The Founder - Volume 7, Issue 3

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Volume 7 | Issue 3 Monday 12 November 2012 thefounder.co.uk

the independent student newspaper of royal holloway, university of london

Four more years

Obama re-elected

Photo: Washington Post

Correction: Professor Frank Employment Tribunal

See page 5

The front page story of the last issue of The Founder, ‘Professor Frank Discrimination Case Dismissed By Tribunal’ (15 Oct Vol. 7 Issue 2) contained the unfair and misleading implication that the Reading Employment Tribunal dismissed the professor’s discrimination suit as a response to Professor Frank’s claim itself, and through incomplete research did not include the una-

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bridged series of events, which is that Professor Frank in fact withdrew his own case from the tribunal, thus resulting in its dismissal by the tribunal.

More precisely, the Employment Tribunal judgement dated 20th September 2012 formally states that the ‘settlement having been agreed between the parties as to the claims continued on page 2

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News

Comment & Debate

Features

Arts

Interview with ULU VP Daniel Lemberger Cooper

Anglo-American Extradition

An Englishman Abroad: Chapter 2

Review: Twelfth Night at the Globe

THOMAS SEAL catches up with the ex-SURHUL President

Is it fair? JAMES QUAN-THOMAS debates MAX SIMPSON

PADDY FREELAND finds out there is a downside to the siesta...

NICHOLAS HYDER got tickets to see Rylance and Fry. Don’t be jell.

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

The Founder The Independent Student Newspaper of Royal Holloway, University of London Email: editor@thefounder.co.uk

thefounder.co.uk For the latest news, reviews, and everything Holloway, get online Check out our website For all of our paper content, and even more: thefounder.co.uk

tf The Editor Contact the editor at:

editor@thefounder.co.uk made by the claimant on the terms set out in a memorandum of their own making the claims are dismissed upon withdrawal by the claimant’.

The quotation ‘if these grievances and all continue, one or other of us is going to have to leave the college’ was also misattributed to Prof Frank, instead being reported as being said by RHUL Principal Paul Layzell.

We sincerely apologise to Professor Frank for the erroneous article and any difficulties or trouble it may have caused.

Many thanks go to Royal Holloway’s UCU Equality Officer Prof.

Clare Bradley for bringing this mistake to the paper’s attention.

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tf editorial team Editor-in-Chief Thomas Seal

Managing Editors Toby Fuller, Scott Wilson and Richard Cunningham Lead Designer (vacant)

Music Editor Katie Osmon

News Editor Peter Hammond

Arts Editor Scott Wilson

Comment & Debate Editor Toby Fuller

Sport Editor Richard Cunningham

Features Editor Felicity King Film Editor Zlatina Nikolova

Pictures Editor Amy Taheri Subeditors Alexandra Ioannou Anna Redbond

This edition designed by Thomas Seal and Zlatina Nikolova

The Founder is the independent student newspaper of Royal Holloway, University of London. We distribute at least 4,000 free copies every fortnight during term time around campus and to popular student venues in and around Egham.

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Hello! I’m a second year English student and I’m really enjoying being involved with The Founder this year! I’m a London girl at heart; I love the busy bustling of the city and a spot of shopping in one of the fashion capitals of the world isn’t too bad.

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

News

Interview with ULU Vice President and ex-SURHUL President Daniel Cooper

Thomas Seal Editor

*laughs* Which is hilarious. I mean, they were all taken out of context... and...I wanted to use that account so I could make political points, not just to say I’m at a committee that no-one knows about. I put a motion forward about Israel/Palestine, and I think they actually gave me a fair hearing on that. I mean there’s a lot of eejits in the union who are unable to muster any creative thought so couldn’t engage with it, but I think they looked at it and tried to understand.

Well, you were saying that people aren’t really aware of ULU, or even what it is. Would you like to explain what it is in real terms, and why people at Royal Holloway in particular should get involved?

ULU is the University of London Union. It brings together a federation of student unions around London around 19 different colleges - to fight for student rights. I think it holds lots of possibilities for RHUL students.

I’m quite conscious of the fact that because we’re quite geographically far out, and because of a general lull in the work that’s been expected of ULU on local campuses, it might not feel that way, but it has the power to bring London colleges together to campaign for common policy positions - on something like housing - so we can probably effect some change.

Secondly, ULU has a ton of clubs and societies, so if students have a particular passion - cultural, religious, sporting - you can get to meet students at LSE or UCL, work with them, develop that passion, or even set stuff up with students from across London. And centrally we’ve got lots of services: we’ve got a gym, we’ve got bars, we’ve got restaurants, we’ve got lots of rooms, and all of those are at the services of Royal Holloway students.

Would you agree, though, that it’s quite difficult to really be involved with ULU when you’re out here in Egham?

Well yeah, in the sense that you can’t come to the building easily. I see it being more of our responsibility to come onto campus. So just for example, we’re supporting the liberation campaign and there’s been lots of work here around Black History Month. We should be here supporting that, and positively be contributing to that sort of work.

The time constraint makes it difficult to get to Malet Street, so I think it’s our responsibility to come here.

Photo: Thomas Seal

Last year’s SURHUL President, Daniel Lemberger Cooper, has been the Vice President of the University of London Union (ULU) since he was elected in February. And since ULU’s President-elect Sean Rillo Raczka resigned in July, he has also been the Acting President.

I took the opportunity to interview him in Crosslands (where else?) during a recent visit to Egham. We discussed his time here, his thoughts on Yeah, I think the interesting part of SURHUL, what ULU is doing, and the Union is that it needs be a platthe big plans he has for it. form for statements, but also for its own policy, and it’s hard sometimes T: How are you finding being back to draw the line. I mean, we can’t rein Egham? ally do anything here at Royal Holloway about Israel and Palestine D: It’s great to be back. It’s quite apart from talk about it. strange. I remember the months leading up to leaving, I was really wanting No, that’s true, but I think about the to leave. I find Egham quite claustro- 1980s, when there was apartheid in phobic. The day I was leaving, my dad South Africa, and the student movewas supposed to come get me in the ment in Britain was very strong then. morning, but because of the Olym- They put money together to send it pics he was delayed until the evening. over, and there was quite a real interI was here on my own, just walking est in what was going on. I think the around, and then...*suddenly miming reason apartheid ended is because crying* ‘I don’t want to leave!!’ black workers organised and they It’s nice to come back. I’m going to fought and they struggled, but I think meet the student officers and a bunch British students had a role to play. But of other people.

I think that’s an argument we’ve won now; I feel like the Union is a political Have you missed it in the couple of organisation, and its primary funcmonths you’ve been away? tion is to defend and fight for student rights.

I left in late June, so I’ve been doing a lot of new stuff, and I’ve enjoyed that. On that note, I’d like to ask you I mean, obviously from a personal about the new Sabbatical Officers perspective I care a great deal about and Execs. How do you feel they’re how the Left and the activists are do- doing? Do you have any advice for ing here, because I worked very hard them? to build it, and last year was very successful.

Yeah, yeah. I oversaw their elections, Also, I feel like last year the Found- I led and ran their inductions to the er was out to get me.

Union, I trained them for a month, introduced them to all the staff here, *laughs* I think they had a soft spot the staff at the Union, and told them for you, but they wanted to go for a how it all functioned really. I worked Private Eye angle. A lot of satire... most closely with Doug (Doug German, President).

Oh I like the satire! It was other Doug - it’s no secret - is very difthings that...I mean, obviously it’s in- ferent to me, his priorities are not the evitable when you’re in that position, same as mine. My priorities are probdoing the things that I do, it’s inevi- ably more reflected in what Jamie’s tably going to cause controversy and doing (Jamie Green, VPComCam). argument, which I like; I want to deI think Jamie’s doing some excellent bate people. There was some hilarious work around building the Defend Edstuff last year. But it was pretty poor ucation Campaign, around organisjournalism, if anything. ing students in their workplace, and with the Living Wage campaign. I We published your tweets, I remem- think from what I’ve seen the Student ber.

Activities department is working very well, and I think the same with most

departments.

I’m here today partly because I’m trying to put together an agreement document that sets out all of the joint areas across London college student unions that work, what they expect from ULU, and the kind of things that they want from ULU.

dent of ULU? Firstly, the main work I’ve been doing is going to meet local unions and rebuild and revive ULU on local campuses: that’s having discussions with officers, finding out what they want, and building a professional, effective relationship.

Secondly, we’ve been running a big housing campaign that calls for decent affordable housing for students, but also for people in London. We’re lobbying the Greater London Authority, which is kind of the government in London about that.

Third, we’re running a big education and public services campaign.

We’ve got a situation where there’s a radical transformation of education taking place. We’re holding crossLondon assemblies, we’re bringing together students from across London to democratically decide about where the campaign’s going.

And I’m quite keen on the opening of the ULU membership structure. It’s currently only for University of London students. I think that campaign work doesn’t just include students, and there is actually a need for a London-wide union. I’m making the argument to local student unions that we need to include the likes of South Bank and London Met. So...even if they’re not part of the University of London, they can be part of the University of London Union?

Southbank, and Greenwich [none of which are U of L colleges] all had representation there, and getting them involved in campaign work is our first port of call. The second one is we need to pass policy within our democratic structures to make it happen.

And yeah, I guess we’d have to think through the name change, but for me that’s quite a small issue.

I wasn’t even aware that that was in the works.

Well, for instance: at London Met they had the possibility that 3,000 of their students were going to be deported (see The Founder Volume 7 Issue 2). ULU were heavily involved in stopping that, and are involved in a continuing campaign to defend the international students. And that happened even without the [proposed] structures. Those students need that kind of representation, and they need that kind of support from other types of unions.

Thanks very much Dan. And is there anything else you’d like to tell the readers of the Founder?

Yeah, I wrote some more stuff down... none of which I’ve actually said!

I think people should view ULU as a tool for meeting London students, for working with, for fighting with, and for partying with London students!

We’re there to put on marches and to bring students into the campaign, but also to fight for your rights at work.

Come and get involved! We’re keen to have a presence here, and I’m going to be coming down as often as I can.

Yeah. First off we’re convincing people about why it should happen.

The way we bring them in is involving them in our campaign work. We So what have you been up to person- had a London demos meeting this Find the full interview on The Foundally since you’ve been Vice Presi- week, and Westminster, London Met, er’s website at www.thefounder.co.uk.

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

News

British universities face new funding concerns: what does this mean for RHUL?

Peter Hammond News Editor

A topic hot on the lips of many students over the last year has been the near-tripling in tuition fees for the 2012 intake. Implemented by a government who, by and large, received university education for free added certain hypocrisy to the scenario.

There were those proponents of the fee rises, arguing that a more expensive higher education would counteract the inflation of the value of a degree. However, the scene in early September was rather different: many universities were down on applications and had to settle for lower calibre candidates. Even in August UCAS warned of a 10% drop in applications from England alone.

The government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England recently compiled a report on the financial situations of higher education institutes. This detailed a state of financial stability for the majority of institutions; a state dependant on their numbers of recruited students.

In the next academic year, universities could see the income from overseas students increase by roughly a quarter, says the HEFCfE. This seems positive, although the tenuous position of many overseas students could affect this rise in capital (see The Founder, Volume 7, Issue 3).

The chief executive of HEFCfE has argued that solvency is still both forecasted and achievable by most institutions in the long run, but universities and colleges “will need to deploy more of their own resources to maintain their estates”. Thus, cuts in government funding see universities looking inwards to stay afloat.

On the surface, Royal Holloway, University of London, may have been perceived to be achieving this ‘maintenance of estates’ through negative action: salary freezes, redundancies and department closures. Earlier this year, announcements of cuts to the Classics, Modern Languages and Lactogenics departments were seen as the college’s efforts to ‘trim the fat’.

Consequently, some of these cuts never fully came into fruition, leaving many wondering where in the college funding could be cut. It is, however, the students and staff of the science faculties which have demonstrated (and achieved) an alternative way to gain funding.

The college reported that £39 million has been given in the form of a governmental grant for further research into vaccine alternatives.

Opportunities such as these are fantastic: the research rating of the department (and by default, the university) increases, the overall league standing of the university increases

and fears of under-subscription and financial turmoil are dissuaded.

