The Journal - Edinburgh Issue 018

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EDINBURGH’S UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPER

ISSUE XVIII

WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2009

MORE THAN A GAME » 24

AS

CHINA STILL HAS A WAY TO GO WHEN IT COMES TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH. BUT AFTER LAST YEAR'S OLYMPICS, THINGS ARE BEGINNING TO IMPROVE

Foulkes attacks Sunday Herald while defending Eversheds link SARAH SALEH

» IN NEWS

Annan visit starts pie-fight Labour and SNP in tug-of-war over who invited former UN secretary general to Scotland

NATIONAL NEWS » 15

Council threaten students Journal investigation reveals that Edinburgh City Council have lost track of the number of bailiff’s letters they send to students

NEWS » 5

Macwhirter criticised over UCU boycott Members of George Foulkes’ campaign team question comments made by the rectorial candidate supporting boycott of Israeli academics

NEWS » 15

Medical Peer’s scrotum hoax

The two remaining candidates: Ian Mcwhirter (left) and George Foulkes (right) enter the last few days of their campaigns

» Foulkes' campaign launches official complaint against Sunday Herald » Candidate defends ties to law firm accused of threatening student activists Paris Gourtsoyannis paris@journal-online.co.uk LORD FOULKES OF Cumnock MSP, one of two remaining candidates running for the position of rector of the University of Edinburgh, has accused the Sunday Herald of conducting a smear campaign against him ahead of this week’s vote.

In an interview with The Journal, the MSP and peer alleges that the source of a complaint to the Scottish Parliament standards commissioner regarding Lord Foulkes’ £36,000-a-year consulting deal with law firm Eversheds LLP—quoted in the Herald as an unnamed “Scottish academic”—is in fact a political action group. Lord Foulkes has since contacted the Press Complaints Commission regarding the article, which formed the basis of a front-page feature in the University of Edinburgh’s The Student newspaper on 3 February.

Lord Foulkes has also implicated rival rectorial candidate Iain Macwhirter

in the matter saying: “Isn’t a coincidence that the complaint was made the day before the Herald article... and who is it that writes for the Sunday Herald?”

Iain Macwhirter helped found the Sunday Herald in 1999, and is currently retained as a columnist.

The rectorial candidate also defended

RECTORIAL ELECTION AT EDINBURGH Galloway withdraws and throws support behind Macwhirter as Foulkes addresses corruption claims

JOURNAL PROFILE

» PAGE 23

his connection with the global law firm Eversheds and distanced himself from the wave of corruption scandals now engulfing the House of Lords: “Eversheds is one of the most respected law firms in the UK, with a huge presence across Britain and overseas,” Lords Foulkes told The Journal.

“Someone has to defend the murderers,” he added. Eversheds counts one of the world’s worst polluters, and a major producer of security surveillance technology amongst its most important customers. Moreover, the firm has been accused of threatening student activists who have spoken out against its clients in the higher education sector, one of its major areas of activity.

The candidate explained that he had employed as an “advisor” by Eversheds for four years.

For the past three years, Lords Foulkes has been paid £36,000 yearly by Eversheds for 36 days work. Prior to this, he acted as an unpaid advisor for one year.

Lord Foulkes’ role involves introducing

Musicians need not fear the dreaded ‘Cello scrotum’, revealed to be a student prank

NEWS » 4

» IN FEATURES Eversheds clients to parliamentarians and committee chairs, conducting tours of Westminster, and advising the company on the effect of legislation on their strategic planning.

“Someone needs to help them [Eversheds’ clients] learn how the system in this country works,” said the rectorial candidate, who is a Labour Party MSP for the Lothians region.

Lord Foulkes has come under fire for his engagement as a consultant with Eversheds, with public attention focused on the “cash-for-laws” scandal swirling around the House of Lords. Four Labour peers stand accused of putting their legislative powers up for sale, following a Sunday Times investigation which culminated in incriminating video and audio recordings being publicly released.

The Labour peer is one of the few in the House of Lords who have voluntarily disclosed his paid committments to external interests, placing them on Continued on page two

Diana and Actaeon Titian’s masterpiece is worth every penny of its £50m price tag, says Rachel Cloughton

ARTS » 27

Martin Bell The veteran anti-corruption campaigner speaks out against sleaze in the Lords

COMMENT » 19

2 News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

THIS WEEK AT JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

YOUNG MOUNTAINEER KILLED IN FRENCH ALPS

Tributes paid to youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest

“LET VOTERS DECIDE” Sir Sean Connery calls for Scottish independence

THE LOVE OF THREE ORANGES: RSAMD’s surreal meta-opera which is just as confusing as one would expect

BACK ON TRACK

Council officials give go-ahead for Meadows Marathon

CHIEFS CALM ABOUT PRINCES STREET CLOSURE Princes street including pavement to be closed from 21 February

WWW.JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

Foulkes attacks Sunday Herald while defending Eversheds link Continued from page one the official House of Lords register. Asked to comment on the allegation faced by his colleagues, Lord Foulkes declined to condemn his fellow Labour peers, and sought to make plain the difference between their actions and his own.

“I wouldn’t want to comment on the allegations levelled against the four peers in question. I think Baroness Royle [the Labour leader of the House of Lords] has acted in an entirely correct way in setting up an inquiry.”

“They are accused of being willing to take money to table amendments,” Lord Foulkes said.

“Eversheds have never asked me to even ask a question in the House of Lords, let alone table an amendment – something which I wouldn’t do in any case.

“In America, no one would bat an eye,” Lord Foulkes said of the wider issue of corporate interventions in the legislative process. “Certain self righteous people in the media with a vested interest—political interest—have made an issue out of

» EVERSHEDS' CLIENTS E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, commonly known as DuPont chemical, is the world’s second largest chemical company by market share. Its success has come at a price, however: research conducted at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2007 found DuPont to be the largest producer of air pollution in the United States.

Tyco International first came to public prominence in 2004 when two of its board members stood trial for embezzling £600 million from the company. Its day-to-day operations are, to some, no less sinister, despite involving an ever-increasing feature of everyday life: Tyco is a worldleading producer of CCTV technology. Last week, the House of Lords constitution committee published a report entitled Surveillance: Citizens and the State which warned of the threat to civil liberties posed by the expansion of CCTV in Britain, already the most watched nation on earth. Lord Foulkes had no part in the publication. “I don’t have strong views

on the issue of surveillance. In a trip to campus security, CCTV was one of things I saw used as part of the infrastructure of protecting students,” Lord Foulkes told The Journal.

Perhaps most worryingly, Eversheds stands accused of issuing spurious legal threats to student journalists in Wales. In June 2008, a complaint was issued to the Office of Fair Trading on behalf of Trevor Mayes, editor of The Lamp Post, an unofficial online newsletter at the University of Wales, Lampeter. In a letter from Eversheds, Mr Mayes was threatened with “proceedings... likely to include an application for an injunction against you, a claim to damages and a claim for recovery of the legal costs incurred.”

Under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, the right to free speech is guaranteed in cases where the author believes in good faith to be telling the truth – a ruling which Eversheds may have had in mind when it failed to carry out its threats.

this.

“The Sunday Times is a well-known right wing Tory newspaper,” the peer added. “What they did was unethical; you aren’t supposed to record someone without their consent – though that’s no excuse for any wrongdoing.”

While paid consultancy work is permitted to members of the House of Lords, it is forbidden to members of the Scottish Parliament, where Lord Foulkes has served since 2007. The rectorial candidate insisted that his two roles were separate and distinct, presented no conflict of interest.

“I have told Eversheds in no uncertain terms that I cannot do work for them or their clients in Holyrood. They are two different parliaments,” Lord Foulkes said.

Despite an extensive presence across the rest of Britain, Eversheds LLP currently has no offices in Scotland.

In 2008, a complaint was submitted to the Scottish Parliament standards commissioner, Dr Jim Dyer, by SNP activist David Maddox, alleging Lord Foulkes was improperly accepting funds from a

commercial interest to perform consulting work at Holyrood. No investigation was launched, as it was deemed there was insufficient evidence.

The most recent complaint, and the subject of the Sunday Herald’s article, is likely to be similarly dismissed, as cases submitted by e-mail are inadmissible.

The Sunday Herald nonetheless chose to allege that Lord Foulkes was “under investigation,” and failed to give the rectoral candidate the right of reply, prompting the complaint to the Press Complaints Commission. Foulkes’ team have also pressed The Student for a retraction after they published a similar story.

Futhermore, Lord Foulkes’ campaign has taken issue with the Sunday Herald’s assertion that the source of the appeal to the parliamentary standards comissioner was a “Scottish academic”; Lord Foulkes insists that its souce was an English political action group called SpinWatch.

However, two Scottish academics—William Dinan and David Miller, both of the University of Strathclyde—sit on the fourperson board of SpinWatch.

CORRECTIONS EDINBURGH’S UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPER

Editor Evan Beswick Deputy Editor Chris Williams Art Director Matthew MacLeod Board of Directors Ben Judge, Matthew MacLeod, Devon Walshe Deputy Editor (News) Paris Gourtsoyannis Deputy Editor (Comment/Features) Simon Mundy Deputy Editor (Sport) Graham Mackay Design Assistants Cecilia Bertilsson & Luke Miller Copy Editors Helen Broadfoot, Lotti Fyfe, Laura McCaffrey, Gemma Pirnie, Alex Reynolds, Lizzie Wilkinson

General News Sarah Clark Edinburgh News Nick Eardley Academic News Rob Church-Taylor Student News Matthew Moore Student Politics Megan Taylor National Politics Amy Magowan-Greene Comment Helen O’Shea Music Dan Moss Theatre Lucy Jackson Art Colleen Patterson Football Elvira Kemp Rugby John Geddie Hockey Emily Glass Crossword Junta Sekimori Chief Illustrator Lewis Killin Photo Editors Giulia Frontini & Silvia Pavlova Foteva Web Editor Marthe Sandvik Editorial Assistants Abi Buglass & Anna Murray

Sarah Saleh was not credited for her photograph of the Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show featured on the cover of the last issue of The Journal.

Jacqui Kavanagh's review of Sam Amidon in the last issue of was incorrectly credited.

The Journal would like to clarify that the Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show is an independent initiative associated with ESCA and is in no way related to Edinburgh University Charities Week.

Paris Gourtsoyannis' article in the last issue of The Journal stated that George Foulkes had held no press events. His press launch was actually held on 12 November 2008.

Apologies to all involved.

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. Printed by Morton’s Printers, Licolnshire.

Copyright © 2008 The Edinburgh Journal Ltd. Elements of this publication are distributed under a Creative Commons license - contact us for more information. Distributed byTwo Heads Media, www.twoheadsmedia. co.uk. Our thanks to PSYBT, Scottish Enterprise, and all who make this publication possible.

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News 3

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Good news for graduates? » Supermarket chains among those bucking the jobs crunch trend SILVIA FOTEVA

Kathleen Oliver kathleen.oliver@journal-online.co.uk A FORTNIGHT AGO, The Journal reported on the severe lack of job opportunities in many sectors for graduates.

However, opportunities in sectors such as retail and engineering appear to be increasing despite a global recession.

Walmart-owned chain ASDA have promised to create seven thousand new jobs this year, and they are not the only large supermarket chain to announce a new recruitment drive. Budget supermarket Aldi has also announced that they plan to increase the number of graduates they take on in 2009 by fifty per cent. Similarly, Waitrose, Morrison’s, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s have all said that they too will be recruiting thousands of new staff nationwide.

Though the recession has made the job market increasingly difficult, careers services remain positive about employment. Stephen McLellan, a careers advisor at Napier University said: “Recruiting remains fairly strong in the public sector, some sectors of engineering and the large supermarket chains.”

He added: “If graduates cannot find the ideal job in the current economic climate, we are here to help them decide what alternative options they should consider.”

The promise of employment opportunities spells good news for many

Tesco has promised to recruit thousands nationwide

unemployed graduates looking for retail positions. ASDA is one of the top one hundred graduate employers according to The Times. The retailer offers several graduate career programmes in which graduates can be trained in various skills.

There is also more good news for students looking to work in some manufacturing industries. Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s main business and investment quango, has launched a campaign to increase the number of new recruits who enter into the apparently thriving engineering and shipbuilding industry. The campaign aims to encourage people with a range of expertise into the engineering industry where they could also receive beneficial training.

Acting director of the Careers Service at the University of Edinburgh, Shelagh Green is similarly positive about graduate employment. She advises students to “be proactive and positive; target applications and prepare well but don’t neglect your studies; be flexible, some sectors may be affected more than others; don’t believe all media coverage – and use your careers service.”

Ms Green continued: “Employers are still recruiting: we have significant bookings for the summer graduate recruitment fair open to all students in Edinburgh.” The fair will take place in Adam House on Chambers Street on the 29th of May. In addition, the University of Edinburgh will be hosting

“riding the recession” workshops this month where students will be able to get more information on the realities of the job market at this difficult time.

More information can be found on the university website.

Nick Thow, director of the careers advisory service at Heriot-Watt University also stresses the value of the help careers services offer, free of charge, to students and graduates worried about their future prospects. He notes too that: “The two areas that are increasing their intake this year are the public sector and the armed services.”

The future for students who are looking for work placements in technical sectors may also be brighter.

The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE)—a programme which arranges internships and work experience placements worldwide for undergraduates and recent graduates of engineering, science and architecture—will be expanding because the Scottish government have decided to increase their funding over the next three years.

Broadcaster BskyB will also be creating one thousand new jobs to cope with a growing demand for its services.

Careers services at all universities offer a wide range of opportunities and advice but they advise students who want to succeed academically to regularly visit them rather than leaving this until their last year.

Clothes-swapping website GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT TO thrives in credit crunch » Graduate's creation is a boon to clothes horses hit by the recession Corinne Redfern corinne.redfern@journal-online.co.uk STYLE-CONSCIOUS STUDENTS, IT seems, need not fear for their wardrobes in the wake of the economic downturn, as a recent City University graduate has launched a website facilitating nationwide clothes swapping.

CovertCandy.co.uk employs a system of credits, whereby one credit signifies one pound. So, the owner of a dress from Topshop, bought originally for £30 and worn frequently over the course of two months, could consequently choose to market the item for approximately 15 credits depending on its condition. Once sold, the owner has then got 15 credits to spend on clothing, accessories and shoes posted on the website.

Website founder and business graduate Harry Follett explained: “We felt that it could be more fun to use credits, as it means young people from across the United Kingdom can obtain new clothes without ever having to worry about money.

“We were on a snowboarding trip in our first year at university, and

my friend had a shirt that I liked, so the subject of swapping came up.

We realised that exchanging clothes between two people was unlikely to be very successful, as the chances of two people owning items that would suit them both are really very slim.

But we consequently came up with a system that enables the customer to swap clothes within an internet community, without the restrictions of just one-on-one”.

Although the concept behind the website has been in development for a few years, the current economic crisis has lead consumers nationwide to try to find new ways to save money, meaning CovertCandy may appeal to those who need to tighten the belts of their high-waisted jeans. Since the website’s launch in Jaunary 2009, www.covertcandy.co.uk has attracted almost 2000 members, who consider the website as a means to attain fashionable items without spending a penny.

Targeting both young men and women, the clothes currently available across the website range from pairs of Topman jeans marketed at 15 credits to never-been-worn Abercrombie and Fitch skirts for 20. One user selling a

rare Pied-a-Terre jacket priced at 100 credits alongside a French Connection top for 15 demonstrates the variety of items available to the website’s users.

Following the lead of successful social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, CovertCandy is centred on personal profiles, which the developers maintain give the website “the feel of a young and stylish community” – a dynamic notably absent from its rival, eBay.com. The profiles enable website members to find people who may share a particular fondness for Urban Outfitters, or look for somebody with a track record of fast deliveries.

Although the website is currently only accessible to UK residents, the four-person team behind CovertCandy intend to expand overseas in the future: “it’s hard not to get carried away at this stage in time, but we keep planning things that ideally we’ll look into after the website has been around for a bit longer. Delivery within the UK ensures a degree of security for our members, as the Royal Mail deals very efficiently with any problems or complaints and we don’t want to jeopardise our reputation at this point.”

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4 News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Scotland set to play key role in renewable energy Lidija Liegis lidija.liegis@journal-online.co.uk SCOTLAND WILL PLAY a key role in the development of the North Sea Energy Grid (NSEG), the government announced last week.

The electricity grid, identified as a European infrastructure priority, will be constructed below the North Sea and will create a network allowing all connected countries to share electricity.

NSEG co-ordinator Georg Adamowitsch met with First Minister Alex Salmond early this month and asked Scotland to participate in the NSEG project.

Mr Adamowitsch praised Scotland’s renewable energy targets. He said: “We need a network of ideas to be at the end of the process, together, successful. You have excellent renewable targets and we need your experts in our working group.”

Scotland aims for 50 per cent of energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, compared to EU overall targets of 20 per cent. The grid would allow Scotland to send electricity to mainland Europe using the power lines.

Mr Salmond said: “Scotland has the capacity and capability to become the green energy capital of Europe. We have a clear, competitive advantage across the range of renewable technologies, with up to 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind, wave and tidal energy potential.”

He added: “the new Scottish European Green Energy Centre, based in Aberdeen and operational from April 2009, will provide a focus for Scottishbased industry and research to be at the forefront of European and world developments in the green energy field.”

The centre will promote offshore wind development and currently supports two subsea grid projects – the

NSEG project and the Irish Scottish Links on Energy Study (ISLES).

Energy Minister Jim Mather has emphasised Scotland’s unique position in helping achieve EU renewable energy targets: “Harnessing our unrivalled renewable energy potential a quarter of Europe’s potential tidal and offshore wind and ten per cent of its potential wave power will boost economic growth and help meet tough European climate change targets.”

Offshore wind power is expected to make up a significant part of the EU’s 20 per cent renewable energy target, following a Greenpeace report showing that the construction of 10,000 offshore wind turbines in the North Sea could be feasible if supported by an electricity supergrid.

Potential NSEG partners include Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Calls for recognition of Scotland’s Schindler”

Medical establishment hoodwinked

by Peer’s scrotum affliction hoax

Anthea Humphreys

Natasha Bird

anthea.humphreys@journal-online.co.uk A CAMPAIGN IS gathering pace, demanding that Jane Haining be given postumous recognition for her heroism during the Holocaust.

Coined “Scotland’s Schindler” in light of her role helping Jews during the Nazi invasion of Hungary in 1944, Jane Haining has been honoured for her courage in Israel, where she was given the title “Righteous Among the Nations.” However, Ms Haining’s acts of bravery—acts for which she died in 1944—have so far gone unrecognised in her home country.

Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, has come out in support of the cause: “Jane Haining was a truly remarkable Scot, whose extraordinary devotion to duty and courage against tyranny deserve to be remembered and properly recognised. This campaign, to allow the posthumous awarding of honours to people like Jane Haining, is a very worthy cause.”

Ms Haining ignored orders to leave Hungary and refused to abandon the Jewish orphans she cared for. Consequently she was taken to AuschwitzBirkenau where it is believed that she and the children were executed.

Ben Helfgott, a concentration camp survivor and friend of Ms Haining, has been instrumental in attaining Jewish

recognition for her bravery. He said: “When the children were taken away she went with them to Auschwitz.

“She was not able to save them, but she looked after them. What she did was a supreme act of mercy and kindness.”

Recent campaigns led by the Holocaust Education Trust and supported by local MSPs, are working towards attaining recognition for Holocaust heroes like Jane Haining.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust, said: “We believe that the time is right to raise awareness of British Holocaust heroes and heroines.

“Their brave acts have never been appropriately recognised in this country so we are calling on the government to review the statutes so that these British heroes can receive a posthumous honour which they truly deserve.”

Current rules of the honours and decoration committee decree that people who have died cannot be honoured unless they lost their lives in combat. The committee has been asked to review its stance, but has given no formal comment at this time.

Regarding a change to the regulations of the honours and decorations committee, Dr Hannah Holtschneider, lecturer in Modern Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, commented: “It may be more feasible to ask to award her a civil honour posthumously since she wasn’t involved in war.”

natasha.bird@journal-online.co.uk IT IS A hypochondriac’s dream: for those prone to obsessive self-diagnosis, not only do you have the full range of certifiable medical conditions to choose from, but also, it seems, a ready supply of made-up ones.

An admission by Baroness Elaine Murphy has revealed that a letter she had published in a 1970s issue of the respectable British Medical Journal was a hoax.

The condition she wrote of, amusingly titled “cello scrotum”, was suggested to be an inflammation of the genitals in response to prolonged friction with the body of the cello.

The report, which the Baroness convinced her husband to sign for fear of “getting in trouble”, followed the announcement of a similarly suspicious discovery of the condition “Guitarist’s Nipple” by a junior doctor, Dr P. Curtis in 1974 – supposedly a painful skin irritation resulting from contact between the edge of the guitar’s body and the player’s chest.

Though Murphy, formerly a professor at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals, is well-regarded in the medical profession, she describes writing her report as an “after-dinner event.” Despite this—and the fact that anyone who has ever witnessed a cello being played will recognise that, without an unusual degree of flexibility, the genitals do not, in fact,

» THE OFFENDING EPISTLES GUITAR NIPPLE SIR,-I have recently seen three patients with traumatic mastitis of one breast.

These were all girls aged between 8 and 10 and the mastitis consisted of a slightly inflamed cystic swelling about the base of the nipple. Questioning revealed that all three were learning to play the classical guitar, which requires close attention to the position of the instrument in relation to the body. In each case a full-sized guitar was used and the edge of the soundbox pressed against the nipple.

When the guitar-playing was stopped the mastitis subsided spontaneously. I would be interested to know whether any other doctors have come across this condition. I am, etc., P. CURTIS, Winchester British Medical Journal April 27 1974: 226 CELLO SCROTUM SIR,-Though I have not come across “guitar nipple” as reported by Dr. P. Curtis (27 April, p. 226), I did once come across a case of “cello scrotum” caused by irritation from the body of the cello. The patient in question was a professional musician and played in rehearsal, practice, or concert for several hours each day. I am, etc., J. M. MURPHY, Chalford, Glos British Medical Journal May 11, 1974: 335

contact the instrument—the report was subsequently published. As if this were not enough, it has been referenced on several occasions by other articles published in the BMJ. Only after it was once again cited in 2008, a couple of decades after it was originally published, did Murphy finally come clean.

The latest citation appears in a paper

by Bache & Edenborough, ‘A symphony of maladies’, which examines medical conditions presented by professional musicians. On skin ailments, the authors observe: “Flautist’s chin may result from friction and salivation [and] may be alleviated by beard growth, although we have yet to discover a solution for women.”

They continue: “Similar dermatoses... may be seen over anatomical protuberances secondary to pressure and irritation. Guitarist’s nipple, cellist’s chest, cello knee, and cello scrotum are all described, although the awkward playing position required to produce the latter make it a rarity that has been questioned.”

The response from BMJ representatives has been predictably understated.

One spokesperson dismissed it as an amusing and harmless exercise, which did nothing more than add to the “gaiety of life”. Another, alarmingly, observed that “once these things get into the scientific literature, they stay there for good.”

