The Journal - Edinburgh Issue 61

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EDINBURGH’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE LXI

WEDNESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2012

EXCLUSIVE

Revealed: teething pains behind £18m Edinburgh College merger

IN NEWS /

Staff relations at breaking point over continuing job losses, days before vesting

3

IN INNEWS NEWS// 45 London Met head court One-horse race for to UoE rector Beleaguered university Peter McCollLondon will take over from granted judicial review Iain MacWhirter on 1 of March, controversial UKBA decision following uncontested election

IN NEWS / 5 Max Crema still in limbo No end in sight for the saga of EUSA’s suspended sabbatical officer, as unions rally behind him

Pat Barker’s history

The Booker-winning novelist sits down with The Journal to discuss her life and work

IN BOOKS /

15

What do the Hillsborough tragedy and Andrew Mitchell have in common?

Both suggest that even IN COMMENT / in the 21st century, Britain still has a class problem.

13

Dieter Roth’s diaries

Fruitmarket exhibition gives new insight into Fluxus artist Dieter Roth’s life and work

IN ART /

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2 / NEWS

@EdJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

THIS WEEK INSIDE THE JOURNAL...

Scotland for Obama

An Edinburgh student who campaigned for Obama this summer gives their view of the 2012 race

11

Fortnight in fashion

The Journal offers the roundup from a hectic fortnight for the UK fashion industry

VIEWFINDER

17 Mally Stelmaszyk

A quiet moment on a day of patriotic fervour, as thousands took to the streets of Edinburgh last weekend in support of Scottish independence

Government move to close controversial EU fees loophole Applicants will be required to provide proof of domicile in an EU country in order to avoid £9,000 RUK fees, education minister says Maria Carolan Staff writer

The Scottish Government is set to controversially close a loophole that has allowed students from other parts of the UK to avoid tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year by claiming European Union (EU) citizenship.

Currently, Scottish students and those from EU countries receive

free university education in Scotland, while other UK students must pay.

This move is to affect thousands of students here in Edinburgh; one example being Northern Irish students who were previously able to avoid UK fees by claiming Republic of Ireland citizenship under the terms of the Good Friday agreement.

Under new legislation set to come into place in 2013-14, resi-

dency is to be taken into account and students will have to prove that they have exercised their right to live in an EU state for at least three months before qualifying for free tuition.

The Scottish Government have said there is little evidence to suggest the loophole is being exploited and that the change is simply part of a standardisation process across all universities. Education secretary Michael Russell said the move

will “ensure a consistent approach across Scotland and provide clarity for students”.

Catriona, who is in her secondyear at the University of Edinburgh, currently benefits from the loophole as a Northern Irish student. She considers the closing of this loophole as a negative move which will prove detrimental to the financial situations of students like herself.

She said “As a Catholic, I see

myself as Irish above British so I feel it is wrong that students will no longer be able to receive free university education as a dual citizen of both the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.”

She did add, however, that the change was not unexpected, “I am not surprised by this move by the Scottish government. Realistically, I did not expect the loophole to stay around.”

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

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INVESTIGATION / 3

EXCLUSIVE

Tensions simmer between college chiefs and staff unions over redundancies

Allan MacDonald

Staff relations at new Edinburgh College are fraying, as an investigation by The Journal reveals government’s £8m underwriting of merger Marcus Kernohan Editorial director

The formation of Edinburgh’s new

‘super-college’ is being underwritten by millions of pounds in public funds used to pay severance packages, documents obtained by The Journal show, amid an increasingly unhappy response from staff and student representatives to the ongoing merger process.

The Scottish Funding Council approved £7.7 million in funding for the amalgamation of Telford, Stevenson and Jewel & Esk colleges into the new Edinburgh College, according to correspondence between college chiefs and the SFC — including £3.8 million earmarked for voluntary severance payments.

Edinburgh College, which is to be formally vested next week, will instantly become one of the largest further education institutions in Scotland, with an enrollment of around 35,000 students.

The merger plan was earlier hailed by the three participating colleges as an “exciting project to create a dynamic new college for the Edinburgh city region.”

The new college is seen by policymakers as a crucial pilot for the Scottish Government’s controversial post-16 education reforms, which seek to ‘regionalise’ FE by reducing the number of colleges in Scotland from 41 to 12. In an interview with The Journal, educa-

tion secretary Michael Russell said that college leaders “have been very positive about making that step, and it’s going to produce big benefits for learners in Edinburgh... there are a lot of different activities going on in colleges, and I think [Edinburgh College] is making sure that those activities are undertaken as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

But documents released under freedom of information legislation and interviews with sources at the college suggest a painful, expensive process, marred by uncertainty and significant job losses and set against the backdrop of massive cuts to the further education sector. Days before the merger formally takes place, staff are said to be “disgruntled” with the proces.

In a funding application dated 27 February 2012, the principals of the three constituent colleges warned of “the need to rapidly reduce headcount in all areas if the [new] College is to be viable.”

The document estimates the total cost of the merger at £17.6 million.

Facing a drop in annual grant income of £9 million over the next three years, the college’s strategic plan, as outlined in the funding application, forecasts £10.5 million in voluntary redundancies.

A spokesperson for the college told The Journal: “An allocation of funds for this purpose for the year 2013/4 has been agreed with the Scottish Funding Council. But it has to be stressed that these funds have not been drawn down and no final decisions have been taken on how or where these funds will be used.

“Edinburgh College does not come into being until October 1. All decisions on its future direction and strategy will be managed by the Board, who have yet even to meet.

“Until then we cannot comment on any future policy or operational decisions involving the College.”

John Martin, president of Edinburgh College Student Association, told The Journal: “The voluntary severance

scheme funded by the government has seen us lose 150 staff over the summer.

“The staff are dedicated to education and are working hard to minimise the effect of the cuts, but the worry I have is that staff are at risk of becoming increasingly stressed and as morale drops, we need to closely watch the effect on students.”

But a leading figure in the Educational Institute of Scotland’s Further Education Lecturers’ Association pegged the number of job losses even higher. Don Gluckstein, convener of the union’s salaries, conditions and services committee, told The Journal that 169 jobs had already been lost, including over 100 teaching staff. The target, he said, was for the college to shed 240 jobs over the next three years.

Dr Gluckstein, a lecturer in history at Stevenson College, said: “We have asked from the very start for an educational rationale for the merger, and we’ve never had it. Our view is that the merger is about putting through the cuts.

“If there’d been an educational rationale, there would have been much less disquiet, but because that’s missing, we are convinced that it’s really about enabling management to push through the cuts more easily.”

On 21 May 2012, in the first of two grant letters to the college principals, SFC chief executive Mark Batho wrote that funds would be made available before the merger date, “to enable the individual colleges to support voluntary severance schemes prior to the planned vesting day”.

But the submissions offer few insights into the precise nature of this staff rationalisation process, noting only that “the individual colleges would approach the exercise from different perspectives. Some may reduce management layers; others may have to stop offering areas of curriculum.”

Little is yet known the possibility of course cuts, sources said. It is likely to be a year before final decisions are made on curriculum alignment within the

new college. Staff unions at the college are understood to be unhappy about the process: one trade union activist told of a “quiet resignation” among staff. But in the short term, union leader Dr Gluckstein said, a negative impact on teaching was “inevitable”.

“They’ve spent a huge amount of money getting rid of people,” he said, “and there’s not a lot left to spend on education.”

“Even without the actual fact that it’s taking place in cuts terms, the disruption is inevitably going to be damaging,” he added.

The revelation last month that Mandy Exley, the former principal of Jewel & Esk college recently confirmed as the inaugural principal of Edinburgh College, was a leading contender for the job prompted an angry response from a major education sector trade union.

In a statement, the Educational Institute of Scotland said that they were “gravely concerned that one of the applicants for principal is currently in situ at Jewel & Esk College,” citing Denison survey results that “reported low staff morale, a lack of confidence in operational procedures and leadership, uncertainty as to the future and poor communication on the part of the executive.”

Ms Exley’s tenure at the Midlothian college had been marred by morale problems and cutbacks, one Edinburgh trade unionist told The Journal, earning her the derogatory nickname ‘Mandy Axely’.

But Ms Exley is not without her admirers: after her appointment earlier this month, college chair-elect Ian McKay said the board were “delighted to have someone of the calibre and pedigree of Mandy Exley lead Edinburgh College at the start of this exciting journey.”

The college will be formally vested at a ceremony at the Assembly Rooms on Monday 1 October.

Additional reporting by Gareth Llewellyn.

£17m for FE in draft budget Daniel do Rosario Political editor

The Scottish Government has announced its spending plans for 2013/14, in a draft budget which finance secretary John Swinney described as focused on jobs and growth.

Mr Swinney announced that he would be investing £17 million into further education, but the announcement has so far received a guarded response from student groups.

The National Union of Students Scotland were quick to point out that the figures cover up a cut of around £34.6 million in real terms.

NUS Scotland president Robin Parker said, “at a time of incredibly high youth unemployment and in a budget that was billed as focussing on growth, [the cuts] are simply unacceptable.”

But he welcomed the continuation of the Education Maintenance Allowance, which provides funding for 16 to 19 year olds in full time education, as well as increased funding to support university students — calling Scotland’s higher education system “the best in the UK”.

Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown put the real-term cuts to colleges at £50 million, arguing that Mr Swinney was simply putting back money that he had previously taken away.

Local government has also taken a big cut, with £955 million slashed from budgets, while public sector workers only received a 1 per cent pay increase to ease their pay freeze. Other notable elements of the budget include an additional £40 million investment in affordable housing, a three-year, £30 million green investment package for homeowners, and an employer recruitment initiative to encourage businesses to employ young people.

4 / LOCAL NEWS

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

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Portobello school Naked rambler jailed after plans stalled playground altercation Local conservation group launches successful legal action over use of ‘common good’ land Ed Davenport

A long-running battle for a new high school in Portobello has once again suffered a major setback. Campaign group Portobello Park Action Group (PPAG) have successfully stalled the developments after an appeal to the Court of Session.

Proposals for the £41 million school to replace an ageing building, first built in the 1960s on Duddingston Road, started ten years ago, and it now appears that they may never come to fruition. The community have condemned the obstruction, whilst Edinburgh City Council has said it is “extremely disappointed”.

Tom Ballantine, vice chair of Portobello High School Parents’ Council, commented that “This was a fantastic opportunity to get a wonderful new school.

It’s too early to know where this will go next.”

Paul Godzik, Edinburgh City Council’s convener of education, children and families, added: “I have instructed officers to look at the possibility of a further appeal and also to explore all other options.”

Back in February 2011, the council officially approved planning permis-

sion for the new school building to be built. However, the contract could not be awarded until the judicial review by the PPAG had been addressed. The PPAG sought legal advice, and discovered that the council needed court permission to build on the land, as it is known as ‘Common Good’ land.

The court has decided that the council acted without the appropriate power when it took the decision in April this year to use the land as a site for the new school. A quarter of the park would have been lost in order to accommodate the new school.

Earlier this year, Lady Dorrian delivered the news that the school would go ahead as planned at the Court of Session, only for the PPAG to launch their appeal.

PPAG spokeswoman Alison Connelly said, “Whilst we understand and support the need for a new high school in Portobello, our campaign has always been about preserving green space.”

However, she did admit the need for the imposition of a new high school in the area. “The proposal to build on Portobello Park has split people in and around Portobello and we appeal to the whole community now to pull together and urge the council to build a new high school at an alternative site.”

Stephen Gough was arrested in Fife after refusing to co-operate with police near a children’s play area Lydia Willgress Local News editor

Stephen Gough, a man dubbed the ‘naked rambler’,has been jailed for five months after he refused to put clothes on whilst walking near a children’s play park in Dunfermline, Fife on July 20.

On Thursday 13 September, the 53-year old former marine, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, was charged with breach of peace after he refused to co-operate with social workers tasked with assessing his mental health.

Sheriff James Williamson, at Kirkcaldy Sheriff ’s Court in Fife, claimed he had “no alternative” but to charge Mr Gough with a custodial sentence, after he refused to co-operate with the police and the public.

On Mr Gough’s proximity to the play park Sheriff Williamson said:

“You were given three options – one, change direction, two, cover your private parts, or three, enter a police van which would take you around the play park and release you on your way at the other side.

“Despite that, you refused, which showed disregard for other members of the public, in particular children who have the right not to see naked men. It shows arrogance.”

A spokesperson from the Crown Office said: “the actions of the accused made his arrest and prosecution necessary. Mr Gough intentionally caused shock and alarm to children and their parents.

“The evidence in this case clearly established that despite repeated police requests not to do so, he was determined to deliberately walk naked past a busy children’s play park in Fife.

