Freshers edition by The Beaver

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Beaver

FREE Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Thursday October 03 2013 | www.thebeaveronline.com | No. 792

Seminars of 70 could be introduced at LSE MOSMI

LSESU 19th worst for satisfaction Ben Scrivens

THE LSE Students’ Union has been rated the 19th worst University Students’ Union according to data from the National Student Survey. Satisfaction with the LSESU by students stands at 56 per cent, three points lower than last year. In contrast the LSE itself has achieved a rating of 88 per cent, an increase of 3 per cent.

Jay Stoll “we will be in a much better place in 12 months’ time”

A recent draft LSE report recommends giving considerable discretion to departments on a wide range of areas regarding teaching and assessment

Chris Rogers

Seminars (classes led by lecturers), with student numbers as high as 70 may be introduced under plans unveiled by a draft LSE report. The draft report, which has not yet been finalised, has been compiled by the LSE’s Teaching Task Force, headed by Paul Kelly, the Pro Director of Teaching and Learning, and contains the school’s strategic plan for the future of education at the School. The purpose of the Task Force is to improve teaching and allow improvements to come from within the system, rather than be implemented in

a top-down way. Amongst a range of proposals, the report recommends granting considerable discretion to departments across the School regarding all areas of teaching and assessment, raising concerns from the Students’ Union that changes will occur to examination marking, assessment type, the structure of academic terms and class sizes. At the moment there are a number of central controls on all courses offered at the LSE. However one of the key recommendations of this report is the removal of many of these centrally imposed restrictions and granting greater autonomy to

departments. The report also recommends the introduction of seminars, taught by lecturers as opposed to Graduate Teaching Assistants. These seminars would not face the current cap of 15 students per class, and the SU worries these may become classes in all but name. Though the lifting of the class size cap would only affect classes taught by full time faculty, and not current GTA taught classes, changes being made to the funding model for PhD students may affect the number of GTAs available to teach, causing the SU to voice concerns that any increase in faculty led classes may not be solely in the interest of teaching

innovation but also to rectify a potential deficit in teaching staff. Professor Paul Kelly said, “there is no plan to increase class sizes for Undergraduate classes taught by GTAs. That is made very clear in the report. The USSC and GSSC will still need to improve variation in the size of GTA led classes.” “Seminars are not actually covered by the class size restriction - so technically this does not need to go to the board and neither is it a change. Departments already have this discretion and there is no regulation that teaching must be confined to lectures and classes only,” he said. Continued on page 5, col 1

This means the LSESU has been rated the worst Students’ Union in London based on the satisfaction of its students, with the services it provides. UCL and KCL’s Students’ Unions have both received ratings of 68 per cent, whilst Imperial College London’s SU scored the highest of any London university with a score of 76 per cent. The low score is likely due to the diffuse nature of student activities at LSE, where most events are organised by clubs and societies rather than the Students’ Union itself and most students do not need to rely on, or interact with the welfare services that the Union offers during their time at the LSE. Continued on page 3, col 3

IN THE NEWS NUS Conference

ULU Abolished

Zero Hour Contracts

Alumna Twitter Threat

Kanazowa responds

Students reach final

The NUS Conference this summer proved controversial voting down motions, such as support for EMA.

The University of London Union is set to lose funding in the summer of 2014, after a decision by UoL.

Hannah Richmond has announced that Zero Hour Contracts are going to continue at the LSESU.

LSE alumna Criado-Perez has faced a slew of rape threats via Twitter and has closed her account.

A professor received international attention for his work linking intelligence and motherhood.

A team of six students from the LSE advanced to the Hult Prize Finals with an idea to solve world hunger

NEWS page 2

NEWS page 4

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NEWS page 3

Thursday October 03 2013

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News

London Union of Students to replace ULU MATTHEW BLACK

Rayhan Uddin

Sabbatical officers from across London came together this summer to establish the London Union of Students (LUS) and discuss the future of pan-London Students’ Unionism. This comes after the University of London announced that it would be closing ULU, the existing pan London union, in July 2014 and transforming its building on Malet street into a management run student services centre. Though the exact relationship between ULU and the new LUS is yet to be established, it seems likely that LUS will be seen as the successor to ULU, and will attempt to take over the building on Malet Street. In what has been dubbed a ‘ULU Super Senate Meeting’, Students’ Union officers from both ULU constituent colleges and non-constituent colleges sat through over two hours of motions, amendments and executive decisions. One of the most contentious areas to be discussed was how

ULU Building on Malet Street is likely to be turned in to a Student Services Centre

this new Students’ Union would be funded. Currently constituent universities and colleges pay an affiliation fee to be part of ULU. That fee for LSE stands at £68,000. This is in contrast to the £36,000 LSE pays to be affiliated with NUS, which is likely to go down to £30,000 as the university plans to sell off its shares in NUS Services Ltd. MATT DINNERY

Controvertial NUS summer conference Chris Rogers

The Summer NUS Conference has been described as controversial and right wing as numerous motions were voted down. Motions such as mobilising for another national demonstration, and campaigning to restore EMA were defeated, as was a motion requiring gender quotas for positions on the NUS executive. A motion sponsored by the London School of Economics SU’ delegates, for funding to be brought forward to help Students’ Unions develop the UGM model of governance used by the LSE, was defeated. The motion was criticised as the weekly UGM at LSE had been relegated to the side lines this year due to lack of attendance. The conference also saw Peter Smallwood, a self confessed Conservative, top the election to the block of 15, the executive body of the NUS, re-enforcing the image of a right wing conference. This conference also saw the election of Toni Pearse (Labour), 23, to the presidency of the NUS. This means the NUS is now lead by someone who has never been to university and also makes Pearce the first leader of the NUS not to have a degree qualification. However the head of the

LSESU Conservative society Chris Huln said, “if the left consider a Labour dominated conference right wing, lord knows what they’d say if the Tories ever actually took control and implemented policies.” The election for president was also contested by “the inanimate carbon rod” based on a character from from the Simpsons (a campaign run Sam Gaus from UCL) which received considerable publicity as an attempt to highlight how out of touch the NUS was seen to be by some of its members, focusing on the demonstration last year, which ended with Liam Burns, NUS President at the time, being pelted with eggs. Sam Gaus withdrew from the race after making a humorous speech about how the NUS needed to be more relevant. Pearce won election to the presidency of the NUS on the first ballot, with 424 of the 732 votes cast at its conference by delegates. Pearce has spent the previous year as a Vice President of the NUS for Further Education and the year before that as a Sabbatical rep for her Further Education College. The conference also saw controversy emerge when the death of Margaret Thatcher was announced on stage and reports emerged that the news received cheers from sections of the audience.

The precise details of funding have been given to a working group, elected in the meeting, which will report back later in the year. In a statement, LSESU General Secretary Jay Stoll said that “whilst new democratic structures may well be being debated in a room of around 30 London officers, we absolutely promise that any LSE SU

affiliation to such a new structure will be voted on by you, and only you.” He went on to say, “At a time where LSE SU is so excited about major growth in its infrastructure, we don’t believe that such a sizeable sum of resources should be automatically transferred off-campus without the say of our members.” A referendum on the issue is likely to occur in Michaelmas Term, though an official date is yet to be confirmed, it is likely to coincide with Michaelmas term elections. There is concern with any referendum, as to pass a turnout of around 1600 students would be required which is only realistically achievable during the Lent term elections. In April 2013, The Beaver asked students in a poll ‘Should the LSE Students’ Union disassociate from ULU?’. 62% replied Yes, 27% replied No, while 11% replied ‘What is the ULU?’. Whether such percentages indicate LSE students’ willingness to affiliate with a future pan London student union, remains to be seen.

Feminist alumna faces Twitter rape threats Rachel Chua

Following a successful campaign to have a key female figure represented on banknotes, feminist activist and LSE alumna Caroline Criado-Perez has faced a slew of rape threats via Twitter. The threats, which were coordinated and systematic, started almost immediately after the successful bid and subsequent announcement on July 24th. According to Criado-Perez, the series of threats continued for nearly 48 hours, and at its peak, she received “up to 50 rape threats an hour” on Twitter. The tweets, many of which were extremely graphic and vulgar in nature, include ones such as: “Everyone jump on the rape train, @CCriadoPerez is the conductor” and “This Perez one just needs a good smashing up in her arse and she’ll be fine.” Labour MP Stella Creasy, who has vocally supported Criado-Perez, has also come under threat. In an interview with Huffington Post UK, Criado-Perez expressed shock and dismay over the vociferous tweets. “For me, the really shocking thing is how this happened over such a tiny, tiny thing. We asked for there to be a woman on a bank note, how does asking that even annoy someone? Annoy someone so much they send a barrage of rape threats? It’s kinda gobsmacking.” Criado-Perez has since filed a report with the police after attempts to report the abuse to Twitter moderators proved unhelpful. “When you are drowning in rape threats, when they are coming in every second, it’s just

not practical to report in this way”, Criado-Perez tweeted of Twitter’s cumbersome abuse report process. LSE’s Director Craig Calhoun has tweeted his outrage and condemnation of threats. His tweets read: “Shocking to see the abuse of Caroline Criado-Perez over women on banknotes” and “Rape threats on Twitter won’t get women to shut up. If we shout back we’ll win”. Prominent personalities on

Uni News

International Students hit by rising fees. KCL’s tuition income jumped by 15% in 2011/12, which was largely due to more international students paying higher fees. Clinical-based degrees are the most expensive for international students, which is one of nine British universities to charge over £30,000 per year for the programme.

UCL Provost’s leaving party costs nearly £18k Moustache shaped cookies, an ABBA tribute band, and t-shirts with a ‘70s look-alike of Sir Malcolm Grant were provided for the UCL Provost’s leaving party, costing a total of £17,898.

Queen Mary exercise degree awarding powers From the 1st August 2013 Queen Mary will be exercising it’s degree awarding powers. This means that on graduation day students’ degrees will be awarded in the name of Queen Mary. Although Queen Mary has possessed these powers for a few years it is not until now that they are exercising them.

CAROLINE CRIADO-PEREZ

Twitter have rallied in defense of Criado-Perez, including former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott and comedian, Dara Ó Briain. The threats also lead journalist Caitlin Moran to call for a boycott of the social media site on August 4th, International Friendship Day. Twitter has come under much fire for failing to have proper safeguards against abuse. A petition for Twitter to do more to prevent abuse, started after Kim Graham of Norfolk saw the abuse Criado-Perez received, has garnered more than 140,000 signatures to date. As of July 29th, the Scotland Yard has arrested a 21-year-old man under suspicion of harassment offences. See Opinion page 9

UCL Students Need Sunlight

Don’t

A leading architectural magazine has listed UCL’s new Caledonian Road student accommodation as one of the worst new buildings to be completed in the UK this year. New Hall, which is estimated to have cost £18m to build, is one of six nominees in the Building Design Carbuncle Cup, a naming and shaming of bad architecture.

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Thursday October 03 2013

News SOKOTEXT

LSE students reached Hult Prize Finals Sophie Donszelmann

The chance to win one million dollars: a team of six LSE students advanced to the Hult Prize Finals for the opportunity to develop their social enterprise to solve one of society’s most pressing problems. Recognized as a “start-up accelerator for social entrepreneurship” the Hult Prize Competition challenges teams of MBA and university students to, as the competition founder Ahmad Ashkar explains, “do good while doing well.” Based on the premise that “hunger is the world’s most solvable challenge” the theme of the 2013 competition was this crisis. Enough food is produced to feed the world’s population yet a third of annual food production is wasted. This year’s competition was led in coordination with the Clinton Global Initiative. Faced with a pool of over 11,000 total applicants “Team LSE” (as it was dubbed by the Huffington Post Blog) was selected as one of the six global finalists after they won the online regional final. As a finalist, the team was invited to attend a six-week entrepreneurship seminar and prepared a pitch to be delivered at the global summit. Other finalists included the social enterprise “Reel Gardening” from the University of Cape Town which tackled global hunger by developing easily planted paper strips embedded with seeds and nutrients. “Origin” from the ESADE Business School in India sought to widen market access for small scale produce vendors. Team LSE developed “Sokotext” as their answer to solve the global food crisis. The team was led by CEO Jonah Brotman, an award-winning serial social entrepreneur, together with Verena Liedgens, Suraj Gudka, Sofia Zab, and Carolina Medina. The project endeavours to develop a mobile technology network which allows vendors in less economically developed countries to pool their orders to benefit from wholesale prices. The project is aimed at small-

scale vegetable sellers and kiosk owners who are the gatekeepers and key players of food accessibility in urban slums. Yet a lack of capital means that they cannot afford to buy in bulk and pay to travel long distances to markets every day to buy just enough stock that will help them get by. Sokotext is described as a “mobile, micro-franchised food logistics management system,” that facilitates payments with mobile money networks such as M-pesa. This reduces the prices of transportation and food while saving time and building a network of vendors“doing good while doing well” to increase the purchasing power of the poor. The aim is that with SokoText, they can boost their business while becoming the key agents that empower people living in the slums to eat better and healthier. This summer, team members visited the Mabatini, Mathare Valley Slum in Nairobi where they piloted their system. On September 23rd , the final six teams traveled to New York City where their ideas were presented and a winner was selected. The jury included executives from the United Nations Foundation, World Food Program and founders of other social enterprises such as Solar Aid and Grameen Bank. During the night, jury panelist Yves Behar, praised the Sokotext presentation for having the “slickest” design. Five MBA students from the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University were awarded the title of the “Hult Prize Global Champion.” Aspire Foods, which targets the production and promotion of insect microlivestock as a sustainable and nutritious food source, was recognized as the best solution to solve global hunger and received the million dollars to further actualize their venture. Despite not taking the prize, Sokotext will continue to strive to improve the lives of many. More information regarding the Sokotext social enterprise and the team behind it can be found at www.sokotext.com

A broken and irrelevant survey Continued from page 1 Jay Stoll, General Secretary of the LSESU, said, “the NSS results, for all their methodological shortcomings, have to be taken seriously as a indicator of students’ sentiment towards the School and the Students’ Union.” “Whilst there is clearly no quick fix to what is currently an underwhelming perception of the SU, our strategy for the year fills

me with confidence that we will be in a much better place in 12 months’ time,” Jay Stoll said. The LSESU can take consolation in that Oxford, and Cambridge ranked the worst and 3rd worst, with ratings of 35 per cent, and 46 per cent respectively. The question, only added to the survey for the second time this year, and the survey itself has been criticized by some Students’ Unions as a waste of time

and irrelevant to the university experience. A common criticism is that due to its optional nature only those who are aggrivated or wish to complain about the Union fill out the survey. However the results from the NSS are used in calculating the University rankings on many league tables such as in the Guardian. 1310 students form the LSE completed the NSS Survey.

Kanazowa rejects ‘made up’ coverage Sophie Donszelmann

A STATEMENT released by an LSE professor suggesting a negative correlation between intelligence and parenthood among women received international attention this summer. Articles and opinion pieces in major newspapers ran headlines, such as “Too Clever to be a Mother?” and “Non-Maternal Urges Linked To Higher IQ In Controversial Study,” brought the material, its author, and the university international scrutiny. The research came from Dr. Kanazawa, a reader in Management who focuses on evolutionary psychology. Articles concluded from Dr. Kanazawa’s research that “a woman’s urge to have children decreases by a quarter for every 15 extra IQ points.” This argument is furthered in Kanazawa’s book The Intelligence Paradox in a chapter entitled “Why Intelligent People Are the Ultimate Losers in Life.” Dr. Kanazawa expounded his view that “humans are not decisively designed for voluntary childlessness,” and “reproductive success is the ultimate end of all biological existence,” thus

presenting a paradox: successful, childless women seem to be biologically unsuccessful. In a statement to the Beaver, Dr. Kanazawa said, “You should note that, just like everything else British newspapers write about, the recent “coverage” is entirely made up. The “cov-

erage” was based on an email message that I sent a journalist friend of mine more than a year ago, describing a quick data analysis that I conducted at her request, showing that there is a negative correlation between intelligence and parenthood

among women, but not among men. The Guardian and the other newspapers made up the rest. I don’t think The Beaver should sink to the level of The Guardian. There is no “study” that I published that everyone seems to think there is, and I’ve never written about “maternal urges.” I don’t study something that I cannot measure.” This is not the first time that Kanazawa’s research has reached international headlines. In 2011, Dr. Kanazawa published a blog post in Psychology Today , starting, what many regarded, as a “race row.” His statement that “black women are less physically attractive” prompted several letters of complaint and an internal investigation launched by the school’s administration. The result of this disciplinary hearing concluded that “some of the arguments used in the publication were flawed ... and that Dr Kanazawa did not give due consideration to his approach or audience.” Dr. Kanazawa does not seem to shy away from conflict as his personal page on the LSE website states: “If what I say offends you, it is your problem. Prepare to be offended.”

You are invited to the

Chaplain’s Newcomers Tea 3pm-4.30pm Friday 4th October Chaplaincy (ground floor, 20 Kingsway) Drop in for a cup of tea and a cake and introduce yourself to the Chaplain. All are welcome whether you are a Christian interested in Chaplaincy activities, a member of another faith interested in the work of the Interfaith Forum, or a member of no faith who’s just curious to meet a real life vicar.

2013

Thursday October 03 2013

News ALAN CLEAVER

Beaver

LSE is ranked fifth worst university for crime in UK Arisa Mai

LSE has been rated as one of the universities most affected by crime in the UK

the

LSE WAS RANKED number five in a list of universities most likely to be affected by crime, published by the Complete University Guide 2013. From May 2012 to April this year, www.police.uk compiled data which correlated “burglary, robbery and violent crime”

and population density falling within three miles of the main campus, in England and Wales. Comparable data for Scotland and Northern Ireland is not available. The survey used data based on reported incidents rather than using data from students themselves. The website, launched two years ago by the Home Office, defines violent crime as includ-

ing “offences against the person such as common assaults, grievous bodily harm and sexual offences.” London universities ranked highest in the survey due to the high level crime zones found in Central London, and were ranked separately. The university which was most prone to crime in London was King’s College London, just across the Strand, followed by London South Bank University, Pearson College, City University, and the LSE. However, in contrast, the list ranked Kingston and St. Mary’s as the universities in London least prone to crime. The results of the crime survey don’t come as a surprise to many students on the LSE Campus.

“Doing work in the School café is not as safe as one would have expected school grounds to be,” said a BSc Accounting and Finance student who wished to remain anonymous. “I have experienced a person coming in to ask for directions and stole my phone away.” Other students did not feel unsafe, regardless of the open campus. Third Year BSc International Relations student Kiatisak Watcharapruk said, “a lot of times theft could be avoided by precautions taken by the students themselves.” The LSE Security control room, open 24 hours, can be reached on 020 7955 6200. Crimes or suspicious behaviour can also be reported in person to the security desk at Old Building on Houghton Street.

Sabbs start Orientation

CHRIS ROGERS

LSESU Sabbatical officers started a series of events as a trial run for Freshers’. Events were targeted at students who have arrived early at the university and included a pizza party and a tea party, designed for students to socialise and meet one another before the term begins.

