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30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013 Vol. 77. Issue 1421. www.redbrick.me
A term of protests. Katrin Busch @kabulein
Save the IAA Georgina Thomas
Anti-Carnage Olivia Wilson @OKWilson_
Redbrick reports on the latest student protest See page 5
Solidarity with Dr NafafĂŠ Sam Tunnicliffe
Palestine vs. Israel #demo2012
Anna Kirk @annatidykirk
The Lion // central pull-out Redbrick Sport editors Felix Keith and Tim Pearson have spent many-a-long night creating their biannual publication, including: Kian Gheissari on the success of the polo team Mike Christoforou's profiling of the Uni's Cross Country stars Ellie Jones' interview with legendary ironman Chrissie Wellington
Christmas Issue includes: Film p16 // Thirteen writers provide a list of the best festive films to get you through the season Music p18 // Redbrick's music writers pick out seven of their favourite Christmas songs Travel p22 // Zara Sekhavati, Chloe Osborne, Sam Orbaum and Elizabeth Waind on the UK's best Christmas markets
Will Siddons
@WSiddons
2 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
Luidwina Santifort @Luidwina90
@RedbrickNews FILM
WEATHER
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Flood warnings removed in the West Midlands
The world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey part 1, the prequel to the popular Lord of the Rings trilogy, took place in New Zealand this week. Tens of thousands of fans gathered to watch. It is set to be released in UK cinemas on December 13th.
INTERNATIONAL
UK may abstain in Palestine status vote MEDIA
WEST MIDLANDS
George Entwistle £450,000 pay-off
Sir Cyril Smith accused of sexual abuse
Former director general of the BBC has been given a £450,000 pay-off. Entwistle had to resign after only being director general for 54 days,on November 10th, due to the NewsNight broadcast where Lord McAlpine had been wrongly accused of child abuse.
STORY OF THE WEEK
Car bombs claim 34 lives in Damascus Two car bomb explosions in Damascus, Syria’s capital, killed at least 34 people and seriously injured 83. Around the same time two smaller bombs also exploded but didn’t claim any lives. In another part of the city, fighter jets targeted rebel positions.
CRIME
ENTERTAINMENT
Irfan Naseer pretended to be a terrorist
Louis Walsh receives a £403,500 settlement
One of three men arrested in 2011 for planning terrorist acts says that he pretended to be a terrorist to make himself look big. All three men were from Birmingham and planned to make a series of attacks against the UK by recruiting suicide bombers.
In June 2011 The Sun ran a false story about Walsh sexually assaulting a man. Walsh sued The Sun for damages and was awarded a cash settlement of £403,500. Walsh said he respects journalists but he remains angry at the way The Sun had treated him.
Redbrick Editorial Editor Raphael Sheridan
Marketing Manager Eimear Luddy
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Digital Editor Chris Hutchinson Art Director Alexander Blanchard
Music Editors Lily Blacksell Jonathon Milnes Tamara Roper Josh Holder
News Editors music@redbrick.me Kerrina Gray Rhiannon Doyle-Maw Television Editors Patrick McGhee Charlotte Goodwin Freddie Herzog Russell Webb news@redbrick.me Abigail Salter
Travel Editors Emily Booth Chloe Osborne Will Spence travel@redbrick.me
Food Editors Izzy Gibbin Jemima Lovatt Gemma Bridge Lynette Dakin
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Comment Editors Daniel Baird Oscar French Elisha Owen James Dolton
Film Editors Natasha Lavender Aisha Bushby Josh Taylor
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Science & Technology Editors Sam Atkins Andrew Spencer Tom Rich
Multimedia Editors Molly Garfoot Matthew Hewson Max Powley
Arts Editors James Kinsey Rebekah McDermott Jenna Clake Anna Lumsden
Life&Style Editors Lucy Whife Megan Nisbet Megan Jones
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Photography Editors Anna Kirk Charlotte Wilson photography @redbrick.me
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Sport Editors Tim Pearson Felix Keith sports@redbrick.me
Junior Art Directors Lauren Wheatley Akhil Kothari Anita Baumgärtner Julia Jablonska
Proofreaders Naomi Baldwin Louise Curry Hannah Dove Lucy Haffenden Emily Hickey-Mason Ashley Kirk Crossword Editor Megan Kissane Antonia Morris Rebecca Mee Bethany Prottey Senior Editorial Amy Saul Assistant Faye Simpson Isabel Mason Sophie Tollet Emily Trivette Editorial Assistants Elizabeth Waind George Bearman Hannah Coates Alicea Francis Ellie Jarvis Ravina Khela Hannah Mason Ella Parsons Francesca Seabourne Ellie Smallwood Charley Ross
POLITICS
Ministers plan minimum 45p/unit alcohol price
Redbrick Guild of Students Edgbaston Park Road Birmingham B15 2TT 0121 251 2462 editor@redbrick.me Redbrick is printed through www.mortonsprint.com 01507 523 456 Advertising Contact Linda Langley in Guild Marketing on 0121 251 2524 Designed and typeset by Redbrick Copyright (C) Redbrick 2012 The views expressed in Redbrick do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the Guild or the publishers. If you find an error of fact in our pages, please write to the Editor. Our policy is to correct mistakes promptly in print and to apologise where appropriate. We reserve the right to edit any article, letter or email submitted for publication.
Guild of Students. Lost property procedure under criticism from students
64
7 Cameras
ID Cards
29 Driving Licenses
35
Phones (including 10 iPhones and 14 Blackberries)
64
Sets of Keys
36
Wallets & Purses
221
Debit and Credit Cards
9 Passports UK & NI
www.redbrick.me/news | 3
Zak Bentley Reporter @ZBentley1
The Guild of Students has revealed that it has accumulated hundreds of valuable lost items amid concern among students over the difficulties surrounding the retrieval of lost property. A statement on the Guild website listed the variety of lost items accumulated over this term. These included 221 credit or debit cards, 64 student ID cards, 29 driving licences, 10 iPhones and most incredibly 9 passports. Excluding the large amounts of clothing also held, the Guild currently holds 465 items of lost property including keys, wallets and cameras. The Guild has said that they ‘hang on to all items handed into the Guild’ while the University of Birmingham’s website states that ‘any lost or found property is held by security for a period of three months. After three months any unclaimed property is passed on to Acorn Children’s Charity for re-sale.’ An Economics student who preferred not to be named said, ‘I lost my student ID at Joe’s and was always told by someone to speak to someone else. It seemed very disorganised and in the end I bought a new card because I was getting nowhere.’ Another student wishing to remain anonymous told Redbrick, 'I had a really bad experience with Guild reception. After trying to retreive my ID card after leaving it as a deposit for a Guild room key, I was told that reception did not know where my card had got to and that I wouldn't be able to get it back until I received an email from Guild management. After using up all my cardless entries to the library and not being able to get into the Munrow Sports Centre on a few occasions, I returned to reception almost a week later and they told me the still didn't know where it was and the management involved was in a meeting. They said I could sit and wait for the card for an indeterminate amount of time or send an email to arrange a time to pick it up. After a few more days, the manager still hadn't replied. I later returned to reception and they happened to have my card.' Another student said, 'I left my pencil case in StuDev and phoned up to ask if they have it and they said yes, 1 hourish later I went to pick it up and they said they didn't have it, I stood around while they told me to hold on and searched the reception draws and said they didn't have it. I waited a bit longer and they found it in a "back room".' A fourth student said, 'Having left my university ID card behind the reception desk overnight after a mix up with returning room keys, I went to try and pick it up the next day only to be told they didn't have it, and it took two subsequent weeks and asking to speak to a manager before the card was returned to me.' A member of staff at the Guild told Redbrick they ‘have a strict policy on lost property’ and where possible, every effort is made to contact those who have lost items. The Guild of Students told Redbrick, 'When lost property is handed to reception it is logged on a spread sheet. General lost property is stored in a locked cupboard on the ground floor and high value items such as phones or wallets are stored in a staff member’s office and moved to a locked safe if not collected after a few days. Lost property is available to collect between 10am and 6pm, Monday – Friday, from reception and at the end of each term any remaining lost property is given to charity.'
4 | 30th November 2012-17th January 2013
Education. Ethical and Environmental Offi cer takes on Paxman Following the National Demo last week, the Guild's Ethical and Environmental Officer Alice Swift spoke to Redbrick about her appearance on Newsnight Zak Bentley Reporter
Beth Clarke @ZBentley1
The University of Birmingham was heavily criticised by the Guild’s Ethical & Environmental Officer Alice Swift on BBC’s Newsnight last week. Appearing on the programme after the National Demo in London, Swift faced questioning from Jeremy Paxman, the Newsnight presenter, as she criticised the University’s decision to close down the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity (IAA). Swift said on the programme that the ‘university system is being shaken up at the moment to be beholden to the market’. Describing this system as ‘extremely dangerous’, she condemned the University of Birmingham, saying ‘loads of departments that aren’t seen as
Campus Correspondent
@beth_clarke
something that can contribute to a market economy or to the dictate of a market economy are very much under threat.’ Swift was challenged by Paxman who questioned whether enough students want to study these subjects, but she rejected his assertion, highlighting a huge demand for Sociology despite threats to close it down. She responded saying, ‘The University of Birmingham has departments that are beholden to the fossil fuel companies and teach such a wide variety of oil-based practises. In 30 years time, what are we going to do when we reach a climate catastrophe? The market works on short-termism and it does not consider these aspects at all.
We are completely beholden to it under this new regime.’ The University has previously defended their decision to close the IAA, saying it is based ‘against a background of falling student demand nationally, declining research income and diminishing commercial contracts.’ Alice Swift told Redbrick, ‘I was quite nervous about coming up against Paxman but I just saw him as another old, well-off white man that I was coming up against, like my meetings with University Managers! I feel although my opinion is also held by many students and staff here at Birmingham I was only representing myself and the anger I feel over the University's regressive action. I would say the reaction has been really positive. I have received much praise
from friends, fellow activists, family, lecturers and University staff. I can't really believe how positively its been received when all I was doing was telling Paxman the truth!’ As well as focusing on the intake of applicants from different socioeconomic backgrounds and fairer access, the programme also focused on the specific subject applications for 2012. These results revealed that vocational courses seemed relatively unhurt by the rising fees, whereas creative subjects suffered on average a double-digit drop. Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Simon Hughes MP states that in the new system courses that aren’t seen to be as popular by students will end up being financially unsupportable by universities and will be lost.
Petition condemns London Midland Rhiannon Doyle-Maw News Editor
@Rhi_DoyleMaw
An e-petition has been created condemning the London Midland rail service between Redditch and Lichfield Trent Valley demanding urgent improvements. It states that due to delays, cancellations, as well as dangerous overcrowding and poor customer service, the service needs crucial modifications. The e-petition has also expressed concerns of the danger at the increasingly overcrowded platforms and stations. At the time of going to print the Epetition had 431 signatures in support of the following,‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to insist upon URGENT improvements on London Midland rail services between Redditch and Lichfield Trent Valley. London Midland customers have been faced with daily delays, cancellations, reduction of service, and dangerous overcrowding at stations along the Redditch to Lichfield line (incorporating Longbridge and Four Oaks services) for months. The level of customer service and communication is appalling and the constant delays and cancellations to the service are not only incredibly inconvenient but also likely to cause accidents at heavily overcrowded stations and platforms.’ The petition, created by Bryoney Rebecca Johnson, concerns the line which stops at the University and Selly Oak stations, affecting students at the Uni-
versity directly. Ruth Emily Parkes, a third year Nursing student at the University relies on the line for the obligations of her degree, ‘Public transport is something I have to rely on most days of the week and although train tariffs have increased, the delays haven't improved. This can cause me an inconvenience as well as having the potential to have a detrimental effect on my degree as my placements rely on my professionalism, and this obviously includes ensuring I am there on time. I think this petition is a move in the right direction and a positive step towards getting a better service for students who rely on such a busy line.’ The e-petition is available to sign at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/
London Midland statement Due to a temporary shortfall of qualified train drivers, we have had to cancel a number of trains over recent weeks. We’re sorry if you have been affected. It takes well over a year to become a qualified train driver, but several of our trainees are now approaching the end of the course; this - along with a number of efficiencies - will ensure the shortfall is addressed by mid-December. However, we are working hard to ensure the impact on our passengers in the meantime is kept to an absolute minimum. We have a dedicated team focusing on delivering the train service on a day by day basis and as a result we have been able to run a near-normal timetable on
@EconBritain London Midland drivers earn more than £42,600 a year, but some companies serving similar routes offer £10,000 more ~ http://ow.ly/fDWoO
most days. This has been possible by making the best use of drivers who volunteer for overtime. In addition, our people have agreed to a number of changes to the way we resource our train services in the short term, which will further reduce the need to cancel trains. However, on those occasions when we don’t have enough drivers available to run the full timetable, our priority is to ensure you have the information you need to plan your journey as early as possible. As a result, until 11 December, we will be providing daily cancellation updates for the following day's service on http://www.londonmidland.com/.
@LondonMidland @movilla The situation will certainly improve over the next few weeks, I can very much sympathise with how you feel.
@Movilla @LondonMidland I don't envy your job with all these cancellations but some senior management needs to be sacked. Problem getting worse
www.redbrick.me/news | 5
University. Bramall Music Building opens Ashley Kirk Deputy Editor
@AshleyKirk92
The University of Birmingham’s Bramall Music Building officially opened on Sunday 25th November, with a twoweek calendar of concerts and events to celebrate. The Bramall Festival of Music will celebrate the completion of the £16 million redevelopment, which completes the red brick veneer of the Aston Webb semi-circle. It is home to the 450-seat Elgar Concert Hall as well as the University’s Department of Music. It provides the Music Department, which is ranked two for UK research ranking, with modern teaching, research, performance and rehearsal facilities. The development is part of the University’s Circles of Influence fundraising campaign, and has been named the Bramall Music Building to commemorate the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation. 260 students, staff, alumni and friends gave more than £6m to name more than 235 seats, rooms and pieces of equipment. The Bramall festival includes performances by University of Birmingham alumna Carolyn Sampson and the Phil-
harmonic Orchestra, and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG). Vice-Chancellor David Eastwood delivered an illustrated lecture on Edward Elgar, the University's first Professor of Music, on Tuesday 27 November. Professor Andrew Kirkman, head of the music department said ‘the Bramall Building is a fantastic shot in the arm for our music programmes, which are rapidly going from strength to strength. It provides us with a platform to build a fine music department into one of the world's best: we are very excited about what the future holds. We now have what must be one of the best music teaching, research and performance spaces in the UK; it is certainly unique in universities in this country. The University’s students and staff are thrilled, but it is not just for them. It is a community facility. We urge everyone to take a look for themselves.’ Tori Graney, third year Law student and saxophonist said, 'The spaciousness and the new facilities like the Costa ,which becomes a bar at night, make the building feel like a music venue rather than just a hall. The actual concert hall is great; fabulous acoustics and spacious seating and it feels prestigious too.'
George Evans @georgeevanss
6 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
Education Shorts Compiled by Zahra Damji
Government confirms two new universities for Birmingham Birmingham will be home to a further two universities after University College Birmingham and Newman University College have been granted fully-fledged higher education status. David Willets has announced ten new universities in what he says is the 'biggest creation of universities since 1992'. The two colleges previously couldn't become universities due to a rule which stated institutions needed a minimum of 4000 students. This has now been reduced to 1000.
NUS suggests loans for postgraduate students The NUS has suggested a scheme of loans for students seeking to pursue postgraduate study to counter a 'grossly unfair' system in which access is based on wealth. 'Apart from the fact that it's logical to have more people in postgraduate study as it has a stimulating effect on the economy...at the moment there's a barrier that's immoral and that can't be fixed through commercial loans at 9.9 per cent," said Rachel Wenston, vice- president for higher education at the NUS.
UK ranked sixth internationally for education system The UK has been ranked sixth internationally for its education system in league tables produced by the education firm Pearson. The top spots were given to Finland and South Korea and the report concluded that in those countries that succeeded, whilst spending was important, it was more key to have a culture supportive of learning. There was also an emphasis on the need for high quality teaching, with a focus on status and professional respect as well as pay.
www.redbrickpaper.co.uk/news
Protest. Students support Israel and Palestine on campus Beth Clarke Campus Correspondent
@beth_clarke
Zahra Damji Education Correspondent
@zahra_damji
A pro-Palestine rally took place in Mermaid Square at the Guild of Students on Wednesday, and was met with a counter protest in support of Israel, led by JSoc. Students and supporters from both sides convened outside the Guild to argue the two sides of the continuous debate amid sustained tensions in the Middle East and Gaza Strip. As well as highlighting the ‘oppression of the Gazans’ with chants of ‘don’t worry Palestine, don’t you cry! We’ll support you till the rivers run dry!’ among others, the Support Palestine Rally was also calling for the University to provide bursaries for Palestinian students to study at Birmingham and practical support to Palestinian universities. Furthermore, they wanted the University to join the 'Boycott Veolia' campaign against the company which runs University waste and recycling services, because of their role in the operation of a tramway linking settlements in East Jerusalem with Israel. Malia Bouattia, NUS National Executive Committee Black Students Campaigner who addressed the ProPalestine rally, spoke to Redbrick about the importance of such events, ‘Given the history of student movements it’s important to have events on campus because it raises awareness of the issues. So those who have no idea what’s going on can ask questions and get more information.’ However, JSoc, who organised the counter-protest in response, which featured Israeli flags and placards criticising Hamas, were critical of the conduciveness of the rally’s format. Daniel Bratt, President of JSoc, said in a speech that ‘many Jewish students would relish
the opportunity to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, a subject many of us are passionate about. Yet, the nature of this gathering is not conducive to that. Let’s show the Guild that this need not be a divisive issue and everyone on both sides needs to put a stop to this pointless shouting.’ Simon Furse, Vice-President for Education, was one of the speakers at the proPalestine rally but it has been claimed that this goes against the Guild’s current policy on the issue, which reads, ‘The Guild of Students supports a peaceful settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict in line with NUS policy and does not support either side of the conflict. 'The Guild shall avoid investing in companies identified by the NUS as impacting negatively on attempts to foster a peaceful settlement in the region, and will lobby the university to allow the contracts to expire and be reassessed with emphasis on not renewing the contract.’ Students have raised a welfare issue that the involvement of Sabbatical Officers in such demonstrations makes the Guild an intimidating place for Jewish students. A formal complaint has been submitted to the Guild and the University against Furse as well as VPDR Leander Jones and Community Action Officer Sean Farmelo for their involvement in another protest on the issue last week. In his speech, Bratt remarked, ‘Behaviour like this only serves to make me and many other students - non-Jewish and Jewish - very uncomfortable. Yes, people are entitled to their views but it is totally inappropriate to take part in such an inevitably contentious event. 'As Guild Officers, their obligation is to represent all students. It’s vital that the University doesn’t isolate any students or make them uncomfortable at their own university. How does this rally fit with the Guild’s description of itself as a safe space?’
