The Journal - Glasgow Issue 16

PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR 2012 » Scottish Student Journalism Awards • PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR 2012 » NUS Scotland Awards

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GLASGOW’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE XVI

WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER 2012

10,000 march against government austerity

EXCLUSIVE

Unions lead major anti-cuts march in Glasgow

IN NEWS /

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Galloway libel fight escalates Legal experts predict long, expensive court battle as MP sues NUS for defamation

Strath’s £45k cinema bill

IN NEWS /

3

IN NEWS /

Relocation of lectures after James Weir fire has cost Strathclyde thousands, The Journal reveals

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IN INNEWS NEWS// 44

IN INNEWS FEATURES / 4 / 20

IN INNEWS MUSIC/ /421

Referendum deal One-horse race forreached UoE rector After months of haggling, Peter McColl will take overUK from andMacWhirter Scottish governments Iain on 1 March,agree terms of independence plebiscite following uncontested election

Rest in peace One-horse race for UoE rector The Journal ndstake introspection Peter McCollfiwill over from andMacWhirter space for reflon ection at the Iain 1 March, Glasgow Necropolis following uncontested election

The Joy Formidable One-horse race for UoE rector The Welsh alt-rockers reflect on Peter McColl will take over from theirMacWhirter warmly-received second Iain on 1 March, album anduncontested rapid ascendancy following election

Comic relief

The Journal meets Glaswegian comic book artist Mark Millar

IN FEATURES /

18

2 / CONTENTS

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

Fire rips through city centre chip shop

THIS WEEK INSIDE THE JOURNAL...

No reports of casualties as blaze guts Blue Lagoon Ben Cohen Staff writer

An infamous chip shop next to

Sooped Up

Concern over pre-blended alcohol drink sweeping univeristy campuses

7

Glasgow Central Station was gutted by fire last week.

The blaze is understood to have broken out at the Blue Lagoon in Gordon Street at around 1.10pm on Friday.

Two dozen fire fighters from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue attended the scene with black smoke billowing out and across to nearby Union Street.

Hundreds of passers-by took to Twitter to report the news and share images, with the majority appearing to make light of the situation rather than showing much genuine concern.

One user saying “it couldn’t have happened to a nicer place.”

Another said: “There’ll be groups of drunks left distraught in Glasgow tonight.”

One user went as far as to say: “URGENT FAMINE APPEAL. THE PEOPLE OF GLASGOW NEED FOOD AND BLANKETS. THE BLUE LAGOON BURNT DOON!” Two hose reels and a jet were used to combat the flames with eye witnesses

reporting that there were half a dozen or more firefighters inside.

There have been no reports of any casualties, but several members of staff were lucky to escape.

The fish and chip shop is part of the Blue Lagoon franchise which operates across Glasgow and boasts two shops in close proximity to Central Station, including the one at the station’s main entrance.

Stathclyde Fire and Rescue said: “Shortly after 1pm this afternoon, crews from Cowcaddens, Calton and Maryhill Community Fire Stations were called to a blaze at the Blue Lagoon chip shop on Gordon Street in Glasgow City Centre.

“At the height of the blaze, four fire appliances were in attendance with six firefighters in breathing apparatus tackling the blaze, using a combination of hose reel jets and a mains jet.

“The blaze was quickly brought under control and firefighters checked the basement and adjoining buildings for any sign of fire spread.”

Despite the fire’s proximity to Glasgow Central, the station remained open with minimal disruption as trains continued to timetable.

Boyle wins libel case against Daily Mirror Comedian awarded £50,000 damages by court Ben Cohen Staff writer

Terence Kealey

Buckingham University vicechancellor makes the case for the privatisation of universities in Britain

Scotland loves anime

The Journal delves into the creative world of anime as renowned director comes to Scotland

15

24

black people.

Giving evidence in the trial last week, Boyle said: “I don’t think British people are Comedian Frankie Boyle won more racist. than £50,000 in damages on Monday after “I think it is a top down thing. I think you winning his libel case against the Daily have a lot of rich and Conservative people Mirror. who control our country who are racist and The 40-year-old from Glasgow claimed their views trickle down through things like the national newspaper defamed him by tabloid papers.” describing him as “racist comedian Frankie He added: “I think there is racism at the Boyle” in an article published on 19 July 2011. heart of British policy and has been both in Mirror Group Newspapers argued that Labour and Conservative times.” the “racist” description was either true or Jurors ruled in favour of Mr Boyle on “honest comment on a matter of public inter- Monday and awarded him £50,400 after est” and Boyle was a “racist comedian” who determining that the Mirror’s description gratuitously exploits negative stereotypes of was defamatory.

Final run

Glasgow City on course for another trophy with semi-final win over Hibs

30

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

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NATIONAL POLITICS / 3

Hard road ahead in Galloway-NUS libel row Defamation battle between George Galloway and NUS over “rape denier” motion could prove long and costly, experts say

EXCLUSIVE Marcus Kernohan, Greg Bianchi, Gareth Llewellyn & Callum Leslie

Experts have warned that a difficult legal battle between George Galloway and the National Union of Students could lie ahead, as the outspoken MP’s lawyers fired the first formal salvo in a defamation row that has simmered for weeks.

Mr Galloway last week formally initiated legal action against NUS (see below), claiming that a motion passed by the national executive council last month, taking Mr Galloway to task over his widely-reported remarks on the Julian Assange rape case, included allegations that were “extremely damaging and more important completely untrue.”

In a damning condemnation of Mr Galloway’s remarks, the NEC motion branded the MP a “rape denier” for saying that Mr Assange’s alleged actions constituted only “bad sexual etiquette”, and added him to the union’s ‘no-platform’ blacklist.

But legal experts interviewed by The Journal have indicated that NUS’ legal position may not be as secure as senior union figures had privately hoped, and suggested that if the case ends up in court it is likely to be a complex, timeconsuming and expensive battle.

William O’Brian, an associate professor of law at the University of Warwick, told The Journal: “There is little doubt

Read the full text of the letter from Galloway’s lawyers JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK

that the NUS statements are defamatory, that they have been published, and that they refer to George Galloway. Thus all of the elements that a claimant is required to prove in a defamation action seem to be satisfied.

“The matters that would negate liability on the part of the NUS are all defences on which NUS would have the burden of proof on a balance of probabilities.”

NUS declined to comment, but sources told The Journal that they are seeking fresh legal advice and have sent a holding response to Mr Galloway’s solicitors. The Journal was unable to obtain a copy of the letter prior to publication.

Speaking last week, a senior union source would say only that: “We have now received communication from solicitors acting on behalf of George Galloway regarding policy passed by our NEC. “We intend to respond in due course.

We will not be commenting further at this time.”

Prof O’Brian, who specialises in tort law, added that there are two possible defences open to NUS. “The first defence is that the statements were true, or ‘justification’, which would be for NUS to prove,” he said. “This might be a difficult defence to win on here in view of the use of the general term ‘rape denier’ with respect to Galloway based apparently only on his comments regarding Assange.”

“The more promising defence here is the honest comment defence... The critical issue here is whether the statement is a matter of opinion, as the defence only protects statements of opinion.

“Although the [pre-action protocol] letter asserts that they are statements of fact, I think it is likely in light of the Spiller case and the important decision by the Court of Appeal in Singh v British Chiropractic Association... in this context the courts are likely to treat them as matters of opinion, as if they had asserted ‘in my opinion, based on his comments in the Assange case, Galloway

David Martyn Hunt

NUS have been silent since George Galloway’s lawyers issued pre-action letter is a rape denier.’”

Brian Pillans, a lecturer in media law at Glasgow Caledonian University, observed: “In recent defamation cases, the courts have changed their view on the distinction between fact and comment... courts may now conclude that a ‘value judgment’ is a comment rather than a statement of fact.

“Thus, if a court was persuaded that the NUS had expressed a value judgment about George Galloway in its resolution, [they] should be able to rely on the honest opinion defence to escape liability — unless Galloway could satisfy the court that the NUS was misrepresenting its position on the matter.”

Both academics noted the prohibitive cost of defending a defamation action in England and Wales. Costs were estimated at over £2 million in the ultimately unsuccessful four-year court

battle waged by discredited author David Irving in the late 1990s, against accusations that he was a Holocaust denier.

A libel reform bill is currently being given a second reading by the House of Lords.

Mr Galloway has a long history of doggedly pursuing litigation against media outlets. Asked about his latest action, a Galloway aide said that the Bradford West MP had “a 100 per cent record in libel cases”, telling The Journal: “It is defamatory to allege that George is a rape denier. It is tantamount to asserting that he condones rape. This could hardly be a more serious or mischievous libel.

“He had no other course than to give notice that he was launching the action... he is very confident that he will win it.

The proceeds will be donated to the Julian Assange defence fund.”

AS IT HAPPENED: GALLOWAY’S LAWYERS FIRE OPENING SALVO IN LATEST LIBEL ACTION George Galloway’s declaration of judicial war against the NUS marks only the latest twist in a series of controversies surrounding the decision to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to face trial for rape in Sweden.

Mr Assange’s prosecution relates to separate allegations by two women that he had sex with them while they were asleep, and without their consent. Swedish prosecutors successfully sought his extradition from the UK, leading him to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has remained since June.

In August, Mr Galloway was recorded saying

that having sex with a sleeping woman does not constitute rape — at worst, he said, it was “bad sexual etiquette.” The national executive council motion, passed by a large majority on 26 September, roundly condemned these remarks, describing Mr Galloway as a “rape denier”, and banned NUS officers and staff from sharing a platform with the Bradford MP. On 1 October, Mr Galloway publicly claimed that the “rape denier” claim was defamatory, threatening legal action. On 15 October, his lawyers had sent NUS a formal pre-action protocol letter, demanding a full retraction of the

motion, a public apology and payment of costs.

NUS sources had inititally expressed confidence in their position. But in the days since Chambers Solicitors, the Bradford firm favoured

by Mr Galloway, issued the PAP letter, the union has gone into lockdown, with multiple NEC councillors contacted by The Journal declining to discuss the case until fresh legal advice has been received. An official spokesman had no comment prior to publication.

—Greg Bianchi

LITIGIOUS LEGACY

£2.15 million Total award in 2006 showdown with The Daily Telegraph over Galloway’s relationship with Saddam Hussein.

£50,000

Estimated settlement in 2004 libel action against Christian Science Monitor, again relating to Hussein connections.

£15,000

Damages awarded in 2008 suit, against JCom Radio over allegations of antisemitism.

JCom forced to close as a result.

£1+ million NUS UK president Liam Burns

Total out-of-court payout by News International to phone hacking victims, which included Galloway.

Postgraduate Open Day

11am-4pm: Friday, 9 November 2012 To register for the event go to: www.glasgow.ac.uk/pgopenday The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401

For further details about postgraduate study opportunities go to: ww.glasgow.ac.uk/postgraduate

4 / NATIONAL POLITICS

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Historic referendum deal signed in Edinburgh Alex Salmond and David Cameron sign Edinburgh Agreement, which sets out terms for 2014 plebiscite on independence Daniel do Rosario Political editor

Prime Minister David Cameron and First Minister Alex Salmond last week signed a historic agreement, which paves the way for Scotland to hold a legally binding referendum for independence in two years time.

The ‘Edinburgh Agreement’ confirms that only one question will be asked in the referendum and that there will be no second option for greater devolved powers, something sen by pundits as a victory for David Cameron.

However, the agreement confirms the Scottish Government’s option to extend the voting franchise to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote, which the unionist parties have previously opposed. Mr Salmond is now understood to be working on a ‘paving bill’ to be put before the Scottish Parliament, in a move seen by some as a precursor to the potential reduction of the voting age to 16 in all Scottish elections.

In a statement released after the signing, Alex Salmond said: “The Edin-

burgh Agreement will ensure that the people of our country will make for many generations is made here in Scotland for the benefit of all those that live and work here.”

It has been confirmed that the wording of the question, the rules for campaign financing and the date of the referendum will be legislated in Scotland when the Referendum Bill goes through parliament — although the Electoral Commission will still have a role. The following details a timeline for the events that will follow today’s landmark agreement: Later this month, the Scottish Government will publish the long awaited results of the public consultation on the referendum, which received 24,000 responses.

Towards the end of 2012, the Electoral Commission – the independent body that regulates and oversees electoral matters – will examine the fairness of the proposed referendum question. In February 2013 the United Kingdom’s Privy Council will formally pass the Section 30 order to grant the

Scottish Government the legal powers to hold a referendum.

Following this, the Scottish Government will introduce the referendum bill to Holyrood, and a final vote on the bill is expected by this time next year.

The bill is likely to be passed given the governing Scottish National Party’s clear majority in parliament, after which the bill will be sent to Her Majesty the Queen to receive Royal Assent.

Only then will the Scottish Government publish its White Paper laying out the full case for independence, which Alex Salmond has said will be consistent with any legal advice they have received regarding questions such as an independent Scotland’s place in Europe.

By the summer of 2014 the campaigning will begin, leading to the referendum that will determine Scotland’s future in autumn of 2014 — a potent historical anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 during the Wars of Scottish Independence.

Scottish Government

Caption

Cameron backs EU referendum calls But PM rejects demands for an ‘in or out’ vote BIS

Daniel do Rosario Political editor

David Cameron has given his personal backing to a future referendum on Europe, describing it as “the cleanest, neatest and simplest way” of getting the public’s consent on the nature of Britain’s membership in a changing EU. However, Mr Cameron remains opposed to the sort of ‘in or out’ referendum that he has just granted to the Scottish Government for 2014.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Cameron said that he was not in favour of leaving the EU, but stressed that he was not happy with the status quo, suggesting that he instead sees it as a way to negotiate a new position within the EU. The Journal spoke to Alex Paul, a politics student at the University of Edinburgh who has worked in British politics and written on UK affairs for political science journal, Leviathan.

Mr Paul said, “I think that a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU is long overdue, if only to end the longrunning speculation over it.

“Recent events show that the EU is at a defining point in its development.

A referendum would allow the British people to decide whether they want to continue to be part of this development or not.

“It would also give the UK Government a clear position from which to negotiate with our European partners and ensure that, in the future, Britain’s interests in Europe can be represented in the best way possible.”

A fellow member of the society, Greg Lass, is more skeptical: “The referendum wouldn’t even be a talking point if referenda weren’t an incredibly hot topic right now. The looming referendum on

Caption Scottish Independence set for 2014 is an important contributing factor to this.

“This is a classic example of political brinkmanship. Cameron et al remind the EU that the UK’s membership is not guaranteed, in order to loosen tongues and extract concessions.

“Cameron’s pledge is long-standing and has not happened for good reason. It is politically incendiary. The Euro-skeptic wing of the Conservative party would pipe up loudly and the pro-Europe LibDems would have another reminder of the painful differences between them and their coalition partners.”

He added, “The referendum will probably never happen but talking about it can be politically expedient.”

David Cameron launched his plans for a new settlement at an EU summit on banking union on Friday, criticizing the 100,000 annual salary for 16 per cent of EU commission staff and stating, “The plates of Europe are moving and changing. Just as the eurozone is changing, and there are fresh settlements there, so there are fresh opportunities for Britain as well.”

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

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NATIONAL POLITICS / 5

Thousands join STUC’s Glasgow march against government austerity

UNISON Scotland

Over 10,000 take to the streets in union rally against public sector cuts Gary Paterson Student Politics editor, Glasgow

Almost 10,000 people marched

through Glasgow in an anti-cuts demonstration organised by the Scottish Trade Union Congress.

The demonstration was supported by education, employment and student campaign groups, congregating in George Square for speeches from trade union leaders before setting off on a march through the streets of Glasgow city centre to Glasgow Green.

There was a heavy student presence as representatives from students’ associations across the country, NUS Scotland and student campaign organisations supported trade unions.

NUS Scotland president, Robin Parker, said: “Students are standing sideby-side with trade union and community members from across Scotland because we don’t want to see Westminster’s austerity policies dump an entire generation on the scrapheap.

“There is a real threat that the UK Government’s plans will result in a lost generation caught in a perpetual cycle of unemployment. Our generation needs a future that works.”

“The reality is the UK Government is simply not doing enough to provide opportunities for those who need it most.

It needs to back down on its austerity plans, and get to work creating jobs that will reduce youth unemployment.”

More than 110,000 people took to the streets in Glasgow, Belfast and London as

protesters called on the government to reverse cuts and to invest in job growth.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith told supporters that the government’s priority should be a living wage, investment in quality jobs and strong employment rights.

He said: “The Prime Minister says he doesn’t want to defend privilege, he wants to spread it. Privilege of course means giving few an advantage over the many.

“That’s why it’s tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor. We don’t want an extension of privilege we want an extension of fairness and justice.

“We have an economy that’s in crisis and what’s George Osborne’s priority? To try to entice workers to sell their employment rights for a few company shares and a tax bribe.”

President of Edinburgh University Students’ Association James McAsh led a group of 40 students at a cost of £300 to the association.

He said: “I think the reason behind it and these are reasons it is really important that students don’t see our own struggles against tuition fees, against education cuts, against privatisation as isolated from wider struggles against austerity.

“In that view, I think that it’s really important that students do work together with trade unionists, with the unemployed, to say that this situation at the moment created by this government and indeed previous governments is not fair, and we should be demanding

a better future for all of us.”

Marian Craig, psychology student at the University of Strathclyde and Labour Students campaigner said: “It was great to see so many people at the march yesterday from all walks of life - children, students, adults and pensioners uniting in solidarity to send a clear message to David Cameron that we need a plan for jobs.

“The only way we can win the fight against austerity is by joining our comrades on marches like October 20 to show this out of touch government that they will not get away with dumping an entire generation on the scrapheap while they line their own pockets.”

McAsh added: “I think that these events could always be better. That they could be bigger, better, more vibrant, get more media coverage...overall it was fairly good. I wasn’t disappointed with it.”

In a month’s time students from across the United Kingdom will take to London’s streets in a national demonstration organised by the NUS to call on the government to improve education opportunities and employment prospects.

Transport provision for students is being arranged by students’ associations across the country with a number of buses being arranged by EUSA and University of Strathclyde Students’ Association.

Additional reporting by Daniel do Rosario.

UNISON were heavily represented in Glasgow Gary Paterson

The protest went off peacefully on the whole

Audit Scotland: Youth Health minister in abortion row unemployment at 20% Alex Neil says he believes limit on abortion should be halved to 12 weeks Daniel do Rosario Political editor

New Unemployment figures

released on Thursday 18 October showed that one in five Scottish youths are out of work, leading to renewed concerns about cuts to Scotland’s colleges.

Audit Scotland, an independent public auditing body, expressed concern about whether colleges would be able to provide training for out of work young people with 24 per cent real-terms cuts to their budgets.

In a statement made shortly after the figures were released, NUS Scotland vice president Graeme Kirkpatrick said, “These figures show that the Westminster Government needs to back down on its austerity plan and begin creating jobs for school leavers and graduates to help boost our economy.

“We must also ensure that young people have educational opportunities, and that they are properly funded.

Scotland’s colleges have already been hit by cuts, and the Government has now proposed a further £34.6 million reduction in funding.

“If we’re to help young people prosper, we must make sure college’s prosper as well and see this proposed cut reversed between now and the final Budget.”

In an interview with the BBC, First Minister Alex Salmond reiterated that budgetary restraints from Westminster were part of the problem, but argued that college funding had not been cut if both revenue and capital sides were taken into account, and stressed that places for young people have been maintained.

When The Journal asked for clarification, the Scottish Government said they were unable to provide comment to student media due to short staffing.

Total unemployment figures in Scotland have risen for a second consecutive three-month term to 8.2 per cent, just as average figures for the whole of the UK have continued to fall to 7.9 per cent.

Atalandi Meleagrou-Dixon Staff writer

Scottish government health

secretary Alex Neil caused controversy last week, after publicly stating his view that tighter limits should be placed on abortion.

He later clarified that it was only his personal view that the current 24 week limit should be decreased to 12.

However, since the public backlash Mr Neil has distanced himself from his original statement, pointing out that abortion is an issue reserved for Westminster not the Scottish Government and that it was not an issue currently under discussion.

A number of feminist and women’s groups have moved to criticise the views of politicians, suggesting that lowering the limit should be considered.

In a statement to The Journal, the Edinburgh University Feminist Society said that the group was horrified by the views aired by Mr Neil. The

society explained their stance: “It is a step backwards in women’s rights and not what should be happening in this day and age. The limit should not be lowered and that should be the end of it.

“If a women is brave enough to have an abortion then it is clear she has thought about the consequences of having a child and realises she is not able to provide the adequate support.”

The society also went on to state that lowering the abortion limit could lead to a rise in illegal abortions which could be a greater danger to women.

Some politicians have found themselves in hot water recently after claims that scientific evidence had been uncovered that meant the issue of abortion limits should be discussed.

The controversy started after the UK’s health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, stated that he personally backed limiting abortion to 12 weeks — something that prime minister David Cameron quickly moved to say was Mr Hunt’s personal view, not that of the government.

Scottish Government

Health secretary Alex Neil

6 / STUDENT NEWS

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Outlook good for Cinema trips cost Scottish graduates Strathclyde £45,000 Students from Scottish universities stand a good chance of landing top graduate jobs, report claims

The Journal reveals the cost of moving lectures to city centre cinema until March

Benjamin Lebus Staff writer

Gareth Llewellyn Deputy managing editor

population.

However, whilst there has not been any growth in the graduate Scotland is one of best places employment rate, it has remained in the UK to be if you are a recent relatively resilient during the graduate seeking work, a report period. from the Higher Education Careers The story is not all positive, Service Unit (HECSU) has revealed. though. It was also found that 14.6 The report, released earlier per cent of those graduating in 2011 this week and entitled ‘What Do in the UK had resorted to work in Graduates Do 2012’, indicated that the low-skilled industries, such as Scotland is one of the best places catering and retail. in Britain to find a graduate-level Robin Parker, president of the position; eight per cent of gradu- National Union of Students in Scotates in 2011 found employment land, rued this revelation that “too with an average starting salary of many [graduates are] working in £20,509, around £600 higher than non-graduate level jobs.” the UK average of £19,935.

Charlie Ball, deputy director A spokeswoman in the Scottish of research at the Higher EducaGovernment reacted to the report tion Careers Service Unit, also saying, “Scotland’s universities responded to this alarmingly high lead the UK in graduate employ- percentage stating, “the figures ment while also showing a decrease show that jobs are not spread in unemployed graduates, and our equally around the UK”, with 21 starting salaries for graduates are per cent of graduates finding first the best in the UK.” time employment in London.

Following reports in July 2012 On a more positive note, though, confirming a consecutive quarter Ball dispelled the claim that “there of negative growth in the British aren’t any jobs for graduates in economy, many feared there parts of the UK” outside of London, would be a heavy impact on the something which is supported by labour market, especially for the the relative success story of Scotnewly graduated section of the tish graduates.

The University of Strathclyde

will spend almost £45,000 on its temporary relocation of lectures to Cineworld, The Journal can reveal.

Lectures for teaching activities were relocated to the city centre cinema following the closure of the university’s Jordanhill campus.

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act show that the university will pay £44,482 inclusive of VAT this academic year with the last class expected to take place in Cineworld in March 2013. The figure includes £5,532 for audio video resources, internet access and equipment costs.

University of Strathclyde Students’ Association vice president education, Rebecca Maxwell Stuart, said: “Apart from the very few times that students will be at Cineworld, they will be taught at the main campus, with staff mainly based in the Lord Hope building.

“As Cineworld is only being used as a temporary measure, the University will be looking at other locations in the future.

“I know that this will only be for

this year, as it is not an economically viable option for the long term.

“However, given the circumstances Cineworld is the best option so that all the students are together and they are not split up.”

The Journal can reveal that Strathclyde University considered other offcampus venues for the relocation of students including the Royal Concert Hall and Glasgow City Halls.

However, such a lengthy temporary stay at either venue would have impacted on planned refurbishment of the Concert Hall and would have restricted the ability of either to make additional external bookings.

