Is Uni worth the money?

w

and Quenchgair rhydd

Meet your Elected Officers

Experiment sews kittens eyes closed

All change in the Students’ Union

Two new club nightsA brand new Centre for Skills, Enterprise and Volunteering

“The Lodge” - New bar ready for Freshers

P21 P11 P16-17Summer Ball Succes P24

Monday 17th September 20120 | freeword - Est. 1972 | Issue 982

2 / Editor's Note

gr

CONTRIBUTORS

Georgie BedfordFelicity BoxLiam McNeillyJack ParkerTrisha ChowdhuryEmma Dudley

EDITORChris Williams

CO-ORDINATORElaine Morgan

CREATIVE DIRECTORLuke Slade

SUB EDITORTom Parry-Jones

NEWSKendal ArcherTom EdenBethan JonesAnna Hickman

OPINIONNick EvansAlex GreigAlice Briggs

COLUMNISTKatie Bennett

POLITICSHelen CoxThom Hollick

SCIENCEAlexey UnderwoodRhiannon Davies

SOCIETIESVanessa Platt

LISTINGSCurrently no Editor

TAF-ODTom Lewis

SPORTRhys ClaytonViktor TsvetanovJames Shapland

Hello Freshers!

I hope this message finds

you well / not hungover on

whatever day it is you man-

age to rifle through all of

the leaflets, magazines fly-

ers and other stuff you end

up being given in you first

few days at Uni.

I’m Chris, the Head of

Student Media for Cardiff

University and I’m going to

try and keep this as brief as

possible....

Basically, I’m in charge

of our TV station CUTV,

Xpress radio, the newspa-

per (gair rhydd... you’re

reading it now) and our

magazine Quench (turn to

page 16 and you’ll see it.)

I also edit the newspaper

and am one of your elected

officers - but we’ll get onto

that later.

So, with all of student

media we need students. If

you’ve ever thought about

doing anything surround-

ing in a TV / radio show

(writing, producing, film-

ing, starring) then you can

join CUTV or Xpress.

Fancy being a journalist,

or even just interested in

writing? Then gair rhydd

and Quench are for you. If

you want to write an arti-

cle, take a picture or design

a page you can.

...Phew, well, that’s the

sales pitch over.

The long and the short

of it is that students get

involved in student media

to produce content for stu-

dents, so without you, we

don’t exist and I’m out of a

job!

As I said earlier, I’m also

an elected officer. This

won’t mean much to you,

yet, but hopefully it will

do by the end of the year.

Eight of us are voted in by

students and we control the

union, each with a different

role to play within it.

If ever you’re not happy

with something about the

union, or just need some-

one to chat to then we’re

the people to come and

talk to.

But anyway, I hope you

enjoy the first few weeks

of Uni and, moreso, I hope

you enjoy the first gair

rhydd and first Quench

and, if you do want to get

involved, don’t forget to

come and meet us at the

societies fayre.

Come say Hi at the so-

cieties fayre and come to

Solus on October 1st at

5pm. It’s our first Student

Media meeting and, later

that night, it’ll be our first

social (we’ll reveal all the

details in the meeting!)

Chris

Check us out online, head to cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk Cardiff graduate and former edi-

tor for Quench and gair rhydd, James Mclaren passed away over summer aged 34.

The gair rhydd archives are lit-tered with his articles and edito-rial work.

James was a music lover and was well known for his work in music journalism. Tributes from Huw Stephens, Lostprophets, Kids in Glass Houses and Manic Street Preachers flowed in across Tiwtter.

Joe Gooden, a friend of Mclar-en's and graduate of Cardif Uni-versity, said of Mclaren, "He was enormously talented, hugely driven and an endlessly enthusi-astic supporter of Welsh music, who will be well known to read-ers of this blog."

Mike Lewis of Lostprophets said: "We're all deeply saddened to hear about James. He's been a close friend of ours for many years and will be a huge loss."

Tributes on a BBC website were from ex-editors and those who had met James at his time in Cardiff and whilst working on gair rhydd.

Former gair rhydd

news editor sadly dies

3Monday September 17th 2012 | @mediacsu

Hollywood: Tom Cruise splits from Katie Holmes after six years of marriage. The rumour mill claims it was on the cards for years.

