WesternEye - Issue 3 - Nov. 2010

WesternEye w w w. we s te r n eye . n e t

UWE’s Student Voice - Issue No. 3 - November 2010

Cuts, cuts and more cuts...

SRC President talks to Deputy Vice-Chancellor about the restructure and reviews >> 4 Financially austere cooking: lovely and cheap autumn sausage stew >> 9 PhD student analyses & comments on the rhetoric being produced by UWE >> 16

Bottled watergate

In Westworld this month...

Wilder interview

“There are a lot of good bands in Bristol, but nothing that sounds like us. It’s a city that’s known for its electronic music, which gives us a lot of freedom to create something new.” >>30

> Democratically passed motion vetoed by Presidents due to financial worries > UWESU services for students would have been “severely affected” John Howell newsandpolitics@ westerneye.net

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ontroversially, a motion has been unilaterally overturned by the current Students’ Union Presidents without the consultation of students.

Last year several students managed to get a motion passed in the Activities Council to ban the sale of bottled water on campus and install free drinking fountains.

This motion was then upheld at subsequent Activities Council meetings.

“The reasons to do this in the first place come from an understanding that bottled water is unethical and unsustainable, which few people will argue against. Also, it’s expensive and there should be water fountains made readily available”, said former UWE student, Liza Tozer, who was president of the People and Planet Society and headed up the group of students who worked on the original passing of the motion.

“A lot of time, energy and goodwill went into making this happen.

We carefully planned the policy, spoke with the SU to find a good compromise that would make this work without being too unrealistic and even after the policy was passed, attended several meetings where we had to fight tooth and nail just to get them to agree to trial banning of only some bottled water brands” added Ms. Tozer, who is now working in Austria on Higher continued on page 2

Bake Designs

“The designs themselves take inspiration from all over the place really; a couple are heavily and quite obviously influenced

by Barbara Kruger’s work.” >>29

In:MOTION

“...a superb range of different sounds, stretching from the melancholy to outrageous...” >>26

Body beautiful

Photo: Isabelle Pullen

Turn over to the back cover...

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he relationship between body image and the media has become widely debated in recent years, with an increasing number of people arguing for the use of more realistic images... continued in Features on page 19

British rapper Example chats about toasters, pirates and ting >> 21

25th Nov. 5:30pm / 2D67

In WesternEye this month...

Concern over UWE housing policy as student is ‘stalked’ by housemate

In News >> 2

The many dangers of drink spiking: a victims tale

In Life >> 8

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals: now unattainable and a waste of time?

In Comment >> 12

What it is, and why you should be there...

In News >> 5

2

News & Politics

continued from page 1

Education sustainability projects.

Many universities in North America have completely banned bottled water, such as the University of Ottawa in Canada. Ottawa brought in the ban on September of this year. “This puts it into perspective; we truly were asking for minimal action in the grand scheme of things” said Ms. Tozer, when discussing the ban.

Student Representative Council Vice President Gail Wilson replied on the subject, “I believe as a Union we have come a long way in the last few years with regards to ethical and environmental issues and we

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WesternEye 8.11.2010

will continue to work to improve our status to the best of our ability…I understand the frustration in trying to implement change and how it can seem like going round in circles”.

When asked how the original motion was passed, Ms Tozer told the WesternEye, “We had a meeting with Gail, and the procurement manager where we only got them to agree to a trial when the procurement manager said her hands were tied unless we could pass a policy which allowed her to do this. At this point we reminded her that we already had and so she agreed to the trial… The whole point in agreeing to a trial was that they would just see if they lost

Contents

any money from this. It is sad that despite student involvement, hard work and support, that they still felt that this could not be done.”

Activities President Terry Atkinson explained, “Part of our responsibility is to safeguard the future of this organisation. If we as a SU stopped the selling of nonethically sourced bottled water we would lose £23000 in income revenue, which is too much in the present climate. Decisions like this are hard to make, but this amount of income loss would have severely affected the services we can offer our members”.

The figure of £23000 comes from last year’s takings in the SU

shop involving bottled water sales.

This includes the water option on the meal deal, which cannot be replaced with ethically sourced water without permission from NUS Services Limited, the company who negotiate the prices for the meal deals.

Terry continued: “Elements of the motion are being undertaken, we as Presidents are lobbying the University to install drinking fountains around the campuses…I myself have implemented the change in the bottle water display within shops, giving the ethically sourced water a more prominent place in the display… It’s up to students themselves to choose

through their own ideological beliefs in what to buy or not. To force them or restrict their choice is not democracy…Of course, it is a real shame that it had to be overturned. However, we did it with a clear conscience knowing that the student experience will not be affected in a drastic way due to the current financial constraints.”

The motion was discussed at the Finance and General Purposes Committee meeting on the 19-1010. The minutes are available on the Union website. If you would like to find out more please visit: http:// www.uwesu.org/student_voice/ policies/2009_10.

Student voices concern over UWE housing policy

> Third year believes she was left at risk by UWE

News and Politics

>> 2 Life

>> 7

Debate

>> 12

Features

>> 16

Sport

>> 22

WestWorld

32 <<

John Howell newsandpolitics@westerneye.net

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third year female UWE student has brought harassment charges against her first year male ex-housemate. The student, who has asked to remain anonymous, alleges that she alerted the police and University when her housemate began stalking her after they moved in together. She also claims that the first year student has a history of similar behaviour.

The alleged stalker, 18, reportedly suffers from Schizophrenia and is undergoing treatment. The complainant told WesternEye that this has caused him to miss a recent court hearing related to the case Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests as paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. While this can be distressing for the individual with the condition, it should be noted that are large proportion of

WesternEye UWE’s Student Voice <<

Editor George Rowe george2.rowe@uwe.ac.uk

Sport Editor Jake Procter

News and Politics Editor Sam Butler Sub Editors John Howell, Jake Martin

WestWorld Editor Sean Guest Creative Director James Somerfield Sub-Editor Alice Palmer Brown Illustrator Alex Green

Life Editor Ashleigh Searle Sub Editor Christina Smith Debate Editor Henry Stoneley Vicki Ward Features Editor Yuliya Yegorova Sub Editor Mike Whiting

Photography Editors Ellie Kynaston Hannah Ranken Web Developer Alex Tiley Broadcasting Lulu Vallano

sufferers lead normal lives and are not a danger to themselves or others.

The female student believes that more should have been done to alert her to potential risk from her housemate. “The police and university should work closer as this would not have happened if they liaised. I was very lucky in the form that I was not caused any physical harm, but I hate to think what could have happened to me…

The police handled things expertly and quickly, it is the University that I was disappointed with”, she said.

Currently there are no regulations or policies in place whereby the police inform the University of students who have criminal records or uncharged offences.

Theresa McGoldrick, Director of Student Services responded, “Obviously I cannot comment on any specific incident that may be an ongoing, unresolved issue…

We take the greatest of care when housing students together.”

“Students are encouraged to disclose any issues, be they mental health or otherwise, that they may

For advertising info please contact : Luke Sutton at The Student Media Group on (0117) 3179370 or luke.sutton@ thestudentmediagroup.co.uk

have prior to moving in so that we can provide support where necessary. Housemates are also informed so that they can decide what is most suitable for their needs.

Students do not always feel comfortable disclosing things such as mental health issues or criminal records. Often this goes unnoticed, but has on occasion come to light during their their time at university.

“The vast majority of the time there is no problem whatsoever, but on the rare occasions that there has been an issue, it has been resolved swiftly with support for all involved.”

UWE Student Services takes these issues very seriously and does not just allocate housing willynilly.”

Legal proceedings surrounding the alleged incidents are currently ongoing.

If you have any issues regarding your housing please contact UWE Student Services (http://www.uwe. ac.uk/studentservices/) or UWESU Advice Centre (http://www.uwesu.org/ advice_support/advice/)

Apology

It has come to my attention that a line that I (the Editor) added into Mike Whiting and Yuliya Yegorova’s article “East vs. West” on p. 17 last issue may have caused offence.

I would like to make it clear that it was an attempt at irony and not meant as derrogatory in any way, and I offer my most sincere apologies.

WesternEye is published by University of the West of England Students’ Union, 4th Floor F Block, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol.

BS16 1QY. Some elements of this newspaper are distributed under a Creative Commons License; please get in contact for more details.

WesternEye is printed by Mortons Ltd, Lincolnshire.

We believe in making WesternEye as accesible as possible. You can access this publication in PDF format at www.westerneye.net. If you require a different format please get in touch with the Editor (below).

The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent that of UWESU. We are all human, and sometimes we make mistakes; any problems please contact the Editor at western.eye@uwe.ac.uk.

News & Politics 3

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Fee increase feels increasingly unjust > Government plans for raising the cap on tuition fees in Higher Education causes unrest > Fears that high costs may force out those from lower socio-economic backgrounds Jake Martin

Protestors gather outside Bristol Cathedral at the Anti Cuts Alliance march

newsandpolitics@westerneye.net

U

WE has told WesternEye that Higher Education could cost students £7,200-£7,300, in accordance with the recent tuition fee rise. The BBC has suggested that fees throughout the country will rise to £6,000 - with an upper tier of £9,000 - if “universities ensure access for poorer students”.

John Rushforth, the Deputy ViceChancellor of UWE, revealed that: “Our current understanding of the compensating reductions in government funding means that not to do so would mean we would have to withhold services to students.” Mr Rushforth told the WesternEye that it was “too early to tell whether some courses will be more expensive than others” but that it was likely due to the “market pressure for differential fees”.

This comes as the Conservative Universities Minister, David Willetts, stated that the move was a “progressive reform”. The plans have outraged the National Union of Students, some Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, and will mean that many courses, particularly those in the arts and humanities, will almost entirely depend on income from student fees. “Our belief is that anyone capable of Higher Education should have access to it, regardless of background” Mr Rushforth continued “In this we have made

extraordinary efforts over the years and the Vice-Chancellor continues to champion the cause”.

Though it has not been made completely clear how the raise will affect UWE’s individual faculties, Andy Danford, Professor in Employment Relations in the Faculty of Business and Law said that students have been seen increasingly more as “customers or consumers”. He stated: “STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) will continue to receive a block grant for teaching, whereas the grant for the arts, languages, humanities and social sciences will be greatly reduced, if not eliminated.” Exengineer Mr Danford went on to say: “Withdrawing block grant support for the non-Stem subjects is an act of cultural vandalism and is hardly an appropriate way to build a diverse, creative and pluralistic knowledge economy. We will arrive at a position where the elite university institutions offer the full range of degree choices to elite students, mostly those who have more privileged and advantageous family backgrounds.”

The potential elimination of nonSTEM subjects could mean that universities would have to downsize, and in many cases close completely.

Mr Danford went on to suggest that “in a better world access to university education should be on the same basis as access to school education. In other words, paid for via taxation with no tuition fees at all” and that “Britain’s academic record in the arts, humanities and social sciences is something to be proud of and fostered.”

he announcement has sent a painful message to young people wishing to be in higher education in or around 2012, when the tuition fees will likely be introduced.

Gail Wilson, SRC Vice-President, told WesternEye: “if fees rise then this could lead to a more consumer attitude developing among students; more students will chose their degree simply based on the return they will see from it (i.e. looking at graduate employment

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The national demo aims to highlight the strong feeling against fee increases

What do you think?

“Giving fresh-faced late teens thousands of pounds worth of debt before they have a clue about money is criminal.”

Melissa Johnson, 22, English, 3rd year.

“It’s still better than Amercian universities where you pay $20000 per year, and better than French universities, where you just learn how to hold a placard” Ludivine Vallano, 22, Journalism, 3rd year.

“There has been times when I regretted not taking a gap year before

coming to uni, however now with all this talk of increased fees it looks like i timed it just right!”

Russell Heideman, 20, Product Design, 3rd year.

Photo: Ellie Kynaston

“...an act of cultural vandalism and hardly an appropriate way to build a diverse, creative and pluralistic knowledge economy.” rates, graduate earnings and so on)”. Commenting on the class systems prior to entry to university, Gail said: “I think we already have huge problems with access to higher education. The attainment gap for school children between socioeconomic classes is not improving, directly impacting the progression into University.” She continued: fees at uni, and it will limit the options people will have.”

Shane Reidy, 23, Robotics, 3rd year.

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights - art. 26: (...) higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (The implication being that material obstacles should not be put in place by a stuck-inmedieval-frame-of-mind/lesser-humanbeings/stupidly-elected-elite)” George Kosmopolous, 24, Sociology, 3rd year.

“I feel that it is going to single out who can go to university and who can’t.

It will only be available to those who can afford the high fees, which is not how it should be. On the other hand though, the higher fees will mean less people attending university and therefore less competition when looking for a job. “ Liz Green, 24, Construction Management, 3rd year.

“The whole university culture is going to change. People will be tied to a company to sponsor them for their

“Lifting the cap on university fees is a disgraceful move. It will discourage good students from poor backgrounds

“the percentage of kids going to university from private schools is much higher than inner city state schools.”

Gail also highlighted the oft cited controversy that the people in charge of such decision Lord Browne, George Osbourne and David Cameron, for example - “all went to University for free.”

Though the plans will not come into force for several years, campaigners have already begun spreading their disgust at the Government’s decisions. A spokesperson for the University and College Union (UCU) at UWE told the WesternEye “The University and College Union’s policy is to oppose all and any fees, and this of course includes fee increases. At a national level UCU is campaigning with the NUS to oppose fees and we hope that UWESU will eventually see the value in working with us in areas of mutual concern at UWE, where we are seeing likely fee increases alongside resource cuts.” The spokesperson went on to argue: “It is frankly unacceptable that higher education is being pushed to provide trained workers for industry, but that students are being forced to pick up industry’s bill, especially when it will take the average student longer to pay back from entering into higher education.

I certainly wouldn’t have applied if I faced the kind of fees they’re planning on introducing. University should be a place of academic elitism, not financial elitism. I think a graduate tax would be a much fairer deal.”

Lucia Dobson-Smith, 23, English and Journalism, 3rd year.

“Cuts? Increases? Where should the axe fall? On Cameron’s head!”

Carl Wakfer, 23, Media and Cultural Studies, 3rd year.

“While an international student’s fees are nearly three times that of a home student’s, they are the same as the average resident fees at a state university in the US, my home country.

“It is frankly unacceptable that Higher Education is being pushed to provide trained workers for industry, but that students are being forced to pick up industry’s bill” loans than it will for someone to pay back an average mortgage.”

With protests against fee hikes and the evisceration of the higher education budget, protests have begun in earnest across the country.

Lord Browne and Mr Osbourne may well find themselves backtracking in the face of public backlash.

That said, I’ve always believe the solution is not in the question, ‘How can we afford education?’ but in the question, ‘Why does education cost this much?’ “ Jesse Groppi, 30, Drama and English, 2nd year.

“I think the government’s proposal to raise the cap on student fees is despicable, not only is it putting students into an incredibly difficult situation, but it’s making higher education an impossible option for people from certain backgrounds. i wonder how much clegg or cameron had to pay whilst they were studying at university...”

Terri Hammond, Drama, 1st year.

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News & Politics

WesternEye 8.11.2010

The restructure and the review

> SRC President Colin Offler talks to Deputy Vice-Chancellor John Rushforth about UWE’s academic restructuring, the implications of the Lord Browne review, and how tuition time per student is decided

Photo: George Rowe

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.O.: Are the cuts going to result in reduced lecturer contact time?

J.R: “At the moment, we don’t really know. If the Government synchronise the raising of the fee cap with the cuts to Higher Education funding then no, it shouldn’t, because we will have alternative financial support. If they are not, or if the fee cap is too low, then it is unfortunately possible.

The worst case scenario is if the cuts come in but the fee cap is not raised at all; the money has to come from somewhere and we would have to further look at alternatives: more international students, or reducing the student/staff ratio.”

What effect will the academic restructuring (as discussed in issue 2) have?

“Well, I must be clear that this isn’t a loss of lecturing staff, it is management roles that are being cut. We are attempting to make the managerial structure more efficient, for example by shrinking the number of faculties. The staff in these positions have not done anything wrong, but rather the business need of UWE has changed; if they are moved down a grade they receive pay protection, and we will try and redeploy them elsewhere if possible. If, at the end, they have to leave, then that’s unfortunate; but what’s the alternative? There is only a fixed amount of money, and it can only be deployed so far.”

How many staff do you expect to lose from this restructuring?

UCU vs.

UWE update > Update on the dispute between UWE staff and management reported in WesternEye Issue 2

“We expect there to be a net loss of about 40 posts. There is a hope that there will be no compulsory redundancies as we are offering redeployment and enhanced voluntary severance for those over 50 years old.”

What about when the upcoming Research Review is finalised?

“10-20% might be at risk, but there does not necessarily have to be a reduction of posts. If we can successfully enlarge growth in other areas – the international market for example – then there may be no reduction.”

Do you expect these to be the kind of cuts made at other Universities nationwide very soon, as a result of the Browne review?

“Every university that I know of is going to have to take some sort of measures to save money, but it will impact on different places in different ways. UWE benefits from funding from, for example, the NHS for the medical courses we offer.

Things like this will probably be cut, so we will have to find other sources for funding, like our new deal with Hewlett Packard - here we are working with an internationally respected company to develop joint courses that will open up new markets and opportunities for us.”

The UWE University and College Union, of which ¾ of UWE lecturing staff are members, unanimously voted to enter into a formal dispute with the University over the restructuring. What will these mean for the students?

Newsdesk newsandpolitics @westerneye.net

S

ince our Issue 2 investigation into the dispute between the UWE University and College Union (UWE-UCU) and the University, further action has been taken by the UWE-UCU executive and members.

The ballot that we reported on last issue about whether to enter into an official dispute situation with UWE was voted unanimously in

“If, at the end, they have to leave, then that’s unfortunate, but what’s the alternative?

There is only a fixed amount of money, and it can only be deployed so far.”

“The process of a formal dispute means that the status quo has to continue until the process is concluded. As such, there will be no changes for now. The restructure doesn’t come into effect until August 1st 2011, so even if the dispute it settled before then, there won’t be any changes at all until this date. It might impact on students if there it becomes an industrial dispute. This is usually a national measure rather than a local, but what with all the Government’s proposed cuts then this is certainly a possibility. To put this in context, last time industrial action took place, no exams marks favour of a week after publication at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) that was the best attended in UWE-UCU’s history.

More recently, another EGM was held on the 3rd November where two specific UWE-UCU issues were voted on. The first of these was to mandate the executive to ballot members for industrial action, including strike action, should the restructuring dispute remain unsettled. The second motion related to UWE’s attempts to change their grievance procedure, which

were released by union members.

We worked very hard to ensure that there was no disruption to students.”

We’ve gone down from 9 to 5 to 4 faculties in the last few years, is it likely that this will change again?

“It is almost inevitable, but soon?

Hopefully not. Restructures like this are a way of saving money and responding to student demand. We have to be responsive to changes in the market. For example, we have 19 separate departments here at UWE. If one of these departments were to take off and become so big as to be unwieldy, then we would have to think about splitting this department into two to better manage it.”

Could you please clarify what the ‘student experience’ that UWE is so consciously trying to protect is? Is it measurable?

“UWE does a lot of different things; what we are trying to emphasise is that students coming to university and graduating, all the experiences they have in this process, is the most important thing to us. Everything that happens from the moment someone thinks about coming to UWE and then on is the ‘student experience’, from the catering to lecture feedback, and everyone’s is different, from 18 year old undergraduates to international doctoral students.”

This seems a little vague; wouldn’t every single thing that the University does, including things like research, influence the ‘student experience’?

“Well, none of the aspects can be considered in isolation, but it depends on how you look at it. For example, University of Bristol wants to remain a world class research university, so for them research is the top priority. For UWE, it is the students that are the priority.

We started pushing the ‘student experience’ five years ago; it’s a key message to everyone that works at UWE never forget that students are the people who pay your wages.”

The current workload model that UWE uses to allocate teaching time per student is designed to make sure every student gets an equitable amount of tuition. Isn’t this blind to the fact that some courses need different amounts and styles of teaching?

“If an academic can demonstrate that they need a different workload for their course, then this is allowed for under the model. It comes down to the fact that people are paying the

same amount of money, so should get the same experience; 12 hours of contact time or equivalent.”

And who decides on what is equivalent?

“It is done by the Academic Board, but it is a very tricky thing to do. We don’t want to get stuck on contact time just being the baseline measure; can you say that a small seminar is the same as being lectured to with seventy other students? We are doing very well with Peer Assisted Learning, but this isn’t the same as being taught by a full time academic. It is a difficult thing to balance.”

If the Browne review be accepted, and UWE start charging double the current tuition fees to students, what benefits will they see for paying so much more?

“The first thing to remember is that students don’t pay anything; only once they are graduates and earning over a certain amount of money do they have to pay any money. It is possible that students won’t see any difference; there won’t be any more money in Higher Education, it will just be coming from a different source. If the cap is fixed higher then there might be further investment in things like student support, estates, our internship program, the bus system, staff/student ratio, that kind of thing.”

What about if it isn’t accepted?

What is plan B? “That really depends on what the Government does if it can’t implement the Browne review. Worst case scenario, they still impose all the cuts but do not raise the cap on tuition fees, then there would have to be some serious changes. We would have to shift to other revenue streams, reduce student staff ratio and consider whether we can sustain an institute of this size. The money from the Higher Education Funding Council for England is going down from about £70million to £20million; if caps are not raised the whole sector will melt, some institutions will go private, and the whole game will change.