“He knew that in doing so he would provoke anger and upset.”

For the last six years, Mr Gough has spent a large proportion of his time in solitary confinement in prison. This latest arrest came just three days after Mr Gough was freed from prison in Perth, Scotland.

The rambler insists he is not a naturist and argues that his actions are a “protest”.

Stephen Gough arrested days after leaving prison

Creative Scotland defends changes to arts funding Allan MacDonald

Planned changes to Creative Scotland arts funding will lead to “wanton destruction” of arts infrastructure, says prominent Scots artist Chloe Duane

Scotland’s

Scotland’s artistic future? Critics of Creative Scotland’s plans seem to think so

art

authority,

Creative Scotland, were warned that their planned changes to arts funding will lead to “wanton destruction” of vital arts infrastructure during the Scottish Parliament’s education and culture committee meeting on Tuesday 18 September.

The controversy surrounds the decision to move 49 flexibly funded organisations onto project funding through the Lottery, which comes with greater conditions, and by scrapping flexible funding in favour of yearly or project-by-project investment.

Scottish artist Matt Baker attended the committee meeting and argued that the body was “parachuting” arts projects onto different communities, and that centralised control would mean that “five people in a room in Edinburgh” were imposing decisions about culture on the country’s artists.

Mr Baker, whose work includes

the ‘Three Virtues’ in Inverness city centre, said: “In some of the rural areas we’re really lacking that representation, we’re really lacking a route into that situation to understand what portfolio managers are, how we can contact them.”

In a written submission last week, Baker argued for a more devolved structure to harness the “quiet revolution” taking place at the grassroots level all around the country, and that thought should be given to a “percentage for arts” rule in local council funding legislation.

Andrew Dixon, chief executive of Creative Scotland, vigorously defended the plans, but admitted that they had not got it right in terms of transparency.

“We are doing a brilliant number of things but we have not been good enough in getting information out about the changes,” he said.

He went on to say that by placing formerly flexibly funded organisations onto Lottery funding after their two-year commitment to a programme was finished, the organisations were simply being invited to bid for funding from a different programme.

Mr Dixon argued that “eighty per cent of what we do is invest in cultural organisations and artists on their own terms but twenty per cent will be done to try and address the gaps and build on our strengths.”

Mr Dixon also guaranteed that Creative Scotland would try to ensure that their work will reach all parts of the country.

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

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STUDENT NEWS// 5

London Met granted judicial review of UKBA decision Non-EU students at troubled London university will be allowed to continue studies until July 2013 Gareth Llewellyn Deputy managing editor, Glasgow

London Metropolitan University (LMU) has been granted permis-

sion to seek a judicial review after the UK Border Agency (UKBA) revoked its licence to sponsor international students.

The decision by Mr Justice Irwin in the High Court on 21 September means the university’s non-EU students with valid visas can continue or begin their studies.

The judge refused to quash the decision to suspend the licence, preventing further recruitment of non-EU students in January, with the outcome of the judicial review not expected until the new year.

London Met sought legal action against the UKBA, despite a report outlining considerable problems monitoring international students at the university.

As with the licence revocation decisions against Scottish colleges in February 2012, LMU disputed the decision, but the London university went one step further by challenging the decision through the courts.

On 20 September, the National Union of Students (NUS) announced that it had instructed leading law firm Bindmans to file a third party intervention to ensure that students’ voices were heard.

The NUS was granted leave to intervene in the case as a third party, and to present evidence at the hearing.

At the hearing, Richard Gordon,

QC for London Met, a leading silk in administrative and public law, constitutional law, human rights and civil liberties cases, successfully argued that the decision “was taken pursuant to guidance that was not laid before Parliament and which is referred to nowhere in the immigration rules”.

London Met’s case was supported by a previous judgement that such a decision is only lawful if it has been laid before Parliament, which had not happened.

Gordon argued that UKBA could neither declare the situation an emergency, nor say that there was “a requirement of fairness to allow the making of informed representations.”

He further argued that the UKBA could not say that any current student was such a threat to immigration control that it “justified so draconian a decision as revocation or indeed suspension.”

Lisa Giovannetti QC, for the Home Office, countered that fairness did not require the university to be given advance warning and an opportunity to rectify problems prior to revocation.

The Journal understands that there are no students studying at London Met without leave to remain, but it was deemed a significant contributing problem in the six months up to August, prompting the licence revocation.

A London Met spokesman confirmed to The Journal that its 2,600 non-EU students, including those about to start their course “do so with the assurance that they will be able to complete their current academic year or their course, whichever is the sooner.”

London Met (left) will argue their case against UKBA at the High Court (right) Liam Burns, NUS President, said: “We are delighted that as a result of our third party intervention, interim relief has been granted by the High Court to current international students who have been unfairly affected by UKBA’s decision.”

Speaking to The Journal, MetSU president, Ayoola Onifade, added: “The Students’ Union is absolutely happy with the decision of the High Court today, we are proud of the UK judiciary system. The system did not fail us.

“The Students’ Union will not relent in the campaign to meet the needs of

our students. Our main priority is the overall welfare of our students and we will not fail them with regards to putting them first.

“We will be supporting the students who wish to remain at our institution or want to transfer with the guidance from the court and what both parties will agree on.

“The international students were overwhelmed. Seeing the radiant smile on their faces gives the execs joy. Even those [students] who had offers from other universities said they will not be leaving London Met again. I confirm

that indeed they ‘are proud to be at London Met’.”

The long-term future of non-EU students at London Met remains unclear.

Burns added: “The future for international students at London Met after July 2013 is still uncertain and we need clarity as soon as possible.”

“This whole ugly episode has also thrown up wider questions about the treatment of international students in this country. Unless these issues are urgently addressed, the UK’s global reputation for higher education will remain tarnished.”

EUSA’s Crema still in limbo as trades unions rally round Wrangling over suspended sabb’s future highlights contested relationship between students’ and trades unions Callum Leslie & Greg Bianchi

Pressure is mounting on Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) to resolve the issues surrounding suspended vice-president Max Crema, amid continued uncertainty over the sabbatical officer’s future.

The news that Crema was suspended from the organisation for infringements was broken two weeks ago following an investigation by The Journal. It is now understood that Edinburgh University’s joint trade union committee has thrown its full support behind Crema in the ongoing dispute, and a senior officer from UNISON - Crema’s trade union - has been assigned to the case. A UNISON source told The Journal that this was because EUSA currently does not recognise trade unions, something which has been the source of much debate over the years.

EUSA have moved to clarify the situation in a statement. The statement explains that the union “quickly realised that our position was not clear cut, given that we have to comply with three separate but overlapping regimes of law, namely employment law, charity law and the constitution.

“Under the new EUSA constitution, the Trustees have greater powers to directly discipline a Trustee who was in breach of their duties. However, for reasons outwith our control, we have not yet transitioned into the new constitution.”

Legal advice presented to EUSA’s trustee board states that Crema could be removed as a EUSA employee and lose his salary, but he would retain his position as vice-president, giving him a strong position to take legal action to resume being paid. The only way he could be removed from his elected position is believed to be through a no-confidence vote at a general meeting which 300 students attend — a quorum that almost every general meeting for a number of years has failed to meet.

In a EUSA statement the issue of discipline was also raised: “We have come to the conclusion that the processes in place for dealing with sabbatical officer conduct are insufficient. The Board is going to act swiftly to remedy this situation, which will include the creation of a Trustee Board Code of Conduct and a review of the constitutional status of sabbatical officers (in both constitutions), which could lead to some constitutional amendments.”

General meetings were meant to be phased out in the new constitution, but an online referendum would not be adequate to remove an elected officer under charity law. Referenda are supposed to have replaced general meetings in the new EUSA decision-making structure but EUSA sources say the full transition to the constitution has not yet taken place.

Crema has now been suspended for almost three months and it appears that no end to the dispute is yet in sight.

Marcus Kernohan

Max Crema (right) with EUSA president James McAsh in Bristo Square last week

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

LOCAL NEWS// 7

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Edinburgh woman killed in Afghanistan Jeni Ayris, 46, tragically died in a suicide bombing in Kabul just three days before she was due to return to Scotland Lydia Willgress Local News editor

A 46-year-old woman from Edinburgh’s Morningside neighbourhood was killed in Afghanistan last week, during a suicide attack in Kabul which left 12 people dead.

The attack on 18 September targeted a minibus carrying foreign workers near Afghanistan’s international airport, including Jeni Ayris, who had been in Afghanistan for the last 14 months as the customer relationship manager for aircraft charter company ACS/BalmOral.

Ms Ayris, originally from Durban in South Africa, used to to run a café in the Tollcross area of the Scottish capital. She was due to return to Scotland just three days after the attack.

A spokesperson for ACS/BalmOral said: “We are in the process of notifying the next of kin and our main focus now remains with the families of the innocent

victims, who tragically lost their lives, our prayers and thoughts are with them, and all our staff remaining in Kabul.”

In a statement, friends and family of Ms Ayris said: “Jeni was a warm, kind and generous person with an everyday objective of helping everyone she met.She had a positive boundless energy which rubbed off on everyone, making her loss all the more hurtful.

“Jeni leaves behind a sister who is her only family, as well as a huge number of friends across Scotland and the world who are all absolutely devastated by her tragic death.”

Militant group Hizb-i-Islami have claimed that the attack was carried out in response to an anti-Islamic film made in the United States that was posted on the internet the previous week, and which spurred widespread protest in the Islamic world. The attack comes just days after two British soldiers were shot dead by a man wearing a local police uniform.

Ayris’ death marks just the latest tragedy in over a decade of violence in Afghanistan

Drop in crime during 2012 Edinburgh festivals Pavel Lunkin

Crime rates in key areas fall by average of 44 per cent during festival, official figures suggest Lydia Willgress Local News editor

Sophisticated new police surveillance techniques at work

Crime rates fell drastically during this year’s Edinburgh festivals, official figures suggest.

Between 1 August and 2 September 2012 crime rates in key festival areas showed an average 44 per cent decline on the previous year.

The biggest drop was in instances of violent and indecent crime, with 72 per cent fewer crimes of these types being reported compared to last year’s festivals.

Speaking to The Journal, Chief Inspector Gavin Phillip of Lothian and Borders Police praised his officers’ work, saying: “Police worked closely with partners in Festivals Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh Council, G4S and Essential Edinburgh as part of the policing response to this year’s Festival season, which aimed to prevent crime through a combination of enforcement and education.

“As well as maintaining a visible presence in the city centre through targeted patrols, police utilised plainclothes patrols and CCTV in order to detect offenders.”

The statistics were compiled by the Lothian and Borders Police, and focus

specifically on one of the beats in the Newington area, which includes large parts of the Meadows and other areas popular for short-let festival rentals.

Some revellers and festival workers said they felt safer than in previous years. Simon Thornton, who worked as a reviewer for ThreeWeeks Edinburgh, spoke to The Journal about his experience of the festival, saying: “I never really felt threatened or unsafe during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, even walking home in the early hours.

“There were so many people about and a good police presence that the only thing I’d be wary of were pickpockets targeting the large crowds on the Royal Mile.”

Despite this, crime rates were still up in comparison to June 2012, the month before the world-famous festival begins.

Sharp rise in Scottish domestic abuse rates Audit Scotland figures show 9% increase in reports of domestic violence Angus Sharpe

New figures released by Audit Scotland have shown a significant increase in reported cases of domestic abuse.

The figures show a nine per cent increase across Scotland, with the steepest regional increase of nearly 50 per cent belonging to the region patrolled by the Northern Constabulary, which covers the Highlands and Islands.

A spokesman for Victim Support Scotland said: “Any increase in the rate of domestic violence is a matter of concern and we are well aware from the work we do with victims how traumatic and damaging a crime it is for

individuals.

“However, we would hope that these figures will draw attention to the seriousness of this crime, which Scotland has to fight as effectively as possible.”

Alison Waugh, Secretary of Abused Men in Scotland (AMIS), told The Journal that a change in reporting methodology could have contributed to the sudden statistical increase.

Ms Waugh said: “We knew of the large rise in Northern (Constabulary) back in October 2011. This was caused, they told us, by a change in reporting procedures. The rise on the Audit Scotland table must refer to that rise and not a yet another rise for 2011-12.

“So, part of the reported total increase of nine per cent seems to be that rise in Northern that was explained by methodology, a year ago.

“When looking for a reason for the increasing figures, we should not only consider an increase in actual incidents or an increased willingness to report incidents but also a possible increase in the reporting and recording of trivial

incidents.

“Changes in policing, especially the ‘Zero Tolerance’ approach and a presumption of arrest, may have pushed up the figures over the past year or two,” added Ms. Waugh.