However, Furse has disputed that his actions are against Guild Policy, stating ‘The Guild doesn’t have a no-policy policy. I think Sabbatical Officers are political and need to take political stances and I think that my political stance is entirely in line with the NUS’s policy passed yesterday that the NUS supports an immediate end to Israeli air strikes on Gaza and the killing of Palestinians and calls for an immediate, peaceful ceasefire to the seize in Gaza. So I am, actually speaking at this rally in line with Guild Policy.’ The Guild released a statement in advance of the demonstration expressing concerns over safety and suggesting a change in location, ‘As the event is not Guild run or organised we are not in a position to take steps to mitigate the risks identified – which include: the nature of the space in terms of capacity and its confined nature, and the fact that there is no clearly defined escape route should one group of students become restricted within the square. Further to this the Guild will be extremely busy, with the majority of rooms fully booked by student groups. There is also a risk that disabled access will be restricted. We therefore ask that the event organisers take appropriate steps to mitigate these risks, and that they consider moving the rally to a safer, alternative location. We also ask that groups of students respect each other’s space and remain apart whilst taking part in the event, avoiding direct confrontation.’ Commenting on the protests, Guild President David Franklin told Redbrick, ‘The University and the Guild are absolutely places where people should come together and debate political issues. Following today’s rallies, which were thankfully non-violent. It would be great to see constructive dialogue between all interested students, that proposes solutions to what is clearly a shared goal of peace in the Middle East.’
University applications are down eight percent The latest university application figures are down eight percent from the same point last year, the lowest figure in six years. The figures from mid-November show applications are down by 13,000 in total. The head of the Million+ university group said 'alarm bells should be ringing in the government' and NUS president, Liam Burns, said, 'The government should now finally admit that its higher education policies are having a significant impact on application behaviour.'
Anna Kirk
@annatidykirk
Anna Kirk
@annatidykirk
www.redbrick.me/comment | 7
@RedbrickComment
Giles Longley-Cook questions the validity of the prestigious award.
Away with this Bauble
It’s a natural reaction to wish to see good behaviour rewarded. This instinct has led to the vast cavalcade of awards people have received throughout history as tokens of their success, from the ancient Olympian wreaths to the Oscars today. The generally accepted understanding is that while the tokens themselves are relatively valueless, it is the recognition of brilliant achievement that they symbolise so importantly. But when this brilliance is so obviously missing the token itself quickly becomes devalued. Tom Hank’s Oscar for hamming up Forrest Gump, Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ winning three Grammys. It’s a shame to see music and cinema be so cheapened. The moment that it turns from a bit of a shame into downright shameful is when the concept we are cheapening is an institution as important as the struggle for peace. The Nobel Peace prize seems like an odd concept in itself (surely peace is its own reward?), but it can be gratifying to see some of humanities finest elements given due recognition, especially if it raises awareness of their causes. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King chose peace over violence, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan bravely stood up for a solution in Northern Ireland, the Red Cross consistently works to aid suffering people in conflict zones. But for every worthy recipient there stands one whose presence in that company is so illogical it seems like a tasteless joke. Things really took a nose-dive in 1973 when the prize was awarded to US secretary of State Henry Kissinger for his part in ending the Vietnam War. In the ill-placed euphoria of seeing an end to that vicious debacle it seems the committee overlooked the fact that the ceasefire was unstable at best, which motivated the North Vietnamese co-recipient to refuse the award. Although it was not known at the time that Kissinger had been crucial in undermining the previous peace agreement in order to get Nixon into office, it looked pretty bad when he went on to escalate the war throughout Indochina. By the time the conflict ended in 1975 a further 22,000 Americans and countless Indochinese had died. But I suppose it was the thought that counts (for an encore Kissinger green-lighted genocides two Asian genocides as well as the overthrow of Chilean Democracy in the same year he won the peace prize). Granting the award as reaction to unpopular figures is a major theme in the Nobel committee. Just as Kissinger was awarded simply for promising to end a war, various
PMQ's Unwrapped Our new weekly feature. Redbrick political commentator James Phillips summarises Prime Minister's Question Time.
the Nobel 'Peace' Prize
politicians have won simply by virtue of not being a more openly aggressive opponent. Not being George Bush h a s secured the award for Jimmy Carter (who gave Saddam permission to invade Iran), Al Gore for making a film about global warming, and Barrack Obama, who has since directly involved US arms in multiple Middle Eastern conflicts, admirably in many cases but hardly peacefully. Similar claims could be made about Arafat, Peres and Rabin winning in 1994; in the joyous hopeful moment few stopped to question whether any of these warlike men would respect the deal, history has proved otherwise. The less said about Mother Teresa’s anti-abortion acceptance speech the better, except that she’d won over Archbishop Oscar Romero who was peacefully fighting the El Salvadoran junta.With this record it’s no real disappointment seeing the fractious and pathetic EU join the pantheon of laureates. If the Nobel committee has any remaining decency it would grant the next award to Malala Yousafzai to honour her brave stand against Taliban brutality. Until then, I have to agree with Tom Lehrer’s verdict that satire became obsolete when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The economy was on the tips of everyone’s tongues in the Commons this week (but when isn’t it?). After the initial expected tributes to those involved in flooding rescue and clean up operations, the Commons immediately descended into the brawl between Cameron and Miliband, both blowing their own trumpets about their economic policies. Miliband continued to rely on quoting Cameron’s words and twisting them to his advantage when questioning Cameron’s Work Programme as the “biggest and boldest programme since the Great Depression”, to which Cameron reeled off, at a pace most couldn’t keep up with, a horde of statistics about why his policy was good and Labour’s
previous policies were not. Quoting 700,000 people in work as a result of the programme, Cameron was left susceptible to criticisms from Miliband that only 2% of those on the programme were in sustainable jobs (although it was quickly pointed out that Miliband’s math didn’t quite work out). The infamous 'calm down' jeer was called from the Labour benches as Cameron tried to defend his policies with a flustered face and glances to his ministerial colleagues for support. Questions were also asked about the results of the Leveson inquiry, but Cameron continuously evaded them only saying that we need a strong and robust independent regulatory service for our media.
8 | 30th November 2012- 17th January 2013
TheDead Strategist's Society Aqib Khan @AqibKhan_
M
itt Romney’s resounding defeat was predicted, albeit translucently, by Republican Party strategist Kevin Philips in 1968. Philips, along with others, set the strategy for the party to alienate minorities in the late 1960s, which made up only 15% of the population, to win the populous Southern States, which were full of resentment after the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act gave equal provisions to African Americans. He warned, however, that pandering to the south to win elections would break down at some point towards the end of the century, much to the dismay of Mitt Romney. The 2012 election results were the arrival of Philips’ prediction, and an end to the American Right’s four decade long binge manipulating racial politics without care for the tumour they were simultaneously growing in antagonising minorities. Now the tumour has gone terminal and could all but kill the party off unless the rush for change in party policy is dramatic. At the same time, the post-election corpse that remains of the Republican Party is ready to gain life by erupting into all out civil war between moderates, and those on the far right of the American Republican Party, which is a petrifying phrase to say in itself. In 1968 Republican psephologists were devising a plan to purposefully manipulate racial tensions in the Southern United States and cause a mass exodus of millions of southern voters who were infuriated with Lyndon B Johnson, a Democrat, passing a bill that would enforce equal voting rights to African-Americans. Republicans were fully aware the Southern United States had 53% of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the Presidential election, and today more than 65%, providing a clear path to Election Day victory if they could just oust the Democrats who had held the south comfortably since the Civil War. Philips in 1970 gave an interview to the New York Times on what has been dubbed ‘The Southern Strategy’: Republicans would be short-sighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act (the provision of equal voting rights for minorities). The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats (Boyd 1970). The Republican Party would not make a fuss and allow African-Americans to have some basic human rights, as long as they played along and could get millions of angry racists to leave the Democratic Party. Philips then warned the interviewer that the strategy would completely breakdown at some point at the end of the century, someone should have told that to Mitt Romney. Eleven years after Philips’ interview during the ‘Reagan Revolution’, Lee Atwater the Republican Chief Strategist gave his thoughts on how the strategy had evolved since its implementation under Richard Nixon in 1968: ‘’You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so
abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a by-product of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it sitting around saying, ‘We want to cut this,’ is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘Nigger, nigger.’ Translate this mesh of non-sequiturs into English, and you eventually come up with a formulated plan to isolate black voters by crushing them economically, which would simultaneously appeal to racists in the south driving them into the welcoming arms of the Republican Party, whilst hiding the racist venom behind ‘abstract’ terminology of ‘states rights’ and ‘fiscal conservatism’. The strategy was an overwhelming success, the Republican Party focusing on fiscal conservatism and pandering to southern votes won every election from 19691993 (making room for one loss to a southerner called Jimmy Carter). But the strategy is - in the opinion of this writer - finished, for the same reasons Philips had warned of. With the exception of Bush VS Kerry in 2004, the party has not won the popular vote since George Bush Senior beat Michael Dukakis in 1988. The reason is simple: demographics. According to the Pew Research Centre in 1960 minorities made up 15% of the population, a sliver of the country that can be marginalised and pushed to one side so the benefits of winning the south could be reaped. In the 2012 election, 32% of the population (driven mainly by Hispanic immigration), almost one third, were of a minority ethnicity, by 2050 the number will be 53%, a coming majority the American right have been actively alienating for the past four decades, and the tumour they must now confront before it votes the party out of existence; in the 2012 election Obama won 93% of the African American vote, 71% of the Hispanic vote and a similar figure amongst Asian Americans. Erik Erickson, a Conservative commentator remarked after the results were in ‘frankly, the fastest growing demographic in America isn’t going to vote for a party that sounds like that party hates brown people’ (Swaine 2012). The Republicans, ahead of the game, began atoning for Judgement Day back in 2005 after George Bush won only 11% of African American votes in 2004 by launching an evangelizing campaign to minority groups to make up for decades of alienation, starting with the most prestigious African American civil rights groups in the country, the NAACP: Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as
the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong. (Bendetto 2005) If it was an evangelizing campaign, then he was talking to a group of persecuted atheists. Straightforward reasons for minorities consistently being pushed to the Democrats are the consistent stream of Republican one hit wonders which include (after the briefest of internet searches): William J. Bennet, conservative radio host and former Education Secretary under Ronald Reagan prescribing to ‘abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.’(New York Times 2005) George W. Bush, pressured by civil rights groups was forced to play his hand, and attacked with a fury not seen since his ‘shock and awe’ of the first night of the Iraq War,- he called the comments ‘regrettable’. One can only see the glimmer of light reflecting off the guillotine had a former member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet made the remarks on a radio show in the United Kingdom. Ann Coulter, one of America’s leading and widely read conservatives prescribed in her column regarding Muslims to ‘invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpetbombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war’ and also advised ‘If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether’. She was held account to the statements by a teenage Muslim girl wearing a headscarf, and asked what form of transport to take, to which Coulter replied ‘take a camel’, to overwhelming applause and cheers, may I add. This comes as the Huffington Post estimates that the ‘United States is projected to have a larger number of Muslims by 2030 than any European countries other than Russia and France.’ (Huffington Post 2011) The demographic time bomb has been ticking for the American Right as early as 1965, when an immigration act was passed that removed the restriction placed on only ‘ideal’ individuals (Western Europeans) entering the country that had been in place since 1924, and defeated a mentality set in 1790 when only “free white persons” could obtain citizen-
ship. Completely unaware that history is working against them, or maybe trying to prevent its natural outcome, leading American conservatives such as Herman Cain (who is black and notorious for arguing President Obama is not) is threatening to form a third party even more conservative than the liberal sellouts that lost the election, and firing back against him are relative moderates such as senator Lindsey Graham who are trying to prevent all out disaster ‘If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn’t conservative enough I’m going to go nuts we’re not losing 95 percent of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we’re not being hard-ass enough.” (Martin 2012) Either the party must change and embrace minorities, as it appears it will do with Marco Rubio and George P. Bush (half Hispanic nephew of former President George W Bush) looking to set themselves up for the 2016 election, or the party will face brutal civil war followed by a long, slow, dragged out demographical annihilation, something resembling the current mess in Syria. And for those of you who subscribe to a brutal view of Karma, to which I do not, Lee Atwater died of a horrendous brain tumour that left him paralysed for years, Richard Nixon was forced into a humiliating resignation and died a shadow of his former self, Herman Cain led a Presidential bid botched by a string of sexual allegations that he settled out of court, and as for George W. Bush, well, we all know how that worked out. (The Southern States according to the U.S census Bureau are: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware,Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Combined they contain 37% of the U.S population and 180 Electoral College votes, 66% of the 270 needed to win an election. Together they are the former Confederate States of America) (Census 2010)
www.redbrick.me/comment |9
Give a little more this Christmas? Redbrick Commentator Olivia Beesley examines the modern meaning of Christmas ‘Holidays are coming’. Thanks to the Coca Cola Company, every year between early November and late December, this is the nation’s mantra. It seems that capitalist companies have become a vital part of our anticipation for the festive season, defining the period of excitement that we know as the countdown to Christmas. It isn’t hard to identify ‘The Big Three’ as far as Christmas advertising is concerned: Coca Cola, Marks and Spencer and, of course, John Lewis. These Christmas adverts have become advent calendars for the capitalist world, cementing themselves in our Christmas routine as firmly as mince pies and mulled wine. The greatest example of this can be found in Coca Cola’s annual
use of Father Christmas in a red suit. While this imagery had been used prior to Coke’s campaigns in the 1930’s, it was the company’s adoption of this figure which has cemented a Santa Claus dressed in red into people’s minds. Since then, companies have battled it out in competition for the advert that truly defines Christmas. However, this year it would appear that John Lewis’ sister company, Waitrose, has decided to make 2012 the Christmas of ‘rebellion’ or at
Companies have battled it out for the advert that truly defines Christmas least, that’s what they want us to believe. While a cynical and critical Britain may be seen as a hard target audience when it comes to advertising, it appears that Christmas is the exception. It is at Christmas that the public eagerly welcome capitalist compa-
nies into their homes to share Christmas dinner with them, open presents and merrily build snowmen in their garden. While every November the topic of conversation is always about the John Lewis Christmas advert, this year it appears that Waitrose has captured the hearts of the nation. Waitrose claims in its 2012 television Christmas advertisement that it would rather invest in local charities than the production of a ‘fancy T.V advert’ – they want to ‘Give more this Christmas’. How touching. But wait a minute, why is their sister company, John Lewis, not participating in this festive benevolence? Obviously the partnership intends to ‘Give a little more’ but not too much more! It may come to the attention of the observant that despite lack of tinsel, lights and Christmas turkeys, the Waitrose advert is effectively, still an advert. In the first week of these advertising campaigns being launched, Waitrose sales increases by 13.6% and John Lewis by 11.4%. Not looking so ‘rebellious’ now. It appears that the nation is being fooled into believing that a capitalist company can be interested in any-
thing other than, well capitalism. By using the idea that there is no gimmick, Waitrose has ironically created itself an effective Christmas gimmick. It seems that the crucial point lies in the question, ‘will you buy into the gimmick?’ While it may be difficult to find the average student doing their Christmas shopping in Harbourne Waitrose, I encourage you to discover an alternative to the Christmas culture that capitalism has created. In fact, I challenge you to really ‘give a little more’ this Christmas. A way to do this is through a charity such as ‘Present Aid’, which allow you to choose from gifts that will actually change lives. From goats to diagnostic malaria kits, you can make a donation of amounts as small as £7 in the name of your friends, parents or grandparents. While these gifts are certainly not as conventional as a pair of M&S slippers or a John Lewis scarf and gloves set, I’m sure you won’t find many other people who could say they bought their Gran a goat for Christmas. How’s that for giving a little more?
@Oliviabeesley
www.redbrick.me/comment
10 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
Editorial:
And one more thing... Oscar French Comment Editor, Bon Vivant, Political Puppeteer, Russian Dissident, Cat Lover
Oh Redbrick. Oh Comment. We’ve been together for so long, but now, like the cruel, heartless bastard I am, I’m leaving the warm, dubiously fragranced embrace of the office for the final time. Before I depart, I thought I’d share with you, dear readers, a few comments on Comment.
Photo by Chris Hutchinson. Directed by Owen Earwicker. Clothes and make-up by Oscar French. Face by Carol French and John French. Daniel Baird. The voting age is to be lowered to 16. Or at least thats Labour's latest plan to win the vote of the disenfranchised youth. The idea behind it is that all sections of society should have a say in how the country is run. With young people being hit hard by the Coalition government Labour have potentially spotted a golden opportunity to put a polling station in every secondary school in the country. As a policy for actually getting people to vote this may not be a bad one, people normally choose the path of least resistance when going to the polls and if its right there in front of them its likely they will vote. Plus the prospect of getting out of double maths could be quite enticing.
