The Journal - Edinburgh Issue 004

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EDINBURGH’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE IV

WEDNESDAY 13 FEBUARY 2008

BOARDROOM ACTIVISM » 24 Why ethical and environmental problems can’t be solved by disinvestment

THE DYKEENIES » 27 Escaping from Cumbernauld isn’t enough: The Dykeenies want Chris McCall to make them famous

Jihadist group recruits students on Facebook

» 16 Captured in the wild »12

» Groups calling for armed jihad active on Facebook » Leader of banned organisation claims success in recruiting students » Terror suspect on trial used networking site up until time of arrest Miles Johnson miles.johnson@journal-online.co.uk

RADICAL BRITISH JIHADIST groups are actively operating and recruiting students on the social networking site Facebook and other forums, an investigation by The Journal can reveal.

A private Facebook group called ‘Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah’, the name of a successor organisation to the banned extremist group Al Muhajiroun, has been operating since early 2007. Members of the group include several students at British universities such as Sheffield and Manchester and one employee of the fi nancial services giant Citigroup.

The Facebook group has links posted to extremist literature by the jailed radical preachers Abu Hamza al-Misri and Abu Qutada calling for the waging of armed jihad against the British and American governments.

There is also literature demanding the expulsion of any Muslim who votes in elections or “provides assistance” to the ‘kuffar’, or nonbeliever.

One article entitled Jihad: a Ten Part Compilation describes violent Jihad as an “individual duty” of all Muslims. The article also includes a religious ruling for young Muslims on the legitimacy of taking up “martyrdom” without informing their parents. It concludes: “No permission [from parents] is required in obligatory jihad.”

The Journal has also discovered that senior members of Al Muhajir-

oun were using Facebook until their arrest. This included the activist Abu Izzadeen, 38, who was put on trial last week in London’s Kingston Crown Court along with seven other members of Al Muhajiroun. He faces charges of fi nancing terrorism and inciting terrorism overseas.

Izzadeen gained national notoriety in 2006 after heckling the thenHome Secretary Dr John Reid during a speech he made to Muslim community leaders in London.

The Journal has obtained correspondence, purportedly between Abu Izzadeen and Facebook, which took place after his profile was banned by the site’s administrators. In it Izzadeen urges the administrators to “reconsider your hasty and unjust decision,” going on to write “Inshallah (God willing) I can return to making use of your otherwise fantastic site”. After the appeal was rejected Izzadeen ended the correspondence by writing: “You are mad. I joined this site so my supporters could add me and show their support. I am not surprised. [You take] any opportunity to stamp the ummah under your heel.

This is why we rise up.”

Al Muhajiroun and its affiliate groups Al Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect were banned in the UK in 2005 under the Terrorism Act and their leader, the radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, was prevented from reentering the UK. Bakri Mohammed, who now lives in Lebanon, has since Continued on page 2

IN BRIEF

AL MUHAJIROUN Described by the BBC as “one of the most extreme groups operating in the UK”, Al Muhajiroun was led from London by the radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed until it was disbanded in 2004.

The group’s stated aims, based on an extreme and fringe interpretation of Islam, were to establish Islamic rule in the UK and to completely reject democracy and the laws of the British government.

The group was initially banned by the National Union of Students from operating on British campuses in 2001 for distributing extreme literature. In the same year the Russian government requested the British authorities ban the group after it claimed it had recruited members studying at the London School of Economics to fight in the ongoing Chechen conflict.

Al Muhajiroun was followed by the successor groups Al Ghurabaa and The Saviour Sect, launched by prominent members Abu Izzadeen (pictured) and Anjem Choudary. Both groups were later banned under the Terrorism Act in 2006 and later gave birth to Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah, a group that have since been found operating on the internet. Seven members are currently on trial for charges for terror-related offences.

IS THIS THE NEW AGE OF NUCLEAR POWER? »19

DEVELOPING CATASTROPHES

Evan Beswick talks to environmental photographer Mark Edwards about politics, pictures and Al Gore

2 News

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

This week in The Journal... Jihadist group

recruits students The Great Firewall on Facebook of China » 20

Paul Traynor on the inconsistency of Chinese media policy in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics this year

Love food? » 29

Footlights » 28

Continued from page 1

Nana Wereko-Brobby discovers that eating out alone on Valentine’s day isn’t that bad after all...

Alice Sharp & Ben Judge go crazy for Edinburgh University’s premier musical theatre troupe

Student Elections 08 » 16

RAMSAY? COLE? WARD? “I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”

Michel de Montaigne

boasted that his organisation was operating up until recently on several major British campuses including Oxford, Imperial College London and Cambridge.

Since the ban, former members of the organisation have formed new front groups that include British university students among their membership, many having been recruited online.

Speaking to The Journal Anjem Choudary, the former second in command of Al-Muhajiroun and current leader of its successor groups, Follower of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah and Captive Support, said that his organisations widely used the internet and social networking sites to recruit support but claimed no link to the Facebook group discovered by The Journal. Mr Choudary also confirmed that university students made up a key part of his organisation’s support base.

“We try to raise awareness of our mission among the community in any way we can and these sites are very useful to us”, he said. “Students form an important part of the community and we have recruited supporters in places like London, Nottingham, Birmingham and Derby”.

When questioned on the continuity between his groups and AlMuhaijiroun Mr Choudary admitted that former members “play a very large role in the organisation.” He also confirmed that Omar Bakri Mohammed continues to advise members over the internet from Lebanon.

“Sheikh Bakri Mohammed provides important guidance for us and acts

as a reference for Islamic verdicts.

People are often contacting him in Lebanon via phone and email.”

Bakri Mohammed has in the past referred to the 11 September hijackers as the “magnificent 19” and declared that “the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity.” Terrorism expert Roland Jacquard, head of the Paris-based International Observatory on Terrorism, has claimed “every al-Qaeda operative recently arrested or identified in Europe had come into contact with Bakri at some time or other.”

There are also several other established ties between Mr Choudary’s organisations and convicted terrorists. The website for Captive Support - a group established by former Al-Muhajiroun activists to work for the release of their members charged with terrorist activity – features links to several exclusive letters from Dhiren Bharot, the leader of a foiled 2004 ‘dirty bomb’ plot. In a letter written from prison last November he wrote: “Where is the support?… Where are all of the brothers in all of this, I wonder?” Bharot was convicted for planning attacks on targets in London and New York and was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2006.

The Journal’s findings come at a time where the government has increased pressure on universities to adopt new approaches in combating violent extremism. Last month the Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said that while extremism was “serious but not widespread,” more needed to be done to ensure radical groups do not gain a foothold in British universities.

Edinburgh’s Student Newspaper Editor Ben Judge Deputy Editor Hannah Thomas Art Director Matthew MacLeod Deputy Editor (News) Paris Gourtsoyannis Deputy Editor (Comment/Features) Evan Beswick Deputy Editor (Sport) Tom Crookston Photo Editor Eddie Fisher Chief Illustrator Lewis Killin Copy Editors Alex Reynolds, Gavin Lingiah, Kasmira Jefford, Katia Sand, Kayleigh Woods, Sarah Galletly Sales Manager Devon Walshe Sales Executives Katherine Sellar/Steve Jones News Investigations Miles Johnson General News Hamish Fergusson Edinburgh News Graham Mackay Academic News Neil Bennet Student Politics Sarah Clark/Tim Goodwin National Politics Helen Walker National Student News Nick Eardley/Joanna Hosa Features George Grant Profile Alison Lutton Entertainment Chris McCall/Lucy Jackson Eating & Drinking Nana Wereko-Brobby Hockey Emily Glass/Becky Owen Football Dominic Moger Rugby Jack Charnley/Jonathan Burt The Journal is published by The Edinburgh Journal Ltd., registered address 52 Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9JB. Registered in Scotland number SC322146. For enquiries call 0131 662 6766 or email info@journal-online.co.uk. The Journal is a free newspaper for and written by students and graduates in the City of Edinburgh. Contact us if you’d like to get involved.

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News 3

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Edinburgh University charity cancels aid expedition as Kenyan crisis toll rises Hamish Fergusson hamish.fergusson@journal-online.co.uk

VIOLENCE IN SOUTH-WEST Kenya has forced members of a student charity team to abandon their plans to carry out a six week project in the region.

Edinburgh Global Partnerships, a registered charity and society at the University of Edinburgh, had organised an expedition to Umala in Kenya’s Nyanza province, an area in which, according to the Foreign Office, “tensions remain high.”

The eight volunteers were to work alongside a local charity to improve and sanitise the water to supply to over 300 families living in the village.

But the trip, scheduled for June, was cancelled last week in a decision taken by the EGP committee in response to safety concerns.

Jennie Smyth, President of EGP said: “It would not have been responsible to send a team to Kenya in under the current circumstances. Due to the change in Foreign Office advice regarding travel to Nairobi, and the level of sporadic violence where the project is based, EGP had to reconsider the project.”

Violence erupted in Kenya following the disputed result of December elections, and has since spread along ethnic lines throughout much of the country, exposing old divisions over wealth, land and power.

Some 310,000 people have been displaced by the fighting whilst over 800 are thought to have been killed.

The Foreign Office currently advises against “all but essential travel to Western and Nyanza Provinces.”

A further concern was raised in relation to insuring the volunteers.

Miss Smyth said: “As most insur-

ance companies follow FCO guidelines on travel, EGP was concerned about whether volunteers would be able to get cover if travelling in Kenya.”

Clementine Hill O’Connor, one of the supervisors due to travel, said: “I think I speak for the whole team when I say that we are frustrated that the project cannot go ahead. It was a project we all felt was important, and felt passionately about. However, violence is ongoing in and around the area we would be working in so it would not be possible to work under current conditions.”

EGP also emphasised that its infrastructure-orientated project does not currently serve a priority issue in the area.

Miss Smyth said: “With the current instability and the growing numbers of displaced people in Kenya, to continue with a project whose focus is sanitation would have been inappropriate.”

It is thought to be the first time an expedition has been cancelled in the organisation’s 18 year history, and follows the withdrawal of Voluntary Service Overseas personnel from Kenya in January. The Umala based NGO with which the EGP team were due to work has expressed its full support for the decision to cancel the expedition, and links between the two organisations are to be maintained.

Miss O’Connor said, “If the situation has changed by next year there is every reason that the project will go ahead with a new team. We have built up a good relationship with the NGO.” In the meantime a new project has been organised by members of the EGP Kenya team. Fundraising has begun for a mission to Kibirizi in northwest Tanzania, where additional classrooms will be constructed for a local secondary school.

Volunteers from Mission in Action UK in Kenya. Recent violence has prevented other groups from travelling to the country.

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IN PICTURES: The unfolding humanitarian crisis in Kenya

Kenyan blog galvanises Edinburgh charity AN EDINBURGH BASED charity is launching an emergency fundraising campaign in response to the unfolding crisis in Kenya.

Mission in Action UK is the British branch of a Kenyan charity based in Nakuru, west Kenya, and is organising the MIA Kenya Crisis Fashion Show to be held at the Voodoo Rooms on 5 March.

Susi Conchar, a founding member of MIA UK, explained that the event is designed to generate awareness and that the funds raised will be used to help support displaced people seeking shelter in Nakuru.

She said “Any money we raise will be used by MIA to buy blankets, food and clothes for the displaced population.”

The UK charity has previously organised an annual fashion show in Edinburgh to help found and raise funds for the Nakuru Baby Orphanage, and last year raised over £30, 000 to support Mission in Action’s work in the local community.

MIA UK’s links with Nakuru have gifted its members with an insight into how the violence in Kenya is affecting local communities. The town, situated north-west of Nairobi, has seen some of the worst of the violence.

On 25 January at least six people were killed in Nakuru as combatants armed with machetes and poison arrows looted and torched houses.

Consequently, a 6pm to 7am curfew has been imposed on residents.

A regular blog is being written by local volunteers from within the town, reporting on the continuing political violence and their efforts to distribute Red Cross aid to those forced from their homes.

Ms Conchar said: “The daily blogs they are writing gives an amazing insight into what is happening in their area and Kenya at large. It was a terrible feeling not being able to do anything so I suggested doing a quick fundraiser.”

The event will feature a number of leading designers, as well as a raffle and a live performance by the band Dollskabeat. http://www.nakurubabyorphanage. com/trouble.html

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The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Green as I say, and not as I do...

Ageism and literary spat to put Eagleton out of a job

Red-faced SNP minister was chauffered 200 metres in government car - then left the engine running

Paris Gourtsoyannis & Hannah Robinson

Helen Walker helen.walker@journal-online.co.uk

SNP minister John Swinney has been slated by opposition MSPs for environmental hypocrisy after he used his ministerial car for a journey of 200 metres.

As the Scottish Government Minister for Finance and Sustainable Growth, Mr Swinney has overall responsibility for climate change.

However, only days after launching a consultation on a new climate change bill, Mr Swinney used his ministerial chauffer-driven car to drive him the short distance from the parliament to the The Tun, the BBC’s broadcasting headquarters in Edinburgh.

In a further embarrassment, the driver allegedly left the engine running for the 20 minutes it took Mr Swinney to conduct the interview.

Such behaviour would appear to undermine the efforts of the Scottish

Government to use LPG petrol in ministerial cars, which is more environmentally friendly.

A Labour Party spokesperson told The Scotsman: “The SNP’s talk of a greener government has failed to be backed up by action. Only a few days ago, John Swinney launched his consultation on a climate-change bill. If he talks the talk, maybe he should literally walk the walk.”

His behaviour stands in sharp contrast with the image portrayed by Mr Swinney’s arrival at the 2002 SNP party conference on bicycle, when he was leader of the party.

The actions of the minister were defended by representatives of his party, who claimed that Mr Swinney was using the car to carry him and his work papers home – papers which, they said, he worked on during the journey.

However, it has been suggested that the decision was made because Mr Swinney’s aides were concerned

paris.gourtsoyannis@journal-online.co.uk

the bad weather might result in the minister appearing windswept in his interview.

Mr Swinney is not the first politician to come under attack for his personal environmental credentials. John Prescott was famously nicknamed ‘Two-Jags Prescott’ after his use of his ministerial cars and close attention has recently been paid to the carbon footprint of ministers, after it was revealed that government ministers accounted for 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2006.

A Green Party spokesman said: “Recent figures have demonstrated ministers’ increased reliance on cars and planes rather than buses and trains. We would urge them again to set a good example in this area.”

The recent criticism of Mr Swinney is particularly awkward for the minister who is on record as saying: “We need more people across the country to make the choice to leave the car at home.”

Edinburgh students launch beauty pageant Rebecca Sibbett rebecca.sibbett@journal-online.co.uk

Emma Blinkhorn: Competing in the Miss Student Body competition

An American-style beauty pageant for students was launched last week in Edinburgh.

The competition, which judges contestants on their physical beauty, will be the first of its kind in Scotland’s capital.

Belles and beaus from the city’s five universities will battle it out in April to win the title of Mr and Miss Studentbody and £2,000 prize money.

The beauty pageant phenomenon can be traced back to the first Miss America Pageant held in Atlantic City in 1921. Similar contests are now held in many countries across the world and major international events such as Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth are well documented.

Though they remain popular in America, beauty pageants have attracted criticism for enforcing the objectification of women in society.

Initial rounds of voting for the Edinburgh contestants will be done through the pageant’s website, which will feature photographs and personality profiles of the competitors.

Though the event is termed a beauty pageant, organisers insist that contestants’ personalities and style will play a large part in the final decision.

Contestant Abi O’Connor, a second year student at the University of Edinburgh, told The Journal that the contest provided a means of interacting with other students.

She said: “It’s a great opportunity for intervarsity relationships; it’s a way to socialise with students from all the different Universities across Edinburgh, which is not something we often have the chance to do.”

The twelve weeks of online voting will culminate in a fashion show featuring the top contestants on Wednesday 9 April at Edinburgh nightclub GRV, where the winners will be announced. http://www.missstudentbody.co.uk

One of the world’s most renowned literary theorists, Terry Eagleton, is facing the ignominy of mandatory retirement from his post at the English department of Manchester University, it has been revealed.

Professor Eagleton, whose 1983 work Literary Theory: an Introduction is widely studied and considered foundational to the school Marxist of literary criticism, turns 65 in July – “the normal contractual retirement age,” according to a university spokesperson.

Despite his acclaim, speculation abounds that he will not be offered any further role at Manchester, which is facing staff cuts totalling 650 positions in an effort to reduce its £30 million debt.

Professor Eagleton has been embroiled in a virulent intellectual and at times personal debate with fellow Manchester University lecturer and celebrated novelist Martin Amis. Eagleton has attacked Amis for a piece that appeared in the G2 supplement to The Guardian last year, in which Mr Amis suggested that the Muslim community in Britain should be treated with suspicion “until it gets its house in order.”

A lively exchange of views has seen Eagleton write that the novelist is “with the dogs,” while Amis has appeared on Channel 4 News asking his colleague to “shut up about it.”

Mr Amis is currently paid a salary of roughly £80, 000 per annum for his role as Professor of Creative Writing, a post which involves 28 hours of teaching per year, according to the Guardian Unlimited website.

Fellow academics across the United Kingdom have voiced their dismay at the latest chapter in the spat. Calling him “the best internationally known literary critic this country currently can boast,” former professor of English Literature at University College London John Sutherland has lamented a decision he considers “wholly account driven.”

He said: “America’s greatest Marxist literary critic, Frederic Jameson, is still very much in harness at Duke [University]. The notion of throwing him overboard would seem very strange.”

Professor Randall Stevenson, Head of English Literature and recently named ‘Chair of 20th Century Literature’ at Edinburgh University, told The Journal he “definitely feels sympathy for Eagleton.”

Stating that he has been following the dispute between Amis and Eagleton, he reflected that “it wasn’t doing anyone any good,” adding that the literary theorist was one of the “most influential and distinguished figures of his generation.”

UK age discrimination law allows employees to ask for a continuation of work past the age of retirement, but does not oblige employers to respect their wishes in all cases.

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News 5

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Stay of execution for Afghan student journalist Hamish Fergusson hamish.fergusson@journal-online.co.uk

A student journalist in Afghanistan is facing public execution for distributing an article on women’s rights in what is believed to be the first example of the death sentence being applied for an internet-based breach of national law.

Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, 23, was found guilty of humiliating Islam on 22 January this year. His sentence was then commuted after the Afghan senate withdrew its approval of the verdict following international pressure, but his freedom has yet to be guaranteed with conservative Islamic clerics calling for the sentence to be upheld.

The sentence, handed down by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, answered calls for punishment from members of a cleric’s council, after Mr Kambakhsh distributed the article at Balkh University where he is studying journalism.

Reportedly written by his brother, the material criticised the Koran’s attitude to women and was downloaded by

Mr Kambakhsh from the internet.

The judicial process in Afghanistan been criticised by the young man’s family and by international observers. The UN has alledged that Mr Kambakhsh was refused legal representation during his trial and has suggested that the endorsement of the court’s decision by the upper house of parliament in Afghanistan was unconstitutional.

International coverage of the case prompted a retraction by the Senate, which has withdrawn its support for the guilty verdict. Nonetheless the death sentence still stands and will be appealed at the high court.

The situation has rapidly evolved into a political issue with international dimensions. A large number of global pressure groups have called for a pardon for Mr Kambakhsh, with over 63, 000 people adding their names to a petition created by The Independent, urging the Foreign Office to pressurise the Afghan government to prevent the execution.

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has described the verdict as “a gross injustice.”

The international protests against

the execution have exerted significant pressure on Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai. Louise Arbour, the UN’s leading human rights advocate, has written to Mr Karzai stating that principles of free speech are enshrined in his country’s constitution.

It has been suggested that Mr Kambakhsh’s punishment has been designed to intimidate his brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, who has written a number of articles for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Jean Mackenzie, country director for the IWPR, said: “We feel that what is happening with Parwez is a not very veiled threat against Yaqub Ibrahimi … who has done some of the hardesthitting pieces outlining abuses by some very powerful commanders in Balkh and the other northern provinces.”

Afghanistan’s constitution upholds the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which preserves principles of free speech. This code sits alongside an Islamic legal framework which outlaws criticism of the Prophet Mohammed.

Najib Manalai, an advisor within Afghanistan’s Culture Ministry, maintains that the two doctrines are recon-

cilable and that the justice system will ultimately spare Mr Kambakhsh’s life.

He said: “Every country has its own limits on freedom. In Afghanistan, our limitations on freedom of speech are within the framework of sharia law.”

But he added: “One court has condemned him, but this is only the first step. We have three stages of justice. I am not worried for his life.”

Should the Supreme Court uphold the sentence, Mr Kambakhsh could still be pardoned by the President. But given the international profile of the case, it has been privately hinted that Mr Karzai would prefer to see the verdict overturned at judicial level.

It has been further suggested that the sentence is a political manoeuvre orchestrated by Afghanistan’s northern warlords. The Committee to Protect Afghan Journalists has said that opponents of the President may have influenced the judicial process in an attempt to trap Mr Karzai between the demands of the mullahs and those of the international community The President is said to be “concerned” about the case and is “watching the situation very closely.”

6 Edinburgh News

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Richey released after 21 years

World's oldest football club to reform

Ex-con saves woman's life in local pub

City youth worker resurrects club in the name of charity

Graham Mackay

Graham Mackay

graham.mackay@journal-online.co.uk

21 YEARS AFTER being sentenced to death for allegedly killing a two-yearold girl in an arson attack, the Death Row Scot Kenny Richey has finally been freed by a US court.

Richey, who was placed on death row in 1987, pleaded no contest to charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering, for which he was sentenced to time already served. Now 43, he is back in Scotland for the first time since he left the country to live with his American father at the age of 18.

A Cincinnati court of appeal overturned Richey’s conviction for a second time in August 2007, ordering his release or re-trial within 90 days. The decision was made after over two decades of pressure from friends, relatives, lawyers, charities and even major public figures such as Pope John Paul II and the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

Throughout his incarceration, Richey has had numerous bouts of ill health, including three heart attacks in the last five years. The initial date for his final court appearance had to be postponed as he was taken ill, and his father, Jim, claimed he was hiding the extent of his condition when the hearing took place.

He said: “He’s still having chest pains, but he’s pretending to be okay until he gets back to Scotland. He wants to get back home. He’s endured a lot of stress.”

Kenny seems to have had little trouble adjusting to normal life in the capital, and even achieved hero status at his local pub last week when he helped save the life of a woman suffering from a suspected heart attack.

58-year-old Gina Wilson reportedly collapsed on the floor of Dickins’ Lounge Bar in Dalry last Monday when Richey rushed to her aid and gave her a dose of his own prescribed medication.

Despite his quick-thinking, Richey played down his part in the incident.

“I just did what anyone in my position would have done” he stated. “I’m just glad I could help and that Gina is okay and hope we see her back in Dicken’s again soon.”

But pub owner Campbell Anderson was quick to heap the praise on Richey, saying: “God knows what might have happened if he hadn’t been there at the time.

He helped save her life; there is no question about that. He’s a real local hero now.

“Gina works here for me part-time and is really popular with the regulars.

“They were all saying ‘well done’ and offering to buy him pints for what he did.”

graham.mackay@journal-online.co.uk

EDINBURGH FC, THE world’s oldest football club, is set to join a Sunday league some 184 years after it was founded.

The club has officially been reformed by Kenny Cameron, a 27-yearold city youth worker from the Muirhouse area of Edinburgh, who was inspired to resurrect the team after a trip to the Scottish Museum of Football at Hampden.

Mr Cameron expressed his desire to carry on the work of the club’s founder, John Hope, an Edinburgh University law student who established the team in 1824 to help poor children in Dalry.

Speaking of the work carried out

by Mr Hope, Cameron said: “We want to keep that aspect going. It was something that has stayed in the back of my mind since I learned about it at Hampden and we were wanting to start up a football club anyway, so this all made sense.”

Strips for the newly-reformed club have been provided by major sporting manufacturer Umbro, and even FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has committed to attending the team’s first dinner in October, has given the initiative his seal of approval.

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With the help of two close friends, Alex Collop and Alex Downie, Cameron, a football enthusiast and Hearts fan, plans to put local coaches through SFA qualifications and badges, and get as many young people involved in the project as possible.

The original team, named The Foot Ball Club of Edinburgh, was made up of lawyers, doctors and accountants from the New Town area, would play on a weekly basis every Saturday. As well as entering a competitive Sunday league, the club aims to honour this tradition by staging a weekly event at Leith Academy.

“On a Saturday it will be a bit like a golf club where members come and

play against each other," Cameron explained. “We are also going to pick two charities, one local and one international, that we want to donate to.

There is no shortage of people wanting to get involved.

It was thought for a long time that the oldest football club was Sheffield FC, founded in 1857. However, documents were found by the National Archives of Scotland which indicated that Edinburgh FC had been formed 33 year earlier.

Scottish Football Museum curator Richard McBrearty said: “This discovery has tremendous ramifications for Scotland's place in world football.

What Mr Cameron is doing is terrific."

Gay footballers upbeat despite defeat Edinburgh-based gay football club HotScots FC lost their fi rst 11-aside game last month.

The team is Scotland's only gay football club. It was set up only last year but the team already boasts 75 regular players.

They suffered an acrimonious 9-0 defeat to Haddington Select in a friendly match at Aubigny Sports Centre.

Chairman and founder Kevin

Rowe said of the game: "We are disappointed with the scoreline, but this was always going to be a steep learning curve for a team that had never played as a unit before.”

He added: "By playing local teams, we can break down barriers surrounding homophobia in sport and dispel a few myths that gay people and football simply do not mix."

