Unnecessarily Current

Most Topical

Least Consistent Numbering (So many Thing 1s)

Worst Face Paint Disintigration

Least Imaginative (tennis as tennis, really?)

Sport | 31

Rowing On The Up: LSERC Repair Their Fortunes Harry Long LSE Rowing Club President THE END OF LAST YEAR WAS NOT great for LSERC. I sat in the boat house, talking to boat repair, finding out the majority of our boats wouldn’t be able to float come January. Yet it also preceded a big turnaround in the club.

Over the summer, the fleet was repaired and saw new lease of life. A new coach was hired, replacing one who turned up late and charged an eye watering amount for the privilege. The club was expanded. Last year there were, at least in name, a men’s and women’s senior and novice team, although by the end of that year it was one men’s and women’s team consisting of the people who hadn’t given up in the year.

Now, we have 6 full training and racing teams, 3 men’s and 3 women’s plus a specific team to cater for the novices as they learn how to row and race on the water and not forgetting, our alumni team. Also a non-existent training programme which resulted in some teams last year getting less than 10 outings, has been fully replaced and improved ensuring all teams (if weather and coxes permits!) get at least 2 outings per week.

It has not all been plain sailing and not all the problems have been resolved. We still lack coxes, arguably the most important single crew member (my head cox won’t let me live down saying that), so if you’re inter-

T H O S E I N T H E K N OW, those of higher understanding, those whose research shapes policy resulting in their nationwide reverence as established wisdom-holders in matters pertaining to fun, have all gone on record and said that on the first Friday of the month of December in the Year of Our Lord (or not, depending on issues that this article will probably never discuss), the Athletics Union at the London School of Economics and Political Science, won. Out of everything ever done ever by anyone ever, we won. At what? Let’s call

ested in shouting, motivating and getting a boat trip down the Thames, please do apply! We are also a small club compared to most other universities which means we can struggle providing all the resources needed to suit the growing demand for the club. Yet this does not mean our performance is less than that of the others...

The work has paid off, the number of members who row has sky rocketed, my captains have done an excellent job at taking the teams at the start of the year, training them, motivating them, and moulding them into a successful squad. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and on Saturday 28th November LSERC went up against other London universities in the UH Regatta. They performed amazingly, the 2nd men’s triumphed against St Mary’s and a UCL team (which included their president as a rower) to win their final. The 3rd men’s won their heat and semi-final by a landslide demolishing UCL’s 2nd and 3rd teams and came a close second in the final. Finally the 2nd women’s performed brilliantly only narrowly losing in their semi-final. All of this is summed up in more detail in our other article.

LSERC has already outperformed last year and hopefully we continue to do so as we enter 5 of our teams in the biggest cup of the winter on the 6th of December; the Allom Cup. Thankfully our boats also should now be able to float come January, which is a relief.

it a game we shall call, for want of a more simplistic name, ‘having a laugh’. A bloody Strong round, all.

Impossible is the task of anticipating the Carolian experience.

Such is the hype ingrained into the foundations of the day-long event, which, for those of you who don’t know, somehow, maybe because you’re not in the AU, or because you literally live under a rock which isn’t in central London, one can find oneself lulled into the oh-so-familiar trap of thinking the day can disappoint. It can’t, and it didn’t.

Allowing for differing intricacies, largely aligned with each club’s commitment to the fun upon which we touched earlier, teams began filling the void often known as the stomach, but here better understood by the newly-coined term ‘beer-bag’, between 7 and 10 am (as in the in the morning, not later on in the evening). After

various breakfasts take place in undisclosed locations around the Holborn area, with one institution on the Kingsway famed for being a particular favourite, the Comedy of Errors at the Three Tuns begins.

Entry was restricted to those who proved beyond doubt to the bouncers that they were appropriately three-sheets-to-the-wind, which was achieved by a widespread, genuine failure to recall one’s first name. True to Form, even the most controversial of footballers got in.

Entertainment in the Venue was, of course, in a manner so in line with the tradition of the event that it physically hurts, geared towards further intoxicating the sportiest alcoholics still alive since the death of George Best. Fines were dished out for a whole range of Bold and almost mind-Olltering recent incidents, one of which, alluded to at the beginning of this very sentence, the Beverage Report is

happy to confirm, ended with the victim hospitalised but very much Al-live.

Following this, a trip through Covent Garden ended with a reunion with that haven in Leicester Square who, it transpires, are as in love with fun as we are.

With the already hyper crowd of sportsmen confined now to a space both metaphorically and literally a Zoo, the bouncers were forced to split a Jollie drugpusher from a taxman looking to Levi some charge upon him.

And for the real troopers among us, there was even a post-script back at the Saucy Hock. A Cald individual Mollycoddled a Netballer and a famous British Cold War Conservative looked like he needed care.

A fantastic day, delivered with aplomb. Merry Christmas, and until 2016.

The Beverage Report has tracked your ups and downs this term, however at times material has been lacking. Send in your tips to zoobar@thebeaveronline.co.uk Until next year

VISIT US AT BEAVERONLINE.CO.UK OR TWEET @BEAVERONLINE

Triathlon: Because One Sport Isn’t Enough Emma Achurch 1st Year Undergraduate

WHAT EVENT WOULD YOU choose if you had the choice? You could choose swimming, but if you did that then it would be a life of your ears filled with water and constantly wet hair - which probably isn’t the best idea on cold winter days. Or what about cycling? But wait, where on earth would you cycle in the centre of London without having a great towering red bus looming over your head and drivers pulling out in front of you left, right and centre? Suddenly running seems like the best option, but everyone knows that you pretty much tread on a pigeon or squirrel every time you even attempt to move in one of the Royal Parks.