LSESU Zero Hour Contracts to stay Chris Rogers

THE LSE STUDENTS’ UNION has stated that they have no plans to limit or remove Zero Hour contracts for students working within the SU for the foreseeable future. Zero Hour contracts are work contracts with no fixed hours of work, which means a student cannot be sure for how many hours they will be working each week, which leaves them uncertain how much they will be taking home that week. This raises issues of job and income insecurity, as workers are unsure whether they will receive regular pay. Zero Hours and the accusations of exploitation have risen to prominence recently as the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, pledged to crack down on the exploitative use of zero-hour contracts if his party wins the next election. Numerous other Students’ Unions have taken action

against Zero Hour contracts. King’s College London’s Students’ Union moved to offer all their workers the opportunity to switch to set contracts, or remain on Zero Hour contracts. However Jay Stoll, the General Secretary of the LSESU has said that there are no plans to remove the Zero Hours contracts currently used in the Students’ Union. Hannah Richmond, the Activities and Development officer said, “From my own experience working on a zero hour contract, within the Students’ Union, they have to be seen as beneficial as they allow students to mould their working commitments to their academic life.” Answering the criticism that this may leave students with irregular income Hannah Richmond said, “The debate needs to placed in the broader context whereby such flexibility can often leave people without pay and this is obviously not correct, but within the SU it works”.

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Thursday October 03 2013

News

LSE’s summer of Public Lectures Chris Rogers

THE LSE HOSTED world class academics and famous politicians in a summer of packed events. Leading academics such as Professor David Webb (Head of the Department of Finance at LSE) addressed audiences about the financial crisis and what policy makers can do to prevent stagflation. Politicians addressed the meaning of the term One Nation and which party owned the title, as Education Secretary Michael Gove debated with Lord Glasman. LSE Director Craig Calhoun led a number of public lectures, such as investigating the social movements that have occurred with in the US from the revolution to the election of Barrack Obama. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was scheduled to talk about the future of London, but this event was cancelled due to a Cobra meeting. LSE’s public lectures are one of the major draws of the university, with world experts lecturing on contemporary issues, and de-

bating points of contention from the political to the philosophical. LSE has recently released their upcoming programme of events for Michaelmas Term, featuring topics from developing a UK constitution to debating the meaning of existence. The upcoming events also come after LSE Events agreed to commit to equality and diversity goals after a campaign entitled “we are LSE” was launched to encourage more women and speakers from minority backgrounds. However, while the LSE does not teach arts or music, the LSE hosts weekly Thursday lunchtime free music concerts in the Shaw Library and an LSE orchestra and choir with their own professional conductors. The School also hosts the LSE Literary Festival and artist-inresidence projects. Events are generally free and open to all. LSE students have an advantage in gaining access to the occasional ticketed events, as a number are allocated for students to collect in the SU shop in the New Academic Building.

NIGEL STEAD

Famous LSE Guests: LSE has hosted numerous world leaders, leading academics and politicans. Pictured are Micahel Gove, the Secretary of State for Education (above), Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London (far left) and Former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton (left)

Top picks for Freshers’ Tuesday 1st October What has the European Convention on Human Rights ever done for us? Martin Howe QC, Professor Philip Leach, Caroline Lucas MP, Emily Thornberry MP, Professor Alan Sked Wednesday 2nd October The 2014 European Elections: why this time will be different Doru Frantescu, Professor Simon Hix, Mats Persson

NIGEL STEAD

Monday 7th October A Most Masculine State: gender, politics and religion in Saudi Arabia Madawi Al-Rasheed

Tuesday 8th October The Nature of Existence Professor Tim Crane

For more public lectures see lse events at lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/eventsHome. aspx

Changes threaten to worsen teaching disparity

Continued from page 1 Additionally, there presently exists considerable disparity between department’s teaching quality, with some subjects, such as philosophy ranking as the best in the country, according to the Guardian, and others, such as Sociology, ranking in the twenties. The proposed changes have been justified by the senior management of the School with claims that they will allow courses to tailor their programmes more easily to the needs of their students and will allow teachers to innovate and to experiment with new ideas and teaching methods. The criticism has been raised that enhanced discretion will only further the educational

disparity in terms of quality of teaching between departments, and many Undergraduate and Postgraduate students have said that one of their main issues with LSE is the perceived disparity between departments in terms of student experience and structure of education. Rosie Coleman, LSESU’s Education Officer said, “I believe that the report sets a dangerous precedent increasing departmental inconsistency and a drop in standards for students. It is additionally concerning that the TTF2 report fails to outline substantial safeguards or quality assurance mechanisms which would be necessary were this recommendation to pass at Academic Board later this

term”. Kelly responded, “Safeguards are the prerogative of the ASC and APRC and will be finalised at the APRC and ASC meetings including the reintroduction of full reviews and enhanced annual monitoring from 2013/4 following the reorganisation of the ABs teaching committees.” “To write a report that simply covered protections against perfidious departments as opposed to seeking modest changes that will enhance and improve aspects of the student learning experience would have set the wrong tone completely,” he said. The Economics department has already been allowed to increase class sizes on four

courses this 2013-14 academic year, obtaining permission from the Undergraduate Studies Subcommittee, which the SU does not have a seat on. EC201, EC220, EC210, EC307 will face classes of 25 this year, up from 14 last year. However a full time faculty member will teach those classes. Departments have also explicitly informed the SU that faculty led classes of 70 would be possible from 2014 onwards. Whilst 2014 may be used as a trial run in certain departments, with a view to being rolled out across all departments the year after, even this means that first year undergraduate students could see lecturer led classes as large as 70 when they be-

gin their final year of study, as well as departmental choice on marking types, assessment modes and even term structures. The proposals in the report are set to be voted on in the Academic Board later this term. The Academic Board consists of over 100 academics and senior school officials and is the senior body in charge of academic affairs at the LSE. The LSESU has only six representatives and the views of the LSESU are likely to be ignored should the report be put to a vote, as in 2013 when the board voted overwhelmingly to raise fees to £9000 despite all LSESU representatives voting against the proposal.

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Thursday October 03 2013

Opinion

LSE has ignored its students’ views LSESU’s education representatives respond to the Teaching Task Force’s report Nona Buckley-Irvine and Rosie Coleman

Last year, the Academic Board voted to support the review of teaching policy in the form of the ‘Teaching Task Force II’. The previous TTF 1 had seen the capping of class sizes at fifteen, and the introduction of LSE100 as two of its main initiatives. Following the meeting, the Teaching Task Force was formed – a committee of just over ten academics and two student representatives. Key areas were agreed to be prioritised. Teaching excellence. Assessment and the organisation of the school year. Feedback and how to engage students, and the graduate offer, and how to deliver a high quality postgraduate offer. On teaching excellence, the Student’s Union fought to keep class sizes of fifteen. Kelly encouraged the idea of faculty led seminars – not quite a lecture, and not quite a class. The seminars would not be capped at fifteen to a seminar, instead they would be greater class sizes to accommodate the opportunity of learning from a world-class expert. What we argued was that these should not be a replacement of classes. We argued that the granting of seminars should be treated with careful consideration to not undermine the existing classes, which permit greater interaction with teachers.

On assessment, Kelly, leading the discussion, proposed that half modules should be more widely accessible to students and there should be more flexibility within departments to design and teach half modules. We again argued that this should be treated carefully because of the workload that the typical LSE student faces already throughout the year. Kelly was also keen to change the structure of the school year. We agreed that the current format is not sufficient: LSE students pay for thirty weeks teaching, and receive twenty. Increasing the length of term time and introducing semesters was discussed. Semesters mean longer terms, and we argued that there should

“the report mirrors the broader agenda of parts of Senior Management” be a standard reading week across all departments to allow students some time to breathe and catch up. Many disapproved of this idea. On feedback, we fought to try and introduce a standardised system where students should expect written comments. Such proposals were met with a lot of resistance from academics, who said that time constraints meant that they could not provide such feedback. Some academics also said that formative assessment throughout the year should not necessarily be indicative

VANDY CFT

LSE teaching is set to be completely restructured under plans proposed by the new report

of a final grade, whereas we argued that it should grant some indication of what level the student is performing at. When a student consistently achieves high 2:1s throughout the year, it is frustrating if they then replicate that work in an exam and achieve a lower grade, with no grounds to appeal, or in many cases to even get exam feedback. Of course, everyone has off days. But from speaking to students, there have been many who have been shocked by their grades, which have been a complete mis-match with their performance throughout the year. Overall, we argued that it is not right that International History delivers stellar feedback to its students, while other departments fail its students in writing ‘very good’ on an essay, and nothing more. We argued for a more cohesive teaching policy that provided a gold standard for teaching rather than a

minimum. However, now with the publication of the report it appears that many of the student views put forward on the panel have been ignored. The section of the report about feedback is lacking in both quality and quantity. Furthermore the report lays a disproportionate amount of emphasis on departmental discretion, and makes claims about students’ views that are almost entirely unfounded. Not only do these claims not reflect the thoughts of the student representatives on the panel itself, but the Task Force has made minimal effort to consult the student body more broadly on the suggestions, pushing the paper through the summer months where many students are either off campus or extremely busy writing masters dissertations. The Students’ Union has not been given ample time to

consult students thus far and the school has made little effort to consult themselves. Following much debate we have successfully obtained a delay on the part of the TTFII, requesting that the report be reviewed, students consulted and so the paper will not be presented December, rather than the original. This seems to me to be the minimum the school should be doing. The report acknowledges that ‘norm and exception’ is confusing to both students and staff, but then goes on to assert that departments adopting practices distinct from the norm should be “celebrated” and encouraged. However, students have said that one of their main issues with LSE is the perceived disparity between departments in terms of student experience and structure of education. Had the school consulted students widely before making these proposals it would also be aware of the potential backlash. The Students’ Union are displeased with the outcomes of the report, believing that it is not fully representative of the discussions that were had. Rather the report mirrors the broader agenda of parts of Senior Management and not the concerns of the students. Many parts of the academic community have either been explicitly told of the opportunity for increased autonomy via various 1-2-1 meetings throughout the summer, or informally via general discussion. Students on the other hand have been almost entirely unaware of these proposals.

Do you have a strong opinion about what the SU should be doing? Disagree with something someone has written? Think the school is being unfair? Drop us an email at Comment@thebeaveronline.com The comment section carries articles on every topic that may be of interest to LSE students, and carries articles written by alumni, current students and even members of staff.

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Thursday October 03 2012

Opinion

Should the LSE go Private? No Yes Ben Rogers

Privatisation of any institution will not bring overnight benefits, however, changing the structures and incentives under which universities are managed will set them up to be more likely to achieve greater long term success than their state supported competitors. Operating as a private company hugely increases the incentives to cut inefficiencies, and empowering students to play a major role in highlighting such problems. If students don’t like the product they won’t buy it. Take away the inflated demand created by government loans and universities will have no choice but to make their courses more affordable, perhaps by introducing shorter more intense courses rather than three year ones, half of which is holiday. If universities are run as private institutions, more funds can be generated for bursaries and scholarships to provide opportunities to those less able to pay, subsidising them through students who are more than able. Most importantly, a privatised system would communicate to students that choosing to go to university is a serious decision to invest in your future, instead of a casual formality. Fewer irresponsible decisions will be made even if this means fewer people going to university, which itself would be no bad thing.

Jade Symonds

‘If you can afford it, you can have whatever you want’ seems to be the mantra of British society. But in Higher Education, providing access to the top institutions based on whether you can afford to pay the inevitably higher fees would be counterproductive and anti-intellectual. Across the world today, if a private education system is dominant so are higher fees, with the average tuition fee in the US being $29,056 between 2011-2012. This reduces access to those unable to pay. Although it is true that with an increase in fees there will be an increase in bursaries, it is still inevitable that those from lower income backgrounds will either be either cut off, or put off. Is it fair that whilst the wealthy can walk straight into top institutions, others must go cap in hand and seek funding to evoke their right to education? Although you can pay your way into the top schools, you cannot buy the intellectual flare and ability that creates great academics, entrepreneurs, and leaders within a society. In order to have a successful economy we must nurture raw talent regardless of circumstance. We live in a two-tier society in which the circumstance of your birth can create barriers to success. Private universities would only deepen this problem.

Beaver

the

UNION JACK The Union is dead. Long live the Union.

elcome to the LSE. By now you will have been introduced to Jay Stoll, the General Secretary, and all the other so called BNOCs at this school. Anyway, before Jack gets carried away, let me introduce myself, Jack is as old as time immemorial, perhaps older, I’m the hero that LSE deserves, but not the one it needs. It’s Jack’s job to keep an eye on the Union and keep it in line when egos or ambition starts to dominate. Sadly over the last few years the Union, the once great beating heart of LSE student democracy, has collapsed. So much so that Jack was retired for much of the last year, and had to have many a week off. Alas, Jack thought he’d give it one last go this year in the desperate hope that the Union may return to its former glory. Hope springs eternal as they say. What am I going on about? Oh dear, I forgot, most of you reading this will be freshers’, you have no idea what I am talking about do you? Welcome to the LSE Students’ Union. Though the student bit has gone. Kinda. We don’t have much of a say anymore. You see, the LSE was founded by the Fabians, and as radical socialists (and also strong advocates of eugenics, just showing no-one is perfect) they encouraged a spirit of democracy to flow through the Union. Unlike every other SU in the country, our Union has a weekly meeting, and this meeting is the supreme power in the Union, able to do, well, just about anything really. Or rather it used to. Declining attendance, and massive screw ups by Union Officials ‘trying to fix it’ (though Jack worries that perhaps, just maybe they wanted it to die) caused attendance to drop to less than double digits - and given 250 people have to be there for anything to pass, it became a rather pointless hour. There was one week Jack was the only person there who was not constitutionally mandated to be there. How the Fabians must be turning in their graves. Anyways, last years Sabbs tried so much to resuscitate it, they even commissioned a report into trying to save it. Its recommendations included moving it to a smaller

room to make it look more full. It was at this point Jack retired from Union politics in despair. Anyway, the Sabbs tried to save it, or at least stem the decline until they were out of office. To his credit, Stoll has embraced the title “killer of the UGM”. There are people trying to blow on the embers left behind though. There will be a meeting, allegedly to vote on banning Blurred Lines. Presumably some will attend that, though given only 70 people attended the vote to ban the Sun, it seems unlikely. Can the Union do anything? The SU decided to take votes as indicative now, so I guess your vote counts, though it is not binding and the Sabbs are free to ignore it. Still, if you managed to followed Jack this far, I suppose the question remains: why on earth should you care about this? Well, normally Jack would rattle off something about democracy. However you are LSE students, you are self-interested, so try this: our Sabbs are paid £26,500 a year each (in context KCL Sabbs receive £22,000) and they get the year out to effectively boost their C.Vs, and on top of all that they are essentially unaccountable. It is almost impossible to check what they spend our money on, remove them from office if they are corrupt, or force them into action when they would rather remain apathetic. To be honest, this year’s Sabbs are the least... ideological we’ve had in a few years. They are not likely to spend their year doing anything of controversy. But still, aren’t you worried? Even a little? What happens if UKIP sweeps to power on a wave of apathy as happened in Heythrop College (seriously, well sort of, I mean he was no confidenced less than 24 hours into the job, but a UKIP win could happen here). I suppose Alan Sked would be happy - if you have no idea who that is, you soon will, he is somewhat famous. Still, Jack will unhappily keep you updated on the activities of our Sabbs. Here’s to the year ahead. You are filled with hope and idealism, as Jack was all those decades ago. Enjoy this week, before the cynicism of LSE takes hold.

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Beaver

Thursday October 03 2012

Opinion

How free should free speech be on social media? Social media has been abused, but how shall we adapt to this? Alice Smith

The recent onslaught of hatespeech directed towards BBC news anchor and LSE alumna, Caroline Criado-Perez, following her successful campaign to put Jane Austen on a banknote has not only exposed shockingly misogynistic attitudes, but forced those of us who use social media as freely as Criado-Perez to question just how free and open social media should be. Broadcasters, journalists and MPs, are aware that their position in the public eye gives them a heightened profile, and thus a platform on which dislike and disagreement can stand. However, the extent to which women like Creasy and CriadoPerez still encounter horrendous bigotry from within the woodwork of Twitter is appalling. Criado-Perez’s advocacy of women’s rights meant she was

subjected to tweets such as ‘everyone jump on the rape train > @CCriadoPerez is conductor’ and others threatening to rape and kill her. When her address was discovered, trolls began to tweet it.

“One month on, and a handful of men have been arrested for the abuse they directed towards CriadoPerez.” One month on, and a handful of men have been arrested for the abuse they directed towards Criado-Perez. Criado-Perez is still bombarded with rape and death threats every day. Whilst women are more regularly the victims of sexual abuse than men (Government statistics show that one in five women between 16 and 59 have endured some form of sexual violence) few could imagine just how backward some ‘trolls’ remain in

their view of women today. Though we live in a world surrounded by successful women, even online, where speech is meant to be a free-for-all, it seems that men are the only ones allowed to hold opinions. One abuser said that rape threats are just ‘what you get when you are a woman shouting about something’. Whilst most grown-up men would disagree, the fact that such abuse is allowed to exist on social media – with few consequences for the antagonists – puts into question the integrity of these sites as outlets for free speech. It is difficult to believe that we live in a world where people are allowed able to get away with to bullying teens to the point of suicide, and threaten to rape and kill women, on Twitter just for actively promoting the interests of their own gender. Why is it acceptable for such online forums to exist in the way that they do? The internet, in its anonymity, acts almost as a shield for such trolls, protecting them from the law because ‘hey, it’s

only Twitter, what’s going to become of it?’ Social media can warp free speech from a beautiful thing into an ugly weapon that becomes almost impossible to regulate. The recent attempt at regulating ‘trolling’ (a ‘report’ button for individual tweets on Twitter) is lacklustre. The lack of protection from abusers when signing up to online platforms makes it difficult for those in charge to limit the harassment social media users face.

“those who are in the limelight for respectable and serious pursuits should not face barrages of sexual, intellectual and personal abuse” As trolls get more and more outlets for their hatred, it become difficult to draw a distinction between what is an actual

threat, and what’s a ‘light-hearted jibe’. The cycle of abuse continues. Ultimately, no matter their gender, those who are in the limelight for respectable and serious pursuits should not face barrages of sexual, intellectual and personal abuse. Those who advocate equality and progression should not fear having their house bombed or being raped “on camera”. Whilst there can be one good thing taken from Caroline Criado-Perez’s experience – that her abuse has prompted discussion of these issues – the internet cannot remain a platform for such hatred. Social media has become less of a platform for genuine free speech, and more a way of projecting the prejudices that still linger in our society. Whilst those who speak out against this are violated and shunned away from the Internet – from having their own voice – and little is done to stop their tormentors. Whilst free speech can be a wonderful thing, its place online needs to change, and with this, its twisted abusers defeated.

