Issue 1511

Redbrick Issue 1511, Vol. 84

Friday 22nd November 2019

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American Universities’ Involvement in US Nuclear Program Revealed

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The Official University of Birmingham Student Newspaper, est. 1936

Hong Kong Students Urged to Return to UoB

Students on a year abroad in Hong Kong have been advised by the University of Birmingham to return as soon as possible Aneesa Ahmed News Editor

The University of Birmingham has emailed students on their year abroad in Hong Kong advising them to come back to the United Kingdom.

Many of Britain’s other top universities, including Warwick, Sheffield and Nottingham, are also recalling students studying or working in Hong Kong, with some offering to pay for the travel expenses.

This is in response to the recent outbreak of violence by the police against protests that have been occurring since June. It started as a series of peaceful rallies in opposition to contentious legislation which would have allowed for extraditions to mainland China. The unpopular bill was withdrawn in September. However, there has since been a new set of demands from protestors, including complete universal suffrage and an independent investigation into the alleged police brutality.

Protests and police retaliation have now spread to university campuses, and the police force have been widely criticised for their use of violence and brutality against the protestors.

Students are fortifying university campuses as temporary base camps. This has sparked safety concerns, causing British universities to recall their students.

Redbrick spoke to Matt Rofe, a UoB student currently on a year abroad in Hong Kong, about his experience so far and what he is going to do. Rofe, a

third-year Biological Sciences student, is studying at the City University of Hong Kong, located close to the centre of the city. He told Redbrick that he is ‘leaving the country on Wednesday [20 November] as [his] family back home are very concerned.’

‘I have absolutely loved it. It’s an incredible city with amazing people and I’ve loved every minute of my three months here.

‘Academically, it’s been challenging as classes have been regularly cancelled/rescheduled but communication has been clear throughout and makeup classes have been organised right up until they decided they had to cancel the semester.’

Rofe went on to explain that, during his time on his year abroad, he has met some lifelong friends who he believes he has learnt a lot from. He also told Redbrick: ‘the protests haven’t really affected my ability to enjoy the city and life here until the last few weeks, and the protests themselves are genuinely inspiring and really put other issues into perspective for me.’

Two anonymous UoB students currently studying in Hong Kong on their year abroad contacted Burn FM and described their experience living on university campuses in Hong Kong.

One recalled that their friends at Chinese University of Hong Kong ‘got an email from their University administrators saying that the police have obtained the right to enter the premises and that the University can no longer guarantee student’s safety on cam-

The student Preserving experience herstories of Hong in film Kong

Comment Culture 8 18

pus.’

Another student outlined to Burn FM how international students studying at Hong Kong are ‘constantly advised to stay away’ and were discouraged from joining in the protests.

Both students highlighted to Burn FM that no UoB students are at risk.

Speaking to Redbrick, a spokesperson for the University of Birmingham said: ‘The welfare of our students

remains our utmost concern and we have been closely monitoring the developing situation in Hong Kong, which has led to many Universities in Hong Kong suspending their operations.

‘We have today contacted all our students to advise them of their options and offer them the opportunity to return home with the University’s support.’

Studio Incendo

Reviewing Dua Lipa’s new single

The worst scandal in the history of club rugby?

Music 21

Sport 37

INSIDE: Redbrick News Meets the Candidates Running in the Local Constituencies

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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Letter From the Committee: It’s so bizarre writing an editorial as Digital Editor, a position I’ve been hoping for ever since I started writing for Redbrick Film as a fresher.

I remember waltzing into my first Film section meeting in Joe’s and talking non-stop about film – our obsession in common. When I got the Film Digital Editor position, I was over the moon and it was such a laugh to meet every week with such a great bunch. It was the first group of friends I made outside of my housemates, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

This year, whilst being absolutely bloody hectic, the website has gone from strength to strength, constantly being updated with amazing journalism and getting tens of thousands of views this month alone.

Our outstanding online section editors have dedicated so much time and effort to making their articles look as fantastic on the website as they do in their printed pages, put together by their print counter-parts and overseen by Natalia, our fab Print and Features Editor. Each article is designed with such care and such an attention to detail, it blows me away. That's one thing that I think really sets Redbrick apart and makes us so unique and so special.

Digital editing has this unfortunate habit of isolating editors, you can happily spend hours typing away at home, all the while forgetting that Redbrick is more than the website or the printed paper. It's a

goal of mine to encourage all digital editors and writers to get into the office and get to know the paper offline. Holding digital socials and office drop-ins is only the start of what we have lined up, so keep 'em peeled. Digital has come so far in the last year alone and it has even further to go.

As much as it’s a newspaper, Redbrick is also a strong community of ambitious journalistic talent.

Meeting the section editors, writers, EAs, committee and (most importantly) Anna Griffish, the Redbrick fish, has been a huge perk of becoming Digital Editor, especially compared to last year, when I was a hermit editing from my room and living in my pyjamas.

For me, this paper has become more than just a student society, and has flourished into an institution that I’m so proud to be a part of, and where I get to work alongside a team of some of the most dedicated and hardworking people I’ve ever met.

It’s been such a roller-coaster three years writing and editing for this paper, and one I’ll always be grateful for. Redbrick is such an incredible student platform and I can’t wait to watch it grow even more over this year and beyond.

A big thanks to my hummusloving Deputy Editor, Holly – it’s been great to work with you this year, and to all of the committee, who have made me feel so welcomed and truly part of the team.

Another ginormous thank you needs to go to all of my family and friends, who have listened to my grumblings and encouraged me when I needed it most. I wouldn’t be the person I am without you all.

From the dungeons, etc...

Lucy McCann Digital Editor

Follow us on Social Media @redbrickpaper Want to be featured? Send us your photos at: deputy@redbrickonline.co.uk and/or tag us in your photos by using #redbrickinstagram

Online this week at redbrick.me...

COMMENT

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SPORT

Tim Goedhart

Officially Mr X

How to Make Travel Less Stressful

Football Fixes: Three Non-League Clubs to go to in Brum

Annika Haas Does Johnson’s Spending Spree Spell The End For Neoliberalism In Britain?

Redbrick Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief Tom Leaman editor@redbrickonline.co.uk

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Marketing Secretary Theodore Wrigley

Film Editors Amy O’Neill Matt Taylor Todd Waugh Ambridge Sam Zucca

Gaming Editors Alex Green Tom Martin Sam Nason gaming@redbrickonline.co.uk

Music Editors Freddie Clark Gemma Elgar Daisy Kirkaldy Dylan Lucas

Food&Drink Editors Harriet Laban Beth Sadler Gabrielle TaylorDowson

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Travel Editors Josie Hart Katie Norris Fern O’Shaughnessy travel@redbrickonline.co.uk

Life&Style Editors Estelle Dragan Frankie Rhodes Ellie Silcock Elizabeth Winter lifestyle@redbrickonline.co.uk

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NEWS

Alexander Savin Interview: Local MEP Ellie Chowns Arrested at Extinction Rebellion Protest

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Designed and typeset by Redbrick Copyright (C) Redbrick 2019 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.

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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03

Students Demand Tuition Fee Refunds Over Planned Strikes Fatima Omar News Reporter

In response to the University and College Union’s (UCU) decision to hold eight days of strikes at 60 British universities later this month, students have launched a petition to demand tuition fee refunds to compensate for lost teaching and learning hours. The UCU has announced the strike due to several disputes over pensions, pay, equality, and working conditions.

Following votes in favour of strike action, UCU members at 60 UK universities have planned walkouts set to occur later this month from November 25th until December 4th. In addition, members will also undertake alternative industrial actions upon their return to work, such as refusing to cover for absent colleagues and refusing

to reschedule any lectures missed due to the strikes.

“Customers who don’t get what they pay for are entitled to a refund” This new wave of disputes comes just over a year after universities were brought to a standstill last year by similar strikes, making this the second time students face disruptions to their degrees. Last year’s strike lasted for fourteen days in February and March 2018, with a number of institutions being forced to compensate students over missed teaching hours.

In fact, there is a possibility that this year’s strikes could affect

more than one million students and that legal action similar to last year’s £20 million lawsuits launched by students against their universities could be taken again.

Just hours after the announcement of the planned strikes, students from Bangor University in Wales launched a petition calling for a reimbursement of hundreds of pounds to each student for lost teaching and learning time. The petition claims students will lose £380 each during the strikes and calls for appropriate financial reimbursement. One of the students behind the petition, master’s student Katie Medlin, told The Independent: ‘We hope to inform the student body of the strikes and why they’re happening and gain support for our striking lectures.’

Elaena Shipp, another student behind the petition, tweeted: ‘If universities want to run themselves

like businesses and treat students like customers that cuts both ways - customers who don’t get what they pay for are entitled to a refund.’

According to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), some students already have very low contact hours. On top of that, any time lost during the eight-day strike would eat into the value of up to £9,250 a year that students pay to their universities.

Nick Hillman, director of think tank Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), said: ‘I think they have every right to seek redress for teaching they do not receive, but it is a more complicated question than many people realise. For example, it is not clear how much each lost hour of teaching is worth and, given that taxpayers still cover much of the cost, perhaps we are all owed a refund just as much as

the students?’

He added: ‘Students demanding refunds make the strike even more serious for institutions rather than less.’

Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, said: ‘It should be little surprise that students paying exorbitant tuition fees are worried about the impact of avoidable strikes on their studies and are seeking to hold their universities to account.’

A spokesperson for USS Employers told The Independent: ‘We understand that missed teaching time is frustrating. It’s important for all universities to ensure they are updating students about what is happening and any replacement teaching or resources that will be provided. Universities affected by strike action are working hard to ensure that any students affected do not miss out on the opportunity to learn.’

New Student Flats Proposed to be Built in Selly Oak Rebecca Sibley News Reporter

A five-storey development of student flats has been proposed for construction on Dawlish Road in Selly Oak. If the application is approved by Birmingham City Council, the accommodation will be built on the site of an ex-servicemen’s club and will offer 186 beds in cluster apartments and studios.

The application was made by Solihull-based Madison Construction and Birmingham City Council is expected to make a decision within the next few months.

This is the latest in a number of plans for new purpose-built student accommodation in Selly Oak. In September, Birmingham City Council approved a different proposal for the building of new student accommodation on Selly Hill Road. The development will offer 57 beds in 15 apartments.

This proposal by C. Faulkner and Sons argued that there was a need for more student flats to be built in Selly Oak because there were around 28,900 students at the University of Birmingham, but only 11,042 purpose-built beds available to them. This means that 62 per cent of students needed to find alternative accom-

modation.

Initially, the council turned down this application, citing parking issues, lack of demand and over-intensity of the scheme.

However, the proposal was approved after being made to the committee a second time.

According to Birmingham Mail, committee members opposing this proposal included Councillor Gareth Moore, who claimed that ‘the assumption that everyone has to live in purposebuilt accommodation is flawed.’

He went on to say that the building of student accommodation has ‘destroyed the character’ of Selly Oak.

After their first year, many UoB students choose to live in privately rented houses in Selly Oak. A second year English student told Redbrick: ‘I’d rather live in a house with other students than in student flats.’ She argued that purpose-built student flats are often ‘cheaply built’ so are likely to have many problems, and are ‘less social’ than a house.

Some UoB students had further concerns about the building of new student flats. One PhD student commented: ‘the issue with purpose-built accommodation over housing is that it's naturally exploitative with high prices that mean people from lower-mid-

dle class and working class backgrounds simply can't afford them.

It's an obvious money making scheme that rarely considers the economic issues facing students.’

In 2017, Redbrick reported that 49% of Selly Oak’s residents were aged between 18 and 24.

Many UoB students reside in Selly in HMOs (House in Multiple Occupation), which refers to a building or flat where three or more unrelated persons are living together. Although many of Selly Oak’s students attend the University of Birmingham, some attend Aston University or Birmingham City University.

New Academic Year to be Introduced Ella Kipling News Reporter

The University of Birmingham has changed the academic teaching year framework from September 2020 onwards.

The new academic year will have two semesters and each will include 11 weeks of learning and teaching, a period of assessment and support, and an end of semester assessment period.

There will also be a ‘UoBe Festival’, formerly named enrichment week, which will fall between the end of semester one and the beginning of semester two. According to the university’s website, this festival ‘aims to provide students with the space and time within the academic year to participate in a wide range of exciting and unique opportunities that personally interest them at that particular point in their lives.’

The shortened Christmas and Easter breaks (changing from four weeks to three), as well as the introduction of January exams, has worried some students.

Biomedical Science student Caitlin Lewis told Redbrick, ‘my biggest concern is only having three weeks at Christmas to catch up and revise for my exams, on top of seeing my family and friends and getting a part time job that will only hire me for three weeks.’

“Not having a chance to have a proper break, it isn’t really fair” She further explained, ‘It’s a lot of time pressure; after working hard all semester and then not having a chance to have a proper

break, it isn’t really fair.’

Another student, Patrick Gibbs, told Redbrick that although he is unsure how the proposed changes will affect him personally, ‘international students have expressed concern about being able to spend less time at home when their tickets are so expensive.’

Guild Student Education Officer Amanda Sefton recently released a video explaining the effects of ‘NATY’ (the New Academic Teaching Year) on students, emphasising that there will still be Christmas and Easter breaks, and that sudent housing and accommodation will not be affected.

She also highlighted the positive aspects of January exams, stating that, ‘they are only for what you’ve learnt in semester one, and your May exams are only what you’ve learnt in semester two, that way you don’t have one

big exam period,’ meaning that it is ‘less stressful and less hectic.’

“The revised structure will also ensure that study abroad semesters will become available” A spokesperson for the University also gave a statement in response to the concerns of UoB students, saying ‘we continually look for ways to improve the student experience.

From September 2020, the new structure of the academic teaching year will balance the exams and major assessment deadlines across the year.

‘Modules will be taught and assessed within one semester, so

all students will receive important information on their module progress half way through the year. There is also additional assessment support time built in to the new timetable, an enhancement of the wellbeing support available at these critical times of the year, and a new UoBe Festival in the inter-semester week to offer a whole host of new opportunities.

‘The revised structure will also ensure that study abroad semesters will become available, opening up this opportunity to those students who can’t afford to study for a whole additional year. We worked with the Guild to develop this new structure and ensure that it benefits more students, offers increased value for money, and is in line with most other major universities.’

04

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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Hong Kong Students Nottingham Trent Academic at UoB Organise Reported for March in Birmingham Encouraging Aneesa Ahmed News Editor

Redbrick spoke to Enoch and Jason, two second-year international students at the University of Birmingham who have moved here from Hong Kong to study.

The students, alongside other international students from Hong Kong across Birmingham and the UK, have organised a march through Birmingham City Centre on Saturday 23rd November from 2 pm until 4 pm. The march is set to start at the Mailbox and will go through the city centre to the High Street, ending outside Primark.

“[I am] watching friends being arrested and professors being shot” Following the end of the march, there will be a rally on the High Street where there will be speakers and an opportunity to sign a petition.

The event was organised by a group who call themselves ‘Stand with Hong Kong Birmingham’ and they want to ‘raise awareness’

about the issue to people in the United Kingdom. Jason, who played a large role in organising this event in Birmingham, told Redbrick that they ‘want people to show support to the protests in Hong Kong’ and that they ‘hope to put pressure on the Hong Kong government.’

This is in response to the recent outbreak of violent reactions by the police to protests that have been occurring since June. The protests started as peaceful rallies in opposition to contentious legislation which allowed for extradition to mainland China. Since the start of the protests, the unpopular bill has been withdrawn. However, there has since been a new set of demands from protestors, including increased democracy and an investigation of the police.

Speaking to Redbrick, Jason and Enoch outlined why organising this event is important to them.

Jason said that he feels ‘hopeless’ and that he ‘does not know what to do’ as he is ‘watching friends being arrested and professors being shot.’

‘We want support from different governments from all countries, we want to give pressure to government in Hong Kong.’

Jason also outlined how he feels about the Hong Kong government ‘not listening’ and highlights his passion to get the UK government to show support

towards their cause and hopes that they ‘will be able to do something to help.’

Enoch highlighted the sense of community he feels with other Hong Kong nationals living in the UK and outlined how the whole community are ‘hoping to do something.’

“We want support from different governments from all countries, we want to give pressure to government in Hong Kong” He says that he wants to stand in solidarity with some of his ‘friends on the front line’ and following the recent shift from the protests being on the streets to the protests being widespread and on university campuses, he wants to ‘raise general awareness’ and ‘push for change’ by organising this march.

To find out more about this event, visit the Stand With Hong Kong Birmingham Facebook page.

Interference in UK Universities by Foreign Governments Revealed Cerys Gardner News Reporter

A report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee has raised concerns over the level of foreign interference in UK universities. In particular, the committee said the report, released on the 5th November, contained ‘alarming evidence about the extent of Chinese influence on the campuses of UK universities.’

Professor Christopher Hughes, an academic at the London School of Economics, gave his account of academic interference to the committee. He said that he had witnessed Chinese students in London trying to undermine the Hong Kong protestors. He had also witnessed the Confucius Institute, an institute that promotes Chinese language and culture, confiscating papers that related to Taiwan at the European Association of Chinese Studies’ biannual conference.

The Chinese Students and Scholars Association is also men-

tioned in the report as an instrument of interference. Charles Paton, who works at the Royal United Services think-tank, said: ‘Its stated aim is to look after Chinese students, but it also reports on them to the embassy and authorities, tries to stop discussion of topics sensitive to China, and takes more direct action under the guidance of the embassy.’

“Its stated aim is to look after Chinese students, but it also reports on them to the embassy and authorities” Most of the evidence in the report relates to China but, according to the committee, there are similar threats from Russia. Dr

Her Students to Register to Vote

Peter Duncan, an academic at University College London, told the committee that he knew of an employee of the Russkiy Mir Foundation planting a bugging device to record a conversation on Russia held by the British International Studies Association.

Central Asian autocracies have also put pressure on academics working with UK institutions through travel bans, interviews with security services, detentions lasting hours or days, and threats to their families. This is according to University of Exeter's Professor John Heathershaw.

The report criticises the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for not sufficiently addressing the influence of autocracies on academic freedom and recommends that the UK ‘coordinate with like-minded countries’ to protect academic freedom and create best practices.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: ‘We will look at this report closely as we continue to bolster our efforts to promote and uphold our democratic values.’

Immanuel Giel

Cerys Gardner News Reporter

Carrie Paechecter, an academic at Nottingham Trent University, was reported to the police and Electoral Commission over a tweet on the 30th October reminding students that they can register to vote at home and at university. Someone also wrote to the Vice-Chancellor of the University asking for her to be disciplined.

Professor Paechecter was accused of encouraging students to break the law and vote twice.

Students can be registered in two places but can only vote once in a General Election. However, she told The Guardian: ‘I didn’t mention tactical voting and I didn’t think I’d said anything remotely controversial. I was just reminding students of their democratic right. I was really surprised by the storm I found myself in the middle of.’

“I am not advocating voting in two places” Replies to her tweet included: ‘Very bad advice. Please correct & tell students if they vote twice they can be charged with fraud.’

Another wrote: ‘You can’t advocate it, because it is illegal. I would suggest you make that clearer please.’

Professor Paechecter has since added a tweet, saying: ‘Just to confirm: I am not advocating voting in two places, just registering at both addresses so that you can vote where you are on the day.’

The backlash Professor Paechecter has faced contrasts with the experience of some other university workers. Johanna Anderson, a librarian at the University of Gloucestershire, put posters up in the library encouraging students to register to vote

before the election was announced.

Since the election was called, she has got together a group of academics, support staff and students to go to all three campuses and register students in between lectures.

“I didn’t think I’d said anything remotely controversial” Cheltenham, the constituency containing the University of Gloucestershire, is seen as one of the marginal seats that could define the election. It is currently Conservative but voted remain in the EU referendum and is being targeted by the Liberal Democrats.

The electoral office in Cheltenham phoned Anderson to thank her after they saw a spike in the number of students registering to vote due to her and her team.

Universities now have an obligation to encourage students to register to vote, an obligation that has been introduced since the last election. For example, the University of Birmingham gives students the chance to register to vote as part of the online registration form to officially join the University as a student.

Ellie, a first-year English and Creative Writing student, said: ‘the fact that people have attacked Carrie Paechecter simply for making students aware of the law is ridiculous. Universities should be doing all they can to make sure students register to vote, especially when many of us have never voted before. This is a crucial time in British politics and students should be able to have their say, whether at university or at home. Perhaps those criticising Paechecter should consider that they are scared of the power of the student vote, rather than perceived voter fraud.’

NEWS

Friday 22nd November 2019

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Guild Will Not Host TeachOuts During UCU Strike John Wimperis News Editor

The Guild of Students has refused to allow its rooms to be used for teach-outs during the UCU strike action next week.

Teach-outs are where students, academics, and the public meet off-campus to learn in a non-university environment with a less formal atmosphere.

Birmingham University College Union (BUCU), who are organising the strike, were meeting with student groups to discuss holding teach-outs in the rooms at the Guild of Students.

However, in messages seen by Redbrick, Guild President Josh Williams refused this, informing them that the Guild had decided the rooms would be for independent study only.

Speaking to Redbrick about the decision, Williams said: ‘there was the suggestion of teach-outs to be held at the Guild by the trade unions on campus. With this, we would absolutely love to support this as we understand that the

strike is taking the labour away from the employer.

‘However, we have prebooked society bookings over the strike period which should be respected. Further, due to limited space and resources, we as an officer team would have to choose which students get to learn e.g. what year, course, school, STEM, accredited degrees etc. There is no fair mechanism to do this especially as the strikes will be over the exam period.’

The Guild will support students in other ways during the strike action. Williams said that the Guild will raise student concerns over strike disruption with the University directly, such as asking the University to take substantial amounts of missing teaching into account in students’ marks.

He added that Guild rooms would all be available as study spaces for students who would not be comfortable going past the picket line to use university resources.

A spokesperson for BUCU

told Redbrick: ‘we are disappointed that the Guild has taken the decision not allow its space available for teach-outs on strike days.

‘In their statement on the UCU strike, the Guild Officers say they wish the Guild to “remain a welcoming, inclusive space with learning and student opportunities protected as a priority.” We feel that offering rooms at the Guild for teach-outs would a great way to provide Birmingham students with opportunities to learn from our members and fellow students.

‘By denying us room bookings, the Guild is making it harder for our members to support students during the strike period and creating an unhelpful division between students and dedicated staff. We hope the Guild reconsiders its position on teach-outs.’

BUCU have told Redbrick that they still plan to hold teachouts in other nearby venues. Up to date information will be posted on the ‘Everyone Out!’ Facebook event for the strike.

The Guild is not taking a stance on the strike, though in a

05

A Long, Cold Winter for A&E Users Rhiannon Wood News Editor

statement the officer team did say that ‘we absolutely respect the right of UCU members to take industrial action.’

Supporting the strike was brought up through the Guild’s ‘Your Ideas’ submission platform.

It was discussed in the Guild Policy Development Group but, without a unanimous agreement, it will have to be voted on.

Owing to how the Guild’s decision making process works, however, this vote on whether the Guild supports the strike will not happen until after the strike action has finished.

Academics will be striking from November 25th to December 4th. For the period November 28th to December 2nd, both support staff and academic staff will be on strike.

The NHS is warned to be facing its worst-ever winter, with predictions that around one million patients will face wait times of more than four hours at A&E. Doctors fear this outcome because of failures in this year’s worstever summer. Other factors of concern are staff shortages, a potentially heightened flu season, and the uncertain impact of Brexit.

There is also an estimated one third of these patients having to wait on trolleys to be treated.

Likewise, analysis conducted by the Reach Data Unit for hospital trusts covering Birmingham indicates that in January and March 2020 around 77,000 people could wait more than four hours. This is 32,000 more long waits in A&E than were seen in the same people could face months for 2019.

A&E waits of over 4 The target for hours in early waiting less than 2020 four hours is 95 per cent and these figures indicate that the proportion of patients being admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours of arrival would be only 57.6 per cent.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, British Medical Association (BMA) chair council says: ‘enough is enough.

Right across the health service, trusts and GP practices will be bracing themselves for what looks Oxford West and Abingdon. set to be the worst winter the NHS On students’ attitudes towards has ever endured.

Brexit, the YouthSight poll has ‘Patients should not fear needalso revealed that 74 per cent of ing hospital care or being able to students believe the outcome of see their GP, nor should they have the last referendum was the wrong to accept that they may spend one. Meanwhile, 70 per cent of hours on a trolley in an Emergency those asked want another referen- Department, waiting to be treatdum and 73 per cent would vote ed. to remain.

‘This perfect storm is brewing In Redbrick’s own survey, the alongside the upcoming general following question was asked: election and politicians should be ‘would you be willing to vote paying close attention to the fall tactically in the December 12th out of failure to invest in and supelection to achieve your desired port our health service for over a outcome with regards to Brexit?’ decade.’

Of the 100 respondents, 82 per cent answered yes with the remaining 18 per cent saying no.

77,000

Students Willing to Vote Tactically in General Election student issues, such as tuition fees.

News Reporter If these findings are proven correct on December 12th, they A poll conducted by YouthSight could have a significant impact on saw that over half of the 1,000 the outcome of the general undergraduates asked are election. Sir John open to the idea of tactiCurtice, a professor cal voting. In the at the University of results of the survey, Strathclyde, is published by the quoted in The Higher Education Independent as of respondants in Policy Institute saying that ‘effecRedbrick's survey (HEPI), a further 71 tive tactical votwould vote per cent of those asked ing’ by students tactically over have said that Brexit and remain voters Brexit could influence their could deprive the voting intention – potenConservative Party of tially more so than traditional ten seats.

Joseph Meakin

82%

Curtice, who has also recently hit headlines for saying that the chances of a Labour majority are ‘close to zero,’ went on to say that although tactical voting alone would be unlikely to turn a Conservative majority of fifty seats into a hung parliament, it could turn a majority of ten into one.

The director of HEPI, Nick Hillman, was also quoted in The Independent warning that the advice of some tactical voting websites is ‘worthless.’

Nonetheless, he believes that the student vote could ‘make a real difference’ in some constituencies, such as Canterbury, Bath,

Train Workers to Strike Every Saturday This Year David Atkins News Reporter

Train strikes by members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers will occur every Saturday during the rest of November and December in the West Midlands. These strikes may cause disruption to commuters travelling both in and out of Birmingham over the coming weeks.

West Midlands Trains managing director Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde told Birmingham Live that

on the first Saturday of these strikes he was expecting 789 services to run, instead of the usual 1,208.

The RMT are striking over the disagreement concerning train guards at station platforms. RMT general secretary Mick Cash stated: ‘RMT strike action on West Midlands Trains goes ahead as planned from this Saturday in the face of the company’s refusal to pull back from their threat to bulldoze through Driver Only Operation and their attack on the safety critical role of the guard at the platform/train interface.’

West Midlands Railway

responded to the call for industrial action by the RMT by commenting: ‘we have committed to keeping a guard on every passenger train. A strike benefits nobody.’

This strike comes at a time of year when commuters rely on these train services to both commute to work on a regular basis, to complete Christmas shopping and visit Birmingham’s iconic German Christmas Market. These weekly strikes may also affect students returning home over the Christmas period.

Klaudia Pertkiewicz, a thirdyear Law student at the University of Birmingham, told Redbrick:

‘Trains are so unreliable that they affect my commute to work almost every day, they’re constantly late or cancelled.’

This reduced train service has also caused weekend plans to be disrupted. Sophie Gibbons, a third-year Child Nursing student at Birmingham City University, was having a friend stay over for the weekend when the strike occurred.

She told Redbrick, ‘The train strikes have affected my plans that have been put in place for months and now I am worried that the trains will be delayed and extremely busy.’

“Politicians should be paying close attention to the fall out of failure to invest in and support our health service for over a decade”

In response to these predicted wait-times, a second-year LANS student told Redbrick: ‘with the NHS already under monumental strain, this waiting time over a holiday where people will be wanting to spend time with their families is heartbreaking.

‘Christmas is supposed to be a time of relaxation and celebration yet everyone working tirelessly in A&E will be feeling far from relaxed. This mounting pressure to curb waiting times seems impossible with scarce resources and an ever growing demand.’

06

NEWS

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricknews

UCL: Reading Lists Are Too White, Male and Eurocentric Becky Gelder

These findings have led research co-author Dr Karen News Reporter Schucan Bird to call for reading lists which better represent the A recent study conducted by student population, ensuring that University College London (UCL) higher education becomes ‘both reports that university reading more inclusive and more diverse.’ lists are dominated by white She also believes that we must European males. work hard in order to The study analysed ensure the ‘decolonisa144 authors of Social tion’ of university Science papers and courses, and that this 146 authors of sciwill involve ‘engagence papers including with both staff ed in two reading and students to lists. It found that, ensure clarity and of authors on while 39 per cent commitment from reading lists of students were all.’ black and minority This feeling is were BAME ethnic (BAME), a also echoed amongst mere seven per cent of the student population, authors offered on the with notable campaigns reading lists were BAME. including ‘Rhodes must Fall’ at As well as this, academics Oxford, ‘LiberatED’ at Edinburgh reported that 70 per cent of and ‘Why is My Curriculum Science authors were male, White?’ at Leeds and UCL. despite the fact that the student At UCL, an open letter has population on a national level is been written criticizing the fact 60 per cent female. that there was ‘not enough Africa’

7%

Becky Gelder

in the African Studies master’s programme. The approach and content of this module caused controversy due to its Eurocentric nature and ‘disproportionately large number of cis-white male voices.’

News Reporter

“Students are at the heart of what we do and we value their opinions and feedback” A spokesperson for UCL has responded to the letter, saying ‘students are at the heart of what we do and we value their opinions and feedback,’ and that an effort would be made to ‘implement changes’ and ‘improve the education we offer.’

Sharon McCutcheon

Third of Birmingham Adults Are Not Registered to Vote Katie Porteous News Reporter

More than a third of Birmingham’s adults may not have the opportunity to vote in the upcoming general election.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there are around 780,000 adults living in Birmingham, with only 614,000 of these on the electoral register.

This number will include students who are registered in their home constituency and non-commonwealth citizens who do not have the right to vote in UK elections.

Nationally, 14% of adults in England have not registered to vote. These figures come as the public are being encouraged to register to vote in the upcoming general election on December 12th.

Ladywood is one of five constituencies in Birmingham which have more unregistered adults than the majority that the incumbent received in 2017. 45,000 adults are not on the register which amounts to 41% of the total population.

The MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Labour’s Shabana Mahmood, received a majority of 28,000 in 2017 which, in theory,

could be overturned if the remaining eligible members of the public registered. Edgbaston, Selly Oak, Erdington and Northfield make up the list of Birmingham constituencies with these large levels of unregistered residents.

With weeks to go until polling day, there are signs that more young people than ever could use their vote this time around. In the last four months, according to Birmingham Live, 1.3 million people aged between 18-34 have registered to vote in England. This is 50% higher than the same period in the run up to the 2017 general election.

Some have cited the electoral

number of tourists in the area, providing them with a full day of activities for all ages. These tourists, as well as the workers at the German Christmas Market, then go on to stay in nearby hotels, boosting the local hospitality sector.

A representative from the Edgbaston Park Hotel in Birmingham told Redbrick that ‘the hotel offers a free car park which attracts guests as it is away from the hustle and bustle of Birmingham.’ They went on to comment, ‘we have already had a few couples staying with us due to the German Christmas Market.’

The Christmas Market is a fes-

tive tradition to Birmingham and has been coming to Birmingham since 1997. It offers a variety of food which entices shoppers and visitors during the cold nights.

registration system as the reason so many people miss out.