It is this independent resourcefulness which appears to be the future for departments and universities as wholes. Whilst not a direct move towards privatisation, the introduction of direct public and industrial inter-

est does present a plethora of funding opportunities.

In the United Kingdom today, the budgets of various public sectors are malleable and constantly under review. The School of Biological Sciences has laid a precedent at Royal Holloway: funding is available else-

where, so be on the lookout for it. The knock-on effect of research funding is undeniable, and it should not be overlooked with the increasing contention over educational status and standard in mind.

Ex-Labour MP criticises low-income student safety nets An Apology

Max Rubens

Apologies to Malcolm McEachern.

His News article in Issue 2 (‘In midst of cuts...’) was misattributed to Peter Hammond. Sorry!

Alan Milburn, the former Labour MP, has recently hit out at the conditions of fiscally constrained students trying to obtain higher education. Milburn believes that automatic interviews and an adjusted offer boundary for disadvantaged students would help bridge the social gap in education.

On top of this Milburn believes that selective universities should be sponsoring city academies to create a sort of ‘feeder’ system. Also, the idea of foundation courses for the less advantaged has been proposed. David Willets, the Minister for Universities, has received these notions favourably and has said he will urge the academic institutions to follow up on these reforms.

So far Milburn’s proposed ideas have received positive feedback but the argument blocking these poten-

tial changes would be that private school children may face discrimination. The current argument against it is a weak one; privately educated children roughly comprise 7% of the nation’s children with the number soaring to 18% post GCSE. So essentially 7% may be discriminated against in the future as opposed to 93% being discriminated in the immediacy for their humbler backgrounds.

These proposals are plausible given the problems students have faced in recent times. The scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and an unforeseen trebling of higher education has led to a discontentment amongst the academically ambitious youth of today. There has been an 8% drop in applicants to university according to UCAS since the rise of tuition fees and a 13.7% increase in international students.

These policies could affect these figures for the better.

These reforms could lead to great

Alan Milburn pictured with ex-PM Gordon Brown things but it smacks of affirmative rules so that we don’t have to address action. On the other side of the coin the matter at hand. this could be seen as a quick fix Milburn’s ideas are potentially viascheme to basically say a state educa- ble because whether we want it or not tion will never be anywhere near as there is a gulf of difference between valuable as a private one and that at- the private and state education system tempts to better the system is some- and this is at least a flicker of hope for what futile. So instead we change the the future.

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

News

USA elects Obama for second term Thomas Seal Editor In the most expensive election campaign the world has ever seen, on November 6 the United States of America reelected Barack Obama over ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to lead them as President for four more years. Each candidate’s campaign cost over $1bn (facilitated by the use of ‘Super Political Action Committees’, or Super PACS).

Although Mr. Obama was internationally a unanimous favourite, his victory was not a landslide - indeed, he received at least 30 electoral college votes less than his 2008 victory (at the time of going to print, Florida had still not declared their results), reflecting the incredibly divisive nature of this long-fought election campaign, and

the uncertainty Americans feel over their immediate future. As such, central issues were the post-crash economy, foreign policy regarding Iran and China, and civil rights issues such as gay marriage and women’s reproductive rights.

As well as deciding their new President, the election also decided several other landmark events. Puerto Rico voted 65% in favour of statehood, which means the issue will pass to the US Senate, meaning it will possibly become the ‘51st state’ in the next few years. The states of Colorado and Washington legalised the possession and growing of marijuana, and Maryland, Maine and Washington all legalised same-sex marriage, being the first time such legislation has passed through by popular vote. Hundreds of Congress seats were also decided.

The election results: Blue=Democrat, Red=Republican, Grey=not declared

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

News

College News Health Centre Update Have you called into the campus Health Centre recently? You may have noticed it has had a makeover to freshen it up and make it ready for the academic year. Everyone in the Health Centre is incredibly friendly and welcoming to students so we wanted the space they occupy to reflect this! So, what have we done?

We’ve had a window installed in the main door so you can see in rather than the previous wooden door that students didn’t like. This brightens up the area immeasurably and when the new Health Centre signs arrive, it will look even more impressive!

There are huge new roller-banners which clearly tell you when the Health Centre is open and advertises enhanced services such as the weekly sexual health clinic. The smell of paint has faded now but the whole practice has been re-painted and re-carpeted, the waiting area has lost the murals on the wall and is now a clean and clinical area in which to wait for your appointment. Sister Potts has been out and about around Founder’s tak-

ing photographs which are displayed as fantastic canvases on the wall. Go and have a look!

We’ve added staff photos outside the entrance so you know who you’ll be speaking to or having an appointment with. We all agree going to the doctors is a more pleasant experience if you know who you’re going to see.

We recognise it is the small details like this that make the experience as stress-free as possible.

In addition to this we have been updating the Health Centre webpages with the information you have asked for. This includes contact information for the practice and out of hours provision links to useful health websites and support networks, student health information, advice on health when travelling on field trips or holiday, an NHS guide, links to a wide range of specialist external support or advice networks, and vaccination information.

We hope you like the new look Health Centre. If you have any feedback or suggestions for please do get in touch with us at SupportAndAdvisory@rhul.ac.uk.

Whose NHS? Got an opinion about the Government’s reforms of the NHS? Want to know whether you will see any difference in how you are treated and whether the NHS will listen to you more? Come along to a public round table at Royal Holloway to discuss and debate some of key issues surrounding health reform in the UK. Organised by the Centre for Social Sciences, the event on Thursday 8 November will take place in the Windsor Auditorium from 6 – 8pm.

Attendance is free and open to all.

Speakers will include leading experts such as Professor Julian Le Grand, former senior policy advisor to Tony Blair, Roy Lilley, an independent health policy analyst, writer, broadcaster and commentator, and Candace Imison, Deputy Director of Policy at The King’s Fund, a charity that works to improve healthcare in the UK. It will no doubt be a heated discussion with Candace Imison arguing that the NHS is “appalling at articulating the case for change”, while Roy Lilley has expressed his concern that “political promises of quality and better and improved care leave me cold.”

Also on the panel will be Professor Mark Exworthy, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Royal Holloway and Andrew Liles, Chief Executive of Ashford and St Peters NHS Foundation Trust.

There will be a Q&A session after the debate.

With as much as 67% of the public knowing nothing or very little about the proposals, it is a timely discussion on a subject that will undoubtedly affect us all.

For more information, please visit: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/centreforsocialsciences/events/eventsarticles/whosenhscitizensandpublicservicereform.aspx

Students go MADD for cleaning On Friday 26 October, over 150 students from Royal Holloway lent a helping hand to the local community for the annual ‘Make a Difference Day (MADD)’.

There were 12 projects taking place across Egham and Staines including painting classrooms at St Jude’s School, clearing litter across Englefield Green, creating a wildlife

area at Hythe Community Primary School and refurbishing the British Legion’s community hub.

More than 500 hours of work were completed, with a number of clubs and societies taking part including the American football team, the cheerleading squad, the men’s rugby team, the netball team, the riding team and the dance society.

Phil Simcock, Community Action Volunteer Manager said: “This is a fantastic initiative for our students to get involved with and help out in the local community.

We had a record number of volunteers this year, who

turned out in force, even in adverse weather conditions. I am very proud of the commitment shown during this year’s event.”

The day was supported by the Royal

Holloway Alumni Fund. For more information about volunteering, please contact Community Action or visit their website.

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

tf Comment

&

7

Debate

The Charge of the Anti-Smoking Brigade party. It seems that the breed of man which is ‘the smoker’ is a dying one; rejected by society and punished for the victimless crime of tobacco n the dawn of the 16th Century, inhalation.

Since the days of New Labour, Europe was first introduced to her beloved Nicotiana Tabacum; smokers have faced successive legislative acts restricting our liberty. a plant whose scent would perfume The smoking ban has tyrannised the continent for the next five hundred years. Those dried leaves of the society, contributing to the decline Americas soon metamorphosed into of the great British ale-house and forcing our clan to resort to huddling the glowing companion which we recognise today as, ‘the cigarette’. The in car-park corners for warmth and solidarity. blue-tinted ringlets of smoke that One of the most notable restriccurrently surround me are as dear tions of smoking movement in recent to me now as they were five years ago, that night on which my lips first years is of course the dreaded ban savoured the bitter warmth of smok- enforced by the bureaucrats of the National Health Service. Now, one ing tobacco.

Alas, today one can no longer take is required to revert to school-boy tactics of fagging-away in the bushes pride in membership that exclusive and behind the boiler-house when fug-filled club of woodbine puffing. one visits health care facilities.

Instead, one is vilified and conHowever, the question remains; demned with the kind of fervour why should smokers be allowed to that one would expect to receive for exposing one’s genitals at a dinner indulge in self-centred decadence

flickr/Eric J. Lubbers

Toby Fuller Comment and Debate Editor

I

at the detriment of other people’s health? I concede, they should and must not. The ban on smoking in places of work and certain enclosed spaces is a necessary protection of the general public’s health. Yet government policy does not exist to protect others; it instead seeks to

flickr/Raccatography

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Want to let us know why?

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coerce the smokers of Britain into surrendering to the majority and kicking the dreaded habit.

The task of smokers today is to assert our rights to engage in our little vice without unnecessary restriction or social condemnation. This task is twofold. First, one must rebut the ar-

grounds of utility, smoking actually contributes to the government’s coffers rather detracting from it. And so let us do away with this false syllogism that is so often propagated by the anti-smoking brigade.

The second battle-line is entrenched in the superficial appeal from human compassion; the agency of causing harm to oneself it broadly legitimate, but what about the loved ones who are left behind. Surely they should not be made to suffer at the hands of our own self-gratifying demise. I do not say they should.

However, let us once again look at the statistics. On average a 20-a-day habit will reduce one’s lifespan by 1015 years whilst the life-expectancy in the United Kingdom is 80.1 years of age. It is true that my chances of living past the age of 65 is significantly diminished by my habit, yet is this prospect so horrifying? I think not. When the party is drawing to an end I intend to leave gracefully. I do not wish to burden my family and friends, financially or emotionally, by slouching in the corner losing control of my bladder and mind when it would be better that I left them to embrace their own youth and potential. No, I do not see it kind to linger without purpose.

And so, comrades, my brothers in cigarette wielding arms, do not yield to the lip-curling and petty frowns of our fellow men. Tobacco is a vice to be savoured; a habit that one can indulge without the harming of others. It is a pleasure that must be gument from utility; that smokers are protected from the do-gooders and a drain of public resources. I wave dictatorial pen-pushers who desire a my half-smoked-pack of Marlboros utopian society of lentil munching, in objection to this claim. The costs fat burning bliss. Instead, our bliss is to the NHS due to smoking related one expressed most clearly through illnesses in the period of 2005-6 were the aperçu of Oscar Wilde’s Lord approximately £5 billion, whereas Henry Wotton; ‘A cigarette is the government revenue from tobacco perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is duties in the same period amassed exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisto a total of £8.4 billion. On the fied. What more can one want?’

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

tf Comment Debate The Anglo-American Extradition Treaty: Justice, or Bias?

James Quan-Thomas

T

his argument will necessarily be brief and cannot address all objections raised recently, as these have been scattershot and unfocused.

Nonetheless, it will try to show that the most frequently rehearsed claims of bias are largely unsubstantiated.

First is the claim that there are greater built-in protections from extradition in the USA than the UK, the second that the US claims of jurisdiction are excessive and the third, that statistics suggest that the US is abusing the treaty.

For the US to extradite to the UK, they require ‘probable cause’. For the UK to extradite to the US, we require ‘reasonable suspicion’. So, is ‘reasonable suspicion’ equivalent to ‘probable cause’? Probable cause is the standard of information required to issue an arrest warrant for a person in the US, guaranteed to people within its jurisdiction by its constitution.

Similarly, people cannot be arrested in the UK without ‘reasonable suspicion’. This arrangement would seem to be just and equitable. The Baker review provides compelling reasons to regard the two tests as equivalent.

They do the same thing, for the same

reason, with the same sort of documentation. This is as close a parallel as you are likely to get between different legal systems. Moreover, a person in Britain actually does meet a ‘probable cause’ test in order to be extradited! A US prosecutor will not be issued with the arrest warrant needed to begin the extradition process without satisfying ‘probable cause’. The argument that there is an imbalance here is both opportunistic and purely semantic.