Thursday October 03 2012

the

Beaver

Opinion Social class remains the best determinant of success Dan Martin

As this year’s graduate recruitment cycle begins, the inequalities that plague all levels of UK society will be reinforced. Organisations that hire a large numbers of graduates rely on ineffective means to pick candidates, and focus on the wrong characteristics when seeking to reach out to the diverse population of graduates. Not only is this bad for society, it also means these organisations fail to create teams of people able

“54 per cent of FTSE100 CEOs attended independent schools” to innovate and improve performance – it is just as bad for business. The popular focus on improving ethnic diversity levels is partly responsible for these failures. Social class background remains a more important determinant of success than ethnicity, as William Julius Wilson argued in 1978 with ‘The Declining Significance of Race’. However, it is still the case that working class people strug-

gle to reach the highest levels of UK society, and this is not helped by graduate recruitment. Evidence for this is abundant. In 2007, the Sutton Trust found that 54 per cent of FTSE100 CEOs attended independent schools, compared to just 7 per cent of the school age population. The type of school someone attends is a reasonable proxy for class, and the long roots of disadvantage for people from state schools are clear. The Trust also found that pupils from state schools produced weaker personal statements when applying to university than those from independent schools – the experiences they had to call on were less impressive, and they were less able to ‘sell’ those experiences. This is most probably one of the reasons that state-educated young people are less likely to receive offers from top universities. Even university does not act as the sort of leveller that many would assume. Futuretrack, a longitudinal survey exploring the relationship between higher education, employment and career planning, found that students who participated in extracurricular activities at university were more likely to be in graduate jobs. However working-class students were less likely to participate in these activities, because of a lack of finances, self-confidence or time. This exclusion

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meant that working-class students failed to gain the sort of advantage from university that their middle-class peers achieved when entering the labour market and were, in fact, further disadvantaged because of this. Even ignoring arguments about fairness, this picture is

“Shifting the focus to social class is a far better indicator of real diversity, and would lead to superior outcomes at all levels.” of importance for recruiters. In ‘The Difference’, Scott E. Page demonstrates that more diverse

IAMDAVIDTHEKING

teams of people are more innovative. He stresses that this ‘diversity’ however must mean a variety of perspectives, not just a variety of appearances. Continuing to focus on ethnicity in strategies aiming to increase diversity in organisations is unlikely to lead to improved outcomes, then, because ethnic diversity does not necessarily mean diverse perspectives. Shifting the focus to social class is a far better indicator of real diversity, and would lead to superior outcomes at all levels. Without efforts by recruiters to reach out and accommodate working-class students, employers will continue to reward those who appear to be the best candidates, rather than those most able to contribute, and will continue to entrench disadvantage.

Even if chemical weapons are gone, violence will endure

We’re in the early stages of a bloodletting in Syria that began nearly 94 years ago when one Brit (Sir Mark Sykes) and one Frenchman (Francois GeorgePicot) divided the Arab provinces -- once belonging to the Ottoman Empire -- between their two respective colonial powers. The Sykes-Picot Agreement (also known as the Asia Minor Agreement) of 1920 created the modern state of Syria as we now know it. No one living in Syria ever got a say in how their “nation” was constructed -- both in terms of territory, and control. Syria was purposefully devised to pit the Shiite Alawite

minority against the Sunni Arab majority, with a side-show consisting of Christians, Druze and Kurds (who are also Sunnis). The same principle (divide-andrule) applied to Iraq, except the minority Sunnis were used to control the majority Shiites. The reason colonial powers constructed these cynical divisions is simple: appeal to the minority, train them, arm them, and use them to control the majority out of fear, oppression, and obligation. It should come as no surprise, then, that from Syria and Iraq we had (and have) two of the most brutal, horrific dictators of all time: Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad. They were (and are) manifestations of colonial manipulation; the products of two nations created under the weight of permanent warfare, oppression, and sectarian strife.

2nd floor, East Building, LSE Students Union London WC2A 2AE

Executive Editor Chris Rogers

The events in Syria are far from over Kaveh Farzad

Beaver

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Forget ethnicity, focus on class

“Why do we have a brutal civil war in Syria?” is not the question we should be asking. We know why it’s happening. It’s the same reason we still have one raging in Iraq. The brutal and callous decade’s long oppression of the majority groups in both states broke free, at long last, with the Arab Spring. For better or worse, and due in large part to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the problems in Syria have only just begun. It won’t stop if and when the chemical weapons stockpiles are accounted for. Nor will it stop if and when Bashar alAssad is removed from power. Notice for example how when the United States argues that it’s justified in arming the opposition, they make it plain that they intend to only support “moderate” rebels. What about the not-so-moderate rebels? What role will they play in a

post-Assad Syria? The quixotic idea that any two sides in this conflict could reach a political agreement, untainted by blood and terror is as likely as it was in Iraq -- where a decade of occupation and trillions of dollars could not prevent 100,000+ deaths. Innocent men, women and children are being murdered at staggering rates. Some have been gassed, but 99% have lost their lives to the real “weapons of mass destruction”: small munitions. The images of dead children and the videos of crying mothers holding their lost loved ones are unbearably heartbreaking. But for every image of an innocent life lost there’s a video of a rebel, or one of Assad’s soldiers, reminding the world through barbaric savagery that this is a sectarian fight to the death. And it always will be.

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The Collective: A E Dawson, A Doherty, A Fyfe, A L Cunningham, A L Gunn, A Manawapat, A Moneke, A X Patel, A Qazilbash, A Sulemanji, A Thomson, A Wright, B Arslan, B Butterworth, B Phillips, B Rogers, C Loughran, C S Russell, C V Pearson, D Ming, D Poole, E Beaumont, E Delahaye, E E Fraser, E Firth, F Bennett, G Everington, G Kaur, G Manners-Armstrong, G Rosser, H Brentnall, H Burdon, H Dar, H Fenton, H J Sheppard, J Allsop, J Attueyi, J Austin, J Jinruang, J Mo, J V Armstrong, J Wacket, J Wong, J Yarde, K Kenney, K Pezeshki, K Rogers, K Singh, K Quinn, L A Yang, L Hill, L Kang, M C Heffernan, M Fletcher, M Hung, M Jenkins, M Jaganmohan, M Pearson, M Pennill, M Petrocheilos, M Veale, N Antoniou, N J Buckley-Irvine, N Jaroszek, N Mateer, N Thangarajah, N Russell, P Amoroso, P Gederi, R Chouglay, R Browne, R Cucchiaro, R Gudka, R Hamer, R Holmes, R Illingworth, R Chua, R J Charnock, R Serunjogi, R Uddin, S Chaudhuri, S Desai, S Donszelmann, S H Low, S Newman, S Nissila, S Parmar, S Poojara, S R Williams, S Sebatindira, S W Leung, S Hang Low, T Barnes, T Maksymiw, T Meaden, T Poole, X T Wang

If you do not appear on this list and have written three or more articles, please email: collective@thebeaveronline.com 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. Attribution necessary. Printed at Mortons Printing

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Beaver

Thursday October 03 2012

the

Beaver

Established 1949

Welcome So, welcome to the LSE, if you are reading this I can only assume you are a Fresher, since these are being given out at the Fair. But if not, welcome back to the best rated University in London. You’ve made it. Relax. Term hasn’t quite started yet, and it’s time to socialise, enjoy and make new friends. Summer, based on the weather over the last couple of weeks, seems to be over, but its not quite time for term to begin yet. Things don’t really kick off until week two, so spend you time checking out the variety of courses and activities that are on offer at the LSE. Freshers’ fair is fun, and the free stuff is always great. Of course check out all the stalls and come and visit us in the media section, if you’d like to join the paper. If you can’t make it, yet are still inexplicably reading this, drop us an email at editor@ thebeaveronline.com and we’ll do our best to get back to you.

The Paper It would be remiss if I didn’t plug the newspaper a little in the editorial. The Beaver is one of the oldest student papers in the country, and have made the national news a number of times. Our writers / editors have moved on to great things in the media world and if you would like to get involved visit the stall. One of the major purposes of the paper is to hold the SU to account, and we are the last bastion of scrutiny left. Well, if you don’t count Jason Wong’s twitter feed. Politically, the paper is meant to represent the views of students, if you write for us we will publish it online or in print. No doubt the paper will be accused of editorial bias, but given we can only print what we receive, we encourage everyone to write in, providing balanced debate, and examining issues from a number of different perspectives. If there is too much we publish on the basis of quality, not political ideology, and everything will be on the website.

Letters to the Editor

The Beaver offers all readers the right to reply to anything that appears in the paper. Letters should be sent to editor@thebeaveronline.co.uk and should be no longer than 250 words. All letters must be received by 3pm on the Friday prior to publication. The Beaver reserves the right to edit letters prior to publication.

Best of the Archives Edition

A Fabien Heritage Dear Sir, We were disheartened to discover that Tony Blair was recently invited to unveil the Fabian Window at LSE to commemorate our School’s socialist foundations. We cannot think of anyone more inappropriate to remember their noble cause. The Fabians sought to introduce policies, which enabled public ownership; Blair has actively introduced policies, which have undermined public ownership. The Fabians actively campaigned against war; Blair in ordering our troops to invade Iraq, has sought to further it. In fact, the Labour party is no longer the credible party of social justice; just as the Liberal Party were no longer the vehicle for progress at the beginning of the last century. The Fabians founded the LSE to further the cause of equality and social justice and it is for this reason that many of us chose to apply here. We hope that for future events to remember LSE’s progressive past, a more ‘on message’ politician can be invited. Yours sincerely, James Caspell Aled Dilwyn Fisher

This is your opportunity to raise awareness of any cause, issue, or opinion.

A market for communication

We are constantly trying to modify and adapt to best engage with the students at LSE. Help is always needed. Though some of the editor positions are full we always need people to help us, whether that is on the marketing side of things, admin, or business. Drop us an email to find out how you can get involved, or come to our socials.

Dear Sir

The LSE Since the scandals of the last couple of years, the LSE has moved forward, we are the most over subscribed university in the country, with around 14 applicants per place, and rank high in the league tables. We are also growing and expanding, having just purchased yet another building on campus. We look forward to the year ahead. Yes, not everything is perfect, but for students, with things like the new Students Centre opening, and what looks like a good opening form the Union for an entertaining Freshers’. We might have one of the best years to date. Almost makes me sad that I will be leaving this year.

Opinion

Our new Comms Officer elect Ali Dewji wants a free market in societies. Let me say this again - he wants to extend the principles of neo-liberalism to our SU. Incentives for societies to do more, cutting funding for those who don’t. Unpopular niche societies? Forget about them, it’s the money earners that we should concentrate on, especially those ones which easily gain sponsorship. Feeling let down by a society you joined? Let’s stop funding them! But which societies stand to benefit from Ali’s plans? The well established, rich ones like.... Debate society? Who’d have thought it! Societies are not businesses, no matter what FinSoc say. They are there to benefit the whole of LSE (whilst bolstering C.V.s of committee members) and serve our diverse interests. I’m not

asking for a socialist revolution in society funding, but to speak about incentives and competition with reference to societies is as ridiculous as the current free market in NGOs which benefits nobody. Daniel Sheldon

VRWC This week’s Beaver was a triumph of superbly constructed false hood. Congratulations. Your editorial took it as a given that the distinction between political parties and other political issues was one enshrined in law or demonstrated in a case. it is not. Perhaps before writing and article quoting my beliefs in the UGM (where time for explanation is necessarily limited and evidence cannot properly be produced) you should have bothered to discuss with me the evidence both ways. Instead the Beaver found it convenient to buy Caspell’s “beliefs”. It is probably not going to change much now this lie has been implanted within the collective consciousness of the Union. Also, one comment on Mr Hallett’s column. Has he ever met a right-winger? Does he think that we never notice income disparities? An outspoken right winger at LSE is in a minority and, hence, has more to defend that their opponents. If they remain right wing it probably isn’t because they’ve never met a socialist. I am a right-winger and have never killed a kitten. Income disparities exist because pay does not reflect how hard a person works. Income reflects the value that individuals’ decisions place, in the aggregate, on the services of that person. The market system’s inequalities are worthwhile because they provide a clear incentive for anyone who can to become a CEO instead of a factory worker and therefore ensure that a vital function, which requires far more education and is only possible for a far smaller portion of the population, gets done. It is not from the benevolences of the baker that we expect Wright’s bar to continue to be able to make sandwiches. Without this system the poor have invariably been poorer, they have also been less free.

Yours more in anger than in sorry, Matt Sinclair VRWC Chief UGM Spokesman, 2002- 2006

Top Up Fees Dear Sir, Last week’s front page headline: “Top up fee’s set to rise” was almost spot on, with the insertion of ‘not’ between ‘fees’ and ‘set’ it would accurately describe the position. There is no question of UK undergraduates’ fees at LSE being set at anything other than £3,000, adjusted for inflation, for the foreseeable future. I have taken the view, since coming here, that it is preferable to tell the student body as much as possible about the school’s financial position. So I give frank answers to questions put to me. That makes for better-informed discussions of the options we face. Your reporting by contrast served to obscure rather than illuminate the debate, and your editorial; with its reference to he possibility of domestic fees at £11,000 is from the ‘think of a number and double it’ school of journalism. Howard Davies

Eyes to the left Dear Sir, Last week’s freshers’ fayre provided alarming evidence of deep divisions among the left at LSE. On surveying the stalls in Clement building I was pleased to note the summer has not dented the churlishness and inanity of the alarmingly named groups at LSE. However what concerned me was the Labour stall: charming polite and speaking in whole sentences, they seemed to have become totally detached from the proud tradition of humourless rudeness for which we know and love LSE’s ardent left wingers. Is this final proof that Labour has lost touch with its roots? And if do, should we not inform Blair and co? Charles Laurance Social Events Officer LSE SU Conservatives

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Explore Deutsche Bank from all angles DB3D Presentation 14th October 2013 Winchester House, London Come and see our DB3D event and discover some new perspectives on investment banking and your future career. You will see some of the key sides to what we do and – more importantly – the agile minds that do it. For more information and to register to attend, please visit: registration.db.com/London_DB3D_2013 by 7th October. Discover something diﬀerent at db.com/careers

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THE ESSENTIAL FRESHERS GUIDE TO: MUSIC VENUES IN LONDON ‘Round Midnight

Wig— more Hall

Located next to Sainsburys in Angel, this one is convenient for the residents of Rosebery Hall, but is recommended for everyone else nonetheless. The Tuesday Blues Jam is perhaps the highlight of the week but, with live music ranging from roots to rockabilly, ‘Round Midnight is worth a visit on any night. As good as the music is, the real draw of ‘Round Midnight is its clientele; the bar is never short of characters. From washed-up sixty something bluesmen on their “night off from the wife” to feminist photography students who moonlight as exotic dancers, you never know who you could end up spending the evening with.

XOYO

Every year the highly esteemed Wigmore Hall has a calendar packed full of the finest classical music to be found in the capital. Much smaller than venues such as the Royal Festival Hall or the Barbican, this concert hall strikes a perfect balance between intimacy and grandeur. Wigmore Hall also boasts one of the finest acoustics in the capital, and can hence guarantee that you will hear the works of your favourite composers like never before. If you have a taste for the classical repertoire, the Wigmore Hall is sure to become one of your most frequented spots in London.

Floripa Floripa can be any number of things, from a Brazilian Steakhouse to a typicallytrendy Shoreditch hipster hangout. Whatever your take on the place itself, Thursday night is well worth a visit for an open mic night with a difference. Would-be performers share the stage with an experienced house band of session musicians with a penchant for soul. There is no time for rehearsal – performers take the stage, give the band a nod, and the resultant jam is often spectacular. Would any fresher be brave enough?

The Blues Kitchen

This two-room venue is a very safe bet indeed when it comes to good music. For those seeking an intimate setting for their favourite bands, XOYO offers a wonderful underground stage setting. At the same time, this location doubles as a great club, frequently featuring some of the best DJ’s on the planet. With a stunning sound system and breath-taking lighting, many a memorable night can be had in this East London location. The mix of great music and a thoroughly friendly crowd is something not to be missed.

Work up an appetite this week, then book a table for a Saturday evening of soul food and rock ‘n’ roll at The Blues Kitchen. After you have put down your fork and knife and the resident band is starting to warm up, order yourself a Sazerac (whiskey and absinthe cocktail) and let the night unfold. This tried and tested combination of 12 bar blues and hard liquor is guaranteed to have you stumbling home early Sunday morning and humming the same tune ‘til at least Tuesday.

Vortex Jazz Club Found just off Kingsland High St in the heart of Dalston, this tiny venue is one of London’s most underrated music spots. The Vortex Jazz club proudly hosts live music every night of the week to suit the tastes of even the most discerning jazz fan. Forget Ronnie’s or the Pizza Express Jazz Club, with a capacity of under a hundred people, the Vortex offers you the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists, including a healthy dose of the latest up-and-coming talent. The venue features a broad range of music, from mainstream to contemporary and free. Now into it’s 25th year, the Vortex has solidified it’s place as one of the world’s finest jazz clubs.

Union Chapel

Propaganda

Voted ‘London’s Best Live Music Venue’ by Time Out readers in 2012, Islington’s Union Chapel offers a unique setting for somewhat more subdued acts. With tickets already on sale for shows until January, have a look at their website if you’re jonesing for something folksy in the near future. This week’s highlights include Ethan Johns on Thursday and Sam Lee & Friends on Friday. Johns has worked with acts like Tom Jones, Kings of Leon and Ryan Adams, whereas the Mercury-nominated Lee is always captivating, if a little unconventional.

Of course, if it’s just a drunken singalong you fancy, look no further than the UK’s biggest indie night every Saturday at the O2 Academy, Islington. Skinny jeans, plastic cups, and songs about girls – don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. And don’t be ashamed to come back after you’ve knocked it.