Speaking to Birmingham Live, Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society said, ‘our out-dated registration system means there are millions of voters missing from the electoral role.’

The method for registering to vote is a still an opt-in system despite voting being a universal right. This leads critics to believe that many people do not even realise they have to actively register to unlock their vote.

The deadline for registration is 26th November.

German Christmas Market Presents Boost to Economy David Atkins News Reporter

The German Frankfurt Christmas Market comes to Victoria Square and New Street each year and boosts the local economy.

Birmingham City Council estimates that the Christmas market brings an ‘extra £85 million’ to Birmingham’s economy, with over ‘5.5 million visiting each year.’ The Christmas market is open for visitors every day 10 am-9 pm up until the 23rd December 2019.

The market increases the

Birmingham Airport Goes Carbon Neutral

increasing tourists into Birmingham over the festive season. Big 7 Travel told Birmingham Live that ‘the Christmas Market was recently voted the 2nd Best Christmas Market in the World.’

The Christmas Market has a “The Christmas strong student appeal as many stugo there to purchase Christmas Market was recently dents presents for friends and family back voted the 2nd Best home.

Laura Bull, second-year Politics Christmas Market in and International Relations Student at the University of Birmingham, the World” told Redbrick, ‘the Christmas market is great for finding gifts and The market is also accompa- secret Santa presents [...] there’s nied by further festive activities some amazing pancakes and hot including an ice-skating rink, chocolate as well.’

Birmingham Airport has released plans to become carbon neutral by 2033, stating that an ‘ambitious target’ is needed ahead of the UK’s aim to reach a net emissions level of zero by 2050.

Having already cut emissions by 33 per cent since 2013, the airport is looking to improve further. This will be done primarily through on-site renewable energy forms rather than focussing on carbon off-setting schemes, which the airport sees as ‘the least favourable option.’ Past efforts to improve sustainability at the airport have included the installation of 200 solar panels on the roof of the terminal. These were installed in 2011 and generate around 40,000 kWh a year, enough energy to power twelve average-sized homes.

Moving forward, Birmingham Airport is working with Sustainable Aviation, a group aiming to provide a long term strategy for creating a ‘cleaner, quieter, smarter future’ for all those working in aviation related industries. The organisation reports that each new generation of aircraft is 20 percent more efficient than the last, and with new government support for sustainable fuels there is further possibility for an overall reduction in emissions.

Nick Barton, Birmingham Airport’s CEO, has spoken on the topic, saying, ‘we don’t have all the answers about how we will hit this target, but we are confident that through innovation and collaboratively working with industry, government, manufacturers, on-site partners and employees, we can reach our target by 2033.’

“We are confident that through innovation and collaboratively working with industry, government, manufacturers, on-site partners and employees, we can reach our target by 2033” These new commitments come amidst growing national and global concerns for the fate of the planet, which have been brought to light by the recent Extinction Rebellion protests and climate strikes taking place all over the world.

Birmingham Airport intends to release an updated Sustainability Strategy later this month, which will outline the airports future plans with regards to environmental and community impacts over the next five years.

NEWS

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricknews

07

American Universities’ Involvement in US Nuclear Program Revealed News Reporter Amy Lakin discusses the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) report into the role of universities in US nuclear program Amy Lakin

Speaking to the BBC, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg News Reporter said: ‘The transatlantic alliance would respond in a measured and A report published this month, responsible way to the significant titled ‘Schools of Mass risks posed by the Russian 9M729 Destruction: American (SC8) missile to allied Universities in the U.S. security.’

Nuclear Weapons The treaty was key Complex,’ reveals in Cold War arms that as many as 49 control as it elimihigher education nated around institutions 2,600 missiles.

The amount US across the USA Trump, in corare actively respondence with taxpayers will pay involved in the the Washington for nuclear weapons Post, development and said: ‘We over the next 10 research of nuclear will move forward years weapons and their with developing our facilities. own military response The report states options and will work that in the next 10 years, US with NATO and our other taxpayers will pay around $500 allies and partners to deny Russia billion to the country’s nuclear any military advantage from its weapons supply. unlawful conduct.’

The funding requirements that Although NATO backed the come with developing these mass decision by the US, the implicascale weapons comes with a huge tions of the USA’s withdrawal are cost. To alleviate the cost to the becoming increasingly evident, as US government, the government the findings of the Nuclear are outsourcing this production to Weapons report show. universities in the US. The report shows that there In August 2019, the US with- are four channels in which institudrew from the 1987 Intermediate- tions choose to collaborate with Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. the government to produce nucleThis decision by US President ar weapons. Universities are Donald Trump means that the granted research opportunities, nuclear weapon industry is vul- investment into facilities and nerable to economic growth more industry links for students in so than before, as production and return for their scientific investment can increase without research. legislative restrictions. Fears that The first method is direct manRussia was developing nuclear agement. This is where an instituweapons and thus breaking the tion directly manages nuclear agreements of the INF treaty also weapon production on behalf of supported reasons for the with- the government. Universities curdrawal. This weapon is known to rently within these billion-pound NATO as the SC-8. contracts include University of

$500bn

Venice Underwater Aneesa Ahmed Venice has seen some of its worst floods in 50 years, which will leave a ‘permanent mark,’ according to a tweet by Venice Mayor Luigi Burgnaro. The waters in the city peaked at 6ft according to the tide monitoring centre. Meteorologist Nikki Berry states that she believes that the flooding was caused by a ‘combination of high spring tides and a meteorological storm surge driven by strong sirocco winds.’

Italy has now declared a state of emergency as more than 80 per cent of the city, a UNESCO world heritage site, was submerged when the tides were at their highest.

California, John Hopkins University, the University of Rochester, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The second is Institutional Partnerships. This means researchers share their own knowledge and skills in exchange for funding and access to facilities in National Nuclear Security Administrations sites (NNSA).

The third channel is through research programs and partnerships. Universities conduct research on behalf of nuclear power complexes.

“We will move forward with developing our own military response options and will work with NATO and our other allies and partners to deny Russia any military advantage from its unlawful conduct” - US President Donald Trump The fourth programme is the Workforce Development Program.

The NNSA creates nuclear industry related employment prospects for students within the universities.

Vest’ movement began last year amid tensions surrounding the implementation of controversial fuel taxes by Macron - leading to weeks of clashes on the streets of Paris between protestors and police. According to reports, 264 people were arrested across France last Saturday as up to 28,000 took to the streets of the country to mark the anniversary of the movement’s birth.

The damage done to property during the protest is only compaFrom West rable to the damage inflicted upon President Westminster, Macron’s leadership.

Redbrick

The scale of the report’s find“These are the ings in gauging the individual contribution each institution has to the staggering worth of the universities that have nuclear arms industry and its pro- worked with the [US] jected trajectory in coming years is crucial. It is crucial that univer- government since the sities are transparent in their nuclear research activity and with 60’s so this is not a the multimillion-dollar partnerships that some have with the case of asking government.

Scott Lucas, a Professor of universities to break International Politics at UoB, said: an agreement they ‘These are the universities that have worked with the government have had for a few since the 60’s so this is not a case of asking universities to break an years, this is a long agreement they have had for a few years, this is a long standing partstanding partnership” nership.’

Lucas feels it is logical that - Scott Lucas, Professor of universities are involved in nuclear research given their areas of International Politics, UoB academic expertise in the sciences and the boost that the universities International Campaign to Abolish receive in their academic research. Nuclear Weapons are already He also highlighted that the working to do this. The capital universities receive campaign currently in deals, such as the runs worldwide University of across 100 difCalifornia’s $8.9 ferent counmillion deal in Triad tries. It is Laboratory, is often focused on re-invested into the abolishmissiles were elimiated ment the universities of themselves. nuclear under the 1987 The catastrophweapons and Intermediate Range ic effects of nuclear works to Nuclear Forces Treaty highlight the weapons in the past, on people’s lives and devastating on entire cities means humanitarian that the report’s findeffects that nucleings should be a call to ar weapons have. place increased resistance on Ican has since held the government’s grand strategy three major conferences to dison nuclear weapon investment. cuss the effects of nuclear detonaOrganisations such as the tions.

2,600

called a ‘car-crash’ by critics.

Dickie Arbiter, former Buckingham Palace press officer, said the interview was ‘excruciating,’ and the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond commented that the prince’s attempt to improve his public image had ‘failed, badly.’

tested in the Hauge, the seat of government. On Sunday, a football match had to be paused after fans of FC Den Bosch chanted racist abuse, some about Black Pete, at a SBV Excelsior player.

Activists Face Off Against Dutch Christmas Caricature

According to Brazil’s space Agency, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has reached its highest rate since 2008. The satellite data shows that 3,769 sq miles of rainforest was cleared between August 2018 and July 2019; the total area of the Amazon destroyed to date stands at six times the city of São Paulo.

This rise is thought to be a result of the far-Right climate sceptics that entered office in January, led

by Jair Bolsonaro, as they promised more of the Amazon to loggers, miners and farmers.

Cristiane Mazzetti, campaigning for Greenpeace in Brazil, said Bolsonaro's government is ‘trashing practically all the work that has been done in recent decades to protect the environment and end deforestation.’

Round-Up

The City of Light, in Flames

KPMG dumps Prince Andrew

Alex Boscott

Christina Manns

On the one year anniversary of the French ‘Gilet Jaune’ protests, French citizens took to the streets once again to demonstrate against the leadership of President Macron. The ‘Yellow

Accountancy firm KPMG has ended its sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s entrepreneurship initiative due to the controversy surrounding his connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The

John Wimperis

Midlands to Last week, Dutch Christmas character the Redbrick Sinterklaas arrived in the News Team round-up Netherlands with a parade in the town of Apeldoorn. This the big stories marks the start of an annual con-

scheme, called Pitch@Palace, was founded by the Duke of York in 2014, and gave entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their ideas to successful business figures. This comes after Prince Andrew’s BBC interview with Emily Maitlis, which has been

troversy over Sinterklaas’ 'helper' Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Black Pete is traditionally depicted by white people wearing black make-up, an afro wig, and red lipstick. This is the racist caricature known as blackface. Antiracist activists protested at Sinterklaas’ arrival in the Netherlands and thousands pro-

Deforestation at Highest rate since 2008 Rhiannon Wood

08

COMMENT

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickcomment

Hong Kong: The Student Experience Hannah Lay talks to a UoB student on her year abroad in Hong Kong amidst the violent protests in the city Hannah Lay Comment Editor Content Warning: This article contains themes of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.

It has been difficult to miss stories about Hong Kong in the past five months. In April an extradition bill was proposed which would have allowed the extradition of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China under certain conditions.

Opponents argued that such a bill would expose Hong Kong nationals to the unfair trials and violent treatment for which China has become renowned.

Protests have been raging throughout Hong Kong since this bill was proposed, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets to express their concerns about the bill. In September, after several months of protests, the bill was suspended indefinitely.

However, this has been deemed too little too late and protests have continued.

“Disruptive tactics are necessary in order for these protestors to be heard” The protests currently show no signs of slowing down. The occurrence of police brutality on university campuses has led UoB and many other universities across the UK to strongly advise their students currently studying in Hong Kong on their year abroad to return home. In light of these devastating news stories I spoke to Zoe Hollis, an English Literature student who is currently on her year abroad at the University of Hong Kong.

I wanted to understand how the experience is really affecting people living through the protests.

What has your experience

been like so far? Do the protests have an impact on your day to day life? If so, how?

‘Hong Kong is such an incredible place and I have fallen in love with it during my time here. The protests have been going on since before I arrived (and it is not the first time protests have happened in recent years), so it has definitely been a large part of my experience in Hong Kong. There are times where the protests do impact day to day life, when transport links are stopped and certain areas are blocked.

However, these disruptive tactics are necessary in order for these protestors to be heard, and I am fully in support of that. It’s only been since the universities have been attacked in the past few days that my friends and I have had to seriously consider whether we will be able to continue our year abroad in Hong Kong. It’s heartbreaking that it has got to this stage, but after months of protesters being met by police brutality and government indifference, it is unsurprising that the situation has escalated.

‘On Tuesday evening at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the roads were set alight by burning towers of bins and road, a blockade created to prevent the police from advancing further. Over 70 people were reportedly injured in the clashes, and countless arrests were made. This was in university grounds, and the university emailed out to the students saying that they could no longer guarantee their safety on campus as the police had obtained a warrant. Coming from a university in England, it was unthinkable that such terror could occur in an institution which fosters a safe space for young people to learn and grow.

However, the unthinkable is now becoming a horrifying reality. Tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper sprays and student arrests are slowly permeating what is otherwise a peaceful arena. These are students the same age as me and younger, that are getting attacked in somewhere that should be a safe

space. On a wider scale however, this is the same police brutality that has been going on for months now.’

Have you found that the protests have affected your ability to immerse yourself into your new city?

‘I think being here has given me a year abroad experience that I would definitely have not been able to have elsewhere.

The protests are understandably at the forefront of most people's mind at the university. At certain times you should avoid certain areas, but Hong Kong is such a vibrant city that there is always something happening elsewhere. However, I think the seriousness of what's going on here at the moment isn't really something you can ignore. It's really heartbreaking seeing what is happening, but at the same time it has been really incredible to see the resilience and determination of the people who are continuing to fight for what they believe in. The protests here have parallels with youthled protests all across the world right now, and I do believe that the resilience of the people in Hong Kong has inspired people across the world, so it's really a privilege to witness it firsthand.’

“The unthinkable is now becoming a horrifying reality” Do you know anyone that has taken part in the protests?

What was their experience?

‘People are protesting because they have no other choice if they want to protect their home. These are people, including students my age and younger, who are risking their lives in the face of police brutality. My friends and I know people who have been teargassed, and had guns pointed at them. A student on the same floor in halls as one of my friends was arrested, and I’ve also heard multiple instances of

people being beaten and sexually assaulted whilst in holding.’

Do you think it is easy to get involved with the protests?

‘We were instructed that we would get our student visas revoked if we participated in the protests directly. There are other things international students here can and have been doing to indirectly show support, such as sharing underreported developments on social media to friends and family back home, boycotting certain establishments which have been vocally anti-protest, and speaking to local students involved in order to understand their experiences.’

How are the events reported within Hong Kong? Obviously, we have our own news coverage of the events, but it would be interesting to understand how Hong Kong nationals are being updated on the protests.

‘Different media outlets have differing opinions and different biases on the issue, especially as the escalating violence has made the issue more divisive. Also, some significant outlets here are owned by conglomerates in other influencing countries, so it’s not always the most reliable. Twitter and Telegram is where I’ve personally been looking to see live updates of events as they unfold.’

How regular are the demonstrations? Are there constant protests or are they more spread out? In the UK we only seem to get the news coverage of particularly big demonstrations so it is difficult to understand the scale of the events.

‘They happened at weekends mostly for the first couple of months I was here, and were pretty avoidable as there is prior warning. However, more spontaneous ones did happen in reaction to significant events, i.e. there were big ones mid -week after the mask ban was announced. Recently, there has

been more of a call to action for a general strike, and workers in the financial district and other business hubs have been coming out every lunch break to protest on the street. They’re getting tear gassed and attacked by police before returning back to work. The students at my university have barricaded themselves into campus since the weekend, with makeshift blockades on all lift and escalator entries. They have stockpiled food and are waiting for the police to arrive. Three rounds of tear gas were released at my university on Monday.

We were advised to stay at home by the university preemptively, so it was targeted at the protestors, but the protestors are also students that should be safeguarded by the university.

Several people from my university have been arrested, including by the police forcefully removing them from student halls. When you look at what happened at CUHK, and the growing police brutality and animosity, it’s hard to see it getting better anytime soon.

However, I hope with the resilience and determination of the students and the people of Hong Kong, things will change.’

“It is difficult to see the end at the moment, however we can remain optimistic” With protests continuing to rage through Hong Kong, Zoe has decided to take the advice she has been given from the university and leave the city.

The lives of many students on their year abroad are filled with uncertainty; they are unsure if they will be able to return to complete their year abroad in Hong Kong. However, this uncertainty pales in comparison to the horror Hong Kong nationals are going through right now.

As Zoe said, it is difficult to see an end at the moment, however we can remain optimistic that these protests will lead to positive outcomes in the very near future.

Flickr/Studio Incendo

COMMENT

Friday 22nd November 2019

09

@redbrickcomment

Poll of the Week: Voting

With a General Election just around the corner, we asked Redbrick readers if they are registered to vote and crucially, where they plan on voting Holly Pittaway Deputy Digital Editor

Undec

Once you have registered to vote, the next step for students is to decide where to vote. Our poll suggests that there will be an even split, with 43% saying they will cast their vote at home and 46% at university, but 11% of participants were still undecided.

While it is unfortunate that we have to participate in tactical voting, where you choose to vote can have a dramatic impact on election results, so it’s important that you do your research. There are a multitude of online tools to help you find out where your vote will be most useful (for reference, I used the one provided

by The Guardian) but generally what these tools do, is look at the difference between the winning

ide

d

1

Ho

m

1%

e

4

3%

tion system in 2014, which disproportionately affected young people and wiped more than 1.4 million people from the electoral register altogether. As a result, many people are calling for automatic registration for eligible voters.

to Cast Your Vote?

Poll conducted on 12th November

%

2019

U niv e rsity 46

Where Are You Going

“While it is unfortunate that we have to take part in tactical voting, where you choose to vote can have a dramatic impact ”

No

1%

Ye s

99

%

Historically, the youth vote has been incredibly important when it comes to elections – in the 2017 General Election which resulted in a hung Parliament, there was a reported 20 point rise in turnout for 18-24 year olds, at 66.4% since 2015, something that contributed massively to the popularity of the Labour party that year. In September, when concerns about a potential October election were rife, the number of youths registered to vote skyrocketed, with over 30,000 under 25s registering within 48 hours.

Now though, with the General Election set to take place on December 12th, it is more

important than ever that young people register to vote in time if they want to give their input on contentious issues, such as Brexit and climate action. The results of Comment’s poll this week have shown that 110 out of 111 participants have already registered to vote, which is a good sign. For those who have not yet registered, though, there’s no need to worry, as you can still do so until 11:59pm on 26th November (or by 5pm if you are registering to vote by post). Despite these results, however, the number of young people on the voting register is still alarmingly low, with according to The Independent, around ‘a third of young people’ still unregistered. These low figures are partially due to the introduction of the individual registra-

Are You Registered to Vote?

Poll conducted on 12th November 2019

party and the second-place party according to the last GE in your university, versus home constituency. Currently, Labour holds the Selly Oak seat by 15,207 votes; I compared this to my home district, Stratford-Upon-Avon, in which the Conservatives hold the seat by 20,958 – this shows that for students from Stratford, placing their vote at university would be more impactful. Equally, though, voting at university may not always be your best bet – if

your home district is Nottingham North, where Labour hold their seat by 11,160 votes, your vote would be better cast there; so make sure to check before December 12th.

Take part in our polls: @RedbrickComment Redbrick Comment Contributors

Editors’ Views

Comment's Editors discuss their voting intentions

The views expressed in this article do not reflect the views of Redbrick as a publication.

Abby Spreadborough Comment Editor

At present I am undecided about how to vote. I will be completing a postal vote and voting at home, as I want to use my vote to benefit the local community I have grown up in. I know I will end up voting for a left wing party but as of yet, I am undecided.

I have reservations about both as I do not feel that either fully represent my views. The Labour party has been investigated for anti-semitism with long standing MPs like Ian Austin standing down. The Greens have pledged new eco-friendly boilers for everyone but I have not yet seen how this would be funded and how other services may neglected in the wake of the high costs.

Both parties are seeking a second referendum which I do not agree with. Whichever party comes to power can’t delay further or attempt to undermine the

democratic will of the people with another referendum, in my opinion. Not delivering Brexit will further disillusion millions who voted leave and the country can’t risk doing this, as issues surrounding the climate crisis, housing and the underfunded welfare state press more than ever.

Homelessness is on the rise much like knife crime and its impacts are visible at home and at university. I know that I will use my vote to demand better; the release of party manifestos will likely be the turning point for me.

“Not delivering Brexit will further disillusion millions who voted leave”

Given the turbulent nature of our political climate, and the abundance of broken promises that we have been met with in recent years, it’s difficult to know which party to trust to bring about real change. At present, I am still unsure of how I am going to vote in the upcoming election.

Generally, I feel more aligned with left-wing politics, so I have an inkling of which way I will vote. However, I cannot be sure I have made an informed decision until the manifestos have been released.

What I do know though, is that I am going to apply for a postal vote to enable me to vote in my home constituency. The Peterborough constituency is more marginal than the one in

I did not have the chance to vote in the referendum as I was only 16 at the time. I would have likely voted to remain but I still accept the result and feel it should be delivered. The continual extending of the deadline has not only consumed our headlines but parliament’s time also.

Education, the NHS, policing and other vital services have been neglected during this time.

Alice Macfarlane Comment Editor

Birmingham, and therefore, however I decide to vote, it would have more of an impact overall.

Hannah Lay Comment Editor

As a politics student, I am not short of people asking me how I am going to vote. The problem is, I don’t know how I am going to vote.

I do not feel strongly aligned to any of the parties and I am not convinced any of them would do a good job if they were elected.

The political climate is filled with great uncertainty and we need some real change to be brought into politics to make any difference. From what I have seen so far of the respective promises from each of the parties, they are not bringing the necessary change.

There is nothing revolutionary about their pledges and therefore, even if they delivered on them (which lets face it, politicians are not renowned for doing) our problems will not be fixed. Ultimately, I think I will be unsure about who I am voting

for up until the last minute.

Emily Chapman Comment Editor

I think the issue with the upcoming election is the fact it has been approached as a Brexit election.

In lots of ways this is true; it is the government’s main concern at the moment, and I know that I want to stop Boris Johnson getting the Brexit that he wants.

Remaining in the EU is something that is really important to me, and people like me are being told in that case to vote tactically.

But fundamentally an election shouldn’t just be about one issue, and we shouldn’t have to vote tactically as that seems to defeat the whole point.

Much like my fellow editors, I don’t yet know how I’m going to vote, but I do know that I’m going to cast it in my home constituency, which is a Conservative safe seat. There’s a lot of confusion going on at the moment, but what I do know is that it’s incredibly important to have everyone’s voices heard, especially young people.

10

COMMENT

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickcomment

A Second Chance for XR Comment Writer Esther Purves re-examines Extinction Rebellion, asking if they can overcome recent controversy Esther Purves Comment Writer

After a highly publicised attack on the London Underground, environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion faced a city-wide ban in London.

Although Metropolitan Police deemed it the only way to tackle widespread disruption, the ban was contested in the high court, which went on to rule in favour of the activist group on the grounds that the act is in place to ‘manage’ and not ‘prohibit’ the activities of campaigning groups.

This ruling eradicates the

Metropolitan’s ability to impose a ban prior to protests beginning; a clear win for Extinction Rebellion. But is this freedom limited? Amidst speculation that the Government is pressing the police for greater control over the group, XR could have only a short time to get their demands met. This ruling should be seen as a push to create educated and effective protest strategies, in place of reliance on theatrical spectacle to achieve their goals.

The extent of consideration behind the tube protest can easily be called into question. In possibly the most controversial protest, activists climbed onto trains at Stratford, Canning Town and Shadwell during rush hour. The protest caused e i g h t arrests and temporary suspension of t h e

Wikimedia Commons/Gazamp

Jubilee Line and Docklands light railway, wreaking havoc to the regular tube users.

“Creating 'us and them' binaries between XR and the working class could be detrimental ” There is a distinct discontinuity between the groups that Extinction Rebellion targeted and the groups that bear the responsibility of climate change.

Not only is it deeply ironic that an environmental activist group would target an environmentally friendly way to travel, the people that were primarily affected were the working classes. It is a huge risk to disenfranchise the working classes from the XR cause; these groups will feel the largest socioeconomic effects of climate change, and they therefore should be actively encouraged into joining the movement rather than being averted from it. Reports from the event tell of commuters using violence against the protestors in their frustra-

tion, and BBC interviews from the event show one traveller protesting, ‘I have to get to work - I have to feed my kids.’

Creating ‘us and them’ binaries between Extinction Rebellion and the working class could be detrimental to participation within the campaign. Perhaps for XR, reliance on spectacle is prioritised over intelligent protesting.

This pattern of theatrical spectacle could continue to disenfranchise minorities from XR protests. Writing for The Guardian, Athian Akec argues the exclusive nature of XR, deeming it designed for the white middle class.

Glamorisation of arrest is the epitome of this privilege; Akec highlights this discomfort for groups that have had adverse relationships with the police.

He quotes his friend in response to the stories of intentional arrest: ‘That’s not an option for black people.’ Again, Extinction Rebellion have undone themselves with their activities.

Exclusion of this group comes with exclusion of an essential perspective in the fight for climate justice. Akec explains the essentialism of having minorities in the XR cause, arguing that the presence of BAME protestors will prevent ‘climate colonialism,’ where the west exploits the resources of the south to decarbonise their economies and save themselves from the climate crisis.

Acknowledging the failure of the tube protests, senior figures of Extinction Rebellion have apologised on account of

‘people [having] given up their jobs to join XR, for them to be so upset and so dismayed by the action is an absolute pointer to us that we have to look again at how we make those decisions.’

Indeed, future plans for the group’s protests are more promising; plans to target iconic buildings in the capital will enhance the narrative that climate change responsibility lies with large corporations and governments, rather than the commuting individual. Their activities need to continue moving in this direction; away from naïve theatrics towards diverse and educated protesting strategies. Eradicating the exclusivity of Extinction Rebellion will create an educated and effective group that can protest for accountability and zero carbon emissions in the interest of everyone.

“This movement has never been more essential than now” This movement has never been more essential than now: the looming inevitability of the climate crisis paired with minister’s talks to weaken the checks on Police creates a combination that could be detrimental to the cause of Extinction Rebellion.

The high court has given them a second chance, and it should be used effectively.

Is ‘OK Boomer’ Problematic?

Colette Fountain discusses the harmful consequences of the internet trend Colette Fountain Comment Writer

The phrase ‘OK Boomer’ seems to have swept across the internet almost overnight, becoming the new popular insult for the disillusioned ‘Gen Z’ in retaliation to ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘outof-touch’ ‘baby boomers.’ As someone born in 2000, I don’t really fit into the Gen Z or ‘millennial’ category, however, I tend to correlate more with Gen Z who were born from 2000 onwards. Yet, even I hadn’t heard of ‘Ok Boomer’ until the New York Times featured an article interviewing a number of Gen Z-ers profiting from this recent trend. While for many people ‘OK boomer’ is simply an entertaining meme, there are some flaws which potentially undermine its political message.

Most people probably know ‘Ok boomer’ from the range of memes and merchandise that

has been produced as a result of its popularity. This side of the ‘OK boomer’ trend is far more lighthearted and meant purely as an entertainment form. It allows Gen Z to express themselves creatively, whether that be through Soundcloud raps, knock-off ‘OK boomer’ logo merch, or group costumes. The phrase was partially created in response to the ‘snowflake’ stereotype imposed on younger generations, so it could be argued that older generations started this generational ‘war.’

The response of boomers to this trend has generated further memes as it highlights how they might really be the ‘snowflake’ generation after all. Under most circumstances, it is meant as a mild insult which adds to the entertainment value as it is no more offensive than an eyeroll.

Many of the companies producing ‘OK boomer’ merchandise are owned by Gen Z or millennials, meaning the meme could be more beneficial than simply another funny trend as it gives

some young people more financial freedom. However, there is an irony in this. One of the main beliefs younger generations are trying to push is climate change, as they rally for politicians and companies to do more to protect the planet, yet by marketing the ‘OK boomer’ phrase, they are adding to the fast fashion industry which is so bad for the planet.

While the phrase is mostly used as a casual remark, it is not always entirely harmless in my opinion. One of the main complaints from my generation, myself included, is that older generations do not listen to us and we lack a voice in many political situations. It only takes one look at the backlash against Greta Thunberg to realise that many politicians simply do not value the opinions of younger members of society, leading them to be very dismissive. I too find this incredibly frustrating as it implies that somehow, we are less valuable to society, however, the phrase ‘OK boom-

er’ arguably does the exact same thing but reversed. Though mostly used when boomers are being discriminatory or offensive, it still uses the same dismissive tone used by older generations and doesn’t open up a dialogue for discussion. I do understand the frustration towards older generations whose political beliefs do not align with our own, however, it would be much more productive to have a meaningful conversation about politics in the hopes of better educating them on some of the issues we face, rather than dismissing them as ignorant and unsympathetic. Another issue I have with this trend is that it seemingly originated on TikTok, which has a target demographic of predominantly teenagers meaning politicians and other important figures are unlikely to come across these videos which express younger views and even if they do, I doubt they would take a video of someone lipsyncing to a song called ‘OK boomer’ very seri-

ously.

Some critics of the phrase on Twitter have referred to the trend as ‘ageist’ which is defined as ‘discrimination or unfair treatment based on a person’s age.’ Personally, I don’t necessarily agree with this as it is intended to be lighthearted and is no worse than the use of ‘snowflake’ towards younger generations. One Twitter user even went as far as to say ‘”Ok Boomer” is the n-word of ageism.’ This is an absolutely ridiculous claim which belittles the discrimination and racism caused by ‘the n-word.’ While reactions like these helps enhance the meme’s popularity as it shows just how ‘snowflake’-like older generations can be, it does highlight how this trend might make us no better than the boomers it complains about. With the upcoming general election, I believe there are far better ways young people can make a difference than with the ‘OK Boomer’ meme.

COMMENT

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickcomment

11

How to Avoid Fake News in The 2019 General Election

In light of the advent of 'fake news' Comment Writer Adam Mckinnon outlines how to avoid misinformation in the upcoming election Adam Mckinnon Comment Writer

‘Fake news’ and ‘fairy tales,’ phrases often bandied around as a political weapon by our favourite President, Donald Trump.

However, the phenomenon of misinformation cannot and must not be underestimated. It is epic in its proportion, deadly in its danger and dominant in our discourse, threatening to poison democracy as it seeps into our elections, undermining trust and legitimacy in our political processes.

At its current rate, the 2019 general election is shaping up to be a textbook example of this threat. Not only is misinformation weaponised by external forces, but it has already become an integral part of our political parties electoral strategy.

We don’t need to look very far to spot this reality. On the 10th of November, what The Times dubbed Labour's 'spend-

ing spree of up to £1.2 trillion' was plastered across the Sunday papers, carrying with it messages of fiscal recklessness and irresponsibility. This number was put forward by the Conservatives, after their claim that ‘Corbyn’s Labour would spend £1.2 trillion over the next five years if they get elected.’

The first problem with this estimate (reportedly calculated inhouse by the Conservative party) is that, rather obviously, you cannot cost a manifesto that hasn’t been released yet. Instead, the Conservative party decided to include every single policy proposal that has ever come out of Jeremy Corbyn’s mouth. They acted under the assumption that the following policies would be immediately implemented: the four-day working week, the complete abolition of private schools and multi-sector re-nationalisation. This bogus estimation was preceded by a doctored clip of Keith Starmer, in which the footage was purposefully re-

edited to falsely portray a bumbling interviewee, stumbling over his words in response to a question about Labour’s Brexit policy.

Regardless of the Conservative’s apology and backtracking, both of these pieces have had their desired impact, confirming the idea in the minds of the electorate that the Labour Party is fiscally irresponsible, having no clear plan for Brexit.