The university’s primary consideration was capacity to accommodate large numbers of students, proximity to the John Anderson campus, value for money, and capability to support teaching.

However, the university declined to disclose whether or not it had approached nearby Glasgow Caledonian University or City of Glasgow College, both of which have purposebuilt lecture theatres available for hire.

The university has committed to utilising all equipment used at Cineworld elsewhere within the Univer-

Katharina Dziacko

sity campus, and there are no other plans to temporarily relocate students to other external facilities, with some students also being taught in the Students’ Association on John Street.

In a statement to The Journal, Strathclyde University said: “The only other relocation of students in recent years has been to the International Christian College lecture theatre.”

Figures obtained show that the university paid £120 an hour, inclusive of VAT, for 23 hours of teaching in the second semester of 2011/12 as a consequence of the James Weir building fire.

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

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STUDENT NEWS / 7

Young Scots given right to vote in independence referendum Campaign groups celebrate ‘very positive step’ to blanket voting age reduction Louise Wilson

Young Scots will be the first in the

Sooped-up students warned over new campus craze Alcohol charity AFS warns about the dangers of alcoholic energy drinks as supermarkets and campuses stock up Rebecca Day Student News editor

A new alcoholic energy drink is

making waves on campuses and is sweeping its way into numerous student flats, halls and union bars across the city.

Named Dragon Soop, the stimulating beverage is fortified with vodka, 35mg of caffeine per 100ml, and blended with taurine, guarana and different fruit flavours.

“It’s Monstrous” boasts the website, hinting at the sheer power of the galvanising effects on the body.

A student from the University of Glasgow who declined to be identified was scarred by the effects of the drink spoke to The Journal about his experience on Dragon Soop.

He said: “I guess once you get over the questionable taste the first thing you notice is the caffeine rush.

“People really start chatting quicker. It has the potential to save a night if you’re struggling but its hangovers are far more debilitating.

“After the huge high comes the inevitable low, and the phenomenon known as ‘skite depression’ is very much exacerbated. It also wreaks havoc with one’s bowels...”

CBL, the Yorkshire company behind Dragon Soop, has been eager to latch on to the potential goldmine of the hedonistic student consumer market.

Speaking to The Journal, Paul Burton, director of CBL, said: “The drink is not specifically aimed at students, but inspired by the 18-30 demographic who for years and years have been enjoying energy drinks with vodka in bars across the country. We wanted to make a premade mix that consumers could enjoy at home.

“The main difference between the products in America (Four Loko, Crunk Juice) is that it’s only eight per cent volume, compared to 12 per cent. It’s the equivalent of what you would find in the pub sector - two units in a 25ml can.

“I’ve not had any reports of adverse

affects directly. If an individual consumer is not responsible in their own drinking habits, our company cannot legislate for that. Providing customers are responsible, there should be no problem.”

The drink sponsors the Glasgow University Ski and Snowboard Club and provided sample cases in exchange for advertising around the Queen Margaret Union.

“Rumours that @dragon_soop are sponsoring a new club night at the @ QMunion #monthesoop” tweeted the Ski Club.

Yet Dragon Soop is causing concerns amongst alcohol awareness charities including Alcohol Focus Scotland, who expressed a “concern about the current trend for high caffeine, high alcohol drinks.”

Speaking to The Journal, AFS chief executive Dr Evelyn Gillan said: “Increasing evidence suggests that mixing alcohol, a depressant, with caffeine, a stimulant, may be dangerous as the drinker feels awake and able to drink for longer without realising how drunk they might already be.

“New research should be commissioned to assess the potential dangers of alcohol and energy drinks, with a view to developing clearer guidance and regulations on how they are sold and marketed.”

Similar pre-blended alcoholic energy drinks have already been banned in the United States due to proposed health risks.

The most popular case is the infamous Four Loko drink, eerily similar in its contents and marketing to Dragon Soop, containing a blend of guarana, taurine and in varieties up to 12 per cent abv.

It was stronger than Dragon Soop, roughly equivalent to five beers and two coffees in one can. Students across the country were suffering total blackouts from the dangerous cocktail of ingredients.

The hype escalated after two teenagers were found dead in Huntington,

Los Angeles next to empty cans of Four Loko and the drink was banned across univeristy campuses before companies were forced to reintroduce the products without caffeine, taurine, and guarana in 2010.

Keith Haitkin, a graduate from Purchase, New York described his experience on Four Loko to The Journal.

He said: “I’d had about one and a half cans of the stuff. I decided to go for another.

“And then...that was the last I remember of the evening. I woke up the next morning on the floor of an apartment I didn’t recognise with the worst headache I’ve ever experienced.

“I sat up and immediately ran for the toilet. My vomit could only be described as the color of anti-freeze and as quick as I could, left the scene of the crime.”

The QMU were quick to defend their sale of the drink.

President Colum Fraser said: “Due to the alcohol and caffeine content of the drink, we only sell the smallest size of can, and spent some time pricing it appropriately so that people are discouraged from drinking it in excess.

“The Portman Group has approved the drink, its sale, and the marketing, and this - for us - is adequate approval.”

President of the Ski Club, Ross Jardine was also unconcerned about the effects of Dragon Soop on the members of his society.

He said: “As long as people don’t just drink Soop on a night out it wouldn’t worry me.

“It’ll make you totally hyper. When we had a night drinking Soop I don’t think I touched the ground for about two hours… as a drink it’s a bit mental, which is the kind of drink the Ski Club goes for.”

It’s this concern that students will solely drink alcoholic energy drinks on a night out that is the prime concern of charities such as Alcohol Focus Scotland.

With the buzz around a new and thrilling drink sweeping across campus, for some the pandemonium may seem too hard to resist.

UK to have the right to vote at 16.

The announcement on 15 October came as part of the ‘Edinburgh Agreement’ for the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

Under terms of the agreement 16 and 17-year-old Scots can register to be part of an important decision over Scotland’s future.

Grant Costello, chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, believes this to be an important step towards equality for young Scots.

He said: “Allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote shows society believes these young people, who can marry, work, and join the army, are capable of being full active citizens.

“At a time where far too often young people are ignored or vilified by society, today is a very positive step demonstrating 16 and 17-year-olds are valuable citizens whose hopes and ideas deserve to be heard.”

In 2011, a Scottish Youth Parliament poll revealed 65 per cent of were in favour of lowering the voting age to 16.

First Minister Alex Salmond has been keen to allow younger voters to register in order to gain stronger support for independence.

However, a survey of 2,457 pupils aged 14 and 15 conducted in September 2012 by The Mail on Sunday in Scotland poll showed 59 per cent of teens support keeping the Union with just 26 per cent in favour of independence.

Despite the step forward for young Scots’ rights, NUS Scotland would like to see action to encourage them to vote, not simply to have the ability to with votes cast from the 18-24 demographic low in recent general elections.

Robin Parker, president of NUS Scotland, said: “Today is a great day for Scotland’s young people. However, the work now begins to make sure that the referendum has a clean and clear franchise.

“There also needs to be dedicated resources for voter education and to encourage turnout among 16 and 17-yearolds, and among all young people.

“Votes at 16 in this referendum needs to set the positive precedent to deliver votes at 16 for all elections in Scotland, and across the UK. “We look forward to working with the Scottish and Westminster governments, and all sides of the debate, to make sure that all 16-17 year olds have the information, and opportunity, to register and cast their vote in the referendum.”

Costello also added that he would like 16 and 17-year-olds able to vote in all future elections.

He said: “We’ve campaigned for votes at 16 for over a decade. We’re delighted our call has been listened to, but this is a process not an event, and we hope today’s decision paves the way for votes at 16 in all future elections.”

The voting age will remain at 18 for Westminster and local elections with David Cameron and the Conservative Party opposed to lowering the age.

Aric Gilinsky, president of Conservative Future Scotland, told The Journal: “It’s my personal opinion that moving the goal posts on the voting age as a one off for the independence referendum is the wrong way to approach a debate about the age to vote.

“It’s my hope that no matter what electoral register the Scottish Parliament decides to use for the referendum, we can move forward from this to the substantive debate about Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom.”

The Scottish Youth Parliament and NUS Scotland worked with the SNP to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the upcoming referendum.

Scottish coalition members of the Votes at 16 campaign also included the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish Green Party, SNP Youth, Young Scot, Edinburgh University Students’ Association and Adam Smith College Students’ Association.

Votes at 16 Coalition

Would-be voters campaign outside parliament

8 / LOCAL NEWS

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Home secretary blocks Focus on Glasgow Gary McKinnon extradition anti-gang initiative Theresa May withdraws extradition order against the Glasgow-born hacker on Community Initiative to Reduce Violence aims to human rights grounds, saying risk of him ending his own life was too high reduce violence levels in Glasgow Aoife Moore Staff writer

Glasgow

computer

hacker

Gary McKinnon has won his 10-year fight against extradition to the United States.

Home secretary, Theresa May, today announced due to McKinnon’s medical problems, extradition would infringe on his human rights.

May stated that although McKinnon, 46, is “accused of serious crimes, there is also no doubt that he is seriously ill.”

McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, is also said to have serious depression.

Home Office medical examinations have shown that it is very likely that he would try to kill himself if he were imprisoned in America.

Despite the announcement, May announced that she intended to scrap the home secretary’s discretion on human rights grounds.

Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, May said: “Matters such as representations on human rights grounds should, in future, be considered by the high court rather than the home secretary.

“This change, which will significantly reduce delays in certain cases, will require primary legislation.”

US authorities have described the Scot’s actions as “the biggest military computer hack of all time”

costing £487,000 worth of damage to computers, and have demanded that he should stand trial in America.

McKinnon has been accused of hacking into computer systems belonging to NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defence, and the US Air Force, and if convicted could face up to 60 years in prison.

The former systems administrator has admitted to hacking US military computers but claims he was searching for evidence of UFOs. Director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, will now decide whether he should face trial in the UK, May added.

A new forum bar will also be introduced to extradition proceedings which will enable a UK court to decide whether a person should stand trial in the UK or abroad.

McKinnon, who now lives in north London, was arrested in 2002, and again in 2005, before an extradition order by the US was made in July 2006 under the Extradition Act 2003.

He has previously lost legal battles in both the High Court and House of Lords.

However, two years ago a High Court judge ruled that Mr McKinnon would be at risk of suicide if he were to be sent away.

This triggered three successive applications for judicial review and has raised questions about the fair-

ness of the UK-US extradition treaty, which critics claim is one-sided.

Prime minister David Cameron, who has held talks with President Barack Obama on the case, and his deputy Nick Clegg, have previously publicly condemned plans to send McKinnon to the US. McKinnon’s mother Janis Sharp has applauded and thanked the Home Secretary for her actions, claiming May had “done the right thing.”

Ms Sharp, who has campaigned for her son since 2002, said the fight against the authorities had been so cruel it amounted to “waterboarding of the mind”.

Sharp has previously stated that her son had lived a “zombified life” over the past ten years that had “destroyed him.”

MPs and charity organisations across the country have spoken out in favour of May’s decision.

London mayor, Boris Johnson, welcomed the decision, saying: “At last justice and the well-being of Mr McKinnon have prevailed.”

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of charity, Liberty, said: “This is a great day for rights, freedoms and justice in the United Kingdom. The Home Secretary has spared this vulnerable man the cruelty of being sent to the US and accepted Liberty’s longstanding argument for change to our rotten extradition laws.” freegary.org.uk

Keira Murray Local News editor

An

anti-gang project in Glasgow is to be one of the main features at an international conference.

Targeting the Easterhouse area of Glasgow, the scheme has already seen violence levels reduce by 46 per cent since starting in 2009.

The Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) has received backing from Stephen House, the chief constable of the Police Service in Scotland.

He said: “Gang violence, alcohol-related violence and domestic violence affect us all, no matter who we are, no matter where we live.”

CIRV aims to bring together various partners like the government, community, education and housing and encourage them to use their resources in targeting highrisk street crime in places such as Easterhouse.

This area, situated in Glasgow’s east end, has been notorious for

gang related crime.

Co-ordinating with Family Action in Rogerfield and Easterhouse (Fare), a charity offering support and opportunities for families and young people in the area they aim to steer them away from crime and into training and jobs.

Project manager for Fare, Jimmy Wilson, says the success of the scheme has been helped by the involvement of local schools.

He said: “This reduces territorialism, which was one of the driving forces behind gang activity.”

They have worked with the police and fire and rescue service in Glasgow to send out the message that anti-social behaviour is unacceptable.

The Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), a national police task force which organises meetings for gang members at Glasgow Sheriff Court, has also stepped in on the project.

For the two years that VRU ran this project in the east end, the number of violent attacks by gang members has fallen by 46 per cent.

New skin test for Scottish shoppers asks: ‘R UV Ugly?’

CRUK and Scottish government seek to address health risks of exposure to UV rays from sunbeds Keira Murray Local News editor

McKinnon’s mother thanks Home Secretary for her actions to save son

Shoppers can see how much damage sunbeds have done to their skin as ultraviolet skin testing scanners visit shopping centres in Scotland.

Launched by Cancer Research UK in conjunction with the Scottish Government, this month’s campaign hopes to highlight the impact of prolonged UV exposure.

The R UV Ugly? campaign arrived on the back of figures that were released by Cancer Research UK regarding the increasing cases of skin cancer in young people.

More than two young adults aged between 15-34 are diagnosed with malignant melanoma every day in the UK making it the second most common cancer in this age group.

Over the last thirty years, cases on skin cancer in Britain have risen faster than any of the other current top ten cancers. This why getting checked out

is imperative for people in the UK. Vicky Crichton, Cancer Research UK’s public affairs manager for Scotland said: “As the cold, dark nights draw in, we want to ensure that people realise that sunbeds are not the answer.”

Overexposure to harmful UV rays on sunbeds or the sun can seriously damage the skin’s DNA and in some cases may result in cancer.

She added: “We’d like sunbed users in Scotland to come and take a look for themselves at some of the damage that may be lurking under their skin.”

Public health minister Michael Matheson added: “We know that using sunbeds is dangerous but we are still seeing too many young people across Scotland putting themselves at higher risk of skin cancer through unsafe tanning. increase your risk of getting skin cancer.”

The tour around Scotland will be visiting shopping centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow and East Kilbride between 15-28 October.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

ACADEMIC NEWS// 9

Scottish Goverment to enforce widening access Universities encouraged to more to make education fairer for all, in move praised by the National Union of Students Gary Paterson Student Politics editor

Scottish universities.

Robin Parker, President of NUS Scotland said, “We strongly welcome the call The Scottish Government has for the Scottish Government to make signalled plans to enforce university widening access agreements legally widening access agreements under new binding. If we are going to end Scotlegislation after calls from the governing land’s record of having the worst widenScottish National Party’s Conference, “to ing access rates in the UK, there must be legislate for widening access in Higher agreements reached with universities Education and introduce statutory that are truly enforceable and that hold ‘Widening Access Agreements’ to drive universities accountable. improvements at universities.”

“Universities can’t do it all to reverse Universities, which are currently Scotland’s record on widening access working to adopt funding agreements rates, but they can certainly do more. issued by government body the Scottish The Scottish Government has provided Funding Council, have been criticised the building blocks for fair access by not by the National Union of Students Scot- introducing tuition fees and improving land (NUS) for the levels of students from student support. We have to now make deprived backgrounds being entered in to sure universities are doing their bit, so

these developments benefit everyone in Scotland, no matter their background.

“However, the Scottish Government must also not lose sight of the role colleges play in ensuring fair access to university, and the potential harm £34 million of funding cuts to colleges could have on poorer students hoping to attend university. Between now and the final budget, the Government must find the funding to reverse these cuts.”

The Scottish Government is looking for universities, which have seen their budgets rise, to improve their work and outreach through agreements and direction issued by the Scottish Funding Council. Recently published outcome agreements have called on universities to work with student associations to imple-

ment changes in institutions.

Malcolm Moir, University of Strathclyde Students’ Association President said, “The University of Strathclyde Students’ Association has worked hard to ensure that students’ voices are heard in the formation of the University’s Outcome Agreement. Over the summer, both the outgoing President and myself outlined to the Principal what we hoped to see from the University on a range of issues, including commitments on numbers of applicants from deprived backgrounds, the retention of those selfsame students, and various widening access activities. We expect to be fully consulted by the University on all future Outcome Agreements.

“We are also soon to launch our new

University work, on average, more than 50 hours a week.

In Scotland, Heriot-Watt University had the highest percentage, just fewer than 41 per cent, of full-time respondents working over 50 hours a week. This was followed by the University of Glasgow with just over 37 per cent and the University of Aberdeen had the lowest percentage score in Scotland with 28.5 per cent.

The survey continued to find that at another 72 institutions, more than 30 per cent of all full-time respondents reported working over 50 hours a week.

The University of Glasgow was revealed as being in the top 20 universities in the UK with the highest stress levels; it was the only university in Scotland to be included in this list.

A University of Glasgow spokesperson said: “The University of Glasgow takes the physical and mental wellbe- Rebecca Day ing of staff very seriously, and offers Student News editor support through our Occupational Health Service and Employee Coun- -A former student of Glasgow Caledonian University has won the selling Programme.”

Anglia Ruskin University, in Association of Scottish BusinessEastern England, was ranked as the women’s Young Business of the Year most stressful university for staff in award.

Victoria Arnold won the award the table.

Ms Hunt commented on the report for Homestayfriend, a website that saying, “Many academics and aca- matches up international students demic-related staff are clearly under and travellers with host families far too much pressure and we know across the country.

Victoria graduated with an MSc this level of stress in the workplace can be very damaging to mental and in Fashion Marketing in 2008.

She set up the business in 2011 physical health.”

She continued to say, “‘UCU after noticing a lack of flexible, is committed to negotiating with cheap and good quality accommouniversities to tackle rising stress dation on offer for visitors to the through our current national work- country.

The website allows individuals load campaign.”

It is this report that is acting as the to easily browse lodgings based on stage for UCU to launch its campaign factors such as cost, location, and against excessive workloads in post-16 length of stay. It also allows hosts to advertise their property and make education.

money in a flexible and short term arrangement.

Speaking to The Journal, Arnold said: “I felt a real spirit of enterprise during my time at GCU and there’s no doubt the course shaped my entrepreneurial ambitions and equipped me with many of the tools I’ve used to set up my businesses.”

She feels the opportunity to meet many international students on her course was, as well as a culturally enriching experience, what planted the seed to set up the homestay business.

She added: “I noticed it was hard for students from abroad to find temporary, flexible accommodation.

I found a gap in the market, if you will.”

Arnold’s success is positive reflection of the rise in budding female entrepreneurs in the maledominated business industry.

In 2011, the number of women setting up their own businesses

StrathGuides scheme, which will see our members visiting schools across Glasgow to help pupils with university survival skills and mentor pupils on a one-to-one basis. Through this work, our students will have the opportunity to give something back to the community, whilst also encouraging the next generation of schoolchildren to enter higher education whatever their background.”

James Harrison, Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council President said, “I participated in the meetings preparing last year’s outcome agreements, and was involved in the discussions that took place with the Scottish Funding Council. We welcomed many of the outcomes outlines, particularly on developing widening participation.”

Report: university staff stress levels above average University staff face higher stress levels due to deadlines and funding cuts, UCU survey claims Emma Logan

A crucial report has been released

that shows that universities throughout the UK suffer from a considerably higher level of stress than the rest of the British working population.

The University and College Union (UCU) conducted the survey which was released on 4 October. They used a standard Health and Safety Executive questionnaire to measure individuals’ stress relating to the demands made on them at work.

In a statement UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt, said “with funding cuts, increased workloads and rising expectations from students and parents paying much more for their education, the situation is likely to become even worse.”

Respondents rated a series of statements about a variety of demands, on issues such as long hours, work intensity and time pressures. Nearly 100 institutions took part in the survey and their responses were translated into a numerical score (1.00 being highest level of stress - 5.00 being the lowest). An average was then calculated for each institution and presented in a table.

A second table ranks universities by the percentage of full-time respondents who work more than 50 hours a week.

The survey, which took place from 16 April to 4 May 2012, found that the workload stress levels for UCU members in higher education have got worse in the last four years. In 2008, members scored a level of 2.61 on the stress scale, compared to 2.52 in 2012.

An important result from the survey found that over half of all fulltime respondents at the University of East London, Oxford Brookes University and Canterbury Christ Church

Staring match broken off as independence campaigns begin in earnest

Caley alumna wins Woman’s Young Business of the Year award Victoria Arnold scoops prize for homestayfriend.com website rose by 12 per cent from the previous year with women making up 15.2 per cent of directors of FTSE 100 companies in 2012, up from 12.5 per cent in 2011.

Women also make up 46 per cent of Britain’s 376,000 millionaires – a number growing 11 per cent every year.

Arnold believes that, although women face a different set of challenges to men in the business world, they cannot use their gender as an excuse not to succeed.

She said: “It’s all about your attitude. Women have to be optimistic and shouldn’t fall back on excuses.”

It is this optimism that Arnold feels spurred her on to success.

When asked what advice she would give to other young budding entrepreneurs, her response was simple: “Go for it!”

“You have to try to succeed, no matter how scary it seems, just put yourself out there.”

10 / STUDENT POLITICS

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Turnout down in student union by-elections New policy and democracy officer plans to tackle unopposed elections and low voter numbers Colm Currie

@Joclairehill

USSA voluntary position by-elections hit by low turnout

Elections at the University of Strathclyde Students’ Association have again been hampered by low participation rates. Single candidate elections, low voter turnout and a failed referendum in the recent by-election have added to the association’s political engagement woes. This comes after last term’s elections which saw only 2,285 students - a mere 11.72 per cent of the student population - turn out to vote.

The recent by-election had three Vice-Chair voluntary positions available; as well as a referendum question on whether ERASMUS and International Exchange students should be allowed to vote in Students’ Association elections. Conor Ryan was elected to the post of Policy and Democracy Officer, winning more than half of the 419 votes cast. Candidates James Ferns and Hannah Terrance were each elected to the position of Vice-Chair of External Engagement and Vice-Chair

of Sports and Wellbeing respectively.

Ferns earned over 75 per cent and Terrance over 80 per cent of the vote.

The ‘Yes’ vote for the by-election referendum on extending votes to International Exchange and ERUSMAS students won by 307 votes.

However, it failed to meet the required turnout of 5 per cent of the student population for it to be adopted.

Newly elected Policy and Democracy Officer Conor Ryan is keen to get started in his new role straight away.

Speaking to The Journal, he said: “I want to change the structure of the elections and Union democracy in general in order to encourage much wider and more genuine student participation through election debates in the Union, in Halls, on Pegasus, and advertised on every candidate’s campaign material, running well-publicised debates and question sessions where incumbent officers and election candidates can be held to account and challenged on their policies by students.”

Students still unaware of NUS national demo Lack of publicity from unions to blame, as only one Glasgow institution is set to bus students down to London John Gaughan

The National Union of Stu-

dents (NUS) prepares to demonstrate the building frustration of students from all over the country from London to Cardiff and Belfast to Edinburgh.

On 21 November, students will stand up against fees hikes, graduate unemployment, cuts and broken promises; something National President Liam Burns had a few words to say about on a NUS video released back on 24 September.

Although students have a lot to stand up for in such tough economic climates, some students in Glasgow are not aware that the demo is taking place, according to research complied by The Journal.

Out of the 31 students who were shown the Demo’s logo between Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Strathclyde and City of Glasgow College, only two students knew what it was.

Paul Hynes, a history and politics Student from Strathclyde, said: “It’s the NUS demo down in London through talking with friends”, while some Strathclyde students thought it was regarding the elections. Caroline Morrison, studying history and economics, states: “No I think it ’s about the elections [Union by-elections]”.

Paula Isaac, NC Beauty Care Student, from City of Glasgow college, did know about the demonstration, stating, “It is the national demo down in London, but I doubt the Students’ Association will get involved, even though I think it is important that students do get involved.”