Members of the British public feel particular discontent over questions of jurisdiction in incidents of cybercrime. It should be noted that in the McKinnon case, which has captured public interest, the UK Crown Prosecution Service did not intend to prosecute; consequently, the US did.

This is perfectly reasonable. If the crime takes place outside of the UK and its effects are in the USA, both countries have claim to jurisdiction, and if the UK does not take the case up, the USA, which is the injured party, has a right to seek justice. We would want the same ourselves were the situation reversed. Few people realise that if, during the extradition hearings, the UK had initiated a domestic case, due to precedence,

flickr/donsutherland1

Justice!

the trial would have taken place here.

Whether the accused were acquitted or convicted, they would not then have had to stand trial for the same crime in another jurisdiction, due to double jeopardy laws. Please note that all this is quite separate from difficult questions of mental fitness for extradition, though equitable provisions are made in the treaty for those, too. The question of culpability in light of the mental state of the accused, though frequently raised, can only be addressed at trial and so is irrelevant to the treaty itself, which simply provides for where this trial takes place.

When we look at the statistics for extraditions we find that, under this treaty, the US has made 130 extradition requests. 77 of these individuals have so far been extradited, whilst 10 were refused. In return, the UK has made 54 requests. 38 have been extradited, and none have been refused. The US has requested more extraditions, but this is consistent with its larger population, and partly due to more Brits visiting America than vice versa. That America has yet to refuse a request for extradition may in part reflect the standards required by the Crown Prosecution Service to issue a request, but it must also reflect the good faith of the American justice system.

There are legitimate questions that can be asked about current UK extradition laws. Ought we to insist on retaining jurisdiction wherever possible? Or to insist that countries provide higher standards of evidence before extraditing? These are fine arguments for a democracy to have. But that many may not like the policy expressed in our present extradition arrangements is not a good reason to frame the argument in terms of a US/UK bias that simply is not there. We may not feel that extradition should be practiced in all circumstances currently condoned, whether with the US or others, but there is no evidence that the US isn’t allowing extradition to the UK under these same circumstances. In short, a discourse proliferating the image of overweening US extradition terms is disingenuous, a jingoist caricature that, whilst popularising the argument, does any genuine policy grievances a disservice.

flickr/mskogly

Bias!

Max Simpson

T

he question of whether the current UK/US extradition is biased is a subject that has sparked many a debate. There have been reviews of the treaty by independent and government bodies alike yet still come up with different answers. Despite these inconclusive results it would appear to me the treaty is biased towards US interests. To do this, one must examine the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the US and subsequently the idea of interests, but first I intend address the idea that the treaty is written in an unbiased way.

The treaty is what on the surface appears to be perfectly unbiased, with it appearing that both sides have the same rights and responsibilities.

However, the words on the paper on tell only half of the story. What is equally, if not more important is the way in which the treaty is utilised.

The UK is said to enjoy a ‘special relationship’ with the US and it is a relationship that the UK in particular wishes to preserve. However, actual preservation of this relationship is entirely in the hands of the US. The US is the ultimately the more powerful country, as much as we would like to believe it isn’t the case, and subsequently could end the ‘special relationship’ with little cost to themselves. What does this have to do with the treaty then? Essentially what it means is that any time there is a clash of interests the US will always have the threat of the ‘special relationship’ looming over the head of the UK. This means that in the way the treaty is enforced there is a bias towards US interests.

Second of all comes the idea of interests. Fundamentally the interest of the any democratically elected government is the protection of its

people; because both the UK and the US are democratically elected, they therefore get their power to rule directly from the people of their country. A threat that is currently facing both of the US and the UK, although posing a greater threat to the US in particular, is the threat of terrorism.

Due to the nature of terrorism, the US government has taken an active role in trying to combat terrorism in order to protect its people.

I would like to highlight the case of Christopher Tappin, the British citizen who was recently extradited to the US on the charge of selling batteries to terrorists. As a British citizen it is in the interest of the UK to have his trial in the UK in order to protect him from the US legal system. 98% of people entering the US justice system enter a plea bargain because the risk of pleading “not guilty” and later being found guilty is too great due to the nature of sentencing in the US. In addition, the treaty allows the extradition without the presentation of all of the evidence so there is the possibility of him being innocent but too scared to proclaim it due to the unjust nature of the US system. For theses reason it was not only in the interest of the UK government to protect him from this, it was their duty. However he was extradited to the US and this goes to show that the US interests were met while the interests of the UK were not met, demonstrating the fact that the treaty is biased.

To conclude, while there may or may not be bias within the way the treaty was written, bias does exist in the way the treaty is enacted. First due to the special relationship the US have more power to use the treaty to meet their interests and secondly a demonstration using the example of Christopher Tappin where the UKs interests were not met, but the interests of the US were.

9

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Sankara: The Authoritarian Who Liberated a Nation

evidentially reinforced and indicative of US foreign policy in Africa.

Patrice Lumumba of the Congo was assassinated by the CIA and Belgian government officials. Salvador Allende of Chile was killed by the US backed Pinochet regime that resulted in a myriad of dead Chileans. Both of these deaths have been claimed by the CIA in the declassified files.

John Stockwell, a former CIA operative, believes that Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was ousted by the West.

Ulysses Estrada, a theorist involved in the Castro movement, believes Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau and Eduardo Montlane of Mozambique received the same fate.

This is the reality of the world we occupy. Do not be fooled by promises of aid in intervention because the motive is both ulterior and morally abhorrent. Western politics does not account for the welfare of the African continent and Burkina Faso is the epitome of this. The West assisted in the murder of Thomas Sankara and in return they received Blaise Compaoré who reversed every nationalisation, bent over to every So why was Sankara assassinated? demand and subjugation of the IMF and u-turned on every progresHis economic morality led to his downfall due to the nationalisation of sive domestic policy. Burkina Faso lost their economic and domestic major industries and his increasing isolationist policy. As such, Western independence for four rigged elecbusiness interests in the Ivory Coast tions. Compaoré is now leading a life of wealth and decadence whilst were dramatically affected. He was anti-Western to the core, so much so Burkina Faso is one of the least dethat he rejected all foreign aid. Some veloped countries in the world with may see this as proud and impetuous a 21% literacy rate. While Campaoré celebrates his 25th years of illegitibut as Sankara explained, ‘he who mate rule, Thomas Sankara lies in an feeds you, controls you’. This sentiunmarked grave somewhere on the ment echoes throughout Africa to outskirts of Ouagadougou. this day. He rejected both the strucWhile there are strong radical turing of the IMF and World Bank leaders in Africa, and other less and maintained a steadfast refusal to developed continents, the pioneers measles, meningitis and yellow pay Odious Debt. From a Western fever. Sankara understood the threat perspective his morality was trouble- never permitted to last. Stability and of AIDS and was the first African some enough, but when he started to progressive reform would undermine the repressive economic and leader to publicly acknowledge the affect profits, it was decided he was foreign policies of Western powers. disease. He did not stop there, going unfit to rule.

Such leaders would be identified as on to introduce both an education According to former Liberian authoritarian, Marxist and radical. programme on sexual health and warlord Prince Johnson, the former However, when you are building a free contraception for the Burkinabe. Liberian president Charles Taylor country out of the rubble of decoloThis may sound rather banal but the initiated Sankara’s assassination. nisation, full control combined with reality is that the majority of African Taylor financially backed the coup normative policies can lead to ecoleaders have opposed contraception led by Blaise Compaoré in 1987 nomic, social and political progress. due to the use of religion as a politi- and – according to Prince Johnson This was demonstrated by Thomas cal tool.

– the CIA was involved with TaySankara. Intervention is seldom in Sankara overtly cared for his peo- lor from the start. This may sound the interest of the indigenous; the ple and the sentiment was mutual. conspiratorial to the ill informed West rarely gives out democracy in He was known to jog through the but it is a logical conclusion that is return for nothing. streets of Ouagadougou unarmed genital mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages. His fervent belief in gender equality led him to urge the male Burkinabe to go out to the market and prepare food so as not to reinforce the institutionalised role of women.

Sankara’s innovative healthcare policy led to a nationwide vaccination programme which immunised 2.5 million Burkinabe children from

and would converse with the populace in person. 25 years have passed and he is still loved in Burkina Faso to an almost canonical extent. A cynic would argue that his unwavering popularity was resultant of a cult personality but this claim is unfounded. When asked why his portrait did not adorn the walls of Burkinabe schools, hospitals and institutions in the manner of most authoritarians, he replied, ‘because there are 7,000,000 Thomas Sankaras’ in Burkina Faso.

‘We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity... It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution. Women hold up the other half of the sky.’

flickr/Romano Martino

poor was genuine. In his first year of power he stripped the tribal chiefs of their feudal rights to serfdom and land tributes. Building on this policy, President Thomas Sankara was asSankara redistributed land and sassinated on October 15th 1987 by a within three years wheat crops had coward named Blaise Compaoré. For doubled. a continent where death is inextricaAs a revolutionary leader commitbly woven into the fabric of daily life, ted to innovative reform, Sankara’s this death had a devastating impact policies always broke the mould, be not only in Burkina Faso but for they social or economic. He was a Africa as a whole.

Thomas Sankara seized control of the Upper Volta with the help of Blaise Compaoré in a popular coup on August 4th 1983. Few would have thought that Sankara’s right hand man would be the same traitor that usurped his rightly deserved authority four years on. He was a pioneer who embarked on arguably the most effective social economic economic program in African history.

Sankara was a charismatic Marxist revolutionary with no concern for private property or personal wealth. Such qualities seem rare on a continent where, historically, leaders have flown the red flag as a mere front for a centralised economy through which control and embezzlement could be used to amass a fortune behind a closed curtain. This is where Sankara differed. The first thing he did as leader was to lower his presidential wage to a paltry $450 a month and sell the governmentowned fleet of Mercedes. When the ministers demanded to know how they would be travelling, Sankara presented them with replacement Renault 5 hatchbacks (the cheapest production car in Africa at the time).

It is almost unimaginable to think of a modern dictator or even a modern democratic leader having the humility to arrive in what is essentially a pioneer of women’s rights, saying fridge with wheels. that ‘the revolution and women’s A man of unshakeable princiliberation go together. We do not ples and a genuine patriot, Sankara talk of women’s emancipation as an rejected his nation’s original name of act of charity or because of a surge Upper Volta due to the connotations of human compassion. It is a basic of colonial oppression. The country necessity for the triumph of the was instead renamed Burkina Faso, revolution. Women hold up the other meaning ‘land of the upright people’ half of the sky.’ in Moore and Dioula. Sankara Women’s rights have historically rejected colonial influence and the taken a backseat in most African West, demanding that Africa unite leaders’ policies, but during Sankara’s and absolve themselves of all debt to brief tenure they were educated Western powers on grounds that the and actively recruited into the poor should not be giving money to army, his personal bodyguards and those profiting from exploitation. even the cabinet. On top of this, His concern for the plight of the he banned the horrific practices of

Maximillian Roch

10

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Features

Embracing Our Wrinkles Felicity King Features Editor

And yet, one in three women in the UK uses an anti-ageing product. According to a report in the Huffington Post, UK women spend, I was in Tesco the other day, waiting on average, £24,000 on anti-ageing in the self-service checkout queue. products in their lifetime. Just think As I stood there trying to drown out how many shoes could be bought that woman’s infernal ‘something with that. You could afford to build unexpected in bagging area’ which, a house of cheese, eat it, and then frankly, makes me want to put somebuild another one. Men don’t have thing very unexpected up her area to invest in these creams, and they more than anything else, I overheard already don’t have to buy tampons two girls. One of them was saying their Jaffa Cake allowance is already how beautiful she thought some much higher than ours. We shouldn’t woman was, to which the other one let society waste any more of our replied: “but she’s got wrinkles!” potential Jaffa Cake spending money.