♫ Tom Barnes and

Cathal Loughran

You are invited to the

03.10.2013 PartB

FLORENCE: A CULINARY ADVENTURE Lampredotto

All’Antico Vinaio

e Cure io, Dell mbrog

https://www.facebook. com/AllAnticoVinaio

Sant’ A

he further you are from the city centre, the better the prices and no-frills food you get. Even people adverse to their veggies will be instantly converted by the array of mouth-wateringly fresh produce from the mercatos (Sant’ Ambrogio, Delle Cure). Apart from that, try out the street foods and local takeaways! They are definitely an experience not to be missed. We have walked all over Florence and decent takeaway was to be found almost anywhere. However, for the more discerning reader, these are the few places that we found to be particularly outstanding: Tender, thinly sliced, marbled Lampredotto (cow stomach), stuffed between fluffy buns with parsley sauce, anyone? This street stall along Borgo San Frediano is known to be one of the better ones and we have to say we agree. Among its other offerings, there is Lampredotto sbucciato (a leaner cut of aforesaid cow stomach) and Lampredotto without the bread. We would, however, suggest that you go with the bread and fat. At €3, it is nothing fancy and ridiculously cheap. The stall-owners were cheerful and friendly; see if you can impress them like we did by eating three in a row! After visiting the famous Uffizi Gallery, we literally fol-

lowed our noses to All’Antico Vinaio. There, you get to pick your own ingredients from a veritable smorgasbord of offerings including truffle cream, sun-dried tomatoes, in addition to various cured meats and cheeses and roasted vegetables. Better yet, ask one of the experienced staff to create a masterpiece just for you! See if you can resist having another after your first one. A friendly tip, however, when the signs announce: “We Don't Have Pesto!”, do not ask for spicy sauces with your prosciutto crudo because they go together “like fish and chocolate”. While waiting, help yourself to glasses of various wines, starting from €2 (do be careful, however, because certain wines can come up to €15 a glass!). Gelato is another thing that comes to mind when Italy is mentioned. Avoid what a Florentine local candidly described as “ice cream with lots of fancy decorations made to attract tourists—it’s shit!”, and head to Grom. Tucked inconspicuously away in a side alley, it nevertheless manages to draw queues of locals—and of late, tour groups—into its tiny but bright premises. It is actually a national chain, but they use the very freshest of ingredients and to quote an expressive Florentine lady,

“you feel like you’re eating actual peaches, or raspberries, or blueberries”. Do try nocciolato (hazelnut), torronicone (nougat—nocciolato and caramelized honey/sugar), ciocolatte extra noir, as well as fruit flavours like lampone (raspberry) and myrtillo (blueberries). I am not ashamed to say that I had two servings after two orders of pick-youown Foccacia at All’Antico Vinaio. Yes, it is just that good. Vestri comes up frequently in google searches for chocolate and gelato in Florence, along with places like Rivoire (over-priced and unremarkable) and Venchi (consistent but overly commercialised. It is also available in London). Skip the lot and head straight to Vestri, a quaint little shop with an unassuming shop front. Most days, the owner would be manning the place personally, and his passion for his craft is evident as he patiently explains the qualities of different confections. I hesitantly bought a small box just to try it out but subsequently returned a further three times and bought close to a kilogram. Don’t shy away from the fruitbased and more creative concoctions such as peppercorn and nutmeg. Vestri combines flavours with master precision and nothing contained in its chocolate is there for show

or tradition. This humble store does not spend much on fancy marketing but lets the chocolates speak for themselves. What it manages to save in advertising is more than evident in the quality of the end products. Prices are reasonable and expect to spend about €13 for about 15 to 20 pieces. Vestri also does small chocolate bars that are perfect for gifts. These simple pieces retailed at around €1.30 when we were there. However, this place offers more than just exquisite chocolates; refreshing and made with much less sugar, Vestri's gelato tastes closer to the original ingredients than Grom’s. If Grom’s leaves you wanting more, Vestri’s leaves you euphoric and satisfied. For a more complete experence, stay at a local B&B located out of the city centre. We stayed at Villa di Campolungo, a restored country villa nestled in the picturesque hills of Fiesole-Caldine. The owners grow their own olives and vegetables and we were greeted each morning with the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven. Our stay included a traditional Tuscan breakfast every morning on a terrace overlooking olive groves and the hillside. Our host informed us that most things were sourced locally from other farms in the surrounding countryside.

We greedily slathered wild blueberry, fig, and raspberry jams and orange marmalade onto our breads and cakes and topped it off with slabs of white, fresh butter. Do not miss out on a chance to try out their Acacia and Chestnut honeys; full-bodied nectars with complex nuances and notes you would not be able find in your everyday supermarket sugary syrups. The combination of Pecorino cheese and pears also made a surprisingly great combination. To round it all off, do try their spelt cereal with creamy local yogurts. A day truly cannot go wrong when it starts like this.



Dorothy Wong

Villa di Campolungo Grom

www.villadicampolungo.it

http://www.grom. it/ita/home.php

Price for a double room (breakfast included): €115/night

Vestri www.vestri.it

Freshersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Week Special

Thursday October 03 2013

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Freshers Special Jay Stoll Welcome from the General Secretary of the LSESU Welcome / Welcome back to another year at LSE! I take great pleasure in introducing myself as Jay Stoll, the General Secretary of the Students’ Union. I am your lead representative on campus, to the media, and the wider world. Beyond political representation, my week is packed with sitting on the most senior committees pertaining to the practical running of LSE, working to make sure it is listening to students. I joined LSE in 2010 to study International Relations and History. Coming from Manchester in the North West, I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t concerned about several aspects of life here. Most of my mates had gone to either Nottingham or Birmingham, so I was worried about a comparatively rubbish night life and a ridiculously expensive cost of living. However, these fears turned out to be unfounded and I had an unbelievable three years here. My time at Bankside House and joining the mighty LSESU Football Club were particular highlights. If I may digress slightly, I just want to say what a pleasure it is to write for the Beaver. Why do I say this? Well, probably because this paper will give me hell for the next year.. and rightly so! I’m here to serve for every single one of our members, so if I’m not doing my job well – call me out on it, either in print or in person! Back to the key message of this article, LSE SU is at a critical juncture, for reasons relevant to each and every one of you. No, this isn’t some sycophantic and ultimately hopeless rant about how the government are taking students to the cleaners and that the only possible recourse is full communism. It is however, simply me sharing my uncontainable joy at, amongst other developments, the arrival of the New Students Centre. Whilst thousands of additional square metres at our disposal won’t automati-

cally cure all our ills, it is an absolute axiom that the LSE SU has been blighted by a lack of space and provision required to achieve anything near its full potential. A state of the art gymnasium, an actual events venue (hallelujah!), a new 3 Tuns, new SU offices, meeting rooms and activity space for societies, cafes, a juice bar, a faith centre - just some of the headliners you can expect. We have a huge challenge ahead in delivering this transition but I’m sure the move will be a whole new world for the Student Union and life at LSE… from January onwards. Until then, the same old debates will rage and we are fully prepared and equipped to make real progress both before and after the big move. I would hope that our extensive events calendar in the ‘Freshers’ period has been duly noted as a direct response to that forever infuriating myth that ‘LSE students are libraryjunkies who have no social life’. I would also hope that our priority campaigns are seen as considerate towards what the student body have demanded for years. The push for an enhanced private accommodation office at LSE, leading to a listing service that will enable LSE students to recycle the best properties amongst them year after year, will make residing in London much less stressful and hopefully more affordable. After all, it isn’t the cost of fees that creates financial instability at university; it is the inability to meet the cost of rent. The focus on winning for Sports and Performance Facilities (whether on attaining a multi-purpose sports hall or gaining greater financial investment from the School) may be a long slog, but the fight has to start somewhere. The welcome announcement of the purchasing of 44 Lincoln’s Inn Field MUST be accompanied by a firm commitment to enhance the student experience beyond the currently myopic focus on teaching and research. Beyond these two ventures, it will in some respects be business as usual. Over 180 of our societies are at your disposal and there will be something for each and every one of you. The media group will be buzzing throughout the year so be sure to submit articles, or even host your own radio show for Pulse. All in all, I simply want to stress that getting involved in LSE Students Union, in whatever guise, will absolutely change your time here at LSE. Here’s to another great year at London’s top university.

MARKHILLARY

SOMEDRIFTWOOD

Rev Jim Walters The Beaver Welcome from the LSE Chaplian Welcome from the Beaver Editorial Team students and staff and we are determined to create an environment on campus where religion can be fully observed and respected, as well as debated and challenged.

This is a very exciting year in the history of LSE’s provision for religion and belief as we open our new state of the art Faith Centre in the Saw Swee Hock building. This is symbolic of a transition in the way religion is being engaged with across the Higher Education sector, arising from the incorporation of religion and belief into equality legislation and the increased prominence of religious issues on campus. So we are proud to say that our new provision puts LSE at the forefront of these changes. We have come to recognise the importance of religious identity to a large proportion of our

None of this compromises the kind of secularity that has always characterised LSE, giving no privilege to any particular religious standpoint. But it is a recognition that religion is something that is not merely studied here; for many of today’s staff and students it is also lived and practised. My role as Chaplain and Interfaith Adviser is to oversee all this provision and do all I can to make our campus a place where religion can be practised faithfully and where differing religious views can be discussed respectfully and constructively. So whoever you are, don’t be afraid to contact me if you have a query or difficulty in relation to your religious identity and how you practise it at LSE. I’m also available to talk to students of any faith or none pastorally about anything you want to discuss. I spent a long time being a student myself(!) so while there is a lot of fun to be had, I know it can sometimes be a tough time.

Over the next year, you will have a rollercoaster of a time as you settle into a new way of life. Whether it’s a new city, new friends or a new social life, you’ll most likely find yourself scared and excited about the year ahead. However, after being thrown into the proverbial deep-end of Freshers’ Week, you’ll be settling down into your new way of life and looking forward to three long years in one of the capitals of the world. A constant that will always be here throughout your time at the LSE is your student newspaper, The Beaver. Founded in 1949 and still strong sixty-four years later, The Beaver has seen many generations of left-wing radicals and soonto-be investment bankers come and go. Throughout your time at the LSE, we hope to provide you with earth-shattering news-breaking scandals. Thought provoking, mind-stimulating opinion pieces. I didn’t know that but that’s ‘blown my hat’ off features. ‘This is too cool, even for Shoreditch’ culture sections, and much more. The Beaver is one of the most diverse student newspapers in the country, with thousands reading the paper each week. As one of the few student newspapers in the country to publish weekly, this

provides you with a fantastic opportunity to get involved with the student society at the heart of LSE. Every year sees a new incarnation of The Beaver. With new writers and editorial staff, each year provides a new opportunity for more students to get involved in student journalism. No matter what your background or political opinion, The Beaver wants to hear from you as we can’t keep this sixty-four year long tradition going without you. If you’re up for writing a piece on the first AU night, fantastic! If you want to write about the Bastille gig you went to, brilliant! If you’ve got an opinion on David Cameron’s leadership, great! Whatever your piece, whatever your content, the Beaver needs your voice.

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Beaver

Thursday October 03 2013

Freshers Special

Whether you know exactly what you want to do after your time at LSE or currently have no idea what the future might hold, LSE Careers exists to help all students with career planning and development of career management skills. A dedicated team of careers consultants can advise you on all aspects of your career, future plans and help you through the selection process from CV writing to interview technique.

Our team work hard on your behalf to ensure that a wide range of employers are represented on campus for fairs, forums, seminars and presentations. During the first term, you may think that it’s all about Banking, but take a closer look and you will find NGOs, International Organisations, Media, Advertising, Consulting, Law and Energy Companies, as well as an exciting programme on entrepreneurship.

LSE Library

LSE’s Library, founded in 1896 as the British Library of Political and Economic Science, is the major international library of the social sciences.

that provide access to the LSE network. i-roam laptops can be borrowed by LSE students- these are located in the Course Collection on the ground floor.

Resources available to LSE students

The Library also has a Digital Library containing digitised material from LSE Library collections. Examples include The Women’s Library @ LSE http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/thewomenslibrary

• 4 million print volumes • 60,000 online journals • 29,000 electronic books • 1,800 seats and 500 computers • 9 Academic Support or liaison librarians who support staff and student research, teaching and learning. Library opening hours for the Michaelmas term: 8am to midnight

NIGEL STEAD

When you have found the item you need, the majority of the Library’s collections can be borrowed. Before you borrow any books you will need your PIN, which can be obtained from LSE for You. You can also place reservations and renew your loans via your Library account. Books that are reserved will be displayed on your Library account and notification of availability sent via email. Within the Library there are three zones for different types of study, silent and quiet study and group working. The different study areas are located throughout the building, and some individual study spaces and group study rooms can be booked online using LSE for You.

and archive editions of The Beaver http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/ beaver The Library runs a variety of workshops to help you to identify, find, manage and evaluate the information needed for your studies and research. This specialised learning facility is provided by LSE’s Academic Support Librarians and workshops are free, taught throughout each term and open to all. Book a place online through the LSE Training System. The Library will also hold shorter ‘flash training’ sessions during orientation week at the start of the academic year and throughout the Michaelmas term. Please check the Library’s website and twitter @LSELibrary for further information. Elizabeth Chapman, Director of Library Services, said: ‘I would like to welcome all new and returning students to the Library; we hope that the range of services we provide to support your studies will help you make a great start to your LSE career. We are always happy to hear you views about our services and performance, please use either the feedback cards located at the front desk or the contact pages on our website to get in touch. As an LSE student and future alumni, the Library will be available for you to use throughout your life and career, a constant companion in your life of learning.

you can lead a project, help out on a weekly basis or just for a one-off event. The Volunteer Centre @ LSE Careers offers a range of opportunities in local, national and international organisations all over London. In 2011-2012 many of our students volunteered in a wide range of areas.

Volunteering is also fun, a great way to meet new people and explore London. You can find a volunteering opportunity to suit whatever time you have spare;

To search for volunteering opportunities visit LSE CareerHub and for more information about volunteering visit our website: lse.ac.uk/volunteercentre LSESU

Saw Swee Hock Student Centre The New Students’ Centre will include a number of studentfacing services such as the Students’ Union reception; the advice and representation centre; sabbatical and general manager’s offices; a learning space; a pub; large venue spaces; a media centre; a fitness centre, which will include a gym and dance studio; an interfaith prayer centre; and offices dealing with residences, accommodation, sales and marketing together with the LSE Careers Service. The New Students’ Centre the Students’ Union aims to achieve cross-promotion of its services, and to creating a hub for student activities that provides a sense of ownership and identity, reduces mobility problems and facilitates an efficient and enjoyable service for students. In addition, the School wishes to see other School-run student-facing services accommodated within the New Student Centre.

When you visit the Library you will encounter ‘Roamers’. These are Library staff who will be touring the building to offer help and support to students. Wi-Fi access is available throughout the Library, and there are hundreds of PCs

Volunteering has never had a higher profile, either in the UK or at LSE. It’s not only the organisation that you volunteer for that will benefit. People who volunteer, and many recruiters, say that it is instrumental in developing skills, knowledge and experience which boost CVs and employability.

NIGEL STEAD

LSE’s New Students’ Centre replaces St Philip’s Hospital (the former Sheffield Street Receiving Workhouse), which was built in 1904 in order to shelter the homeless poor.

LSESU

Thursday October 03 2013

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Freshers Special #LOVELSE

WELCOME TO LSESU

FRESHERS FAIR 2013

CAREERS SOCIETIES, AU SPORTS CLUB

OUTSIDE IN CLEMENTS INN PASSAGE

FLOOR

NATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETIES

FLOOR

NATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETIES

FLOOR

ACADEMIC SOCIETIES

FLOOR

CAREERS SOCIETIES, AU SPORTS CLUB

OUTSIDE IN CLEMENTS INN PASSAGE

FLOOR

FRESHERS FAIR 2013

FLOOR

NATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETIES

#LOVELSE

WELCOME TO LSESU

NATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETIES

ACADEMIC SOCIETIES

FLOOR

NON-LSESU STALLS

ACTIVITIES SOCIETIES, ARTS SOCIETIES, CHARITIES AND CAMPAIGNS, RELIGIOUS AND FAITH GROUPS,

FLOOR

STUDENT UNIONS’, RAG MEDIA GROUPS, POLITICAL SOCIETIES

NON-LSESU STALLS

ACTIVITIES SOCIETIES, ARTS SOCIETIES, CHARITIES AND CAMPAIGNS, RELIGIOUS AND FAITH GROUPS, STUDENT UNIONS’, RAG MEDIA GROUPS, POLITICAL SOCIETIES

facebook.com/lsesu

@lsesu

facebook.com/lsesu

@lsesu

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@lsesu

lsesu.tumblr.com

youtube.com/lsesu

Here to help you find your way around LSE

the

Beaver

Thursday October 03 2013

Freshers Special CLUBS & SOCIETIES ACADEMIC $ " ) % $ " # $ # #$ $%$ # # % & $ #$% # #$ $%$ #$ % $ #$ ") # " % $ & #$ $ % " % $ $ " # ' #$ ") " $ #)#$ # ' $ " $%" $ #$" $ ) $ # $ # #$ $# $ ) #$% $ ## $ # ) # ) # ) NATIONAL & CULTURAL %# " " # $) * %#$" ' * " # # $) %#$" * " $ %( " * "% % # ' " ## % " $ # $) $" " # $) # & $ # # #$% $ # "# ## $ ## ) " $ # $) * # & %" # # $) " " % " # # $) #" $ * #$ " )# %

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POLITCAL # "& $ & " "$) %" " $ & " " " $# $ " # & #$ $ $ # "%

RELIGIOUS & FAITH $ # $) " #$ % ) # $) % # ' # # # "%$ # % CHARITY & CAMPAIGNS $# #$) $ " $ $ # & ") $ " $ $ #$ # % " #$ % #$ " & $ " ) # $) #$ ) & " # ' " % $ " $ %#$ ## $ " $ %#$ ## # ) # (% $" # " $ # # (% $ # #$ $ " # $"%#$ " $ " $ # $ ( # ## # $ " " # ( #$% $ $ " " % # #$% $ & $ # $ " $ #$% $ #' $ #%#$ %$%" # $" " % %# % $ $ # ' " ' ) RAG, MEDIA AND CHARITIES & " " " $ " & ' # % # " CAREERS AND CLUBS % $ $% " # & #$ $ $" # $) " # $) $" " %"

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ROOM

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Places to grab a bite to eat on campus 4th Floor Restaurant Location: 4th floor, Old Building, Houghton Street Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday, 9am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7pm A huge choice of great value hot and cold meals throughout the day, including international dishes, stir fries and pizzas. 4th Floor CafĂŠ Bar Location: 4th floor, Old Building, Houghton Street Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday, 11am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8pm A great place to relax in between lectures or unwind at the end of the day. Enjoy handmade speciality sandwiches, great cakes, barista fair-trade coffees, wines and beers. The Daily Grind Location: Reception area Towers One and Two Opening times: Monday - Friday, 8.45am - 3.30pm (term time) Offering fair trade coffee and tea together with a large selection of fair trade snacks.

NIGEL STEAD

LSE Garrick Location: corner of Houghton Street/ Aldwych Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday, 8am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7pm The ground floor offers speciality hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and freshly baked pastries. On the lower level you can enjoy superb quality home cooked meals at lunchtime. The Bean Counter Location: basement, 32 Lincolnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inn Fields Opening times: Monday - Friday, 10.30am - 3.30pm Contemporary cafĂŠ offering speciality hot and cold drinks, including squeezed to order fresh juices and smoothies

The Three Tuns Location: Clare Market Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, 11am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11pm; Friday, 11am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2am The Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Union bar has extensive opening hours so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always available as a place to relax with a drink while you are on campus.

The Plaza CafĂŠ Location: John Watkins Plaza Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, 9am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 9pm; Friday, 9am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6pm; Saturday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sunday, 12 noon â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6pm The place to grab a hot or cold drink and snack when keeping your head down in the Library or meeting with friends on the plaza.

Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bar Location: Houghton Street Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday, 7am- 6.30pm; Saturday, 7am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1.30pm An old-school British style cafĂŠ offering breakfasts, sandwiches and hot beverages. Coopers Restaurant and Bar Location: 49a Lincolnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inn Fields Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday, 12 noon â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11pm Located on the corner of Portsmouth Street, Coopers houses a restaurant with full table service and a wine bar. George IV Location: corner of Portugal Street Opening times: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday; 12pm â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11.30pm The LSEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very own traditional pub with an array of real ales, cold beers, wines and spirits.

Thursday October 03 2013

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Freshers Special

LSESU Wants You

Athletics Media Group Union

LSESU

The Athletics Union is the life and soul of the Students’ Union and is the largest (2,000+ members) society in a small University. The AU’s central aim is to provide sport for all no matter your ability and despite LSE’s central location, the Union provides a range of easily accessible facilities. From karate to kitesurfing, ca-

poeira to cricket, the choices are endless for beginners and budding national champions alike. Clubs cost between £5 and £25 to join for students for the academic year, with some also charging a class fee. If you miss Frehers Fair you can sign up online, or in the Activities Resource Centre (ARC) above the Quad.