Hypochondriacs are reported to be eagerly awaiting the next implausible condition to slip, unquestioned, into the pages of the respected publication.

News 5

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Council panned over tax threats » Investigation by The Journal shows signficant problems with the process for students applying for exemptions SYLVIA PAVLOVA FOTEVA

Nick Eardley nick.eardley@journal-online.co.uk THE CITY OF Edinburgh Council is under increasing pressure from student leaders and local politicians to revamp its council tax collection system after an investigation by The Journal revealed widespread incompetence in the council’s exemption process. It is understood that there currently exists a large backlog of exemption requests waiting to be processed. Moreover, council authorities have admitted that they do not know how many payment demands are sent to individuals—mostly students—who are not required to pay the tax.

The Journal submitted a Freedom of Information request on council tax requests last month after speaking to a number of students who had received ominous letters from the council, including examples threatening residents with bailiff visits.

However, a council spokesperson revealed that it has no records on the number of demand letters sent to those who qualify for exemptions. The Journal has since been contacted by students who have been told by council operators that they were sent requests in error due to a backlog of exemption requests which have not been processed.

Presidents of student associations at Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Napier universities have confirmed that council tax exemptions are a serious problem and that something needs to be done to make the system easier.

Adam Ramsay, president of Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA) said students regularly seek advice from EUSA services over threatening letters from the council, and that it is a “substantial” problem for staff at the association's Advice Place. He said: “They need to work out a system which doesn’t require students to write to them multiple times before they are taken off the list.

“The council is astonishingly inefficient at taking students off their rolls – I had to write to them and ring them a huge number of times before the threatening letters stopped coming.”

Similarly, Carys Evans, President of Napier Students' Assocation said: “I think there needs to be better relationships with universities in terms of matriculation lists. And they need to stop being so aggressive.”

Indeed, the tone and content of the letters has proved the source of a great deal of consternation: “You are hereby notified that a summary warrant granted against you at the Sheriff Court has been passed to this office for enforcement and collection,” reads the letter from bailiffs Scott & Company.

“Unless payment in full as detailed below is received at this office within seven days, the warrant will be enforced against you without further notice.”

Students living in properties where all residents are in full time education are entitled to exemptions from payment, whilst since 2001 those living with non-students have not been responsible for council tax payment for the properties they live in.

Statistics obtained by The Journal have shown that almost two thirds of all properties which qualify for exclusion from council tax payment in Edinburgh are occupied or owned by students.

From 15,386 exempt properties, 9566 are occupied solely by students, whilst

IN QUOTES Cllr. Paul Godzick: “I would however be concerned if students who have applied for their exemption are being pursued for non-payment, or indeed if any letter sent from the Council was threatening. I will certainly take the matter up with the appropriate department.”

Robin Harper MSP: “There will not be a quick fix for this, but a good start would be for students to be given advice ASAP on how to respond when they get an unjustified demand, in such a way as the council will understand, or be able to ask for letters of proof that are acceptable to them, and that will deter them from responding in an unreasonable, and as I understand, sometimes threatening manner.”

George Foulkes MSP: “I've had a number of students write to me very concerned about the aggressive tactics of Edinburgh City Council. They have perhaps the highest council tax collection rates of any local authority and now we know why!

Their bullying tactics must stop.”

Mercede Pannozzo, 4th year: "People who get wrong request may get really worried, and someone may actually be silly enough to pay. If they are getting students details wrong who is to say they may not be charging people who need to pay

IN NUMBERS

15,386

Number of properties exempt from payment

9,806

Number of properties exempt from payment because of student status, equating to 63.7 per cent of all exemptions

851,086

Number of requests for payment sent out by City of Edinburgh Council between 21st January 2008 and 21st January 2009

a further 258 are not required to pay for other reasons directly related to their student status. Halls of residence are automatically exempt from payment.

Although all full-time students are eligible for exemptions, they must register exclusion from payment with the council themselves. However, it would appear that a large number of students in Edinburgh have been sent repeated requests for payment, even after filling out appropriate exemption applications.

One University of Edinburgh postgraduate student said: “We received a bailiff’s letter from the council, despite having sent off the exemption forms about a month earlier. It was quite worrying, as it only gave us a few days, after which we were to expect a group round to seize our belongings.”

He continued: “I phoned up the council’s revenue collection department and the guy there put a note through to cancel the letter. But what he said was, ‘it happens all the time. We’ve got a backlog of exemptions that we are trying to work through, but the instructions get sent to the collection company anyway.”

Despite Edinburgh University’s registry providing the council with a list of student applicable for exemptions, students are still required to apply directly to the council for their charges to be dropped.

However, the council has defended its exemption process. A council spokesperson said: “Students are exempt from paying council tax but it is important they contact us with their relevant personal information so we can carry out the necessary checks to ensure they are

bona fide students.

“We must stress that if they send us the relevant details to prove they are a student then there should not be a problem.”

But contrary to council reassurances, the concerns of student leaders have been taken up by local politicians. Councillor Alison Johnstone told The Journal: “I have been contacted by several students who are, not surprisingly, genuinely anxious at receiving strongly-worded demands. There is a need, I think, for more accurate recording of payee details to ensure that this does not continue to occur. After all, these demands cost us all in terms of administrative time, postage, and chasing ‘debts’ that do not actually exist.”

Lothians MSP George Foulkes has also criticised the current situation, saying that he has been contacted by a number of students concerned with the council’s “aggressive tactics.”

He said: “The Council appear to have really poor records and it sometimes takes them up to four months to process information the university gives them. In that time, the council may have referred a student to Scott & Co. purely because their own records are poor. It’s an appalling state of affairs and very upsetting for students in receipt of these letters.”

He added; “I have written to the Director of Finance at Edinburgh City Council asking him to review this bullish practice. It’s intimidating and completely over the top.”

Edinburgh City Council issued a statement in response to the criticisms: “There is usually a three-month gap between the sending out of bills and then letters arriving from the Sheriff Court regarding the outstanding amount.

“Our council tax collection office receives on average 40,000 pieces of correspondence per month so any delay in contacting us could cause problems and mean their claims are not processed as quickly as we would like.”

A further issue concerns the extent to which students—particularly international students—are provided with adequate information regarding the exemption process. Ruth Bush, President of Heriot-Watt University Students’ Association said: “Demand notices are particularly stressful to international students who are not aware of the system and suddenly receive demand notices for hundreds of pounds. They are often already paying huge amounts in tuition fees and it is unacceptable to add further stress to the situation.”

She added that Heriot-Watt University ought to do more to simplify the process: “The university needs to make it easier for students to get their student status clarified. Students face so much financial stress and the university should be much more supportive of its students with these problems.”

A council spokesman countered that steps were being taken to make the system more user-friendly. He said: “The process of students claiming council tax exemptions is an issue we have identified and that is why among the steps we have taken this year was to link up with Snapfax to try and better inform students of their duty to give us all the relevant information.

“Our message to students is simple: contact us straight away with the details proving you are a student and there should not be a problem.”

6 News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Glasgow Council to sue for Dali royalties » City Council to pursue a legal investigation into breaches of copyright restrictions in a bid to recoup lost funds Pippa Russell pippa.russell@journal-online.co.uk GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL is to initiate a legal investigation into breaches of copyright restrictions in a bid to recoup lost royalties from one of their most famous works of art.

Salvador Dali sold his iconic painting, Christ of St John of the Cross, to the city of Glasgow in 1952; unusually for the sale of an artwork, the council also acquired full copyright. Dali’s esteemed painting is currently exhibited at Kelvingrove Museum and since its purchase has generated approximately £50,000 in royalties as well as appreciating in value from £8,200 to over £60 million.

However, Glasgow City Council are now concerned that widespread, unauthorised reproduction of the image could be losing potential revenue of up to tens of thousands of pounds. Councillor Archie Graham, Executive Member for Culture and Sport at Glasgow City Council, said: “while it may be free to visit our museum and view this outstanding work, it is simply wrong that there are companies out there who are

breaching our copyright and profiting from the image. We want to recoup that money for the people of Glasgow.”

The council have appointed Scottish Law firm Burness to investigate the scale of the violations and pursue opportunities to reclaim fees. They will also aim to enforce the copyright more stringently in the future.

Colin Hume, the intellectual property lawyer handling the case said: “We have drawn up a target list of 50 companies who we know are very actively selling the work. We have issued cease and desist letters to quite a number of these.

“Our overall objective is to ensure that anyone who wishes to sell copies of this work in the future will have to pay for the privilege of doing so.”

Further to financial incentives, concerns have also been voiced about potential dilution of the image via the proliferation of internet sites using and selling the image in ways not approved by the council and inappropriate to the painting’s sensitive religious subject matter. A council spokesman told The Journal: “We feel it is only right and proper to protect one of the great images of our collection from misuse.”

Wikipedia proposes moderated editing » 60 per cent of online encyclopedia’s users support trial of new checks to reduce vandalism

Row erupts over council decision in gay adoption case

Juliet Grant

Joe Gallop

juliet.grant@journal-online.co.uk

joe.gallop@journal-online.co.uk

JIMMY WALES, THE co-founder of Wikipedia, has put forward proposals for the online encyclopedia’s content to be approved by a group of mediators.

The move comes after Wikipedia falsely announced the deaths of two prominent politicians on the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration. The site reported the deaths of West Virginia’s Robert Byrd—the longest serving senator in American history—and Ted Kennedy, who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and collapsed at the inaugural lunch.

Changes to the website’s 2.7 million pages can currently be made by anyone, and only a handful of pages are protected.

The suggested new system would be called “flagged revisions” and would involve entries made by lesser-known users being “flagged”. The approval of a moderator would be necessary before any new information appeared on the site.

Trusted users would still be able to post changes that would appear on the page instantly. Mr Wales said: “We want people to be able to participate, but we have a tool available now that is

Edinburgh city council is facing growing pressure from groups angry that two children, aged four and five, are to be placed in the adoptive care of a gay couple, allegedly against their grandparents' will.

Such is the ferocity of opposition from some sectors, that council leader Jenny Dawe has received "aggressive e-mails" as a result of the decision, which ruled that the gay couple are suitable foster parents for the youngsters – a ruling against which the grandparents of the children have lodged a formal complaint.

The children's grandparents—who took the children on after their heroin addicted mother struggled to cope— sought help from social services after they, too, found themselves unable to care for the children. Over a period of nearly three years since, the children, a girl and a boy, have been moved between series of foster homes across Edinburgh.

However, the council recently decided that more stable accommodation was needed for the pair.

The grandparents eventually consented to have the children placed in adoptive care, though not without

consistent with higher quality.”

The majority of Wikipedia users seem to agree with this concept and a user poll on the website suggests that 60 per cent are in favour of trials which may be put into place within the next few weeks.

These modifications may also lead to a greater acceptance of the legitimacy of information found on the website in the academic world.

However, Jake Wartenberg, Wikipedia user and member of Radio Corporation patrol said: “The big issue is that while we have majority support, we don’t have consensus, and that’s the way

we have always made our decisions.

“A lot of editors are becoming disenchanted with the project; we are losing them all the time.”

Wikipedia has previously faced similar problems: in 2005 prominent journalist and Democratic party aide John Siegenthaler discovered that an anonymous user had written a biography of him which claimed that he was involved with the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy in the 1960s.

Accordingly, Wikipedia said it would prevent anonymous users from creating entries as a way of stopping cyber-bullying and vandalism.

GOT NEWS? NEWSDESK@JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

claims they had been "bullied" by the council into giving up the children.

However the grandparents were informed last week that the children were set to be adopted by a gay couple.

The news has precipitated a number of complaints, not least from groups opposed to gay adoption. The Christian charity, Care, have approached the local authority for assurances that the law was not broken when the grandparents' preferences for a mixed-sex home were overruled.

An anonymous multi-millionaire has reputedly promised to pay the family's legal bills, though legal experts suggest that their current options are limited.

FAMILY MATTERS Sexuality should have nothing to do with adoption, says social policy lecturer, Gary Clapton

COMMENT

» PAGE 20

Edinburgh News 7

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Report criticises Fringe for Festival chaos » Changes promised for 2009 box office process after 2008 system failures PAUL DOWNEY

Lidjia Liegis

next year’s festival.

“There’s no doubting that last year’s box office was not a good time for the Fringe. They would like to apologise for all the people who suffered at the time and were not able to get tickets, and we take very seriously the events which lead to those mistakes.”

To tackle management problems, a chief executive will replace previous Fringe director Jon Morgan, who resigned at the end of last year’s festival.

Despite the criticisms, Mr Hawkins argued: “Communication and co-operation between the Fringe and the venues is vastly improved,” adding that “over a million and a half tickets were sold in spite of last year’s problems.”

In a joint statement, the Fringe board of directors said that they believe they are already on their way to addressing the problems which caused collapse last year: “Many of the recommendations mirror changes that are already well underway for this year’s festival.

“These steps are part of a radical process of change in the Fringe – specifically in relation to the staffing structure, the business model and the negotiation of a new box office system. These changes will ensure that the incoming chief executive inherits an organisation that can reinforce the Fringe’s position as the biggest and best arts festival in the world with a box office system to match.”

The statement added; “The board has recognised the box office difficulties of the past year and learned

lidjia.liegis@journal-online.co.uk AN INDEPENDENT REPORT on the problem-plagued Festival Fringe box office system was published last week criticising the box office for its failure to cope with customer demands during last year’s festival. Malfunctioning of the new box office system left people without tickets, while performers claimed shows were undersold.

The Scott-Moncrieff consultants’ report described general handling as weak, and littered with decision making problems.

The report reads: “The project suffered from poor project management, particularly during the critical implementation phase. There was inadequate risk management during the project and no effective contingency planning.

“Inadequate project control, insufficient resources, over reliance on key individuals and insufficient independent scrutiny at key milestones [were all problems].”

According to the report’s authors, the decision to buy the new box office system was flawed, and staff were given insufficient time to get used to it.

Tim Hawkins, general manager of the Fringe told the BBC that the suggestions contained in the report would be taken on board: “The Fringe are happy to accept the recommendations of the report and are making strenuous efforts to correct the mistakes that were made and to move forward for

from the experience. The recommendations contained within this report combined with the ongoing process of change will allow the Fringe to greatly enhance the services the festival provides to public and performers alike.”

Other problems faced by Fringe organisers include producers threatening to boycott the festival after severe box office cash delays. Some producers had still not received full payment for ticket sales three months after the end of the 2008 month long event, and many involved in the festival have expressed their belief that the problems have damaged in the international reputation of the Fringe.

Martin Witts, producer of Joan Rivers’ show said: “The general feeling in the business is that it’s got a bit out of hand. I know a lot of people are questioning whether it is worth going to Edinburgh anymore, whether that is financially or because it’s a headache.

I can’t see why it can’t be an efficient box office system that pays out an estimate or even 50 per cent of matured sales the week after the show. It needs a big shake-up.”

Ed Bartlam, director of festival venue the Underbelly, added: “Last year there were huge problems with the ticketing. We had to go through sales figures with a fine tooth comb to make sure they were correct.

“But, on the other hand, the Fringe has to deal with a large number of shows, so it is not going to be as quick as a regional theatre because of the number of box office figures we need to go through.”

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AN 84-YEAR OLD man was struck by a bus on Princes Street last Friday; the third pedestrian accident in the last fortnight.

Police said that he looked one way, but didn’t check the opposite direction for diverted traffic.

Due to tram works, the street has been closed to one lane that allows both east and west-bound traffic.

The man was said to be in a serious but stable condition last week.

Inspector Jill Kerr, from the police’s road policing unit said: “The man had been crossing from the northbound carriageway to the southbound.

“The bus was heading eastbound and

it would look from our initial enquiries that he had only been looking to his left and had stepped out in front of the bus.

“The council are looking to put in extra lights and signage to try and make it even more obvious to look both ways.”

A spokesperson for Lothian Buses said: “There’s no confusion among bus drivers. They know the route they’re following. I can only assume that people are used to doing things in certain ways and suddenly that’s changed.”

From 21 February, Princes Street will be entirely closed to traffic, which will be diverted along George Street and Queen Street. In addition, a replica tram will be stationed outside Jenners once the road closes. Council leader Jenny Dawe is encouraging residents to visit the full-sized model, which is set to arrive after the road closure.

GOT A POINT? Get online and have your say on Edinburgh’s trams LETTERS@JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK | WWW.JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

8 Academic News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Aliens exist, probably... » Edinburgh scientists believe there are at least 361 inhabited planets in the Milky Way

anna.murray@journal-online.co.uk THERE ARE UP to 38,000 alien civilisations with the potential to make contact with Earth, scientists at Edinburgh University have claimed.

The researchers have predicted there are likely to be at least 361 inhabited planets in the Milky Way, but say there could be more than 37,000.

Building upon developments in the Drake equation, a formula devised by US scientist Dr Frank Drake in the 1960s to estimate the number of civilizations in our galaxy, the team examined the combination of stars and planets needed to form a life-supporting solar system, and the likelihood of life surviving long enough to develop into an intelligent civilisation.

Taking a new approach, they constructed a computer model of the galaxy which was then subjected to certain hypotheses in order to ascertain the likelihood of extraterrestrial life existing on other planets – with interesting results.

The first scenario assumed that it is difficult for life to be formed but easy for it to evolve, and suggested there were 361 intelligent civilisations in the galaxy.

A second scenario assumed life was easily formed but struggled to develop intelligence. Under these conditions, 31,513 other forms of life were estimated to exist.

The final scenario examined the possibility that life could be passed from one planet to another during asteroid collisions, which gave a result of 37,964 intelligent civilisations in existence.

Duncan Forgan, who led the study, points out that the picture the team have developed is still incomplete. He also makes the point that alien civilisations could be totally unrecognisable to us: “Life on other planets may be as varied as life on earth and we cannot predict what intelligent life on other planets would look like or how it might behave.”

A further impediment to confirming the team’s hypothesis is the distance these civilisations could be from our planet – even if communication was possible, it could take them 30,000 years to make contact.

With previous studies putting the number of possible intelligent civilisations anywhere between less than one and a million, this study has important implications for our understanding of the likelihood of life beyond the solar system.

The study was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, and is published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

THE DRAKE EQUATION The Drake Equation was developed by Frank Drake in 1961 It focuses on factors which might determine how many intelligent civilizations there are in our galaxy

Number of inhabited planets in the Milky Way

The fraction of planets in where life evolves

The fraction of stars that have planets around them.

The fraction that commun icate

N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L Number of stars in the Milky Way

Is the fraction where intelligent life evolves

The number of planets that are capable of sustaining life.

AWARD-WINNING NEWS ONLINE WWW.JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

Anna Murray

The fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live

Edinburgh graduate wins prestigious poetry prize Rob Church-Taylor rob.church-taylor@journal-online.co.uk JEN HADFIELD, AN Edinburgh Graduate, has won the prestigious T.S. Eliot prize – worth £15,000.

She was nominated for her second book, Nigh-No Place, a collection inspired by both Canada and Shetland, where she currently lives.

The panel was chaired by poet laureate Andrew Motion, other members included poets Lavinia Greenlaw and Tobias Hill.

Motion commented: “Nigh-No-Place shows that she is a remarkably original poet near the beginning of what is obviously going to be a distinguished career.”

The £15,000 accolade was established in 1993, to commemorate the 40th anniverary of the founding of the Poetry Book Society, which was founded

by Eliot in 1953. It is the largest prize in British Poetry and has been described

by Motion as “the most prestigious prize in the country.” Previous winners have included Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Carol-Anne Duffy.

The competition this year was overshadowed by the death of another nominee, Mick Imlah, who died after a long struggle with motor-nurone disease. He was poetry editor of the Times Literary Supplement, last year winning the £10,000 Forward Prize for his collection The Lost Leader.

Napier professor to head petroleum institute Cameron Robinson cameron.robinson@journal-online.co.uk PROFESSOR SIMON STEWART, formerly a senior geophysicist for BP, has been appointed head of the institute of petroleum engineering at HeriotWatt University.

A graduate of Dundee university and a postgraduate of Imperial College, Professor Stewart has published over 40 research papers on a variety of subjects from impact craters to nuclear waste disposal.

During his career, professor Stewart has gained experience in 4D seismic data interpretation, geomechanics, well planning and exploration.

Speaking regarding the news of his appointment, Professor Stewart commented: “The institute of petroleum engineering at Heriot-Watt has a world-class reputation for teaching and research quality and is a consistent top performer in UK research reviews, so of course it’s a great honour to lead such a strong organization.”

He remarked upon his aspirations as head of department: “I hope to build on the work of my predecessors to enable staff and students to fulfil their potential, further enhance the reputation of the institute and make a strong contribution to Heriot-Watt University through a commitment to existing teaching and research strengths combined with support for emerging technologies and the energy theme at Heriot-Watt.”

For the past eight years, Professor

Stewart has been employed by British Petroleum based in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, where he was most recently team leader of new well delivery.

His new appointment comes at a time when oil prices are the subject of much discussion, sitting at just under $45 a barrel compared with around double the price this time last year.

Professor Stewart said: “Oil price is the product of geological, technological and political controls that make it very difficult to predict in the short term – the past 12 months has illustrated this clearly.”

A native of Dundee and graduate of the University, Professor Stewart is well aware of Scotland’s unique role in oil production: “North Sea oil production has been declining since 1999 despite the upward trend of oil price in the same period. However, there are still significant amounts of oil underground even in the oldest fields – technology is a key to increasing the amounts of oil recovery and Scotland is well-placed to take advantage of this.”

This is, apparently, good news for students destined for a career in the oil industry. Professor Stewart said: “Development and application of new technology, in combination with many oil company staff profiles being biased towards senior, soon-to-retire employees, means it is more important than ever to have suitably trained engineers and geoscience personnel graduating and available to carry oil companies forward over the coming decades.”

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10 Student News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

London Met falls victim to drop-out miscalculation ANNIE ANDREEVA

Laura Kay Robertson lk.robertson@journal-online.co.uk AN AUDIT OF the drop-out rates at London Metropolitan University has shown that the institution has been over-funded by more than £50m since 2005.

The university is expected to receive an £18m reduction in teaching budgets as well as being obliged to repay £38m in overpayments from previous years.

A motion before the House of Commons stated that the cuts could call the university’s future into question: “This scale of cuts throws the future viability of the university into doubt at a time when education and training are vital to the capital’s economic health.”

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) stated that the substantial reduction in financial aid allocated to the university comes after an audit showed that the number of students recorded to be currently undertaking courses at the institute had been falsified.

The university has been accused of inaccurately recording student dropout rates, which has led to the institution receiving a higher amount of funding than it was actually entitled to.

In response to the proposed cuts, the University and College Union organised a demonstration by its members last week at the university’s London North campus on Holloway Road, to coincide with the governors’ meeting that afternoon. UCU says that the cuts faced by the London Metropolitan are “unprecedented”.

The university has also admitted

that the “substantial” repayments, coupled with the future reductions in funding from HEFCE, mean that job losses “seem inevitable”, with up to 500 jobs at risk, and could also lead to the closure of a number of courses at the institute. The London Metropolitan already has one of the lowest staff-student ratios in the country with 2,300

full-time staff and 34,000 students.

Les Ebdon, head of the Million+ group of universities, has attacked the “perverse” method of counting non-completion rates as a method of assessing funding.