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Edinburgh News 7

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Edinburgh terror warning is “scaremongering,” says Green MSP Graham Mackay graham.mackay@journal-online.co.uk

BRITAIN’S MOST SENIOR anti-terrorism officer has branded Edinburgh an “extremely attractive” destination for a devastating terrorist attack.

Superintendent Brett Lovegrove, the head of the City of London Police’s counter-terrorism unit, claimed that the city’s iconic status, as well as its many international businesses, its airport, sports stadiums and crowded streets, make it an ideal target for terrorist activity.

Speaking to a total of 64 delegates at the Project Griffin Awareness Training Seminar held in Edinburgh last week, Mr Lovegrove highlighted the month-long Edinburgh Festival as a period of major concern.

“In particular, the festival ticks all the right boxes” he explained, “so it’s essential the public are made aware of the threat and what action should be taken.

“Like London and New York, it is also an iconic city which is flooded with tourists all year round.

“Last year’s Glasgow airport attack proved Scotland isn’t immune to the threat of terrorism. Unfortunately, it isn’t a case of ‘if’ there will be an attack on Edinburgh but ‘when’.”

Mr Lovegrove listed other major events taking place in Edinburgh which have been identified as potential terrorist targets, including functions at Edinburgh castle, Hogmanay and even Six Nations rugby matches at Murrayfield.

He also introduced conference delegates, who included representatives from the city council as well as businesses such as Lothian Buses and car park firm NCP, to what he called “hostile reconnaissance”, a term which refers to keeping an eye out for potential acts of terrorism.

“This means noticing people who suddenly start appearing at a café and perhaps draw maps of the surrounding area. It could be someone using video equipment where it wouldn’t normally be done,” Mr Lovegrove explained.

Mr Lovegrove’s sentiment was echoed by Superintendent Keith Chamberlain of Lothian and Borders Police, who stated that knowledge-sharing was paramount in fighting terrorism and called upon all members of the public to play their part.

We want people to be an extension of the police and help us fight the threat by being our eyes and ears,” he said. “The seminar is designed to teach people how to spot potential terrorists – not by their appearance but by their behaviour.

“By doing this, we can then reduce the risk of any potential attack.”

Project Griffin was established four years ago by The City of London

Matthew MacLeod Police as a means of training security staff and other public workers to help the authorities identify potential terrorist threats. The scheme has since been implemented in various major cities throughout the world including Sydney, New York and Hong Kong, and is now underway in Edinburgh.

‘Project Griffin Trained’ delegates are expected to pass on advice and information to colleagues and the wider community.

However, Robin Harper MSP has criticised Mr Lovegrove’s insistence that it is merely a matter of time before the capital experiences a terrorist attack as sensationalist.

He said: “In a speech that was largely sensible, Superintendent Lovegrove blew it by asserting that ‘it isn’t a case of if there will be an attack on Edinburgh but when.

“The Festival, the Tattoo, and the Six Nations are some of Edinburgh’s best events. Identifying them as not just potential but definite terrorist targets is, at best, scaremongering.

“Ian Rankin’s Mortal Causes centres on a phoney terrorist attack on Edinburgh and I think fiction is the right place for this kind of story, not police briefings.”

Officers threatened with dismissal for failing to meet search quotas POLICE OFFICERS FAILING to meet stop and search quotas are being threatened with dismissal, British Transport Police (BTP) revealed last week.

Officers report that an unofficial minimum of 30 searches a day must take place in Scotland’s train stations alone, following the attack on Glasgow Airport last year. Since July, a reported 4000 searches have taken place at Edinburgh’s Waverly and Haymarket stations.

BTP officers also stated that the new anti-terror laws have forced them to search people who present the most unlikely of potential threats, such as school children, old age pensioners and even priests.

However, this may not come as too great a surprise given Superintendent Lovegrove’s claim that “a terrorist is just as likely to be a white,

blonde woman as opposed to the image many people may hold.”

In an e-mail leaked to the press, a senior BTP official informed officers of the repercussions they face should they fail to meet the quota of daily searches.

It stated: “[Assistant Chief Constable] Pacey has indicated officers not complying with his instructions will be moved from their posts or even disciplined to the level of losing their jobs.”

The BTP claim to have no record of the message, but admitted that senior officials have sent a number of emails informing officers of their duties under anti-terror laws. It also maintained that no “specific targets” existed.

A BTP officer, who wished to remain nameless, explained how the searches were causing significant

discomfort among the workforce.

He said: “This has really affected morale and I know a lot of officers are uncomfortable with what seems to be a near obsession with stop and search.

“At the start of the shift, officers are told by supervisors ‘I need you to do, say, five or six today’ and questions are asked if you’re not achieving this. My worry is they seem to be using them as fishing exercises for other things like drugs and weapons but using terrorism laws as a catchall power.”

“You have officers stopping grannies or 15-year-old children and it is just embarrassing. They are so focused on keeping the numbers up and making sure the paperwork is up to date. People have been told to just get names out of the phone book so forms are completed.”

8 Edinburgh News

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Meadows Marathon sets charitable sights high

Local community fights to save King’s Theatre

Benjamin Edwards

Paris Gourtsoyannis

benjamin.edwards@journal-online.co.uk

paris.gourtsoyannis@journal-online.co.uk

THE MEADOWS MARATHON, which is set to take place on 2 March 2008, is to be the largest event of its kind in the country, according to organizers.

So far, around 1,000 runners are expected to hit the beaten paths around the Meadows Park in order to raise money for a wide variety of charities. Race organizers are hoping the event will raise in excess of £100,000 for charitable causes.

Joe Pick, spokesman for the Meadows Marathon, said: “It’s all about personal goals. Whether you want to get fitter, need a challenge for 2008 or just fancy raising money for charity, the Meadows Marathon might be just what you need. Hundred of students have already registered through our website and places are running out fast.”

The race is organised by students from the University of Edinburgh and last year raised £10,000 – one of the largest recorded donations to charity by a student group. The event has been sponsored by the Quartermile development and has The Journal as a media partner. The Meadows Marathon has already signed up several local charities including Waverly Care, Capability Scotland and homeless charity Four Square.

Last year’s winner and course record holder, William Hyde, will be running again this year, alongside hundreds of others, and will attempt to beat his time of 1 hour 25 minutes.

Participants are able to register for either the entire half-marathon or a fivekilometre “fun-run.”

On the day, music and entertainment will be provided to produce a “festival atmosphere.”

Mr Pike said: “A boy piper, African drummers, jugglers, opera singers and a jazz quintet are lined up to entertain participants and supporters on the day. It is going to be an event for the whole community to enjoy.”

THERE ARE THOSE of a certain age still living in Southside Edinburgh who can remember a time when it was called the People’s Theatre and the Old Lady of Leven Street; when names such as Sean Connery and Maggie Smith crossed its stage in front of a packed hall of thousands.

It is these Tollcross residents and theatre lovers from across the city who have come together to help secure the future of the King’s Theatre.

The 103 year-old venue, muchloved and equally neglected in recent years, has become something of a money pit for its Edinburgh City Council owners and its operators, the Festival City Theatre Trust (FCTT).

In need of major structural repair and cosmetic refurbishment for decades, significant work has repeatedly been delayed due to a lack of funds, with stop-gap measures keeping the theatre open and living a hand-tomouth existence between health and safety inspections.

The matter came to a head in 2007, when reports that the theatre was facing the prospect of a slow decline towards closure galvanised local businesspeople into taking action, with a campaign and petition launched to convey local residents’ displeasure.

As local butcher and chairman of the Tollcross Traders John Saunderson told the Edinburgh Evening News: “It is a focal point in Tollcross and it would have a drastic effect if it disappeared. The pubs and restaurants get a lot of business out of it.”

Saunderson needn’t have worried; a combination of grass-root campaign efforts, crisis-level funding talks and good luck seem to have come to the aid of the King’s.

Recent inspections have reported that the theatre’s electrics post “no imminent threat,” although fire protection and sanitation facilities remained a cause for concern.

A total refurbishment costing £14 million, involving the installation of lifts, modern backstage facilities and a new front-of-house cafe, was originally planned for the theatre’s centenary year in 2005.

Plans were stalled indefinitely when £2 million in aid from the Scottish Arts Council was withheld due to a lack of a funding commitment from Edinburgh City Council.

Liberal Democrat Council Leader Jenny Dawe said: “Nobody wants to

see the King's close down but that is the reality of the situation unless refurbishments can be carried out.”

It now seems likely that some degree of refurbishment work will be secured by 2011 along the lines of the original 2002 redevelopment plan.

Rami Okasha, co-ordinator of the Save the King’s campaign, said: “These are grand plans indeed, requiring vision, money, and political leadership.

As a city, Edinburgh has never lacked vision.”

Eddie Fisher

’ s a m o h nah T

Han

ry a i D n o h t a r a Meadows M

MY BATTLE WITH the blisters came to a head last week. I tried to coax them away with a variety of foul-smelling creams and, when that failed, I popped them in frustration.

It was only after this bout of self-mutilation that I realised the problem lay not with my feet, but with my shoes - Hi-tec's cheapest offerings from the year 2000 that have been through the washing machine a fair few times.

I needed new trainers. Yes! Now that I was becoming a proper runner I deserved professional running shoes. This was definitely a good idea, I told myself as I entered a speciality running shop in Edinburgh's West End. Who could have known that you needed so much gear just to run?

Air-tec shirts with perforated underarms, reflective vests, sprinttorches... trainers were no longer enough. I needed all this stuff.

It seemed so obvious - of course I couldn't run the marathon in old tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt. No! I needed high velocity low resistance shiny leggings with a ventilated posterior, and a drip-free sweat band, and twin skin socks, and...

'Are you looking for anything in particular?' said a sporty looking assistant.

'Everything! I want all the gear!' I nearly shouted.

'Trainers' - I restrained myself. One step at a time.

This was no normal shoe-shopping experience. It took over an hour and shared more than a few parallels with a doctor's appointment. Firstly, I was confronted with a large number of perplexing technical terms. Secondly, I immediately felt compelled to lie.

'So how far are you running each week?' my assistant asked. A loaded question. He's trying to ascertain whether I'm actually a serious runner or just a wannabe, I thought.

This was a test. I had to impress.

'About fifty or sixty' I grossly exaggerated.

Week #1

Feet seek solemates

He looked incredulous and moved to his next question: 'And what distance are you at so far?'

The deception had to continue. I couldn't let him catch me out, so I went for double.

'Sixteen kay' I said casually, hoping the abbreviation would make me sound cool.

Then came the examination.

My poor blistered feet were scrutinised, measured and prodded, but the humiliation didn't stop there. I was forced to run barefoot on the shop's treadmill - without the aid of my trusty sports bra - as the assistant looked on.

Then came the damning diagnosis.

My feet are abnormal. One turns in and one turns out when I run.

Great. I'm basically disabled and no shoe will ever cater to my needs.

Well that's what I thought before I tried on a sexy pair of silver Oasics, a shoe my assistant told me 'contains all the gadgets that you get in other trainers rolled into one model.' A super shoe! Its gel bubbles will save my fucked-up feet, its vented lining will keep them cool, and with this kind of spring, 20 kilometers will be a breeze.

Obviously I was sold straight away.

But the trainers weren't enough. I needed socks too, after discovering from my personal fitter that Marks and Sparks cotton ankle-socks don't cut the mustard.

"They're certainly not a runner's best friend" he said, shaking his head.

So now I'm the proud owner of proper trainers and two pairs of "double-skinned" socks. All for the bargain price of... £105. Yes I'm afraid so.

It turns out running this marathon is going to cost me a lot more than my dignity after all.

Hannah is running the Meadows Marathon in aid of EGP Rwanda.

Sponsor her at www.meadowsmarathon.org.uk/1868

Student Politics 9

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Students rally behind distribution rights for The Journal at EUSA GM EUSA overturns ban on new publication in light of overwhelming vote Sarah Clark sarah.clark@journal-online.co.uk

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ Association has retracted its campus ban on The Journal, allowing it the same distribution rights as the university’s established publications, Student and Hype.

At an open vote at the Students’ Association General Meeting, The Journal was supported by a sizable majority of students. Althought the number of students present wasn’t high enough to make the decision binding, student president Josh MacAlister said he would accept the GM’s vote as indicative of the wider student body.

Mr MacAlister told The Journal: “After many discussions with The Journal team it looks like we have come to a resolution which will allow distribution and protect the existing student newspaper.”

As was reported in October, when the ban was first made public, Mr MacAlister reiterated that the original reason for the ban was advertisingrelated. He had feared that if The Journal was given full distribution rights, it could undermine the profits Student collects from advertising and have a negative impact on EUSA, which takes a percentage cut of the newspaper’s revenue.

Two prominent EUSA members, presidential candidate Nick Ward and former EUSA president and columnist at The Journal, Tim Goodwin were instrumental in overturning the ban.

Other key supporters of The Journal included notable Student journalists, John Herrman and Jasper Jackson.

Ben Judge, founding editor of The Journal, said afterwards: “Obviously, this is great news for everyone that works on The Journal. We see this as a real vindication of all the hard work put in by the entire staff and we are pleased to have had such support from our fellow students.

“Now that we have distribution

rights at Edinburgh, we at The Journal are looking forward to furthering our relationships with both the Students’ Association and the other student publications at the university in a way that is beneficial both to the parties involved and to the student community as a whole.

“Behind all the rhetoric about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the real effect of the overturning of this ban is to allow our members of staff an easier time of it, as distribution is all of a sudden one less thing to think about, which - when you’re a full time student - is very helpful indeed.”

The meeting was the third general meeting in two years to fail to reach its quorum of 300 students, meaning that decisions taken on the motions discussed were not binding. This has raised questions about the suitability of the decision making process and brought alternative proposals into the limelight.

Mr. MacAlister told The Journal: “General Meetings are simply not the best way to engage students with the issues. Whilst the AGM and GM are clearly not the only way we engage students, it was disappointing not to see more students turn up.”

Student presidential candidate Harry Cole has made a big deal of constitutional and systemic reform of the Students’ Association, in particular with regards to replacing the general meeting system with an online voting process.

Other motions discussed at the meeting included: a proposal to remove Eden Springs mineral water from university property as a result of claims that they are breaking international law; a proposal to mandate EUSA to campaign against the graduate endowment fee and a motion to lobby the company Edinburgh First to give preferential treatment to student societies in hiring rooms and catering. All motions passed on the night, however it is unknown whether they will be adopted as policy by the Students’ Association.

News Shorts NUS raising STI wear them awareness in time for Valentine’s Day

NO SHIT EDINBURGH CITY COUNCIL will be cracking down on dog owners who let their pets foul the pavement with the aid of a truck equipped with state-of-the art video recording equipment. Councilor Norman Work told the Edinburgh Evening News: “Enforcement work will be supported by the use of mobile CCTV to assist with surveillance of particular problem areas” such as Great Junction Street in Leith.

28 DAYS... NO KEEPERS AT THE Edinburgh Zoo were forced to shoot dead a monkey on Tuesday 5 January after the animal, infected with rabies and under

quarantine, escaped from its enclosure. The zoo was evacuated while a search was mounted for the monkey; the decision to destroy it was taken only when attempts to tranquilize the animal failed.

SAVE IT FOR THE JUDGE PROPOSALS ARE BEING discussed

by Edinburgh City Council to raise parking fees from £1.80 to £2 an hour, according to a document leaked to the Edinburgh Evening News. The council report suggests the price hike as a possible solution to falling parking revenues in central Edinburgh, where disruption caused by road works related to the tram development have put off drivers. The document also contains suggestions to raise certain parking fines from £60 to £80, depending on the severity of the offence.

FATHER, SON AND THE HOLY ‘COASTER

A CONSORTIUM OF Christian radical businessmen has begun investigating the possibility of opening a creationist ‘theme park’ in Britain similar to those already existing in the USA. The AH Trust is considering a number of locations in northwest England, with a likelihood that the £3.5 million attraction will be built in Lancashire. The 5000-capacity park would focus on exhibiting Christian fi lm, television and other media, but would not involve live re-enactments of Christ bearing the cross as seen in Orlando, Florida’s ‘The Holy Land Experience’. “It will be a halfway house for youngsters,” said Peter Jones, one of the group’s trustees.

“Today all they do is binge drink.

We will be able to offer them an alternative.”

Sarah Clark sarah.clark@journal-online.co.uk

A UK-WIDE CAMPAIGN to improve students' sexual health has been launched in the run up to Valentine's Day. The scheme, organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Department of Health, is designed to persuade students to make better sexual health choices.

Josh MacAlister, Edinburgh University Students' Association President told The Journal: “This week will see Edinburgh University Students' Association running a high profile sexual health campaign.

“We have trained student volun-

teers and thousands of pounds worth of materials to get across the important message of sexual health.”

NUS research has revealed that a large proportion of sexually active students lack sufficient knowledge of sexual health and are unlikely to access information and advice from the conventional clinic setting.

In an attempt to rectify the problem, the NUS is supporting the Department of Health-led ‘Condom Essential Wear’ campaign and will be providing free posters to student unions.

The scheme aims to promote condom use and stress the consequences of unprotected sex, which can result in sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

10 Student Politics

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Students could be held to ransom by ID card plans Sarah Clark sarah.clark@journal-online.co.uk

STUDENTS MAY BE forced into holding ID cards in order to apply for a student loan, Conservative MPs have warned.

A leaked Home Office document suggests that, from 2010, anyone aged sixteen or over may have to obtain the £100 biometric card to apply for a student loan or open a bank account.

The document reads: “Implementation of identity cards will be benefits led, with the first cards issued to individuals where there is the strongest national or personal benefit.

“We should issue ID cards to young people to assist them as they open their first bank account, take out a student loan, etc.”

The National Union of Students (NUS) has expressed strong opposition to the scheme.

James Alexander, President of NUS Scotland, told The Journal: “I don’t think it is fair that students should be singled out, especially as they are amongst those that are most likely to be against the ID proposal.

“Students shouldn’t be treated like guinea pigs and held to ransom if they don’t have ID cards. What’s more is it just adds another layer of bureaucracy to the student loans application procedure.”

The Labour government has previously claimed that identity registration

would be voluntary.

The proposals raise concerns that the government is planning to collect by stealth the personal and biometric details, such as fingerprints, of the more than two million young people entering higher education each year.

Josh MacAlister, president of Edinburgh University Students Association, told The Journal: “Whatever your views on ID card themselves, I think everyone can agree that ‘testing’ them on the millions of students across the UK is unfair. It’s important to make it clear to the government that this won’t go ahead without significant protest from students.”

Student representatives have drawn attention to widespread apprehension regarding the financial implications of the scheme. It is estimated that the proposal will cost every tax payer £200, with an additional £100 fee for an individual when they actually obtain the card.

Liam Burns, President of Heriot Watt University Students’ Association, was furious about the scheme.

He said: “What will ID cards cost?

Around £80? And that’s even before a student has applied! Hardly in the spirit of widening access.

“If this holds tangible benefits for the system, and is not simply a way of embedding ID cards, then the Government needs to be open and lay their cards on the table for students’ associations to debate and comment on.

“Even once that happens, I doubt

very much our response will be positive – but let’s sort out exactly what they are proposing and why first.”

Opponents of the scheme have claimed that the leaked document is a desperate attempt to bolster a failing policy.

Jeremy Purvis MSP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary for Scotland, said: “I am seriously concerned about the impact this Home Office strategy could have on Scottish students. The Scottish Government must stand up for students and ensure this ID card plan does not impact on Scotland.

“Liberal Democrats are opposed to ID cards and fought hard in the previous administration to secure an agreement that that ID cards would not be required for access to devolved services.

Student loans in Scotland are devolved and any suggestion that ID cards would be a prerequisite for accessing loans clearly contravenes this agreement.”

ID cards are expected to be introduced for foreign nationals later this year and were originally intended for issue to UK citizens on a voluntary basis from 2009.

From next year, the biometric cards will be introduced to people in “positions of trust,” for example, airport workers.

The widespread rollout, known as the “Borders Phase II,” whereby people applying for passports would also be issued with an ID card from 2010, has been postponed till 2012.

Edinburgh’s student unions support NUS-led ‘Carbon Academy’ scheme

News Shorts wear them NOT ONE FOR THE ALBUM

Sarah Clark sarah.clark@journal-online.co.uk

STUDENT UNIONS ACROSS Edinburgh have pledged to engage in the NUS Carbon Academy campaign to reduce their carbon footprint through training and establishing better practices in energy management.

The project, supported by campaign groups People and Plant and the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC), was launched in response to the Scottish Government’s demand to cut carbon emissions.

Liam Burns, President of Heriot Watt Students Association (HWUSA), told The Journal: “We are one of the first to go through the roll out of the Carbon Academy” “We’re using it as a way of auditing the practices of the Union. Not only is there a strong push from the Executive to improve our environmental performance, but from a pragmatic point of view the financial savings are clearly an opportunity” This has been specifically designed for student unions by the NUS. Mr Burns continued: “We don’t have to waste time explaining what we’re all about to an external organisation so we hit the ground running.

More importantly, as grass roots students have been trained to deliver the

scheme, there are clear educational and developmental benefits to students on the ground.”

HWUSA is working with their Principal to develop and entrench an up to date environmental policy within the institution and is planning a ‘Go Green’ campaign in week eight of the semester.

NUS assert that on average universities waste 15% of the utilities they use through bad practice. They have estimated that its 233 member unions are collectively responsible for 145,000 tons of carbon dioxide per annum.

NUS Services hopes that the Carbon Academy will contribute to the reduction of between 4,000 and 6,500 tons of carbon dioxide by its member unions every year for the next five years.

The Carbon Academy scheme, now in its third phrase, held a Carbon Academy open access training course at Edinburgh University Students Association on Monday, January 28, 2008.

The course was aimed at improving energy efficiency in student unions and equipped delegates with the knowledge to carry out an energy audit.

Josh McAlister, President of the University of Edinburgh association, told The Journal: “Edinburgh University Students’ Association has been

recognised as one of the leading environmentally friendly students’ unions in the UK. “We’ll certainly be engaging with the Carbon Academy in the future and we hope to both save money and further improve our environmental standing.”

The Carbon Academy scheme is a reaction to pressure from Holyrood and Westminster to make universities throughout the UK more environmentally friendly.

The Scottish Executive has committed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050 and expects universities to play a crucial role in this diminution.

The Scottish Executive Sustainable Action Grant Fund and the Scottish Funding Council have financed

the EUAC-led Campus Sustainability Project (Caspr), which aims to deliver a wide ranging series of workshops detailing the practical and financial support available and giving advice on good practice.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has pledged £290 million to cut campus greenhouse gases and encourage innovation in sustainable building projects at universities.

The deputy chief executive of HEFCE, Steve Egan, said: “Within our overall approach to sustainable development we will continue to work with universities and colleges to ensure that building programmes are planned in a sustainable way, to contribute to meeting targets to reduce carbon emissions.”

ONE OF SCOTLAND’S most-visited tourist attractions is now off-limits to amateur photographers looking for a couple of holiday snaps. The operators of Rosslyn Chapel have banned the use of cameras in the medieval church, made famous by Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, due to health and safety concerns. “Because the chapel is quite dimly lit and there are cracked and uneven slabs,” said Colin Glynne-Percy, directort of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, “it can lead to people tripping and stumbling.”

MEANWHILE – PERHAPS disappointed that they couldn’t get the pictures they wanted at Rosslyn – holiday snappers have been flocking to Edinburgh newest unofficial landmark. Norrie Rowan, former Scotland rugby international and owner of the Cowgate’s Rowan Tree pub, was bemused to find increasingly large crowds of tourists gathering outside his establishment to photograph a model of a cow’s rear end, suspended high above the pavement, which expels smoke in an imitation of flatulence on the hour from 11am until 1pm. “The cow is already famous around Edinburgh and I get hundreds of tourists coming by and taking pictures of it,” Mr Rowan told the BBC.

National Politics 11

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Scottish Labour leader spared

by Electoral Commission verdict

New hope for families of Mull of Kintyre pilots

Wendy Alexander told she took "significant" steps to solve campaign donation error Paris Gourtsoyannis paris.gourtsoyannis@journal-online.co.uk

Helen Walker helen.walker@journal-online.co.uk

WENDY ALEXANDER, THE Scottish Labour Party leader, has been cleared by the Scottish Electoral Commission of “intentional wrongdoing” after accepting an illegal campaign donation in the build-up to the Scottish Labour party leadership contest.

Ms Alexander was told that she took “significant” steps to act within the bounds of the law, despite accepting a £950 donation from Jersey-based businessman Paul Green. The developer is not on the UK electoral roll and as such is not permitted to make donations to UK political parties.

The verdict was branded a “whitewash” by Ms Alexander’s political rivals.

Following the Commission’s findings, Ms Alexander told a press conference: “My honesty and my integrity have been confirmed by this judgement.”

She apologised for the mistake that had been made and said: “Lessons have and will be learned.”

While describing the controversy as a “bruising experience,” she stated that: “I will not walk away from my party or the people of Scotland while there remains a job to be done”.

The Scottish Labour Party Leader had been under increasing pressure to resign, especially after her recent referral to the procurator fiscal for failure to declare 10 gifts of between £520 and £1000 donated to her uncontested party leadership campaign.

The Electoral Commission’s findings were only concerned with the donation made by Mr Green; the procurator fiscal’s ruling is still pending.

Given that the Electoral Commission’s verdict stated it was “not appropriate or in the public interest” to prosecute Ms Alexander, much of the mounting political pressure has now been lifted.

The commission’s findings cannot have pleased SNP Finance Minister

John Swinney who, prior to the report, told the The Scotsman that: “If the parliamentary standards commissioner has felt it necessary to report Wendy Alexander to the procurator fiscal, then the Electoral Commission has absolutely no alternative.”