UWE is in a strong position to withstand future changes, and students should have confidence that they are our top priority.

Marketisation may mean benefits for students, and attending university is still massively beneficial. There will be a lot of opinion and comment in the national press, but students should try and keep informed of the facts and ignore the rhetoric.”

currently states that the University cannot take disciplinary action against staff who are involved in a Union dispute situation. UWE management desire to change this so they can take action against disputing UCU members. The second motion stated that: “Membership

of the UWE Branch of UCU reject the proposed University Grievance Procedure for all employment groups.”

Both motions unanimously.

were

passed

News & Politics 5

WesternEye 8.11.2010

UWE students againts cuts Anthony Killick newsandpolitics@westerneye.net

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n Wednesday 20th October a group of students held a meeting at Frenchay to discuss the kind of cuts being planned in this university, and what affect they will have on our education and finances.

The idea was to give the students of UWE some clarification, to clear away the media hype over budget cuts and talk about how they affected us as a group. We had speakers from both the University and Colleges Union (UCU) and the Bristol Anti Cuts Alliance.

There was also a lot of participation from students and some suggestions for future action.

The general consensus was that submitting a motion against the cuts to the NUS Annual General Meeting (AGM) on November 25th was an important step in the fight back.

The meeting was due to be held at Core 24. However, Core 24 is owned by a private company who would not allow us to hold a meeting on their property. So we had to go outside, stand in the cold and forget the idea that students can hold meetings in communal areas of university campuses.

Had we not done this, the campus security would have come and disrupted our meeting. Earlier that day we were told to remove our banner, which carried the words

“UWE students against cuts”, because we had not asked for permission to put it up.

We also heard, to our surprise, that a camera crew from ITV would be on campus that day to get a reaction to the cuts proposed in parliament.

They wanted to interview UWE ViceChancellor, Steve West and two Students’ Union reps; President, Collin Offler and Sports President, Nadia Harding.

This, they felt, would cover the entire spectrum of opinion and make for a balanced news story.

The interviews were to be conducted in The Farmhouse, a luscious cottage situated at the bottom of the Frenchay campus.

Our group thought it would be nice to invite ITV to come and stand in the cold outside Core 24, so that they could cover our meeting. This, we felt, would give them another voice on the spectrum of opinion, and surely make for a more balanced news story.

Two of us went down to The Farmhouse to extend the invitation.

Upon arrival we met the two SU presidents and politely asked them if we could have a word with ITV when they got here. They told us they would be happy to send the camera crew our way. Then they went inside The Farmhouse to wait for them.

Photo: George Rowe

> Activist students feel sidelined by SU Presidents during cuts protest

UWE-UCU Vice-Chair, Dr Peter Broks addresses protesting students outside Core 24, watched by fellow speakers Nigel Varley from the Anti-Cuts Alliance and Nova Gresham from UCU national After a further fifteen minutes standing in the cold, outside The Farmhouse this time, we decided to knock at the door and ask when ITV would be here.

We discovered that ITV were already inside.

Neither of the SU presidents had come to inform us, as promised.

However, we managed to get through the door of The Farmhouse and speak to ITV, who said they

would like to cover our meeting.

Then we left, no more than one minute after we had entered.

ITV conducted their interviews with Steve West and the SU presidents, apparently the two sides of the alleged argument.

By the time they got to us our meeting was finished. However, they did conduct two more interviews. The first was with one of the speakers we had from the UCU.

The second was with a student from our group.

Neither of these interviews went into the final broadcast of the ‘balanced news programme’. The ITV crew, and the two sides of the ‘argument’, had done a spectacular job of containing the differences over cuts within an acceptable, not balanced, spectrum of opinion.

However, we would like to thank them for being so polite.

AGM: make your voice heard in UWESU > SRC Vice-President Gail Wilson explains how and why you should get involved Gail Wilson newsandpolitics@westerneye.net

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o what is an AGM and why should you give up your Thursday evening to go along?

AGM stands for Annual General Meeting and is the one official open meeting that the Students’ Union runs each year. The AGM is the chance for students to scrutinise the work that the SU Presidents have been doing over the past year.

Any student can also put forward ideas that the Students’ Union

Want to know more about the new constitution?

Gail is holding an open meeting on 9th Nov. in 5F1 (Frenchay) at 4pm.

Alternatively view it online at http://www. uwesu.org/student_ voice/surveys_ consultations/new_ constitution

should be working on in the form of a motion.

A motion is an idea or a proposal with a clear set of actions that students decide if they agree with by voting on. If more than 50% of students at the AGM vote for the motion then it passes and becomes Union policy for the next three years.

Examples of motions passed recently include a motion for the Students’ Union to encourage more women to get involved in sport, a motion to support anonymous marking and a motion to ban Nestle products from the Students’ Union shop on ethical grounds.

During the process of voting there is a chance to debate the idea put forward, this can get fairly heated if it is a contentious issue. All motions that are being put forward to the AGM will be published in advance so students can read them and make up their minds about what is being proposed.

During the AGM the SU Presidents will present the financial accounts from the previous year, along with reports of what they have done so far and their plans for the reminder of the year.

Everyone will also have the chance to pose questions to the Presidents about what they have been doing and hold them to account. The results of the election to the NUS National Conference will also be announced at the AGM, for those students who put themselves

forward to represent UWE Students’ Union on a national level.

This year’s AGM is especially noteworthy as the Students’ Union has a proposed new constitution that will be coming to the AGM to be voted on by students. The constitution of the Students’ Union

is a very important document as it details exactly how the Students’ Union will function, how students can get involved and what presidents, part-time positions, councils and committees UWE Students’ Union has.

The current constitution has lots of problems so the Students’ Union has been working for several years to develop a new improved model that will make it easier to get involved, make the Students’ Union more democratic and reorganise the remits of the presidents to make them clearer and support a wider range of students better.

This is where you come in; in order for any of this to happen and the meeting to go ahead AGM needs to be ‘quorate’ (a legal term meaning the minimum number of people who must be present to pass a law), which is 150 people.

If you have any interest in improving the Students’ Union, seeing it develop and work better for you then make sure you are there to have your say.

For any further information on AGM, submitting a motion, running for NUS National Conference or the proposed new constitution please contact SRC Vice President Gail Wilson on src.vicepresident@uwe. ac.uk.

6

News & Politics

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Progressive Students Conference

> LGBT Vice-Rep, Louise Goux-Wirth, reports back from the PSC on the issues affecting students across the country Louise Goux-Wirth newsandpolitics@westerneye.net

H

ow students can unite to oppose the most radical government cuts in years was discussed at the Progressive Students Conference held on October 23 at Birkbeck College, London. Over 100 students – from more than 30 colleges and universities across the country – gathered at the event organized by the Student Broad Left and National Black Students Alliance.

Central to the day was how students can organise to challenge the cuts consensus and massive squeeze on public services and education announced by the Con-Dem Coalition.

Speakers underlined how the real goal of the Conservatives, was not to get the economy growing again but to pursue an ideological goal of slashing public services and making the poorest pay for the economic crisis whilst protecting the wealthiest in society.

During questions with Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, Mr

Livingstone pointed out that: “The policies being pursued by the government at the moment are not only unfair, but they have never worked. All through history, countries have got out of debt by continuing to spend, paying back debt slowly and not abandoning social programs. We should be investing to reinvigorate the economy.”

As part of the Coalition’s attack, students face a massive fee hike.

The conference looked at what a serious, progressive alternative to Lord Browne’s plans to create a free market in higher education would be. Terry Hoad, President-Elect of the UCU rejected all attempts to increase the burden on students – instead he made the case for fees to be scrapped and replaced with a Business Education Tax, stating “We should be investing in education.” As he made clear, this would be good for society and good for the economy.

Fiona Edwards presented the

findings of the Free Education Campaign’s briefing which used government figures to show that “For every pound invested in higher education, the economy expands by £2.60.”

A key theme at the conference was the need to challenge racism.

NUS representative, Joshi Sachdeo, opened the ‘One Society, Many Cultures’ session, by stressing the vital importance of progressives standing up to those who want to whip up racism and division by using Muslims, immigrants, asylum seekers and others as scapegoats.

The rise of far-right political parties against the backdrop of cuts was discussed. Sabby Dhalu, from Unite Against Fascism warned that “The British National Party are now the most successful fascist party in British history, securing a record 1 million votes at the last General Election. This success has given rise to the English Defense League which has terrorized the Muslim community with their violent protests.”

Kanja Sesay, NUS Black Students’ Officer concluded the day with a rallying call:

Doing your own spending review > The use of personal ‘financial austerity’ Dave Willis newsandpolitics@westerneye.net

I

f you have not kept up to date with the news, you might not have realised that the country is officially skint. The government is therefore cutting back on their outgoings and trying to be more cost effective.

Freshers have only been at university for about five weeks but second and third years will most probably sympathise with this. When you look into your bank account does it look a lot emptier than it did a few weeks ago? The experience of being at university is a financially steep one and having been through it myself before living on a shoestring, I will be able to give you some practical advice.

Firstly budget, I know that it is not the most interesting subject and

you would rather not think about it, but most of us have bills to pay such as mobile phones, insurance, rent and the like. They do not like it when you ‘forget’ to pay them.

Deduct a rounded figure from your money and make sure that this is there when you need it. You really do not want to be evicted, cut off because you have spent the money partying.

Try and organise a pattern to your spending, where is it that you spend most of your money? Do you really need to spend that much money or could you have had just as good a time doing something else that costs less?

Another needless expense in the first year is wasted food. In many flats you are thrust together in your

first year, not knowing each other.

In the first couple of days, you all probably bought your own milk, butter, ketchup and so forth. This is very wasteful, you need to make friends with each other, it is far cheaper and easier if you do. Try and sort out the essentials that you all need and create a kitty or take it in turns to buy them.

Try cooking a group meal each week, not only is it a chance to get all together, but you can also feed eight of you for less than the cost of each making your own food and it takes less time. Enjoy your food. Go to butchers, grocers; do ‘flat shops’ so you can have an input into what you buy and save cash. Again, this can be cheaper than you all traipsing down to the supermarket and getting a bus/taxi back each time with your shopping.

Clothes are another case in point. Look around you, how many second and third years are wearing the latest fashions, names or even just plain new clothing. It is time to realise that clothes do not make the person, it just makes them poor.

Right deep breath, this might be an area you may have never thought about but charity shops are cool.

They are cheap and you can get a lot of different stuff in them. It is the students’ clothes shop.

Hopefully these pearls of wisdom will see you through the year and into the summer. Remember though, you can always get more advice from UWE finance or your bank or even that thing the internet.

Burying your head in the sand and hoping it will go away is not the answer.

“Standing up for our education is not just standing up for our own futures. It is standing up for the future of British society, social justice and equality – and for the future of Britain’s economy based on high skills, prosperity and growth. They have their reactionary coalition. We have our own progressive coalition now.

We need to take our progressive v

politics – for investment in free education and public services, not cuts – for fighting tooth and nail against all forms of racism, bigotry and oppression – for supporting peace, equality and justice across the global – onto our campuses and into NUS. We are building a progressive student coalition – and you should get involved!”

Newsdesk’s world round up

Britain - Prime Minister, David Cameron, has called for action to combat the “terrorist cancer” in the Arabian peninsula, ahead of an announcement on airport security.

The announcement came following the discovery of a number of explosive devices onboard passenger planes, that had either originated in or passed through the region.

He said the bomb’s journey showed the world’s interest in working together.

United States - It has been suggested that the ‘The Bush Doctrine’ of detaining ‘illegal combatants’ has been replaced by the ‘Obama Doctrine’ of drone strikes and targeted assassinations by the unmanned aircraft. Critics voice concerns over the rapidly rising death toll, particularly in northern Pakistan, as US military chiefs suggest expanding the scope of drone operations to tribal areas of the country.

According to Pakistani official statistics, every month an average of 58 civilians were killed during 2009. Of the 44 Predator drone attacks that year, only five targets were correctly identified; the result was over 700 civilian casualties.

Kenya - The authorities in Kenya say game rangers have shot dead three suspected elephant poachers in two separate incidents.

The Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) said one poacher was killed in a “fierce” gun battle in Isiolo. It said two other poachers were shot dead in the Tsavo region.

The service said a search was taking place for other suspects who may have been injured in the firefight. It said: “The suspects had shot dead an elephant... and were in the process of hacking off the tusks using axes when the KWS rangers ambushed them.”

More than 200 elephants died as a result of poaching last year in Kenya, while tonnes of ivory have already been seized so far this year.

Brazil - Brazil’s first female president-elect, Dilma Rousseff, has vowed to build on the policies of her predecessor which aim to eliminate poverty while improving economic stability.

The former chief of staff to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised to stick to his policies to maintain Brazil’s hardwon economic stability and respect existing contracts with private companies.

“I received from millions of Brazilians maybe the most important mission of my life,” Ms Rousseff told a crowd of cheering supporters.

“We cannot rest while there are Brazilians who are hungry.”

Life

Students’ Union & Picking up the pieces Neurobonkers > UWE People and Planet: aims, achievements and activities Jay Copping uwepeopleandplanet@yahoo.com

What is UWE People and Planet you ask? ell People and Planet is a national charitable organization for students that cover sthree major issues that are wrong with our current age and society.

World poverty, human rights being exploited, and damage to the environment. UWE People and Planet is, surprisingly enough, the UWE branch of that organization (who would have thought?)

Now, poverty, damage to the environment, and exploitation of human rights are not good, and bar a few minorities, most of us would not wish to let these atrocities carry on, or in fact get worse.

Last year, UWE People and Planet did a lot for this university, with many thanks to the presidency of the former big cheese Lisa Tozer, who has now graduated, and we wish her the best in her future pursuits.

But we’re picking up the pieces, and intend to carry on the good name, thanks to our new president Willian Perin. People and Planet was largely active with last years’ welcome weekend. It went on a trip to Copenhagen as part of COP15 to make difference to protect climate change. It sparked interest in the UWESU’s annual general meeting with the ethics of the SU being sponsored by McDonalds, and the selling of bottled water. It ran a free shop in the centre of Broadmead, giving away free merchandise for their Buy Nothing Day. More than not, People and Planet tries to closely work with the Students’ Union and the University.

This year we will hopefully be looking at two major campaigns: The Bottled Water campaign, promoting awareness about the environment damaging way of ‘recycling’ empty bottles into lower quality material that gets chucked away anyway, severely polluting poor LEDC countries across the globe (and if we’re not careful, MEDC countries like the UK soon enough) and also the truths people don’t want to know (like producing the water product has been known to decrease fertility). The other campaign is Buy Right, taking action against workers being exploited in the workplace.

W

This is our planet, and we’re

slowly destroying it carefree when we waste energy, when we aren’t aware of how what we buy is really produced. We also exploit fellow members of our own race. This world is in a terrible state, and it’s no good sitting back and just saying that, it’s up to us to change, and we need to make that change happen; we need to feel like we are responsible for any better change that we may produce (fulfilment, if anything).

Because eventually, it will be too late, and we will ultimately pay the price for the negligence in caring for this world. You may think it sounds silly, but just picture a world where the air is so toxic we have to live underground, or human rights get so exploited that there is no one left on Earth to fight for us. If we turn an ignorant blind eye to human rights being mistreated, when we’re the ones exploited and need help, why should anyone want to help us? When our air gets too foul because of the pollution that factories emit when they (or so they claim) ‘recycle’ empty water/soda bottles, what then? This future is not too unrealistic; we’re heading

in that direction.

We need to stop our conformist patterns of being lured into fake appeal, or the evils of brand names. Each of us are probably guilty of it in a way, and it doesn’t make us bad people, what with the sheer force and overexposure of everything around us, that’s why People and Planet is there to provide awareness as a counter measure. How many people out there really know that it’s actually better for you to drink tap water from a public toilet sink, than it is for you to buy brand name bottled water? We need to start thinking for ourselves, not just doing what we’re told or feel we have to go with. We’re all individuals, capable of so much just by ourselves; imagine what we

could be if we all worked together, but more importantly... wanted to work together out of choice.

I know, most of you are probably groaning right now. But this is a chance to meet like minded people, and feel as if you’re actually working towards a difference in this reality, you made something happen, you influenced a great change. The skills and confidence you will get from protests and campaigning actually help you in the long run.

I say all this now because not many people may have seen us at the fresher’s fair, due to us being tucked away in the corner, overshadowed by the mass propaganda and overwhelming force of Domino’s Pizza directly in people’s faces, but we aim to outreach. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

However, I am not here to say you have to, and rightly so. Because in the end, I’m promoting choice and independent thoughts, and people need to want to save this planet, the environment, and the people on it, it needs to come from them, and that mentality is respected. People that help are people that REALLY want to help. If it feels right, if it feels natural, flow with it. But if it feels wrong, you don’t have to go along with anything, you can make

a stand.

But together, we can do it. We can make this planet what we want it to be, a nice, clean, safe place to live. It requires our efforts, but I have the upmost faith in that.

But it’s the people that are an important component to this change.

We meet at Cafe Kino in Stokes’ Croft (U1, U2 route before entering city centre), Tuesday at 6:30pm.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to pester uwepeopleandplanet@yahoo.com We don’t want a bad future, and we’re not going to let it happen.

And remember, if one person can challenge fixed patterns; imagine what several of us could do together.

Big Pharma leaves neuroscience in the dust www.neurobonkers.com

S

ince the beginning of this year two leading drugs companies, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZenca, have all but completely pulled funding for research and development of meds for neurological disorders. Before I go into detail, it’s worth noting the annual marketing budget of the industry is $57.5 billion. To put that in to context, the gulf sea oil disaster this summer only cost $8 billion. That’s even more money spent on advertising than the highest value note in Zimbabwe could buy, well perhaps that’s not saying much. One single company, Forest, spent $36 million on lunches for doctors in to create “an extended amount of selling time for representatives”, in one year, for one single drug, the antidepressant Leraxo.

On 4th February GSK announced it was pulling out of research into pain, depression and anxiety disorders. Since then AstraZeneca has announced it has followed suit also adding schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to the list of neurological conditions being abandoned.

The justification for this was primarily economic; despite this, the companies continue to spend billions in advertising the high priced, often addictive and sometimes deadly products already on the market that have been proven to barely provide any benefits at all in many cases. This will come as a shock to anyone who has studied psychology as you’ll know that depression; anxiety disorders and schizophrenia take up almost the whole of any introductory psychology text book. As those textbooks would tell you, the current meds are generally not very effective and involve substantial side effects. Worse still, for dozens of neurological conditions, current meds don’t yet exist that provide real benefits (e.g. for conditions such as Alzheimers and ALS).

Research in to more promising compounds just isn’t as profitable as selling the ones developed decades ago.

As a result of these announcements, the Institute of Medicine has called a meeting with government leaders and academics globally to assess the problem, it stated that… “the biggest problem… is that when you look at what companies are doing for psychiatric drug treatment … there are very few new molecular entities, very few novel ideas and almost nothing that gives hope for a transformation in the treatment of mental illness”.

So the facts: • As of July there are 313 drugs for mental disorders in the pipeline

• Most of these are slightly tweaked versions of old compounds, much in the same way that underground pharma tweaks newly banned chemicals to make legal variants. Interestingly the government has responded to the work done by underground pharma by making whole classes of compounds such as cathinones (actually illegal.)

• A large proportion of these compounds are actually already approved and are just being resubmitted for more uses (as off label use is banned by the FDA) • Lots of these are first generation a-typical antipsychotics being resubmitted for anxiety and depression even though they are well known for their extensive side effects, far from ideal for the

depressed.

So what’s the value of spending millions on resubmissions for offlabel uses? This would allow the companies to extend the patents that are about to expire and get another 10 years of sales for the same old compounds, except in a shiny new packet with a slightly different name. They will then proceed to spend the billions they could have spent on discovery on advertising *insert neuro-funkingcatchy-sounding-name-here* to consumers in America (as this is illegal in the Europe) and wining and dining the buyers of surgeries and hospitals globally. This is all simply because it’s a lot less financially risky than doing real R&D. In reality only 8% of CNS drugs make it to market and most that crash do so in the final stages of R&D, making it a very high risk to start with. Big Pharma seems to have decided that the odds on discovering new meds in the CNS area just aren’t worth the risk. The worst bit: the government has just decided to cut science funding by 25%, great job Dave. On the plus side, this is great news for psychologists; your patients won’t be deserting you any time soon!

You can comment on this article and much more at Follow neurobonkers on Twitter or “like” on facebook for updates on new articles and science and psychology news.

8

Life

WesternEye 8.11.2010

A sobering thought

Flu!

> Victims call for students to wake up to the dangers of ‘date-rape’ drugs

Lauren Winney

lauren_winney@live.co.uk

F

or many students Fresher’s week consisted of socialising, meeting new friends, dancing, and a lot of booze.

Students of UWE partied hard during the week to celebrate the start of University; however, the partying soon came to a halt due to the attack of fresher’s flu. Not only is this caused by students new lifestyle, the flu season is unfortunately increased during the autumn and winter seasons.

Photo: S. Celera (CC)

As the deadlines and early mornings increase, so, it seems, does the memory of Fresher’s week.