ELECTIONS
1. It’s the best section. 2. No, that’s not biased. It’s been proven. 3. Seriously, there were tests. 4. What makes you so special? I hear you ask. Well it can’t just be explained away with a couple of gushing platitudes you know! 5. Fine. It can. 6. Comment is for everyone. I’ve never come across a student who doesn’t hold an opinion on something. Why not write about it in more than 140 characters? 7. It’s got a bunch of lively, intelligent, principled regular writers who are absolutely worth getting to know. 8. Diversity may be a bloodless, insipid term that people apply to almost anything, but that’s not going to stop me; comment really is diverse, you never know what you’re going to get each week. 9. Dan Baird is the latest Comment Editor and he’s going to be fantastic. Don’t make the mistake of calling him Jack, as I have several times to great embarrassment. 10. Unlike most comment sections, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Unlike most things that ‘don’t take themselves too seriously’, we’re not a trivial, irritating waste of space. 11. It’s got Online Comment Editor James Dolton, whose
News News Views
@findoutyourselfnosey!
boundless energy and enthusiasm has kept me smiling at all times. More people should adopt the Dolton outlook on life. 12. We provide live coverage of Guild Council. The world’s worst advert for democracy. 13. There’s not a smug picture of the commentator beside each article. (this one excluded) 14. If this happens to be the first comment piece you’ve ever read then don’t worry. Comment is more than a bunch of snarky, throwaway sound bites. 15. That’s just me. 16. If you read an article online, and are so offended that you need to vent your spleen by commenting – you can! Though refrain from making personal attacks. Idiot. 17. Elisha Owen is the other editor. After working together for a year, I’ve come to suspect she has super powers. Nobody could be that talented, insightful and lovely by accident. 18.. On an unrelated note, my housemates are pretty cool. Thanks to Alex Blanchard, who occasionally writes, and Matt Saull, who occasionally reads. 19. And to everyone in the office who complained that they weren't getting a special mention when I wrote this. (Owen Earwicker, Lexie Wilson, et al) 20. Sometimes, it’s important to take the risk of causing offence rather than risk staying silent. 21. The photo wasn't my idea. Oscar is available for weddings, funerals and other family events.
James Dolton. The world of football was thrown albeit hardly surprised to discover the latest of Michel Platini’s latest hare-brained scheme regarding European competition is to double the currently 32 man champions league into a bulbous 64. It seems bizarre that just as the much-maligned Europa league is beginning to establish itself, UEFA seem to be laying preparations to further undercut it by effectively scraping the 32 best teams out of its group stages and leaving it with the dregs. Inclusivity is no doubt an impressive and important goal, but when it is coming at the detriment of the prestige and quality of the competition, such naïve arguments must be questioned.
SPORT
Photograph by George Evans Raphael Sheridan. At the time of print, Leveson hasn't delivered his verdict. But whatever he concludes, it's going to upset people. MPs are deeply divided on the issue and the majority of the press, led by the Daily Mail, are dead against any form of regulation. It's a tough one to call: on one hand, any regulation that hampers good investigative journalism is incredibly dangerous; on the other, it's tricky to do nothing as dozens of tabloid victims speak about their torrid treatment by red-tops. Yet if Leveson has any doubts about the potential impact, he must err on the side of caution and keep the British press free.
MEDIA
SATIRE Peter Parker. Do you recognise the man above? Well you should, because according to the US newspaper The Onion Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, is the Sexiest Man Alive for 2012. However, The Onion is a satirical paper. Although, this did not stop the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party, The People's Daily, picking up on the story and subsequently running a 55 page photographic spread on him accompanied by various quotes. My favourite description of Kim has got to be "With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-born heart-throb is every woman's dream come true" Brilliant.
Jenna Clake. During Demo 2012 last week, chants from protesters included, ‘Bring back EMA.’ EMA should definitely not be on the list of our priorities; it was a largely flawed system in which several people, who were not financially deprived, received money to spend on clothes, alcohol and cigarettes (or so was the case in my Sixth Form). While some people genuinely did use the money for books or transport to Sixth Form or college, other students relied upon part-time jobs to support themselves through education. EMA would require much stricter guidelines if it were to be reinstated. It was scrapped in England in 2010. Surely it’s a bit late for reform?
EDUCATION Photograph by Sam Tunnicliffe
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12| 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
Mark Thomas: Comedy or Politics?
@RedbrickArts @RedbrickArts
Arts Editors James Kinsey & Rebekah McDermott interview Mark Thomas, comedian, presenter and political activist, about his career, his political views, and his latest endeavours. Thomas's latest show Bravo Figaro is coming to Birmingham at mac on the 3rd-5th of December. The views expressed in this interview do not reflect those of the Editors or of Redbrick. Arts: For readers that might not know much about you, can you sum up your career and your new show? MT: Can I sum up my work over twenty-seven years? At times it was original, political, argumentative. I don’t give a fuck about definitions. If you have been given and not actually bought the tickets, and if you haven’t seen a piece of theatre over the last year, don’t come and see my show. If you manage to fall outside of those categories then you might be interested. Arts: Can you tell us about your latest work Bravo Figaro, which Redbrick will be reviewing next week? MT: The stuff I’ve done most over the past 12 years is me going off and having adventures and coming back and telling people the story. For example, whether it is like the Illisu Dam campaign, which then becomes a show, or if it’s me going off and doing a show all about the rights protest or whether it’s about the Israeli barrier on the West Bank, it’s about me and the audience discovering things and trying to find comedy and humour in places where you wouldn’t necessarily think [it would appear]. This is proper storytelling, this isn’t stand-up. This is real experience. I suppose why Bravo Figaro is different is because it is based on reinforcing stories and having footage to back up my story. It’s based on fact.
Reviews
Every time you do something you want to make sure there’s a correlation between your story and the footage. Arts: An important part of your career was your role as the chairman of the Illisu Dam campaign. Can you explain what you did and what happened? MT: The Illisu Dam campaign was set up by myself, Nick Hildyard from The Corner House, Tony Juniper who was a leading campaigner from Friends of the Earth and Kerim Yildiz, who at the time founded and ran the Coalition Rights project. An organisation called the Export Credit Guarantee department covers underwriting, which is insurance of high risk projects for British companies selling abroad. You can’t do a project if you don’t get underwriting. If the person you’re selling to decides not to pay you then the British government will pay you. The banks have their money insured, the exporter has their project insured, and it’s all paid for by the British. This dam was going to be built. Torture was rife within Turkey, and so was the rape of Kurdish women by the Turkish security services. We knew that the British government couldn’t be involved in this, so I did some stuff for it, I was asked to speak at the campaign meeting about it and essentially I ran the campaign. We ran it for three years. We formed alliances with traders,
with all sorts of different people, and after I did a show about it. two-thirds of the way through the tour, the deal collapsed and the plug was pulled on it. Arts: Your recent show Walking the Wall, which recounts your journey along the length of the West Bank, is relevant at the moment with the current events in the Middle East. Do you have any thoughts? MT: It’s slightly different. But essentially you are dealing with occupation and the demand of statehood. There might be a ceasefire, and I’m glad if there’s a ceasefire, but the idea that peace cannot be negotiated is nuts. They [Israel] are running the lives of people on the West Bank. There are two sets of laws: there are the nice laws in Israel, and then for the Palestinians there is military law. The theft of land goes on continually. It is not a question of people failing to recognise the state of Israel, it is people failing to recognise the Palestinian state. Either Israel starts to act like the democratic state it pretends to be or this will continue. Arts: How was your tour Walking the Wall received? MT: Generally well received. I don’t think it’s a contentious issue. An Israeli or a Jew wouldn’t have an isolated opinion; there are masses of Israelis and Jews all over the world. It’s
debated, rather than contentious. Arts: What do you think of the stand-up scene at the moment? Do you think that stadium-filling comedians have helped or hindered the smaller comedy scene? MT: There is a whole range of different comics out there. I like new comics. James Lester is really interesting, Will Hodgson is brilliant. I like seeing new comics as well as old. It’s always been about defining comedy in one great lump instead of saying, actually, there’s a whole range of different things happening here. If you want to pay £35 to go and see Michael McIntyre then that’s entirely up to you, but I’d rather see something interesting and new. I want to be surprised. I want to go away with an idea in my head. Those are not the reasons why I’d want to go and see Michael McIntyre. I’m not interested in him. Arts: On your 2009 UK tour It’s a stupid economy, you asked the audience what they might change in British politics and what they would include in their own manifesto. You tried to make it a reality, did you succeed? MT: There has been a hugely positive effect since 2009 and that was entirely me. There are various policies that have been changed. When we were doing stuff in 2008/ 2009 about tax justice no one was really
Scribble Kicks @ mac
Ben Jackson Critic & Poetry buff
On a day that can only be described as offensively wet and windy, the world experienced Scribble Kicks, a new Writers’ Bloc event at mac. And the world thought it was fantastic. Ben Norris began his stint as 'Events Guy' (to give him his proper title) with Grizzly Pear in October, which was a feast of performance poetry from all sorts of handsome individuals from all over the Northern Hemisphere, including and indeed limited exclusively to Birmingham. And of course it featured the fantastic famous man Mr Clayton Blizzard. At Scribble Kicks Ben gave us something a little different. It was another privileged glimpse into the damaged minds of writers, but this time the material was not confined to a single theme – there was no performance poetry per-
suasion, which features to a greater extent at the Grizzly Pear event. The first Kicks was proud to have two contemporary poets – Luke Kennard and Abi Curtis – hanging onto its hull. They treated us to shiny new work, which they also tried to flog at the end of the evening. You must have gathered by now Scribble Kicks was an amazing experience, and sits alongside Grizzly Pear as something Writers’ Bloc can really be proud of. These nights can simply bring you some of the best poetry, so I’d like to segue here with that propaganda firmly sent into the universe, and give you a rundown of the first Scribble Kicks event. Open mic slots first: the guys in the first half are quite regular performers and were all wicked. Ali Moore opened with a weighty but short piece on the flavour of a hearty red wine.
Jenna Clake had a couple of beautiful poems, and Joe Sale convinced me that he was worth taking home and keeping. Andy Cashmore shared some flash fiction – he and Ed Corless (with his prose) really brought something different. Carl Sealeaf’s hands tried anxiously to keep up with his great performance piece , and then we were finally treated to Luke, who shamelessly plugged his new collection, A Lost Expression. If you haven’t heard Luke Kennard read, please watch him on YouTube now. Redbrick does not allow the kind of profanity needed to tell you how good he is. Second half: Lexia Tomlinson, Amerah Saleh, Sepoh Eric Dube performed, all of whom (as well as Carl Sealeaf) are part of mac’s Cannon Hill Collective. The Collective definitely showed their skill – I particularly loved
Amerah, but then I do particularly love performance poetry. John McGhee, all the way from somewhere in London, really impressed with some small, hilarious explosions. Miles Bradley was annoyingly adept at commenting on our artistic livelihoods. Donna Rowe was the only self-confessed open mic virgin of the night (which is always a popular position to be in) and she didn’t disappoint. Ben Norris, with a selfish soul of ice, read some of his own poetic words which, although a little different from usual, were as impressive as always. Finally, Abi Curtis read from her new book, The Glass Delusion. From Dr Who, to Essex, to boat wrecking, her waxy voice was a very soothing end to a great evening. There will – there must be – more from Scribble Kicks in the future, and I implore everyone to come. It’s free, as well.
talking about it much and now 'UK Uncut' is doing brilliant stuff. Tax cheats - we were banging on about it. We raised a flag before others did. Just look at The Guardian’s front pages.
Quick Fire Questions Duck or turkey? Duck. Stand up or sketch? Stand up. Comedy or politics? Politics. Michael McIntyre or Frankie Boyle? Neither. Cameron or Miliband? Neither. James Bond or Jason Bourne? I have no idea who Jason Bourne is... Tax or no tax? Tax. Favourite comedians? David Brent, Will Hogdson, Stephanie Stephenson and Daniel Kitson.
www.redbrick.me/arts | 13
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Cinderella
@ The Hippodrome Ciaran Allanson-Campbell Critic
Cinderella is one of the most well known stories. Cinderella (Momoko Hitara), an orphan, lives under the iron rule of her stepmother (Marion Tait), who forces her to clean and cook in dismal conditions for her two stepsisters, the aptly named Skinny (Victoria Marr) and Dumpy (Angela Paul). When it is announced that the Prince (César Morales) is to hold a ball where he plans to find a queen, Cinderella's luck may have the chance of changing, with the help of her fairy godmother (Laëtitia Lo Sardo) who conjures Cinderella a beautiful dress, complete with the beautiful dancing slippers she inherited from her mother. The story of Cinderella needs little introduction and neither do the Birmingham Royal Ballet, arguably the best company in the country. The dancing, as to be expected, was flawless, with not a kink in the works. The stepsisters did their comic parts with absolute perfection, while Tait asserted a sinister authority with barely any movement at all, making the stepmother that much more menacing.
The ballroom scene in particular presented graceful movements, to the point where it was very difficult to select one dancer over the rest of the company, as they worked in perfect cohesion. It was Hitara who captured the audience's attention, however, as a fantastic Cinderella, playing both the meek kitchen maid and the wide-eyed wanderlust who danced with the Prince with precision and joy. Accompanying the dancing was the score, which worked in perfect harmony. The light, comic tones of the stepsister scenes combined with some dark, almost overlooked bases that gave the performance an underlying darkness. As the clock struck midnight, the audience was filled with dread, a shiver of goosebumps passing down our spines as the act came to an end. A special mention must go to the set design of the ballet. It's worth noting that amongst all the blissful dancing at the palace ball and the comic antics of the stepsisters, it was almost too easy to forget there are some dark themes in Cinderella. She is orphaned, lives in terrible poverty and suffers abuse from her family on a regular
basis. The Birmingham Royal Ballet handles the bleak background to Cinderella brilliantly – in the the first minute of the overture, we were greeted with a scene at her mother's funeral, the set painted in a bleak Gothic style. The kitchen set, whilst frequented with extravagant, often eccentric characters such as the Wig Maker (Oliver Till) and Dancing Master (Lewis Turner), was dingy and almost claustrophobic, using barely a quarter of the Hippodrome's grand stage. That's not to say the set was constantly grim – on the contrary, the bleakness of Cinderella's kitchen prison provided a brilliant contrast when it was opened up into the huge expanse of stage during the Fairy Godmother and Ballroom scenes, and the enormous mechanism of the clock striking twelve was both brilliant and utterly petrifying. It's difficult to describe the Birmingham Royal Ballet without over-using superlatives, so all I can say is this: watch this performance. It balanced the dark and playful perfectly, knew where it needed to head, and, above all, it was utterly engrossing to watch.
14 | 30th November 2012- 17th January 2013 @Redbrick @RedbrickTV
This Year's Christmas Specials Miranda Boxing Day,
Downton Abbey
BBC1
Christmas Day, ITV1
Dr Who Christmas Day, BBC1
Call The Midwife Christmas Day, BBC1
Top 5: Christmas TV adverts Emily Hickey-Mason TV Critic
1. John Lewis 2011
2. Coca Cola
Although it may seem cliché due to its huge popularity last Crimbo season, this advert is undoubtedly the best Christmas advert of all time. The beautiful camera shots of the ice cold outdoors and the juxtaposition of the toasty, festive looking indoors provokes a lot of nostalgia of everyone’s own childhood Christmas experiences. The feeling of anticipation the little boy has for the big day is almost tangible through the ticking clocks and his huffing and puffing. This, along with the sentiment behind the advert, is so festive and lovely that you can’t help but feel your heart warm and your face transform into a very doting, soppy expression.
The first sign that Christmas is upon us every year is as soon as the Coca Cola Christmas advert comes onto the screen, and everyone erupts with 'CHRISTMAS IS HERE!' Although it comes out (in my opinion) far too early in the year, it is still wonderfully atmospheric and fills me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Seeing the magnanimous, jolly face of Father Christmas on the side of the bright red lorries never fails to excite me and along with the infamous 'Holidays are coming, holidays are coming' song, I cannot help but get into the festive spirit. This is an all time classic advert and was the accompaniment of my childhood Christmases.
www.redbrick.me/tv | 15
Classic Christmas Specials Abi Salter Online TV Editor
Russell Webb TV Editor
@rwebb92
After the troubles faced earlier on in Gavin and Stacey, many people would expect the Christmas special to have been all about the festivities and the two families having fun and forgetting all those problems. But what we must remember about the BBC Three sitcom is that it did drama just as well as comedy. The episode opens with plenty of Christmas spirit in the air as Smithy searches for last minute presents and Gavin visits Nessa, who is at her job as Santa Claus. He is forced to pay to see her, sit on her knee and is greeted with 'Oh. Oh. Oh. Merry Christmas' in her traditional Welsh accent. It’s writing and catchphrases like this that made the show such an instant hit. The fact that this is a Christmas special is hammered home when Smithy rings Gav-laar to sing ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ to each other. It is this scene that sets the disruptive storyline
in place as Gavin is just coming back from an interview in Wales, unbeknown to Smithy, causing fireworks later when Gavin reveals the ‘good’ news. Gavin and Stacey’s announcement puts a halt to all of the festive fun and causes frictions to overflow between the clans from Barry and Billericay. Pam calls them 'sheep-shaggers' and Pete punches Dave. The atmosphere is tense, but a good old conversation about EastEnders slowly defuses the situation. Smithy has a tough Christmas losing his best friend to Wales and seeing his son bond more with Dave than him. As if things couldn’t get worse, Dave’s present to Nessa is an engagement ring. Although the episode is packed full of drama, it still has its classic Gavin and Stacey humour throughout and a nice sing along at the end to leave us all warm and fuzzy inside.
3. Kellogg's 1991
4. Yellow Pages 1991
This beautiful advert is not a particularly famous one anymore, due to the fact that it came out in 1991; this is a shame as it is an extremely heart melting and divine Christmas advert. The youngest little girl who encounters the real Father Christmas for the first time is beyond delightful and probably what originally made the advert so popular. I am so encaptured by this little actress who so sweetly engages in silent communication with Father Christmas, that I would most definitely buy Kellog’s cornflakes just to try and recreate this charming moment. It delivers the magic of Christmas to all of its viewers perfectly.