Mr Ebdon points out that students who resit and pass course modules in the following years are still counted

as having dropped out and therefore funding is irretrievably lost for these students.

He also warns that this method of funding assessment is likely to hurt the universities making the greatest efforts to recruit poorer students, as it is these students who are mostly likely to drop out.

“We are taking a risk to implement government policy – but we’re not getting support for it.”

He described the funding council’s tactics as “gotcha audits”.

NUS President, Wes Streeting, warned the government of overreacting, saying: “London Met has been one of the best institutions at widening participation in higher education, and it is essential that HEFCE and the Government adopt an understanding and constructive approach to solving the university’s financial problems. If staff numbers are slashed, then London Met students will inevitably suffer from a lower standard of education.”

A HEFCE spokesman says that the details of any other universities expected to be required to make repayments will not be known until March.

However, Kingston University is among other institutions thought to be facing repayments. It says that after an audit the figure for students not completing courses was adjusted from 6.4 per cent to 8.6 per cent, a difference which would mean losing £500,000.

The HEFCE spokesman refuted claims of unfairness, asserting that the regulations had not changed and had always been consistently applied by the funding body. However, the regulations surrounding partially completed courses are to be subject to review in the coming year, which may address concerns surrounding students who had previously dropped out of a course but then returned to complete their studies in subsequent years.

HEFCE states that there are to be negotiations with London Metropolitan over a repayment schedule, with a meeting set for next month.

Kercher murdered “to Red tape slashed at English unis satisfy sexual instincts“ » Survey reveals restrictive measures have been cut by one fifth over four years » Detail of judge's verdict implicates Knox and Sollecito as trial carries on

Nina Conlon nina.conlon@journal-online.co.uk

Hiran Balasuriya hiran.balasuriya@journal-online.co.uk THE TRIAL OF Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher entered its third week with the accused Italian student making a plea of innocence before the court.

Sollecito, 24, stood before the court on Friday 6 February and made a statement, in which he said he considered himself “guilty of a judicial error” and that he could “not harm a fly.”

Sollecito protested his innocence: “I have been in prison for a year and three months. But I have nothing to do with this situation. I am not a violent person and it has never entered my mind to kill anyone.”

The court heard from the prosecution, who alleged the victims killers tried to cover their tracks by attempting to make it look like a burglary that had got violent.

The English student was found stabbed to death in Perugia on November 2 2007. She had shared a flat with fellow exchange student Amanda Knox.

Sollecito, Knox and a third defendant, Rudy Hermann Guede, were all charged with murder and sexual violence. However, Guede has already been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a fast-track trial took place at his request.

The ruling took place in October. In Italian courts it is customary to release

a written explanation months after the decision is made. Guede was sentenced to 30 years in prison by Judge Micheli.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are being tried as assailants in the murder.

Judge Micheli’s explanation implicated the Italian and American and hinted that it was likely that “an agreedupon plan to satisfy sexual instincts” got out of control.

The University of Washington student, Knox, and her then boyfriend, Sollecito, have denied the allegations. Prosecutors claim that Sollecito forcefully held her while Knox touched her with the point of a knife. Allegedly, Guede then tried to sexually assault her, the attack culminating in Knox stabbing Kercher in the throat.

As a result of Guede’s sentencing in October, Sollecito’s attorneys are arguing that justice has been served, and that he and Knox are not guilty.

The trial continues.

RED TAPE IN universities has been slashed by more than a fifth in the last four years, according to new research.

Bureaucratic practices have been cut by 21 per cent since 2004, in the universities surveyed by research group PA consulting.

The research was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) which hopes to see a further ten per cent cut in restrictive red tape within two years.

PA Consulting’s survey of twenty English institutions found that five years ago it cost £240m to comply with regulations, by 2008 this had fallen to £190m.

Mike Boxall of PA Consulting said: “Our studies have measured sectorspecific accountability demands, where HEFCE and other bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency and the Higher Education Statistics Agency have worked with institutions to reduce burdens. Institutions themselves have improved their systems significantly between our three studies, and this has further reduced their costs.”

While this study focused primarily

on English universities, there are similar plans to cut administrative processes within Scottish institutions.

The government has promised universities north of the border that they will reduce the burden of excessive red tape, in return for the universities’ steps improving student access, research quality and teaching estates.

However, plans to cut red tape in Scottish universities have been met with caution by the president of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association

Adam Ramsay, who warned that cutting red tape might not always prove appropriate: “It is important to get rid of unnecessary red tape,” he said.

“However, one person’s bureaucracy is another person’s democracy. If a decision is made by one person in a university, you can be sure that person won’t be a student, and a student’s interests would often not be heard. It’s important to find the balance between making a quick decision and making the right decision.”

GOT A POINT? Fed up with red tape at your university? Drop us a line and tell us about it LETTERS@JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK | WWW.JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

Student Politics 11

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

EUSA liberation officers off the agenda, again EDDIE FISHER

Megan Taylor megan.taylor@journal-online.co.uk CAMPAIGNERS WITHIN EUSA were met with disappointment last Tuesday evening as their long-held pledge to introduce liberation officers to represent several minorities within the university was discarded by the Student Representative Council (SRC).

The vote was heavily divided with 20 votes to 21 against – short of the twothirds majority needed for the campaign to progress to the general meeting in a week’s time. There will be no chance of reintroducing the matter until the start of the next academic year.

EUSA external affairs convener Thomas Graham highlighted the seriousness of the recent decision: “This is a really disappointing outcome. Edinburgh is one of the only top rated universities in the UK left behind in adopting liberation officers. They are the only formal way to truly represent the needs and views of minority groups that may otherwise be ignored.”

The facts produced by those supporting the campaign for liberation make for interesting reading. There are 32 fewer women standing in student elections for EUSA than the norm, and Edinburgh has 25 per cent fewer mature students than the UK average.

Considering the wider picture, it takes women 20 per cent longer to pay off student loans; one in three disabled people feel unable to enter education because of their disability, and black graduates are four times more likely to be unemployed when they graduate.

The introduction of liberation officers in other student unions such as Manchester, LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow,

All motions passed at the SRC will be put to vote at the general meeting on 18 February Strathclyde and the NUS itself has been credited with precipitating a big difference in the number of students belonging to minority groups getting involved in student life.

However, those opposed to the motion successfully argued against effectiveness of such a system, preferring instead the

current governance of EUSA. One law student, Steven Alison, posted an amendment mocking the motion for liberation officers by suggesting there should also be official positions available for representatives of short and ginger people.

Thomas Graham responded: “There is plenty of evidence to suggest liberation

campaigns are necessary to ensure discrimination of any kind is kept to a minimum.

“It came down to a dedicated core of people who were against the implementation of such groups who have made it impossible for the rest of the student body to have their say on this important

issue.”

All other motions up for debate eventually passed. In particular, a successful motion mandating all elected NUS delegates means that the SRC can determine the way they must vote at future conferences, effectively denying delegates their own choice except where the mandate interferes with the manifesto upon which they had been elected. Supporters of the motion, including Mr Graham, have argued that Tuesday’s vote represented merely the next step in making a current project official. However, those opposing have already labelled the move as undemocratic, and it remains unclear what success the motion will find when put to vote at the general meeting.

In another vote constitutional amendments were confirmed which pave the way to the to the introduction of online referendums to the general meeting. The motion proposes that that an online referendum system be set up to allow students a vote without having to attend the GM. This has so far garnered a great deal of support; it is hoped the measure will help involve more of the student body than ever in their union.

Finally, it was decided—under EUSA president Adam Ramsey’s casting vote— EUSA will pay £400 for a bus to take students to a Free Education demo in London.

All these motions—since they require amendments to the constitution—will now be carried forward to the general meeting, due to be held on Wednesday 18 February 2009. Other motions to be voted on at the GM include; lower prices for bookings at the centre for sport and exercise; lower fees for medical students; a 24-hour university library; birth dates on matriculation cards. A full list may be obtained from www.eusa.ed.ac.uk.

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12 Student News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

jobs Scotland’s five rectors set to meet NUS still on offer MSP over teacher funding issues » Chiefs from ancient universities discuss funding for teaching and research with Fiona Hyslop Megan Taylor

this academic year—Mr Ballard acknowledged this as an issue, but emphasised that the rectors themselves also have a democratic mandate: “We are in a unique position as we are elected to represent the wider public interest in Scotland’s Universities. This meeting will compliment similar representations made by students associations, the NUS and University Principals.”

However, he also accepted that “the more groups that apply pressure for change on Fiona Hyslop, then the more likely we are to make a difference for the benefit of staff and students alike.”

Ms Hyslop was approached regarding her unwillingness to meet the union’s elected representative, but declined to comment. According to a spokesperson, Ms Hyslop is currently only “dealing with matters for frontline journalists.”

Adam Ramsay pledged his full support for the rectors’ campaign: “I am delighted that Scotland’s rectors have agreed to join our campaign for more funding for teaching. They are powerful allies who will help us win for students.”

In the last academic year the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) spent a collective £275.3 million on teaching for the five ancient universities alone.

Once funding for reseach is included, this figure reaches £449.7 million.

However, the money is unevenly distributed with Edinburgh and Glasgow sharing 62 per cent of the budget and St Andrews only receiving eight per cent of the total amount.

The official date for the meeting is, as yet, undecided, and no agenda has

megan.taylor@journal-online.co.uk FIONA HYSLOP MSP, cabinet secretary for education and lifelong learning, has finally agreed to meet with the rectors of Scotland’s universities to address the issue of improving funding for higher education teachers.

The planned meeting will involve the five rectors from the ancient universities in Scotland, including Charles Kennedy for Glasgow, Stephen Robertson for Aberdeen, Kevin Dunion for St Andrews, Craig Murray for Dundee and Mark Ballard for Edinburgh.

Speaking to The Journal, the Green MSP Mark Ballard said: “I am delighted to have been granted this opportunity to meet with Fiona Hyslop along with the other four rectors.

“To be blunt, if Scotland is to have the universities it wants and needs, more funding will be required both for student support and to pay for teaching and research.”

He also highlighted the importance of the meeting, arguing that the key to success in this area is not necessarily to throw more money at the situation but to reallocate the funding resources in a more effective manner: “As a group, we are united in our goal to improve the effectiveness of higher education in Scotland.”

Asked why the student union presidents themselves have not been granted an audience with Ms Hyslop—despite EUSA President Adam Ramsay making better funding for teachers one of his main campaigns

Generous pay package and company car available for those willing to peddle NUS message Amy Magowan-Greene a.magowan-greene@journal-online.co.uk

STUDENTS, FORGET ABOUT the credit crunch. The NUS is hiring.

For those who fancy being the director of NUS Wales, earning a salary of £35,500 plus company car, the closing date is 23 February. The NUS placed an advert last week in Guardian Jobs in the hope of attracting an individual who believes in the ethos of the organisation, namely their “unswerving commitment to representing our members’ best interests...”.

Alternatively, if Wales sounds uninspiring, anyone prepared to take a modest pay cut could be the regional director for NUS South West region, earning £29,000 per annum. Although 29k could pay for 700 hours of teaching, benefiting the masses, this job is a steal for a potential employee of NUS. Figures quote a range of average graduate salaries for 2008, from £19,000 to £24,000 per annum.

Responding to suggestions that the salary might seem excessive to hapless students approaching graduation, a spokesperson for the union said: “If NUS members wish to raise this issue through the appropriate channels we will be happy to discuss it with them.”

DISCUSS IT ONLINE JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

More money for Fulbright scholarships » Prestigious translatlantic academic exchange programme between the US and the UK welcomes financial boost Matthew Moore matthew.moore@journal-online.co.uk IN A BID to strengthen academic links between Scotland and the US, The Scottish Government has awarded £180,000 to the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

The Fulbright Commission will receive the money over three years and use it to foster cultural and education bonds between the two countries.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong learning, Fiona Hyslop, praised the investment and said the move was indicative of a country intent on furthering its academic credentials both abroad and at home: “[The funding] will improve the universal employability of participants from Scotland while also enabling home institutions and employers to benefit from skills and knowledge of those returning from overseas or those visiting Scotland on an exchange.”

The commission offers the opportunity for qualified US and UK nationals to carry out exchange programmes, not only in scholastic fields but in social practice too. Later this year, as part of the Fulbright Research Fellowship, the Scottish Police are

supporting two police candidates to go and research good practice in the US. With the economic climate firmly in mind during government policy-making, this latest investment is no different. Ms Hyslop outlined the necessity of increased learning and skill gathering: “The Scottish Government is determined to create a self-confident, outward-looking Scotland and to increase the skills of our people to help the nation emerge strongly from the current economic downturn.”

With over 12,000 British scholars and almost 10,000 from the US already having benefited from the scheme, Ms Hyslop believes this funding will serve to increase Scottish participation: “The commission has a key role to play in promoting the educational links between Scotland and the USA and offering grants for students, academics and professionals to undertake exchange opportunities to enrich their knowledge and skills.”

Established in 1948, the US-UK Fulbright Commission holds as its principal aim—in the words of its founder US Senator William J. Fulbright—the erosion of “the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against each other.”

» WHAT FORMER FULBRIGHTS HAVE TO SAY Alistair Elfick, Univeristy of California, Berkeley 2003/4:”I gained an entirely new perspective on research and in particular on the entrepreneurial exploitation of academic research on whcih there is much emphasis within the US. This has given me the desire to see my research translated into applications from which society can gain immediate value.”

Andrew Forsyth, Harvard University 2007/8: “It provided access to the best resourced educational institutions in the world. There are wonderful opportunities for students to gain insight of US culture, US-UK relations and, more broadly, to expand their interests and expectations for the long-term benefit of British and Scottish society, and US-UK friendship.”

Alastair Philp, University of California, San Diego, 1997/8: “The whole point is that you have a cultural exchange, anything that promotes that kind of international exchange is a good thing. It’s important to see how other countries work and to see how other people see your country. It was a wonderful experience.”

Alistair Elfick, a former Fulbright scholar and reader in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, praised the investment: “I’m glad to see Scotland investing in academic mobility. I think as a nation we hold education in high regard and historically I think we’ve punched much above our weight in technological innovation. This funding can only help to sustain the excellence of Scots academia and help to foster our

trans-Atlantic links.”

Mr Elfick stressed the worth of having stronger links with America.

He said: “The US is home to a large percentage of the world’s leading research institutions, being able to access this expertise, learn from them and translate this knowledge back to research in Scotland is of great academic and economic value.”

The commission offers a range of opportunities, from study scholarships

to lecture or research fellowships.

Penny Egan, director of the Fulbright Commission, welcomed the funding and stressed the importance of the Fulbright philosophy: “We are so pleased, in our 60th anniversary year, to be working more closely with the Scottish Government to strengthen the opportunities for academic exchange with the USA. Fostering these—leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures—was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program.”

Along with the Rhodes scholarship, it is the one of two high-profile bi-national academic awards programmes between the US and the UK, offering awards to postgraduates, fellowships and grants. It was designed specifically to enrich its participants and harness excellent educational practices between nations.

The commission receives the majority of its funding from the UK and US government however; it also receives funding from charities, educational institutions, business’ and the US embassy in London.

Notable alumni include Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, Charles Kennedy and the author Ian Rankin.

14 National News

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

The truth will be out there, says Cameron

Foulkes threatened by "agressive man" during alleged hit-and-run standoff

Nicholas Gholkar

Evan Beswick

nicholas.gholkar@journal-online.co.uk

evan.beswick@journal-online.co.uk

THE LEADER OF the opposition, David Cameron has made a commitment to publish any confidential files which exist on UFOs if he becomes prime minister.

The statement came at one of the leader’s “Cameron Direct” public meetings in Tynemouth, North-East England. He contextualised the pledge as part of his wider commitment to increase freedom of information.

Questioned about a serious of mysterious incidents the MP for Whitney replied: “I do believe in freedom of information and openness and this question has been asked from time to time, and I think we should be as open and clear as possible.”

It remains unclear as to whether existing confidential files would be made public or simply that there would be a move by the new government to operate a more open policy in terms of any new findings.

A member of the audience referred to a statement made by the respected scientist and astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, in July of last year. Dr Mitchell spoke of previous incidents such as the Roswell event in 1947 where a crashed UFO was recovered and allegedly found to contain alien bodies.

He criticised the United States government for their attempts to cover up the Roswell event and other possible contact they have had with extra terrestrials.

When asked whether the public had a right to know if Britain had been visited by aliens Mr Cameron replied jokingly: “I’m convinced we have been visited by alien life forms – and one of them is trade secretary Peter Mandelson.”

After this jovial response he then made a more diplomatic statement: “I have no idea if there is intelligent life out there and no idea whether any of the sightings which have taken place or whether any incidents which have taken place have any basis in truth.”

Earlier this year, an online poll conducted by American studio 20th Century Fox to coincide with the release of the new X-Files movie found that over fifty per cent of Britons believe in captive space aliens.

Mr Cameron has, as yet, offered no apology to the putative alien, Lord Mandelson.

A COMPLAINT HAS been filed which alleges that rectorial candidate George Foulkes was involved in a minor car accident last week, from which he drove away without supplying insurance details.

Lord Foulkes’s campaign team, however, have strenuously denied that any damage was caused in the alleged incident. Moreover, several witnesses to the incident—including two members of the Foulkes campaign team and a third student at the university—claim that, during the incident, the 70-year old Lord was threatened by a man they describe as “extremely aggressive.”

The incident in question took place in George Square on the evening of Tuesday 3 February. The complainant, who wished not to be named, alleges that Lord Foulkes reversed into his parked car while manoeuvring, leaving scratches on the front of his vehicle.

Upon sounding his horn and getting out of the car to demand the driver’s details, the complainant claims to have been approached by two younger gentlemen, one of whom told Foulkes to

Peter Mandelson: Secretly an alien?

drive away from the scene.

He said: “I had no idea who it was, or why these two guys were having a go at me, saying I was getting aggressive. I asked them if they wanted to phone the police, but they refused.

“Afterwards, a man smoking a fag outside one of the buildings said to me ‘that was George Foulkes’ I’ve tried to phone his office to see if we could settle it without much fuss, but no-one would speak to me, so I’ve reported it to the police.”

But while Lord Foulkes has accepted that he may have bumped the car “ever, ever so slightly,” he denies causing any damage. Indeed, Ross MacRae, Foulkes’ campaign manager, was outside the car at the time the incident is said to have taken place, and has questioned whether any contact was made.

“George didn’t give him his details as he didn’t feel there was any reason to,” he said.

In addition, MacRea rejected the idea that either he or Dean Carlin—the other campaigner present, and chair of Scottish Labour Students—had initiated the confrontation, arguing instead that the gentlemen in question acted extremely aggressively: “There was no need for him to be that angry. I felt

LET IT SNOW Edinburgh becomes the latest city to be hit by wintery weather, in a week that has seen public services across the UK struggle to cope Photo: Amadeus Finlay

exceptionally threatened,” he said.

Mr MacRea added: “I asked George to get into his car and drive off, as I feared for the safety of a 70-year-old man.”

This version of events is corroborated by a witness. Louise Hammett, a third year student, was starting her own car as she heard a horn beeping: “I thought he was pipping at me, so I looked around and saw a blue car [Lord Foulkes’] reversing. It definitely didn’t touch the other car,” she recalled.

“But this other guy got out and he was livid. He started going absolutely mental at the older gentleman, who was really taken aback by the guy’s reaction.

“He kept asking if they wanted to phone the police, and I kind of wish they had, as he was really, really aggressive. It was almost like he was just looking for a fight.”

Police have confirmed that a complaint has been filed regarding a incident which took place on Tuesday 3 February at around 17:20 in the George Square area, though it is unclear as yet what steps are being taken in the proceedings. Lord Foulkes has not yet been contacted by police.

Failure to stop and provide details

following an accident is illegal under UK law and may be charged as a hitand-run offence, an infringement having been committed when a driver “fails to stop or, on being required by a person to give [their] name and address and the name and address of the owner and the identity mark of the vehicle, fails to do so.”

The law is contingent upon damage being caused to a vehicle or person – a condition which Lord Foulkes and others claim not to be the case in this instance.

When approached by The Journal, Lord Foulkes responded somewhat angrily to the allegations, making it clear that he believed no damage had been caused and expressing frustration at what he sees as distraction to the rectorial campaign.

Referring to the complainant’s attempts to contact his office, he said: “This is obviously someone who is trying to con me.

“I’m sure the police would not waste their time on something as trivial as that, he said, before adding: “I must say I’m getting fed up with your lot. Why don’t you concentrate on the real issues. I find you petty and outrageous.”

National News 15

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Gaza and other commitments force Galloway out of race

Annan visit “nothing to do with this Homecoming thing” Geneva Burleigh geneva.burleigh@journal-online.co.uk

SARAH SALEH

Hiran Balasuriya, Megan Taylor news@journal-online.co.uk RESPECT MP GEORGE Galloway has withdrawn his candidacy for the position of Rector for the University of Edinburgh.

The news came late last Thursday night and saw the controversial character state his commitments to other causes as his reason for stepping down, including plans for an aid convoy to travel from London to the Gaza strip on 14 February.

Speaking to The Journal, sources close to the Galloway campaign said: “George wanted to be sure someone would beat Foulkes. He withdrew because it became clear that Iain had a good chance of winning and had more time to do the job.”

Mr Galloway urges his supporters to vote for his former opponent, political columnist and tv presenter Ian Macwhirter. Praising his former rival, Galloway said: “I’ve admired his writing for a long time and I’m sure in a few years we’ll be looking back at how well he accomplished this important role.”

Dubbed “Viva Palestina”, the official website for the convoy which has redirected Galloway’s attention, claims to have 32 vehicles pledged so far,

including ambulances and fire engines, loaded with supplies for the civilians of Gaza. The pledges are responding to the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip which has left over 1,000 civilians dead and over 4,000 wounded.

The convoy will pass through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and finally through Rafah into Gaza, aiming to arrive with the material aid within 15 to 30 days of leaving London, while raising support for Gaza in

the countries en route.

Jack Donaldson, Mr. Galloway’s former rectorial campaign manager, argued that since the Israeli government’s embargo restrictions are preventing Gazans from receiving aid, the convoy would overcome this problem: “It’s a great way to provide the muchneeded help to those suffering terribly.”

He also stated that denying the civilians of Gaza such basic necessities is “a crime against humanity, and not just Gaza.”

Mr Galloway has made it clear in an article he wrote for The Guardian in January 2009 that the convoy should not be seen as an alternative to the aid that has not made it through to Gaza, stressing that the aim of the convoy involves a message: “I cannot think of anything better to forge the bonds of social solidarity the government says it wants to see,” he wrote.

Mr Donaldson stressed that the aid being delivered has diplomatic weight: “The people of Britain stand for and support the ordinary civilians of Gaza [who are] scavenging from refuse tips.”

Back in Edinburgh, the votes for the two remaining Rectorial candidates, Iain Macwhirter and George Faulkes will be collected online from staff and students at the University on 11 and 12 February.