Now only the sound of coughs and sniffles linger around lecture halls this month as many students suffer from the results of late Fresher’s flu.

Doctor surgeries around the UK have been preparing for the annual flu pandemic; therefore it is essential that students have registered with their local doctor. Frenchay campus’s local supermarket, Sainsbury’s, has also been advertising flu jabs for those suffering during this season.

However, it is vital to be aware of all symptoms so it can be treated as soon as possible, due to simple coughs leading to serious infections without treatment.

Fresher’s flu can be prevented by simple lifestyle conditions and basic nutrition such as: • Plenty of vitamin C • Fresh fruit and veg • Minimum of 8 hours sleep • Keep hydrated (especially with a hangover) • Wrap up warm • High hygiene • Healthy REGULAR meals And all the other rules mothers teach.

For all those living on Frenchay Campus, the Doctor‘s Surgery is located on Carroll Court and Sainsbury’s also has a pharmacy with a variety of over the counter prescriptions.

If you have any symptoms, call your local surgery or NHS direct on 0845 4647.

Hattie Barnes

hatsiebarnes@hotmail.com

All photos by Hugrun Larusdottir

L

et’s be honest here, we, as students, have almost all fallen out of a club, pub, bar or alcohol based event after seven too many drinks, perhaps, on more occasions than we’d probably like to admit.

Due to media representation and the precedent set by our former students, we have come to accept heavy partying and all that comes with it, as parts of student life.

The inevitable walks of shame, the piecing together of nights over tea and naps the next day is what a lot of students would call, the new traditions of their life. Whilst we can collectively claim to have drunkenly stumbled, mumbled and fumbled our way home to our beds, or someone else’s, the fact of the matter is, almost all of the time, this consumption of alcohol, however reckless it may seem afterwards, is under our control.

As a young person and perhaps more so, as a young woman, I have heard the words, ‘drink spiking’ and ‘date-rape’, and the names of ghastly drugs used to spike drinks, banded about in the media for the last few years. But it is a situation you honestly never think you would find yourself in, after all, these

things always happen to other people. This was exactly how I felt about it, and then it happened to me.

It is hard to recount anything from the night in question, which is effectively the point of drink spiking.

But I had had one drink before I went to meet friends at a well-known club in the centre of Bristol. I remember walking to the club, getting money out of a cash-point near the club, and paying my entry, and being inside, a friend suggested we all get drinks, and I, barely tipsy agreed to this. The last thing I remember was standing at the bar, paying for, and then being handed my drink. I then remember nothing more, nothing at all. The next thing I remember is waking up the next lunchtime quite literally in a daze, but in my own bed, with absolutely no recollection of what had happened, how I had got home, or any sign of my handbag, containing my keys, purse and phone. As if this wasn’t terrifying enough in itself, I also had a graze across my shoulder and down the left-hand side of my face, accompanied by a swollen

black-eye. My whole body ached and I found it difficult to focus my eyes, and then even more difficult to stand and control my limbs. I felt like Bambi on ice, or perhaps Bambi after being hit by a large lorry. I knew quickly what had happened to me, this was like no hangover I had previously experienced. Past having my belongings stolen I was thankfully all in one piece; I instinctively knew nothing more than a bad fall had happened to me. About three days later I came to my senses, I don’t know whether it was the shock, a concussion from hitting my head or the effects of the drug, but I felt almost alert again, awake for the first time in days. It was a really terrifying experience, and a very emotional one as well, one that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

Afterwards, when I told people about what had happened, it became clear to me that it is a lot more common than you would like to think. The Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) Professor Sir Michael Rawlins has previously

described drink spiking and, to use the correct term, ‘drug facilitated sexual assault’ as a ‘particularly disgusting offence that ruins lives.’

And as ‘a significant but underreported problem.’ Having spoken about it with a few people, the range of reactions and experiences that were consequences of drink spiking really shocked me. From a friend who had her drink spiked with acid, to a friend who vividly remembers literally everything about what happened from the club to the hospital, but like me, couldn’t control her limbs. Almost equally alarming is how difficult a crime it is to prosecute, or in fact to prove at all. This is due to how quickly many of the drugs commonly used leave the body. When I went to the police, about fourteen hours after the event happened, I was told that they could not do anything but file a stolen property report because the drugs wouldn’t be traceable in my system. The police officer I spoke to was kind, and told me that telling people they could do very little was one of the more frustrating elements of her job.

Although it is a hard crime to prove, unless there is further, forensic element to the crime, it is important to remember that is a crime, it isn’t just bad luck. To be found guilty of drink-spiking related crimes can mean a jail sentence of up to ten years, and it is always vital to report if it happens to you.

I am aware that I am at risk of sounding distinctly like my mother here, but the whole experience made me really realise how vulnerable drunk people are, and especially what easy targets girls are. Whilst I am not advocating never leaving your house again, it is good to remember that the world out there can be a big bad place.

Have fun but try your best to stay safe.

Thirty years ago, in a galaxy quite close by... > Sci-fi fans gather to celebrate thirtieth anniversary celebrations Joe Buzzard joebuzzard@hotmail.co.uk

M

ay 2010 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of the highly-anticipated second Star Wars film, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. On Saturday 16th October, Bristol’s popular comic book store ‘Forbidden Planet’— located at the top of Park Street, and just off the Clifton Triangle— held an open event to continue these celebrations, along with the release of a book-plated edition of ‘The Making Of The Empire Strikes Back’.

Throughout the day, there were goodie bag giveaways and an option to take part in a draw to win a collection of Star Wars memorabilia. Best of all, however, was the presence of two fullycostumed Stormtroopers, as well as Darth Vader himself. They were all good sports, and were all willing to take part in the numerous photo opportunities requested of them by the fans. Of course, this reporter

and his fellow photographer had to get in on the action, and I can honestly say it was just as hilarious and exciting for us as it clearly was for the number of child and adult fans alike. I even offered Vader some throat sweets, much to the amusement of the crowd.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t too impressed, and promptly flung them away back towards the crowd of fans. I can only assume he likes to keep his husky voice for the ladies. Darth Vader even got his lightsaber out for some pictures (easy now), much to the delight of the audience, and overall it was a really enjoyable experience.

Aside from attendance of this costumed trio, the most impressive thing about the event was the company of old and young fans alike. With fans who were likely to have seen the film upon its original release lined up alongside young children, some no older than six or seven, dressed in Darth Vader costumes. It seems quite amazing to think that this film and franchise so clearly loved by these children has existed for almost five times their lifespan! Few films can claim such a heavy presence and influence upon modern culture, or indeed, so many levels of generations. Initially met with mixed reviews, The Empire Strikes Back has since come to be seen as possibly the greatest

of all the Star Wars films, and this existence as a contemporary cultural touchstone provides it a timeless quality to which old and young viewers can relate. It is a film that parents and children can happily settle down to watch with a mutual sense of wonder and appreciation that we can all share.

All we can do is hope that in another 20-30 years, it stands as a film that can be just as beloved as it has been for the past thirty years.

Life 9

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Presidential prose

Stewing over what to cook?

> So you’ve done your personal spending review and tightened up your budget. What can you afford for dinner? Lovely sausage stew!

Samantha Ashman temedilla@googlemail.com

W

here do you buy your vegetables?

The supermarket?

It’s convenient and cheap, is it not? Think again.

Consider this collection of fruit: eight nectarines, half a pound of British plums, two mangos. Ok? Got that? This, in a local supermarket: two mangos = £2.00, e i g h t nectarines = £1.89, unripe plums = £1.00.

Leaving a grand total of £4.89.

So now let us look at the total price of these items in a local fruit shop (drumroll please) - they came to a grand total of £2.15. Now, fruit shop prices vary according to the season, the harvests, the time of day, but a savvy shopper who buys seasonal produce can save a good deal of that budget by being smart about their choice of supermarket or local shop. The good thing about buying in a local fruit shop is that you do not need to know what is seasonal, but simply pick up those items you find cheapest. You save money, save waste (because you only buy the amount you want), save the environment (because these shops do not over-package their food) and

All photos by the author

Eleanor Heaford life@westerneye.net

help support those poor, friendly shop owners who are squeezed out by giants like Tesco.

Students have very little time, true: why not order a weekly vegetable-box delivery? google ‘veg boxes, Bristol’ and you are presented with a plethora of delivery services; who, for a small fee will deliver weekly boxes of vegetables direct to your door. They often come in various sizes, so what better way to get your five-a-day than with something so low effort? Perhaps you could even share your box with house-mates?

Warming Autumn Stew: Serves 2 Prep time: 20 mins > 1 large meat-rich sausage, > 1 small butternut squash,

bottomed deep pan on a medium heat. They do not need to be cooked at this stage, when browned lift out of the pan and put on a dish.

•Take off the tops and tails of the onions and peel them. If they are shallots or small, leave as they are.

Larger onions should be chopped into chunks. Put these in the pan with the sausage juices and begin to wash and chop the potatoes and squash (the squash will need peeling, but potatoes that have healthy skins do not).

•Place the potatoes and squash in the pan and fry on medium heat along with the onions. When they have all become a little brown, turn the heat up higher and splash in about 1 cupful of the cider (or water, if you have no cider).

•The pan will fizzle and boil the water/cider away fairly quickly. As this happens, throw in the pearl barley and add some hot water from the kettle (this stops the cooking process being slowed by a

Photo: Caro Wallis (CC)

>3 small potatoes (or one large potato), some small sweet onions or shallots, vegetable oil, > apple cider (optional), > salt and pepper, > 1/2 cup pearl barley, > dried (or better still, fresh) herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary, bay leaf, > any hard green vegetables: broccoli, spring greens, courgettes.

Method:

•Cut the sausage into inch-long pieces and brown lightly in a thick

temperature drop).

•Wash and chop your green vegetables while the pan boils gently for 5-10 mins. This prepares the barley for cooking. Place them all in the pan with the sausage pieces, a pinch of salt and about a teaspoon each of the herbs. Turn the pan down to low simmer and leave.

•Check and stir intermittently to gauge temperature - do not let the pan boil dry. Cook for at least one hour, although more time only improves the dish. Tasting before you serve allows for extra adjustment of the flavour - keep a crumbled stock cube and some salt and pepper handy just in case.

When you are ready to eat, leave off the studying and simply spoon into a bowl! Drink the cider, leave the stew on the cold cooker to be reheated for lunch the next day. Hey presto! You have cooked a delicious meal.

Colin Offler SRC President

Hi all!

The last few weeks I have spent a huge amount of time breaking down the issues around cuts to Higher Education and the lifting of the cap on tuition fees at UWE. Speaking to John Rushforth about the Universities position was highly enlightening and I would love to get some feedback from you in my inbox about your view!

Updates on Student Reps: we have elected over 800 across UWE and have been training them all up

to represent your views over the last couple of weeks. I look forward to working with them throughout the year to improve student life at UWE, both in and out of lecture time.

I’m also currently looking into Transport issues such as the U-link service, Car park 20 and cycle provision to see how we can lobby the University to improve services and facilities. The best way forward to improve the student experience is feedback, so please do come and see me about what we can be doing as Presidents of the Students’ Union to enhance yours or email me at src.president@uwe.ac.uk.

Gail Wilson SRC Vice President Wow, I don’t think we have ever seen such a busy time here at UWE Students’ Union.

Firstly, we have been busy digesting the announcements from the Browne Review and the Comprehensive Spending Review and the affect this could have on current and future students.

Students are facing a pretty rough time with cuts of around 75% of funding to Universities and the recommended removal of the cap on fees. Please show your support for Higher Education by joining us on the National Demo this Wednesday 10th November, return coach journey is just £5.

We also have the AGM coming up on the 25th November where the new constitution is coming to

be voted on, for more details check out the article on page 5. AGM will also see the results of the elections for NUS National Conference; if you are interested in running for one of the 8 places and representing UWE Students’ Union at a national level then check out www.uwesu.org/ vote for more details. Nominations close 1pm on the 16th November.

Over the last few weeks the rep team have been training hundreds of reps - thank you to everyone that came along, your artistic skills are second to none! Your student reps will be working hard all year to put your views forward so make sure you know who yours are. The first Student Representative Council (SRC) meeting takes place this Thursday (11th) so I look forward to working with the lucky 40 this year!

Terry Atkinson Activities President What a busy few weeks!

RAG bar crawl was a great success. A fantastic fun filled night for all ended in Haze nightclub where students from all walks of sports and societies partied until the early hours. Keep your eyes peeled for the next one in January.

The discount scheme for Clubs/

Societies on a Wednesday is live and active. Pop to an SU bar on a Wednesday with your Sports/ societies membership card and receive exclusive discounts, happy days!

Remember the AGM is on the 25th November. We need to pass the new constitution in order for the union to move forward. All information regarding this is on the UWESU website. Check it out!

Nadia Harding Sports President

You can read about a day in my life on the next page!

Sustainability Week

> All UWE campuses involved in activities to help promote a greener and more ethical future

O

n the 18th of October “Sustainability Week” commenced over several UWE campuses.

Student Representative Council President, Colin Offler, said “just take a moment to consider how simple changes to your day to day life could have a huge positive impact on our environment” and during this week the university organised and held events to encourage people to do just that. From clothes swaps to campus tours, UWE tried to involve all students and get them to understand the importance of contributing to saving the environment.

The week kicked off with events on both Frenchay and Bower Ashton campuses. While Frenchay was busy showing off their new eco friendly block and all its best

sustainable techniques, Bower Ashton was holding a “Clothes Swap”. The swap had a wide range of items, from full length coats to hats and scarves, which allowed students to replace their unwanted clothes with a completely different garment. The idea was very well received with students agreeing that it was “a great way to recycle clothes and find ourselves a new outfit”.

Tuesday saw the fair come to Frenchay campus with organised farmers markets, cheap bike stalls and fair trade good foods. An event, that I believe, would have been well received at Bower Ashton therefore if this week is a regular occurrence it would be beneficial to involve more campuses.

Mid-week the 2nd year fashion students contributed with their

sustainable clothes show, students showed their beautiful garments made from all kinds of fabrics and materials ranging from organic bamboo silk to old telephone receivers. I was surprised by the talent and how skillfully made the outfits were. I think this event definitely deserves a bigger place in the next sustainability week as it is a great way to promote the talent that UWE is producing.

The end of the week was packed with more swaps and saw the close of the save energy contest.

Throughout the week different campuses had been taking part in the Battle Of The Buildings; in which they were competing to see who could save the most energy.

An idea which I think should spread across the whole year.

Overall the week was a success

and the next time it comes around it should bigger, better and make people save more energy.

10 Life

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Day in Life of...

A Sports President > Welcome to another fantastic issue: I have chosen an averagely busy day in my calendar to share with you!

Nadia Harding sports.president@uwe. ac.uk

T

uesday 19th October: I wake up with aching muscles from Monday nights Kickboxing Session, and hit the insanely busy road to work! (I pick up my friend on the way, as we are determined to master the art of ‘lift sharing!’

9.15am: I arrive at work, just in time for our weekly ‘Officer Catch Up’ with the fellow Presidents.

This week the main topics focused on the National Demonstration, AGM and Campaigns that we wish to run over the course of the year.

We tell each other what’s been happening over the last week and what issues may have occurred.

I talk about the beginning of the BUCS season and give a summary of feedback from Committee Training, also a brief update on how the Varsity Series is shaping out. I then describe the Women’s Campaign I wish to run in January and discuss with the Presidents what support I might need!

10am: Gail Wilson and I trot off to ‘Staff Committee’ which is where staffing issues within the SU are discussed; this meeting has been an enormous learning curve and an insight into the wonderful world of HR. 10.45am: The Four of us Presidents and our Acting General Manger all head over to the Farmhouse Building to have our monthly meeting with the Deputy Vice Chancellor, John Rushforth. You can imagine the main issues we discussed; Tuition Fees and Government cuts. I came out of the meeting feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, my main concerns being the welfare of students and worries about the future of our Students Union.

Also I couldn’t stop thinking; ‘Would my little brother be able to afford to go to university?’

12:30pm: I finally arrive back in the Sports & Activities Centre to be welcomed by a pile of invoices from students, for equipment, fuel refunds, membership etc. I then have a queue of students waiting to speak to me, some committee members wanted to talk about

their membership numbers, training times, sports section in the WesternEye and the President of Badminton came in to discuss a Comic Relief Event they would like to run! This is my favourite part of the job, when students come to me with new and innovative ideas they need help with and generally engaging with the sports membership (I also love talking – you cannot shut me up!)

1:30pm: I head off to ‘Finance and General Purposes Meeting’, this one lasted for 2 hours, firstly we had a financial audit, and this is where an auditor comes in to go through our annual accounts.

The rest of the meeting consists of financial issues, one that came up was the use of Red Bar for Surf’s Nautical Night, which had a very positive outcome, we offered the Vice President the chance to come in and state her case. This meeting was very daunting when I first started the job but now I feel like a financial wizard! (Well maybe not wizard but I understand.)

3:45pm: I have a well needed 5 minutes break, in my office to have a cuppa, to then be visited by 2 members of my Sports Executive! We had a little catch up about things they had doing and I talk about issues I need some help with e.g. I asked Adam (Competitions Officer) to come to some Varsity Meetings with me and Georgie if she could do some research into speakers for Sports Awards Dinner.

4:30pm : I pick up the phone to call the Sport and Health Vice President at Bristol University, to discuss plans for the Varsity Series (Bristol Uni are not always our rivals!)

5pm: Once students begin to filter out of the Sports & Activities Centre, it’s the first time all day I get a chance to look at my emails, a total of 82 since midday Monday! So I spend my last couple of hours going through these!

6:30pm: HOMETIME! It’s finally time to hit the road and I’m off to try ZUMBA with some friends at the Trinity Centre in Bristol!

Deposits…Is yours protected?

> A new scheme enables tenants to make sure they get their full deposits back when entitled to UWESU Advice Centre uwesu.org/advice

I

f you’re renting a property this academic year, it is likely you have recently paid your landlord a deposit but do you know where it has gone? If your landlord has banked it to fund that yearly trip to the Bahamas, s/he could be breaking the law.

This is because since 6th April 2007 anyone who has signed certain tenancy agreements must have their deposit protected by the landlord in one of the three Government backed tenancy deposit protection schemes.

The tenancy deposit protection scheme does not apply to everyone – if you are in University halls and have signed a licence to occupy your deposit does not need to be in one of the schemes, but most homes rented from private landlords or letting agents will be covered, if the tenancy is an ‘assured shorthold tenancy’ and a deposit has been paid. The money paid must be a deposit, not just rent in advance, for the scheme to apply.

A key thing for students to remember is that it doesn’t matter who pays your deposit; it could be your parents, a friend or the man from the pub, it still needs to be protected!

What should the landlord do?

At the beginning of the tenancy you will pay your deposit to the landlord as normal but they must then place it into one of the three schemes within 14 days. It is the landlord’s choice which scheme to

use, however, they must provide you with certain information about where and how your deposit is being protected and it is vital that you keep this in a safe place. This includes: • Details (including contact details) of the scheme they are using • Contact details of the landlord • Information about the purpose of the scheme • How to apply for the release of the deposit • What to do if there is a dispute at the end of the tenancy If your landlord fails to provide this information, ask the crucial question ‘How is my deposit being protected?’ If they can’t answer you, you can contact all three schemes to see if it is being protected.

What should I do if I find my deposit hasn’t been protected?

If after doing the above you find your landlord hasn’t protected your deposit and given you the required information in the set 14 days allowed, then you can apply to the local county court for an order that the landlord should pay the deposit back to you, or protect it in one of the three schemes. Failure to protect a deposit will mean the court will order the landlord to repay three times the amount of deposit back to you and this must be done within 14 days of the court order.

In addition, if your landlord has failed to protect your deposit, there are restrictions on how they can evict you. For more information, contact the SU Advice Centre.

How can I help myself?

When you move in, draw up an inventory. This is a detailed list of the contents in the property and crucially, their condition. Having an inventory can help you resolve disputes at the end of the tenancy about what damage you have caused or if the landlord is claiming items are missing. The Advice Centre has a blank inventory if your landlord/agency doesn’t provide you with one.

At the end of the tenancy?

At the end of the tenancy, ensure you are leaving the property and its contents in the condition in which it was let to you, allowing for fair wear and tear, and also check all rent and any other additional costs are all paid. You should then agree with the landlord exactly how much of your deposit should be returned to you.

Within 10 working days, you should have then received the agreed amount back. If this does not happen then you can contact the scheme protecting your deposit.

Survey The University of Winchester is currently conducting a survey into students’ awareness of tenancy deposit protection schemes. The information gained will be passed to NUS and will enable Students’ Unions to make students better informed of their rights. The survey is live until December 3rd: http://www.survey.winchester. ac.uk/tdpsfinalversion For further information please contact the SU Advice Centre on 0117 32 82676, advice@uwe.ac.uk or via your SU site office.

CoppaFeel: Boob Hi-jack!

> Charity squeezes boobs in the name of cancer awareness Tasha Beech life@westerneye.net

B

oob Hijack is CoppaFeel’s first big campaign, which launched this October across 14 Universities.

The aim is to hijack every pair of boobs in England and Wales in the name of “Boob Awareness”.

CoppaFeel! was founded

by Kristin Hallenga in April 2009.