This Yellow Pages advert is one from my early childhood and I’m sure of many others’ also. It entwines the notions of romance and festivity together to create a touching and endearing scene. The little girl is stood with her eyes shut, holding mistletoe over her head waiting to be kissed. Typically, at the age of the two children, boys are awkwardly still shorter than girls - this makes it very difficult for the little boy who desperately wants to reach up and kiss her. He grabs the Yellow Pages book and stands on it before triumphantly kissing her on the lips. It is a gorgeous advert that will always be a classic.
I absolutely love The Vicar of Dibley; when I was younger I used to watch our video box set on rerun, and it never failed to make me literally laugh out loud. So when writing a review of Christmas specials it seemed natural that The Vicar of Dibley be included. This Christmas special is full of festive fun, coincides with Geraldine’s tenth year anniversary in the Parish and begins with a guest visit from Rachel Hunter, in her underwear, naturally. The episode opens hilariously with Hugo accidently admitting that his father has signed over his house to him, in an attempt to dodge inheritance tax; cue witty one liners from Owen. One of the most comical aspects of this episode is the council’s competition to create a new Christmas hymn. Jim’s
hymn about Jesus coming down the birth canal wins - Jim decided that he wanted to focus on an area of the nativity that’s overlooked: the birth. Jim fights off stiff competition from Hugo, whose hymn was inspired by the ‘great Eminem and Nelly’. One of the many highlights of this episode was definitely Geraldine turning up drunk to Midnight Mass, and her several cheeky comments about David’s shiny, egg shaped head. This Christmas special is worth a watch, with a guest appearance from the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is even more enjoyable as it doesn’t just focus on festive things, with a rumour that Geraldine’s gay and Alice redecorating the house completely in pink. The show always makes me chuckle.
Charlotte Goodwin TV Editor
@C_E_Goodwin
Who can forget the sheer amount of quotes that came from The Royle Family’s Christmas Special; ‘The Golden Egg Cup’? This special escaped the ‘Christmas Special Television curse’; where the shows which have been granted a special, only turn into an enormous disappointment. This festive special begins with the boorish Jim and his hard-working wife Barbara receiving money from their children. The decision, and long discussion, is then just what to do with it. In a rare occasion the family decide to move out of their sitting room and go on holiday with Denise and Dave. The journey made for entertaining viewing with Denise becoming increasingly jealous of Dave and his Sat Nav! However, this destination was not an
escape to a luxury hotel abroad, which hard-working Barbara could only dream of living with Jim, but to a campsite. The sitcom’s special included the comic scenes of the family staring out of the caravan at another family’s pork chops, and the incessant need for each character to say goodnight to each other individually. The Royle’s also introduced viewers to their love of The One Show with their hilarious rendition of the opening credits each time the show came on the television. While the noticeable gap left by Nana, who was killed off in ‘The Queen of Sheba’ was evident, the effortless laughs contributed to making an excellent festive special.
5. Andrex 1992 This advert isn’t too well known amongst our generation, but it is still a favourite of mine. This advert consists of a young Labrador puppy chasing around an Andrex loo roll through the snow, flicking up snow with his nose and slipping around on an iced lake. 'So here it is, Merry Christmas' is the song playing along to the puppy’s adorable antics as well as a duck screeching 'IT’S CHRISTMAAAAAAS!' The saying 'A puppy isn’t just for Christmas, it’s for life' is the caption at the end, suggesting the long, lasting length of the loo roll and of course, the importance of looking after the endearing puppy who is slipping around.
16 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
Christmas Countdown
@RedbrickFilm
As the most wonderful time of the year draws closer, our writers provide a list of the best festive films to get you through the season Love Actually
DAISY EDWARDS Brought to you from the studio behind Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill, Love Actually is a splendid British Christmas film. It focuses on the lives of very different 'couples' in the build up to Christmas day. The script is heart breaking in places, the soundtrack and acting are fab, and there’s a brilliant cast. Love Actually has an even mix of drama, comedy and romance, and it’s bound to get you in the Christmas spirit.
Black Christmas
PATRICK McATEER For those looking for a Christmas film that’s a little less saccharine-sweet than the other movies on this list, look no further than Black Christmas, the 1974 horror classic. Effectively the first slasher film ever made, four years before Halloween unfairly seized the title, Black Christmas is a terrifying holiday treat as a whole sorority house is terrorised by several disturbing phone calls. Unfortunately for them, the calls are coming from inside the house...
Miracle on 34th Street
24
JOE ALLEN The jokes may be predictable and the narrative a foregone conclusion, but Jim Henson's lovable Muppets provide this Christmas caper with an undeniable charm. Michael Caine's formidable Scrooge, and Kermit the Frog's adorable Bob Cratchit infuse the classic Dickens tale with the Muppets' usual affability. By no means the best Muppet movie, but charismatic performances ensure a very merry Christmas to all.
14 19
ANDREW POLLARD Filled with more enchantment, love and wonder than you can shake a cracker at, The Snowman is a festive classic. The animation moves like a drawing that's come to life, and the music speaks with such articulation as to render words unnecessary. Tying together the bewitching anticipation of Christmas Eve with the eventual realisation that it’s all over for another year, The Snowman is a perfect microcosm for the magic and melancholy of a childhood Christmas.
Elf
MEGAN JONES Buddy the elf, what's your favourite colour? Buddy is raised as an elf in the North Pole and sets out to New York to... oh, you know the story. And if you don’t, why not? Full of festive cheer and great laughs that never tire, Elf is possibly the happiest Christmas film there is, and is sure to put even the scroogiest of scrooges into the Christmas spirit (even if it is November).
14
It's a Wonderful Life
JESSICA GREEN It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic film that my family and I watch every Christmas. The story revolves around George Bailey who, close to suicide on Christmas Eve, is saved by an angel recounting the lives he has touched. This is a heart-warming festive tear jerker that will never lose its touch. The famous quote from the film - ‘every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings’ - pulls on the heart strings every time. A must see.
1
18
5
22
HARRIET JOHNSON I watch White Christmas every December and don’t stop quoting it until the next. It stars everybody’s favourite crooner Bing Crosby, George’s aunt Rosemary Clooney, funny-man Danny Kaye and the elastic-legged dancer Vera Ellen. This hilariously witty musical from 1954 is the perfect festive film. You’ll be left amazed by the singing and dancing, crying at the memories of the war, laughing at the one-liners and dreaming of that white Christmas.
The Family Stone
ALICE WELEMINSKY-SMITH The Family Stone has all of the elements you could want in the perfect Christmas film: lots of snow, a tragedy which brings the family closer together, a classic 'unexpected' switching of couples, a food fight, and a too-good-to-be-true happy ending. Topped off with a fantastic starstudded cast, this often forgotten film really is up there with the best of them, but makes a nice change from some of the worn-out classics.
11
Die Hard
White Christmas
3
CASSIAH JOSKI-JETHI Edward Scissorhands is the one movie that makes me feel like it’s Christmas. At first, it doesn’t seem like your obvious Christmas classic, with no clear narrative or characters surrounding the holiday season. Yes, the beginning and end are set over Christmas time, but it’s the touching story itself - about looking at beauty in a different way and sacrificing yourself for a loved one - which digs deep into the heart of what Christmas is really about.
The Snowman
THOMAS WILLIAMS Miracle on 34th Street has everything you could want from a Christmas film: festive cheer, touching romance and the world’s most famous mince pie addict facing a lawsuit. Richard Attenborough plays Kris Kringle, the man trying to overcome the baddies to prove he’s Santa Claus. It’s impossible not to get caught up in this film and with a joyously rousing finale, the only question left to be asked is: ‘Do you believe in Santa Claus?’
The Muppets Christmas Carol
Edward Scissorhands
THOMAS LOFKIN What to say about Die Hard? Not only is it an immaculately executed, adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride, but also a how-to manual for any action film maker. And did I mention it's set on Christmas Eve? With stellar performances from both its hero Bruce Willis, and main baddie Alan Rickman, who arguably plays the greatest film villain of all time, Die Hard is an action-packed and often hilarious festive treat.
Gremlins
JONATHAN FAGG How is this a Christmas film? Admittedly, it does have a hilarious monologue about discovering there is no such thing as Santa, and helped convince the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating. However, the film balances its dark comedy with an exciting romp, sprinkled with heartwarming moments. It is in stark contrast to the saccharine feel-good tripe you usually get this season. Besides, who would not want the adorable Gizmo for Christmas?
Jingle All the Way
ANTHONY KEEN Schwarzenegger in a family film about parents trying to find kids the toys they want - you can’t not love it. Schwarzenegger playing the typical American dad is hilarious, and the levels of ridiculousness just keep ramping up, culminating in Schwarzenegger and another father having a fight in over-powered super hero costumes with jetpacks and wrist blasters. Die Hard? Please, this is what I’ll be watching on Christmas day.
9
The Lion
ISSUE 7 DECEMBER 2012
Will Siddons
p4 Ironman Wellington Birmingham alumni Chrissie Wellington, a multiple Ironman world champion came onto campus to give a talk about elite sport. Ellie Jones chatted to one of the most successful athletes the University has produced.
p3 The Birmingham Polo club
Kian Gheissari The team headed off to a competition a University Challenge competition at Rugby with high anticipation. See how they got on in defence of their title from last year.
p6 Birmingham's Cross Country team prepare to go the distance.
@WSiddons
p7 The Birmingham Motor Racing Club
Mike Christoforou
Thomas Dodd
The cross country season starts to hot up after Christmas, and Redbrick sport takes a look at the runners who are looking to have a successful BUCS championship in Leeds come February.
The club have come on leaps and bounds in the past few years and are contiuning to foster supreme driving talent. We hear from some of the club's members to gain some insight into competition.
2| 30th November 2012- 17th January 2013
THE LION
Editorial Information Editors Tim Pearson Felix Keith Photography Editors Charlotte Wilson Anna Kirk Photographers George Evans Lucy Britton Will Siddons Jack Schfield
Proofreaders Naomi Baldwin Louise Curry Hannah Dove Lucy Haffenden Emily HickeyMason Ashley Kirk Megan Kissane Rebecca Mee Bethany Prottey Amy Saul Faye Simpson Sophie Tollet Emily Trivette Elizabeth Waind
The Lion would like to thank: James Hughes UBSport Published by Redbrick in association with and part funded by UBsport Copyright (C) Redbrick 2012 Redbrick strives to uphold the NUJ Code of Conduct. The views expressed in Redbrick do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the Guild or the publishers. If you find an error of fact in our pages, please write to the Editor. Our policy is to correct mistakes promptly in print and to apologise where appropriate. We reserve the right to edit any article, letter or email submitted for publication. To contact us: Redbrick Guild of Students Edgbaston Park Road Birmingham B15 2TU 0121 251 2462 editor@redbrickonline.co.uk www.redbrickonline.co.uk Redbrick is printed through www.mortonsprint.com: 01507523456 Advertising: Contact Linda Langley in Guild Marketing on 0121 251 2524
WRITE FOR US Anyone can write for Redbrick Sport. Get in touch by emailing us: sports@redbrick.me
Sport at Birmingham: it's bigger than you think James Hughes Vice President Sport
@Guild_VPS
Hello all and welcome to the first 2012/2013 academic year edition of the Lion! I find it hard to believe that as I write my first entry into The Lion I’m now one-third into my term as your VicePresident (Sport). The Lion itself is now into its fourth year of existence and has truly established itself. Since mid-July I’ve been kept extremely busy, but it’s been an absolute pleasure. All 52 of our fantastic sports clubs also had a hectic start at the September Sports Fair. One of my key pledges was to increase sporting participation, so it was contenting to see so many Birmingham students through the doors of the Munrow Sports centre to see how they can get involved in sport - from non-competitive beginners sport to elite performance. There were plenty of demonstrations and enthusiasm from clubs, but the three standouts that I was hard-pushed to select (who won guest list entry to the first Guild Sports Night) were Women’s Rugby Union, Triathlon and Archery – well done! Perhaps then it is not surprising the level of success University of Birmingham teams have achieved so far this season in BUCS and non-BUCS competition. As well as strong performances across BUCS weekly leagues in all sports, Birmingham Cycling club won the University’s first team gold medal in the BUCS Cyclo Cross Championships recently. In Ultimate Frisbee both the men’s and women’s teams had successful days at their regional tournaments.
Charlotte Wilson
@wilsonscribbles
Once again our American Football team had an impressive victory in Xplosion 2012, with the Birmingham Lions beating the Nottingham Outlaws comprehensively. I’d like to wish the best of luck to all Birmingham sports teams for the remainder of your seasons. Being so passionate about sporting participation, I’ve been drawing students' attention to a great weekly community event called Cannon Hill parkrun. This is a completely free 5 kilometre run for all abilities that takes place in Cannon
Hill Park (only 5 minutes jog from the University of Birmingham) every Saturday morning at 9am. I’d encourage you all to sign up quickly online in order to come and give it a try. As well as this, on Friday 11th January, taking place is the ‘Who Will You Be?’ second sports fair. Please visit the Munrow Sports Centre New Gym to see how you can get involved in Birmingham sport. Whether you missed out at the September sports fair or have found a new desire to get involved with sport, there will be something for you. Another thing to look for is the promotion of an active, healthy lifestyle and the benefit it carries for students. Thanks for the hard work and effort Joe’s Bar have put into the new menu, which will be released in January 2013. The menu will include lots of healthy and nutritious meal options. Each item on the menu will have the number of calories contained in the dish and daily nutritional guidance information will be displayed on the menu as well as around Joe’s Bar. As well as this, all in-house produced University ‘GO’ products now have calorie counts and nutritional information labelled on them. All of this allows students to make an informed decision on their food choices. Finally, I’d like to thank the respective sports teams in Redbrick, Burn FM, Guild TV and PhotoSoc for their impressive and continuous efforts to ensure that coverage of University of Birmingham sport is brought to all 28,000 students and beyond.
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Welcome to the seventh edition of The Lion, Redbrick Sport's biannual
pullout,
and
our
first
as editors. When coming to put this edition together, we did not realise just what a wide number of
sports
were
on
offer
at
the
university. This edition focuses on some of the sports that do not always get the coverage they deserve. From karting to korfball, triathlon to ten pin bowling, there is a sport for everyone to get involved in. Our personal highlight of the issue is the interview with Chrissie Wellington, a former Geography student at Birmingham turned Ironman world champion. She takes the mantra of pushing your body to the limit to a whole different
level.
Anyway,
thats
enough from us; we hope you enjoy the issue. Tim Pearson Felix Keith @redbricksports
Top Left: George Evans Middle: Jack Schofield Top Right: Charlotte Wilson Bottom: Will Siddons
www.redbrick.me/sports | 3
Birmingham's polo team secure unprecedented result
Essential Info Origin: Persia, circa 600 AD Pitch Size: 300 x 160 yards Number per team: Four Game Length: 2 hours Other: The game is played professionally in sixteen countries, and hasn't been an Olympic sport since 1936
The Birmingham polo team headed to Rugby in an attempt to secure the Uni Challenge title for a second year running. Kian Gheissari Polo Correspondent
The University of Birmingham Polo Club achieved unprecedented success last weekend at Rugby Polo Club’s Uni Challenge, as the club’s various novice teams finished up as champions, runners up and took third place to boot. The Birmingham firsts hoped to emulate last year’s success and take the title once more. The team featured Imogen Norton and Henry Outtridge, two of last year’s successful lineup and were joined this year by Chris Milton. The Ones got off to a resounding start, beating Warwick’s first team 5-2 and they followed this up with a comfortable 4-1 win over Oxford's 2nds. The Novice 2 team consisting of Alexander Kaye, Louise Slope and
captain Kian Gheissari were concerned after receiving a tough draw for the group stage but got their campaign off to a remarkable start after smashing Oxford 1sts 4-0 in their opening match. They then secured their place in the semi-finals after they landed a 1-0 victory over Nottingham's 1sts. Birmingham’s Novice 3 side, featuring Ali Ahmed, Zoe Cookson and captain Pierre Chlabovitch started with a tight 2-1 victory over Liverpool. They booked their place in the semis after crushing Nottingham's 2nds 7-0 in a dominant display. The first semifinal on Sunday saw Birmingham’s Novice 2 side pitted against the Novice 3 team. The match was a closely fought contest and there were evident signs of nerves as neither side were able to play with the fluidity of earlier matches. Ultimately the 2nds ran out as 2-1 win-
ners. With one Birmingham team in the final, it was up to the first team to ensure that it was an all-Birmingham affair and they couldn’t have done so in a more triumphant fashion. They recorded a 6-1 win to set up an eagerly anticipated final against the Twos. With first and second place already secured, the pressure was on Novice 3 to ensure that Birmingham completed a lock out of the top three spots, as they faced Harper in the third place play off. The match was level at 1-1
The club fielded nine teams in total and easily had the largest presence at the tournament.
before Birmingham went ahead with just a minute remaining. They then defended valiantly to fend off the Harper attacks and finished as worthy winners. The night had drawn in and the floodlights were on as the teams entered the arena for the final, and the stage was set for a furious seven minutes. Birmingham 2 raced into an early lead. After securing possession at the throw in, Slope pushed forward latching on to a sterling pass from Kaye before fiercely riding off Outridge and adding a sublime finish. The 1sts responded soon after as Outtridge scored with a fine performance, and from thereon each side had several chances to score, and would have done were it not for some cracking defending from both teams. With just 30 seconds remaining Gheissari was able to get on the ball and work it nicely around the arena, but when all he had to do was tap it in to the goal, Milton intervened with a foul that reeked of desperation. The umpire duly awarded the Twos a penalty goal and with that the Seconds took the cup. Securing a 1st to 3rd lockout of the Novice section was not the only achievement for Birmingham. The club fielded nine teams in total and easily had the largest presence at the tournament. The beginner teams, although failing to replicate the success of their more experienced peers, made good progress and there were some very promising things to be taken away from their performances. This was a smashing start to the season for Birmingham and the club will undoubtedly sustain this form into the national championships next term.