It is worrying when a campaign with national reach and influence puts out propaganda that leads the electorate to base their decision from a foundation of lies and confusion, rather than truth and fairness. Equally, we will no doubt see Labour, the Brexit party and the Lib Dems flex their respective propaganda machines, spouting slogans baked in half-truth and producing leaflets peddling fake narratives.

So, the question becomes, how do we rise above the mud and mire of misinformation, to

submit our respective ballots informed? Here are some practical tips to avoid blatant fake news: 1.Check the source Is the website reputable? A great test is to ask yourself whether you would quote it in a university essay. Be sure to also check the website address - often fake news stories will recreate a popular URL, changing something small to fool you.

2. Check the content Dramatic punctuation, all caps and grammatical errors are giveaways to fake news stories, particularly if the title has clickbait written all over it. These tips are useful, but a little obvious. To the adequately trained eye, fake news can be spotted a mile away. What’s more dangerous is the nuanced half-truths that we have seen recently from the Conservative Party.

3. Surround yourself with

good journalism Reputable journalistic institutions like the BBC, The Independent and The Times may all have a slight lean to the right/ left, but having a healthy balanced diet of responsible journalism will help set your political compass.

4. Go to the pros If some content still seems a bit iffy, go to sites like Full Fact and Politifact, independent charities that are committed to setting the record straight.

These will be the months of misinformation. Given that the Conservatives have spent £100,000 on facebook ads since the 31st of October, with other parties soon to follow, expect to see a lot of specific powerfullytargeted campaigns heading your way. To stay informed, check the source and content, continuously surrounding yourself with good journalism, making sure to go to the pros when things still seem a bit off.

Poppy Pedancy Danielle Murinas argues that heated debates over the prospect of a rainbow poppy are merely an outlet for homophobia Danielle Murinas Comment Writer Content Warning: This article contains themes of suicide which some readers may find distressing.

In the run up to Remembrance Day millions of poppies went on sale to commemorate soldiers that fought and lost their lives in British conflicts. But this year ‘rainbow poppies’ went viral on Twitter; one with the rainbow colours and glitter, and another red poppy with the addition of a rainbow stripe. Designer Trudy Howson stated that this poppy was intended to bring attention to LGBTQ+ soldiers who died fighting at a time when homosexuality was illegal.

Homosexuality wasn’t legalised until 1967, over twenty years after the Second World War. Before this, individuals could be prosecuted for gross indecency, and even imprisoned.

A notable example was Alan Turing, who was a code breaker at Bletchley Park during WW2, and whose life was central to the 2014 film ‘The Imitation Game.’

Turing famously cracked the enigma code, shortening the war by an estimated two years. But in the 1950s Turing was found guilty of gross indecency and forced to undergo treatment of

chemical castration, which would supposedly suppress his homosexual urges. Tragically, Turing committed suicide in 1956. Howson intended to honour Turing, and other soldiers' sacrifice, at a time in which they were unable to openly be themselves.

However, many took to Twitter, declaring their anger and resentment towards the poppies. One user wrote: ‘hate me, but LGBTQ+ have a whole month dedicated to them, for once in your fucking lives think about other people and stop making everything about sexuality.’ While another claimed: ‘I’m not homophobic, but this is getting beyond.’ People very quickly attacked the LGBTQ+ community for the apparent disrespect they were showing for Remembrance Day. Interestingly, this is not the first poppy that has differed from the traditional red design. White poppies have been on sale since 2014, which represent all civilian and soldier victims, with an additional pacifist outlook of preventing future conflicts.

There is also a black poppy which commemorates African and Caribbean communities, and in recent years there has been the creation of a purple poppy, commemorating animal sacrifice.

For example, this Remembrance Day my own

Facebook feed was flooded with people sharing images of the purple poppy to remember service animals. This is of course an important issue, and one I wholeheartedly get behind, but I did not see one negative comment about it. It seems people only take offence when it is certain poppies, and when it is certain communities been singled out.

But in fact, the poppy in question had no affiliation with the wider LGBTQ+ community, nor was it on sale nationwide. It was designed by one individual and was not something that other LGBTQ+ people were aware of, nor felt they needed. In fact, many members of the community took to Facebook and Twitter to represent their view, after receiving hate. They explained that it was not something they asked for and urged people to stop using rhetoric about people shoving their sexuality down peoples’ throats. This language and phrasing is often used, for example when samesex couples are kissing or holding hands in public. It seems that some people revert to traditional homophobic language on any issue that relates in any way to the LGBTQ+ community.

Nevertheless, those who were against the sale of the poppy grouped the community together, often with traditional homophobic expressions. Adequate

research was not done about the issue, as after a very quick Google search it is clear that the ‘rainbow poppy’ is not a mainstream item on sale. So instead of taking offence at the actual issue, some people have just used this as an outlet, and an excuse for the expression of homophobic feelings, simply piggy-backing on the issue.

The language is particularly striking. Many tweets used methods of ‘othering’ to present the LGBTQ+ community as different from themselves.

It is a common theme among prejudiced language, including homophobia, anti-semitism and racism. By ‘othering’ individuals, they are presenting them as different, in opposition, and in an inferior capacity. In response to an article by The Sun discussing the issue of the poppy, one individual wrote: ‘These people claim they want to be part of everyday rights yet they keep giving themselves categories, utter hypocrisy.’ By using ‘these people’ they are lumping the entire community together and presenting them as separate entity who require being accepted by the majority.

This comment also has

very little to do with the issue of the poppy and is more related to LGBTQ+ issues in general.

Again, emphasising the reversion to traditional homophobic rhetoric.

Whether or not people felt like the ‘rainbow poppy’ was needed, individuals saw fit to attack the LGBTQ+ community, as if they were simply using this issue to express homophobic thoughts.

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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Redbrick Meets: General

Redbrick News and BURN FM News speak to candidates in three student-heavy

Edgbaston Edgbaston became a constintuency in 1885 and since 2017 it has been represented by Preet Gill. According to the 2011 census, the population of the region is 96,568

Preet Kaur Gill Labour Alex Boscott News Editor

A former student at Lordswood Girls School, local resident Preet Gill has been the MP for Edgbaston since the 2017 general election. In an interview with Redbrick, Gill highlighted the importance of increasing funding for crime and health services, referring to local incidents of knife crime that need to be addressed.

She believes that there is a ‘huge disconnect’ between the current government and young people which has resulted in youth service funding, including mental health, being ‘decimated.’ She stated that mental health services in England and Wales, especially at universities, ‘need to meet the needs of students.’

Standing on a platform of ‘fairness’ and advocating the ‘redistribution of wealth’ in society, Gill told Redbrick that ‘scrapping tuition fees,’ ‘building more houses’ and the creation of new jobs as a result of a ‘green new deal’ for the economy are essential policies for her and the Labour Party.

According to Gill, ‘engaging young people is where politicians need to make more inroad. They are just as important as any other constituent.’ Preet Gill also claims that ‘the Labour Party has always thought about future generations.’

She went on to say that ‘a vote for me is... [a vote for someone] who is able to connect to other people. I want to work with young people because I do not believe that any one person can do anything, we need teams of people.’

Colin Green Liberal Democrat David Atkins News Reporter

Local party activist Colin Green is running to be Edgbaston’s next MP for the Liberal Democrats.He previously ran for the party in 2017.

In an interview with Redbrick, when asked what the Liberal Democrats main policies other than Brexit were, he said ‘tackle climate change ... tackle the housing shortage, there are three million more households than houses in Britain.’ He highlighted how austerity needs to end, telling

Redbrick ‘the need for that is gone' and that 'we need to protect our NHS and schools.’

In the European Referendum in 2016, remain won in Edgbaston with 52.65% of the vote. When asked whether the Liberal Democrats can harness this remain support in Edgbaston, he told Redbrick ‘yes... remain has become more popular since the referendum, remain has become 60% in Edgbaston these days.’

Green was also asked what improvements the Liberal Democrats would make to social housing in Birmingham.

He responded by saying: ‘the Liberal Democrats' plan is to build three million more houses over ten years.’ He told Redbrick that this space would come from the ‘unused Brownfield sites and office blocks in Edgbaston.’

Phil Simpson Green Ella Kipling News Reporter

The Green Party candidate for Edgbaston, Phil Simpson, has lived in the area for more than fifty years and argues that this is what makes him right for Edgbaston; he believes he understands the issues and, in his own words, ‘I am local, and I suppose I treasure people and I understand the answer is people, individual people.’

For Simpson, the main issues in this election are, evidently, the climate emergency which is his party’s ‘number one priority,’ but also ‘healing.’ He told Redbrick: ‘it is linked to Brexit and all the antagonism that has been around it, but we need to heal the wounds of this antagonism. We can’t carry on shouting at each other, dividing families. We have to workout how to heal.' His answer to this? ‘It starts in parliament. The way that starts in parliament is by having strong minority parties there so that the two big boys will not be able to govern this country without learning how to cooperate.’

When asked why students should show their support for the Green Party, Simpson said: ‘there’s the obvious one, scrapping tuition fees, but another one is introducing grants back to nursing students, and the other major thing is what we call the guaranteed basic income. Everyone will have £89 a week to start with, it would be for everyone so you won’t be scratching around doing jobs in bars to pay your way through, you would be able to actually concentrate on your studies.’ Simpson stresses throughout the interview the importance of giving power back

to the people. He stated that ‘the Green Party wants to give power back to the people,’ and will listen to ‘the Guild of Students in Birmingham who have a tremendously vibrant body of people.’

Perhaps the most ambitious goal of the Green Party is decarbonising the whole economy by 2030, and while Simpson admits the ambitious nature of this he tells us ‘we’ve got to get on.’

David Wilks Brexit Party Alex Boscott News Editor

Speaking to Redbrick, Brexit Party candidate for Edgbaston David Wilks promised to ‘deliver the vote from 2016.'

Local businessman Wilks stated that the ‘Brexit Party knows that young people need certainty’ amidst the current Brexit debate in parliament, whilst also claiming that his party will ‘bring a bit of reality to the table’ regarding funding and support for the local and national economy.

According the Mr Wilks, his party’s only aim, however, ‘is to deliver for the people’ and ‘get Brexit done’ which will allow the country to heal itself.’ ‘Until Brexit is done,’ he said, issues such as policing and health services ‘become a back burner’ in government policy.

The Edgbaston candidate also noted that seeing Brexit through will allow politicians to ‘concentrate on not only Edgbaston but the country,’ adding that ‘we insist that Brexit is completed.’

Speaking about his party’s decision to stand down in all Tory seats, Wilks claimed that this was ‘fantastic’ and that his party was putting the ‘country first.’

Mr Wilks concluded by claiming that ‘we have to come to some form of compromise [with Boris Johnson]’ on Brexit due to not having enough potential seats to ‘win the election.’

Alex Yip Conservative John Wimperis News Editor

Birmingham local and city councillor Alex Yip told Redbrick that we had to get Brexit ‘sorted out,’ when asked what he thought the big issues in this election were.

Yip spoke about his self-em-

ployed parents who came over from Hong Kong, being a school governor for 12 years, and being a magistrate, adding that ‘I’d like to think I can speak from experience on business, and law and order, as well as education.’

He continued, 'I want to serve the community. I want to try and make a difference. And I think, in terms of what the Conservatives have got to offer, it's a very strong economic message for the community and the families which are working very hard to try and make e n d s meet.'

O n why students should vote for the Conservative party, Yip mentioned support for 'budding entrepreneurs,' the raising of the minimum tax bracket to £12,000 'to reward people that are hard working,' and 'record low youth unemployment.'

Yip said that if they could get past the

'Brexit deadlock' they could move onto pri- orities such as education and investment banking.

Asked how he would persuade someone to vote Conservative who doesn't support Brexit going ahead in any form, Yip said 'probably, in all honesty, the Conservative Party is not behind their vote this time around. We've been committed to delivering the democratic referendum result from three and a half years ago now.'

Asked if he thought the Conservatives could gain Edgabston, Yip said 'we are absolutely committed to fighting every seat across the whole country.'

NEWS

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricknews

13

Election 2019 Candidates Birmingham constituencies ahead of the general election in December

Selly Oak

Selly Oak became a constituency in 1955 and has been represented by Steve McCabe since 2010. According to the 2011 census, the population of the region is 104,067

Steve McCabe Labour John Wimperis News Editor

An MP since 1997 and MP for Selly Oak since 2010, Steve McCabe told Redbrick that the big issue in this election was ‘the destruction

of the public sector over the last ten years’ and the consequences this was having on crime, NHS waiting times a n d schools.

Asked why he was the right person to represent Selly Oak, McCabe spoke about living locally, bringing his children up here, and knowing the community, as well as having represented it for a considerable time already.

‘I’m very closely connected with the things that need to be tackled,’ he told Redbrick, bringing up high unemployment, housing issues and homelessness (he mentioned people losing rented homes and being made to live in Tamworth, with their children still in school here), and some ‘terrible delays for GP appointments.'

‘What students should b e very conscious of,’

McCabe says when asked why students Harriet Laban should vote Labour, ‘is the number of people that have made them promises in the past and then reneged on those promises at the first opportunity.’

He said that young people should be worried about a ‘Johnson hard Brexit’ as a risk to their long term future.

McCabe also brought up tui-

tion fees, admitting that he doesn’t think Labour could stop all fees ‘at the drop of a hat’ and that it might have to happen over many years.

‘But I think we could absolutely guarantee we could freeze that,’ he continued, ‘that we would stick to the agreements about interest rates that the government is trying to renege on, and we would reintroduce grants.’

He added that the ‘protection that universities offer’ was also an issue, mentioning the high suicide rate at the University of Bristol, and the rental price of ‘customised blocks’ of student accomodation.

Clarifying his personal position on Brexit, McCabe said ‘I don’t believe Brexit can be solved by a general election’ and warned that it was a distraction from Boris Johnson’s ‘bad’ Brexit deal.

‘I am instinctively a Remainer,’ he continued, ‘I campaigned for Remain. I think our interests are best served inside the EU. But I do recognise that we had a referendum and 17.4 million people voted to leave, albeit that they were promised something that cannot be delivered.’

McCabe said that the best deal would be remaining in the customs union with some alignment to the single market, to facilitate future trade. However, he said that this was still quite far from what was offered in 2016 and so ‘the only answer’ was to take it back to the people. ‘But frankly, I think that’s not an unusual proposition,’ he added.

adults with learning difficulties.

Peacock is new to party politics, deciding five years ago that the Green Party was ‘the one that actually gets it', but he has been a lifelong campaigner. He told Redbrick, ‘my parents took me along marches round nuclear bases to protest against the basing of nuclear weapons here and ever since that time I’ve been involved in political action.’

On students, Peacock brought up the Green Party’s plans to fund students, stopping tuition fees and writing off existing student debt.

‘We don’t feel that anyone should be burdened with massive debts just because they want to improve their education and gain qualifications.’

‘We certainly don’t have the same policies as the Liberal Democrats on a huge number of areas', Peacock asserted when asked on his thoughts on the ‘Remain alliance’ (which is not happening in Birmingham), but he noted it would help stop Boris Johnson get a majority under ‘this broken electoral system that we have.’ He criticised Labour’s ‘arrogance’ in refusing to work with other parties.

‘The most dangerous thing for this country is if we have an extreme right wing government led by Boris Johnson, which will lead to a hard Brexit.’ He continued, ‘there is absolutely no way that Brexit is going to do anything for the environment. It’s going to mean a loosening of standards, not a tightening.’

Joe Peacock Green

David Radcliffe Liberal Democrat

John Wimperis News Editor

‘For us in the Green Party, obviously the main issue is the climate emergency,’ UoB alumnus and local charity worker Joe Peacock told Redbrick, ‘Brexit or no Brexit.’

Though he acknowledged Brexit was an issue for everyone, he emphasised the importance of not delaying action on the climate any longer.

‘We’ve got to elect politicians that actually believe in acting on climate change as though it is an emergency’, he said, advising against politicians that gave it ‘warm words’ but would not take action for another thirty years. ‘If we don’t act on it, it’s going to be too late.’

Asked why he was the right person for Selly Oak, Peacock told Redbrick ‘I live locally. I studied at the university. I’ve worked in this area. My kids go to school in this area. I understand what it's like for people who live around here.’

Peacock studied for his Masters at UoB, before leaving for the charity sector. He currently works with

Christina Manns and John Wimperis News Editors

Lib Dem candidate for Selly Oak, David Radcliffe, has reiterated the stance of the Liberal Democrats as a Remain party, saying that for Birmingham Selly Oak this is a ‘Brexit election.' Mr Radcliffe also said that he understands the issues facing the area due to being a counsellor for Selly Oak for 10 years between 2004 and 2014.

In an interview with Redbrick, Mr Radcliffe noted that, for many students who live in the constituency, this election presents their first opportunity to vote on the issue of Brexit and ‘stop the Brexit mess.’ Mr Radcliffe reinforced the Liberal Democrats’ message that ‘a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for Remain.'

Regarding those in Selly Oak who may have voted for Brexit, Mr Radcliffe said that he doesn’t

think he ‘could persuade somebody who has that mindset.’

Mr Radcliffe also urges students in Selly Oak to vote for the Liberal Democrats as they are committed to tackling the climate emergency. Mr Radcliffe said the Liberal Democrats will be announcing a plan to plant more trees to get the UK back on track with climate targets, and said that ‘by 2030, 80 percent of our energy should be coming from renewable sources.’

Mr Radcliffe also mentioned the Liberal Democrats ‘skills wallet’ scheme, which would provide every adult with £10,000 to spend on education and training.

Although the Liberal Democrats’ reputation was damaged in the past over tuition fees, Mr Radcliffe encourages students to look at how the Liberal Democrats in the Welsh government has reintroduced maintenance grants and ‘would look to reintroduce maintenance grants in England’ too.

Hannah Campbell Conservative Aneesa Ahmed News Editor

Campbell outlined that this election ‘more than ever’ will be ‘looking at the core principles of each major party.' She said: ‘The Conservative Party has always believed in the individual and their communities. We are very passionate about enabling people to better their lives.’ Campbell then went to describe how she feels that housing, schooling and healthcare are all very important things to young people. She went on to give her own perspective as a young candidate and outlined that to her having a ‘strong economy and safe streets’ are important.When speaking to Redbrick about the importance of young people educating themselves, she highlighted how she advocates young people going into education ‘not just through the university route.’ Campbell described how she does not think we can avoid the ‘key issue of Brexit’ during this election. She feels that it is important to get Johnson’s deal through. She highlights how the uncertainty is creating ‘key issues for our businesses’ and outlines that therefore she feels that is is important to ‘get Brexit done.’ Beyond Brexit, she says that one of her key aims is to ensure that all schools around the Selly Oak area are ‘adequately funded’ and to ‘ensure young people get the very best start in life.’

Redbrick also reached out to the Brexit Party to interview Joseph Tawonezvi but recieved no response.

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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Ladywood Ladywood became a constintuency in 1918 and since 2010 it has been represented by Shabana Mahmood. According to the 2011 census, the population of the region is 126,693

Lee Dargue Liberal Democrat Alex Boscott News Editor

In an interview with Redbrick, the Birmingham Ladywood Liberal Democrat candidate, Lee Dargue, claimed that there is a ‘lack of real debate’ about the parties and their ideologies at the moment, citing the fact that ‘Brexit affects everything else’ as a reason for this.

Ladywood resident Dargue also stated that his ‘core belief... is that it’s about people making the changes’ in the local community and that he wished to help his constituents with making those changes. ‘Young people are often shut out of the debate’ despite the ‘need to hold politicians to account,’ claimed Mr Dargue, adding that ‘empowering local people to improve their own lives and stopping Brexit is key.’

Dargue also offered his support to current and future university students and the potential struggles they may encounter whilst study-

ing. He pledged to reform the options available to students struggling with their studies, stating that students ‘should be able to take’ their current course credits to other universities should they change their mind once there. He was also firm about his and his party’s commitment to tackling the ‘climate emergency.’

Dargue also highlighted the recent NHS performance results and the health service as a whole, claiming that it needs to be properly ‘supported’ and that ‘our [the Liberal Democrats’] funding will fix that.’

Alex Nettle Green Party Nathan Clarke News Reporter

Alex Nettle, the Green Party candidate for Birmingham Ladywood, has spoken of the importance of tackling the climate crisis in the upcoming general election.

In an interview with Redbrick, he called on students to vote Green next month, claiming it is the ‘last chance to elect MPs who will

properly tackle the climate emergency’ and ensure the UK becomes carbon neutral by 2030.

Nettle said that evidence of the climate crisis is already clear with increased levels of flooding and a rise in deaths in the UK caused by air pollution, which result in '1,000' deaths in Birmingham annually.

Nettle rejected criticism that the Green Party were a single-issue party, pledging to focus on the issues that were really dividing society as opposed to treating this general election as a ‘Brexit election.'

He promised to reverse the social problems caused by nine years of Tory austerity by imposing a universal basic income of £89 a week for 18-65 year olds, as well as building 100,000 new homes.

Nettle told Redbrick that the levels of inequality in Ladywood (the fifth most deprived constituency in the UK) had become ‘intolerable’ and pledged to fight for ‘social justice’ and offer a People’s Vote on any Brexit deal.

As a politics student at the University of Birmingham, Nettle is hoping to appeal to young voters in the upcoming election by scrapping tuition fees. He insists that

'young people are very motivated by issues' but, as a result of our ‘undemocratic’ electoral system, have not felt like their vote is worth anything.

He has praised the work of young climate activists in groups such as Extinction Rebellion and has urged young voters to 'send a powerful message' and vote Green on the 12th of December.

Mary Noone Conservative Alex Boscott News Editor

In an interview with Redbrick, Councillor Mary Noone, Conservative candidate for Ladywood, stated that ‘the conservatives are the party of aspiration and wanting to better oneself’ whilst assuring that she is a ‘very local candidate’ and knows ‘the city very well.’

Noone claimed that whilst being the 'party of aspiration,' she will be ‘focusing on the environment’ as well as ‘home ownership

for young people.' However these would not be the only issues she would be campaigning on. Noone also confirmed that she would be giving attention to crime in Ladywood, stating they ‘it is the issue of crime that I particularly want to focus on.'

Noone referred to her party’s pledge to recruit 20,000 more police officers whilst also pledging to ‘deal with stop and search powers of the police.' Noone asserted that ‘people want to feel like crime is being taken seriously.’

However, Noone maintained that the ‘biggest issue’ of this election remains ‘Brexit,’ insisting that it is ‘paralysing the country.' ‘We need to get Brexit done and finished so we can move on to other issues that are important to people.’ Noone also added that ‘people [on the doorstep] are really fed up of the Brexit situation so I want it done.’

Redbrick also reached out to Shabana Mahmood from the Labour Party and to the Brexit Party to contact Andrew Garcarz.

Neither were available for an interview.

Diliff

“It

is the issue of crime that I particularly want to focus on”

Jonathan Scarboro Head of News @Burn_FM

Earlier this week, the BurnFM News Team covered the recent events in Hong Kong on our weekly news show. In the time since, the situation has taken a dire turn for the worse as fears grow over the possibility of further Chinese intervention. We spoke to a University of Birmingham student attending Hong Kong University (HKU) as part of her year abroad. She described the situation to us there as ‘intense’ and ‘dangerous,’ with lectures and seminars being cancelled as a precautionary measure, but was keen to highlight that her own safety and the safety of other British students was assured.

A former British territory, Hong Kong is technically an incorporated province of China in its own right, however the citizens of Hong Kong enjoy some of the rights they formerly held under the British. Tensions between Hong Kong and Beijing have grown in recent months after protests were sparked by an extradition bill, subsequently

withdrawn in September. It is obvious, nonetheless, that the regional government did not do enough to satisfy the widespread hunger for democratic values and autonomy as the protests and unrest continued to grow. There was always the looming question as to whether China would become directly involved in the crisis which has enveloped one of the world’s most prominent and prosperous cities.

It has been at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) that tensions have been running particularly high. Students have taken to the streets, forming barricades and attacking police with bows and arrows and petrol bombs. A band of engineering students even constructed a makeshift catapult to lobby the police with debris to cause as much disruption as possible. Clearly, there has been a developing pattern of violence at CUHK, which shows little sign of slowing down in the immediate future.

It is at times like these that concerns arise about the wider implications of the crisis. The likelihood of intervention from the international community stands at next

to nothing, as western interests remain focussed on the South China Sea and the Korean Peninsula. In light of this, China would stand relatively unopposed if the situation became too chaotic to allow to continue. There have already been rumours that Chinese police are deployed in Hong Kong to not only support but take over from the regional police department. Videos have also appeared in the last few days reportedly showing Chinese soldiers clearing debris and barricades from the streets, a significant step in the path to direct military involvement. The Chinese government generally tends to suppress the spread of online media coverage such as this, but the images of Chinese soldiers on the streets have likely been designed to invoke a sense of dread in the minds of protesters, especially in the context of the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989.

We are luckily nowhere near that point yet, but the future of Hong Kong and its people remains increasingly uncertain.

FEATURES

Friday 22nd November 2019

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www.redbrick.me

Mind+Solve

Sudoku (Hard)

Sudoku (Easy)

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Across 2. The accumulation of knowledge or skill (10) 3. To prove otherwise (10) 5. Pleasantly odd (6) 6. Fruit of the vine (5) 8. "No matter how often you are _____, you are born to victory" - Emerson (8) 10. Whim perfection holds the key (9) 11. Serious ailment (7) 13. Displace from native surroundings (6) 14. A bride's curtain (4)

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First Lines The premise of First Lines is simple: Each issue, we supply a selection of opening sentences from various novels,

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songs and films. All you have to do is tell us which novels, songs or films the lines come from.

‘To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth’

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‘Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, the king and queen were blessed with a beautiful baby girl’ 8

‘I call you when I need you, my heart's on fire / You come to me, come to me wild and wired’ ‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport’

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Anagrams The deadline for registering to vote is fast approaching. All of the words below are associated with politics. Can you unscramble them?

1. AVERT NOVICES 2. OLA RUB 3. ALLOMETRIC BREADS 4. ENERGY TARP

5. BATTERY PRIX 6. BEAT ED 7. MORGEN VENT 8. ALL BOT 9. DIRT ANIMATIONS 10. AM PACING

LAST ISSUE’S ANSWERS | Crossword: 1a. Italian; 1b. Internship; 2. Throw; 3.

Regional; 4. Half; 5. Election; 6. Mantlepiece; 7a. Prism; 7b. Portable; 8. Ink; 9.

Dictionary; 10. Swatch; 11. Mystery; 12. Official; 13. Window; 14. Gasoline; 15. Electric | First Lines: 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' (Taylor Swift); Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood); The Nightmare Before Christmas; Spiderman: into the SpiderVerse | Anagrams: 1. Strawberry; 2. Cereal Bar ; 3. Carrot Sticks; 4. Yoghurt; 5. Smoothie; 6. Pineapple; 7. Granola; 8. Fruit Salad; 9. Crackers; 10. Rice Cakes Get in touch with Redbrick Mind&Solve by sending all answers, applications and queries to print@redbrick.me

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FEATURES

Friday 22nd November 2019

www.redbrick.me

Drug-Resistant Bugs: How Can We Stop Them?

Sci&Tech Editor Francesca Benson explains how antimicrobial resistance could be a fatal threat, and recounts her experience at the National Students AMR Conference Francesca Benson Sci&Tech Editor

Antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern healthcare, used to treat many common illnesses from the uncomfortable to the fatal.

However, antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is a looming threat to our healthcare system. Bacteria can evolve to be resistant to the drugs meant to kill them, a process accelerated by overuse of antibiotics or patients not taking their full course to kill the whole bacterial population. Antibiotics losing their effectiveness could have catastrophic effects, for example massively increasing the risk of infection that comes with surgery.

Another result of AMR is the rise of super-gonorrhoea, an STI that cannot be treated with the usual antibiotic therapies.

Every single person can do their part to tackle the problem of AMR, whether it is educating others on the issue or simply ensuring that you take antibiotics appropriately. To find out more about how you can help, visit antibioticguardian.com and check out the pledges for both students

and members of the public.

Tackling AMR: Where Are We Now?

“Every single person can do their part to tackle the problem of AMR”

The first talk of the day was given by Dr Diane AshiruOredope. With a focus on where we are currently in the process of tackling AMR, many core points around the issue were highlighted. One of these is the fact that antibiotics are a key part of our healthcare system. For example, a third of patients in UK hospitals are on antibiotics, and a third of people take one course of antibiotics a year.

On Saturday the 16th of November 2019, the third National Students AMR Conference was held at Aston University in Birmingham. This conference aimed to bring together future vets, nurses, dentists, scientists, and medics to engage and educate about the pressing issue of AMR via a series of talks and workshops. The event was chaired by both Pharmacist Lead for Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship and HCAI at Public Health England Dr Diane AshiruOredope, and Programme Director of Overseas Pharmacist Access Programme Rabia Ahmed.

“It is predicted that AMR will cause 10 million deaths by 2050” NIAID

species specific targets for this issue, with sales of antibiotics for food-producing animals falling 53% since 2014, as stated by GOV.UK. Anna Hunt, Consultant in Dental and Public Health, gave a dental perspective on AMR. Antibiotics are used in dentistry for many common diseases such as jaw cysts and periodontal disease. They are also used for some people after invasive dental procedures to prevent a heart condition called infective endocarditis.

However, overuse of antibiotics is a problem in dentistry. It was concluded that antibiotics should not be the first port of call for dentists unless there is a significant risk to the health of the patient.

However, resistance to these drugs is already an issue right

Using Bacteria to Fight Infection

The Role of Vets and Dentists The Junior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association James Russell addressed how AMR impacts those working in the veterinary field, and how vets can work to help the situation.

Antibiotics are vital for vets, used to treat various diseases in both pets and livestock.

However, due to the rise of AMR, treatment options other than antibiotics must be considered in order to stop their overuse. In cows, mastitis is one of these diseases. Mastitis is the inflammation of the mammary gland and udder, often in response to bacterial infection.

Teat sealants can be used for some cows as an alternative treatment for this condition. Task forces have been set up to set

now, with multidrug resistant tuberculosis reported in 123 countries to date, according to the WHO. The Antimicrobial Resistance Review state there are an estimated 700,000 deaths and it is predicted that it will cause 10 million deaths by 2050, meaning that the mortality rate will eventually be equal to that of cancer.

They also say AMR costs money as well as lives, with a potential cost of £66 trillion to the global economy. Use of antibiotics is steadily increasing however drug development is currently too slow to keep up with resistant microbes, as no new antibiotics have been discovered in the past 30 years.

A particularly fascinating talk was given by Professor Liz Sockett, discussing how predatory bacteria could become a new way to treat bacterial infections.

Professor Sockett studies Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus at the University of Nottingham, with some research in collaboration with Dr Andrew Lovering of the University of Birmingham School of Biosciences.

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus does not cause disease. Instead they attack and kill other species of bacteria by creating a ‘porthole’ in their prey’s cell wall to invade them through. This includes spePixabay/127071

cies that cause disease such as E. coli, and they target bacteria regardless of whether they are resistant to antimicrobials. In studies on zebrafish larvae, injection of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus into the brain caused no death or illness. In fact, in larvae infected with the bacteria Shigella, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus both killed the Shigella itself and stimulated the body’s own cells to target the bacteria when they otherwise would have ignored the threat. Human cells were also not damaged by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. This research has huge implications, as new antimicrobial treatments are desperately needed in order to help tackle the problem of AMR.