Societies

Joining a society is one of the best ways to get more out of your time at LSE. The Students’ Union has over 150 societies covering a wide range of activities from the serious and prestigious, to the light-hearted and fun. With such a huge and diverse number of groups there really is something for everyone!

Societies cost from as little as £1.50 to join. Sign up online, at the Freshers’ Fayre, or in the Activities Resource Centre (ARC) above the Quad. If you want to start a new society that is not listed here, contact us or have a look at the Resources page on the LSESU website to find out more info.

The Media Group comprises of 4 societies and is one of the Union’s most active groups. It consists of a weekly newspaper, a radio station, a TV station and a journal. The best bit is that it’s all led by LSE students, and there are loads of ways to get involved. THE BEAVER The Beaver is the official newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union and has a strong tradition of independence from the Union and hard nosed intelligent reporting. Around 3,500 copies are published and distributed every

Tuesday and 21 issues of the paper are published each academic year. CLARE MARKET REVIEW The Clare Market Review was established in 1905 and is the oldest student-run journal in the UK. Re-launched in 2008 after a three-decade vacation, Clare looks to provide more of the same, in a marketplace where more of the same is something appetisingly different. LOOSE TV LooSE TV is the official televi-

Fancy hitchhiking across Europe? Maybe attending a black tie ball in an exclusive club overlooking London? Travelling to a different city for a weekend filled with raising money and nights out? Parachuting out of a plane? Or perhaps attending a vintage tea party? Well, LSE’s Raising and Giving (RAG) society allows you to do just that! RAG is one of the biggest groups on campus, filled with funloving students who aim to get as much as we can out of our time here at LSE... all in the name of charity. Every year RAG puts on a huge range of events, in aid of our three chosen charities (which students can vote for at the beginning of each academic year).

sion network of the Students’ Union, offering a wide variety of quality student-made programming. LooSE TV represents a network of filmmakers with vibrant ideas, and a network of friends working to realise those ideas. PULSE RADIO Pulse are the sound of the LSE Students’ Union, broadcasting 24-hours a day to bring you the hottest music, student news and high powered debate (a.k.a. gossip). There is something for everyone at Pulse Radio - even if it’s just a wild social life!

We also help to facilitate and support student fundraising: whether you’re part of a society on campus or organising something yourself, we’re here to help! Have a look at our pages for more info about our committee, the charities we are supporting this year and what you can expect to get up to with RAG! You can stay involved by visiting our website emailing us at su.rag@lse.ac.uk or joining our facebook group (search LSE SU RAG). There is always something to do, and a way to get involved.

the

Beaver

Thursday October 03 2013

Freshers Special Tube/Underground stations

Buses

Cycling

Holborn Station is on the corner of Kingsway and High Holborn. Approximately five minutes away.

Buses that stop on or near the Aldwych are numbers 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 26, 59, 68, X68, 76, 77a, 91, 139, 168, 171, 172, 176, 188, 243, 341 and 521.

There are bicycle racks on campus in addition to eight high-security cycle racks in the basement area between St Philips north and south buildings.

Each bus stop should show which buses stop there and their frequency.

The LSE campus now also hosts two Barclays Cycle Hire docking stations on Houghton Street and Portugal Street.

If you have a student rail card you can tie it in to your Oyster card to have a great discount on travel. Though of course walking is always cheaper. Though it shuts a little after midnight, not don’t expect to get the tube back after a night out.

Though they can be great, the downside of course is the traffic in London can be terrible and you may be delayed by quite a while on the way in.

(ORANJE)

b0r0da

Meeting other people So you have just arrived at the LSE meeting a vast number of new people you have never met before. What do you say to them? No idea? We’ll we have compiled a guide just for you. Essentially, don’t say any of these things, and you will be fine: 1. I am studying ____ 2. My A-Level results are ___ 3. I was rejected from Oxford / Cambridge.

Cycing can be fun, but also very dangerous, be sure to wear a helmet!

9. Ah, I know you from Twitter. 10. I haven’t Facebook stalked you, I promise. 11. Hi, I’m in X Political Party. 12.

Politics is my life

Ten Commandments You shall have no university before the LSE when describing where you study. You shall not make any positive reference to KCL or UCL

13. Like, how do I know this piece of paper is even real?

Thou shall not take the name of the School for granted

14. I love the LSE it’s so amazing, isn’t it.

Honour Saturday by having a lie in.

15.

Honour the Staff of Wright’s Bar because we love them

I’m a life experiencer.

4. So where else did you apply to.

16. My dad is the dictator of ____

5. I want to work at ______ bank.

17.

TOUR TOUR TOUR!

6. I want to write for ____ section of the Beaver

18. I can’t wait till the first UGM, its the heart and soul of LSE.

7. I’m going to be an MP in 10 years, just watch me.

19. I’m quite well known on Youtube, you know.

8. I’ll see you at Crush this Friday.

20. *Any and all possible chat up lines*

Aran Burton

Though shalt not call thyself a Lad Thou Shalt Join a Society and Never Go to Meetings Thou shall not accept funding from dictators (again) Thou Shallt not plagerise entire books Thou shalt never cite Wikipedia as a source

Freshersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Week Special

The Beaver 03.10.2013

A GLIMPSE OF SOUTHEAST ASIA THROUGH THE WINDOWS OF THE LSE STUDENTS' HOMES...

SOUNDWAVECROATIA.COM

ne of the good things about studying at the LSE is that your circle of friends quickly spans several nationalities. As Asians are especially predominant in this institution, I found myself befriending Malaysians, Vietnamese, Hong Kong Chinese, and Singaporeans amongst others during my first year staying at the LSE Halls. Having gotten a taste of Southeast Asia through the pictures my friends showed of back home, the food they cooked, and the stories they shared, I felt that when summer came around, it was time to visit the region and see for myself what it is like in the countries where my friends grew up. I was rewarded with a remarkable journey that spanned three different countries and the opportunity to be hosted by these Asian LSE friends of mine, gaining insights as to how they grew up and how they lived day by day. My first stop this summer was Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, where I stayed with a friend on his 11th floor apartment in a 26-storey building that included a rooftop pool, gym and squash court. An “ivory tower“ as he called it—a rich, exclusive building growing out of a neighbourhood of slums. Awareness dawned on me at that time that by staying with my friends from LSE, I might only get to see certain sides of the countries I would be visiting—the wealthy, slightly westernised world of those who can afford to study in Europe, which is a much-desired but still rarely affordable goal in Asia. My Thai friend took me around his version of Bangkok: shopping malls, eating places, temples with golden Buddhas and Hindu gods, and Royal Palaces. At the end of the day, he said, “I’ve shown you where I’ve grown up, but to be honest, I don’t know much about how ‘normal‘ people here live.” On that note, he suggested

that we go down and eat in the slums; the residential neighbourhood of the poor that surrounded his apartment. This marked the first time he stepped foot in that place. On the way down to Malaysia, I was recommended to take the train—supposedly the only bearable train connection in the whole of Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, I did not get to enjoy the 23 hour ride due to a rail worker strike. Instead, I embarked on a 30 hour odyssey by overland bus. Arriving in Penang, an Island Province in Northern Malaysia mainly inhabited by the ethnic Chinese, I had a chance to wind down from Bangkok’s traffic rush and air pollution, and enjoy island life for a few days. I stayed in a single-storey house of a Christian Chinese Malaysian friend from LSE. I saw more temples, more eating places and more shopping malls, and had a chance to go to church

with my host’s family. Malaysian church services are highly interesting to observe, with live music and power point slides with colourful pictures guiding the congregation. Immediately after stepping outside the church, I could see a Hindu temple and hear praying from a nearby mosque. Malaysia is not only a multi-ethnic but multi-religious country, despite the Muslim ethnic Malay being in the majority and the holder of almost all important governmental positions. I travelled down south to the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, which seems to have developed more evenly than Bangkok with its rising ivory towers and booming slums. Many people in KL live in single-family houses and the city has retained much greenery, which is unusual for an Asian city experiencing quick economic development. When I arrived, I was immediately

brought to a Western restaurant by my friend’s parents out of fear that I would not be able to handle Malaysian food. As I have experienced several times during this trip, Asian parents can be very forthcoming and seem to think through every step of the lives of their children (and their children‘s friends, apparently). According to many of my Asian friends, their parents have a say in a lot of the important aspects of their lives, including the choice of their study subjects, romantic lives, and what they did on their free time. I was often driven around by my friends‘ parents, being told (or suggested) where to go, what to see, or even how to be careful on the streets. They would even buy food or tickets for me—without giving me a chance to reject their offers. My last stop was Singapore, where I spent a mere two days; not nearly enough

time to get a full impression of the island. However, as one of the most developed countries in the whole of Asia, it fulfilled its stereotype of being extremely clean. In this city-state, space-constraint is a big issue. Hence, the family of my Singaporean friend lived in a tall building, in a perfectly planned, compact neighbourhood with several tall residential buildings surrounding a central food-court (“coffee shop” in Singlish), and nestling in between several alleys with small shops for everyday needs. Adjacent to every such neighbourhood is a nice, artificially-created recreational park. Singapore has some of the most reputable universities in Asia, but a number of its students still prefer to study overseas—lucky for me, as it gave me the opportunity to make international friends and have this wonderful trip, during which I learned so much about Asian culture, religion, globalisation and development. I think my next plan would be to invite my Asian friends to visit my home country. If I can convince them to travel instead of interning during their summer holidays, that is.

Laura Mai

ROOMMATES = BEST FRIENDS FOREVER? A SEASONED ROOM MATE'S ADVICE TO ALL FIRST-TIME ROOMMATES ON WHAT TO EXPECT...OR RATHER, WHAT NOT TO

mattradickal

hen I moved into my shared room at my halls last year, I thought my roommate and I would become friends. Mates, study buddies, partners-incrime against the cold, rough world of university. Well, it just did not turn out that way. My roommate was a third year Economics student; quiet, studious, went to bed early, talked little, watched a lot of soap operas online, and always ate dinner alone in front of her laptop. In all honesty, I do not think I could have had a better room mate. We never had a single argument, she never kept me up at night, she never made a mess, and never occupied the room with guests. Yes, it is true that we barely talked and I learned little about her during our year together and

we did not precisely become friends. However, that’s the thing about room shares: they are absolutely unpredictable and there is no supposed perfect relationship that everyone should aspire to build up with one’s room mate. If the relationship turns out to be a fairytale best-friends-foreverand-ever-at-least-until-graduation-friendship, then so be it. If it turns out to be like my case, well, that’s not bad at all; it just all depends on what you make of it. After a couple of weeks of trying to talk to my room mate, I realised that my room mate was simply not eager to engage in conversation and that she preferred to stick to her side of the room (which I liked to think of as the dark side of the room), I changed my strategy, and

treated my room not as a place to seek social interaction, but as a quiet place of retreat from all the social interaction I was starting to have outside of my room. Objectively, this may give the impression that my room-sharing experience was an unpleasant one, but it was not. It was just different from what I had expected, and thus, I urge all Freshers who will be moving in with a roommate this year not to have any expectations as to the relationship you may or may not have with your roommate. Each room-share is a unique, unprecedented social arrangement and it is all about how we adjust to the unexpected. Laura Mai

03.10.2013 PartB

HEADF**K OR HOME TRUTH—

DOES KORINE'S SPRING BREAKERS REVEAL MORE THAN WE THINK IT DOES?

ANNAP URNA PICTUR ES

ern teenager emerging; one who has been indoctrinated by celebrity culture and classic Western iconography, but still sees the world through the eyes of a child. The baby pink haze that shrouds the scenes of obscene violence gives the whole film a dreamlike quality. Yet, his decision to juxtapose colours that are commonly associated with prepubescents means that the colour scheme is young and play ful, but the images themselves are simultaneously disturbing and often erotic.

"A striking similar —ity is that both images are set against the sky; this gives each a sense of infinity and con tinuity"

Franco) is playing a white grand piano whilst singing Britney Spears as the three girls (Vanessa Hudgens, Rachel Korine and Ashley Benson) dance around him, adorned with guns. Oddly enough, this image reminded me of Jack Vet triano’s painting ‘Dance Me To The End of Love’. A striking similarity is that both images are set against the sky; this gives each a sense of infinity and continuity. In each, there is a sense of engagement between the hu man form as they are laid out against the sky. However, the passionate charge that exudes from Vettriano’s paintings is misplaced in Korine’s work. None of

PARTB SAYS HELLO! L

et me be your guide into the explosion of colour and texts that is PartB. We are a somewhat separate entity from The Beaver; in that, since we are a pull-out, you can literally pull us out from the rest of The Beaver (ba-damtah!). Okay. Really bad joke. In essence, however, that is exactly how we're different. We run reviews ranging from food to theatre to film. We cover all sorts of events from the literary to the artistic to the musical. We are the guide which points out where exactly in this massive city you can find all of the above, and most importantly, we are the safe space in which people can safely express themselves and what they love, no matter how silly or irrelevant to the 'real world' it may be. My foray into The Beaver started very suddenly when I found out that there was an opening as Co-Editor of PartB. At that point in time, I was in a very dark place where my whole student life revolved around a vi-

the girls will go on a killing spree. As a result, the shot serves to capture the moment between the end of a deluded childhood and a fast dissipating future. Naturally, the results are abstract. For me, this makes Korine an image—maker as opposed to a director. This should not be seen as a criticism, as the results not only make people talk, but it commands his viewers to think.

One of the most potent images in the film is the piano scene. Alien (James

ANN APU RNA

hallucinatory headf**k might be the most appropriate way to describe Harmony Korine’s latest film, Spring Breakers. In other words, although the screen might be awash with cushy candy colours, you are never quite comfortable or at ease. In my opinion, the somewhat excessive inclusion of breasts made the film looe its momentum. However, some of the stills from Spring Breakers capture pure ‘teenage’ debauchery and decadence. For me, this makes Korine one of the most important artists of our generation. Spring Breakers documents the journey of four college girls about to embark on their summer vacation. But, oh wait, there is a twist! We are living in the modern era—to have fun, you need money. Lots of money. So, in the style of GTA (Grand Theft Auto), three of the girls head off to a restaurant and steal enough cash to fund their vacation. Of course, they wind up in jail where a drug dealer is waiting to bail them out. With such a plot, you cannot expect the film to be entirely riveting or realistic. However, Korine’s artistic flair means that through the gunfire and pink balaclavas, one can see the mutated psyche of the mod-

cious cycle of procrastinating, complaining about, and eventually not completing my reading assignments. I was, as you can see, a typical LSE student, and this was an opportunity to break free and try something refreshing and out of my comfort zone. I ran for the position, optimistically foreseeing days of intellectual stimulation and relatively simple tasks. I mean, it’s just proofreading and formatting, right? How hard could it be? Boy, oh boy, was I mistaken. See, in order to get the newest issue out by Monday for all our dear and valued readers (hello there!) all our pages need to be done and publish-perfect by Saturday at the latest. Content for the newspaper generally comes pouring in sometime around Friday evening to Friday night… sometimes even encroaching into Saturday morning. This means a mad rush of proof-reading, formatting (not as easy as it sounds–I’ve been doing it for months and still get panic attacks whenever the program

does something unexpected. In the interest of full disclosure, I am, however, chronically technologically-challenged.) and referencing. Despite all that, I love it, really. Being co-editor of PartB has really opened up my world in ways I did not think was possible. It was a real eye-opener for me to be exposed to Conor Oberst and his ability to pour pure emotion and conviction into his songs, Valentino’s invaluable contribution to haute couture over the years or Duchamp’s idea of Conceptual Art as the rejection of common notions of aesthetics. If you’re feeling a little lost at all the references, they are all featured in past publications of PartB in The Beaver; all available for perusal online at www.thebeaveronline.co.uk. It is more than just culture and knowledge, however; it is the chance to meet people—passionate people who genuinely love what they write about; be it film, food, music, theatre, fashion or art. Passion is an incred-



the girls are elegant; they revolve around the piano wearing tracksuits crudely emblazoned with the slogan ‘DTF’. A balaclava— a balaclava, however, that is reminiscent of My Little Pony merchandise—covers their faces. In my mind, it is at this point that they completely lose their identity as individuals. Korine depicts them as one and the same, each perfectly produced for a mass market. Korine does not achieve the serenity in Vettriano’s work. This is because the audience is aware that after this scene,

ibly beautiful thing to witness, and I am honoured to be able to get a glimpse into the fantastic worlds of these lovely and talented people week after week. Since joining The Beaver, I can safely say that my world has gotten a lot larger, and infinitely more colourful. So yes, in case all that leading up was too subtle for you (who am I kidding?), this is an invitation to you (yes, YOU) to get on board and join our happy family at PartB. We're really diverse so wherever your interests lie, no matter how niche it is, if you have the urge to share it with the world, we want you in PartB! Drop us a line at partb@thebeaveronline.com. Don't be nervous! We don't bite. Much.