4 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
1
Ironman returns to where it all began The University of Birmingham alumni and fourtime Ironman Triathlon World Champion returned to give an inspiring lecture Ellie Jones Sports Reporter
@EllieJones_bham
There are three main principles to succeed in what you do, according to Chrissie Wellington. Number one: take chances and don’t let fear get in the way. Number two: failure is needed to carry on learning, and number three: limits are only the ones we place there ourselves. As a 14-year-old girl on a canal boating holiday with her parents, four-times winner of the Ironman competition Chrissie Wellington would never have thought she would be where she is today. ‘I point at these buildings and ask my dad what they are; he replied it was the University of Birmingham, to which I replied I’m going to go there one day.’ Five years later and she did just that. Her self-confessed compulsive disorder over her work meant that although Chrissie was a keen sportswoman, she never let this get in the way of her studies, leaving the University with a first in Geography. ‘I signed up for the swimming team and I helped them a lot in the pub, but not so much in the pool.’ In the early stages of her adult life, Chrissie’s potential was not recognised. Looking back on her story, it was not obvious that she would have the success she so clearly has. She graduated in ’98; her plans were to be a lawyer. Gaining a place at a company in London, she asked to do something that was to shape and change her life for good. ‘I asked to go travelling for two months and they stupidly agreed. I didn’t come back for two years.’ ‘I always wanted to make a difference; I wanted people to recognize things needed to change. Not just on a national level, but internationally!’ Whilst travelling, Wellington says her eyes were opened to the many bad things in the world but also the opportunity for positive change. ‘A friend of mine said to me whilst traveling, “work out what
your passion really is” and I did.’ Coming back from her travels, Chrissie turned down her job in London and went back to university, this time in Manchester, where she enrolled in an MA course in development studies. Graduating with a Distinction in October 2001, she joined the UK government agency DEFRA in London to work on international development policy. However, being disillusioned by the ‘paper pushing’ of it all, Chrissie took leave to travel again. She went to Nepal and led a development group in the rural areas of the country. ‘This is where I really discovered my talent and endurance for cycling. It was sport at its rawest, no equipment, no coaches, no nutrition, just me and the bike.’ Wellington called her bike ‘prem’, which meant boyfriend in Nepalese. She spent hours and hours each day just cycling around the villages. ‘Finally I had discovered my passion. Here they were intertwined: I loved helping others but I also loved cycling.’ On returning from Nepal, Chrissie decided to take her passion one step further and entered the ‘Redditch Super Sprint’, which turned out to be more of a sprint than super. A couple of months later at another meet in Shropshire, Wellington managed to qualify for amateur triathlete world age group championship in 2006. To everyone’s surprise, not least Chrissie herself, she won. Now was her biggest decision: she could make it as a professional, that much was obvious, but could she leave everything else she loved behind? ‘I was scared of the unknown, scared to find out if I liked it, scared to know if I could pay the bills. But I couldn’t live my life asking myself the ultimate question: what if?’ In 2007 Chrissie Wellington became a professional triathlete,
‘I was scared of the unknown, scared to know if I liked it, scared to know if I could pay the bills.’ ‘It was sport at its rawest, no equipment, no coaches, no nutrition, just me and the bike.’ ‘I want to be an ambassador for my sport, and more specifically women in sport.’
working around the clock to achieve every goal put in front of her. She now holds the record of four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion and all three world and championship records relating to Ironman distance triathlon races. She also won the World Championship in three consecutive years (2007–2009). Although Chrissie has had obvious success, I ask her what her greatest weakness has been: ‘It has always been my mental strength. I go at everything guns blazing and never give myself a rest; I become mentally drained and then I contract illnesses that are very avoidable.’ Chrissie went on to say she realised sport was about the brain and spent many years mentally conditioning herself, using inspirational material and keeping her friends and family close. Finally it comes down to what Chrissie really wanted from all of this, why she has spent so long and hard training, dedicating her life to the sport. ‘I simply wanted a platform on which to start positive change in the world. I want to be an ambassador for my sport, and more specifically women in sport.’ Chrissie could not tell me enough about how privileged she felt to be in this sport, to have the success she has and how much she knows her coverage will make a difference to people everywhere. She finished by saying: ‘Don’t be limited by what you think is or isn’t possible. Like my dad used to say: "to the stars with difficulty". I think he meant things will never be easy but once you find that perfect race, the pain seems worth it.’
redbrick.me/sport | 5
2 minutes with...
2
James Dolton speaks to rugby scholar Fred Gulliford How long have you been playing rugby? I first started playing rugby when I joined St George's school in Year 7 at the age of 11. I always preferred football until the age of 14. Did a time come when you had to choose? I had to make the decision between the two, and I ultimately went for the oval ball when I played academy level at Saracens and trained with their EPDG.
Lucy Britton
3
When did you first consider the University of Birmingham? I attended an Easter sports camp here whilst in my final year at school where I trained with the 1st XV. Did that affect your decision of which University to come to? From then on I wanted to play rugby here. Birmingham were the most proactive when coming to recruiting new sporting talent.
1. Chrissie Wellington in action 2. Chrissie Wellington with UoB scholars Hannah Walker (left) and Lauren Howarth (right) 3. The Archery club's novice team
How did the scholarship come about? I applied with my university application. After the sports camp the university were keen for me to apply, and fortunately I was successful. How has it helped you? I have grown and improved dramatically as a player. I have been able to further the skills needed in my position with Mike Umaga my coach. Have you had to bulk up? Getting into physical shape is required in this age of rugby, which I have done through S&C and nutrition support.
Novices strike gold Birmingham's Archery Club go top of the league after the first match of the season, with the novice team dominating the competition at Cambridge On 17th November, the University of Birmingham Archery Club sent ten novices and seven experienced archers to Cambridge to compete in the first leg of the BUTTs league tournament, and achieved outstanding results. Birmingham’s novice recurve team brought home the gold medal with a score of 1836/2400 from Chris Avins, Han Lin, Rachael Stentiford and Blake Handley; beating Loughborough by an impressive 49 points. Avins and Lin also took home gold and silver medals respectively in the individual novice gentlemen’s category. Overall, Birmingham dominated the novice gentlemen’s competition, taking four of the top five positions; scoring at least 434/600. Similarly, in the novice ladies’ category, the top two spots were held by Birmingham novices Rachael Stentiford and Emma Harding, again gaining a gold and
silver medal for Birmingham with domination in the top five positions in the league, with Stentiford scoring 461/600 and Harding scoring 434/600. Novice captain, Sarah Haile, comments: ‘I am exceptionally proud of everyone who went to the competition, especially the novices who dominated their section entirely. I spent the day eagerly checking my phone and email for the results to come through, and was delightfully surprised by just how well the results were. They all put in a lot of hard work into training and practising in the very short amount of time that we have been shooting, and it has clearly paid off with top of the league positioning for the novice team, and four individual medals. I am more than optimistic for a repeat performance at the Loughborough leg.’ In the experienced category, com-
pound archer Chris Tombe won the gold medal; scoring 577/600 with 37/60 hits to the gold centre. Team captain, Alice Fawdrey, adds: ‘Of course it cannot be forgotten that Lauren Bennett also scored an impressive 543/600, gaining second place and giving us another medal in the compound competition.’ Club captain, Andrew Cottrell, concludes: ‘It was a fantastic performance by the team who put in some excellent scores despite the wet November weather. As club captain, it was nice to see that all of the organisation and effort that has gone into their training by both the coaches and the experienced team paid off. Being 80 points clear at the top of the league after the first match is a fantastic position to be in, giving us a solid foundation to build upon for the match at Loughborough next week.’
Sounds hard work! Have you managed to steer clear of injuries? I have remained injury free throughout my time at the Uni with the help of the Physio team and Monday morning yoga! How are UBRU faring this year? We have had a poor start to the season. After losing seven key 1st XV backs from last year's crop, it has been difficult to gain any continuity in the back line. Have things got better though? The team is always improving and hopefully after Christmas we will regain our form and push for promotion. How are you yourself faring? I have enjoyed my rugby this season, although injuries and various combinations have resulted in me playing more on the wing, a position I play alongside scrum half. Has this change of position to the lonely edges of the field brought more tries? I have scored four tries in six matches so far, and have had the opportunity to represent the Welsh Academicals team, hopefully with the view to play for Welsh Students early next year. What is the highlight of your sporting career so far? Finishing runners up in the Roslyn Park National 7s with my school. What is your ultimate sporting goal? To play at the highest level I am capable of playing.
6 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
BUAC spoilt for choice as BUCS Cross approaches Alex Cornwell
With BUCS Cross Country 2013 in Leeds fast approaching, Mike Christoforou takes a look at some of the university’s rising stars.
Ben Norris
First year Ed has made a seamless transition into athletic life in Birmingham. A strong fifth place at the first Birmingham League shows just what shape he is in. Ed explained how he is enjoying the company of many other high calibre athletes who are inspiring him to work even harder in training and continue to improve. If he does so, he could be an invaluable member of the A-team in Leeds.
(Men’s Cross Country Captain) Alex is flourishing under the role of Cross Country Captain this year. Despite focusing mainly on the 1500m during the 2012 track season, Alex is now relishing the mud and hills. He feels in the shape of his life, although admits to himself that he is “a dark horse” to make the A-team in February, given that the 12km course in Leeds provides a real test of endurance. But with a vastly improved eighth place finish in the first 11km Birmingham League on the 10th of November, he is certainly a strong contender.
Ryan Holroyd
Niall Fleming
Jack Gray
Ed Shepherd
Ryan had a brilliant run, placing sixth in the first Birmingham League. The fact that he is in contention for the A-team this year shows a great improvement from last year’s 29th place finish in the B-race. Ryan is certainly more accustomed to the longer distance which stands him in great stead for BUCS and for a potential place in the A-team.
Niall has his sights set on an individual medal at BUCS this year having finished 12th in the A-race last year. Coming off the back of a strong track season where he broke the 14 minute barrier for the 5000m, Niall has had an equally imposing effect in the first two Metropolitan League Cross Country races; finishing third and second. If he continues in this rich vein of form, he will undoubtedly be a key part of the A-team in February.
Ben highlighted the importance of gaining consistency in the run up to BUCS this year. He feels that an injury blighted last few years has seen his confidence affected. Yet with a very encouraging third place finish in the first Birmingham League in Leamington, he is sure to have confirmed to himself that he is in great shape. Ben has a great desire to be an integral part of the A-team in February and improve on his selfprofessed 'disappointing 19th place' in the A-race at BUCS Cross Country in Cardiff last year.
Jack began his winter season in fine style, comfortably winning the Men’s under-20 race at the McCain UK Cross Challenge Series in Bristol. This was underpinned by another solid outing at the first Birmingham League where he finished second, despite having to ease down at the end of the race, when he aggravated the ankle he sprained at the National Cross Country Relays in Mansfield a week previously. Jack is hopeful that BUCS 2013 will be a successful one for Birmingham and if he stays fit, he will be a crucial member of the A-team.
Will Gray
Second year Will was recently awarded with his first England vest following an impressive run in Bristol at the McCain UK Cross Challenge Series, where he finished third in the Men’s under 20 race. He travelled to Burgos, Spain and competed very well, with an overall fifth place, and second of the English competitors. Will hopes to be right in the mix for a place in the A-team at BUCS.
Jonny Hay
The defending BUCS champion has had a rocky start to the winter season with a knee injury. He is set to undergo surgery in the near future before beginning his recovery. Jonny is unsure whether or not he will be fit in time to retain his title but says he will try his best to 'make the start line'. I am sure his teammates are hoping he will recover in time to try and repeat his outstanding victory in Cardiff last year.
www.redbrick.me/sports | 7
Motor racing continues driving forward The Karting Club are determined not to be forgotten in the year of the Olympics, writes Thomas Dodd Motor racing: a sport largely forgotten since the beginning of the summer, thanks to the unique nature of the Olympic Games. A sport that has become increasingly popular over the last few years thanks to the exploits of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in Formula 1. But here at the University of Birmingham it certainly has not been forgotten. Just ask Graham Kirkby, President of the University of Birmingham Motor Racing Club (UBMRC). ‘We’re a club of about 60, but you don’t have to be experienced to join. Anyone can get into racing go-karts’, he says. Karting isn’t an official BUCS sport but Birmingham certainly don’t suffer from a lack of competition, thanks to British University Karting Championship (BUKC), which the university have been racing in since its inception in 2003. 2013 will be no exception as they will be entering two teams in nine rounds spaced out between December and June. In addition to this, a third or ‘C’ team will compete in the rookie championship for the first time - a big achievement for the club who will look to unearth some future racing stars of their own over the next two or three years. ‘We’re much more focused on driver development this year’, explains Kirkby. ‘We want all our drivers to know the tracks that they’re going to race before they get there, so we’re doing detailed track viewings before every event.’ The BUKC is made up of nine races, at five venues nationwide and provides the chance to race against universities from all over the country, with the season-ending Drivers Championship race finding the best individual driver out there by means of a one-off free for all shootout that gives all drivers an amazing opportunity to demonstrate their race craft, in a situation that for many will be the closest they ever get to profes-
'The karts used in the University Championship will comfortably reach 70mph'
sional motor racing. Results of individual sprints and team endurance events are added up to provide each university with points at the end of each race meeting. In recent years, the likes of Dan James and Jack Kilkenny have impressed and showcased their talents amongst some of the fastest young drivers in the country. Success has also been found in other areas, as shown by Jack Nicholls, who last year became the official commentator for the GT1 and Formula 2 racing series. UBMRC aim to seek out more than just a few good individuals. It looks to build a group of racers who all know and respect each other - a sense of camaraderie probably unmatched by most other sports teams. On F1 Sunday these guys will only be in one place - watching the race in front of a TV, so that at the next social race meeting the club puts on, they’re ready to try and emulate their heroes of the track by racing against each other wheel to wheel. That’s what makes Karting so great: the chance to go out and beat your friends on the track, pushing your physical and mental concentration to the limit, knowing that one mistake could undo all the good work. All of this helps to prepare the drivers for the frantic and hectic scene of the BUKC. ‘It’s an unbelievable pace’ says Vice-President Chris Grange, ‘Blink. And you’ll miss it.’ That’s pretty good advice. The karts used in the University Championship will comfortably reach 70mph in a straight line, and will get from 5-60mph in 4.5 seconds with the aid of a push start. This type of Motorsport is not for the faint hearted. As Grange so perfectly puts it; ‘We’re probably the fastest club in Birmingham. Except from maybe Skydiving.’
'We’re probably the fastest club in Birmingham. Except from maybe Skydiving.’
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18| 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013 @RedbrickMusic
In The Bleak Midwinter - Holst
It is not a conventional choice and, no, I am not religious but there is something amazing about a choir at Christmas. The words, written in 1872, are humble, melancholy and beautiful. Not your typical Christmas poem, and certainly not a cheerful Christmas song, but it’s got that 'feels good to feel sad' vibe - like The Notebook or the end of Toy Story 3. Not a snowman or fat man stuck in a chimney in sight and still Christmassy.
Claire Castle Music Critic
Malcolm Middleton’s Falkirk drawl of an existential piss-fest is the perfect antidote to all this yuletide nonsense. The former Arab Strap member serves up all the classic features of the Xmas single: synth solos, catchy choruses and a video of Santa vomiting outside Debenhams. The beautiful message: ‘We’re gonna die // We’re gonna die // We’re gonna die alone’ is just a perfect accompaniment to family arguments and endless repeats of Chicken Run. I love Christmas.
SINGLE BELLS
Our writers pick out seven of their favourite Christmas songs from over the years.
One of my favourite Christmas songs and one of the greatest efforts of modern times is The Darkness – Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End). The lyrics are jolly and occasionally actually quite heartfelt: 'Feigning joy and surprise at the gifts we despise' is an elegant thought'. There’s a slamming guitar solo, a children’s choir. What's more, the video is an utter delight: the moustachioed bassist glaring at a toy robot singing in the post-chorus is a gem. Christmas songs, by their very nature, are almost unilaterally kitschy and silly. It takes a band as silly as The Darkness (who have now and perhaps for the best been consigned to the scrapheap) to really pull one off.
A nativity in which the star of Bethlehem was a U.F.O. carrying an extra-terrestrial messenger of peace? Maybe it’s the physicist in me, but there’s a Christmas I can get on board with! Joking aside, there’s something pure and even slightly sad about de Burgh's unusual take on the Christmas tune. The verse builds slowly into an unearthly crescendo that never fails to simultaneously raise the heart and the hair on the neck. As unorthodox as the subject matter may be, the guitars and keys blend into a magical melody filled with love, hope and wonder, and what could be more festive than that?
Let's be honest, of all the things John Lennon is remembered for, penning the greatest Christmas song of all time doesn't even make the top 10, but 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' encompasses everything that a Christmas single should be. A collaboration between Lennon and his wife Yoko, 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' was written as a protest song against the hugely unpopular Vietnam war. Its lyrics of 'So this i s Christmas / And what have we done? / Another year older / A new one just begun’ are the perfect accompaniment to your reflective mood during the Christmas period, and the lovely choral backing of the Harlem Community Choir is enough to have even the biggest Christmas scrooge reaching for a mince pie.
Fairy Tale Of New York - The Pogues Whenever I hear 'Fairytale of New York' by The Pogues and Kirsty McCall, I always start to feel Christmassy. I don’t know whether it’s the festive lyrics ‘happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it’s our last’ or Shane Macgowan’s gravelly vocals, but it seems to act as a signal; time to start buying presents, time to start making mulled wine, lighting log fires and carol singing. It’s unsurprising that it overtook hits such as Mariah Carey’s 'All I Want for Christmas is You' in the fight for the most played Christmas song of the 21st Century!