There have also been calls for a prevalence study, but Ms. Waugh, whose organisation focuses on a minority of domestic abuse cases – those committed against men – warned that some types of abuse would be omitted.

Referring to previous surveys she commented, “It does not cover all forms of domestic abuse – for example making false accusations against a partner or ex-partner, thwarting courtmandated child contact arrangements, etc., both of which can be extremely emotionally and financially damaging to the victims.”

In February, a Specialist Domestic Violence Court (SDVC) opened in Livingston to cover the West Lothian area.

It brings the total number of SDVCs north of the border to four, only a small fraction of the more than 100 specialist courts in the UK as a whole.

Andrea Pearson

New Figures show worrying rise in domestic violence

8 / STUDENT NEWS

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

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Successful pilot for EUSA recycling scheme Partnership with eco-packaging company and local social enterprise diverts 25 tonnes of food waste from landfill Phil Smith

Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) has-

velaunched a new green initiative that has seen 25 tonnes of food waste and packaging diverted from landfill this year.

The initiative involves a new form of compostable packaging designed and made by Edinburgh’s Green Company of the Year, Vegware. Once disposed of, the waste is collected by a local social enterprise known as CORE, which is able to recycle both the food waste and the packaging to create fertiliser and combustible gas.

EUSA president James McAsh spoke of his delight at the success of the scheme so far, “We are proud to be the first students’ association in Scotland to have completely adopted Vegware compostable packaging across all our catering outlets. This means that festivalgoers and students can be safe in

the knowledge that the 25 tonnes of food waste generated by our venues during August, together with the wrapping it was served in, can be disposed of responsibly.”

He went on to add, “This is another step closer towards our cradle-to-cradle waste strategy where discarded food ultimately ends up as useful natural resource, rather than landfill.”

It is hoped that as well as reducing EUSA’s carbon footprint and having a positive impact on the environment, the scheme will aim to reduce waste disposal cost thereby benefitting the union and students as a whole. Whilst a landfill uplift costs £250 per collection, the new scheme sees the same amount of food waste disposed of for just £50.

EUSA had initially trialled the initiative during the August festival season and will now roll the scheme out on a permanent basis across all venues. EUSA’s team of

joiners have created 19 recycling ‘pods’, all of which are clearly signed in order to ensure students can dispose of their waste in the correct bin and contribute to the drive to reduce the union’s waste and enhance the already very positive effect Vegware has had on the environment.

Given the results of the scheme so far, it seems that Vegware and the ‘pods’ are here to stay. Vegware’s communications manager Lucy Frankel seemed thrilled that EUSA have taken on their cause with such enthusiasm and, ultimately, success. She added, “The eco disposables used so far have saved over 800 kilos of carbon and 1.6 tonnes of virgin materials, and is set to divert over four tonnes of used packaging from landfill. It seems fitting that with Scotland leading the way with zero waste legislation, a Scottish university should be leading the way with zero waste events.”

Ewan McDowall

Meanwhile, the less glamorous side of being green...

Heriot-Watt launches marine Ice scheme to reward renewable energy workshops sustainable students Centre in Orkney will develop potential future energy sources

Loyalty card promises cheaper bus fares

Molly Hunt

Vanessa Kennedy

Social science specialists have

met at Heriot-Watt’s Orkney campus to identify key questions and areas for further study in the development of marine renewable energy.

The International Network for Social Studies in Marine Energy (ISSMER) organised workshops for a group of

international social science specialists as a joint venture by Heriot-Watt and IT University of Copenhagen, supported by the National Environment Research Council Marine Renewable Energy Knowledge Exchange Programme.

The aims of the workshops were to bring together researchers from different areas of study within marine renewable energy such as socio-cultural, Scottish Government

Nicola Sturgeon on a recent visit to Orkney

economic, geographic, philosophical, organisational, and political.

Dr Sandy Kerr, lecturer at HeriotWatt’s Orkney campus said: “The marine renewable energy industry is at a crucial moment, with devices moving from the drawing board to full-scale prototypes and the announcement of the first large-scale wave and tide energy farms. Around the world countries are assessing the potential energy resource in their national waters.

“Commercialisation is creating new interactions between environment, technology and society and starting to affect coastal communities, users of the sea, policy makers, energy companies and governments.

“Orkney is a key location in these developments, and these workshops are an important step in learning from local stakeholders of all sorts, in identifying key research priorities and new research agendas and addressing and learning to understand the social aspects of this important new energy sector.”

The outcome of the workshops will be the basis for ongoing international discussion, study and research of the five areas identified: consultation; communications; comparative studies; a balance between governance and community needs; and looking at future scenarios and potential risks.

The workshops and Orkney campus have been set up in Orkney due to their significant location for marine renewable energy following studies into its oceanic wave regime and strong tidal currents required for marine energy.

The workshops and outcome will be crucial to the advancement of marine renewable energy and Orkney could perhaps be a source of where our future energy will come from.

A new loyalty scheme aimed at

students in Edinburgh has promised cheaper bus fares through a points reward scheme in collaboration with Stagecoach buses.

The Ice reward scheme acts as an incentive for spending on sustainable purchases, and students who book bus tickets via the myice.com website can collect reward points which can be used in order to save on future purchases.

The loyalty scheme has targeted students, taking into consideration the financial issues faced by some students since the recession whilst encouraging public transport as a sustainable, affordable choice for students.

The Journal asked assistant account executive, Harriet Little, how the Ice reward scheme is different from other deals. Ms Little said that Ice is more beneficial than its competitors due to “the sustainability factor”.

“Nowadays many businesses are aiming to prove that they have the green aspect to their companies, and it is becoming more and more important.

Students don’t realise they are making sustainable choices because they are

benefitting in so many ways.”

Survey research carried out by Ice revealed that 92 per cent of customers actively seek bargains when they are shopping. However 69 per cent of these customers also felt cynical about many branded offers or deals.

Students can also spend Ice points via online shopping with well-known brands such as John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. Makeup and beauty goods can be purchased from brands such as Content and Love Lula, while treats such as chocolate from Green & Black’s and wine from Vintage Roots can be purchased with earned Ice points.

Ms Little added that “because it does not take long to earn points, students can benefit straight away. The fact that the points can be used online means more students are likely to be involved. If a student saves up points for six months they could purchase items to liven up their student accommodation, while having saved money and made sustainable choices”.

Spending via the myice.com website also provides opportunities for saving on bus travel in the future, as Ice points can be collected and put towards purchases in the future.

Lets get this snow on the road with new Ice bus scheme

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

@EdJournal / journal-online.co.uk

NATIONAL POLITICS// 9

Salmond hails successful talks

Barroso comments spark doubt over independent Scotland’s EU position

Charlie Rosser Staff writer

Daniel do Rosario Political editor

First minister and PM continue wrangling over independence referendum with latest round of talks, as concerns grow over unanswered questions

Plans for the referendum on Scot-

tish Independence appeared to be back on track last week as talks between Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron gathered momentum.

Mr Salmond, speaking outside Number 10 Downing Street, said that there had been a “good discussion” regarding the format of the upcoming referendum, due to be held in 2014.

At present there are still uncertainties on whether a question concerning the further devolution of powers to Holyrood would appear on the ballot paper, as well as problems regarding who should be allowed to take the vote.

At the meeting, Mr Salmond also reiterated his desire for Westminster to approve £400 million worth of infrastructural projects in Scotland as a means of providing employment and stimulating the economy.

However, later that day fresh doubt was cast on Scotland’s ability to maintain its economy were it to become an independent country.

Speaking from Glasgow, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,

Iain Duncan Smith, claimed that: “a Scottish government would have to face a very stark choice of raising taxes or cutting services”, citing Scotland’s ageing population and an average of 6 per cent higher spending on welfare per capita.

The former Conservative party leader’s comments were angrily dismissed by Nicola Sturgeon, the minister for Scottish separation, accusing him of “blatant scaremongering”.

Mr Salmond and Mr Cameron’s conversation comes after Scottish Sec-

retary Michael Moore told the Scottish Affairs Select Committee that he didn’t “think we can have a referendum on independence if we don’t have a single question”.

Mr Moore’s comments drew strong criticism from Ms Sturgeon who restated Holyrood’s intentions to keep the terms of Scottish independence “made in Scotland, not dictated by Westminster”.

Further talks between Ms Sturgeon and Mr Moore are set to take place later this month.

Scottish Government

Blind leading the blind in waltz to indepen-dance

There has been mounting uncertainty in the last few weeks about Scotland’s future in the European Union (EU) should it become independent, leading to further calls for the Scottish National Party (SNP) to disclose details about any legal advice they have received about the issue.

The Scottish Government has maintained that Scotland would automatically be a part of the EU under independence. However, unionists claim that certain remarks from the European Commission President, Manuel Barroso, show that Scotland’s future in the EU would be uncertain and subject to negotiations like any other state wishing to join the EU. In First Minister’s Questions on 13 September, Scottish Labour Party leader Johann Lamont led a heated exchange with first minister Alex Salmond over the interpretation of Barroso’s comments.

Lamont introduced the debate by quoting the EU commissioner, reading, “A new state, if it wants to join the European Union, has to apply like any state.”

She went on to suggest, “That means that a new state of Scotland would first have to apply to join the European Union and, if successful, would have to adopt the Euro as our currency.”

Salmond countered that the Euro was not mentioned in any of Barroso’s interviews, and argued that Scotland was not an “accession state” having already been a member of the EU for 40 years.

While he conceded that there would have to be negotiations, he said these would be taking place in the context of a country already in the EU. Salmond brushed off Lamont’s demand that he publish the details or acknowledge the existence of legal advice that his party has received on the matter of EU membership and the Euro, claiming that such disclosure would breach the ministerial code.

However, information commissioner Rosemary Agnew has stated that disclosure is in the public interest. The Scottish Government are appealing against being forced to release information in Edinburgh’s Court of Session. The case is set to be heard on 18 and 19 December.

10 / EDITORIAL

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

@EdJournal / journal-online.co.uk

SU DOKU

EDINBURGH’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER Political apologies

Deputy PM left with Clegg on his face Lampooning Nick Clegg is not the most challenging journalistic undertaking, nor is it particularly original.

However, as the Liberal Democrat conference coincides with Clegg’s alreadyinfamous tuition fees apology, there is no better time to tie together the various charges that have been lain at the deputy prime minister’s feet in recent months and years. If ever a conclusive appraisal could be made, it is at this juncture.

Nick Clegg’s apology for breaking his promise on tuition fees has been made with a view to the future, not the past.

That is why it has taken so long to arrive.

Indeed, Clegg only really apologised for poor politicking on his part – for showing naivete in making an empty promise on the basis that the party would never have to follow it through. He never apologised for breaking the pledge; only for making it. The ‘apology’ is so lean on substance that its only rationale could be the potential gains of apparent contrition, rather than actually setting right any wrongs.

The longer the Liberal Democrats have spent in the reality of government, the greater the number of their own flagship policies they have compromised.

It took little more than a stiff breeze for them to abandon their fees stance; House of Lords reform failed to endure the merest whiff of Conservative back-bench rebellion; and AV reform fell flat, with the Conservatives overtly campaigning against their coalition partners. The one scrap to which they still cling is the ‘mansion tax’, with the dangling hope of a further ‘wealth tax’. Clegg has been outgunned on every major point of contention – able to exert so little influence that his grandiose job title seems an uncomfortable fit. The one job of the Lib Dems in coalition was to moderate the more destructive tendencies of Conservative government: in that, they – and most particularly their leader – have abjectly failed.

But political expediency means that they must appear to be continuing the

good fight, to be diluting the Conservative’s “turbo-charged right-wing agenda,” as Clegg has said. That the party’s form highlights the utter futility of such a stance is incidental; strengthening foundations for the next general election – whoever is at the helm – takes priority.

Clegg’s reputation is beyond redemption. In the eyes of many he is a symbol of squandered potential, if not outright treachery. But if he were able to resurrect a measure of popularity for the party, to the extent that the Liberal Democrats might realistically shoot for coalition again in 2015, the achievement could provide as favourable a personal outcome for Clegg as he could reasonably hope.

It might have been amusing fodder for the chattering classes, but little worthwhile came from the apology, except the laying-bare for all to see of the Lib Dems’ imminent electoral plight –and a hilarious auto-tuned remix which immeasurably improves a desperately sad bit of political theatre.

College mergers

The local problems of national policy Compulsory government changes

in education rarely sit well with students, lecturers and the support staff integral to day-to-day operation. Despite claims to the contrary, the Scottish government’s determination to slash the number of colleges in Scotland through forced mergers is unequivocal – but at what cost does it come?