Janie Tan

Jade Jackman

The Beaver 03.10.2013

LIGHTS BEFORE DAWN:

UNOFFICIAL CHINESE ART 1974—1985 S

urrounded by flashy high—rises that comprise Hong Kong’s urban terrain, Asia Society Centre provides a serene oasis in a fast—paced concrete world. This past summer, the institution served as a venue for Lights Before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974—1985, an exhibition showcasing the works of twenty-two Chinese artists. Their unwavering belief in creative expression united them in such time of political oppression. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution starting in the late 1960s saw intellectuals and school graduates alike forcibly rusticated, fated to spend years ‘re—educated’ under hard labour in dreary rural countrysides. This state—wide cultural lobotomy extended to the arts; academies were closed down with the remaining institutions requiring appropriate political leanings to attend. However, the most drastic change was perhaps the regime’s decision to re—define Chinese art; it was no longer a pursuit of formal beauty but a vehicle for political content. Even landscape painting, arguably the highest form of traditional Chinese art, was deemed bourgeois decadence. The two styles officially allowed were portraiture of the Chairman himself, abundantly adorned with red, or socialist realist painting extolling the virtue of common people: Workers-Peasants-Soldiers, each with an expression of joyful contentment. Nonetheless, it was this atmosphere of stifling repression that germinated the seeds of artistic dissent. Focusing on three distinct groups—the Wuming (No Name), Xingxing (Stars) and Caocao (Grass)—the exhibition offered a glimpse into the artworks, as well as the historical context which shaped the minds behind them. The most politically— minded of the three, the Xingxing extolled the value of individuals—the stars— in contrast to the powerful, blinding, monolithic state and its dictatorial ruler as officially symbolised by the sun. In an impressive stunt on 27th September 1979, the members exhibited works by 23 artists outside the National Art Gallery in Beijing without authority approval. Oil paintings, woodblock prints and sculptures appeared mysteriously overnight on public fences, streets, and trees, receiving rippling attention from pedestrians, art students, and prominent artistic fig-

ures alike. Even though the police closed down the exhibit on the third day, their mission was accomplished; the message of artistic freedom had gotten out. However, at a time when everything needed to have political utility, the creation of art with apolitical content may have been the most political act of all. The notion of art for art’s sake was endorsed by the Wuming, who found spiritual and physical freedom via en plain air painting of natural landscapes. Mostly proletarianised children of exiled intellectuals, the group would regularly meet after their forced manual labour work to discuss Western art, literature and philosophy from whatever scrap of confiscated works they

"In the words of member Wang Aihe: At a time when most people were preoccu pied with the revolution, we found in land scape a space of freedom" could find, or forge travel document to go on countryside retreats. In the words of member Wang Aihe: ‘At a time when most people were preoccupied with the revolution, we found in landscape a space of freedom’. The Caocao, on the other hand, viewed the past not as a source of nostalgia but inspiration. Founded by Qiu Deshu, staff artist at Luwan District Cultural Centre, the research team explored, in practice, the idea of ‘formal beauty’ amidst the backdrop of theoretical debate. An experimental combination between abstract expressionist techniques, calligraphy and ink produced a vividly idiosyncratic style. Their first exhibition was held in February 1982, after which it was promptly disbanded under the charge of ‘abstract tendencies’. The curator himself was fired and politically ostracised; the merit of his works, until recently, found recognition everywhere else but his own country. The most iconic piece in the exhibition was perhaps Silence by the Xingxing’s

Wang Keping. It is a surrealist, found-object wooden sculpture of a man’s head with a plug stuffed in his mouth, one eye closed while the other blinded by a circular coin with an x-mark. The work encapsulated the sense of claustrophobic frustration endemic in artists and general populace, whose individual visions were stamped upon by the state’s totalitarian brutality and ever-changing Orwellian propaganda. Similarly, Qiu Deshu’s abstract ink paintings filtered the absurd national zeitgeist through the lens of the alienated. Allowing the splashed ink to flow freely through the manipulation of paper surface rather than formal guiding via the paint brush, Qiu portrayed the elusive sense of abstract freedom. This calculated outrage was emphasised by the presence of red calligraphy stamps, which instead of being a mere identifier on the paper’s edge, became an independent, disruptive, and dominating element. Allegedly inspired by cracks on the ground observed during his post— fall—from—grace stroll, the artist later developed a style called ‘fissuring’, intentional lacerations inflicted on the paper’s back, producing a ‘cracked’ effect representing transcendence on the painted surface. The whole exhibition gave one a sense of liminal calmness, as faint whispers carried cries for freedom from periods passed. Paving the way for Chinese avant— garde art from 1980s onwards, these three groups showed the possibility of transgression in an era when such an act could have had perilous consequences. While many, such as former Xingxing member Ai Weiwei, went on to receive international recognition, others, primarily those from the humble Wuming, returned to their state-assigned vocations after the group’s dissolution. Still, their legacy lived on, resonating in the aching souls of those whose aspiration for free expression and pursuit of beauty were worthwhile ends— in—themselves without further need for justification. .



Josh Jinruong

Asia Society "Empty No. 1" (1982) by Qiu Deshu from the CauCau Group

Asia Society "Silence" (1979) by Wang Keping from the XingXing Group

Asia Society "The Hall of Supreme Harmony" (1976) by Zhang Wei from the Wuming Group

the

Beaver

Thursday 03 October 2013

Features

THE SOCIETY COLUMN features LSE African-Caribbean Society

OUR JOURNEY AHEAD

If your society would like to be featured in THE SOCIETY COLUMN e-mail: features@thebeaveronline.com NIGEL STEAD

Taofiq Akinpeju, LSE ACS Society

n this month of October, the LSESU African & Caribbean Society and indeed the LSE community at large are proudly celebrating Black History Month! BLACK HISTORY MONTH Black History Month runs for the entirety of October, with events held across the country. Our keynote event for the season is “Black Ascent” which is a Question Time style panellist debate, with the panel comprised of students and professionals alike. We are proud

to announce that Professor Thandika Mkandawire, the first person to take on the new position of Chair in African Development at the LSE, will be chairing our event. The LSE Students’ Union ACS is holding this event in association with the LSESU Anti Racism officer, Rayhan Uddin. GIVE ME TAP In the spirit of Black History Month, the LSESU African & Caribbean Society is committed to making a lasting impact in the life of thousands of underprivileged people in

Africa. We are proud to announce our partnership with the amazing social enterprise ‘GiveMeTap’. Its mission statement is to make clean drinking water available to every human in the world and its innovative solution to achieve this is the creation of a reusable bottle that will change the world – one bottle at a time. The GiveMeTap bottle enables you to get free water from a network of cafes and restaurants and helps another person in Africa get access to water. Every GiveMeTap bottle you purchase contributes to the development of water boreholes/wells. With every two GiveMeTap bottles you purchase, you can give a person access to water for life! Plus you can give one of the bottles to your best friend. We like to think of this as: “Water for You. Water for everyone”. So I hope you join us by getting involved with all the events and projects that we have planned for you this month. More information about our calendar and events can be found on our website www.lsesuacs.co.uk. Alternatively you can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Let us all play our part in society. One step at a time!

Professor Thandika Mkandawire will be chairing “Black Ascent”, ACS’ keynote

GIVE ME TAP • • •

Founded in 2011 by Edwin BroniMensah, a PhD graduate of the University of Manchester Mission to provide 1m people with access to clean, safe water by 2018 Has projects in Kpakpalamuni, Ghana and Chafulumari, Malawi

THE WATER PROBLEM • • •

780 million people don’t have access to clean water. 3.4m deaths occur each year from water related-diseases such as cholera and hepitatis. 6bn hours per year are spent collecting water, preventing many from an education or finding a job.

RAG CORNER features an Introduction to an Exciting Year of Charity Events the team dedicated to making LSE a more fun and charitable place. You may know who we are already from the RAG bands being sold for Freshers Week but in case you didn’t... well, we are RAG.

What is RAG? Nona Buckley-Irvine President of RAG writes about why you should get involved with Raising and Giving this year LSE.

i Freshers! Congratulations on getting into LSE, and welcome to the best three years of your life. It is most certainly a cliché, but hey, clichés are there for a reason... So I’m writing to introduce

What is RAG? RAG stands for Raising and Giving, and we are the fundraising arm of the Students’ Union. Throughout the year, we put on events like the RAG bands, Freshers’ Ball, and RAG raids which make sure you have a bloody good time while raising money for charity. RAG is not just an LSE thing – there are RAGs across the country who have raised money for charity for decades, and collectively RAGs make millions for charities every year. We haven’t been quite up

there at the top, but this year is when it changes! Join us in

“Being stung by eels while wading through a river of sludge is a memory that will stay with you forever” becoming the biggest London RAG and overtaking Imperial, and establishing ourselves as a top RAG in the RAG world.

So how do you get involved? Well – there are our socials, but it is not all socials though! In Michaelmas term, if you dare, hop on one of our coaches to a mystery location in England and race back with NO money in the fastest time

possible. Last year we dropped around twenty RAGgers in Skegness and all of them made it back in time for dinner... In Lent Term we turn up the heat. Fancy jumping out of a plane? Do our skydive. Thought about going to Europe for an Easter break? Hitchhike with us. Last but not least, if you think you are a Tough Guy, we dare you to undertake our Tough Guy challenge in January. Experiences like these are amazing because you meet truly like minded people and do something different, challenging, and exciting outside of your degree. Plus, being stung by eels while wading through a river of sludge is a memory that will stay with you forever.

Kilimanjaro and Bike Rides If that is not enough, we have some summer treats for

you too. Keen cyclists – we are holding a bike ride. And for the truly courageous – or just mad – there is a mountain waiting to be climbed by LSE students. Next year, RAG is organising an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for details on how to sign up to this once in a lifetime opportunity. Okay so that’s the sales pitch. On the charity side of things, come to our stall in Freshers to vote for the three charities that LSESU RAG will be supporting throughout the year. Asides from that, come to our meetings, meet the committee, get involved, and join the team. We’ll be seeing you throughout the week at our RAG band events, so have a good time, make friends, and get RAGged! #teamRAG

Thursday 03 October 2013

the

Beaver

Features Eyes to the Left Liam Hill

Miliband takes on the energy companies, and rightly so.

d Miliband’s announcement that energy prices are to be frozen until 2017 has already elicited unjustified apocalyptic reaction from energy companies and free-marketeers, but it is a perfectly reasonable policy because the energy market simply is failing consumers. In 2009, energy prices fell by almost fifty per cent, while customers’ bills fell by only five per cent, and the profits of the Big Six are up 74 per cent since 2009. At the same time, executives’ bonuses are through the roof, even at a time of austerity for most of us, with Centrica awarding themselves multimillion pound bonuses on top of their multi-million pound pay. Profits and bonuses are up, at the expense of ordinary consumers. It is a sad, and all-toooften repeated story in modern Britain. Furthermore, it is democratic. Polls show that the majority of the public actually support far more radical proposals than Miliband is proposing: full-scale renationalisation of the energy sector. Freezing the prices for 20 months and “resetting the market” are far more modest proposals, which will make the energy market work better for consumers. The energy market will not work until there are substantial reforms, and a price freeze alone will not address them. But it is a start. Ensuring the market is sufficiently competitive, making sure that lower energy prices mean lower bills and creating an effective regulator should be on Miliband’s todo list while prices are frozen. An uncompetitive and insufficiently regulated market will never work for consumers, and Miliband’s intervention has created a necessary national debate about the future of our energy market. I hope he wins it. PAUL R BEDNALL

the LSE briefing: Do You Know Your Hall? We live in them, we eat in them ,we sleep in them, we drink in them, yet how much do we really know about the places we spend most of our student life in first year and above? Alexander Fraser briefs us about the halls we know and love. Alexander Fraser

PASSFIELD HALL Passfield Hall was LSE’s first residence; built c. 1830. Passfield is arguably named after Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, one of the four members of the Fabian Society who founded LSE. Also named after Sidney is the rather more explicity obvious postgraduate Hall, Sidney Webb House, built in 1998.

Holborn and Rosebery Avenue named, presumably, after the road they are situated on and King’s Cross Hall which is under construction by the station of its name and has come under criticism for being too expensive. CARR-SAUNDERS HALL Carr-Saunders Hall was built c. 1965 and has one of the highest proportion of first-year undergraduates of all the halls. Carr-Saunders is in referral to Professor Sir Alexander Morris Carr-Saunders, who was director of LSE between 1937 and 1957. Concerned about all kinds of social ills, especially those of overpopulation, he saw a solution in Eugenics, something that is somewhat out of vogue today. Along with the eugenic streak, Carr-Saunders also significantly promoted higher education in the colonies as a member of the Asquith Commission and was largely responsible for establishing several overseas university colleges. BANKSIDE HOUSE

Sidney Webb, The Lord Passfield whom helped establish the LSE

HOLBORN AND ROSEBURY Continuing the theme of obvious Hall names is High

Bankside is the largest hall of LSE and gets its name from Bankside House which was converted into a student residence for LSE in 1995. Its function prior to this it was the offices for the Bankside Power Station, now the Tate Modern.

BUTLER’S WHARF Moving to the postgraduates, Butler’s Wharf was built c. 1975, emerging through the redevelopment of the western end of London’s Dockland. The Butlers Wharf lends its name to the 25 acre site on which it lies, named after a Mr Butler who used the wharf and warehouse for the grain trade. GROSVENOR HOUSE Grosvenor House, another postgraduate hall, is a converted Victorian office building built in 1896 and located in Covent Garden. The Property was originally constructed in the early part of the 20th Century and comprehensively refurbished in the 1970’s. Originally the property was two separate buildings, one fronting Drury Lane and the other fronting Wild Street. However, at some point, the buildings have been combined to form one property. As a result, the two façades on Drury Lane and Wild Street are very different in appearance. LILLIAN KNOWLES HOUSE Lilian Knowles House opened to LSE in 2006 and is managed by Sanctuary Management Services, an independent housing association. The building was originally used by a charity as a night

refuge and during its time it potentially housed one of Jack the Ripper’s victims; Mary Jane Kelly. It was renamed to Lilian Knowles when LSE began its residency, presumably after the Professor Lilian Charlotte Anne Knowles who was the first full time lecturer in economic history at LSE, appointed in 1904, and the first female chair in 1921. NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE Northumberland House was used in the Second World War by the Ministry of Defence and named Northumberland House in homage to a large townhouse that was situated on the site until 1874 when it was demolished for the construction of Northumberland Avenue. This “new” Northumberland House was left empty for several years until it was purchased by the London School of Economics for conversion into a student hall of residence. ANSON & CARLETON ROAD Anson and Carleton Road apartments are independently run by Zebra Housing Association. They are reserved for students with children. The flats are self-contained and are situated at the junction of Anson and Carleton Road.

The International Briefing: Al-Shabaab The Westgate shopping mall shooting in Nairobi, Kenya, ended in over 65 deaths, with over 200 people reportedly wounded. Militant islamist group, Al-Shabaab took responsibility for the attack. So who exactly are Al-Shabaab? Deputy Features Editor, Tom Maksymiw, briefs us on the organisation. Tom Maksymiw, Deputy Features Editor

WHO ARE AL SHABAAB? al-Shabaab is the terrorist organisation which has claimed responsibility for the mass murder in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall last week in which over 65 civilians were killed. al-Shabaab which is Arabic for ‘The Youth’ or ‘The Boys’ is an Islamist terrorist organisation based in Somalia. The full name of the organisation is ‘Ḥarakat ash-Shabāb alMujāhidīn’ or ‘Mujahedeen Youth Movement’ and it is believed to command between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters.

WHAT ARE THEIR ORIGINS

al-Shabaab emerged in Somalia after the collapse of the Islamist governance of ‘Union of Islamic Courts’ in the south of the country in 2006 following military intervention in the region by neighbouring Ethiopia. The activities of the group, aside from the Westgate attack, have been implementing Islamist sharia in the areas under its control and fighting the African Union supported Ethiopian, Kenyan and Somalia government forces within Somalia. alShabaab, it is thought, are supported financially and militarily by the nearby country of Eritrea, although Eritrea deny the link. Eritrea’s alleged support for the group is accredited to dislike of Ethiopia rather than support for sharia or Islamist ideology. IN FIGHTING Throughout the organisation’s existence there has been a battle for power within alShabaab between those who seek to restrict their aims to the establishment of Islamist governance within Somalia (via the ejection of foreign forces from

the country), and those who seek to involve themselves in a fight for an international Islamic caliphate and wish to subordinate al-Shabaab to the al-Qaeda leadership. In the last year or so the latter internationalist faction has emerged dominant

“In-Fighting, as well as a succesful campaign by Somalaian government forces and their allies has led to a weakening, as it has lost control of many town ans cities” led by Ahmed Abdi Godane who pledged his and al-Shabaab’s obedience to al-Qaeda in 2012. After this pledge there followed a period of all-out war within alShabaab in which many of Godane’s internal enemies were either killed or fled to the Somali government for protection. RURAL SUPPORT This in-fighting as well as a successful campaign by So-

malian government forces and their allies has led to a weakening of the organisation as it has lost control of many towns and cities constricting its control to, admittedly sizeable, rural areas. Some therefore see the Westgate massacre in neighbouring Kenya as a gruesome assertion of the organisation’s intent under Godane, itself a sign of the internationalist faction’s new found dominance within al-Shabaab, as well as a desperate attempt to intimidate Kenya into withdrawing its troop from Somalia.

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Thursday 03 October 2013

Features The Feature Interview: Joseph Garcia

The Deputy Chief Minister of Gibraltar talks to The Beaver’s Michael Tavares

The views expressed by Mr Garcia are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SU or the Paper

Can you outline what it means to be Gibraltarian?

People feel very Gibraltarian, but they feel very British at the same time. This presents us with a paradox. The reality is that Gibraltarians, like the Welsh, see no contradiction in possessing dual national allegiances. People have been living on this rock for more than 300 years. That’s longer than the existence of the United States of America. There are a number of factors which have led to the development of a Gibraltarian identity. Firstly, there is the process of historical/social evolution. When Britain takes Gibraltar in 1704, the population evolves over 300 years and results in the community we have today. An additional factor concerns the evacuation of civilians during the Second World War. Those who remained in Gibraltar realised they had no power over their own destiny and governance. The third factor is Franco’s campaign in the 1960’s. International attention at the UN, combined with the local closure of the frontier, served to cement a specifically Gibraltarian identity.

How do you think Britain views Gibraltar and its citizens? The period of British ambivalence after the death of General Franco culminated in 2002 with a decision of the UK Labour government. Blair, Straw and Hain embarked on an idea of joint British/Spanish sovereignty. It was our reaction to such suggestions which represented the strength of the national identity which had emerged over the 20th century. Britain, like Spain, was now being treated with suspicion by Gibraltarians. Nevertheless, there is now a realisation within the British establishment that Gibraltarian consent is required before discussions are even initiated with Spain. We refer to this setup as a ‘double-lock’. There are two locks: (1) The British Government won’t act against our wishes (2) They won’t even enter into a process of discussion without our consent.

over Gibraltar with Spain conflicts with the current Conservative refusal to enter into any process of dialogue. However, the ‘double-lock’ mechanism mentioned earlier was granted under Labour and has been inherited by the Conservatives. On a more personal level, having a Prime Minister speak to the Gibraltarian population on National Day with a direct message is very significant. This direct approach from David Cameron is both refreshing and invigorating th century.

What are your thoughts on the recent diplomatic conflict with Spain? The recent conflict has nothing to do with fishing or reefs. It all stems from the decision of the Spanish government to withdraw from the Trilateral Forum. The Forum was created in 2004 and delivered a series of measures in 2006. The current Spanish government came into power at the end of 2011, and it acted as if it wanted to nullify the agreed 2006 terms. Spain has turned its back on dialogue with Gibraltar. This Spanish approach has created a serious vacuum; this vacuum has resulted in the persistence of the problems we face today. The recent crisis has resulted in an absolute PR disaster for Spain. The fact that the Spanish government has called for politically motivated delays at the border is something which is both clear and transparent to the international press. Every few years, Gibraltar is faced with such tenacity.

How would you respond to the claim that acts such as flag-bearing and military parades are both jingoistic and provocative? Flag-bearing in a colony such as ours is incomparable to flagbearing in a n y

The UK and Spain became embroiled in a dispute over the imposition of additional border checks after Gibraltar extended its artificial reef in the Mediterranean

modern nation-state. The flag-waving witnessed on National Day allows a colonial people to exercise their right to selfdetermination. Gibraltarians, as self-defeating as this may sound, claim their right to be a colonial people. They accept and celebrate such a status. They do not act like the aggressive, racist and belligerent imperialists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

How do you think Spanish policy towards Gibraltar will develop within the next decade? As long as this particular Spanish government remains in office, relations with Gibraltar will remain difficult. The P e o ple’s

Who do you think are more supportive of the Gibraltarian right to self-determination: Labour or the Tories? The contrast between Labour and Conservative policy towards Gibraltar is obvious. Labour’s attempt to share sovereignty

from: https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi

Party (Partido Popular) has traditionally always had a tougher line on Gibraltar. They showcased this attitude in 2002 and are currently doing so in this most recent diplomatic conflict. The Spanish Socialist Party tends to adopt a more humane approach. They were in office in 1985 when the frontier was re-opened. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Trilateral forum was formed with the support of the Socialist Party. The indication is that whilst these two main Spanish political parties maintain their claim on the sovereignty of Gibraltar, the way in which they pursue this claim is very different.