While no students asked from

Out of 31 students shown the Demo’s logo at three Glasgow institutions, only two were able to identify what it was - and none at Glasgow Caledonian.

Glasgow Caledonian University knew about the demonstration.

With such sporadic knowledge of this momentous demonstration, it is concerning that so few students are well-informed, which may be down to individual institution’s simply not doing enough to participate, or a lack of support from NUS. However there are signs that suggest otherwise, as The Journal has been informed that Strathclyde University Union is in the process of planning up to four coaches to take students down to the demo, along with intentions to work in partnership with other Glasgow unions and associations to support their students gaining access to transport.

They also plan to give colleges subsidised seats on the coaches due to them being drastically underfunded in comparison to universities, whilst Glasgow Caledonian University ’s Students’ Association are still in the planning process of how they will get their students to the demonstration.

Andrew Moss Photography

Thousands of students expected at London demo to protest cuts

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

STUDENT NEWS / 11

Scottish lecturers’ Drugs on campus less union walk out on prevalent than believed strike over wages Survey finds image of students as prolific drug users exaggerated EIS strike comes following stall in negotiatons with university administrators over real-terms pay cut

EIS president Sally Quinn at the recent Save FE rally Atalandi Meleagrou-Dixon Staff writer

Scotland’s largest education union yesterday walked out

on strike, following a stall in negotiations with university and college administrators.

The Educational Institute of Scotland, which represents almost 60,000 members from the higher and further education sectors, has been locked in a long fight over wages.

An EIS spokesperson told The Journal that strike action “is not a decision that has been taken lightly, as lecturers do not want to strike but feel forced to do so,” and said they hope “that students will understand and support the lecturers’ position.”

UK lecturers’ pay increases have consistently been below the level of inflation since the onset of the recession in 2008. EIS argue that this has meant they have faced increasingly low real-terms wages.

It has been calculated that over the last three years the average real-terms pay cut for lecturers has

amounted to 12.2 per cent, in cash terms this is around £5,000.

EIS had previously announced that it would be conducting a ballot of its members to determine whether industrial action, including striking, was a viable course of action.

The results of the ballot revealed that 72 per cent of its members wanted some form of industrial action, and that 54 per cent were in favour of strike action. On this small majority the EIS has decided to go forward with the strike.

Controversy has previously arisen over the consequences of strike action on university campuses, largely with regards to the impact it can have on student education.

If the strike is unsuccessful in securing an additional pay increase, it is unclear what the union’s next move will be. The EIS has said that “further action cannot be ruled out unless an improved offer is received from the universities,” suggesting further disruption for students is possible in the near future.

For full coverage of the strike, go to www.journal-online.co.uk.

ON JOURNAL-ONLINE.CO.UK »

GCUSA backs strike action Caley students’ union announces that it will support university lecturers as they walk out on strike

Janina Engler Staff writer

The university drug culture is largely a myth, a recent study has revealed.

Studentbeans.com has produced a survey into the prevalence of drugs on university campuses, finding that drugtaking among students is much less common than many perceive it to be.

Despite 90 per cent of students believing that many of their peers are experimenting with and taking illegal drugs, it has been revealed that the percentage of actual users is far lower. The reality is that 54 per cent of students have tried some form of illegal drug, with 77 per cent of respondents stating that cannabis was their drug of choice at university.

The common perception that the university environment encourages drug-taking and experimenting was also

shown to be incorrect with almost four out of five students who had used drugs admitting to doing so before arriving at university.

There are many misconceptions surrounding drugs at university, evident from the fact that, when asked, 61 per cent of students said they believed ecstasy or MDMA to be among the most commonly used drugs at university. However, according to the survey, in reality only 39 per cent of students have been using, or have tried it, since attending university.

Oliver Bran, editor of Student Beans, who conducted the survey, said the worry was that students were “very peer led” and thus could potentially feel pressured into drug use under false pretensions. Most students stated that they found information on drugs via the internet, or consulted a parent or doctor.

The perception that students are indiscriminate in experimentation with

“Pills, thousands of ‘em.” Or not. drugs has also been proven false. There are a number of drugs that students stated they had no desire to try, particularly cocaine.

The majority of students also stated that they take drugs rarely, with only 11 per cent taking drugs once per week and even fewer doing so on a more regular basis. Cost could be a contributing factor as over half of the students spent ten pounds or less per month on illegal drugs.

12 / STUDENT NEWS

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

BEYOND GLASGOW: STUDENT NEWS FROM AROUND THE UK Charlotte Klein

EUSA referendum branded wash-out as all questions fail to reach quorum to be binding EUSA referendum criticised for poor turnout and difficulty for students to vote Callum Leslie Student Politics editor, Edinburgh

voting was not easy to access as it was not on MyEd but instead required students to log in on the EUSA page.

The recent Edinburgh University Motions on boycotting The Sun and Students’ Association (EUSA) referen- G4S got more votes in favour than against, dum period has been branded a failure but EUSA’s trustee board did overturn the as none of the six questions up for debate referendum result in 2011 boycotting SABmanaged to reach a total of 1,500 yes or no Miller, so some speculated last night that votes, meaning that none of the results are the same may happen again in the case of binding.

G4S. As results were read out, sabbaticals EUSA currently use G4S for cash transread out a prepared statement about how portation, and EUSA officials have conthis was “by no means the end” for these firmed that no other company is currently issues, and that they would be taken to able to provide that service.

EUSA’s councils and passed, or not passed, Motions on ethical investment and prointo policy that way. curement had more votes in favour than One EUSA insider blamed the diffi- against, while the motion to put Tony Blair culty in voting as one of the reasons for the on trial was rejected, as was the question on debacle — many students complained the disaffiliation from the NUS.

University of Newcastle students face noise fines Students in Newcastle could be handed £200 fines for infractions lengthy complaints process.

Under its current policy Newcastle City Council would only take action after three noise offences, but Newcastle City Council have that figure could be reached if officlaunched a scheme which could see ers from its Noise Team are recalled students fined up to £200 for unac- to a property in the same evening. ceptable levels of noise.

Some students have reacted Run in partnership with Newcas- angrily to the new scheme saying tle University, students in the city that excessive noise is not usually will be subject to warnings and fines measurable and is down to personal in an effort to clamp down on anti- opinion. social behaviour in the community.

Gray said: “It’s the inconsiderate The university received 129 noise noise we’re trying to tackle where complaints last year, 65 of which students are putting the TV on loud came from other students. at two o’clock in the morning and The scheme aims to cut the banging doors, the kind of noise that amount of excessive noise without a could have been avoided is what they Gareth Llewellyn Deputy managing editor

are going to be held accountable for.

“But if it’s parties getting out of control and huge disturbances to a lot of people then that would be considered much more seriously and go beyond the formal warnings and fines to further academic sanctioning and discipline.”

Dawn Gray from Newcastle University’s Student Progress Service said: “We want to try and sort the problem out at a much earlier stage and it is to the students’ benefit that we do that before any possible court or council action.”

The maximum fine will be £200 and can be issued to a first time offender.

Craig A Rodway

The NUS vote was handsomely defeated, with 81 per cent of voters rejecting disaffiliation.

EUSA president James McAsh commented on the failure, saying: “I’m disappointed that more people did not vote in the referendum. We’re operating with new structures and there’s bound to be teething problems. We will look into improvements that can be introduced for next time.

Speaking at the count, EUSA vice-president services Max Crema said: “While we’re obviously disappointed that none of the questions reached quoracy, I’d remind people that they will be going through the appropriate democratic structures. We encourage all students to come along and have a say as they go through the various councils. This is by no means the end.”

Aberystwyth University Students’ Association under threat as bar closes Cwrt Mawr takeover could be the start of further loss of autonomy for troubled union Gareth Llewellyn Deputy managing editor

A student bar at Aberystwyth Univer-

sity has closed amid financial problems at its students’ union.

The decision to turn the Cwrt Mawr bar into a coffee shop follows recent moves

by Glyndwr University and Cardiff Metropolitan University.

A report in March from the National Union of Students suggested that students’ unions would need to embrace a “coffee experience”.

Aberystwyth University Students’ Union (AUSU) student president Ben Meakin said that more students had to be tighter with money as a result of the rise in tuition fees and students were drinking coffee during the day and staying home at night.

Meakin added that the bar was in need of a refurbishment of at least £30,000 “with no assurances that the union could secure a return on its investment”.

At the beginning of October, AUSU chief executive Geraint Edwards resigned after 14 years, plunging the autonomy of the union in doubt.

The university provides the union with a small block grant, however in recent years this has been subject to freezes and belowinflation rises, making it difficult for the union to balance the books and the university seeing the need to take greater control.

Aberystwyth university has also been integral to the union in the last 10 years, with many refurbishment and redevelop-

ment projects being funded by the university with agreements to freeze loan repayments which make up a significant amount of the union’s debt.

There have been suggestions that the university is positioning itself to take greater control of the union by imposing operation restrictions and controls while recouping repayments of loans to the union.

The university’s takeover of the bar for conversion occurred without student input or announcement and although the union was reimbursed it is not known if this was a cash payment or if it was a deferral of loan repayments.that reached number 4 in the UK Album charts - the highest debut for any artist in 2011.

What is important is the energy and fight that made their debut album such a stonking hit. That same attitude is still residual in Come of Age, albeit a little harder to come by; the listener has to look that little bit harder than before. For fans of the group, casual and hardcore alike, this will more than stand the test of their scrutiny. For the average listener, who perhaps stumbled on their debut through word of mouth, that same feisty, “grab a hold of this” feeling is a little lacking from this work.

At eleven tracks long, however, the eclectic mood of Come of Age is sure to please everybody at some point. A strong and satisfying second album from one of Britain’s more individual, creatively original bands, Come of Age is a perfect complement to the drawing nights and long study sessions that kick off around this time of year.

P R O P E R T Y L I S T I N G S P R O V I D E D BY W W W. C I T Y L E T S . CO. U K

Property

Anniesland Bearsden Road , 425, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 3506 Crow Road , 550, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 0295 Crow Road , 500, 2G CG O, 0844 635 9472 Howth Drive , 625, 31S 2D G P, 0844 635 9542 Linden Street , 525, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Linden Street , 425, 11D E O, 0844 635 3504 Strathblane Gardens , 595, 22D G P, 0844 635 9378 Strathblane Gardens , 560, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 0295

Battlefield Cartside Street , 425, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Holmlea Road , 400, 11D G CG, 0844 635 9398 Sinclair Drive , 700, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 9472

Bearsden Cairnhill View , 695, 22D G Z, 0844 635 7736 Killermont View , 650, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9496

Botanics Fergus Drive , 635, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3357 Sanda Street , 550, 22D CG O, 0844 635 3357

Bridgeton Dalmarnock Drive , 480, 22D G P, 0844 635 9542 Dunn Street , 495, 33D W CG O, 0844 635 9454 Forbes Drive , 395, 11D E P, 0844 635 9542 Main Street , 395, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 5646 Main Street , 325, 11D G O, 0844 635 2629 Main Street , 295, 11D CG O, 0844 635 5646

Cambuslang Redlawood Road , 495, 22D G PG O, 0844 635 9398 Silverbanks Court, , 495, 22D G P, 0844 635 2629 Welfare Avenue , 395, 22D G PG P, 0844 635 9454 Paisley Road West , 445, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9350

Cathcart Castlebrae Gardens , 580, 22D G P, 0844 635 1986 Clarkston Road , 430, 11D G O, 0844 635 9398 Newlands Road , 450, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 1986 Newlands Road , 390, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9398

Cessnock Harley Street , 625, 44D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Harley Street , 325, 11D G, 0844 635 4826 Merrick Gardens , 450, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 3714 Middleton Street , 325, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 3504 Paisley Road West , 475, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Paisley Road West , 380, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 3504

Charing Cross Berkeley Street , 500, 10844 635 3357 Grovepark Gardens , 525, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9380 Kent Road , 595, 22D W O, 0844 635 9368 Kent Road , 450, 11D W O, 0844 635 9368 St. Vincent Street , 450, 11D W P, 0844 635 9354

City Centre Argyle Street , 695, 21S 1D E P, 0844 635 9368 Argyle Street , 625, 22D P, 0844 635 4471 Bath Street , 550, 11D E O, 0844 635 9368 Bell Street , 650, 21S 1D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Bentinck Street , 1825, 55D, 0844 635 5525 Bothwell Street , 750, 22D E, 0844 635 9378 Bothwell Street , 675, 22D E O, 0844 635 9470 Bothwell Street , 675, 22D E, 0844 635 0295 Brechin Street , 695, 22D G O, 0844 635 9232 Bridge Street , 575, 22D W O, 0844 635 9454 Clyde Street , 750, 22D W P, 0844 635 9226 Dalintober Street , 625, 22D G P, 0844 635 9354

Elmbank Street , 475, 11D E O, 0844 635 9380 Firpark Close , 580, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 0295 Hill Street , 750, 33D G O, 0844 635 9232 Holm Street , 695, 22D G O, 0844 635 5646 Ingram Street , 525, 11D G CG Z, 0844 635 0072 John Knox Street , 625, 22D W P, 0844 635 9378 Morrison Street , 550, 11D E CG P, 0844 635 9368 Oxford Street , 565, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 0072 Oxford Street , 525, 22D E P, 0844 635 9380 Port Dundas Road , 515, 11D E O, 0844 635 4826 Riverview Drive , 650, 32D 1B W CG P, 0844 635 0295 Sandyford Place , 1495, 33D G CG Z, 0844 635 6450 Sauchiehall Street , 580, 22D E, 0844 635 4826 Sauchiehall Street , 525, 12D E, 0844 635 9368 Sauchiehall Street , 525, 11D E CG, 0844 635 9440 South Frederick Street , 595, 11D E, 0844 635 9368 St Andrews Square , 550, 11D W P, 0844 635 9368 St. Vincent Street , 795, 22D G, 0844 635 1986 St. Vincent Street , 795, 22D G, 0844 635 1986 Wallace Street , 750, 33D E P, 0844 635 9232 Wallace Street , 750, 33D W CG P, 0844 635 7774 Wallace Street , 595, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 9372 Wallace Street , 560, 22D G P, 0844 635 4826 Watson Street , 450, 11D G, 0844 635 9378

Cowcaddens New City Road , 570, 22D W P, 0844 635 9378 New City Road , 520, 22D, 0844 635 0012 West Graham Street , 550, 22D G P, 0844 635 1986

Croftfoot Carmunnock Road , 525, 33D G P, 0844 635 9584 Croftend Avenue , 450, 2PG, 0844 635 5509

Crosshill Bowman Street , 550, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 0072 Carfin Street , 495, 22D G O, 0844 635 0072 Eskdale Street , 420, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9400 Eskdale Street , 395, 1G O, 0844 635 9566

Dennistoun Aitken Street , 350, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9350 Alexandra Parade , 550, 22D G P, 0844 635 2629 Alexandra Park Street , 500, 22D G, 0844 635 9542 Appin Road , 375, 11D O, 0844 635 4471 Armadale Street , 525, 22D G O, 0844 635 9542 Bellgrove Street , 495, 22D E P, 0844 635 2629 Birkenshaw Street , 350, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9440 Birkenshaw Street , 325, 1E CG O, 0844 635 9420 Birkenshaw Street , 325, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 5646 Bluevale Street , 475, 22D G O, 0844 635 3328 Cardross Street , 500, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3298 Craigpark , 550, 22D G PG O, 0844 635 9542 Craigpark Drive , 525, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9350 Cumbernauld Road , 650, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 3357 Cumbernauld Road , 525, 22D G P, 0844 635 9440 Cumbernauld Road , 425, 22D G O, 0844 635 9542 Cumbernauld Road , 420, 2G O, 0844 635 9372 Finlay Drive , 575, 22D G O, 0844 635 2214 Finlay Drive , 575, 22D G O, 0844 635 1986 Finlay Drive , 550, 22D G CG Z, 0844 635 9440 Firpark Court , 580, 22D G P, 0844 635 9542 Garthland Drive , 475, 22D 1B G O, 0844 635 9542 Garthland Drive , 450, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 2416 Golfhill Drive , 750, 33D G PG O, 0844 635 3894 Golfhill Drive , 525, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9350 Golfhill Drive , 500, 21S 1D G CG O, 0844 635 3894

Hillfoot Street , 550, 22D G P, 0844 635 3894 Hillfoot Street , 550, 22D P, 0844 635 9440 Hillfoot Street , 550, 22D G P, 0844 635 9440 Hillfoot Street , 550, 22D G P, 0844 635 2629 Hillfoot Street , 525, 22D G P, 0844 635 9370 Hillfoot Street , 490, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3357 Ingleby Drive , 450, 11D G O, 0844 635 9542 Kennyhill Square , 495, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9350 Marwick Street , 475, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 1872 Meadowpark Street , 475, 22D G O, 0844 635 9542 Milnbank Street , 350, 11D O, 0844 635 2629 Onslow Drive , 500, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3357 Reidvale Street , 550, 22D G PG O, 0844 635 1612 Roslea Drive , 650, 31S 2D G O, 0844 635 9542 Roslea Drive , 575, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 2154 Roslea Drive , 425, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9542 Roslea Drive , 375, 11D G O, 0844 635 9542 Sannox Gardens , 550, 33D G O, 0844 635 9542 Sword Street , 525, 21S 1D G P, 0844 635 5509 Sword Street , 350, 11D O, 0844 635 2629 Westercraigs Court , 525, 22D G P, 0844 635 9368 Whitehill Place , 550, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9440 Whitehill Street , 625, 22D G O, 0844 635 9542 Whitehill Street , 495, 22D G O, 0844 635 9542 Whitevale Street , 550, 22D, 0844 635 5525

Gallowgate Spring Wynd , 595, 2G CG O, 0844 635 5509 Westmuir Street , 350, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 3504

Garnethill Buccleuch Street , 695, 22D G O, 0844 635 4826 Buccleuch Street , 495, 11D G CG Z, 0844 635 0822 Rose Street , 750, 22D G O, 0844 635 9454 Scott Street , 695, 22D G Z, 0844 635 9378 West Graham Street , 495, 11D E P, 0844 635 9350

Glasgow Green Greendyke Street , 650, 22D E, 0844 635 9420 Greenhead Street , 695, 31S 2D G P, 0844 635 9354 Greenhead Street , 650, 31S 2D G P, 0844 635 9354 Mcphail Street , 525, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9420

Glasgow Harbour Castlebank Place , 750, 22D G P, 0844 635 6350 Glasgow Harbour Terr , 725, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 6350 Glasgow Harbour Terr , 700, 22D, 0844 635 2018

Govan Golspie Street , 420, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Golspie Street , 420, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Govan Road , 375, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 Kennedar Drive , 425, 2G CG O, 0844 635 9470 Kennedar Drive , 395, 22D E CG O, 0844 635 9470 Skipness Drive , 350, 22D G, 0844 635 4826

Govanhill Allison Street , 475, 22D G O, 0844 635 9584 Allison Street , 400, 11D G O, 0844 635 9380 Allison Street , 400, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9380 Bowman Street , 350, 11D CG O, 0844 635 9440 Calder Street , 485, 22D G O, 0844 635 9584 Calder Street , 400, 11D 1B E CG O, 0844 635 9380 Calder Street , 400, 11D CG O, 0844 635 9380 Calder Street , 325, 11D G O, 0844 635 9584 Cathcart Road , 375, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9398 Daisy Street , 350, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 9380 Dixon Avenue , 500, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 0072 Dixon Avenue , 400, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504

A USERS GUIDE TO CITYLETS LISTINGS Meadows

Area Agent phone number

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

Bedrooms Monthly Rent Location

Garturk Street , 600, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Garturk Street , 325, 11D G O, 0844 635 9584 Govanhill Street , 425, 11D CG O, 0844 635 9380 Inglefield Street , 395, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 0072 Langside Road , 500, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9472 Niddrie Road , 375, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9380 Victoria Road , 545, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 2156

Hillhead Bank Street , 1050, 42S 2D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Cresswell Street , 1155, 33D G O, 0844 635 9354 Gibson Street , 750, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Gibson Street , 650, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Gibson Street , 650, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Otago Street , 990, 33D G CG, 0844 635 9454 Otago Street , 920, 22D W CG, 0844 635 6350 Vinicombe Street , 1050, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 9354 Vinicombe Street , 775, 22D G Z, 0844 635 9378

Hyndland Clarence Drive , 595, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9470 Cresswell Street , 1500, 44D G CG Z, 0844 635 9354 Hyndland Road , 2100, 66D G O, 0844 635 3342 Novar Drive , 1080, 33D, 0844 635 5525

Ibrox Copland Road , 350, 11D E P, 0844 635 9542 Copland Road , 325, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 4826 Middleton Street , 450, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504

Kelvinbridge Great Western Road , 675, 22D W CG O, 0844 635 9354 Great Western Road , 675, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 9354 Holyrood Crescent , 650, 21S 1D G CG O, 0844 635 9470

Langside Camphill Avenue , 375, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 9380 Carmichael Place , 900, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 1318 Overdale Street , 550, 2CG O, 0844 635 9472

Maryhill Cumlodden Drive , 450, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9230 Firhill Road , 600, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 3714 Firhill Road , 599, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9230 Maryhill Road , 525, 22D G O, 0844 635 9470 Murano Street , 500, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 1986 Sandbank Drive , 495, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 3373 Viewmount Drive , 475, 22D G P, 0844 635 9542 Wester Common Drive , 700, 51S 4D G CG O, 0844 635 9472

Merchant City Albion Gate , 600, 21S 1D E CG P, 0844 635 0072 Albion Gate , 550, 11D E, 0844 635 9542

Albion Street , 695, 22D G P, 0844 635 9350 Bell Street , 650, 22D E P, 0844 635 9354 Blackfriars Road , 650, 22D E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 650, 22D E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 650, 22D E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 540, 11D E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 460, 1E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 460, 1E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 460, 1E CG, 0844 635 3786 Blackfriars Road , 425, 1E CG, 0844 635 3786 Glassford Street , 775, 22D G O, 0844 635 1318 John Knox Street , 600, 22D E CG P, 0844 635 1986 London Road , 650, 22D G, 0844 635 9230 Moir Street , 595, 22D G O, 0844 635 9368 Moir Street , 580, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3506 North Frederick Path , 525, 11D E P, 0844 635 1986 Parsonage Square , 650, 22D E CG P, 0844 635 9354 Parsonage Square , 625, 22D W PG P, 0844 635 9354 Watson Street , 795, 22D G PG P, 0844 635 9368

Mount Florida Mclennan Street , 495, 12D G CG O, 0844 635 9398 Somerville Drive , 395, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 3504

New Gorbals Errol Gardens , 575, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9398 Handel Place , 475, 11D G P, 0844 635 9542 Mathieson Terrace , 575, 22D G P, 0844 635 9542 Moffat Street , 525, 11D G CG, 0844 635 6639

Newlands Newlands Road , 315, 1E CG O, 0844 635 9472 Newlands Road , 300, 1E CG, 0844 635 9226

North Kelvinside Garrioch Road , 495, 11D W CG O, 0844 635 9350 Herbert Street , 650, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 9378 Kelbourne Street , 630, 22D G O, 0844 635 9560

Parkhead Belvidere Avenue , 550, 22D G Z, 0844 635 9566 Belvidere Avenue , 550, 22D G P, 0844 635 9566 Burgher Street , 350, 20844 635 2316 Cuthelton Street , 425, 21S 1D G PG P, 0844 635 9398

Partick Apsley Street , 495, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9354 Caird Drive , 495, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9368 Chancellor Street , 550, 11D G O, 0844 635 9354 Chancellor Street , 495, 11D G O, 0844 635 9354 Chancellor Street , 475, 22D G O, 0844 635 9354 Dalcross Street , 475, 1CG, 0844 635 4471 Dumbarton Road , 945, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 4826

Bedrooms: Heating: Garden: Parking: Furniture:

Dumbarton Road , 575, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3714 Dumbarton Road , 495, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9354 Exeter Drive , 450, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 Fairlie Park Drive , 525, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 3506 Gardner Street , 625, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 1986 Kennoway Drive , 375, 11D G O, 0844 635 9350 Laurel Street , 1250, 44D G CG Z, 0844 635 6450 Maule Drive , 795, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 Meadow Road , 460, 11D G O, 0844 635 9368 Peel Street , 895, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 9350 Thornwood Avenue , 525, 11D G O, 0844 635 9470 Thornwood Gardens , 995, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 White Street , 550, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9496

Pollokshaws Barrland Street , 595, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9470 Pollokshaws Road , 495, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9398 Albert Drive , 400, 2G CG O, 0844 635 9226 Beaton Road , 950, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 4471 Forth Street , 750, 44D CG O, 0844 635 9380 Maxwell Grove , 395, 11D E CG P, 0844 635 9482 Rowan Road , 575, 3G CG P, 0844 635 9226 St. Andrews Drive , 525, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9440 St. Andrews Drive , 450, 32S 1D E, 0844 635 4826

Shawlands Baker Street , 625, 22D E CG P, 0844 635 9470 Deanston Drive , 550, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9380 Deanston Drive , 500, 22D G O, 0844 635 9542 Deanston Drive , 500, 22D G CG, 0844 635 1986 Deanston Drive , 500, 22D W CG O, 0844 635 9380 Deanston Drive , 425, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9398 Deanston Drive , 415, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 3504 Deanston Drive , 400, 11D E PG O, 0844 635 9380 Eastwood Avenue , 425, 11D G CG, 0844 635 9354 Ettrick Place , 325, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 9350 Ettrick Place , 325, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 9350 Halbert Street , 650, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 0072 Lethington Place , 395, 11D E CG P, 0844 635 9368 Mannering Court , 395, 11D E CG P, 0844 635 9420 Millwood Street , 480, 22D G PG O, 0844 635 9454 Minard Road , 450, 11D G O, 0844 635 9354 Mount Stuart Street , 695, 33D G PG O, 0844 635 9454 Mount Stuart Street , 475, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9354 Pollokshaws Road , 375, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9380 Skirving Street , 450, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 9398 Skirving Street , 425, 11D G O, 0844 635 1986 Strathyre Street , 425, 11D G PG O, 0844 635 9398 Tassie Street , 475, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9454 Tassie Street , 450, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 9354

S Single D Double T Twin B Box G Gas Central W White Meter E Electric PG Private CG Communal Z Zone O On-Street P Private UF Unfurnished

Waverley Gardens , 575, 22D G O, 0844 635 9398 Woodford Street , 475, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 2312

Shettleston Elvan Street , 480, 22D G, 0844 635 7736 Shettleston Road , 495, 33D G, 0844 635 4826

Southside Annette St , 450, 22D, 0844 635 5525 Nithsdale Street , 495, 22D, 0844 635 5525

St Georges Cross Callander Street , 495, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 2629 Clarendon Place , 450, 11D G O, 0844 635 9470 Gladstone Street , 575, 22D E CG P, 0844 635 4826 Glenfarg Street , 550, 22D W P, 0844 635 9354 Glenfarg Street , 550, 22D W P, 0844 635 9354 Glenfarg Street , 500, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 9354 Great Western Road , 1200, 33D G CG Z, 0844 635 3714 Grovepark Gardens , 595, 32S 1D E P, 0844 635 1986 Hopehill Gardens , 525, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3506 Hopehill Gardens , 460, 11D G Z, 0844 635 9470 North Woodside Road , 450, 11D W CG P, 0844 635 9398 Phoenix Road , 450, 11D E P, 0844 635 9354 St. Georges Road , 550, 22D W Z, 0844 635 9354 St. Georges Road , 550, 22D W P, 0844 635 9354 St. Peters Street , 450, 11D E P, 0844 635 0822 St. Peters Street , 415, 11D E O, 0844 635 9354

Strathbungo Annette Street , 550, 22D G O, 0844 635 0072 Muirhouse Street , 475, 11D G P, 0844 635 9380 Pollokshaws Road , 475, 11D 1B G CG O, 0844 635 9380

Tollcross Denbrae Street , 450, 22D G PG O, 0844 635 9420 Fairholm Street , 385, 11D CG O, 0844 635 9350 Tollcross Road , 450, 21S 1D G, 0844 635 4471 Tollcross Road , 350, 11D E CG O, 0844 635 3504 Wellshot Road , 395, 21S 1D G O, 0844 635 9542 Wellshot Road , 395, 1G CG O, 0844 635 2316 Wellshot Road , 325, 11D, 0844 635 4471

Waterfront Riverview Drive , 495, 11D W CG P, 0844 635 9368 Riverview Gardens , 625, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 0295 Riverview Gardens , 625, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 0295

West End Argyle Street , 990, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Bank Street , 890, 31S 2D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Bank Street , 695, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 Burnbank Gardens , 575, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 4826

Clarendon Place , 495, 2G O, 0844 635 9376 Crow Road , 650, 22D, 0844 635 5525 Dumbarton Road , 775, 33D G, 0844 635 4826 Dumbarton Road , 500, 21S 1D G CG O, 0844 635 6350 Gardner Street , 1080, 33D, 0844 635 5525 Garrioch Road , 650, 22D, 0844 635 5525 Gibson Street , 945, 33D G CG, 0844 635 4826 Great Western Road , 1200, 33D G CG Z, 0844 635 3714 Greenlaw Road , 455, 21S 1D E CG O, 0844 635 3504 Grovepark Street , 700, 3G CG O, 0844 635 9472 Highburgh Road , 1095, 33D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 Maryhill Road , 650, 22D G, 0844 635 4826 Meadowside Quay Walk , 625, 11D E CG, 0844 635 4826 Muirpark Street , 545, 11D G O, 0844 635 4826 Nairn Street , 450, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 North Woodside Road , 650, 22D W CG P, 0844 635 4471 Otago Street , 1155, 33D G CG, 0844 635 4826 Overnewton Street , 745, 31S 2D E CG O, 0844 635 4826 Overnewton Street , 550, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 Radnor Street , 995, 44D G O, 0844 635 4826 Ruskin Place , 1125, 33D, 0844 635 5525 Sauchiehall Street , 1925, 55D G O, 0844 635 4826 Sauchiehall Street , 895, 33D G, 0844 635 4826 Trossachs Street , 695, 33D G PG O, 0844 635 3504 Wilton Street , 770, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3894 Woodlands Drive , 795, 2G CG O, 0844 635 9226

Whiteinch Dumbarton Road , 495, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 Jordan Street , 525, 22D G CG P, 0844 635 9440

Woodlands Dunearn Street , 900, 33D E CG O, 0844 635 1986 Great Western Road , 1200, 44D G CG O, 0844 635 9454 Melrose Gardens , 595, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 6350 West End Park Street , 695, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 3504 West End Park Street , 495, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 1872 West Princes Street , 1300, 44D G CG O, 0844 635 4826 West Princes Street , 450, 11D G CG O, 0844 635 0072 Willowbank Street , 725, 22D G CG O, 0844 635 4826

R GOT YOU ?

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NOW FIND YOUR IDEAL FLAT. GOT A SPARE ROOM? ADVERTISE. FREE.

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14 / EDITORIAL

GLASGOW’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER Freedom of information

Through a government, darkly Despite the fact that former prime

minister Tony Blair once described the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as part of a “progressive programme of constitutional reform” creating “a new Britain with a revitalised conception of citizenship”, it is hard to ignore the dwindling enthusiasm with which each successive government has viewed freedom of information, and with it the broader notion of transparency in public life. Recent weeks have seen a pair of shameful defeats for FOI, both of which place political expediency before the public’s right to know and which suggest the British political establishment are falling in line behind Mr Blair’s view of FOI as the act of a “naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop.”

The decision by attorney general Dominic Grieve to exercise his ministerial veto — a rare occurrence, given the red flag such a high-level intervention raises — to quash a court order that correspondence between the Prince of Wales and seven government departments be

released was a crude effort to prevent embarrassment. Mr Grieve’s claim that the correspondence, described in his statement as “particularly frank”, was part of Prince Charles’ “preparation for kingship” is no defence at all. The royal family should be transparent when they are engaging with and potentially influencing the direction of public policy. The prince’s manifold views on a range of policy issues is no secret; his advocacy of those views at the highest levels of government should be exposed to public scrutiny.

More worrying still is an effort by the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, to prevent the parliamentary ombudsman from releasing information likely to show MPs renting property to one another in order to skirt parliamentary expenses rules. That the speaker would attempt to meddle with the work of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority — a regulator established in the aftermath of the expenses scandal

to help restore public trust in our representatives — is outrageous, and his insistence that the disclosure would pose a security threat to MPs is little more than fatuous scaremongering.

Freedom of information legislation has been a crucial tool in holding public servants to account. Without it, journalists would not have uncovered the cashfor-honours debacle under the previous Labour government, or exposed rampant corruption in the parliamentary expenses system. Bureaucratic whinging over the time and money spent servicing requests, or the fear of embarrassment as a result of disclosure, is of no consequence at all. FOI is not meant only for journalists seeking a scoop — though it is of course that. But it is also a mechanism by which the public can be better informed about the administration of their communities and their country, and thus better equipped to engage constructively with the governing process. It is a tool to be cherished and protected at all costs.

Judicial extradition

We must have our day in court The unjust extradition of a man suffering from Asperger’s syndrome to face trial before an American court has come to pass. A man whose crime was being in the wrong virtual space at the wrong time; the fact of whose illness it was hoped would help sense prevail and halt the unfair extradition process. But it is likely that the man’s name will ring no almost no bells.

On 16 October, Gary McKinnon was spared extradition following an intervention by home secretary Theresa May. But on 5 October, in an uncannily similar case, Syed Talha Ahsan was put on a plane to Connecticut. Caught in the riptide of Abu Hamza’s extradition, the tabloid press were able to count Mr Ahsan as a casualty of the crusade against terrorism — despite the fact that his case simply doesn’t fit that crude narrative.

For Ahsan, those 11 days have made all the difference. The introduction by Ms

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May, shortly after her announcement that she would block Mr McKinnon’s extradition, of a forum bar — legislation referring all extradition decisions to the judiciary — is an abdication of judicial power from the hands of politicians. Ms May exercised her legal power in service of a good cause — and then ensured that she couldnever do so again.

Much of the controversy surrounding Mr Ahsan’s case stems from the fact that his alleged crimes took place in Britain — and that the Crown Prosecution Service had already declared that there was insufficient evidence to try him in a British court.

But no two cases are the same, and in this case it is easy to see how the perception of Mr Ahsan and his supporters, and of the British Muslim community in general, has led to the application of one standard to the McKinnon case — and entirely another to Mr Ahsan’s.

VIEWFINDER

Mr McKinnon’s reprieve is joyful news for those who have fought for a decade to prevent a miscarriage of justice. But the government’s work cannot end with a pat on the back for a job well done. The government must act on extradition, and the home secretary should reflect on the value of the Human Rights Act, which she pledged to scrap in her party conference speech this year.

As we pay tribute to those who stand up for what they believe in — in particular Mr McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp — it is imperative that those less fortunate are not forgotten. We must have strong legislation against further extradition injustices. Surely no-one should be placed in foreign custody by our government without even the most basic case being made in a British court. We do, after all, occasionally take pride in our judicial system.

Allan MacDonald

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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/~jdhildeb/software/sudokugen/ on Mon Oct 22 09:32:11 2012 GMT. Enjoy!

Editors’ note: Mistaken identity Due to a production error, two articles in the previous edition of The Journal (Wednesday 10 October 2012), were incorrectly bylined:

Letters: Galloway to sue NUS Contrary to what Mr. McAsh says, I suspect many students won’t mind contributing to the Assange and Manning legal funds in this way. Well done, Gorgeous George.

• ‘EU questions legitimacy of mini- - ‘Jimby’, via web. mum alcohol pricing’ (News) was written by Charlene White.

George Galloway’s problem is that he is a privileged bully that • ‘Rowling thanks city residents for abuses his position to get his own privacy’ (News) was by Rachel Barr. way far too often for his own good.

He is happy to smear two women The Journal would like to sincerely by calling them liars but doesn’t apologise to the authors of these like it when the shoe is on the articles, and to our readers for the other foot. error.

- ‘Jubileegirl’, via web.

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DISCUSSION&DEBATE

COMMENT The Great Train Snobbery: the Tories just can’t get over their class problem...

by Jen Owen

Why Britain needs its own Ivy League culture In an excerpt from his Gresham College lecture, the head of Britain’s first private university explains his call for a ‘British Ivy League’ Professor Terence Kealey

Most universities in the world

today are state universities, and since higher education and scholarship are conventionally described as public goods that require government money, economic theory predicts that independent universities should languish at the bottom of the three major international university league tables. Yet the converse is true.

The Shanghai Jiao Tong Ranking is based primarily on measurements of science (numbers of papers in top journals, numbers of citations, numbers of Nobel laureates on the staff. The Times Higher survey methodology is a mixture of the first in that it is based primarily on research output (65 per cent of the final score) but it integrates a total of 13 different indicators in its final score including research and industrial income, staff student ratios and teaching reputation.

Currently Shanghai places Harvard first, Stanford second, MIT third, Berkeley fourth and Cambridge fifth; the Times Higher calls CalTech first, Oxford and

Stanford joint second, Harvard fourth and MIT fifth. Those tables employ different methodologies, yet they produce similar, credible, rankings.

A great determinant of university excellence must be GDP per capita – rich countries would have good universities – yet though Europe’s wealth is comparable with the US’s, its universities trail in the global league tables. Why? It may be partly because institutions such as the French Grandes Ecoles do not fit well into the tables, but it is largely because there is a second determinant of university excellence – autonomy.

Why is autonomy an independent variable for university excellence? One answer is monopoly: when a government has nationalised the universities and – as generally happens – has abolished fees, then that government enjoys a monopolistic control of higher education. Why, therefore, would it put into the universities a penny more than the absolute minimum? Yet the consequences are, as the EU Commission reported in its 2003 Role of the Universities in the Europe of Knowledge that: “American universities have far more

substantial means than those of European universities – on average, two to five times higher per student.” Since one source of university excellence is money, free-market America beats monopolistic Europe because students and their parents will contribute more in fees than will governments.

And then there’s academic freedom.

In his 2008 book Academic Freedom in the Wired World Robert O’Neil, the former president of the University of Virginia, reported how a politician, on disagreeing with Professor Rodney Smolla of the state-owned College of William & Mary, threatened him with: “Your institution will pay for this” to which Smolla replied with: “I’ve just moved to the [independent] University of Richmond.” It is no coincidence that many of the challenging thinkers of our time, from Milton Friedman (Chicago) on the right to Noam Chomsky (MIT) on the left, have been based in independent universities.

Autonomy fosters academic excellence in one other way: academic governance. The myth is that academics are otherworldly inhabitants of ivory towers who need help from governments or

from lay external non-executive trustees in the simplest of tasks. But the empirical evidence establishes the opposite, namely that the best universities in the world are the ones where the academics have the greatest say in their management. Thus Oxford and Cambridge are run by the academics themselves, and though the Ivy League is run by councils of trustees, the president of the university is often the executive chairman of the council and, in any case, the Ivy League is marinated in a culture of academic autonomy.

The secret of good university government, therefore, is a group of trustees who empower, not disempower, academic autonomy, and that is more likely to be achieved when Government, too, is not seeking to disempower the academics.

We thus have an experiment between different types of university, and the global league tables show that – overlooking outliers - the American independent research universities are collectively the best in the world; the Anglophonic legally-independent-but-financiallydependent universities such as Oxford,

Cambridge and UCL come next; the state universities come after them.

Do league tables matter? It could be argued that they are irrelevant or even misleading, but inasmuch as they stimulate competition then they must also stimulate excellence.

An Ivy League university is independent in its undergraduate teaching, with none of the caps on fees or numbers - nor any of the subjections to agencies such as OFFA - that shackle our own. But it has competitive access to government research funding.

Ever since Mrs Thatcher’s introduction in 1980 of fees for foreign students, Britain’s universities have grown ever more independent (witness their everimproving performance in the global league tables) so let us finalise that liberalisation and create our own Ivy League.

Prof Terence Kealey is vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, the first private university in the UK. This article was adapted from a lecture he gave at Gresham College on 17 October 2012.

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The search for a new Scottish foreign policy As independence becomes a real possibility, attention is turning to the debate over Scotland’s foreign policy future Dr Daniel Kenealy

The truth of the matter is that issues of foreign policy will not determine the outcome of the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. Issues of identity, economic prosperity, and the possibility of a Scottish social model that is distinct from that of the UK will be of far greater significance in the debate. But the foreign policy implications of an independent Scotland matter and, thankfully, attention is starting to turn to them.

Last week the House of Commons Foreign Affairs committee held its first evidence session for an inquiry on the topic and at the recent SNP conference a genuine debate was held about an independent Scotland’s membership of NATO. This is progress. Three issues are of particular importance. First, what are the implications of independence for the foreign policy of the rump-ofthe-UK (RUK)? Second, what might an independent Scottish foreign policy look like? Third, how can the security of our shared island be secured?

The first issue requires a heavy dose of common sense. The notion that somehow the departure of Scotland would lead to a significant loss of standing and prestige for RUK within inter-

national society ought to be dispelled.

RUK will be smaller in terms of territory, have fewer people, and a smaller GDP, but power and influence within international society rest on more than metrics of state size, population, and GDP. RUK will inherit all of the rights and obligations of the UK, including a seat on the UN Security Council. The claim, popular in SNP circles, that independence would lead to the dissolution of the UK has to be seen for what it is, namely a legally dubious and politically improbable one. Scotland would be seceding from the UK. RUK would be the continuing state.

With or without Scotland, UK foreign policy will have to adjust to middle power status over the coming years. With or without Scotland, there are cuts to military expenditure on the horizon that must be handled prudently and in a way that does not undercut power projection capabilities. And with or without Scotland there is an increasingly complex and precarious relationship with Brussels that has to be managed. If London maintains the capability and commitment to contribute to multilateral diplomatic and military activities, and sorts out the increasing mess that is its relationship with the EU, then RUKs standing should be secure.

The notion that Scotland’s departure

would fundamentally alter the dynamics of these difficult challenges is too flattering of Scotland.

The second issue is perhaps the most uncertain. The shape and scope of an independent Scotland’s foreign policy must be debated over the coming months and years. The SNP conference last week saw a vote in favour of an independent Scotland joining NATO although Scottish territory would not be used to house nuclear weapons. NATO membership will certainly bring more security and certainty to Scotland’s defence policy, but what about Scotland’s active foreign policy?

Economically, Scotland would share RUKs interest in maintaining and defending an open trading system.

It would desire EU membership and, given that any decision on that matter would be taken in the shadow of the EU’s courts and its desire to deepen the scope of EU citizenship, would almost certainly get it. Scotland’s existing and distinctive development policy would likely continue and build on its efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. But the biggest questions concern conventional foreign policy and defence policy. A debate needs to be had on what role Scotland ought to have in the world. It seems likely that Scotland would seek to carve

out a niche role as a small power that could contribute to multilateral military missions through the EU and NATO. The precise force structure is, however, a question that can only be answered once the foreign policy question has been settled.

The third issue is certainly the trickiest one. Scotland and RUK are destined to share a common island space and the security of that space must be ensured. Terrorism, serious organised crime, and cyber-crime are likely to remain palpable threats for many years to come. Scotland and RUK would need to develop appropriate and robust intergovernmental mechanisms to manage these issues. Given that both states would have a common interest in ensuring the security of the island there is no reason why such structures cannot work effectively. Lessons can be learned from Anglo-Irish security cooperation and it is imperative that scaremongering about the possibility of our enemies exploiting Scottish independence does not crowd out cooperation between London and Edinburgh.

A debate on the foreign policy implications of independence, for both Scotland and RUK, has now been launched.

Let us hope that it represents the beginning of a serious and thoughtful dialogue.

Dr Daniel Kenealy is a teaching fellow in international politics and law at the University of Edinburgh.

The right to vote? It is an age-old problem The opportunity to vote for 16- and 17-year-olds is a step towards a fairer democracy for Scotland and the UK Michael Mawdsley

As David Cameron and Alex Sal-

mond’s pens inked paper on Monday 15 October in St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, they were drawing up more than just the documentation surrounding the Scottish National Party (SNP) referendum planned for August 2014. The success of a single question aside, something the SNP and Salmond had argued fervently against for the majority of the elongated and long-winded discussion, it represented the next step in terms of evolving the British democratic process further and the reestablishment of hope following the disastrous failure of the Alternative Vote referendum during the 2010 general election. For the first time in the history of the United Kingdom, 16 and 17-year-olds will be granted the opportunity of voting in an election.

This progression by both the prime minister and first minister is a resounding statement in terms of democracy in this country.

In terms of the preliminary connotations of the decision, the battle lines of the Independence referendum have already been drawn, and adding another hundred thousand individuals into the vote offers the most fair and democratic decision as a result of the outcome. It provides a target for the Yes Campaign and Better Together to garner votes, and provide more support for their campaigns. More importantly, as Robin Parker, NUS Scotland president, stated, it will provide a greatly increased prerogative to encourage “dedicated resources for voter education” as well as to enhance the turnout substantially.

After all, had it only been the Scottish Parliament Electoral Roll from 2011 that

were eligible to vote, an election only 50.4% of the population actually voted in, you’re talking about half of the nation deciding on an ineligible but significant percentages’ future. That was something which should, and now will not, be allowed to happen.

The reasons for these individuals being granted the vote for the referendum are simple and on the whole positive. Firstly it is regarding their own right to decide their own and their country’s futures. Tom Nash, EUSA’s Welfare Officer, stated that it would be “exceedingly unfair to exclude thousands of young people from being involved and responsible in the debate and for their future.” The facts stand that an independent Scotland is not something temporary. It will affect the entire population, their children and grandchildren for centuries. To deny them the right to vote in such an event is verging upon criminal.

A further argument is that at the age of 16 the numbers of rights given to this percentage of the population is incredible. As Andrew Burnie, EUSA vicepresident academic affairs stated, “They can be married, give consent to sexual intercourse, leave school and most important of all they begin to be taxed, but have no control of how any of those items are governed.” They can also join trade unions and political parties, as this author did at 16. Put simply, the decisions of these individuals represent the foundations of their entire life. In terms of marriage and sexual intercourse, the fact that those decisions represent the beginnings of adulthood in a cultural sense, and if voting is indeed an adult responsibility, why has this not been established previously? With the latter,

Votes at 16 Coalition

“no taxation without representation,” the evoking epitaph of the American Revolution springs forth. When adolescents pay subsidies to the state without actually getting to vote for the government who will represent their interests, there is something unfair and insubstantial about that outcome.

In terms of the effect this will have upon the outcome of Scottish Referendum, the difference is potentially neglible or alternatively potentially devastating. There is a riposte potentially from the SNP, who believe that by giving the vote to adolescents it will encourage a positive response to the question, rather

than actually making a genuine political statement. However, if we aren’t being cynical and judgemental, the facts stand that adolescents overwhelmingly are not in favour of independence. In the Mail on Sunday last weekend, a poll revealed that 59 per cent of under 18s would not vote yes to independence.

Professor John Curtice commentating on the piece, said: “This shows the assumptions made by some that younger voters tend towards independence are some way out.” It is generally assumed that the majority of under 18s will vote the way their parents have. As it stands in Scotland, in the most recent YouGov

poll, 70 per cent or thereabout of the adult population in Scotland were in favour of remaining in the Union.

However, ignoring the small minority of individuals who chose to join parties at a young age, the vast majority of under 18s from this could be said to politically inactive. The fact is, as it stands, they are disenfranchised. When you include them in a vote, I believe they will vote in numbers. While they may not add a degree of “independent thought” to the debate, if their turnout can be guaranteed, and one camp is successful in inciting their support, they may prove crucial at the close.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

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Stolpersteine: never forgotten, never again As the Second World War draws further out of focus, traditions are becoming ever more important in modern Germany Grace Wermenbol

The laying of Stolpersteine (stum-

bling stones) takes place a few times a year in the various districts of Berlin. On such a day around 20 stones, mostly ordered several years earlier, are placed in the sidewalks, outside houses where victims of Nazism used to live.