Cuts to college funding continues to be one of the most talked about issues across the sector, along with mergers and regionalisation, so it is intriguing to see just how much money is being poured into facilitating the implementation of these mergers. Millions of pounds have been thrown at colleges to reduce staff numbers, and in some cases millions more to discharge these mergers.

Indeed, documents obtained by The Journal show more than £30 million is being sought by colleges from the £15 million College Transformation Fund, set up last December

to support mergers.

If the exorbitant funding acquired by Edinburgh College is anything to go by, some colleges will inevitably miss out, threatening regionalisation. But the CTF is not the only pot of money the government has ringfenced to support its imprudent agenda; indeed, such is the government’s enthusiasm to see it succeed that additional funds will surely be found, even if sector funding cuts continue.

The declivity in staff morale at some colleges is also increasingly evident as they worry about their future. More mergers will inexorably drive up unemployment figures, marooning skilled educators with scarcer choices to continue their career doing something they love. Some may even be driven out of Scotland to seek employment. How does that serve our ‘world class’ education sector?

Unions representing college employees have good reason to be concerned and angry.

VIEWFINDER

It appears that little consideration has been given to both those taking redundancy, and the remaining staff left to deal with increased workloads and attempts to forcibly alter the terms of their employment. Of those losing their jobs, the majority are not on generous six-figure salaries and will find it tougher to find new employers in the current climate.

What these mergers have shown so far is that both the government and colleges are increasingly blind to the day-to-day problems they create for both teachers and students, and for the new Edinburgh College, the real challenges are just beginning.

The three-college merger in Glasgow in 2010 is relentlessly championed as a success by senior management; another propaganda attempt to rationalise the enormous sums of money ploughed into it. But these views continue to be out of touch with the reality faced by staff and students; same as they ever were.

Chris Rubey

REACTIONS A tremendous summer of sport

to be a young, aspiring writer) could in the future do more to recognise those I enjoyed Jak Purkiss’ article on achievements: ten of his twelve chosen snippets from a tremendous sum- snippets were about the achievements mer of sport very much. He noted of men and only one (Jessica Ennis) the way in which the Olympics (and focused exclusively on women. Venus Paralympics) brought the nation Williams won the singles and doubles together, and I would not question at both Wimbledon and the Olymany one of his twelve selections pics. Her compatriot Missy Franklin as being highlights. In addition to won five medals in the pool of which the feelgood factor and (potential) four were gold. 16-year-old Ye Shiwen legacy of increased sporting par- won two golds in the pool and set one ticipation, one of the other notable world and one Olympic record in the positives was the improved level of process. And what of the other British recognition for women in sport. women? Katherine Grainger? Victoria From this perspective, I would Pendleton? Ellie Simmonds? hope that Purkiss (who I would guess - Duncan Fisher, via email

Incensed, interested or confused?

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Red Bull Racing’s championship-winning F1 car on its recent pit-stop at Potterrow

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COMMENT// 11

DISCUSSION&DEBATE

COMMENT Pop goes the weasel: Clegg’s apology was quite the performance...

by Jen Owen

Notes from Obama’s hard-fought 2012 campaign trail A student who travelled from Scotland to America to campaign for the incumbent president offers his view of the 2012 race Alex Paul

In politics, a single event can define a generation. For many young people today, that moment was the election in 2008 of Senator Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. Not only was he the first African-American to be elected president, but his campaign team also rewrote the rule-book for how election campaigns are run. So when I was offered the chance to spend the summer working for Organizing for America (OFA), Obama’s ‘grassroots organisation’, I couldn’t wait to get out there.

For ten weeks, I was based in Fort Collins, a college town of 150,000 in northern Colorado, a key Western swing state with 9 Electoral College votes. In 2008, Obama was the first Democrat to win Colorado since Clinton in 1992, and his campaign is determined to do so again in 2012.

Indeed, OFA see it as a must-win state if the president is to be reelected in November. Their strategy

for this is simple: to get out there and talk to as many potential voters as possible. As a summer organiser (in effect a full-time volunteer) my role was to work with several neighbourhood teams in helping them run their weekly phonebank and canvassing nights. Once a week, neighbours from one area of town would meet at a volunteer’s home to make calls to or canvass potential supporters and undecided voters in their neighbourhood. I would help the team leader run these events and keep our volunteers on message for that week.

These activities are a vital part of the campaign’s outreach efforts – neighbour talking to neighbour, convincing them to re-elect Obama.

Alongside this, summer organisers also partake in a great deal of voter registration. In the US, it is the responsibility of the individual voter to ensure that they are registered, and so we would go door to door and try and find those who needed to reregister. The demographics that tend to vote Democrat also tend to move more than those who tend to vote

Republican, and so successful voter registration drives could be vital to the outcome of the election. This was especially true when the 30,000 students of Colorado State University, based in Fort Collins, returned for school in mid-August.

I spent a lot of time on campus, registering first-year students to vote and trying to build a ‘Students for Obama’ group to campaign on campus right through to Election Day, something which was helped no end by the President himself paying Fort Collins a visit.

Several things really stood out from US campaigning compared to here in the United Kingdom. With budgets for presidential campaigns running into the billions, no expense is spared. OFA has five offices and 15 permanent staff in Fort Collins alone.

It is a vast operation. Campaign materials are produced for a wide variety of groups, from ‘rural Americans’ to Latinos.

The technology, and the way it is utilised by the campaign to record interactions with every voter, means

that a volunteer walking the street can use their iPhone to canvass with a specific message, tailored to the concerns of the individual they are talking to. This is far beyond anything British parties do, and really helps the campaign find and turn out every single vote, as well as connect the voter to a candidate that may never come within 100 miles of them; such is the size of the USA. It is also striking how friendly the Americans were to me. As a British citizen campaigning for a president I can never vote for, I was met with warmth and kindness by almost every American I met.

One middle-aged woman is probably still sheltering in her basement with her dried provisions awaiting the destruction of America by those European socialists, but never mind.

All I did was ask if she was registered to vote.

Since I got back to Scotland, I’ve been asked by a lot of people who I think is going to win. It’s still looking like it’s going to be very close, but since the conventions Obama has moved into a small but significant

The White House lead in many of the swing states that will decide the election.

A combination of Romney’s gaffes, and the biggest-grassroots campaign ever assembled in politics, might just be enough to help see the president re-elected on 6 November, adding another chapter to the remarkable story of Barack Obama.

Alex Paul is a third-year student at the University of Edinburgh.

12 / COMMENT

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The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

Bringing enthusiasm back into fashion Fear not young students, you don’t have to be cool to be kind when it comes to your seminars Richard Martyn-Hemphill Comment & Features editor

I’m very worried that the content of

this column may prove more nauseating to British readers than a turbulent flight on Ryanair. So here’s a precautionary in-column announcement: “Please have your brown paper bags at the ready; this column is on the subject of academic enthusiasm.”

Urgh. En-thew-ziazm? I’ll admit the whole endeavour does sound dreadful — what could that most serpentine of slithery words have to do with the crisp study of academia?

Well, squat all if we’re referring to our university tutorials; most resemble a badly hashed-together powerpoint: one bland, superficial point after the next fading in awkwardly from the background. And that is a damn shame. For as nice as it may seem to champion the chief British virtues of modesty, diligence and discretion in tutorials — and as noble-hearted as it may feel to follow a sturdy mantra of ‘Keep Quiet and Study On’ — it can make tutorials and seminars here chronically dull, and, ultimately, forgettable.

Forgettability is definitely not a desirable quality for any aspect of our education (unless one is studying Scientology, that is); and I believe it’s our unenthusiastic approach to academia that lies at fault. Our memories are formed most vividly when we are emotional: think of all the memories we still have of, say, the birth of a sibling, or our

first kiss. Enthusiasm is a great means to stoke emotions, and therefore, memories, for oneself and for others around; it is dangerously infectious and a great way to instill learning. As that loveable minx Gertrude Stein once said of her famous lecture series, “they understand it because they enjoy it.”

But the atmosphere in our seminar rooms is not at all conducive to enthusiasm; instead I get the feeling it is completely unfashionable to be enthusiastic. The budding enthusiast is invariably stared into silence by the rest of the class; or — as is the fate of all too many mature students — they end up being used and abused like a Moroccan mule, expected by quieter classmates to carry the tutorial through a desert of awkward silences.

It would be easy to simply blame the professors. Since it’s their course, it must be their fault. But that would be, for the most part, rather unfair. I have witnessed many a bold professor fight valiantly against impending silence before, with their energy drained and their spirit broken, they ask despairingly and repeatedly, “any questions?” It is often a bleating, last-ditch plea that elicits no response — and it’s as sad a scene to watch as the slow death of a Duracell Bunny.

Instead, I reckon the lack of enthusiasm has far more to do with a lack of familiarity between classmates. Far too many of our fellow students, some who even sit right next to us, remain entirely unknown entities for much of the

Edin-bored? Why the Scottish capital is too nice for its own good Its all go in the city of Glasgow...for some Edinburgh Anonymous It was on one recent trip to Glasgow

that it became apparent what the problem with Edinburgh really is. It’s just too nice. It’s too civilised and — if you exclude the possibility of receiving oral pleasures instead of aural pleasures at the new Wednesday student union night — it’s just too tame. You don’t fear for your life when you make your way back from the new town, and the only trouble you’re sure to encounter is the possibility that Barbour jackets anonymous will hijack your taxi.

A walk down Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday night in Glasgow is an anthropological study in itself; forget the tribes of the Amazonian rainforest, the 30-strong Glaswegian hen parties have rituals that put most Pollock ladettes to shame. The atmosphere that surrounds an Edinburgh night out is one of pseudo-desperation to achieve some level of coolness that Glasgow exudes.

There is nothing more disconcerting

than seeing a middle-class white ‘hip hop’ DJ playing NWA songs to a group of middle-class white members of the ‘Edinbourgeois’.

It’s no wonder you’re more likely to hear X-Factor rejects in Edinburgh than the latest underground music sensation. Its all too manufactured in this city of natural beauty; something is edgy and underground as long as it’s not on George Street, while even Cab Vol — the bastion of Edinburgh’s best nightlife — has been upgraded to hipster central. You know there’s only so many nights that can end without vomitstained shoes before the people of Edinburgh begin to wonder what they are missing in the 24-hour take-aways and foul smelling backstreets of Scotland’s largest city.

The civility of Edinburgh is becoming a bore and just once it would be great to hear that endearing Glaswegian sentiment “what ye lookin’ at ye posh bawbag?” echo around the nation’s capital city. Long live Glasgow, home to Scotland’s finest. Edinburgh has a long way to come to match up. edinburgh.anonymous @journal-online.co.uk

Gvahim

semester. This leaves us in the nervous position of thinking that we are still making our first impressions, of worrying about offending someone’s sanctum of their inner being by just disagreeing with an idea they have, or of having to avoid saying anything risqué for fear of being judged by others.

The solution to our flaccid, passive tutorials is quite obvious: more of a rapport between students is all that is needed. Participation marks are a good incentive to make students get involved.

But they are never sufficient, and the usual percentage of the course marks allocated for participation is usually so small that it hardly makes much of a difference anyway.

Much more effective would be this one small change: rather than spending

the first classes of the semester going through all the ridiculous bureaucratic charades in the handbook — trivialities that we could just as easily figure out by reading the damn thing on our own — we should spend most of the first tutorial becoming familiar with the fellow students and the professor.

The best tutorials I have ever had were when we did just that, taking time to get comfortable in each other’s presence. I am not talking about a formulaic round-the-room of name-year-whatmodules-am-I-taking kind of chat; I mean some enjoyable discussions about why we study what we study here.

I would even suggest, galling as it may sound to many of us, that we each do something as wacky as reading out those shamelessly hyperbolic first para-

graphs of our personal statements we once wrote to get us into university in the first place — and to do so right at the beginning of the first class.

Contrived as that idea may sound, it would go a long way to easing tutorial tension, humanizing the seminar room, and thereby generating much more enthusiasm. And it would probably also get to the heart of why many of us have paid a lot of money — if not in fees than on the overpriced textbooks at least — to sit in the same room together.

Our reasons for doing so may turn out be different or they may be similar or they may be the same; they may be surprising or they may be predictable. But, essentially, everyone chose to be there; and if anything is ever worth getting enthused about, it’s your own choices.

Robyn Ramsay

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

COMMENT// 13

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Britain’s persistent problem with class Examining the poisonous obsession which continues to plague British society into the 21st century Jamie Timson Deputy editor

There has been a notion that the issue of class no longer matters in British society. The summer of 2012 seemed to enhance that theory; here were Olympians and Paralympians from every socio-economic background and every ethnicity being cheered on by an equally diverse crowd. 2012 - if you excuse the appalling cliché - was the second summer of love; for sport, for one another and ultimately for the nation. It’s funny then, how quickly that can erode.