Everyone knows 'Last Christmas'. But people tend to forget that in 2009 George Michael released a Christmas single, called 'December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas)', which is the best one I've ever heard. This is due to a combination of an amazing melody, his distinctive voice that fits this kind of ballad perfectly and wonderful lyrics that are not about finding love in Christmas time but written from a child's point of view. Apart from that, the animated music video is breathtakingly beautiful. So I simply close my eyes and start to dream when he captures the spirit of this time of year by singing: 'There was always Christmas time to wipe the year away.'
Matt Saull Music Critic
Andrew Pollard Music Critic
Ciara Cohen-Ennis Music Critic
James Dolton
Josh Holder
Christoph Buscher
Online Comment Editor
Online Music Editor
Music Critic
www.redbrick.me/music 19
Live Review. Crystal Castles HMV Institute Elle Dodson Music Critic
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Seeing Crystal Castles has previously proved to be a semi-hypnotic experience, so I went in with high expectations. Yet last night’s performance was, well, strangely sobering. Before the beginning of their set, there was a long pause where roadies persisted to wander the stage and repeatedly apply tape to different things - perhaps they knew what was coming. They opened with the lead track from their new album, 'Plague', a song that was meant to be performed live and sounded amazing. At this point the crowd were completely and utterly there, so in to it, happily mystified and loving life. Following this opener, however, Alice’s antics went from that kind of recklessness that seems cool and irreverent to just rather bizarre. I wanted to regard it as carefree and two fingers up to authority but I found I just couldn’t: what's rock and roll about spitting Jack Daniels at a crowd and sitting curled up in a ball cradling oneself at the side of the stage. I found myself being more scared for Alice Glass’s welfare and wondering whether she would be able to make it through another song, and this rather marred my experience of listening to music I love live. I missed that usual release one normally gets from seeing a band one admires onstage. Don’t get me wrong, I love Crystal Castles’ music and this week I have listened to little else except their new album III, but when a crowd can’t decipher the words of a singer trying to instigate a chant in the audience, and instead look confused with no idea what to shout back at her - perhaps there is a problem.
Album Review. Girls Aloud -Ten Christoph Buscher Music Critic
Ten years after winning the casting show Popstars: The Rivals and releasing their first single Sound Of The Underground, Britain's most successful girlband of the 21st century are back with their second greatest hits album. It features fourteen previously released singles as well as four new recordings. The album includes many number one hits such as 'Sound Of The Underground', 'I'll Stand By You' and 'The Promise'. Listening to Ten, it becomes obvious that the quality of the band's releases stayed on a high level from the beginning in 2002 until their last studio album in 2009. The weakest tunes are the covers 'I'll Stand By You' and 'Jump' that are not distinctive enough to be really convincing and not on the same level as the amazing original songs. Looking back on the career of Girls Aloud, it seems the stand out tracks are the lyrically marvellous mid-tempo ballad 'The Loving Kind', which was written by the Pet Shop Boys, and the experimental electro-rock
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number 'Sexy! No No No...', which was co-written by the girls themselves. The four newly recorded songs include the energetic opening track and first single 'Something New' and the second single 'Beautiful 'Cause You Love Me'. A slow ballad, the song might not have the most interesting or catchy melody, but with its wonderful lyrics ('Right now the whole world could call me ugly. So what, to you I'm not.') it will definitely grow on you. Then there is the pretty average ballad 'Every Now And Then' and the best song that Girls Aloud have ever recorded, 'On The Metro'. Written by band member Nicola Roberts, it combines amazing lyrics about finding and losing love in a club with an uptempo dance beat, which makes it impossible for you to just sit still while listening to it. 'I left my heart at the disco, now I'm crying on the metro. Wrote your name on the window' the girls belt out on what is probably the perfect modern pop song. F i n a l l y, there's
the Deluxe Edition of the album that includes a bonus disc with ten additional tracks that the fans could choose. It is certainly worth buying because it contains some more experimental songs like the unconventional 'Swinging London Town' and the lyrically brilliant B-Side 'Hoxton Heroes', which sees Girls Aloud attacking rock musicians who look down on them since they are only a talent show act. One last thing this greatest hits album shows is the incredible talent of the production team Xenomania, who have written and produced almost all of the Girls Aloud songs, as well as some of the most successful Sugababes singles and also produced the amazing Pet Shop Boys album Yes. As much as Ten is the awesome result of the hard work and undeniable talent of Girls Aloud, it is also in a way a best-of album for the Xenomania production team. And it is definitely a song collection that they can all be very proud of.
20| 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013 @RedbrickLifeStyle LifeStyle
5 Reasons to Date your Mate... Mistletoe Anyone? Katarina Bickley Life&Style Writer
1. He/She is not going to be a massive weirdo. Let’s be honest, if you’re friends with them, you must like at least some of the things about them. And so you don’t have to worry about them being a stalker/psychopath/generally crazy person. Which is good. 2. You don’t have to go through the awkward ‘getting to know each other’ stage. As you already know each other, you can kiss goodbye to all those awkward conversations and bad first dates. Well, actually, you will still have to go on the dreaded first date, but hopefully, this time - it won’t be too bad. 3. You already have friends in common. If you’re good friends with this person it’s pretty likely that your number of mutual Facebook friends is not going to be 0. So you don’t have to worry about making a good impression on each other’s friends - phew! 4. You know each other’s relationship history. He knows about that time you got with ten guys in one night, she knows about that one-night stand you had when you were dating someone else. But as bad as they may be, at least you already know about these secrets, so there shouldn’t be any unpleasant surprises. 5. You’re already comfortable around each other. Fortunately (or unfortunately) you already know all of this person’s faults/bad habits/weird interests. Plus you’re bound to have seen each other in your not-so-finest hour. Therefore you don’t have to go through the whole ‘trying to impress them’ stage. Thank God.
Hannah Coates Editorial Assistant
WHAT TO DO THIS YEAR... It’s coming to that time of year again when we bid farewell to, quite frankly, a stale year, and welcome in the new one. Most people regard this as an annual excuse to celebrate drunkenly. But what to do this year? Being our capital city, London has probably the most to offer for a good New Year's Eve. Sadly, most of these things come at a price. One thing that won’t set you back any money is the big fireworks display at the London Eye on the South Bank. You’ll be spending a fair amount if you’ve forked out to be on the London Eye, but there are plenty of spots where you can catch the fireworks for free. It’s a great (but cold!) way to spend the New Year, as Big Ben chimes midnight, the fireworks begin and there’s a great atmosphere. You can also see the fireworks on any of the boat cruises on the middle of the Thames. If you haven’t already been invited to a party on a boat, get some friends together and book one yourself. Silver Fleet and Bateaux London are two river cruise companies. Alternatively, head to Somerset House (the home of London Fashion Week) for an ice rink set in the marvellous, and very beautiful, Somerset House courtyard. There are various skate times, though every one will have you skating to the sounds of a live DJ. Other perks include enjoying the use of the River Terrace for the firework display, Tom’s Skate Lounge where you can buy various alcoholic beverages and/or hot chocolate, and The Christmas Arcade where you can purchase an array of luxury brands. Prices start from £40, but it will be a night to remember. If you like the idea of an ice rink but don't fancy the high price, the National History Museum also offers a skating experience with an ice rink that's open until 1am on New Years’
Eve. For a more formal evening, you can enjoy a truly vintage NYE at the Southbank Centre. The night includes 1920s ragtime bands, a 1940s swing orchestra and other music from the 20s to the 90s. It’s promised to be a ‘glamorous extravaganza’ and is a real chance to dress up in typical NY style. If you’re in and around Birmingham this New Year's, there is also lots going on. The Rainbow are hosting a Best of British night for an affordable £10; this will include fireworks, food and fairground rides, as well as sets from Seedy Sonics and Dolce Vita to name but a few. If Rainbow isn’t for you, head to Gatecrasher, who also promise to have a great lineup, despite the fact it hasn’t been released yet. Both are open until 6am so you can really enjoy New Year’s Day. If you don’t fancy any of the big ticketed nights out, it’s always fun just to go for a pub crawl with friends or chill out and watch the TV countdown. Whatever you do, just make sure you don't get too drunk and have that midnight kiss with a random tramp..
Dreaming of a Grey Christmas April Shacklock Senior Life&Style Writer
Many women are presented with dubious lingerie for Christmas that is usually worn once then discarded. In fact, Marie Claire reported that £100 million was wasted by men buying underwear for their partner which either didn’t fit properly, didn’t look sexy or was impractical. However this year many couples will go one step further and purchase gifts from the 50 Shades of Grey collection, designed by E.L. James in collaboration with online erotica retailer Lovehoney. Top of the wish list is thought to be the Inner Goddess Silver Balls which sold
one third of its stock in the first 24 hours! Another favourite Christmas gift will be the ‘Submit to Me’ first time bondage kit which comes with instructions on how to use the accessories and will help the transition to a 50 Shades sex life. Lovehoney co-founder Neal Slateford said the firm was expecting the busiest Christmas in its 10-year history with sales already up a third this year. Slateford also said: “Fifty Shades of Grey has changed the whole Christmas market. Millions of couples around the world want to experiment with pleasure products for the first
time.” Some of the products such as the Inner Goddess Silver Balls are also appealing to girls looking for a risqué present to buy their best friends. It may be advisable to exchange sexy gifts on Christmas Eve, as very few people will want to strip down after overindulging on turkey and Christmas pudding. So which Ana and Christian Grey scene will you be recreating with your partner this Christmas?
www.redbrick.me/lifestyle |21
James Dolton Online Comment Editor
Guys on Fashion: Girls, What to Wear this Xmas
Fierce
Flat-forms?
Peplums?
Top collar Shirts?
Emily Jenkinson Life&Style Writer
A bit unsure exactly what these are for. If you want to look taller, surely a pair of heels are a more attractive, more efficient and less “demented 70s disco-bopper” way of doing it. The only semi-attractive pairs I could find on Google Images appear to have at least a slight heel and hence surely count as “wedges” anyway. My totally critically-uninformed opinion is that this is another fashion garment made to fit a designer’s moniker so snappy it deserves a product to embody it. Don’t think I don’t know your game, 'treggings'. I’m watching you.
Right. Will someone explain these to me? It’s too far up to be a tutu, too low down to be a detail on the collar, too small to be a skirt and too big to not be a nuisance. If it’s designed to somehow flatter the wearer’s figure it’s probably barking up the wrong tree in that, at least for me, it immediately draws the viewer's eye down to that bizarre accoutrement resembling a deflated beach ring hanging haphazardly from the middle of an otherwise attractive dress, and hence towards the middle of the dress-wearer. I would concede that the more subtle examples are those more successful at not leaving me totally bewildered, but they are no closer to establishing what the point of them being there at all is. But hey, nobody is hiring me to design clothes! I think we can all thank our respective deities for that one.
I personally shy away from this trend: Partly for the haunting voices of a thousand ghostly teachers collectively accusing me of looking scruffy and being born in barns due to my insolently bare neck, but principally because I am and always have been a fan of being able to breathe unfettered by my apparel. Maybe I need to buy shirts that fit me, but either way I can begrudgingly accept that it does look rather smart on girls with the pencil thin necks required to stand the experience.
Frankfurt Christmas Markets: Where else can you purchase the most amazing chocolate waffles, buy yourself a winter faux fur hat and listen to a questionable German Santa sing Christmas carols outside the ICC? Coffee Shop Christmas Blends: The gingerbread latte and praline hot chocolate are sorely missed at all other times of year! Breaking Dawn Part 2: Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to deny that the much awaited final instalment of the Twilight Saga is a must see - and of course a topless Jacob has nothing to do with that at all... The Girls Aloud Comeback: Good to hear ladies! We’ve loved hearing Cheryl’s solo work but we’ve missed having a good old girl group to dance along to. Young Apprentice: Yes, it’s mildly depressing hearing about a 16 year old’s million pound business plan as we scavenge for any old internship, but it’s hard to resist seeing the one that was really getting on our nerves being fired.
"The Trouble with Love is..." Distance? Rhiannon Doyle-Maw
False Eyelashes: There is only so much XXL mascara can do, but it’s time to step up the game: Mily’s eyeliner stickers are your answer to dazzling eyes for the night- get the Winehouse flicks without the effort! Kristen Stewart & Robert Pats: We’re kind of getting bored of the ‘on/off’ thing- make your minds up guys!
News Editor
When I began writing this piece, although having been through a four year relationship myself, I was overwhelmed by where to start. So I did what every good student does and hit Google. The answers I got all informed me in different varieties of ‘10 easy steps to making a long distance relationship work’, making me wonder who on earth wrote these and where are they getting their information? It truly is an Everest sized endeavour and I felt I had a duty to unveil the truth. Once upon a time I faced a pivotal moment in a relationship that our very own Wills and Kate now face. Granted the distance was not as far as Afghanistan, and we weren’t war-torn royal lovers, but I had made the decision to move away to university whilst he stayed in his home town, so it was a distance longer than desirable none the less. We had been together two blissful years already when the time came for the big move. As university students yourselves, you may well have heard the phrase ‘If you make it past the first year, it’s going to last’, so as my first piece of advice I’m asking you categorically to ignore this. This is one of those useless
myths that make you feel even worse if it falls apart afterwards. From my experience, if anything, ‘distance’ makes the heart look to wander, not grow fonder. The moment when you realise you can live without each other is like taking a fire extinguisher to whatever spark there was left; if Cinderella had picked up the glass slipper herself, dusted it off and marched into a job at Jimmy Choo, do you think she’d still be with Prince Charming? Or would she have moved so far off the path they’d started out on together, that he’d be the first love she now tells drunken stories about to her new crowd? We tried to make it work, we called each other every night, we came together as often as possible and even visited a nudist spa (a complete accident but we went to be together in the hope it would bring us closer) but seeing each other once a fortnight can quickly slip into once a month and easily landslide into less. Love, as cheesy as this sounds, should look as easy as Kate and Will make it seem with a only few bumps in the road, not the M1 charging right through it.
Dallas Being Over For Now: We're going to miss our slice of southern sunshine, and John Ross of course! Warm Weather: We will miss you sunshine! But bring on cold winter evenings, chunky knits and faux fur! iPad Mini: Remind us of the point? I could have sworn we had something called an ‘iPod’ which did everything an iPad did, but smaller.. Tis The Season To Be Single: It is a fact that there are more breakups during the Christmas period than the rest of the year! Why? Nobody wants to endure the festivities alone surely!?
Finished
22| 30th November 2012 -17th January 2013 @Redbrick @RedbrickTravel
Christmas Market Mayhem! Uphill Lincoln Christmas Market: 6th - 9th December Glasgow Continental Christmas Markets: 16th Nov - 23rd Dec
Lincoln Christmas Market is one of the largest in Europe. Every year in the beautiful old city of Lincoln under the towering cathedral and leaking into the castle grounds, there couldn’t be a better setting for a Christmas market. It is very much a family market, packed full of kids and adults alike, with something for everybody – rides for the kids, mulled wine for the adults, and food and gift stalls galore. Try to avoid the market at the busiest times, as you may find yourself packed in like a sardine in a slowly moving glacier.
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Truro Victorian Christmas Market: 11th Dec - 16th Dec All you want for Christmas is to go to Cornwall's Victorian Christmas market. With a fantastic display of food and drink, you'll get into the festive spirit in no time. There is also an arts, crafts and gifts hall to buy presents for your loved ones. The market boasts a delightful Victorian twist and is now in its 8th year running.
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The Leeds Christmas Market may not be the largest, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in charm and drunken sing-alongs. Despite being located right in the heart of the town centre, the market generates its own festive ambiance due to its carefully positioned entrances and compact layout. The Leeds market offers all the usual trappings, including the various flavours of sausage, German beer served in steins, and of course a singing moose head. What separates this market from others is the indoor beer hall that comes complete with its very own traditional German folk band. There’s something quite magical about being serenaded by large, moustached, lederhosen-wearing men, that puts everyone into high spirits. Be aware that the people of Leeds are very proud of their Christmas market, and subsequently there is always a large queue to get into the beer hall, so either arrive early or be prepared to wait.
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The Birmingham German Market is, in my eyes, Christmas. I have been going every year since I was a grotty high school student, and it’s just not Christmas until you’ve been to gawk at the seemingly endless stalls piled high with German sausages, homemade sugarspun sweets, several thousand knitted hats, the blur of the lights, the famous carousel, the smells of mulled wine and the cheery roar of all the drunkards making the most of the beer refills. Running for 11 years now, the market is the biggest in the country, so wrap up warm and get yourself down there pronto for an authentic German ostrich burger.
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Birmingham Christmas Market: 15th Nov - 22nd Dec
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Leeds Christmas Market: 9th Nov - 16th Dec
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2.5 hours to Birmingha
Sample delicacies from international traders offering food, drink, and arts and crafts from Ecuador, Russia, Istanbul and Europe. Glasgow festivities include illuminations and fireworks.
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Southbank Centre Cologne Christmas Market: 16th Nov - 24nd Dec
Around 60 wooden chalets sell an impressive range of one-of-a-kind gifts. Get your stocking fillers here and enjoy the glorious array of food and drink on offer from the German traders, fresh from Germany's beautiful city of Cologne.
Zara Sekhavati, Chloe Osborne, Sam Orbaum, Elizabeth Waind Travel Writers
www.redbrick.me/travel | 23
Travel Rant. To pay or not to pay?