Are you satisfied with the level of political engagement amongst young people in Gibraltar? I think young Gibraltarians are very politically aware. Unlike in other countries, Gibraltar is faced with an external threat. This results in a threat to our identity, our government and our country. The methods Spain use, whether it be generating queues at the border, or imposing maritime incursions by naval vessels, affect the daily lives of Gibraltarians; both young and old. However, I think political awareness amongst Gibraltarians would be different if the external threat was non-existent. The use of local colloquial political terms such as ‘Chenga’ (which refers to border controls etc) is not a standard practice abroad. We have developed technical language solely as a result of the development of Spain’s relationship with Gibraltar.

Right Approch Matthew Pennill Where is the left?

his is a prime example of a populist policy that is well-intentioned but poorly thought-through. Firstly, what does Mr Miliband propose energy firms should do if the wholesale prices of gas and electricity double over the course of his 20 month experiment? Presumably he figures the companies can compensate with past earnings in such a scenario, but profits for the big six energy suppliers combined last year were less than £5bn. It is only by making such profits, which the Labour party seems so keen on demonising, that these companies can invest in muchneeded improvements to our energy supply. Besides, any sensible energy supplier would raise their tariffs before such an interventionist policy was put in place anyway, in anticipation of any future increase in supply costs. This renders the Labour leader’s plans pointless at best. Perhaps the most damaging implication of this scheme, however, would be its impact on future investment in our energy infrastructure. With the depletion of North Sea oil and gas reserves on-going, spending on new and sustainable energy infrastructure is essential. By hitting the energy firms, Mr Miliband is disregarding this vital investment need. EDF, for instance, is currently planning to spend around £30bn on British nuclear power, not a tiny contribution when one considers the firm’s market capitalisation of £42bn, yet evidently impossible without it making a profit. The decision to sacrifice the UK’s long-run energy need for a short-term political victory is not one taken by someone ready to be Prime Minister. If Mr Miliband really was serious about tackling the problem, he would halt his populist jibes at the business community and look at ways to ensure the country’s long-term energy future. A strict Soviet-style system of price enforcement is not a sign of progress.

Left field or Right on the money? E-mail:

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Features

Politics - The Final Nail in New Labour’s Coffin Liam Hill, Deputy Features Editor

d Miliband delivered his 63-minute long speech to the Labour Party conference, referring principally to Britain’s “cost of living crisis” and how his Labour government would solve it. Stylistically, it was effective. Reviving the no-notes technique from his last party conference speech seemed to work. His principle refrain was that “Britain could do better than this”, an exhortation repeated 17 times in various forms. The content of the speech added further policies likely to be included in Labour’s manifesto in 2015. The announcement which has dominated the headlines thus far is Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices until 2017. Prophetically, the Labour leader did suffix his announcement by saying “the companies aren’t going to like this”. He was vindicated. Critics of the policy say it will lead to a price hike before the election, would lead to underinvestment and could, at worst, cause blackouts. Despite this, it is a popular policy that works in focus groups and on the doorstep, which, if implemented successfully, would reduce living costs, which is central to Miliband’s agenda. To support small businesses, he would reduce business rates, funding this reduction

by cancelling a planned cut to corporation tax, due to be introduced in 2015. UK Corporation tax is already the lowest in the G7, and this policy reflects a parallel Labour pledge on income tax, the return of the 10p rate of income tax funded by a “mansion tax”. This will allow Labour to portray itself as “the party of small business”. These two, viewed together, show how central to Miliband’s agenda is shifting the tax burden to those with more ability to pay. What is undoubtedly significant is how much of a deviation from New Labour’s philosophy Ed Miliband’s conference speech represents. New Labour accepted the Thatcherite consensus that markets produce the best outcomes in public policy. They continued Thatcher’s lax regulation of the banks and tentatively introduced market structures into public services. Ed Miliband wants a Labour government unafraid of using the power of the state to make markets work differently. He intends to “reset the [energy] market” and his housing policy comprises something similar. Whereas Blair and Brown courted big business, Miliband wants to cancel their tax cuts to support small businesses; whereas Blair and Brown charmed the financial sector, Miliband told his conference “I don’t often say anything nice about the banks”, before praising banks paying a living wage; and whereas Pe-

ter Mandelson proclaimed New Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”, Miliband is unsatisfied with “a country standing apart as two nations”. Ed Miliband buried New Labour as he made his speech this year. However, accepting that the conference speech represents Miliband hammering the final nail into the coffin of New Labour is not to say his agenda is predominantly left-wing. On the electorally and economically crucial issue of fiscal policy, Labour would “stick to strict spending limits to get the deficit down” and attempt to reduce immigration. On the subject of leadership Miliband directly challenged David Cameron, saying if the Tories “want to have a debate about leadership and character, be my guest”. He attacked the prime minister for having the wrong priorities and standing up for the wrong people. The Conservatives accuse Miliband of being “weak”, but the retort came that David Cameron is “weak when it comes to standing up against the strong”. Ed Miliband has made bold speeches before. What makes a speech or an announcement successful, however, is follow up. After Miliband vowed to right a New Labour wrong by bringing back the 10p rate of income tax, funded by a tax on Britain’s wealthiest homeowners, Labour should have tried to capitalize on the announce-

Still missing your Mum? Let Pulse tuck you in...

24/7 at www.pulselse.co.uk PuLSE Radio Broadcasting

What do the polls think of Miliband? The good Ed scores joint top with Cameron in who is the most

honest party leader.

YouGov/Sunday Times 12-13th September

Labour are consistently leading opinon polls, with a 7-point

lead in latest polling.

YouGov/The Sun 25-26th September

The bad

67% think that Ed is doing badly as leader vs. 22% who think he’s doing well

ment YouGov/Sunday Times 12-13th September in the media. Alas, this was not the think that Ed has not procase. Seeming convided effective opposition to tent with the announcement alone, the Labour leadgovernment vs. 16% who ership and the shadow cabinet do. failed to make their case to the D a m i a n YouGov/Sunday Times 12public after the announcement. Ed needs a loyal, communica- McBride. 13th September To win in tive shadow cabinet and strong message discipline to make his 2015 and transform Britain according speech a success. New Labour’s media opera- to his values, Ed Miliband tion was a vice of excess, with needs to learn one final lestomorrow’s headlines often son from New Labour by findtaking precedent over reality ing the golden mean: a slick, a year or a decade down the professional media operation line. It produced the “dodgy which reinforces reality rather dossier” and combined with than overriding it.

69%

New Labour’s debilitating factionalism, it created a spin war spawning Alistair Campbell and

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Thursday October 03 2013

Diary of an LSE Student

Diary@thebeaveronline.com

LSE events and gossip - know something is going on? Email us.

Quote of the Week

Blurred lines Though the UGM appears to have disappeared there are rumours that there may be one last role of the die before it is finally removed from the memory of man. A motion is likely to be put forward this week to ban Robin Thicke’s song blurred lines from being played in the SU. Though Sub TV have already agreed to remove it from their playlists, so it will not be found in the Tuns, the motion is likely to affect Pulse, whose station manager has been asked to speak against the motion. ULU have already banned blurred lines from being played at their club nights, whilst encouraging the feminists revision to be played in its stead. Edinburgh, Leeds, Derby and the University of Western Scotland’s Students’ Unions have also moved to ban the song. On the other hand St Andrews voted to keep playing the song at union events, as a result there doesn’t appear to be universal agreement regarding the song within the student movement. The debate is probably going to take place next week.

The New Students Centre for the LSESU has been built up over the summer, and is expected to be open shortly after Christmas.

The President of Heythrop College SU has been reportedly noconfidenced less than 24 hours into the first day of freshers. The reason for the no confidence has not yet been given, however Peter O’Neil has decided not to contest the descision, which concluded with 2 votes in his favour to 7 against.

“I’ve presided over a ‘the thick of it’ style screw up”

Jay Stoll, General Secretary of the LSE Students’ Union

Tweets @ LSE Am I really seeing the ULU bureaucracy complaining about lack of transparency in the NUS bureaucracy? Lol. @JAYSTOLL The freshers are starting to notice I actually have no life, I’m already losing the illusion of cool. @HLRICHMOND92 Missed the deadline to apply to Deloitte and now I’m even less motivated than usual #LSEProblems #JobsAreAnUnwelcomeDistraction @SAMNBARNETT And which of the Disney songs does one sing while marching off to battle? ... @CRAIGJCALHOUN

Freshers’ Fairs across London Its that time of the year again, London is host to every university going through its period of freshers’ frenzy, for lack of a better term. King’s College across the strand held theirs in the Barbican for uncertain reasons, and though there was

plenty of space, with little if any problems getting around, there was a distinct lack of freebees making one wonder if the trek out so far from any of their campuses were worth it. UCL on the other hand handed out almost limitless free things, from wa-

ter bottles to pizza. It was also on the UCL campus, (as will LSE’s be) so hardly any walk. Huge numbers of food stands and a stage in the middle of their quad playing music and holding magic shows seemed to draw considerable attention. However

the number of people was atrocious, with a one way system that took hours to move meters. Hopefully LSE will improve on both today. It has to be better than the one 2 years ago where people fainted due to the lack of air conditioning.

Thursday October 03 2013

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Thursday October 03 2013

Social

Top Tips

From the Beaver’s Archives

Welcome Freshers, By now you will have experienced a certain amount of what the LSE has to offer, hope you are finding it fun. Here are some top tips to hopefully make your Freshers’ experience even better: 1. You are going to face late nights out, particularly in Freshers’ Week, embrace it. It is a once in a life time event.

To read the complete Beaver archieve please visit: http://digital.library. lse.ac.uk/

2. However, try to stop the late nights out when term does start. You do have a degree to try for you know. 3. Stealing traffic cones is a bad idea. 4. You are in competition for Library resources, please try not to steal the books, and be sure to check them out early, there are a set number and they will vanish.

Overheard at LSE: First meeting of two freshers: Where else did you apply other than LSE? #2: UCL, #3: Warwick, #4: King’s. Just 4 unis? #1: ...and Oxford

Girl remarking to boy who has revised her paper: “You are so good - you’ve corrected things I’ve pretty much plagiarized!”

In the email to EC201 students: “there was a typo in the penultimate slide, the Cod War example”

EC102 class: Teacher: “Why did the black plague increase productivity?” Guy: “Because it killed the inefficient?”

ant mistake, but hey, it’s your degree. 7. Join every society (within reason); you are at university to learn, so see what you enjoy. From sport to politics, there is a club or society for everyone, and you have the chance to meet like-minded individuals. ‘Give it a Go’ sessions will let you see if you like something before having to pay to join. 8. Don’t pick your housemates until well after Christmas, the people you meet in Freshers’ may turnout to be horrible, or share none of your interests, or you may fall out with them in a spectacular way. The academic year is a long one. 9. Get used to being woken up by fire alarms at 3 a.m. 10. Freshers’ Flu, that is all. 11. We don’t care about your Gap Year.

5. Seriously, set yourself a budget and do your best to stick to it. You can get part time jobs, and so on, but uni life is not always going to be smooth sailing. It’s best to plan ahead.

12. Don’t wear your leavers hoodie.

6. Go to the lecturers’ Office Hours, you are going to ignore this, and you are making a gi-

14. If you forget someone’s name they’ll never like you again. No pressure.

ended up running back to my dorm after my pre-sessional classes, just so that I could call my parents/ friends for a chat! That was obviously not a good idea as I missed out on going out for drinks with classmates after classes.”“So, obviously, I didn’t make a lot of friends at first,” she laughed. “It’s always important to spend time getting to know new people in your first week at university rather than staying in your comfort zone.” Being homesick goes away after a while but there are graver problems. Many students also get into financial trouble once they move out as their parents are not there to make sure that their money is in the right place. It was harder for Kristina since she lived in another country altogether before moving to the UK for university. “I didn’t expect any problems opening a bank account when I first got to the UK,” she explained. “Whilst the bank admitted that they messed up my application and that I’d have to wait for another 2-3 weeks before I will have an active account to bank in my cheque, I was left worried because there was no other way I could access my funds. I was left with no money for 3 weeks, but luckily, a friend helped me out until my account was

sorted.” Although you would have read your course brochure thoroughly, it is plausible that not everything about the degree will meet your expectations. “I went onto a course which was very different to what I had previously imagined and had many aspects that I didn’t expect. I was fairly disappointed but decided to follow it through,” she said. “But it all still worked out in the end. As a result of the course, I produced a 20-minute investigative documentary about rough sleepers in London and the government’s move to end rough sleeping by 2012, just before the Olympics. The documentary revealed some of the unscrupulous tactics employed by the government to sweep the homeless off the streets, such as hosing them down and banning soup runs – tactics that they claimed to have stopped!” So, when things go wrong on your first day, don’t panic! Everyone is in the same situation. All it takes is to talk to people, which is usually made easier with an offering of food! That’s enough to get people’s attention and they won’t mind chatting to you after. What went wrong on your first day at university? How did you deal with it?

13. McDonalds gives you a free cheese burger with a student card.

First Day Blunders

You’ve started university today. You’ve managed to pack all your belongings into a few suitcases, your parents have said goodbye. and you’re raring to go. But no matter how much you plan, things can go wrong on your first day. We talked to two graduates about what went wrong on their first day and how they dealt with it. Kia Gerriques, fantasy fiction author of Innovera Yakov: The Journey of Thousand Eyes, graduate of Middlesex University: When at home, you dream of moving away from your parents. But, Kia began to miss their company, the minute they were gone! “It’s a really strange feeling. When growing up, I enjoyed reading books about faraway worlds and now couldn’t wait to start my own journey,” she said. “But as soon as they were gone, there was a strange feeling in my heart and suddenly I felt like I was the loneliest person in the world.” So how did she get over it? “I think the first thing I did was to find something familiar that would comfort me. My mum left all sorts of presents and books behind but all I wanted to do at that point was to drink a cup of herbal cinnamon

tea!” she chuckled. “It’s one of those things that my mum and I did - drink tea. So, this calmed me down immediately.” Can you always trust everything to work in your room once you move in? Kia was very frustrated when her internet connection did not work. “I’ve always been a social media addict and so all I wanted to do was say, ‘Hey! First day of uni going great’ or something. But I just couldn’t get a connection,” she explained.“Although I was nervous, I wandered through the halls looking for someone who was having better luck than me. I was surprised to find that most people were really friendly and then in the end, I found out that I just had the wrong password. So, the problem sorted itself out but if I had just stayed in my room, I would have been very miserable while eating a tub of Ben and Jerry’s.” A university map might look simple enough but what if you get lost very easily? “I’m not so great with directions and so really wanted someone else to explore the university with me,” she said. “I liked being prepared for my first day of lectures and did not want to be walking around for ages, looking for the hall. Unfortunately, my parents had to go back home and so they

couldn’t go round with me.“Luckily, I got talking to these two girls who also wanted to find where things were and they were happy enough for me to tag along! It might seem silly, if I didn’t talk to them, I would still be nervous about finding my way around a big campus. They are now two of my very good friends and we still tackle our little problems together.”

www.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/campusMap

Jane Hamilton

Kristina Khoo, editor of HotCourses Malaysia, postgraduate of Brunel Univesity: Kristina was also homesick when she first started university, especially since her parents were in another part of the world! “The first week’s always hardest when you have to be away from friends and family,” she said. “Because it was my first time being so far away from home, I was really homesick. I

Thursday October 03 2013

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Sudoku Puzzle - Easy

Social

Beaver Games Quiz

Mae I Help You?

SuDoku

1. What is the Capital of Louisiana?

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

2. Who is the current Prime Minister of Australia?

Send your questions to Advice@thebeaveronline.com

Sudoku Puzzle - Easy

Sudoku Puzzle - Hard

3. What is the capital city of Afghanistan?

Dear Mae, Students are notorious for constantly being broke, surely this must be worse in London. How do I manage my money and make it last?

4.Why is the Garrick called the Garrick? 5. Which is the only US state to begin with the letter ‘P’ www.sudoku-puzzles.net

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

Words

Killer

- Concerned about significant hardship

Sudoku Puzzle - Hard

More Puzzles:

Dear CASH,

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

The best thing is to make a weekly budget and stick to it. Although London is expensive there are several ways to save. Apply for a student oyster card, try not to eat out and get take-aways during your first few busy weeks but rather cook your meals and get the people you live with involved so it is less of a chore. Use your student discounts - restaurants, shops will often give you discounts by simply showing your LSE or NUS card. You can also apply for part time jobs and LSE also often have vacancies on campus, which can be handy. -Mae

Killer Sudoku Puzzle - Easy

1. Paregmenon 2. Polysemous 3. Labrose 4. Algerining 5. Hypocorism www.sudoku-puzzles.net

Can you guess the meaning of these words? Then try to use them in every day conversation.

More Puzzles:

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Catchphrase

KCAP

More Puzzles:

HO ROB OD T O U C H FACT OF THE DAY The numbers ‘172’ can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.

---------------------------

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

FISH ND

FAMOUS LAST WORDS Oh Lord, forgive the misprints! - Andrew Bradford, book-publisher

Dear Mae,

CHAIR DEATH

There is so much going on in the first few weeks both socially and academically, I am worried about getting everything done! How do I manage my time? - Requiring useful notions Dear RUN,

LIFE

SAINT OF THE DAY Lydwina -- Patron Saint of Ice Skaters

Although your first few weeks will be busy it is still important to attend, the often tedious and dull, admin-y events as well as your first few lectures as they will give you all the essential information for your course. Set an alarm and plan to go with one of your friends. Essays and readings will pile up quickly too, so make sure you know when your deadlines are.Avoid all nighters by planning your time and being efficient. If you are writing an essay, try to focus until it’s done and then you can enjoy yourself without worrying. -Mae

----------------------------Dear Mae, I’m about to start uni and I really want to go to all the freshers clubbing events. Is it going to be as uni is portrayed with lots of people hitting on each other and having one night stands? -Curious About Uni Dear CAU, Short answer, CAU: Yes. There will be a number of events like that (though not all of them). So be prepared and make sure you’re safe. Visit www. nhs.uk/sexualhealth/ for more information and options for birth control and STI prevention. Have fun; you’re only a fresher once! - Mae ----------------------------Dear Mae, I need help meeting girls! I am just starting university, I don’t live in residence and my course is made up mostly of males. I’ve also never been to a party and I don’t want to hookup with a drunk girl. I have no problem making friends with guys. I’m not antisocial - just inexperienced. Any suggestions? - Seeking Help for YearOne Dear SHY, I know how you feel, SHY! First, I must say that joining societies will make a huge difference. I joined my university’s radio station and met so many people. Choose something out of your comfort zone; it’ll allow you to meet different types of people (hopefully lots of girls) and it will also expand your horizons. Secondly SHY, don’t discount parties. Go with your guy friends and keep an open mind. Not all the girls there will be drunk and you’ll surprise yourself with how much fun you’ll have. - Mae

PRIVATE B

Under new management

A WELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR Dear fresheroonies, A hearty howdy and welcome to y’all, the freshmen and the not so fresh (ahaha)! I hope you had a productive and mind-expanding summer recess, and have settled well into your fraternity houses. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on being drafted into an Ivy-League school. As the poet Horace once said, ‘Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet’, which I think we can all agree with (ahaha)! University is, however, about more than just books and seminars. Learning is an organic process, and with nearly three socialising opportunities a Semester, we can see why George Bernard Shaw once called this noble institution ‘the London School of Alcoholics’. (As my Rugby club friends would say, TOUR TOUR TOUR! ahaha). Though my grandfather was a depression-era Kentucky rum runner, it is incumbent upon me to remind you that the Federally mandated drinking age remains 21, so please, no keggers on college property. As a former Varsity Pointguardbackerfielder for the NYU BraveSkins, I feel a healthy amount of contact sport helps us to grow as well-rounded individual contributors to society (and I’m not just talking about Zoo Bar! ahaha). I am therefore a keen supporter of all of our clubs, except the misleadingly-named football team. Go Fightin’ Beavers!