NSAMRC

Improving How We Behave to Fight AMR A talk on how behaviour change techniques could be used to improve AMR was given by health psychologist Dr Lucy Byrne-Davis. She explained that behaviour is caused by capability, motivation, and opportunity; and that knowledge of danger is not enough to change people’s behaviour. The Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial

Stewardship was mentioned as working towards tackling challenges around antibiotic use leading to AMR, working in countries such as Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. This talk tied in well with the two workshops I attended at the conference. One of which was about public engagement about AMR, led by Roger Harrison, Senior

Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Manchester. This workshop explained how outreach, both globally and to groups such as children and students in medical fields, can help improve the knowledge of the general public about AMR and potentially reduce over-prescription of antibiotics. The other workshop attended was on the ethical challenges of antibiotic prescribing, led by psychologist Dr Eva M Krockow from the University of Leicester. This workshop explained how even

though AMR is at its core a biological problem, social science theories can be utilised to tackle the problem. For example, social science theories can help educate the public about AMR and its risks, develop supportive policies, and inform ethical considerations around the topic. Using social dilemma theory, Dr Krockow explained that the needs of the patient conflict with those of society. For an individual patient with a bacterial infection, antibiotics will kill the bacteria and improve symptoms.

However, over-prescription of antibiotics greatly contributes to AMR and therefore harms society. The bioethics of the situation were also explored, with topics including the right of future generations to access healthcare and private healthcare clients shopping around for doctors that will overprescribe antibiotics.

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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November Strikes: Staff Perspetives and Student Experiences Comment writer Molly Elliott speaks to a number of academic staff members about the nature of the upcoming strikes and what students can do to help Molly Elliott Comment Writer

did not take part in the strike. It is also interesting to note, the UCU branch committee member explained, that the 2016 Trade Union Act is the reason for the 50% turnout requirement, and in Birmingham there has been notably less UCU strikes since 2016.

One academic told me that reaching the 50% mark this year was unusual for Birmingham.

They stated: ‘We’ve got a terrible reputation for not actually being able to reach the 50% threshold’ and praised the new leadership of the UCU for the achievement this year; ‘we’ve got a really switchedon, young, energised branch now and they’ve gone out and just knocked on doors and canvassed and got the vote out.’ But for this academic, the national numbers are still slightly disappointing.

‘There’s going to be a certain unevenness on a national level, it gets a bit messy, and I’m not sure that was the best way forward.

My feeling is for any kind of industrial action you need a really sharp focus.’ Perhaps the strike over two separate issues will cause issues for the union, as their demands are less clear, and the national ballots are not uniform.

They also expressed concern over the proposed length of the strike. They described the eight days as ‘absolutely unheralded,’ and suggested that this ‘probably reflects the change in leadership at the top of the union.’ The change in leadership of the UCU was a hot topic among the academics I interviewed. Jo Grady is the new General Secretary of the UCU, and she seems to have a reputation for fresh determination. Another academic told me: ‘I think people I know were taken aback, and

Industrial strike action is a phenomenon that can be found across many industries in British history.

The stories of strikes have often captured the British public’s attention, anger and imagination.

From the films about the success of the Ford sewing machinists of 1968 to the picket line publications of the failed Wapping dispute in 1986, the tales of stalemate are well documented and diverse. But before an incident of strike action is transformed into a blockbuster, it is important that we try to unpick the complex context surrounding the events. I want to untangle the issues surrounding next month’s academic strikes, and understand the academic staff’s reasons behind striking.

Between the 25th of November and the 4th of December, academic staff across the country who are members of the University and College Union (UCU) will be striking to raise issues of pay (including topics such as equality and the state of casual work) and pensions. I have interviewed three academics, one on the committee of the UCU Birmingham branch, and asked for their opinions of the strikes. Members of UNISON will also be on strike for three days alongside UCU on November 28th and 29th, and December 2nd.

In total, 60 universities are taking part in the strikes, with a majority striking over both issues, and some striking over pay or pensions alone. UCU members in the University of Birmingham have voted to strike over both issues, with 82% supporting strikes over the issue of pensions, and 77% supporting the issue of ‘In 2016, 64 universities and pay. The striking staff are not just lecturers, but over one million students include other academic roles such were affected by 14 days of as librarians and researchers. The strike action’ University’s support staff – (Redbrick) belonging to a different union – were striking in October over similar issues with pay and working I’m sure University conditions. administrators were This is not the first time acataken aback because demic staff have gone on strike in they were expecting the UK. Last year the UCU conthat the old rules ducted strikes in February and applied and there’s a March, causing widespread disnew sheriff in town,’ ruption to teaching hours and calling the eight days exams. The strike was unprece‘a much more dentedly long for the higher eduaggressive cation sector, and was fought over approach.’

For the issues with pensions that are Birmingham, still causing issues today. But here therefore, the in Birmingham, the union did upcoming strikes not reach the all-important seem unprecedented 50% turnout on the ballot, for two reasons: it is meaning University of the first successful Birmingham academics UCU ballot there has been

in at least three years, possibly longer. And, the new UCU leadership’s no nonsense proposal for eight consecutive days of action appears to have come as a surprise.

The academics I spoke to welcome the action being taken by UCU, but they still expressed concerns about the impacts on themselves and their students. It is clear that the strikes will cause financial losses for the academics, with one telling me that they had not expected such a long strike period when they voted: ‘I think if they’d have said “we’re going to strike for eight consecutive days,” I bet they wouldn’t have [won the vote] because that’s a huge amount of money to say no to, especially at this time of year. It’s a massive sacrifice.’

This was something I had not considered before, but when I asked whether this information should have been clearer at the time of voting, the academic showed solidarity for the Union and the strikes. ‘No, I would have still voted in favour of it. I think if you’re in a union you’ve got to expect to make those kinds of sacrifices. Whether everybody will or not here is another matter.’

This academic clearly feels that the November strike action is important enough to give up money and teaching time.

The overriding sense I felt from both academics I interviewed was that they did not want to cause disruption to their students, but they had no choice. One argued: ‘The problem is that if lecturers ever take industrial action, the only people we can harm are students... we want to harm the people who sit in the big building over there [pointing to chancellors square]. The people who pay themselves, and there’s a lot of them it’s not just [David] Eastwood, nobody knows quite what they do but they pay themselves an excess of a hundred thousand pounds a year for doing it. And they make our lives fucking miserable.’ I think it is important to remember that the strikes are going to be difficult for both students and academics; they have not been voted on lightly.

When I asked what students could do to help, the message was clear. One academic told me ‘it would be nice to think that most of the students will be behind us, I’m not sure they are, I’ve been on picket lines, I’ve taken a bit of [abuse] off students.’

Another praised the students last year who walked pickets with the academics at striking universities.

Messages of support and understanding from students will help the strikes achieve change. The most powerful thing we can do, I believe, is hold the university systems accountable, rather than just show anger at missed lectures.

A UCU branch committee member told me: ‘Things students can do include – if they want to

express anger about the situation help shift the government into – write to the Vice-Chancellor, or, action, and ultimately she disjoin us on the picket lines.’ plays little signs of backing down.

Students will be a key part of the With an interesting few weeks picket lines – they excitedly told ahead, I think most academics and me of the current plans – ‘we’re students alike will be hoping for hoping to get musicians and make successful and sustainable negoit a bit of a fun atmosphere, not a tiation outcomes. If nothing else, confrontational atmosphere.’ come to the picket lines, talk to The issues raised by the aca- your lecturers, and learn somedemic staff suggest to me a more thing you cannot learn in class. systemic problem. Politicians and Redbrick reached out to the government officials have University, who provided the folexpressed very few solid solu- lowing comment: tions so far. All three academics ‘After a national ballot of acahad low hopes for help from the demic and academic-related staff government. The UCU branch members by Universities and member seemed particularly Colleges Union (UCU), we have unimpressed by the responses of been advised that members at a the government, but more so by number of Universities, including the University: Birmingham, will take strike ‘It becomes more difficult action between 25 - 29 November, when universities send stuff out to and 2 - 4 December. Most stustudents and say “we’ve got no dents should see very little impact power to do anything about this, on their studies as fewer than 10% it’s not about us it’s a national of academic and related staff level thing”. Well the truth is, at voted for this strike. Our priority this University, David Eastwood is to ensure that our students conhas an enormous amount of tinue to receive an outstanding power.’ They argued strongly that education. We recognise that the senior staff at UoB could have strike action may cause concern a big impact on the strikes: ‘If our and we have written to all our leadership came out and said “we students to assure them we are want to pay staff properly, we doing everything we can to miniwant to close the gender pay gap, mise impact. we want to end casualisation” and ‘The University will make argued for it with their fellow every effort to make alternative employers, it would start to hap- arrangements for any cancelled pen. They do have power. So far, events, including lectures, semithey haven’t used it in that way.’ I nars, individual appointments, lab have indeed found it difficult to sessions, etc. This might include find evidence of efforts to con- scheduling additional sessions at cretely negotiate with the UCU, other times and making supporton part of the government or indi- ing materials available that stuvidual university leaderships. dents can review through Canvas.

The Department of Education This will help to ensure that stureleased a particularly vague dents do not miss any of the statement: ‘We hope that a solu- essential content for their course. tion to the dispute can be found In addition we will ensure that that will result in a positive out- students are not disadvantaged in come for providers, staff and stu- any assessment activity. Hand-in dents.’ It appears that there is a dates and deadlines may be waiting game, to see what can be extended if these are affected by achieved on both local and nation- any cancelled teaching and stual levels, and who will be willing dents will not be assessed on to negotiany conate first. tent that T h e has not opinions been cov‘79% of UCU members who of the three ered due to academics disruption.

I managed voted backed strike action over Where any to intercontent or view canassessment changes to pensions' not be of learning taken to outcomes (ucu.org.uk) represent is aligned all of the with proacademic fessional staff at the b o d y University accreditaof Birmingham, or elsewhere. tion, we will ensure that this However, it is important for us as content is covered within students to aim to understand the rearranged sessions. We issues being faced by our acahope that UCU will continue demic staff, and it is up to us to to maintain an open dialogue support them in the next few in order to try to resolve this weeks. national dispute.’

On the 12th of November, Further information for Jo Grady released a statement students is available on the that strongly confirms the University’s website. thoughts of the academics.

She urges that pressure of Pixabay/mohamed_hassan Vice-Chancellors and other senior members of staff will

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CULTURE

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickculture

Review: Algorithms

Culture Critic Rebecca Sibley reviews Sadie Clark’s Algorithms, a tragicomic onewoman play, described as a bisexual Bridget Jones for the online generation Rebecca Sibley Culture Critic

Hailed as ‘a bisexual Bridget Jones for the online generation’ and ‘this year’s Fleabag’ at Edinburgh Fringe, Algorithms tells the uplifting story of a woman’s journey towards self-acceptance. After enjoying a sold-out run in Edinburgh, Sadie Clark’s one-woman play came to Birmingham’s Old Joint Stock Theatre this weekend as part of SHOUT Festival of Queer Arts and Culture.

“The type of character who syncs her nudes to her work email address” Algorithms’ protagonist is a 29-year-old bisexual Londoner called Brooke. She’s lovable in all her idiosyncrasies: the type of character who accidentally syncs her nudes to her work email address, enjoys drinking a whole bottle of wine and dancing like nobody’s watching, and treats trawling through dating apps for ‘the one’ as her unpaid side-job.

From candlelit restaurants to

Hackney warehouse parties, Brooke is searching for the romance she grew up watching in her favourite rom-coms, but it doesn’t seem to exist in the modern world.

In her writing and performance of Brooke, Sadie Clark is witty, candid and engaging. Her performance of a range of accents and characters is totally immersive, making the conversations feel more like dialogue than reported speech. With her friendly and conversational manner, Clark draws the audience into her story, evoking laughs and gasps at all the right moments in her sharpwitted play.

Algorithms is particularly interested in modern technology, specifically the dating app algorithms that

inspired its title, as well as the FOMO-

inducing o f m e d i a .

Despite t h i s emphasis on tech, the performance i s

e ff e c t s social

subtle in its own technical elements: the lighting and music are effective but not overdone, the props are minimal, and much of the dialogue takes place while Clark mimes typing on a phone with the familiar ‘tap-tap-tap’ noise as accompaniment. The synchronisation of beeping notifications and typing sounds with the performance is well-polished, emphasising Brooke’s feelings of isolation behind the ignored messages and disappointing dating app matches.

More up-to-date than Bridget Jones but less devastating than Fleabag, Algorithms finds a feel-good middle-ground.

In a world that

seems SHOUT Festival

to demand weight-loss, waxing and settlling down before you’re thirty, Sadie Clark’s play succeeds in presenting a blueprint for female self-acceptance. It concludes with Brooke at her 30th birthday party, finally happy with being single and singing badly into a Hello Kitty karaoke machine.

“The synchronisation of beeping notifications and typing sounds... emphasising Brooke’s feelings of isolation” Though the play pays homage to Brooke’s favourite rom coms like The Notebook and Notting Hill, its ending offers a profound counterpoint to their heteronormative assumption that happiness can be only achieved when you find ‘the one.’ Brooke may not have been able to write an algorithm for love, but Clarke has found the perfect formula for this fun, queer and heart-warming play.

Review: Reel Herstories

Life&Style Editor Frankie Rhodes reviews an evening of screenings that explore the different ways queer women have used film to preserve their herstories Frankie Rhodes Life&Style Editor

Archives. Established in New York in the 1970s. These archives remain the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians. The documentary opened on a solemn note, as a young woman donated possessions and souveneirs of her late girlfriend to the archives. Whilst obviously

“It is difficult to describe a screening like this

Prawny

For ten years, SHOUT Festival has been bringing LGBTQ+ culture to art and music venues across Birmingham. On Wednesday the 6th November I was lucky enough to attend a film screening entitled Reel Herstories: Rebel Dykes and the Archivettes, dedicated to telling the (often marginalised) stories of lesbian activists. In addition to this already being an exhilarating topic, the audience was treated to exclusive footage, with the first documentary Rebel Dykes having only recently been completed.

This 20-minute extract followed a group of queer women in the 1980s, banding together to protest, educate and celebrate their identities. A combination of home-style video clips, sketchy animations and interviews documented events such as the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, London riots and the political unrest that emerged surrounding a Lesbian S & M club, Chain Reaction. This theme was particularly interesting, as it made reference to the 1980s WAVAW organisation (Women Against

Violence Against Women).

Although seemingly created to protect women, the group forcefully protested the existence of the Chain Reaction club, with a warped understanding of sexual wellbeing.

The extract in general summarised the era as a time of rollicking parties, comradery a n d sexual liberation, y e t always with a c o n stant undertone of c o n flict. One of the leading members of the group described this perfectly when she stated- ‘it was a great time, and a terrible time, to be young and queer in London.’

Following on from this, the audience were shown an hour-long documentary entitled The Archivettes, which depicted the history of the Lesbian Herstory

because...it tells the story of people who might

grieving, she was able to gain comfort in the thought of her girlfriend’s legacy living on, as she admitted, ‘it’s only in the individual stories that we have lesbian history.’

Instead of following the expected chronological order, the documentary diverted between past and present to indicate the

links between generations. The archives originally began in a small back room in New York, and have grown into a collection of over 10,000 books, 12,000 photos and other memorabilia such as badges, clothes and diaries. Alongside more trivial memories, the archives became a home

otherwise have their histories... erased”

for some of history’s most challenging moments, such as Nazi occupation.

As the original founders are now in their 70s, it becomes the duty of new interns to continue the work. With so many photos now being taken in our digital age, their focus is on collecting tapes, to ensure that footage of

key protests and social victories are not lost.

My favourite aspect of the documentary was seeing the tapes of the archives being set up, from the initial building opening in 1974, to reunions in recent years.

However, the film did not shy away from the more difficult aspects of this journey, such as the group having to initially keep the street address of the archives private for fear of public attack.

Even now, the organisation still faces prejudices and opposition from people who fail to understand the value of documenting queer lives. Nonetheless, the film ended aptly with shots of the Archivettes, both young and old, attending 2017 pride. This served as a reminder that the best way to combat bigotry and hatred is to build a strong sense of community.

When writing this article, it struck me that it is difficult to describe a film screening like this, perhaps because there are so few films of this type that exist. That might be the most important aspect of the SHOUT Festivalthat it tells the story of people who might otherwise have their histories ignored, erased and never told at all.

CULTURE

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickculture

19

Review: Thoughts on Portraiture

Culture Critic Nadia Sommella reviews BMAG’s exhibition on all things portrait Nadia Sommella Culture Critic

Thoughts on Portraiture, was a free exhibition running at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) in August. It explored the shift in art practice where portraiture began to be thought of as a way of showing the psychological state of the sitter, and in many ways, the artist.

Historically, portraiture was used to demonstrate wealth and power or to show a likeness. This exhibition dove into BMAG’s own modern art collection to display works of portraiture that look deeper into the human condition.

The installation ‘Man and his Sheep’ by Ana Maria Pacheco dominated the exhibition space and one was immediately drawn to the unnerving expressions of her figures. The installation consisted of eight large uncanny human figures appearing to fol-

low a male leader, who held a ram’s head on a spike. The individual figures stood life-size; we as the viewer could look at them directly in the eye and stand beside them as equals, luring the viewer in as one of the ‘man’s sheep’.

“In essence, what separates the human experience from that of animals and beasts?”

The work explored the rituals and power dynamics human societies create, the difference between the group of followers and the individual leader. The followers’ expressions ranged from fear to excitement and created an eerie

uncomfortable atmosphere that permeated through the exhibition as a whole.

The rest of the works on display consisted of paintings and prints hung on the walls. The exhibition was studded with a few famous names: Picasso, Auerbach, F.N Souza - but this was far from a blockbuster exhibition. If you attended having been seduced by the mention of Picasso, the exhibition would have inevitably underwhelmed you.

Thoughts on Portraiture, was somewhat of a mish-mash of styles and eras, the chronology and order we have come to expect from galleries was less present and it instead focused on a theme, using art from the museums own collection to ‘answer’ the question posed.

Interestingly, many artists turn to religion, mythology and animal imagery to try and untangle the complexity of emotion. In essence, what separates the human experi-

ence from that of animals and beasts?

At times the exhibition could feel hashed together, applying a loose theme in order to connect a vast range of artworks the BMAG happened to have in its collection.

But in many ways, it was refreshing to be confronted as a viewer

with varying mediums, styles and imagery and to make our own connections between the works providing room for our own opinions. It was not an easily digested exhibition on one artist or movement, but it did do what I feel it set out to: provoke thought.

BMAG

Review: Being There

Zlatitsa Markova reviews Claudia Losi’s Being There exhibition at Ikon Gallery Zlatitsa Markova Culture Critic

“Fabricated her artwork over twelve years” Avantrend

In the Tower Room of Ikon Gallery sits the beautiful exhibition of Italian artist Claudia Losi’s project Being There, a two-part project conceived and realised by the artist in collaboration with Italian arts collective Collettivo Amigdala.

The piece called ‘Poli Antarctici Constitutio’ (2019) is displayed for the first time in Ikon and it features an intricately embroidered silk cloth. It depicts the Antarctic as represented by Athanasius Kircher in Mundus Subterraneus (1664), a scientific textbook which portrays the

Ikon

Earth’s geography through textual description, as well as lavish illustrations.

Losi has fabricated her artwork over a period of nearly two years by a group of twelve women, none of whom were professional embroiderers. Most of them were her friends and casually attended the studio to have a little escape from their routines, and their col-

lective work appears to carry the stories of these women in every stitch. The blues and whites of it seem as if they are moving in circles before you and they are really able to transport you to a calmer place.

The exhibition kicked off on the 18th of September with a performance along Birmingham canals. Collettivo Amigdala is an artistic group who typically use voice as a medium in spite-specific performances and they activated Losi’s exhibition through a performance along Birmingham’s canals. Using ‘Slow Boat’ as a

stage, the performers interacted with local singers along the towpath, creating a quasi-spontaneous choral dialogue.

In this manner, both the performance and the artwork are in conversation, ironically, about conversation. Sharing stories and time with people and forming a community through that, seems to be the key theme. The silk cloth as an artwork, provides us not only with an aesthetically pleasing piece, but a story of multiple stories through the fabrication process which we learn about.

Review: The Hills are Shadows

Sophie Ronodipuro visits the MAC for Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane’s collaborative and immersive exhibition space Sophie Ronodipuro Culture Critic

The Hills Are Shadows, which takes its title from Tennyson’s In Memoriam, is a collaboration between Canadian artists Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane at the Midlands Art Centre. This exhibition marks the 20th time these two artists have worked together, and their latest project is a testament to what looks to be their seamless working relationship and artistic style.

When you first enter the large space, you’ll feel almost overwhelmed - but in the best way possible. The walls are covered with expansive murals that tower over you. From floor to ceiling, Holyoak and Shane have used ink, graphite, dye and watercolour to depict a rich surrealist landscape that most people could only

imagine in their wildest dreams.

Maybe not even then. Two of these pieces are complete: ‘Quagmire’ and ‘The Who’s Haunts’, both of which were completed over several months in Quebec.

Both works may at first glance appear to be a hurricane of trees, roots, buildings, and strange creatures crashing together to form a twisted landscape. But the beauty is in the details. The two artists frequently fit in their own little ‘Easter eggs’ into their pieces; ones which you would barely notice unless you look really carefully.

Some examples include tiny drawings of their favourite books, or even something as random as ‘The Complete Guide To Handsoap’ on shelves. ‘Quagmire’ also features a very interesting piece of landscape that at first

may seem like a mesh of trees and mountains but when viewed from afar transforms into a massive beached whale. It’s things like these which makes viewing their work an almost interactive experience.

The exhibition also includes several smaller works such as ‘Nodosaur’ and ‘Shipwreck’, which resemble the other two larger pieces in terms of their portrayal of dreamlike landscapes but just compressed into smaller scales. Interestingly, they’ve also included a collection of comics and doodles titled ‘When We Grow Up’. This collection feels like a whimsical break from the almost mind-blowing experience of the larger pieces, a breath of fresh air if you will.

But the main attraction in this exhibit is their current work-inprogress, ‘Shipworms of the

Nodosaur’. This piece, which takes inspiration from ‘The Who’s Haunts’, was created on site at MAC during their residency in September and October. During the first five weeks of the exhibit, visitors were able to see Holyoak and Shane at work at select times.

This again takes up a vast amount of floor to ceiling wallspace and the ladder present is just another indicator of the physical work it takes to create such a large piece. Having its creation take place on site also adds another layer to the work, as not only is it just a piece of visual art but it also takes on a kind of performativity.

Yet having the piece made on site does have its downsides. Its sparseness, empty spaces of white wall yet to be filled in by the two artists, stands out even more

against the richness of the other already finished pieces. Some visitors may find they have the sense of being immersed in the other paintings almost vanishing as soon as they reach this unfinished piece.

Despite this, the exhibition is definitely a must-see for every kind of art lover. Artists always aim to transport their audience, so much so that even this intent has turned into somewhat of a cliché. StockSnap But Holyoak and Shane have managed to create worlds upon worlds inside of one gallery room, thereby not only transporting us to these different worlds but perhaps even changing how we see our own.

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MUSIC

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickmusic

Album Review: M. T. Hadley - Empty Jake Sandy Music Critic

Fame sometimes comes in peaks and troughs and no-one knows more about this than Martin ‘M. T.’ Hadley. The Stoke-Newingtonbased singer-songwriter became an overnight sensation in 2016 when his track, ‘Janet’, was played on Frank Ocean’s personally curated radio show, Blonded.

Despite winning legions of fans overnight, Hadley then disappeared from the public eye – only resurfacing earlier this year with a new single and an announcement of his full-length debut, Empty.

The single in question, ‘Rattle’, is undeniably bleak from a lyrical perspective with the central themes being the inevitability of pain and sadness in life.

However, it is entirely juxtaposed by the instrumental, which has a comforting edge with the bright synthesiser notes. Combining these with Hadley’s dreamy falsetto creates something that is more akin to a lullaby. In hindsight, this was a definite sign of the direction the album would take – a sense of all-encompassing sorrow delivered with staggering elegance.

Despite the beauty in the music, he manages to balance it out by interspersing moments of uncomfortable tension that showcase his individuality and thus set him apart from his peers. This is immediately obvious on the album’s opener, ‘Reticence’, which is a short piece of ambient electronica that starts as quickly oscillating synthesiser notes that

get progressively slower, until the track descends into dissonant piano chords.

T h e s e chords gradually gain in volume until the

Twitter: @MTHADLEY

unbearable tautness is finally relieved with the introduction to the much sprightlier second track, ‘Private Eye’, bursting into the mix. Whilst confrontational to the point of being difficult to listen to, the track’s foreboding atmosphere is a credit to Hadley’s skills at translating his artistic vision into audio form.

This avant-garde approach to what is, from a sonic perspective at least, a pop record is a seam that runs deeply through the record. It is most notably expressed throughout the rest of the album as the masterful use of synthesisers add an astonishing level of emotional depth to the instrumentals. From the lurching and repetitive ones on ‘Reticent’ which evoke a visceral sense of unease to the bouncy, upbeat ones on ‘Roof Party’ (that add an almost funk-like groove), it’s impossible not to be drawn into the luscious soundscapes Hadley creates throughout the album.

Despite it being released far before this LP came out, it’s impossible to discuss the album without at least touching on the breakout hit, ‘Janet’. Based on his mother’s death, it’s an incredibly raw and introspective account of the experience of his unimaginable loss and, even more heartbreakingly, what he’d say to her if he saw her again. Although it’s an immensely personal song, the ubiquity of the subject matter makes it an incredibly poignant moment and one that is sure to live long in the memory of anyone who hears it.

Speaking to Dazed ahead of

A Beginner’s Guide to: Kojaque Rebecca Sibley Music Critic

‘I’m just a Northside DC baby / Me mammy raised me / But a horse riding council housing crisis crazy’ raps Kojaque in ‘White Noise’, the opening song of his 2018 album Deli Daydreams. In case it wasn’t obvious from ‘me mammy’, DC is Dublin city, and Kojaque is setting the scene for the album’s irreverent, ironic and poignant examination of Irish life.

Claiming to offer ‘the Emerald Isle’s answer to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic’, 23-year-old Kojaque is at the forefront of Irish hip hop.

It’s a scene that has only recently started to receive the international recognition it deserves: ‘people give you shit about your accent in hip hop’, Kojaque explained in a Boiler Room interview. Artists like Rejjie Snow, JyellowL and Versatile have succeeded in gaining an international following in recent years, though only the latter raps in a recognisably Irish accent. Kojaque, however, feels no need to mask his Irishness: he proudly performs in his accent and fills his songs with references to Dublin’s geography, Irish history and the country’s contemporary politics.

Rapping over steady beats and

jazz-inspired piano and saxophone melodies, Kojaque paints a stark but moving picture of Irish life.

His debut album, Deli Daydreams, is a concept album that tells the semi-autobiographical story of a disenchanted Dubliner working a dead-end job. ‘I’m dying in my hometown / It’s been this way my whole life’ repeats the chorus of ‘Politicksis’, a song about the experience of growing up in a country with a tumultuous history.

In its irony-laden lyrics Kojaque refers to the fight for Irish independence, the Troubles and the tyranny of the Catholic Church, as well as including moments of humour about his Irish upbringing: ‘I come from a land where everything from the common cold straight to cancer / Can be treated with a flat 7-Up as the answer’.

Kojaque first rose to fame in 2015 with a three-minute Radiohead-inspired music video of him rapping underwater. Since then, he’s gained a dedicated following in Ireland and co-founded the independent record label Soft Boy Records, which has led Kojaque to be called ‘a gateway drug’ to other local musicians.

This year he worked with fellow Dublin rapper and Soft Boy member Luka Palm on a collaborative album, Green Diesel, which maintains much of Kojaque’s signature style but also takes inspira-

tion from UK grime. Although Green Diesel is less sensitive and politically charged than Deli Daydreams, it’s full of fun songs such as ‘AirBnb’ and ‘SPIT DAT OUT’ that are a testament to Kojaque’s versatility as an artist.

While Kojaque’s songs may be full of specific references to his Irish upbringing, there’s no doubt that his music has universal appeal. It’s sensitive, angsty and fun, the product of an artist who has important things to say but can also work a crowd with his energetic and tonguein-cheek songs.

Both as a solo artist and as part of the Soft Boy collect i v e , Kojaque has been a trailblazer in Ireland’s young hip hop scene. He’s one to watch as he continues to establish his international reputation.

the release of the album, Hadley spoke about his love for jazz fusion when he was younger. This influence is certainly most overt during the tracks ‘Lonely People’ and ‘Roof Party’ where a lone saxophone adds a unique textural element, acting as almost a lone beacon of light in the sparse, moody instrumentals. This sparseness in the mix is a running theme throughout the album and is especially noticeable from a percussive perspective, with most tracks featuring very low-tempo, light, drumming that is reminiscent of records like Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Rather than detract from the album though, it creates an openness that allows Hadley’s vocals to be much more atmospheric and lets the listener truly engage with his haunting delivery.

With Hadley serving as producer on all the tracks as well as writing and performing them, it allowed him space to experiment with different instruments and techniques depending on the atmosphere of the songs. One of the moments on the record that is most indicative of this novel approach is the final leg of the album’s closer, ‘Read Receipt’.

Lyrically, this track is a heartachingly mournful ballad about lost love which, when combined with a spine-chilling vocal performance from Hadley and droning synthesiser notes, evokes a powerful sense of despondency in the listener. However, the end of the track features a passage of over-driven electric guitar. This undercuts the sadness to pair

Kojaque’s UK tour commences in December 2019.

beautifully with Hadley’s final line, ‘The loss is gone but my heart rings on, it’s true’ – leaving the listener with a subtle, yet extremely poignant glimmer of hope in the sea of melancholy they’ve been immersed in.

Running in at just over 30 minutes, the breadth of subject matter and ambitious stylistic choices on this album would usually be expected from a musician who’s been in the industry for a long time. So, for Hadley to achieve this on his debut, is a testament to him as a master of his craft and a sure-fire sign that he’s one of the most intriguing artists to keep an eye on as we move into the next decade.

Overall, this is a record that reminds us that, while the path through life is never a straightforward one, there’s a universality to our suffering that means we are never truly alone. That’s certainly an uplifting thought when confronted with the heartbreak and grief that Hadley explores in such painstaking detail. This is, perhaps, what this album is truly about – a reflection on the fact that, no matter what you have lost, the emotions you feel mean that you are never truly Empty.

Upcoming Events: Editors’ Pick: Skepta, O2 Academy, 26th November Grime scene veteran Skepta is a rare artist. He has been instrumental in lifting the genre from U.K. underground relevance but mainstream obscurity, to chart topping success on both sides of the Atlantic, all without losing an ounce of his credibility.

Having performed with both U.S. rap royalty and U.K. MC aristocracy, he brings his years of experience in getting a room, warehouse, or field full of people bouncing in unison to the O2 Academy Birmingham. Expect every wheel up to be an ‘I was there’ moment.

Best of the Rest: Artwork, Lab 11, 22nd November Fontaines DC, O2 Institute, 25th November Skepta, O2 Academy, 26th November SPINN, Mama Roux’s, 28th November Fat White Family, O2 Institute, 28th November

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Giggs, O2 Academy, 29th November Harico, Actress & Bishop, 29th November Amelie Lens, The Mill, 1st December

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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Single Review: Dua Lipa - Don’t Start Now Samantha Andrews Music Critic

Dua Lipa’s return to the charts is nothing short of a pop powerhouse. ‘Don’t Start Now’ has a strong disco and funk influence that facilitates the overall sassiness and confidence of the song.

Presenting an elevated sound, she remains true to her pop and dance

roots. It’s a catchy, fun and empowering breakup song that affirms her place in pop music.