On this occasion, the rabbi who will say the kaddish (one of the most important prayers in Judaism for the dead) and an initiator for a stone, a grandson of murdered Jews, who flew in specially from California, will remain present throughout the day. It has a somewhat loaded effect.

One placement after another takes place, and it appears difficult for those involved to evoke emotion. Any emotions expressed seem fabricated and unreal and only comes between conversations on everyday banalities. This is perhaps understandable, as the laying of the Stolpersteine takes place almost 70 years after the war, in broad daylight.

Within ten minutes, part of the pavement has been dug up and the small, cobblestone-sized memorials have been placed. Initiators, prior to this moment, have usually undergone years of preparation and personal attempts to process a family or national history. Especially in a vibrant city like Berlin the dualism of life and death seems to create an anticlimax. Traffic rushes past, in the background there are giggling schoolgirls and crowded cafes are filled with the lunchcrowd. ‘Das Leben geht weiter’ (Life goes on). Efforts are made to think about the

horrors that the people we are remembering must have experienced. Expelled from their homes and on their way to the unknown; usually their only hope out of all the misery being death.

People who now initiate stones to commemorate neighbours they never knew no longer close their curtains and look on as the Stolpersteine are being put in front of their doors, forming a constant reminder of a past that cannot be forgotten. It has become part of a politically correct memory culture. Secondand third-generation Germans, who only know the war personally through the tales of their grandparents, still feel the responsibility of taking on the guilt of the past.

No longer can we merely speak of generational mea culpa. 60 years after the end of the war, it is rooted in what the historian Mary Fulbrook has characterized as “a collective German guilt culture”. Thus, each year new initiatives are conceived, heavily supported by the German government, to make a new, younger generation aware of the past, with a constant aim of ‘Nie Wieder’ (never again). Some are modest; others play an uncomfortable role in daily life.

Since the 1990s, for example, street signs in the Bayerisches Viertel in Schöneberg commemorate racist antiJewish pamphlets from the 1930s, while in a local playground graduating pupils place stones in a wall each year for Jews who were deported from the homes they now inhabit or from surrounding areas. Creating a personal connection to the deceased — similar to the concept of Stolpersteine — is central in this latter initiative. Incomprehensible numbers are

“It has become part of a politically correct memory culture.

Second- and thirdgeneration Germans, who only knew the war personally through the tales of their grandparents, still feel the responsibility of taking on the guilt of the past.” thus reduced to the individual, allowing emotional identification with the victim.

The initiator from California is wearing a t-shirt with the details of his murdered grandparents, which also constitutes the inscription for the Stolpersteine. He poses in pictures with the inhabitants of a building, who initiated a Stolperstein for another victim in the district of Charlottenburg/Wilmersdorf, and begins to cry. He explains that his grandparents were murdered and looks at them questioningly. They apologize to him and he seems to appreciate that. Later he says that in his travels through Germany he wants to talk to third generation Germans

who feel guilty for the war, and tell them that he does not hold them accountable for what the Nazis did. Empty words, which need not even be pronounced.

Outdated guilt and forgiveness, which are not anyone’s to render or acquit, just like the terms ‘direct victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ of the Holocaust, are archaic among the current, third generation.

Other residents and bystanders stand by during the placement of stones. No critical words about the initiative pass anyone’s lips. Some wonder whether deported Jews used to live in their homes and if so, whether a stone can be initiated in remembrance of them. Here it becomes clear that it does not necessarily concern a personal relationship with a victim, but

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rather perhaps people’s fascination with misery that plays the most important role in the resonance of these kinds of initiatives.

Still, it should be noted that these initiatives are mainly meant to retrospectively grant victims the dignity that they were deprived of in their lives. However, it must be guarded against that they become a method for the current generation to differentiate themselves based on exhibition of politically correct behaviour. This also means that critical voices should not be silenced due to lack of conformity; neither can difficult questions be refrained from asking. After all, learning from the past is necessary, living in the past, however, is undesirable.

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012 Ryan Diamond

Mark Millar: Glaswegian superhero The Journal sits down with renowned comic book writer Mark Millar to discuss weird working patterns and Holywood stardom Michael Diamond Staff writer

and one album on to a desert island, which ones would you take?

My absolute favourite band of all time This week, I caught up with Coat- is Queen...I love the early stuff and my bridge-born, internationally acclaimed favourite album is, unashamedly, Queen comic book writer Mark Millar. I was II. Comic book wise, I’d take The Dark very fortunate that Mark could fit me Knight Returns...it was the comic book into his incredibly busy schedule as he that made me realise that this is what I headed to was heading for London just wanted to do with my life. hours after our interview to spend a few What do you do on a daily basis? Take days on the set of his new film, Kick-Ass us through the daily routine of an 2, which is set to be released in summer internationally acclaimed comic book 2013. writer.

Do you still remember your first I sit at my desk from nine until six comic book? every day...If you’re not at your computer I can actually tell you exactly what it all day, you’re not a writer — you’re a part was. It was my big brother that bought it time writer. In the evenings I always go for me...The first one he got for me was a out. On Saturdays and Sundays, I don’t reprint of an American Spiderman comic even pick up a pen...When we’re making that came out in 1973, and I got it in 1976. a film, I usually go on-set for a couple As it turns out, this is a really pivotal of weeks, but I’m usually more involved comic; it’s a real classic. with the preparation. Basically, I spend What was it like being a comic book most of my time at my computer — it’s a geek at school? bit like being unemployed!

It’s funny, actually. When I was at What is the biggest achievement of school everyone was into it...We were all your career? very literate, looking back on it. We all Probably starting my own thing — knew Superman and Spiderman but we going off and creating my own thing, also read a lot of the obscure stuff. I just really. It was actually Stan Lee that asked remained into it. Other people drifted off me why I never created my own charby about primary six from the comic book acters. It wasn’t really something I’d scene but I was savvy enough to keep it thought about. It was a real moment for quiet - I was an undercover fan...When I me...I realised that this is what I had to was in third year, one of my teachers was do with my life. I phased myself out of really into comic books, which was really Marvel a few years ago. I was doing The cool. This really showed me that it wasn’t Avengers at the same time as I was doing something you had to grow out of.

Wanted; I tested the waters, it went What is your favourite comic book massive, and I knew it would be fine. that you own?

What would you say is the biggest disI actually lost a lot of my comics when appointment of your career?

I was a kid. Thankfully, eBay exists for I’ve actually been really lucky that middle-aged men to get things back that any disappointment has been comthey had when they were kids! I tracked pounded with something good that’s all of my favourites down and framed going on, throughout my career. Even them all. Having these comics framed when it hasn’t worked out, I’ve always really powers me up and reminds me of left companies before they’ve wanted why I’m so into it. rid of me. It’s an important lesson to If you were to take one comic book learn that sometimes you’ve got to get

"Basically, I spend most of my time at my computer — it’s a bit like being unemployed!" off the stage while they’re clapping! I’d probably say that the first ten years of my career was my biggest disappointment. I came into the industry when I was 19 at a time when it was collapsing; I just came in at the wrong time. Our jobs were constantly on the line, and a few hundred comic book sales, one way or the other would make or break us every month. Five shops closing around the world would have been enough to put me under.

Just to talk about Wanted, the comic book is really quite different from the film - how do you feel about that?

Oh, it’s great. It wasn’t like they snatched it from me and changed everything! I was involved in every big decision. I sold Wanted to Universal in 2004 after the comic book sales went through the roof. To be approached by Universal with the proposition of making this into a film was just amazing...The book was really aimed at comic book fans and not the mainstream. This is what prompted a lot of the changes because the mainstream just wouldn’t have got a lot of the in-jokes and references.

Wanted is quite a violent film. You’ve also got a few violent scenes in KickAss, in particular, Hit Girl’s infamous use of the ‘C’ word. How do you feel about censorship in films?

I think censorship is a good thing, as long as they don’t censor my stuff! I’m

really quite conservative when it comes to censorship...If it’s a 15 or an 18 movie, anything goes because you’ve already censored the number of people who can come in to see it. When it’s a kid’s film, you’ve got to bring the shutters down.

Although, I was shocked when Chloe Moretz, who plays Hit Girl, told me that when she was 11 she loved Wanted. She told me her mum took her to see it and I was absolutely horrified!

The Kick-Ass 2 comic was fairly controversial and you have said that every controversy will be included in the film. How well to you think these controversies will transfer from paper to film?

Great! We’ve gone over the screenplay meticulously and it works...There’s a few things which have been slightly toned down because it can just be too much sometimes. Basically, the comic is the movie.

How do you feel about your cameo role in the film?

I’m still not sure what it is! It’s this week and I still don’t really know.

They’ve told me I might be fighting my friend John Romita Jr. who is a martial arts expert and does two hours of bodybuilding every day!

What’s your favourite cameo role in any film?

I like the ones that you don’t know it’s the person themselves. I love the one in Diary of the Dead where Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright from Sean of the Dead are all in there as zombies, but you don’t really realise it because of the makeup. In Kick-Ass 2, I’ve done a really sneaky thing. I’ve given every one of the Millarworld books a cameo: so, in Mindy’s bedroom, the superhero headquarters, in Dave’s bedroom there will be giant Millarworld posters. It’s subliminal advertising!

Is the comic book industry what it used to be? How is it doing today in

comparison to how it was?

It’s totally different. Growing up in the 90s, if I was reading a comic in public, I’d be genuinely embarrassed. I could even have seen myself putting my comics on the inside of a Playboy on the train home just to make it acceptable!...I think Bryan Singer’s X-Men movie in 2000 changed everything. It had a whole different tone..It’s got to a point where I don’t know anyone who is between 18 and 25 who isn’t into comic book movies...

This is a great period we’re in right now and I reckon that it will last until the end of this decade then video game movies will take over.

Is the future bright for comic book films?

Anything that isn’t Batman is going to struggle. I think the characters are a bit too old. The Green Lantern is a man who has a magic ring that makes green plasma manifestations of thoughts he has; I mean, how can you market that to kids? Spiderman seems like a real person who has been bitten by a spider, and things like Kick-Ass are even closer to the real world. I think we will get a good five years of experimental stuff and there will be a bunch of good movies. I think in about 2018 comic books will go away for a while and will become a bit more niche. I’ve also noticed that comic books tie in with economic trends.

Superheroes were created in the depression; were massive in the Cold War; were massive in the oil crisis; were massive in the 90s when George Bush Sr. had his first depression. However, in good economic times, nobody wants superheroes.

Thankfully, the world is in chaos right now and everybody wants them! That’s another reason why I think they’re so big just now and another reason why I think it will die down towards the end of this decade. That being said, I don’t think we’ve peaked yet and I think we’ve got a good few years to enjoy in the future.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

FEATURE / 19

Teufelsberg: the Devil above Berlin The Journal explores a curious location for Berliners and tourists alike: the city’s ‘Devil’s mountain’ Shoaib Rokadiya

The ease of travel today has

allowed us the privilege, or misfortune, to forget.

The continent of Europe provides for endless indulgence; her city streets are lined with constructions of both Baroque splendour and Bauhaus simplicity.

Her museums and galleries are filled with relics and paintings that allow for the spectator to stroll at will through centuries of human history.

Her past is a millennia-old display of the double-edged nature of man; perpetually illustrating the astounding endeavours of the human spirit alongside the abominable acts of human immorality.

Visually, the cities themselves slide with ease into one another and to a certain extent, they have become mere points of reference on the map of Europe. It is the story, however, that seems to live on.

The tales that we come away with seem to indicate our intimacy with the cities in which we were tourists.

Perhaps it is the case that the cities not only affect us but are also affected by us; the process of travelling becoming relational, distinctly marked by a duality between the traveller and the travelled. Nowhere does this seem - or feel - truer than in the German capital of Berlin.

An afternoon stroll around the heart of the city might be enough to offer clues regarding the fascinating and equally ominous past that now contributes to the capital’s unique historical and cultural identity. The past and present seem palpably inextricable, as if two narrative threads of the same enchanting story.

In many respects, it is a city of contrasts: we see in it the wall and its fall; the grip of totalitarianism and the march towards democracy; the crush of despair and the audacity of hope.

It is a city seated at the centre of European affairs and yet wholly detached from them; a city bound historically and inseparably to its past but still focused unceasingly on its future.

“Berlin is a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being,” remarked Karl Scheffler, and it seems this would be the most apt way in which to describe it.

However, in a metropolis of this scale and value – both literally and ideologically – just scratching the surface is enough to transform you from being an aloof observer to one that builds an immanent connection with the city.

Rising up 115 metres above sea level in a city that is almost entirely made up of flat landscapes, sits an artificial hill with an intriguing history.

Teufelsberg – or Devil’s Mountain in English – has long been a place of curiosity and interest for Berliners.

On Sundays, local families turn out in swathes in order to spend their afternoons kite flying with children, or to enjoy the spectacular views over the blanket of green that appears, if only for a moment, to stretch over the city’s industry and commerce, throwing a veil over Berlin’s perceived reputation.

Perched atop the hill are what

seem to be huge golf balls constructed on cylindrical towers. This is the abandoned site of a listening post that formerly belonged to the United States department of intelligence, the National Security Agency (NSA), a site that epitomises Berlin’s illimitable past.

Albert Speer, the so-called ‘first architect of the Third Reich’, designed a Nazi military-technical college on the site of the hill; pursuing Hitler’s ambition to create the Welthauptstadt Germania (‘World Capital Germany’).

This would follow the expected victory in World War II. The college was never fully completed but as the war drew to a close and the Allies tried to destroy its existence, they found it to be incredibly robust and resolute. Ultimately, even their extensive use of explosives was unable to destroy the building.

The Second World War and the Siege of Berlin had left the city in a state of ruination and disrepair; much of the city was plagued by masses of rubble that were a result of allied bombing.

In June, 1950, the West Berlin Magistrate thought it best to open a rubble disposal site by the half-finished military-college. For the next twenty years, an average of 600 trucks made daily trips to the site, depositing almost 6,800 cubic metres of city ruins per day, hiding Speer’s militarycollege from public view.

In total, 25 million cubic metres of building waste – or the equivalent of 400,000 apartments – were carried to this new wasteland, which in turn became a hill of bricks and debris in the middle of Berlin’s lush Grunewald forest.

The Senate of Berlin then decided to plant turf on top of it, allowing the small ‘mountain’ to blend almost seamlessly into its surroundings.

The battle for superiority between East and West Germany was well underway. As the Soviets employed the infamous Berlin Blockade, cutting off the Allies’ road, railway and river access to West Berlin, the Americans began sending out mobile listening units around the city.

They sought to seek out an area offering them a signal strong enough to spy on the affairs of their enemies and other Warsaw Pact nations. They insisted that the mobile stations were being used to monitor the West Berlin Air Corridors, particularly crucial during the period of the blockade.

It was under these same pretences that Teufelsberg came to be constructed, with the Americans finding its strength of signal to be unrivalled in other parts of the city.

A series of buildings with ball shaped devices known as ‘radomes’, popped up over the hill, creating an NSA listening station that is rumoured to have been part of the global ECHELON intelligence-gathering network. Such was the listening station’s effectiveness that Teufelsberg was awarded with a coveted NSA ‘intelligence’ prize a total of four times over its short history.

After the fall of the wall and the end of the Cold War, the Americans abandoned Teufelsberg to nature, leaving only the surrounding forest’s wild boars as its inhabitants.

Shoaib Rokadiya

Soon however, it became clear that even its prison-like security mechanism could not hold strong against the will of intrigued Berliners. Many scaled its numerous wrought iron barbed-wire fences in order to explore the ghosts of the NSA’s past in the city.

Efforts by private investors to purchase the land for uses such as resort building failed successively. The most recent and high profile attempt came from none other than the surrealist director David Lynch; who wished to build a ‘University for Transcendental Meditation’ atop the peak in 2007.

There have been attempts to convert the site into a memorial, but so far the government has been wholly unresponsive.

And so it is that Teufelsberg has slipped into the grasp of Berlin’s street artists and filmmakers, its hippies and hipsters. It has been vandalised and painted over: the site now a no-man’s-land of glass, broken floor tiles and shattered asbestos plates. To experience it, however, is to experience what is true of Berlin.

To visit what the Americans called only ‘The Hill’ is to become familiar with the city’s perpetually innate dichotomies. It is an area both inherently connected to the wider metropolis and entirely detached from it, a deep-rooted link to the city’s history that is simultaneously only of peripheral importance.

Teufelsberg is a phantom of Ber-

lin’s past. Its literal remains are superseded by the questions that surround the site, a history with a howling presence.

And it is this presence that draws you ever deeper into the story of the city, both affecting and being affected by you, leaving you forever as an imperceptible anecdote on the chronicles of its past.

It is possible though that this writer has been too much enamoured by the city’s dualities and too greatly affected by its intimacies.

Perhaps it would be wiser to follow the advice of the great Austrian composer, Franz von Suppé: “You are crazy, my child. You must go to Berlin.”

20 / FEATURE

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Glasgow’s city of the dead

Mhairi Grant discovers reflection and introspection in the Necropolis, home to 50,000 Glaswegians Olivia Pires

Mhairi Grant

Proudly standing 225 feet above the River Clyde, the Glasgow Necropolis serves as a prominent reminder of the city’s mercantile and cultural past.

Modelled on Paris’ famous PèreLachaise cemetery, Scotland’s “city of the dead” is the resting place of 50,000 interments, including many notable merchants and literary figures.

Not only a tribute to the dead, the Necropolis pays homage to Victorian art and architecture, with designs created by the likes of renowned architects David and James Hamilton, Alexander Thomson and John Bryce.

A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said the cemetery was initially designed as “a botanic and sculpture garden to improve the morals and taste of Glaswegians and act as an historical record of past greatness.”

Indeed, a walk among the elaborate Gothic, Greek and Egyptian-styled memorials in the upper parts of the Necropolis enables visitors to retrace Glasgow’s vibrant history in the space of an afternoon and marvel at her Victorian achievements.

Originally known as Fir Park due to the numerous fir trees which lined the hill, but were subsequently destroyed due to industrial pollution, the Necropolis quickly became a vast resting place for Glasgow’s elite.

Although the creation of a large burial ground for the upper classes would provide an enduring display of disposable wealth, the new cemetery also made logistical sense.

The trebling of Glasgow’s population to more than 200,000 by 1831 put increased pressure on her existing urban structure. Cramped living quar-

ters, contaminated water supplies and poor sanitation resulted in an increased mortality rate, impacting greatly on urban church graveyards where conditions were said to be unhygienic.

Despite burials outside the confinements of church land being normally confined to “lunatics” and the “unbaptised”, Fir Park offered a sanitary alternative to the cholera and typhus ridden city environment.

The first internment of the Necropolis took place in September 1832 with the burial of 62-year old Joseph Levi, a Jewish jeweller. It was only in March 1833 that the Merchants’ House of Glasgow, today’s equivalent of a city council, authorised the formal opening of the cemetery the following month.

Thus ensued the creation of a variety of ornate, often stunning memorials to commemorate the deceased, for many a chance to leave their immortal mark upon the world. Nowadays, the Necropolis offers “rejuvenating views in the most unexpected of places”, according to Merchant City Tourism.

Some of the memorials deserve particular attention, not simply for their compelling designs, but for the personal stories attached to them.

Perhaps the best place to start is with the highest and best known monument in the Necropolis, that of John Knox. A leading figure in Scotland’s Protestant Reformation of 1560, his remains were actually never brought to the site.

In fact, his monument predates the Necropolis. Erected in 1825 when the area was still known as Fir Park, the 12 foot high statue shows Knox wearing a Geneva gown with the Bible firmly grasped in his right hand.

Interestingly, the memorial over-

looks Glasgow Cathedral, one of the few medieval Scottish churches that survived the Reformation. Although this may appear unusual, it was said Knox never turned his back on anyone, not even a foe.

Glasgow’s success during the Victorian era in part stemmed from her ability to exploit tobacco, sugar and cotton trade links with American and West Indian Colonies. This, combined with industrial development and commercial enterprise in coal and iron, did much to increase the wealth and influence of the city, granting her the unofficial title of “Second City of the Empire”.

The tombs of many merchants and barons who contributed to Glasgow’s success can be found within the Necropolis, such as that of Major Archibald Douglas Monteath who served in the East India Company.

His impressive mausoleum, said to be based on the Knights Templar Church, is hard to ignore and that the Merchants’ House gifted additional land to ensure its completion indicates the high regard in which he was held.

Another noteworthy character is Henry Monteith, owner of the large cotton weaving mill known as Henry Monteith & Co. In 1802, he helped establish an additional company which produced bandana handkerchiefs and which later became the first in Great Britain to discover a dye process that created the “Turkey-red” colour. A key figure in Glasgow’s rise to cotton-producing fame, he also played a prominent role in municipal politics, becoming Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1814 and 1818.

An insight into the residents of the Necropolis would not be complete

without a discussion of the well-known women who rest there.

Isabella Ure Elder, a philanthropist and active promoter of higher education for women, helped finance the Queen Margaret College in Glasgow, the first in Scotland which was open to females. When the College merged with the University of Glasgow, Elder continued campaigning for the equal treatment of female students.

A Greek-style mausoleum built for three daughters of a successful cotton merchant, the Misses Buchanan of Bellfield, can also be admired.

Elizabeth, Jane and Margaret all died unmarried in their seventies, bequeathing a sizeable amount to various charitable associations, including £10,000 to the Merchants’ House for the continuous maintenance of their tomb. Sadly, their monument was one of the worst affected by the storm of February 1856, leaving it in a rather damaged condition, even to date.

A touch of royalty can even be found within the Necropolis with the grave of self-proclaimed “Queen of the Gypsies”, Corlinda Lee. After her marriage to the horse trainer George Smith, her extended family toured the United Kingdom, inviting the public to visit their Romany Gypsy encampments.

It is even alleged Queen Victorian paid the family a visit, receiving a palm reading from Corlinda in 1878.

Tales of tragedy and heart-break are prevalent in the cemetery’s marble and granite headstones. A particularly poignant engraving marks the life of the bookseller, poet and writer, Thomas Atkinson, whose premature death at the age of 32 is lamented by his “widowed and bereaved” mother.

Author of The Chameleon and

editor of a weekly literary periodical entitled The Ant, Atkinson died at sea whilst on a trip to Barbados for the recovery of his health, depriving his mother of the “genuine worth of an only son.”

Victims of the Orion disaster of June 1850 are also commemorated.

The merchant James Scott, who was returning to Glasgow after a stay in Montreal, died along with his wife and 39 other passengers when the sea vessel, transporting them from Liverpool to Glasgow, hit a sunken rock.

Furthermore, a gravestone marking the death of a 25-year-old daughter, quickly followed by her five younger siblings, highlights the susceptibility of infants to diseases of the era: a forlorn reality for many families.

There are of course too many memorials to give due recognition to all. The extent and variety of the Necropolis means one never ceases to be impressed, finding new points of interest with each visit. That is the veritable beauty of the Necropolis.

Although it is adorned with gothic sculptures and symbols rooted in Victorian Britain’s morbid fascination with death, it is still a place to be enjoyed, appreciated and re-visited.

As historian Ronnie Scott states, the Necropolis “provides a powerful sense of the transience of all things, the fads and fashions that pass into the mists of time.”

Far from simply being an ominous reminder of death, aptly stated on one gravestone (“Remember, man, as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I: as I am now, so you must be”), it is a window into Glasgow’s collective past, ensuring her successes and misfortunes cannot easily be forgotten.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

A&E / 21

CULTURE&LIFESTYLE

ARTS&ENTS This ladder is ours to climb

James Minchin

The Joy Formidable’s Rhydian Daffyd Davies muses on his band’s rapid ascent on the back of well-received debut album The Big Roar

MUSIC Harris Brine Assistant music editor

If you’re the bassist in a band that’s

opened for the Foo Fighters, played the Late Night Show With David Letterman and are currently in France on tour with the monolithic Muse, making a blearyeyed phone call at nine in the morning to a Scottish student newspaper is about as unconventional as it gets.