There were signs, of course. George Osborne’s appalling reaction to justifiably getting booed in the Paralympic stadium was one such erosion. Here was a man who squirmed and laughed at what was a highly politicised statement from some 60,000 onlookers as if he were a pantomime villain, a man in a position who of course naturally gets booed. As commentators later pointed out, this was an extraordinary reaction to a pretty serious point being made, in essence - how can the chancellor get away with piggybacking on the Paralympics when he’s advocating huge cuts for those with disabilities.

Then there’s the Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell responding to a police officer doing his job by calling him a “pleb”. Firstly, it’s worrying that a prominent member of the government feels this is an effective insult to an officer who has probably heard

far worse within his own home, but its more worrying how accepted this kind of class-based rhetoric is becoming. This however, is the sad state of our government, and following the Hillsborough report being published shows how shockingly the educated and moneyed classes have been behaving for quite some time.It was only for the whole of first year that students — who had worked hard through school to achieve the grades which granted them a place at university, and endured the nerves not only of exam results but of moving away from home — could indulge in the unique experience of bunk-bed living. Sharing a room is never nice — not with your mum, not with your sibling and especially not with a stranger who refuses to take any of the old food wrappers out of their quite-clearly-divided half of the room.

Not that this writer is bitter about it or anything.

Class after all was the defining reason for why the truth was kept hidden about the disaster for so long.

Outside of Liverpool, few questioned the findings of the police or the government, as they were the words of the supposedly distinguished. It was the working class football-supporting yobs fault of course and that could never be challenged when it was a view championed by an MP with a knighthood or a high-ranking police official. The trust we as a society bestow in those of the upper classes is such a huge gift of power that it almost inevitable it will be

abused. We as a nation have a culture of deference that belies our pursuit of ‘democracy’ in whichever shape or form we feel that word takes. There was no democracy for the 96 who died at Hillsborough, as they were defamed for the purpose of saving the careers of those within South Yorkshire Police and beyond. The conspirators understood they would face little challenge to their words, as their badges of authority meant so much, when really it should have meant so little.

Then there are those who play on their class status to promulgate the myth. Boris Johnson, bannerman of the upper classes and the defender of all things Etonian, repeated the facts that we now know to be false in his editorial in The Spectator There was no scepticism from Boris; he whole-heartedly believed that the mainly working class crowd were already just one step away from savagery.

These allegations, leaked to The Sun and branded as “The Truth” by that paper’s vile editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who made a career out of victimising the weak, were apparently a shining illustration of the feral underclasses and the lows that they would stoop to.

Boris knew the power he had, and as a prominent member of the political class he was adept at using it.

The Hillsborough cover-up does not only shine a light on the upper classes; it shines a light on all of us who were too ready to accept the prejudices that come with our class system. The

DFID

sneers we derive from watching The Jeremy Kyle Show is a form of classbased snobbery. We accept on a daily basis, class prejudice that forms the foundations for the conspiracy which denied the truth to so many families in Liverpool. The calls for the independent scrutiny of the institutions involved will doubtless be many and varied however until all of us have really reassessed our views on our hierarchical society will change be achieved.

The self-congratulation of the

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Olympic summer, an act all Brits have partaken in regardless of socio-economic status will come to an end.

There has come a time to really address the key issue in our society, the issue which allows so many to look down on so few and disparage them, for being disabled and on benefits, for being a police official and not letting you through a gate at the place of your work or even for just being poor, working class and attending a football match.

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CULTURE&LIFESTYLE

ARTS&ENTS Allan MacDonald

‘We find something out that we didn’t know, and the past starts to look different.’

John Hewitt Jones Literary editor

Pat Barker has a certain poise; a

gravitas that at first makes her seem distant. Once she begins to talk about her new book Toby’s Room, however, conversation flows easily and her nononsense replies come in an accent that hints at her Yorkshire upbringing.

Barker acknowledges the influence that growing up in the north of England has had on her writing: “I think my style is very, very heavily influenced by the oral storytelling of my family, especially my great aunts who rabbited on and on, bless them…my style is strongly regional.”

Barker is best known for her Regeneration trilogy; three historical novels that focus on the trauma of the Great War, examining the relationship between Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. The second book in the series, The Eye in the Door, won the Guardian First Book Award in 1993, and a Booker Prize followed swiftly in 1995 for her third volume The Ghost Road. Following on from her most recent Life Class, her new novel explores the physical and emotional trauma experienced by soldiers returning from the Western Front with terrible facial injuries.

Barker explains that this isn’t a straightforward ‘sequel’ (and certainly not part of a trilogy), but rather a reflection that explores the lives of characters encountered in her previous novel in greater depth: “Hopefully this book will shed some light on particular scenes in Life Class, once the reader knows slightly more,” she says. “I think that’s very close to the way we live our own lives; we find something out about a particular phase in our life that we didn’t know, and because of that the past starts to look slightly different.”

One of the central characters we learn more about is Henry Tonks; a notable English artist and professor at the Slade School of Fine Art who was commissioned to create pastel por-

traits of facially disfigured soldiers and airmen to aid primitive reconstructive surgery. Barker explains that she learned of the existence of these visual records by chance: “I discovered quite by accident towards the end of Life Class that he’d painted these portraits.

They are undoubtedly works of art, but at the same time they were painted to help the surgeon. They were looked at along with pen and ink drawings and photographs of the injuries… The surgeons presumably got something from the pastel drawings that the photographs couldn’t give them – perhaps a sense of depth? Some sense of the character of the man?” These astonishing works can be viewed today as part of the Gillies Archive collection at the Royal College of Surgeons.

So what responsibility does the historical novelist have? Barker is adamant that an author must represent reallife characters accurately. It would be wrong, she posits, to give characters like Owen and Sassoon views they didn’t hold, and in her work she conspicuously avoids delving into their private lives.

Conversely, fictional characters such as Billy Prior (a mute, sexually ambiguous character with fiercely destructive tendencies who appears throughout the Regeneration books) allow the author to let rip. “They can behave as badly as you want them to behave.”

“There’s an awful lot of muteness in my novels,” says Barker, but she is suspicious of the notion that part of the author’s role is to give voice to the disaffected. She cites the example of the soldier poets who claimed they were giving voice to the largely uneducated and inarticulate men fighting in the trenches: “Guess what, those men were perfectly capable of expressing their own opinion. I don’t like this idea of writing a social work; giving a voice to the afflicted.”

The First World War is of great importance to Barker, as both her father and grandfather fought in this conflict: “War in my family was a great

Booker Prize-winning novelist Pat Barker talks to The Journal about war, daughters and missing fathers determining issue.” For a long time Barker believed that her father had been killed whilst serving as an RAF pilot in the Second World War. Only recently has it transpired that this was a myth, invented to conceal the fact that her mother didn’t know the real identity of her father. What influence has the ambiguity of her father’s identity had on her writing? “It was an element, perhaps in my initially having very little self-confidence. I think that was the main influence on my writing.

On the other hand, my work is full of father substitutes...people standing in as parents for real parents who are missing is a very common theme in my writing, and for the most part this is a beneficial relationship, but not always.” In speaking about war as a theme, however, Barker is keen to move away from the autobiographical: “I think war is a very fundamental question; why are we as a species addicted to killing each other on a massive scale? Other species don’t do it. We are actually risking the whole life on this planet by this particular trait

that all human beings in all cultures seem to have.”

Barker’s daughter Anna Ralph is also a novelist. “She hasn’t written for a while, because she’s got a very small child, and I know how difficult that is.

We used to have some lovely times at the kitchen table with a glass of wine, talking about it, and we still do sometimes. I think it might be easier for her if she was working in totally different field – writing fantasy or something like that. We are very alike. There’s a sort of gritty realism there which just comes out.”

Barker speaks tenderly of her husband, David, who died in 2009.

Letting out a sharp sigh, she explains the effect of this on the process of finishing a novel. “It’s made it extremely difficult. I would say, really, that at that point my daughter Anna became my first reader. I do seem to need a first reader who is not part of the publishing trade. I would recommend that to anybody.”

Barker is accustomed to seeing her

work on the screen; her debut Union Street was adapted into Stanley and Iris, starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro, and Regeneration hit screens in 1997. How does she feel about her books being turned into films? “I find it very easy to turn and walk away…I make myself available to the script writer, but I make it very clear to them that this is their baby. It’s no longer mine…

The film of Regeneration I thought was quite a good film, actually. It was very very sincerely done by people who had a genuine feeling for the subject, those are the only two so far, but there may be more.”

What future writing projects does Barker have planned? It seems the author intends to continue with the subject matter of the First World War, and explore her latest characters in greater depth; “I’m going to take some of these characters forward in time. I’d like to meet them in early middle age, moaning on about how old they are.”

‘Toby’s Room’ is out now via Penguin.

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The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

A 20th century swan-song: Dieter Roth’s diaries A fascinating insight into the life of the Fluxus stalwart, shown for the first time in Scotland Chris Rubey

Laurie Goodman Fashion editor

When entering the ground floor

of the Fruitmarket Gallery, visitors are confronted by a formidable wall of video monitors neatly stacked on top of one another. Pale lights dance across the faces of viewers who peer curiously up at the screens, some of which ominously play white noise on loop. Together, they represent ‘Solo Scenes’, an installation unintentionally chronicling the final year of German-born artist Dieter Roth’s life.

128 Roths shuffle across the monitors, frequently dressed in a burgundy dressing gown and slippers. They

display the quiet, ostensibly inane activity that comprises the majority of human existence: reading, scribbling notes, pushing glasses to the bridge of your nose. The result is a magnificent portrait of an artist who - despite what feels like a palpable human presence - died in 1998.

Born in 1930 in Hanover, Roth went on to win the prestigious Copley Award (in which Duchamp, Max Ernst and Richard Hamilton were on the panel), and then to represent Switzerland at the 40th Venice Biennale in 1982. Now, Dieter Roth: Diaries arrives at the Edinburgh contemporary gallery as part of the art festival, and has received widespread media attention. Described by Guardian critic Jonathan Jones as ‘the standout show of the Edinburgh’s art

Winners of Britain’s oldest literary prize announced Novel composed entirely of questions and answers and biography of Victorian artist win £10,000 award John Hewitt Jones Literary editor

Edinburgh has been choc-full of

awards this August to go alongside the numerous festivals taking place over the summer. Of particular note have been the James Tait Black prizes, Britain’s oldest literary awards, which were announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

This takes place every year, and is judged by a panel of professors and postgraduate students from the University of Edinburgh. The authors deemed to have produced the best work of fiction and best biographical work in the previous year are rewarded with a £10,000 cheque. Modernist American author Padget Powell took this year’s fiction prize for his novel You & I, composed of questions and answers, fending off competition from authors including Man Booker Prize nominee A D Miller and Scottish writer Ali Smith. Renowned literary biogra-

pher Fiona MacCarthy won the biography award for her account of the life of British artist and designer Edward Burne-Jones, The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination.

Speaking to The Journal, Mr Powell stated “I am very gratified to have won the James Tait Black Prize, which is the next best thing to the Nobel.” The University of Edinburgh is this year celebrating 250 years of the study of English, and will award an extra £10,000 prize for the best new piece of dramatic writing published last year.

An additional ‘Best of the James Tait Black’ prize will also be announced later in the year, drawing a winner from the list of authors honoured since the award began in 1919. The prizes were established in 1919 by Janet Coats, the widow of the publisher James Tait Black, to commemorate her late husband’s love of reading. All first year students at the University of Edinburgh have recieved copies of Padget Powell’s winning book You & I.

festival’, Diaries presents a selection of Roth’s works in Scotland for the first time.

The most widely documented pieces of the exhibition are a collection of his meticulously recorded leather-bound diaries, presented in a glass box as miniature self-portraits of the artist. Roth photocopied these and would sell copies to his family and friends, naming them ‘copybooks’.

The inner pages are a symphony of colour and text. Roth’s indiscernible scrawl meanders across the pages in a myriad of colours, occasionally blurred by coffee stains and rain splatters: these are rarely essays, only small snapshots into the conscience of Roth. Other pages show frantic doodles of fantastic

Visual Art Chris Rubey

animals and photographic snippets of unnamed individuals, their eyes peering at the viewer through the piles of text.

On another, a pool of red paint explodes across pages without apology.

From this, it is evident that Roth revelled in adopting ‘alternative’ methods for portraying the self. In the 1970s he attempted to record a year of his life by preserving snippets of waste that were less than 1cm thick: photographs, letters, personal notes, packaging, newspaper cuttings, and so on. A sample from each day was filed in what became 623 black binders, stamped with ‘ROTH’ on their spines. The regimentally organised, accumulated detritus is now presented in the installation ‘Flat Waste’ on the first floor of exhibition.