Reflecting upon how far she’s come after a break-up, in ‘Don’t Start Now’ Dua Lipa maintains her reputation for empowering break-up songs (most notably hit singles ‘New Rules’ and ‘IDGAF’). Lyrically, this song is an emboldened power move highlighted with moments like ‘I’m all

good already, so moved on it’s scary I’m not where you left me at all’. These comments pierce through as assertions of confidence, strength and sass that are only matched further by the upbeat fun of the disco sound. She makes her stand as a strong female figure in the music industry time after time with her music and ‘Don’t Start Now’ is no exception.

This song is Dua with the dial

turned up – it’s an elevated and musically more considered song.

The disco melodies, synth beats and piano motifs all call back to the likes of 70’s disco giants ABBA and Chic, and yet, Dua Lipa brings a freshness to the sound that keeps it modern and relevant. Earlier in the year she teased that she was working on new music with the likes of Pharrell Williams and Nile

Rodgers and this is clearly evidenced in the funky basslines that give this song its essence. In seeking influence from such musical icons, Dua Lipa has brought her music to an entirely new level.

‘Don’t Start Now’ is the first look into Dua Lipa’s new music and is one that is intriguing, exciting and promising, as well as being amazing for a good dance.

Album Review: FKA twigs MAGDALENE Francesca Benson Sci&Tech Editor

Previous releases by FKA twigs such as LP1 and M3LL155X have been darkly sensual examples of glitchy experimental pop. With her recent album MAGDALENE, she has explored a newer, softer sound while still retaining stylistic elements of her past work.

“The open and vulnerable tone for the album is set with her voice breaking into a piercing howl” Opening with the ominous chant-like ‘thousand eyes’, the open and vulnerable tone for the album is set with her voice breaking into a piercing howl of ‘it’s

gonna be cold with all those eyes’.

The next track ‘home with you’ flows between two stylistically distinct sections. The verses are backed by low-thumping bass and percussion with monotone rhythmic vocals, whereas her voice soars on the piano-backed choruses. These sounds complement the lyrical content, with the choruses centering around being there for someone in need whereas the verses have themes of people demanding too much of her.

The song ‘sad day’ starts off quiet and delicate, but builds into a crescendo as the fluttering beat and backing instrumentals gradually become more pronounced throughout the song.

As one of the singles off MAGDALENE, ‘holy terrain’ is arguably the most danceable and mainstream song on the album.

FKA twigs’ delicate vocals blend well with the witchy instrumental.

The song has a questionable feature from Future, and while his

intro adds an interesting new dimension to the track, his verse does not quite fit with the rest of the song.

interwoven with chants and strings to form a hypnotic song. A vengeful and intense track, ‘fallen alien’ is also a powerful listen that contrasts with the more melancholy vibe of the rest of the album.

“The album delves into sexuality, love, and loss in a strikingly candid manner”

Bobo Boom

Opening with dreamlike sounds fading into silence, the isolated vocals on ‘mary magdalene’ eventually become

One of the most emotional tracks on MAGDALENE, ‘mirrored heart’ is a lonely tear-jerker with an ever so slightly country vibe. A soft, subtle ode to depression, ‘daybed’ paints a picture of self-isolation with a series of twelve syllable segments, one particularly memorable one being ‘active are my fingers/faux my cunnilingus’.

As both the first single and the closing track of MAGDALENE, ‘cellophane’ embodies both the emotional intensity and soft, piano-centred style of the album in general. A fairly slow and simple track, FKA twigs’ incredible soprano vocal range and ability is able to fully shine through, varying from a soft whisper to a wrenching cry.

Overall, MAGDALENE is a softer, lighter departure from her past work. The album delves into sexuality, love, and loss in a strikingly candid manner. As a dancer as well as a singer, FKA twigs has incorporated pole dance, wushu, and swordplay into her live performances in the years leading up to this album. It is clear that FKA twigs is an artist who is constantly evolving, pushing boundaries with her music and showing that she is a talented performer and artist as a whole.

Live Review: Charli XCX Seb Rolley Music Critic

On arrival at the O2 Institute the crossover appeal of Charli XCX, and in particular her recent output, was immediately apparent.

Congregating in the room with equal excitement were groups of young teens, bearded hipsters and a whole host of other subcultures.

This welcoming and diverse crowd turned out to be reflected in the show that Charli delivered; a joyous, boundary pushing and deeply fun set of some of the most exciting songs in pop.

Following a fun support set by Rina Sawayama, Charli took to the stage with a recorded message thanking all of the collaborators on her recent album Charli, reminding the crowd that behind her pop bangers lies the ambition to collaborate with a host of more experimental and left-field artists such as SOPHIE and A.G. Cook of PC Music. As ‘Next Level Charli’, the album’s opening track, began to play, the crowd’s energy exploded. Screaming along

to every word, hipsters and teens alike gave back all the energy Charli gave out and more.

“Every note and vocal run were hit with genuine conviction and purpose” Charli’s ability as a live performer is stunning. Despite being alone on a relatively minimalist stage, backed only by a large illuminated cube, her stage presence was able to fill the room with an intensely positive energy. Whilst some might write off her use of autotune as a crutch, it quickly became clear that the effect was far from a way of covering up vocal flaws. Much like T-Pain (go check out his Tiny Desk), Charli’s vocals underneath any autotune were clearly not lacking in strength. Every note and vocal run were hit with genuine conviction and purpose, the vocal processing

merely adding to her vocals’ futuristic pop style.

Seeing a packed O2 Institute react so joyously to a song with sections as abrasive and noisy as recent album highlight ‘Click’ was amazing. The way that Charli delivers her more experimental tracks live brings their accessibility and catchiness to the fore, using her vocal delivery and dancing to highlight the raw pop foundations upon which the noise and weird drones are built.

Despite leaning heavily on her more experimental recent releases, the show wouldn’t have been complete without the inclusion of Icona Pop’s mega-hit ‘I Love It’ in the encore. Whilst the song’s inescapable presence on release might have left it feeling a little tired and overdone, it was basically impossible to not have terrifying amounts of fun whilst it was being played. Charli showed no signs of fatigue at still performing the tune seven years after its release, leading the entire crowd into a cathartic sing-along of a song that for many was a defining soundtrack to their youth. With all

pretences dropped, ‘I Love It’ is an undeniable banger live and on record.

The show cemented Charli XCX as possibly the single most exciting artist working in British pop music. The way her set drew together so many different sounds,

moving from almost Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial to futuristic bubble-gum pop, and left them all feeling cohesive and necessary was nothing short of incredible.

Most importantly however, the show was simply a lot of fun.

Pomona

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FILM

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickfilm

Review: Le Mans ‘66

Film Critic Harry Taylor reviews the dynamic showdown between Ford and Ferrari Harry Taylor Film Critic

You’d be forgiven for suffering from biopic burnout after the last couple of years, but even nonracing enthusiasts will get plenty out of Matt Damon and Christian Bale’s on screen bromance in this high-octane adrenaline fest that’s as conventional as it is exhilarating.

By the mid 1960s, the Ford Motor Company was in dire need of a facelift; the corporation that practically invented the modern assembly line and spawned the first generation of American motorists had drifted into a layby of slumping profits and cultural irrelevance. Americans didn’t just want a car anymore – they wanted a lifestyle, and for Vice President Lee Iaconna (John Bernthal), racing was the key to jump starting Ford’s image.

Endeavouring to beat Ferrari (who, after a humiliating, failed attempt at a joint venture, became Ford’s main rivals) at the Le Mans 24 Hour racing competition, CEO John Ford II (Tracy Letts) proceeded to assemble a finely-tuned team of engineers, with ex-driver and automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) at the helm.

Le Mans ‘66 plays out as a showdown between the US and Italy’s motoring behemoths, but it’s a British racer who’s actually behind the wheel: Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a hot-headed Brummie, proficient mechanic and brilliant racing driver, who, in Shelby’s own words, is ‘difficult but good.’ He’s the last person Ford wants representing the brand, the antithesis to the calculated corporate manoeuvre the execs want a Le Mans victory to be.

But as it becomes increasingly apparent that Miles is the only driver for the job, tensions grow between the suits in charge and the team on the ground.

And so t h e f i l m ’s battle lines are drawn,

not just between Ford and Ferrari, but between Ford’s racing team and the corporation, between passion and profit.

“The film's battle lines are drawn” Damon and Bale fire on all cylinders as the tenacious duo at the centre of the film, with the former giving a particularly sensitive, well–rounded performance.

Bale is just as good, albeit with a different kind of charm, complete with an unconvincing West Midlands accent that occasionally veers off-road. Very much a bythe-numbers biopic, Damon and Bale’s strength of performance often help the film maintain its potency when it leans on slightly more familiar, worn-out narrative techniques. The two click so naturally on screen that the film’s original casting of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt seems a puzzling mismatch by comparison.

Crucially, the film’s race scenes are as well-realised as its central partnership. Packing visceral, white-knuckle thrills alongside an omnipresent threat that grounds the film’s sequences in a tense believability. Le Mans ‘66’s high-speed set-pieces feature cacophonous, sputtering horsepower tracked by sweeping, expansive shots. It’s a film best experienced in a cinema – you feel every gear change.

And then there’s the cars themselves, flushed with rich 60s hues and beautifully complemented by the film’s faithful, forensic set design. From the bright neon lights of a roadside diner to the drivers’ lovingly recreated race suits, Le Mans ‘66 situates its subjects in a haze of nostalgic glamour, a tribute to a unique time in the history of motor racing.

But in its evocation of a rose-tinted h e y d a y, t h e

film sometimes foregoes the grit of the sport, and the final race never really feels like a brutal, twenty-four-hour slogging match, rather a sequence of individual set pieces.

Caitriona Balfe puts in an excellent performance as Ken’s wife Mollie, at times offering a refreshingly female perspective outside of the testosterone-fuelled vortex of the race track. But when the film shifts gears to a more sentimental tone it can falter slightly; Ken’s relationship with his son Peter is sometimes awkwardly realised by Bale and child actor Noah Jupe.

Equally unconvincing is the film’s spiritual musings on how, at 7000rpm, man and machine become one, a ‘body moving through time and space’ – it feels forced in order to fill the melodrama quota. Thankfully these moments never steer the film off course: it still packs considerable emotional punch as it crosses the finishing line.

VERDICT: A biopic that takes few risks, but the strength of its script ensures it doesn’t need to.

Imbued with a real sense of purpose by its two star leads, Le Mans ‘66 is a brilliant story passionately told; not only a tale of relentless sporting talent but also of deception, corporate machinations and greed.

Twentieth Century Fox

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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The Morality of CG Resurrection

Is it moral to resurrect actors using CGI tech or should filmmakers let the dead lie?

Matt Taylor Film Editor

James Dean died over sixty years ago. The 24-year-old heartthrob starred in three feature films before his untimely death in a car accident in 1955. And yet, in 2020, the actor is set to star in his fourth film, a Vietnam war flick based on Gareth Crocker’s novel Finding Jack. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dean’s likeness is set to be ‘constructed via “full body” CGI using actual footage and photos.’ While Dean is not the first actor to be ‘resurrected’ in this way, he is the first to be given a brand-new lead role in such a manner. THR quotes directors Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh as saying Dean’s family supports their endeavour, and view this as the ‘movie he never got to make.’ Even so, the question remains: why?

De-aging tech has become more commonplace in movies over the years. Marvel Studios tend to use this tech a lot in flashbacks within their films, but even these will only be a handful of scenes, or even mere seconds, long. Want a young Kurt Russell to dive into Star-Lord’s parental backstory a little? No worries!

Stick some mo-cap dots on his face, and let the VFX team do the work – problem solved. In little scenes such as this, the use of this technology makes sense, at least in a narrative way. Using make-up to make people look younger is sometimes unreliable; this removes that unreliability. But doing so opens up several other

cans of worms.

The first of these is the biggest by far: the idea of the Uncanny Valley. Faces are the hardest part of human bodies to animate correctly, especially when they are placed next to real life actors.

When creating people using VFX, everything about the way they are animated has to be perfect, or the whole thing ends up unnerving the audience. This is a basic, primal instinct that was first explored

by Sigmund Freud in his essays on the idea of the ‘unheimlich’ – the uncanny. Because we know human faces so well, when something is not quite right about one it cuts right through to us and has the ability to take us out of a film completely. This can be due to several reasons; perhaps the lighting in the scene is not quite right, perhaps the character’s face is too smooth, perhaps their eyes lack emotion, or perhaps the technology is simply not good enough to look realistic.

To see an example of one of these urealistic re-workings, take a look at the younger version of Jeff Bridges in TRON: Legacy.

The character of Clu looks off for all these reasons, and as a result it digs into our very subconscious, and we are instinctively put off.

For an example of this sort of technology done right, we may look at Ang Lee’s Gemini Man. For all the flaws of this film, (and there are many), it cannot be denied that the technology used to create a younger Will Smith is excellent. When done right, there are no issues with de-aging tech such as this – but bringing someone back from the dead is a whole

other question.

The second issue is the money.

This sort of tech does not come cheaply, as Martin Scorsese found out when the only company he could get to finance his new film The Irishman was Netflix – no other studio would take the risk of pumping so much money into an original film that required so much time spent on it. There is a separate argument to be had here about the lack of investment in original film content (indeed, one that Scorsese himself has weighed in on), but it seems fair to say that what put a lot of studios off the project was the amount of money they would need to put into the film purely for the de-aging tech.

The Irishman is no Kurt Russell situation, where we only see the de-aged actor for a few scenes before the opening credits.

Scorsese’s latest is a behemoth of a film, a $159m, three-and-a-halfhour epic spanning decades that de-ages lead actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci by up to fifty years.

Technology on this scale has never been seen before, let alone from an auteur filmmaker like Scorsese. But even this brings with it problems: why could Scorsese not have found some unknowns to play the younger versions of the characters?

Granted, that too would have been a risk, but Francis Ford Coppola took that risk in The Godfather Part II when he cast De Niro as a young Vito Corleone, a part previously played by Marlon Brando.

Had this tech been available when Part II was in production in 1973, would Coppola have still cast De

Niro, who at that point only had two acting credits to his name? Or would he have simply de-aged Brando for the role? I’m tempted to say he would have done the latter.

“[James Dean’s] appearance seems to be nothing more than exploitatitve” This is by no means a dig at Martin Scorsese – but there is a certain amount of hypocrisy that is inherent with the use of this technology. Can we even begin to imagine what the cinema of the late twentieth century would have been like if Robert De Niro hadn’t been discovered? That is not a world I want to be a part of. The same comment could be made about The Irishman, as it could be made about resurrecting James Dean for Finding Jack. While there are ethically no big issues with Scorsese de-aging his stars for The Irishman, there seems to be no reason for resurrecting Dean other than the fact that he is James Dean. Say what you will about Peter Cushing’s appearance in Rogue One, Tarkin at least served a narrative purpose in that film.

Here, Dean’s appearance seems to be nothing more than exploitative, not to mention it being in extremely bad taste to begin with. To resurrect someone for an existing character may not be perfect, but you can at least see the logic in the filmmakers’ minds. Resurrecting someone for an entirely new role,

WikipediaCommons

especially someone who’s been dead for over sixty years, feels nothing but cheap.

There is certainly not an easy answer to this problem, as it appears to be becoming ever-more prevalent. Cinema is changing – that much is clear. But for all that the medium is moving forward, are filmmakers stuck in the past?

Bringing James Dean back from the dead for a film role is not only morally dodgy, but it could cause us to miss out on our next Robert De Niro. Forget resurrecting people – cast new actors, find new names, nurture fresh talent, but above all: let the dead lie.

Review: The King

Timothée Chalamet rules the screen as Henry V, writes Film Critic Jade Matlock Jade Matlock Film Critic

Netflix

When The King was unveiled to the public it was met with much trepidation, and justifiably so.

Shakespeare’s Henriad plays have become a staple in the English literary and theatrical repertoire and the David Michôd film had the same mammoth task of many literary adaptations that precede it - maintaining the essences of the story that made them so popular while bringing something new to the table.

The plot itself leaves much to be desired; it sticks relatively closely to the source material in a way that feels almost monotonous while simultaneously attempting to cater to both new receptions of the story and experienced Shakespeare readers. While this move for universality is to be expected for a platform such as Netflix, many details are left out for the sake of keeping everyone on the same page. However, in terms of writing, David Michôd and Joel Edgerton excel. Dialogue exists purely to fuel tension and maintain the fast pace of the film, foreshadowing is blatant throughout and yet the audience falls prey to it every time, clinging to their last strands of hope that the duo refuses to let them have. The narrative is constructed in such a way that we are continuously waiting

for the next response, the next scene, the next action, while many of us have known the ending all along. The violence is unrelenting and seemingly endless, and yet we continue to watch in anticipation.

“Chalamet shines as the tortured King thrust into uncharted territory” Perhaps one of the crowning moments of the film lies in its musical score. The orchestra is utilised very much in the same way as dialogue, pushing the narrative forward and escalating the tension in particular scenes (such as the dramatic Battle of Agincourt scene) to an almost palpable point before diminishing immediately.

The audience is given no time for closure. Silence is used to communicate just as much as the musical interludes, furthering the feeling of unexpectedness that we experience in key moments of the film. Even the most trivial of sounds such as the heavy breathing of soldiers and birdsong

become anchors to the narrative, a quiet respite from the clashing of swords and drowning in mud that will soon follow. If there is one thing to be said about this film, it’s the breathtaking attention to sonic detail.

Arguably the most surprising element to this film is the cast that Netflix lined up for it Upon the announcement of Timothée Chalamet (of Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird fame) as the titular character Henry V, it was fair to say that there was some initial caution. However, for a first dalliance with such a role, he exceeds both personal and critical expectations. Chalamet shines as the tortured King thrust into uncharted territory.

Alongside him, co-writer and executive producer Joel Edgerton provides much needed comical moments as the audacious Falstaff, with the uncanny ability to predict the weather with his right knee (which parallels beautifully with Karen Smith’s similar ability in Mean Girls).

But perhaps the most thought provoking addition to the cast rests with Robert Pattinson as the dastardly Dauphin. In spite of a French accent that can only truly be described as abhorrent, Pattinson thrives as a manic and

unpredictable French prince dripping with egotism. Not only is the defeat of the Dauphin the most comedic moment in an otherwise brutal and harrowing scene in the film, but lines such as 'Please speak English, it’s so simple... and ugly,' give him freedom to play around in a way that we rarely see from his previous work. I am left at a loss for words in an attempt to describe a casting as enigmatic as the character himself.

While there is a disappointing lack of female dialogue, LilyRose Depp’s fleeting moments on screen as Catherine anchor Chalamet’s Henry in the reality of his actions with as much attitude and flair as one would expect.

Tara Fitzgerald’s Hooper has a similar, almost antagonistic presence for Edgerton’s Falstaff.

VERDICT: This promising cast exceeds expectation in an otherwise standard adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic Henriad plays. While admittedly much of the Shakespearean magic was lost in this adaptation, it definitely provided audiences with newer, darker take on the classic.≠

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TELEVISION

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricktv

Mental Health Representation in TV Sian Allen discusses how the way in which TV shows explore subjects relating to mental health and mental illness has changed, undoubtedly for the better Sian Allen

Television Critic

Representation is a powerful tool.

What we see on screen is part of what shapes us as people; our beliefs, values and identities are largely constructed from the characters and storylines we see on TV. Mental health has undergone a huge destigmatisation in the past decade, and part of this is undoubtedly due to changes in representations of mental illness in mainstream media – and while there is still a long way to go, no other genre is making changes for the better like comedy.

Sitcoms have always been used to teach us life lessons through relatability, and therefore make an effective platform to portray mental illness with humour but also with empathy. Mike Schur’s catalogue of shows come to mind here.

For example, Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) from Parks and Recreation, is a character whose intense disposition sends him into a downward spiral until he gets back on track after frequent visits to his t h e r a p i s t .

Brooklyn N i n e Nine's ‘The Therapist’ also sees an open and honest conversation between three of its male characters, encour-

Pixabay

aging and normalising going to therapy. For painfully relatable representations of anxiety in comedy look no further than Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper) in The Good Place, an ethics professor paralysed by indecision and prone to stomach aches.

“Sitcoms have always been used to teach us life lessons through relatability” Schur’s sitcoms are known for never punching down, and while Chidi’s anxiety is hyperbolised and played for laughs (see the second season’s gag about taking 82 minutes to choose a hat), it is always portrayed with understanding and remains one of the most accurate

and multifaceted representations of anxiety I have seen on television. Chidi’s anxiety is not solely what defines

him – he is kind, thoughtful and dedicated. We see how his mental illness has negatively impacted his life but we also get to see him talk about it with both candour and humour – 'You know the sound that a fork makes in the garbage disposal? That's the sound my brain makes all the time.' Best of all, we get to see him start to overcome it as the characters of The Good Place evolve into their best selves.

“While Chidi's anxiety is hyperbolised and played for laughs [...] it is always portrayed with understanding” These shows are not necessarily about mental health but do provide representations and storylines that explicitly encourage speaking out and getting help, as well as helping those who are mentally ill to feel less alone. It is also significant that all the examples above include men, considering that in the UK, men are three times more likely to commit suicide and much less likely to access psychological therapies than women, with just 36% of referrals for therapy being for men in 2017.

Outside of Schur’s work, there are plenty of other examples; take One Day At A Time, a wholesome family sitcom where single mother and veteran Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado) suffers

from PTSD and struggles with the stigma of taking anti-depressants in the show’s pilot episode. This quickly establishes the show as one that portrays mental illness through a lens of empathy instead of fear.

Crazy Ex- Girlfriend similarly uses a light and humorous format when its lead character is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder - the show destigmatises diagnosis, therapy and medication effectively with the tap dance number ‘Anti-Depressants Are So Not A Big Deal’. Again, none of these characters are defined by their mental illness, yet it is acknowledged as an important part of their lives.

“These shows [...] provide representations and storylines that explicitly encourage speaking out and getting help” Finally let’s talk about BoJack Horseman, a show that presents all the ugliness and complexities of mental health with often brutal honesty, disarming you with ridiculous tongue twisters and sex robots along the way. BoJack (Will Arnett) is the quintessential antihero; a washed-up actor using alcohol, sex and drugs in an attempt to fulfil the emptiness left by his depression. It shouldn’t be easy to relate to a sad anthropomorphic cartoon horse, but ironically it’s BoJack’s humanity that makes the show such a poignant representation of the destructive nature of mental illness. The audi-

ence isn’t supposed to empathise with every bad choice BoJack makes, but we do celebrate the progress that he makes as he learns to hold himself accountable and take active steps to get help.

“None of these characters are defined by their mental illness, yet is is acknowledged as an important part of their lives” Mental health doesn’t have be restricted to tragedy. It is a subject that should be taken seriously, but comedy seems much more capable of viewing it through an empathetic lens while also avoiding overdone and harmful tropes.

There is still a lot of progress to be made – for example, the distinct lack of sympathetic representation of personality disorders and schizophrenia in the media as a whole – but for mental health representation that is accurate, empathetic and encourages getting help, look no further than your favourite sitcom.

“It's BoJack's humanity that makes the show such a poinant representation of the destructive nature of mental illness”

Web Series of the Week: Hot Ones Anoushka Nair Television Critic

A lot of talk shows these days can tend to be a bit samey, cringey, and frankly boring. Watching a white guy who wears the same navy suit each week ask a wellestablished celebrity – who likely has critical acclaim and humanitarian achievements to their name – who their favourite Kardashian is, can arguably get pretty old.

These shows also often miss the mark when trying to highlight a celebrity for their achievements and their genuinely interesting qualities. One show, on an alternative platform, that I would argue constantly hits all these markers is

Hot Ones.

Hot Ones is a YouTube web series hosted by Sean Evans on the First We Feast channel. The show invites celebrities to discuss their careers, upcoming projects, and even some more personal information. The twist, that sets this apart from typical talk show tropes and elevates the format to an arguably superior level, is hot wings. Host Sean Evans and his guest are separated by two platters consisting of ten chicken wings each that range in terms of spiciness. Their respective sauces are lined up in the centre of the table, displaying the brands that will gradually increase in heat and ultimately scorch the tongues of the interviewed guests (as well as

the interviewer) as they get on with a lighthearted chat.

Hot Ones first aired in 2015 with guest, Tony Yayo, and other lesser-known celebrities, and has now evolved to consisting of A-list guests such as Idris Elba, Halle Berry and the Jonas Brothers.

The primary appeal of the show is the talented host and Illinois native, Sean Evans. With a Webby Award for Best Web Personality/Host (2018 and 2019) in tow, Evans exudes enough personality to invite audiences back and make his guests comfortable, providing a conversational tone to the entire show as opposed to the cookie-cutter, cringy format used on television. Additionally, Evans

is quick-witted and avoids the awkward back and forth of unnecessary praise. As an interviewer, he is dedicated to his guests and does extensive research into each of them in order to pose compelling and original questions.

Along with the invited guest, the show’s main stars are the sauces. For any foodies, hot sauce fanatics, or just individuals looking to spice up their lives, the show educates its audience about different hot sauces and the Scoville scale (measurement of spice), ranging from ‘Tabasco’ and ‘Sriracha’, to ‘Angry Goat Hippy Dippy Green’ and ‘Karma Sauce’.

Finally, the show is uncensored and hence so are the guests.

Perhaps the only negative point of the show is that it is targeted towards a more mature audience, potentially teens and above, and may not appeal to a more aging audience due to its many references to popular culture.

Nevertheless, it does provide quality content that may be appreciated regardless.

As its name would suggest, this web series is a Hot One to look out for and, perhaps controversially, puts mainstream talk shows to shame. Get onboard the show’s weekly upload schedule and prepare to immerse yourself into a world of 'hot questions and even hotter wings.'

TELEVISION

Friday 22nd November 2019

25

@redbricktv

Review: Queer Eye Japan Charlie Murray Television Critic

A show about five individualistic, flamboyant and confident gay people travelling to a collectivist and, in some sense of the word, conservative country to push people from that country outside of their culture’s comfort zone, could be the makings of a mess. However, the showrunners have managed to maintain sensitivity in this venture. Perhaps this is because it is not only a show about the Fab Five, but about the people they help.

Queer Eye is traditionally set in America and follows four gay men and one non-binary person, known as the Fab Five, as they give people (and their houses) makeovers, teaching them to love themselves and be more confident in their bodies. This new spin-off, set in Japan, was an interesting study into how that concept would work in a different culture.

Queer Eye: We’re in Japan! comes with an addition to the Fab Five in the form of one of Japan’s most famous models, Kiko Mizuhara. Her presence helps to portray the show as one that’s accessible to Japanese viewers as well as the American audience, because she – alongside Japanese comedian Naomi Watanabe, who is also featured in the show – are

recognised by the ‘heroes’ that the Fab Five help, and she is presented as an exciting cameo.

However, a cameo is all her appearance seems to amount to overall. She appears at the start of episodes, or sometimes in the middle, to explain to the Fab Five what the culture-specific concerns of the ‘heroes’ are, and then at the end to see the results of the makeover. This was especially odd in the fourth episode, ‘Bringing Sexy Back’, which she is absent for (save for the opening scene) and then she pops up at the very end.

Her appearance is very welcome as she explains to the Fab Five certain Japanese phrases and customs, giving little sprinkles of education that are brief and snappy enough to feel less forced and

Twitter/@ QueerEye

more like genuinely interesting tidbits. It just seems that they could have utilised her more, as it feels like a waste of a Japanese icon on the show.

The sensitivity to Japanese culture is evident from episode one, where the Fab Five ask if they are able to hug the first ‘hero’ and if there is anything they need to know before they greet each other.

It is not a case of a group of Americans going over to an unfortunate country and helping the locals to act in a ‘better way' – in fact, they highlight the progressive aspects of Japan. For example, episode two, ‘Crazy in Love,’ introduces us to an LGBT Japanese DJ and an LGBT Japanese monk to talk to the ‘hero,’ making it clear that Japan has a welcoming and v i b r a n t LGBTQ+ community and that it is not just the Western visitors that can help them.

However, this view that the Fab Five can’t just wave a magic wand and make everything better, is still something that the

show could make clearer. Antoni’s way of teaching the ‘hero’ how to prepare one new dish still seems like an odd portion of the show, as it is only one dish and seems to be a small help compared to Bobby’s complete remodelling of the person’s house. The show could still benefit from showing us what happened to the ‘heroes’ in the long term – do they really keep on top of their hair care every single day or do they fall into old habits? Do their beautiful new homes inevitably get messy again? Are their relationships now permanently fixed? Or was it just a one-time solution?

Overall, the show demonstrates many similarities with the original iteration: the ‘heroes’ suffer from such things as broken relationships, grief, and bullying – many themes common with the original show. It therefore highlights the similarities between two seemingly opposite cultures.

However, the little bits where it differs from the original, with more emphasis on asking Kiko and the Japanese natives themselves on why their culture has made them live their lives in this way, rather than the Fab Five acting as though they have all the answers, makes it a refreshing new take.

Strictly: A Historic First TV Critic Hannah Lay celebrates Strictly Come Dancing's first same-sex couple dance, but considers how they could do more Hannah Lay

sharing messages of support from their fans across their social Comment Editor media. Johannes, who is from South Africa, said ‘I've never felt Two weeks ago, I was sat watch- so liberated. For the first time in ing the Strictly results show. Emeli my life, I feel accepted for who I Sande was performing her hit am. That says so much about the ‘Shine’ and like usual the profes- people of this country.’ sional dancers were performing There has been growing presalongside the guest singer. Except sure from fans of Strictly Come it was not like usual because, for Dancing and other entertainment the first time in the show’s history, shows to feature same-sex couan individual same-sex dance was ples, so this is definitely a step in danced. Johannes Radebe along- the right direction. Dancing on side his good friend and fellow Ice will feature its first same-sex professional Graziano di Prima couple competing in next year’s performed an emotive, powerful show after Steps’ Ian ‘H’ Watkins dance to Sande’s hit song. I requested to be partnered with a squealed with joy when I realised male partner, so perhaps Strictly the two men were dancing along- will follow suit next year. side each other, so thrilled that at However, although there are last, we were seeing same-sex rep- widespread calls about the need resentation on the long-running for same-sex couples to increase show. representation in these shows, The dance there are some boundaries that has received must be overcome first. To an enorstart with, a lot of the dances m o u s have clear male and female amount roles which the judges like o f to highlight when they praise are commenting on and the dances. For example, during the same show that Johannes and Graziano danced Twitter/@ both together, Michelle Graziano dancers Visage performed a h a v e DiPrima Paso Doble with her Twitter/@ b e e n partner Giovanni JoJo_Radebe

Pernice. Pernice had created some innovative choreography where for some of the dance, Michelle assumed the ‘matador’ role, a role normally reserved for the male dancer.

“There has been growing pressure from fans of Strictly... to feature same-sex couples, so this is definitely a step in the right direction” The dance was well received by the judges, however, head judge Shirley Ballas commented that she ‘actually liked that it had this look towards each other but was not overdone so I still felt that you kept a feminine aspect about your Paso Doble.’ Obviously, these are good comments. However, they suggest that the traditional feminine and masculine roles remain very important to the judges. There are ways around this, of course; a same-sex couple could still perform the masculine and feminine

roles. However, if same-sex couples are forced to conform to the traditional gendered roles, is there any point? The idea that same-sex couples would need to continue to represent a man and woman in a dance totally defeats the objective of increasing representation.

Of course, there are the more obvious hurdles for shows like Strictly to face when trying to increase representation. The BBC reported that some have said Strictly’s viewer rating could fall if they introduced same-sex couples to the main competition.