In contrast, the commission’s conclusion will undoubtedly be greatly welcomed by the Prime Minister after recent scandals concerning funding have engulfed the Labour Party. Ms Alexander’s case drew comparisons with the resignation of Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain, over £103,000 of undeclared donations in his deputy leadership campaign for the national party.

The news is especially welcome for Charlie Gordon, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, who sought the donation on Ms Alexander’s behalf and also received a gift from Mr Green.

Mr Gordon had stood down from his position as Scottish Labour Party spokesman for transport as a result of the controversy but until today had not known whether he would face prosecution and loss of his parliamentary seat.

Now that much of the pressure surrounding this issue has been removed, Wendy Alexander will have more time to address other problems threatening her leadership.

Ms Alexander is facing ridicule for her decision to abstain in the vote on the SNP’s budget proposal, despite sparking significant controversy and debate.

In addition, Ms Alexander’s performances at First Minister’s Questions have damaged confidence amongst her parliamentary colleagues.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister said: “This whole affair has been extremely damaging to Wendy Alexander’s leadership of the Labour Party.”

In reference to the funding row, another critic of Ms Alexander, SNP MSP Roseanna Cunningham, commented: “There is a long way to go yet before she is clear of the issue. She is not out of the woods yet.”

Wendy Alexander walks free from Electoral Commission Eddie Fisher

New guidelines on university extremism Student representatives call advice “biased against Islam” and “contradictory” Helen Walker helen.walker@journal-online.co.uk

NEW GUIDELINES ISSUED to universities have advised higher education authorities to consider sharing information on violent Islamist speakers and ban them from addressing students.

The advice came in an updated government document aimed at helping universities to tackle Islamic extremism on campus.

The report by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills was issued after the Prime Minister called for further debate concerning the ways in which universities could foster academic freedom whilst tackling the issue of violent extremism.

Other advice included urging universities to consider rejecting demands for separate prayer and washing facilities in order to prevent campuses segregating along religious lines.

The report also highlighted a line that the government saw between stu-

dents researching and debating violent extremism and students who promoted it.

The guidance addresses a belief in government that “universities and colleges can provide a recruiting ground for extremists of all forms, and particularly those who target young people.”

The report emphasises a continued commitment to allowing “free and open debate to take place.”

However, Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students, called the guidance on freedom of speech “unhelpful and contradictory.”

Ms Tumelty said of the report: “It argues that holding extreme views is ‘acceptable provided these views do not pass the line of illegality’ and that universities should encourage that they be debated, before admitting that extreme groups are likely ‘to be careful to keep their message within acceptable limits’ in campus settings.”

The report follows similar guidelines issued by the Department for Education and Skills last year which stated that “ethnically segregated com-

munities are increasingly common on campus” and raised concerns that new students who are away from home for the first time may be “vulnerable to ‘grooming’.”

While some groups, including the British Muslim Forum, have largely welcomed the report, the main lecturers’ union has reiterated its fear that

Gemma Tumelty: questions whether new guidelines on freedom of speech will confuse universities further universities could come to expect staff to spy on students.

The guidelines have also come under fire from Ruqayyah Collector, the NUS’ Black Students Officer, who stated that the disproportionate focus on Islamic groups compared to other extremist factions “risks encouraging universities to treat Muslims with suspicion.”

The Scottish government has no official stance on the issue despite the fact that education is a devolved area.

A government spokesperson told The Journal: “The Scottish Government has not issued guidance to universities and colleges on the issue of Islamic extremism in universities and there are currently no plans to do so.”

The government did confirm that “Universities Scotland would have been made aware of the new guidance issued by the UK Government.”

In response to the government guidelines an Edinburgh University spokesperson told The Journal: “The new guidelines raise issues of which the University is fully aware, and to which we give careful thought. We encourage dialogue and discussion on these issues with representatives of Edinburgh’s students’ unions and with other interested parties.”

The University of Edinburgh reiterated its commitment to freedom of speech and association, in what it called “a complex and sensitive matter.”

THE FAMILIES OF two Royal Air Force pilots blamed for the military’s worst ever peacetime air disaster have been given new hope of clearing their names after Defence Secretary Des Browne agreed to reconsider their case.

Following a meeting with Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan, spokesperson for the ‘Mull of Kintyre group’ campaigning on behalf of the pilots, Mr Browne will reevaluate all past evidence, compiled into a single report for the first time.

Speaking after the meeting on 15 January, Lord O’Neill told Channel 4 News: “We now have, we think, a number of points relating to the airworthiness of the helicopter which we think haven’t been considered by the MoD.” Taking in new evidence obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the dossier will also question how “appropriate” the RAF’s legal proceedings have been in regards to the case.

On 2 June, 1994, the four-man crew of an RAF Chinook helicopter and its 25 passengers all died when the flight deviated from its course in poor weather en route from Belfast to Inverness and crashed into a hillside on the Mull of Kintyre.

In addition to the loss of life, the crash was a disaster for military intelligence, with the passengers – all high ranking members of the security services – representing the bulk of British knowledge and experience of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Cleared by an RAF enquiry, the two pilots – Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Rick Cook – have since stood accused of “gross negligence” as a result of having the verdict overturned by two senior officials.

Air Vice-Marshall John Day and Air Chief-Marshall Sir William Wratten, both now retired, failed to give arguments in support of their decision, and have since expressed reservations in regards to their judgement.

All but one of the investigations following their intervention have found in favour of the pilots, including a 1996 Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry, which stated that “It has not been established... that the cause of the accident was the decision by the crew...to overfly the Mull of Kintyre.”

In 2000, a House of Commons inquiry said: “The unsustainable finding of gross negligence... should be overturned;” a 2002 House of Lords probe agreed.

A 1998 Channel 4 News investigation, the findings of which are included in the dossier, uncovered serious misgivings amongst air crews operating the Chinook fleet prior to the accident.

The investigation featured an audit of the Chinook’s Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) software, which pilots complained was rolled out for use before being properly tested.

Tony Collins, a writer for trade magazine Computer Weekly, found 486 errors in what was “safety-critical software.

“I was astonished that it related to a helicopter that was in service,” he told the Scotsman on Sunday in 2002.

Both deceased pilots had expressed their concerns regarding the helicopters’ safety to their families, and additional life insurance was taken out by one of the men prior to the accident.

Only the week before, all Chinooks flying out of Northern Ireland’s RAF Boscombe Down had been temporarily grounded due to safety concerns.

Mr Browne has vowed to return his decision within three to five weeks.

Current and former MPs, MSPs and law lords, including prominent Scottish politicians such as Sir Menzies Campbell and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, continue to lobby in favour of Flt Lts Tapper and Cook being cleared.

12 National Student News

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Exam cheats Cuts in funding for found guilty second degrees of fraud Joanna Hosa

joanna.hosa@journal-online.co.uk

City banker and 23 year-old student facing jail sentences after 17 month exam conspiracy uncovered in York

Nick Eardley nick.eardley@journal-online.co.uk

A city banker and a student from the University of York both face jail sentences after being found guilty of cheating in university exams.

Jerome Drean, a former Bank of America and Credit Suisse employee, and 23 year-old student Elnar Askerov used a fake university identification card to allow Mr Drean to sit exams for Mr Askerov.

The fraud was discovered during an economics exam when an invigilator realised that Mr Drean was an imposter.

York Crown Court heard that the fake card, bearing Mr Askerov’s name and Mr Drean’s photograph, was used 9 times between January 2006 and May 2007. It is believed that over £20,000 was paid to Mr Drean in the 17-month period.

Judge Stephen Ashurt told the pair: “I know you are both intelligent men. You must understand that all sentencing options including imprisonment will be considered when this court reconvenes to consider your case.”

He added: “This is a case that raises some issues of quite some public important in relation to public examinations and the confidence that the community can have in them.”

The pair admitted conspiracy to defraud the University of York. Mr Askerov’s lawyer has pledged that his client will pay the university £600 to cover the cost of marking the exam papers involved, whilst Mr Drean has also said he will pay the £20,000 he was paid by Mr Askerov to the prosecuting authorities.

Mr Drean, who lives in London, quit his job at Credit Suisse eight days after being uncovered. Mr Askerov now works and lives abroad.

Both are due to be sentenced later this month.

In an apparently unrelated incident, two other students were found guilty of cheating in the same exam.

York student Qiu Shi Zhang admitted aiding and abetting fraud, whilst Birmingham University student, Xin Zhang admitted to a charge of fraud.

Xin Zhang sat the exam for his friend after the former had been struggling with the workload. They were each sentenced to 100 hours community service and ordered to pay £35.

GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT TO 60,000 STUDENTS IN EDINBURGH

Funding for students taking a second undergraduate degree will be cut this year by the government. The Conservative motion opposing the plan was defeated.

Cuts of around £100m a year were announced in September last year. The money that has been used up till now to fund students studying for a second degree or lower qualifications will now be redirected towards students taking their first degrees.

The government has claimed that the new funding system will widen ac-

From EUSA to NUS Edinburgh University Students’ Association president Josh MacAlister steps up his campaign for leadership of NUS Scotland

Thousands of student bursaries go unclaimed nick.eardley@journal-online.co.uk

CALL 0870 919 4909 OR EMAIL ADS@JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK FOR MORE INFORMATION

re-skill. It has been noted that shifting careers can be beneficial not only to individuals, but for the economy as a whole.

David Willetts, the Conservative university spokesman, said: "We do not want to live in a country where if at first you don't succeed, you don't succeed. We want people to have a second chance.

We want people to have new opportunities.”

Although some Labour MPs have opposed the cuts, the majority want to prioritise those entering higher education or progressing to higher qualifications.

Mr Denham added that in many cases of retraining the employer could cover some of the costs of a second degree.

Presidential Prospects

Nick Eardley

SPECIAL ADVERTISING DEALS FOR SOCIETIES AND STUDENT GROUPS

cess to universities.

John Denham, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said "I believe that both economic success and social justice argue that public money should go first to those who have never had the chance of higher education.”

Universities are already permitted to regulate fees for students taking a second degree. The government cuts will produce an increase in fees, which are expected to exceed £7,000 per year.

The change will affect around 170,000 students, most of whom will be part-time or mature students.

Opponents have argued that cuts will deny students the opportunity to

Thousands of students from low income backgrounds are missing out on bursaries to which they are entitled, a university watchdog has claimed.

Over 12,000 students who could have claimed a £1,000 grant towards their education failed to do so, according to the report from the Office for Fair Access (OFFA).

The report also highlighted that over 70,000 students from low-income backgrounds did receive support in 2006-7, and that higher education institutions spent over £96 million on bursaries.

OFFA director Sir Martin Harris said: “As one might expect when implementing a financial package on such a large scale, there have been some teething problems.

“In particular, research suggests that low awareness of bursaries and scholarships amongst some young people is still an issue.”

The low-income bursary is an entitlement of all students who come from homes with an income of less that £25,000 annually, but the report suggests that many students have missed out because they failed to tick a box on their student loan application form which would have allowed the Student Loans Company to share information about their household income with their university or college.

Sir Harris added: “It was surprising to see a significant number of students fail to apply for bursaries, or consent to share their financial information with their institution, resulting in a lower than expected uptake.”

The report concluded that there were no examples where students who were entitled to bursaries had

applied through the correct channels and not received their entitlement. The OFFA has contacted those institutions which it believes are not doing enough to raise awareness of bursary entitlement, at the same time praising the “strenuous” efforts of many universities and colleges.

However, Vice-President of the National Union of Students, Wes Streeting, criticised the failures highlighted in the report.

He said: “Given the drop in accepted applications from working class students over the past two years against an overall increase in accepted applicants revealed in UCAS figures, the report underlines our view that the current system is failing to deliver on the government’s widening access agenda.

“We expect institutions to begin urgent discussion with students’ unions about the design and promotion of their bursary packages.”

National Student News 13

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Protestors picket anti-abortion rallies The Passion for Life tour, featuring Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe, is met by protests in Glasgow and London nick.eardley@journal-online.co.uk

A PRO-LIFE RALLY held at Glasgow University featuring Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe was by a counterdemonstration of around one hundred protestors on Wednesday 23 January.

The meeting was organised to discuss the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill before parliament, which critics claim will allow the mixing of humans and animals for research purposes, as well as opening the law to further extension of abortion laws.

The meeting was part of the UKwide ‘Passion for Life’ tour, which has also encountered protests at its meetings in London, where over 400 demonstrators gathered outside Westminster Central Hall and Southampton.

A spokesperson for the group Abortion Rights, said: “The protests show

the strength of feeling in support of a woman’s right to choose on abortion and against any planned attacks on women’s abortion rights in Parliament by anti-abortion MPs in the coming months – particularly on the abortion time limit.”

Current UK law allows women to have an abortion up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Although the current bill would not change this, anti-abortion campaigners have raised concerns that amendments to the current bill would allow an extension of the time limit.

Opponents of the bill also believe that it would remove the legal necessity for male sperm donor’s names to be recorded for IVF treatments.

Ms Widdecombe defended the message of the campaign, telling the Glasgow Guardian: “We have a situation in this country where a foetus can be aborted right up to birth itself if it has a handicap such as a cleft pallet.

“At present, you can have two babies of exactly the same age and gestation and one is lying in a cot with all the resources of medical science being poured in to save it while the other is being torn from the womb and destroyed despite the fact they are at the same stage of development. That cannot be a mark of a civilised society.”

However, Christine McCafferty MP dismissed this argument.

She said: “In the 40th anniversary year of the enactment of the 1967 Abortion Act, we cannot allow the tiny minority who oppose all abortion to chip away women’s fundamental rights.

Women’s rights should be extended, not restricted.

Ms Widdecombe was joined in Glasgow by Liberal Democrat Peer Lord David Alton and Nola Leach of the Christian charity CARE. The Passion for Life tours continues in Widnes on 18 February and in Cardiff on 4 March.

Duncan Brown

Nick Eardley

Student journalists offer unique angle on US elections Joanna Hosa & Ben Judge joanna.hosa@journal-online.co.uk

IN AN ATTEMPT to break the stranglehold of multi-national news organisations in the country, a daily national student newspaper has been launched in America to provide young people with independent coverage of the US presidential campaigns.

Drawing on voluntary contributions from student journalists, Scoop08 is an online student publication that has brought together writers from across the country to provide indepth coverage of the US Democratic and Republican primary contests.

Launched in November 2007, the website was established by Andrew Mangino, Yale undergraduate, and high school student Alexander Heffner, with the support of such luminaries as the senior editor of Newsweek, Jonathan Alter, and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. The site also calls upon the input of up to 400 staff writers across the country.

Scoop08 has come to prominence as recent trends show America’s supposedly disaffected youth are increasingly becoming an important voting block. This has been most potently exploited by Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose mobilisation of the 18-35 vote in a primary contest has been the most effective of any candidate in recent decades.

In an interview with CNN, Mr Heffner said: “We have a network of over 300 student journalists across the country who are covering all the candidates and all the issues. The scope of the production allows for us to cover candidates like

Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, and others who are just coming to the forefront of the campaign presently.

“I think the Internet has allowed for students from California, Texas, the Northeast, to come together and to report on the race. And this is an opportunity unlike any other. It is truly unprecedented. We have not seen the Internet play this influential a role in any presidential election thus far.”

The site claims: “This race is unprecedented. The interest it has generated on high school and college campuses across America is extraordinary. Young people are excited to move forward, and they are willing– perhaps for the first time in a while–to care.”

The website is run by the nonprofit organisation Scoop Media Inc and was designed by New York firm, Winterhouse. It had an initial investment of $20,000 and benefits from an advisory board of prominent reporters, politicians and consultants.

Mr Heffner told the New York Times “We’re at the forefront of some innovative news and technologies in this virtual newsroom. There is no central hub besides the United States of America.”

★ Do you find the prospect of professional networking daunting? ★ Interested in learning more about Public Relations as a profession? ★ Would you like to meet some of the best PR talent in Scotland?

The ability to network effectively and build professional relationships is crucial in PR. You need to have the confidence to develop valuable contacts with potential employers, clients and the media.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations Scotland (CIPR) is holding a fun and interactive networking workshop for students.

Networking professionals will demonstrate the advantages of effective networking and provide essential advice on ‘how to work the room’. Students will be given the opportunity to practice the techniques with some of the best PR professionals in Scotland at a social event after the workshop.

Monday, 25th February 2008 5pm till late The Roxburghe Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4HQ To book a place at this event, or for further details, please contact Bill Ranatunga at howtoworktheroom@googlemail.com

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How to Work the Room … and your way into PR

journal online www. journal-online .co.uk

14 Academic News

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Student leaders promote national survey Student reps encourage final year students to take part in national student survey 2008

Heriot-Watt in software partnership with oil company Neil Bennet neil.bennet@journal-online.co.uk

Neil Bennet neil.bennet@journal-online.co.uk

Edinburgh’s student leaders are encouraging all final year undergraduates to take part in this year’s National Student Survey, and to tell the truth when answering the questions.

The National Student Survey is used by over 170 universities across the UK, and has been recording the opinions of final year students for the last three years. Students are questioned on the quality of teaching and university facilities, social opportunities at university and about their future careers.

Talat Yaqoob, Vice President of Education and Welfare at Heriot-Watt Students Association is keen to make sure the survey is a success.

She said: “The National Student Survey is an excellent way for students to give their honest opinions

about their university experience, by telling the university about the good and the bad, whether that’s about teaching, learning resources, or facilities, students have the opportunity to show universities where they need to improve.

“I hope final year undergrads fill in the survey and more importantly I hope universities across the UK use the results productively to improve the student experience.”

Josh MacAlister, President of Edinburgh University Students Association, agreed.

He said: “The National Student Survey gives final year students the chance to reflect on their time at Edinburgh University and let their views be heard. The results not only inform future students about studying at Edinburgh, they also direct the university and the Students’ Association to make the changes needed to improve the student experience.

“I’d urge all final year students to do the survey. It only takes a few min-

Edinburgh student representatives are encouraging student participation utes and for the results to be meaningful we need as many responses as possible!”

However, one Edinburgh University graduate told The Journal: “I couldn’t really be bothered with it, to be honest.”

The survey will continue to run until the end of February, with some institutions including incentives such as entry into a prize draw for students who complete the questionnaire early. The results of the survey are expected to be publicly available in September this year.

Computer software valued at $35 million has been donated to HeriotWatt University’s Institute of Petroleum Engineering.

The reservoir-modelling software, donated by Norwegian oil and gas technology firm Roxar, will be used in research that will help oil and gas companies extract the maximum possible reserves from reservoirs. This software will overcome specific geological difficulties in individual oil and gas wells that can currently prevent this from happening.

Professor Mike Christie, Deputy Director of Heriot-Watt’s IPE, said: “We are very pleased with Roxar’s donation of 164 licenses to use for history matching and uncertainty quantification on our linux computer cluster.

“By working closely with Roxar, we hope to demonstrate the value of combining advanced software, modern cluster computing, and a sound understanding of theory to quantify uncertainty in reservoir performance prediction leading to better reservoir management.”

Gunnar Hviding, CEO of Roxar, which specialises in both modelling software and measurement instruments for use in oil and gas extraction, said: “We are delighted to be working with Heriot-Watt and contributing to industry research in what we believe is a hugely important area of reservoir management.”

The donation, however, has been controversial.

Some students have objected to the university’s cooperation with a member of the oil industry on environmental grounds.

Rowan Muir, a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student at Heriot-Watt, told The Journal: “If all the oil and gas from even just the already-discovered reservoirs is used, it could push the global climate past the point of no return.

“All over the country renewable energy projects are being indefinitely brought to a halt due to a lack of funding.

“This latest donation is typical of the world-wide failure to put decent funding towards the areas that are crying out for money, those that are crucial to tackling climate change.”

Europe reaches for the stars

Atlantis carries ESA modules into orbit The European Space Agency stepped to the forefront of space research last week with the launch of a new laboratory unit for the International Space Station, along with the mobile supply vehicle “Jules Verne”

NASA/Jim Grossmann

Academic News 15

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Malloch-Brown gives lecture on new diplomacy Time for bilateralism is over, says cabinet minister Neil Bennet neil.bennet@journal-online.co.uk

A CABINET MINISTER for Africa, Asia and the UN gave this year’s John Erickson lecture at the University of Edinburgh last week.

Lord Malloch-Brown spoke on “multilateralism, humanitarianism and interventionism” to an audience of students, academics and members of the public.

The lecture is held annually to commemorate John Erickson, historian and former Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow in Defence Studies at the University of Edinburgh, who died in 2002. The event, which took place in the prestigious Playfair Library in the Old College, was jointly sponsored by the Politics and International Relations department and the Europa Institute at the university.

Lord Malloch-Brown told the assembled audience that “the bilateral system of foreign policy… is going before our eyes.”

He discussed some of the difficulties caused by globalisation, their 135087a and (Unilever)

impact on national governments and nation-states.

“Capital is highly mobile… [and this] puts huge constraints on what governments can do, even on something as important as taxation,” he told listeners.

In response to global problems such as terrorism and climate change, Lord Malloch-Brown argued that multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should be reformed and strengthened. He suggested that the World Bank should take responsibility for ensuring sustainable development in the southern hemisphere.

A former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Malloch-Brown spoke of his professional experience with the UN, as well as the organisation’s history and the current pressures for reform, particularly of the Security Council. He said however that “military intervention must be seen as the last resort.”

As an alternative he suggested the use of international banking and finance to craft specific sanctions “that target the rich and the guilty rather than the poor and the vulnerable, as country-wide sanctions can 1often do.” x180.qxd 18/6/07 16:50 Page

135087a (Unilever) x180.qxd

18/6/07

16:50

News Shorts

wear them RAT RACE FOR ST KILDA BIRDS A MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL protection effort was launched last week after storms which wreaked havoc on shipping up and down the British Isles forced a Spanish trawler onto rocks at St. Kilda, the westernmost outpost of the Outer Hebrides. Volunteers searched the wreck and surrounding areas for evidence that rats had escaped the ship; normally protected from such predators by its isolation, St. Kilda has developed into an ideal habitat for burrowing seabirds such as the puffin.

EU TEACAKE OUTRAGE! THE HUMBLE BRITISH teacake could cost HM’s Revenue & Customs heavily after a European court ruled that an accounting error had occurred, entitling Marks & Spencer to a £3.5 million repayment from the government. Until 1994, M&S’ marshmallow teacakes had been classified as biscuits, upon which sales tax is levied on export; however, upon their reclassification as cakes – exempt from sales tax – the government only refunded just under £90,000 of the total paid by the company. The case now moves to the House of Lords.

Page 1

Antarctic lake study could shed light on the origins of life Cameron Robinson cameron.robinson@journal-online.co.uk

RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY a University of Edinburgh professor on a sub-glacial lake in Antarctica may hold clues to the origins of life.

Dr Ross and three fellow researchers are investigating Lake Ellsworth, located 3.2km below Antarctica’s western ice sheet. It is one of around 150 sub-glacial lakes spread throughout Antarctica, among which exists the better-known Lake Vostok, the largest of its kind in the continent and the location of a Cold War-era Russian research base.

Lake Ellsworth was selected as the focus for biological and geophysical investigation due to its location, size, and low altitude compared with the eastern lakes such as Vostok.

Professor Siegert, head of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said: “We are particularly interested in Lake Ellsworth because it is likely to have been isolated from the surface for hundreds of thousands of years.”

As a result, scientists believe Lake Ellsworth has the potential to contain forms of life that have developed and evolved in complete seclusion from all other living matter on the planet. Such a discovery could prove invaluable to scientists attempting to unravel the mysteries of the origins of life on earth.

The possibility of success is strengthened by a number of discoveries over the past decade of microbes living in a variety of extreme and inhospitable environments – so called ‘extremeophiles’. It is findings such as these that bolster hopes of discovering life in the sub zero, high pressure, and low nutrient conditions of Lake Ellsworth.

The implications of any such discovery in Ellsworth extend beyond that of life on our planet alone. The extreme environment of the lake bears similarities to conditions on Europa – one of Jupiter’s moons.

For climate science researchers, the lake floor could also hold precious information about the history of the earth’s climate and lead to a greater understanding of climatic change in the present and future. Satellite imagery and geophysical surveying of the lake also suggests connections with other subglacial lakes in the area.

Professor Siegert said of Lake Ellsworth: “[It] could drain from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to the ocean and contribute to sea level rise.”

The analysis and exploration of Lake Ellsworth is a two-step project, the initial aim being limited to determining the depth of lake. Researchers subsequently plan to probe directly into the lake and to collect and analyse the water – however, funding for this latter stage is yet to be secured. The study is expected to take a number of years to reach completion.

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16 Elections 2008

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008



Elections 2008 17

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Cole and Ward jostle as front-runners

MANIFESTOS At a glance HARRY COLE The Big EUSA Lottery A Students' Association-run lottery with £1 tickets, half the proceeds of which will go to the winnings, the other half to societies. Potentially a good way of raising much needed cash for the Students' Association, as well as providing fun on campus, but is getting the students to cough up the right way to solve the Union's financial difficulties?

Two candidates launch their presidential campaigns, with a third pushing his agenda, as the 2008 EUSA election race begins Tim Goodwin

Online Polling

tim.goodwin@journal-online.co.uk

STUDENT PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS, Harry Cole and Nick Ward, are jostling for position as the front-runner in the 2008 EUSA presidential election, with both hitting the ground running on the day nominations open.

Mr Cole, who was first to announce his candidacy on 25 January, hosted his manifesto launch on Monday only for Mr Ward to attempt to upstage his rival by holding his event on the same day.