Macwhirter condemned over Israeli boycott support » Labour campaigners angry at opposition candidate's support for UCU boycott of Israeli academics Evan Beswick evan.beswick@journal-online.co.uk SUNDAY HERALD COLUMNIST and University of Edinburgh rectorial candidate has been criticised for his support of the proposed boycott of Israeli academics – a boycott which the University and College Union (UCU) has already declared illegal.

The candidate made his remarks during a round-table discussion between Mr Macwhirter, Lord George Foulkes and George Galloway, organised by The Journal ahead of the forthcoming rectorial election.

Following an exchange between Mr Galloway and Lord Foulkes over the Israel-Palestine conflict, Mr Galloway, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, remarked: “I think unless I didn’t hear Iain correctly, I’m the only person who’ll support the UCU boycott of Israel.”

Mr Macwhirter responded: “No, I support the UCU’s boycott. I think you have to be careful, however, not to pose this as purely an Arab and Israeli issue, but I support the UCU campaign.”

Pressed on whether this could be seen as restricting academic freedom and the furtherance of knowledge, Mr Macwhirter said: “I think you have to make moral choices, and this is a very clear one.”

The UCU motion, passed in May 2007, called for moves towards a binding vote on the boycotting of Israeli institutions and academics.

Delegated voted by 158-99 in what was positioned as a response to Israeli actions in the region and the

perceived “complicity” of academics in the occupation.

However, the vote was condemned by groups such as the Jewish leadership council who termed it “an assault on academic freedom,” as well as nonJewish groups, wary of conflating the actions of the Israeli government with those of the Israeli people.

In September 2007, lawyers for the UCU concluded that “a boycott call would be unlawful and cannot be implemented,” effectively killing the motion. The debate over a boycott, however, has continued.

Members of Lord Foulkes’ campaign have condemned Macwhirter’s comments. Former EUSA president Josh MacAlister said: “I was surprised to hear that Iain Macwhirter supports a boycott of Israelis teaching and researching at Edinburgh University.

The idea of this boycott is a direct attack to academic freedom and a crude measure that only divides opinion on a really sensitive issue.”

Lord Foulkes has been a member of the Labour party friends of Israel for three decades, and opposes the idea of a boycott of Israeli academics.

He said: “we should not be isolating Israeli academics who are strongly against the war.”

Mr MacAlister warned: ”If this boycott were to go ahead, staff and some students would be asked to leave the university because they have an Israeli passport. Even if they don’t support the actions of the state of Israel they would be told to go home.”

Mr Macwhirter was approached for a response shortly before The Journal went to press, but was unavailable to comment at such short notice.

Join The Journal while you still can www. journalonline. co.uk

ALEX SALMOND FOUND himself in diplomatic hot water last week when his announcement that Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary-General, would visit Scotland as part of the 2009 Year of Homecoming was refuted by Mr Annan’s own representatives in Britain.

Mr Salmond’s remarks at the Homecoming celebration’s inaugural Burns supper touched off the dispute when he announced that Mr Annan had offered to deliver a lecture in tribute to Robert Burns during the year of Homecoming.

“It’s an offer which we have been delighted to accept,” said the First Minister. “But it’s a sign, a symbol, of the power of Robert Burns that the former Secretary-General of the United Nations actually writes to offer a lecture as a contribution to our year of Homecoming.”

The misunderstanding is especially uncomfortable for the SNP since Mr Annan’s speech was presented as one of the more significant attractions of the year of Homecoming celebrations. Mr Salmond’s spokesman was later quoted by the Press Association as highlighting the commitment of Kofi Annan to Scotland and Robert Burns.

Labour MPs and MSPs reacted to the claim “with derision,” asserting that the speech Mr Annan offered to deliver was in response to an invitation by Gordon

Brown to speak at Adam Smith College in Fife, and was unrelated to the Homecoming celebrations.

In reaction to the dispute, a spokesperson for the First Minister stressed that Mr Annan had written to the First Minister stating that he would like to travel to Scotland to deliver a speech during the year of Homecoming, and that the first minister’s office has been in contact with Mr Annan’s senior officials to discuss the possible dates for a lecture later in the year.

A spokesperson for Mr Annan, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the continued confusion: “There has been some misinformation and Mr Annan would appreciate a correction. We are irritated by this and it is a question of clarification.” The spokesperson continued: “Mr Annan will be travelling to Scotland but his lecture has nothing to do with this Homecoming thing.”

In light of the flat denial, Lewis Macdonald MSP, Scottish Labour’s tourism spokesperson, said: “Everyone wants Homecoming to be a success, but not everything that happens in Scotland in 2009 is part of Homecoming.” He added, “Alex Salmond has to stop making things up.”

Anne McGuire, Labour MP, said of the debacle: “The SNP have embarrassed all Scots by playing fast and loose with the good name of Scotland. It shows breathtaking cynicism to misuse the name and reputation of Kofi Annan in this way. Alex Salmond must apologise.”

16 Student Elections

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Student Elections 17

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

★ ★★

★★

How democratic is the union?

YES George Thomas vps@eusa.ed.ac.uk

W

luke.buckley@journal-online.co.uk

W

HEN MOST PEOPLE think of a student union, it seems obvious that it’s run “By Students, For Students”. So obvious in fact, that the imposing declaration that looms on passers by, adorning the front of Teviot makes me somewhat suspicious, as it should for you. Why, if it’s so obvious what a student union is and what a student union should do, does EUSA feel the need to shout it from the rooftops. The answer is, simply, overcompensation.

EUSA knows that its unions, at least for the most part, are not run by students. For example, the seemingly trivial change of introducing board games in the library bar took over a year of pressure from the executive to actually get it done. In the end, it was only when a student went out and bought the games that they were actually implemented.

Managers, supposedly hired to implement the policies of students and run the unions on a day to day basis, often simply ignore student requests, creating in effect, a democratic deficit of those that the union explicitly aims to include.

EUSA also knows that, often, it

ANYONE WITH A MATRICULATION CARD WELCOME

NEXT MEETING 19:00 18 FEB

MAIN GROUPS OF REPRESENTATIVES INCLUDE:

COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT OVERSEES SMOOTH RUNNING OF THE UNION AND CLOSELY MONITORS FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

THE SRC EXECUTIVE

APPROVES MINUTES OF UNION EXEC

ACCOMMODATION, SCHOOLS & INDUCTION, COMMUNITY, AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES OFFICERS

TOP-LEVEL COMMITTEE OF THE UNION INCLUDES:

SCHOOL REPS ORDINARY REPS

FINANCE COMMITTEE

4 SABBATICALS 4 ORDINARY MEMBERS 3 UNION EXECUTIVE MEMBERS

POSTGRAD REPS

3 LIFE MEMBERS

1ST YEAR REPS

1 UNI REP

ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE

SRC EXECUTIVE

There are countless examples of the union staff’s reluctance to listen to and implement student ideas, even when they’re based on good business sense. James Wallace, for instance, has successfully forced through 99p coffees at all union outlets, but with absolutely no marketing or effort from the management to make it a success, it seems like an initiative that is doomed to fail. Particularly when the management would only agree to implement it on a one-month trial basis, no doubt so that they can turn around and remind us that it was a bad idea all along. All too often, union managers either refuse to implement the policies of student representatives, or do so with a great amount of inertia. Naturally, this makes the success of any initiative a student does manage to get through highly doubtful.

For a union that rightfully belongs to its members, a refusal to heed the views of those members seems somewhat perverse, and the results of this approach are clear: inappropriate products, poor marketing and a dire range of services with many students far more motivated to use local competitors than their own union. It seems ridiculous that a privately-owned company could understand the student market better than a student union, and only with EUSA could this be the case.

There is, of course, an argument that

THE FOUR SABBATICALS CURRENTLY:

FIVE CONVENERS HOLDING SUB-COMMITTEE MEETINGS REGULARLY ALSO INCLUDES THE SABBATICAL TEAM AND THE SRC EDITOR

IC EM ES D IC CA V A ER S

Luke Buckley

isn’t for students either. How can it be, when—particularly in terms of services—it repeatedly ignores student input? Food and entertainment, which in my opinion are the bread and butter of a union’s services provided for its members, are offered cheaper and better at commercial competitors. How many times does the average student choose the Mez over a cosy local café, or Potterow as opposed to Opal Lounge, Cabaret Voltaire or Cav? As a member of the Union Executive and the Committee of Management, I have witnessed at first hand how appalling inefficiency, poor structure and a reluctance to implement student ideas have led to the gross underuse of assets, rising prices and substandard services. I’d like to share with you how the union really works, and how if something isn’t done soon, this will effect the future.

The commercial stability of the union is dependent on a solid entertainments and food provision, and sadly entertainments is where EUSA fails most notably. We all love the occasional foray into the delights of the Big Cheese, and some would argue that there’s no better way to end a Saturday night than with ‘the final countdown’. What is disturbing however, is that a weekly cheese night, and of course, the occasional cheese act such as S Club, is all the union seems able to offer in terms of music.

100+ ELECTED STUDENTS

WELFAR E

NO

George Thomas is the Vice President (Services) of Edinburgh University Students’ Association

STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL (SRC)

TEACHING AND LEARNING

PRESIDENT ADAM RAMSAY VP SOCIETIES & ACTIVITIES NAOMI HUNTER VP SERVICES GEORGE THOMAS VP ACADEMIC AFFAIRS GUY BROMLEY

it’s better to have the commercial side of EUSA run this way, with students playing an indirect role in devising and implementing strategy. But the truth is that the success of this approach should be self-evident, and anyone who visits the union will know that the services it offers are often poor.

What is clear, is that it’s time our union changed. Most importantly, the structure of EUSA needs to be revised so that change can happen quickly and efficiently, and so that the voices of elected student representatives are heard and not silenced. The embarrassing provision of entertainment needs to be revised. Oxford University once had The Rolling Stones play at their graduation ball; we have Scott Mills. Put simply, we need to put back the student in student union.

Luke Buckley is a member of the union executive and the committee of management

UNION EXECUTIVE RESPONSIBLE FOR OVERSEEING THE SHORT-TERM IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICY AND HELP TO FORMULATE IDEAS MEETS FORTNIGHTLY AND ARE HEAVILY INVOLVED IN ORGANISING UNION ACTIVITIES. THE BRAINS BEHIND FRESHERS' WEEK

SCHOOL COMMITTEES

DEBATES COMMITTEE

ALL OTHER VOLUNTEERS SOCIETIES OFFICE-BEARERS EDITORS DTP STAFF THE ADVICE PLACE CLASS REPS

SOCIETIES COUNCIL & SOCIETIES EXECUTIVE

OPERATIONAL MEETINGS:

ALL OF THE ABOVE + STAFF

RUMOUR

MILL

GENERAL MEETING

300+ STUDENTS NEED TO VOTE IN FAVOUR TO PASS MOTIONS WITH A SIMPLE MAJORITY – 2/3RDS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

EX A TE FF R N A IR AL S

HEN I THINK of a Student’s Union, I think of a committee of students, sat around a table at the top of Teviot’s gothic towers debating whatever trivial issues have arisen that week. Sat there, missing the point of what “by students” really means, viewing themselves as the ultimate authority on everything happening on the floors below them.

Whilst the committee are up in one of the high rooms debating whether to spend £10 on the Glasgow or Aberdeen version of Monopoly, what really makes the “union by students” is happening below them.

The Debating Hall is filled with a 100 students piling in for the People & Planet villains Ceilidh. Students hosting an event in their union, using their ideas and passions to bring in hundreds of others, along with the help of their union’s buildings and staff.

In the Library Bar the staff are looking at the tills and noticing that students just don’t want to eat the chicken breast and camembert burger anymore, so they decide to try and find something to replace it with. Before long the staff are encouraging students to pop down some suggestions on the comment cards and next semester a new burger pops up on the menus.

Whilst jotting down their ideas for new burgers, one student throws in a

suggestion for how we could celebrate the inauguration of the new US President.

Our staff see the comments, jump on it and a few weeks later we’ve got a massive party in Teviot organised. Showing how any student can come up with a great idea and see it happen in no time at all.

The unions are “by students”, and are getting more so every week. They are experimenting and finding new ways to involve student ideas and the expert experience of their staff to create new menus, better club nights and more comfortable coffee shops.

We shout about the fact that we are by students, to help spark the interest and involvement of every student across campus, to help highlight what difference every idea, suggestion, complaint, pound spent and thank-you e-mail has on the service they receive from their union.

As a result, the union is becoming about the ideas and opinions of 25,000 students, not just the distilled opinions of the 15 sat round the committee table.

That committee has to learn to change and find a new vision for itself. The committee needs to embrace everything that makes the union by students and start providing a strategic vision for the future of the union, so that our staff can help all students get involved.

Things are changing, but there are still those that need to learn the humility to listen to the advice of our expert staff and the thousands of students generating ideas, who need to start shaping the direction of the organisation as a whole and not nit pick over the minor details.

A SIMPLIFIED HIERARCHY OF EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY’S STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

GR P A OS D TU A TE

Is EUSA really “for students, by students?”

Two elected representatives stake their claims

HOW DOES EUSA WORK?

THE

Student Elections ‘09

★

★

The general meeting sits right at the top as it provides the means by which individual students may directly suggest additions or amendments to what the union does.

Changes which do not affect the constitution may be made by the SRC, which approves policy from the SRC executive, or by the committee of management, which approves the minutes of the union executive.

Ostensibly the board of trustees, the finance committee holds responsibility for financing the union’s activities. Where policy involves the illegal use of funds, the finance committee has a right to veto.

The formally elected 100+ members of the SRC debate and vote on issues which affect the running of the union and formulate policy based on motions presented by the SRC executive and associated committees.

The four Sabbaticals are the most well known names behind EUSA. At least one of them is present at almost every sub division meeting throughout association. Their various titles provide most aspects of student life with a full-time representative.

S

OMETHING OMINOUS HAS begun to creak – a grating which slowly, but steadily over the past weeks has intensified into an unmistakable mechanical groan. With almost intolerable regularity the sails of the annual election rumour mill have begun to turn – only this year, there’s an added ferocity in the way the mill whips through Edinburgh’s institutional air.

With rectorial elections at the University of Edinburgh fast approaching their conclusion, this year’s gossip and speculation comes with a particularly keen edge. Already, theft, corruption and tears have shouldered their way into the usual catalogue of intrigue, antagonism, and groundless mischief-making.

Shennanigans began this year even as candidates were being announced: Edinburgh University’s Conservative club proudly announced that they had opted not to field a candidate, preferring to focus instead on assisting local Conservatives reach Westminster. They did, of course, not mention that former shadow home secretary, David Davis, had spurned their approaches to stand in the student poll.

Tories aside, it is Labour and their candidate, Lord Foulkes, who have been engaged in by far the lion’s share of scandal. One Labour student has, allegedly, already been threatened by Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray – a chastening for their reticence in supporting the Foulkes campaign. “It’d be a shame if your career in the Labour Party ended here,” Gray is said to have warned the student.

The episode was quickly forgotten, however, as Foulkes was cast headlong into the fallout from the Lords’ cashfor-ammendments scandal, following an article in the Sunday Herald (see front page). The Lord’s campaign team have since demanded a retraction and an apology from campus paper The Student, who picked up the Herald story.

Jucier still, those supporting Foulkes’ campagn—ostensibly the university Labour club—have been accused of underhand tactics in response to the allegations. Labour students have apparently been seen removing the offending issues of The Student from stands on campus and depositing them in recycling bins. Full marks for environmental concerns, but less so for responsible campaigning.

Moreover, the Student journalist who wrote the story, Liz Rawlings— now a rumoured EUSA presidential candidate—has since been the subject

of a number of attacks from the Foulkes team, not least the heinous charge of being labelled an “SNP activist” – a claim the green politician finds “surprising, but also quite amusing”.

Iain Macwhirter, meanwhile, has remained relatively quiet, understandably content to let the Foulkes saga run its course. Indeed, he has even found time for pursuits away from the campaign trail, having been spotted last week at an event hosted by Edinburgh’s brand new European movement society, at which he made a rousing and impromptu speech in support of Britain’s entry into the single European currency.

He has not, however, managed to keep his nose entirely clean. Some have suggested—including a very roundabout pointer from Foulkes himself— that Macwhirter used his sway within the Sunday Herald to have the Foulkes story published. Very naughty indeed.

Meanwhile nominations for the EUSA elections have begun to trickle in – and with them rumours of the deals and treaties struck between EUSA hacks.

Labour club candidate, Thomas Graham is a definite go; word is that last year’s Labour lad, Nick Ward, wanted another shot, but had agreed to let Graham stand this year. Liz Rawlings, too, has already usurped two other left-leaning candidates. Both Tess Quinton and Kath MacMahon have opted not to stand in order give Rawlings space in the field.

Meanwhile, Conservative candidate Oliver Mundell is off to somewhat of an inauspicious start. His big campaign idea for 99p sandwiches was undermined by the committee of management, who opted to sneak in first with it. More recently, and more painfully, he spent Sunday night in hospital undergoing reconstructive surgery on his foot.

Seeking the virgin snow of George Square Gardens, Mundell pierced his foot on a spike and had to be cut free by firemen. Some might call it karma after Mundell made EUSA VPSA cry during an SRC debate on liberation officers last week. Others might not.

More rumours are guaranteed for next issue once the manifestos come tumbling in. Until then, however, here’s a piece advice from EUSA’s new Everything you wanted to know about getting elected guide to muse over: “A detailed knowledge of the internal working of EUSA and the university is not necessary to get elected, or to do an excellent job later in the year.” Enjoy the silly season.

Disappointment as Heriot-Watt elections fail to excite Rebecca Sibbet rebecca.sibbet@journal-online.co.uk REPRESENTATION LOOKED THIN on the ground as nominations for the Heriot-Watt University Students Association (HWUSA) Executive committee were announced last week.

Disappointingly, out of seven roles on the Executive Committee, two have been left unfilled, including vice president of education and welfare (VPEW) – a sabbatical position. The important posts of president and vice president of services and communications (VPSC)

are uncontested.

Despite being the only presidential candidate nominated, Simon Eltringham is not guaranteed the top job as students will also have the opportunity to vote to re-open nominations (RON).

Eltringham told The Journal: “I am extremely excited to be running for president in the elections. I am disappointed that there is not another candidate for me to run against but I am not complacent and know that I still need to work hard to win the votes of the students if I am to be hired.”

Concerns that the student population will be inclined to assume the

results as a foregone conclusion and therefore less likely to vote have been expressed by candidates who are keen to stress the importance of the elections.

Michael Bottom, nominee for the role of VPSC—formerly a sabbatical role but now reduced to a part-time officer— explained: “It’s still really important that students vote. VPSC has a huge influence on the services in the union and in the student shop, these affect our students, so it is important to gauge their opinions. Its vital that students know who I am and get a chance to tell me their opinions.”

Eltringham, also expressed his

disappointment at the number of people standing in this election, telling The Journal: “Nominations have been disappointing overall this year and it is concerning there is no candidate for VPEW. I am confident that someone with the ideas, passion and commitment will come forward to make this position a success.”

This year for the first time voting will be carried out online using Vision, the online learning space used by students. It is hoped that this new initiative will increase voting numbers.

The elections are due to take place on 16 February 2009.

 

Comment 19

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Comment Discussion&Debate

Corruption in the Lords:

Sleaze resurgent » The endemic corruption highlighted by the recent Lords scandal must not be swept under the carpet Martin Bell

UNICEF

comment@journal-online.co.uk

A

T FIRST SIGHT the tales of wrong-doing seeping out of the House of Lords seem a replay of the scandals that brought down John Major’s government in 1997. But in truth they are much more serious. The peers accused, whose numbers appear to increase by the day, are entitled to their protestations of innocence. “We have done nothing wrong,” they chorus. Yet the audio tapes make very grim listening indeed.

I had a walk-on part in those earlier scandals, as the candidate who defeated Neil Hamilton, one of the Tory MPs accused of sleaze. I expected to lose, and when I didn’t I thought that the people’s uprising would be widely heeded, and that parliamentarians would be more principled, or at least more careful, in their observance of the rules. I was wrong.

Nearly twelve years later I believe that the levels of corruption at Westminster are not lower, but higher, than at the time of that watershed election.

That is not to deny that most Honourable Members and Noble Lords conduct themselves honestly. But a substantial number do not. I have been arguing for a while, from my experiences both outside and inside Parliament, that corruption is endemic and widespread. It manifests itself in everything from the shameless trade in peerages, to the consultancies through which members seek to enrich themselves, to the ritual abuse of parliamentary allowances.

I was on the “dark side”—that is, a member of the club—from 1997 to 2001. I emerged from it the poorer financially, but richer in friends and experience. Ah, if only someone had told me of the “John Lewis list”! I could have claimed £10,000 for refitting the kitchen of my constituency home. I could have employed my children for doing little or no work. I could have used taxpayers’ money to reduce my exposure to inheritance tax. These and other dodges are commonplace.

Or consider this. A parliamentarian receives gifts of watches from the Crown Prince of Ruritania. He promotes Ruritanian interests and chairs the All-party Anglo-Ruritanian

Friendship Group. He declares the watches in the Register of Members’ Interests. But he doesn’t declare their value, which is at least £15,000 each, because he is not obliged to. And of course he too has “done nothing wrong.”

So are they all, all honourable men.

They write the rules. They police the rules. And all too many profit from the rules. I served for four years on the Standards and Privileges Committee, which considers complaints against individual MPs. I noticed that certain Labour members of the committee were reluctant to uphold complaints against senior members of their party whose favour it might be useful to enjoy. The Parliamentary Commissioner

for Standards Elizabeth Filkin made these people extremely uncomfortable by the rigour of her investigations. She was the victim of an odious whispering campaign. She was let go at the earliest opportunity. Scotland’s present first minister was one of the few who rallied to her defence.

Self-regulation doesn’t work, but it is surely better than no regulation at all. One of the astonishing aspects of the current scandal is that the Upper House does not have even the modest sanctions available to the Commons. It cannot suspend or expel its members.

They sit within its halls for life in armour-plated ermine. Two of them, Lords Archer and Black, have criminal convictions. Their membership of the

House is unaffected – although Lord Black, doing time in a Florida prison, might find it rather difficult to attend.

What is happening here, it seems to me, is that the limited reforms put in place by the Commons have driven the influence-peddlers to ply their trade in the Lords. Cash for amendments is far more corrupt than cash for questions.

Hundreds of questions are tabled in both houses every day, often to little effect except to feature in some press release. But amendments , if accepted, become the law of the land. And thus can legislation be bought or sold.

You may wonder, seeing all this from the relative comfort zone of an Edinburgh academy, whether it is any business of yours. Please believe me,

because I have been on the dark side, it is all of your business – especially those who are young enough to have more of a stake in the future. If you wish the crooks and the creeps to run your lives, then all you have to do is nothing and they will be happy to oblige. Indeed all too many of them are already in place at both ends of the Palace of Westminster.

Those who have used their public office for private gain must be expelled, de-selected or defeated. Great scandals call for great reforms.

Martin Bell is a former foreign affairs correspondent for the BBC, and a former Conservative MP. He is currently an ambassador for UNICEF

20 Comment

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Gay adoption:

Family matters » The adoption of two Edinburgh children against their family's wishes should not go ahead.