Now, I didn’t see this woman’s face We shouldn’t let it convince us that so I am in no position to judge - nor there is anything else we have to do I particularly want to. Like most buy in order to be beautiful. Beauty average looking people I declare existed before Boots; the word beauty as lying within (while secretly beautiful is incredibly old, and so are crying myself to sleep every night beautiful people. These corporations because I don’t look like Liv Tyler. I are quite literally making money by don’t quite see what Liv Tyler ever convincing us, continually, that we did to deserve to look like Liv Tyler aren’t good enough, and that the and if she ever comes to Egham I natural cycle of life is somehow ugly will take this matter up with her.) and wrong. Walk straight past the However, I’m not Liv Tyler, and ‘you’ll-look-as-if-you-never-smiledwhat struck me as odd about this in-your-life’ moisturiser and spend conversation was the fact that any that £8.99 on Maltesers. potential beauty in this woman was I have respect for wrinkles. I find immediately denied by the fact she Think of the power rush you got it a personal miracle that somebody had wrinkles. This seemed a strange in year 11 when you were given as clumsy as me has made it to 21. remark to make considering, well, your prefect tie. It sat on your neck, If I ever get a wrinkle I am going to wrinkles are a bit like that novel Fifty a glowing beacon, declaring to all Shades of Grey. We can all say we’re those annoying Year Sevens that you be so impressed with myself I might never going to get it, but sooner or were here first, that you knew better, even throw a party. The world is full of dangers. It has cars and lampposts later we are. We can wear loads of that you were cleverer, cooler, and make-up, say ‘I’m 29, honestly’, and just generally better at life than them. and doors and so many objects that can fall on you or hit you in the face cover the damning front cover with Think of wrinkles as a prefect tie, or trip you up. Living to an age in the cover of Thackery’s Vanity Fair – maybe a prefect tie that hasn’t been which you start getting wrinkles is I confused my metaphors, I apoloironed in a while, but a prefect tie gise - but underneath it all we’ve got all the same. Why is it that at school an absolute achievement. I salute you, soldier, for negotiating the wrinkles. And a self-loathing desire being the oldest translates to being to read that bloody novel. the best, but the minute you hit forty minefield that is life and not stepping Think of wrinkles as some alien it becomes something to be ashamed on a banana skin or into a hole and invasion movie (it kind of works, and of? It’s not like the fun stops. Elderly bowing out at only eighteen. Wait, definitely makes it seem more excit- people - and their wrinkles- still have excitedly, for your first wrinkle, and ing). They’re coming, they really are fun. They tend to get away with eve- when you get it, be proud. In fact, and there’s nothing we can do to stop rything, they can say what they want, I’m writing to Clintons after this and suggesting a ‘CONGRATULATIONS it. They’re out there, floating around eat four scones in a row, and get up ON YOUR FIRST WRINKLE’ card. in space like silver strings of tinsel, to go for a pee half way through a getting ever closer on the horizon, church service and it’s okay. They’ve It’s time we changed our attitude; age is nothing to be ashamed of: being and one day they’ll land on our face. lived a long time and therefore But wrinkles aren’t aliens, they’re they’ve earned the right to do what- born is to the credit of our mothers, making it to eighty is entirely down not going to suck our brains out, so ever they want to - and always get a to us. instead of dreading that day, instead seat on the bus. of spending hundreds of pounds on some ‘you’ll-look-as-young-as-youdid-in-the-womb’ cream, we could just change our attitude. Why are they such a terrible thing? Personally, I think wrinkles are pretty cool.

Wrinkles are a sign you’ve lived, a sign you’ve smiled; wrinkles say I have made it to old age without falling off a cliff or tripping over a piece of dust or choking on air and dying.

Wrinkles say ‘I survived all the evils of the world, even the fashion for shoulder pads’. Wrinkles say ‘I was here before you, so there’. They’re a constant way of sticking your tongue out at younger people.

Wrinkles say ‘I survived all the evils of the world, even the fashion for shoulder pads’. Wrinkles say ‘I was here before you, so there’.

flickr/ *****María*****

tf

Next deadline

The next deadline is midday Saturday 17th November

flickr/ NJ..

11

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Features

History Society’s Blitz Ball

Monday 19th November, Founders Dining Hall, Doors Open at 8.30pm

Katie Osmon History Society Events Officer

A Drunken Rite of Passage

social sphere that isn't uncool, but sure doesn't get invited out clubbing with the rugby guys. The night I did I am currently experiencing the day after a night at Liquid, Windsor and, go was an A-level results celebration despite my head not being in perfect night and I remember agreeing with my then-girlfriend about how half working order, I feel that this is the perfect state of mind to be in to write past ten was a crazy time to go out, because once we got there the night about it. For those of you who don't would practically be over. I mean, yet know of this place, it is a nighthalf ten? I have normally already club, and if you hear that word and brushed my teeth by then. But bulthink of huge glamorous places full lied and pressured we agreed, and of good-looking people all sharing having spent my pocket money on drinks, conversation and civilised two WKDs, proceeded to awkwardly dances, then you are in for as much dance for about 20 minutes before as a surprise as I was. having to run to get the last train I have been at this university for nearly two and a half years and I like home. Last night I found myself to think I've established my character running to a friend's house in order as not the clubbing type, (and I'd like to make the taxi at half eleven, so we could start our night clubbing at to stress, 'clubbing type' isn't a bad thing, it's just a thing), yet I have lost midnight. After three hours of danccount of the number of nights I have ing, three shots of rum, a rum and coke, a beer and someone else's drink been to Liquid, and still find myself down my shirt, I was happy to call going again and again. it a night. Nights out used to be few Before university, I had only and far between and mark a special visited a club once. This was due to occasion in my life, and midnight a mixture of living quite far away used to be this magical time of secret from a city and being amongst the

Joshua King

feasts and adulthood, but now a night in is a sign of weakness and the middle of the night is anytime between three and six.

Now it's not because I don't like Liquid that I resent going back, it's the fact that I don't like that I like Liquid - and I'm trying my hardest not to sound pretentious or boring here, believe me. The reason I begrudge going is because I don't like being proven wrong every time I go. Each time someone invites me, my reply is always the same: 'no thanks, it's not really my scene', and yet I always end up going. This is because it is a place where you can

flickr/ Yoshimai

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s that time of year again; the annual History Society Blitz Ball is finally upon us.

Indisputably THE History Society event of the year, which is open to all – even those who are not members of the society! The ball promises a 1940s-style singer, fabulous music and a great bar; all this from inside the iconic Founders Dining Hall.

Last year’s event saw Dr Emmett Sullivan dressed as Winston Churchill; the appearance of a Land Girl; a few RAF pilots and the rest of us knocking about in black tie attire. It certainly makes a change from the standard SU get-up!

Escape from 2012 and return with us to 1941. For one night only it’s all about jitterbugging (which was so enviably demonstrated by members

of the Dance Society last year) and crooning Vera Lynn’s classic ‘We’ll Meet Again’. The evening promises a nostalgic look back into the past and a wonderful excuse to get all dressed-up.

So, for rouged-lips galore, hemlines above the knee (shock horror!) and outrageous patriotism – Union flags and wartime propaganda posters will be adorning the walls – come along to the Blitz Ball.

Let’s dance, drink and be merry; VDay could be just around the corner.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW: £14 for members, £17 for non-members; the event is open to all!

You can find out more at ‘RHUL's History Society’ Facebook group.

Or email us on: rhulhistorysociety@ gmail.com

essentially just enjoy yourself, which can be easy to forget when we are constantly confronted with stories about our anti-social, alcoholic youth culture, which do give clubs a certain negative connotation. Even dancing, which in theory I hate - because dancing in a room full of people is nothing if it isn't embarrassing - is enjoyable when you're with friends and just want to rid yourself of the stresses of student life. Basically, it's fun because more than anything, it's a place to be with your friends in a place that isn't the Student's Union.

Basically, it's not the club, or the drinks, or the social stereotypes that

makes me deny liking Liquid, it's the fact that liking Liquid means that I accept that my life is changing. Gone is the child who couldn't stay awake for New Year celebrations and gone is the teenager who thought clubs were top of the list of elitist privileges, and I have to accept that here is the inevitable drunken student who parties more than he reads and, even if he doesn't like it, enjoys going out to clubs. I like to think of it as a life investment: when I get older and I start telling students to 'make the most of university, it's the best time of your life,' I want to be able to mean it.

Disclaimer: Liquid Windsor doesn’t look like this.

12

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Features

Heard it on the grapevine... events this term...

Is it November already? Freshers’ Fayre has come and gone in a flash, with many sports and societies underway with their teams prepared, but perhaps you didn’t get around to attending that evaent which collided with so many others that you wanted to try. In my first term I tried to attend as many events as possible so that I could find the right one for me but then came the work and suddenly, without having the chance to settle on one, I became preoccupied with other commitments. Fear not though fellow students: Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs has plenty of new and exciting events on the horizon for you.

Currently going on is the Bartel Bogle Hegarty competition (aka BBH) where contestants will be fighting to win an internship with the British advertising agency and £1,000 to go towards their own marketing plans. The company have worked on many notable advertising campaigns including Audi, British Airways and Levi Strauss. Pitches for the event will be taking place on 12th November.

On the 15th November, students will be participating in Launch24, a competition which will put teams against each other to design the best new app. However, as opposed to

other events where students work over a period of time, here they will be working non-stop for 24 hours, so if you like a challenge, we strongly recommend that you check this one out. The prize for the winning team is yet to be announced but they will have their app developed for everyone to experience.

Come 7th December, we will be attending the Entrepreneur’s boat party across the Thames. In attendance, there will be entrepreneur societies from other London colleges including UCL, LSE and KCL. Something no Formula 1 fan will want to miss is a live speaker event with Operations Director of McLaren, Alan Forster. Here you will have the chance to hear about some of his experiences working there since 2008 and also as the Manufacturing Director prior to that. Afterwards, you can also expect a Q&A session where he will answer any questions you might have. This will take place on 17th January, sp make sure to check out our Facebook page so that you don’t this opportunity.

Having attracted over 500 people to the previous Night Market, the next one looks to be even better.

Taking place on 24th January, there will be games and all kinds of other events including raffles to win prizes.

Various societies will be performing here onstage and there will be stalls run by students selling all kinds of things including cakes, handmade jewellery and photography. There will also be the opportunity for you to set up your own stall at the Night Market.

Later on in February we will be hosting The Student Apprentice where, like the television series, students will compete in teams to beat the boardroom. It will be the perfect opportunity for you to display your skills when working within a team but will also allow you to develop new ones along the way. Last years event was very successful, with the winning team going to compete with other London university teams and this year looks to continue that trend. I also helped shoot and edit last years student Apprentice, so you will also have a video to look back on afterwards!

You can expect plenty to more in the way of other events too but the best way to make sure that you don’t miss a thing is to join our Facebook page (Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs) or follow us on Twitter (@ rhentrepreneurs) where we will be posting the latest news and events.

We hope to see you around!

Joshua Charles-Cheung has conquered the wine section of every one of Egham’s finest offlicences. His motto: vino, vidi, vici.

Bring water, bring wine, boy! Bring flowering garlands to me!

Yes, bring them, so that I may try a bout with love.

Anacreon c. 570 - c. 480 B.C. The nectar of the Gods. Alas, the purse and wallet have taken a battering. Let us try in earnest to find a solution, to aid us in godly drunken perfection - RUBY WINES, quite simply a metropolis of love and mirth. Take the post code, tell no one, visit. It shall be your spiritual home: TW20 0QY As you enter, meander through the nectar of lesser mortals and find the gargantuan bargain bucket. Villa Radiosa, Cabernet. At £3.99 a bottle, this wine is really surprisingly pleasant. Make no mistake, it is a simple wine. It doesn’t seek to lead you up the garden path, seduce you, flirt with you and tantalize you. Villa Radiosa quite simply bumps into you, looks you up and down and says: ”fancy a rut?” And, quite happily, it it hammers home the proverbial plough. But really, it’s quite a pleasant rut. So, chug and slurp away. I’d happily drink this at room temperature or even when the bottles frozen up a bit (due to the sodding weather).

Now for its qualities: the nose is pretty bitey Not giving away too much (mainly because there isn’t a lot there, kind of like stupid people), but still a glaring sturdiness and almost coarseness in it’s texture. Like a bundle of brambles in your mouth, but in liquid form. Hopefully that’s tangible in some way. But don’t for Christ sake eat a load of brambles and pass it off as wine. I tried. They laughed. I digress. On drinking, this coarseness is juxtaposed with a smooth vibrancy in its character. The fruit is clearly ripe and punchy which gives the taste a strange yet not discomforting acidity to it. Hints of juicy blackcurrant engage most of your palate and leave you not … enlightened, but warm and giddy. See it for what it is and enjoy it. Signing off now. Woof.