The candidates have already set the agenda for the contest as reform against results, with talk of “experience versus change” becoming the slogan for the election, aping the US Democratic primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Talking to The Journal, Mr Cole said: “My campaign is based on a wideranging reform package which aims to bring student politics into the 21st century. I want Edinburgh University to be the leading students’ union in the UK. This is the best city in the world to be a student, and we deserve a world-leading standard of service and representation from our Students’ Association.”

In a speech at his launch event on Monday, Mr Cole said: “There has been a lot of talk recently about EUSA focusing too much on global issues which they are not really in a position to affect. Part of my drive to fi x EUSA is based on looking inwards to fi x our own problems, before looking out. Looking at contact time is an excellent example of this.”

The second part of the manifesto proposes constitutional and internal reforms for the Students’ Association.

These promises, which include a pledge to do a weekly video podcast and his signature policy of online referenda to replace General Meetings, aim to fi x what he describes as the “broken” nature of the Student’s Association.

Mr Ward was critical of Mr Cole’s proposed constitutional amendments.

In a statement released last Friday, he said: “In this election there is a choice, a choice for tinkering with constitutions and ‘systems’ or taking real action and improving the lives of students.”

In a comment to The Journal, Mr Ward said: “We have got to start focusing on the university outcome. University should be a launch-pad for our future lives. I want this university to be the best launch pad in the country, focusing on providing the opportunities for real work experience for all.”

Harry Cole is perhaps the highest profile candidate at present, having announced his candidature in January at a Conservative Party Burns’ Night event at the Scottish Parliament and having released two campaign videos on his official website. Mr Cole who is running as an independent candidate, stood down from his position as Vice Chair of the University’s Conservative and Unionist Association in order to run for the EUSA Presidency, has retained his membership of the national Conservative Party organisation.

Nick Ward has been involved in EUSA and Labour Student politics since his first year and is hoping this level of experience will carry him to victory.

On difficult issues, Harry will turn to the students for their advice. Excellent for student involvement, and direct representation, but will this not make a mockery of current representative structures and show a degree of weak leadership?

Alumni Funded Hardship Grants American-style support might be just what the poorer student needs, but with current hardship funds often not being entirely used up each year, are they really necessary?

NICK WARD Council Tax Exemption Extension

Nick Ward (Olivia Longson)

A campaign to extend the current council tax exemption to include a year after graduation in order to keep graduates in the city. Undoubtedly popular with students, but is getting the City Council onside realistic?

Boosting Employability Putting pressure on the University, as well as providing specific Students' Association schemes, to boost your chances of getting a job. Are students going to be inclined to take this up, however?

Institute a Full Management Review Make sure the Unions are run by experienced and competent managers.

Important, but frightfully dull.

Harry Cole (Gibson Laurence)

Ramsay campaign Student elections 2008: the inside track flying under radar What awaits the candidates in the race to lead Scotland’s largest student union?

Ben Judge ben.judge@journal-online.co.uk

LAST YEAR’S PRESIDENTIAL runnerup, Adam Ramsay has picked up a wide range of support from society presidents of many political hues but is in danger of falling behind in the race after failing to organise a high-profile launch event during the first week of campaigning.

Mr Ramsay counts among his supporters the presidents of the Scottish Nationalist, Green and Socialist societies in addition to current Vice President Service Tom French.

Mr French said of Mr Ramsay: “The EUSA President spends loads of time talking to politicians on our behalf. It is important that they can talk to people across party boundaries. Adam isn’t a member of the Labour party. I am.

However, I’m backing him because he is

 



Student Elections 08

the best candidate, and because he has demonstrated over the years that he can work with politicians and students from all parties and none.”

Mr Ramsay told The Journal: “I’m delighted to gain support from across political boundaries. As president I’ll work with students and politicians from all parties and none to deliver the best deal for students, and to cut the cost of student life.”

However, in spite of this, Mr Ramsay looks to be in danger of falling behind his presidential rivals Nick Ward and Harry Cole because of a lack of effort in publicising his campaign to the wider student body.

With both Ward and Cole hosting launch events on the opening day of nominations, and showing the required media savvy to ensure student journalists are in attendance, Mr Ramsay is surprisingly invisible, despite having been the only one to have run in a presidential campaign before.

Tim Goodwin

EUSA Commentator tim.goodwin@journal-online.co.uk

IT’S NOT HARD for me to think back to this time two years ago. At the time I was a third year student, happily going about my daily student life, and casually preparing to stand for the Presidency of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association. Less than a month, 12 litres of wallpaper paste, 1,600 cable-ties, 2,500 flyers, dozens of pints and (I imagine) tens of thousands of handshakes later I got a new job.

The race to take on one of these positions is always frantic. Candidates have to face a barrage of questions, and generally a fair amount of abuse

both on the doorsteps and around campus. They should expect to be told to ‘piss off’ more than once over the next few weeks and they will be expected to respond to such insults with a smile.

On top of this, their hours will be long, and most of the minutes will be pretty lousy. They’ll be up at the crack of dawn scrabbling up lamposts with posters, and they’ll be going to bed not too soon before the crack of dawn having spent the night adjusting their websites or pasting posters onto cardboard. And they’ll awake with a start, sweaty from nightmares of campuswide humiliation, to ask themselves that one essential question: should I have posters or flyers?!

My God, I’m glad that’s not me again.

The one thing they should be able to count on, and the one thing that EUSA elections have always seemed to have on their side, is that the candidates will not be the ones dishing out the dirt. Kissenger is regularly misquoted as calling student politics vicious, but for the most part, we’ve managed to avoid this.

My worries are that this may all be allowed to change. The now infamous hate-rag (or should that be hate-blog?)

EUSAless seems to be going out of its way to bring an air of sleaze, slander, and downright abuse to this year’s election. Those commenting on the blog are amongst the worst culprits (one has even gone as far as criticising Nick Ward’s candidacy on the basis of his sexuality) although the blog itself is usually much too quick to substi-

tute exciting stories for truth, and is entirely unencumbered by fact.

Harry Cole, one of our presidential hopefuls, has called all candidates to sign a ‘clean campaign pledge’ he is drawing up. But how pure are his motives? As a Conservative, is he really in this for students, or is there an element of Labour-bashing? He claims not, but I have to wonder when he tells me that one of the biggest problems with EUSA is the fact that the current President has been a supporter of Tony Blair and then produces a video which bashes him as old and stale.

So I guess what I really want to push is this one point: the elections should be fun, but they should also be serious. The job of holding a student sabbatical position is extremely important, and it entails shouldering an

awful lot of responsibility. But we’re also students. This is demonstrably not the real world and we should not be out to attack one another.

When Brown and Cameron square off, it’s one thing. When Cole, Ward and Ramsay square off it’s going to be another. To the outsider, the student experience is chacterised as being fun, invigorating, and exciting. It’s not characterised as being a world of bitching and backstabbing, even in the sphere of student politics. Maybe this is something of a fantasy land, but it should be preserved.

So good luck to all the candidates and congratulations. You’ve entered an exciting new experience in getting yourself nominated, but above all, you’ve done something really brave in stepping up to the mark. Go for it.

THE SILLY-SEASON IS well and truly in swing, with as many as eighteen names being bandied around the Edinburgh University campus as potential sabbatical material.

The Presidential race is left wide open, with a classic stand off of Tory v Labour as Harry Cole and Nick Ward square up against one another. In the background, however, former Chair of the Young Green Party Adam Ramsay has announced his intention to wade into battle with them.

These three usual suspects may well not be alone. Other potential candidates include current EUSA Academic Services Convenor Thomas Graham and Accommodation Officer Sam Hansford. Both have been widely tipped for External Convenor as well, although insiders reckoned they were unlikely to run against one another as they were close friends.

The vice-presidential stakes always seem a little lower, and thus attract less publicity, but the races are seldom less exciting. For the role of Vice President Academic Affairs, long time Students’ Representative Council member Guy Bromley has announced that he has his running shoes on and is heading for 6 March.

He will not be alone. Stewart Martin, a veteran of the anti-NUS campaign and three-term Geo-Sciences School Representative, will be going against him. His campaign will focus on core issues, such as reforming the role and duties of Directors of Studies and improving the Class Representative system, which he feels will “have a potentially huge impact on a wide spread of students.”

In addition, Andrew Weir, of the Socialist Society, will be running for the role of VPAA on a platform of free education and reintroducing student grants.

Whilst admirable, this has caused controversy amongst the student politics community, as many of his pledges are

Rumour Tim Goodwin’s

Mill

more the responsibility of President, whilst Mr Weir seems perhaps to be ignoring the invaluable work on the academic side of things.

The race to succeed the controversial Tom French as Vice President Services is hotting up as well, with long term staff member and student Rosy Burgess taking on former Freshers’ Week Coordinator George Thomas in an exciting play off. Thomas will doubtless be drawing on his youth and energy to sell himself to the voters, whilst Rosy Burgess will likely take a different tack, reminding students of her long service to the unions and insider knowledge.

The race for Vice President Societies and Activities is not immune from this desperate scramble, and may yet be the busiest, with both Naomi Hunter and Phil McGuiness having declared their candidacies.

Ms Hunter has pledged to campaign heavily for welfare issues, but has promised not to pledge anything undeliverable. “What’s important is that we promise what’s deliverable, not polices from fantasy land. For example, I’m going to find out why there are long waiting lists for student counselling, and then I’m going to do something about it”.

Mr McGuiness will be approching the election from an alternative perspective. He believes that “EUSA needs to work harder on issues such as housing and employment, and that the union should introduce its own landlord accreditation service which will allow those looking for accommodation for the first time a place to start.”

However, they may yet have company, as there have been a large number of names mentioned, including Postgraduate Convenor Gerard Cummins, and Joe Pike, who has launched a website entitled ‘Accountability Transparency’.

There are also rumours of a ‘representative’ from the Scottish Nationalist society standing.

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New stem cell research advances cancer treatments Cameron Robinson cameron.robinson@journal-online.co.uk

Safer clubs: the Unight initiative will help to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour and violent attacks David Cheskin/PA Wire

SNP breaks student debt promise Alastair Sloan & Sarah Clarke newsdesk@journal-online.co.uk STUDENTS IN SCOTLAND have expressed dismay after the SNP shelved plans to scrap student debt.

Nationalist finance minister John Swinney announced last Wednesday that the government would not deliver its manifesto promise to eliminate the debt accrued by students.

The news was delivered at Holyrood as part of the SNP’s first budget since the party came to power in the elections last May. The conference saw the government drop a number of key election promises which had comprised their manifesto for the Scottish Parliamentary Election.

While funding for free prescription charges, a tax cut for smaller businesses and NHS waiting list guarantees were approved, the SNP’s pledge to cancel student debt was relinquished.

The SNP had previously promised

Scottish students that the £1.9 billion package of debt held by the Student Loans Company Scotland would be cancelled.

Student leaders in Scotland expressed deep concern for this turnaround in government policy that will see the £1.9 billion debt remain unaffected. They claimed that the SNP’s failure to deliver the promised financial support will have a damaging impact on Scottish students.

James Alexander, President of the National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland said: “Promises of more support for students, which formed a central part of the SNP’s election campaign, have not been met.

“The SNP’s costed manifesto promised £236 million to cover graduate debt payments, to transfer student loans to grants, and to abolish the graduate endowment.”

He continued: “Large proportions of students from Scotland experience high

levels of debt and endure extreme hardship. They need the endorsement of the Scottish government to assist in resolving these difficulties.”

Edinburgh’s student unions have been working with NUS Scotland on the Final Demand campaign, designed to put pressure on the government to improve student support, drop student debt, cut course costs and improve access to further and higher education.

But in a speech to the Scottish Executive, John Swinney said: “I know there is insufficient parliamentary support for student debt servicing for loans to grants and we must therefore prioritise funding on policies that we can deliver and which will be supported by Parliament.

“I am therefore not allocating funding for student debt servicing in the period of the Budget.

“However, despite the constraints we face, we will deliver funding for a phased transition from student loans to grants,

starting with part-time students.”

Despite the short-term reduction in funding for the sector, the SNP emphasised that Scotland’s higher education institutions remain a priority for the party.

Fiona Hyslop, Education and Lifelong Learning Secretary, outlined the SNP’s long-term plans for higher education funding. In a statement last week, she said: “Scotland’s universities and colleges are central to that sustainable economic growth.

“We will invest £5.24 billion in total in Scotland’s further and higher education, with an extra £100 million capital funding package in 2007/08.

“We will deliver support for students of £1.55 billion over three years with £119 million to end the graduate endowment fee and a phased transition from student loans to grants starting with part-time students.”

Continued on page 2

THE DISCOVERY OF a cancerous stem cell by scientists from the University of Edinburgh could change the way in which certain cancers are treated.

Researchers from the New Cancer Centre at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the university, working in collaboration with others at the University of Wisconsin have discovered a rogue type of stem cell involved in bone cancer.

The team, headed by Professor David Argyle, successfully isolated stem cells from osteosarcoma in dogs; the canine equivalent of a type of human bone cancer most common in children.

Referring to osteosarcoma, Professor Argyle commented: “This aggressive disease is the most common primary bone tumour in children, leading to more than 80 per cent of patients having to undergo surgery which can include limb amputations or reconstructive limb sparing operations.”

The research, published in The Veterinary Journal, adds weight to a novel hypothesis concerning the structure and workings of cancer, dubbed Cancer Stem Cell theory.

The classical view of cancer is a lump of genetically flawed cells that replicate indefinitely. However the premise behind Cancer Stem Cell theory is that the vast majority of tumour growth can be attributed to a small population of flawed cancerous stem cells. The majority of their progeny become regular tumour cells, while a small population of the cancer stem cells are maintained and continue to drive the growth of the tumour.

This has major implications for the treatment of cancers like osteosarcoma as stem cells are particularly resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the standard treatment methods employed.

As a result standard treatment may kill off the bulk of the tumour, but fail to destroy the small population responsible for the growth of the cancer.

Professor Argyle and his team concluded that there is now “a need to identify therapeutic targets specific for this Cancer Stem Cell population in order to effect longer remissions, or even cures.”

happy Keeping the US

Also in The Journal this week...

The SNP had previously promised dent debt was relinquished. approved, the SNP’s pledge to cancel stuand NHS waiting list guarantees were charges, a tax cut for smaller businesses While funding for free prescription the Scottish Parliamentary Election. which had comprised their manifesto for drop a number of key election promises May. The conference saw the government party came to power in the elections last as part of the SNP’s first budget since the The news was delivered at Holyrood debt accrued by students. its manifesto promise to eliminate the that the government would not deliver Swinney announced last Wednesday Nationalist finance minister John plans to scrap student debt. pressed dismay after the SNP shelved STUDENTS IN SCOTLAND have ex-

newsdesk@journal-online.co.uk

students from Scotland experience high He continued: “Large proportions of dowment.” grants, and to abolish the graduate enpayments, to transfer student loans to ised £236 million to cover graduate debt “The SNP’s costed manifesto prombeen met. the SNP’s election campaign, have not students, which formed a central part of land said: “Promises of more support for National Union of Students (NUS) ScotJames Alexander, President of the Scottish students. support will have a damaging impact on failure to deliver the promised financial fected. They claimed that the SNP’s see the £1.9 billion debt remain unafaround in government policy that will pressed deep concern for this turnStudent leaders in Scotland excelled.

Loans Company Scotland would be canpackage of debt held by the Student Scottish students that the £1.9 billion

transition from student loans to grants, face, we will deliver funding for a phased “However, despite the constraints we riod of the Budget. ing for student debt servicing in the pe“I am therefore not allocating fundment. and which will be supported by Parliafunding on policies that we can deliver grants and we must therefore prioritise for student debt servicing for loans to is insufficient parliamentary support utive, John Swinney said: “I know there But in a speech to the Scottish Execther and higher education. course costs and improve access to furstudent support, drop student debt, cut pressure on the government to improve Final Demand campaign, designed to put been working with NUS Scotland on the Edinburgh’s student unions have ing these difficulties.”

Scottish government to assist in resolvship. They need the endorsement of the levels of debt and endure extreme hard-

Continued on page 2 part-time students.” student loans to grants starting with ment fee and a phased transition from £119 million to end the graduate endowof £1.55 billion over three years with “We will deliver support for students funding package in 2007/08. tion, with an extra £100 million capital in Scotland’s further and higher educa“We will invest £5.24 billion in total economic growth. colleges are central to that sustainable she said: “Scotland’s universities and tion funding. In a statement last week, SNP’s long-term plans for higher educalong Learning Secretary, outlined the Fiona Hyslop, Education and Lifeparty. institutions remain a priority for the sised that Scotland’s higher education funding for the sector, the SNP emphaDespite the short-term reduction in starting with part-time students.”

SNP breaks student debt promise Alastair Sloan & Sarah Clarke

Safer clubs: the Unight initiative will help to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour and violent attacks David Cheskin/PA Wire

page 24

SPORT

facing the world issues and challenges the modern international reform if it is to tackle creation, the UN needs that, 62 years after its George Grant argues

TROPS

page 16

George Grant argues that, 62 years after its creation, the UN needs reform if it is to tackle the modern international issues and challenges facing the world

42 egap

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brewing...

There’s trouble

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“shock-jock” families most outspoken right-wing owned by one of America’s sell a new energy drink Barr, has signed a deal to drink manufacturer, AG Scotland’s largest soft

Keeping the US happy

SERUTAEF

Scotland’s largest soft drink manufacturer, AG Barr, has signed a deal to sell a new energy drink owned by one of America’s most outspoken right-wing “shock-jock” families

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effect longer remissions, or even cures.”

Cancer Stem Cell population in order to tify therapeutic targets specific for this cluded that there is now “a need to idenProfessor Argyle and his team confor the growth of the cancer. stroy the small population responsible off the bulk of the tumour, but fail to deAs a result standard treatment may kill standard treatment methods employed. to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the as stem cells are particularly resistant treatment of cancers like osteosarcoma This has major implications for the tumour. and continue to drive the growth of the of the cancer stem cells are maintained tumour cells, while a small population jority of their progeny become regular flawed cancerous stem cells. The mabe attributed to a small population of the vast majority of tumour growth can behind Cancer Stem Cell theory is that licate indefinitely. However the premise lump of genetically flawed cells that repThe classical view of cancer is a Stem Cell theory. and workings of cancer, dubbed Cancer hypothesis concerning the structure erinary Journal, adds weight to a novel The research, published in The Vettive limb sparing operations.” clude limb amputations or reconstrucing to undergo surgery which can inmore than 80 per cent of patients havry bone tumour in children, leading to sive disease is the most common primasor Argyle commented: “This aggresReferring to osteosarcoma, Profescancer most common in children. nine equivalent of a type of human bone cells from osteosarcoma in dogs; the cavid Argyle, successfully isolated stem The team, headed by Professor Dain bone cancer. ered a rogue type of stem cell involved University of Wisconsin have discoving in collaboration with others at the erinary Studies at the university, workCentre at the Royal (Dick) School of VetResearchers from the New Cancer which certain cancers are treated. of Edinburgh could change the way in cell by scientists from the University THE DISCOVERY OF a cancerous stem

REACH OVER 70,000 STUDENTS EVERY FORTNIGHT cameron.robinson@journal-online.co.uk

Cameron Robinson

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The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

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Comment Discussion&Debate

Nuclear Enlightenment

Nuclear power may be controversial, but new stations are needed if we are to meet our energy needs in the twenty-first century – and time is running out

Malcolm Grimston Energy Commentator

malcolm.grimston@journal-online.co.uk

T

HE SPEED WITH which nuclear energy has returned to the policy table is quite extraordi-

nary.

As recently as 2003, nuclear power was effectively dismissed by the government. “Nuclear power’s current economics make it an unattractive option for new, carbon-free generating capacity and there are also important issues of nuclear waste to be resolved,” the Energy White Paper stated. “Before the building of new nuclear power stations there will need to be the fullest public consultation and the publication of a further white paper setting out our proposals.”

Uniquely among the major energy options, then, firms were to be prevented from building new nuclear plants.

But Meeting the Energy Challenge—a new white paper on nuclear power published this month—finds in favour of nuclear power as the best option for meeting British energy targets in what the government sees as the most efficient manner.

In his foreword, Prime Minister Gordon Brown argues: “The Government has today concluded that nuclear should have a role to play in the generation of electricity, alongside other low carbon technologies. We have therefore decided that the electricity industry should, from now on be allowed to build and operate new nuclear power stations, subject to meeting the normal planning and regulatory requirements. Nuclear power is a tried and tested technology.”

Why such a striking change in tone?

During the 1990s (and the early years of this century) it all looked very easy. Then, the “dash for gas” had delivered major investment in new-electricity capacity. The new technology, Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) delivered cheap electricity with about half of the greenhouse gas emissions of coal-fired plants.

But, in the last three or four years things have started to look very difficult. The UK is now a net importer of natural gas. Most developed countries are, but the antics of Mr Putin in cutting off supplies to Ukraine in December 2005 did cause significant concern. When more immediate sources such as Norway and North Africa are exhausted, the UK will be right at the end of some very long pipelines which stem from the Middle East and the former Soviet Bloc, where most of

the world’s gas is located.

Environmentally, the UK’s record since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 has been disappointing. After several years of declining carbon dioxide emissions they are now rising once again, owing largely to the reemergence of coal, the fastest-growing of the major energy sources both in the UK and globally in each of the last five years. As for economics, oil, which was below $10 a barrel in 1998, recently touched the $100 a barrel mark, dragging the costs of other fuels up with it.

We need three things from our electricity industry: secure supplies (power cuts are hugely expensive in economic and social terms); environmentally acceptable supplies, most pressingly in relation to climate change; and of course we want the lowest costs of production that are consistent with the other goals. The 2007 Energy White Paper estimates that we will need investment in new generation capacity of around 30-35 GW over the next two decades to replace power station retirements and meet rising electricity demand as the economy grows. (A large new nuclear station is rated at about 1 GW.) Undoubtedly some wind generation will be built, but because the wind is intermittent and unpredictable such capacity cannot be treated as ‘firm’, unlike coal, gas or nuclear, when it comes to making sure we have enough plant available to cover peak demand.

So where does nuclear fit in?

Uranium is a plentiful resource found in a wide range of countries including such politically stable regions as Canada, Australia and the USA. The power stations do not depend on weather conditions to operate and the recent experience of global powerplant operations, though sadly not in the UK, has been almost uniformly of growing reliability. It stands alongside hydropower as the only proven way of making significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And economically, it is much less affected by increases in global fuel prices, since uranium represents a much smaller proportion of total costs than is the case with coal or gas.

The new designs, three of which will be chosen for licensing in the UK, are simpler and cheaper to build than their predecessors and, it is expected, will be more reliable in operation for that reason. Experience of construction projects over the last ten years, mainly in the Asia-pacific region, has been good, with plants being delivered to time and to cost.

The government, however, rightly takes the view that the economic

“In the last three or four years things have started to look very difficult. The UK is now a net importer of natural gas. Most developed countries are, but the antics of Mr Putin in cutting off supplies to Ukraine in December 2005 did cause significant concern”

risks associated with investment in nuclear energy should be taken by the investor, not the state. The government’s role is to create a technologyblind planning and licensing system and to deal with special issues, such as radioactive waste management, which need national policies. Reform to planning and licensing procedures and the pledge by the Opposition not to change the rules for nuclear energy if elected, are moves in the right direction. Subsidies have not been sought or offered.

But the decision is tough. If, as seems to be a popular proposal among the public, existing nuclear plants are to be replaced by new ones, then a start has to be made now. Even with a lifetime extension for the current generation of stations, an immediate start on new nuclear build, assuming a ten-year plan, finance and build cycle,

will only just deliver on an orderly retirement-and-replacement regime if all goes well.

With no lifetime extension a gap appears, but if new build is delayed by five years as well that gap becomes a large one. Clearly that gap would need to be filled with something else, almost certainly CCGT, leaving the UK locked into yet more imports and greenhouse gas emissions. The task is therefore urgent – now that all of the work of consultation and policy has been done, it is time to get on with it.

Malcolm Grimston is an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House. A regular media contributor on energy and nuclear matters, he is the coauthor of Double or Quits – the Global Future of Civil Nuclear Energy (2002)

20 Comment

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

More empty promises on media openness Half a year before Beijing’s debut as an Olympic village, the Communist Party still employs a draconian system of media manipulation that keeps their own journalists on a very short leash

Paul Traynor

Chinese Language Student paul.traynor@journal-online.co.uk

IN SIX AND a half months, amid the dusty heat of a Northern Chinese summer, the world’s top athletes and sports enthusiasts, as well as thousands of foreign journalists will descend upon Beijing for what will be a true test of a rising nation: the 2008 Olympics.

When the International Olympic Committee declared that Beijing’s bid for the games had been successful back in 2001, it was a glorious achievement for the world’s last Communist superpower. In the throws of excitement, throngs of Chinese citizens, waiting to hear news of the outcome, waved a sea of little red flags over Tiananmen Square in eager patriotic fervour – an eerie contrast to the bloody protest movement of twelve years earlier.

Of course, most of the supporters cheering on their government that day would have had no knowledge of the events of June 4 1989, nor would they know of the stringent action taken by their government against any reporter brave enough to mention the incident – a mention which can result in anything from redundancy to arrest.

Just last year, when an advert for the mothers of the Tiananmen victims got past a junior clerk on the Chengdu Evening News, three editorial staff were sacked. The junior clerk didn’t even know what June 4 referred to.

Such is the situation in China: just half a year before Beijing’s debut as an Olympic village, the Communist Party, while trying to promote an international image of press freedom and tolerance, still employs a draconian system of media manipulation that keeps their own journalists on a very short leash.