That is the question. Travel writer Hannah Detheridge argues for paying her way
When broaching the subject of paying for family holidays, there always seems to be a vague air of resentment involved. Do you have to pay to go on holiday with your family? I do. Not all of it, but I have to contribute. When asked if I wanted to go to Morocco with my mum and step-dad, I was reasonably asked to pay flights or to support myself when out there. I opted for flights, which I correctly reasoned to myself would settle up cheaper than having to pay accommodation and fiddly dayto-day living. But why, some have asked? Why should you pay to go on holiday with your parents? They should pay for you without thinking; you are their child, the fruit of their loins! Yes, but I’m also 20 years old and have worked since I was 15. I’m very very lucky; my parents give me money to fritter away on frivolous things like nice dresses and alcohol when I’m at uni, so paying a small bit back to them for the pleasure of going to a place I would very much like to
go to, but would never go to by myself, seems a fair compromise. On a similar note, my dad asked me if I would like to go to Mexico with him, my step-mum and some family friends. Would you turn down a five star resort in shivering December on the other side of the world? My dad isn’t rolling in piles of cash, he
just likes nice holidays, so when he goes on them, he really goes for it. The holiday was worth thousands of pounds and the very modest sum I contributed in comparison was fair enough, and in return I basked in the Mexi-
can sun for a week before dragging my sorry self back here. Why did I pay that small amount to go on holiday? Well, how often do you get the opportunity to go to Mexico? When raising this debate to my friends, I was quite horrified to hear that only one also pays to go on holiday with her parents. One. Some declared they wouldn’t want to go if they had to pay, some just don’t go away with their parents anymore, and some scoffed at the idea of having to pay. I even heard: ‘They should pay for the honour of having me.’ My reasoning for paying is this: you are an adult. You are expensive. If you have a job, you should contribute. If you don’t, and your parents offer to take you for free, then you should damn well be grateful for it. Let us consider: some people cannot afford to go abroad, and some people have never been. Perhaps we should all be a little more grateful for the things we have next time we trot on down to Terminal 2?
Grabbing travel by the baubles The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers
Christmas purchases account for 1/6th of all retail sales in the US
The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square is a gift from Norway to commemorate British support of Norway during WWII
24| 30 November 2012 - 17th January 2013 @RedbrickFood
FoodForThought
Our writers voice their opinions on food in and around campus...
To Costa or Not To Costa Roberta Patellaro Food Writer
At the very start of this academic year when another Costa magically appeared in the Guild of Students, a common question on campus was ‘is there really a need for two Costas on campus?’. At this point I would like to reformulate the question and ask: ‘is there really a need for Costa (or Starbucks for that matter) at university at all?’. Of course in the past few weeks Starbucks has been at the centre of attention for its activity of tax dodging, ‘forgetting’ to pay income taxes for the
past three years. Many students oppose Starbuck's presence on campus as the company claims to be ethical, but behind the advertisement posters ‘Love Coffee, Love People’ it shows its true colours. As an example, Indian branches of Starbucks pay their workers 25p an hour; by law the minimum wage would be 17p an hour but the living wage for an Indian person is 67p an hour. This exploitation of the workforce frankly does not sound very ethical to me. If students adopted a ‘don’t support it, don’t buy it’ mantra, the question would be resolved according to the personal choice of each student.However Costa and Starbucks have something of a monopoly when it comes to food and drink on campus. The recently installed Costa has a computer suite and printers, and is therefore a useful asset; unfortunately it also means that students end up supporting a business with dubious ethical practices. Let us consider the economical factor of having Starbucks and Costas on campus. Both of these companies provide a wide range of fancy expensive coffees, which for that matter have little coffee but a lot of sugar and various syrups. For the sake of it, let’s do a rapid price comparison with a simple latte between the two major brands and the coffee shop in the i-lounge inside the main library. The smallest latte in Starbucks costs
The Self-Catering dream? Sophie Murray-Morris Food Writer
Earlier this week one of my seminar tutors made a joke that with the university loyalty bursary of £750 for post-graduate study, at least you’d be able to purchase 750 cans of beans. Personally I can’t help thinking that the cliche of students living off baked beans has been rather overdone. I’m not sure if I know any students whose diets consist solely of packet or canned food and if I did I’d probably be shocked at their laziness. Although, like a McDonalds or takeaway, it is OK every now and then, I don’t believe that any student should make it a regular occurrence. It may seem difficult with deadlines looming to fit in cooking for yourself rather than ordering a Dominoes and it can be tricky in final year to resist. But cooking a healthy meal can take only between twenty and thirty minutes - less time than it would take for a pizza to be delivered. Or if you are as speedy as Jamie Oliver, it could even take fifteen. My weekly shop, which I share with my housemates, generally costs me between £15-£20 a week from Sainsburys. This gives me breakfast, lunch, and 4-5 dinners on aveage. We cook a variety of meals and no, not baked beans. I’m not trying to act like we cook Michelin Star food. Sometimes it goes wrong and we do obviously have the typical student meals like stir fries and spaghetti bolognese. These are so popular within the student community because although they’re cheap, they do have some nutritional benefits. Being catered in first year made self-catering seem tedious and frightening. But don’t be put off by the prospect of a weekly shop. It will only take you an hour there and back and will be even quicker online. You can
even pick and choose delivery slots around your schedule. Certain times, such as early in the morning or late at night, will bring the cost of delivery down. Doing a shop at a bigger supermarket may also give you greater variety of produce. For instance, you can find the ‘basic’ brands that are not always available at smaller stores. There’s no shame in buying these ‘basic’ brands. Some may recoil in horror at the very idea of not purchasing Heinz Ketchup, but if it tastes the same then who really cares? Purchasing the basic brands of items like condiments will also allow you to spend more on those indulgent items like, er, Cadbury Fingers...or for the healthier among us, salmon. Not to sound like your mother, but making your own meals is not only cheaper but is an easy way for students to get those well needed portions of fruit and vegetables. Self-catering also gives you the freedom to choose what you want to cook and when. It is easy to fit it around the hectic student schedule. It can also be cheaper if you shop wisely. Special offers will become your new best friends. You can also make self-catering a lot cheaper by cooking food in bulk. For instance, making a lasagne for four and freezing the extra portions will set you back only slightly more than the ingredients for one. This is an option that you completely lose in catered environments where there may be a lot of wasted food. If you’re still not persuaded by the benefits of a selfcatered lifestyle then I’ll leave the best benefit for last. We all know that student living is a cold experience. Cooking for yourself is a great alternative to putting on the heating. My housemates and I frequently and unashamedly huddle around the stove trying to get warm. Why not give it a go?
£2.15; the Costa in the Music Hall (which for some reason does not even have same prices as the one in the Guild) charges £2.00 for the same latte, whilst in the i-lounge it is only £1.55. Without any doubt it would be much more convenient for students in term of finance to have independent coffee shops in place of big brand names. That being said, some people could again argue that having both allows a wider freedom of choice for students. However it often seems like the University actively promotes the bigger brands. For example, meal plan for first year students is accepted in Starbucks. Come second year, all of those freshers will learn from the strain on their bank balance what it really means to have a daily Starbucks coffee. At the end of the day, it is a question of where the University's priorities lie. Is there really any need to advertise McDonalds on the TV screen in the Guild? Personally I find it quite disturbing. If the final aim is to turn the University into a glorified shopping centre, then this is the right way forward. However students would benefit a lot economically in having independent coffee shops on campus, and eliminating companies whose ethics are really quite questionable, would send a very positive message to prospective and current students alike.
'I can't help thinking that the cliche of students living off baked beans has been rather overdone' 'Being catered in first year made self-catering seem tedious and frightening. But don't be put off by the prospect of a weekly shop' 'Self-catering gives you the freedom to choose what you want to cook and when, making it easy to fit it in around a hectic student schedule'
www.redbrick.me/food | 25
The Cheapskate's Dilemma: Quality vs. Price Safiyyah Gareeboo Food Writer
With supermarkets and big brands searching for cheaper alternatives to staple items of the student diet, it’s worth considering just how much we are compromising our health to save money. A run through any student freezer will most likely include ‘basic’ or ‘value’ options, many of which provide a great way to save money, as gimmicks such as packaging and ‘perfect shapes’ are removed to significantly drop the price, but how far are these items stretched in order to drop the price, and are they worth the risk? Consider the fact that basic option soft-scoop ice creams hardly ever contain any milk, let alone cream. Or perhaps that with chicken soups there is no minimum chicken content so many cheaper options will contain less than 1% of chicken flavouring, if that even counts. It is well worth skimming over labels when shopping, as a comparison between a value brand and the next, supermarket brand up, can often yield interesting results. Bear in mind that ingredients are listed in quantity order, with the first being the main so if the first ingredient in your soup is water, it will explain why you’re only paying 15p for it! On the other end of the spectrum are ‘finest’ or ‘extra special’ variants, those darkly packaged items with
exotic sounding names. Compare these also to the ‘middle-of-the-range’ options and the difference can be very little. Packaging is, as we all know, the most essential tool in advertising, as is what can sway us either way, and is frequently employed to give average products higher appeal than they’re worth. Other brands however, are likely to be of improved quality; things such as jam can actually cost a lot to make if high quality fruits are used (compared to cheaper options which are mostly sugar), and things which keep for longer may be worth spending a little more on, as they need not be replaced often. Similarly, ingredients such as spices are severely compromised on taste as the price goes down; an alternative to this is Indian supermarkets, which offer better quality spices for the same price as value ranges. The Bullring Markets also offer a wide range of good quality fruit and vegetables for a fraction of the price of the shops. Meat, fish, bread and frozen produce can also be found inside, and it’s not too far of a walk back to New Street or a bus stop, making it well worth paying a visit. If you go as a group, you can make even better use of some deals, as big quantities split between you make for better savings on food which could have cost over
twice as much elsewhere. Ultimately, it comes down to you as an individual, and whether or not you want to know what’s in your food. But don’t think that good quality has to be expensive, as there are ‘good and bad’ options across the price range, and it can even be more cost-effective at times to spend a little bit more on things that will mean you can shop less often. There are several things you can do to ensure quality when you shop whilst not breaking your budget. Don’t be tempted by ‘luxury’ packaging; often it contains most of the same ingredients as its basic counterparts. Read the ingredients list, to be aware of what is included in different options. Compare prices more accurately, by looking at £/ weight rather than just the overall price. Get to know which fruit and vegetables look fresh, as this will let you choose the ones that last l o n g e r. Bear in mind that special offers don’t always work out cheapest. Look elsewhere! Your food options aren’t limited to the supermarket!
ste a T e v i s n xpe E : g n cy i t y p d u r k Stu n a :B d n E e s r u Co
Meal Plan Sofia Karttunen and Louise Curry Food Writer
'Surely being catered would ease the transition from living at home with parents cooking most of the time to the new, independent University life' 'It is easy to forget that such a large sum of money is contained on such a little card especially when you're indulging in Starbuck's coffee and treats'
In an issue published in February 2012 Redbrick carried out a survey of eight different Russell Group universities outside London and reported that the meal plan system provided at the University of Birmingham is the cheapest catering option and best value for money. After spending a year on the scheme, we took our time to look back and review the system. The ‘eat with us’ facility is marketed to add to the social well-being of the first year of university on The Vale Village. It has been taken up over 1300 students this year, representing around a half of all residents on The Vale. The meal plan price is directly included in the rent and provides an average of 12 meals a week for the university term time. A weekly sum of £42 is available in the student ID card which can be used at several places across campus seven days a week. The venues where the meal plan card is recognised include a number of restaurants on the main campus and on the Vale Village. The weekly money can be spent for example at the University Centre Food Court, Avanti, Phat Pasty, Starbucks or iLounge in the Main Library. Places on the Vale Village include Fusion and Rios Café. The food served at these places ranges from lunch sandwiches to English breakfast, curry, little snacks and Sunday roast. Our initial reasons for choosing meal plan last year were to eat healthy and have regular meal times. Surely being catered would ease the transition from
living at home with parents cooking most of the time to the new, independent university life. The option in fact turned out to be a nice connecting factor with the flatmates going to eat dinner together almost every day. We also found that it was a relief not to have to prepare food to make it through a long day on campus. Despite the end-of-the-year boredom, the varying themed dinners ranging from Australian barbeque evenings to Mexican and Christmas meals added to the memorability of the time as freshers. However, even though Birmingham is one of the cheapest meal plan providers in the country, the biggest no-no to meal plan is likely its price. The secondyear food shopping on bargains in Aldi has meant that the money spent on food has more than halved compared to last year. The price of meal plan being over £1,300 a year, this makes about £700 extra. It is easy to forget that such a sum of money is contained on such a little card – especially when you’re indulging in Starbucks coffee and treats! When it comes down to it, not even those most keen on meal plan would like to pay so much money throughout their whole degree. At the end of the day, certain stereotypes need to be abolished. The widely held belief that those on meal plan cannot cook is not always true. Some of the best home made cakes and meals we have had this term have been made by those who were catered last year.
26 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
@RedbrickSci&Tech
Ones to Watch Big stories from across the globe Stem Cells help Dog regain mobility
Claire Harris Writer
An exciting discovery this month has led paralysed Jasper the Dachshund to regain the use of his back legs. In the amazing new study, a Cambridge University team transplanted stem cells from the dog’s nose into the spine to repair the injury. After the treatment, Jasper and other dogs in the study could not only move their back legs, but coordinate the movement with their front legs. The positive results gained will mean a step in the right direction for the cure of paralysis in human patients. Stem cells have the ability to become many different cell types, and also act like an internal repair system. Their regenerative properties have meant that they have become the focus of a vast number of scientific studies, although their use in medicine is still widely uncertain. Here, the transplanted cells regenerated the damaged spinal cord. Most of the dogs in this study regained some movement, and even went on to walk on a treadmill with the aid of a harness. The research was a collaboration between Cambridge University’s veterinary school and the Medical Research Council. It was published earlier this month, causing ripples of excitement amongst the scientific community. Although a long way from curing spinal injuries in human patients, the researchers are cautiously optimistic about the future applications. Used alongside drug treatments to promote the regeneration, the scientists were confident that the technique would restore a small amount of movement to humans. They did, however, admit that it will be slightly more complicated, as they will need to tackle the issue of regaining important organ functions. According to his owner, Jasper is a changed dog and his remarkable recovery will certainly be an encouragement to everyone involved in this field.
$20 tablet set to make history in India
Apple yet again under fire from Samsung over Patents
Alistair Griffiths
Joshua Isaac
Writer
@ali_griffiths1
2012 has undoubtedly been the year of the tablets; Apple released two iterations of the iPad, Google’s Nexus 7 proved that tablets could be powerful, and in the last quarter we’ve seen Microsoft release their long awaited Surface. One device you might not be familiar with however is the Aakash 2 7" tablet, constructed and available exclusively in India by a company called Datawind. The Aakash 2 is making headlines because, despite being roughly half the power of the Nexus and Surface, the tablet is available for $20 (USD) in India, on unlimited data contracts for $2 a month. It’s worth noting that the $20 price is available to students only, thanks to a government subsidiary- the retail price of the tablet is $45. To put this truly in perspective, there are currently 911 million mobile phones in India, and 1.1 billion in China (the next potential market for this kind of device). The tablet is cheaper than most phones and offers almost everyone the chance to get online. This has huge implications on many areas of life. More people than ever are using tablets for work and the Aakash 2 will give a huge range of people access to new information. Before you get too excited, it is unlikely that we’ll be getting a tablet close to that price in the U.K. any time soon. The reason the Aakash 2 can be sold so cheaply is because Datawind have cut costs hugely; constructing the devices in India cuts all importation tax, and the country has drastically reduced distribution costs by only selling the tablets online. All these extra costs can sometimes up to treble the price of a device like this normally. The Aakash 2 is an important step in the right direction. For one, it shows that access to the internet on the move can be provided cheaply. With advances like this becoming more frequent, the predictions are that 3 billion more people will be coming online this decade. This is extremely interesting when you consider that when the first billion people came online, it effectively killed print media, and e-commerce has now almost destroyed the retail industry. There’s no way to tell what this many more people having access to the internet will mean, but we should expect some big changes regardless.
Writer
Samsung has filed papers with a Californian court, asking for Apple's iPad Mini, iPad 4 and iPod Touch 5 to be added to a list of products that allegedly infringe on eight of its patents. Samsung had already gained the court's approval earlier this month to add the iPhone 5 to the list, which also includes the Mac, MacBook and iMac. The Korean smartphone manufacturer claims that all Apple products that include “a built-in speaker and an external audio output port” violate its patents. Apple also filed patent infringement claims earlier this month, against the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy S III and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). The ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung began in April 2011, when Apple sued Samsung in California, over patent infringement and similarities in user interface of the two companies' products. The rivals have since filed cases against each other in courts in at least ten countries across the world, including Germany, South Korea and the United Kingdom. In September 2011, a German court banned sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and last August, a US jury awarded Apple US$1.05 billion for Samsung's violation of seven utility and design patents. However, a judge who oversaw the US case has said that she will consider Samsung's claims about possible juror misconduct. In Britain and Japan, courts ruled in favour of Samsung, with Apple being asked to pay Samsung's legal costs, and being required to publish a disclaimer on Apple's own website that Samsung did not copy the iPad. Samsung won a court order in the US this month to gain access to details of the settlement and 10-year licensing deal between Apple and HTC. Samsung argued that the price its Taiwanese rival pays for licensing Apple's patents will indicate the level of consumer demand for Apple's patented features, and the amount Samsung should be expected to pay in damages. The move could help it fight a potential sales ban on its products when it returns to the courtroom with Apple on the 6th of December. Unlike HTC, Samsung has said that it does not intend to settle with Apple. "It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won (£170m) to Apple, but we don't intend to [negotiate] at all," said a Samsung official Shin Jong-kyun, according to Korea's Yonhap News Agency. The conflicts between Apple and Samsung are part of a larger patent war, involving Microsoft, Google, Nokia, Oracle and other technology multinationals.
www.redbrick.me/tech | 27
2012 in Science and Tech As we reach the end of 2012, Redbrick Science & Technology Editors take a look at the big stories from the year.
Andrew Spencer
Sam Atkins Science & Tech Editor
@Atkins_Sam
Winter January
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) caused major changes in the fundamental workings of the internet, with sites like The Pirate Bay targeted for allowing piracy to occur. Underlying changes that would be made thanks to the bill caused many websites to go offline for the day, including Redbrick.