It took Kristin two misdiagnoses and a demanded referral before she was correctly diagnosed with breast cancer. Her young age of just 23 meant her symptoms were not taken seriously, and her cancerous lumps put down to hormonal changes. By the time she was finally diagnosed, the cancer had spread to her lower back. Rather than just concentrating her efforts on getting better, she decided to set up CoppaFeel! to ensure other young women do not find themselves in a similar position. The charity became official in October 2009.

UWE is one of the 14 universities taking part in the campaign. The UWE B-Team held a Boobie Cake Sale in Red Bar last Friday, with 140 boob-inspired cupcakes selling out in under 3 hours. The B-Team also hijacked Halloween Flirt, and made an appearance at the karaoke in Escape Bar - all in the giant boob.

The generous donations made by staff and students raised in excess of £130, which will help raise more boob awareness in future years.

You may recognise Kris from the hard-hitting advert for Cancer Research UK televised last year, or from The Pride of Britain Awards 2009. You may have even met Kris and the gang at festivals this summer, such as Beach Break Live and V Festival. Together with her Boob Team, Kris travels the length and breadth of the UK informing young people to get to know their boobs. Their recent hijacks have included the Angel of the North and Lorraine Kelly. Kris decided

it was time to flick the switch on breast cancer awareness and bring it to the forefront of young people’s attention as they are the ones too often dismissed by breast cancer campaigns.

CoppaFeel!’s ask is simple, get to know your boobs; the sooner you do this, the sooner you’ll notice any changes. Early detection is the key to successfully beating breast cancer. The breast time to CoppaFeel is NOW! For more information, check out the website: www.coppafeel. org or search for ‘CoppaFeel!’ and ‘CoppaFeel at UWE’ on Facebook.

Life 11

WesternEye 8.11.2010

The Best Things

> Each month, we show you some of Bristol’s hidden wonders > This month...vintage shops Rosa Sherwood rosa.25@hotmail.com

I

t seems that wherever you turn in Bristol there are more sales and discounts on the high street.

With the overbearing presence of Cabot Circus and Cribbs Causeway, home to all the high street shops, it can be difficult to find something unique and for a good price!

However, for many vintage fashions fans, Bristol has a lot to offer you.

Be it retro clothes, vintage designer classics, or just a good second hand bargain, you will be sure to find what you’re looking for in the best vintage shops of Bristol.

Park Street The famous shop ‘Motel’ is situated on 24 Park Street, selling a range of their unique designs, and vintage clothes. Motel run a number of discounted events, so look out on Facebook for their next one, with offers such as get a free dress and 20% off, you don’t want to miss out!

Start the Bus Well known for its alternative and individual experience and look, is now home to vintage stalls ranging from old records, to retro clothes.

Every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month, Start the Bus on Corn Street holds ‘Start the Jumble Sale’. There are many stalls piled high with second hand clothes, jewelry, shoes and bags. You will be sure to find a bargain here - and a roast diner if you fancy it!

The Lanes

If you want to take a trip back in style then The Lanes is the place to go. As well as being an old fashioned diner and bowling alley, The Lanes also has its own vintage clothes shop open from Tuesday to Saturday from 12.30-5.30pm. Its shelves are stacked high and low full of old vintage clobber.

Cox and Baloneys Vintage Boutique This amazing little boutique, opened recently on 182 Cheltenham Road. Only stocking ‘handpicked unique items’ of original vintage clothing and accessories; there are re-worked vintage and vintage inspired limited edition pieces at local designer pieces as well as high-end designer gems.

Oxfam The classic charity shop! There are plenty of Charity shops dotted all around the city, where you will be sure to pick up something that’s well under your allowance for clothes, which means you can buy even more!

Urban Outfitters Right in the heart of Cabot Circus, this shop really offers something different. With lots of quirky gifts, plenty of cool items to decorate your rooms with, books, and an abundance of unique clothes, shoes, and accessories, that give that ‘vintage look’. Although in the higher price bracket, you won’t find a cheaper version anywhere, and the clothes are really worth it! Not to mention the awesome music they play too!

Clifton Vintage Boutique This vintage shop really knows what vintage is! Homed in Unit 5 of Clifton arcade, its stock overspills onto the corridors, which makes it even harder to just walk past and resist! Each item in the shop has a history, which the owner can tell you all about. You get the real vintage experience coming in here. Good quality vintage is what this shop bursts with, you have to pay slightly more here, but you will see why.

what’s on at your...

Mon 8th Lock In: Escape+Red Bar, Frenchay, St. Matt’s+Glenside SU, 5pm-close, free.

Zoology: Thekla, 10pm3am, £3 (Free entry before 10pm)

Mon 15th Lock In: Escape+Red Bar, Frenchay, St. Matt’s+Glenside SU, 5pm-close, free.

Tue 9th Cocktail Night - Escape From 8pm- Free entry Open Mic Night: ST MATTS SU, 8pm-close Will be providing P.A System and drum kit.

Tue 16th

Wed 10th

Thu 11th

Fund our Future March: London, Houses of Parliament. 8am-11pm.

Return Coach leaves Frenchay at 08.30am (£5 charge for the coach)

Glensides Pool Comp 9pm - 11pm, £1 per person entry... 1 Gallon of beer to be won.

Square eyes Thursday, Bower SU. Watch cartoons/ animations and have a pint. 17.30-19.30pm

Wed 17th

Thu 18th Disability Society: Octagon, Frenchay.

6-7.30pm Open Mic Night: Escape Bar, Frenchay, 8-1, (free drink for every performer) Square eyes Thursday, Bower SU. 5:30pm

Cocktail Night - Escape From 8pm- Free entry

Zoology: Thekla, 10pm3am, £3 (free entry before 10pm)

Mon 22rd Lock In: Escape+Red Bar, Frenchay, St. Matt’s+Glenside SU, 5pm-close, free.

Zoology: Thekla, 10pm3am, £3 (free entry before 10pm)

Tue 23rd

Lock In: Escape+Red Bar, Frenchay, St. Matt’s+Glenside SU, 5pm-close, free.

Live Wire: Frenchay, Red Bar. 10pm-3am Cocktail Night - Escape From 8pm- Free entry

Thu 25th AGM (Annual General Meeting): 2D67, Frenchay.

5:30-7pm.

VERY IMPORTANT, MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND!

Open Mic Night: ST MATTS SU, 8pm-close Will be providing P.A System and drum kit.

Tue 30th

Zoology: Thekla, 10pm3am, £3 (free entry before 10pm)

Wed 24th

Cocktail Night - Escape From 8pm- Free entry

Mon 29st

Students’ Union

Wed 1st

Thu 2rd Disability Octagon, 6-7.30pm

Society: Frenchay.

Open Mic Night: Escape Bar, Frenchay, 8-1, (free drink for every performer)

Fri 12th

Flirt! Exchange- 10pm3am Red Bar £2 in advance/ £3 on the door. £5 Non NUS Guests

Fri 19th Flirt! Children in need Pyjama Party: 10pm-3am Red Bar £2 in advance/ £3 on the door. £5 Non NUS Guests

Fri 26th Flirt!

Jose Cuervo Mexican Night: 10pm3am Red Bar £2 in advance/ £3 on the door. £5 Non NUS Guests

Fri 3rd Flirt!: Red Bar, 10-3, £2 in advance, £3 after.

Sat 13th

Sports + X- Factor on the big screen: St Matt’s SU, all day, free.

Sat 20th Sports + X- Factor on the big screen: St Matt’s SU, all day, free.

Sat 27th Sports + X- Factor on the big screen: St Matt’s SU, all day, free.

Sat 4th Sports + X- Factor on the big screen: St Matt’s SU, all day, free.

Sun 14th

Red Bar Quiz: Red Bar, Frenchay, 8pm, £1 per person. Jackpot prize up to £100

Sun 21st Red Bar Quiz: Red Bar, Frenchay, 8pm, £1 per person. Jackpot prize up to £100

Sun 28th Red Bar Quiz: Red Bar, Frenchay, 8pm, £1 per person. Jackpot prize up to £100

Sun 5th Red Bar Quiz: Red Bar, Frenchay, 8pm, £1 per person. Jackpot prize up to £100

Debate

Comment & Editor’s column Death by Spotify

> Vanity over substance; I decide I need some column inches to talk at you. Sorry.

Henry Stoneley comment@westerneye.net

W

esternEye is back (obviously, because you’re reading it), and this month it’s all up in your grill. Probably. I don’t actually know what that means, I’m from a village in the Home Counties.

Having already annoyed Catholics everywhere and our Vice-Chancellor, this month we set our sights on George Osbourne, Spotify, Bruce Forsyth and The UN. It’s like an opinion based baguette.

A baguette smothered in meaty rage.

George Osbourne’s the fresh meat, Bruce is a piece of limp, week old lettuce, (slightly brown, but still almost acceptable for human consumption).

Then

there’s some red-tape covered institutional bread from Belgium, a dollop of homemade Spotify relish, and ham. Because there’s always ham.

I jest, of course. We’re not here to provoke people, to accuse them of lying or to probe their outright non-existence (sorry again there God). We’re not even here to create bizarre sandwich metaphors, unfortunately.

We’re here so that you can voice your opinions , rant, scream, gnash your teeth and get your communal knickers in a right old twist. Comment and Debate is the vehicle for you to assuage that goat that has been so painfully got.

Marvellously, we also offer you all the right of reply. If anything we print annoys you, tell us. If you genuinely think that God exists, that Steve West cutting a load of our senior lecturing staff is somehow a good thing, or that Stokes Croft should remove its arrogant collective head from a certain orifice about Tescos, then tell us.

We genuinely want to hear from you.

Just please, please, for the love of (imaginary) God, no more Ulink articles. I get it. It’s rubbish.

Buy a bike.

> With the continued development of new streaming technology, is there a need for radio any more? Hub Radio DJ Dave Willis investigates

Dave Willis comment@westerneye.net

W

hen looking back over history, radio has been an enabler to the common individual to gain access to music they don’t own, or find difficult to get hold of.

But with the ability now to gain access to an ever increasing library of music and the ease of acquiring it, is there a need to turn on your radio?

The internet, phones and mp3 players all now allow access to music, and you no longer need to own the rights. So in that case, what is the role of the radio presenter in this day and age?

What do they offer that can’t be gained from the use of Spotify or last.fm?

These two programmes allow access to music, band bibliographies and even suggest

alternative bands that come under similar genres. So what do we gain from a presenter?

I feel at this point it is important to remember that up and coming bands/artists are unlikely to get their music onto the websites I have already mentioned.

So we turn to websites that may blog on the subject of up and coming new music. These are useful tools, but they don’t match the speed of a radio presenter.

They can give the same level of impact and information to keep us up to date with the ever changing nature of the music industry in just a couple of words.

Some stations do not allow the freedom to the presenter to explore the current state of music and prefer to go with established acts.

The presenters who push for the inclusion of new bands, or noncommercial acts, are often sidelined to poor hours of the day and are seen as a niche market.

The Hub radio at UWE allows for complete freedom and has no such restrictions. Presenters have the freedom to more readily introduce you to new and interesting music that you may otherwise have missed.

This is not to say that we don’t use websites to give us information, but I feel that we give

Photo: Alosh Bennet (CC)

a more human face to the music we champion.

With that I feel it is important to say turn on your radio, stream our station even for an hour and you will find a wealth of experience and advice on new music to you. We are passionate about what we do and you won’t hear us complaining about the fact the station hasn’t paid us, we do it for free out of the love we feel for music.

You’ll still get hear a golden oldie or two, but that is more to do with the fact we like it and not that we are being told to play it.

So if you feel like it you can find us on 1449AM or streamed on the Hub Radio website.

Happy Listening.

George Osbourne: a hypocritical oaf ?

> Not content with introducing a raft of unpopular cuts, George Osbourne also named his first child Liberty > Benjamin Boss looks at a Chancellor already in hot water Osbourne’s cuts have already sparked protests in Bristol

Benjamin Boss comment@westerneye.net

G

eorge Osborne has a very difficult job. In conjunction with his party’s policy of reigning in the public debt they so vehemently blamed on New Labour during the election campaign, he has been responsible for savage cuts in expenditure and benefits.

As a result he has become less popular than even a member of the Irish Aristocracy who graduated from Oxford, fell into a job with the Conservative Party and named his first daughter Liberty should be.

Photo: Ellie Kynaston

Everyone, no matter who they are, will read what is said about them in the press. It is basic human curiosity and goes some way to explaining why previous Chancellors of the Exchequer, who by the very nature of their job and proximity to party decisions tend to generate more bad press than most, tend to become very withdrawn.

Mr. Osborne knew what he was signing up for but, in releasing statements to the press in interviews in which he compared benefit fraudster to muggers, he has shown a callous disregard for the possibility of his change into a beastly hybrid of the most unpleasant qualities of Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling combined.

The aforementioned interview was published in the News of the World and the BBC quoted him as stating: “[A] welfare cheat is no different from someone who comes up and robs you in the street.”

Welfare fraud is without doubt a very serious issue, especially to a government trying to save money wherever they can. Such statements however, do no favours for a cabinet full of those who comfortably fall within the higher tax bracket and thus harbour a greater fear of their money being taken by those who they see as more undeserving than they.

The Chancellor’s remarks coincide with a range of new welfare reform measures, announced by Lord Freud. Yet when backed by a Government still desperately trying to crawl out from the particularly large rock of the expenses scandal that rocked the MP system, it doesn’t look all that sincere.

Further descriptions of benefit fraud as, “unacceptable and totally

immoral”, show a level of hypocrisy bordering on the absurd from someone who is estimated to have owed over £50,000 to the public purse after playing the system for his second home, in order to pay less capital gains tax.

Those whose moral credibility ran out when moat maintenance was claimed as an expense (presumably to keep the black knight at bay) must be very careful when issuing double standards for themselves and others, lest the tenuous connection between the Conservative party and the majority of the nation (“surely they can’t be any worse than that other party”) be severed.

The Government must be accountable to the same laws and policies that they introduce and the road to garnering the belief of the people lies through communication and building trust in those whose decisions affect people’s future, not grandiose hypocritical statements.

Tempus Fugit Mr. Cameron.

Debate 13

WesternEye 8.11.2010

UN’s Millenium own goal

> The UN’s Millenium Goals Programme is failing to relieve international poverty. Tobias Hoffarth asks if it has a future

Tobias Hoffarth comment@westerneye.net

I

n September the United Nations invited its members to talk about the progress of the Millennium Goals Programme. This programme was set up 10 years ago to reduce the suffering of the poor. It appears rather unlikely that all goals will be met by 2015.

Progress has not occurred as planned, and whilst helping the poor remains possible, it will require some sacrifices.

First of all, a long term solution that makes poor countries independent of rich countries requires a fair environment for universal economic growth. So far, this environment has not been established.

Most developing countries heavily rely on agriculture, whereas this sector only contributes insignificantly to the economies of developed countries. Farmers in the developing world are usually more competitive than their European counterparts. Still, they struggle to increase their income because European agriculture subsidies make fair market access impossible. The subsidies are supposed to preserve Europe’s farming tradition but it is questionable whether this justifies their adverse impact on the developing world.

In their book Fair Trade for All, Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton made an interesting proposal to establish a pro-poor global economy. They suggested that poorer countries should have preferential market access to richer countries. This would allow them to protect their economies, whereas they would still have free access to the markets of stronger economies.

Though, it is necessary to upgrade this idea because the

majority of today’s poor do not live in low income countries any more but in middle income countries.

Therefore, if a country does not translate an increased wealth in poverty reduction, it should lose its preferential treatment. Since the book’s publication in 2005, the idea has not received as much attention as it deserves. The most favourite nation principle is still applied in international trade, which means that all countries receive equal trade advantages.

To advance economic growth in developing countries, pro-poor policies should replace the most favourite nation principle.

Furthermore, development is obviously not only about economic growth but also about capacity building. Africa copes with 24 percent of global diseases but has only 3 percent of global health workers. Even if poor countries succeed in educating their population, often 40 percent and in some cases even up to 70 percent of students leave their country after graduation.

Nevertheless, it is possible to support capacity building. The UK’s Medical Training Initiative is a step in the right direction. It allows foreign health workers to come to Britain for up to two years and to receive training before they return to their home country.

Similarly, a recent report of the international development organisation VSO suggested to link development to the migration debate. Many people who have migrated to the UK are willing to return temporarily to work in their home country in order to facilitate a knowledge transfer. So far, existing migration law makes this difficult because migrants may lose their UK citizenship status.

Therefore, if health workers, engineers, scientists, lawyers or accountants decide to return temporarily to their home country to work there, they should be able to do so without threatening their citizenship status. Such a legislature change as well as programmes similar to the Medical Training Initiative would help to overcome the lack of qualified workers in the developing world.

Finally, the Millennium Goals are also concerned with environmental

Flags outside the UN headquarters, NYC

Misplaced optimism or realistic target? 2015 is getting close, and there is still a lot of work to do.

“Africa copes with 24% of the world’s disease, but has only 3 percent of global health workers”

sustainability. Nowadays, it is difficult to believe that national governments will ever seriously care about the environment.

The United Kingdom has just announced that it will allow further deep water drilling for oil. Also, Japan aims for energy independence and plans to drill for frozen methane gas off its southeast cost. In contrast, Ecuador intends to leave its oil in the ground. It offers to not exploit its oil resources, if the international community donates 50 percent of the potential revenue. This would reduce CO2 emissions, preserve the biodiversity in the Yasuni national park and allow Ecuador to become independent of oil.

Initially, many countries supported the initiative and promised to contribute. One of them was Germany, though the German government changed its mind and withdrew its support in September. Chile contributed to the fund but if most other countries follow the example of Germany, the Yasuni Initiative will fail. Ecuadorian President Correa made clear that he will not hesitate to start drilling because his country needs the income. The Yasuni Initiative is a revolutionary project; it combines preservation of the environment with development. If rich countries do not seize such opportunities to bring a change about, other countries will be unlikely to come up with similar ideas. Therefore, such initiatives merit support.

Otherwise, developing countries are not motivated to take similar approaches that align development to environmental sustainability.

All above discussed ideas have two things in common. On one hand, they have a huge potential for improving the life of millions of people in the developing world. On the other hand, all measures will certainly adversely affect the life of millions of people in rich countries.

Firstly, pro-poor economic measures will hinder economic growth in the developed world

and may reduce the prosperity of today’s rich. Secondly, if people from the developing world take part in the developed world’s labour force to gain some training, unemployment rates are likely to rise. Finally, accepting Ecuador’s offer, which some consider as blackmailing, will result in higher oil prices.

Yet, the number of people that experience severe poverty in poor countries clearly outweighs the amount of people that benefit from the status quo. As well, lifting millions of people above poverty totally improves their standard of living, whereas pro-poor policies will impose a relative low harm on developed countries. Consequently, whoever is serious about development should put pressure on their national government that policies help the poor and not only aim at increasing national prosperity.

Of course, other problems, such as ethnic tensions, inequality, authoritarianism and corruption, remain but support for poorer countries must be boosted now.

Disagree with what is written in these pages?

Got an opinion on anything; from the meaning of life to the meaning of Liff, a tiny village outside Dundee, you would like to share with the student body?

Get in touch: comment@ westerneye.net

14 Debate

WesternEye 8.11.2010

The right to reply

> UWE Vice-Chancellor responds to an article from last month

Steve West comment@westerneye.net

I

n the October 2010 edition of Western Eye, Rachel Ansell voiced her concerns about an event held by the European Law Students Association (ELSA) where students were given the chance to question me face-to-face.

I was disappointed I was unable to make this meeting due to being kept at a meeting at one of our partners, the Strategic Health Authority NHS. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rachel

routinely given the chance to meet with me, my senior team and the Governors. Students are wholly responsible for setting and driving each agenda.

On the occasion of this ELSA meeting I was delayed in my role as the Chair of a Strategic Health Authority appeal hearing meeting in Taunton and chose to use email to apologise for this and reply to the questions posed by students.

The questions were challenging and ranged from our commitment to human rights to the role of universities in the 21st century.

I echo the comments I made in the September 2010 edition of Western Eye to launch a ‘ViceChancellor’s question time’ in order to gain a deeper insight into students’ needs and concerns.

Circumstances don’t always allow me as Vice-Chancellor to get to certain meetings, but many will know me to be very committed to our students and their concerns.

Rachel – you are right to challenge me on this important aspect of student representation.

for raising the important issue of student representation at UWE and say how sorry I was to have let her down by the fact I was unable to attend this meeting.

I remain committed to open forum and will continue to meet with both students and staff to discuss any concerns they want to raise. Since taking up the post of VC, I have taken part in open meetings, site meetings, questions on Hub Radio and in Western Eye. Listening to students is a vital part of what we do here and I’m proud to say that we have had many successes.

At UWE, we have one of the largest systems of student representation with over 700 student reps. It is a system that makes my senior staff accountable to students at all times; this is something that is part of the UWE culture and that I am incredibly supportive of.

Students sit on the governing body, academic boards and our student representatives receive formal training and payment.

Two years ago, I set up a student forum with the Governors where student representatives are

There’s just one miner problem

> The rescue of the Chilean miners caused celebrations around the globe, but was the rescue turned into a made-for-TV advertising campaign? Comment Sub-Editor Vicki Ward investigates.

Vicki Ward comment@westerneye.net

A

how insensitive and somewhat immoral Pinera is. Last week that game happened. Pinera scored the winning goal.