However, Strictly has made a step in the right direction so it does not look like the producers are taking much notice of these viewers.

Ultimately, I think the show should be stripped back to its premise. A celebrity with no dance experience partnered with a professional dancer who will hopefully be transformed into an incredible dancer as the series progresses. In my opinion, shows like Strictly need to get to the point where the identity of the contestants is irrelevant and people from all areas of society can feel represented. As for the viewers who oppose such a change, we need to continue to work towards combating these outdated attitudes so everyone can feel accepted and represented.

Top TV Picks for December

Twitter/@ DollyParton

Dolly Parton's Heartstrings Netflix 22nd November

Twitter/@ Finalspace

Final Space Netflix 24th November

Twitter/@ KaceyMusgraves

The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show Amazon Prime 29th November

Twitter/@ MidsomerTV

Midsomer Murders Acorn TV 1st December

GAMING

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickgaming

Obsidian

26

Review: The Outer Worlds

Gaming Writer Ellen Hill soars through the skies as she plays Obsidian’s sci-fi adventure - is it amongst the stars, or a crash landing?

Ellen Hill

Gaming Writer

I play what I like, and I like what I know – and that’s mainly the Fallout franchise. So to hear the developers of Fallout: New Vegas were releasing what some have dubbed its sequel with similar gameplay but a whole new world to explore, I was ecstatic. Finally, I wouldn’t have to spend the first hour or so figuring out controls or gameplay mechanics (which is usually why I lose interest and revert back to my tried and tested favourites) but could completely focus on the story. Despite an overall resemblance to Fallout mechanics, there are also several changes – the skill and perk systems operate differently, as well as how you control companions.

This leaves the game feeling pleasantly nostalgic without being mundanely recognisable – it’s not a regurgitation of Fallout: New Vegas but it’s retained all the best features.

The Outer Worlds begins with a cutscene of infamous wanted scientist Phineas Welles docking an abandoned colony ship, Hope, to wake the player character from a 70-year cryosleep with the purpose of reviving all of Hope’s colonists to challenge the rule of

capitalist corporation, Halcyon Holdings (more commonly known as The Board) that has overriding control of most of the solar system. You are then sent to the planet Terra 2, to the town of Edgewater, where you begin to discover more about the history and everyday life in the Halcyon solar system.

“The game [feels] pleasantly nostalgic without being mundanely recognisable” Over the course of the game, you travel around various planets, ships, moons, satellites, and asteroids, which each have their own unique story with quests to complete and characters to interact with. This creates the feeling of a huge, fleshed out world which you can immerse yourself in, losing hours trying to discover every detail in every conversation and terminal entry. Even the smallest features, like interactions between NPCs and your companions during dialogue independent of the player, or the personalised actions of crew aboard your ship, adds

that something extra to the gameplay experience.

Although some of the quests can seem tedious, travelling back and forth to interact once with the same characters, the major quests in each area have depth and, in the final moments, present the player with a morally ambiguous choice.

Usually in similar RPGs, like Fallout: New Vegas, there were obviously bad choices – eliminating the town of Goodsprings, encouraging cannibalism in the White Glove Society, pretty much anything that helps the Legion – but with The Outer Worlds, in areas like Edgewater and Monarch, I’ve struggled to predict which concluding decision is the ‘best.’

This unpredictability and variety of the outcome of quests, as well as the number of faction groups and skill point and perk distribution, increase the replayability significantly. Want to play a charismatic bigwig that serves the corporation? How about a stealthy loner whose allegiance is only to themselves, and will take any job if the price is high enough? You can even go in with guns blazing, eliminating every NPC you meet, or do a complete pacifist run.

There’s almost an unlimited number of possibilities, and you have the freedom to explore all of them.

During your initial character

creation, similarly to the Fallout games, players choose their attributes, initial skill specialisation, as well as a career – a feature that will add a bonus characteristic (for example, the Team Mascot will receive +1 to the inspiration skill). In addition to this, as you progress through the game, you’ll receive a pop-up informing the player of a Flaw your character has obtained – a penalty based on repeated experiences, such as receiving a particular type of damage or encountering a certain type of enemy. These are mainly optional, but they add another layer of depth and personality to your gameplay.

“The major quests in each area... present the player with a morally ambiguous choice” The Outer Worlds has four difficulty settings – story, normal, hard, and supernova – which can be altered during your playthrough, with the exception of supernova which can only be selected at the start. This is the

most ‘realistic’ setting: your character will need to eat, drink, and sleep (but only in your ship) to survive. Flaws are mandatory and, of course, combat is significantly more difficult.

I began my playthrough on normal, and after completing the main quests in the Edgewater area (dying a remarkable number of times in the process), gameplay becomes a lot easier – levelling up skills and perks along with the acquisition of better weapons and armour with additional mods makes killing enemies notably easier. For me, this wasn’t an issue as my main focus is on the story and quests, but if challenging combat scenarios plays a bigger part in your enjoyment of the game, I would recommend upping the difficulty as you go on.

The story of The Outer Worlds takes you on a journey through a space Western imagination of late-stage interplanetary capitalism, filled with intense combat and morally ambiguous decisionmaking juxtaposed with humorous dialogue and interactions reminiscent of its stylistic predecessor, Fallout: New Vegas. These elements combine to create a challenging and enjoyable 40-hour experience, that can be replayed an infinite number of times. Is it perfect? No, but for me it comes pretty close.

GAMING

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickgaming

27

Redbrick Picks: For the Record

Imagine the sound of your brain gearing up, sitting down to work, and beginning to have the best writing session of your life. This is Donut County’s first track, ‘Garbage Day,’ its speedy but joyful opening building and fluctuating as the sounds of the game’s world nests deep in your ears.

Donut County, a small indie title released in August 2018, may be a relatively new game on the block – but it has one of my favourite game soundtracks of all time.

The brunt of it is jolly, uncomplicated music that is perfect for putting on in the background (especially on the bitter winter nights that are only too common nowadays). Its 42 tracks clock in at 1 hour and 41 minutes; from quiet and contemplative electronic bops like ‘999ft Below’ and ‘Pup’s Odyssey’ to more bouncy build-ups with ‘Salt and Pep’ and of course the ‘Quack Anthem,’ there’s a track for any occasion.

Each piece oozes creativity and is easy to sit back and absorb; the versatility of Daniel Koestner and Ben Esposito’s soundtrack is quite astounding considering its small, independent source, though obviously this is not a bad thing.

The album is quirky, uncomplicated and merry – the ideal accompaniment to its likewise gameplay. Its inspiring twangs act as a perfect background for the simple but humourous puzzles one embarks on within the title; yet they also act as a great vehicle for tackling real-life ruts or monotony.

‘Nesting’ in particular emerges as one of my favourite tracks.

Beginning with gentle and hushed guitar strums, it develops into a relaxed and twinkling motif that speeds up with the player, sampling a yawning whistle-like noise to capture its contradictory sleepyyet-bouncy tone. ‘Lazy River’ will always have a special place in my heart as it was the first track I ever heard from the game – even prior to its release – and reminds me of a rainy Sunday afternoon, sitting inside, staring out the window with a nice cup of hot chocolate. Peaceful and safe. Bliss.

The entire album is available on any streaming service you could think of, as well as on vinyl.

You’d be doing yourself a real disservice if you let this soundtrack pass you by. Get some work ready to do or have a quiet afternoon outside the cold – Donut County always welcomes new visitors.

Sam Nason

Transistor This summer I had the honour of being present at Supergiant Games 10th Anniversary Concert in Seattle, at PAX West 2019. I’d bumped into composer Darren Korb when crossing the road to the venue and queued so I could have a seat at the front, to watch the very music that got me into listening to music in the first place. And here I was, Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett about ten metres away from me, reinventing those same tracks right before me.

Ask anyone what the main strength of Supergiant’s games are, and many are likely to say the soundtracks. I could write thousands of words on each game, but for the sake of this multi-feature, there really is no contender to Transistor. Every piece is bursting with complexity and sentiment. Transistor is composed in its own genre combination, ‘Old-world Electronic Postrock.’

‘The ‘Old-world’ portion helps define the location,’ Darren emailed me. ‘I imagine Cloudbank as sort of a sci-fi Venice. It’s an attempt to express some of the texture of the place.

The ‘Electronic’ component for me represents the threat of the Process. This manifests itself as chip-distorted drum samples, computer sounds, synths, etc.

The ‘Post-rock’ part is meant to express some of our tonal goals.

I used spooky delayed out guitars and some driving repetitive riffs to try to convey some of the bleakness of the world, and to amplify the emotional stakes.’

Six tracks feature Ashley Barrett on vocals. Transistor’s story-telling is emergent, and tells itself the more you put pieces of the puzzle together in your own head; these songs and their lyrics, sung by the protagonist, Red, are an essential part of the game’s narrative. Darren writes, ‘Transistor presented a unique challenge, in that all of the music for the game, I imagined as being music Red herself had made before the events of the game. I did my best to get inside the head of the character and answer the questions “What music would Red make?”’

This is just touching the surface, of course, but the depth of Transistor’s music alone makes it one of my favourite games of all time. Korb’s music for all four games is available on bandcamp, as well as on CD and vinyl. You don’t want to miss out.

Kieren Platts

The Legend of Zelda series has been around for over 30 years and, under the watchful eye of master composer Koji Kondo, has produced some of the most memorable soundtracks in gaming history. But everyone knows the true king of the Legend of Zelda games is Ocarina of Time, and it is here that the best soundtrack of them all lies.

The titular instrument brings some of the best music in the game. My personal favourite is ‘Saria’s Song.’ Travelling through a place called ‘The Lost Woods’ sounds a lot less intimidating when Saria’s cheery piping plays through the trees. The ‘Song of Storms’ is also an in-universe earworm, with the windmill attendant enraged by a struggle to get it out of his head for seven years.

Additionally, the Temple of Time would not be complete without the relaxing chanting of the ‘Song of Time,’ a song which can also be played through the Ocarina.

All of the Ocarina songs also provide crucial in game functions.

For example, ‘Saria’s Song’ charms Darunia into helping you, the ‘Song of Storms’ brings the power of the weather and opens hidden grottoes, whilst the ‘Song of Time’ opens the Gate of Time.

Beyond the actual instrument, though, the soundtrack has some legendary music. Each dungeon has more stunning music than the last, culminating in the Spirit Temple, whose background music conjures a fittingly mystic air that fits the name perfectly.

Fight music, of course, brings us to the final battle. The quality of a final battle can be easily defined by its music, particularly in the Zelda series. The initial brawl with Ganondorf is suitably dramatic but doesn’t feel like a final battle. That’s when you realise, it isn’t. The Castle collapses, the final challenge reveals itself, and the screen is emblazoned with the word the hardcore Zelda fans had been anticipating the whole game: ‘GANON.’ As you struggle against the beast, an epic soundtrack plays that perfectly captures the image of a life or death duel against the King of Evil.

The soundtrack of this game captures the spirit of the N64 era.

For a generation of gamers, Ocarina of Time was a defining moment, and it set a bar that, in the eyes of critics and fans, only Breath of the Wild can beat. This makes it special, and the soundtrack makes it even more so.

Sam Arrowsmith

EA

Pokémon Emerald was the first video game I ever owned. An integral part of what makes this game so special to me is the soundtrack, with each precious memory of the game wrapped up in the OST: picking Torchic as my first starter, to save Professor Birch from a rabid Zigzagoon, as well as surfing on my Corphish.

It is no exaggeration to say that if you played me any track from this game, I could not only tell you what part of the game it’s from, but also what my relationship status was when I played it (single).

We are introduced to the soundtrack with a stunning overture. The piece really captures the essence of the entire OST: beginning with a gentle, twinkling melody reminiscent of the homely tracks of the early game. The next section has an upbeat energy that inspires adventure, preparing you for travelling up mountains, across and beneath the waves. Finally, we get an intense, minor rendition of the instantly recognisable Red/ Blue/Yellow theme that’s a warning, and raises the stakes for the game’s story.

Speaking of surfing, it is here that we are treated to a particularly fun piece. In the Ruby/ Sapphire/Emerald generation, players famously spend a lot of time on the water, making their way between the various Islands to the east of the Hoenn region.

Accompanying them? A lovely waltz. A combination of flutes and horns (of course) that ebbs and flows with the virtual tide. It’s a genuinely sweet piece that would sometimes cause me to stop playing, just so I could listen to the track without the harassment of countless Wingull and Tentacool.

My final choice track is one that sparks a particular awe in me: ‘Rayquaza’s Theme.’ Phantom of the Opera *wishes* it had what Rayquaza’s Theme has. It’s an iconic piece for an iconic cutscene: as the battle between Groudon and Kyogre, the Gods of the land and the sea, for the fate of the world rages, the black sky bursts with an emerald light to the foreboding minor chords of the most organ-like sound the glorified pocket calculator could muster. From this heavenly portal Rayquaza descends, in all its snake-like glory, cutting short the music with a deafening calm that causes even gods to retreat.

The music in the Pokémon series has always been spectacular, but the Emerald soundtrack will always hold a special place in my heart.

Tom Martin

Supergiant Games

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Nintendo

Donut County

Pokemon Emerald

Nintendo

Ben Esposito

Redbrick Gaming writers recall their all-time favourite video game soundtracks

Dragon Age: Inquisition Whilst there are many AAA titles that have graced us with great soundtracks, typically the RPG has the most scope. 100-hour long games need a damn good score to at least make the time sound great.

Whilst the Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls franchise all boast some superb tracks, there is true beauty in the soundtrack of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Trevor Morris had worked with EA numerous times on titles such as Army of Two and two Command & Conquer games, but certainly had his work cut out for this game which was unlike any of his previous experiences. What he creates is glorious. The score balances beautiful choral voices with strings to create memorable melodies and leitmotifs that provide a scale of epic adventure to a game bursting with it. Pieces like ‘Journey To Skyhold,’ ‘Siege of Adamant’ and of course the main theme, are all entrenched in classic fantasy orchestral music but have a distinct flavour with booming brass accompanying them.

The ace up the sleeve comes in the form of the game’s numerous and excellent tavern songs.

These are written by composer Raney Shockne with USC educator Nick Stoubis providing the guitar and an incredible vocal performance by Elizaveta Khripounova. With Skyhold boasting a tavern, these songs provide some soprano excellence against contained guitar strumming. Within these songs lies lyrics that add to the game’s lore and thematic story on faith. ‘Maker’ asks whether the gods have abandoned humanity in the most trying of times. ‘Empress of Fire’ glorifies Empress Celene and her efforts to protect the people of Orlais. ‘Sera’ sings about the titular elf companion. All contrast beautifully and provide a great break from the action.

The game embraces the power of sound at numerous crucial points. Bioware wisely use the talents of the musicians to expertly create moments based entirely around the music. The best is at the end of the first act, as the heroes have fled a town and are pondering how they will go on. At which point, a song entitled ‘The Dawn Will Come’ is heard. It starts as one alto female voice and ends as a cacophony of glorious voices, all singing in hope at what is to come over the next 80 hours of gameplay. This is a game blessed with a fantastic soundtrack and it absolutely knows it.

Alex Green

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FOOD&DRINK

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickfood

Rocky Road Revolution Travel Editor Josie Hart investigates the disappearance of a favourite student snack and discovers the power of the voice of the public Josie Hart Travel Editor

Being catered for by an external corporate provider, students have often claimed that the provision of food on campus is detached from their needs. However, in the context of the introduction of some new, more affordable options this year, and also kickstarted by an investigation into the removal of the rocky road from the Library Café, we set out to investigate how you are, and can be, implicated in decisions surrounding the food provided on campus.

“They’re the perfect 3 pm pickme-up after a long day in the library and the perfect thing to be munching on over coffee with a friend” UoB food outlets are renowned for their traybakes. If you are yet to try them, they’re the perfect 3 pm pick-me-up after a long day in the library, and the perfect thing

to be munching on over coffee with a friend. The display case selection includes a range of freshly baked goods from muffins and pastries to flapjacks and brownies. Given the volume of students visiting food outlets on campus every day, it’s really quite remarkable that the staff are able to provide these freshly baked products each day.

Whilst many outlets like GoCentral, the Undercroft café and the Mason Lounge café, to name a few, house the traybakes, the Library Café remains the most popular location. Whilst there have, in the past, been questions about the affordability of food on campus, you only have to pass to see the queue out the door confirming the popularity of the products available. With tray bakes costing an average of £1.50, they often sell out.

One of the staple products in the regular selection is the rocky road. A mix of creamy chocolate, marshmallows and an added surprising chew with a Malteser, the rocky road is felt by many students to be one of the best fresh bakes on sale. It was therefore the removal of the rocky road from the Library Café stock that led us to question how much

attention is paid to student opinion and how stock decisions are made.

The Library Café actually has a suggestion box allowing stu-

around each semester. This semester, the rocky road had been replaced by a jam roulade slice and a viennese sandwich. A representative told us that the rocky road was set to be reintroduced in January on trial. But in fact, stock is chosen in relation to what is selling and what students want. The removal of the rocky road was on account of it not selling out thus, the conclusion that it wasn’t a popular traybake and the decision to remove it from this particular outlet.

Also, considering the introduction of new cheaper options, like the new baguettes in the Library Café, it can be seen that close attention is paid to what students are buying and what they want on an outMosisc Marketing let by outlet basis across campus.

Nonetheless, the issue dents to remained that many students give feedback. seemed confused by the This is regularly checked, removal of a widely considered with submissions receiving a favourite product. One student response within a week. It was in said, ‘It was the only thing that response to our rocky road related got me through exams and I wish submission that we discovered I was joking.’ Another said, ‘Why that the stock is in fact changed would they take the rocky road?

That’s the best traybake they have.’

Taking this matter to a representative from the Library Café, through the email that the complaint form was replied to through, they assured us that they’re ‘Always here to help and keep our students satisfied.’ On this account, the rocky road returned to the Library Café on a trial basis.

“Through starting a rocky road revolution, it’s been discovered that if you made your opinions heard, change will happen” Overall, through starting a rocky road revolution, it’s been discovered that if you made your opinions heard, change will happen. The staff acted swiftly on account of the contact we made; the favourite university treat has been reinstated. However, given that this is a trial, I urge you to give the rocky road a try over the coming weeks to join the movement voicing our foodie needs to university providers!

Review: Bodega Cantina

Food&Drink Writer Sarah Cayless visited this Latin American haven and gives us her thoughts on their independent take on restauranteering Sarah Cayless Food&Drink Writer

Desperate to escape the pouring rain, I dived through the doors of Bodega which is situated on Bennet’s Hill, less than five minutes’ walk from New Street station. Out of the rain, I look around and find myself nestled inside a small slice of South America... or at least Birmingham’s decent impression of it.

“Friends also increased its imression of being the hip and happening place to be” Being nine o’clock on a Friday evening, it was packed and our

lack of reservation left us waiting around 15 minutes for a table.

Whilst waiting to be shown to our seats, we had the chance to admire both the décor and the (somewhatworn) menus. Their attention to detail with their vibrant turquoise walls, colourful bunting, and patterned chairs creates a flawless, sophisticated street feel and made going out for a meal seem like even more of a special event. The fact that it was full of predominantly young couples and friends also increased its impression of being the hip and happening place to be.

Most importantly, they managed to get their lighting just right, so for once you can relax knowing you’ll look alright wherever you sit as there is absolutely no harsh overhead lighting to contend with. The only potential criticism of their seating layout is that a few of their tables for two are high tables, which if you’re anything like me, can turn into a bit of an ungainly and unwanted challenge. Overall, the beautiful, albeit slightly chaotic,

décor mixed with the background noise of cocktail shaking, Latin music and lively chatter gave it a buzzing atmosphere, leaving the cold rain feeling like a distant memory.

“The menu gives you a lot of flexibility” The menu gives you a lot of flexibility as they offer both smaller and larger plates, as well as street food, sides and desserts; all of which are averagely priced.

All of these sections also include vegetarian and gluten free options.

For a cheaper, romantic or simply variety-filled night, it’s hard to see how you could go wrong with sharing a few smaller dishes.

Out of the smaller plates we tried, the ‘Ecuadorian Arroz con Gambas’ (rice with prawns) was our favourite. The way the marinated king prawn had been cooked

meant they were deliciously succulent. We found that three smaller plates between the two of us didn’t quite fill us up, so decided to share a burrito as well. I could not recommend them highly enough. They not only give you a choice of fillings, but you can also decide how spicy you want it guaranteeing a gorgeous burrito tailored to you. We opted for the mild one, with oven roasted peppers and sliced avocado as the filling.

These gorgeous yet subtle flavours blended beautifully with the rice and beans, and the combination of mozzarella and cheddar cheese gave it a creamy risotto-like quality.

As for drinks, they have a substantial range of cocktails, including a few

mocktails, and some more unusual options for juices. I tried pomegranate juice for the first time and was surprised by how gentle and sweet the flavour was – it tasted a little like peaches. Though rest assured if you are attempting a cheaper night, because even the tap water comes in groovy glass bottles. So, if you’re looking to break away from the more commonplace Italian, Chinese or Indian options, Bodega may well be the perfect alternative.

Bodega Cantina

FOOD&DRINK

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbrickfood

29

Editor’s Pick: Top Three TV Chefs Food&Drink Editor Gabrielle Taylor-Dowson gives her definitive list of Britain’s best TV chefs and why you should love them too Gabrielle TaylorDowson

Food&Drink Editor

The TV chef is a modern day icon. They are more than just celebrities, they are one-person empires. It’s almost as if they no longer need the qualifier ‘chef’ they are celebrities, plain and simple. There have always been famous cooks. Take, for example, Marie-Antoine Carême and her elaborate dishes that had Europe’s 19th Century aristocracy in awe.

But this early starlet came nowhere close to the global renown of today’s celebrity chefs, which can be attributed not only to the multiple restaurants and cleverly crafted personas (Gordan Ramsey, anyone?) but also to channels like Food Network.

“Everyone’s obsession with brunch wouldn’t exist without the pivotal steppingstone that food television gave the industry” Food Network, which originally started in the US but has a thriving UK counterpart, was without a doubt a cultural game changer. It arguably sparked ‘foodie’ culture as we know it; artisan markets, instagrammable restaurants and cafes, and everyone’s obsession with brunch wouldn’t exist without the pivotal stepping-stone that food television gave the industry. It has launched the careers of countless culinary personalities and been

the trigger for copious food trends.

But not all TV chefs are created equal. The increased demand for cooking on the small screen has meant a huge number of chefs have been brought up to play with the big boys before their time, whisking eggs and garnishing dishes on camera with shaky hands and eyes that scream help.

It’s now far more a case of quality over quantity, and it seems like anyone with a trendy eatery and a cookbook can fill the screen.

Therefore, this article is a comprehensive list of the three best chefs British telly has to offer (in no particular order), from the retired to the new, the out-of-thebox to the strictly conventional.

Keith Floyd It’s been a decade since the kooky, beloved chef passed away at age 65, but his legacy lives on.

Keith’s warm chat and cooking genius made for a combination that no one has been able to recreate since. The fourth-wall ceased to exist during his shows, with Keith making a great deal out of the fact that he was surrounded by a camera crew. He bosses the camera man about and jokes that his director does drugs. The resulting unpredictability (and that little bit of tension) makes you extremely confused but thoroughly entertained.

Of course, you can’t talk about Keith without mentioning his onair drinking. He became known for his mid-meal drink pauses, ranging from a tipple to enough to turn his cheeks ruddy and be absolutely tanked. Yes, there were health concerns, but it was part of his charm! Keith never presented himself as a clean-cut figure there to lecture people on how to prepare their food. Food was his overriding passion, and make no mistake he was a knowledgeable chef, penning more than 30 cookbooks in his lifetime. The British public took to him like a duck to water and was the first in the new breed of TV chef.

Daily Mail

Nadiya Hussain Nadiya’s 2015 GBBO win moved a nation to tears.

When Mary Berry gently wiped away Nadiya’s tears and described her as ‘sheer perfection,’ she was absolutely right. Nadiya broke her own glass ceiling; black and Asian women face even more challenges than their white counterparts to be successful in their careers, and Nadiya’s admittance before the show that she was worried that ‘people would look at me, a Muslim in a headscarf, and wonder if I could

bake’ is a testament to the obstacles she faced during the competition that most of the other contestants did not.

Since becoming the quietly brilliant girl next door that everyone wants a piece of, Nadiya has gone from strength to strength.

The author of cookbooks and presenter or co-presenter of several programmes, Nadiya’s charm is as palatable as ever. She treats the camera and seemingly every viewer beyond it as a friend she hasn’t met yet, and this is felt in her food too. Everything she creates on screen has at its heart that Nadiya warmth, each dish laboured over as if it were one of her own children. Nadiya’s genuineness and wholeheartedness, as well as her culinary talents, are what will ensure her a presence on screen for years to come.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been criticised for near enough everything, starting with his apparently too basic approach to cooking, to his pompous doublebarrel surname. But no matter if you love him or hate him, Hugh’s River Cottage series is undeniably iconic. 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the series, which consists of a whopping 16 chapters and saw the chef start it all by moving to a quaint farm in Dorset in the hunt for ‘the good life.’

BBC

Lotus Biscoff Blondies

Food&Drink Writer Louisa Kitley whips up a tempting tray“The series is one bake delight that will save you of those that you’ll from splurging on Costa’s festive always find on the specials telly, constant reruns that never grow tiresome, partly because of the timeless topics”

What’s most striking about the series is how it is now more relevant than ever. Hugh’s pursuit of self-sufficiency triggered a national conversation that has only grown more urgent over the years as environmental concerns increase. Waste, food provenance, eating locally and seasonally for the sake of our own wellbeing and that of the planet; they are all issues Hugh explored in depth throughout the series, and are now the big questions being asked of the food industry as a whole. The series is one of those that you’ll always find on the telly, constant reruns that never grow tiresome, partly because of the timeless topics it deals with as aforementioned, but also because of Hugh’s authenticity and passion. He genuinely cares about his mission, and if the fact that he actually did live in the River Cottage from the get-go despite what the naysayers said doesn’t appeal to you, then maybe the chef bashfully winning first prize for his cake at a village fair will.

Louisa Kitley Food&Drink Writer

Lotus Biscoff has become increasingly popular over the past couple of years, and whilst it is starting to pop up everywhere, it wasn’t until Costa’s new Biscoff muffin was recently released that I saw it being used as an ingredient in baking.

Naturally, I wanted in on this, but spending £2.25 every time I want a hit of Biscoff baked goodness didn’t seem sustainable on a student budget, so I decided to get to work coming up with a way to make something similar myself.

These Biscoff blondies are rich and indulgent and they seem to have gone down very well with my flatmates, who have finished an entire batch in less than 12 hours. With their glowing praise, I have decided to share this recipe with you all, I hope you try it out and enjoy them as much as I do!

Ingredients: 255g or 2 cups plain flour ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking soda 230g or 1 cup melted butter or margarine 190g or 1½ cups brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 jar Lotus Biscoff spread ½ pack Lotus Biscoff biscuits crushed

Method: 1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a large roasting tray, roughly 13cm by 9cm, with baking paper, and place this in the oven.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the melted butter or margarine, and the brown sugar and stir.

3. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and stir until the consistency of the mixture is even.

4. Slowly add the flour, sieving it into the bowl and folding it into the mixture to combine the ingredients whilst retaining the air. Also add the salt and baking soda at this stage.

5. Ensure that there are no flour pockets left in the mixture before adding the entire jar of the Lotus Biscoff spread and stirring it in. If it is too thick, warm it for 30 seconds in the microwave.

6. Stir in the crushed biscuits.

7. Pour the batter into the preheated tray and spread evenly. Be careful of the hot tray at this stage and ensure that you are wearing oven gloves!

8. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the edge of the mixture is wrinkled and a light golden-brown colour, and the centre is lighter and puffy.

9. Let this cool completely and then cut into squares to serve.

30

TRAVEL

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricktravel

From the Screen to Reality: Movie Setting Destinations Zahra Ahmed lists some of the top destinations for those seeking to travel the world they see on the screen Zahra Ahmed Travel Writer

In light of the release of Joker (2019), movie fans seem to have flocked to the gritty yet already iconic Bronx stairwell, where an impromptu dance scene took place. Clearly a moment that has stuck with audiences as it has now become a tourist site for movie fans to visit and take pictures. However, this isn’t the first time that an iconic location in a movie has become a tourist spot with fans. Indeed, as early as 1973, The Exorcist fans flocked to the creepy staircase in the climatic scene of the classic horror movie in a similar fashion. Such locations are personal to cinephiles or even just enthusiastic fans of franchises, so let’s break down some other locations of popular movies that you can visit!

1. Harry Potter’s Home - The Harry Potter Series Fans of the longrunning movie series can rejoice! For just a small price of £110, you can now stay in Harry’s haunted childhood home where he first faced Voldemort as an infant. The real life 14th century home is based in Lavenham Suffolk, and owned by Jane and Tony Ranzetta.

Be aware though, according to the couple the house is no stranger to the supernatural, as it has many reported ghost sightings and an apparently benevolent poltergeist named ‘Becky.'

the spooky happenings if you dare whilst also having fun skiing and snowboarding. It’s a little expensive though, so be sure to save up!

3. Jiufen - Spirited Away Good news for those who have always wanted to experience the magic of a Ghibli film. Jiufen is a quaint little mining town is located in the Northeast Mountains of Taiwan and one of the inspirations

4. Al Khazneh - Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

6. Central Market - Blade Runner

8. New Zealand - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

The ancient city of Petra is picturesque and features elaborately carved temples like the one in the film. Al Khazneh, a giant sandstone built in Jordan in the first century A.D, attracts various tourists for this very reason. Definitely make time to go to Jordan not just for its rich history, but to witness a beautiful filming location in real time.

Central Market is a fully functioning street market in LA, California. Although it is significantly less high-tech in real life, you can still shop kiosks and eat at its restaurants.

There are multiple, picturesque locations in New Zealand that served as many Middle-Earth locations. The striking landscapes of Queenstown, Glenorchy and Arrowtown are places where visitors can pay $200 for a full tour of locations. A little expensive but worth it for to visit the locations for one of the most iconic film franchises.

7. Gorlitz Department Store Grand Budapest Hotel The Gorlitz Department Store

9.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Rocky Yet another iconic stairs location. This one is part of the very famous Rocky training montage. For decades, fans have flocked to the iconic film location to take pictures. Admission into the museum is $25, but jogging up all those steps is free.

10. Belchite, SpainPan’s Labyrinth Josie Hart

Andres Iga

Yang Jing

2. Timberline Lodge The Shining This Stephen King classic has stuck with audiences for generations.

The harrowing events that took place in the movie were a result of the ghostly inhabitants and cabin fever that Jack Torrance experienced. Still not deterred? Well fans of the horror classic can visit and even stay at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon USA where it served as a location in the movie. Experience

MthoodTerritory

for some of the most beautiful places in the film. Recall the beautiful bathhouse? You can visit the A-mei Tea House which bears a striking resemblance and is also a popular tourist attraction for that very fact. Even walking the streets and eating the food can transport you back in the film for the very roads feel like a place you can get lost in just like Chihiro.

5. Cafe Des 2 Moulins - Amelie Amelie is such a magical and feel good story with the most simple yet charming locations, including the chic little cafe that Amelie worked at. Indulge in French pastries and experience the feel good atmosphere just like the movie.

is one of the longest running departments stores in the world.

It's beautiful interior was the main location for Wes Anderson’s film, winning the Academy Awards for best production design. Definitely head on down to Gorlitz, Germany and shop in one of the most beautiful stores in the world.