Totally Legit Letters Dear Beaver, Just arrived at LSE, can’t wait to get totes hammerd! Shout out to corridor 3 crew #woo #pintsthenshots Keane O’Fresher Dear LSE Freshers, Do you want to earn money and party at the same time? Now hiring promoters for our cool East London club! Who needs grades? I got a 2:2 and I turned out ok. Fab Rick Dear Beaver As a pulling enthusiast, I’m looking forward to getting off with loads of freshers.

For those of you less inclined to run track or hurl the ol’pigskin, your SU has a wide range of societies for you to patronize. Some are even about things that aren’t career related! I myself am a member of the NRA Society, the Democratic Labor Society, and Northern (Virginia) Society, and am looking forward especially to RAG’s annual pledge drive- look for Nina and her bucket on Houghton Luther King Blvd! If you have any free time between these great activities, please consider our public lecture series, commended in the New Yorker as ‘an unparalleled pick’n’mix of intellectual sweeties’. I myself will be speaking on 10/31/2013 on the sociology of socks. Other highlights include some real American heroes like Rupert Murdoch, NickelBack and Norman Tebbit.

You should’ve seen the size of the cheque!

In closing, I hope you find your first year at LSE as enjoyable as I found mine, and I hope it sets you on a career path as lucrative as mine (I can buy and sell you all! ahaha). Live long and prosper, your pal, Prof C. ‘Coach’ Calhoun, Director and CEO

UNPRECEDENTED EXPANSION It’s been a summer of unprecedented expansion for the LSE. In addition to the unprecedented expansion in class sizes, here’s 4 other things that have dramatically increased over the summer 1. LSE campus size: as part of a drive to accomodate greater student numbers, the university has recently acquired buildings at 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 30 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Fields of Athernry and Strawberry Fields Forever. 2. Jay Stoll’s ego - has grown so massively that the SU has been forced to build a new Students’ Centre to accomodate it. 3. Craig Calhoun’s salary: The only academic salary clearly visible from space, it has been credited by the Institute for Fiscal Studies as a major driver in UK economic growth. 4. Bankside embezzlement (that’s enough al-

legations. Ed).

In Other News

• Mark Carney appointed head of Jay Stoll’s ego is reported to be having trouble fitting in to the Sabb offices

This week's edition complied by Tam Banters Col. Honey-Badger Rodney Wallace

LSE100 in desperation move to increase interest rates.

• Fortune Telling Society AGM

cancelled due to unforseen circumstances.

Thursday October 03 2013

Beaver

the

Sport

Sport Editor’s predictions for the year Dennis Mooney, Sport Editor

Although it is only October, the Premiership has been in full swing for 6 weeks. This leads to controversy again over the short termism of premier league football, as Manchester United sack David Moyes following a draw away to Cardiff. United’s board are impressed by West Ham’s brilliant start to the season, and the dour Scotsman is replaced by Sam Allardyce, who promptly sells the entire midfield, bringing in Papa Bouba Diop and Carlton Cole to play alongside RVP up front, and surprise recruit Ben Elders to bolster the flagging back line. Noted anti-tactician and Oasis fan Allardyce cites Elders’ long ball abilities and ‘Gallagher-esque style’ as his chief reasons. After England’s defence of the Ashes on home soil, they head Down Under brimming with confidence, which is short-lived as Australia’s Peter Siddle takes all 20 English wickets in the first test. His vegan diet is widely credited, with pundits only RUBYGOES

airport and, in a well-coordinated publicity stunt, offered a guest slot on the New York Giants NFL roster. Ever the entertainer, he agrees but is badly injured in his first game at defensive tackle, taking the rest of the year off to recuperate. Sportswriters hoping to crowbar the phrase ‘Giantkilling’ into reports on any of these events are irreversibly confused. In Olympic news, the campaign to move the Winter Olympics away from Sochi is unsuccessful and the games go ahead, to widespread condemnation. They prove anticlimactic, as it transpires that banning anything that could be construed as LGBT propaganda makes the whole affair rather dull. Prince Harry, there in his new role as Britain’s Olympic ambassador, takes to Twitter to denounce organisers for the ‘#Snorefest’ before attempting to liven things up by proposing a game of Gay Chicken with the Russian bobsleigh team. Needless to say this doesn’t go down particularly well with the authorities, but they are powerless in the face of popular opinion, as his description of the events as ‘#Banterous’ gets retweeted by literally everyone on Twitter, demonstrating to Vladmimir Putin the futility of his legislation. ALLTOGETHERFOOL

Siddle - Soon to fall victim to the ECB/International Fruit Trade machinations. able to guess at the amount of bananas he eats per day. The Man from Del Monte is spotted leaving the England team hotel with a large brown paper envelope, however, and Siddle is ruled out of the rest of the series with a mystery illness. England come back to win comfortably. In other sports diet-related controversy, the Australian open, first big event of the tennis calendar, is won by Argentine giant Juan Martin Del Potro, who beats Novak Djokovic and credits his victory to the fantastic barbecue he had the night before. Djokovic responds by adopting a high-protein diet for the American hardcourt season, a move which backfires when he is mistaken for ex-football hero and pro wrestler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson at JFK

Osborne - The perpetrator of the whiff-waff riff-raff .gif-gaffe. Politics and grassroots sport go together like LSE AU and sobriety, so there’s no (ok, maybe a little) surprise when the Ping initiative to get more people playing table tennis becomes the focus of the Conservative Party leadership challenge. Boris Johnson, noted advocate of ‘whiff waff’, beats opponent George Osborne in a wellpublicised match at Westminster, prompting Osborne to dismissively refer to ‘whiff waff’ being for the ‘riff-raff’. In the inevitable social media backlash, someone combines his remarks with an animated picture of the moment he tasted defeat, and the whole

scandal turns into a .gif gaffe. (Sorry) The Six Nations takes place under something of a cloud, as England’s rugby team decide to enter the debate on Scottish independence in the press conference before their Calcutta cup match. Repeated references to Braveheart and a suggestion that Alex Salmond ‘can deep fry his balls’ lend the game an edge beyond that of even a traditional England-Scotland clash, but England prevail thanks to the metronomic kicking of Owen Farrell and the vocal support of LSE’s Louis Davies for his friend Joe Launchbury. However, France win the tournament, beating Ireland after Brian O’Driscoll is mysteriously taken ill on a visit to Le Caprice, once again missing the chance for a final swansong. April, and it’s boat race time; two teams of token postgrads in lycra onesies go head to head on the Thames. Oxford win after Cambridge suffer a late injury and draft in part time LSE rowing club vice assistant secretary Tom Meaden, who fills the boat with sufficient levels of vomit to cause the race’s first sinking in living memory. The Premier League title race fizzles out towards the end of the season, as Allardyce’s United fail to close the gap on oil-rich Man City. They seal victory at Arsenal, where manager Pellegrini throws himself into the crowd in an effort to emulate the fallen, but not forgotten, Jose Mourinho. Arsene Wenger immediately claims not to have seen the incident. City end up doing the double, despite losing the final of the Champions League. Winners AC Milan are stripped of the title after the trophy is stolen by Mario Balotelli, who takes it to Cash4Gold and spends the money on space hoppers for the city’s homeless population. Football fans around the world worship Balotelli, however, and FIFA are roundly condemned. Sepp Blatter, as usual, refuses to resign. Wimbledon, usually a refined atmosphere, becomes the centre of global bling for a fortnight as defending champion Andy Murray seeks to overcome accusations of dullness by becoming a member of ‘The Money Team’ and adding Floyd Mayweather and 50 Cent to his entourage. Despite successfully defending his

title, he fails, revealing the futility of the exercise when he proclaims himself ‘thrilled’ with the sort of expression of grim neutrality normally seen at the funerals of vague acquaintances.

CARINE06

Murray and a bottle of water. A close run thing in terms of charisma... The world’s apparently insatiable demand for football seems not to have been affected by the Balotelli scandal and the Premiership rollercoaster starts up again as normal. Allardyce’s new look United team take an early lead, and premium rate Cheshire chiropractors profits go up to record levels following opponents repeated complaints of neck-ache. A club spokesman allows that the playing style ‘isn’t the most entertaining,’ before cruelly jibing ‘but look where entertaining got Arsenal.’ Spurred on by this comment, Arsenal win their next 4 matches before an injury to leading scorer Theo Walcott leads Wenger to recruit Joey Barton’s 3-year-old son Cassius to play up front. Barton himself declares that this only proves the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, of which he is an ardent proponent, before slagging off someone from Desperate Scousewives for ‘giving working class people a bad rap’.

MICHAEL.KJAER

Joey Barton - No comment.

Following the events of 2014, Andy Murray is narrowly beaten to the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award by Boris Johnson. Murray ponders aloud what he has to do to win the award, to which Johnson suggests campaigning for Scottish independence to put him in with a shout for the overseas category, won this year (naturally) by Mario Balotelli, who dedicates the award to Hugo Chavez. There is a catastrophic misundestanding as he announces his desire to return to the premiership. Thanks to some dodgy Italian TV subtitles, this is thought by Milan fans loyal to club owner, world Bunga-Bunga champion and ‘Italian prison’s most comfortable man’ Silvio Berlusconi as intent to take up Berlusconi’s legacy and challenge [insert name of current Italian PM I’m writing this over a week in advance, so you never know] for the Italian Premiership. Ironically, Murray, Johnson and Balotelli are reunited years later at a world leaders summit, representing Scotland, England and Italy respectively. ЕленАндреа

Balotelli - Future world leader? You read it here first, folks. One final prediction: if any of these events actually come to pass, the year will be a very bad one for bookmakers.

It should be noted that none of the predictions herein are intended to be in any way realistic. Any relation to real events or other works, either fiction or non-fiction, is purely incidental. Private B is an amateur satirist who knows very little about sports, as you can probably tell.

the

Beaver

Thursday October 03 2013

Sport

Under-21s Got It Going On BEAVER SPORTS FANTASY FOOTBALL Beaver Sports has it’s very own Fantasy Football league, and every week we’ll print the top three, the bottom three and the best performing team.

The TOP... President Chod (Esteban Alvarez Diaz) 296 Points Monstars (Hitesh Gulati) 293 Points Wembley Town Bears (Timothy Poole) 273 Points

And the BOTTOM... Eatchaw Greens (Leon Puplett) 205 Points FC Banterlona (Gareth Rosser) 204 Points FC General Director (Jay Stoll) 197 Points

In our Starting XI feature, the Beaver Sports section will try and choose a Starting XI based upon some criteria of your choice. In this week’s feature, we create a Premier League Starting XI ofplayers under the age of 21.

Starting XI R. Lukaku

C. Eriksen

J. Williams

P. Coutinho

Goalkeeper

J. Butland (Stoke)

Ok, we’ll admit it. Our keeper’s easily our weakest position. None of the first choice keepers in the League meet our very strict selection criteria, so we’ve been forced to go searching among the reserve keepers. Fortunately we stumbled upon Butland, a guy you may know from his time in Birmingham and playing for England Under-21s. He’s on loan at Barnsley, but seriously, he’s the best our team’s got.

M. Nastasić (Manchester City)

R. Barkley

B. Davies

J. Wilshere

M. Nastasić

P. Jones

J. Butland

Defense

In a team where so many promising young players’ careers have faltered and died (as Sinclair, Rodwell or Ireland will no doubt tell you), Nastasić has done what none of them managed and actually made the first team. He’s got so much ability that even Man City can’t quash it, which makes him a guaranteed starter in our team.

P. Jones (Manchester United)

A victim of his own versatility, Jones almost didn’t make the team. Man United have had him playing in every position bar striker over the past few seasons, and it hasn’t helped him. But he’s still pretty good, and we’d hate to see his face if he was left out. Erik Daniel Drost

Midfield

Dean.Jones

C. Jenkinson (Arsenal)

B. Davies (Swansea)

His wikipedia page says he lives in a caravan, which makes him an ideal candidate for left back. We can transform our away games into home games if he brings his caravan with him, which will give our team a massive advantage over the course of a season.

Striker Lukaku (Chelsea)

He’s big, he’s bad, and he’s got a glorious head of hair. He’s also got a name that will get you 14 points in a game of Scrabble, making him twice as handy as Sanogo.

970297-228156

S. Caulker (Cardiff); E. Lamela (Totenham); A. Oxlade-Chamberlain (Ars); N. Redmond (Norwich); L. Shaw (Southampton); R. Brady (Hull); J. Shelvey (Swansea);

Honourable Mentions

Eriksen (Tottenham)

Old. Boring. Lacklustre. These are adjectives, but not ones that apply to Eriksen. He’s a member of the ‘Paid by the Sale of Bale’ club, and he’s definitely the best of them.He’s also a from the Netherlands, and everybody knows the Eredivisie produces the best players.

Jenkinson is deputy right back at Arsenal. This inevitably means that he plays more games than most first choice right backs in the Premier League. He was also red carded in that 8-2 game against Man United, so he’ll forever be an acceptable scapegoat when our team loses.

If you think you can do better than any of the above mentioned teams, please join our Fantasy Premier League:

“I whip my hair back and forth”

C. Jenkinson

Coutinho was “pleased” to make the team

Wilshere (Arsenal)

So you may have heard about Wilshere. Apparently he’s got an eye for a pass, and is a bit creative too. He’s also beaten Barcelona and BRAZIL singlehandedly – at the same time – and is no more and no less than the FUTURE OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL. So obviously he’s our Captain. No pressure Jack.

Barkley (Everton)

Since Martinez took over, Everton have stopped fielding a team with an average age of 36 and a half. They’ve even started playing products of their youth system. In an effort to encourage Everton to continue to do this, Barkley’s taken one of our two deep-lying midfield berths.

Coutinho (Liverpool)

So you may have noticed Liverpool have been playing some decent football recently. Sturridge may be the one getting his name on the scoresheet, but Coutinho is the real catalyst in their spate of victories. Our proof? Since being injured against Swansea, Liverpool have lost every game.

Williams (Crystal Palace)

In Wales, he’s known as ‘Joniesta’. Let me repeat that. Joniesta. How could anybody dispute his position on the right of our attacking trio?

Think we’ve named the wrong team? Write to us at and tell us who we missed out: Sports@thebeaveronline.com

Sports Section Fantasy Football Starting XI: Under 21s

Sport

Dennis Mooney takes a guess at the next year in Sports p.38

beaveronline.com/sport

Who’s Who in your AU?

Harold Craston AU President

Thomas Meaden Rowing The Governator of Rowing. The Honey Badger. Life experiencer Part time AU member. Full time SU Hack. I am a third year History and Government student and will be serving you this year on the AU exec. I plan to help the smaller AU clubs who are in need of financial help to achieve their potential. I will ensure a fairly proportion budget allocation to allow small but successful clubs like Hockey, who have recently been promoted, to achieve their potential. I also want to widen participation both within and outside the AU. The AU reaches thousands of students on campus and contains boundless enthusiasm. If channelled this enthusiasm could be of immense benefit to RAG and the LSE as a whole. With the diverse mix of everyone on the Exec we have a great opportunity to help change the AU for the better and for the benefit of all AU clubs. I look forward to working with everyone on the Exec and Harold as President.

Hello ello! I’m a 3rd year geographer from Herts & Essex currently living in Edgware Road with six friends. At LSE I play for the football club and am part of the ‘Houghtones’ a capella group. As President, I intend on making the AU more accessible to non-AU members by enabling more students to get involved in sociable sport. I also want more students to benefit from AU nights, LSE’s most sociable night of the week, as well as from LSE’s brand new SU

building. I hope to achieve this by doing two things: firstly, by creating department sports teams that should encourage groups of people to come along on Wednesday nights together. Secondly, by organising more diverse events that will be promoted to, and therefore appeal, to a larger part of the student body. In short my aim is to open up the AU and provide the ‘uni experience’ for any student who wants it, even if they don’t love sport! What? We always dress like this for Zoo Bar.

James Broad Football

Jamie McSherry Rugby

Hi my name is James Broad, I’m a 3rd year International History student, but I’ve also done outside options in IR and Geography for those who may recognise me. I’m from a small village in a fairly rural area of Cumbria, so naturally London was the first place I wanted to go to. Currently I’m a member of the men’s football 4th team at LSE, which last year had mixed success bouncing back from losing the infamous ‘el classico’ derby with the LSE 5 th team earlier in the year to reach the final of the London Universities Shield. Playing a role in the AU exec next year is going to be exciting and I’m looking forward to maximising the attendance of AU events from all clubs, creating new sporting opportunities for anyone that wants to attend, and forming that cohesive inter-club atmosphere that has seemingly eluded the AU until now.

Described by those who know him as both a lover and devilish rogue, Jamie McSherry is one of five metaphorical shepherds guiding the herd of AU members from 2013-2014. In his spare time, Jamie enjoys painting landscapes and judging figure skating competitions. He competes in rap battles under the pseudonym of ‘M.C. Sherry’, where he has carved a reputation for himself by rapping solely in iambic pentameter and never breaking eye contact. A promising Fly-Half in his youth, Jamie now graces Berrylands with his game vision, gap creating and intelligent place kicking. He can squat 204kgs, bench press 180kgs, & his personal philosophy is clothing is optional. I speak fluent Hebrew and have two tattoos.

ort p S aver e B Join

Email: Sports@thebeaveronline.com

Megan Tretheway Rugby

Nino Enukidze Netball

I’m Meg, or 5-man Meg to the Rugby girls who welcomed me into the AU with more alcohol and laughs than I’d expected. I’m from Gloucester, if anyone even knows where that is, and I’m studying Politics and Philosophy. I joined the AU because I was never great at sports I tried growing up, so I wanted to try something new. My dad had always made jokes that I was the laziest and most delicate in the family, so I think I chose rugby just to spite him and I ended up loving it. Now the AU is one of the biggest parts of my uni life, with the weekly practises, games and Zoo bar being the highlights of my week.

Hi, I’m Nino. I’m so excited to be on the exec, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to ensure that this is the best year yet! It’s amazing to be on an exec where every member is from a different club, it’s a step towards a more inclusive AU. As a massive AU keeno, I’ll always go that one step further to ensure that everyone enjoys themselves! I play netball for the third team, though I may be the least versatile on the pitch (the only thing I can do is shoot) when it comes to being an AU exec I’ll be able to take on any role & do an amazing job.

How else are you going to find out if you are in the Zoo Bar Column?