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13

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Features

The Honeymoon is What Business Can Learn Over: An Englishman from Fashion Abroad haps it’s time to ditch the standard knee-length pencil skirt in favour of the creations of the catwalk.

Trouser-suits are strong, stylish and professional; an image that the future modern business-woman cannot go without.

or lack of promotion. As uber-intern turned successful designer Witney Eve stated in a recent interview with We all know the score when it comes Company Magazine, every intern Patrick Freeman to internships: time is limited but should “have a great attitude…do impact is essential. Impressions whatever it takes without necessarily Okay, it’s been a month here in Cor- sion. I want Camp Stewie from Fam- are often created through attire being asked”. Whilst a trouser-suit doba, Spain, and I’m starting to earn ily Guy, not this Stefán carácter. The and whilst the designer catwalks of won’t guarantee you success, it will a reputation. People are calling me Autumn/Winter may not resemput you in the right frame of mind Spanish have broken Family Guy. the drunken Irish/English guy. I’m ble a Dragon’s Den boardroom the for work, you’ll therefore be more My rant's over. I’m not complainthe guy who always wants another dominance of women’s trouser-suits likely to contribute, get the most out ing. I’m certainly not downing a drink, who wants to go to another on the runways cannot be missed, so, of your experience, and most imporbottle of vodka and perusing the club, who wants to dance harder than Easyjet and Ryanair webpages. After what’s that got to do with interns? tantly, be noticed by your prospective anyone else. I’m the guy who wants Designers have reinvented the employer. spending last year with only an hour to Marry the Night, on the Edge traditional symbol of professionalWhat you wear can affect how a week at Royal Holloway, working of Glory, and although it is similar you feel, and how you feel will most menial jobs just to pay rent, living on ism, masculinity, and success to certainly affect how you perform. to the reputation I had at Royal dominate the fashion world as well a “Christian Bale from the MachinTraditionally, fashion was seen as Holloway, I don’t know if it’s what as the business world. Designer Jeanist” diet (Apple, tin of tuna, and as a women’s-only domain, but in the I want. The British are different to Paul Gaultier set off his Autumn/ many fags as I can pilfer); the fact Designers aren’t the only ones modern world this couldn’t be furevery other nationality here, our little that I am being given money to turn Winter couture collection with a ther from the truth, especially where island is a zany place in compariup to classes astounds me enough to stunning black suit, rich with texture challenging the perception of some of our strongest designers are son to the rest of the continent, but acclimatise. As an Erasmus student, I from the leather collar and arms, silk business-women. In documentary there’s not much I can do to change get credit for just turning up to these scarf, and a debauched-gentlemanly “Women at the Top” (BBC Two) Hi- men. Business needs to embrace the this oh so glamorous lifestyle I have feel from the traditional top hat and lary Devey states: “there are self-sac- same change, starting with women’s classes, even when los profesores rifices to be made. I have little time acquired. attitude towards their success. Future don’t, which can be often. My fellow umbrella. Ralph Lauren’s heritagefor those who won’t make those self- business-women of the world, be The point of the Erasmus experiinspired collection featured tailored students and I have been known to sacrifices, and then moan about it”. ence is to give you the opportunity to walk out when the teacher doesn’t trousers and coats in tweed cominspired, turn your commute into Gone are the days when women can a catwalk and prepare to wear the experience and become a part of an- mind, or has a speech impediment bined with newsboy hats to create or should rely on the tired-excuses of trousers in your relationship with other culture and way of life. I know (we’re sorry, but if the rest of the class a playful-boyish feel to go with its maternity leave, the cost of childcare, business. it is not going to happen overnight, empowered masculine looks. Percan’t understand, how is a girl from or male-dominated sectors for failure but I’m starting to learn that I’m Norway with two weeks of Spanish never going to be part of this Spangoing to?) As the matriculation ofish lifestyle. It’s completely different fice is only open for two hours, four from England; it’s slow here. Everydays a week, the university has no one is relaxed and nothing gets done. actual record that I am here. I could Banks are only open eight ‘til one. be dead for all they know, if I didn’t The Siesta, the only time I ever seem continually tweet about things being to have to buy anything, means the so weird here and Instagram everyshops are always closed- a source of thing out of unceasing boredom. intense frustration and regular bouts So, although I shall remain the of starvation. I haven’t had a regular, drunken Irish/English guy, I will decent, completely filling meal in the take this reputation and do with it whole month I have been here; it’s all what I can. It can’t be worse than the nibbly Tapas, a bit of bread and ham monotony of the British Daytime TV here, a sardine there, and I just want circuit, having to beg the parents for a GIANT CORNISH PASTY, AT money for baking ingredients, or be3PM, WHICH WILL FILL ME UP ing far too excited to live-Tweet durSO I CAN ACTUALLY CRACK ON ing the X Factor. I’ve got a Siesta to WITH STUFF. Oh wait, the shops kill, it’s thirty-three degrees outside, are closed, again. I want to dance to a and coffee is less than a Euro. Life song that doesn’t sound like Eurovi- could be worse.

Rhiannon Davies

‘Perhaps it’s time to ditch the standard knee-length pencil skirt in favour of the creations of the catwalk.’

flickr/faster panda kill kill

Paddy wastes away as Spanish grocers refuse to open at reasonable times

flickr/hinnamsaisuy

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Kulusuk, Greenland - Fran Stafford

Holloway View

pictures@thefounder.co.uk Our centre-fold is reserved for the best photos of scenery, events and moments of the Royal Holloway lifestyle that students send into our pictures editor. If you’ve taken a shot that you’re proud of recently, send it in!

The Library - Hannah Close

Dusk at Westminster - Hannah Close

15

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Fireworks at Carter’s Steam Fair, Englefield Green - Georgina Hallett

16

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Arts

CAT -OLOGUE ‘Star Gazing’ by Linda Gillard

William Henry Crossland: An Obituary

Cat Kay

It was pure chance that I stumbled upon this book. I was nearing the end of my first year at Holloway and my end of year exams, which had suddenly made university feel a whole lot more serious, were looming. In a bid to escape revision, I set off for Staines. I headed to WaterArts Editor Scott Wilson delves into the college archives to discover more about the man whose name now adorns everyone’s favourite café stones for a book; I wasn’t sure what I was looking for exactly, but I knew that I needed a book. I needed a t is impossible to capture Royal and moose than of Sanatoria." This is ties with others' time and pleasure. coffee too, but that would be found Holloway in an image without Crossland: a man who enjoys small Holloway was less the charitable thinking of our Founder's build- pleasures, but also a modest pragbusinessman, and more the flamboy- later. The store was closing in twenty minutes. I thumbed cover after ing. Designed by the architect Wilmatist. He returned to England, and ant millionaire, for whom philancover (with care- I love books after liam Henry Crossland, it is largely then began the endless negotiating thropy was an act of egoism. responsible for our campus being with Thomas Holloway.

This trend continued in the con- all) and read blurb after blurb, but I just couldn’t find that je ne sais quoi listed one of the sixteen most beauti- First, the period of design. struction of Founder's. In six years, paperback. They say you shouldn’t ful universities in the world by The Holloway wasn't even sure what the Holloway only visited the building Telegraph, and is the quiet but imsister building was going to be. A site three times. However, every day, judge a book by its cover, but I’m so glad I did, because the cover art and pressive monster that towers above sanatorium, yes, but the decision to Holloway would be taken past the intriguing title hinted at brilliant prospective students on open days. It finance a university for women was site in a carriage. While Crossland is an important week for Founder's, an impulse made on behalf of a con- toiled, managed, and supervised the prose within.

‘Star Gazing’, the title of Linda because on November 14th, or so we versation with his wife. The two men effort, he had to endure his patron's Gillard’s third novel, would suggest a think (a death certificate has yet to then had to agree what architectural clockwork but flippant disregard. be discovered) Crossland died aged style the buildings would emulate, Martin Holloway, our patron's broth- story about staring at the sky. Actually, no. This is a novel that encour73 years, disappearing largely from Crossland pushing for his favourite er in law, "used to act like [Hollohistory with only his buildings as renaissance image. Holloway agreed way's] deputy." To Holloway's credit, ages its readers to use every sense but sight. It is set partly in Scotland’s proof he ever existed. resoundingly, but when told by a he did break his silence of praise It was writer Sir John Betjeman woman at dinner the university when, after six years, he clapped the capital, and this is where the story begins, on a typical Edinburgh street who looked for and never found the "would look like all the other men's architect on the back and said "well lined with Georgian town houses. death certificate. Holloway historicolleges", Holloway contacted Cross- done, mister Crossland, I am more We meet Marianne, the novel’s heroans Richard Williams and Caroline land, claiming renaissance charm than pleased." But that was one day Bingham have also been useful would not do, forcing the architect of two thousand in which Crossland ine, climbing out of a taxi with bags of groceries, making her way to her sources in my reading. The problem to redraw his sketches. Holloway was acknowledged. front door. But, after a thoughtless we encounter with Crossland is this: then suffered a light fever, and upon In 1894, Crossland returned to young man cycles past and almost after he designed Founder's, in an recovery decided that actually a Royal Holloway to finish the ladies' knocks her over, she drops her keys. arduous and taxing ordeal where he renaissance theme would be best. swimming pool. Richard Williams This event is unremarkable in itself, was treated with less respect than Then, the visit to Château de writes, "After that, no more is heard he deserved, he disappeared from Chambord. Holloway, Crossland, from him. It is believed he turned to until it is the platform for a major reveal: Marianne is blind. What is record. Gone were the dinners with and a small selection of men stayed drink but there is no documented essentially a minor inconvenience is, London's elite, intuitive projects, and for two weeks to measure and discuss evidence." Our acknowledgement in Marianne’s world, unsettling and praise from contemporary newspathe building which would be the to him is one of tragic irony, the pers, instead replaced by alcoholism point of reference for their project. campus bar, 'Crosslands', rather than frightening. Enter Keir, the helpful stranger who saves the day. However, and loneliness.

Crossland spoke of our namesake, a halls of residence. Crossland was Keir disappears as quickly as he ap The most telling source, that "he never, or perhaps very seldom a man of undeniable talent – every peared and Marianne’s sister, Louisa, imparts a personal history of the praised any one […] as he never single major project he designed building, I found in the archives of spared himself, he never spared became a grade 1 listed building. To begins to wonder if Marianne dreamt him up. Welcome to empiricism: seeFounder's library. It is an invaluable me nor my clerks." He continues, him, architecture was genuine phiing is believing, sight is proof – but written speech from the architect describing the unending workload, lanthropy. It was the purpose of his himself, entitled 'The Royal Holloway and his experience of little sleep. art "to leave examples of great genius what world is affirmed when there is no sight?

College'.

His birthday was ignored. Being an for the benefit of succeeding ages."

Marianne’s world is sensory. As she Upon discovering he had won architect is not a nine-to-five ocHolloway's philanthropy was part sits on a bench in the open air, Keir, Holloway's competition for designs cupation, and Thomas Holloway has of his dominance, which Crossland for a grand university, a competialways been a symbol of Victorian acknowledged, "he worked harder to who is passing nearby, is recognized tion he was always going to win, due dominance. Our university does, spend his money than he ever did to by scent. So begins a journey of discovery for Keir and for the reader, to a discussion they had previously, at quite a high level, symbolise this make it."

Crossland relates "When the adjudominance. Crossland would have I would like to thank the staff of as we begin to gain an idea of life using your other four senses. The dication was given in our favour, I understood this level of work was the Founder's library archive store novel takes in enchanting Edinburgh was in the woods of Nova Scotia, entirely necessary, but it was at the for their help, without which this thinking a good deal more of salmon behest of a man who took great liber- article would not have been written. and the beautiful Scottish scenery,

I

alosix flickr/ h

Photo: Thomas Seal

THE

but it was the lexical landscape and the characters that flickered in my mind long after I’d finished the book.