The surreal, classic film had its most cinematographically pleasant scenes in a ghost town in Spain. Belchite was left in ruins after the Spanish Civil War and although littered with ruins, this deserted town is still scenic and an adventure to visit!

Visiting locations like this lets you live out your Hollywood dreams and step straight onto the movie set.

Tours visiting TV show and movie destinations across cities are becoming increasingly popular.

Take for example, the Gossip Girl tour of New York, or the Game of Thrones tour of Ireland. People get into character, dressing up as screen icons to fully immerse themselves. Being in the same spots as some of your favourite stars or where an iconic scene took place can allow you to be nostalgic, escape reality or just get a brilliant Instagram. I see tourist companies continuing to market these locations, and it's not hard to see why.

TRAVEL

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricktravel

31

Heralding the Mini-Break: The Long Term Impacts of Shorter Trips Hannah Lay delves into the economic and environmental consequences of the latest travelling trend Hannah Lay Comment Editor

Changing consumer behaviour has created new trends in the world of travel. In 2019, travellers are ditching weeklong summer vacations in favour of shorter, more frequent breaks. I love taking long weekends to visit cities across Europe and normally prefer this style of trip over a fortnight sitting on a beach, so it is interesting for me that the trend is starting to go this way. An article from Forbes

puts this changing behaviour down to the stress of planning an extended break, but I think it might just be down to a change in preference for what people want for their trips away. Whatever the reason, as with any new trends, it is important to consider the possible implications.

The economic impacts are perhaps the most obvious. An article by Forbes says that the choice for shorter breaks has been accompanied with more frequent trips. An increase in the number of breaks taken is beneficial to the local economies of these countries

as it ultimately means more people pass through and spend their money. Also as shorter breaks are more likely to be city breaks, they can be taken at all times of year so the income generated by tourists is no longer just restricted to the traditional high season during summer. Travellers can also have an impact on the locals on a more individual level. Accommodation options such as Airbnb are becoming increasingly popular where tourists rent out a room or an entire property, normally from someone who lives in the town/ city. This is a great way for locals to more directly benefit from the income that tourism brings.

“In 2019, travellers are ditching weeklong summer vacations in favour of shorter, more frequent breaks” On the other side of the coin, there are arguably some negative economic impacts. For example, an article from the BBC explains that short-term lettings popularised by companies like Airbnb are

Sacha Verheij

detrimental for the local economy.

In neighbourhoods with a high proportion of this type of let, there are less accommodation options for the locals which in turn pushes the cost of rent up (in cities where rent is already extortionate).

As well as this, an increase in the number of tourists in cities throughout the year can lead to an increase in the price of amenities for locals as local businesses push their prices up to maximise profit from tourists. The disruption and rising costs of tourism created by the trend towards shorter breaks is a significant negative impact.

Alongside economic impacts, the environment and sustainability must be considered when discussing the implications of this new trend. Evidently, if people are taking more breaks throughout the year they are spending more time travelling than they would have previously. For example, one fortnight in Spain would require two plane trips and the journey to the airport, so say two car journeys? In contrast, three city breaks in a year would require six plane trips and six car journeys to and from the airport. Obviously there are other methods of travel for these shorter breaks, but this is a good example. At a time when campaigners want us to take fewer flights, this trend is not helping calls for more environmentally conscious lifestyles.

This new trend is not limited to just a few people therefore if we worked out the scale of the damage from everyone taking more flights each year, the thought is a bit scary.

I guess one positive of the trend

Christmas Markets Around Europe: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year Monja Stahlberger Travel Writer

Christmas markets around Europe: The most winter-ful time of the year It is my favourite time of the year: drinking mulled wine, wearing the mittens and hat my grandma got me last Christmas, and listening to a choir singing Christmas carols. Christmas lights shining on the wooden huts, smelling bratwurst, crepes and candied almonds. Merchants selling arts and crafts, I’m shopping for some last additions to my Christmas presents while enjoying some strawberries covered in chocolate. Before I leave, I treat myself to an eggnog with whipped cream on top and cinnamon sprinkles. From mid-November onwards, I visit a number of Christmas markets, some even a couple of times. It is a great

opportunity to meet up with people, grab a nice hot drink in the cold weather after work or just ramble about.

At least this is the case back in Germany. The Birmingham German Christmas market might not be exactly like that, but it soothes my homesickness around this time of the year. I might never understand why a lot of people visiting the Birmingham market choose to drink beer rather than any of the mulled wines offered.

However when I close my eyes, the smells of candied sweets and bratwurst almost make it feel like I am at home. With Frankfurt being Birmingham’s partner city, it is not surprising that their Christmas market was used as inspiration for the Birmingham one. For all it is worth: The Birmingham Christmas market is considered the most authentic one in English-speaking countries.

It is not a case of 'if you have

seen one you have seen all of them.' Many offer regional specialties such as Dresden’s marzipan stollen, and Nuremberg’s gingerbread. There is no set list of drinks, foods and goods which have to be sold on a Christmas market and this is actually sparking a debate every so often. My advice would be, if you are visiting the European mainland: do Christmas market hopping and look up the regional specialties.

You don’t want to miss out on a hot apple wine punch in Frankfurt or kolache, a yeast-risen pastry, in Prague. Germany is probably best known for their Christmas markets but other countries like Czechia, Belgium and Austria are just as interesting to explore and get to know their Christmas traditions.

I have been to the markets in Frankfurt and many local ones in south-west Germany, as well as a few in the Alsace in France and to

towards shorter breaks is people are not travelling as far. Longhaul flights emit huge amounts of CO2. A report from the travel magazine Wanderlust says that ‘one return flight from London to Sydney emits about five tonnes of carbon dioxide about half the average person’s annual carbon footprint.' However, it is true that after taking three shorter breaks to somewhere close by will still create significant environmental damage.

“One return flight from London to Sydney emits about five tonnes of carbon dioxide” I do not want to sound completely negative about this new trend. Shorter breaks to new cities are great, they allow us to explore new cultures and learn about the histories that surround us – a bit more intellectual than a week on a beach in Spain.

However, we need to be conscious of the impact we will have on the economy and environment when we participate in this trend.

hot chocolate – it does not have to be alcoholic – the Birmingham market will satisfy your initial cravings. It might not be the most authentic version of a Christmas market in my eyes, but it actually is a lot better than I expected it to be. I sure will be there soon to eat a couple in Switzerland. Especially a bratwurst and drink an eggnog. the big markets in Frankfurt, Freiburg and Strasbourg are beautiful and located around historical sights. For me, it is a whole day event, a great trip to a city, and the markets are different every year, with new merchants expanding them. As much as I love the big Christmas markets, they often are really overcrowded and expensive. Especially in the past few years Christmas market tourism has increased – maybe luckily so, given some of the more recent tragedies that happened in Berlin and Strasbourg. Personally, I love the tiny Christmas markets in the little villages or monastery complexes back in Germany. They are quieter, and you can experience the full magic of the Christmas market.

If you love Christmas as much as I do, and cannot wait to get your hands on the next hot drink Ross Snedon whether it be a mulled wine or a

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LIFE&STYLE

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricklife

Instagram's Reality Check

Twitter

Food&Drink Editor Harriet Laban discusses Instagram’s decision to ban augmented reality filters that depict or promote cosmetic surgery, in a move to prevent detrimental effects to people’s mental health Harriet Laban Food&Drink Editor

Instagram has recently announced that they will be removing augmented reality (AR) filters which depict or promote cosmetic surgery. Many AR filters are fun, transforming your face into a cute puppy, or adding a glittering halo or funky sunglasses. However, there have been others which have been deemed detrimental to the mental health of users, such as FixMe and Plastica, which imitate the effects of cosmetic surgery.

Banning filters such as these seems like a step in the right direction, towards making Instagram a more realistic space, where people are empowered to embrace their natural bodies and faces.

Prevalent messages in certain areas of social media tend to highlight the necessity of being realistic and authentic; this not only includes ‘being yourself’ and retaining a strong sense of your offline or ‘true’ personality, but also depicting yourself in a realistic manner. We are no longer afraid to post a picture of ourselves having just woken up (for

real), or if our skin has broken out, and besides everything else, we utterly shun the use of Photoshop to modify the bodies of women online and in printed media. Removing cosmetic surgery AR filters strengthens this narrative of inclusivity and acceptance.

So, is Instagram becoming a more inclusive, realistic space to be in? To an extent, yes, it is; there are many promoters of realism active on Instagram, including Instagram’s own Head of Fashion Partnerships Eva Chen, who regularly champions using the platform to share daily life, including all the everyday disasters which come alongside. Work such as Chen’s, to instigate a more authentic online self is gaining traction amongst the wider community of Instagram influencers, which is certainly helping to change a large quantity of mindsets.

Other Instagram influencers such as Chessie King have a more physically impactful approach to encouraging inclusivity and body positivity. King is an advocate for displaying your body on social media in all its imperfect glory.

Unafraid to post videos of her

having fun dancing whilst producing stomach rolls, showing her bloated tummy, or pulling a myriad of competition-worthy gurns, King encourages her audience to jump on board with her. She emphasises the liberation which comes alongside accepting your body for how it is and rejects an idealised standard of beauty.

Instagram

A critique may be that King’s content is obviously staged and very performative; some of the deliberately unflattering positions do encourage a normalisation of the body in its ‘natural’ state, but there is an aura of unrealism, nonetheless. However, I don’t aim

to disregard her work, as she has set the trail blazing for other influencers to follow suit. The likes of Zoe Sugg are fans of her work, and she herself is often transparent about struggles she faces, particularly in relation to mental health. King’s own transparency is comforting, as she too acknowledges that she feels the pressures of social media; for her, it is equally difficult to post photos of herself in flattering positions for fear of upsetting the confidence of her audience.

There is clearly work to do in the social media world surrounding body positivity and inclusion in all its forms. Yet, there are corners of Instagram which have become more empowering, as influencers increasingly reveal the reality behind their posts.

Breaking this façade is crucial for raising awareness in those who were potentially unaware of its existence, and striving towards an unattainable ideal has negative effects on mental health.

Furthermore, it’s clearly engaging to be imperfect; as more influencers have increased their projected authenticity, their audiences are responding positively, perhaps due to the innateness of humans to

like those who are genuine and vulnerable.

Alongside these changes, you could say that different pressures are created as users of Instagram develop different expectations of content creators and influencers.

You can’t possibly tell when someone else is being genuinely authentic on social media, and many influencers will cultivate a more imperfect presentation of self in order to succeed at the social media game. It seems there will always be pressure to fit into a mold, whether this be to appear pristine or to show your humanity and flaws.

All in all, banning AR filters depicting cosmetic surgery, a rise in influencers depicting a less staged version of themselves, and encouraging everyone to be more inclusive, are all a great step forward. These things all imply that there is no need to change how you are for a photo on Instagram; self-acceptance is being adamantly promoted. Although mental health depends greatly on individual circumstances and how each of us interact with social media, hopefully these changes are to the huge benefit of users of social media.

The Harmful Beliefs Surrounding Eating Disorders

Life&Style’s Chelsie Henshaw unveils the harmful societal beliefs surrounding what it means to have an eating disorder and explains the complexity of experiencing a negative relationship with food Chelsie Henshaw Life&Style Writer

Content Warning: This article contains themes of eating disorders which some readers may find distressing.

In a recent episode of the Jeremy Vine show, which was debating whether to bring scales into supermarkets, journalist Ash Sarkar declared that she ‘wasn’t skinny enough to b e anorexic’ whilst d i s cussing her previo u s negative atti-

goodfreephotos

tudes towards food. This illustrates a clear example of damaging and closed-minded societal beliefs towards eating disorder symptoms. It suggests that you must look a certain way in order to claim that you are suffering from an eating disorder, a seemingly detrimental view.

Throughout this section of the show, Sarkar made many worrying statements about her experiences. She stated that she would ‘test [her]self to see how long [she] could go without eating.'

She also recounted that she wouldn’t eat until she was ‘dizzy,' had ‘a difficulty when it came to wanting to eat’ and would ‘obsessively weigh’ herself, whilst still believing that she wasn’t suffering from anorexia because she ‘wasn’t skinny enough.' This idea that one must be ‘skinny’ to be experiencing an eating disorder is a dangerous and unhelpful belief which is permeated throughout society.

The National Eating Disorders (NEDA) website acknowledges these widespread beliefs

and demonstrates the negative impact they have on those who are suffering. The consensus is that those with eating disorders must be emaciated, and therefore you can tell if they are experiencing disoerded eating just by looking at their appearance, a worrying idea that is reinforced by social media.

However, this is certainly not the case. The NEDA state on their website that ‘most people with an eating disorder are not underweight’ and this myth that they are ‘perpetuate[s] the problem and may cause distress in eating disorder sufferers for fear of not being “sick enough” to be suffering from the disorder, and therefore are less likely to seek much-needed treatment.' The association also affirms that sufferers of the illness can also gain weight, illustrating that you simply cannot tell if someone has an eating disorder by solely considering their appearance.

This assumption that you need to be ‘skinny’ in order to have your experience validated can

result in people not noticing that their loved ones are anorexic because they appear to be a healthy weight. It also tells those who do struggle with food that they aren’t worthy of help, because they aren’t bad enough, resulting in a downward spiral and an everincreasing negative relationship with food. This view is very condescending and belittles the alarming mental outset of those with the illness.

According to the Oxford Dictionary definition for the eating disorder, anorexia is a ‘lack or loss of appetite for food’ and ‘an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat.' Whilst the definition states that those experiencing anorexia want to lose weight, it doesn’t mention that you have to be physically slim to be anorexic. The charity Beat Eating Disorders also mentions on their website that those with the disorder ‘may remain at a weight considered “normal” for their age, sex, and expected development,' further supporting that

Sarkar’s claim is misplaced. A large proportion of the population are uneducated on the issue and so aid the spreading of these harmful beliefs. This issue needs to be addressed in order to make the diagnosis process less daunting and seemingly judgemental.

By enforcing such views, society is essentially telling those who are not deemed ‘skinny enough’ that their condition is not treatment-worthy. This can only result in exacerbating the eating disorder epidemic, as those in need of treatment fail to address it themselves, let alone professionally.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, the following organisations can be contacted for guidance and support: www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/ or email beat@ guild.bham.ac.uk

LIFE&STYLE

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricklife

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Paternity Leave Politics: Where is the Modern Dad Today?

Deputy Editor Lydia Waller questions whether the improvement of paternity leave policies is eroding our gendered understandings of parenting Lydia Waller Deputy Editor

The dilemmas of a modern day woman: can she have it all? The career, the family, the home, the looks, the marriage? These are all questions that still appear in feminist narratives around the modern woman, as she aspires to shape her life and career, particularly when she is considering parenthood. However, as recent renovations in large corporations’ parental leave policies have shown, these questions are not only centred on the working woman anymore, as gender roles within the familial unit appear to be shifting, (if only in some sectors), due to the introduction of paid paternity leave.

At the beginning of November, Goldman Sachs introduced the longest paying parental leave policy of 20 weeks, irrespective of the parent’s gender, primary or secondary care status, biological, adoptive or surrogate parental status. The role of the parent’s caring conditions are definable by the employee, standing as a first for most large banks with paid parental leave policies. The only other large banking firm like Sachs to allow the definition of caregiver to be down to the employee, is Bank of America; they only offer 16 weeks paid leave, whereas Sachs now offers 20 weeks paid leave policy, on these terms.

Upon hearing these updates to large Wall Street banking corporation’s policies, one can only think this is a positive move in the right direction, for breaking down gendered understandings of parenting and the sacrifices needed to be made by working mothers- yet there appears to be a few things at the root of it all, that make the change slightly less cel-

ebratory.

Firstly, Sachs’ new parental leave policy was sparked due to a lawsuit against JPMorgan in May 2019, when fathers were denied the 16-week paid primary caregiver leave, due to the fact that they were men. JPMorgan had to pay out $5 million to settle the c a s e w i t h t h e Equal

have appeared to up their game when it comes to protecting the rights and stability of working parents. Yet, you can only feel a little bit saddened that it appeared to have taken a $5 million lawsuit against a large banking corporation, to kick start t h e action o f

companies shifting the gendered idea of parental leave, away from solely mothers.

“Less than one in three fathers take paternity leave”

Employment Opportunity Commission.

It was from this faux pas of fellow Wall Street firm, that Sachs

Not only this, but the symbolism of Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs is arguably either brilliant, as a large name sets a standard for other similar banking firms and therefore business policies, or it is discouraging, as only large and wealthy Wall Street corporations can afford to pay-out such large and comfortable paternity schemes. The length and pay of such a parental leave policy would not be viable for smaller firms and public sectors. Despite such large corporations making statements about gender roles and advertising domestic duties as a more fluid concept, the working parents in public sector jobs will not be protected by such privi-

leged schemes and therefore potentially perpetuate class divisions within childcare.

This is not to say that the policy making is not a step in the right direction, in regards to the discourse around what the modern working and domestic family might look like- in terms of gender roles, surrogacy and adoption; the modern family becoming more modern is undoubtedly a good t h i n g .

However, there is still

percentage of men taking paternity leave has fallen consistently in the past four years, whereas the percentage of women taking maternity leave has risen steadily by 5% in the past four years. This shows a consistent progression in the understanding of parental care being a female obligation and less attractive to the working man and the security of his career. Jon Taylor of EMW has stated that parental leave is still ‘an unaffordable luxury’ for most people, particularly in the gig economy and self-employment, as they face a pay-cut from taking time off work- it is these areas of employment that are not protected by woke schemes such a n as Sachs’.

There still appears to be a perception that maternity is seen as a sacrifice, a knock to entrenched the mother’s career for the concept of sake of parenting. This con‘femininity’ cept of weakening one’s and disemcareer through asking for leave p o w er i n g is something that appears to concepts still off-put men, even those of what it who are offered schemes such as means these, to ask for leave and take up to take a primary-care giving role. Taylor materalso stated in The Independent nity that ‘the gap between men and and women taking time off for the birth of a child is actually widpublicdomainvectors ening.’ paternity Despite the headlines of leave. As a the Goldman Sachs and other study in The large Wall Street corporations Independent implementing seemingly woke has stated, parental leave policies, there is less than one still a greater majority of unsupin three ported working mothers due to fathers take the still gender-entrenched underpaternity standing of primary parenting, leave, even and fathers who are not even when it is offered such schemes. The ubiqoffered to uity of parental-leave policies is them. The merely taking its first steps.

Loneliness at University

Life&Style Writer Emily Burnett addresses the problem of university students feeling lonely when moving away from home, and offers some reassuring advice Emily Burnett Life&Style Writer

While most people think of loneliness as only being an issue for older people living alone, in the last few weeks Brumfess (a Birmingham-based Facebook confession site) has been inundated with posts from students feeling alone at university.

Such posts have been springing up from the beginning of Fresher’s week, with common themes being that students have struggled to make friends or feel as though they have no one to talk to.One student shared ‘I never thought I’d post a Brumfess but I’m feeling really lonely and inadequate and I just don’t know who

to turn to, feels like everything is going to fall apart and uni has only just started,' whilst another shared similar sentiments: ‘Hello I’m a lonely fresher and feel like I have no friends. Would love some advice really considering dropping out. Uni is so hard.'

These messages remind us that feeling lonely at university is common, and a quick Google search will present you with thousands of articles and forums from students feeling the same way. In fact, according to The Guardian, a 2010 study by the Mental Health Foundation showed that feeling lonely was more common in young people than the elderly: ‘The 18 to 34-year-olds surveyed were more likely to feel lonely

often, to worry about feeling alone and to feel depressed because of loneliness, than the over-55s.'

Students often feel lonely as a result of being away from friends and family at home and struggling to make new friends at university.

The ‘fear of missing out’ and pressure to be having a good time can also be an issue for many freshers, which is often intensified by living with other students and seeing friends on social media having ‘better’ university experiences.

However, there are services available on campus to help with feelings of loneliness. Of course, joining one of the university’s 300+ societies can help, but there are other services which can offer

support to struggling individuals.

The Student Mentor Scheme, run by students, can offer a range of advice, from settling into university life, to wellbeing support and help with your academic studies. They can be contacted by email, but also offer a drop-in service at 4-8pm Monday to Friday, located in the Vale Hub. The week commencing the 7th of October was Mental Health Awareness Week, and the Guild put on their own Support Week events. During this week, the Guild officers shared their own experiences of university life, as well as putting on a range of events throughout the week aimed at helping people open-up, meet new people, and improve their

mood. Of course, the responsibility for combatting loneliness shouldn’t fall entirely on the Guild. It should be a priority for the University as a whole, given that loneliness is often linked to, or can lead to, more long term mental illness, such as depression or anxiety.

It is undeniable that loneliness is an issue for students, and whilst the Guild is doing its best to tackle this, perhaps an awareness of these services, perhaps through a greater discourse around them, could be heightened so we can all play our part in mproving the mental wellbeing of students.

SCI&TECH

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Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricktech

An Alternative to Animal Testing

Creature Feature: The Seahorse

Television Editor Catrin Osborne highlights new organs on chips that could lower the need for animal testing in biological research Catrin Osborne Television Editor

Animal testing for medicine has always been a contentious issue.

Last month, the EPA’s plan to stop all funding into animal research by 2035 was met with criticism from Speaking of Research, an international advocacy group. In the United Kingdom, animal testing is also recognised as ‘a vital tool’ in scientific research.

Although this argument has merit, it cannot be ignored that animal testing comes with many practical faults as well as many ethical implications.

On 6th November, Science Translational Medicine published Jang et al.’s study. This used Organ-on-Chips (Organ Chips) technology, the process of creating a chip lined with cells that are

Janet Stephens

specific to a certain organ, that then simulates the responses of that organ. In the study, they created species-specific Liver-Chips that contained rat, dog and human cells to examine differences in the species’ reactions to drugs.

Their findings re-affirm the fact that animal testing is far from a perfect method, pointedly in regards to species differences. For instance, bosentan (a drug for high blood pressure) can cause liver toxicity in humans, but was found to have no effect on the rat cells. This could be due to the fact that amounts of toxic bile acids differ between species. From this research, we can see that animal testing can sometimes be useless, as the money and time spent on a drug that passes animal trials may then be unusable for humans.

Furthermore, the study also examined the reverse - when a drug is abandoned because it does not pass animal testing but may have no effect on humans. The rat Liver-Chip responded to JNJ-2 with liver toxicity, but no response was found after 14 days in the human Liver-Chip. Relying entirely on animal results, as shown by this study, can lead to missed opportunities for finding drugs that work for humans.

In 2017, 1.89 million animals were used for experimental research in the United Kingdom.

There is an abundance of different opinions surrounding the ethics of animal testing, but this is a strikingly large figure. We must question whether animal testing is the best process to continue using or whether scientific research should turn its attention to alternative methods. Currently, animal testing for cosmetic products is banned in the United Kingdom under EU regulation, so it is time to turn our attention to progressing medical research in the same direction.

“A drug that passes animal trials may then be unusable for humans” In October, footage from the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology near Hamburg sparked outrage as it showed monkeys and dogs kept in cruel conditions and treated aggressively - for example, one of the macaque monkeys

can be seen being hit against a door. This laboratory was condemned for not meeting EU regulations, but the widespread disgust across the internet points to the difficulty surrounding the ethics of animal testing. Whilst animals in approved animal research programs are treated more humanely, they are still being exploited by humans for our own benefit.

Instead, Organ Chips offer an ethical alternative for the future as they can be made to mimic a specific human organ. Moreover, researchers at The Wyss Institute have created ‘human Body-OnChips’ that use a transferral of fluid to mimic the whole body.

This points to the future capabilities of Organ Chips technology.

Another possible strength of Organs Chips is that The Wyss Institute are researching the manufacture of chips with specialised cells that can mimic specific individuals' makeup. Not only can Organ Chips improve upon animal testing by being specific to humans in general, there is potential for them to be made specific to each individual human.

Currently, Organ Chips technology is by no means cheap, but it does not come with the cost of animal life.

A Flood Is Coming: Sea Level Rise May be Worse Than Predicted Daniel Bray Sci&Tech Writer

If we look back to last week’s flooding in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, which has so far claimed the life of one woman, it’s clear that the current climate emergency is not simply a matter of unprecedented global warming – it’s also the issue of an increasing number of serious weather events occurring. Scientists Scott Kulp and Benjamin Strauss have just given us more cause for concern, with a recent paper published in Nature Communications which claims that many more areas of the world are at risk of flooding than we originally thought.

Previously, when assessing the impact of water level rises, we used global elevation data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography

Mission (SRTM), a model created by a specially-made radar system that flew with Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000. The flaw with SRTM is that it models the elevation of upper surfaces, and not bare earth terrain. This means that, in densely populated areas especially, there is a lot of data accounted for by human structures. In the US, the average error in the readings compared to more accurate lidar calculations was 3.7m, and in Australia it’s 2.5m, between elevations of 1 and 20 meters above sea level. This margin of error means that when calculating the impact of extreme coastal water level exposure, our estimates were actually quite large underestimates.

In order to get a more accurate look at how the earth will be affected by rising sea levels, Kulp and Strauss created a new digital elevation model called

CostalDEM. Their model used a neural network to perform analysis of the error in SRTM. In some cases, such as in densely populated coastal cities in the US – including Boston, New York City and Miami – they were able to reduce vertical bias from 4.71m to 0.06m.

This improved data produced some scary results – roughly three times as many people are at risk of being exposed to rising sea levels than previously thought. In a conservative scenario, where the world warms by only 2°C and the ice sheets don’t collapse, 150 million people are living on land that will be below high tide by 2050.

70% of these people at risk are from only eight Asian countries: mainland China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan.

The danger of these sea level

rises is not confined to Asia – there are 19 countries with over one million people at risk of permanent inundation by 2050, including the United Kingdom, without the intervention of producing flood defences.

It is important to note this last point - both the new and old models do not take into account manmade flood defences – if we take the Netherlands, for example, we can see that a large portion of the country is at risk in both models, but as they have extensive flood defences, we cannot say whether or not they will see the worst of the predicted impacts. This is surely the saving grace from this project – we can now see with greater clarity than ever where is most at risk of water level rises, and we have a golden opportunity to start protecting them, to prevent the possibility of a mass human dislocation.

Max Pixel

Emily Calder Deputy Editor

Prilfish

The term ‘Seahorse’ actually encapsulates 45 species of fish, all of whom originate from the genus of ‘Hippocampus,’ derived from the Ancient Greek for horse and sea monster. They are best known for their tails, which grip onto weeds and keep them from being washed away by currents, and iconic horse-like heads.

Seahorses live in shallow, w e e d y g r a s s u n d e r w a t e r, and prefer to move into deeper waters in the winter time. In terms of diet, they are pretty hungry creatures; they dine on small crustac e a n s p r i m a r i l y, e a t i n g between 30-50 times a day.

The babies (Seahorse fry) are absolute snafflers, averaging 3000 pieces of food a day! Their snouts are long and thin and help them to probe for and ‘vacuum’ food, which must be useful considering how regularly they eat.

These creatures are primar i l y k n o w n , h o w e v e r, f o r their unusual pregnancies.

The male seahorse has a true reversed pregnancy the female gives him her eggs and he self-fertilises within his pouch. Babies receive everything they need within the pouch, including oxygen and food.

The pregnancies can last from two to four weeks, and labour can last up to twelve hours - finally, a male species having a taste of the female experience!

Seahorses live for between one and five years, but the fry typically have a less than 1% survival rate unsurprising, considering all the food they need. There are two species native to the UK - the long-snouted seahorse and the shortsnouted seahorse, but all seahorses’ habitats are currently at risk due to pollution. I personally can think of few better reasons to look after the planet than to save what is definitely the quirkiest creature in the sea.

SCI&TECH

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricktech

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Mental Health Unaffected by Time Online Food&Drink Editor Harriet Laban explains new research that finds no link between social media and the rising occurance of depression and anxiety in young people Harriet Laban

Food&Drink Editor

The sharp rise in young adults with mental health disorders coincides with the increase in social media usage, but are the two truly linked? A new discovery by Sarah Coyne, professor of family life at Brigham Young University, found that spending high amounts of time on social media is not as bad for our mental health as previous studies have suggested.

According to the study, the time we spend on social media is not directly influencing a rise in anxiety and depression in teenagers.

Usage of technology has exploded in the twenty-first century, including the use of social media. Despite the drastic rise in the use of favourites such as Instagram and Facebook, social media is often labelled as being a destructive force on mental health.

For many people, discomfort at rapid technological expansion is frequently expressed through scapegoating social media, presenting it as a negative influence in our lives.

Teenagers are spending more time on social media than ever before; their usage hours have rocketed up by 62.5% since 2012.

This amounts to what seems like a huge 2.6 hours per day. However, when considering personal social media usage, this compares well.

“Hours

have rocketed up by 62.5% since 2012”

young adults as a cause of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety due to the isolation it provokes.

In an eight year long study, Coyne aimed to uncover the correlation between time spent using social media and depression in developing teenagers. What she found was that even when time spent on social media was increased, teenagers did not

become more depressed. The opposite is also true, if usage was decreased, depression did not desist.

What this confirms is that mental health in teenagers and young adults is far more complex than simply being able to attribute depression and anxiety to social media use. Coyne’s aim is to move past debating whether more or less screen time is contributing to problems, and instead focus on ‘the context and content surrounding social media use.’

In an effort to encourage healthier social media usage, Coyne suggests that u s e r s become more active on their social networks. This involves liking and comMike Corbett menting on posts

Being immersed in technology appears to remove the user from reality, leading towards a tendency to be isolated in a digitally orientated world. It is therefore easy to associate higher usage of social media amongst

rather than aimlessly scrolling through feeds. She also puts forward the oft-cited recommendation that social media use be reduced at least one hour before falling asleep, as sleep is crucial for maintaining good mental health. Lastly, she recommends being intentional in your social media usage; this involves examining your motivations for using social media, so that you realise why you are driven to spend time scrolling. There are different motives which could be construed as more or less healthy.

Although Coyne has not found any evidence for a link between an increase of social media usage and increased mental health issues, this does not rule out the possibility of social media contributing in other ways. The key may lie in Coyne’s tip to be intentional; evaluating why people choose to use social media for great amounts of time may uncover far more about what has potentially led to mental health issues.

This does not justify potential hours of social media-based procrastination, but rather indicates that the problem lies deeper than

PTSD Linked to Concussion Recent studies have lead to suggestions that concussion could increase the risk of PTSD. Madsion Harding-White explores why Madison HardingWhite Sci&Tech Writer

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe and debilitating condition in which sufferers frequently relive a traumatic event via nightmares and flashbacks. This can lead to irritability, insomnia and anxiety. Commonly associated with military personnel following combat experiences, PTSD can also affect individuals following difficult events such as crime or childbirth. While PTSD is estimated to affect around one in three people who have experienced a traumatic event, it has not been clear why some people develop the disorder, but others do not. It has, however, been identified that for those who experience a concussion (a traumatic brain injury from the brain bouncing within the skull) during a distressing event, PTSD may be more likely to later develop. In exciting new research from the University of California Los Angeles, the mystery of why a concussion renders the brain more vulnerable to PTSD may have been revealed.

To establish how concussion affects the functioning of the brain, fear conditioning was performed on rats who either had concussion-like or non-injuring brain surgery. Both groups of rats were exposed to white noise before being administered foot shocks, which are known

to cause rats to freeze in fear. The pairing of benign noise with the frightening shocks was repeated until the noise alone was sufficient to elicit the shock’s fearful freezing response- an indication that the pair of stimuli had become associated.