But the sexuality of the adopting couple has nothing to do with it

Gary Clapton

University of Edinburgh

gclapton@journal-online.co.uk

I

F YOU HAVEN’T heard something about this then you’ve been off-planet for a couple of weeks.

By now everyone who has been following this story will have a view (mostly based on what passes for information in the newspapers).

Briefly, the facts seem to be as follows: for two years, a brother and sister, now aged five and four respectively, have been looked after by their grandparents aged 59 and 46 because their mother, a recovering drug addict, was not considered capable. How the grandparents and their grandchildren came to the attention of the authorities seems unclear, but some reports have it that they asked for support in looking after the children.

The grandfather is a farmhand who has angina while his wife is receiving medication for diabetes, and caring for their daughter as well as their grandchildren must have been difficult. As a response to these circumstances, the children were placed in foster care where they have been for two years with regular contact between them and their grandparents. At some point, social services seem to have decided that adoption was the best for the children. The grandparents opposed this and two years of litigation have followed. The cost of this has resulted in the grandparents reluctantly ceasing to oppose adoption plans. So far, so often the case for families in trouble.

The icing on the cake—that has drawn the tabloids, a millionaire businessman who’s offered to fund a continued

legal challenge to the adoption plans, and the Catholic Church—has been the news that two men have been chosen as the adoptive parents.

Can anything useful be added to this and the debate?

Yes – first of all, what’s not relevant? The gay part. Despite continued opposition from sections of the organised religion and the media, same-sex couples have the same right to be assessed for adoption and offer loving homes as anyone else. There is no evidence that children brought up in same-sex households will have detrimental experiences compared to those who do not. Unfortunately, there is a growing religious right backlash – shown in a stark light last week, when a petition against gay adoption signed by 2,000 people was presented to Sheffield City Council.

Equally irrelevant is the question of the particular health of the grandparents. Controlled diabetes has never stopped anyone from caring for a child.

And as for age difference, it needs to be pointed out that the grandparents have been involved in the children’s lives since the man was 54 and the woman 42 – hardly over the hill. This brings me to the relevant heart of the matter – the connection and attachment that exists between the grandparents and the children. The grandparents offer up the possibility of continuing vital connection with kin and wider family of origin which will normally include aunts, uncles and cousins.

The children will have formed bonds with these members of the birth family. Adoption is the legal severance of such ties. Once an adoption has gone through there is no way that continuing contact can be enforced. It is a huge decision to remove children from

a family of origin and place them with strangers. The social workers concerned may not have to answer their questions, but what do you say to the boy in eleven years time when he asks why his family’s offer of continued care was declined? The adopted adults with whom I have worked usually ask one central question to help them make sense of their identity: “Why was I adopted?” I’d be surprised if anyone

in favour of adoption in this case is able to answer this comfortably.

Two last remarks. Litigation not only costs money, it drags on. So much so, that by the time a decision can be made regarding the future of children, a return to their family of origin is judged impossible because it is claimed—maddeningly—that the children have become “attached” to their new carers.

It costs over £600 per week to keep a child in foster care. Without knowing the exact details of what the grandparents in this could do with by way of temporary respite, it would surely not have cost that much. But it seems the system doesn’t do this kind of prevention and support these days.

Gary Clapton is senior lecturer in social work at the University of Edinburgh

Tory schools policy:

Getting carried away » David Cameron's pledge to send his children to state school is not surprising, given his dizzy plans for British education

Simon Mundy Deputy Editor

simon@journal-online.co.uk

A

T THE HEIGHT of a national panic over BSE in May 1990, agriculture minister John Gummer was in the vanguard of efforts to reassure the public over British beef. Tired of speechifying, Gummer decided to give his calming message a human face – specifically, that of his six-year-old daughter, to whom he tried to feed a hamburger before assembled television cameras. Nearly twenty years on, Gummer’s reputation has still to recover – a cautionary tale, if ever there was one, of the inadvisability of using one’s children to make a political point.

David Cameron’s harsher critics will likely be accusing him of doing just that, after his announcement last week that he intends to send his children to state secondary schools. Certainly,

such a move would help to alleviate the “toffish” image with which Cameron has been burdened after his years at Eton.

But Cameron’s commitment—which was matched by shadow children’s secretary Michael Gove—is more than a stunt. It should properly be seen as a statement of intent: superhumanly confident as ever, Cameron is convinced not only that he will win the next general election, but that he can render standards in the state education system comparable to those in the independent sector by the time his daughter Nancy starts secondary school. He’s got six years.

Cameron might breezily tell the Daily Telegraph that it’s “crazy” for higher rate taxpayers to fork out thousands more for private education, but many of those who can afford to do so would think it crazy to do anything else. While fees at elite schools such as Eton have now passed the £25,000 mark, spending per pupil at British state secondaries stands at less than a fifth of that – and it shows. Pupils at the most expensive

schools see the achievement of five good GCSEs as all but a given; yet fewer than 50 per cent of state school pupils attain the government benchmark.

Rather than surrender to the power of the market, however, the Tories’ education plan aims to harness it.

Labour’s academy programme, aimed at teaming up with the private sector to deliver educational centres of excellence, had a promising start – but it has stalled of late, the recent failure of a flagship academy in Carlisle highlighting the problems faced by the scheme.

Cameron and Gove intend to provide it with “rocket boosters.” The Tories would abandon the government monopoly on founding new schools, encouraging parents, charities and private companies in deprived areas to set up “New Academies.” All such institutions, the Conservatives’ education Green Paper asserts, would “depend for their current revenue entirely on their ability to attract pupils.” Failing, unpopular academies would fall victim to natural selection.

The scheme smacks of traditional small-government conservatism: the Tories will “create the circumstances” conducive to success, according to Gove, and let market forces do the rest.

The reasoning behind it is unarguably attractive – a lack of competitive pressure has contributed to the stagnation of many failing schools, while the gargantuan Building Schools for the Future initiative has bogged down a good number of existing academy projects in bureaucracy.

Yet the Tories’ ability to deliver “a superb new school in every community” could be less secure than they imagine.

Any doubters are referred to the success of a similar scheme in Sweden, but the system will not necessarily translate between cultures – after all, Sweden had virtually no existing independent school sector to complicate matters when its education voucher system was introduced. And the Tory plans presume a strong financial contribution from the private sector – a source that looks increasingly unreliable amid the bleak

economic outlook. A precariously debtladen state will be ill-placed to make up the shortfall.

His swaggering self-confidence restored along with a towering poll lead, Cameron’s register seems to be drifting towards the messianic: Gove’s department “will be a team of zealots when it comes to excellence,” he told the Telegraph, while his talk of “defeating” mysterious “forces in the education establishment” sounds like something out of Return of the Jedi. But worthy ideals—admirably prominent throughout Tory education policy, not least in their plans to restore prestige to teaching—can swiftly come a cropper amid the harsh facts of a shockingly unbalanced education system that has echoes, as Nick Clegg noted last week, of a caste society. If Cameron’s plans for state education fall through, he may yet come to regret his pledge to make use of it.

Simon Mundy is the Deputy Editor (Comment & Features) of The Journal

Comment 21

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Wildcat strikes:

SNOWED UNDER...

Protection racket Helen O’Shea helen.o.shea@journal-online.co.uk

TOM HUNT & LEWIS KILLIN

H

Scottish budget:

Downhill fast

» The SNP's success in passing their budget was a sharp bit of politics, but their policies risk turning Edinburgh into Little Havana

Sam Karasik EUTIC

skarasik@journal-online.co.uk

T

HE RECENT PASSAGE of the latest Scottish budget—voted down mere days before—by a formidable margin of 123-2, is a political achievement unlikely to be seen anywhere this side of Pyongyang. Bringing together the SNP, Labour, Tories and Liberal Democrats on such a potentially divisive issue is a testament to Alex Salmond’s political skill, if nothing else. Yet despite the self-congratulatory tone of many in the Scottish press and Holyrood, the contents of the budget leave plenty to be concerned about.

The £33 billion package, according to Scottish finance secretary John Swinney, is aimed at stimulating economic recovery. The Labour party successfully added on 8,000 apprenticeships to the budget following its original defeat, while the Liberal Democrats were brought on board by the SNP’s word that the Calman Commission, which reviews devolution, would be asked to allow Scotland to borrow money for its public spending – a fiscal measure Holyrood is currently unable to use. The Lib Dems also managed to create a taskforce on

jobs in the financial services industry - as Edinburgh is in fact the United Kingdom’s second financial capital.

All of these measures are certainly welcome in addressing the disastrous economic situation; but they amount to millions in spending out of a budget of billions. The petulant squabbling seen at the budget’s original vote was over measures amounting to a tiny proportion of total government spending. The revised budget certainly addressed some of the fears of Labour and the Lib Dems over important political issues, but as far as addressing the harsh realities of this recession, many are justifiably alarmed.

Whilst Westminster devises plans to secure the future of the private sector, Scotland is on the path to becoming one of the most welfare-dependent nations in the world. Last year, £16 billion was spent on welfare payments, and wages for public sector workers amounted to £12 billion. In case you missed it, The Times recently published findings from a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) projecting that Scotland will soon have the third-largest proportion of state-dependence in the world. By 2012, the CEBR estimates that 67 per cent of GDP will be spent on public services, lower only than Cuba’s figure of 81 per cent, and 87 per cent in war-torn Iraq.

Perhaps the ferocity of the debate over the budget had to do with the fact that the amount of money still to be appropriated was so small. South of the border, the English make do with 22 per cent less welfare spending per capita, and have a healthy combination of industrial sectors. In Scotland, there is little heavy industry left and, while financial services contribute to a large proportion of GDP, the sector doesn’t amount to a huge number of jobs – especially for those without university degrees. After whisky and tourism, there are few industries with comparable contributions to the number of jobs and the output of the economy.

Scotland certainly provides services of critical importance, with some of the finest state schools in the country, widespread infrastructure investment and, for all its imperfections, one of the world’s best public health services. The heart of the matter is that Scotland could be spending far less on subsidising apathy and a lot more on investing in education, encouraging businesses to come to Scotland, health education, and various other good causes. There comes a point where more public spending does little but burden the taxpayer.

Scandinavian countries have extensive welfare states, but manage to attract successful businesses, have healthy

populations, and are leaders in the conversion to sustainable energy.

The politicians in Holyrood always have the choice to invest in creating a sustainable, competitive economy, and yet they seem to be eager to maintain the slow shift towards dystopian state dependence.

Despite the near unanimous vote in favour of the budget, there has been apprehension from all of the opposition parties, and rightly so. The Liberal Democrats have been pushing for tax cuts—ones that didn’t make their way into this budget—and the Conservatives have warned of the danger of returning to the excessive state employment of the 1970s. The question is whether such a fragmented parliament can create a coherent economic policy before Edinburgh becomes known as “Little Havana.” Though this may bring an influx of mojitos and cigars, the costs may exceed the benefits.

If Salmond truly wants to make the case for Scottish independence he needs to show that he can create a sustainable, forward-looking spending policy – unless he is deliberately running up the tax bills of the English to the point that they are willing to disband the Union.

Sam Karasik is the editor of Edinburgh University Trade and Investment Club

SCOTLAND’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT WEBSITE: JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

OWEVER WELL-INTENTIONED GORDON Brown’s jingoistic pledge to create “British jobs for British workers” at the Labour conference in 2007 was, it came back to haunt him last week – just as he was addressing the perils of economic nationalism at Davos. For some, his predicament elicited schadenfreude, for others evident anger. Placards quoting Brown’s nationalist-tinged soundbite were on show at the wildcat strikes that hit oil refineries, power stations and chemical plants across the country. In Scotland, workers at the Longannet Power Station in Fife, Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland, Cockenzie Power Station in East Lothian, ExxonMobil’s petrochemicals plant and the Shell plant in Mossmorran took part in sympathy with the Lindsey oil refinery strike over the use of foreign labour. The speed with which the strikes spread is a stark demonstration for the Labour government of how quickly underlying resentment can quickly translate into spontaneous protest during an economic crisis. They certainly won’t be the last.

These strikes, which the BNP eagerly exploited, may be over, but so too is Brown’s bounce. This does not make his anti-protectionist plea any less imperative. The overriding lesson of the 1930s—how protectionism can turn a recession into a depression—needs to be heeded. However much Brown believes in free trade, the risk is that he will find it near-impossible to appease an already discontented electorate without succumbing to some form of protectionist rhetoric, if not action. Despite the almost certain damaging effects on long-term recovery, protectionism has a powerful populist appeal.

One could argue that the recent bailout plans drawn up by business secretary Lord Mandelson for Britain’s beleaguered car industry are possibly a form of protectionism, but only if it gives them an advantage over their foreign counterparts. That remains to be seen.

But it is clear that Britain’s bailed-out banks have been ordered to rein in their overseas lending to reduce the potential for further losses. If this is not protectionism, then what is, Mr Brown?

A telling illustration of Brown’s predicament is provided by France.

Unlike Brown, who said one thing at his party conference and another at Davos, Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, said one thing and then did another. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 31 January, Lagarde warned that the global economic crisis could provoke social unrest and urged against countries opting for protectionism to fight the downturn. Her prediction of social unrest is hardly one of profound insight in light of the tsunami of recent protests in the UK, Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Iceland and Russia – not to mention the streets of her own country. Yet her well-judged stance against protectionism was undermined by French social unrest. She has now ushered in “a short period of protectionism” until tougher international regulations have been agreed to protect taxpayers and financial consumers from market risks. In a conspicuous turnaround, Lagarde was seen on French television proclaiming that “a bit of protectionism is a necessary evil.”

Will Brown be eventually forced to utter similar sentiments?

Helen O’Shea is the Comment Editor of The Journal

22 Editorial

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Letters letters@journal-online.co.uk EDINBURGH’S UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPER | ISSUE XVIII

Lords scandal:

Legal, but not necessarily moral AS POPULAR SUPPORT grows for an entirely elected upper house of parliament, it’s easy to lose sight of one of the most valuable qualities of the House of Lords in its current form. An elected politician, by and large, will want to be elected again. It is to be hoped that current or potential leaders will put the long-term interests of the country first when formulating policy. But, like any professional politician, they will also attach huge importance to the question of what will go down well with the electorate – and the two are by no means always identical. The unelected Lords, it is commonly held, are conversely free to transcend the squabbling and twisted principles of the lower house, and to concentrate on the intrinsic merits of legislation without the distraction of vested interests.

That argument has been profoundly weakened—and major reform of the Lords significantly hastened, in all likelihood—by last month’s devastating “cash for amendments” allegations.

Four Labour peers were lured by undercover Sunday Times reporters into suggesting that they would be willing to take money to influence legislation,

throwing the workings of the House under withering public scrutiny. Interestingly, all four were retired career politicians, leading some colleagues to bemoan the corruption of the Lords’ amateur spirit by the professional politician’s disdain for decorum.

Perhaps the “Harry Potter Four,” as they have been named, were indeed anomalous in the downright shamelessness of their alleged indiscretions.

But, in the aftermath of the Sunday Times exposé, a figure was reported which is perhaps cause for still greater concern. 145 members of the House of Lords work as consultants for outside companies – amounting to almost one peer in five.

This work is within the law, it is endlessly stressed. Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, a candidate in this week’s rectoral election at the University of Edinburgh, has come under heavy fire for his £36,000 annual income from Eversheds LLP, in return for which he promises to arrange “introductions,” among other things. Such work is prohibited at Holyrood, where Foulkes also sits as an MSP – but he maintains that his consulting for Eversheds relates

only to his work in the Lords. “I have done everything exactly by the book,” he insists.

All the more reason why the book should be changed. Lord Foulkes deserves respect for his willingness to divulge details of his income – something many of his peers have refused to do. But that does not make the prevalence of external interests among the Lords any more palatable. Eversheds employed Lord Foulkes to look at the nuclear sector, among other things, and he has tabled four written questions on the subject at Holyrood since November 2007. While there is no reason to doubt his fidelity to the letter of the law, how could Lord Foulkes himself be wholly sure that his position on such issues was in no way compromised by his responsibilities to Eversheds? Politicians are only human, after all; and the case of nationalist back-bencher Angus MacNeil, who argues for a ban on peers acting as political consultants, is gathering strength. The fundamental strength of the House of Lords ought to lie in the avoidance of precisely such conflicts of interest as now seem to be coming to light.

SIR,

word 'rave' here? Can I assume the writer means club nights with pulsing lights and techno music? And can I have a ride in the time machine that took him back to the '90s, when people still called that a 'rave'?

Whoever wrote this either ran out of time and pulled the entire thing out of his ass or...no, that's actually the only explanation I can think of.

First of all, no one calls ketamine 'raver's smack'. Whoever told the writer this was taking the piss. Show me the person who voluntarily compares a drug he's taking with heroin and I'll show you a flying goat.

Second, ket is generally snorted, not swallowed, and I've never once seen it injected. I can't think of a more inconvenient or retarded manner in which to take a drug that goes easily up the nose. So rest easy, Martin Barnes of DrugScope (or I'veNoFuckingClueWha tI'mTalkingAboutScope?), your feared Hepatitis/HIV epidemic due to ket is completely ridiculous.

And finally, who the hell takes ketamine - which makes you tripped out, chilled out, and semi-immobile - at a 'rave', where the main objective is to dance wildly about. Maybe the same phantom idiots who are injecting a drug everyone else snorts and who call techno nights 'raves'.

Seriously, what or who were the sources for this article? My grandfather? A grey squirrel? This was actually embarrassing to read, and disturbing in its sheer volume of misinformation. Going to go snort some ket now to calm down.

Caitlin Wooll via journal-online.co.uk

Third, what's with the use of the

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Simple solutions are not out of reach

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THE NEWS THAT the City of Edinburgh Council does not know how many students are sent council tax requests will come as little surprise to those who receive them. A number will be more than aware of how difficult it can be to deal with the council’s benefits office, and likewise how concerning it can be to receive a letter demanding hundreds of pounds within a fortnight.

Similarly, students are entitled to be angry at receiving demands for payment after sending appropriate documentation to the council, and although it may only apply to extreme cases, the sending of bailiff’s letters to properties who qualify for exemptions weeks after they have been applied for is absolutely inexcusable.

Students account for nearly two thirds of exempt properties in Edinburgh so, inevitably, any backlog of exemption requests is likely to be dominated by student applications. It seems obvious, therefore, that a more fluent exemption system for the student community would go a long way to making the overall council tax collection process more efficient.

Student rolls are kept by every university, so providing an easily

accessible database of all those who are full-time students and who are therefore not eligible for council tax payment. A regularly updated system whereby the council is made aware of who falls into exemption categories, should present a simple solution to ensure that Edinburgh’s 50,000 strong student population is not hassled for payments which they are not required to make.

This relates directly to the second main problem with the current system: as students are not automatically exempt, but are instead entitled to exemptions, they are required to contact the council to make sure that they are not charged. This means that letters sent to students requesting payment are identical to those sent to individuals who are actually required to pay. No details are given regarding the exemption process – only threats demanding payment. For somebody unfamiliar with the council tax system this will undoubtedly lead to significant, and unnecessary, confusion. If the experience of being a student in Edinburgh is to be a positive one, simple measures to remove any undue financial stress must be taken, if they exist.

In this light, calls from local politicians for students and council authorities to liaise over reforms to the system are an important step. Pressure needs to be put on the council to formulate a system whereby students do not have to spend weeks chasing up requests; at the same time universities need to do their bit to make sure that they have records which are up to date, complete, and available to the Council.

Recent discussion over radical reforms of the council tax system— for instance, the introduction of local income tax—must not be assumed to lead inevitably towards the smoothing over of problems in the current system.

Such proposals, moreover, bring their own issues regarding the fairness of the local taxation framework. Rather, the solution here does not require wholesale shake-ups, or costly reforms.

Instead, universities and the council need to recognise that students make an important contribution to the local community, and should employ existing records to provide a much simpler process whereby students are automatically registered as exempt for the duration of their university career in the capital.

JOIN THE JOURNAL Edinburgh’s award-winning university newspaper is recruiting writers, designers, illustrators and business developers HTTP://RECRUITMENT.JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

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ACROSS 1 Dash back east for exchange (5) 4 A cobra moving with a twitch is agile (9) 9 Judge beginning to lecture mirror (7) 10 Shape built around dead tree forming German city (7) 11 Composer from Sussex town bashed around, we’re told, perhaps (9) 12 Yes - Italian sailor’s stringed instrument (5) 13 Birds follow at Greek city (6) 14 Mediterranean liquid in vile loo I used (5,3) 17 New ten duets are unproven (8) 18 Flowing influenza and enteritis beginning (6) 20 ‘sblood! One chorus is cut short (5) 22 A draw is boring, pal (9) 24 Stark comic character and triathlete? (4,3) 25 Bedding for virgin alien (7) 26 Create work hours for temp? (9) 27 Baseless fear is a mistake (5)

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Pulse concealed within bathrobe (5)

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Director’s resort chic folk charted (6,9)

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Manoeuvre the planes for big beasts (9)

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Working contract I’ve held (6)

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Trust about change lately (8)

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Christmas whisky? (5)

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Lofty performer is mean, twisted pale worker (9,6)

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Car hidden in the clover (9)

13 You can call this Al (9) 15 About turn with feet, vocal shift (5-4) 16 Liken his novel to Finnish city (8) 19 Talk with an animal? (6) 21 Twin is in care: must be adopted? (5) 23 Submit for tormenter’s ends (5)

GET LAST ISSUE’S SOLUTIONS ONLINE AT WWW.JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

Profile 23

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

The rectors’ round table » Just before George Galloway abandoned the race, The Journal got the three candidates for the Edinburgh rectorship together for their first and only group encounter. Simon Mundy reports on the rough and tumble of a coffee break with three very different student champions

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PHOTOS: SARAH SALEH

T ALWAYS MAKES an interviewer’s life easier when his subject fits neatly into the popular caricature; when three do so at once, you feel positively spoiled. Together for the first time, the three candidates for the Edinburgh University rectorship live up famously to expectations: George Galloway, the vehement, vaguely feline political campaigner; Iain MacWhirter, the softly spoken gentleman-journalist; and George Foulkes, the jovial Falstaff of the House of Lords – who, as the debate gets started around a table at Peter’s Yard, is nowhere to be seen.

Expertly timing his entrance to interrupt MacWhirter’s opening lament on the bleak future facing this generation of graduates, Foulkes is the first man I’ve seen manage to look effervescently sheepish. “Sorry to keep you; the people organising my campaign are determined I’m going to lose!” he announces. Unflustered, MacWhirter resumes his gloomy tidings. “A lot of students are going to leave university finding they’ve acquired quite formidable overdrafts, which are not going to be rolled over as easily as was the case in the past – which is why we’ve been highlighting the campaign for the £7,000 guarantee...”

Foulkes wastes no time getting stuck in. “He pinched it from us!” he declares of the Sunday Herald columnist’s idea for a minimum income guarantee. MacWhirter looks amused. “When did you announce it?” he asks.

“Well, it’s been adopted by the Labour party for policy for the next...”

“When was it announced?”

“Well it has been adopted...we haven’t announced it yet...”

“Oh – you haven’t announced it yet?”