It wasn’t just the government getting involved in gaining publicity from the rescue mission. After the miners were trapped for more than two months, brands and advertisers couldn’t wait to jump in on the chance of exposure to the whole world. Oakleys were the first brand to offer their ‘services’, providing the men with sunglasses.

These were supposedly just to protect the miners’ eyes from the UV light after being underground for so long. Don’t get me wrong, this is a generous offer by the company and necessary for the health and safety of the miners, but the value of the sunglasses sent came to roughly $6,300!

Surely this wasn’t necessary?

It was a shameless product placement by Oakleys, devaluing a joyous moment for the miners and their families. What could be next, Nike ticks on the helmets? The miners were also given patriotic shirts to wear as they came up from the ‘Phoenix’ rescue shaft.

It seems as though they were told to change underground to make them seem more presentable for the news teams and their families.

With this advertising pressure, it could be said that the real reason of the rescue was overshadowed by the imminent chance of exposure for large corporations.

The miners were, of course, relieved to be reunited with their

Testing the rescue tube

Photo: R. Mineros (CC)

couple of weeks ago, the media brought to our attention a flash of global joy as the rescue of the Chilean miners commenced. The 33 men were successfully brought from what can only be described as the hardest shift of their working life.

However, not all is what it seems.

Behind this miracle was a media and corporation frenzy.

Over 2000 journalists arrived at Camp Hope at the start of the rescue operation, leading us to question: when does a heart warming and moving story become a media circus? Ironically, the Chilean government even hired clowns to entertain the miners’ children whilst the rescue mission was being carried out! When the mine originally collapsed, no one in the media batted an eyelid. Only after confirmation of the survival of the miners after seventeen days people started to become interested. This sudden interest cost money and dominated world headlines. The rescue set the BBC back by over £100,000 for twenty six people to go and cover the story, and globally all news channels were covering the

rescue attempt through day and night, taking attention away from serious matters such as the war in Afghanistan.

The aftermath of the earthquake that happened in Chile on 27th February was soon forgotten about, as something supposedly more interesting had happened.

To emphasise this media mania, at the final rescue the journalists and cameramen were so desperate to get the money shot that they refused to move to let the family members get past to gather and celebrate. This media coverage eventually became beneficial to people other than the miners, who could see potential money making ideas from this media concentration.

Chile’s media-savvy Prime Minister, Sebastian Pinera took great advantage of this constant media coverage and began extracting every ounce of political advantage he could gain. He was at the marvellously named Camp Hope every step of the way, which is of course expected from the country’s leader, although basking in the glow of the miners’ rescue isn’t. Pinera was cashing in on the publicity the event was receiving, and also hoped to raise his popularity. At one point, Pinera ‘joked’ about how the miners would play a game of football against a team from the government and whoever wins will gain political power, and those who lose will be sent back down the mine. Now to me, this just shows

family members and friends at Camp Hope, although the second miner to be released, Mario Sepúlveda reacted a little differently. He came out, exuberant and embracing his new found ‘celebrity’ status. He led the crowd in cheers and rants, and embraced Prime Minister Pinera as soon as he reached the surface. With all the media attention and the behaviour of the man dubbed ‘Super Mario’, all that was missing was Davina McCall announcing the evictions of the miners as they came out one by one! All of the miners will undoubtedly receive ‘celebrity’ status as heroes and hold a place amongst the bravest men of their country, which to a certain degree they deserve.

Unfortunately, they have been

roped into the murky commercial world and ironically dragged into the ‘coffin’ of fame, which is built from offers of money, interviews and rights for a feature film.

What seems interesting is that these miners are now seen as national and possibly global heroes. What did they do to deserve this title? I mean sure, they survived 2,050 feet underground for almost seventy days, which deserves some recognition, but they’re not the real heroes in this situation. The heroes are those who dug, fed and planned the rescue operation.

Funnily enough, they’re not really receiving much recognition. This is a prime example of how the media have altered the idea and attitude of the rescue. Ideally, the workers and brains behind the rescue should be the ones getting recognised for the success, but they’re not the ones reaping the rewards.

Many people have been talking about how ‘phenomenal’ the rescue mission was, and to a certain extent I agree, but I didn’t know the miners personally so I can’t help but feel slightly cynical of the treatment they’ve been receiving.

It’s all slightly extreme really that these people have been given such media praise. The whole event has proven the amount of influence the media has over us as a society, all that’s left to see is how many pairs of $400 Oakleys get sold in the upcoming months.

Debate 15

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Sideswipe: Mail fail

> A satirical look at events in your worldsphere > This month: WesternEye gets its hands on The Daily Mail’s stories for next few months

Sam Butler comment@westerneye.net

M

issing British child, Madelaine McCann, is believed by many to have been snatched, to be trained as a banquet waitress, by a highly organised gang of asylum seekers who are also involved in a swan eating ring. The evil plot is said to be itself part of an elaborate scheme to lower house prices in Britain, in readiness for a mass exodus from Johnny Foreigner Land on the same date as Princess ‘Peoples’ Princess’ Diana’s birthday. Probably.

Top boffins who’ll say anything for column inches, have said that should the plan succeed, combined with the eating of all the Special, Sacred, Churchillian Royal Swans, it would leave many Britons questioning their national identity.

Many may even start to think that they are French or even Bulgarian or something. This can sometimes lead to cancer of the apostate.

Professional racist and general twat, Nick Griffin, of BNP fame, says that he is in no doubt that the gang behind Maddie’s

disappearance are “Probably not white, will support same sex marriage and more than likely follow one of those religions like Muslimism that I know fuck all about.”

The UK’s top bigot continued by stating that, should the British National Party ever be elected to power, he would bring back hanging for the offences of pacisfism and not supporting our brave boys. “It’s time we stood up to those who undermine our

society” said the toad-faced Question Time star.

Since Maddie’s disappearance in 2007, only one person has been seriously questioned who looked anything like a paedophile. Local man, Robert Murat, was later released after it became clear that he had nothing to do with the events in question. The spineless Portuguese locals then showed nauseating restraint, by failing to dish out some much needed mob justice. You can bet that if it had been one of their kids that had probably been taken by some swarthy Mediterranean type, they would have burned his house down in an orgy of misguided outrage quicker than you can say ‘lynched paediatrician’. Typically, it’s one rule for them and another for the rest of us. However, a bloke that your correspondent met in a pub toilet last weekend assured WesternEye that “There’s no smoke without fire. I’d have strung him up, just to be on the safe side.

You can’t be too careful with these nutters. I’d pull the lever myself, I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to kill someone.”

The search continues for the missing Royal Swans. In fact

resources have been diverted from the McCann case to track them down, following our campaign, as HRH fancies one for Christmas dinner. But those evil, twisted, bogus aslyum seekers seem intent on filching them all for their own ends. “It’s the thin end of the wedge” said ardent ‘Keep Britain White’ activist and keen Jobseeker’s Allowance recipient, Colin Pillock. “I was born in this country and haven’t had a job for nine years. If anyone should be at the front of the queue for abducting British children and killing swans it should be people like me, not foreigns. It were the swans that won us the war weren’t it?”

It now seems clear that the scope of this problem has managed to include nearly every fatuous and inflammatory topic that sells papers to the easily riled and malcontent masses. Where reports of swan eating or sightings of Maddie with some unsavoury ethnic type will spring up next is any one’s guess; most likely when it’s raining and none of us can be arsed to leave the office to do some real journalism.

20 things that give you cancer...according to the Mail 1. Facebook 2. Wine 3. A cold 4. Deoderant 5. Chips 6. Oral sex 7. Burgers and sausages 8. Soup 9. Hair Dye 10. Mouthwash 11. Suncream 12. Pringles and hulahoops 13. X-Rays 14. Talcum powder 15. Moisturisers 16. Mobile phones 17. Soup 18. Red meat 19. Being white 20. Being black 21. WesternEye?

Comments expressed in these pages reflect the opinion of the authors themselves, and are not necessarily representative of the views of WesternEye

Sequins, privy counsellors and headspins > Donde el Amor is back. This month he turns his Mexican eyes towards Strictly Come Dancing. God help them.

Donde el Amor comment@westerneye.net

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late, and with a slightly stale odour. Now look about. Can you see me? There I am. I’m looking at you. I’m looking at you because you watch Strictly Come Dancing.

This isn’t a look of pity either. It’s a look of shame. Now look back at the article.

You dirty, dirty little pervert.

What are you doing? Strictly is for the elderly. If I was a real person, and not the result of a Mexican fertility clinic accident, I’d have grandparents. They would watch Strictly. They would ride the bus alone. They would smell like cold Bovril and despair. They would be like you.

Sequins, sequins and more sequins.

Photo: Jay Bannerjee (CC)

acebook’s good isn’t it?

Aside from the obvious uses (communicating, looking at pictures of your ex-girlfriend in a bikini before sobbing into your pillow, and uploading photos of your passed out housemate caked in condescend soup), it’s also a great social barometer.

Forget Twatter, with the perverse online stalking undertones, Facebook polling is where it’s at.

Using Facebook, I can actually deduce what people are watching on the magic glass box in the corner of their living rooms.

This week, as ever, it was the X-Factor.

Fortunately for you, I’ve spent most of my life preaching about the evils of the X-Factor.

Picking on Cowell & co is like mercilessly ripping into the bespectacled, fat, ginger child at school. Yes it’s satisfying, it scratches an itch, everyone gets a bit of a (sometimes literal) kick out of it, but ultimately, it’s futile. It’s like clipping a dove’s wings with a

stapler, then prodding it with a biro until it bleeds pathetically to death with a strangled whimper. There’s simply no challenge in it.

Not to be deterred I had a status sift. And look what I found.

That’s right, more photos of my ex-girlfriend in a bikini, some of you are harbouring a deep, dark secret.

Actually, it’s not a secret, you’ve posted it on Facebook, but it should be a secret.

Some of you like watching Strictly Come Dancing. Don’t you? I can see you. There you are, on the bus.

The bus that now symbolises you.

Cold, damp, alone, perennially

Now, I’ve come to realise over the years that ranting about something you haven’t seen can often lead to uncomfortable situations. So I watched it.

Cajoling my housemate into tying me to the armchair, and subsequently ignoring any cries for help, I settled down this weekend, and watched an episode.

I’m glad my hand were tied up. I quite like my eyes. They’re useful, you know, for seeing stuff, undressing my ex-girlfriend when I see her in a bikini and glaring at people like you on the bus.

Likewise my ears. Although they’re less proficient at the bikini part. Unfortunately, the sight of scrotum-faced-former-card-flipperturned-professional-coffin-dodger Bruce Forsyth prancing about on stage amongst a crowd of people I’ve not heard of, before they teeter off backstage to be met by Tess “dead-behind-the-eyes” Daly made me want to tear my eyes out.

With a soup spoon.

Can you imagine how much mess that would cause? It’s not even remotely the right shape or size for the job.

Luckily, the cutlery draw isn’t within reach of our sofa, so I soldiered on, having asked a passing house mate to hold my eyes open with surgical tape.

For those of you who don’t know, “Strictly” lasts an hour. That’s longer than it takes to stab a recently flightless dove to death with a biro. And it’s less fun.

It’s TV of the worst kind. Forget the exploitation of Big Brother, or the cringe worthy nature of

anything that Ant & Dec are involved in, it’s just truly terrible.

There are sequins. There are men in sequins. Where did all the real men go? Why are these men wearing lycra? Good God… is that Peter Shilton? England’s second greatest keeper ever? Is he wearing lycra? No. Please no Peter.

I grimaced for an hour. Still at least they haven’t got Ann Widecome on it, that would be nasty.

Oh Christ…that’s Ann Widecome.

Dancing in sequins. Ladies, if you want to chemically castrate your gents in the near future, show them this. It’s on iPlayer for a month. Gents, be good for a month.

Short of digging up Mo Molam and getting her to do head spins to the theme tune for the musical Hair, I can think of nothing that is in worse taste than Ann Widecome dancing.

She’s a Privy Counsellor for Christ’s sake. At what point in history was doing the cha-cha in the remit of being a Privy Counsellor? Do your job, you publicity seeking, diet avoiding waste of space. Or just die.

Once it was all over, and my housemate had hidden all of our spoons, doves & biros I began to calm down slightly. On reflection, maybe it wasn’t all that bad. I mean…

No wait. It was. Stop watching it. Now. Stop it. Stop it. Look up again. Look out the bus window.

See that dove? If you keep watching, I’m going to kill it.

Comment;feature

U+WE future+focus = VC+employers-students-lecturers-?

> Reviews, restructures and slogans: what exactly is going on at UWE? > A PhD student voices his opinion on a confused student climate, a peturbed staff union and the air of uneasiness...

Benoît Dutilleul uwe.better,together@gmail.com very person who comes to UWE, and even more so you and I who study or work here, are bombarded by University marketing: mottoes such as ‘U+WE’ and ‘Better together’, the use of ‘+’ to connect two words (‘hello+welcome’, ‘helping+hands’, ‘real+dynamic’, ‘future+focus’, ‘people+planet’, ‘uwe+bristol’, ‘power+ideas’, ‘Bert+Jules’, etc.) or the omnipresent splashes of bright red. Such signs are increasingly sprinkled and spread everywhere and on everything: on UWE’s walls, at receptions where newcomers inevitably end up, on official prints, newsletters and email signatures, on UWE’s website, buses, presentations, in speeches by UWE managers, behind official pictures and in videos of UWE employees, on t-shirts of student ambassadors and student guides, on our badges, or on the desktop and screensaver of University computers.

“Better together” is the title of the University’s own awards, and the name of a charitable fund to help UWE students facing financial hardships. In order to clear space for this new brand, UWE’s marketing has requested faculties, departments and centres to stop using their existing promotion and communication tools. This uniform is part of what Steve West - UWE’s ViceChancellor - refers to as the ‘One University’ ethos/spirit. But what does ‘U+WE’, ‘Better together’ or ‘One University’ mean for him and for his small and closed group of advisors who make the decisions, and are currently rolling out a broad and deep restructure? And what does UWE’s current shift mean for the lecturers, workers and students who actually make up the University’s community? How do unfolding changes at UWE relate to larger political trends?

And are we prepared to just wait and see what happens, as our University and the world spins along its current trajectory?

a new level. On this occasion, Nick Wilson, Managing Director of HP UK&I said: “this ground breaking initiative moves our relationship (...) to a deep and intimate partnership with the potential to deliver real outcomes for both HP, the University and, most importantly, for graduates so that we can ultimately offer them better prospects”. We may smile at Nick’s romanticism, but this corporation and our university are literally cohabiting at Frenchay and the couple are long passed the flirting stage. In the same news, UWE reports that “HP has also been appointed as the University’s strategic ICT partner to help develop a program of ICT transformation that will enhance both the student experience and teaching excellence at UWE”. What is going on seems quite clear, at least in this specific case. On the one hand, HP make deals with UWE and grow even larger markets of ready-to-use graduates to pick from for its ‘consumption’.

On the other hand, our ViceChancellor (also a self-declared CEO) can be pictured shaking hands with another ‘real’ CEO, the message being: UWE is proactive at upholding its relatively good Photo: Ellie Kynaston

E

U

WE’s ‘Better Together’ webpage gives a sense of what is officially meant by this expression. Accordingly, U+WE primarily means making partnerships between UWE (‘we’) and employers (‘you’), which UWE state are for the benefit of students, trying to extend the student experience outside the confines of the University.

The most recently celebrated of such partnerships binds UWE and the multinational HewlettPackard (HP), a relationship that has recently been brought to

Anti-Cuts Alliance protestor graduates’ employability scores. UWE=VC+employers...

The other side of the employability story has to do with students as potential employees.

Employability is seemingly the primary aim of the Graduate Development Programme, though UWE argue that it is also to help students settle into their studies and succeed, and the University

is now being streamlined to further intensify this orientation.

But here is where the first source of anxiety appears from a student perspective. Should UWE management shake up its employability scores (better than other UK universities, with a 4% rise in graduate employment compared with a national 20% fall) when unemployment is expected to rise massively as a result of governmental cuts? Indeed, it is not only analysts who expect that the spending review will directly destroy half a million public jobs, slow down the country’s economy and have ‘indirectly’ a dire impact on employment in the private sector. Veronica Siobhan O’Hara, a psychology third year, has taken part in UWE’s ‘Aim higher’ partnership whereby students visit disadvantaged schools to encourage their pupils to aim for University. Referring to such trends, as well as the prospects of doubled tuition fees, she worries for not just for herself but also the kids she meets through this outreach programme: “Am I giving them a sense of false hope? Is this almost cruel?”

Veronica points to another broadly shared concern of students. On the 13th of October, one day after the publication of the Browne review, Mr. West’s comment on ITV was to welcome a recommendation to double the cap on tuition fees (though in a BBC interview he did say that the Comprehensive Spending Review was not pleasing, and that public funding should be available to universities). On ITV he described management’s plans in mechanical terms: tuition fees need to increase as much as public funding decreases. Never mind the students. Since UK universities could not accommodate 180,000 applicants this year, demand for Higher Education is so much greater than capacity that UWE, like other universities, can almost do anything they want. As far as Mr. West is concerned, if this recommendation is adopted, he confirmed in the same interview that UWE will double its tuition fees. While this may soon impact current UWE students, this is even more worrying in the long run.

If those plans are enforced only students able to pay or willing to contract massive debts will get higher education. Gail Wilson, Vice-President of UWE’s Student Union (UWESU), notes the blatant injustice of that: “It’s ridiculous that those people who went to uni for free now decide that we pay out!”

T

he last main source of uneasiness for students arises from a diffuse sense that things have already gotten worse at UWE

since last year, and that they are likely to get even worse! Yazan Abu Jbara, a student of English as a Foreign Language and Spanish, links this to lecturers’ anxieties resulting from the ongoing restructuring process passing on to students. According to him, “even though [lecturers] are professional and they are doing their best, the fear [of losing their job] is affecting their performance in the classroom”. Both Veronica and Yazan noticed that face-to-face contact time with lecturers has declined and that interactions now increasingly take place through Blackboard. “That’s not very consistent with a university that prides itself on ‘Better Together’!”, says Veronica. The impressions of those two students are more broadly shared, but Keith Hicks, UWE Director of Marketing and

“Am I giving them a sense of false hope? Is this almost cruel?”

Communication, argues rather that Blackboard is an extra addition to teaching time, not a replacement.

Two weeks ago, founders of the group “UWE students against the cuts” mobilised for a first student anti-cut rally with posters entitled: “No to UWEworsity”. This is not anecdotal. UWESU is still compiling a comprehensive analysis of students’ overall satisfaction but Gail Wilson says that there are “many more issues” than last year. She adds: “I don’t see how the University can guarantee or maintain the current student experience with the changes that are happening”. According to her, the restructure “will affect different students differently”, thus also directly contradicting Mr. West’s ‘One University’ ethos.

Students are given little information to make sense of what is going on and to put UWE’s restructure in perspective. On such crucial questions most students can only rely on vague individual feelings. To understand what may happen to UWE, we must turn to people who have been observing such trends and who have a more comprehensive analysis of how UWE works.

Peter Broks, Senior Lecturer in Popular Science at UWE and Vice-chair of UWE’s branch of the University and College Union (UCU) (representing university and college staff) points out that, according to the latest Guardian

league tables, UWE is the 2nd university in the UK when it comes to “value added” even though it is 88th in terms of expenditure per student and 81st in terms of student/staff ratio, roughly in the middle of the table. Mr. Hicks states that the Higher Education Statistics Agency does not take in to account expenditure on guest and visiting lecturers, but Mr. Broks argues that nor does the Guardian’s league table.

“Value added” is the difference that a university makes in terms of students doing better than would be expected from their A level grades. Simply put, it means that UWE is the place to be if you want to learn a lot, and since classes sizes are already big and the university spends relatively little per student, it is seemingly because lecturers do relatively a much better job than at other universities, a point on which UWE and UCU agree.

According to UCU that will no longer be possible if, as an outcome of the restructure, class sizes increase, contact time between lecturers and students is reduced, communication is shifted from face-to-face to digital interactions through (HP) computers and Blackboard webpages. UWE maintain that the restructure is designed to protect class sizes and increase contact time, but Mr. Broks is sceptical: “In some subject areas contact time will go down and class sizes up, especially those that are moving from St. Matts to Frenchay. I do believe they are tying to protect the student experience, but the point is to save money.” The situation will also worsen through further staff demotivation if lecturers are forced into lower grades, if time and money allocated for the research they are passionate about is drastically shrunk, or if they are given no other alternative than to take a position inadequate with their qualifications, expertise or interests. The University is creating 40 new H grade teaching posts which arguably puts the emphasis on teaching posts, but UCU believe these posts will be filled by demoted and demoralised ex-senior staff. This will then filter down if or when lower grade teaching posts are reviewed.

For the time being, the situation will also keep decaying as long as all lecturers and staff fear for their jobs.

To summarise the situation from students’ standpoint: UWE is turning from a university into a job-training centre; quality of education, though NSS scores had improved until 2009, has started to worsen, and that’s only the beginning of what’s to come, while the cost of studies is going to double! UWE=VC+employersstudents...