After its historic success in the Olympic bid, Beijing and the IOC reassured the international community that issues of press freedom would be dealt with, if not immediately, then as a result of the Olympic movement providing a platform for positive change. However, the IOC’s dealings with Beijing have been kept secret, with requests for information to the IOC being deftly cast aside.

In spite of this, optimists were quick to jump on the bandwagon of the Olympic spirit, and hopes ran high that China would, under the watchful gaze of the world, only prove to change things for the better in the long run. In keeping with this tide of optimism, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced new regulations for foreign journalists in late

2006. They stated that, as of January 2007, foreign journalists working in China would be free to travel anywhere and interview anyone without the tedious restrictions and bureaucracy previously in place. These restrictions will last until October 2008 after the Paralympic Games have ended, but optimists believe that like-minded regulations would replace them and we will see a gradual emergence of a more democratic China.

Jonathan Watts, Beijing correspondent for The Guardian, regards himself as one of these optimists, stating that the situation would gradually open up “as long as there is no major political turbulence in the interim.”

In spite of this optimism, his worries are well founded: China has allowed looser restrictions on the press and the arts in the past, but these have existed only to be met with crackdowns from above when the situation got out of Beijing’s control.

The post-Tiananmen onslaught on the media was in revolt against a particularly open climate of opinion pre-1989.

And more recently, the SARS crisis saw the government handle the situation well, only to freeze up and shut down numerous online news portals and blogs in the aftermath.

But unlike events of the past, when it was domestic media feeling the benefits of a freer platform of de-

Sarkozy’s French Revolution With President Sarkozy at the helm and a new agenda of economic liberalisation, is France capable of change?

Dr David Howarth Politics Lecturer d.howarth@ed.ac.uk

IS FRANCE DOOMED to relative economic decline and worsening social strife? A bloated public sector, high state spending, high corporate and payroll taxes and a rigid labour market are major drags on the French economy. Growth has trailed that of the UK for most of the past decade and a half. Youth unemployment is staggeringly high. France exports a growing number of its brightest young people. Unemployment afflicts, above all, young ethnic minorities. It is a major cause of the high levels of criminality in the suburban sink estates surrounding most French cities and the widespread rioting of November 2005.

Many British and American observers have long insisted that France is in desperate need of Thatcherite reform. Doomsayers see France as unreformable. They point to the repeated and widespread strike action and demonstrations that have blocked or forced governments to dilute social security, labour market and public sector reform. International surveys of public

opinion demonstrate strong opposition to liberalisation and globalization in France. Observers also point to the apparent weakness of short-lived French governments and the survival instinct of the political class that discourages support for major reform.

Clearly France has problems. The number of people hired by public sector and the amount spent by the government in relation to the total economy is the highest in Europe. Combined with a comparatively generous welfare state, the result is high corporate and payroll taxes which act as a brake on job creation and economic growth more broadly. The difficulties in hiring and firing and restrictions on working time further hinder the competitiveness of companies and discourage employment.

With one of the lowest levels of trade union membership of any European country, France also has the highest number of days lost to strike action in Europe. The two facts are directly connected as weak unions resort to strike action to influence government policy.

The election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the presidency in May 2007 and the re-election of the conservative UMP government—the first re-election of an incumbent government since 1978—

were interpreted by many observers as clear signs that the French were ready for major change.

Mr. Sarkozy had promised a “rupture” with the France of the past. One of his central campaign themes was the need for the French to work harder and longer. If elected, Mr Sarkozy promised sweeping labour market reforms and an overhaul to the 35-hour week policy adopted by the left in the 1990s. The French left frequently compared Mr Sarkozy to Mrs Thatcher.

Since his election, President Sarkozy has pushed an impressive reform agenda. Yet many have been disappointed with very limited policy output to date. The reform of the 35 hour work-week policy has met political as well as legal obstacles. President Sarkozy has also presented a decidedly illiberal face to the world. Like his predecessors, he defended the Common Agricultural Policy in the context of international trade negotiations, challenged the principle of free competition in the European single market and defended national protectionism.

Last autumn, the elimination of an exceedingly generous pension regime for Metro and train conductors was achieved but only after widespread strikes and generous concessions by the government that will prove costly

bate, the Party has learnt that its best way of improving its public image is to keep its own media strictly under check while allowing their foreign counterparts much greater freedoms.

Last October, the 17th National Congress of the CCP was seen by the Party as a perfect opportunity to promote their image of press freedom worldwide. Foreign journalists were granted more access that ever before for such an important event in Beijing’s political calendar.

But, unsurprisingly, these lifted restrictions did not quell Beijing’s domestic paranoia. Instead, in the run up to the congress, 2,500 websites, blogs and forums were taken offline by the Party in order to ensure smooth running of the event in the capital.

Moreover, there are still 33 journalists jailed in the country – the highest of any in the world.

At home, the government have been more occupied in maintaining a positive image for the Olympics.

Daily broadcasts on the state-run TV channel CCTV keep the nation up to date with athletes and preparations— preparations which are estimated to have cost 41.7 billion Yuan (£2.94 billion)—in the capital. On the streets of Beijing, the five slightly demonic looking Fuwa—official mascots of the games—are on billboards on every street, and plied by hundreds of touts.

Nor can one escape the calligraphic Chinese character jing meaning “capital”, the unmistakable logo of Beijing 2008. This is what the Olympics mean to China, a month long festival symbolised by furry little Beibei the fish and her counterparts, a chance for the economy to take another great leap forward, and to hopefully triumph in as many events as possible for a little bit more national pride.

For the rest of the world however, it means more than that. For optimists it presents a chance for a democratising force to enter China. But for many more, such as Human Rights in China (HRIC) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), it has not been dealt with effectively.

That China will change dramatically because of the Olympics is a far-flung belief. More likely is that we shall see real effort on Beijing’s part to ensure greater freedoms for the international press are protected.

However, with such a long history of propaganda and thought-work policy, it is unlikely that we shall see a platform for real open debate in the Chinese domestic media anytime in the near future.

for French taxpayers in the immediate future.

Last summer, Mr. Sarkozy appointed Jacques Attali, the top advisor to the former Socialist President Mitterrand, to lead a commission of French and foreign experts to draw up a report on “liberating” French economic growth. The President initially committed himself to respecting the Commission’s full reform package.

This consisted of more than 300 policy proposals including some very controversial measures such as the elimination of a level of local government and the reform of special regulatory regimes for certain occupations that limit the number of new entrants and job creation.

Following the publication of the Commission’s proposals, antagonism from within Mr Sarkozy’s own party has forced him to backtrack on his commitment to implement all the proposals. Upcoming local elections in March will delay the introduction of reform measures. In the meantime, Mr Sarkozy’s popularity has plummeted since the autumn, a development which has encouraged him to shift his rhetoric away from radical reform.

But does the almost inevitable dilution of Mr Sarkozy’s reform agenda spell disaster for France?

The English speaking world tends to overlook the strengths of the French economy, the sixth largest in the world. Several of its largest companies are amongst Europe’s most competitive and profitable. French workers are, on average, amongst the most productive in the world, far more so than their British counterparts. To this we can add the record trade and commercial surpluses throughout the 1990s and during the first few years of this decade. Despite a reputation for economic protectionism and patriotism, the French economy is one of the most open of the large national economies (measured in terms of trade

as a percentage of wealth and inward investment). French engineering and transport infrastructure is widely considered the best in the world.

Outside observers also frequently overlook the far-reaching reforms to the French economy that have taken place over the past twenty years. There has been a massive decline in state interference thanks to financial market liberalisation and the privatisation of the bulk of previously publicly owned companies. French companies have been adept at finding out the loopholes in labour market legislation.

They are hiring a growing number of employees on fixed short-term contracts and are using the controversial 35 hour week policy to increase the productivity of their work force, linking hours worked per week with the production cycle of the firm.

And what of all those strikes organised in opposition to reform?

Actually, their impact is of less direct impact on the French economy than one would think. Most strikes involve public sector employees. Strike action in the private sector is low in comparison to most European countries. Thus, as a hindrance to company performance, the impact of strike action is not immediate.

Despite Mr Sarkozy’s rhetoric of reform, change in France is set to be slow and piecemeal. The biggest losers will be in the suburban sink estates where unemployment will remain persistently high. Governments will continue to adopt a range of targeted measures that do not effectively tackle the underlying problems of supply and demand in the French labour market.

The periodic flare-ups of violent revolt will almost certainly continue. Yet the French economy is changing and cautious liberalisation, however faltering, is set to continue.

Paul Traynor is a former Deputy Editor (News) of The Journal and studied abroad in China during 2006/07

David Howarth is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Edinburgh

Comment 21

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Great British sleaze Simon Mundy

Tom Hunt

simon.mundy@journal-online.co.uk

THE ANGLICAN CLERGY RUSH TO THE DEFENCE OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

Don’t put your faith in the quacks A fifth of NHS hospitals trusts have reduced or cancelled funding for homeopathy. Finally, the NHS is starting to make sense.

Chris Williams Comment Editor

chris.williams@journal-online.co.uk

AN AUNT WHO has never quite got over the passing of 1969 into 1970 recently told me that she was planning to take Charaka as prophylaxis for malaria on a trip to Botswana. Having picked the drug up in Switzerland from her homeopath, she wondered what I thought about it.

As with all homeopathic drugs, Charaka aims to aggravate the immune system into producing more of the same symptoms that the patient is already suffering. This, so the theory goes, will cure them of their disease. The “like cures like” premise was first established

by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in the late eighteenth century but Hahnemann also noticed that it wasn’t such a good thing to have patients suffering twice as much as they were in the first place. To solve the problem he thought he would dilute his preparations. Dilution, he said, when done in the right way with the right amount of vigorous shaking at the right times would create a “memory” of the active molecule in the water molecules around it that would let the body know what it should do without inducing most of the actual symptoms themselves.

Hahnemann recommended diluting active compounds 30 times at a ratio of one part of the tincture to 100 parts water each time.

To put this in context, if you start with 1ml of concentrated drug and put that whole volume through this dilution, you’ll end up with enough finished product to fill a cube 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 metres per side. In other words, over 1 million light

years cubed. Needless to say, in most homeopathic tinctures, not a single molecule of the original active ingredient remains.

In a report in The Guardian last week, it was revealed that over one fifth of NHS Hospital Trusts have cut or reduced funding to homeopathic services in the past two years. Such a change marks the first success for a campaign waged by many eminent scientists to end the practice altogether.

Why the NHS ever thought it necessary or acceptable to fund such a ridiculous practice is beyond many people. Whilst leeches, blood letting and popping arsenic have fallen by the wayside of their contemporary, the theory of homeopathy, has prevailed. What seems to sustain homeopathy today are three major factors. Firstly homeopathy does no harm – no one ever died from taking a little bit of water. It was just this ideal that Hahnemann was working towards when formulating his new type of treatment that would avoid the hideous sideeffects of the medicines of his day. Sideeffects still play an unfortunate role in today’s medicine and many people want to ensure that they suffer from none of them – water is a very effective drug when a lack of side effects constitutes your measuring stick.

Perhaps the principal reason why reasonable people are not up in arms about homeopathy is the complete lack of appreciation amongst many members of the public for the difference between this sham and herbalism. Such a simple misunderstanding often allows homeopathy to escape scrutiny scot-free.

Homeopathy is a pseudoscience based on the principles described above; herbalism is the use of traditional herbs such as St. John’s Wort and Echinacea to treat common ailments. Whilst

herbal pharmacies are not recommended by doctors as a first port of call for patients owing to the inability of herbal practitioners to assess symptoms in the context of more serious diseases that may be underlying them—the example of constipation as a symptom of bowel cancer is a good one—many herbal remedies have proven effectiveness.

Indeed, many of today’s drugs are based on the active extracts of these original medications.

The final reason for homeopathy’s survival against all the odds is something that most medical practitioners in the twentieth century failed to recognise: it is the very human desire to think that, when all suggested conventional treatments have failed, there must be something else, some “natural” cure left that could solve the problem. This failure to understand patients as people and the consequent treatment of their ailments in isolation – rather than more modern holistic approaches – has been the major contributor to the whirlwind of cynicism and suspicion that is now being reaped by science.

But why come down so harshly on homeopathy? If alternative medicine is a human need, why not let it be?

This is a common argument that often comes backed up with the assertion: “My aunt was really stressed and she took a homeopathic remedy and now she’s fine.” But whilst many complementary therapies are well placed to treat stress—massage, group therapy, reflexology, counselling, acupuncture, gym membership and many more— homeopathy is not. Because although your aunt might find that taking that ampoule of water to treat her stress removes the worst of the problem, she might then consult her pseudoscientific homeopath when she’s planning a once-

in-a-lifetime trip to Botswana.

She wouldn’t go back to her acupuncture specialist for advice on malaria; she wouldn’t refuse vaccines for her children based on what her gym manager told her and she wouldn’t seek treatment from her group therapist for that constipation that has been bothering her for a while but which could actually be a sign of cancer.

For as many anecdotes that there are describing a homeopathic success story, there is another, more tragic tale of a young woman refusing surgery to remove an easily operable breast cancer, a cancer that would go on to kill her. This true story is told by Professor Michael Baum, Emeritus Professor of Surgery at University College, London and is one of the factors that led him to start his much needed campaign against what he calls the “hocus-pocus” of homeopathy. As Professor Baum points out, £5 million a year is spent on homeopathy by his NHS trust alone, funding the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. This would be more than enough to cover the cost of herceptin for the trust’s breast cancer patients for example – a drug proven to be effective but which the NHS cannot currently afford to provide in all cases.

This waste of limited NHS resources is bad enough, but what is far worse is that for every day that passes with NHS funding seemingly substantiating the fraud of homeopathy, another person, confused by the complexity of conventional medicine or lacking the proper complementary care they need, may be heading to an early grave by sincerely seeking answers from charlatans.

Chris Williams is Comment Editor of The Journal and a third year medical student at the University of Edinburgh

IN 1994, DURING one of the many sleaze scandals that reduced John Major’s government to tatters, the then Leader of the Opposition Tony Blair expressed deep concern about going on the attack. According to Alastair Campbell, Blair believed sticking the boot into the Tories “would end up tarring all politics.”

Such concerns have resurfaced in recent months. We have seen public faith in the integrity of our politicians damaged by a string of highly-publicised indiscretions on all sides. Tory glee at a succession of Labour funding rows was tempered by the revelation that Conservative MP Derek Conway paid his sons up to £77,000 for work that was apparently never performed. North of the border, both the First Minister Alec Salmond and Labour’s Wendy Alexander have both been embroiled in corruption allegations.

Such scandals sparked a feeding frenzy in the national press, with a host of headlines returning to the ancient stereotype of politicians as greedy, disingenuous hypocrites. British politics seem not just tarred, but feathered to boot.

Does this render ridiculous Britain’s claim to have the least corrupt politics in the world? Strangely, studies show that, if not quite at the summit of clean politics, our nation’s record is far from shameful.

According to the NGO, Transparency International, we rank twelfth in the Corruption Perceptions Index, falling short of the habitually impeccable Scandinavian nations, but still setting an example to fellow G7 members such as France, Germany and the United States.

In a country where “corruption” is primarily associated with pantomime figures such as Neil Hamilton, it is easy to forget what a profoundly serious issue this can be. Of the $4 trillion spent worldwide on government public contracts each year, $400 billion is lost to bribery: more than the total income of the population of Africa. During this epidemic of corruption, for decades kleptocratic leaders have laid waste to the economic prospects of many African nations, living lives of unfathomable luxury while millions starve, making a mockery of international aid efforts. Raymond Baker of the Brookings Institution estimates that “for every $1 of foreign aid that we are generously handing out across the top of the table, we are taking back some $4-8 in dirty money under the table.” It is small wonder that the World Bank names corruption as the single biggest obstacle to global development.

Compared with the grotesque injustices of Africa, the problem of corruption in this country seems small indeed: a lately declared donation appears utterly trivial against an insidious culture of misappropriation that has doomed many millions of Africans to lives of poverty and hardship.

It has been argued that the British media have shown brazen irresponsibility in their treatment of recent political scandals, undermining the reputation of our political system by over-emphasising minor indiscretions of little real significance. This argument’s fatal flaw is its utter failure to acknowledge the crucial function of Blair’s “feral beast”, the free press: that of holding a nation’s leaders to account. It is hugely reassuring that senior politicians in this country cannot expect to break even the most minor of laws; long may this remain the case.

Britain’s culture of intolerance towards any sort of corruption is our surest guarantee against the gross dishonesty that has damaged so much of the world.

Simon Mundy is the Deputy Comment Editor of The Journal

22 Editorial

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Comments

comments@journal-online.co.uk Edinburgh’s student newspaper | Issue IV

Facebook

The darker side of social networking Hollywood has spent the best part of a decade convincing us that the main danger posed by the internet comes from bank-robbing computer hackers. The tabloid press believes that paedophiles pose an exponentially greater threat than they did fifteen years ago as a result of instant messaging and email. Meanwhile, entire software industries have been set up to tap into people’s collective fear of that mythical beast, the computer virus.

However it is the Chinese who have the clearest understanding of the danger posed: the internet allows people to connect with others, regardless of geography, allowing them to communicate and share information in a way that is anonymous and largely free of enforceable state regulations.

Barely a week goes by without the national media waxing lyrical about “social networking websites” in an attempt to bridge the largest intergenerational cultural gap since rock ‘n’ roll first appeared in the fifties. The fascination, in particular, with Facebook groups and the various political campaigns and social statements they make is repeatedly highlighted.

However, the “soft news” approach fails to tackle one of the key issues that such a phenomenon has given rise to.

Social networking websites, and the ubiquitous Facebook more so than

others, allow for the finding and near instantaneous assimilation of likeminded individuals into an online community. This is a banal point, so often paid lip-service, but one of great consequence when one considers that many people most often use the internet not to challenge their conceptions and world-views but, rather, to reaffirm them. These homogenous groups, which frequently give little attention to dissenting views, offer an opportunity for the promotion of fringe literature and deeply flawed thought processes which escape the scrutiny of opposing ideals. Often, this merely amounts to the harmless exposure of a young socialist to Marxism without making them aware of the following hundred years of criticism and counter-arguments. More worryingly, is the occasional co-opting of an enthusiastic conservative into communities supportive of Enoch Powell and the Monday Club.

At the most extreme and subversive level is, as Miles Johnson reports this issue, the organisation and recruitment of Islamic extremists who seek to carry out armed jihad against the West. Such organisations existed long before Facebook, indeed long before the internet, but recent technological developments have hugely facilitated the quick and effective organisation,

radicalisation and mobilisation of people on a large scale, if not always in terms of population, then certainly in terms of geography. For the “alienated young British Muslim” of post-2005 government literature, finding community and encouragement within such organisations as Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah is made all the more easy

by Google, and contacting members and sympathisers through Facebook helps seal the deal.

Web analysts predict that social networking websites will fundamentally and irrevocably change the way in which people use the internet in decades to come, merging the online realm with “the real world.” One of the main problems though, is that it is much harder for an individual to steer clear of dissenting views if actively engaged in society—through education, work and social activities—than when that individual is let loose behind the anonymous curtain of the internet.

Quick and cheap mass organisation has largely been positive. Indeed, only this week an international protest has been taking place against the practices of the Church of Scientology, a protest organised through the videosharing website, Youtube. What is important though, is that we understand that social networking sites are not benign by design, rather by practice.

Human Rights

Freedom of speech, Afghan style Few cases illustrate more starkly the huge amount of work required in the liberalisation of post-Taliban Afghanistan than that of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh.

As a journalism student at Balkh University, Mr Kambakhsh committed the heinous crime of downloading and distributing a document critical of the treatment of women under Sharia Law. Despite intending only to spark debate among his fellow students and, indeed, under-taking the type of exploratory and investigative work journalists and students of journalism would be expected to do, he was reported to police and arrested. He was later tried in a religious court after being refused legal representation. It was only after intense pressure from the international community, including a campaign by The Independent and strong criticism from the UN, British Foreign Secretary David Milliband and his US counter-part Condoleezza Rice, that his sentence been reviewed by the Afghan legal system.

Because the document is believed to have been written by Mr Kambakhsh’s

brother, a reporter at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the verdict is being deemed an act of political intimidation on the part of political factions previously criticised by the organisation for abuses of human rights.

This case, which is so far beyond a “miscarriage of justice” that the term seems obtusely pedestrian, is a damning indictment of the lack of fundamental freedoms and rights afforded to the citizens of a theocratic state, whether its politicians are elected or not. When inequality is enshrined in a holy text that is dogmatically held up as the divine truth, life becomes near-impossible for those fighting for the rights of the oppressed, even when freedom of speech is enshrined in the country’s constitution, as is the case with Afghanistan.

After international efforts to pressurise the Afghan government into backing down appeared to have paid off, religious clerics and Islamic fanaticists took to the street, rallying behind the initial verdict. Indeed, it is increasingly difficult, in the face of so much evidence to the contrary, to see

ultra-conservative Islam as being compatible with concepts such as freedom of speech in light not only of this case, but of anti-Danish protests following the publication of the now-infamous Mohammed Cartoons and the shocking murder in the Netherlands of film maker Theo Van Gogh.

It is deeply unfortunate, therefore, that the West will be unable to effectively intervene as a positive influence in the region for many, many decades after the botched invasions and reconstructions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reputation of the United States in particular has been tarnished to such an extent that its flag has become a hated symbol in many Islamic nations, meaning its effectiveness at wielding “soft power” has been all but lost.

Only through diplomacy and cultural exchange could the coaxing of Afghanistan into democratisation ever occur, and this is now very much under threat. Mr Kambakhsh’s case is an extreme one, but perhaps indicative of the slipping of Afghanistan back into the hands of the extremists and the warlords

The Wednesday Poem

The Edible Woman

In response to your article entitled Second Class Citizens, you rightly state that the actual figures of 50,000 immigrants is a long chalk off those predicted by Migration Watch (that name always makes my skin crawl).

But, you’re being a little bit disingenuous, eh? Fifty thousand is, after all, 150% up on the permit number you cite.

The lure of jobs only convinces for so long. Even Edinburgh is now seeing hovels run by gangmasters, dozen or more to one property in conditions akin to chattel servitude. The government has not kept a check on this and other patterns of immigration, instead preferring to foster the image of “illegal immigration” or anodyne claims under-estimation of figures. Have a think about the beggars we’ve suddenly started seeing on the streets.

My feeling is that they’re mostly Romany taken from a pretty miserable and oppressive life in Romania (where they’d been de facto slaves until the mid-19th century) or Bulgaria, and brought by said gangmasters.

I do not give them money - I do buy sandwiches or coffee - for the simple reason that I doubt any of it goes to them, but to some sleek blonde Polish mistress (I‘m referring to a specific individual). Remember the scam for an un-named orphanage during the Festival? Your suggestion that the

150% overspill be granted workers’ rights, whilst the best of intentioned, is as misplaced, I think.

Alec MacPherson

In response to Evan Beswick’s article, Second Class Citizens, I believe the title of the article to be fundamentally incorrect.

The UK is applying administrative measures in order to protect one of its markets. Is it a market economy approach? No, it is an administrative economy one. The reason is selfevident - the UK economy (its labour market) does not have the capacity to cope with the competitive pressure coming from Bulgarian labour, and therefore in this aspect the UK does not meet even the Copenhagen economic criteria.

In many cases, on the UK market Bulgarian workers are happy to receive GBP 1000 for a job that a UK worker would not do for less than GBP 4000. Therefore the fear comes from the fact that UK workers are much more lazy than Bulgarian workers (a UK worker would be satisfied with GBP 1000 but only for 4 times less work).

Being much lazier, in fact UK workers are second class compared to Bulgarian workers in the UK. “Bulgarian”

LETTER OF THE WEEK Dear Editor, I would like to highlight to readers a groundbreaking cultural event coming to Edinburgh this month. ‘Reel Afghanistan’ will be the first major festival of Afghan culture since the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1979.

On the 21st the festival will be kick started at the Film House with a screening of the Golden Globe winning ‘Osama’. The internationally renowned film maker and author, Atiq Rahimi will be flown in from Kabul especially to introduce this film. The next day Atiq will hold a master class on film making. ‘Osama’ will launch the Film House’s Festival of Afghan film. Several films will be introduced by their directors who include the cult director Richard Stanley and the award winning film maker Phil Grabsky. One event not to miss is the surprise showing of a film from the Afghan National Film Archives. The mystery film will be introduced by Engineer Latif the director of the National Film Archives, a man instrumental in the efforts preserve as many Afghan films as possible during the destructive reign of the Taliban.

As well as the film festival ‘Reel Afghanistan’ is also running a festival of Afghan music. Under the Taliban music was banned, now, with a more lenient regime in place musicians are again taking up their instruments as Afghanistan nurtures a rebirth of its music.

Coming direct from Kabul are two of the leading ensembles of this musical renaissance: Kharabat -who take their name from the destroyed musician’s quarter in Kabul- are widely acclaimed for their skill in playing a variety of traditional Afghan instruments, furthermore they will be accompanied by Yusuf Mahmoud who is one of the world’s finest Afghan Tabla players. Joining Kharabat are The Qawali Sham Sufi Group who are one of the most highly regarded Qawali groups in Afghanistan. As Sufi musicians they are part of a vibrant musical and spiritual tradition which stretches back 700 years.

‘Reel Afghanistan’ will give us a perspective on Afghanistan which the media does not provide. Most of us are guilty of seeing Afghanistan, as ‘the other’, a violent place from which we are completely removed. The festival has created an opportunity for Afghan culture to communicate directly with us. Going to the events of ‘Reel Afghanistan’ will be more than fun, it will be an education.