Foulkes is gleefully exasperated – if he must lose this opening argument, he’s damn well going to have fun doing it. “He’s too used to being on television interviewing people!” he tells me, with a conspiratorial smirk. Maybe so – but it’s round one MacWhirter, I fear.

Not wishing to be left out of the early tussle, Galloway takes aim at Foulkes’s voting record. “The reason we’re in this problem is because Lord Foulkes voted for the very measures which have led students into the indebtedness that they have. He’s a New Labour, Tony Blair yesman; I was a no-man, and I was right and he was wrong,” Galloway concludes primly. I’m not sure this “no-man” expression will catch on—it sounds a little too close to “nonentity”—but at least the battle lines have been drawn.

Things heat up further when I broach the treacherous subject of top-up fees – an innovation supported by Foulkes at its inception. Without explicitly calling the move a mistake, he makes what sounds almost like an apology: “At the time it was better than what we had we had previously; it seemed to be an advance. But it hasn’t proved successful, and it’s useful to admit that.”

Galloway smells blood. “Can I say, then, that everything that George has now discovered about top-up fees, we pointed out at the time when we opposed them. How many hundreds of thousands of students have been condemned to penury by a decision which George made, which he now acknowledges was wrong?”

“Slogans, slogans, slogans,” groans Foulkes, wearily. Galloway is apparently basing his entire campaign on his antagonism towards the Labour peer

“I’m not sure Galloway’s ‘no-man’ expression will catch on—it sounds a little too close to ‘nonentity’— but at least the battle lines have been drawn”

Clockwise from top: Ian Macwhirter; George Galloway; George Foulkes

– after all, according to his Daily Record column, only the two of them are really in with a chance. Not that MacWhirter seems bothered by Galloway’s apparent refusal to acknowledge him – as Iain Duncan Smith once famously said, “do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.” (Do I imagine the faint resemblance?) In any case, MacWhirter seems happy to sit quietly and let the other two have their fun, before getting stuck in to the thrills of the debate over substandard feedback.

“I think we’ve got to be careful not to set students against staff here, because the teaching at Edinburgh is generally of the highest standard,” says MacWhirter.

“But some academics see teaching as something that gets in the way. We have to find a way in which teaching can be rewarded, so it can be built into the promotion prospects of academics.”

MacWhirter’s clearly done enough market research to identify the foremost student gripe – even if it’s not entirely clear how his solution is to be executed.

Galloway’s answer is similarly crowd-pleasing, as he calls for a relaxation of the emphasis on research. “The primary role is teaching,” he asserts, “and I think that Edinburgh University is out of kilter on this – there’s too much research and not enough teaching, and I’m for a shift in that balance.”

Ever the populist, Galloway echoes sentiments that are muttered by students across UoE campuses – but Foulkes is not impressed. “The two shouldn’t be seen in competition,” he insists. “Good research can be used to help teaching.” Foulkes’s refusal to prostrate himself before student opinion is refreshing; still more refreshing is the sudden realisation that the candidates

are talking about something other than each other.

Keen to take advantage of this rare moment of calm, I bring up the recent fighting in Gaza – a territory whose people’s plight led the University and College Union to look into a blanket boycott of Israeli academics, in 2007. Would the candidates support such a move?

“I supported the UCU’s stand on it,” says Galloway. “I support the same approach being taken to Israel as we took to apartheid South Africa.”

Foulkes, who spent time in Palestine as a development minister, disagrees.

“There are people in Israeli universities who are vehemently against what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza,” he tells Galloway. “We should not be isolating Israeli academics who are strongly against the war as you are.”

This doesn’t wash with MacWhirter, who echoes Galloway’s support for a boycott. “I think you have to make moral choices, and this is a very clear one,” he says. Well, not according to the UCU itself, which was forced to admit publicly that its proposed boycott “would be unlawful and cannot be implemented.”

In his eagerness to follow what he believes to be the student line, it seems MacWhirter has forgotten the first law of journalism: don’t forget to check the facts.

Galloway’s responsibilities to his London constituency have provoked concerns that he would be unable to serve Edinburgh as a “hands-on” rector – a suggestion that he dismisses, inevitably, by reference to his former Labour colleague. “Lord Foulkes’s job’s not based in Scotland,” he jibes.

“No, no, my job is based in Scotland,” blusters Foulkes, who seems to have been taken off guard. Galloway goes in for the kill. “I’ve got your expenses claim!” he triumphantly tells his rival.

“You spend a lot of time in Westminster according to your expenses claim.”

“Well, more than you,” retorts Foulkes. “You’re never there, George!”

“I’m there every day,” Galloway proudly replies.

As for me, I’m confused: wasn’t this a tussle over which spends the least time

at Westminster? In any case, the message is clear: if you think I’m bad, you should see the other fellow.

MacWhirter looks a little smug as he strokes his non-political credentials. “I don’t think the skills of being a politician, how ever elevated, are necessarily the appropriate skills for being a rector,” he says. “And I’ve found that there’s a lot of suspicion of politicians among students.”

Foulkes isn’t letting him get away with that. “Maybe part of the reason they’re cynical about politicians is some of the things that Iain has written over the last few years or decades,” he snipes.

For all their recognition of our disillusionment with mainstream politicians, the candidates are steadfast in their defence of students against charges of apathy. “I went to the Edinburgh Global Partnership,” relates Foulkes, “and I happened to speak to the people who are going to Malawi to build a road. I was really impressed by the commitment of them. And I think to say that students are apathetic is completely wrong.”

But student GMs are rarely quorate, I protest. MacWhirter is having none of it: “I was at this university in the 1970s, the high tide of student radicalism...”

Foulkes wants his share of the bragging rights. “No, no, no! ’69 was the high tide,” he recalls with a sublimely wistful air. What was it, I wonder: the sex, the drugs or the rock ‘n’ roll? Best not to ask.

“I would say that students today are far better informed about the issues,” resumes MacWhirter, “than they were in my day, when all you needed to do was shout ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Out, out, out!’”

As for Galloway, he seems positively misty-eyed as he attributes the low turnout at one lunch-time lecture to students “stacking shelves in Tesco, because they can’t afford to make ends meet” – touchingly ignoring the possibility that many might simply have stayed at home to watch Neighbours. Say what you will of these candidates’ quirks and flaws, each seems improbably fond of Edinburgh’s students. We’ll see how far the affection is reciprocated when the results come in.

24 Feature

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Freedom of speech: m China still has a long way to go when it comes to freedom of expression. But after the success of last year's Olympics, things are improving fast ADAM JAGGER BRAMLEY

Paul Traynor From Beijing

paul.traynor@journal-online.co.uk

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OUNTLESS TOURISTS CAME to Beijing from all over the world last year to witness an event that the Chinese hoped would be a coming of age ceremony for the country. A chance to show how far China had come in recent years socially, economically and politically—it was, in short, to be a proclamation of the nation’s modernity.

And in many ways it was. The opening ceremony was hailed as an example of the country’s innate ability to motivate and deliver, and China’s impressive medal tally demonstrated the drive to compete and win. But despite such display of development, the West—and

especially its press—has remained critical of the powerhouse in the East.

Issues such as the environment, political oppression, excessive security and land tenure, among others, are always on the lips of international pressure groups.

However, time and again one issue has proved itself to be one of the most contentious: freedom of speech and the press.

Like it or not, China is an authoritarian system and still fines, fires or imprisons members of the press who cross the line.

According to Amnesty International, in 2007 China had more journalists imprisoned than anywhere else in the world and, in the run up to the Olympics, it further “intensified” its efforts of media control.

So it’s no understatement to say that China has a patchy record with

the press—both foreign and domestic—and critics are often quick to cite numerous examples where the Chinese government falls short.

On 8 August—the day the Olympics opened—Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice President of the European Parliament, wrote in the Guardian that China was a “terror state” and that there was “no freedom of expression” in the country.

Of course, McMillan-Scott’s argument is not invalid. The Chinese government does not have the best history with human rights, but his article is typical of what the Chinese government sees as the Western press’s distorted view of China.

It is this face-off—of Western press angering Chinese government, and Chinese government rebutting Western press—that we saw time and again last year, as coverage of the nation reached a new high.

It was a busy year for China correspondents, beginning in January, when military police were called in to help battle snowstorms that battered the entire country.

In March the police were in the news again when violent riots erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, leading to the death of many ethnically Han and Tibetan Chinese.

If that wasn’t enough, in May the Sichuan earthquake exacted a devastating toll on the country’s south-western province.

Then in August we had the Olympics and soon after, in September, China completed its first spacewalk and a company called Sanlu provided the beginning to what would be the melamine contaminated milk powder scandal.

Late November saw the US-China Economic and Security Review present its annual report to Congress.

They claimed that China was gathering sensitive information through hacking American computers, and using their large stockpile of foreign currency in order to “manipulate currency trading and diplomatic relations with other nations.”

Beijing, of course, saw the report as another vilification of China in the Western press, and said the claims were “unworthy of rebuttal.”

We’ve seen a lot of these volleys of verbal cannon, but with the Olympics hoping to spur on openness and transparency, how do reporters in China feel about their day-to-day work now they’re over and done with?

Jonathan Watts, president of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Beijing, has seen a clear development in the way China deals with the media since he started covering China for the Guardian in 2003. However, he also states that development has mainly

affected how foreign correspondents work, and hasn’t had as great an effect on domestic Chinese journalists.

“There have been steps forward and steps backward, but the biggest step forward has been the introduction of regulations making it easier for foreign journalists.

“With regards to domestic journalists, the trend is in the direction of openness, especially over the last ten or 15 years. However, whether or not regulations like the ones foreign journalists have will come into force for them, I can’t tell.”

The regulations that Watts mentions came into effect on January 1 2007.

Their aim seemed to be that of promoting media transparency and openness – but they benefited only foreign journalists in China.

Among other clauses, they allowed journalists to interview anyone with only the interviewees’ prior consent, as well as to travel freely around most of the country.

Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council of the PRC

Feature 25

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

more than a game ADAM JAGGER BRAMLEY LYLE VINCENT

Paul Traynor lives in Shanghai and runs his own blog on life in China at http://ionlylikechina.blogspot.com

‘Chad’: A lone dissenting voice amid conformity Alex Taggart alex.taggart@journal-online.co.uk

M

“Overall though, it’s now much easier. Dealing with government officials, especially in Shanghai, is a lot easier than it was.

The media environment has opened up and China’s society as a whole has as well.”

ADAM JAGGER BRAMLEY

Watts added: “When I first arrived I had to get permission every time I left Beijing, and so had to break the rules quite a few times when there were more sensitive stories.”

“Now we can travel anywhere and talk to whomever agrees to talk.”

There was much speculation about what might happen post-Olympics, as the original regulations were due to expire on 17 October 2008. New regulations have since been released, however, with arguably even more leeway for foreign journalists.

The existence of rules and regulations allowing foreign journalists to more freely do their job is a major step towards media transparency, but Watts notes that one of the real setbacks lies with ordinary people’s attitudes to the Western press.

“In theory we can do those things, but the practice hasn’t changed all that much since I arrived, and this might be to do with people’s attitudes.

“The Olympics hoped to bring a lot of openness and transparency that it has brought to other Olympic cities; but whether attitudes have caught up it’s hard to tell. There is still a long way to go.”

It’s too early to say what long-term effects the regulations will have, but Watts cites an example of one Western journalist being stopped by the police shortly after the regulations came into effect. After some protest, producing a copy of the regulations and a phone call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was left alone. This, Watts says, would be unheard of a few years ago.

Duncan Hewitt, a journalist who opened the BBC’s bureau in Shanghai and has lived and reported from the country since 1997, echoes Watts’ optimism and agrees that the last few years have seen monumental developments in the ease with which he can do his job.

“The fact that they changed the rules is in itself a big change, although it puts the government in a tricky position

because they now have to balance sensitive situations within the scope of the regulations.

“Overall though, it’s now much easier. Dealing with government officials, especially in Shanghai, is a lot easier than it was.”

Hewitt, however, goes on to describe that China’s own domestic situation has also changed for the better.

“The media environment has opened up and China’s society as a whole has as well.”

His beliefs are highlighted by a recently released book written by American academic Judy Polumbaum and retired Chinese journalist Xiong Lei. The book, entitled China Ink, confounded beliefs that media institutions in China are run by an all-seeing, all-powerful xuanchuan bu, or Propaganda Department (they have now changed their name to something along the lines of the Publicity Department).

Journalists working for the state agency Xinhua, the People’s Daily and other bastions of the Chinese party press were interviewed by the authors and most talked of their ability to cover most stories they want to, even if it did anger authorities.

Tan Hongkai, opinion editor for the China Daily said: “Our opinions are entirely ours—not directly tied up with official background, as we’re often viewed, nor issued on someone else’s instructions.”

Interviewees in the book also make a lot of reference to one of the biggest issues in the media freedom argument, the Internet, as a tool for change.

Duncan Hewitt agrees, and sees it as one of the reasons for a more increased atmosphere of openness. He believes that it is now impossible for China to return to the old days of pure propaganda.

“The Internet has had a big impact, and for all its restrictions, it does offer a lot of places for people to say what they want to say. Now a lot of Chinese journalists are blogging a story when they can’t publish it.

“The days where you could just cover things up are over.”

ANY POLITICIANS, JOURNALISTS and religious leaders would give a lot for a candid interview with an average Chinese man. I would doubt, however, that they would be willing to conduct that interview wearing a borrowed pair of Speedos.

I was.

Let me introduce my Chinese Dad (my ‘Chad’). He’s 50 years old and lives in Dalian, Northeast China. He works an office job at Dalian University of Technology, the school where I’m spending my third year of university.

When it comes to politics, Chad has a thing or two to say. However bleak, his cynical perception of the current state of China is a refreshing contrast to the rosy picture painted in the national news.

The information I’ve gathered from my classmates, many of whom are also living with Chinese families, would suggest that Chad’s views aren’t popular among his contemporaries. The general opinion seems to be that whilst China’s abnormally rapid development may not be flawless, the improved quality of city life excuses the growing problems below the surface.

Maybe it’s because his family aren’t quite at the wave’s crest, but Chad, unlike others, refuses to measure China by the number of designer labels on show.

Though he openly doesn’t believe in Communism, Chad doesn’t seem to be able to forget about his less fortunate comrades.

He’s spoken with frustration about the connection between corruption and the Sichuan earthquake death toll, as well as the growing problem of graduate unemployment, which he claims is responsible for the rising suicide rate.

To trust my Chad is to trust a man who holds Mao Zedong personally responsible for his own nicotine addiction, and who often warns me that reading and eating at the same time is “bad for the brain.” Last Sunday, Chad woke me at 7am to go on a fifty kilometre bike-ride that I had apparently asked for.

(I have no such memory.)

Chad’s only child is his daughter, my “chister,” who, like most Chinese students, is unblinkingly focused on her degree.

Though the two evidently share a strong bond, I understand Chad’s keenness for a bit of father-son bonding. It’s lucky that I do, otherwise I’d probably object to the Speedos, which he insists are the only permissible attire for aquatic recreation.

Oddly, though, I find myself trusting Chad in spite of his peculiarities. He’s not only a constant source of entertainment, but a crazy little beacon of independent thought amongst a society that generally does as it’s told.

Whether his depressing predictions for the next decade come true or not, without them China’s “truth” is no more than an essay written from one source, with no references and a shoddy bibliography. Chad’s pushing for a first.

26 Arts & Entertainment Feature

The Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival

A MEMORABLE CLASH OF POLITICS AND PUPPETRY Lucy Jackson

lucy.jackson@journal-online.co.uk

Music

The Vivians

 Punk revivalists refute reports of the genre's death

CABARET VOLTAIRE 6 FEB Dan Moss

dan.moss@journal-online.co.uk

MEET ONE OF the stars of this year’s Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival: Paul Zaloom, a puppeteer who works from a garage in LA and describes himself as “a gay, Buddhist, agnostic, quaker, secular humanist knucklehead.” Focusing on politics in puppetry, Zaloom gives a talk on his attitude to political puppeteering and presents the festival with a puppet film based on Dante’s Inferno as well as a puppet theatre show, The Mother of All Enemies. Chock-full of gags and puerile humour, his works achieve a delicate balance between the profane and the profound. Darting out from behind his box theatre to address the audience, Zaloom intersperses demonstrations of complex puppeteering with stinging political messages. He’s also a consummate entertainer; what’s more, he’s clearly enjoying himself – and so are we.

Zaloom’s Inferno is set in LA, which, Zaloom notes, is already very much like hell. The eponymous hero is guided through the circles of torture, meeting familiar historical figures and coming to a realisation of the impact of his deeds in the land of the living. As Zaloom notes in his talk, The Divine Comedy was written as a political attack against those who had exiled Dante, and as such lends itself to polemic. Zaloom and his cofilm-makers have adapted it for the modern world, giving us the revelation that Dick Cheney is in fact already languishing in the lake of Cocytus, and what we see on Earth is an automaton – because that kind of evil is just so difficult to keep down.

Beautifully designed and filmed, Inferno demonstrates puppetry capacity both to entertain and inform.

Zaloom is a member of Bread and

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Puppet, part of the American experimental theatre movement. He points out that puppetry and ventriloquism often have a power denied to other mediums, in that an inanimate object is able to utter things that would be subject to censorship were they pronounced by a “real” person.

This is a central idea in another of Zaloom’s shows, The Mother of All Enemies, and the adventures of MiddleEastern puppet tradition hero Karagoz.

Living as a gay Arab in Aleppo, Karagoz is arrested by the police and put in prison. With the help of his fartgenie, he escapes and goes on the run, encountering terrorist training camps, American anti-gay camps and Guantanamo in his search for reunification with his lover, Henry. Zaloom draws some interesting parallels, whilst

maintaining a refreshingly tonguein-cheek approach. One of the most thrilling aspects of this festival is the wide variety of its productions, amply demonstrated by Nicole Mossoux’s Twin Houses, a piece that provides a contrast with the work of Zaloom.

Another highlight of the 2009 festival is the reappearance of 1927, who are back in Edinburgh for one night only, presenting their internationally acclaimed show Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Their success shows that there is a real demand for experimental and exciting approaches to theatrical development. Borrowing from cabaret, silent film and with the feel of performance poetry, 1927 captivate their audience from start to finish. The group’s “ten terrible tales” range from silent morality plays to the RICHARD DYSON

HAVING SAMPLED ONLY a couple of tracks by The Vivians, I sauntered into Cabaret Voltaire wondering what on earth a modern British punk band could contribute to a genre that had its heyday a couple of decades ago. It was a question that would have to wait, because on my arrival, I was greeted by impressive piano-driven pop melodies courtesy of Edinburgh three-piece, The Marvels.

The Marvels’ tight rhythm section operated as a canvas for the talents of the lead vocalist and pianist extraordinaire, whose dexterity on the keys was duly appreciated by the crowd. In particular, ‘Three Versions of Time’ recalls the high-pitched romantic musings of Air Traffic, while the excellent ‘Kissing and Breathing’ is as bouncy and catchy as anything by The Hoosiers.

Smoked Glass, led by smoulderingly good-looking vocalist John Keenan, enter to inform us: “We’re in the middle of a fucking crisis.” Their bass player has suffered some kind of injury, moments before going onstage – it’s all incredibly dramatic. Keenan doesn’t miss a note, but his out-dated Bryan Adams wailing in unconvincing ballad ‘Love Catastrophe’ is more suited to an X Factor audience than a crowd of new age punks eagerly awaiting the headline act.

Finally, on strut The Vivians, cutting a generically faithful picture. Great haircuts, outrageous apparel, and an effortless aura around enigmatic frontman Damon Deville. And it sounds fantastic.

Opening big single ‘Divided We Stand’ has one devotee forcefully ejected from the venue and Deville addresses the audience for the first time: “Hello you sexy fuckers. That’s one down, who’s next?” While the five-piece stick to their punk roots, they aren’t immune to contemporary influences—the disco beat of ‘Come’ reminded me of listening to Hot Fuss for the first time—but there’s no shame in repeating history.

As Billy Bragg put it: “Were it not for The Clash, punk would have just been a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.”

hilariously macabre creation of the creepy sisters whose playfellows never seem to return.

Carefully balancing the various mediums in which they work, and with a keen theatrical sense, 1927 constantly subvert expectations. Creating scenarios and guiding emotions with the slightest movements, the cast create a theatrical space that the audience is finally unwilling to tear itself away from. This atmosphere of creative communication reflects the ethos of a festival that has brought artists together from the UK and internationally in order to discuss the future of puppetry, animation and the visual arts. From the rising hubbub of excited chatter in the Traverse bar, it’s quite clear that Manipulate will prove a stimulus to the already thriving visual arts scene.

Art Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series

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CITY ART CENTRE UNTIL 15 MARCH SURELY BOB DYLAN—LEGENDARY musician, outstanding lyricist, film director and radio broadcaster—cannot be a convincing painter as well? Irritatingly, yes. Currently, the City Art Centre is hosting an exhibition of paintings by the artist inspired directly from sketches made whilst on tour between 1989 and 1992. It truly is a unique opportunity to see America through his eyes.

At the at the top of the escalator leading into the exhibition, hangs a large photograph of Dylan. He sits relaxed, but gazes intensely and confidently, and this confidence continues throughout.

Dylan’s style is deliberate and his execution appears effortless, so much so that many of his pieces maintain the energy and often unfinished appearance which make sketch such interesting window into the methods of an artist. Colour is fundamental to his work and his choices are convincing and assured. His many studies are taken from unconventional angles, through windows and framed by construction work. It becomes clear that he enjoys the beauty hidden in simplicity and subtlety of subject matter.

The exhibition open and playful and, in spite of Dylan’s galling talent, it is hard not to enjoy. His many accomplishments present themselves as clues to understanding “the man behind the music,” and this collection is not a disappointing lead. Through returning to these sketches almost two decades after their initial creation a new depth and lyricism is added to his work. There’s nothing illusory or elusive about this work; here is a solid and self-assured gaze at a new side to Bob Dylan as an all-round artist. [Kate Wieteska]

Arts & Entertainment 27

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Music

EU Sinfonietta: Peter and the Wolf

 Energetic performance of a well-balanced programme REID HALL 24 JANUARY Sarah Mitchell

sarah.mitchell@journal-online.co.uk

Music

N-Type

 ‘Dubstep heavyweight’ champions Edinburgh’s blossoming underground club scene

THE BONGO CLUB 30 JAN Paddy Loughman

paddy.loughman@journal-online.co.uk

IT’S EASY TO get caught up in the end-of-term concert rush, in which a mass of university societies take us on a well rehearsed journey through music history. It doesn’t half leave a gap in the market for a beginning of term concert, especially one with such a well balanced programme.

The programme of the newly-formed Edinburgh University Sinfonietta, under conductor Iain McLarty, takes us from a new arrangement to a new work to a world famous classic – a feat which, it must be said, they pull off really rather well.

Cecil Coles’ Behind the Lines provides a placid opening. It is a good display of the talents of the orchestra: an accomplished balance between sections is undeniably present and the harmonies fill the performance space beautifully. For what is essentially a reduced ensemble, the work’s emotional qualities come across well, and are brought together by a beautifully executed closing diminuendo.