Fortunately, The Joy Formidable revel in being unconventional. When the band finally exploded into the public eye with debut album The Big Roar in 2011, it’d already been four years since their inception and two things were very clear; The Joy Formidable’s propulsion into the limelight was not being furiously thrust forward by sales-hungry record labels, nor was it gift-wrapped with image-conscious packaging and recklessly thrown out as a marketing nail-bomb in the direction of a target audience.

The success of The Big Roar, which critics lauded in their masses, was solely down to its ability to illuminate last year’s dark January nights with rampant optimism. Through the frantic punk-pounding of ‘Cradle’ and the playful yet stirring sounds of the captivating hit single ‘Whirring’, The Joy Formidable had announced their arrival in the only way they knew how; exactly how they wanted it.

“We’ve always been at the helm of what we do,” the band’s bassist Rhydian Daffyd Davies says. “We see a lot of people around us who are just puppets. I think it’s very important to stay strong to your vision and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Sometimes, in order to achieve that, you have to be unconventional.”

We suggest that his band were somewhat of an enigma in the industry because

they are both ‘older than the norm’ and not marketed to a specific demographic, and Davies laughs. “I actually take that as a compliment. It shows we’re more about the music than just an image. One good way of bypassing the bullshit is by playing plenty of shows and letting people who come to see you genuinely connect with your music. That’s where the real honesty lies.”

On its release, The Big Roar captured the hearts of many of the major music publications, particularly NME, who commended the album’s ability to seamlessly saunter between sounds both intimate and epic in proportions. Such strong backing misled people into thinking the trio had arrived out of nowhere but Davies is adamant the band’s success is because of hard work alone.

“Obviously if you have any accolades from people you admire then it’s a nice feeling, but we feel that we’ve carved our own path in all of this. It certainly wasn’t anything overnight. We’ve done a hell-ofa-lot of gigs. The key thing to us is to be proud of what we’ve written and not have any regrets. That’s the only plan we stick to and everything else...takes its own course”.

After a successful year-and-a-half of incessant touring the UK, Europe and America, they caught the eye of fellow Welsh act Muse. Davies is unsure as to how this all came about, only knowing that “they heard quite a lot of the album and became fans”. The Journal suspects the connection was made through The Big Roar’s producer Rick Costey, who has also worked with Matt Bellamy et al on their albums Absolution and Black Holes And Revelations.

Regardless of the serendipitous circumstances, the bassist is extremely excited about supporting one of the biggest bands in the world but is also keeping his feet firmly on the ground. “The Muse shows will be the biggest shows we’ve done in Europe, and then in contrast to

that we’ll be doing some really tiny shows ourselves. It’s a real nice balance, you know, and obviously it’s great exposure for us as well. We start off in France, go to Spain, and then back to the UK. It’s an exciting time.”

Expectations are high for their follow-up album Wolf’s Law. Singles so far released from it, ‘Cholla’ and ‘This Ladder Is Ours’, have shown a continuation of a honed sound that is as monumental as their upcoming thirty-date European and North American tour. We probe the bassist for any difference in sound.

“There’s more use of the sonic palettes, but that isn’t anything strange to us because we’re interested in song-writing and saying something. In terms of an actual sound, more instrumentation, some really heavy moments and some really rli eally quiet moments as well. We want to challenge ourselves and with that we challenge our listeners.”

In order to lay down all of the songs planned for Wolf’s Law, the band inadvertently copied Ray LaMontagne’s strategy by disappearing into the depths of rural America. “We took some time out to collect our thoughts. We’re always writing anyway, whether it’s on the road or whatever, but we took some time out in Portland, Maine in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and it completely flowed out.

I think that’s what we needed, a bit of solitude”.

Solitude can be peaceful, but being trapped in a log cabin with only two other people for weeks on end could easily produce unwanted tension, especially when creativity is flowing. Fortunately, the trio managed to avoid being at loggerheads with each other.

“There wasn’t any clashing of heads or anything like that. I think it’s important to challenge each other as long as you understand the final goal and utterly respect each other, which we do, but this time it just felt like a complete harmony, it just

flowed and all came out really quickly.”

The Big Roar allowed the band to attract one of the best in the business for their follow-up’s production. With a backcatalogue as extensive as they come, the Grammy award-winning Andy Wallace was drafted in to mix Wolf’s Law. Wallace mixed seminal albums such as Run-D.M.’s Raising Hell, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, Sonic Youth’s Dirty and even played his part in helping a little-known band called Nirvana launch their careers with the groundbreaking Nevermind. He even braced certain death by agreeing to mix Axl Rose’s not-in-any-way-democratic-and-ironically-titled Chinese Democracy in 2008.

Davies had longed for Wallace to be involved in bolstering an already resplendent sound because he loved Wallace’s “drum sounds, particularly on Slayer’s Raining Blood and Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled debut album”. Upon his capture, the band found working with the illustrious Wallace an incredible experience.

“Honestly, it was an absolute fucking pleasure. He’s really down-to-earth. It was bizarre considering the back catalogue he’s got. Davies breaks off, and laughs.

“More than anything, he’s still got a pair of fucking ears on him. It takes us a lot to trust someone with our work because we’re very clear of what we want, but when we went into the sessions with him, we were like “fucking hell, this guy’s getting it, you

Introducing... Father Sculptor

know?”

“Each time we were coming back to the mix, he’d be there. He’s got nothing to prove. There aren’t many albums where the drums sound great but we’re really excited with what he’s done with ours.”

The Joy Formidable traverse Europe before arriving in Glasgow to showcase Wolf’s Law, arriving at the SECC with knuckles still firmly clutching the tailcoats of Muse. We ask Davies what to expect from The Joy Formidable as a warm-up to Matt Bellamy’s extravagant exhibition of guitar-playing.

“Anyone who’s seen us before knows that we always give it everything. This is everything to us. We’re very passionate and it’s very raw, we actually feel it on stage. You’re getting our hearts and souls for forty-five minutes a night on this tour. What you will get is everything and nothing less.”

Sleepily sensing our time is nearing an end with Davies and not long before we hang up the phone, we ask if he’s managed to catch a glimpse of something that verges on guitar pornography; Matt Bellamy’s vast array of elaborate and expensive guitars, and if he has, are there any plans afoot to ask Matt for a quick shot of one?

Without hesitation Davies chuckles, and answers, “Yeah, we’ll find a way to smash the fuck out of one. Definitely.” You surely didn’t expect a conventional answer from The Joy Formidable, did you?

MUSIC

This fortnight, The Journal takes a look at the Glasgow exiles with a penchant for misery currently garnering plenty of buzz Harris Brine Assistant music editor

guishing chorus immediately made us sit up and take notice.

Admittedly, Father Sculptor’s selfA fleeting encounter in King Tuts satisfying throwback to the 80s had them minutes after their support slot with opt for an explosion in place of a little London’s Spector in February (which translucence of The Smiths as influences, was, incredibly, Father Sculptor’s first but as their emails kept appearing in our ever gig) spurred on the quintet to send a inbox, so did more samples of their talent. copy of their double single ‘Ember/Blue’ Through lyrics carefully dipped in to The Journal. melancholy, particularly in ‘Aristide’ and ‘Ember’s’ intricately-layered produc- ‘Dysmirror’, the band seemed to be voltion, glimmering guitar hooks and lan- untarily holed-up in their own ‘Room

101’.

And while 1984’s protagonist Winston Smith effortlessly strived to keep his exploits under wraps, Father Sculptor have done the exact opposite, churning out bold, witty emails with easily accessible links to each of their releases.

Their diligence has undoubtedly paid off tenfold; in less than eleven months and with only seven completed songs, the NME, The Fly and The Guardian are members of a guild proudly singing the

band’s praises.

Morrissey’s publicist recently announced to Rolling Stone: “The Smiths are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, going to reunite – ever”.

Although reassuringly pleasing for the The Cribs, it appears the rest of us will be forced to accept that reformations in Manchester will be strictly confined to the Stone Roses alone.

With a Johnny Marr reunion now considered a thoughtcrime for Morrissey,

we might have to look to Father Sculptor to keep the thirty-year old flame burning bright.

And with another blatant nod to Orwell’s piece-de-resistance, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the band for the foreseeable future. Misery hasn’t sounded this good in years.

Father Sculptor will headline the city’s Glasgow’s School of Art on the 17 November.

22 / A&E

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Making a Noize of his own...

Tom Collins speaks to DJ Alex Ridha about the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Boyz Noize machine

MUSIC

and people like it, that’s what I want.

For me, it’s still art, it’s not a business thing. I wouldn’t just make a big hit that Tom Collins I know people will like. It’s really hard Music editor to stay true to yourself and be successful at the same time. There are so many Dirty techno has engulfed the amazing acts in the underground, then entire room. There are people jumping, a big gap until you get superstar DJ’s shouting, waving their arms in a who churn out shit for a lot of money. heaving mass. Lights are shooting all Being successful but not commercial is around the ABC’s corners, smoke is very difficult.” bellowing from the stage where a DJ is Not long after Ridha started making playing on top of what looks like a giant his homemade mix-tapes, he moved black rock. into production. In 2005, he set up the All of sudden the black turns to eponymous Boys Noize Records (BNR). metallic silver as the cloth covering Ridha signs many of the acts himself, the booth reveals a six-foot-tall metal ensuring they all have one key ingrediskull with crimson eyes firing neon-red ent. “For me it’s really to find someone lasers straight into the crowd; a scene that has their own sound and at least that could have been taken straight tries to be different. Nowadays there from a Terminator movie. are so many producers that everyone Of course, Boys Noize is in town. 30 has a chance to get involved, which year-old Berlin-based DJ, Alex Ridha, is amazing, but that leads to people better known as Boys Noize, began copying each other.

DJing at a very early age. When he was “You know how it is when you go just 13 he began playing around with to a record shop and you listen to 100 two old record players. records but in the end you just buy “I started making mix-tapes for my three, and you buy them because they friends and I was totally addicted to the have something different, something whole vinyl scene because it gave me a weird or something special. That’s the door to so much new music.” Ridha’s ones that I am looking for. I’m looking love of vinyl gave him a cutting edge for those three tracks.” and he was able to develop a very deep Ridha’s gig at Glasgow’s ABC was an musical taste and knowledge, some- exhibition of his new album, Out Of The thing that is evident in his unique style Black, which features a few collaboraof house music today. tions, including one with the infamous “I was listening to music that no one Snoop Dogg. The track in question, ‘Got else had access to, which made me very It’, was met with an eruption of nymcomfortable with house music which is pholepsy as people tried to combine one of the reasons I started DJing.” their rap-music-head-bopping with Ridha’s “noize” has earned him top ecstatic club jumping. Collaborations spot on Beatport.com for three years in and remixes have been Ridha’s bread a row; no mean feat in a world saturated and butter for years now, with a back in superstar DJs. “It’s not always as easy catalogue of remixed tracks longer than when you just do what you feel like the lasers shooting around at his gigs.

“I look at myself as a musician.

Sometimes I like working in my own, but other days I prefer working on something else, so I very happy to be able to work with others and express my other musical aspects. For my own music I have a very clear vision, I don’t like to work with many people when I am making my own music, so it’s very cool to work with other people.”

Sharing tastes for electric orchestral house and dirty techno with Ridha is American DJ Skrillex, and it seemed only a matter of time before they joined forces to create new project Dog Blood.

Revealing they “tried to get into each other’s worlds”, Ridha and Skrillex worked together during alternating visits to Berlin and Los Angeles.

Ridha’s splits his time on the stage with nurturing his acts on his label in his Berlin studio. Choosing what he loves more is something he finds difficult. “I am a DJ first, but I wouldn’t say I love it more than producing. Both are a part of being a musician, even though they are different. When you are performing you’re out meeting people and getting feedback feeling the energy and creativity but when you’re in the studio you are alone and you just do what you feel. I couldn’t say I like one better than the other.”

At the end of his gig, the crowd are shouting for more; Ridha gladly obliges, continuing his aural assault on the senses as his metal skull comes back to life. Afterwards, he revealed why he went above and beyond for the hungry Scottish crowd. “I have a big love for Glasgow. I’ve been playing there for many years now and it’s always been amazing. The people are always really up for new stuff but you guys are pretty crazy. Glaswegians are rock n roll.”

Tame Impala - Lonerism Following up debut album Innerspeaker, the Australian experimentalists’ new album Lonerism seeks out new ears by delving into the past

MUSIC Bryan Duncan Staff Writer

In 2010, Australian band Tame

Impala unleashed Innerspeaker, a sublime debut album filled with psychedelic, 60s-tinged kaleidoscopic rock.

Sounding like the Chemical Brothers remixing the Beatles, it musically looked back and forth simultaneously for inspiration; a feat that most bands find difficult to achieve in an internet age where every genre of music is available for consumption. Some acts become stuffy pub-rock bands on a diet of Britpop records, while some acts’ heads are so psyched out in space, you want to pull the plug and let them drift off to Mars.

Kevin Parker, helmsman and creative force behind the Perth outfit, seems quite passionate about the Tame Impala sound. He said to Pitch-

fork.com that it was “disheartening” to find people only hearing the retro parts of Innerspeaker — interestingly, he envisioned it an electronic album.

However, he further added that those 60s and 70s sounds have a “fantastical effect” on his brain as they’re more “distant and foreign.”

Produced and recorded by Parker, and mixed by Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann, Lonerism’s electronica influences stand out a lot more. But it doesn’t dismantle the soundscape that made its predecessor so appealing.

Opening track ‘Be Above It’ is a cacophony of guttural drums and squelching guitar which echoes Flaming Lips. ‘Endors Toi’ propels the listener into some barren desert landscape, before dropping you off in the eccentricities of Pink Floyd’s ‘Arnold Layne’, and following track ‘Apocalypse Dreams’ is a demented pop song, driven by a Motown beat and cosmic guitar noises.

The most striking similarity though is Parker’s distinctive vocals, which are eerily reminiscent of John Lennon.

There are other Beatles elements

too — drum fills frolic and crash on ‘Mind Mischief ’ as if Ringo was in the room, while a Macca-style bass line bounces along on ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards.’ At times, Tame Impala sound like the result of lost Fab Four tapes found in a buried time capsule, showing the 21st century how the Liverpudlians would reinvent themselves had they braved the elements of the 70s and beyond.

Tame Impala’s Beatles-esque sound doesn’t override the album though.

Blips of electronica in ‘Music to Walk Home By’ are reminiscent of Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene LP. Guitar sounds and FX loops buzz and float on ‘Keep On Lying’. The album’s penultimate act, ‘Nothing That Has Happened So Far’, shamelessly wallows in phased guitars and synths.

Like Innerspeaker, Lonerism is an exhilarating listen, albeit slightly stretched out this time to make room for Parker’s colourful scope of sounds.

It’s not a retro-fest, nor is it a space-age opera. It’s simply an inventive record which shows there’s still an energy and freshness to the band.

MUSIC

Recommendations

Throw in one half of Conquering

Animal Sound, an NME journalist and two Twin Atlantic members and you’re left with three promising Scottish acts as their recommendations.

The male side of Conquering Animal Sound, James Scott, offers his recommendation to The Journal: “Fox Gut Daata is one of my favourite musicians in Glasgow. His loose, swamp-thick beats mix with bubbling filters and brightly coloured synths that perfectly match his irony-heavy artwork. Lazy yet wonderfully uptempo, at once goofy and still smarter than you, this is some the most interesting music coming out of the city.”

Experienced NME Journalist Barry Nicolson reveals the nation’s best band (in his opinion): “Glasgow’s Otherpeople are the best band in Scotland right now. To generalise horribly, they make weird, idiosyncratic pop music that’s a little bit Talking Heads, a little bit Biffy Clyro, and a little bit all-points-inbetween. It’s hard to do anything singular and original with guitars these days, but they never cease to delight and surprise me.”

Twin Atlantic’s Sam McTrusty and Barry McKenna reveal exactly who’s

on their iPod. “The LaFontaines are a hard band to get a handle on at first.

Throwing so many different genres together, this band are simply impossible to pigeon hole or define. They simply play music that they love and that’s why we love them. They haven’t tried to jump on any trend and are simply forging a new one instead. Not only do they own an arsenal of amazing songs but are an unbelievably explosive live band too. This band won’t stay in small venues for much longer. Our favourite new band in years.”

Cheri’e Photography

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

A&E / 23

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

Single Honours The Journal samples new singles from A*M*E and Bat For Lashes

A*M*E – ‘Play the Game Boy’ 4 November, Future/Universal

If there was ever a testimony to

the shrinking world of music it must be the Korean number one hit that A*M*E has achieved. Only in the eternally digitized universe of the 21st century could a 17-year-old South London techno-urban act achieve the glittering pop stardom and all of its trappings in the Far East.

On that note, A*M*E delivers her latest single ‘Play the Game Boy’.

Following on from previous outings ‘City Lights’ and ‘Find A Boy’, the latter co-written with the eternally precocious Emeli Sandé, listeners would be forgiven for not recognizing the songs or the act.

A*M*E, real name Amy Kabba, moved to the UK from Sierra Leone at the age of eight, writes and performs all of her own music and has a less-than-stellar announcement to the musical world — in this hemisphere at least.

‘Play the Game Boy’ is the usual urban, ‘girl power’ infused track which feels like the product of an IBM and an Arp Odyssey keyboard’s boozy one night stand. When A*M*E’s vocals can be heard above the sub-woofer, they are so utterly distorted that it makes little to no sense to pass any judgment on her talent, as what is heard is so far detached from human vocal range it would be a travesty to call it singing.

Homage to the 80’s doesn’t stop at the obvious pun in the title. The opening feels lifted straight from any of the backing tracks featured on the Ghostbusters soundtrack cas-

range of different styles and techniques into four minutes of music.

Where her contemporaries try and often fail at this, making the whole track seem annoyingly clustered, Bat for Lashes thrives amongst the seemingly chaotic nature of the bustling harmonies.

Call it symbolic of modern culture or simply a self-serving homage to Khan’s multi-instrumental ability.

Either way, it works. ‘All Your Gold’ features electric guitar, distorted of course, an electronic beat and resonating synths. All combining to

Bat for Lashes – All Your Gold 15 October, Parlophone acts that seems to be both eternally entertaining and dangerously original — a rarity, then, in the modern age of music. Better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, Khan’s third album The Haunted Man is released shortly and lead single ‘All Your Gold’ paves the way before it.

Starting out six years ago, Khan captured the hearts of listeners with a set of distinctively haunting and darkly fantastical songs that clung

create the audio feast that compliments the visuals conjured up by Khan’s delicate, almost fractured vocals.

If ‘All Your Gold’ is anything to go by, upcoming album The Haunted Man will prove to be yet another landmark in the Bat for Lashes legacy.

With music so profoundly different from the rigmarole of flash-in-thepan-pop starlets and purposely postmodern post-modernism, Bat for Lashes should be enjoyed while she is around. You don’t know when the bottom will fall out.

nal Festival

Natasha Khan is one of those

Call our sales department on 0131 560 2830 or email ads@journal-online.co.uk

Jonathan Whitelaw Staff writer

to imaginations across the country.

Her two subsequent albums, Fur and Gold in 2006 and 2009’s Two Suns brought further acclaim to both her song-writing abilities and her seemingly endless musical talent. An Ivor Novello Award capped the success of Two Suns, specifically winning the best contemporary song for single ‘Daniel’.

With all that in mind, Bat for Lashes takes a deep breath and heads back once more into the fray with this latest offering. ‘All Your Gold’ is all of what fans have came to expect from Khan’s project. There is no rudimentary RnB bass line, no blistering guitar solo or unthinkably complicated dance moves that require all your concentration to mime to.

Instead, Khan has delivered another of the contemporary and wonderfully artistic ballads she has become associated with. This is music for grown ups. The subject matter, delivery, pacing and imagery are for those who enjoy actually listening to music and hearing it presented to them in an accomplished, distinguished fashion.

‘All Your Gold’ showcases Khan’s uncanny knack for cramming a wide

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MUSIC

sette where, it has to be said, it was carried off with much more decorum.

The ultimate irony is that the singer, in this case born in 1994, is far too young to remember any of the nuances and pop culture references she is flouting with little regard.

The UK urban scene is currently in the midst of a revolution with the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Tinie Tempah storming the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. A*M*E feels very disposable, ready to be cast aside as easily as first embraced.

Even newcomers like Rita Ora, who continues to achieve mass publicity without seemingly lifting a finger, has the young, female, urban/ pop act wrapped up. Put simply, there is simply not enough room for A*M*E under this current guise, certainly not if ‘Play the Game Boy’ is the vein in which she continues.

Without all the doom and gloom, Amy is still incredibly young. Time is definitely on her side and there is plenty of opportunity to turn it around — especially with the backing of a major label like Universal. Who knows, perhaps in five years time we’ll see her sharing the TARDIS with whatever actor they dig up next for Doctor Who. It worked for Billie Piper, after all.

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Anime director Naoko Yamada in visit to Glasgow Glaswegian anime fans get an insight into the industry from director

FILM Blair Dingwall Film editor A rare treat for Scottish anime fans came on Sunday 14 October, as Japanese director Naoko Yamada made a guest appearance at the Glasgow Film Theatre.

Travelling from Kyoto for the trip, Yamada — using a translator — spoke of her experiences in the industry, her influences and her latest film K-On!, the European premiere of which was held at the cinema on Saturday 13 October.

“It’s really cold,” she said on coming to Scotland, “The buildings are amazing. I got to see some Mackintosh architecture and I’m still reeling from that.”

Yamada discussed her early life as an animator in Japan, working on such hit anime shows as Clannad, Full Metal Panic! and Hyoka for animation studio Kyoto Animation, before talking of her more recent work.

“I loved drawing as a child. I used to copy the anime I saw on TV,” said Yamada, “So I had a vague idea that I would like to be an animator. When it came to graduation and I was looking for a job, I found some information about Kyoto Animation – and they were looking for people – and I thought, that’s it.”

As a director, Yamada started out on the TV version of K-On!, itself an adaptation of a popular manga series, before work began on a film version. The franchise has become a huge success in her home country.

She described her progression from TV episode direction to becoming one of Kyoto Animation’s most successful directors as going “from hell to heaven in one large leap.”

K-On!, the movie, is the story of five Japanese schoolgirl’s Light Music Club, who in the wake of four of the member’s graduation, decide to take a trip to London.

The event, fronted by British author Jonathan Clements, was part of the Scotland Loves Anime season, which ran from Friday 12 October until Sunday 14 October in Glasgow, and from 19 to 21 October in Edinburgh.riots, except hoodies had been replaced with checkered-shirted yobs yielding freshly-pressed copies of The Skinny as batons. Even the photographer eventually succumbed to the fracas, relinquishing his duties to launch himself furiously on top of the heaving mass.

As favourites ‘Lekker’, ‘Booger’ and new single ‘Sore Tummy’ put the brakes on Cokefloat!’s tumultuous sold-out launch, Fat Cat’s discerning decision to gamble on the band was finally fully understood. Amid the frenetic fuzzy static, PAWS made it very clear that although their songs may be short, they’ll be around for a long time.

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Beasts of the Southern Wild

A life-affirming film with an outstanding performance from its young star

FILM Blair Dingwall Film editor

The

pint-sized

Quvenzhané

Wallis as protagonist Hushpuppy is the lifeblood of this American gem from director Benh Zeitlin. Beasts of the Southern Wild is an original piece of cinema that is realistic, life-affirming and, at times, magical.

Set “South of the Levee” which splits the USA in two, the world is being quite literally swallowed up by the seas as a result of melting polar ice caps. Hushpuppy and her father Wink (Dwight Henry) live in a town of shacks, built on scraps and wreckage, known as the “Bathtub” – which feels like an amalgamation of a Louisiana bayou town and post-Katrina New Orleans.