Roth’s merging of art and life left an oeuvre that provides an intimate insight into the character of an extraordinary individual. The presence of his handwriting, drawings and - in the case of ‘Solo Scenes’ - a narrative of his daily habits, cumulate to form a portrait of an individual that will leave you with the unsettling feeling of having shaken hands with a ghost.

The exhibition is accompanied by a promising seminar on 4 October, with contributions from a selection of art historians that includes Luke Skrebowski (University of Cambridge) and JohnPaul Stonard (Courtauld Institute of Art), that will attempt to examine Roth’s contribution to and position in 20th century art.

Ben Williams

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

@EdJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The fortnight in fashion

A&E / 17 Daisy Marie Jones

The Journal recaps a busy couple of weeks in the UK fashion industry Laurie Goodman Fashion editor

A hectic week of pre-filming for the creative team at Edinburgh Online Fashion Week culminated on 7 September with a closing show at Quartermile One. The event, set to be Edinburgh’s first ever ‘digital fashion event’, will broadcast over five days from 22-26 October and showcase a mix of established designers, graduate collections and independent boutiques.

Event director Gary Anderson told The Journal: “The closing catwalk show was really well received by a 250-guest audience, many of whom emailed us congratulating the team on how professional the finale show was, and how they can’t wait for the full broadcast in October.

“It’s now all go in the cutting room editing the footage we recorded in secret over the five days earlier in the month, and we just can’t wait to share it with Scotland and a potentially global audience. Plans for next season

are already in full swing.”

Meanwhile at London Fashion Week (LFW), Scottish regulars Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders and Holly Fulton showed their collections, and Glasgow School of Art graduate Louise Gray debuted her first make-up and accessories collaboration with Topshop.

After winning Young Designer of the Year at the 2011 Scottish Fashion Awards, Henrietta Ludgate presented her futuristic spring/summer 2013 collection Super Nova in an interactive pop-up show and tea party at Somerset House. With scattered teacups and intermittent bursts of bubbles, the show was a theatrical display of sci-fi glamour.

The designer described her brand’s mantra to LFW: “We believe in supporting British craftsmanship, with fabrics sourced from mills within the British Isles and all pieces produced locally. On launching my own label, my priority was to illustrate a sense of my Scottish heritage. Whether through the fabrics, cuts or colours, this idea of

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

work inspired by my Highland background runs through all my designs.”

Elsewhere, luxury knitwear brand Pringle of Scotland showed their collection at an intimate presentation in the Roosevelt Suite at Brown’s Hotel.

The collection was a display of sharp, brightly highlighted knitwear with a sporting edge, featuring modern updates on the Argyle sweater in aquamarine and royal blue. Overall, a luxurious and incredibly wearable selection of looks, but lacking in artistic cohesion and any strong creative vision.

The collection follows a tumultuous year for the design team after director Alistair Carr parted ways with the brand after a short tenure in April. Speculation about the direction of the brand followed, with The Scotsman recently reporting that Pringle were ‘suffering from an identity crisis’ and were ‘struggling to stand out’ without a creative director. CEO Jean Fang said to Vogue that “the collection was a soul-searching mission and we delved back into our heritage.”

VIEWFINDER

Charlotte Klein

A powerful and poignant exploration of the class divide

FILM Jon Vrushi

Based on Victor Hugo’s poem ‘How good are the poor’, The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a very subtle yet powerful film, depicting the dichotomy between working and middle class and the blurred line that divides the two.

Michelle is a selfless trade unionist who finds himself redundant after deciding to put his name foward in the draw for his company’s downsize.

He and his wife live in quiet retirement, until their idyllic world is disturbed by an ugly crime which puts their principles to the test. A working class hero finds himself living a rather bourgeois life, troubled by the idea of having let down the new working class generation, while a drama caused by the misery of destitution and unemployment unfolds before him.

The film engages the audience to the extent that it polarises the viewer.

The pacing creates suspense whilst revealing how the couple strikes a balance between morality and justice.

Books agenda

The dilemmas unfold in multiple succession, making it difficult to abstain from taking sides while watching this deeply emotional and touching film.

This intelligent presentation of class struggle in the settings of the recent financial crisis, performed effortlessly and beautifully by co-stars Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin, is an absolute must-see.

Walkers silhouetted against a late summer sky, on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh

by Vivek Santayana

Ian McEwan’s complex narrative explores the duality of human existence through the prism of espionage in 1970s Britain IAN MCEWAN SWEET TOOTH

the life of a Cambridge-educated girl who is recruited by MI5 as part of a covert (Jonathan Cape, £18.99) propaganda programme to support prodemocracy writers and intellectuals.

Set in the 1970s during the tumultuSerena Frome (“rhymes with Plume”), ous political and economic climate of who is trapped beneath a glass ceiling Edward Heath’s government, Ian McE- of male chauvinism in the Intelligence wan’s new novel Sweet Tooth explores Service, sees her career advance rapidly

because of her interest in literature: she is sent to liaise with a prospective author for the operation, codenamed ‘Sweet Tooth’, with whom she has an affair. The events that subsequently unfold constitute a compelling test of the fictions and façades.

Whilst this novel is set against the

backdrop of political and ideological agitation, espionage is not a storyline, rather a metaphor for several layers of deception, ranging from the unreliable narrator to Frome’s relationships. The novel interrogates the need for ideological secrecy in government and explores the tension between the individual’s real and fictive

sense of self.

The crisp prose builds the tension elegantly until personalities dramatically collide: elaborately woven cover stories are undone at a stroke and characters’ insecurities are laid bare. This is a novel that pivots around relationships that are fraught with doubleness.

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Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress

Aleksei Petrovich Antropov

‘Impressive’ exhibition investigates an illustrious life

Visual Art Caroline Horwich Staff writer THE NATIONAL MUSEUM of Scotland’s Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress may be relatively small, but it is exceptionally impressive. Running until 21 October, the exhibition offers a comprehensive yet accessible insight into one of Russia’s most preeminent leading ladies.

On display in Gallery 1 on Level 3 of the museum, the exhibition opens with a timeline of Catherine’s life, beginning with her arrival in Russia from Germany and her marriage to Tsar Peter III. The subsequent rooms sympathetically describe her personal life, including the unhappy nature of her marriage and consequent extra-marital affairs. Various quotations from Catherine’s own memoirs are emblazoned on several walls, which gives further insight into the empress’ own feelings and mindset.

Yet, as the title suggests, the main focus of the exhibition is Catherine’s innovative style of rule in the late eighteenth century. 600 artefacts illustrate every aspect of her reign, ranging from her military interventions in the Crimea to her skilful political manoeuvrings.

A fraction of these are a small portion of the Empress’ extensive collection of paintings, cameos, costumes, busts and silverware, illustrating Catherine’s involvement with the arts and role as patron.

A noteworthy highlight is the impressive gilded wooden sledge that was used by Catherine herself, which dominates an entire room.

Moreover, the exhibition also appropriately touches upon the strong cultural and political bonds that existed between Scotland and Russia under Catherine.

At £6.50 for students, Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress is not cheap, but definitely worth a visit.

VENUE: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND DATES: UNTIL 21 OCTOBER PRICE: £9 (£7.50)

FILM

Anna Karenina Vivek Santayana Staff writer

Success of this theatrical film interpretation of the Tolstoy classic lies in its balletic style and clever casting decisions

THIS GLITTERING SCREEN adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic novel of love, adultery and political intrigue benefits from director Joe Wright’s outstanding stylistic flair and Tom Stoppard’s razor-sharp screenplay.

Framed on a single stage, extravagant costumes, a sumptuous score and the fluid choreography of the characters’ movements gives the film a surreal, opulent air.

Whilst it takes a little getting used to, a balletic texture heightens the theatrical quality of the film. The use of the stage asks questions about the nature of a high society that is the

subject of scandal and public spectacle. It also captures the realist theory that lies behind Tolstoy’s work.

The casting is as strong as the line of interpretation; while Keira Knightley lacks a little subtlety in the opening acts, she warms into the part as the character of Anna develops. Jude Law is subtle and understated throughout.

Kelly Macdonald, a very appropriate casting choice for Dolly, brings sufficient doses of naïvety and melodrama to the role. However, Aaron TaylorJohnson’s sterling Count Vronsky is by far the most noteworthy and enjoyable character.

VENUE: ODEON CINEMA, LOTHIAN RD PRICE: £6.90

A Beginning, A Middle and An End Theatre

Celia Dugua Staff writer

At the Traverse, Sylvie Dow’s sepiatoned observation of domestic life comes with a timeless message despite the ambiguity

SYLVIE DOW’S A Beginning, a Middle and an End at the Traverse recounts the cycle of domestic life through snippets of one family’s story.

At the age of 73, this is Dow’s first professionally produced play, and whilst it wasn’t the author’s intention, her ‘mature artist’ label sways the audience into a subdued and nostalgic mindset from the start of the performance.

A sepia-toned aesthetic validates the idea that the audience are revisiting memories rather than experiencing a story first-hand. Varying pacing conveys how time warps our perception of the past, but this sometimes obstructs the portrayal of their characters and their motives.

The deliberately ambiguous references to other characters outside the family of three are slightly frustrating, as the family become defined by very little themselves - sparse dialogue hold together an abstract world delineated by the passage of time.

The three characters construct and deconstruct their home and their lives, and there were beautiful moments as they created a house out of what first appeared to be an empty stage. We are left with a refreshingly positive message that our daily routines are not mechanical, but instead rich and fulfilling; a message that can apply regardless of age.

VENUE: TRAVERSE THEATRE DATES: RUN ENDED PRICE: £15.50 ( £6.00 - £11.50)

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The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

Abusive chants turn the beautiful game ugly The disrespectful behaviour of a small section of football fans across Europe is tarnishing the reputation of the sport Ruth Jeffery Sport editor

When the Hillsborough report

was released last week, attentions should have firmly focused on the families of those killed receiving closure. Instead, a tidal wave of offensive chanting has dominated both terrace and press, causing the focus to shift to negativity and abuse.

Let the point not be misunderstood; whilst Liverpool fans have been on the receiving end of ugly chanting, they have also been the proprietors. Manchester United and Liverpool fans have equally besmirched their clubs with taunting shouts about both Hillsborough and the Munich air crash of 1958. Both tragedies had casualties which shocked the footballing world and both sets of fans

deserve to mourn the losses without jeering or sneering.

In regards to the Hillsborough disaster, 23 years of misplaced blame had left a hole in a community which is still struggling to come to terms with the 96 deaths. Even the inquest, which revealed an excess of policing errors, has not cured that hurt. And the abusive chanting by a select number of fans is not a form of football rivalry; it is ignorance harming both a city and the sport.

Hooliganism has long been a byproduct of football and the offensive songs heard over the last couple of weeks are certainly not a new phenomenon. Another recent example was the racist ‘monkey’ chants heard during the Tottenham and Lazio game mid-week.

Aiming their chants at Jermain Defoe,

If you sing about Hillsborough or the Munich air crash, the real damage is being done to the sport that we all love.

Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend, the Italian fans were also seen making fascist salutes outside the stadium.

Racism in football has been all too prominent in recent months, with the Terry

and Suarez sagas hanging over the pitch like a dark cloud.

Calls to stop derogatory actions and chants have been to no avail. A minority of fans exploit matches in order to cause trouble and in the process exploit the very sport they profess to support. Recent attempts to criminalise such activity in Scotland have shown the sheer scale of even constituting what is freedom of speech and what is an act of public disorder. Alex Salmond was forced this week to delay a bill relating to sectarian chanting at Scottish football matches because of adverse reaction towards the definition of criminal activity.

This week Scottish police are said to be on the hunt for train-loads of fans who were singing sectarian songs on their way back from the St Johnstone v Celtic and

Inverness v Aberdeen matches. It seems the saddening truth that these kinds of chants have become so ingrained in the football hustle and bustle that enforcing laws against them is nigh impossible.

That is not to say that efforts should not be made, however. Increasingly in the footballing world, off-pitch activity seems to get more camera time and column inches than the game itself. Just like the violent behaviour of ‘football firms’, offensive chanting and abusive gestures are becoming more widely reported than the 90 minutes of action which should really matter.

Sing ‘the reds go marching in’, if you will; sing ‘you’ll never walk alone’. But sing about Hillsborough or the Munich air crash and the real damage is being done to the sport we all love.

FOOTBALL

There are some knocks you just can’t shake off The formality of pre-match handshakes has assumed a disproportionate importance that the game can do without Sean Gibson Editor-in-chief

It is worth noting the disbelieving snort with which the writer begins this piece — dedicating column inch after column inch to subject matter the calibre of pre-match handshakes. The tedious persistence of the issue itself has proven almost as irksome as the continual presence of a cast of contemptible characters in the national media’s football coverage. Nothing new there, but the usual vague stab at variety is suddenly and sorely missed as the same players occupy the headlines once more.