Thomas Seltz’s violin concerto demonstrates a polished energy in its marriage of genres. Solo melodies couple the exquisiteness of classicism DUBSTEP IS NOT headphone music; nor is it something you can slap on in the background during pre-game drinks round Dave’s. True appreciation demands a behemoth club system that can reconfigure your insides. Dubstep grew up at Plastic People in Shoreditch, the original home of the infamous Valve Soundsystem, and bountiful chestrattling bass is its lifeblood.

Luckily the people at Volume!, Edinburgh’s increasingly popular purveyors of underground club freshness, possess such a sound system. Last week they invited us to enjoy it alongside the multi-award winning DJ N-Type, selfproclaimed “Dubstep Heavyweight.”

Promising to be big, or at least as big as it can get up in the chilly climes of one-DJ lineups, it did not disappoint.

N-Type’s reputation ensured a healthy attendance of devotees, whose money he earned by churning out a flurry of new tunes alongside massive crowd-pleasers like Caspa’s ‘Where’s my Money’ remix. Rewinds regularly punctuated proceedings, and he dipped into the jungle back-catalogue for at least seven responses to the chants of “one more tune,” to escort the beaming crowd home.

What came across so clearly was N-Type’s charming personality. There was no sign of the aggression or cocksure arrogance that is often associated with his peers. Meeting him outside beforehand, he bubbled with as much enthusiasm and giddy excitement as the punters queuing up alongside him – a rarity, particularly with big DJs making the journey this far north.

For newcomers, allowing them to be welcomed into the fray without fear of alienation is all-important.

It is also why Volume! succeeds: despite having their ears firmly pressed to the street, the organisers manage to keep their feet there too. There is no pretension; just a desire to share their love of what has become a worldwide, but still acutely British, phenomenon.

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THEATRE THEATRE ART THEATRE THEATRE MUSIC

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with the unknown of the 21st century, the outcome of, say, Shostakovich in a particularly adventurous mood.

Violinist Aaron McGregor delivers a solo which demonstrates flawless mood changes alongside true emotive coherence. Occasionally his sound is lost amidst the orchestra, but the balance is generally good. Despite giving a moving performance, the work could definitely benefit from larger orchestral forces. The outer movements in particular deserve an accentuation of the energy portrayed this evening.

Prokofiev’s iconic Peter and the Wolf fits the ensemble perfectly.

Serene pastoral sections are expressively portrayed while sporadic darker passages are punctuated ominously by the lower strings and brass.

Careful use of brass does accentuate the tranquil quality possessed by the work (as Strauss said: “Never look at the trombones – you’ll only encourage them”). Narrator Nigel Osborne instils his infectious enthusiasm, breathing life into the work which is appreciated by newcomers and seasoned listeners alike.

Feature

Diana and Actaeon

NEVER MIND THE FUSS OVER THE PRICE TAG – TITIAN'S MASTERPIECE IS AN ARTWORK THAT STILL HAS THE POWER TO INSPIRE, AS ECA'S COLLABORATIVE TRIBUTE DEMONSTRATES

Rachael Cloughton

rachel.cloughton@journal-online.co.uk

ON THE HORIZON...

MUSIC Emmy The Great

Cabaret Voltaire 14 February, £8.50 One of your last chances to catch the much touted Emma Lee Moss before she really hits the big time.

Sweet Jesus

Bedlam Theatre 10-14 February Four couples fight for love whilst Marilyn Monroe falls through a TV in this new comic drama.

ART

Basement Jaxx

25 Years of Photography

THEATRE

My Love, and Native Land, Farewell

Corn Exchange 17 February, £22.50 Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe show Edinburgh just why they’re considered the godfathers of the British electronica movement.

Les Ballets Trockaderos de Monte Carlo

Festival Theatre 20 & 21 February, £14-25 A loving knowledge of dance blended with a brilliant comic approach.

FROM START TO finish, the five-month long acquisition to secure Titian’s Diana and Actaeon has been, like the painting itself, an extraordinary tale of drama and controversy. However, unlike the ill-fated Actaeon it features, on Monday the National Gallery announced that a happy ending had finally been reached and that the masterpiece lay safely in the hands of the nation.

The popping champagne corks and cheers of joy from the art world have been somewhat overshadowed, however, by the grumblings of those refusing to embrace the miniscule fragment of Titian’s masterpiece they can now claim to own. A landmark national success story has been tinged by the pessimism of a public echoing Glasgow South West MP Ian Davidson’s outrage at a £50 million price-tag for a painting by an artist “very few people will ever have heard of.” The Scottish Government’s pledge of £12.5 million seems to have added salt to the wound, sparking internet posts which question “how dare anybody spend public money on this painting in the name of the people?”

The ethos behind such generous expenditure, especially during an economic crisis, is easy to question – but as Culture Minister Linda Fabiani explains: “this is a significant investment in Scotland’s future, securing a collection worth many millions of pounds for future generations at a fraction of the market cost.”

With a significant tourist draw— predicted to generate £27 million a year from half day visits to the National Gallery—and at £100 million less than its market value, this is a bargain masterpiece which will beat anything you’ve found in the January sales. Surely this can lay to rest the worries, maybe even bring a smile to the face of even the most frugal Scot?

If not, then I suggest it’s time to look beyond the financial worth of the painting.

Titian’s Diana and Actaeon, which has been available for public display since 1806, is a work engraved in our heritage and a magnificent feat of human endeavour that should continue to be celebrated and conserved for the nation regardless of the origin of the painter. If we have to get nationalistic about it, think what a huge coup it is for Scotland.

The list of British artists who claim their access to Titian’s masterpiece has inspired their craft is strictly A-list.

Lucien Freud described the painting and its pendant work, Diana and Callisto—whose fate still hangs in the balance—as his “absolute favourites,”

National Gallery of Scotland 14 February - 19 April, free This small exhibition is designed to show some of the wealth of Scottish photography collected for the nation in the last twenty-five years.

City Art Centre 7 February - 22 March, free In response to the Homecoming Scotland celebration, the City Art Centre sets out to find the roots of the Scottish diaspora.

whereas Tracey Emin, true to form, freely discussed Actaeon’s “rather large member” as a focal point of the piece.

John Bellany, Bridget Riley, Howard Hodgkin and Michael Craig-Martin also lent support proving that, even 450 years on, Titian still has a place in the heart of contemporary artists over a wide range of disciplines and styles.

But if you are struggling to see the influence of Titian’s painterly style on the modern world, perhaps his legacy will resonate stronger at Edinburgh College of Art. For it is here that the “youth of today” have been tirelessly working on a large scale reproduction of Diana and Actaeon. This demonstration of the enduring influence of an Old Master upon art students is explicit, and the hybrid mix of Renaissance and contemporary practice is, as you would expect, wonderfully interesting.

Taking a composite form, the collaborative piece consists of 56 panels upon which each of the second year painting students can project their own individual response to the masterpiece.

From the beautifully executed heads of Diana and Actaeon, to the rather edgy neon painted nymphs and the perfectly scaled photo of Actaeon’s torso, the project seems far from amateurish.

With every piece echoing the originality of its creator whilst fitting harmoniously with its counterpart it is a fantastic tribute to the Titian campaign. It has even attracted attention from top dogs at the National Gallery, with director-general John Leighton describing it as “a wonderful example of the power and impact of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon, and the role a major masterpiece can play in inspiring art students today.”

The doubters, one hopes, are silenced now – content in the knowledge that the financial, cultural and educational rewards Diana and Actaeon brings will far outweigh the relatively small cost it took to secure it. It is a gift to the nation which just keeps giving. I stood in front of the Titian today, surrounded by crowds drawn to see a work which has become almost iconic in the past few months.

Its exquisite painting style, fleeting composition perfectly leading a dramatic narrative, and masterful use of colour could spark little criticism. Like those who stood around me, it was hard to draw the eye away but eventually I did, safe in the knowledge I could come back, anytime, free of charge and access this painting that I now, like the rest of the nation, can claim to own. And if that is not something to celebrate, particularly in times of economic struggle and crisis, I don’t know what is.

Property

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Bruntsfield Leamington Terrace, 750, 2, 2D G Z, 0870 062 9446 Bruntsfield Place, 650, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9592 Brougham Street, 525, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0870 062 9558 Montpelier Park, 1360, 4, 1S 3D G CG Z, 0870 062 9362 Barclay Place, 1290, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Gillespie Place, 1260, 3, 3D G O, 0870 062 9324 Gillespie Place, 1200, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Bruntsfield Place, 1100, 3, 3D G O, 0870 062 8252

Canongate Canongate, 495, 1, G CG Z, 0870 062 9320

Canonmills Rodney Place, 625, 2, 2D W CG P, 0870 062 9446 Ettrickdale Place, 500, 1, 1D G CG P, 0870 062 9594

Carrick Knowe Carrick Knowe Avenue, 880, 4, 4D G PG O, 0870 062 9302

Central Caledonian Place, 650, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9468 Montgomery Street, 625, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9234 Lothian Road, 525, 1, 1D Z, 0870 062 9334 Crighton Place, 1650, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Carlton Terrace, 1250, 2, 2D G PG, 0870 062 9300 Parliament Square, 1200, 2, 2D G Z, 0870 062 9478 Lothian Road, 1050, 3, 3D G CG, 0870 062 9302 Merchant Street, 1000, 4, 1S 3D E Z, 0870 062 9326

South Charlotte Street, 1000, 2, 2D G Z, 0870 062 9478

Colinton Colinton Road, Reholme House, 1100, 2, 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9478

HOW TO USE THE LISTINGS Meadows

Area Agent phone number

Buccleuch Street, 750, 2, 2D W CG Z, 0870 062 9434

Colinton Mains Colinton Mains Drive, 585, 1, UF G PG O, 0870 062 9234 Colinton Mains Loan, 550, 2, 2D G PG P, 0870 062 9460

Bedrooms Monthly Rent Location

Comely Bank

Bedrooms: Heating: Garden: Parking: Furniture:

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

Comely Bank Row, 550, 1, 1D CG Z, 0870 062 9320

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Craiglockhart Craiglockhart Dell,, 620, 2, UF 2D G P, 0870 062 9324

Crewe Toll Pilton Avenue, 595, 2, 2D G PG P, 0870 062 9384 Royston Mains Place, 525, 2, 2D G, 0870 062 9384 Ferry Road Avenue, 525, 3, UF , 0870 062 9384

Dalry Downfield Place, 960, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Caledonian Place, 950, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Duff Street, 750, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Duff Street, 700, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Murieston Crescent, 700, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Murieston Crescent, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Richmond Terrace, 650, 2, 2D G Z, 0870 062 9592 Caledonian Place, 650, 2, UF 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9558 Orwell Place, 595, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9334 Dalry Road, 525, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0870 062 9382 Orwell Place, 525, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9334 Duff Street, 475, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9326 (3F3) Caledonian Place, 450, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9434 Caledonian Place, 450, 1, 1D CG O, 0870 062 9320 Downfield Place, 450, 1, 1D CG Z, 0870 062 9326 Hermand Crescent, 1050, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Davidsons Mains Corbiehill Road, 485, 1, 1D G, 0870 062 6782

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Easter Road Hawkhill Close, 900, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9522 Alva Place, 720, 3, 3D 1B G PG O, 0870 062 9522

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Edinburgh Leopold Place, 825, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Colinton Mains Drive, 605, 2, 2D G PG P, 0870 062 9478 Redhall Crescent, 590, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Chester Street, 1330, 4, 1S 3D, 0870 062 3700 Grindlay Street, 1030, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Ferry Road East Pilton Farm Crescent, 700, 2, UF 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9320 East Pilton Farm Avenue, 660, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9302

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Gorgie Gorgie Road, 650, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9334 Caledonian Road, 610, 2, 2D Z, 0870 062 9324 Gorgie Road, 600, 2, 2D E CG O, 0870 062 9558 Gorgie Road, 500, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9234 Stewart Terrace, 500, 1, 1D E PG O, 0870 062 9592 Gorgie Road, 495, 1, 1D O, 0870 062 9324 Wheatfield Terrace, 495, 1, G O, 0870 062 6782 Smithfield Street, 475, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 3768 Wheatfield Street, 475, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9460 Wardlaw Place, 450, 1, 1D E CG O, 0870 062 9592 Wardlaw Street, 450, 1, 1D E O, 0870 062 9312 Wardlaw Street, 450, 1, 1D CG O, 0870 062 9312 Stewart Terrace, 430, 1, W CG O, 0870 062 9688 Downfield Place, 400, 2, 1D 1B CG O, 0870 062 9342 Gorgie Road, 400, 1, 1D G O, 0870 062 3768

Grange Grange Loan, 750, 3, 1S 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9234

Granton Colonsay Close, 850, 3, 1S 2D G P, 0870 062 9522 Colonsay View, 850, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9234 Saltire Street, 510, 1, UF 1D G P, 0870 062 9388

Grassmarket Websters Land, 470, 1, 1D W, 0870 062 9434

Haymarket Torphichen Street, 795, 2, 2D G PG Z, 0870 062 9474 Morrison Street, 750, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Grove Street, 575, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Upper Grove Place, 550, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 1108 Morrison Street, 1420, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, 1400, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, 1400, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, 1370, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, 1360, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, 1288, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Morrison Street, Haymarket, 1125, 3, 3D G Z, 0870 062 2406 Morrison Street, 1000, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Hillside Montgomery Street, 580, 1, 1D G Z, 0870 062 9320 Brunswick Street, 1300, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Montrose Terrace, 1005, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Leith Great Junction Street, 960, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Cables Wynd, 895, 3, 1S 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9460 Madeira Street, 775, 1, 3D, 0870 062 2418 Balfour Place, 750, 2, 2D G O, 0870 062 9384 Easter Road, 700, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Water Street, 700, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Easter Road, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Easter Road, 675, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Iona Street, 650, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9424 Edina Street, 640, 2, 2D G O, 0870 062 9522 Giles Street, 625, 2, 2D E CG P, 0870 062 9558 Springfield Street, 625, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9320 Lindsay Road, 625, 2, UF G P, 0870 062 2414 Stead’s Place, 620, 2, 1S 1D G P, 0870 062 9592 North Fort Street, 600, 3, 1S 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9592 Albert Street, 600, 2, G CG O, 0870 062 9238 Bethlehem Way, 600, 2, 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9558 Albert Street, 590, 2, 2D G Z, 0870 062 9478 Giles Street, 575, 2, 1S 1D G O, 0870 062 6772 Brunswick Road, 550, 2, 2D G O, 0870 062 9488 Iona Street, 550, 2, 1S 1D, 0870 062 3700 Prince Regent Street, 550, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9688 (1F1) Lorne Street, 535, 2, UF 2D 1B CG O, 0870 062 9434 (3F3) Lorne Street, 525, 1, UF G CG O, 0870 062 9434 Lindsay Road, 495, 1, 1D P, 0870 062 2414 Albert Street, 475, 1, CG O, 0870 062 9238 Sloan Street, 475, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9320 Kirk Street, 1625, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Smith’s Place, 1500, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700

Wellington Place, 1500, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Leith Walk, 1350, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Easter Road, 1280, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Easter Road, 1200, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Easter Road, 1200, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700

Leith Walk Dalmeny Street, 900, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Haddington Place, 850, 4, 2S 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9688 Kirk Street, 850, 3, 3D G O, 0870 062 9234 Springfield Street, 650, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9488 Papermill Wynd, 640, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9488 Springfield Lane, 625, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Crighton Place, 595, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9460 Sloan Street, 495, 1, 1D W CG O, 0870 062 9460 Albert Street, 485, 1, 1D E O, 0870 062 9446 Buchanan Street, 450, 1, 1D, 0870 062 9348 Smith’s Place, 1600, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Crown Street, 1290, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Crighton Place, 1250, 5, 1S 4D G, 0870 062 9468 Dalmeny Street, 1200, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Liberton Kilngate Brae, 700, 3, 1S 2D G PG P, 0870 062 9424 Captains Drive, 680, 3, 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9522

Little France Craigour Drive, 650, 2, 2D P, 0870 062 9592

Lochend Loganlea Drive, 575, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9384

Marchmont Whitehouse Loan, 850, 2, 2D G CG P, 0870 062 9592 Warrender Park Road, 650, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9334

Maybury Glasgow Road, 750, 3, 1S 2D G P, 0870 062 9334

Meadowbank Portobello Road, 650, 3, 1S 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9468 Meadowbank Place, 625, 2, 2D E CG O, 0870 062 9382 Meadowbank Terrace, 625, 1, 1D, 0870 062 3700

Meadows (2F2) Boroughloch Square, 500, 1, UF 1D E P, 0870 062 9434

Morningside Balcarres Street, 950, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Balcarres Street, 750, 3, 2S 1D G CG O, 0870 062 8252 Craighouse Gardens, 735, 3, 3D E CG P, 0870 062 9302 Comiston Road, 725, 2, 1B G CG Z, 0870 062 9478 West Savile Gardens, 695, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9302

PROPERTY LISTINGS PROVIDED BY WWW.CITYLETS.CO.UK

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New Town East Broughton Place, 895, 2, UF 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9424 Barony Street, 780, 2, 2D W CG Z, 0870 062 9688 Dundas Street, 700, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 1108 Gayfield Street, 700, 1, 1D P, 0870 062 9320 St. Bernards Crescent, 575, 1, 1D W CG Z, 0870 062 9320 Eyre Place, 1950, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9300 Gloucester Place, 1800, 5, 5D G Z, 0870 062 9446 Northumberland South East Lane, 1550, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9300

Newhaven Bathfield, 495, 1, 1D G O, 0870 062 9594 Hawthornvale, 450, 1, 1D W CG O, 0870 062 3768

Newington Buccleuch Terrace, 950, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Dalkeith Road, 930, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 East Crosscauseway, 925, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0870 062 9558 Buccleuch Terrace, 900, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Orrok Lane, 770, 0, , 0870 062 3700 Orrok Lane, 770, 0, , 0870 062 3700 Blackwood Crescent, 700, 2, 2D G O, 0870 062 9488 Ratcliffe Terrace, 700, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 West Savile Terrace, 700, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9424 Blackwood Crescent, 650, 2, 1S 1D G CG Z, 0870 062 9688 Parkside Terrace, 650, 2, 1S 1D E P, 0870 062 9320 St. Leonards Street, 625, 2, UF 2D G CG O, 0870 062 6772 Gilmours Entry, 620, 2, 1S 1D G P, 0870 062 9322 West Nicolson Street, 600, 2, 2D W Z, 0870 062 9434 East Parkside, 510, 1, 1D E P, 0870 062 9592 West Preston Street, 470, 1, E Z, 0870 062 9558 Lutton Place, 2050, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 Parkside Terrace, 1900, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700 West Preston Street, 1500, 4, 4D, 0870 062 3700 Mayfield Road, 1400, 4, 4D, 0870 062 9316 West Nicolson Street, 1230, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Montague Street, 1080, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Newington Road, 1080, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Rankeillor Street, 1080, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Causewayside, 1060, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Montague Street, 1050, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 St Leonards Street, 1050, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700 Blackwood Crescent, 1010, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Old Town Forrest Road, 99, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0870 062 3704 Calton Road, 900, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 8694 Bristo Place, 870, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 High Street, 795, 2, E, 0870 062 3780 Cockburn Street, 500, 1, E O, 0870 062 1108 High Street, 1150, 3, 3D, 0870 062 3700

Oxgangs Oxgangs Crescent, 550, 2, G PG O, 0870 062 1316

Peffermill Drybrough Crescent, 525, 2, UF 2D G P, 0870 062 2414

Pilton West Pilton Grove, 700, 3, UF 3D G CG O, 0870 062 9234 West Pilton Street, 625, 2, 2D E PG P, 0870 062 9302

Polwarth Dundee Terrace, 750, 2, 2D, 0870 062 3700 Bryson Road, 650, 2, 2D W O, 0870 062 8252 Murdoch Terrace, 600, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0870 062 9558 Watson Crescent, 525, 2, 1S 1D CG O, 0870 062 9334 Watson Crescent, 480, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 9522 Bryson Road, 420, 1, W CG O, 0870 062 9688 Polwarth Gardens, 1750, 5, 5D, 0870 062 3700

Saughton Broomhouse Grove, 640, 3, 3D G PG, 0870 062 3768

Shandon Merchiston Grove, 600, 2, 2D G CG O, 0870 062 9464 Shandon Place, 495, 1, 1D G CG O, 0870 062 3768 Cowan Road, 288, 4, 4D G PG O, 0870 062 9334

Sighthill Morvenside, 475, 1, 1D G PG P, 0870 062 9532

Silverknowes Ferry Gait Drive, 595, 2, 2D W P, 0870 062 9384

Slateford Hermand Crescent, 850, 3, 3D G P, 0870 062 9522 New Mart Place, 750, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 9592 Robertson Gait, 700, 2, 2D G P, 0870 062 6772 Moat Terrace, 500, 1, 1D G O, 0870 062 3768 (2F3) Appin Terrace, 460, 1, 1D 1B G CG O, 0870 062 9434ueensferry Farquhar Terrace, 575, 2, UF 2D G PG O, 0870 062 9326

Fashion 29

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

STREET

FASHION

Street fashion is a motif for the cultural struggles of a community and allows a distinct form of self-expression. Photos: Holly Priestman

Pageant also welcomes the support from students, who come in and hang out, shaping Marwick’s choice of fashion in new and exciting ways. So the future of Pageant? “More labels, more collaborations, more exhibitions and one-offs!”

Indeed, Edinburgh boasts a network of freelance streetwear designers. Self, aka Chewit, is a self-taught designer and graffiti artist based in Edinburgh.

Chewit immersed himself in street culture from a young age, and traces his style back to its origins: “elements of street culture inspire me in my design, notably my first love—graffiti—which is a big influence,” he says. Chewit’s creations boast trademark graffiti prints, artfully handpainted and inventively thrown against plaid, tweed, feathers or fur. He smartly handles a mixture of subtlety and energy, often embellishing just the lining of a jacket, or a breast pocket, but with a daring splash of neon brights.

Chewit is probably best known for

Helen Broadfoot, Shaunie Brett helen.broadfoot@journal-online.co.uk

S

TREET FASHION: A multi-million dollar industry born in the back streets of Brooklyn, circa 1980. A subculture of alienated, misunderstood youths formed a new identity, expressing their frustration and passion through music, leisure and fashion.

With increasing media coverage, and the joys of internet shopping, street clothing is becoming more accessible. And with its growing popularity, the high street has hijacked its success train. But genuine streetwear shops still survive. We may not have a Shoreditch in Edinburgh, but Old Town has some hidden gems of shops full of up-and-coming brands and DIY fashion.

Such a hidden gem is the small boutique, Pageant. It sells an array of men’s clothes with labels including Cheap Monday, Rockers NYC, Kate Moross, Married to the Mob and Homey Shambles, plus all kinds of vintage discoveries, from classic loafers and boat shoes, to rare Levis and Nike. Owner Dougal Marwick describes the clothes he sells as “playful, with nods to pop culture.”

Influenced by years

of travel and collective experience in fashion, music and design, as well as “classic albums, skateboard videos from 1989 and even weirdos from Finland,” the shop’s owners hold music and art at the centre of their mission.