Science & Tech Editor
@andrewspencer93
April
The first computer model representing the evolution of 550 billion particles, from the big bang to the present day, has been created by researchers at Laboratoire Univers et Theorie in France. Essentially an observable universe, it marks a big step in charting space outside our galaxy.
May March
Mass Effect 3 made headlines with its controversial ending, that had players from across the globe complaining to developers, Bioware. Many felt cheated out of a worthy conclusion to their story, saying that the choices made throughout the 200-hour trilogy didn’t affect the final outcome enough.
Summer June Microsoft went up against Apple by announcing their first tablet, the Microsoft Surface. Running the newly finished Windows 8, which was specially designed for touch screens the Surface aimed to bridge the gap between laptop and tablet with its snap on keyboard design.
Facebook launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2012, causing a stir in the Tech world when it became valued at $104 million. Taking the company public was a bold step considering the stance Facebook has taken so far. Mark Zuckerberg remains in control of the company, despite Facebook being public.
Spring October
Felix Baumgartner jumped from a height of 29 miles into the atmosphere, reaching a speed of 1342 km/h, breaking the sound barrier on his descent. It was again popular online, as viewers of the livestream tweeted their thoughts as he peered down from space.
November Nintendo releases the Wii U, the first of the console manufacturers to kick off the next generation of systems. With the tablet-like GamePad used in conjunction with regular Wii controls, it seems like Nintendo has lost none of their usual innovative flair.
August
Following a successful launch back in 2011, the Curiosity Rover landed on the surface of Mars in August of this year. People across the world watched live online coverage as the first images of Mars were beamed back to Earth. A historic moment in Space exploration and one 2012 will be remembered for.
Autumn
Don't forget to check out the website rebrick.me/tech which will have regular updates throughout the holidays Also follow our Twitter feed at: @RedbrickTech
28 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
@RedbrickSport
Andy Murray -Thomas Dodd The British no.1 finally shrugged off the tag as the best player around not to win a major by defeating Novak Djokovic in five sets at the US Open and in doing so ended 76 years of hurt for British Tennis, becoming the first man from these shores to lift a Grand Slam trophy since Fred Perry in 1936. Under coach Ivan Lendl, Murray also reached a Wimbledon final and dismantled a tired-looking Roger Federer in straight sets to win Olympic Gold. He ended 2012 with a world ranking of 3 after a year which saw the man from Dunblane finally silence the doubters.
SPOTY 2012: Who are you voting for? Nicola Adams - Raphael Sheridan Many of us hadn't heard of the 30 year old before the Olympics; a testament to how long some athletes spend in the wilderness before rising to national prominence. It's especially poignant with boxing, the last sport where Olympic competitors must be amateurs. Adams has battled through serious injury, including one unfortunate episode where she fell down the stairs at her home. Once at London, she battled her way through to becoming the first female boxer to win a gold medal, beating world number one Ren Cancan in the final. And, from complete obscurity twelve months before, she ended up topping the Pink List of the 101 most influential LGBT British citizens. Rory McIlroy - Ashley Hirchberger As sporting years go Rory McIlroy’s has been pretty successful to say the least. He recovered from a slump in form and three missed cuts out of four to win the second major of his career at the PGA Championship on Kiwah Island by a mammoth eight shots. He has also won three other PGA Tour events this year including two Fed-Ex cup playoff events. He matched Luke Donald’s feat of winning the money lists of both The European and The PGA Tour and if this wasn’t enough he also spearheaded Europe’s stunning fightback to win the Ryder Cup. Sports Personality should surely be added to that list.
Ellie Simmonds - James Froom Ellie Simmonds is nominated as one of the only three Paralympians to make it on the Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. She lit up not only the Aquatic Centre but the whole country with her two gold, silver and bronze medals at London 2012. Alongside David Weir she became the ‘poster-girl’ of what is generally agreed as the most successful Paralympics in history. Her success didn’t begin at London 2012; she went to Beijing at just 14 and has now won a total of four gold medals and has broken three world records. Can she now add to those remarkable achievements by winning SPOTY aged just 18?
Chris Hoy - Richard Long Chris Hoy became the most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time after his exploits in London, having seven medals, six golds to his name. Team GB’s flag bearer certainly lived up to his billing, setting a new world record in the team sprint before going on to win his second London gold medal in the Keirin in his last ever Olympic race. Not only for his exploits in 2012, but for his contribution to British cycling as a whole, Sir Chris Hoy is the obvious recipient of the prestigious award.
Katherine Granger - Jonathon Milnes For most, merely missing out on Olympic Gold three consecutive games in a row would be enough to convince anyone to put their oars down. Three Olympic silvers and six World Champion titles is immensely impressive. Yet at 36 Katherine Grainger still wasn't contented with her 15 year career. With the ambition and determination of a youngster and the experience and prowess of a veteran Grainger managed to finally secure rowing's most prestigious prize at the this years Olympics, the crowning moment of an incredible career.
www.redbrick.me/sports | 29
Mo Farah - Oliver Norgate Mo Farah stormed to the 10,000m gold medal at London 2012 a week after having done the same in the 5000m a week previously. He summed up his achievement by saying ‘Anything is possible – it’s just hard work and grafting’. This typifies Farah’s passion and commitment to his work. Having suffered heartbreak at being eliminated before the 2008 Beijing 5000m final, Farah put in the hours on the track, devoting himself to a gruelling training regime to become the best. He is now the double Olympic champion. Farah has demonstrated the oldest but truest route to success; that consistent hard work enables you to achieve your dreams.
Ben Anslie - David Morris If Ben Ainslie had been the recipient of five Olympic medals in the 100m or 200m there would be no question as to who would be winning Sports Personality of the Year. The Lymington based sailor won a record breaking fourth gold medal at London 2012 and was granted the honour of carrying the British flag out at the closing ceremony of the games. One of sport's ‘nice guys’, and the most decorated sailor in history may be an unlikely winner, yet few would deny a man so dominant in his class for so long a deserving honour.
Sarah Storey - Tim Pearson What a year for the Paralympian. She has now won 22 medals in two different disciplines at the Paralympic games, but her performances in London is why she should win the award. Storey started the gold rush for the home team, winning their first gold in the C5 individual pursuit and then went on to win three more gold medals in the velodrome. If thats not enough, she has now won as many medals as Michael Phelps in the Olympic Games, an achievement which should be recognised by the British public on the 16th December. Bradley Wiggins - Ellie Jones 21 days of racing, 2000 miles of France covered and a couple of months later winning his fourth gold of seven medals in the 2012 Olympics. Considering all these it hard to see how Wiggins has never won a Sports Personality of the Year. Under the likes-a-laugh, family-man exterior lies a stone-cold competitor. His achievements are of historic proportions and although he isn’t in the papers every day, his success is unparalleled. Bradley Wiggins truly is a British superstar and in my eyes should win Sports Personality of the Year 2012.
David Weir -Ashley Kirk David Weir MBE has had a fantastic year as a British Paralympic wheelchair athlete. He has won a total of six gold medals, and has won the London Marathon six times. His achievements were crowned this year when the 33-year-old triumphed in the 5,000m, 1500m and 800m before beating Marcel Hug to win the T54 marathon in front of a jubilant crowd on the Mall. This year Weir matched Sarah Storey as Britain's most successful athlete at the Paralympics Games, after which he stated that he would have to be ‘in super-human shape’ to achieve such a feat.
Jessica Ennis -Felix Keith Jessica Ennis became the best all round female athlete in the world this year. Peaking at the perfect time she recorded three personal bests on her way to a gold medal in the Heptathlon at London 2012. She finished with a personal best overall points tally, a national record and an iconic status. She embodies the spirit of a true sports personality. Her humility and grace in victory is what has really endeared Ennis to the public and gives her a real chance at rounding off a special year with another triumph.
30 | 30th November 2012 - 17th January 2013
First home win right on time for Brum girls Womens Football
Birmingham 1sts
3
Thomas Dodd Sports Correspondent
Northumbria 1sts
2
The Birmingham women’s football first team collected their first home victory of the season, defeating Northumbria University 3-2 on a cold Wednesday evening at the Munrow Track Pitch. Brum came into the match on the back of two highly convincing away wins and sat second in the table. They were in the ascendancy from the start and quickly created chances, the best of which falling to Emma Follis, who, having rounded the keeper, couldn’t finish from a tight angle about eight yards out from goal. The hosts didn’t have to wait long for the opener though, Issy Christiansen this time putting Follis through one-on-one, allowing the winger to calmly slot the ball under the onrushing Sophie Bendelow in the Northumbria goal. Brum were clearly high in confidence and came pouring forward again, with Christiansen firing a fierce drive against the visitors’ crossbar just moments later. The lead was deservedly doubled just after the half hour mark when Northumbria defender Laura Venison headed into her own net from a freekick, an effort which Bendelow probably should have done better with. The second goal seemed to spark the northern opposition into life, and thanks to the presence of Kamine Sword up front, they forced the home keeper Amy Edwards into two good saves a short time later. The one time Edwards was beaten, the woodwork came to Birmingham’s rescue, as Becky Salicki’s free-kick came back off the post. Seconds before the break, the away team halved the deficit - Sword smashing home from close range after the home side failed to clear a corner. It was the first goal the Birmingham defence had conceded since the last home game against Loughborough- almost 280 min-
utes before. The second half was a much tighter affair, with both teams creating chances. The best of these fell to Sword, but she could only shoot wide after creating space for herself 20 yards out. Christiansen was again influential as Birmingham went forward, and it was the midfielder herself who had the best chance to extend the lead, flashing a shot across goal having rounded Bendelow just before the hour. She didn’t have to wait much longer to finally get on score sheet though, firing in the hosts third goal a few minutes later- again seeming to catch Bendelow unawares with a strike into the bottom corner from outside the penalty area. With the pressure off the home side began to dominate possession, with every neat trick and touch cheered by the home bench. Follis, and substitute Francesca Boggi both had chance to kill the game off, but were thwarted by Bendelow on each occasion. These misses were punished by the visitors, as they set up a nervy last ten minutes when Edwards could only parry Sword’s shot into the path of Janice Willis, whose goal gave last year’s BUCS champions a glimmer of hope. It was not to be though as Birmingham saw out the rest of the game comfortably to maintain the pressure on Loughborough at the top of the table. Coach Jenny Sugarman was naturally delighted with the result and singled out Christiansen’s performance. ‘We switched her to a more central role and I thought she was fantastic throughout’, she remarked afterwards. A win against Leeds Met next week would set Birmingham up perfectly for a potential title-decider against Loughborough in January. In this kind of form, you wouldn’t want to bet against them.
Jack Schofield
@JSchofield92
Jack Schofield
@JSchofield92
Jack Schofield
@JSchofield92
www.redbrick.me/sports | 31
Page 31 Sports Shorts
Tweet of the Week
Online this week @J_Ennis
Heroes... Monty Panesar The left arm spinner was recalled to the England squad for the 2nd Test in Mumbai with England 1-0 down in the series. He took 11 wickets and alongside Graeme Swann outdid the Indians at their own game on a turning wicket.
'So excited to be named in #SPOTY nominations! Some great sportsmen and women! It's going to be a tough one! But a great night!'
Weekend Wager
3/1
Sebastian Vettel The 25 year old German became the youngest ever triple world champion on the weekend by securing his third consecutive championship. He recovered from an early crash to finish sixth at a rainy Brazilian Grand Prix, earning enough points to beat Fernando Alonso to the title by three points.
Three of the Premier League's form teams have home games this Saturday and provide a safe-looking accumulator. Man City, West Brom and Liverpool have home games against Everton, Stoke and Southampton respectively.
Redbrick Sport Quiz
Ricky Hatton
`Men's Fencing 1sts 135-81 Warwick sts Owen Dunne looks back at Hatton's defeat to Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko, which will surely spell the end of his boxing career. England vs South Africa
5. How many wickets have spinners taken in England and India's test series?
1.Jonathan Edwards 2.Garfield Sobers 3. Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy 4.9.58 Seconds 5. 49
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Women's Hockey 1sts 3-0 Manchester 1sts Women's Lacrosse 1sts 18-1 Edinburgh 1sts
Women's Rugby 1sts 0-63 Loughborough 1sts Netball 1sts 49-39 Kings Medics 1sts England lost by the narrowest margins to the Springboks on the weekend. Ellie Jones reviews the match and looks at what is next for Chris Robshaw's men. F1 season review
Fixtures - 5th December Women's Lacrosse 1sts v Durham 1sts Munrow Track 5.30pm
...and Villains Andrew Hore The New Zealand hooker has been cited for punching Wales' Bradley Davies unconscious during their win on Saturday. The incident occured off the ball and left Davies needing hospital treatment.
Roman Abramovich The Chelsea owner has, yet again, changed manager. This time ditching a Champions League winning, club hero Roberto Di Matteo in favour of the deeply unpopular Rafa Benitez, who was booed by home fans at his first game in charge.
Women's Football 1sts v Leeds Met 1sts Munrow Track 2pm Men's Hockey 1sts v Leeds 1sts Bournbrook 3.45pm Women's Hockey 1sts v Leeds Met 1sts Bournbrook 2.15pm
Sebastian Vettel secured his third successive championship in Brazil. James Froom reviews the season, looking at successes, failures and what next season may have in store for us.
Antonia Morris Crossword Editor
This week's prize is a ÂŁ5 Waterstones Gift Voucher Completed crosswords to be submitted to the Redbrick office, located in the Guild basement
Men's Hockey 1sts 2-3 Sheffield Hallam 1sts
Men's Rugby 1sts 13-17 Loughborough 3rds
2. Who hit 6 sixes off one over in 1968?
4. What time is the current 100m world record?
Men's Badminton 1sts 7-1 Nottingham 1sts Women's Badminton 1sts 7-1 Northumbria1sts
1.Who has held the men's triple jump record since 1995?
3. Who have won the money titles on both the European and PGA tour in the same year?
Results - 28th November
Down
1. Nordic country (7) 1. Member of Scandinavian 5. Something of, from or related to people inhabiting a group of DanCuba (5) ish islands (7) 8. Slang or short reconnaissance (5) 2. Mother of pearl (5) 9. Person who makes your espresso 3. Eternal (7) (7) 4. Formal discussion on a particu10. Mountain on the border of Tibet lar subject in a public forum (6) and Nepal (7) 5. Unit of weight for precious 11. Evergreen forest south of the tun- metals and stones (5) dra (5) 6. Code of honour of the Samurai 12. Conceited and self-centred person (7) (6) 7. South African antelope (5) 14. Member of armed gang in 13. Japanese island (7) Myanmar or India (6) 15. Annual calendar of interesting 18. Pennsylvanian Mennonite (5) information (7) 20. Creamy meat or veg mixture 16. Native American conical tents baked in a mould (7) (7) 22. Bean used by 9 across (7) 17. Strip of sandy land (6) 23. Your brother's daughter 9 across 18. Emergency sound (5) (5) 19. Children's book about a girl 24. City in SE Florida (5) growing up in the Swiss alps (5) 25. Great Victorian novelist (7) 21. White poplar (5).0
Men's Rugby 1sts v Edinburgh 1sts Bournbrook Pitch 3pm Men's Fencing 1sts v Leicester1sts Munrow New Gym 2pm
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32 | 30th November 2012 -17th January 2013
SPOTY 2012 Redbrick Sport previews the nominees for the prestigious award.
p28-29
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Women's Football The Birmingham first team looked to continue their run on the Premier North Division
RedbrickSport
p30
Unbeaten run comes to an end for lacrosse men Men's Lacrosse
Birmingham 1sts
4
Nottingham Trent 1sts 6
George Evans
@Georgeevanss
The Birmingham men’s first team tasted defeat for the first time this season as they lost to Nottingham Trent 6-4 in the last sixteen of the BUCS Lacrosse Trophy. It was a rematch of a tight encounter earlier in the league season which saw Birmingham come out on top 7-6. Birmingham started well, dominating the early possession and took a well-deserved lead when, after some good work by Jamie Mcharg, Liam Donelly cut inside from the left to finish. A second goal for Birmingham came minutes later as Adam Sherlock burst through the heart of Trent’s defense to blast the ball into the back of the net. After ten minutes Birmingham were two goals up and couldn’t have hoped for a better start. The defense, too, looked solid as the visitors struggled to create opportunities. However as the game wore on they began to settle down into a rhythm and as a result created more openings but saves by the very impressive Dave Nash in goal kept the scoreline 2-0 going into the second quarter. The second quarter started in a similar fashion to the first with Birmingham again dominating the possession and scoring within minutes of the restart as Alex Morgan followed up a powerful shot by Pete Bidewell to score. However Trent were not to going to roll over and after some sustained pressure on the Brum goal they replied with a goal of their own. A defensive lapse in concentration saw the ball passed in from the right and a quick turn and shot saw Trent come right back into the game.
Owen Dunne Sports Correspondent
But there was a quick fire reply from the home side as more good work from Bidewell restored their two-goal advantage cutting in from the right to finish well past the keeper. However this seemed to spark a response from the visitors who were unlucky not to score, as they pressed towards the end of the half forcing Nash into producing four consecutive saves to keep Birmingham ahead. Encouraged by their dominance towards the end of the second quarter, Nottingham continued to pile on the pressure, hitting the post early on in the third quarter and then scoring two goals in a matter of minutes to level the scores against what appeared to be a shell shocked home side. The comeback had affected the hosts as the attacking cohesion and defensive control they had in the first half seemed to elude them. Nottingham took advantage of this, controlling the game in the fourth quarter with Birmingham struggling to get out of their own half. Trent took advantage scoring two goals in the last five minutes to sink the Birmingham and resign them to their first defeat, and seeing them crash out of the BUCS trophy. A disappointed Captain Edward Crocker said after the game, ‘we underestimated Nottingham, their defence improved 10-fold since we last played them marking the likes of Mcharg out of the game’ looking forward he said, 'it gives us time to concentrate on the BUCS league (in which they are top) and spend more time on the training pitch'.