One might hope that the futility of attempting to institutionalise a concept so individual, so tied to personal conduct, as sportsmanship would be clear to the governing powers of any sport. Of course, The Journal is not so naive as to presume ignorance of this on the part of football’s elite; until recently the handshakes were a benign public relations exercise. The FA, as much as FIFA and UEFA, likes to appear proactive in moulding the role models of the national game.

Present circumstances shatter this idyllic nonsense; the benign formality has assumed a clear negative dimension.

Sweep aside the specifics of their case – there are various reasons why Anton Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole should be leaving last season’s racism issue behind them and moving forward.

However, it seems that every time the elephant in the stadium is close to being ushered out quietly through a service gate, a pre-match handshake in a Chelsea-QPR

game brings it charging headlong back into the centre-circle.

In almost every other working environment people who establish a mutual dislike are able to keep negativity to a minimum, interactions can become purely functional. Ferdinand, Terry and Cole will not be allowed to just do their marking and tackling on autopilot though — the drama demanded of a league such as the English Premier means that, as long as those players are obliged to shake hands before a match, they will struggle to leave past events behind them.

Remove the handshake and you remove the problem.

Head north 250 miles and observe the frenzy preceding the LiverpoolManchester United match. The latter club spent a great deal of time trying to contain the fallout from the previous week’s distasteful Old Trafford chanting, to foster a respectful solidarity ahead of the first match at Anfield since the recent Hillsborough revelations. Of course, all these painstaking efforts could potentially have been undone — the poignancy of the day diminished — had Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez refused to shake hands before the match, in the wake of their own racism spat from last season.

If only the football world could stop

getting itself in a lather about such pointless exercises then we might be able to regain some perspective. Quite how matters have degraded to the point where the cursed handshake threatened to overshadow a weekend of grave reflection on something so incomprehensibly traumatic as the Hillsborough disaster beggars belief.

Image, though, is everything to football authorities; in this case the obsession with minutia such as the illusion of reconciliation blinded them to the absurdity of the matter as a whole.

Remove the handshake and you remove the problem. That is assuming, of course, that you accept how utterly meaningless a choreographed handshake is in the cause of resolving a problem as serious as racial discrimination. Even had Suarez and Evra only fallen out over who ate the last pie in the players’ lounge before the game, it is doubtful how far such a gesture would have gone towards rebuilding the bridge.

Win or lose the game — whether two players have been beating all hell out of each other for 90 minutes or a centreforward has dived over a centre-half to win a decisive penalty — it is between the players if they want to leave it all on the pitch or take it off with them. That is the time for either shaking hands or quietly avoiding one another. Either way, there is minimum fuss; the matter of sportsmanship remains the responsibility of each player and is not foisted upon them by a nanny-state football association. Even in the age of spoilt-rotten superstars, surely we can trust the players to sort out the handshakes amongst themselves.

Julian Mason

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

SPORT// 21

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FOOTBALL Carl Kiksen

Scotland and Germany: a match-day appraisal A poor match-day experience for fans is damaging Scottish football. We should look to the continent...

Michael Diamond

Not long ago, it would have been dif-

ficult to replicate the atmosphere at Scottish football matches, with Hampden seeing attendances soar in to the 100,000s and fans that were renowned all over the world for their passion.

The picture now, however, is rather different.

In recent years, much has been made of Scotland’s poor football product being offered to fans. In an attempt to rectify this on-field problem, Scotland has looked to the European footballing model and, in 2011, the Scottish FA appointed Dutchman Mark Wotte as Performance Director in a bid to improve our national sport for the future.

Could it also be said that the problem in the Scottish game spills over from the on-field problems onto the terraces in the form of a poor, overpriced match-day experience?

If so, where do we look for inspiration?

The paradise of European football puritans is Germany. The German football model is purely centred around the fans as all German clubs must grant their members 51% ownership as per the Bundesliga’s regulations.

The league association president, Dr Reinhard Rauball, said that this regulation allowed the Bundesliga to remain “true to its principles” and granted the clubs “stability, continuity and proximity to fans.”

In the same way that British managers must perform to keep the owners happy, the manager, team and the boardroom must endeavour to keep their potent support happy at all times — and there is no better way to keep fans happy than to offer them match tickets at excellent value.

The Allianz Arena, home of Bundesliga superpower Bayern Munich, is seen as being one of the most modern and beautiful stadiums in the world. It is also a showcase of glorious football with Bayern boasting names like Mario Gomez, Manuel Neuer, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery amongst their starstudded squad.

If one followed British football keenly, it could be easily suggested that in order to see some of the world’s finest players in one of the world’s finest arenas, match tickets could cost an arm and a leg.

This is simply not the case.

If you take a trip to the Allianz, you can expect to pay as little as 15 (£12) to

watch Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga and in European competitions.

Young members aged 18-25, who can join for 40, will pay just 12.50 (£10) to see one of Europe’s finest teams playing their brand of beautiful football.

But it gets better — included in this price, Bundesliga match tickets also double as tickets for rail travel, meaning fans don’t have to spend extra money getting to and from the match.

If we return our focus to Scotland, a ticket for recent SFL Division One tie between Falkirk and Airdrie United would cost an adult £18 just for admission.

With all due respect to the great footballing institution that is Airdrie United, their footballing product can hardly compare to that offered by Bayern Munich and is, rather incredibly, more expensive to watch.

This is only one of many ways in which German football firmly sticks to its traditions and puts fans ahead of all

else.

Once you have paid your value for money admission fee, you can expect an unmistakeable, colourful, vocal and vibrant atmosphere on the terraces; like the fortnightly aura that can be experienced at Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion, which boasts a capacity of 80,700 and is often referred to as the ‘opera house of world football’ on account of the noise created within.

The main contributing factor to this is German football’s acceptance of standing areas.

These standing areas facilitate beautifully choreographed fan movement and equally breathtaking, colourful displays of flags and banners.

Lord Taylor’s report in 1990, in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, recommended the introduction of allseated stadiums in the top two divisions of English football. As much as this was introduced for safety reasons, many now feel that it detracts so much from the traditional match-day experience, and makes for a dreary atmosphere.

German football, again, boasts its superiority and offers standing and seating areas which caters to the needs of all and, yet again, reinforces the idea that football is definitely for the fans.

In recent years in Scotland, we have seen the emergence of ‘ultra’ movements within clubs which was previously unheard of in Britain. Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen and Motherwell now have their own effervescent ‘singing sections’ who demand to stand up for the duration of the matches.

This has seen the SPL give the green light to pilot safe standing areas at forthcoming fixtures. Incredibly, this forward movement by fans seems to be blocked by stadium security at many grounds throughout the country who deny fans entry to the stadium with certain flags, branding them a ‘fire hazard’.

This is something which would leave German football fans amazed.

It is tragic that the fans’ efforts to make the atmosphere more exciting and colourful is being quashed by dogmatic, unnecessary regulations.

It is highly encouraging to see these moves being made by football fans in Scotland as they try to breathe new life into the beautiful game.

These types of moves should be encouraged by all, despite the occasional controversy. Scottish football must also take a comprehensive look at its ticket pricing and consider the fans’ desires at all times.

It is high time football returns to its roots and offers the exciting, intense atmosphere of previous years for a fair cost.

SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL

Hoops set to take on the big boys in Europe again

Neil Lennon’s young team has its work cut out as it returns to the European stage after four years away Gary Paul Staff writer

This season sees Celtic return to

the Champions League for the first time in four years, giving Neil Lennon his first taste of managing at European football’s top table.

In Spartak Moscow they face the Russian runners-up and will find a familiar face in Aiden McGeady, the Irish winger who swapped George Square for Red Square in 2010; his £9.5 million transfer fee remains a Scottish record.

They also face Benfica, who topped their group last year before succumbing to defeat against eventual winners Chelsea in the last eight. The departures of Axel Witsel and Javi Garcia have weakened the Portuguese side but they continue to tap into the South American talent that has sustained their past European exploits.

Then there is Barcelona. The greatest team of a generation, who continue to be inspired by the greatest player of a generation — Lionel Messi. His supporting cast of Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas and co. can win games on their own

but it is as a team that they truly thrive; victory in two of the last four Champions Leagues is testament to that.

So despite being the only champions in their group, Celtic face an exacting task if they hold hopes of progression. Being optimistic, their home record in this competition is admirable, losing just two of 20 matches. Both were against Barcelona.

More realistically, however, Celtic have a squad with next to no Champions League experience. Only Scott Brown has any real pedigree at this level and Lennon will need his captain

to stir some big performances from a raw young side.

Their first match saw a packed Celtic Park host Benfica but, despite the hype, the game was rather forgettable and ended 0-0. Having toyed with a 3-5-2 formation in the league, Lennon settled for a fairly flat 4-4-1-1 in this opening tie. Maybe seeing Man City throw away the lead against Real Madrid with three at the back was enough to frighten him into a more familiar set up.

Five years ago, Lennon played in a Celtic side that held AC Milan to a

draw over two legs, before falling to a Kaka goal in extra time. AC Milan would go on to win the competition that year, while Celtic have never again reached such heights. As a manager, his poor record in big matches has seen many brand him a ‘bottler’, but he has earned this opportunity to test himself and his side on a dauntingly large stage.

They may be grateful for a point from their opening fixture, but it means results will be needed in Moscow and Lisbon - unless they fancy their chances when Barcelona visit Glasgow in November.

22 / SPORT

@EdJournalSport / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

FOOTBALL

Terry George

Ricky’s rocky road to recovery ‘The Hitman’ gets set for a welcome return to the ring Jak Purkiss Staff writer

The story of Ricky Hatton would

not look out of place on a pedestal next to one of Sylvester Stallone’s all time classics. The only difference being, of course, that this is a man who climbed to riches and fell dramatically to rags.

However, the Briton, who held the WBA and IBF light-welterweight and WBA welterweight titles, has vowed to return to add yet another twist to the tale.

With a record of 45 wins and two defeats, Hatton officially retired from boxing a year ago. Retirement for Hatton, however, wasn’t one blessed with slippers and a pipe in front of the fire, as he soon slipped into heavy drinking, drugs and depression, which appeared to take

him closer to an impending final knock-out blow. A return to the ring looked highly unlikely if not impossible for the one-time great.

However, on 14 September, the ‘Hitman’ announced his return to the ring, despite it being nearly three years since his last fight. In an emotional speech he spoke of making it up to those who he had let down.

He will fight again on 24 November in Manchester against an as yet unnamed opponent. His potential list of adversaries makes for mouthwatering contests. Amongst those is fellow Brit, Amir Khan. Psychologically this would be a tall test for both boxers due to their friendship away from the ring. For Hatton, however, there would also be the need to climb a physical mountain in order to reach somewhere close to Khan’s shape and form.

There appears to be an inevitable doom clouding the future of Hatton’s career according to some of his critics, and at 33 he will certainly find age a possible hitch when it comes to having his chance to prove the doubters wrong.

A lot can be said of Hatton’s return from the depths of darkness but the one thing to be noted in the coming months, whether he achieves success in the ring or not, is that the grit and determination he has shown to face up to his own problems should be well documented and celebrated.

Recently boxing has had its reputation tarnished through several damaging incidents out of the ring, but hopefully Hatton will use this platform he has now created to display what boxing is truly all about.

CYCLING

GOLF

Tiernan-Locke a Tour de force Defending champions Young cyclist makes an impression during Tour of Britain breeze into Windy City LocalGeorge

Orla O’Muiri Staff writer

the crowds screamed for Cavendish, then Wiggins, then Armitstead, Hoy and Pendleton. Now Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is the name rolling off supporters’ lips in what has been a historic summer for the sport, one which showcased a wealth of British cycling talent.

The Devonian climber is the first British rider to win the Tour of Britain in 19 years. 18 seconds behind Tiernan-Locke was Garmin’s Nathan Haas (Australia) who finished second overall. Following them in third position was Italy’s Liquigas cyclist Damiano Caruso.

The 2012 Tour of Britain took off from Ipswich on 9 September consisting of 102 riders making up 17 teams.

The British teams out to play were Team Sky and Team UK Youth, while the Irish team An Post turned out for their fourth year.

At the onset things were not going the way of Team Sky, with a crash from reigning world champion Mark Cavendish in the opening stage.

This was followed by Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins’s abandonment of the Tour after stage five due to a stomach bug. However, their looming presence was still felt with a consistently Sky dominated peloton.