The presentation of a fear response following an otherwise benign stimulus in these circumstances can be seen as comparable to an individual with PTSD experiencing anxiety when later exposed to sensory elements that were present during their traumatic event despite there being no current threat.

“After a concussion, the brain may become more sensitive to fear” In revealing results, rats who had been concussed showed longer freezing times when exposed to the noise compared to the rats who had not been concussed, as well as increased heart rates and blood pressure levels. These increased responses indicate that the rats who experienced a concussion formed stronger fear memories during their traumatic experience. Furthermore,

study of the brains of the concussed rats highlighted that in their amygdalae - the region of the brain linked to fear - five times more neurons were active during noise exposure than in the non-concussed rats. This indicates that after a concussion, the brain may become more sensitive to fear, generating heightened and prolonged responses to stimuli associated with threat. This may explain why sufferers of PTSD show such severe symptoms of anxiety when presented with their personal fear triggers.

For soldiers and other individuals suffering with PTSD, this research may suggest that returning the amygdala’s activity to a more normal rate may be the key to reducing their challenging symptoms and improving quality of life. Suggestions have been made regarding pharmaceutical and behavioural means of achieving this, including the idea of reconditioning to remove the unwanted fear response and reduce the sensitivity of the amygdala. However, it is likely that brain studies involving human participants and sufferers of PTSD itself may be required before new treatments can be confidently recommended.

US Army

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SPORT

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricksport

Nicola Adams: One of Britain's Sporting Greats

Sport Writer Rachel Higgins assesses Nicola Adams' achievements and influence on female boxing after she announced her decision to retire from the sport Rachel Higgins Sport Writer

Nicola Adams, aged 37, announced her retirement from professional boxing on 5th November. She reported through the Yorkshire Evening Post, her local paper, and to Instagram followers that there is a risk of ‘irreparable damage and permanent vision loss’, following her last fight in September of this year. The news soon spread across national press. Whilst certainly a wise move to step down, this also brings the perfect opportunity to look back on a stunning career.

Adams will remain amongst one of the most iconic sportswomen in Britain, a reputation first formed from her notable achievements as an amateur. She was just 13 when she both fought and won her first boxing bout.

She became the first woman to box for England in 2001. What many don’t know is that in her early career she was successful in recovering from a serious back injury in order to make the GB team in 2010 which set her on track for her first Olympics.

The decision was made in 2009 for women’s boxing to be included in the Olympic program for the first time. This meant that in 2012, Adams, competing in the flyweight event (51kg) was the first ever female to win Olympic gold for her category. I was lucky enough to attend her Olympic final that took place at the London games in August 2012, and it was a moment in sport that will stick with me forever. Not only did I get to enjoy an almost front-row experience, but the atmosphere of glory from a homegrown athlete touched everyone in the arena that had come to support her. This was when her career truly took off.

“Adams could have achieved no more in a glittering career” In Rio 2016 she made history yet again by becoming the first female boxer to become a double Olympic champion. This also marked her as the first British boxer to retain an Olympic title

for 92 years. At this point she was the most accomplished amateur boxer in Great Britain.

She turned professional in 2017 and became WBO world champion earlier this year. Her professional debut resulted in a stunning 40-36 point victory within the same year of announcement. Adams ends her career with a record of five professional wins and one draw. She admits her early success pushed her to train harder as she felt the pressure of those wanting to knock her off the top spot. Outside of competing, Adams was nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2016 and has had post boxes painted gold in her honour.

She gained an MBE in 2013 for services to boxing and subsequent OBE in 2017. It is clear Nicola Adams could have achieved no more in a glittering career.

She talked in her retirement statement about how proud she feels, being able to watch the sport progress in the way it has. It would be more accurate to note how much of an impact Adams herself has had on this. Sport England’s Active People Survey of 2012 showed a 79% increase in participation in boxing since the

Instagram/teamgb

London 2012 games, including many young girls looking to follow in Adams’ footsteps. This percentage continues to grow.

Whilst Adams has retired an undefeated world champion, we can now look forward to the next up-and-comers in the sport of female boxing. So, who’s next on the cards?

Ones to watch include the likes of middleweight Savannah

ATP World Tour Finals 2019: Tsitsipas Steals the Show

Max Kelly on a week where tennis started to look to the future Max Kelly Sport Writer

A fearless display from Stephanos Tsitsipas saw him claim the title at the Association of Tennis Professionals Finals last Sunday in London. The event, held annually at the O2 Arena, sees the eight highest ranked men’s players face off in a season-ending tournament which is second only to the four grand-slams in terms of ranking points. The final of the tournament, between Dominic Thiem and Stephanos Tsitsipas,

Marshall, featherweight Karriss Artingstall and lightweight Nina Bradley. Of course, eyes are being kept on the infamous Katie Taylor, an Irish athlete competing in the superlight division yet also super lethal in the ring. The world of boxing has without a doubt faced a loss from Adams' retirement, but now there is opportunity for even more history to be made and new female faces to rise to the top.

A Wembley Experience with National Express Lauren Coffman Sport Writer

ended 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 7-6 (7-4) in Tsitsipas’ favour after an enthralling three sets of tennis.

Naturally, the road to the final was an arduous one for both of the finalists. Thiem started the tournament in electric form, beating serial winners Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in his opening two matches. Similarly, Tsitsipas cruised through his opening games with wins over fellow future starlets Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev.

However, it was Tsitsipas who was met with the tougher opponent in the semi-final, coming up Instagram/StephanosTsitsipas98

against the often insurmountable Roger Federer. Despite his loss in the group-stages to Thiem, Federer came into the semi-final as the clear favourite. However, a formidable display from the Greek allowed him to edge his way past Federer. Thiem, playing a day later than Tsitsipas and therefore having a day less break before the final, confidently eased passed Alexander Zverev in his semi-final.

Going into the final, each of the players were treading unknown ground. For both, winning the match, and therefore the tournament, would be the biggest moment of their career thus far.

Thankfully, we didn't see any nerves from either translate onto the court as the first set got off to a furious start. The players traded blows in the opening games, with some big winners flying off the strings of both racquets. By the end of the first set, a tiebreak was all that could separate the players.

Tsitsipas came into the match with the best tiebreak record on tour this year (32-12), but he couldn't stop the Austrian narrowly taking the first set.

If the first set was an evenly contested affair, the second was anything but. Thiem seemed slow and lethargic after his powerful performance in the first set, gifting Tsitispas his first two service games as the Greek romped to a 4-0 lead. A half-hearted come-

back from Thiem wasn’t enough to claw back the ground he had lost, and the set finished 6-2 in Tsitsipas’ favour.

“The narrative of the tournament based itself on the next generation” A cat-and-mouse final set allowed Thiem back into the match, and suddenly it was Tsitsipas who had to hold on and take the set to a match-deciding tiebreak. An early charge by the Greek led to chants of ‘Tsitsipas, Tsitsipas’ from the crowd, but Thiem wasn’t ready to give up that easily. He forced the tiebreak back to 4-5, but a fatigued forehand on championship point sealed his fate as runner-up.

However, the narrative of the tournament based itself not on the winner, but instead on the breakthrough of the next generation.

Whilst Tsitsipas was successful in becoming the youngest ATP Finals champion in 18 years, praise should also be lauded upon the rest of the group of youngsters who are finally troubling the established elite. If this ATP Finals is anything to go by, 2020 will see a few new names being etched onto tennis’ biggest trophies.

Phil Neville’s side were looking for only their second win since their fourth-place finish at the Women’s World Cup, and there seemed no better place to do so than at the home of football itself, Wembley Stadium. This highly-anticipated match sold out weeks in advance and looked to be a landmark event for women’s football in the UK, with fans travelling from far and wide to witness this piece of history unfold.

Despite Germany taking home the win, it seemed as though the match was about more than just the result. The record attendance at a Lionesses home fixture is hugely impressive, and each time England advanced to the final third, a wall of noise emanated from all corners of the ground, willing the players forward. This reached a climax in the final stages of the game, when a last-minute England free-kick was backed by a chorus of encouragement and a flurry of flags. That particular chance went astray, but it did little to dampen the moods of the crowds.

National Express were kind enough to provide complimentary transport to and from the match, with exemplary service throughout and a guarantee to hold the coach for any eventualities during the match.

SPORT

Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricksport

Saracens: The Worst Scandal in the History of Club Rugby?

Owain Pryce has his say on Saracens' salary cap violation Owain Pryce

under the microscope. In 2015, the Premiership turned a blind eye to financial breaches, under the impression that clubs such as Saracens, European club rugby Saracens would clean up their act. champions and winners of the Despite this, many players, exEnglish Premiership in four of the perts and fans have suspected that last five years, have been dealt a something was awry in the last few £5.36 million fine, and a 35-point years. Saracens have become the deduction in the Premiership, for dominant force in domestic and breaching the league’s salary cap European club rugby, partly due regulations. The verdict, pertain- to the superb quality and depth. A ing to the last three seasons, was quarter of England’s 2019 World decided by an independent panel, Cup squad will be playing for Sarand is the greatest fine ever re- acens this season, as well as havceived by an English sports team. ing big international stars such as Some of England’s World Cup World Cup winner Vincent Koch. heroes, Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje An example of their squad depth and Billy and MakoVunipola are is shown at full back, where they among the players embroiled in have England’s Elliot Daly, Wales this saga, the biggest to hit Eng- fullback Liam Williams, as well lish rugby for at least a decade. as European Player of the Year The issue surrounds the club’s Alex Goode. owner, Nigel Wray, being inThe ruling throws up volved in co-investments many issues. Thankfully, with the club’s top Saracens' decision to players. Critics say withdraw their chalthat this is how Sarlenge to the senacens are able to tence, which was afford such a starannounced on studded team, as Monday, avoids these extra ina scenario where centives were not the story would Saracens' fine is the seen as being part overshadow the largest in English of their salary, but entire season. Yet sporting history help to convince the question surplayers to remain at rounding the validity Alllianz Park. of the trophies won in This is not the first the last three years by Sartime that the salary cap has been acens, two Premiership titles and Sport Writer

£5.36 million

Instagram/Saracensofficial

two European crowns, remains.

Although these titles will not be removed, they are certainly tainted in the eyes of many fans.

One point that has been brought into this story is that of player’s mental health. Some would argue that the purpose of these coinvestments is to ensure that postrugby, Saracens players would have businesses to step into and make the transition into the next stage of their life less stressful.

It is known that the club are very good at educating their players for the future, but bringing the mental health debate into this salary cap breach is rather insensitive.

For starters, we all know that it is very sensitive topic, and linking them seems to be an attempt to justify breaking rules that they were fully aware of. Also, people across the sport will have lost their jobs because clubs have been unable to compete with Saracens.

The whole idea of the salary cap is to keep the league competitive, so having tilted the playing field in their favour over the last three years at least, Saracens have been affecting the other clubs around the country, potentially depriving opposition players of life-changing victories and opportunities.

Team GB in Promising Form at World Para-Athletics Championships Dan Hague Sport Writer

The World Para-Athletics Championships took place in Dubai between the 7th and 15th November. The Great Britain team won 28 medals, of which 13 were gold, and there were some outstanding performances from younger athletes.

Team GB were missing a number of para-athletics’ super-

Instagram/hlcmbe

stars. Jonnie Peacock retired after the London World Championships, and Stefanie Reid, the 2017 T44 long jump world champion, had to withdraw through injury.

Additionally, David Weir competed in the April T54 London marathon. The event was included as part of the Para-Athletics World Championship schedule, however, it would be unfair to say that the Great Britain team truly benefitted from Weir’s World ParaAthletics Championship experi-

ence.

Nonetheless, the Great Britain team could still boast of a number of exceptional athletes. Once again, Hannah Cockroft (left) and Sophie Hahn dominated on the world stage, winning two gold medals each. Aled Davies and Hollie Arnold also topped the podium. These results, albeit positive ones, would have been expected by the Great Britain team managers.

However, it is the performances of the younger athletes that impressed the most. There were inaugural world titles for Maria Lyle, who won T35 100m and 200m gold. Sabrina Fortune and Jonathan Broom-Edwards also won golds. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old, Thomas Young narrowly missed out on gold in the T38 100m. These performances all show that Great British paraathletics is in a fantastic place going forward.

The reaction from Paula Dunn, Great Britain’s para-athletics head coach since 2012, was emphatic.

‘We're in a really good position going into Tokyo for me, it's been a successful championships.’ She said. ‘We've reached 29 medals and in the specific Tokyo events we are just one medal down [on

our target of 24 medals]. I'm comfortable that we have got athletes at home who will win medals in Tokyo.’

“It is the performance of the younger athletes that most impressed” Overall, British performances in Dubai bode well for next summer. The Paralympics are the pinnacle of any para-athletes career.

They are the most well-attended, the most well-viewed and the best chance for a para-athlete to catapult themselves to stardom and achieve national hero status. Next summer, we may discover some new superstars of para-athletics to match the likes of Jonnie Peacock.

The British public should look forward to a significant medal haul at the Paralympics and can expect a fantastic display of paraathletics from the Great Britain team.

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Column: Sport that Stuck With Me Emily Marshall Sport Writer

England men’s cricket team winning the World Cup is undoubtedly one of the most special sporting moments that will stick with me for a very long time. The manner in which they won the trophy was spectacular, and the emotional rollercoaster that was the final hour of that match is the most overwhelmed I have ever felt whilst watching sport. New Zealand were incredible competitors; however England deserved that victory more than anything, and whilst I sat in the back garden, with a BBQ in the background, consuming too much gin, I knew this moment was going to be special.

England’s well documented four-year journey in One-Day cricket came down to six balls, a super-over, that no one could have predicted. But as Jos Buttler collected the ball and dismantled the stumps, with Guptill being short of his ground, England cricket changed forever. The impact that this final had has been game-changing, and it is still playing out in front of us.

Instagram/englandcricket Cricket is a massive part of my life, it’s my work, my passion and it is what I choose to dedicate all of my time to. I have followed England around the country for numerous years now, and although I was gutted to not be at Lords for the occasion, I was perfectly content watching, surrounded by the best people who I have met through this weird and wonderful game. It is certainly the most special sport to me, and following the highs and plethora of lows with England, this was the most amazing event that will never be able to be replicated.

It was a day that I won't be forgetting in a heartbeat, it summed up all of the reasons I love the sport; spending time with some of your best friends, being absolutely heartbroken, and then five minutes later running around your garden crying and being one of the most eyecatching, unique and nerve shedding sports around. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of a generation that got to live through that moment, a moment that captured all sport fans attention, something which cricket hadn't done for a long time, watching it all come together was so special, in the sport that I have so much love for.

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Friday 22nd November 2019

@redbricksport

FA Cup: Solihull Moors Among the Midlands Clubs to Reach Round Two

Sport Writer Jack Wooldridge reviews the Moors' convincing first round win and tells us what to expect in the final phase before the big boys enter the draw Jack Wooldridge Sport Writer

Solihull Moors fans are dreaming of the FA Cup third round after a convincing 5-1 victory against Oxford City. A second round match against Rotherham United on Monday is all that stands between them and a place in the hallowed third round.

Solihull travelled down to the 'City of Dreaming Spires' on the back of a narrow Fourth Qualifying Round win over fellow National League side Barrow. They calmed any nerves on the Marsh Lane 3G pitch when top goal scorer Paul McCallum’s header from close range found the back of the net to give the visitors an early lead. James Ball doubled the Moors' advantage with a composed finish to the keeper’s right and made it three before the halftime whistle, all but confirming Solihull’s place in the next round.

Tim Flowers’ men carried their ruthless first-half form into the second, inflicting a nightmare start on the hosts with another two goals from Ball within eleven minutes of the restart. Oxford City

pulled a goal back late on with an impressive free-kick from Kyran Wiltshire that flew past Solihull keeper Ryan Boot via the cross bar, as City’s FA Cup run was ended by the West Midlands team.

The Moors now face a stern test against League One outfit Rotherham and will look to cause an upset at Damson Park. Relegated from the Championship last season, Rotherham have had a modest start to life in League One under manager Paul Warne and sit sixth in the league standings as they look to bounce back at the first attempt. They defeated Maidenhead United 3-1 on the road in the first round with all their goals coming within the last half an hour after a shock early goal for the hosts.

“This game should be an intriguing spectacle for the neutrals”

With the Moors third in the league and still in the cup, their strong form means that this game should be an intriguing spectacle for the neutrals. The game will be broadcast live under the floodlights on BT Sport One at 7:45pm on Monday 2nd December, providing national attention and a substantial financial boost of £75,000 – on top of the potential match winnings – for Solihull.

However, the greatest incentive of all will surely be the prospect of reaching third round, the holy grail for non-league clubs.

This is the phase when Premier League and Championship clubs enter the competition, meaning the Moors could earn a game against one of the top teams in the country, if they can get past Rotherham.

Amongst the other Midlands clubs currently competing in the cup, Stourbridge, of the Southern League Central, were prevented a famous First-Round victory with a late Eastleigh goal taking the match to a replay, and a 3-0 defeat in the reverse fixture on Tuesday ended their FA Cup dreams.

Oxford United await as League Two Walsall travel to the North-

Twitter/Solihullmoors

East after conceding a 97th minute equaliser against Darlington, whilst Coventry City eased past Colchester United with a 2-0 victory and will face either Ipswich Town or Lincoln City in the next phase of the competition.

Elsewhere, there are other mouth-watering ties to be played.

Eighth-tier Maldon and Tiptree are guaranteed to face League One opposition in the form of Grimsby Town or Newport County. After receiving a bye in the First Round draw due to Bury’s Football League exit, Chichester City

– the lowest-ranked side left in the competition – will travel to either Wycombe Wanderers or Tranmere Rovers. National League North side Altrincham face an exciting trip to Fratton Park to play 2008 winners Portsmouth. The second round looks finely poised and, with the third round within sight, this will be a hugely competitive round of matches, with cup-upsets on the cards.

The Second Round will take place from of Friday 29th November to Monday 2nd December.

Man City vs Chelsea: Can Lampard's Men Bring More Misery to Manchester?

Sport Writer Henry Arkill casts his eye over a crucial clash at the top of the table Henry Arkill Sport Writer

In the wake of yet another international break, Premier League fans have had a chance to take stock on the season thus far. Two teams currently separated by one point at the top of the table but in very different spirits will meet this weekend with the aim of hanging on to the coat-tails of leaders Liverpool. We look forward to Manchester City’s home fixture with Chelsea this Saturday evening and what the clash between the third and fourthplaced sides might hold.

City’s 3-1 defeat at Anfield, in what was the biggest game of the 2019/20 season to date, was marred by VAR controversy but for all of Guardiola’s touchline antics the result meant Liverpool extended their lead at the top to eight points. City were characteristically impressive in possession and dominated proceedings for large periods of the game, something which Guardiola was quick to highlight in a post match interview with BBC Radio 5 Live – ‘I don't know how many teams can come to this stadium and play the way we did. They scored with the

Instagram/chelseafc first shot on target, but we played incredibly well’. But Guardiola’s veiled affront to Liverpool’s ruthlessness in front of goal highlighted the core difference between the two sides.

It is, of course, Leicester City who hold second place above both City and Chelsea and the quality throughout their squad would indicate that they too will be keeping their sights firmly on Liverpool. The quality of the Foxes' back line is the envy of many with Guardiola’s makeshift

defence against Liverpool highlighting a need for defensive reinforcements which was not addressed in the summer; reports suggest he is keen on both of Brendan Rodgers’ centre-halves.

With goalkeeper Ederson unlikely to be fit and defenders Aymeric Laporte and Oleksander Zinchenko still sidelined, one of the key questions going into this game will be how City’s back four cope with Chelsea’s pressing and the red-hot form of striker Tammy Abraham, who scored his first

goal for England last week.

The Blues sit third, behind Leicester only on goal difference.

They come into the contest on the back of six successive Premier League wins, buoyed by the strong start which club legend Frank Lampard has brought to life as a Premier league coach. Despite their 4-0 defeat to Manchester United on the opening day, the Blues have gone on to establish themselves as a high-energy side whose midfield in particular is filled with confident, ball-carrying youngsters.

In recent weeks Christian Pulisic has found some goal-scoring form which had previously evaded him in his still short career.

Though he remains a doubt for this game having avoided international duty with his native USA through injury, his direct running combined with that of England’s newly capped Mason Mount and their ability to find space between the lines fed by a midfield pivot of Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic will surely concern Guardiola’s men.

The return of N’Golo Kante only complicates Lampard’s midfield selection dilemma – worse problems to have.

Consistency will be the judge of this Chelsea side, however, and

although Lampard insists ‘the balance is pretty good,’ when asked about the mixture of youth and experience in his side on Match of the Day, it is often in these big games when such young squads are found wanting. You would expect Chelsea to be without the ball for long periods and, to look to Antonio Conte’s 2016 away victory as the blueprint for a counterattacking win, at the Etihad stadium. Guardiola on the other hand will surely demand defensive solidity and then the onus will be on the experienced heads of Sergio Aguero and ex-Blue Kevin De Bruyne to reaffirm City’s title credentials.

Prediction: Man City 2-2 Chelsea

The Top Four Team

Played

Points

Liverpool

12

34

Leicester

12

26

Chelsea

12

26

Man City

12

25

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Friday 22nd November 2019

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@redbricksport

BUCS Sports Club of the Fortnight: Ultimate Frisbee Luke Bosher Sport Editor

The University of Birmingham Ultimate Frisbee Club are one of the most consistently successful teams on campus and currently compete across three divisions: Men’s, Women’s and Mixed. They regularly qualify for nationals in all six of their teams, and are no stranger to medalling at such tournaments.

Ultimate as a sport is certainly a growing one in the UK, having originated in the US around 50 years ago, and has both indoor and outdoor competitions. For those unfamiliar with how it is played, imagine a combination between American Football and netball – players throw a frisbee to their teammates with the objective of catching the frisbee in the endzone with the other team setting about stopping them by forcing an interception or turnover.

Players are unable to move once

they’ve caught the frisbee, instead having ten seconds to pivot on the spot and release the frisbee. From its conception, one of the defining characteristics of Ultimate is the lack of referees, instead relying on the sportsmanship of the play-

ers who are encouraged to adhere to the ‘spirit of the game’.

Indeed, the honest and fair nature of the sport is perhaps one of the key reasons as to why it is becoming increasingly popular – the club prides themselves on

Sophie Peck

being a very social sport who are not results-orientated, instead focusing on a big recruitment drive and retention drive every year. Due to their high intake of freshers, the club’s development team are always one of the most competitive at tournaments, and represent a chance for beginner players to make their mark.

Last weekend, the club hosted the BUCS Men’s Indoor Regionals, where they continued their outstanding form of beating everything in their path this year.

They will be looking for a repeat of that success this weekend, with the Women’s Indoor Regionals next up on the docket.

Ultimate truly is a fast, fun game that people of all abilities can get involved in. The club encourages anyone to come along their training (Wednesday 2-4pm, Fridays 7-9pm on Metchley 3G) and join their Facebook page (University of Birmingham Ultimate – UBU) for more information and weekly updates.

A Note From the Sports Officer: Josh Dooler Sports Officer

Last Saturday saw the sports centre host the BUCS Ultimate Men’s Indoor Regionals where universities from across the West Midlands and Wales joined Birmingham to battle it out for their place at the National competition in February.

On home soil, the Men’s first team put on an outstanding display to win the whole competition, beating the Bears 7-5 in the final. This amazing result means that they qualify in top seed for BUCS Nationals in the New Year.

On a similarly positive note, Women’s Ultimate has been officially recognised as a BUCS sport for the first time this year.

The girls had a great trip down to the University of East Anglia for the first round, beating Loughborough and narrowly losing to Warwick in the new league, meaning the nationals are in sight. What an amazing couple of weeks for the club!

Pole Fitness: A Sport for Everyone Emily Rowles sits down with Kit Shepard to talk about UoB's Pole Fitness Society Kit Shepard Sport Editor

'I’d just seen Instagram and thought it looked cool.' That’s how Emily Rowles, UoB’s Pole Fitness Captain, got involved with the sport. It may not come to mind when listing mainstream sports, but this part-dance, part-acrobatics activity is open to everyone.

'Pole can be anything you want it to be,' insists Rowles 'there’s obviously that stereotype of it being the sexy side of sport, but

it’s also very heavily fitness-orientated.'

As the name suggests, pole fitness is certainly physically tough, and this challenge has a variety of benefits. 'There’s a lot of strength work involved and a lot of dance stuff involved, so there’s an opportunity to be creative with it and work on your flexibility,' reveals Rowles.

'I think the best thing about it is that when you’re doing a class, it’s so fun that you don’t even realise you are exercising.'

Clearly, pole fitness strikes a bal-

ance between being both rewarding and enjoyable.

“It's so fun that you don't even realise you are exercising” It is no wonder then, that the club is annually inundated with newcomers. 'We get about 300 new members every year and 99% have had no previous experience.'

All classes are mixed ability, allowing novices to learn from more experienced members and rise up the club’s levels, which provide 'a clear system for how you can progress with us.'

Those who do progress could find themselves competing with other universities, and Rowles is keen to build on the third-place finish at last year’s national event.

'It would be fantastic if we could reach that level again, or even do better, that would be amazing.'

Yet her goals stretch beyond winning. 'We’d love to have more diversity in terms of gender.'

Although pole is stereotypically perceived as something for girls, Rowles is determined to prove that is not the case. 'We’ve got two boys on committee this year and they’re both fantastic, [they] really put in the effort on our social media to show that it’s not just for girls and that boys can get involved too.

It’s just as challenging and enjoyable if you’re a boy as it is for a girl.'

Preview: BUCS Track Championships

Ahead of a big weekend of BUCS cycling, Elliot Keen provides an insight from inside the University of Birmingham Cycling Club Elliot Keen Sport Writer

14 of Birmingham’s finest track riders will be lining up this weekend at the BUCS Championships in Manchester as part of a 191strong field of cyclists from universities across the country.

The University of Birmingham Cycling Club (UoBCC) cohort consists of several newcomers, such as Matt Clegg, an experienced racer who will be looking to make his mark during his year at Birmingham as a Masters student. Another new face – cyclist for the Irish National Team, Gaby Homer – is also looking to produce an eye-catching performance at her first BUCS competition.

On previous occasions,

Birmingham has performed strongly, with the women’s team taking the overall prize for the event in the past two years.

UoBCC Women's team also took silver in the Team Pursuit, though the team expect to face hot competition this year from the likes of Derby and Loughborough.

The men’s team will look to improve on last year’s display, with Tiago Fuego looking to break into the top 15 in at least one of the four races he is taking part in (Individual Pursuit, Kilo Time Trial, Elimination, and Points Race). Club Captain Hal Ryan Gill and Treasurer Jonathan Allen are no strangers to BUCS track events, having both represented the university last year.

'It’s a really good weekend,'

remarked Jonathan when interviewed by Burn FM earlier this week. 'The races themselves are quite short, but you’re there for the full two days, and you’re just supporting everyone else, just chatting around in the pits. It’s a really fun two days.'

The BUCS Track Cycling Championships will take place at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester on 23rd and 24th November. The whole weekend will be covered by the Burn FM Sports team, with selected commentaries and a full report being released in the following weeks.

Those interested in finding out more about the club can find information and contacts on the UoBCC facebook page.

Instagram/uobcc

SPORT

Sophie Peck

22.11.2019

Uproar 2019 Preview

Uproar: UoB Lacrosse Hosts FirstEver BUCS Super Series Sport Editor John Rogers previews Uproar with Lacrosse President Lucy Pirkle John Rogers Sport Editor

UBSport’s super-series continues this Wednesday as Uproar, a lacrosse showdown, comes to the Bournbrook pitches, beginning at 2:15 in the afternoon. The women’s first team will host Edinburgh and their male counterparts will play Nottingham.

The games represent a real chance for the University to showcase their impressive lacrosse programme, a sports team who have achieved great recent success.

Last season, the men won the BUCS Midlands 1A league and the knockout tournament to win the trophy at the end of season tournament while the women reached the final.

They are matched up against two tough teams in Edinburgh and Nottingham, although in this year’s previous meetings the Birmingham teams have triumphed, with the Women recording a 7-5 victory and the men 12-5. Club president Lucy Pirkle is relishing the challenge: ‘They’ll be good matches, Nottingham in particular have a really big lacrosse programme so they get a lot of scholars.’

Pirkle is a third-year student who has been with the lacrosse team from day one.

This year, as President, she has to oversee the first ever Uproar as a new addition to the university sporting calendar. Working with UBSport, Uproar hopes to follow the success of Xplosion, and represents the second of five ‘super-series’ that the university plans to showcase.

The event also coincides with the international rainbow laces day in support of LGBTQ+ communities. The campaign seeks to celebrate LGBTQ+ people in sport, and challenge discriminatory language and sentiments. The lacrosse team will be working with the University of Birmingham's LGBTQ+ Association and donning rainbow shoelaces for the event.

Lacrosse is one of Birmingham’s largest sports teams, boasting four women’s and two men’s team competing in BUCS leagues, as well as mixed and developmental squads. However, despite its playing popularity, the casual observer may find the sight of 20 people running around a field carrying netted sticks slightly strange. But the sport is easy to understand once you get into it.

‘It’s like hockey in the air,’ says Lucy, and indeed it shares many similarities, chief among them the aim: getting the ball into your opponent’s net, while defending your own. Other features including rolling substitutes, passing, dribbling and (in the men’s game) full-contact stick tackling, which necessitates the use of helmets and protective clothing.

Several hundred people are expected to make their way to the Bournbrook pitches come Wednesday to see the sport in action. The exposure Uproar will give to lacrosse could provoke a new wave of university lacrosse players, and the club is still open for new members to join, even if you have no experience. Lucy, herself an absolute beginner with no previous experience before joining in first year, is keen to emphasise the friendly nature of the club.

‘Anyone can join the mixed club, it’s really inclusive for everyone and we don’t take training too seriously. We just have fun learning the sport.’

Uproar aside, what are the goals for the rest of the year for Lucy and lacrosse?

BUCS competition is always at the forefront of the clubs minds, and for a team that hit such heights last season the challenge is now to repeat that success.

‘We want to get the teams back to big BUCS Wednesday, and just enjoy it as we go.’

A pair of wins in front of the Bournbrook crowd on Wednesday would go some way to ensuring both goals are achieved.

Captain's Choice: Who are the ones to watch at Uproar?

We asked the Lacrosse Men's and Women's captains to pick out some of the best players in the team, complete with squad numbers for easy identification come Wednesday. Here's who they've picked...

INSIDE SPORT THIS WEEK:

Women (chosen by Captains Jasmin Sharpe and Kate Barncle): Milly Home (68) - A current member of England U23, Milly is always a threat around goal, she is able to skilfully pick apart the oppositions defence.

Annie Montgomery (10) - Having returned from Wales U19 world cup this summer, she a crucial member of our midfield and is all over the attack and defence.

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BUCS Page

Caity Patrick (18) - Her extremely solid 1v1 defence will shut down any attacker and her speed is vital in transitioning the ball across the pitch.

Men (chosen by Captains Oli Bournes and Silas Burke): Leuan Colebrook (9) - The goalkeeper is always solid at the back, a calming presence for the team.

Instagram/Chelseafc

Man City vs Chelsea

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Cam Barrett (42) - The defence as a unit are deserving of praise, but in particular they are anchored by Cam Barrett.

Kyle MacQueen (17) - He has really added to our line up and we’ll be looking to him to see a lot of the ball.

Michael Grimsley (12) - A leader in the midfield, setting an example with regular goals and assists.

Instagram/teamgb

Nicola Adams Retires 36