17 Comment feature

WesternEye 8.11.2010 Reviews, restructures and slogans: what exactly is going on at UWE?

then that fiscal crisis was on the agenda and that things needed to change.” However, UCU has kept asking management for an analysis of the restructure’s costs but management doesn’t produce anything more than a figure corresponding to the cost of the change management project. Mr. Broks says that this figure largely underestimates the real cost of the restructure: it is “incomplete because it only gives management costs from August/September this year, it does not include other staff costs, nor indeed any other costs at all. For example, the staff time spent on having to re-apply for your own job is not included.

Nearly 300 senior academic staff

the UWE community. A bit like a shiny lollipop; red, attractive and synthetic, with a nasty aftertaste, just like UWE’s logo. The thing is that it’s not just about what management restructures but also how it does it. For example, early in August, 332 I and J grade academics received a letter announcing that their current job was gone and that they would have to re-apply for a new job and role in the (still largely unknown) structure. This must have put a dampener on their summer break!

No wonder why they are getting cynical about management’s ‘better together’ rhetoric when they still know next to nothing about the details of the new structure; whether they have a Activities President Terry Atkinson with students at the chance to be part of it, how it will Anti-Cuts Alliance demo, 23rd October affect their career, or whether they should just abandon the wrecking ship and just focus on finding a job elsewhere. And guess what? Management also claims that the restructure will increase transparency and accountability, because the workload model is transparent and department heads will be held responsible for delivery students. This remains to be seen.

UWE’s increased focus on employability is part of a much older story, and follows the recommendations of a report that was published in 2007 (Burgess Group Final Report). The Spending each spending at least a week to Review and the Browne Review threatening their livelihoods and prepare applications to keep their are part of a much older story of their careers. The second major jobs, that’s not cheap, but this is privatisation of universities in the change process is the so-called regarded as “business as usual” by UK and in the world. But what is “workload model”, increasing management and so has not been the common thread of this story? employees’ workload and leading included in the costings.”

Guardian columnist and author UWE not to re-employ many Hourly George Monbiot argues that the Paid Lecturers (HPLs). This is financial crisis has been used as what increases our lecturers’ work o what is going on? Mr. West an opportunity to push through pressure, and this is noticed by is restructuring, but the massive and understandingly students.

Browne report (tuition fees) or the unpopular neoliberal reforms It is difficult to have an accurate Spending Review (cuts) do not while shrinking or simply killing idea of the extent of the damage. seem to be the reason for that. He funding for much needed social In fact, UCU has apparently has said he wants to prepare UWE had some difficulty making for big changes in higher education or ecological efforts. He thinks this is a case of Naomi Klein’s estimations; even staff have been funding, but he doesn’t seem to left relatively in the dark about be saving any money. He says UWE “disaster capitalism”: a case when governments use a disaster to what’s going on. Mr. Broks says: needs to be more efficient but he advance capitalism even further.

“The only figures we have show There is a lot of substantial that the model systematically evidence that this is happening. underestimates the amount of The plan to double tuition fees work that academic staff do across means, if it goes through, that the University by about 8 to 9%. capitalism will have conquered Management have reassured us twice the amount of a graduates’ that the figure is closer to 5%, life, since students will have but even a 5% error would be to work twice longer to refund unacceptable. If the model has a their studies. The increased built-in 5% inaccuracy then that is focus on employers (who already roughly the equivalent of trying to consume graduates and contribute add up all the departments and financially next to nothing to their missing out all the work done in a training, except what they can whole department. Systematically benefit from) is another example. underestimating work by 5% is The way UWE’s workers are treated the same as asking every member as interchangeable or expandable of staff to do an extra two weeks commodities is yet another. And unpaid work. Of course, that’s our university itself already looks unacceptable.” UWE has queried even more like a business, since the accuracy of these figures, but it shifted from a more facultyMr. Broks maintains that they are based power structure to a more correct. business-like single pyramidal More interestingly, the hierarchy. In fact, as I previously restructure started early in 2009, way before the cuts and the increased the number of managers said, Steve West even added ‘CEO’ to his title! doubling of tuition fees were hot from 63 to 72. What is going on?

Our Vice-Chancellor and his on the national political agenda.

UWE marketers think that clique of change managers are The restructure is now justified the slogan ‘U+WE / Better only pawns on a much larger with a rhetoric assuming that such Together’ works as ‘internal political chessboard. But if we changes are necessary to make rallying call’. However, based on think of them as pawns, we may savings, to be more cost-efficient the conversations I’ve had with ask: what game are they playing so that ultimately the country’s students and staff, my impression and for whom? Vice-Chancellors debt and deficits can be reduced. is that such sentences have an Mr. Hicks argues: “To anybody in insipid and increasingly bitter taste and Universities across the UK are all concerned about the changes universities it was obvious back for people actually making up Photo: Ellie Kynaston

Meanwhile, lecturers are stressed out, overworked and often forced into what they perceive to be much less interesting jobs. UWE=VC+employersstudents-lecturers...

But what is the restructure about in the first place? There are currently two main changes taking place. On the one hand, there is the restructure of management roles, including the amalgamation of five faculties into four. That is the process that requires what has been described as the ‘firing and re-hiring’ of Professors and Readers, as well as the entire layer of lower management teams.

That is what, understandingly, has stressed out UWE’s workers;

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If the model has a built-in 5% inaccuracy then that is roughly the equivalent of trying to add up all the departments and missing out a whole department.

that are taking place at national level, but at university level, they react differently and adopt different strategies. For example, Professor Michael Arthur, ViceChancellor of the University of Leeds publicly spoke out against the cuts. Southampton Solent University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr Mike Wilkinson publicly criticised the recommendation to increase tuition fees and said it would have an adverse effect on social justice. At UWE, though, Mr. West is proud to say that he anticipated the cuts and states to journalists that though he thinks Higher Education should be publically funded, if it cannot he welcomes increased tuition fees. Mr. West believes there to be no alternative, but this seems a little defeatist. Do UWE management conceive education

“Together, we begin to change how people think and how people work.” as a public good or as a private benefit that students need to pay for?

Moreover, even though management repeats that we are all in this together, and that we are “better together”, it is worth noting again that there are some contradictions between speeches and acts. Even though all the ‘most expensive’ workers at UWE have to reapply for new jobs that are likely to be lower, thus cheaper for UWE, there have been no talks of cutting UWE’s highest salary (Mr. West’s was £224,583 in 2008/2009 not including incomes from his Clinical Consultancy). Mr. West likes to talk of equity but he’s paid several times more than Professors on average, though not as much as some other VCs, and it is unclear whether he was subjected to the same “firing and re-hiring” procedures he is imposing on his staff. Management talks about increased transparency but neither UCU, nor most faculties and even less so UWESU and we students have information about what is happening. Mr. Hicks argues that students and representatives have been invited to meetings about restructuring proposals, and that UCU and SRC President Colin Offler sit on the board of governors, but this is unfortunately not information that filters down to the student body or UCU members effectively.

Mr. West did give an interview to WesternEye in the first issue of the year, but he failed to give any specific reference to this massive restructuring program taking place. Thus, there is definitely a university-level dimension to the forthcoming struggle, even though there is also the need for a crosssectorial and national resistance to the government’s attack on the public sector and on people living in the UK. The Spending Review’s

damage to Higher Education is £4bn: next to nothing compared to the overall £81bn cuts planned for this shock therapy.

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here is one last enormous contradiction between UWE’s rhetoric and reality I think is important to point out. In UWE’s ‘better together’ videoclip, Mr. West opens the show by saying: “One of the things that makes us very different as a university is the way in which we work in partnership with a whole variety of different organisations. That allows us to work very closely with employers, to really understand what it is they are looking for from graduates, and what it is they are looking for in terms of research answers to real world questions. Together, we begin to change how people think and how people work.” Immediately after him, professors and lecturers talk about sustainability and these “really big issues” that UWE is contributing to solve. Indeed, as most natural scientists whose research relates to ecological issues warn us, the Earth’s climate and her ecosystems are in a dire and rapidly worsening state.

However, as social scientists who have focused on such big issues have also long shown, the ecological crisis, like all the other major problems we are facing, are not so much technological and economical as a political, sociological and cultural.

To get a grasp of this, it is really worth taking a moment to read some relevant contemporary social science. How, then, can UWE graduates and researchers tackle effectively such broad and complex problems if, as Mr. West says, UWE “begin[s] to change how [we] think and how [we] work” in a manner that focuses everybody on employability, if humanities and social sciences teaching and research are slashed so that Universities hardly value anything else than what serves the economy, and if Universities become driven by competition and consumer-students?

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o wonder why there is a sense of misunderstanding, confusion, panic, anger or even rage building up at UWE, in universities, in the public sector, in the country and beyond. No wonder also why many people start connecting the dots, increasingly organising and taking action on these issues. At UWE, people generally still seem to feel isolated and disempowered but some also start to be more explicit about their views, students and lecturers talk to each other about this, information starts flowing, and networks slowly link-up.

Outside UWE many new people are also getting involved and active. So if you don’t want this gloomy future to happen, now is the time to give whatever you’ve got!

Join the Facebook group: “UWE students against the cuts” or email (uwe.better.together@gmail.com) to be informed and involved with future activities. And hurry up to book your £5 bus ticket for the anti-cut Demo in London on the 10/11/10. Better in this together!

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Features 19

WesternEye 8.11.2010

The body beautiful

Is unrealistic media representation bad for you health?

> So-called ‘ideal’ body image perpetrated by the media often linked to self esteem issues > Photoshoot organised by UWE psychologists from Centre of Appearance Research aims to change conceptions

“Research consistently shows that when young men and women are exposed to idealised images of muscular and thin models they often feel worse about their own bodies.”

Photo: Isabelle Pullen

Steven Maguire features@westerneye.net

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he relationship between body image and the media has become widely debated in recent years with an increasing number of people arguing for the use of more realistic images. Fears over issues such as self esteem and eating disorders have made this a real concern for many. One of those investigating this question is Nicole Paraskeva from the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) based at the University of the West of England.

Nicole was first introduced to the study of body image during a work placement at CAR whilst studying for her masters in Health Psychology at the University of Bath. Now working at the centre as a research assistant for Philippa Diedrichs, a specialist in the study of body image, Nicole is involved in an upcoming photo shoot to help raise awareness of an issue which affects a great number of people. Situated within the School of Life Sciences here at UWE the researchers at CAR specialise in this type of study, aiming to raise awareness of the issue of body image and further understand its potential psychological affects.

The fashion shoot is to boost awareness of the issue and further aid CAR with its research into the matter. Calling for models of all shapes and sizes Nicole told WesternEye that they are particularly interested in women “sizes 16 plus”, and “men of a muscular and larger build” aged between eighteen and twenty seven. The pictures from this shoot

are to be primarily used for both research and publicity to illustrate the variety found in beauty and appearance and may also be used for future research by CAR. The event is to raise awareness of an increasingly important issue in society and the media, wherein the representation of ‘beauty’ or the ideal body has become narrowed to only include certain body types. When asked about the affects of this phenomenon Nicole said “Research consistently shows that when young men and women are exposed to idealised images of muscular and thin models they often feel worse about their own bodies”. She went on to say that research has also found that “exposure to ultra-thin and ultra-muscular models in the media is associated with negative body image, poor self esteem and disordered eating and exercising behaviours”. Hopefully research carried out by institutions such as CAR and events like this fashion shoot will help to show those affected by low self esteem and eating disorders the diversity of beauty amongst both men and women, and help to raise awareness of this growing issue.

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ften when we think about eating disorders and body image we assume it is something which only affects women.

Recently though it has become apparent that men too are equally affected by the unrealistic portrayal of the male form in the media and are increasingly

comparing themselves to these ‘ideal’ images. Nicole said on the subject: “with the increasing rate of body image disturbance among men more research has been generated which examines body image, the media and men”. While women are portrayed as skinny or thin, men are more typically shown as muscular and toned, images which are often unattainable by those aspiring to this unrealistic image of beauty. While eating disorders are the most commonly associated consequence of poor body image both men and women are increasingly turning to the gym to ‘improve’ their physical appearance. They push their bodies to breaking point in the seemingly endless pursuit of perfection; chasing the idealised image of size zero figures and bulging biceps. While fitness is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, the pressure generated by media representation of beauty can lead to a past time becoming an obsession. Hours spent on treadmills or lifting huge amounts of weight can ultimately be harmful and do long lasting, sometimes irreversible damage to the body.

Further reinforcing the unrealistic portrayals of beauty is the increasing use of digital techniques (such as airbrushing) to ensure a completely flawless image. Not simply used to remove skin blemishes and stray hairs, airbrushing can completely alter a models shape and size creating a truly unattainable image of beauty. Digital alteration has become an area generating particular controversy in recent years; advertisers advocate its importance to sell products and

services, while others fear that this phenomenon is creating unrealistic images of beauty which individuals may futilely try to emulate. While it is hard enough to be confronted with images of super thin or muscular models in the media, airbrushing those images further widens the void between the image and reality.

It is this unrealistic imagery which is the largest cause for concern. Some people, when unable to achieve what they consider to be the ideal body image, begin to suffer with self esteem issues and can sometimes develop eating disorders. The debate continues then as to whether this is simply an exercise in selling products, or something much more harmful to those confronted with the imagery.

Nicole is hopeful that their photo shoot will help to both “promote an environment in which diversity in appearance is valued” and also provide vital materials to allow CAR to further study this area in the future. While much controversy remains in this area, it is certainly something that merits further study.

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he event is being organised in association with Picador Design, a Bristol based company known for cutting edge design and target specific campaigns. In the past Picador have produced literature for a number of organisations involved with eating disorders, such as Anorexia Bulimia care. These leaflets have an optimistic feel and focus on those recovering from the illness.

Picador is also responsible for a range called ‘ABC Booklets’ which cover aspects of eating disorders and give practical advice for sufferers. This brand also includes a booklet called ‘tbh’, aimed specifically at a younger audience and coupled with a blog site. Picador, then, seem ideally placed to aid CAR with its fast approaching fashion shoot and further raise awareness into what has become an increasing issue in recent years.

If you are interested in getting involved with the shoot, Nicole and her associates at CAR are still recruiting models. Simply email Ruth at Picador with a clear, up to date image of yourself as well as details of height and dress size. Send these details to ruth@ picadordesign.co.uk and she will be able to give further details of the shoot for which a £60 fee is being offered to participants, along with free hair and makeup and a digital copy of your pictures. I myself have volunteered to model for the day so will hopefully see some of you there.

Want to write a Feature? editor@ westerneye.net

20 Features

WesternEye 8.11.2010 An unlikely new summer hot spot...

North Korean holidays

> Secretive ‘rogue’ state begins discussions of cross-border tourism: is this the start of a new era?

Alec Herron features@westerneye.net

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ast month, North Korea, known for its secret and evasive nature, has urged neighboring South Korea to agree upon establishing a working dialogue between the two nations over cross-border tourism projects.

With independent travel not permitted in North Korea, the financial benefits of such tour and travel packages are sizeable for both sides of the heavily-militarily enforced border. However South Korean officials believe that such opening of negotiations may apply pressure upon capital Seoul to engage in further exchanges with their northerly communist neighbour.

Discussions between the two nations may have taken a step closer to commencing last month.

Communication between North and South Korean airports opened up once again for the first time since the North was accused of torpedoing a South Korean war ship on March 26th this year, claiming the lives of 46 sailors on board. While the North still wholly denies this, North Korean missiles were found at the scene of the ships submergence.

Until 2008, guided tours of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and its surrounding area brought in millions of pounds each year for the dictator-led country. However, the activities were suspended indefinitely in 2008, following the murder of a South Korean tourist at the hands of a North Korean soldier.

The man supposedly wandered into an off-limits zone near the border line between the two states, which have been in place since the former Japanese occupation resided, and the country was split into two.

It would seem the North has sounded its intention to welcome in tourists from all corners of the globe, even the United States (though they will of course be informed of how evil their government really is). So, will we soon be able to add the world’s most unrevealing state to the long list of bargain-bin Ryanair trips?

Alongside current favourites such as: red-faced stag weekends in Benidorm, ‘cultural’ visits to Amsterdam, Dublin for the ‘craic’ or even a few days in Krakow for the vodka, and Auschwitz and that.

What should we expect if boss Michael O’Leary begins to offer us £1 return flight tickets (no tax, but an unfortunate, yet very necessary, £10 card charge) from Bradford International to Pyongyang Sunan International?

Photo: Kok Leng Yeo (CC)

“Wherever you happen to conveniently stop en route to the next carefully matriculated destination, there appears to have gathered large groups of ordinary citizens singing and dancing to traditional North Korean music”

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ell upon arrival to the country, guests can expect to be greeted by a very enthusiastic, friendly tour ‘government minder’, who will remain by your side for the duration of your stay.

Upon ascertaining confidence amongst the minders that you are not a foreign journalist, you will then be politely requested to hand over your mobile phone and passport, which will be looked after for you until you leave.

Almost straight away the minders, with straight faces, will begin to open your eyes to the true facts about North Korea. The people are much happier than most of the world’s population and North Korea is a lot more advanced than may have been wrongly purveyed by the outside world’s mass media.

When current leader of the one party system’s ruling Worker’s Party; Kim Jung-Il was born, a double rainbow appeared in the sky, alongside new stars that had never been seen before, and that the whole extra-astrological ordeal was foretold…by a swallow no less.

Indeed, the Korean Civil War between Northern and Southern forces following the end of World War II and Japanese occupation, was begun by the sworn enemy of the North Korean people, the US imperialist aggressors, who only wished to drain the country of its great wealth and culture...despite overwhelming historical evidence attesting that the conflict in fact began following North Korean advances into the South.

Visitors are driven along wide, eerily empty roads to a perfect, self-sustaining North Korean farm, supposedly typical of all North Korean farms ever since the now deceased Kim Il-Sung, whose apotheosis sees him, remain in the position of President to this day nearly 17 years after his death.

The images of vast famine in North Korea that shocked the world during the 1990’s and reportedly claimed up to 3 million lives, no longer exists, yet don’t ask to see other such farms, there just is not enough time.

Wherever you happen to conveniently stop en route to the next carefully matriculated destination, there appears to have gathered large groups of ordinary citizens singing and dancing to traditional North Korean music (some of which just so happens to sound like western hits with Korean lyrics) in praise of the great, benevolent Fatherly Leader.

When you reach the city, you can use the underground metro system, which lies over 100 metres below street level, and doubles up as a nuclear bunker. Each station holds an inspiring name such as ‘War Victory’, ‘Revival’ and ‘Triumph’. In the capital, you are kindly expected to buy a wreath of flowers to lay at the feet of a 132 foot tall, bronze statue of Kim Il-Sung, honouring his many superhuman achievements. These include writing nearly all the books available to buy in North Korea.

Those that he didn’t write were written about him or his son and current ruler, Kim Jung-Il, the Dear

Leader.

Other mandatory stops on the completely inflexible tour include; a full meal in a typical North Korean restaurant, in which you are the only customer, yet all the table places of the large dining hall are piled high with readily available, hearty North Korean delicacies. Dinner could maybe be preceded by that age-old North Korean sport of golf, on an 18-hole course which, legend has it - and in this case, legend is always hard fact to be learnt through class repetition from as early an age possible, the Fatherly Leader himself often completed in just 18 shots (or less I say).

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trangely enough, gaining entrance to the country also know as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the past has been almost enticingly easy. Simply use Google search and you will find numerous travel agents offering visa advice and tour packages across the border.

None offer prices to compete with a beer-guzzling getaway to Prague for the weekend.

As for now, entrance to the country is off limits from the south, and near impossible from neighbouring China to the north.

Although the official DPRK website encourages that visitors to the country will be able to “experience North Korea outside of the tourist trail and have interaction with North Korean citizens first hand”, I believe there is a fair few years left until Pyongyang becomes the Marbella of the east.

Features 21

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Interview: Example

> British rapper talks to WesternEye about drinking games, illegal downloading and frying food on toasters...

Eleanor Roper features@westerneye.net

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lliott Gleave, better known to music lovers as ‘Example’ has had a busy year to say the least, having spent the summer on the festival circuit Elliott is coming to the end of a fourteen date sell-out tour of the UK promoting his album ‘Won’t go quietly. The highlights?

“Bestival, V Festival, T in the Park and Leeds the other night on this tour was pretty rago.”

With the tour behind him Elliott is looking ahead to working on a third album. “I’m in the studio everyday that I’m not on tour, and then in December I’m supporting Faithless.” Once the Faithless tour is in the bag Elliott is heading to South Africa, Australia and then finally to LA before making a start on another UK tour in February of next year; “We don’t mess about do we” he says with a smirk.

Having tried his hand at rapping, poetry, stand-up comedy and even landscape gardening, Elliott is likely to be staying in this line of work for a while, following the chart success of the singles ‘Won’t go quietly’ and ‘Kickstarts’ and with the album reaching number four in the album charts.

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tudents generally have a bad reputation for illegally downloading music, so what does he make of it? “It’s a double edged sword really because when you have illegal downloads it kind of helps get your music out there in one way, the thing that people have to remember though is that it’s not artists being greedy but to make an album, to produce it, to engineer it, to master it, to promote it, to do your music videos, all of that costs a lot

“...sometimes the toaster pops up and you’ve got f**king sizzling fat everywhere.”

of money, you know thousands and thousands of pounds, some people can spend £20,000 on one song, or £70,000 on a marketing campaign for an album, so when you take into account all of the costs, if people don’t pay you for music legally then artists are left generally out of pocket. Some people would say, oh that’s being greedy but no one else goes to work for free, if you’re a painter and decorator, you expect to get paid for your work don’t you, you don’t just go and paint someone’s house for free, in the hope that they’re going to tell their mate that you’re a really good painter.”