Yours, Tom Crowley

Editorial Contacts Got something you want us to cover? Get in touch and let us know.

My grandmother baked the way other people self-medicate, love, see therapists, pray.

(we were told never break eggs on Halloween, as their shells make witches' boats.)

And I'd stand in the kitchen door slouched on one hip, my hem down breathing in the flavoured steam,

Honest flour was her philosophy; food for thought, dished-out dogmas in pastry and dough.

Add cloves to your wine and salt to your stew, she'd say for a baby girl,

listening; and she'd say we'll bake an honest woman of you yet, some day.

Claire Askew

Lemon zest, she'd say, to make it rain; or a cake cooling outside on the sill -

and brown bread, baked house-brick hard makes for a peaceful home.

The Wednesday poem is provided by Read This magazine

Editor Ben Judge ben@journal-online.co.uk News Editor Paris Gourtsoyannis newsdesk@journal-online.co.uk Entertainment Editor Chris McCall chris.mccall@journal-online.co.uk Sports Editor Tom Crookston tom.crookston@journal-online.co.uk For more information on joining The Journal’s team, contact Ben Judge at the address above The Edinburgh Journal Ltd., 52 Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9JB T: 0131 662 6766 F: 0870 123 1984 E: info@journal-online.co.uk

Profile 23

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

A hard rain's a-gonna fall Drawing together hippies and suits, Mark Edwards is a man unifying people behind environmental action

Evan Beswick evan.beswick@journal-online.co.uk

"O

h, where have you been, my blue-eyed son," asks Bob Dylan in 'A hard rain's gonna fall'. Well, Mark Edwards, photographer, has been away snapping the effects of climate change and of.

His conclusion: "we are a crazy crew."

Edwards is in Edinburgh to present the exhibition which accompanies his book, Hard Rain. Taking a line by line approach to Dylan's song, Edwards selects photos (both his own and those of colleagues) which underline or illuminate the post-nuclear images which comprise 'A hard rain's a-gonna fall'. It's an idea, he says, which arose after he became lost in the Sahara Desert in 1969 – "beautiful place, but no signposts". Rescued by a Tuareg nomad, he was taken back to the camp where, by complete chance, a battered cassette player was playing out Dylan's piercing lyrics. In the finished piece, for example, Dylan's stubborn "I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'" is set alongside an Inuit Hunter, defiant in the face of his disappearing landscape. "Bob Dylan," he says, "gives us a poetic framework to discuss the world as we see it."

Played alongside Dylan's rendition of the song the images are frequently revelatory, and always intensely moving. "I understand he likes it," says Edwards of Dylan.

I meet Mark Edwards after his slideshow in the comfort of Rose Street's The Melting Pot. It's an aptly named venue – there are as many people wearing suits and swapping business cards as there are in beads and bangles discussing gap years; there's quite a posh spread, though sandwiches are labelled "meat" or "vegetarian". Could an event held years ago conceivably attract businessmen alongside the usual environmentally concerned audience?

Edwards suspects not: "I think this is probably the very first year that this could have been done. We've been facing denial up to 2006, then gradual acknowledgement, and now, you know, businessmen are curious. And concerned."

It's a concern for the environment Edwards himself developed through his photography work: "well, I turned away from photographing war. I felt that it was too exploitative. I felt that people were covering wars, but were overlooking the everyday life.

So, I was working with Newsweek then and I just decided not to do it anymore. I wanted to photograph everyday life, and then, really, you are on to the environment."

It seems unfair to note but, with his mane of straight white hair, Edwards does look a touch like Sir Jimmy Savile – a sensibly dressed, softly spoken and altogether more dignified Savile, but Savile nonetheless. Problems with the environment? Mark'll fix it! Actually, he's keen demonstrate that—unlike zany kids' wishes to eat lunch on a roller coaster—the environment isn't a problem he can solve himself, but only through as yet unrealised collective action. Cause, then, for despondency?

Edwards excels in capturing images of people caught by elements of the environment which are beyond their control. The contrast, for instance, between the opulence of India's most famous building, and the bloated body of a man whose family could not afford a funeral pyre—a body picked over by vultures and nibbled at by

stray dogs—is deeply disturbing.

Only a picture of cutesy polar bears evokes a stifled giggle and so runs the risk of being cut: "not really the right tone for the presentation," he tells me. For the same reason he asks the audience not to clap following the final frame, though there's a great temptation to do so – perhaps precisely to break the tension. No polar bears? No clapping? Is it the case, then, that Hard Rain is simply lamenting over what humans have done to the world – a world in which "each pregnant woman has at least one type of pesticide in her placenta."

"The impression I get is that people find it bleak but, you know, uplifting, actually." Indeed, following the slideshow there's a great deal optimism as attendees discuss the photographs and excitedly ask Mark to sign copies of A Hard Rain. "I think people see that this is a stepping stone. It helps people act towards action."

For this reason, Edwards has been sending copies of the book to leaders and politicians in every country across the globe. It is, after all, a global problem: "we pretend that we are independent at our peril," he solemnises. "We are interdependent."

Indeed, some of the most striking contrasts in Edwards's work come through demonstrating a sort of savage irony in the corruption of this interdependence: New Yorkers scoff food while thousands of Kosovan refugees all reach out, apparently, for one loaf of bread; a bird drags itself from an oil-slick (see Feature), whereas Philippine children dive into the polluted waters of Manila bay, scavenging plastic for recycling.

He is keen to point out that he doesn't subscribe to any idea of this as deliberate behavior by some mythically nefarious West. "People aren't sitting around saying: 'let's destroy the world.'" He's similarly unhappy with any romanticisation of dying rural communities. "Urbanisation," after all, "provides a way to tackle poverty which can't occur in the countryside."

He is, however, concerned by the reaction time of richer nations: "we knew about the problem in the 1980's, we knew the scale of the problem, and it's taken all that time to get to this point.

You know, people just wanted to go on living as they had done before, and the result is more destruction. But what government, unless there's a mass movement, can really put money into doing anything like [the steps towards CO2 reduction suggested by Stop Climate Chaos]?

Nonetheless, even as his photo missives are being sent, one gets the impression that the response has not yet been overwhelming: "it's too early," he says, though his anecdote in which a copy of the book addressed to George W. Bush, via the American Embassy in London, was returned with "not known at this address" scrawled across the label is perhaps indicative of the wider difficulty of being heard. A fairly dry response from former PM Tony Blair while in office reads: "the government is playing its part and I hope that [Hard Rain] encourages others to do so too."

There remain, however, many countries eager to hear of Edwards's work. Throughout our interview, there's a somewhat of a kerfuffle going on in the background: Edwards is off to the Scottish parliament to address MSPs in the Cross Party Group on Climate Change in a few hours and, naturally, there's an effort to organise car pooling in order to get

Gordon Wiltsie/Peter Arnold Inc/Still Pictures

Mark Edwards/Still Pictures

Mark Edwards

"I think people see that this is a stepping stone. It helps people act towards action"

him there. I wonder whether it really is such a big step from environmental photographer, to political lobbyist. It seems unusual that a photographer should become the ambassador for the photographs they take, personally providing the political impetus for the issues they express. "I think it is very new, yes. I'm not aware of it ever happening before."

"I've just spoken at the Belgian parliament and I've got the Lithuanian parliament next week. It's all prompted by other people saying "you should get this guy along". I can't say if there's anything special happening, but they've been receptive to the suggestion, anyway."

There's understatement in the word "receptive" which indicates that, in fact, his aims go beyond just recognition, and that his photography could really prove effective in jolting collective minds into real action.

Indeed, Edwards's presentation opens with the photograph Earthrise – the catchier title for NASA image AS8-142383HR. Taken from onboard Apollo 8 on the 1968 mission to the moon, the Earth seems to 'rise' from the horizon of the moon. It's the most visually stunning slap-down of any Earth-centric perceptions of the universe ever recorded on film: the Earth, blue and fragile seems tiny amid the blackness of space, such that the image is "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken," according to photographer Galen Rowell. Percy

Bysshe made the claim that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world," referring, in part, to their ability to shape ideas and perceptions in a very public way. Could it be that photographers, equally, have this magical capacity to legislate?

He seems to enjoy this suggestion.

"It's a great quote, isn't it," he grins.

He has his own analogy ready: "Photographs have had an effect like putting a rock in a stream. They divert the course of things. So they do have an effect. You know, sometimes a very powerful picture has to come along at the right moment, and then it has an effect." This is, one suspects, an understated way of saying that now, perhaps, is the right moment for these images to spring into action. This is the aim of his planned exhibit, Remaking a world gone wrong, which is eventually to run alongside Hard Rain and suggest real-world solutions for change. I'm eager to discover what some of these might be. There's a pause, lengthened by the forkful of salad heading into his mouth – as well as the drips of vinaigrette cascading from plate to floor. "We want to research best practice and then get pictures." Clearly, there is a lot to do.

But Mark Edwards is not alone in seeking to shift global environmental policy through multimedia presentations coming, as he does, hot on the heels of Al Gore's acclaimed documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. If environmental politics have reached a stage of such visibility, it seems an opportune time to spice up the competition between its visible proponents.

Whose slideshow, then, is better?

He laughs: "I think Al Gore has done the most amazing thing, I think it's an extraordinary slideshow and he's an incredible speaker. It's main achievement has been to convince many Americans that there's a problem. I think they are very different slideshows actually. I showed him the show and he sang along to the whole of 'A hard rain's gonna fall'. Then it came to the picture of Abu Ghraib prison and he burst into tears and threw his arms around me and said, 'Mark, this is absolutely wonderful'.

He's a great guy, in my opinion."

Hard Rain is available from www.hardrainproject.com

24 Feature

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

James Russell describes a climate in which environmental and ethical problems are more likely to be solved by activists inside the boardroom rather than outside of it

The new economic activism A

T UNIVERSITIES THROUGHOUT the country, students are using their institutional mechanisms to enforce morally-led boycotts on companies such as Nestlé and to increase pressure on their universities to invest its money in a manner that is constructive both environmentally and socially. The student community has, for some time, been a leader in the area of socially responsible investments with a history going back over 20 years to when it piled pressure on Barclays bank over its involvement in South African apartheid. Today we are still in a strong position to influence the policies of UK public companies, but there’s a danger that the drive for ethical investment can prove utterly prohibitive in the vetting of companies. The arguments from both sides are compelling.

The student riots of May 1968 undoubtedly forced abrupt changes to the political landscapes of America and France. But in a less dramatic way, student activism has played a steady role throughout 20th century history and, since the foundation of the National Union of Students in 1921, British students have proved a consistently potent force in UK society. In recent years, however, student activism has moved away from mass protest, swept along by the new technological age from the streets to the internet. Today we have “swivelchair activism,” Facebook groups and online petitions, a modern form of protest fit for the 21st century. Alongside is a more professional “boardroom activism.” Instead of shouting from outside university buildings, student groups are now seeking a seat at the table, engaging in debate with universities and seeking change from the inside.

Indeed, this is not a specifically British phenomenon. Even in strike-happy France, the student population is being forced to modify its approach by enigmatic President Nicolas Sarkozy’s refusal to fold in the face of protests. In this new era of boardroom activism, student bodies seem increasingly prepared to act professionally, with brain not brawn. Mark Orlowski, founder and executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says “there’s definitely a growing recognition among universities to be more active and engaged shareholders.” For students, investment is fast becoming as much a tool of politics as traditional staples like the placard and the megaphone.

This opportunity for real engagement should be grabbed with both hands.

When considering ethical investment, it is impossible to escape the fact that a university’s investment portfolio exists first and foremost to

make money; as a collection of economic holdings, that is its sole function. Anything that has an adverse effect on the generation of profit must therefore have its own benefits – benefits which compensate for the monetary losses that may be suffered as a result of disinvestment from what are generally known as “vice” stocks: the drinking, smoking and gambling money on the exchanges.

Increasingly, a move towards ethics in investment is being seen as an acceptable alternative to profit-margins, with mutual funds such as the Jupiter Environmental Opportunities fund and the Aberdeen Ethical Life fund moving into the mainstream as investors seek ethical, over absolute, returns. It is impossible to say for certain whether or not following an ethical investment policy will generate lower returns than might otherwise be attainable, but a report by QED International Associates came to the following conclusion: “Eliminating the companies of stocks in the so-called vice sectors may still be the right thing to do for some investors from the perspective of individual values. It is important to be aware, however, that such a policy is likely to have a negative effect upon potential investment returns during certain time periods.

This is most especially true during periods characterised by relatively low returns and periods with relative stagnancy, or worse, in the US economy.”

With the US on the brink of a severe economic slowdown and, as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently commented, possible recession, it can thus be assumed that disinvestment from vice stocks may well lead to lower returns or higher losses. Two industries which are widely regarded to be unethical—tobacco and arms manufacturing—both perform strongly in an economic downturn due to the inelastic demand curves of their business models (a smoker generally still buys cigarettes each week irrespective of his or her fi nancial situation). Should we disinvest from tobacco on the basis of principle, so sacrificing potential profits which could otherwise be spent on an expanded fi nancial aid program to help disadvantaged school children through a university education?

Ultimately, this hypothesis is based upon the assumption that a tobacco business like British American Tobacco is inherently unethical.

But ethics and morals are individual not universal. The majority of the ethical issues raised on campuses across Britain stem from People & Planet, a pressure group which aims to raise what it considers key issues, including “Fairtrade & Trade Justice,

Ethical Investment & Research, Peace & Justice, the Environment & Climate Change, and Cooperatives.” But who is to say that these issues are important to all students at any given institution?

Association-run democracy at many universities is a strange type of democracy, often dominated by activist groups, with a modest amount of time given to the actual debating of the issue.

Furthermore, the desperately low turnout at AGMs puts the legitimacy of decisions made there in serious jeopardy. Most striking, however, is the inconsistency of student association policy on issues such as ethical investment, a subject that requires a genuine commitment.

NUS shops ban Nestlé products on the basis of boardroom immorality but happily stock Cadbury confectionary and even actively promote Green&Blacks chocolate (rated just above Cadbury and Mars but below both Lindt and Ritter on the ethiscore consumer watchdog website). Meanwhile students happily sip on their Diet Cokes while Coca-Cola stands accused of “hiring paramilitary groups to assassinate trade unionists and intimidating, kidnapping and imprisoning hundreds more of their own workers and their families” over a 12-year time period. Any students’ association needs to make up its mind – is it ethical or not?

Ethical investment is an all or nothing mantra. A genuine ethical investment policy might imitate that of the Cooperative Bank, which promises not to profit from the tobacco industry, currency speculation, the arms trade, genetic modification, animal testing, any business with links to an oppressive political regime or any business whose core activities contribute to climate change. Whilst still lagging behind many other high-street banks in profits and account numbers, the Cooperative is proving that truly ethical banking is possible. Acting half-heartedly, as a student union such as Edinburgh University’s has in its decisions on Total and RBS, is, while done with good intentions, hypocritical and misguided. Why, as Edinburgh University Student’s Association has done, disinvest from Total but only put pressure on RBS? Why only RBS and not Barclays? The decisions taken at the association’s GM raise more questions than answers.

RBS has come under scrutiny and suffered bad press on campuses recently, for its investment in, and funding of, oil companies – shortly before Christmas NUS National Treasurer Dave Lewis warned, in an open

“With the US on the brink of a severe economic slowdown and possible recession, it can be assumed that disinvestment from vice stocks may well lead to lower returns or higher losses”

Feature 25

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

letter to RBS-Natwest, of the association’s growing dissatisfaction with the bank’s investment in projects like oil extraction from the Alberta tar sands. Yet you’d be hard pressed to find a major high-street bank in the UK, or anywhere else in the world, that doesn’t have direct exposure to the mining, production, refinement or sale of fossil fuels. While People & Planet claim that RBS was responsible for greater carbon emissions than Scotland as a whole in 2006, Barclays invested $257 million in the Trans Thai-Malaysia gas project, and HSBC recently stated that it will “continue to invest in carbon intensive industries for the foreseeable future.” The fact is that oil is still in demand. The CIA estimates that 82 billion barrels of oil are used across the world every day. Almost a quarter of those are consumed in the US alone. While we may all wish for a day when oil is no longer a pre-requisite for a stable world economy, that day is not now, and disinvesting a £9 million equity holding will do little to affect a global behemoth with over $1.1 trillion in assets. If RBS doesn’t lend money to oil companies, HSBC or Barclays will, leaving RBS shareholders knocking on the boardroom door with angry faces and empty pockets.

What pressure groups haven’t been publicising is that RBS lent $2 billion to renewable energy companies in 2006 alone, while 100% of RBS energy now comes from renewable sources. Meanwhile Edinburgh University is heavily invested in Barclays, the bank recently exposed as having lent £750 million to undesirable members of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. This is at least as unethical as lending money to oil companies and most definitely a far cry from the Cooperative Bank’s commitment not to invest in businesses with direct links to oppressive regimes.

Neither Heriot-Watt, Napier University, Queen Margaret’s University College nor the Edinburgh College of Art submit their portfolios for public scrutiny though, one suspects, they might make for interesting reading.

In the quest for ethical investment, a lack of consistency can, and usually does, lead to a loss of credibility.

When it comes to oil companies, the record is a uniformly bad one.

Total in Burma is just one example of “Big Oil” and its relentless drive for profits. The University of Edinburgh also holds shares in Royal Dutch Shell, one of the largest companies in the UK and a core part of most investment portfolios around the world. But Shell has been linked with the support and financing of oppressive regimes, the unfair trial and execution of an anti-Shell protester in Nigeria and environmental destruction in Peru, and still there is no motion for the withdrawal of investment. There’s a problem in that pressure groups, naturally, find most success in utilising mass interest to carry their agenda, using recent events in Burma, for instance to raise awareness of Total. It’s an ad hoc policy which means disinvesting from Total while overlooking the ethical questions surrounding Shell.

But in spite of contradictions here, there’s a bottom line which continuously asserts itself: it’s the economy, stupid. A focus solely on criticism of Big Oil and those who invest in it detracts from one major issue concerning climate change – supply and demand. The argument runs thus: until civil society quenches its thirst for oil, whether it be to make the plastic bottles we drink from, the petrol that powers our cars, or the lotions we put on our skin, companies like Total have no reason to stop drilling and refining, and banks like RBS have no reason to stop funding them. Compounding this is the insatiable demand for energy from emerging economies like China and India, who have shown little regard for the environmental concerns driving groups like People & Planet.

China alone mines 10 trillion tonnes of coal a year, all for personal use.

There’s a sense in which pressure groups have been seen taking easy shots at high-profile corporations at the expense of scrutinising govern-

Oiled Bird (Brazil) D.Rodrigues-UNEP/Still Pictures

3 of the worst Three of the least ethical companies in the world, according to the Fraser Ethical Reputation Index

McDonald's Aside from outstanding contributions to child obesity across the globe, the company pays workers a pittance and has forced down environmental and animal welfare standards according to critics.

Nike Deeply unpopular for paying sports stars huge endorsement fees while profiting from sweat-shop labour.

Shell Reportedly involved in the unfair trial and execution of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, as well as numerous environmental outrages.

Still Pictures

ment policy in India and China.

If, for example, all UK companies ceased the funding, mining, production and consumption of fossil fuels tomorrow, in favour of 100 per cent renewable energy, our country would grind to a halt. Even Sweden’s impressive plan to be oil-free by 2020 is littered with caveats. We are not ready for an oil free world; we are not even close to being ready and, what is more, the pressures of supply and demand suggest that climate change is not one that can be solved through market forces alone. The recent success of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, however small or slow that success may appear, seems to be proof that the best, and perhaps the only, way to approach these issues is on a global level.

There’s a growing movement which recognises that pressure groups and student activists should be seeking to engage with the UK Government, and subsequently with supranational organisations like the UN, as part of the drive for environmental action.

It’s boardroom activism on a much bigger scale.

The privilege of offering criticism to ethically questionable companies—otherwise known as engagement—is one that can be gained only by becoming a shareholder. Minority shareholders are becoming increasingly powerful in global equity markets: Denise Nappier, for example, has forced American Electric Power to report on how it is reducing its greenhouse emissions, thus driving the company to completely reassess its energy consumption and carbon emissions. Principle Capital successfully persuaded Photo-Me International to oust both its Chairman and CEO, while Ralph Whitworth of Relational Investors has mounted a successful campaign against Home Depot, buying a small stake in the company before pushing out its CEO and forcing it to sell its supply-division. These investors are not large shareholders; major shareholders rarely get involved in such matters. Activist investors are usually small shareholders with just a 1-2% holding. Indeed, a single share earns one the right to vote at a company AGM. Ben Birnberg, a retired solicitor, became famous in corporate circles last year for gathering enough shareholder support to put the issue of ethical trading with suppliers on the agenda at the Tesco AGM. As Richard Hunter, head of equities at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, told journalist Harriet Meyer

last year, “simply by turning up at a general meeting and asking awkward questions, a shareholder can prompt national coverage and punch well above their weight.”

Disinvestment from publicly listed companies like Total or RBS relieves the right to influence company policy from the inside. Rather than selling off shares as a protest which, amid the mass of daily trading on the exchanges, simply won’t be noticed, it’s worth remembering that the same companies with the power to break things, conversely, have the clout to fix them. It’s companies’ commitment to their bottom line and, by implication, to their shareholders which forces this sort of action. Indeed many academics have argued that, whilst the growing anti-apartheid sentiment in the UK during the early 1980s was certainly a contributing factor, it was in fact as a result of rapidly falling profits in the Republic of South Africa that Barclays Bank disinvested from the country in 1986.

Martin Holland, of the University of Canterbury, points out those profits fell from ten per cent of Barclays’ net profit in the early 1980s to just 2.7 per cent by 1985, and that it was this, and Barclays’ growing desire to shift investment to the US, that led to their eventual withdrawal. One of the main reasons for the falling profits were the crippling economic sanctions placed on South Africa by the international community, demonstrating again the necessary and simultaneous role played by multinational government actions, and providing a lesson for future actions on climate change.

There’s also a great deal of sense in the argument that it is universities, such as those across Edinburgh, which can provide the impetus for enlightenment and progress within both corporations and governments: making noise as both activist investors and as members of respected educational institutions, students seem well placed to take the front line in the new battle for the boardrooms. Barclays is no better than RBS, Shell no better than Total, Cadbury no better than Nestlé. They are in the business of making money; they have shareholders to appease.

Under the new rules of student activism, universities can make sure they are the ones being appeased.

James Russell is a 4th year student of Economics and Politics and Editor for the Edinburgh University Trade & Investment Club

26 Arts & Entertainment Music

Laura Viers  Cabaret Voltaire 30 Jan

When a performer’s first words are “I don’t feel like playing that….I think I need a drink!” a show can go two ways. Either you are set to be held in the confident throes of artistic abandonment, safe in the knowledge that those on stage will have their wicked musical way with you for the rest of the night; or, as in Laura Veirs’s case, the performance will just be especially nervous and detached.

It’s not that she isn’t trying to engage. Returning from an improvisational quilting class (no, really), she makes a request that the audience cut out pieces of their clothing to donate to her trans-national musical superquilt. These amiable sort of antics probably place her, and the audience, on just the right side of quirky. And yet there is a feeling that she stays on pretty much the right side of everything – to the detriment of the music.

The gig is such that not a single person to offer up clothes for stitching. Not even a handkerchief.

Viers is known and loved for her mix of musical Americanisms: country-Delta blues, elegiac folk, lilting

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

guitar melodies and rock inflections.

After a three-song false-start, she gets into the swing of things. Veirs is at the start of a UK tour promoting her latest release, Saltbreakers. As well as some tracks from this new album, she plays a selection spanning the whole of her six-album discography. By far the most effective is a re-imagining of one of her older songs, ‘Through December’, swapping guitar for a semi-traditional reworking using a clawhammer banjo technique. At moments like this, where she combines her appreciation of the range of American folk with her technical ability, she is genuinely impressive.

In general, however, she is more comfortable when performing her electro-acoustic numbers, which give the advantage of a fuller sound. But despite the richness of symbolism and metaphor in her lyrics, she performs these potentially emotive songs as if she were going through the motions.

Her next gig could be one of effortless engagement and musical transcendence. I don’t know. Bring a spare shirt, anyway.

Music

The Dials  Cabaret Voltaire 8 Feb

Just the right side of quirky

With their electric energy, the Dials could be one for the future

Alexandra Randall

Gemma Pirnie

alexandra.randall@journal-online.co.uk

gemma.pirnie@journal-online.co.uk

The Dials are hitting way above their weight. At a sell out, headline set supported by Little Green Machine and Epic 26, the levels of energy coaxed from the crowd by the Dials tonight are usually only mustered by far more established acts.

Indeed, their departure from the stage tonight provokes a spontaneous chorus of that Edinburgh slogan of appreciation: “one more tune”.

It is in their handling of the audience where the Dials excel. For the final song, ‘Keep me running,’ the audience are asked to sing back. Now, this is a risky business – a request often met by embarrassing silence for a relatively new band whose lyrics are yet to be well known. Imagine the surprise, then, when the crowd roar on demand, apparently mistaking the Dials for the global supergroup which they aren’t – yet. In fact, this response isn’t unreasonable: the Dials are already receiving accolades from established bands like The Kooks, Fratellis and Subways, the latter two of whom they have supported on tour. On the basis of tonight’s performance such accolades are well deserved.