Gillard’s characters are real; you feel as if you could have passed them in the street this morning. They don’t so much jump off the page, as jump onto it. Her powers of portrayal are beyond good, and instead brilliantly imaginative. She teaches us to listen, to realise the beauty of hearing, how sounds can create aural paintings for the ears, and pen melodic poetry in the mind. It was not just a breath, but a whirlwind, of fresh air to read a book which reminds us that we have five senses and that, in this world, there is so much more than meets the eye.

The novel traverses tough issues, but with a soothing touch. The issue is not Marianne’s blindness- that is more an issue for others than for her.

It is loneliness, not from a world she cannot see, but from an oil disaster that made a widow of her in her twenties. It is arguably not Keir who is phantom-like, but Marianne’s late husband, Harvey, whose absence still haunts Marianne two decades after the disaster. Keir offers remote and rough comfort in the form of an offer to visit his island home on Skye. He says he wants to “show” Marianne the stars. And that he does. As Marianne experiences life through her other senses, so do we. This is a book which will make you notice and appreciate things you barely knew were there; the small sounds which mark out life for those who do not have the privilege of sight to guide them.

Moreover, it is a story whose abiding message is one of hope. It doesn’t so much shine a light in the dark; rather it gives the darkness words, shape and meaning.

After having been in contact with the author, I discovered that ‘Star Gazing’ was not her intended title for the book. Her choice was ‘Falling Water, Weeping Stone’. It certainly captures the emotional heart of the book. However, ‘Star Gazing’ implies a certain sense of looking beyond the everyday of this world, and that’s exactly what I found myself doing after reading this book. In fact, I realise I wasn’t looking at all. This book didn’t open my eyes, it closed them, and I’m so very glad it did.

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Arts

17

Review: Twelfth Night at The Globe with character, it triumphed. It’s much more than a historical curio.

Particularly at the Globe, it highhis production of ‘Twelfth lighted one of the great and often lost Night’, moving from the virtues of Shakespeare: he aims to Globe to the Apollo, is akin to please everyone. For those who find miraculous. Though this production that Shakespeare is a foreign lanhad huge success ten years ago and guage, there are visual gags and silly brings Stephen Fry back to the stage laughs galore. For those who know alongside the great Mark Rylance, it this play backwards, the vigour and panache offers something fresh and still surpasses high expectations. If every funny line is genuinely funny. you only see one Shakespeare play This production is absolutely hithis year, you could do much worse if you only see one play, you could do larious. Though 'Twelfth Night' is a play of warmth and sensitivity, where much worse. characters grieve lost loves and fail This production is original practo woo new ones (and this productice: all male cast, period costumes, tion is sensitive and poignant, often period music (beautiful madrigals thanks to Johnny Flynn’s lovely perand Elizabethan instruments) and staying close to Elizabethan temformance), this production is devasplates. How this will work in a tatingly funny. At times I almost did proscenium arch remains to be seen, myself injury laughing. Shakespeare’s but at the Globe, a theatre brimming jokes are unlikely to be funnier and

Nicholas Hyder

T

Photo: Evening Standard

flickr/Documentally

if there’s a gap in the play where a joke can fit - they’ll put it in, from making one of Feste’s songs tensely humorous to perhaps the comic highlight of the year: a sole word from Maria.

If it can be funny, it will be.

Director Tim Carroll deserves much praise, firstly for giving this brilliant production life and secondly for bringing together the ensemble of the year.

Johnny Flynn’s Viola/ Cesario is sensitively drawn and a lovely partner to Samuel Barnett’s equally well-drawn Sebastian. Liam Brennan gives Orsino fire in his belly and a real presence. Paul Chihadi manages to steal the play from underneath his peers with a cunning, vixen-like and captivating Maria.

Stephen Fry returns to the London stage with Malvolio.

After 17 years, it’s a welcome return. We see nuances not seen since 'Wilde', and Fry is perfectly judged in the ensemble. His Malvolio may be narcissistic and silly, but Fry juggles the depth of a wronged lover and the humour – what humour! – of Malvolio’s iconic scene. He’s believably human, but a very daft human. Stephen Fry the actor is back and better than ever.

Mark Rylance, perhaps the greatest living actor, plays Olivia. In 'Jerusalem' he was justly showered with awards and superlatives and now he deserves to be showered all over again. Rylance draws out the silliness in what is, ultimately, a silly character, aloofly chasing ‘Cesario’ and demolishing any dourness in the role. “Most wonderful!” she cries at the end, thinking she sees her lover twice. Rather than joy at this denouement, there’s a glint in Rylance’s eye that suggests something

else wonderful in two lovers. And Rylance’s ethereal walk is worth the ticket price. In this production, even walking is comedy.

Nothing compares to the Globe: it’s a unique space where the past of the building meshes seamlessly with the present of the city. The Apollo, however, where one punter queued for three days to see Rylance in 'Jerusalem' – it was that good - is a worthy home for this stellar production.

The same troupe (Stephen Fry aside) are also transferring their original practice 'Richard III'. It may be better than 'Twelfth Night', but that’s a close call. Although the ensemble’s every bit as good as it is in 'Twelfth Night', this is Mark Rylance’s

show. He shatters the cliché Olivier set: he’s empathetic, introverted, intelligent, and the character has a more pronounced arc. It’s strikingly and surprisingly moving. Carroll works wonders in the production, but it stands as Rylance’s triumph.

With both of these great productions running over Christmas, now is the winter of our complete content.

An Apology Apologies to Olivia Soutter. Her excellent review of a Midsummer Night's Dream, which appeared in Issue 1, was not accredited to her.

Apologies from The Founder!

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Arts

flickr/ Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)

Real Horrowshow: RHUL Director Tackles A Clockwork Orange

An interview with Jack Doyle In her final year at Holloway, Drama and Theatre Studies student Miranda Marvin finds herself leading the charge that is the Drama Society’s A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess’ adaptation of his own deeply controversial 1962 novel. I spoke to the director post-rehearsal. Even with the show weeks away, Miranda was all business and eager to share her experience with what’s promising to be a ground-breaking production for Royal Holloway.

it myself. I also realised how relevant the themes of the play are to how our society is at the moment – it covers everything from gang violence to corrupt politicians – and after the London riots during that summer, I thought it was particularly apt timing.

that I have such a fantastic cast and crew has made my directing experience incredibly fun and also far less stressful (so far!) than I was expecting it to be.

This show has a lot of name-brand recognition. How is your show unique?

What has your directing experience been like up to this point? How A Clockwork Orange is often has ‘A Clockwork Orange’ been in described as a ‘black comedy’, but comparison? most of the interpretations I’ve seen/ heard of rarely focus on this aspect I had only directed a couple of short of it. Whilst you can’t get away from the fact that it is a very dark, intense scenes prior to doing this producstory, to me it was very important tion so when I heard that I’d got the Why did you choose this producbid, my first reaction was excitement that we did bring out this humour in tion? our production, mainly so the audifollowed by terror! I knew it would ence don’t go away completely shellbe a massive challenge, but it’s actuI was inspired to put on A Clockshocked! The play also usually has a ally been really great to be thrown work Orange after I saw a producvery male-heavy cast, but I’m pleased in at the deep end. I’ve taken on tion of it at the Edinburgh Fringe that we’ve managed to create a fair other production team roles before Festival in 2011. I was already a huge such as producer and stage manager, split with a half male/half female fan of the book, and I had no idea cast. Because the themes of the play but it’s been very strange being in that the author (Anthony Burgess) are so relevant to our society now, charge and having the final say in had also adapted it into a play. Seeing everything to do with the show. I’m I’ve given the play a modern day sethow brilliantly it translated to the not used to having that power, so it’s ting, but you will also see influences stage made me really keen to direct of the Teddy Boy gangs of the Fifties been quite an adjustment! The fact

and Sixties which will hopefully give this production quite an individualistic feel.

‘A Clockwork Orange’ is notorious for 'a bit of the old ultra-violence'.

How have you and the cast approached the play’s graphic nature?

We’ve been very lucky in that we’ve had an excellent choreographer, Jay Douglass, to help us deal with the nastier aspects of the play. I sat down with Jay over the summer and we planned exactly how we would deal with situations like the gang fights and the rape tastefully and effectively; because we were so prepared, it was actually pretty easy to turn our ideas into a practical reality. The cast have also been brilliant, offering suggestions when things didn’t work out, and just really enthusiastically accepting the challenge. I hope we’ve dealt with the violence in a sensitive enough way that it will still make a big impact without causing too much distress. However the show will come with an 18+ guideline rating…

Why does Royal Holloway need this show right now?

I think this show will really appeal to students because of the way it views young people and the effects that things like unemployment have on them. Alex, the protagonist of the story, is such a complex character, but I think of all audience types students will understand him the best. It’s definitely going to be a very original and exciting production, and I think the audience will feel pushed right out of their comfort zone in an exhilarating way! I also think that this show definitely stretches the boundaries of what you expect of student theatre and will be a very intense experience for anyone who comes to see it.

A Clockwork Orange runs from the 24th to the 27th of November. For more details, visit www.rhuldramasoc.com.

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Music

James Bond: More than just a Movie Katie Osmon Music Editor James Bond, 007: the franchise that has more glamour, more finesse and more martinis than any other. You

may consider it a little odd for Bond to feature in the music section of The Founder. Think again; with the release of each new film comes a new title theme song, which is always subjected to intense scrutiny and judgement in advance of the film.

Duran Duran’s Bond theme remains the most commercially successful.

Shirley Bassey ‘Goldfinger’ (1964)

Monty Norman Orchestra ‘James Bond Theme’ (1962)

Paul McCartney & Wings ‘Live and Let Die’ (1973)

So often left out of top Bond song polls, the top Bond title song has to be the ‘James Bond Theme’ itself. It’s the classic “dum di-di dum dum” that immediately sends signals to the listeners brain to cue a Bond action sequence. It’s a musical masterpiece arranged by John Barry, who also composed ‘A View to a Kill’ and both of the Shirley Bassey entries in this list.

is certainly more musically adventurous than many other Bond theme songs…but I suppose it was the seventies. I can’t imagine that anyone involved in the making of this song was sober, but hey, it works!

This is the first of two songs from Shirley Bassey to feature. ‘Goldfinger’ combines the forceful vocals of Bassey with a heavy use of brass to create a richly dramatic musical masterpiece. It’s a bold track and in stark Duran Duran ‘A View to a Kill’ (1985) contrast to its predecessor ‘From Russia with Love’.

‘A View to a Kill’ remains the only Shirley Bassey ‘Diamonds are For- Bond title song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s no surever’ (1971) prise really as the punchy pop-rock song is brilliantly executed and really While they do say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, this song sug- stands out against the instrumentals in many of the other Bond songs. It gests that they “can stimulate and also didn’t hurt that Duran Duran tease” and allow you to “touch it, were at the height of their popularity stroke it and undress it”. I’m not so sure about that Bassey! Regardless of in 1985 to propel the track to success. the lyrics that sexualise diamonds, it is a classic track that’s beautifully arranged and passionately sung.

flickr/johanoomen

flickr/Eva Rinaldi

This is fair enough really because whilst some are iconic tracks, a few… are not.

Of the last ten movies, no theme song has reached lower than twelfth in the UK charts with Duran Duran’s ‘A View to a Kill’ reaching number two in 1985. That has only been matched by Adele’s ‘Skyfall’. Whilst the Bond title songs of more recent years have had chart success, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were that good. The Alicia Keys song is a good example of this - not even Jack White could save that track with her screeching all over it. ‘Skyfall’ is a return to form with best-selling singer Adele giving a solid, soulful performance, although sadly the track doesn’t allow for her true vocal range to shine.

Choosing the top five Bond title songs is controversial, since everyone has their favourites, but here are mine:

Chaotic, fastpaced instrumentals are suddenly interrupted by laid-back reggae, followed by a violin accompanied croon by Paul McCartney. The song

London University Music Competition Relaunched Harun Musho’d

Budding bands and songwriters at Royal Holloway (and other London universities) are being given another opportunity to take the main stage in the second University Music League competition, which launched in September. The main prize offers contest winners an EP produced at the award-winning Metropolis Studios, a three-month PR campaign, a promo video and a support slot at Camden’s Koko.

The League operates between London-based student musicians and the higher-education institutions they represent. All the acts will get a chance to showcase their music both

live and online early next year both, and the chosen finalists will perform at a major London venue. Eliminations will then be determined by public vote.