The real highlight of the race across the Isles was the performance of the Endura Racing rider TiernanLocke. It was stage five when he came into his element and dominated on Gun Hill. The 27-year-old then really began to push towards the top of the General Classification standings. He moved into the overall lead in stage six by pulling off a successful attack on Caerphilly Mountain to edge out Leigh Howard.

In what may have been his last race for Team Sky, Mark Cavendish won the final stage (eight)

SuperGolfDude

First

Ryder Cup action in Chicago as Europe tries to hold onto trophy Jonathan McIntosh

Medinah Country Club in Illi-

from Reigate to Guildford which marks his 15th victory of 2012. Winning the final stage means he relinquishes his hold on the world champion’s rainbow jersey in style.

United Healthcare’s Boy Van Poppel took the overall points jersey.

Peter Williams claimed the sprint title and Kristian House took the king of the mountains title.

Another race in the season ticked off, now let the UCI Road World Championships commence. A ninestrong British team featuring both Tiernan-Locke and Cavendish take on the big boys in Holland this week.

Already Emma Pooley and Sharon Laws have won bronze with their team AA Drink-Leontien.nl in the team time trial at the Championships.

nois will host golf ’s most prestigious team competition for the first time in her history, as USA will be looking to take back the trophy from their European counterparts. Running between 28 and 30 September, the biannual Ryder Cup is set to be as competitive as ever.

Davis Love III has the honour of taking charge of the American team.

The 48 year old won four of the six Ryder Cups he played in and was the 1997 PGA Championship winner.

Opposing him as European Captain is Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal. He formerly won two Masters tournaments and has competed in eight Ryder Cups. He was part of the team that won the trophy in 1987, 1997 and

2006. The European squad is largely dominated by Brits. World number one Rory McIlroy and resurgent Aberdonian Paul Lawrie both feature, with Nicolas Colsaerts as the only Ryder Cup rookie. He was selected as a Captain’s pick, along with Ian Poulter.

Team USA is littered with a good balance of rookie golfers and experience. No fewer than four players are competing in their first Ryder Cup, but Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk have all been regulars in the competition throughout the past 20 years.

The tournament tees off on the morning of 28 September. Four foursome matches in the morning will be followed by four fourballs matches in the afternoon.

The same format follows on the Saturday and the tournament culminates with 12 singles matches on the Sunday. One point is awarded for a win and half a point for a draw. 14 points are required for Europe to retain the trophy and 14.5 points are required for either team to win the trophy outright.

The Journal Wednesday 26 September 2012

SPORT// 23

@EdJournalSport / journal-online.co.uk

SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE

SPORTING SPOTLIGHT

Positive Hibs let Edinburgh Napier Knights two-goal lead slip But signs persist of an energised season ahead Ruth Jeffery Sport editor

Despite letting a two-goal lead slip past them to draw with Inverness this weekend, Hibernian looked sharp and full of confidence.

They are unbeaten in the SPL this season, although conceding two goals meant that they lost out on a chance of topping the table.

This season has seen the Edinburgh side look vastly improved from the last, with a renewed energy from the team which finished second bottom in May. A boost in the mentality of the players was evident as they seemed comfortable on the ball, creating space for clean passes and attacking with vigour.

Having won at home to Kilmarnock the previous week and drawing away at Celtic before that, Hibs seem to be a different side to the one which lost 21 out of 38 games last season.

After the match on Saturday, Fenlon praised David Wotherspoon’s performance, which saw the player create plenty of chances and score one. Fenlon said: “I was delighted for him, he’s worked really hard pre-season.

We’ve had a good chat with him, got his confidence up. He’s a really very

good player, he just needed to believe in himself more. Both wide players were good for us, Paul Cairney was excellent as well. I can’t fault any of them.

Something that will please Fenlon was the ease with which his midfield and forwards worked together to put Inverness in almost constant danger.

They did score two, but could have made that four or five. Although they allowed Inverness into the game a bit more in the second half, they always seemed to dominate.

Fenlon admitted that the dropping of two points was frustrating: “I’m disappointed with the goals we conceded but… It was a scrappy goal in fairness the second one, a great shame, but you know you can’t be too critical of the players after that I suppose. They’re bitterly disappointed which is great because you know they feel they’re capable of going and winning football matches at this level now, and that’s great. If we perform at the level we got to for the first half we’ll win more matches than we lose or draw.”

Hibernian’s next three matches are against Aberdeen, Dundee and Ross County. All teams which have struggled to pick up points so far this season, they will put to the test Hibs’ ability to perform consistently.

by Ruth Jeffery Uncertain identity

Andy and Alex talk tennis

Rory McIlroy caused an adverse reaction this week when he said he would rather represent Great Britain than Ireland in the 2016 Olympics. The 23-yearold had said he felt: “more British than Irish.” Outraged fans pointed out that McIlroy received funding from the Golfing Union of Ireland before he turned professional in 2007 and the star has admitted that he might have to re-think who to play for.

US Open winner Andy Murray has met with Alex Salmond to discuss plans for a Scottish tennis academy. The 25-year-old greeted thousands of fans who lined the streets of his hometown Dunblane last week in a homecoming parade.

Scotland already has a national centre for tennis which is based at the University of Stirling, but the world number three wants a facility to support a new generation of stars.

Death of Victor Cabedo

Julio in hot water

Spanish

cyclist

Victor

Cabedo has been killed after a collision with a vehicle during training last Wednesday. The 23-year-old was hit on a coastal road near Valencia. He had recently taken part in the Tour of Britain and was expected to have a successful sporting career. The Spanish Cycling Federation described him as: “One of the great prospects of national cycling, with a great record in the youth levels.”

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr tested positive to marijuana last week following his points loss to Sergio Martinez. The boxer could lose his £3 million purse and face a ban from the sport. Julio is no stranger to controversy, having been previously suspended for seven months in 2009 after testing positive to a banned diuretic. He was also arrested on drink driving charges in January. He was the only boxer out of 32 tested last week to fail the drugs screening.

Ruth Jeffery Sport editor

This season promises to be an

exciting one for Edinburgh Napier Knights American Football team as head coach Peter Laird has been appointed onto the Great Britain staff.

The coach, who is also a lecturer at the university, will be the Lions’ defensive co-ordinator in the student national team as they take on Sweden next year.

Laird has been involved in the sport since 1985, and has three stints on the GB coaching staff under his belt already. This year is the first outing for the national team in nearly a decade and it is hoped that after playing Sweden in Easter 2013, the Lions will travel to China for the World Student Games.

The revival of this team and Laird’s appointment on the coaching staff spell out an exciting year for the Knights, who will open their campaign on 4 November. They compete against the other Scottish teams in the Saltire division and hope to be one of two teams from that division to compete nationally against the rest of the UK. Laird told The Journal that the competition across Scotland is strong: “Last year’s best Scottish team was the Stirling Clansmen, the University of Stirling, so they’re obviously the

team to beat this year. But traditionally, Glasgow Tigers have always been a very strong team. We’ve also got across town our neighbours at Edinburgh University, who we always try to beat as well.”

The Knights have kept around 20 players from last year and are looking to recruit an additional 20-30. The large squad sizes in American football give opportunity for player rotation and ensure that every member is involved. Laird said: “The nature of the sport is that it’s quite complex and obviously it can be quite dangerous as well, so usually for new players it can take a bit of time getting them ready and getting them up to speed and making sure they’re safe to play, which is really our priority. The idea is that once you join the team, practices are very intense, very high tempo.”

The fast paced nature of the sport has made it popular on this side of the Atlantic, with Superbowl Sunday always a firm fixture in the calendar.

To celebrate this, the Knights will play a special game against Edinburgh University Predators. On 3 February at Meggetland Stadium, the event last year was a huge success with almost 1,000 spectators. The varsity game will be free entry for students and the rivalry between the two Edin-

burgh universities will ensure a highly charged atmosphere.

Aside from this fixture, the Knights will play eight games over the season.

They have recently moved to the new Napier Sighthill campus, where Laird says the training facilities are greatly benefitting the team: “We’ve got a brand new field there and we’re using the sports centre for indoor practices. We’ve got a strength and conditioning suite which we use, and we’ve got access to sports injuries facilities as well, so we’ve got a huge infrastructure behind the scenes that supports the team.”

The investment in new facilities and the revival of the national student team is an indication of the increasing interest in the sport, with all student players having the chance of selection for the Lions squad. Laird told The Journal: “I’ve been involved at junior and senior levels, but the university level is definitely where it’s at. It’s the most exciting - so enthusiastic - you get so many kids who just want to participate and it’s fantastic to be involved at that level.”

Edinburgh Napier Knights train at Sighthill Park on Sundays from 12.0014.30 and at the Engage Gym at the Sighthill Sports Centre on Wednesdays 17.30-19.00.

• Hand pulled cask ale • Food served from noon until 9.30pm (Sundays 12.30pm - 8pm)

• 15% off all food every Monday from 5pm • 10% student discount on food at all times largest Probably the dinburgh! nachos in E

• Metal, punk & goth jukebox 23-25 St. Leonard’s Street, Edinburgh EH8 9QN •

www.theauldhoose.co.uk

SPORT /

Hacker:

Beautiful game, ugly chanting

Offensive fan minority risk damage to football’s reputation

20 ThatMoment.co.uk

Athletics on track for trophy

Edinburgh University Athletics Club set sights on dominating the field Ruth Jeffery Sport editor

Edinburgh University Athletics

Club is trying to go one better this year and win the Scottish Championships.

Boasting one of the largest teams in the Scottish outdoors competitions, they last season finished second behind Glasgow University.

Recruitment is already underway and Publicity Secretary for the club Tom Bateson told The Journal that it has been a success: “We had an absolutely massive turnout this year. I think it’s because of the Olympics you know, inspired by the Olympics. We had about 200 people put their name down which is a phenomenal amount. I think we usually have about 70-80 members, but this year we just had an amazing amount of people.”

There is no limit to the number of competing members in BUCS, which allows teams to offer as many people a competition as possible. With Napier fielding a smaller group, Edinburgh’s biggest rivals lie west. Bateson said: “I’d say in terms of Scottish competitions our main rival is at Glasgow University. We have a longstanding competition between us in the Scottish competitions.

There’s actually a separate trophy between just us and Glasgow, which we kind of pass back and forth between us. Last year we unfortunately came second to them, but we’re looking to get that back this year.”

There are some promising athletes taking to the field to help win back that trophy. Ph.D student Ray Bobrownicki is a high jumper who has been consistent with wins and top three finishes for the club. Emily Stewart, a runner who came second in the BUCS 15,000 metres last year, also competes with distance running club Hares and Hounds.

Bateson says that the variety of sports on offer at Edinburgh is vast: “We compete in all of them across the athletics board; so all the track, all the field, sprints, runs, distance, jumps. When the athletes run in finals or whatever they get points based on their position, and then all the points are added up, and then obviously whichever team gets the highest score is the winner.”

Edinburgh will be hoping that that will be them come the spring.

IN SPORT / 23

IN SPORT / 21 Knocks you can’t shake off Formality of pre-match handshakes has assumed disproportionate importance

Sporting Spotlight: Edinburgh Napier Knights

Sky the limit for Napier’s american football side as nationally acclaimed head coach lays out the path to success

Edinburgh University Athletics Club trains: Monday 20.30 at CSE Gym; Wednesday 15.30 at Meadowbank Stadium; Thursday 19.30 at CSE Gym and Saturday 11.00 at Pollock Halls.

UPCOMING UNIVERSITY SPORT FIXTURES - FOR FULL FIXTURES Wednesday 3 October

Wednesday 3 October

BUCS MARS FOOTBALL -

BUCS RUGBY UNION SCOTTISH 2A MEN’S

SCOTTISH 3A MEN’S

SCOTTISH 2A MEN’S

SCOTTISH 1A WOMEN’S

13:00 Edinburgh Napier (Men’s 1st) v.

Robert Gordon University (Men’s 1st) Spartans FC Ainslie Park Stadium

14:00 University of Edinburgh (Men’s 2nd) v. University of Glasgow (Men’s 1st) Peffermill Playing Fields

12:00 Robert Gordon (Men’s 1st) v.

Edinburgh Napier (Men’s 1st) RGU:SPORT, Garthdee Road

14:00 University of Edinburgh (Men’s 2nd) v. Robert Gordon (Men’s 2nd) Countesswell Playing Fields

18:00 University of Aberdeen (Women’s 1st) v. Uni. of Edinburgh (Women’s 1st) Aberdeen Sports Village, Linksfield Rd.

SCOTTISH 2A MEN’S

Saturday 6 October

GO TO WWW.BUCS.ORG.UK

BUCS BADMINTON -

Wednesday 10 October BUCS RUGBY UNION -

Wednesday 10 October BUCS BASKETBALL -