Collaborating with local artists and musicians on in-store events and special get-togethers, Pageant has ties to artists such as LuckyMe, BomBom and Recoat, helping to spread awareness of the acts among its customers.

Reflecting on the current state of street fashion, Marwick comments that perhaps the current gloomy climate we live in is being reflected on the streets. He observes that younger generations are sporting more refined and “grown-up” styles. “It’s good to see the young ‘uns making a bit of effort and going for quality over quantity!

Less supermarket indie please – and more sensible shoes,” he advises.

Boots by Chewit

his work on sneakers – an avid fan himself, he devotes a room just to them, and owns many hundreds. Each pair is customised with streaks of contrasting colour, straight from the can, and no two pairs are the same.

This, Chewit explains, is the essence of street fashion for him: “I work for a wide variety of people. I try to appeal to their unique tastes whilst maintaining my own signature.”

On a very basic level, adopting a street style, customising clothes and splashing out in boutiques allows a distinct form of self-expression. The consumer, as Chewit explains, is often after “something expressive, diverse, that the high street cannot offer.” This perhaps explains why the subculture thrives in urban landscapes, where there is a greater need to stand out against the masses, and make one’s mark – whether with a paint can on a wall, or via the eclectic collection in one’s wardrobe. And it should also be recognized that evolutions in street fashion make an undeniable impact on what we see in mainstream chains mere seasons later, with echoes of “urban” and “underground” miles from their origin.

Street fashion acts as a motif to the cultural struggles of a community – representing the identity of a frustrated youth, before filtering upwards and ending up in an H&M window display. And while Chanel may have given women skirt-suits, street gave you skinny jeans.

Fin wears: LEFT: CTRL Thai boy chord, £39 in sale; Rockers NYC bodysnatchers tee, £20 in sale; CTRL ghost hood, £48 in sale.

TOP: Cheap Monday tight unwashed jean, £40; vintage Calvin&Hobbes tee, £18; Rockers Evol-eyes deck, £54.

BOTTOM: Cheap Monday tight unwashed jean, £40; vintage Calvin&Hobbes tee, £18; Mickey paisley waistcoat, £16; CTRL beanie, £26; Fjall Raven kanken rucksack, £35.

Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show 2009

Helen Broadfoot & Shaunie Brett helen.broadfoot@journal-online.co.uk THE EDINBURGH CHARITY Fashion Show hits the runway on 20 March, and we can expect a night to remember.

For 2009, the ECFS team are aiming to launch their charitable reputation skybound, with the theme “Revolution” and an emphasis on making a difference.

Over the past five years, the ECFS has showcased collections from Stella McCartney, Luella and Vivienne Westwood, appeared in Tatler, and raised £238,000 for charity, transcending the standards one might expect from a student organisation.

Press manager Giulia Frontini is keen to explain that the show represents “Edinburgh as a city, not Edinburgh University,” with contributions from local designers and financial backing from Edinburgh businesses. To this end, she hopes to attract a more diverse student audience – not just those lucky few who can afford to haggle for Sting’s guitar at the legendary VIP auction.

Tickets for students on the night are priced at £15.

Sticking firmly to this ethos, theatreminded director Polly Bennett has created a spectacle of a show that hopes to engage on many levels, involving interactive visuals, a lively set, and a chorus of dancers—”silent storytellers”—all adding to the drama of the runway. If such a “feast for the eyes” isn’t enough, ticket holders should also prepare for a knock-to-the-conscience, with a striking change in attitude this year to compliment the revolutionary theme.

The traditional flamboyance is being stripped away, replaced by a daring plea to take responsibility for our place in the world.

The motto of ECFS 2009 is “the sky is our limit: the runway our starting point.” But how far can a fashion show really make a difference, and how far can the conventional fashion boundaries be pushed? With the proclamation that “fashion is not only about pretty girls in heels,” the team clearly feels that no such boundaries exist.

Although the combination of dancers, multimedia and exotic music looks set to make for an entertaining show, perhaps a more interesting observation will be to follow the direction they take with the clothes – arguably the focus of the whole affair. How will this aspect of the show differ? How will their selection, styling and combination of clothes and designers support this notion of a revolt against tradition? At present, the designers to feature in the show have not been confirmed.

But there remains a risk that fashion becomes a mere accessory to the spectacle, swallowed up by the drama that surrounds it. But if fashion is, indeed, the primary focus, one hopes that it is set remain at the forefront, with music, dance and drama in supporting roles. If this is achieved, ECFS 2009 may truly be an accomplishment, worthy of a lasting legacy.

30 Sport

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Paterson aims to kick-start Scotland's success Lewis Mallen speaks to Scottish Rugby's all-time highest points scorer about his hopes for the remainder of the Six Nations SCOTTISH RUGBY UNION

Lewis Mallen lewis.mallen@journal-online.co.uk

I

T IS THE mark of an assured sportsman: despite Scotland’s 13-26 loss to Wales at Murrayfield on Sunday, Chris Paterson remains upbeat about the remainder of Scotland’s Six Nations campaign.

Paterson was named on the bench for Saturday’s clash with reigning Six Nations grand slam winners, Wales but was called into action after 26 minutes as a replacement for the injured Simon Webster. Indeed, having only played a game and a quarter for Edinburgh since returning from injury, Paterson remains optimistic that he is in the right physical condition to compete at international level.

“I feel in as good a condition as I’ve felt in a long time. I’ve not had a huge amount of game-time but I feel sharp, and because the injury was to my ribs I’ve been able to do a lot of work on my strength and fitness in the gym,” he says, confidently.

Paterson’s inclusion on the bench following a spell as something of a fringe player for Edinburgh can be attributed to the 30-year-old’s reputation as a utility back. Although he was deployed on the wing against Wales, he reiterates his willingness to play wherever the coaches see fit: “I’m happy to come on and play anywhere and I just desperately want to be involved in the games,” he says, adding: “I’ve played most of my rugby this season at fullback and I’ve really enjoyed that – but I’ve also enjoyed my recent game which has been at stand-off.”

Paterson’s adept kicking also makes him an almost instant inclusion in any match squad when he is fit: Scotland only managed to score a total of 69 points in their five games during the 2008 Six Nations championship, of

which Paterson kicked 42.

Worse still, Frank Hadden’s men only managed to score three tries during the 2008 campaign and continued to look impotent in attack on Sunday.

Paterson scored two penalties and a conversion during his side’s loss, though he refuses to claim that he warranted a starting place purely on the basis of his kicking.

But despite a worrying lack of tries in recent times, Paterson remains positive that the national team can start clocking up the five-pointers instead of relying on a place-kicker to boost their scoring record: “I think there is a better mentality towards scoring tries this year, and the appointment of Gregor Townsend as new backs coach has helped the backs with their creativity,” he says.

“He has had a lot of time with the backs this week. It’s going to take a long time to implement everything but it’s great to have someone with so much experience helping the squad.”

Indeed, Paterson offers his own tentative solution to Scotland’s points deficit, suggesting that the team should look to emulate Wales’ attacking, open style of play to achieve success: “Wales are flying high because they are scoring lots of tries and the goal for everyone is to emulate that style.”

Nonetheless, having failed to realise their attacking potential on Sunday, the Edinburgh full-back is under no illusion as to just how tough a challenge the Scotland squad face to turn around their fortunes in this year’s championship. “A good start is vital,” he says.

“One of the most important things is to get off to a good start. Because the Six Nations is condensed, the games come thick and fast and if you don’t win your first couple of games you are facing an uphill battle with a dip in confidence inevitable.”

Despite the opening round loss,

Paterson believes the progression shown by Scotland’s pro-teams this season should allow the supporters to retain a faint feeling of optimism ahead of this weekend’s away game in Paris.

He remains convinced that the squad’s strength in depth, and the accumulated experience of the players

will see their fortunes change for the better: “It takes time to develop the mentality and ability to win international games. The last few seasons have seen a gradual increase in the performance of the two Scottish club teams and this gives the national team’s chances a massive boost.”

With Scottish rugby supporters

waiting with bated breath to see what selection surprise team coach Frank Hadden next springs, fans can rest assured a fully-fit Chris Paterson will be present in any squad. Whether we will ever see him as a member of a winning Scotland side instead of being the only player to consistently threaten to score points remains to be seen.

MEADOWS MARATHON DIARY Week 1: the marathon diary is back! ESCA organiser Natasha Heald braves the cold for the first time since October Natasha Heald natasha.heald@journal-online.co.uk

A

warmth of my flat and walked the 30 seconds it takes to get to the edge of the meadows (yes, I really have no excuse not to run!) and started my first trip around, I actually enjoyed it.

Yes, I may have looked liked an idiot in my gloves and hoody and hat zigzagging across the paths to avoid precarious icy and frosty sections, and I am sure that more than one person thought “What an idiot…”

But, if you are new to running and are considering running this half marathon then starting your training during this cold spell is probably a good plan. You won’t sweat as much and, what’s more, you’ll have an increased desire to run faster in order not to freeze to death. And walking at any point is out of the question, unless you want to end up as a frozen addition to the Meadows scenery.

So over the next month I will be increasing my routine to near enough Sandhurst-like standards in the hope of achieving a super fast time – or at least being able to run all the way without stopping.

ROBERT VEAL

LTHOUGH I AM a regular runner and have competed in fun runs and 10ks, I tend to let myself go and dramatically reduce my running during the winter months. I am not one for the cold weather and hibernate between October and February.

But not this year. I am determined to get in good shape and achieve a good time for my biggest run yet – and I will be regular on the Meadows over the next month, training for the Meadows Marathon 2009.

This year’s event takes place on 15 March and, as press manager for the event, I am attempting to persuade many friends and family to compete, mostly through the use of patronising phrases: Iit’s only a few times around the meadows…it won’t kill you…”. So far, I have been rather impolitely told “no” by all.

So, in early January I increased

my training in preparation for the marathon, leaping on my moral high horse and berating all those lazy people who had refused to do something to raise money for charity – as well as being so good for your health.

I have since discovered that it’s a few times more around the meadows than I had originally thought.

However, never one to shy away from a challenge, I was, honestly, beginning enjoying pushing myself that little bit further. Or at least I was until the snow came and the weather turned that little bit colder. Although running in a heat wave is hardly desirable, running in temperatures close to those in the Arctic Circle is not either.

So this week I have run once. It took a lot of effort to prise myself away from my seat in front of the fire and put my cup of tea down to venture outside and run five times around and around the meadows on frosty and icy paths.

Yet, very strangely, once I had dragged myself away from the

Sport 31

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

SPORT

SHORTS SNIPPETS OF SPORTS NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE LAST FORTNIGHT SFA PLANS MEETING IN AID OF YOUTH

Big star in a small Galaxy Graham Mackay

Deputy Editor

graham@journal-online.co.uk

“S

AN SIRO”: IT simply sounds so sweet when you say it. Pardon the strained alliteration, but you must admit, as far as stadium names go, it’s up there with the best of them. Want to know what isn’t? The Home Depot Centre.

Anyone not in the know could be forgiven for wondering why I have chosen to compare an iconic European football stage with what is, seemingly, another country’s answer to B&Q; however, this is not the case. That ludicrous name in fact belongs to the home ground of none other than the Los Angeles Galaxy, parent club of the recently reignited spark that is former England captain David Beckham.

Indeed, by comparing the 84-yearold, 80,000-seater footballing Mecca that is the San Siro with the HDC, a 27,000-capacity ground built on a university campus in 2003, one gains a fairly accurate understanding of the gulf that exists between AC Milan and

the Galaxy.

Six games into his stint with the Rossoneri, Beckham has shown the world which side of this divide he belongs on, and it’s no real surprise that he wants to turn his fleeting sojourn in Italy into something a little more permanent.

Although we all thought Becks would unquestionably be the engine behind a surge in support for Major League Soccer, his spell across the pond has clearly not been the blockbuster that he, nor the MLS, had hoped it might be. Indeed, what began as a tinsel town romance two years ago has since become something of a Hollywood horror, with the LA fans raging at Beckham’s recent public statement that he wishes to remain in Milan.

Galaxy supporters have been swamping message boards over the last week telling Beckham not to bother returning to LA and branding him a sell-out who was only ever in it for the money. One incensed fan even demanded compensation for the signing of the former Manchester United and Real Madrid winger, writing: “Don’t even bother coming back to the US, much less LA. Because of this guy, we pay the highest ticket, food, parking and

merchandise prices in all of MLS. I want a partial refund for what this guy has given us.”

With Beckham voicing his feelings at one end, and the Galaxy fans making themselves clearly heard on the other, it would be difficult to imagine this epic career rebirth not taking place.

However, now that both parties have laid their cards on the table, the saga takes a slightly more dull and boring turn as matters are placed in the hands of the bureaucrats, with Milan’s lawyers attempting to negotiate a €17 million buy-out clause to ensure the 33-year-old can remain in Lombardy.

Of course, proceedings could only have dared to have ventured to this point without the consent of the Beckham household’s resident pants-wearer Victoria, who initially opposed the move until someone suggested that she move her “dVb” design studio from London to the fashion capital of the world – at which point she hailed the prospective transfer as the opportunity of a lifetime.

Understandably, Victoria had some maternal reservations over placing their three children in yet another school in yet another country, but if the welfare of her kids is her primary concern, which doubtless it is, then one would assume

that she’d be doing them the biggest favour by removing them from the reaches of certain fellow A-listers who might, at any moment, bundle them up in a space ship and blast off to the Galactic Confederacy in search of the Emperor Xenu.

Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh; I’m sure Tom and Katie are actually very nice people, and I don’t mean to slag off Los Angeles, but it never felt quite right having to watch one of the UK’s greatest talents ply his trade on the American stage. Britain has a fairly tragic history of rearing home-grown talent which has been permanently tarnished in a bid to further one’s career by heading Stateside: just think Jason Statham, Graham Norton, and, dare I say it, Robbie Williams.

Thankfully, should Becks’s people manage to seal the deal that will keep him at the San Siro, we may witness a much-loved soul saved from what could have been the greatest American Dream meltdown since The Great Gatsby. Despite the glitz and glamour of celebrity life in Hollywood, Becks is— and always will be—a footballer first and foremost, and in that respect will remain a big star in a very small galaxy as long as he remains in LA.

Edinburgh trampolinists bounce into BUCS finals AMADEUS FINLAY

Amadeus Finlay amadeus.finlay@journal-online.co.uk SUNDAY SAW EDINBURGH University’s Centre for Sport and Exercise play host to a crucial event in the university trampolining calendar.

The five-hour-long tournament, known as the British Universities and College Sport (BUCS) northern qualifiers, attracts university contestants from across Scotland and northern England to compete against one another in a bid to qualify for the final round in Bristol.

Edinburgh University’s captain, Sarah Aitken, told The Journal: “These heats happen four times per year and are a vital part in the development of the sport at this level. We are very honoured to have teams from universities such as Glasgow, Aberdeen and St Andrews as well as English competitors from Durham and Sunderland.”

A select panel of qualified and experienced judges judged the athletes’ skill, ability and creativity, identifying the best trampolinists who will advance to the final round, to be held in Bristol on 22 March.

Aitken will be joined at the BUCS championship finals by fellow Edinburgh representatives Shona Black, who displayed highly impressive skills during the northern regional qualifiers. Edinburgh trampolinists Catherine Determann and Catherine Lofhouse had already qualified for the finals due to their outstanding displays throughout the season.

Scottish Football Association regional club development manager David Drummond has invited a number of youth clubs to discuss the future of football at junior level.

The forum, organised in conjunction with the South East regional football partnership, will take place at Peffermill playing fields on 23 February. It aims to provide club representatives with an opportunity to discuss various issues with council officers regarding youth football in the region.

A presentation will also be made by representatives of PMR Leisure, regarding funding streams available to clubs.

Drummond will also be holding a child protection workshop on 16 February at Peffermill. The workshop will be free of charge to all coaches and volunteers from registered and accredited SFA Quality Marked Clubs.

SEASON LOOKS PROMISING FOR EDINBURGH’S BASKETBALL SIDES Scottish basketball league and cup holders, the Edinburgh Kings are in a strong position to retain their silverware this season, providing they succeed in defeating some of the league's lower teams over the coming weeks.

Despite the Kings’ impressive record this term, Glasgow Storm came close to causing the upset of the season when they narrowly lost to the capital side 69-67 in Portobello. Kings coach Danny Costello has warned his players against any complacency as they strive to retain Scotland’s basketball honours.

"We must beware of banana skins," said Costello, who has steered his men two wins clear of nearest challengers Falkirk Fury and three clear of St Mirren, with six league games still to play.

In the women’s league, the Edinburgh Kool Kats look set for glory following a comprehensive 75-55 defeat of champions St Mirren.

RAGAZZI NOT AMUSED AS EDINBURGH SWOOP IN FOR HERLEY Scottish volleyball side City of Glasgow Ragazzi have voiced their anger after Edinburgh pulled of a monumental transfer coup, snapping up Great Britain cap Jonny Herley from under their noses.

Herley, a former Ragazzi player, signed for the capital side just in time for last weekend’s top-of-thetable clash with Kilmarnock, having trained with the Glasgow club throughout the week.

“We were under the impression that you could not sign players after December 31,” said irritated Glasgow coach Tommy Dowens.

“Had we known that, we'd have signed him ourselves. He trained with us three times last week and then played with City of Edinburgh on the Saturday.”

32 Sport

The Journal Wednesday 11 February 2009

Sport

Behind closed doors With rain and snow seeing many a sports fixture cancelled over the last week, Graham Mackay steps indoors to check out the sporting scene at St Leonard's

U

NIVERSITY SPORT, SURELY, is all about muddy pitches, chilly weekends, the thwack of a ball on wood, etc., etc.? But with a plethora of cancellations across the pitches of Edinburgh’s universities, it seemed apt to venture indoors to discover which sports take place beyond the grass and astroturf of Edinburgh’s sporting facilities. It is with this noble aim in mind that I stride into the rabbit warren that is St Leonard’s Land, in the hope of happening upon some indoor sporting action.

Almost immediately, I stumble fortuitously across the university judo club, preparing for the upcoming British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) competition.

Much to my detriment, judo is a sport upon which I have gathered very little knowledge – that is, at least, until I spend the best part of an hour observing this Saturday morning training session. I am amazed to discover that a sport which I had considered to involve little more than rolling around boisterously on the floor is, in fact, extremely technical.

As I discover, various factors such as grip, balance and specific body positioning are instrumental to executing successful trips and pinning down one’s opponent in order to emerge victorious.

Judo competitions are classed by weight category, and training is carried out accordingly, with competitors practicing with opponents of similar size. The session begins in earnest, with the practicing of various moves, during which participants hone their skills performing an array of throws, trips, holds and pins under the auspices of club president and trainer Alistair McLeod.

After rehearsing individual tactics, participants are chosen for bouts of sparring under competition conditions, regulated by fellow players using traditional Japanese calls to referee the fights.

Despite what seems relaxed approach to training, Edinburgh’s judo players are clearly able to compete and win at the highest levels of university competition. Mr McLeod explains: “The club participates in intra-mural matches, as well as the Scottish universities league consisting of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, St Andrews and Aberdeen. We usually do very well; this year we’ve been stomping all over everyone. Our senior men’s team is undefeated in the league this year and is, I suspect, unimpeachable as winners.”

After seeing the adeptness with which Mr McLeod’s charges execute their hip throws, I opt against

GRAHAM MACKAY

questioning his boast. Indeed, recent years have seen Edinburgh’s judo players win an array of gold and silver medals in university competitions, with both the men’s and women’s teams proving themselves to be forces to be reckoned with. The senior novice men’s and women’s teams will be competing this week in a league match against Aberdeen University, and will be heading to Sheffield on 15 March to take part in the BUCS tournament, optimistic about their chances of emulating their Scottish success on a larger stage.

Continuing apace, my trek through St Leonard’s takes me to one of its many gymnasiums, where the university gymnastics club is holding a training session, allowing its members to practice various aspects of floor and trampoline-based gymnastics at their leisure.

The club comprises students of various levels of talent, ranging from beginners to qualified coaches, and I am surprised to learn from club president Tony McNicol that it has, in fact, only existed for two years, having been founded by students who continue to oversee the running of it.

A “come-one-come-all” philosophy is clearly in place, with the club welcoming members of all degrees of talent. As McNicol explains: “The club caters for all levels of gymnastics, from people of coaching standard to others who haven’t been into a gym since PE at high school.”

I find the club members practicing a range of gymnastic techniques including artistic, tumbling, trampolining, team gym and sports acrobatics, taught by the university’s six qualified gymnastic coaches – all of whom are full-time students. I’m even lucky enough to participate in a trampolining exercise, working on my summersaults under the watchful eye of McNicol.

Despite the club not yet being recognised as a member of the university sports union, members competed in last year’s British universities sports association tournament, finishing in fifth place – an admirable feat given the juvenility of the club.

February will see Edinburgh’s top gymnasts take on competition from around the UK in April, when the BUCS championships take place. As McNicol relates, competition at the top level of university gymnastics is fierce, and Edinburgh has found itself up against some stiff competition. “It’s difficult to make it into the top three when you’re up against the likes of Loughborough and Leeds Metropolitan,” he says, adding: “If we ever made it into the medals we’d be ecstatic.”

Falkirk edge Hearts out of Scottish Cup in fiery encounter HEARTS

0

FALKIRK

1

Elvira Kemp at Tynecastle elvira.kemp@journal-online.co.uk STEVE LOVELL’S 59TH minute header secured Falkirk’s place in the last eight of the Scottish Cup in a game which featured two red cards and much controversy.

Gary Glen was the most promising in front of goal for the home side and Andrew Driver looked dangerous when in possession with clever cut-backs failing to find the end result. But Lovell made the Tynecastle outfit pay the price for their poor defensive shape with a

looping header over goalkeeper Janos Balogh.

The most controversial moment of the game came when in form striker Driver appealed for a penalty after Dean Holden’s tackle before Marius Zaliukas and Bairns midfielder Scott Arfield were both show red cards.

The visitors finally claimed the majority of possession towards the end of the first half when Hungarian goalkeeper Balogh came out to claim Dean Holden’s high cross but mistimed his jump and striker Michael Higdon headed inches wide of the right-hand post.

The start of the second half saw the hosts maintain control and push Falkirk firmly into their own half. However, Lovell scored out of nowhere to give the visitors an undeserved lead. Zaliukas fail to clear Lee Bullen’s sweeping cross and from McNamara’s high ball back to the box the Falkirk forward confidently

headed the ball into the back of the net.

Seconds later, Hearts fans were shouting in protest as Driver looked to have earnt his side a penalty as he came down under Holden’s unjust challenge. After consulting the his assistant, referee McDonalded awarded a corner despite replays showing an unfair tackle.

The home side suffered their eighth red card of the season and a further blow to their Scottish Cup hopes when defender Zaliukas was sent off following a tug-of-war with Carl Finnigan.

Ten seconds into injury time, Scott Arfield was given his marching orders, following a second bookable offence in the form of a clumsy challenge on David Obua, however, Laryea Kingston was unable to convert the free-kick.

Moments later, Bruno Aguiar saw his free-kick blocked in the dying seconds, leaving the visitors’ slender lead in tact at the final whistle.