The application deadline is the end of November (the exact date is yet to be confirmed). Only one member of any act has to be studying at a London University. Students can apply via the Uni Music League website at: www.unimusicleague.com If you do apply, please let The Founder (music@thefounder.co.uk, or harun.mushod.2010@live.rhul. ac.uk) know when you are appearing and we’ll do our best to cover it.

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Music

The Founder’s Writers Present Some of the Best in New Music Sean Littlejohn

Katie Osmon

Natasha Barrett

Victoria Halford

Katherine McKenzie

Recommends: MMX

Recommends: Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs

Recommends: Jasper in the Company of Others

Recommends: The Tuts

Recommends: Matt Corby

In a similar vein to The Horrors, TOY and Cat’s Eyes, Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs bring a refreshing and slightly more uplifting tone to the musical world of psychedelic rock. Raspy guitars, a haunting keyboard and lingering vocals create an intoxicating tone, with the overlylong tracks spilling onto one other like a hazy dream. They are yet to release an album, but their first single ‘I Watch You’ was released October 15th. It would have to be said that bearing in mind the name of the band, their debut was rather aptly titled! The five lads are currently touring the country supporting TOY. Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs are well worth checking out.

After the release of their first EP ‘Got Soul, Got Vibe’ in September 2011, Jasper in the Company of Others is an up-and-coming band to watch!

Having seen them at Barn on the Farm festival this summer I was thoroughly excited by how different they are to recent chart toppers, with their unique blend of folksy style (particularly the ukulele played by Jak Hayward, who effectively looks like a pirate) and fantastically upbeat tunes. There is a definite hint of Jason Mraz, and they could equally be considered a light version of Mumford and Sons with a dash more rock and roll pizzazz! The cheekiness and charisma of the band members certainly adds to their loveable quality.

This London-based three piece are certainly making waves as a live band as well recording artists. Their EP sold out rapidly in Rough Trade record stores, and upon listening it’s no surprise why. The band is clearly inspired by indie greats such as The Libertines and The Cribs, packing songs with punchy, catchy tunes and profound lyrics. They create a raw sound, probably aided by the relentless touring they have undertaken. The Tuts have the potential for mass appeal with likeable 3-chord tunes, such as ‘I Call You Up’. With the recording of fresh tracks next month, and new songs ‘Always Hear the Same Shit!’ and ‘Back Up’ already pleasing crowds, The Tuts are definitely a band to tap into and see live.

Fearne Cotton recently made Matt Corby’s ‘Brother’ her ‘Big Thing’ of the week on Radio 1, playing it once every day and speaking with the man himself. Since appearing on Australian Idol as a teenager, Matt has taken the path of the singer-songwriter, revamped his image and learnt to show off his incredible vocal range to perfection. I’ll be honest with you, his implausibly good looks and modesty add greatly to his identity as an artist. I dare you not to be enchanted within the first five seconds of ‘Brother’. What’s more, his ‘Into the Flame European Tour’ kicks off in November. I can’t think of many better ways to procrastinate during essay madness.

Not many bands cater to all tastes, but I honestly believe that MMX is one of the few that will. Formerly a little-known band called Francesqa, the Oxfordshire four-piece – comprising of Ashley Wilkie, Tom Millar, Ben Hordos and Warren Senior - opt for a questionable name and a different direction. They stray from their pop-rock roots and go for a breezier, more pleasant sound that mixes the best of indie and alternative music…

They are yet to release a full album (something which they also failed to do as Francesqa), but the two singles from their debut album, which the band is currently recording, promise something very different and very special. Providing they make it to album one, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the charts with their infectiously catchy, sombre tunes.

And if not, I’ll still love them.

Best track: ‘Beverley’

Top track: ‘I Watch You’

Listen to: ‘Cold World’

Harun Musho’d Recommends: Miss Terry Blue Miss Terry Blue, last year’s winner of the Uni Music League, describe themselves as ‘pop’ artists, but are closer to the jazzy/soul sound of Amy Winehouse or Adele. A ninepiece multinational band created and fronted by Brit songwriter Isabella Lueen, the band includes a Scottish bassist, Italian percussionist, Russian “effect driven sound” and a French saxophonist. Isabella herself trained as an opera singer before focusing on more contemporary music. Her vocals are not as heartfelt as Amy’s or as powerful as Adele’s but her songwriting is up there, judging by the band’s songs posted on the Uni Music League and the band’s MySpace sites.

Standout song: ‘Some More’

Favourite song: ‘Get that feeling’

Best tracks: ‘Brother’ and ‘My False’

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The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Advice He spent Reading Week searching for Nazi gold off the coast of Morocco.

but that doesn’t mean you have to convert every try you score on the friend list.

But now he’s back to help you. flickr/microturbian

Uncle Fullfrontle.

A man of mustaches, muscat, and mystery.

Take Founder’s building for example, a beautiful building on the outside to be sure, but the real charm lies on the inside with the library, picture gallery and quadrangles. Jane Holloway herself shared your very conundrum.

She was considered the single most sultry strumpet in all of England until she met that fine philanthropist who was ever more willing to participate in charitable deeds and marry the hag. And as the story goes, it was her natural charm developed over many a social circumstance which set her on a path of virtuous love. My advice is find a man that makes you laugh and restrain from dragging him into the nearest closet for a good rutting, play things more subtly and take the longer road to pleasure town, for you never know what INTANGIBLE delights you might share along the way.

Dear Uncle Fullfrontle,

The other day I found my boyfriend dressing in my clothes and makeup.

‘Concerned’ doesn’t quite cover it. Does this mean I don’t attract him anymore? I really don’t know what to think. We haven’t spoken since and I find the whole thing upsetting. Does this spell the end for us?

Sarah, Wedderburn

Dear Uncle Fullfrontle,

I have an image problem. I like to think of myself as an open and friendly person and I don’t have trouble making friends, and more often than not, one night boyfriends. I’m scared of this reputation that I have made for myself. How do I get rid of this image when all the boys I would have a relationship with run a mile after they hear about my past? Please help me!

Lexi, Desperate woman

L

exi, a wise man once said that you must slay many dragons before you can reach your princess (or in your case prince).

But when you have killed off all the dragons in the land and you are standing in a pool of dragon blood with a complement of dragon teeth draped around your neck, you have possibly missed the point. Your reputation has been passed along and all those who go before you fear the very ground you walk upon. But all is not lost.

Image on our fine campus is important, but not tantamount to your very worth as a human being. As you say. you make friends easily,

Have a problem with no clear resolution? Let Uncle Fullfrontle have the last word. Send your problems to arts@thefounder.co.uk, and our resident editors will track him down to whatever cave he has taken as his habitat. Good luck!

D

Sarah, every boy goes through a brief moment in their lives where they find themselves tangled in their mother’s dresses and at that point they come to a series of important epiphanies.

You have genuinely found yourself in a life experience of which I have no experience, however my time spent in the upper Himalayas does grant me some purchase on the problem. I met a Buddhist priest along my travels who shared with me a cup of chai and a few words of wisdom: “When a sheep is sheared, is it not still a sheep or is it a naked goat”?

Take from this what you will Sarah, but what the man was trying to convey was a sense of the world as a whole and all those things that walk this earth take many different paths. To bring this back to the central argument, it would appear that your boyfriend might not be the person you first assumed he was. Either you move on, or accept him as he is now. Don’t look at this as the end - perhaps take your naked goat for a walk.

Yours sincerely,

Uncle Fullfrontle

Please recycle this newspaper when you’re finished!

22

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Humour - Part the 2nd -

The Essay Hello again, dear readers. I hope this finds you protected from the sudden cold, wrapped in your jumpers and cloaks, sipping from strong, steaming beverages and gazing out the window reminiscing about that lovely from the night before. Perhaps you had a lie in today and have only just awoken proper. You stretched, thought about your plans and appointments, and then had a long shower. But what of your dear Monty? Well, my darlings, like a cuckoo thrown into a bird’s nest full of bloodthirsty baby raptors on a cocaine binge, Monty’s had somewhat the ordeal, and I will relate to you this cautionary tale.

I started going to my history lectures recently, and then my seminars. I’m disappointed by the lack of silver service and that there’s no table wine, but I suppose this is uni life. The problem is, readers, I was set an essay. I shrugged off the responsibility, knowing I had all the time in the world to craft my genius that would one day be the ruling gospel of man. Monty had better things to do, like drawing pictures of Alan Rickman flying a dinosaur around space, and getting drunk, naked and wander around Founder’s in a bow tie taking things from the pantry.

Fast forward to the night before my deadline. The question: something about colonialism; the ambition: optimistic, slight chance of over-zealous sentences and poor referencing, but all signs indicating a first, and possibly a knighthood. I began to write away, furiously, like a man possessed. This was going to be fine. The first problem was my laptop was low on science juice, and I’d lost my charger the night before, beating away a drug dealer who thought I was his friend, ‘Baz’. Seven glasses of rioja and three paragraphs in, my laptop swoons and dies. I am forced, my friends, to go the library.

Sure, it’ll be an all-nighter now, but that’s no problem for your friend Monty- his mother was in labour for almost two days because he’s a trooper, and there was no way he was being kicked out of the womb-club without making a real fuss. There were no free computers, however, but there was one left unattended, and as this would only take half an hour - because this boy knows his geese from his grouse- I requisitioned it and began to continue my essay.

Forty minutes later an absolute god-

dess appeared over my shoulder and asked me what I thought I was doing on her computer.

“Darling,” I replied, “I’m writing my essay. Can you get me some wine from Crosslands? After I’m done we can head up to the archives and I’ll show your Jane Holloway my philanthropy.”

And then, my loves, she grabbed me by the ears and head-butted me. I’ve been known to tumble with the best of them, readers, but I’ve never been rogered like that. I kicked out with my foot, and, due to physics, kicked her in the face. She fell like a sack of Oh-GodWhy. And then came the fury. She lunged above me and began raining down the painall the pain, all the pain that’s ever happened, was now being directed by her, into my face. I tried to fight back, and before you say ‘Monty, that’s not like you. Where’s your chivalry?’ I’m going to say right now I thought I was about to die. I’ve seen nature documentaries where the lioness hunts the gazelle, then somehow uses its hide and bones to fashion a rudimentary

space station and holds the world to ransom with a laser beam, proving just how resourceful lionesses can be. This woman was that lioness.

I woke up three hours later, outside, in the rain. At one point I must have chundered. I know this because there was chunder in a halo around my head and up my nose. My darlings, I was forced to stagger home to my dear room, bloody and strangely aroused, and I began to write my essay on the back of a menu I’d stolen from a restaurant in London, because I had no paper. I’d forgotten the essay title, so wrote my name instead so at least they’d know who it was by. All in all I managed to write eight hundred words on that menu before I ran out of space and had to use my membership cards for the final two hundred. I’m a member of many places.

I will not tell you the grade and discussion I had with my seminar leader in the weeks following, but it was not the first I had originally hoped for. But Monty never dies, and I’ll be buggered if an academic thinks he can tell me I’m not meeting the basic standard.

flickr/myPhotoshopBrushes

The Adventures of: Montague ‘Fresh’ DeLarge

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the Founder, please send your submissions to:

• editor@thefounder.co.uk for general enquiries, or if you’d like to help with design.

• newsdesk@thefounder.co.uk for any news, or if you’d like to become a reporter.

• comment@thefounder.co.uk for features or articles for the Comment & Debate section.

• features@thefounder.co.uk for something that perhaps slips between the other sections • arts@thefounder.co.uk for the art exhibition or theatre reviews and art comment.

• film@thefounder.co.uk for the film reviews and cinema comment.

• music@thefounder.co.uk for the album or gig reviews and music comment.

• sports@thefounder.co.uk to submit match reports or sports club articles • pictures@thefounder.co.uk to submit your best photographs from campus and beyond

The next submissions deadline is Midday, Saturday 17th November

the founder

the independent student newspaper of royal holloway, university of london

23

24

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Film

Skyfall - Bond is Back! *****

Thomas Hardesty Dir. Sam Mendes Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Naomi Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Berenice Marlohe

Thomas Hardesty discusses the long-waited Bond 23, Skyfall, and the take of director Sam Mendes on agent 007.