This month the band departs on a tour of Scotland but are set to return to Edinburgh on 8 March at Whistlebinkies. For those after a refreshing change from the generic tunes of daytime radio could do worse than dropping by. And if you don’t take my word take that of Pete Wentz (lead singer of Fall Out Boy): “The Dials are my favourite band in Scotland.”

And possibly, mine too. This is one band for whom the future could be very bright.

Arts & Entertainment 27

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Interview

The Dykeenies The Dykeenies have blazed a trail out of Glasgow over the past year. Chris McCall catches up with them to discover the key to their success

It’s Friday afternoon and The Dykeenies are holed up in a rehearsal complex in Glasgow. Some members of the band are busy firing off emails to their management suggesting merchandise ideas for their forthcoming UK tour. The others are fetching coffee, and enjoying a short break from a day of intensive rehearsals. Formed in 2005, the Cumbernauld bred but Glasgow based new-wavers have enjoyed a flying start to their career, and are in no mood to let the tempo drop.

Although their debut LP Nothing Means Everything only hit the shelves in September, the five lads are already at an advanced stage in their preparations for its follow up. In the age of MySpace and shrinking record company profits, the average lifespan of bands is drastically shorter now

than ever before: today’s rising stars are tomorrow’s fading memory. If you want to make it these days, you’re damn well going to have work for it.

Fortunately The Dykeenies are more than ready to work, as John, the band’s de facto leader, explains. “We never take any time off at all. If we come back off tour at the weekend, we are straight back in the studio on the Monday. When we first started out, we were rehearsing six to twelve every night.”

“And then having to get up at six in the morning for work!” frontman Brian adds. “John was having to get up at half five every morning. We basically had to pack our jobs in as we couldn’t manage it.”

A bold move, you might agree.

These days however, its a sacrifice many bands have to make. Whilst the

majority fall by the wayside, The Dykeenies, through a mixture of sheer determination, hard work and the knack for writing a catchy tune, have prevailed. Ignoring the standard route to the top for most bands, The Dykeenies instead stuck doggedly to their own plan. “We took the choice not to play loads of gigs in the beginning,” John explains. “We had been together a long time before we played our first gig. We were focused on writing the tunes, which led to us getting our deal.”

Its a process that has reaped rewards for them. In the space of a year and a bit, they played their debut gig before a sold out King Tut’s, toured the UK twice, supported numerous chart friendly bands such as Maximo Park, performed a celebratory gig at T in the Park, and somehow still had

the time to secure a record deal. Not that The Dykeenies are at all phased by the speed of their success.

“It didn’t seem that fast” claims Brian. “We wanted to become as big as possible. In the beginning, we wanted out of Cumbernauld, we wanted to travel about. We wanted to do it full time. We wanted to get as big as we could, to make as much money and as much of a life out of it as we could.”

Noble sentiments indeed. So how would the band describe their music to anyone unfamiliar with them? “Sex for ears” says Brian, straight faced, whilst the rest of the band descend into hysterics.

Fledgling bands take note; the two most important qualities you need for success are a hard work ethic, and a decent sense of humour. Its certainly works for The Dykeenies.

The Dykeenies play the Jam House, Queen Street on Sunday 24 February chris.mccall@journal-online.co.uk

Music

Yeti  Cabaret Voltaire 29 Jan

Former Libertine John Hassall has finally got his new band Yeti up and running. And not before time...

Chris McCall

chris.mccall@journal-online.co.uk

Whenever a band implodes before its time, especially one with obvious talent, the repercussions can be messy.

Contracts need to be renegotiated and solo careers need to be thought about.

Suddenly, the man you counted as your best friend and creative equal is now nothing more than a business rival in an already crowded market.

Such was the case for The Libertines. Pete ‘n’ Carl, the band’s principal songwriters and pin-ups, went on to launch separate bands, both of which are remarkable only in their sheer banality. To everyone’s surprise, its John Hassall, the Libs’ former bass player, who has emerged from the wreckage as the real pop star. The fact he has named his band Yeti is telling. After all, he who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man. Or in this case, the pain of once being associated with Pete Doherty.

Yeti are above such comparisons however. They are as far removed from the histrionics of Baby Shambles as you could possibly imagine. For all intents and purposes, they are a reincarnation of The Beatles, circa 1965, but without the matching suits and mop-tops. They sing delightful threeminute pop songs with psychedelic twists. ‘Never Lose Your Sense of Wonder’ sounds like a song you’ve loved for years, rather than five minutes. The harmonies alone are enough to make you go weak at the knees.

Yeti are too good to be merely classed as 60s revivalists. Their music owes as much to the sounds of Neil Young as it does to Lennon-McCartney. Their set tonight is a refreshing experience: it is a delight to witness a band with blatant disregard for the angular disco rock that has cluttered our airwaves for so long.

This is a band doing what all bands should - having fun and writing tunes so catchy you can’t help but whistle them for the next week.

There’s one problem however; why has it taken them the best part of three years to produce an LP and finally undertake a full tour of the UK? Answers on a postcard please. In the meantime, let’s all raise a toast to John Hassall, a true Libertine if ever there was one.

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Clerk Street Edinburgh

28 Arts & Entertainment Theatre

Crazy For You  Dir. Polly Bennett Church Hill TheatrE 29 Jan-2 Feb

Building upon the high standard set by the success of West Side Story in 2007, this year’s production of Crazy for You does not disappoint. Indeed, doing for musical theatre what their Cambridge counterparts do for comedy, the Edinburgh University Footlights have, over the last few years, proven themselves to be among the top amateur performance-arts groups in the country.

Louise Alder, taking on the lead female role for a second year running, is fast proving herself to be something of an emerging star. Her voice is spectacular and her performance full of the kind of sass that brings to mind the classical film heroines of days gone by. Alder is far more rounded as an actress this time round than in the 2007 production of West Side Story: her delivery is more natural and she appears far more comfortable in the shoes of Polly Baker than those of Maria. At the risk of sounding detrimental to the rest of the cast, she leaves everyone else looking ordinary and is most certainly one to watch for the future.

Through no fault of his own, her male counter-part, Robin Stewart, suffers in comparison when they share the stage. However, he proves himself to be a staggeringly adept physical comedian. His gangly, awkward demeanor lights up the production with

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

several moments of slapstick genius.

When playing off an equally excellent Alex Crutcher, in the role of theatremogul Bela Zangler, his pedigree as a practiced comedy actor is obvious.

This show is not perfect, however.

The plot, more so than many musicals, is both thin and unoriginal. Indeed, Crazy for You can be considered a fairly poor example of the genre: a collection of big showtunes, the likes of ‘I Got Rhythm,’ and ‘Slap that Bass’ from the Gershwins Ira and George, with a flimsy new storyline posthumously tacked on. That is not to say this production is ever anything less than enjoyable, however one does suspect that were Footlights to have taken on a different title, they would have come much closer to perfection.

A special mention must also go to the Footlights orchestra, intelligently led by Angus Tully, a group of musicians whose talent ensures that focus remains with the action onstage, where a poorer ensemble might draw attention towards screechings from the pit. With a solid director in Polly Bennett, there is a professionalism about Footlights that is rare for amateur theatre and seemingly mythical among student performers. Unsurprisingly, then, the annual Footlights show is steadily pushing itself onto the Edinburgh arts calendar.

Doing for musical theatre what their Cambridge counterparts do for comedy, the Edinburgh University Footlights prove themselves to be among the top student performers in the country Ben Judge & Alice Sharp arts@journal-online.co.uk

Music

Theatre Fall  The Wee Red BaR 9 FEB

The latest New Found Sound showcase at the Wee Red Bar throws up up a gem in Theatre Fall Chris Hammond

chris.hammond@journal-online.co.uk

Music

sarah.mitchell@journal-online.co.uk

A performance which involves a programme of music by composers stretching over the past 200 years is bound to be an uneven one. What a 200 years it’s been after all! Surely the subtle dissonances of Poulenc will be lost in Mozart, whose emphasis on precise and unwavering rhythm has no place alongside Mendelssohn?

However, the SCO under conductor Paul Meyer puts any such qualms to rest in this fantastically varied performance.

To anyone unsure of 20th Century music in the classical style, I recommend Poulenc’s Sinfonietta which, if tonight is anything to go by, ought to turn any critics of his sometimes erratic style. The piece demands many orchestral characteristics, exposing beautifully rounded legato from the woodwind, and reminding the listener of the full dynamic range of the brass.

Similarly impressive are the strings, united under Meyer to best shape and define Poulenc’s competing styles, from the developing themes of the first movement to dance-like passages later on.

Mozart’s Flute Concerto provides a complete contrast. It’s a piece known for its sensitivity to the full range of the instrument, a range which soloist Alison Mitchell really gets a grip of, leading the orchestra through entries of the concerto’s distinctive theme, smooth legato passages and soaring cadenzas. The string section shine again in their support of the solo line and there’s real generosity in the way Mitchell switches effortlessly between soloist and ensemble player.

Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ Symphony spans many distinctive styles, displaying the composer’s obvious love for dance with influences of Italian and Spanish folk music. The exception lies in the march-like second movement: balanced instrument groupings within the wind and the strings pass the initial melody back and forth seamlessly. The piece culminates with a tarantella in the final movement, during which Meyer manages to coax a truly impressive collective sound from the ensemble and, though their unity sometimes slips during the unbelievably fast swirling semiquaver passages, the vigorous mood is sustained right up to the closing chords.

There’s a division which slices through Tchaikovsky’s opera, Eugene Onegin, between romantic love and what Madame Larina, the lady of the manor, terms “the real world”. The tragedy of Pushkin’s text is a series of revelations as to the irreconcilability of romance with this world of social and economic concerns. It’s a discord which the young singers from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama do, at times, manage to find the sore point of.

The production marks another of what is becoming a regular collaboration between RSAMD and Scottish Opera. The plot is unusual: Onegin rejects Tatiana’s love then spends years in exile after killing his best friend, Lensky, in a duel. Upon returning, though, Onegin finds himself dangerously attracted to Tatiana who, in a change of roles, now painfully resists his advances. There’s a lot made of the fact that Onegin was first performed in 1879 by students from the Moscow Conservatory, but one suspects Tchaikovsky of simply hedging his bets, testing out an opera about crushed romances away from the stern gaze of professional critics. Indeed, one can’t help but feel that Charlotte Tetley as Madame Larina is far too young and beautiful to pull off the Russian country matriarch, though her physical and vocal acting certainly helps overcome this.

On the other hand, Maria Kozlova as Tatiana (note there are two alternating casts for lead roles) looks and sounds precisely like the naïve lover of romance novels she ought to be. More might be made of the letterwriting scene, which is perhaps underplayed. Felipe Oliveira’s Onegin is both physically and vocally imposing, which makes for great drama as the sexual flirt is transformed into a terrifying, lovestruck wretch. Jung Soo Yun as Lensky does not always have the glossy, romantic tone one might

expect from the idealistic young poet – except when he places flowers on his own, imaginary, grave during the duel scene.

Singing in Russian, the cast do admirably, but it’s Gevorg Grigoryan as Count Gremin who provides the real show-stopper, with what sounds like a bona fide Russian bass delivery. Of course, it helps that Grogoryan really is a bona fide Russian bass, as one of two cast members on exchange from the Rostov-on-Don conservatory – an exchange programme which should prove to be a real asset for RSAMD in the future.

Under Timothy Dean’s baton, the Orchestra of Scottish opera— bolstered by fifteen of RSAMD’s own players—is consistently on the money, shaping the tumult between romance and violence. The horns are lyrical and beguiling, the trombones braying and aggressive; though the interplay between the two is rarely contrived or jarring, rather, one dovetails neatly into the other. Power politics wheedle their way into romance in ways which are insidious and unsettling.

Worthy of note is Becs Andrews’s superb set design. The Larina estate, for instance, is carved up by a fence which seeks to keep the economic realities of peasant life separate from Tatiana and Olga’s bourgeois romances. The arrival of Onegin from the city and Tatiana’s passion for the wealthy dandy triggers the metaphorical destruction of this artificial barrier.

Elsewhere, Tatiana’s bedroom—the scene of bookish, idealised romance— is suitably impressionistic. A red cloth backdrop, knotted to form a stylised window, is stripped back to reveal surreal towers of books which Tatiana mounts as she completes the doomed love-letter to Onegin – a triumph which, in RSAMD’s Eugene Onegin, is as imaginary and precarious as those teetering piles of romantic novels.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra  Poulenc, Mozart & Mendelssohn Queens Hall 31 Jan

The SCO provide music from a repertoire 200 years in the making Sarah Mitchell

James Baster New Found Sound’s latest showcase of emerging talent looked set to be a good one, with three hotly tipped Scottish acts hitting The Wee Red Bar for some serious Saturday night shenanigans. First band Jocosta Sleeps deliver a great selection of alt-rock numbers which do more than enough to indicate that they are ones to keep and eye out for in future. Second support act The Sorren MacLean Band, an acoustic trio from Mull, don’t prove they are anything but ordinary: their largely uninspiring set is quickly forgotten when headline act Theatre Fall take up position.

Decked out in skinny jeans and vintage Adidas trainers, Theatre Fall look like a band taking style seriously – style which leaks into their music in lashings. From start to finish you’d be hard pushed to hear a more perfect collection of raucous, anthemic and furiously paced electro-indie songs. Deploying deceptively dinky keyboards and wiry punk guitars to devastatingly pleasing effect, they oversee an instant audience transformation. They are talented, they know it and it doesn’t take long for everyone else in the bar to figure it out too.

And then there’s the wild showmanship from Duracell-powered front man, Tristan: it’s a feat many young bands struggle with but is acquitted here with cheeky aplomb. The band’s one flaw? Incessantly plugging their CD and merchandise. On the basis of tonight’s performance, this isn’t remotely necessary. The only way is up for Theatre Fall.

Sarah Hunter

Opera

Eugene Onegin  Festival Theatre 2 Feb

The young singers at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama go some way to catching the drama of Tchaikovsky’s score Evan Beswick

evan.beswick@journal-online.co.uk

Eating & Drinking 29

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Love food hate love Nana Wereko-Brobby discovers that, despite the range of opulent options, not all restaurants will be clamouring for Valentine's custom

Love food T hate love o dwell on the merits of Valentine’s Day and everlasting love would be both stupidly boring and reasonably naïve: to denounce the whole day as a money-spinning corporate creation would be just as clichéd as the schmoozy shebang itself. Certainly, those big questions tend to be forced into the limelight as February 14 approaches: is our relationship going anywhere?

Will I ever get a boyfriend? Does Ann Summers have a return policy on this?

For those in relationships, the decision of what to buy, where to go and what to wear pushes stress levels up several notches. But for those not in a relationship, the decision is split between securing a Mr Right-Now for the evening or cursing the smug couples and getting inordinately pissed with your mates.

Thankfully, like Christmas, the social leveller is a willingness by all parties, attached or unattached, to use the holiday as a time to revel in good food and plentiful drink. Whether dining out becomes the foreplay to later bedroom antics or simply the forerunner to a fitful night’s sleep, Valentine’s Day is as good an excuse as any made up holiday to indulge. At the corporate end of Edinburgh’s food industry one can expect the usual offerings from George Street: swanky menus, trite muzak and form-obscuring lighting.

Such locations satisfy the oxymoronic demand of Valentine’s couples; to embrace the personal and the private whilst happily acknowledging their membership in the privileged club of two. At the other end of the market, there are restauranteurs who refuse to chalk up their boards with Valentine’s gushings and instead welcome a proliferation of customers who are decidedly nonplussed about the whole affair. Quite clearly, there is no middle ground when it comes to Valentine’s Day: open relationships aside, you are either with someone or you aren’t. With that in mind, this week’s Food & Drink offers two very different venues which, while acknowledging the inescapable existence of the holiday, should appease diners on both sides of the lovey-dovey divide.

Picardy Place 4 Picardy Place

Picardy Place is a victim of circumstances. Since its inception in 2007, the bar/restaurant complex has been wrongly assumed to be either a gay bar, and thus hostile to heterosexual punters, or a members’ club, and thus hostile to punters in general. Certainly, the fact that it shares management and location with GHQ, the capital’s newest and most upmarket gay nightclub, and is at times guarded by austere looking bouncers, explains why the place is so misunderstood.

Once the obstacle of entering is overcome, and the grand staircase is climbed to the restaurant, one encounters a dark, sumptuous and seductive dining area. There’s an awful lot af black: polished black wooden floors, black bar, black velvet chairs and enticing black chaise longues, all of which create an atmosphere of civilised S&M, more burlesque than strip club. Brightened by red and gold ornate wallpaper and with red flowers littering the tables, the restaurant décor steps into a sensual threshold between romantic love and carnal desire. Based on an antiquated but luxurious hotel in Paris, Picardy Place offers something of the French capital’s allure to those unwilling to brave the Eurostar. With this image

in mind, the restaurant is more than happy to capitalize on the Valentine’s celebrations. The perfunctory red roses will be on offer and couples will start the evening with an aperitif or glass of rosé champagne.

At £29.95 for three courses, the meal is hardly a snip, but is still less expensive than the swish interior might suggest. The most indulgent options are a ballotine (that is, a flattened and rolled parcel) of ham hough with sweet pepper relish to start, and a succulent ribeye steak with dauphinoise fondant potatoes, sautéed vegetables and wild mushroom jus for main. There are equally appealing vegetarian options, like the goats cheese and pea tart. The dessert option of strawberry and black pepper cheesecake shows some innovation on the chef’s part and gives a playful nod to the room’s colour scheme. Despite the opulent setting, the venue isn’t overly-serious, appealing as it does to pleasure-seeking, rather than uptight, customers. Those who haven’t swilled enough wine by the end of the meal might be reassured to know that the downstairs bar is open until one.

As part of a twosome on Valentine’s, Picardy Place lets one flaunt the fact theatrically, if a little ironically.

Eddie Fisher

Coyaba Jamaican Restaurant 113 Buccleuch Street

The antidote to the decadent romanticism of Picardy Place comes in the guise of Coyaba, a Jamaican restaurant on Buccleuch Street. Coyaba works from the premise that dinnertime is about generously portioned comfort food, sloshings of rum and relaxed surroundings. Paying homage to its Rastafarian roots, the restaurant embraces a red/green/yellow colour scheme which manages to avoid looking like stereotype and instead infuses the place with warmth and a genuine sense that this is not fusion or copycat cuisine but the real thing.

Coyaba is refreshingly unafraid to assault the senses of smell and taste: the dishes use bold, spicy flavours and a homely aroma of recently cooked food pervades the cosy dining room having wafted, one suspects, straight from the Caribbean. A first experience of eating here certainly encourages a willingness to try new things, but for the less adventurous

there are the more familiar options of delicately battered coconut prawns and sweet chilli dip and a delicious vegetable coconut curry, deliciously sweetened with butternut pumpkin. Jerk chicken is an obvious but welcome inclusion on the menu, as is the traditional goat curry which uses organic meat and is surprisingly tender. However, the true triumph is the Chicken Ku-Yah, a chicken stew in a tomato, onion and garlic gravy. With a demarara sugar base, the dish is rich and sweet and demands a mopping up of its juices with warm banana bread and a side of plantain chips. Ackee and Saltfish, the national dish of Jamaica, is a prerequisite of any visit: ackee—a yellow fruit oddly reminiscent of scrambled eggs–has a subtle flavour which balances the saltiness of the fish. The use of scotch bonnet peppers, one of the hottest chilies, gives many of the dishes a fiery kick but fails to overpower them.

The food is not cheap but reason-

able, at around £12 for main dishes, and the generous portion sizes mean it is unnecessary to go overboard on side dishes. If you can stagger your way to dessert, the rum, raisin and chocolate cake is a satisfying finish to the meal, and a nice compliment to the rum-based cocktails. Enjoyable for couples but perfect for groups of friends, Coyaba is highly recommended as a truly unusual haven in a Valentine’s market saturated by European cuisine.

30 Property

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Property COME FEBRUARY, MANY students are planning their next move, be it from Halls to their first student flat, or from their first, god-awful student flat into something that is not falling apart. Whatever your situation, The Journal will be here to help.

Over the coming issues we will have an area-by-area break down of the places students are most likely to live through-out the city, with a break-down on prices, local amenities and, most importantly, student pubs, bars and nightclubs. Using The Journal’s property listings, brought to you in association with CityLets, you have weekly access to flat listing specifically tailored towards Edinburgh students.

CityLets is Scotland’s premier flat-listings websites, with links to accommodation options from most major property management agencies and independent landlords. They have compiled one of the largest and most detailed property databases in the country, to which we have kindly been allowed access in order to give our readers the

Ardmillan Ardmillan Terrace, 475, 1, 1D E O, 0870 062 9320

Barnton Whitehouse Road, 495, 1, E PG P, 0870 062 9382

Blackford Maurice Place, 625, 2, UF 2D 1B G CG O, 0870 062 9320

Broughton Mcdonald Road, 725, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9390 Pilrig Heights, 650, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9456 Broughton Street, 595, 2, 2D E, 0870 062 9332

Bruntsfield Bruntsfield Place, 910, 3, 3D, 0870 062 9316 Montpelier, 750, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9592 Bruntsfield Place, 650, 2, 2D G Z, 0870 062 9578 Bruntsfield Place, 325, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9558 Bruntsfield Place, 2000, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Gillespie Crescent, 1815, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Bruntsfield Place, 1700, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Montpelier, 1125, 1, G CG Z, 0870 062 9334

Calton Hill Ratcliffe Terrace, 595, 2, 1S 2D W O, 0870 062 8252

Canonmills Rodney Place, 625, 2, 2D W CG P, 0870 062 9446 Heriothill Terrace, 540, 1, , 0870 062 9510 Boat Green, 460, 1, 1D G CG P, 0870 062 9326 Canonmills, 425, 1, 1D E Z, 0870 062 9382 Beaverbank Place, 400, 1, 1D CG Z, 0870 062 9334

Central Dalkeith Road, Negotiable, 4, 4D G O, 0870 062 3728 Morrison Street, 930, 3, 3D G CG, 0870 062 9460 Gillsland Road, 900, 3, 1S 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9326 Gardner’s Crescent, 900, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9592 Leopold Place, 850, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9332 Springwell Place, 600, 2, 2D CG O, 0870 062 9236 Thistle Street, 600, 2, 1D 1T G Z, 0870 062 9320 Leven Street, 600, 2, UF 2D G, 0870 062 3768 Lochrin Terrace, 550, 2, 1S 1D W O, 0870 062 9362 Lothian Road, 550, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 9326 St. Marys Street, 550, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 9468 Brunswick Street, 525, 1, G, 0870 062 9510 Rose Street South Lane, 490, 1, UF 1D E Z, 0870 062 9434 Albert Street, 450, 1, 1D CG O, 0870 062 9236 Lothian Road, 285, 1, 5D G Z, 0870 062 9434 Brunswick Street, 1050, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700

Clermiston Alan Breck Gardens, 730, 3, 3D G CG, 0870 062 9522

Colinton Woodhall Road, 1200, 4, 4D PG P, 0870 062 9558

Comely Bank Comely Bank Terrace, 625, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9510 Comely Bank Row, 525, 1, G CG O, 0870 062 9510 Learmonth Avenue, 1000, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9522

Corstorphine St. Johns Road, 850, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9592 Alan Breck Gardens, 600, 2, UF 2D CG O, 0870 062 7034

Craigentinny Loaning Road, 575, 2, 2D G PG O, 0870 062 9592

Craiglockhart North Meggetland, 750, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9456

Crewe Toll Crewe Terrace, 575, 2, 1S 1D G PG P, 0870 062 9384

Dalry Caledonian Crescent, 700, 2, 2D 1B G CG O, 0870 062 9312 Springfield Street, 695, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9332 Cathcart Place, 650, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Murieston Terrace, 630, 2, 1S 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9302 Dalry Road, 625, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 3768 Orwell Terrace, 525, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9334 Cathcart Place, 500, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9320 Wardlaw Street, 495, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700 Murieston Terrace, 450, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700

Dean Village Damside, 680, 2, 2D W PG P, 0870 062 9434

Drum Brae Drum Brae Terrace, 650, 3, 3D G PG O, 0870 062 9592

Drylaw Ferry Road Place, 650, 3, , 0870 062 9384DuddiNorthfield Grove, 770, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9522 Peffer Street, 420, 1, 1D E O, 0870 062 9558

Easter Road Montrose Terrace, 975, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Hawkhill Close, 900, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9522 Easter Road, 595, 2, 2D E CG O, 0870 062 3768 Easter Road, 475, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 9326

Edinburgh Montgomery Street, 850, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Warriston Drive, 750, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, 750, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Hermitage Park, 735, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Commercial Street, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Hamilton Place, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Royston Terrace, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700

best and most useful flat listings. While it may be another few months before you start seriously considering your options, housing is one of the key concerns for students in the city, and getting all the information available is important.

One of the most important things to consider when letting a flat is the reputation and history of your prospective landlord. Always be sure to do your research on a property by referring to the council’s Edinburgh Landlord Accreditation scheme, which offers information and recommendations on the city’s property providers. This is a valuable tool that can save you the hassle of having to deal with rogue landlords.

Additionally, there is the student-run, Studentflatfinder.com, which valiantly lists some of the city’s best flat providers, although— given potential legal issues involved—is unable to tell you the ones to avoid.