Elliott studied for a degree in Media Arts and graduated with a first from the University of London,

Royal Holloway. “I got 68% but asked them to remark my paper, they rounded it up to 69.5% and published my dissertation on the Terminator movies.”

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t’s clear from this that he works hard but I’m willing to bet that he plays a lot harder. He seems like the kind of guy that would have enjoyed himself as a student; despite being 28 he is still dining on Nandos, drinking too much and staying up far too late. “I loved university, I just sort of played football all of the time, chatted up birds and drank snakebite and black.” Tips for freshers week I asked? “You’ve basically gotta pounce on the one’s that’ve got a naughty look

in their eye because the innocent ones probably won’t put out for weeks.” Charming!

Drinking games? “My favourite drinking game is categories; to my right, famous biscuits, to my right Fulham players, to my right fit birds...” By all accounts there was a lot more vodka than food in Elliott’s student fridge but he did have some words of wisdom for those readers livings in halls without a hob; “We had a metal toaster and then I used to get a frying pan, and turn the toaster on up to the full six minutes and then put the frying pan on top of the metal toaster and then you could heat the frying pan even if you didn’t have a hob. Stick a bit of butter in there and get the bacon and sausages on the go, the only problem is you have to wait because sometimes the toaster pops up and then you’ve got f***ing sizzling fat everywhere.”

On announcing that he didn’t have a student loan, Elliot tried his best to dispel the impression that he was ‘some spoilt kid like his guitarist’ but it is clear that he’s come a long way from working in his university summer holidays to selling out gigs across the country.

Does he enjoy the celebrity status?

“I like adoration, adulation and all that across the nation stuff on stage, but I don’t like getting noticed on the streets, it’s pretty annoying.”

With a top five album and the singles getting higher and higher in the charts, does he fancy his chances at a Brit Award? “Awards don’t mean shit, if I get nominated then great but frankly the best artist always loses.” Either way, we’re going to have to wait until February to find out.

Interview: Geordie Greig > Editor of The Evening Standard stops in for a quick chat

Giles Lucas

features@westerneye.net

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eet the man in charge of feeding London its news.

The figure frothing with drive, the journalist dripping with anecdotes, the Editor who will persevere for a sixth of a century to clinch coveted conversation.

“It’s a question of what excites you and what motivates you,” said Geordie Greig, Editor of the Evening Standard, when asked who he likes to interview. At the time of talking, he’d just conversed with Ken Livingstone for the capital’s newspaper. The former Mayor will have welcomed amiability into his home, a man armed with a sound recorder and a soul.

Beginning his journalistic crusade on the Deptford Mercury, Greig then worked at the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times before

embarking on editing the Standard after leading the editorial team at Tatler. “The wonderful thing about Tatler,” explained Greig, “was that because you were thinking so far ahead, you could set off grenades.

So you could arrange interviews and think ‘that’s a great interview.

That will cause a little news explosion down the line’.”

Yet the most pivotal portion of his career came even before he set foot in a newsroom. “The first bit of journalism I did was at school,” reflected Greig, “where I wrote to David Hockney and Henry Moore when I was a young boy.”

Such penning sparked the birth of a journalist. “I was amazed to get replies back. I thought: ‘This is fun. You can talk to someone, get answers, get it in print. Even get

paid.”

And a myriad of mad and magical moments ensued when he became a reporter. “I had to go and have lunch with Charlie Richardson, who was the ‘torture gang boss’. He was in jail for about 25 years. I had lunch with him. And a guy called Mad Frankie Fraser, who was called [that] because he was moved from so many prisons – they couldn’t contain him.

“There was a strange lunch where Mad Frankie Fraser said: ‘Geordie, I’m going to mention you in my codicil.’ I said, ‘that’s nice, Frankie’. ‘Geordie, you know what a codicil is?’ ‘Yeah, I do’. He said: ‘I’m going to leave you my pliers.’

He was notorious for pulling people’s teeth out with pliers. He’s still alive, so I don’t know what’s going to be the outcome of that.”

Throughout his life, artists have fixated his interest. “One of the people I’ve interviewed many times

over the years has been David Hockney. He’s perennially interesting to me. Lucian Freud, the painter, I used to write to for years and eventually I got an interview after about 15 years of writing [to him]. And then we did quite a lot together, we photographed him for Tatler and he talked about his paintings for us. It was all worthwhile in the end.”

The latter statement should become indelible in the brains of aspiring journalists, and Greig proffered some wise words. “Keep pursuing,” when asked for his advice for those yearning for a life of reporting. “Keep your focus. If you really, really want something, if you take luck, make opportunities, you have some hope of getting there. You’ve got to be lucky and work hard.

“A lot of these things come from making that extra phone call, writing that letter, calling back

again – perseverance.” Greig embodies that doctrine, for he has the whole of London’s news in his hands.

Bristol & UWE

Sport

The good, the bad & the greedy > Rooney, ridiculous wages and rants from a little Bristolean upstart…the Premier League at its finest > Plus, insight from renowned sports journalist Patrick Barclay of The Times Jake Procter sport@westerneye.net

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t won’t be a surprise to any of you with a television or access to virtually any form of media to learn that Manchester United and England footballer Wayne Rooney has signed a new 5-year contract which could be worth up to a reported £250,000 a week. Rightly or wrongly the 24-year-old could be picking up over a million pounds a month, an obscene amount even for a top class footballer (which he, now disputably is), this has caused some controversy with debates on radio phone in’s up and down the country being completely dominated by the Rooney saga. This issue has hit the headlines in a week when World Cup winner and United legend Nobby Stiles sold his 1966 winners medal and other items in his estate for the benefit of his family. But is this story just another way in which football provokes an interest and a response in people, or is there any validity in the argument that the modern game is ruining the sport of football?

Offering intriguing observations on all things football related, Chief football writer for The Times’ Patrick Barclay was interviewed

by UWE’s own Giles Lucas on the Saturn Sports Show (Hubradio every Tuesday from 5-6pm) which threw up some interesting turns: Giles: You’ve reported on many

football tournaments, what’s been your favourite World Cup or European Championship?

Patrick: 1984 European championships stands out, the championship of Platini. Part of the joy that, I have to confess, was that England weren’t there and you were able, instead of doing the ‘rah rah pom pom’ approach to a tournament, you were able to look at the games on their technical merit…I’m bound to say it didn’t get much in the paper. But that was an unforgettable tournament; Platini scored 9 goals in 5 games from midfield. Can you imagine what would happen if Wayne Rooney were to do that from up front. That was wonderful, and of course 2 years later you had the exploits of Diego Maradona in the World Cup of 1986. Those were two things that never happened before and which never happened since, which was basically one man dominating a tournament and winning it, really, those men dominated the entire tournament…Platini in 84 & Maradona in 86 and I consider it an absolute privilege to have seen Maradona in 86, he was just...well it was the best football I’ve ever seen in my life.

Giles: So how do you compare Maradona to, say Lionel Messi? Is there even a comparison between the two?

Patrick: No, none. Well, in that they both play/played for Barcelona, are both great to watch, technically marvellous and both Argentine and on the short side. But to be fair to Messi, he’s a wonderful player who makes my heart sing but when Maradona was 22 (a similar age to Messi now) he was now nowhere near the player he became four years later, in fact he was sent off in the 1982 World Cup for a pretty horrendous foul on a Brazilian. It’s no despisement of Messi to say that Maradona was the 2nd greatest footballer that ever drew breath after Pele.

Giles: Looking into the football last season, it threw up so many surprises, with proverbial smaller teams beating the big clubs.

What do you think was the best game of last season? Maybe that Manchester derby?

Patrick: Well funnily enough I was going to say that. I can remember towards the end of the match being up and down and thinking this is the match that was going to change football in Manchester and therefore, to a degree, in Europe, and it may well happen. But Man U’s resilience in that match was something quite extraordinary, and all down to Sir Alex Ferguson

Pakistan fans show support, despite the allegations

really, the ethos he’s created at the club, the DNA that says your never beaten is quite extraordinary, and I think Man City, the noisy neighbours, were left to scream & shout for another year, but that was certainly a wonderful game. I do think also, as you mentioned, signs of the tail wagging the dog. Early in the season when Burnley beat Manchester United, that stands out as well. I think also Burnley have set a template for clubs to come up and enjoy yourselves, don’t treat relegation like Armageddon.

You’re just back where you were before having had a year out of your wildest dreams. Even if Burnley never play in the Premier League again, they can now remember the day the beat Manchester United and the whole country rejoiced with them and admired their crowd support that was an ingredient in it. That was probably a game that helped to inspire clubs for the rest of the season, and I think there was less lying down. There was a bit of lying down but there wasn’t as much lying down in the face of the so called top 4 as there has been in the previous seasons.”

T

he Burnley template has this season been assumed

by Blackpool, managed by self proclaimed Bristol bumpkin Ian ‘Olly’ Holloway. Blackpool have earned plaudits from all within the game for there attacking style and never say die attitude, with Holloway

setting out his stool before the season began by allaying any fears that they wouldn’t take the big boys on; “Petrified to go to Old Trafford?

I would attack them,” he said. “I would go there to win the game. If it ends up 20-0, so be it. Playing 4-4-2, squeezing up the pitch and looking for knock-downs, is that what the game is all about? I want to entertain people and entertain myself.”

Previously ‘Olly’ has been renowned for his open press conferences much more than open football, and last month he certainly wasn’t backward in coming forward with his view on the Wayne Rooney contract situation: “I can’t believe it’s got to the stage where a player can dictate to such a famous club, with a blatant disregard for all that club and especially the manager’s done for him.

What is happening at Old Trafford is so wrong it frightens the life out of me. If a manager of the stature of Alex Ferguson can be bullied by a player and his agent, how sad a state is the game in? Don’t talk to me about player power.

It all comes back to Bosman, which is a stupid ruling in terms of football players.

We had it right when I was a player. If a club offered you the same money you were on or a little bit more, you could not go anywhere without their permission,

regardless of whether you were out of contract.

If they wanted to sell you, they got the going rate. Otherwise they could just let you rot in the reserves until you saw sense.

When you are paying all these millions for players, in transfer fees and wages, that is how it should be.

I think we should all go to UEFA and FIFA and say ‘Face it, you’ve got it wrong’. And when something is wrong in life, you change it.

How deep is that bucket of sand they’ve all got their heads buried in? Well, we need to make them face facts, or the game is in big trouble.”

For all the engaging ranting on the running of the game from Holloway and the glorious tales of tournaments past as illustrated by Patrick Barclay, could these debates just be another way in which we derive entertainment from the modern game and something we should accept? Or does Olly have a genuine point?

Got an opinion on the changing face of the game?

Get in touch: sport@ westerneye.net

WesternEyeTV - www.youtube.com/westerneyetv

Sport 23

WesternEye 8.11.2010

Combat Sports at UWE

> This month the WesternEye takes a look at two of the combat teams at UWE: Kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do > Plus new regular feature ‘WesternEye tries...’. This month: boxing!

Tom Moore sport@westerneye.net

F

ancy trying something new?

Need to let off some steam?

The UWE Kickboxing team caters for all styles and abilities so get involved!

Kickboxing is a constantly evolving and dynamic spectator sport & martial art, borrowing tried and tested techniques from other styles with roots thousands of years old. It places emphasis on the use of the leg with its greater reach and strength to deliver powerful strikes in combination with rapid hand, arm, knee and elbow techniques to the detriment of an opponent!

Footwork, avoidance, distance and timing are all employed to keep the practitioner out of harm’s way!

As it works most of the main muscle groups in the human body, Kickboxing is an excellent way to develop fitness, balance, strength, speed, agility, to name but a few positive attributes! Depending on who you believe, a decent Kickboxing work out will set you back around 800 of your finest calories per hour!

Kickboxing also focuses the mind,

improves coordination, self esteem, self-respect and promotes a greater understanding and awareness of the human body.

Lessons generally consists of fitness exercises such as circuits and sprints, dynamic and static stretching to increase flexibility and pad & bag work to practice techniques and develop power and sparring to put all of this into practice! Although there are different rules to compete under in kickboxing, generally speaking points are awarded by referees to fighters for delivering controlled techniques to target areas of their opponent such as the body and head.

Not all of our members compete or fight, many enjoy our lessons simply for the fitness benefits associated with training.

UWE Kickboxing club is based at St Matt’s campus, where we currently train Monday evening 7:30-9:45pm, host Women’s only classes Friday 5-6pm and squad training for our tournament fighters on Saturday 10-12am.

Over the last year the club has gone from strength to strength, due to the continued support of the Student Union we have gone from one training session a week to three. This year sees UWE fighters returning to the regional & national circuit with tournaments and events such as the PUMA British Championships in Swindon on 21st November, a number of fighters competing in full contact bouts in Bristol on 12th December, the National University Kickboxing Championships in Leeds in March and the joint PUMA/WKA British Kickboxing Championships in May to name but a few!

Not convinced? Come find us on Facebook!

Grim Challenge?

> Run, wade and crawl an 8 mile adventure Liz Green

sport@westerneye.net

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from the stress of University. Take some time out to train and to enjoy this, you will feel great after (once the aches and pains have gone away!)

Some of the UWESU Exec, Sports Exec and some members of sports clubs are taking the challenge on 4th December. It costs £26 and you can run it for charity. We will organise a mini bus for travel there and back.

If you are interested in taking part, then go to http://original. grimchallenge.co.uk/ to sign up.

Once you have done so, please email sports.vice-president@ hotmail.co.uk with your name and anyone that you are doing it.

TAKE ON THE CHALLENGE.

sport@westerneye.net

T

ae Kwon Do is an exciting and dynamic martial art which promotes physical and mental wellbeing, as well as improving speed, power, fitness and flexibility. We welcome all levels of ability and anyone can join in whether they want to participate in competitions or just for fun.

Tae Kwon do is a Korean martial art, the style we practice being WTF Taekwondo which is an official Olympic sport.

Members will be given the opportunity to compete in various tournaments throughout the year including the main event that we attend; The BSTF National Tae

Kwon Do Championships (open only to University students) which occurs annually in March.

As a club we have won the BSTF Student National Championships 3 years running 2007-2009, 4th in 2010. The BSTF competition usually has a minimum of 20-30 universities in attendance making it a exciting and difficult competition.

This has helped to make us one of the most successful clubs representing UWE. The club caters for anyone, from complete beginners to Black belts.

You don’t need to be fit and flexible before joining, although you soon will be! Whether you’re simply looking for a fun way to keep fit, to learn self defence (building confidence) or to compete in competitions, our club has a lot to offer.

Throughout the year there is the

option of attending fight camps (at an additional cost). Most of these are held in England, with one in Hungary and one in Korea.

Not to forget many social events that occur weekly/fortnightly, making for a great way to make new friends and just have fun!

We have 4 training slots per week, each session being 2 hours long.

Our timetable for the 2010-11 academic year: Mondays 17:30 - 19:30 Tuesdays 18:00 - 20:00 Thursdays 18:00 - 20:00 Saturdays 14:00 - 16:00 We train at St Matthias Campus Gym. Anyone new looking to try us out, your 1st session is free, and after this its £3 per session, however you must be a signed up member to continue training with us.

WesternEye tries...boxing

> WesternEye reporter, photographer and broadcaster extraordinaire Lulu Vallano catches up with UWE’s boxers Demian Attwell & Lulu Vallano boxing@uwesu.net

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loves up!

November promises to be a busy month for UWE Boxing.

With the Autumn term firmly underway things are heating up for the boxing club, first and foremost the club is delighted to report it has recruited to date a respectable 72 paid members putting it firmly amongst the most popular UWE sports.

With all 4 levels of the club training hard, the progress in just a few weeks is exciting to see, fitness is improving greatly along with technical skills and the level of commitment has been excellent.

Over the next few weeks the club will be assessing this year’s intake and looking to promote people up into the Boxing Squad for the New Year.

The entry forms are about to go in for this year English University Champs, with the club looking to enter a strong squad and build on last year’s excellent Gold from Liam Horgan whilst getting some more

Photo: Lulu Vallano

his 8 mile run is based on land used to test Army vehicles so expect it to be interesting (and a big challenge!) It involves long hills, water filled ravines, puddle-strewn paths and crawling under camouflage netting. You’ll eventually reach some manmade mounds before arriving at and running through some rather large puddles. Expect to get very wet! This brings you to some more large areas of water and the finish area.

We know that you have a lot of work on at this time of year, but fitness is always a good relief

Mohammed Ibrahim

vital tournament experience for the upcoming BUCS in February.

With a lively social calendar also shaping up around the action packed fight schedule this autumn, the first of which is the upcoming Heavyweight clash between Haye v Harrison, the rest of the year promises to a frenzy of fistic action!

If you want to find out more of what it’s like to be involved in boxing at UWE and hear from some of the members of the team then you can see some of what Lulu got up to here:

www.youtube. com/westerneyetv

24 Sport

WesternEye 8.11.2010

UWE basketball > Disappointing 09/10 season hasn’t dampened teams’ spirits

Photo: Ryan Fung (CC)

Sean Guest

Trampoline grant awarded

> UWE club attains grant to buy two new trampolines Nicola Rowland

sport@westerneye.net

sport@westerneye.net

ollowing their disappointing Varsity defeats at the hands of Bristol last year, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams are preparing to regroup and start afresh on the cusp of a season that offers an opportunity for revenge.

On behalf of the men’s team Nick Kimber claims that last season was ‘plagued with difficulties’, the most notable of which involved the head coach leaving his post halfway through the campaign.

Thankfully they were able to enlist the help of Bristol Academy Flyers starting bigman Davis Bowne, but the unsettled team were unable to find form and consequently found themselves in the relegation zone come the end of the season.

Though the women’s season ended in similar fashion, Lauren Buchanan cites a ‘lack of dedication to training’ as the cause. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the women’s team was forced to train away from the campus gym, which Lauren claims made players ‘less passionate about playing for their university’ and reduced any home advantage that may have been established by training on their own court.

Both teams have decidedly put these difficulties behind them during the offseason however, and are considering the new campaigns in a positive manner. For instance

port England has awarded a grant of £9,945 to UWE Trampoline Club.

Sport England works by investing funds, that they receive from the National Lottery and the government, to support the development of local sporting organisations. Their small grants programme is designed to help these clubs to grow, sustain, and excel in their chosen sport.

To gain this grant the clubs committee members had to work together on a project aimed to develop the club, by growing in members and increasing training time given to the members. The main goal for the club is to ultimately excel in the sport.

The primary goal of the clubs project is to purchase two new competition standard trampolines, at £4,954 each, in order to be able to sustain and increase membership capacity. The successful purchase of this equipment will allow the club to increase its number of members in a safe environment, whilst at

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F

Kimber claims ‘this season is shaping up to be a different story’ as ‘the 3 remaining players carried over from last year, myself, Albert Pomeroy and Greg Thomson, are joined by returning veterans George Ashwell, Marc Bell and Alex Akande as well as a plethora of exciting, athletic new talent intent on outrunning, outhustling and generally dominating whoever comes our way.’

Buchanan has a similar take on the season ahead of the women’s team, claiming ‘This year will be different. We want all players to play games, members to learn tactics and learn about the strengths of each player. Our fitness shall improve and as we’re going to be training at the Centre for Sport fresher’s can also get involved’.

These positive approaches will undoubtedly serve both teams well as the season unfolds. The men will be hoping to avoid the kind of misfortunes experienced last season, while the women will be looking forward to practicing on their home court at the Centre of Sport, and, if everything goes to plan we might be able to celebrate two UWE basketball Varsity victories come next spring

the same time keeping a gymnast to trampoline ratio of 5:1 to 8:1; which is the recommended ideal set out by British Gymnastics (BG) national governing body. Without the two new trampolines the current gymnast to trampoline ratio stands at 10:1. Being able to maintain this lower ratio will therefore mean that the club can increase it number of members. Without this project it would be necessary to limit the number of participants that may join the club and attend sessions for safety grounds.

With standards of skills within the club increasing, members require more time on the trampolines. With two new trampolines, the members of the club will also be able to spend more time on the trampolines during training session and receive adequate coaching. This in the long run will lead to more success for the club in competitions. The biggest competition for the club each year is BUCS. UWE Trampoline club had three gymnasts reaching the BUCS Championships Finals in 2009/2010. With the extra time given to the members on the trampolines for training, the club

aims for the number of gymnasts who reach the Championship Finals in 2010/2011 to rise to at least 7.

With two new competition standard trampolines, this will mean that the club will own four competition standard trampolines and will allow UWE Trampoline club to host competitions with other Universities and Local Clubs, which will ultimately increase awareness of the club and the sport within the local and wider community.

The UWE Trampoline Committee Members hold regular meetings to discuss what the member’s wants and needs are, which allows the committee to discuss the future club developments and targets to sustain and secure the future of the club.

mySkills: resources and support for learning

Canoes, onesys and cold feet > UWE Canoeing in Cornwall

Lowrie Taylor

sport@westerneye.net

W

ith the summer holidays over and the new university term back in full swing it was about time UWE Canoe headed to the beautiful Cornish seaside village of Polzeath; renowned for its fantastic beach and brilliant surfing. What a great destination for this year’s first kayak surfing trip.