As Hushpuppy, toughened by her slightly wild father, discovers she is dying, a storm comes and destroys the Bathtub. Those who survive must rebuild their lives again from the wreckage. Meanwhile Hushpuppy embarks on her own journey. As prehistoric aurochs unfreeze and head North she begins a search for the mother who abandoned her.

Hushpuppy’s statement that “If you fix the broken things, everything can grow right back” is given all the more relevance with Hurricane Katrina in mind; yet Wallis’ narration is never used for any political or environmental commentary, just to complement the themes of the film.

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a It is a film with few flaws: an explostory of survival, family and youth in a ration of the human spirit seen through world falling to pieces. Seen through the the innocent eyes of a child. Hearteyes of Hushpuppy, we are given a sad, breaking at times, funny in parts, but beautiful film with backbone and a truly Southern spirit.

Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy gives a phenomenal performance as rarely do young actors manage to successfully carry the weight of a film with such adult themes. As a result, even the mature actors are dwarfed by the youngster’s performance, including Henry, impressive as he is playing the troubled Wink.

Another strength is the score by director Zeitlin and Dan Romer. Soulfully, it blends perfectly into the most heartbreaking moments of the film — of which there are a fair few.

The sets too are marvellous. Zeitlin has made the environment of Beasts of the Southern Wild seem real, so much so that the grime and grit of the Bathtub seems almost familiar. Where the film falls slightly short is in the cinematography. Though there’s no questioning the beauty of the film, the camera is often too shaky, or too close up on its subject where a wider shot may have been more appropriate.

It’s hard to compare to any other film in recent times, but Beasts of the Southern Wild will leave you with the feeling only great films carry, something like the warmth of Stand By Me mixed with an overwhelming sadness. There are plenty of memorable moments — the final shot will no doubt linger in your mind along with many other images such as: Wink teaching Hushpuppy how to fish with her hands;Hushpuppy cooking dinner for her and an imaginary mother; or the atmospheric coming of the storm.

GFT

without a doubt one of the American filmmaking accomplishments of the year; built on the magic film was made for.

Blood-C: The Last Dark Scotland Loves Anime: Glasgow’s closing anime lacks the magic of others

FILM

is perhaps the best in the film, following a vampiric “elder bairn” loose in the Tokyo subway system, making mincemeat of passengers until Saya enters.

Saya in her own right is a strength for the film. She is a strong leading charBlair Dingwall acter — quiet and mysterious; but held Film editor back by the side characters, many of who provide no more than cringe-worAnime — an enormous industry in its thy comic relief. homeland, Japan — through animation There are a few cool moments mixed studios such as Studio Ghibli, is respon- in — a battle with a nasty monster in a sible for giving us some of the best ani- school assembly, a cruel little twist near mated films in recent times. the end — but the climax does little A continuation of a TV show, Blood- to stir any emotion. Which is a shame, C:The Last Dark, sold as a vampire film because buried within Blood C’s mad here, is wonderfully-crafted in terms of plot is a strong story of youths freeing animation, but has very few moments themselves of a suppressive, overbearof real intensity, mixed into a muddled, ing authority. over-complicated plot.

Blood-C therefore lacks the seriousBlood-C is the tale of Saya Kisaragi, ness and the beauty of such anime gems in a Tokyo suppressed by a government as Spirited Away and Children Who Youth Ordinance Bill and dominated by Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below. the corporation “seventh heaven”.

Anime as a form of cinema, and an art We follow Saya as she joins forces form, can be used exquisitely to create with SIRRUT – a rebel community of magical, often heart-breaking imagery, hackers fighting against the government, and there’s no denying that Japan is and the powerful Fumito Nanahara, making some of the finest animations leader of seventh heaven and the secret in the world. Blood-C: The Last Dark organisation known as Tower. however is salvaged only by its visuals The opening sequence of Blood-C and the craftsmanship of its art.

Scotland Loves Anime

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

Obscure Couture launch new Glasgow showroom

A&E / 25 Jonathan Daniel Pryce

Award winning Scottish fashion pair open Glasgow showroom packed with one of a kind designs

Fashion Nadine Walker Fashion editor

And just in case industry recognition wasn’t enough, pop-princess Marina and The Diamonds was recently snapped in Obscure Couture — another famous client to add to the Obscure address book.

Scotland’s intriguing design duo Obscure Couture continue their world domination mission with the launch of their new Glasgow showroom.

The showroom in the heart of the city is packed with wonderful one-of-a-kind pieces, pops of colour and some ice cream and pony statues thrown in for good measure.

Obscure Couture, made up of Scottish beauties Jennifer Coyle and Lyndsay Pagan, have had a fantastic year. Ten years from their first meeting at university, the girls were nominated for ‘Best Young Designer’ at The Scottish Fashion Awards in June and they have since taken their obscurity across the Atlantic by participating in the Scotland Re:Designed which showcases fashion design and textiles over the pond.

The Obscure Couture ladies are everything that’s needed in the Scottish fashion industry. Fun, slightly ridiculous, talented, hard-working and a little like candy floss. Brilliantly girly with lashings of colourful-fun. Their shoots are inspiring, their models are almost perfect.

Speaking about the labels new showroom, one half of OC, Jennifer said: “The showroom is situated a few doors down from our actual studio in Glasgow.

“It’s a huge step for us, we really were running out of space in our studio, especially because we work to such tight deadlines. We always end up nanna-napping in our workshop overnight.

“The studio itself has a selection of samples from all seasons, clients can come have a play and enjoy the pieces is a chilled out, fun environment.”

Obscure Couture

The 100 Beards project Fashion

Scottish Fashion Award winner lands job at London College of Fashion

Nadine Walker Fashion editor

“As I spend a lot of time doing street photography I’m in the privileged position of pacing myself when finding subjects. After a month of the blog starting, I received a few requests from subjects who wanted to be photographed – some of which were just too good to turn down.

I love the organic nature of the 100 Beard project though.

“Parallels emerge – for example two consecutive days with men both with the same name, beard style or nationality. There have been a lot of funny coincidences since I started.

“Often guys think I’m scamming them or wonder why I’d take a photo of a stranger. But that’s part of the fun for me. “ Life has been a little crazy for Jonathan Daniel Pryce of late, especially after winning that Scottish Fashion Award in June. Since moving to London, Pryce has added to his already bursting-at-theseams schedule by securing a coveted slot as lecturer at the prestigious London College of Fashion: “In September this year, The London College of Fashion asked me to put together a course of social media for fashion which is very flattering.

“I love sharing ideas and exploring the

Beards. Not often featured on the

fashion pages, but when super-streetstyle photographer Jonathan Daniel Pryce is involved, we trust it has fabulous entwined between every single hair follicle.

His involvement in question is with The 100 Beards project. A project that does exactly what it says on the tin, 100 fabulously groomed beards. Long beards, black beards, strange and wacky beards.

You name it, Pryce has captured it.

Unable to grow anything but a pitiful beard himself, Pryce decided to create a project which allowed him to live vicariously through others’ facial hair. Since moving to London earlier this year, Pryce wanted to relight his love for fashion and street style photography that started his famous Les Garçons de Glasgow years before.

Since starting the bearded mission on 1 July this year, Pryce has photographed a different beard every day since: “I’ve noticed beards a lot more since living in Paris where everyone seems to have one.

future of digital media. I believe there is no better way to do this than with the group who spend the most time on social media- students!

“London is a tough city - and I thought Glasgow was hard core. But the challenge is very exciting and there’s a great community of creative Scots down here.

“I get a great reaction from all nationalities being Scottish. I’ve yet to meet someone who hasn’t been to the cities in Scotland and loved it.”Again with complete effortlessness, the band adapted once more to upbeat, toe-tapping tracks before leaving the audience on a high, and high on their feet, with Fox Hunter.

If I had any criticisms of this wonderful evening that left me feeling brimming with national pride it would be the lack of dance floor, as Barluath’s uplifting album tracks deserve much more than a clap of the hands and a tap of the foot.

You can see the 100 Beards Project in full visit 100beards.tumblr.com/ . Pictures from Jonathan’s portfolio can be viewed via http://www.jonathandanielpryce. com/ or visit the famous street style blog www.lesgarconsdeglasgow.com

Man Booker: readability wins over innovation Booker Prize fails to deliver cutting-edge content to the general public, with a safe choice of Hilary Mantel

BOOKS

dentally the sequel to the 2009-Bookerwinning Wolf Hall). This represents a very conservative choice, considering the other frontrunner was Will Self’s Vivek Santayana Umbrella, which utilises a great deal of Staff writer stylistic and formal innovation. It also begs the question whether or not the Hilary Mantel won the Man third instalment of her trilogy will enjoy Booker Prize for a second time this immediate favour with Booker judges year for her historical novel on Thomas by virtue of the series’ double-acclaim.

Cromwell, Bring Up the Bodies (inci- The absurdity of Mantel to be the first

novelist to score a Booker hat-trick with a single historical trilogy is daunting.

Delegates at this year’s Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference have already taken several jibes at the Prize in August at the Book Festival, labelling it ‘exclusionary, middle-brow and English-chauvinistic.’ The overwhelming emphasis on readability and conventionalism detracts from the oft-repeated philosophy of the novel to always be,

true to its name, ‘new and experimental’.

The cumulative professional and academic credentials of the judging panel are not particularly inclined to embracing the challenging or unconventional: academics specialising in Victorian literature, a historian and an actor. As Will Self pointed out in the reading event the night before, “attitudes towards the difficult are themselves quite difficult”.

The most dismal development of the Booker Prize is its increasing focus on the commerce of publication.

During chairing proceedings at the Booker Prize readings, James Naughtie described the Booker Prize foremost as “an explosive boost to sales and readership.” For a former chairperson of the judging panel to have such a narrowminded, commercial outlook of the Prize is disappointing.

26 / A&E

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Society of spectacle

Alexander Lerche

The Journal meets Angus Farquhar, creator of the Beltane Fire Festival and founder of NVA, the arts charity that is bringing landscape art into Scotland’s cultural conversation Laurie Goodman Arts & Entertainment editor

Angus Farquhar arrives in hiking shoes and a bicycle helmet, cheeks slightly flushed. Over the course of an hour, it becomes immediately apparent that Farquhar is one who fosters an enduring engagement with his surrounding environment, wherever it may be: London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth or — in the case of his latest project — Japan.

Farquhar spends the majority of lunch with the side of his head resting against the wall; his eyes often glance away towards the infinite horizon through our window. One assumes that perhaps this is a calmer moment in his schedule: along with creating Beltane Fire Festival in 1987, he is also the founder of Glasgow-based Scottish arts charity Nacionale Vitae Activa (NVA). From the moment of its inception, the tale of Farquhar’s involvement in the creation of NVA is one of protest, politics and the search for a new kind of ‘public’ art.

We meet in a bistro near the small station of Partick in Glasgow’s West End, not far from the new, warehouse-

esque Riverside Museum by Zaha Hadid. The area has a certain raw, industrial quality that is evocative of Glasgow’s appeal to Farquhar as a place for establishing the charity: “When I moved back to Scotland, Glasgow was at a point of cultural awakening.

Edinburgh, by comparison — mostly because of the fringe and EIF [Edinburgh International Festival] — felt too well-established. Too tight. Culturally, Glasgow seemed like a much more interesting place to make work.’’

We begin with a discussion of his postgraduate years in London, during which he developed a ‘proto-industrial’ band, using scrap metal to create new instruments and performing in unconventional locations such as railway stations, tunnels, arches, old factories and power stations. These are abandoned, quiet and lonely locations that Farquhar’s band, Test Department, sought to archive through their performance.

“We were essentially anti-rockand-roll. We performed anonymously: we attempted as much as possible to present ourselves without an individual leader.

‘I was the posh boy in the band. I had a pinstripe suit of my grandfather’s that he had used in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the 50s. I used to go along to meetings with the owners of really unusual locations like British Rail — these strange corporations in London — and negotiate the use of spaces. I had a special skill, which was the ability to negotiate with authority...which was ironic, because we were creating anarchy.”

The various phases of Farquhar’s projects seem to cluster and hybridise, fluctuating in momentum and overlapping conceptually: dates and individuals are of no interest. In the depths of the creative cloud, Beltane inevitably arises: we speak only a little about the birth of the fire festival, but Farquhar’s comments are vehemently political.

“Beltane was a pre-internet concept

that attempted to allow individuals to form networks that weren’t affected by the great political landscape. Beltane was about escaping from a life that is dominated by a government that you didn’t believe in. In our case, it was Thatcherite materialism and individualism. We really stood against that.

Beltane was a way of saying that, irrespective of the political landscape, you can still have a sense of wonder of the place you live in, and a sense of wonder at the seasons. It was quite romantic.”

Over 20 years after its conception, Farquhar describes how the project is now run by much younger individuals. He seems detached, and rightly so: NVA has established itself as the premier creator of public art in Scotland; Beltane seems primitive in comparison.

He explains the founding philosophy of the charity: “I actually discovered the phrase by reading it over somebody’s shoulder on a train.

The phrase nacionale vitae activa dates back to the establishment of the Roman forum, as one of the founding principles of democracy: the ability and necessity of the general public to comment on and engage with society.

Nacionale vitae activa is the idea that the whole of society have the ability to take part in the critical debate. It’s the idea of active citizenship.”

I question the relevance of this information to the general public: to what extent is this terminology understood by the participants of NVA’s various public projects? Farquhar’s answer is that it is not important whether participants have any idea as to what the founding principles of the organisation are. “It dates back to Test Department — we didn’t like authors.

The work should be about the audience and the idea that through active participation in the work you’re helping complete it. People will remember the projects they participated in, but they won’t remember NVA. Sometimes

“People will remember the projects they participate in, but they won’t remember NVA. Sometimes this is a problem, but then again, this is state art. We’re paid for by public money to make art. Maybe it’s not important if the public remember us.” this is a problem...but then again, this is state art. We’re paid for by public money to make art. Maybe it’s not important if the public remember us.”

Arguably NVA’s seminal work is the recent Speed of Light. ‘Performed’ 20 times over the period of a month during the Edinburgh International Festival, the installation saw 1,000 members participating on Salisbury Crags and the summit of Arthur’s Seat in a mass-choreographed light display.

The relationship between the installation and the city-at-large during the festival period was key to its success.

During my own experience of Speed of Light on its opening night, the crowd were partially distracted by the distant chatter of the Tattoo fireworks leaping from Edinburgh Castle. There became an immediate dialogue between lights from the castle and our own phosphorescence: Speed of Light was subtle and almost pilgrimage-like in its silence,

our glowing staffs ebbing and flowing in rhythm with the stars above. The fireworks — by contrast — were boisterous, yet sadly toy-town and distinctly pathetic from our elevated perspective.

Along with this was the additional pressure of collaboration with Legacy Trust UK, the organisation established to help preserve a lasting legacy from London 2012. Speed of Light’s presentation in the midst of Olympic hype tainted its success with the expectation of spectacle. In light of this, reception to the event was mixed. The Independent offered a particularly scathing report on the performance, describing it as ‘underwhelming’; The Guardian as ‘dwindling into insignificance.’

Farquhar explains, “I was really disappointed with that response. In some respects my work is a critique of the spectacle. It was monumentally quiet it asks you to fill that space in.”

Public response was also varied.

While some saw the work as a poignant microcosm, others saw the experience of a guided night walk as an oppressive experience. On my own visit, I found the majority of participants in the dubious middle-ground between baffled and completely besotted.

Farquhar comments that on several occasions, he had to avoid the performances in order to escape audience members who “just didn’t get it.” The same can be said of the majority of NVA’s productions — the public often search for direction in their participation; on ‘how’ to experience the work.

And they will be hard-pressed to find it from Angus Farquhar.

Perhaps he’s our own Guy Debord, or perhaps he’s a pretentious nutcase.

He could, quite possibly, be both.

Whatever the result, never before has Scotland’s natural beauty been harnessed in such an innovative fashion: this kind of landscape art has the power to transport you into the realm of the sublime.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

SPORT// 27

COMMENT

The coming of the victory enthusiasts The most detested fan in football, the ‘glory-hunter’ needs an image makeover Ollie Bunting

Saturday afternoon comes and I

wait in anticipation in the pub. My eyes peeled to the Sky Sports projection, that chalk outline of a murdered pint-glass in the corner.

It was the week of the last international break and due to either an administrative error or possibly a water damaged tape of ‘Premier League Years’, Sky Sports had no other option than to show League One’s Coventry City host Stevenage at home. The nation as a whole would give a collective shrug, but I could imagine the population of the West Midland’s second city in front of their TV sets, sky blue scarves around

their necks, father and sons side by side on the sofa. In fact I could imagine them at any other event or location; except at the Ricoh Arena to watch the game in person, because clearly they were not.

From what was obtainable from the TV coverage, the atmosphere at the stadium was at best... hushed. So quiet in fact, that any fan present would have bled from the ears at the harsh sounds of a library aisle. It was the silence of a beaten-down fan base, who had not seen a win in League One since relegation last season. It was a silence I mimicked from behind my beer in Edinburgh, as Stevenage soared from a goal behind to snatch away three points from my home team.

Questions are raised when you have watched your chosen side plummet from

plucky Premiership mainstays to lower league no-hopers in the space of your life time. One of those questions is ‘how much longer can you support a team who give you nothing to cheer about?’.

The answer from true football fans, of course, is that your relationship with your chosen club is akin to that of a marriage; through thick and thin, for richer for poorer, from Walter Smith to ‘New Co’, till death do you part. But perhaps the grass pitch is greener on the other side?

I’m talking of course about the only people in football more detested than poor-sighted linesmen and El Hadji Diouf; Glory Supporters. Manchester United fans miles from the Northwest of England, justifying their choice by

Gordon Marino explaining they once drove past Stockport whilst playing The Stone Roses and felt a kinship to those ‘Red Devils’.

The continuous trophies? Never really thought about it at the time.

But perhaps it is time to stop this stigma? What’s so wrong with being a supporter of ‘glory’? Surely it’s us, the blind-sighted patrons of the continuous stragglers that have been stubborn fools?

No one is more content than a fan who watches his team play the beautiful game properly, play top opposition across Europe and bring home trophies. Would

it not be nice to see one of the world’s best in the same strip as you? It may be time to scratch the term ‘Glory Supporter’ and instead respect these ‘Talent Advocates’ or ‘Victory Enthusiasts’.

So I urge the ‘Ability Scouts’, do not fake a Mancunian accent and Gallagherswagger. You are what you are, someone who enjoys winning. Embrace your decision, completely unlimited by geography and stop this taboo. Step out of the shadows and maybe more shall follow and say no to disappointment and mediocrity. Viva La Barca.

RUGBY UNION

Warriors’ European hopes in the balance after second defeat in less than a week Warriors failed to take advantage of home support as Ulster grounded out win at Scotstoun stadium GLASGOW WARRIORS: 8 ULSTER: 19 Gareth Llewellyn Deputy managing editor

Glasgow

Warriors

suffered

their second European defeat in six days going down 19-8 to Ulster at Scotstoun Stadium.

Paddy Jackson kicked 14 points for last year’s Heineken Cup finalists Ulster to send the Irish side top of Pool 4 with two wins from their first two matches.

Two penalties from the Ulster fly half gave the visitors a 6-3 interval lead as Glasgow’s Peter Horne missed kicking chances in wet conditions.

A Chris Henry try gave Ulster the upper hand after the break, before Niko Matawalu responded, but it wasn’t enough for Gregor Townsend’s side as ProRabo 12 leaders stretched their unbeaten run to seven matches in all competitions.

After the match, Townsend conceded that indiscipline cost his injury-hit squad.

He said: “I thought we were competitive in the first half then just couldn’t get going. Ultimately indiscipline led to them getting points on the board. They have got a strong line out and that helped them get out of reach.”

The Warriors’ fortunes were already hampered in the build up to the match as Sean Lamont joined a long list of absentees already including Chris Cusiter, Ed Kalman and Rory Lamont.

Heavy rain in Glasgow’s west end did little to boost the hosts as the forwards dominated the first half.

Early chances saw Horne and Ruan Pienaar fail with penalties from their own half, before Glasgow’s woes continued as Horne missed a routine penalty from 30

metres at the midway point of the first half.

Penalised again at the scrum just minutes later, Horne made amends to give the Warriors the lead, before two successful kicks from Jackson turned the match as Byron McGuigan and Alastair Kellock were penalised.

Horne squandered a good chance to level before the break, but Ulster continued to push hard and were fortunate not to be further behind as a John Afoa knock-on averted a good move for the visitors.

Ulster continued to up the pressure in the second half and when Glasgow were penalised when Tom Ryder came in from the side, Jackson kicked his third penalty to extend the lead to six points.

With Glasgow’s ineffective kicker Horne off with an injury, Ulster finished off the game with 20 minutes remaining as Henry went over for the game’s first try.

The flawless Jackson increased Ulster’s lead to 16 points with four minutes to go before Niko Matawalu touched down after good work from Ryan Wilson and Alex Dunbar.

Townsend added: “The game was there for both teams in conditions like that, to take a grip and just didn’t in the second half.”

“We have got four games to play and we’ll have to win all four to qualify.

I believe we have got a group of players who are capable of doing that.

“By the time the games come around in December we should have a bigger squad with the players coming back from injury.”

Glasgow Warriors will face Castres in their next Heineken Cup match at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday 7 December 2012, 19:35 kick-off.

Glasgow Warriors

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The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

Headline

Respect for sporting heroes soon diminishes when they break out into a foxtrot Ruth Jeffery Sport editor

I blame Phil Tuffnell. Ever since

his victorious stint on ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’, the sport star has been transformed on our small screens into a preening reality-TV personality. Tuffnell is the epitome of such creations, appearing on various panel shows, a quip and cheeky smile always at hand. He later was caught throwing shapes on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, proof that one soul-bearing expose was not enough. The first line about Tuffers on Wikipedia reads “English former cricketer turned television personality.”

The BBC this week announced

the judges for the ‘Sports Personality of the Year’ award, to be held on an evening in December where Gary Lineker and Sue Barker will exchange smirks and pat Olympians on the back. Two of those may well be Victoria Pendleton and Louis Smith, fleetfooted athletes currently treading the boards on ‘Strictly’. Cricketer Michael Vaughn is also waltzing your Saturday evening away, joining the long line of athletes-turned-reality stars. A third of ‘Strictly’s’ winners have been from the sporting world. Mark Ramprakash, Chris Hollins and Darren Gough are guilty as charged.

Fans have always been interested in the personalities behind their favourite sporting heroes, but surely

Legend Frankel’s Farewell

Poulter rewarded for European Delight

Unbeaten legendary horse

Ian Poulter has been named the

Frankel has retired after his final victorious outing at the Royal Ascot this Saturday. Ridden by jockey Tom Queally, the horse competed in the Champion Stakes and won easily. The Sir Henry Cecil-trained horse has won 14 races from 14 entered, a record which has seen him named by some as the greatest horse in history. Frankel’s first win came in 2010 at Newmarket, and he has been unstoppable since.

His thrilling win at the Royal Ascot this year in June was a highlight in a particularly bright career. The fouryear-old flat-racer is being retired for breeding and will be sorely missed on the racecourse.

Lee Allegations Upset Snooker Schedule A snooker Premier League match has been rescheduled for 25 October after Stephen Lee’s alleged match-fixing scandal caused it to be cancelled.

Lee was due to play Mark Allen in a double header on Thursday, but the game was called off while the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) investigate corruption claims. Lee has allegedly been involved in match fixing patterns since 2010, and received a ban after his 4-2 loss to John Higgins last week.

All of his Group B matches in the Premier League have been declared void, making it a four player group.

‘Race to Dubai Golfer of the Month’ for September after his impressive performance for Europe in the Ryder Cup last month. Poulter, who will receive an engraved alms dish and a jeroboam of Moët & Chandon champagne, has previously competed in four Ryder Cups, always on the winning side. He has also represented England in the World Cup five times and has won the Seve Trophy with the Britain and Ireland team three times. Individually, the 36-year-old has won 11 European Tours and one PGA Tour.

Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Paul Lawrie are amongst the other 2012 recipients of the award.

Young Prospects in Abu Dhabi Esteban Gutierrez and Robin Frijns have been entered by Sauber in the young driver test next month in Abu Dhabi. Gutierrez is a prospective 2013 race driver, and will compete in the final two days of the November event, in the C31.

The 21-year-old Mexican finished third in this year’s GP2 series, and has become a regular for Sauber.

His young teammate Frijns is in the running to be crowned this season’s Formula Renault 3.5 champion. The young driver’s test will be his first race at F1 level.

an endless parade of respected athletes performing tricks to entertain a panel of judges is too far? Squeezing a successful Olympian into a spangled leotard and making them do a foxtrot seems less like valid entertainment and more like a degrading novelty.

The athletes’ reasons for taking to the dance-floor are all too clear.

Money. Fame. Sponsorship opportunities. Probably not to spend three months worth of weekends with Tess Daly. But whilst it may be obvious that Louis and co. are on our TV screens to further their public careers and rack up some advertising jobs, it’s less clear why we, the public, care. I enjoyed watching Smith help Team GB to its first group gymnastics medal during

the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean that I want to see how good his rhumba is, or hear him being admonished by Len for not turning up his toes.

And worryingly, this sports-starinto-TV-star is a growing trend.

We’re all used to seeing ex-footballers exchange the strip for a suit and chat about Manchester United on leather couches, but the phenomenon of the reality-TV athlete is a relatively new one. I was dismayed two years ago when legendary goalkeeper Peter Shilton joined the ranks of reality competitors on ‘Strictly’. A bit of fun, possibly, but it lessened my respect for him to watch him shuffling around a dancefloor in a sequined shirt.

Worse than the dancing was pos-

sibly ‘I’m A Celebrity’, where the likes of Jimmy White, Linford Christie and John Fashanu were subjected to what I can only describe as idiotic and disgusting ‘trials’. Tell me how to admire someone after seeing them eat kangaroo balls and behave like a fool in a jungle, and I’ll give you a pound.

There is nothing inherently bad or offensive about seeing sporting heroes on reality TV shows. Nothing terrible comes from Louis Smith dazzling Darcy Bussell with his tango. The effect it has on this sports fan is more one of melancholia than outrage. I don’t feel entertained or riveted, just saddened that the sport figures I had so much respect for clearly have none for themselves.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

COMMENT

SPORT// 29

CYCLING

The poster boy’s fall UEFA face further scrutiny from sporting grace over racism As the Lance Armstrong controversy rumbles on, the effect it has on cycling is worrying

European football’s governing body must act with greater vigour to stamp out racism Eric The Fish

Orla O’Muiri Staff writer

Another legend stumbles, and

he falls as he raced- hard and fast. Lance Armstrong is no longer the unstoppable hero of a sport; he is human and he is a cheat.

Former US Postal Service cyclist Lance Armstrong received a lifetime ban on 24 August this year after an investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) found him guilty of doping. His offences include using the performance enhancing drug EPO, corticosteroids, growth hormones, undergoing blood transfusions as well as helping his teammates do the same.

The seven times Tour de France winner chose not to fight the charges pressed against him. He will be disqualified from all competitive results after 1 August 1998 and forfeit any medals, titles,

winnings, finishes, points and prizes. The US Anti-Doping Agency’s report describes it as “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen.”

Armstrong’s story is legendary, a mere mortal who survived cancer and went on to win the greatest race in the sport; the Tour de France a total of seven times. A man who built an empire out of his tale and branded it Livestrong, not to find a cure for cancer but to raise awareness of it.

Armstrong is a master of marketing.

However this fairytale had a sell-by date. One by one his former US Postal teammates stepped forward and outed him for what he was- with it they sacrificed their own reputations and admitted their own guilt. Among them stood self-confessed dopers Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis.

500 drug tests were all clean, as his advocates roar. But this, his primary argu-

Elizabeth Kreutz ment, falls short as the tests were apparently impossibly easy to evade or pass.

There was no test for EPO until 2000, blood transfusions continue to remain undetectable and teams frequently knew in advance when testers would be coming.

The solution to that was saline drips which would cover up any evidence of the crime.

Armstrong is not to be pitied for falling prey at the hands of other dopers, and caving under pressure. He has been described by USADA as the “ringleader of biggest doping conspiracy in sporting history.” Every day the story thickens, another element added to the ever-growing jigsaw. Recently, the UCI admitted accepting a donation of more than $100,000 from Armstrong in 2002.

They deny that it was connected to any cover-up of a positive doping test.

The question is; will the sport of cycling ever be credible again after this poster boy’s fall from grace?

FORMULA 1

Michael Diamond Staff writer

Last week, football fans through-

out the world recoiled in horror as scenes from the Mladost Stadium in Serbia dominated every news outlet.

Tragically, members of the England Under-21 team were subjected to racist abuse during their 1-0 win over their Serbian counterparts.

The reaction of England left-back Danny Rose sparked a fracas on the field after the full-time whistle, which saw players, managers, coaches, kit-men and fans clash in a truly ugly brawl.

The eyes of the world are now firmly focused on the reaction of UEFA, who will be under intense scrutiny with regards to which punishment they feel appropriate to impose on the Serbians.

Many have called for the Serbian national team to be banned from competing in international competitions, and some have even proposed the notion of prohibiting Serbian club sides from competing in Europe’s top competitions.

While we await UEFA’s decision, many have brought up the recent controversial punishments handed out by Europe’s governing body to club and national sides.

UEFA have a track record of being particularly lenient when punishing those who are deemed guilty of committing racist acts.

Earlier this year, Manchester City travelled to the Estádio do Dragão to take on FC Porto in the last 32 of the Europa League.

During the game, City striker Mario Balotelli was on the receiving end of racist chants from the Porto fans.

This abhorrent act of racism saw the Portuguese side handed a fine of £16,700, which was looked upon by many as a slap on the wrists.

Manchester City saw off Porto and progressed to the next round to face their compatriots, Sporting Lisbon.

In Lisbon, the City players took to the field “up to 60 seconds” later than they

should have after the halftime interval.

For such a heinous crime, the club were handed a fine of £30,000. At this stage, almost all football fans will be asking themselves ‘where is the proportionality?’

To make matters worse, at this summer’s European Championship, Danish forward Nicklas Bendtner was handed an £80,000 fine for revealing the waistband of his lucky Paddy Power underwear during a goal celebration.

Are UEFA not taking the matter of racism seriously enough?

When such a question is asked, despite being president of FIFA (not UEFA), the infamous words of Sepp Blatter come to mind. In 2011, Blatter said: “There is no racism, there is maybe one of the players towards another, he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one.

“But also the one who is affected by that, he should say that this is a game.

“We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination.”

Although Sepp Blatter is not the president of UEFA, could this be the general lackadaisical approach being taken by both of the world’s governing bodies with regards to racism?

Before Euro 2012, Platini told a press conference that any player who left the field of play due to racist abuse would be given a yellow card.

Again, this seems to reinforce the idea that not enough is being done to support the victims of racism and that it is not being condemned as being wholly unacceptable by UEFA. It will be interesting to see what comes of the Serbian Under-21 incident over the coming weeks.

UEFA have not seen this incident as being serious enough to merit an extraordinary meeting and will, instead, discuss it at their ordinary general meeting on the 22 November.

Is this very decision in itself another cause for concern? Only time will tell.

Susie Wolff tests Williams F1 car Scottish driver becomes first woman to drive an F1 car since de Villota crash Ben Cohen Staff writer

Scottish driver Susie Wolff has

become the latest woman to test a Formula One car.

The 29-year-old Williams development driver ran 100km around the international circuit at Silverstone last week.

Marussia test and reserve driver Maria De Villota was involved in a freak accident while conducting straight-line aero tests at Duxford Aerodrome in July.

Wolff spent seven seasons in DTM with Mercedes after spells in karting, Formula Renault and Formula Three, and recognises the negative impact such an incident had with regard to women in motorsport.

The wife of Williams shareholder Williams F1

and director Toto Wolff, Wolff continues to race professionally in the DTM German touring car championship including two races with current Williams driver Pastor Maldonado.

Her test wasn’t entirely new, having already completed several sessions in the team’s simulator preparing for it.

Speaking at the test, Wolff said: “The DTM cars are I think the most technically advanced touring cars in the world but they are still quite a step away from a Formula 1 car.

“The team gave me such a brilliant feeling, gave me a lot of confidence.

“Never at any point was I worried what would happen. I really felt in control, there were no issues.”

“On my final in-lap as I was driving into the pits I said to myself ‘I have to do everything I can now to get back in this car’, and that is my goal.

“I loved driving the car and I hope I have done enough to show the team I can be of assistance, that I can do more, more tests and aerodynamic work next season.

“I hope I’m on a path for much more opportunities to come. Without a doubt I want to drive the car again.”

The circuit Wolff tested on is different to Grand Prix – the circuit used F1 drivers traditionally drive round, but does include the pit straight, Hangar Straight and Stowe and Club corners.

Katherine Legge, who took the wheel of a Minardi at Vallelunga in Italy in 2005, was the last British woman to drive an F1 car.

The last woman to race an F1 car was Italian Lella Lombardi in 1976, but is unlikely that Wolff will ever race an F1 car for Williams.

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FOOTBALL

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

COMMONWEALTH GAMES

SPL pricier than AG Barr becomes Bundesliga, BBC show Commonwealth Scotland’s football woes continue off the pitch, as prices rise Ben Cohen Staff writer

At a time when families up and down

the country are struggling to make ends meet, the BBC’s Price of Football provides an interesting insight into the cost of attending the UK’s most lucrative of sports.

Not least in Scotland where the entertainment on offer is often derided and even lower league football can be more expensive than top-flight football in Germany.

The survey recorded the prices for the most expensive or cheapest season tickets and adult match-day tickets — as well as the cost of a cup of tea, a pie, and a programme — to calculate the cheapest possible day out at a match.

At £609, Scotland’s most expensive season ticket at Celtic Park is a relative snip, being £1,346 cheaper than at English side Arsenal, where a 26-match season ticket costs £1,995 for 19 Premier League home matches, with an additional seven cup credits for FA Cup and European competitions.

Celtic’s cheapest season ticket option is still £112 more expensive than the equivalent ticket at Premier League champions Manchester City at £387, and £77 more expensive than nearest Scottish Premier League rivals Hearts.

For single games, Celtic have dropped the price of their most expensive ticket

to £29 - £1 less than the most expensive for a game in Scotland at Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, although the Highlanders also offer the cheapest match-day ticket in the Scottish Premier League at £16.

Dundee, who were promoted to the top flight when Rangers were dropped to division three of the Scottish Football League, offer the cheapest season ticket at £297 as they retained the prices they would have charged if they had played in division one.

They also offer all match-day tickets at £20, on a par with the cheapest tickets for the Premier League in England with Aston Villa, Fulham and Wigan offering tickets at £20 with only Newcastle United selling match-day tickets cheaper than any SPL club at £15.

At £20.50, Caley Thistle offer the cheapest day out in the SPL, almost £10 cheaper than Celtic who remain the most expensive, while at £10.60 Montrose offer the cheapest day out in Scottish football.

Unlike ticket price scaling in the SPL, the lower leagues tend to offer a single price with the cheapest match-day tickets with Cowdenbeath, Dunbarton and Morton all offering tickets at £15, while Dunfermline, who were relegated from the SPL last season, and Falkirk, have the most expensive tickets at £19.

Morton also offer the cheapest day out in SFL division one at £19 compared to £23.70 at Falkirk.

Current division two leaders Queen

of the South are the most expensive club in the league for a day out including the cheapest category of ticket.

The Dumfries club charge £20.10 at Palmerston Park for one adult match-day offering - £5 more than Forfar.

In division three, Montrose offer the cheapest match-day ticket at just £6, although with the added bonus of Rangers in the league, clubs may be inclined to increase their prices when Ally McCoist’s squad are in town.

Rangers’ cheapest ticket at Ibrox costs £16 with their most expensive at £20 - some £8 more expensive than any other team.

Rangers’ most expensive season ticket is also more than double that of any other team at £411, while their cheapest season ticket is £98 more expensive than fellow Glasgow side Queen’s Park.

As a result of the economic downturn, attendances are down across Scottish football, but SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster is not concerned about the current trends.

He said: “There’s been a societal shift with people making different decisions about what they do with their leisure time and how they spend their money, but we have to remember that we still remain the best supported league per head of the population anywhere in Europe.

“That popularity and importance of coming to live games still exists in Scotland.”

Games supporter Cumbernauld manufacturer will be official drinks supplier to Glasgow 2014 Gareth Llewellyn Deputy managing editor

Scottish soft drink institution

A.G. Barr was unveiled as an official support of the Commonwealth Games on Monday.

The Cumbernauld-based company whose brands include IRN-BRU, Rubicon and Strathmore water, has links to Glasgow which date back more than 100 years.

Barr has an established history of sports sponsorship dating back to the early 1900s.

In recent years, Rubicon has sponsored Twenty20 cricket, Strathmore has supported the Glasgow and Edinburgh Road Races, and IRN-BRU remains the sponsor of the Scottish Football League, the Rugby Football League in England and Glasgow club Queens Park FC. A.G. Barr Chief Executive Roger White said: “We are hugely proud of our

strong roots in Scotland and our longstanding Glasgow heritage, which dates back more than 100 years.

“Glasgow 2014 is massively exciting, whether you’re taking part, volunteering or watching. The Games will bring something extraordinary to a very special city, and we are delighted to play our part in that.”

Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport Shona Robison added: “A.G. Barr has a strong history of sports sponsorship in Scotland and I am pleased to see such an iconic Scottish brand playing a part in the Commonwealth Games.

“The 2014 Games are a fantastic opportunity to showcase Scottish products and I would encourage local companies to take advantage of the economic benefits the Games have to offer.”

Barr will supply Strathmore water and other beverages to the athletes’ village during the games with all of its flagship beverages on sale across Glasgow 2014 venues.

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

Glasgow City reach another cup final Scottish champions through to Henson Projects Scottish Cup final Ben Cohen Staff writer

Glasgow City reached the final of another cup with a 3-0 win over Hibernian Ladies at Ravenscraig.

The Scottish champions went into the semi-final as overwhelming favourites having crushed the Edinburgh side 8-1 in a league match just four days earlier.

The reigning Henson Projects Scottish Cup champions defeated Hibs in a repeat of last year’s final score line with two goals from Emma Mitchell gave City a 2-0 lead at the break before Jo Love put the result beyond doubt with a late third.

Speaking after the match, City head coach Eddie Wolecki Black said: “I need to congratulate the girls and all the staff as they have got us into another cup final and we are one step away from completing yet another remarkable season.

“I always knew tonight’s game was going to be more difficult as it always is when you play a team back to back.

“I felt we were wasteful in our chances and good credit to Hibernian for putting a brave battle and they defended well.”

City dominated from the kick-off, but had to wait almost five minutes to get their first effort on goal when former Hibs midfielder Leanne Crichton could only hit a tame shot into the arms of goalkeeper Shannon Lynn.

Minutes later, Ruesha Littlejohn saw an effort from the edge of the box go over before Mitchell volleyed over from inside the box.

Mitchell tried her luck again on 12 minutes, but her vicious shot produced a magnificent save from Lynn.

City were fully in command and continued to probe the Hibs defence and a great ball from Rachel Corsie released Leanne Ross down the right. Her cross

found Jane Ross, but the striker fired just wide.

Crichton came closest to breaking the deadlock on 18 minutes but her effort fired back off the bar, before Lynn denied Jane Ross.

The goal finally came just before the half hour mark when Jane Ross combined well with Leanne Ross down the right with Mitchell heading home just outside the six-yard box.

Mitchell almost doubled City’s lead two minutes later as she turned well in the area, but shot just wide with Lynn scrambling to get anywhere near the ball.

It took until the 39th minute for Hibs to get a shot on goal when Susan Fairlie shot from the edge of the box, but City doubled their lead when Michell’s shot from the edge of the box went in off Lynn’s left-hand post.

Hibs had their best chance of the match just three minutes into the second

Andy Buist half when Fairlie found space in the City box, but her effort went wide.

Mitchell’s powerful shot stung the hands of Lynn but Jane Ross was unable to capitalise on the rebound as she shot wide.

Love came close to putting the game beyond doubt on 50 minutes, but her effort curled wide before Littlejohn failed to find the target as City continued to create plenty of chances.

Hibs’ Lizzie Arnot had a great chance to reduce the deficit, but her shot at the near post was well saved by City keeper Claire Johnstone.

City then countered, but Crichton headed Mitchell’s cross wide before Lynn produced another good save to deny Love.

Another good ball forward from City captain Corsie set Mitchell free down the right, but Lynn denied the City striker a hat trick.

Jane Ross and Mitchell both saw further shots go wide, but City finally got a third goal when defender Danica Dalziel’s cross was headed in by Love.

City will take on Forfar Farmington in the final on Sunday 11 November at Aidrie’s Excelsior Stadium.

The Journal Wednesday 24 October 2012

@GlasgowJournal / journal-online.co.uk

SPORT// 31

YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES Glasgow2018

Glasgow 2018 bid support growing Polling data shows UK-wide support for Glasgow to host Youth Olympic Games Ben Cohen Staff writer

Support for Glasgow’s bid to host

the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) has grown since its launch last week.

Polling data from two sources has revealed that people across Scotland and the UK back the bid.

A YouGov poll revealed that 69 per cent of the UK believe that Glasgow staging the Games would continue to inspire a generation of young people beyond London 2012.

The poll also revealed that 62 per cent of those asked supported Glasgow’s bid, with that figure rising to 68 per cent in Scotland.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, the Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “Our submission to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games is a compelling one, and it clearly has the support of people across the UK. “This bid has young people at its very heart. It demonstrates the very best Glasgow has to offer on both a sporting and cultural level and reflects our reputation as one of the world’s leading sporting and cultural cities.

“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to continue the UK’s Olympic journey, building on the undoubted success of London 2012 and of course our own plans for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“Hosting the 2018 Youth Olympic Games would allow us to take that journey to the next stage and leave a lasting legacy for future generations.

“Our bid is based on a proven-track record of delivering international events and investing in world-class sporting facilities. But we are very much more than a safe pair of hands. We are ready to surprise the world in 2018.”

In Scotland, 68 per cent of people polled believed that the YOG in Glasgow would continue to inspire young people to become more involved in sport and physical activity.

The poll comes after more than 5,000

secondary school pupils pledged their support for the bid on the Be a Champion in Your Life roadshow.

The two-month tour took in Glasgow’s 29 secondary schools and the city’s Gaelic School and will see the 2018 bid team reach around 30,000 young people by mid-November.

The YOG is an international sporting event for the best young athletes in the world that aims to inspire young people to participate in sport and adopt and live by the Olympic values.

The event will see athletes of 15-18 years of age compete in all 28 Olympic sports over 12 days of world-class competition.

Glasgow 2018 hopes to build on the opportunities created by this summer’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the increasing interest ahead of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, as well as the city’s ongoing international sporting events programme.

As well as becoming part of the legacy from the 2012 sporting showcases, Glasgow 2018 would assist in transforming attitudes of the British public by empowering them to be more proactive in taking part in sport and staying healthy.

The YOG bid is a partnership between the Scottish government, Glasgow City Council and the British Olympic Association (BOA) with young athletes also playing a big part in putting the bid together. It is also supported by prime minister David Cameron and Olympians including Sir Chris Hoy, Dame Kelly Holmes.

Glasgow athlete Lee McConnell, a European and World Championship medallist, said: “Glasgow is a special place to compete in as an athlete so it is very exciting to think that the world’s best young athletes could get their first taste of the special nature of competing in an Olympic-styled event right here in front of such amazing crowds.

“To be bidding for the Youth Olympic Games after the wonderful scenes everybody enjoyed at London 2012 is a real opportunity for the UK to continue its

Olympic journey and concentrate on the young people we all hope to inspire.

“Encouraging young people to be more active and to achieve their best through the power of sport is so important. In Scotland we are working really hard to make sure the Commonwealth Games in 2014 delivers this legacy for our young people and so to carry on to 2018 would be such a great opportunity.”

Glasgow MSP Humza Yousaf, now the Scottish government minister for external affairs and international development said it would be a fantastic opportunity to showcse Scotland on the world stage.

He said: “This is a proud day for Scotland as we send off our young people to Lausanne to hand in what we hope will be a bid that will win us the privilege of hosting the Youth Olympic Games in 2018.

“Scotland has a growing and deserved reputation for staging successful world class events and winning the right to host the Youth Olympic Games would be a fantastic opportunity to showcase Scotland on the world stage.

“Not only would it be an inspiring event, but it would help support jobs and growth in the tourism, service and event industries which are so important to our economy.”

Gold medallist rower Katherine Grainger and silver medallist swimmer Michael Jamieson are two Glasgow-born athletes who have also spoken in support of the bid.

Glasgow City Council will also regenerate the Sighthill area in the north of Glasgow to become the Games’ athletes village before being redeveloped as private and social housing.

Glasgow became the UK’s candidate city for the third YOG in February this year.

The first summer YOG was held in Singapore in 2010 and was broadcast across 160 territories with an estimated audience of almost 250 million people.

At the last event in Singapore, Great Britain won 13 medals in Singapore comprising five gold, two silver and six bronze.

Olympic diver Tom Daley and taek-

wondo practitioner Jade Jones, who were both medal winners at London 2012, took part at the first ever YOG. Following a traditional four year cycle, the next event will be held in Nanjing, China in 2014.

IN PROFILE: Mahad Ahmed Mahad is a 17-year-old athlete who joined the Glasgow School of Sport when he was 11 years old.

In 2008 he set a new Scottish under-13 100m record and was ranked the fastest under-13 schoolboy in the UK. He is now a triple jumper and recently won the Scottish Schools Triple Jump title and is currently ranked Number 1 in his age group in Scotland.

His aim is to keep improving, break more

Glasgow2018

records, to be the next Phillips Idowu and to represent Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Jasmine Main Jasmine is an 18-year-old drama student from Carntyne, in the east end of Glasgow.

With a real passion for the arts, in her spare time Jasmine works closely with the National Theatre of Scotland as a National Theatre of Scotland Champion.

In that role she plays a major part in finding creative ways for her community to discover the work of the company and to experience the joys of the theatre.

Ways to back the bid: Like Glasgow 2018 on Facebook at www.facebook. com/Glasgow2018.com. Follow Glasgow 2018 on Twitter @Glasgow2018 and use hashtags #Glasgow2018 and

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Hacker: Strictly No Dancing

A little less ‘personality’, a little more action from our sportsmen, please

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“This bid has young people at its very heart” Glasgow Games bid gathers pace as London legacy lingers We’re still looking for people to join our editorial team for the 2012/13 academic year: if you’re a student at any of Glasgow’s higher or further education institutions with an interest in journalism, design or photography, The Journal is the place for you!

T S E R E T N I

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M S I L A N R E D I N JOU

JOI N The Journal is a fantastic place to gain invaluable experience in journalism. We are Scotland’s largest independent student media organisation, and our all-student editorial staff produce award-winning citywide student newspapers in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, alongside an ambitious and fast-paced web presence.

We have won awards for print excellence and digital innovation, and our alumni have gone on to work at — among others — The Guardian, The Scotsman, The Financial Times, Channel 4 News and the BBC. If you’re interested, or for more information, glasgow.recruitment@journal-online.co.uk.

email

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Current vacancies EDITORIAL News • Academic news editor • Beat reporters Comment & Features • Comment & Features editor • Assistant editors Arts & Entertainment • Theatre editor • Food & Drink editor • Comedy editor • Reviewers Sport • Sport editor • Assistant editors • Reporters

MULTIMEDIA • Photographers • Videographers/editors

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