Springfield Lane, 625, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Henderson Street, 595, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Craigmount Hill, 550, 2, 1S 1D G CG P, 0870 062 9334 Thistle Street, 500, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700 Mcdonald Road, 460, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Lauriston Place, 1875, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Lauriston Gardens, 1800, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 East Claremont Street, 1750, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 East Claremont Street, 1750, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Bonnington Road, 1400, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Murieston Crescent, 1240, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Easter Road, 1150, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700

Fettes East Pilton Farm Crescent, 625, 2, 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9446

Fountainbridge Fowler Terrace, 435, 1, 1D, 0870 062 9316

Gilmerton Burnhead Loan, 1000, 4, 4D G PG O, 0870 062 2406

Gorgie Murieston Lane, 595, 2, UF 2D W P, 0870 062 9456 Wardlaw Place, 495, 1, 1D CG O, 0870 062 3704 Wheatfield Street, 495, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9460 Wardlaw Place, 475, 1, 1D W CG O, 0870 062 3768 White Park, 475, 1, UF 1D W, 0870 062 9456 Westfield Road, 450, 1, 1D CG O, 0870 062 9592 Gorgie Road, 450, 1, UF 1D W P, 0870 062 9456 Wardlaw Place, 420, 1, UF 1D E CG O, 0870 062 9434 Gorgie Road, 1050, 4, 4D G CG O, 0870 062 3780

Grange Grange Road, 1100, 3, 3D G O, 0870 062 9508

Granton Hesperus Crossway, 895, 3, 2D 1T G PG P, 0870 062 9460 Wardieburn Drive, 880, 4, 4D G PG P, 0870 062 9302 Royston Mains Place, 550, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9522 Granton Crescent, 500, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9332 Lower Granton Road, 415, 1, 1D CG O, 0870 062 9334

Haymarket Grove Street, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Rosebery Crescent, 600, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 9306 Grove Street, 1150, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700

Hillside Earlston Place, 960, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Albert Street, 650, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Allanfield, 575, 2, 1S 1D W P, 0870 062 9320 Brunswick Road, 575, 2, 1S 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9578 Montrose Terrace, 485, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

HOW TO USE THE LISTINGS Old Town

Area

Lawnmarket, 900, 3, 2D 1B G, 0870 062 1108

Agent phone number

Bedrooms Monthly Rent Location

Holyrood Holyrood Road, 600, 1, 1D E P,

Joppa

0870 062 1108 Joppa Road, 700, 3, 2S 1D G O, 0870 062 9434

Leith Great Junction Street, 932, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Cables Wynd, 925, 3, 1S 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9460 Largo Place, 900, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Trafalgar Lane, 795, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9456 Ferry Road, 735, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Duke Street, 700, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Trafalgar Lane, 700, 3, UF 1S 2D G P, 0870 062 9592 Giles Street, 675, 2, 2D E CG P, 0870 062 9558 Salamander Court, 675, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9456 Sandport, 675, 2, 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9558 Giles Street, 665, 2, 2D E P, 0870 062 9456 Brunswick Road, 660, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9456 Fox Street, 650, 2, 2D W P, 0870 062 9378 Salamander Street, 625, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Couper Street, 600, 1, E, 0870 062 9508 Bothwell Street, 500, 1, 1D 1B CG O, 0870 062 8252 Sloan Street, 495, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9320 Albert Street, 475, 1, 1D W, 0870 062 9326 Murano Place, 475, 1, 1D E P, 0870 062 8252 Lochend Road, 450, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 3768 Henderson Gardens, 440, 1, 1D O, 0870 062 3782 Lorne Square, 430, 1, UF 1D CG O, 0870 062 9434 Duke Street, 400, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700 Wellington Place, 1200, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Kirk Street, 1125, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Portland Street, 1000, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Bernard Street, 1000, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Leith Links Duke Street, 650, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9486

Leith Walk Dalmeny Street, 900, 3, G O, 0870 062 9508 Leith Walk, 900, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Leith Walk, 850, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Dryden Gait, 850, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9460

Balfour Street, 795, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 3768 Hopetoun Crescent, 795, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 3768 Iona Street, 625, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Springfield Lane, 625, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Dalmeny Street, 575, 2, 1S 1D G, 0870 062 9332 Murano Place, 500, 1, 1D E, 0870 062 9332 Lorne Street, 480, 1, UF 1D 1B G CG O, 0870 062 9434 Buchanan Street, 475, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 9332 Lorne Place, 430, 1, UF 1D CG O, 0870 062 9434 Kirk Street, 1300, 5, 5D G CG O, 0870 062 9460 Leith Walk, 1300, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Leith Walk, 1220, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Smith’s Place, 1100, 4, 1S 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9340

Liberton The Murrays Brae, 625, 2, E PG P, 0870 062 9508 Howden Hall Court, 590, 2, 1S 1D G PG P, 0870 062 9558 Burdiehouse Road, 1000, 4, 4D G PG P, 0870 062 9522

Longstone Parkhead Drive, 580, 2, 2D CG O, 0870 062 9558

Marchmont Marchmont Road, 900, 4, 1S 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9322 Marchmont Road, 900, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9334 Marchmont Road, 1300, 4, 1S 3D G Z, 0870 062 9324 Strathfillan Road, 1300, 4, 4D G CG, 0870 062 1108 Warrender Park Crescent, 1300, 4, 4D G P, 0870 062 9362 Thirlestane Road, 1280, 4, 4D G Z, 0870 062 9362

Maybury Barntongate Terrace, 570, 1, 1D G P, 0870 062 9558

Meadowbank Restalrig Road South, 795, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9460 Waverley Place, 630, 2, 1S 1D G PG O, 0870 062 9234 Royal Park Terrace, 625, 2, 2D G PG O, 0870 062 9312 Piershill Place, 575, 2, 1S 1D G, 0870 062 9320 Dalgety Avenue, 550, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700 Piershill Place, 475, 1, 1D G O, 0870 062 9460 Royal Park Terrace, 1180, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Bedrooms: Heating: Garden: Parking: Furniture:

Meadows Buccleuch Street, 525, 1, 1D, 0870 062 9324

Morningside Comiston Road, 950, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Craighouse Gardens, 795, 3, 3D E CG P, 0870 062 9302 Comiston Road, 650, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9592 Balcarres Street, 500, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 3768 Morningside Road, 1700, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Morningside Road, 1360, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morningside Road, 1360, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Woodburn Terrace, 1100, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700

New Town Barony Street, 950, 4, , 0870 062 9434 Dundas Street, 900, 3, G, 0870 062 9316 Great King Street, 780, 2, 2D G PG Z, 0870 062 9434 Barony Street, 750, 2, 2D E, 0870 062 9434 East London Street, 700, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9332 Scotland Street, 1565, 4, 4D, 0870 062 9316 Gloucester Place, 1500, 5, 5D G Z, 0870 062 9446 Melgund Terrace, 1200, 3, 3D 1B G CG Z, 0870 062 9578

Newhaven Lindsay Road, 600, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9326 Annfield, 475, 2, , 0870 062 9510 Hawthornvale, 475, 1, 1D, 0870 062 9332 Hawthornvale, 460, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9312 Ferry Road, 1450, 6, 2S 4D G PG P, 0870 062 9558

Newington Lutton Place, 99, 5, 5D G CG Z, 0870 062 3704 Montague Street, 975, 3, 2S 1D, 0870 062 3700 Dalkeith Road, 950, 4, 1S 3D G O, 0870 062 4830 Dalkeith Road, 950, 3, 3D G, 0870 062 4830 South Oxford Street, 750, 3, G CG O, 0870 062 9384 Oxford Street, 750, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 St. Patrick Square, 690, 2, 2D, 0870 062 9316 St. Patrick Square, 600, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0870 062 1108 East Mayfield, 1700, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Dalkeith Road, 1625, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Mayfield Road, 1600, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700

S Single D Double T Twin B Box G Gas Central W White Meter E Electric PG Private CG Communal Z Zone O On-Street P Private UF Unfurnished Dalkeith Road, 1300, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 West Preston Street, 1210, 4, 3S 1D, 0870 062 9316 Dalkeith Road, 1100, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Macdowall Road, 1100, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700

Old Town Forrest Road, 99, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0870 062 3704 Buccleuch Street, 900, 3, 3D G Z, 0870 062 9438 Lawnmarket, 900, 3, 2D 1B G, 0870 062 1108 High Street, 800, 1, 1D G Z, 0870 062 1108 West Port, 750, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Jeffrey Street, 650, 2, 2D, 0870 062 9392 Calton Road, 640, 1, 1D E O, 0870 062 9322

Oxgangs Oxgangs Avenue, 700, 2, 1S 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9558

Peffermill The Aspect- Peffer Bank, 600, 2, UF 2D G P, 0870 062 9592

Pilrig Spey Terrace, 450, 1, W O, 0870 062 8252

Polwarth Polwarth Crescent, 990, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0870 062 9460 Mertoun Place, 975, 3, 3D G Z, 0870 062 9446 Mertoun Place, 675, 2, 1S 1D G PG, 0870 062 9326 Polwarth Gardens, 600, 2, 2D 1B G CG Z, 0870 062 9422 Watson Crescent, 550, 2, 1S 1D G O, 0870 062 9326 Watson Crescent, 500, 1, 1D G O, 0870 062 9326 Ritchie Place, 475, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9334 Angle Park Terrace, 1100, 4, 4D G O, 0870 062 9486

Prestonfield Prestonfield Road, 620, 2, 2D G PG O, 0870 062 9522 Prestonfield Terrace, 595, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9334 Prestonfield Bank, 525, 1, 1D E P, 0870 062 9422

Restalrig Restalrig Road, 650, 3, UF G, 0870 062 9326 Loaning Road, 625, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9332 Restalrig Road, 425, 1, O, 0870 062 9446

Sciennes Sienna Gardens, 850, 3, G CG P, 0870 062 3780

Shandon Merchiston Grove, 650, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9464 Hazelbank Terrace, 575, 1, 1D G PG O, 0870 062 9456

Sighthill Westburn Grove, 695, 3, UF 1S 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9558 Murrayburn Park, 675, 3, G O, 0870 062 9384 Broomhouse Street South, 660, 3, 3D G PG O, 0870 062 9302 Calder Gardens, 575, 2, G, 0870 062 9384 Calder Crescent, 500, 2, 2D O, 0870 062 3768 Calder Gardens, 400, 1, UF 1D G CG O, 0870 062 8312

Silverknowes Ferrygait Place, 550, 2, 2D E P, 0870 062 6458

Slateford Hutchison Cottages, 525, 2, 1D 1T G CG O, 0870 062 9320 Moat Terrace, 500, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 3768

South Queensferry Moubray Grove, 650, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9332

The Shore Western Harbour Midway, 720, 2, 2D E P, 0870 062 9522 Tower Place, 675, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9456 Sheriff Brae, 575, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 9332

Tollcross Lauriston Place, 650, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Valleyfield Street, 1300, 4, 4D G CG Z, 0870 062 9448

West End Lawnmarket, 950, 2, 2D 1B G, 0870 062 1108 Eton Terrace, 550, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0870 062 1108 Randolph Place, 550, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 1108 Roseburn Terrace, 1280, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700

Willowbrae South Elixa Place, 695, 2, 2D W, 0870 062 9332 Cambusnethan Street, 650, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700

Sport 31

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

: R E K C A H Ireland gets merry in

SPORT

A MALIGN LOOK AT THE WORLD OF SPORT

SNIPPETS OF SPORTS NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE LAST FORTNIGHT

time for the festive season...

Paris Gourtsoyannis Deputy Editor paris.gourtsoyannis@journal-online.co.uk

“My favourite Christmas cliché aped by the Six Nations is the overloud uncle who comes round every year uninvited, and hits the sherry just hard enough that everyone vainly hopes he doesn’t turn up next time.”

“IT’S THE MOST wonderful time of the year,” croons Johnny Mathis in the popular Christmas ballad, though not in the version you’ve heard on the Marks & Spencer adverts. While The Journal may have been absent this past holiday season, it’s fitting that it makes its return in early February for this truly is the most wonderful time of the sporting year. No event captures the holiday spirit like the Six Nations: whether it’s the post-Christmas dinner belt-loosening required as you settle in to watch your third match on the fi nal Saturday; the sinking feeling you try to hide as you shake the gift from your gran only to the hear the familiar soft scratching of the Wales v. Scotland fi xture inside; or the uncomfortable feelings you get towards that cousin who doesn’t come round often – a solid performance from Italy.

My favourite Christmas cliché aped by the Six Nations, however, is the overloud uncle who comes round every year uninvited, and hits the sherry just hard enough that everyone vainly hopes he doesn’t turn up next time. As per usual, this is going to be Ireland’s year, just like last year, when they lost their first game at Croke Park to France in the dying minutes; or the year before that, when a series of average displays left them needing an impossible 34-point win over England at Twickenham to top the table. The metaphor is best fulfilled by their turn in the 2005 championship, in which after letting French one-cap wonder Benoît Baby ruin neutrals’ hopes of a fi nalday grand-slam showdown, Paul O’Connell did justice to the drunken uncle routine by wrestling Robert Sidoli to the ground off the ball – but, in front of a sell-out crowd at the Millenium Stadium and millions of television viewers, failed to land any of several punches.

The first weekend showed this year’s edition is playing to form.

Ireland were dismal in their 16-11 victory over Italy. Brian O’Driscoll was largely invisible, Rory Best was outdone at the lineout by Italy’s thirdchoice hooker, Leonardo Ghiraldini, and Girvan Dempsey was lukewarm in filling the shoes left by Dennis Hickie and Shane Horgan at wing,

FLYING HEAD-FIRST ONTO THE PODIUM Adrenaline rushes are often the reason to compete in your chosen sport and are a welcome extra to a fantastic win. One sportsman who takes these rushes in his stride is international Skeleton Bobsledder Iain Roberts, an expert in the sport once described as “throwing yourself head-first down an icy drain pipe on a tea tray.” Edinburgh University PhD student Iain is currently part of New Zealand’s national squad and his fantastic form has seen him achieve brilliant results since Christmas, the highlight of his last competition being three podium finishes including a second place.

though he did score.

There are signs, however, that others are ready to seize the bottle.

The pre-tournament hype surrounding Scotland didn’t last a half, with Dan Parks reprising his familiar role in failing to fi nd touch with the boot, and Chris Cusiter reliving the horror of his performance against Italy as he knocked on inches from the try-line.

England also remembered the glories of falling arse-backwards into the World Cup fi nal, fielding the same team as in their shocking opener against the USA – missing only the spine of Dallaglio, Catt and Robinson, and without their eventual tactical saviour, Olly Barkley – and then wondering at their second-half capitulation.

The weekend’s Christmas cracker, however, must go to Nick Mallet, in what will hopefully only be a cameo role as the new coach of Italy. The promise of the Berbizier era, which saw the perennial wooden spoons of European rugby win away and twice in the same tournament for the first time, was followed up with the selection of a match-day squad including only one goal kicker, David Bortolussi – the very same who choked mightily at the World Cup to let Scotland scrape through to the knockout stages. Two missed kicks turned an away draw into defeat.

Christmas, you may recall, brings about sudden increases in rates of divorce, suicide and depression. A similar study has yet to be put in the field for the Six Nations.

a two-year ban with NFL Europa declared that to win the 100 metres you had to be prepared to take performance-enhancing drugs – competed in Sunday’s indoor athletics event in Sheffield after the director of UK Athletics, Niels De Vos, conceded that there were no legal grounds on which to prevent him doing so.

Chambers hasn’t taken a drugs test in two years because the sport’s governing body thought he had retired; now that he aims to return, he could conceivably run a qualifying time to represent Britain.

It is UK Athletic’s prerogative not to select him regardless, and one they will doubtless use as it is their stated aim not to let Chambers, or anyone like him, wear a British vest in competition. However, one has to wonder at the contradictions involved in De Vos’ concession.

Christine Ohurougu faced an uphill legal slog to be allowed to represent Britain after being banned for missing drugs tests by accident, despite continually proving her innocence of actual cheating. The IAAF continues to use whatever tools at its disposal to prevent the Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, another athlete who has served a ban for missed tests but never failed one, from collecting medals taken from Marion Jones, an actual cheat. South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorious was recently issued with a legal decision by the IAAF banning him from their events for using ‘performance enhancing’ prostheses, effectively shutting the door on any disabled athletes wishing to compete at able-bodied level.

Somehow, resources are being misapplied if contenders are being denied their rights, but cheats are being given the benefit of the doubt.

BEATING THE METAPHOR fully to death, Dwain Chambers got something nice in his stocking last week.

The self-confessed cheat – who on leaving sprinting in 2006 to serve out

Sport Round-up FOOTBALL

BUSA Scottish Conference League 3

BUSA Scottish Conference League 1 Heriot-Watt Edinburgh Stirling Glasgow Dundee Strathclyde

P

W D L G

Pts

10 10 10 10 10 10

6 6 5 4 2 1

19 19 17 14 8 7

1 1 2 3 3 4

3 3 3 4 6 5

15 11 8 -9 -16 -9

Abertay Napier Glasgow 3 Edinburgh 4 Glasgow 2 Aberdeen 2

P

W D L G

Pts

10 10 10 9 9 10

7 5 4 5 2 1

23 17 16 16 7 3

2 2 4 1 1 0

1 3 2 3 6 9

20 4 1 7 -10 -22

FIXTURES

Edinburgh 4

16/1/08 Dundee Heriot-Watt 23/1/08 Dundee 28/1/08 Strathclyde 30/1/08 Dundee Glasgow

1 – 2 Glasgow 1 – 2 Edinburgh 3 – 2 Strathclyde 2 – 2 Glasgow 0 – 0 Edinburgh 2 – 4 Heriot-Watt

vs

Glasgow 2

BUSA Scottish Conference League 4B P

W D L G

Pts

Stirling 3 10 8 1 1 30 25 Strathclyde 2 9 6 0 3 4 18 Glasgow Cal. 10 5 2 3 5

17

Strathclyde 3 10 4 2 4 3

14

Glasgow Cal. 2 10 2 0 8 -15 6 QMU

vs

Glasgow 2

9

1 1 7 -27 4

P W D L PD Pts

Glasgow

BUSA Scottish Conference League 1

5 5 0 0 191 15

Glasgow Cal. 4 3 0 1 97 9

RUGBY

Edinburgh 2 6 3 0 3 13 9 Dundee 2 5 2 0 3 -63 6 Napier 6 0 0 6 -228 0

BUSA Scottish Conference League 1

MEN’S HOCKEY

P W D L PD Pts

TBC RESULTS

TBC QMU

Dundee Stirling St. Andrews Edinburgh

6 6 6 6

5 3 2 2

0 0 0 0

1 3 4 4

69 -35 -8 -26

15 9 6 6

BUSA Scottish Conference League 2 Aberdeen Heriot-Watt St. Andrews Strathclyde

P W D L PD

Pts

6 5 5 6

15 9 6 3

5 4 1 1

0 0 0 0

1 1 4 5

201 73 -127 -147

BUSA Scottish Conference League 1 Edinburgh 1

7 6 1 0 22 19

Glasgow Heriot-Watt Stirling Aberdeen Strathclyde Edinburgh 2 Dundee

7 7 7 7 7 7 7

6 3 2 3 1 1 1

1 1 3 0 2 1 1

0 3 2 4 4 5 5

12 5 -1 -4 -6

19 10 9 9 5 4 4

RESULTS 23/1/08 Glasgow

2-1

THE WATT SQUASHED BY UNIVERSITY SIDE Edinburgh University Squash Club snatched 1st place from Heriot-Watt at the Scottish University Championships on the 17th and 18th of January. The team, who are currently top of the East of Scotland First Division, stormed through the first round matches and the semi-finals, hardly dropping a point on their way to the final. Edinburgh started well going 3-0 up in the match to continue their clean sweep. Watt weren’t going down without a fight, however, and managed to claw back a win which brought the score to 3-1. But their form didn’t hold Edinburgh off for long, the tie ending in a 4-1 victory for the ‘Burgh. The win was made even sweeter by a fourth place finish for Edinburgh’s 2nd team.

TRI ANYTHING ONCE

EUtri’s annual sprint triathlon takes place on the 22nd March in Tranent. With each section being considerably shorter than a full triathlon - a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run - the event is ideal for first time tri-ers, a warm-up race for the experienced triathletes or as a team effort with a team of three contesting one discipline each. Food will be provided after the race and there’s an array of excellent prizes to be won. Entry is online at www. entrycentral.com. For further details go to http://triathlon.eusa. ed.ac.uk.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

BUSA Scottish Conference League 3

FIXTURES

SHORTS

Heriot-Watt

Edinburgh 1 Edinburgh 2 Glasgow Strathclyde Glasgow Cal. Heriot-Watt Dundee Robert Gordon

P W D L G

Pts

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

21 13 12 10 8 6 3 3

7 4 3 2 2 1 1 0

0 1 3 4 2 3 0 3

0 2 1 1 3 3 6 4

19 4 2 8 0 -5 -14 -14

GET MORE ON THE WEB

BUSA Scottish Conference League 3 P W D L Diff Pts

QMU St. Andrews 2 Napier Edinburgh 4 Glasgow Cal. 2 Robert Gordon 2 Glasgow 3 Stirling 2 Heriot-Watt 2 SAC

8 8 9 9 9 8 8 9 8 8

7 6 6 5 5 2 4 3 0 0

1 1 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0

0 1 2 1 4 4 4 6 8 8

40 33 13 23 -4 -2 -10 -26 -31 -36

22 19 19 18 15 11 9 9 3 -3

VISIT

JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK FOR ALL THE LATEST SPORT RESULTS

32 Sport

The Journal Wednesday 13 February 2008

Sport

The withering grassroots of university sport Lack of support from students and institutions is undermining university sport

Tom Crookston tom.crookston@journal-online.co.uk

A poll on the website of the Community Amateur Sports Club this week asks visitors to vote on whether they think grass-roots sport is (a) blossoming or (b) withering on the vine.

Mixed metaphors aside, the results were as overwhelming as they were predictable. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t get much more grass-roots than a wet Wednesday afternoon at Peffermill and in a way it’s understandable that nobody much fancies spending eighty or ninety minutes freezing to death on the touchline when they could be in the pub or in the library.

But last season Edinburgh University’s football team qualified for the third round of the Scottish Cup for the first time in over a century. Even though a win against Cove Rangers could have brought a historic game against the likes of Hearts, Hibs or Rangers, the game was seen by less than five hundred people. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the 2007 College Soccer Final was played before of a capacity crowd of seven thousand at North Carolina State University.

Soccer, of course, is a minority sport in the USA – the average gate for college American football games is closer to fifty thousand. The average gate for a Heriot-Watt home game, on the other hand, is roughly two student reporters, ten substitutes, one man and his dog. Last season, eighteen Major League Soccer players were graduates from UCLA alone. This year, the only Edinburgh alumnus registered as a professional footballer in Britain is plying his trade at Albion Rovers.

Even when you take into account the huge population difference, it is clear that the gulf in attitudes towards university-level sport in the UK and the USA is staggering.

It hasn’t always been this way. You only have to look across the border to the Premiership to see figures like

Martin O’Neill, who was spotted by Nottingham Forest playing for Queen’s University in Belfast, and Steve Coppell, who left his post as coach of the Liverpool University first team to sign for Manchester United. Closer to home, Andy Irvine turned out for Edinburgh in the late sixties and early seventies before eventually going on to become president of the Scottish Rugby Union.

It wasn’t so long ago that playing a sport while you studied was a viable route into the professional game. So where did it all go wrong?

It is first and foremost a problem of infrastructure. Before we can expect students to get behind university sport, the universities themselves have to start taking it seriously. It is no accident that Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh finished level on points at the top of the BUSA Scottish Football Conference: few of the other teams in the league employ so much as a part-time coach. Glasgow University don’t even give students a Wednesday afternoon off to play sport – let’s hope the handful of medics, lawyers and engineers who regularly make up their teams don’t miss anything too important in the lectures they skip. Clearly dedication is not an issue.

Neither is talent. No-one lucky enough to have watched this year’s ‘Burgh Varsity games could question the quality on display, or the time and expertise imparted by coaches like Dougie Samuel and Ross Campbell.

But the universities need to do more.

With the 2012 Olympics around the corner, the UK Sports Council – whose mandate is to “lead sport in the UK to world-class success” – need to do more. College sport in the USA is a multi-million dollar industry that entertains thousands and produces athletes of the very highest level. I realise that hoping to compete with that might be a long shot, but we ought at least to have a slightly more level playing field. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt for more students to get behind their university teams and help those grass-roots to blossom.

America’s devotion to college sports leaves the UK in the dust

Confidence high ahead of hockey knockouts Women's 1st XI play Durham in the BUSA knockout match after finishing first last season

Emily Glass emily.glass@journal-online.co.uk

After finishing top of their Scottish Conference group with seven wins in seven, Edinburgh University Women’s Hockey Club face Durham in the Women’s Championship 1st round today.

The team has developed a reputation for being “unbeatable” and is a side with many national-level stars.

The team’s prestige looks set to continue as it is a young squad full of promise after an intake of talented ‘Freshers’ this year.

Captain Sue Denison said: “With a couple of warm-up games coming up, we are sure that we will be fully prepared to play a great game and come away with a win.”

Meanwhile, following an impressive set of results in the Scottish Conference, with only two defeats in

seven games, the Edinburgh University women’s 2nd team will face Coventry in their Women’s Trophy match today.

This represents the team’s most important match so far this year and confidence in the camp is high. Team captain, Sue Johnson told The Journal that “every team member will be keen to send Coventry University 1st XI running home with their tails between their legs after they meet us this Wednesday.”

After the initial disappointment of not being able to play in the knockout, Johnson sees their upcoming match as a fantastic opportunity to show their calibre as a hockey team and to make an impact on the Trophy competition.

Unfortunately BUSA regulations mean that in the event of two teams from one University qualifying for the knockout only the 1st XI competes in the Championship, whilst the other plays for the Trophy.

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EDINBURGH’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Ken Wallace