After a long drive down to sunny Cornwall, with the tents up and the drinks flowing the weekend was just getting started. The talk on the campsite was that the surf was going to be pretty big so the ladies of the committee took it upon themselves to scout out the waves in the early hours of Friday morning, and yes we can confirm that it was pretty mahoosive- but not too chilly on those wobbly bits!! And a perfect time to practice those cartwheels it would seem!

Saturday mainly involved onesey’s, no pants and cold feet.

The newest members really got stuck in with the surf- everyone having a go on the waves and some getting some pretty good moves.

Others just enjoying the swimming!

Surf kayaking is all about having a laugh on the waves, trying to pull off some moves (or just trying to stay up right!), and dodging the odd swimmer/ surfer on your way past.

Saturday night’s party didn’t go without its usual antics. I don’t

know if it was just my imagination or did I see Packman and all those little ghosts that try and kill the little yellow dude dancing around him? This accompanied by glitter, farmers, onesey cows and a scarecrow made for quite a memorable party! All topped off with the usual UWE Canoe antics!

The weekend is run by a charitable trust- River Legacy- who organise events throughout the year to raise money to provide facilities, support and funding for the future of paddling in the UK. Once again they excelled at organising a great weekend that both students and other kayakers enjoyed. There was plenty of inter-university rivalry both socially and on the water and everyone had a great weekend.

Bring on the next club trip!

If you’re interested in having a go at kayaking come along to our pool sessions that happen every Sunday evening 6.30-9.30pm at Bristol University pool. Check out the website for more information: uwesu.net/canoe and we look forward to meeting you.

Where do I start?

Can’t find the information I need!

Too much to do?

Haven’t written an essay for years?

Such a lot to read!

For more information visit www.uwe.ac.uk/myskills Or e-mail elspeth.williams@uwe.ac.uk

illustrator

Fred Blunt

hits bristol museum

By Luca Furio

On Tuesday 26th & Wednesday 27th October the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery welcomed children's book illustrator Fred Blunt to its studio.

Centre for Performing Arts: season preview

it’s curtain up for a dazzling new season of music, theatre and dance as Julia phillips explains...

The big Draw 2010, which has been running since october 9th, concluded with a creative and family-friendly session from the well known uk based illustrator who graduated from uwe in 1996 after taking an illustration course.

Fred stated that the event titled a ‘sprawling group draw’ was successful and that he enjoyed the experience. he believes that ‘the successful turnout of 3000 parents with children created a very positive atmosphere and allowed the kids to really get involved’.

Fred explained how the events free-for-all style encouraged the children to ‘observe something they liked from the museum and add it to a larger piece; for example one child would draw a lion whilst another drew something chasing it’.

This allowed them to think creatively and enjoy the art on offer in the museum and gallery. blunt’s success in publishing, greetings, animation and design has allowed him to return to bristol as not just a uwe graduate, but an extremely well known figure in the city’s artist scope.

There is so much more to car park one than two-plus parking.

You might not have noticed it but in the top corner near s block are two rhomboid shaped green buildings – landmarks of the Centre for performing Arts. it is here that the talented musicians, dancers and actors of the university get together not only during the day but late into the evening to pool their respective talents. whatever your inclination, from African drumming or big band to street dance, barbershop, soul singing, orchestra and musical theatre, there is something for all and this year the numbers are up and still rising. being involved in the CpA not only means discovering a hidden talent but performing in some major off-campus venues – from berkeley Castle, bristol Cathedral and the Colston hall to Fiesta havana, the redgrave Theatre and jazz bars in and around the city. Furthermore the barbershop ‘Four in the bar’ recently filmed with the bbC and CpA staff put on their louis, simon and Amanda hats to judge a final of mecca’s got talent!

For many students joining the CpA is a social opportunity where people get together with friends to form a musical group, brush the dust off an old instrument or re-discover their voice.

This year there are some new activities starting up and for the first time ever wannabe pop stars rocked into the CpA in glee-like fashion to become part of the new sound of soul choir. lecture theatre 2b025 reported large numbers at uwe singers for the first of a 10 week burst of italian choral music and hopeful auditionees turned up to the first meeting of the madness musical ‘our house’.

CD of jazz favourites – great for auntie's Christmas present while orchestral players flock to glenside for some fine tuning. if you have an ear for close harmony, the barbershop has healthy membership of mixed barbershoppers, the gospel choir sing a cappella on a wednesday lunchtime while chamber choir runs on Thursday lunchtime for those discerning musicians who can read music. That’s not all – the saxophone group come together on a tuesday evening, woodwind on a wednesday afternoon and instrumental lessons of all varieties are held weekly.

For the body-conscious the Dance society can put you through your paces in a variety of styles. not only jazz, contemporary and ballet but also the slick manoeuvres of strictly's ballroom and latin and the upbeat popping and gliding of hip hop. whether it’s to learn a new step or for general fitness, all are welcome from beginners to advanced.

Finally the CpA, in collaboration with the Drama department – a strong foothold of any performing arts institution - are this year performing 3 plays from Chekhov and beckett to pots

by John reid. These productions are open to anyone in the university and will no doubt unearth some new talent. it’s all go in the CpA offices with phones ringing, paperwork flying and computers fizzling with indigestion. however there is anticipation for an exciting new season ahead with details of all forthcoming events outlined in the CpA events diary.

For those interested in finding out more about the CpA go to the university website www.uwe.ac.uk/cpa and register your interest using the on-line form.

old timers like showstoppers, now featuring on Frenchay, glenside and bower Ashton campuses, has also swelled in its ranks coming together this term to sing west side story, my Fairy lady and sondheim's sunday in the park with george. big band is as big as ever and has even recorded its own 13 track

Joyest IN:MOTION REVIEW

By Alex Green

Saturday saw some of the biggest names in electronic music flock to the Wild West to celebrate in the tradition of Halloween, which is now all of a sudden a massive deal. Anyone else notice this (topic for another day)? Anyhow… names included Detroit’s finest Seth Troxler, Berlin’s Martyn and our very own Joy Orbison. In:MOTION has been flourishing under the new format and this night did not let the name down, cementing itself in my eyes as an annual event that should definitely continue (similar to the Warehouse project in Manc). Donning the traditional one can of Red Stripe, I meeked my away around the ever busy Motion nightclub. Trying to be all professional, I thought I’d treat the night as work and do a full review on every aspect of the smorgasbord of activities on offer. The pure excitement generated at each performance, however, left me uncontrollably and ecstatically jiving to some of the best sounds I have heard in a while.

Mr Seth Troxler generated a lot of excitement that night, and rightly so as the guy has been on a crazy production tip and touring all areas of the globe in the last year or so. His unusual ‘early’ headline slot 12-2 demanded an early presence, and he brought a superb range of different sounds, stretching from the melancholy to outrageous bangers amalgamated together with eerie thumping bass…. Sound confusing? Well, it was really; it was rock, disco, techno, folk and funk all together for our listening pleasure. Sexy spooky maybe?

Don’t be scared off by this, it really did seem appropriate at the

On a whole the diversity of what was on offer was the overall winner that night, and that was down to the great selection made by the In:Motion team. I hope this is something that will continue long into the Bristol music scene. If you haven’t been down to one of the nights, go now. Right now.

Next on the bill one of 2009’s biggest DJ’s Joy Orbison, who landed on the electronic radar with Hyph Mngo way back in the summer of 09. I say ‘way back’ because modern music today is moving at an absolute canter and it takes more than just a tune every few months to stay top of the pile of an ever crowded list of music producers. Sound like a rant? Probably is… but I’m more targeting the insane schedules DJ’s have to fulfil once they have any tune played out by Annie Mac or bloody Zane Lowe, so much so that finding time for them to sit down and create another whizzer seems almost impossible. This is something that is most definitely reflected in the sets DJ’s are putting across at the moment; it’s easy to please a crowd full of pissed up students (no offence to myself), yet Mr Orbison managed to put across some new ideas and at the same time walking the tight rope of ideological modern dub step / dub tech (whatever you want to call it). Oh, and with maybe half the set played by Julio Bashmore it did seem bit of a copout.

everyone back with his iconic dark dub tech sound. I think it was Martyn’s cross-genre mixing as opposed to others genre defying remixing that made it the pinnacle of the night; well for me anyways.

time and it made for a worth wile 2 hours. Listen to one of his mixes on Soundcloud and you will get a better idea of where I’m coming from, or get hold of his Boogybytes Vol. 5 (a compilation mix album).

Last on the list was Martyn, and as fans know he has a unique and devilish way of combining dubstep with techno. Martyn cruised through his set, ably mixing genres into a coherent whole. He started off with quite a bit of garage, before pining

In:Motion

INTERVIEW WITH TOM BACON, PROMOTER What’s your background? What were you up to before IN:MOTION? back in the early days of the venue, i was an external promoter running a number of club events around the city. After my partner in crime discovered the space and persuaded me to come and do a party here i was hooked. back then things were very different, the space was unpolished, but we could all still see the potential and fell in love with the place. i was then brought on board to do freelance work here, helping the club make the transition from hosting the odd party to consistently running some of the best and most exciting events in the uk.

How did IN:MOTION come together and when did this project start?

The idea came together a while ago when we were looking at ways to raise the bar and push motion to the next level. we took the city’s two top promoters and brought them on board to help out, the rest is history.

What response have you had from the Bristol public?

There has been a lot of buzz around the nights, is this filtering through to you guys running the show?

The buzz has been amazing, and yeah it is filtering through to us. our inboxes are flooded, our website is getting more hits than we ever expected and our office phone is ringing 24/7. it’s not just buzzing in bristol either, we’ve got emails coming in from as far as the usA. How does the music scene differ in Bristol to other cities around the U.K? bristol has always had its own thing going on. it’s a city that, on a musical level, punches well above its weight - other cities

of similar size fall way short in terms of their music scenes. bristol has been crucial in the breaking of many new genres and acts, trip-hop, Dnb and dubstep have all flourished here and that does set the tone a bit, but truth-be-told it’s a very diverse place and most genres do well here if they are done right.

What direction do you see Bristol music going over the next few years? some may say the ‘dub’ scene is dying away so what’s next?

The nature of electronic music is that things move very quickly, a song that’s huge one week is old news the next and it’s a similar trend in genres. if you stay still you’re actually moving backwards; this applies to the whole spectrum of the industry, from producer, to DJ, to record label to nightclub.

Things will always move and they will move quickly, we may be able to predict the next year or so but further than that is anyone’s guess. new genres are popping up all the time and old genres are coming back in fashion, the term “bass-music” is getting branded around a lot and i think this summarizes a lot of new exciting music pretty well. bristol has always been a stronghold for the edgier, bassier forms of music, i think the fusion between this and more classic, housier sounds will probably be a big trend, check out Julio bashmore’s stuff: he’s one to watch at the moment.

How are you contributing to this directional change?

The team we have are very good at spotting new talent and we will always push these artists, it doesn’t matter what genre they play. if they are talented and they play good music then we will try our hardest to have them perform here. This means that without making a conscious decision to push a

new genre we will inevitably push that genre by pushing the musicians that are at its forefront.

You mentioned a team of you behind this project, are some of the individuals purely investors or do you all get a say on what’s playing etc? no one is purely an investor, everybody has their own field of expertise and so everybody has a say. it’s a close-knit team and we all work really well together.

With so much competition in Bristol for ‘underground’ music what’s going to set you out from the rest? i think it’s a combination of the music policy and the nature of the space that keep us nice and different to the other clubs. we’re very lucky in that we hold the keys to one of the most unique venues in the country. we put everything back into the space and constantly change things around to keep things exciting. musically we’re not afraid to try things that most other clubs and promoters would look at and say no to, simply because of the fear of losing money. we don’t seem to get put off by those risks, i’m not sure if it’s stupidity or blind faith that keeps us going.

What is the future for IN:MOTION , post Christmas, next year? Is this a long term plan or see where it takes you sort of vibe?

The in:motion series culminates on December the 11th but motion will continue to operate as normal, hosting a range of events throughout the year. we have some big names & promoters making their debut at the club in 2011, keep up to date on the website.

Our inboxes are flooded, our website is getting more hits than we ever expected and our office phone is ringing 24/7. It’s not just buzzing in Bristol either, we’ve got emails coming in from as far as the USA.

Strummerville

By David Reed

The Strummerville tour bus recently came to town, bringing a bunch of new bands to one of Bristol's most beloved music venues, The Croft.

The line up consisted of south east london vagabonds and tour headliners rum shebeen, who brought the house down with their unique sound, a blend of ska, garage rock and tropical music. Also on the bill were raucous mod punks The supernovas and the rugged voiced, gleefully inebriated troubadour, beans on toast. once the bands had played, the gig goers were also treated to a very special guest appearance from the prolific film-maker and punk veteran Don letts, who DJ'd a set of old and new school dub reggae.

The Joe strummer new music Foundation was set up shortly after the iconic front man of The Clash sadly passed away in 2002. its mission is to carry on Joe strummer's legacy by supporting up and coming artists who are influenced by strummer's vision, DiY ethic and punk mentality. ‘we're a music charity and we give opportunities to people through music’ strummerville's charity director trish whelan explained. ‘we give bands bursaries to go and record demos, we've got rehearsal rooms in london, belfast, milan, we're building a music room in an orphanage in malawi, we support Jail guitar Doors the billy bragg incentive for providing guitars in prisons for people who are rehabilitating through music and we just funded the setting up of the rinse Fm academy in london’. so how would a bristol based band get involved? ‘Just check out our website (www.strummerville.com), we've got a huge DiY platform’.

After The supernovas play a well received set, i get chatting to them about their affiliation with strummerville and how it all began. ‘we used be based in a pub called nambucca which is on holloway road in north london, and tragically, it burnt down,’ explains the band's front man Joei, ‘even more tragically it had all our equipment in there ‘cause we used to rehearse there, and even more tragically than that it had our bass player panashe's bedroom in it because he'd moved in the week before. so strummerville gave us the money to buy it all back and after that we started doing gigs with them’. so you're going all over the uk on this tour, is it hard for new london bands to get exposure outside london? ‘when you're in a band kind of starting out the best gigs you can do outside your home base is supporting bigger bands, like we supported babyshambles for a couple of gigs last December and it was wicked, but that don't exactly mean if we go back to manchester we're gonna fucking pack it out. but with this tour, strummerville essentially is the headliner do you know what i mean? us, rum shebeen and beans on toast are flying the flag

for strummerville. people trust the name strummerville’.

The night comes to a close, Don letts spins his last tune and the whole strummerville crew is in high spirit. The rum shebeen boys are digging bristol's welcoming atmosphere. ‘when we got to the venue there was someone cooking for us. it was wicked, chilli con carne. You don't get that when you play a gig in london,’ the band's lead singer Dave Ashby points out. ‘but the one thing about bristol is – there's only one 24 hour off license isn't there?” Yeah, it's just down the road. ‘well that's all right then’.

‘They sell that cider called blackout don't they? last time we were here we made a gang called The blackout,’ recalls lead guitarist matt. ‘we'd drink as much blackout as we could and then spin around and see where we ended up,’ Dave informs me. ‘we ended up in halls of residence, our keyboard player James slept in a shopping trolley.’ so what's the vibe on the strummerville tour bus, you guys are going to have a party right? ‘Yeah i had a little snooze this afternoon because it's gonna be a big night tonight, its bristol innit.’

Bake Designs The man behind brand benjamin haskings

Bake Designs is an independent streetwear brand based out of Bristol, I started the brand in October last year and it’s grown pretty nicely in that time.

i’ve always had a pretty keen interest in streetwear, trainer culture and the scene that surrounds it. i’d wanted to do some tees for about 5 years and just never had the money or minerals to actually take the plunge. when i did have the money i decided to just take a punt on it and see how it went.

From there it’s just sort of progressed naturally, and i’m now releasing my third line of tees. The designs themselves take inspiration from all over the place really; a couple are heavily and quite obviously influenced by barbara kruger’s work. but the majority of the designs are very basic and clean, and i think this is mostly down to the fact that there are a thousand companies out there doing pretty decent illustrated tees. The market’s saturated and doesn’t need any more illustrated tees. i wanted to use the experiences i’ve had in graphic design to create really clean and simple concepts that might not be breaking the boundaries of design, but are a little different to most of what’s on the market already. plus if i can sneak in a bit humour here and there it doesn’t hurt.

not to say i don’t work hard on getting the name out there. but i want people to discover the brand for themselves as much as possible. i’ve had a few lucky breaks like Annie mac wearing one of the tees during her set at Creamfields festival this year, and some pretty good write ups online (The Daily street, FatkidonFire).

The brand will continue to grow and i plan to move on to different items of clothing in the future, so the brand is constantly growing, and is never allowed to become stale.

The new tees will be available through both the bake Designs bigCartel (www.bakedesigns.bigcartel.com) and Donuts on perry road in bristol. we intent to live forever

From the start i have always wanted the growth of the brand to be as organic as possible. i don’t want to be a pusher, and constantly force my products down people’s throats, and that’s

Andy Tokyo

mixing run DmC’s ‘tricky’ into mumford and sons recent popular folk-chart crossover hit ‘little lion man’ in the middle of a heaving club night should be all sorts of wrong, yet with a combination of the musical midas touch and bare-faced cheek Andy tokyo creates a happy genre-bending marriage of the two. every few months for the last year mr tokyo has been releasing hour-long mix-tapes through his Facebook page and these have, in part, helped to establish his impressive 1000+ person strong cyber-following. even though Andy is relatively new to the indie DJ scene (he has only been DJ-ing for 2 and a half years) you wouldn’t know it thanks to his overwhelming talent and confidence. in an interesting take on conventional dj-ing methods he combines new and old techniques such as Ableton and CDJs to produce an exciting and eclectic mix of genres, ranging from indieelectro to hiphop, dub-step and even toying with some metal. he also shows no fear of playing with some all-time classic songs. This aural experience leaves you caught between musical love and almost comical musical confusion but primarily results in you wanting to dance. i like to think of Andy as wriggling between musical genres like a worm in a really good itunes library.

Despite working full-time Andy moonlights as a DJ, playing nights three times a week for the self-proclaimed ‘uk’s biggest indie-night’ club-night monster propaganda in cities such as Cardiff, oxford, glasgow, Dublin, manchester, belfast and, of course, bristol. You can often find him dancing around on stage in unsuitable glasses, playing ‘hands to the heavens’ bangers at the o2 Academy’s club night ramshackle on Friday nights. Andy attributes his career move into dj-ing to, initially, a distinct lack of good club nights in his hometown of westonsuper-mare and also wanting to prove to a stubborn friend that he could achieve a good reaction when he mixed rock and indie music. Judging by the crowd reactions all over the country, and the packed out venues, this point has now been soundly proven.

An interview with

Wilder

By Hollie Brotherton

Although Bristol’s electro-indie sensations are currently travelling the country on their first nationwide tour, they were good enough to spare a couple of minutes to speak to Westworld. Hollie Brotherton asked the questions...

Many students choose to live in Bristol because of the diverse culture, did the city's music scene influence you as a band?

Yes. You can find any type of music in bristol, if you know where to look. The good stuff is usually hiding in some back alley.

Would you compare yourselves to any other local artists? not really. There are a lot of good bands in bristol, but nothing that sounds like us. it’s a city that’s known for its electronic music, which gives us a lot of freedom to create something new.

The Mystery Jets released their third album earlier this year after being re-signed to the same independent record label, Rough Trade. Their new sound proved

popular with fans, do you feel the label, and all its history, influenced your sound at all?

Collectively it’s our favourite label, so yes. The bands that they've signed over the years are a big influence to us, in many ways.

Last year you supported Julian Casablancas on tour. How was it and how did it feel to receive national recognition?

That whole tour was insane. it was all about the crowds, they were huge.

Did you play any festivals this summer? Where had the best atmosphere? Where did you receive the best reception? we did a few festivals this year. The best was reading. The atmosphere, the crowd, everything was amazing. The energy

on stage was electric and we came off buzzing.

Which artists inspired you to form the band? telsa. he invented the alternating current.

Can we look forward to any local gigs in the near future? we are preparing a house party in bristol. it’ll take place in a secret location during november, so keep your eyes peeled and focused on our Facebook group.

Find us on : www.myspace.com/wearewilder

Editors Sean Guest Alice Palmer Brown

Submission deadline for December issue November 25th

Publications Editor George Rowe

Submit Artwork westworldinfo@gmail.com

Creative Directors & Design James Somerfield hello@jamessomerfield.co.uk Alex Green alexinleeds@gmail.com

Contact UWE Publications Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol, BS16 1QY www.westworldmagazine.net

Joshua Saunders Joshua is a third year graphics student, with a keen interest to draw, make books, take photographs, collect old records. buy new records, make lists and cross things off. he runs two nights in bristol with a group of friends & local producers, nebula & ninetree, which he worked on the branding of as well as playing at them. since being at university he has tried to work on as many different projects as he can, developing his skills as a designer & working on building a professional portfolio. in the future, Joshua is looking forward to collaborating more with other local designers, especially in bristol as he believes it is has strong roots in the creative industries of graphics & illustration. .

joshuajames123.blogspot.com

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exploring Arts, Culture, musiC, Film within bristol.

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westworld IncludIng – wilder interview Andy tokyo bAke Designs strummerville in:motion Fred blunt Centre for performing Arts Featured artIst – Joshua saunders