Yet why should you have to choose?

Why not do all of them? And that, my friends, is exactly what happens when you join the triathlon team here at LSE. Don’t let those initial descriptions put you off !! Because even the seemingly most abysmal of situations, including the length of the endurance race that is Triathlon, can suddenly be viewed as fun when you experience them with the best group of people going! Week one in my first year at LSE started with rooftop cycling and breakfast at the give it a go. The term began with an early morning start to cycle on one of the LSE’s splendid rooftops away from the traffic with an amazing view over London as we watched the sunrise. Followed by the not so healthy but much needed before a day of studying breakfast and also a great way to meet other members of the team post-workout.

As the term has continued we’ve have built confidence on London roads with special sessions in bike-ability with instructors from TFL. This type of training has negotiated problems you may initially assume come with riding in London. I’ve found, through this, and our competency training simply cycling round Lincolns Inn it’s surprisingly easier to train than what I first thought.

The ability to train every week is helped immensely by the great bicycles which we have at our disposal. This is with many thanks to LSE Annual Fund. We don’t just go out on the road, you’ll be glad to hear and offer alternative cycle training use the stationary turbos combined with running around Lincoln’s Inn Fields first thing on a Thursday morning. This is so that it takes an interval training style format with short spurts on the bike followed by a run, with this being repeated a couple of times. It’s a great way to start your day and leaves you feeling energised, refreshed and ready to tackle whatever any class or lecture has to throw at you!

As we move into the winter months, the team will be moving into indoor spinning sessions,

Sport

Section Editor: Alex Dugan Deputy Editor: India Steele

which will be perfect for when the paths and roads are too icy to train on or the typical London rain hampers even your best training ambitions.

As I said though, our training is not just about one sport… we have some pretty keen and fast runners in the triathlon club, however every session is really inclusive and noone is made to feel left out. Quite a lot of the time we join up with Athletics and Running for our sessions, which include longer runs of 1015km but also some shorter, track based sessions if that takes your fancy instead. Recently, quite a few of us have been attending the Tuesday night run hosted by a group called the ‘Midnight Runners’ who run along the River Thames with music blasting. If you haven’t heard of them then definitely check out their Facebook page, where you’ll find lots of pictures of our team doing an array of weird and wacky exercises in-between the short but fast-paced river-side runs. By joining a wider London group it has given our team a great opportunity to make friends and connections in the wider London community.

This even led to our captain and team member Ben joining many other Londoners running 50km and 120km respectively as part of a midnight-2-midnight run helping raise £10,000 for Syrian refugees.

All this however, is not without forgetting swimming! Using our Annual Fund wetsuits, the triathlon team have already braved water as cold as 12 degrees at Kings Cross Ponds including the obligatory post work out social coffee to warm back up! As the winter months

close in we’ve recently placed indoor swimming onto our already jam-packed training schedule at a leisure centre near the Barbican, many hours after the sun has gone down. Everyone turns up after a long days work, but suddenly all of your stresses and worries about essay and reading deadlines disappear into insignificance as soon as you hit the water. Allie, our triathlon captain, previously a national level swimmer, has been showing us the ropes in terms of technique over the past few weeks. Our hope is that one day we’ll be as quick as her, but you never know, maybe with our external coaches coming in next term some of us could get pretty close!

As it starts to get chillier, I think you would agree, it would seem very silly to go for another dip in open water however exhilarating the experience can make you feel!

Instead, winter is the season of the duathlon, and if you haven’t heard of that event before then again, you really are missing out!

Instead of swimming, the event consists of just the cycle and run spread out over three gruelling yet enjoyable legs. Back in October we took both a male and female team to the Olympic Park to complete in a team sprint duathlon, which everyone agreed was alot of fun. Despite only having a limited amount of training under our belts, everyone who competed did fantastically well on what was a rather challenging, undulating course. Each competitor started off with a 2 mile run, followed by a 6 mile cycle, finishing off with a final 1 mile run, before handing the baton (which

was a timing chip) over to the next team member. After a spectacular performance the LSE women’s team came home with a bronze medal, and the stand-out male performance came from post-graduate executive masters student Ben Marshall, who crossed the line in a time of 39.04. After this event and post-race coffee of course everyone couldn’t wait for another slice of competitive action, which came in the form of the British University Championships Duathlon which was held at Castle Coombe Race Circuit on 22nd November, 2015.

The triathlon team is a great club to be a member of, as it welcomes those who are both beginners and are experienced competitors and both genders train together giving it a fantastic dynamic. ! Sessions are held nearly every day of the week and if, like me, you enjoy doing a bit of everything, then this event is most definitely for you. You can attend as many or as few sessions as you would like, and at each session I guarantee that you will be met by a smile and a friendly face. The team consists of every part of the LSE student body from undergraduates, post grads, general course and even executive masters students!

Our training is suited to give all people a chance to be able to take part and if joining seems like something that you would be interested in doing then drop our committee a message using the email lsesutriathlon@gmail.com or follow us on our social media accounts Instagram: lsesu_triathlon and Twitter: lsesu_triathlon to keep up to date with all that we do.