From the moment Bond 23 entered

production, fans were pleased and the good news kept on coming. The announcement that Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes was onboard and the great cast raised everyone’s hopes that this would certainly be a strong contender for the best Bond film yet. However, there were still plenty of naysayers about Daniel Craig, and the effect of the writers’ strike on Quantum of Solace didn’t help matters. The aforementioned last Bond film came out in 2008, and since then, it affected the modern James Bond’s reputation. Personally, I still find QoS to be an enjoyable yet flawed film, and consider Craig to be one of the best actors working today, but could MGM deliver in Skyfall?

Yes they can, exceeding all expectations and making one of the best Bond films to date!

Whereas QoS took Bond down a darker path, Mendes is smart to move away from that plotline and start afresh with a new story. Craig, Judi Dench as M and Rory Kinnear as Tanner are the only returning actors from the last film. New to the scene are Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris,

Bérénice Marlohe and Ben Whishaw as Q. Of course, what makes a great Bond film is a great villain, and Javier Bardem is fantastic as the menacing Silva. His performance is as grand as his introduction and Bardem brings a real, demented sense of threat to the film, unlike Dominic Greene in QoS. A challenge faced by many Bond films including all the elements and characteristics fans want to see while delivering something new and exciting. Skyfall successfully pleases fans with many great moments, but Mendes isn’t afraid to take the film to new places. While the film features Naomi Harris and Bérénice Marlohe as the attractive Bond girls, the main Bond girl this time is M herself.

The once background relationship between M and Bond, which would usually be shown shortly after the credits sequence and never seen again, becomes the fore focus of the film. We see Bond in a new light as we explore his character, which Craig seems well suited for, and he is brilliant delivering the wit and charm as expected. However, he still manages to bring something new to a 50-year-old role. Q finally makes an appearance as a young computer

whizz, who plays off well against Bond’s scepticism in a brilliant scene set in the National Picture Gallery.

Without wanting to turn this into another film student’s thesis, the film looks amazing. Whether the action is in sunny Istanbul, neolit China or the foggy countryside of Scotland, cinematographer Roger

“an all-round brilliant film with breathtaking action” Deakins (No Country for Old Men, True Grit) continues to impress. A notable example would be the sniper scene in China, which is brought to life through its impressive visuals and use of reflections. Not bad for a man nominated for only nine Academy Awards.

Skyfall is an all-round brilliant film with breathtaking action, great acting and directing. Craig shines as James Bond, continuing to impress and will likely win over sceptics. French actress, Bérénice Marlohe manages to stand out amongst a strong crowd and delivers a great performance as the mysterious Sévérine, while Naomi Harris is charismatic as MI6 field operative Eve. Both of them have great chemistry with their leading man.

With news that Craig has signed onto at least two more films, there is good reason to look forward to seeing what happens next as Mendes sets the bar very high for whoever picks up the mantle next.

uk.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-editors/orlando parfitt

Sinister ***

Krystal Stone Dir. Scott Derrickson Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Michael Hall D’Addario

Anyone who has seen The Exorcism

of Emily Rose or The Day the Earth Stood Still would not have high hopes for Scott Derrickson’s latest contribution to the big screen.

However, Sinister fails to disappoint, I was both captivated and terrified.

Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a well-known author of true crime books, still riding in the success of his bestseller, Kentucky Blood. He is desperate to find another winning story and avoid going back to writing school textbooks. Ellison moves his family to a house outside a small town in Pennsylvania that was previously owned by a family that were discovered brutally murdered, and the daughter missing. Hiding this from his family, he discovers that there is much more to the story than he initially suspected, and becomes obsessed with the case beyond reasoning.

Sinister received mixed reviews, some felt that that the plot was too flawed and over-clichéd, whereas others were impressed with the scares and pleased with the way the narrative unfolded. I find myself somewhere in

the middle. A good horror film is one that scares, and that it did. In an age where “torture porn” is considered an actual genre, I was relieved to watch a horror with a classic edge, focusing on the tension and anxiety that keeps you on the edge of your seat as opposed to the other kind of “gore fest” that requires little talent (after all, anyone can splatter blood over the walls and rip the intestines from a dumb blonde’s stomach). Whilst I agree that Sinister did have its fair share of “cliché moments”, they were done in a refreshing and original way.

For example, the use of “snuff tapes” is by no means original however it was weaved into the storyline in both a frightening and sophisticated manner. My only real issue with the film was the ending, which left me slightly unsatisfied and unsettled.

Anyone who is a fan of horror should definitely check this one out (and avoid The House at the End of the Street at all costs!) My only advice would be to stay away from the trailers as they give too much away and heighten your expectations a little too much.

www.filmarcade.net/2012/08/chilling-new-stills-from-supernatural.html

www.filmofilia.com/skyfall-featurette-turkey-locations-114946/alan ford

25

The Founder | Monday 12 November 2012

Film To Rome With Love

www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00007088

***

Zlatina Nikolova Dir. Woody Allen Starring: Alec Baldwin, Judy Davis, Roberto Benigni, Woody Allen, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Penelope Cruz

Even

though he is in his late 70s Woody Allen still remains one of Hollywood’s most prolific filmmakers, writing and directing a film almost every year. After the success of last year’s Midnight in Paris, Allen’s highest grossing film as of yet, he has turned his attention to another European capital.

In his latest work To Rome with Love he offers a collage of plot lines revolving around the notions of love, fame, art and infidelity, all a combination of real life and pure coincidence. This film attempts to focus on its characters and incorporate the sights into their stories, rather than follow its tourist protagonist around as he imagines the city of his dreams like in Midnight in Paris.

What we get is a collection of stories, some of them funnier than others. One of the centre plot-lines involves Judy Davis and Woody Allen himself playing a couple flying to Rome to meet their daughter’s fiancé Michelangelo. When they meet their future in-laws, however, Allen’s character discovers that Michelangelo’s father (Fabio Armiliato) is an astonishing tenor,

“a collection of stories, some of them funnier than others” who has never performed in front of an audience. In the meantime, two newlyweds suddenly find themselves separated in the city as the wife gets lost looking for a hairdresser’s.

As a result the husband presents Penelope Cruz’s prostitute Anna for his wife at a family meeting. An ordinary man - Leopoldo Pisanello, played by Roberto Benigni - wakes up to discover that he has become incredibly famous for no apparent reason and needs to cope with the consequences of his newly acquired reputation. Finally, Allen still finds a way to convey his admiration for the city of Rome through the story of Jesse Eisenberg’s architect Jack, whose is torn between his love for

two very different girls (Ellen Page and Greta Gerwig) and overlooked by his older self (Alec Baldwin).

Bathed in golden light, created

by Midnight in Paris’s Darius Khondji, To Rome with Love gives a collection of sweet stories and eccentric characters. Although Allen has managed to sneak his usual commentary on a variety of topics, not all of them will manage to make you laugh. The stories attempt to be original but the characters and their motives are predictable and the dialogue and outcomes of the stories are not as provocative as those in Allen’s previous films. The existential pondering - something characteristic of the director’s films in the past - has been taken to a minimum. Probably the most successful anecdote is the one where Allen plays his usual neurotic persona, talking about opera, death, psychoanalysis and a version of Tosca where the characters were dressed as white mice.

To Rome with Love is enjoyable but as it stumbles on themes already seen in Allen’s previous films it does not develop them further, touching only the mere surface of the core of each of its stories

Taken 2

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/ Emma Dibdin

***

Rian Hoskins Dir. Olivier Megaton Starring: Leam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Rade Serbedzija

When the film Taken was released

in the UK in 2008, while not being favoured by the critics, it was a big hit amongst many and was extremely successful in box office terms. Despite being relatively far-fetched, it was an entertaining thrill ride as we saw how far one father would go to save his daughter.

There was a lot of scepticism regarding the announcement that there was going to be a sequel released this autumn. Nevertheless, many would still rush to the cinema to see what former CIA agent Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson) does best.

The story lies behind the family members of Mills’s victims, who

want to seek revenge. Mills invites his daughter Kim and ex-wife Lenore to Turkey, where he and Lenore are captured by members of the group, led by Murad Krasniqi, played by Rade Serbedzija. It is then left to

“The format, structure and plot were remarkably similar to those of the first film”

Kim, played by Maggie Grace, to find them, so Bryan can save Lenore and make sure he and his family are never bothered again.

While not being as good as the first film, Taken 2 was certainly entertaining. Liam Neeson portrays Mills as a fearless character, who shows no mercy for anyone who stands in his way. While his killing spree is less than what he achieved last time (a grand total of 32), he is a man you don’t want to cross swords with.

Neeson has shown versatility in his acting as well as still being the “badass of Hollywood”. I was impressed as well with Serbedzija, for he portrayed the villain extremely well and showed similarity to Mills as to what a father

would do.

However, the originality is no longer there. The format, structure and plot were remarkably similar to those of the first film. Therefore, you can make comparisons with The Hangover Part II, which many would argue was just a repeat of the first film.

This seems to be a problem now with movies - endless sequels and remakes are being made of franchises, which don’t need tampering with. While not official, there is a strong rumour that Taken 3 could be announced, which could be a film too many.

Overall, it is worth a watch if you were a fan of Taken. However, it doesn’t bode well since many of the concepts being released now have lost uniqueness.

Sport

Tottenham’s Season So Far Samuel O’Brien

Although Tottenham’s excursions in the Europa League have, rather disappointingly, only produced three points from their opening three group games, they still have a chance of qualifying for the knockout rounds and this Europa League campaign did not seem to affect their Premier League form earlier on in the season.

However, all that changed when Andre Villas-Boas’ former club, Chelsea, visited White Hart Lane.

Until that game, Tottenham had been unbeaten at home this season (albeit with a couple of draws) and had looked in relatively good nick.

But, when the European Champions turned up at White Hart Lane, Tottenham were far too passive in possession (particularly in the first half), and deserved to go in at half-time be-

hind, thanks to a terrific volley from centre-half Gary Cahill. In the second half, Tottenham improved dramatically and scored two very good goals to turn the game on its head.

The problem then was the defending, which has been a problem ever since.

The double from Juan Mata could have been easily averted. The shot to make it 2-2 was weak at best, and there was practically no pressure on the ball, as the Tottenham defence allowed Mata time to set himself, time to pick his spot and then just strike it pretty tamely, it has to be said, into Brad Friedel’s left-hand corner.

Chelsea’s third goal was again a smart finish from Mata, but the defending from Kyle Walker was atrocious as was his defending in the build-up to Chelsea’s fourth goal.

Instead of just clearing the ball for a Chelsea throw-in, Walker decided

he’d try a little trick and ended up presenting the ball to Juan Mata who found Daniel Sturridge at the far post who tapped the ball in with consummate ease.

In their most recent game against NK Maribor, a side from the northeast of Slovenia, Tottenham looked shaky in defence. There is no doubt that Tottenham were much the better side and should have won the game, but when they were tested by the Slovenian outfit (who were bidding to become the first Slovenian club to beat an English club) Tottenham looked as though they weren’t up to it. Maribor are considered a relatively weak team, so this fact is both staggering and concerning for manager Andre Villas-Boas who has made a mediocre start to his Tottenham career.

This unsteady defence was most

evident in Tottenham’s concession of Maribor’s goal. Again they allowed the ball carrier too much time to come as far as he wanted, then Tom Huddlestone sold himself in the penalty box and Maribor were able to scramble it home after a kafuffle in the six-yard box. They got back in the game eventually and should have gone on to win it, but that is not the point and if Tottenham’s defence continues in this vain, they have no chance of making the Top Four this season.

But, that is not to say that Tottenham have not had some good days this season, because they most certainly have, most notably against Manchester United, who were condemned to their first home defeat of the season by Tottenham, who deserved the win. Andre VillasBoas said he thought his team were

“incredible” during that game, and that opinion has been widely echoed since. This “incredible” performance meant Tottenham claimed their first victory at Old Trafford since 1983.

They were also very commanding in their away game against newlypromoted Reading, who could have proved tricky opponents for the North Londoners, but they were swept aside by a fast, free-flowing Tottenham performance.

Going forward, then, has been Tottenham’s strength this season (other than in the first half against Chelsea).

This is reminiscent of previous seasons where Tottenham have qualified for the UEFA Cup/ Europa League but, in order to break into the Top 4 and make another appearance in the Champions League, they need to shore up their defence.

flickr/stumayhew

07 November 2012

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