Russia: Pussy Riot were ar-rested and put on trial for performing an "anti-Putin punk prayer" in a Russian cathedral.

London 2012: Team GB came third in the medal table, having won 29 gold medals - their best medal haul in years.

Syria: Syrian rebels are still fighting the govern-ment. Violence reached its worst over the summer as reports came in of mass civilian casualties

The per-centage of people

who achieved an A or A* at A level this year. Down from 2011.

26.6%

World news from the summer

London 2012

4 / News

The students' union has just an-nounced the opening of two new club nights and a Centre for Skills, Enterprise and Volunteering.

The new club nights are a re-sponse to the failure of BoomBox and the closure of Fun Factory - after twenty years in the union due to low student attendance.

Within the overhaul there will be two new club nights: Ctl Alt Del on a Monday and Revive on a Tuesday, starting from 1st Octo-ber - just after Freshers week.

Ctl Alt Del is an alternative night playing music from hip hop to dubstep to swing and every-thing in between with all three rooms in the night club open.

Kieran Gandhi, Union Develop-ment and Internal Affairs Officer, said of the Ctl Alt Del, “Monday night is a cool mash up of Indie meets hip hop meets electro. It’s to bridge that gap between the union and other clubs; we haven’t had a successful alternative club night in a while.

“I think we’ll be able to com-pete with [other clubs in town] and be better than them. Our drinks will be well priced, the dj will be finding new tunes each week.. it’s going to be good”

Tuesday's club night, Revive, is said to be a night of “retro based frivolity” and a “flashback to your early musical years.” It is the first time that a club night of this sort has been tried in our union.

Gandhi called the night, “[an] old school night with retro based music. We’ve realised that new student’s retro is the early 90s so we hope that students will re-spond positively. There’ll be re-ally good drinks deals and offers - in honesty, it’s a bit of fun and a chance for people to have a bit of a dance to Michael Jackson or Tupac””

Whilst the more mainstream staples of the union club scene, ComePlay on a Saturday and The Lash on a Wednesday, remain, there will be no new night to re-place BoomBox on a Friday from last year.

On top of this, the union will be leaving Thursdays and Fridays free for gigs and one off events. When it’s free however it is said to be more of a “cabaret night” be that with local bands or comedy. Gandhi said that “we were hoping for tables to be set out in Solus. It’s really aimed at a chilled, non drinking culture. The emphasis is on the act and it’ll be affordable.”

A change from previous years, all club nights will open until 3am

with all Monday and Tues-day nights being free be-fore 11pm. All club nights will also use the Titans, a new promotions team dedicated to selling tickets for union events.

“Every other club in Cardiff have promotion teams, so why don’t we? We’ll have a very proac-tive promotion team who’ll be selling tickets like other promoters and selling tick-ets to bump up ticket sales and the interest in the union.” said Gandhi who dismissed the idea that there could be confusion with this team and those promot-ing club nights in town, “The ti-tans team will be branded with Cardiff Students Union on their clothing, any flyers or promotions will have Cardiff Students Union at the heart of their pitch - they’ll always be promoting the students union.”

On top of all of the new ad-ditions to the clubnights, the sideroom is going to be re-developed and r e b r a n d e d e d to become The Lodge.

The design will be in the style of a ski lodge come rum / shot bar.

It will help allevi-ate pressure from the main bars in Solus as well as having a "more realxing and chilled ambiance"

Chris WilliamsEditor

Union invests in new club nights and student development centre

The Centre for Skills, Enter-prise and Volunteering to be ready for Freshers

A new “one-stop-shop for employ-ability services” is being created on the second floor of the union and should be ready just in time for Freshers.

The Centre for skills, Enter-prise and Volunteering will now be housed on the second floor, re-placing Marketing, Entertainment and Food and Beverage.

Student Enterprise, Student Volunteering Cardiff and the skills development service will all be housed in the new development which is supported by Pricewater-houseCoopers LLP.

Operations Manager at Cardiff University Students’ Union, Ben Eagle said "We're really pleased

with the design for the area, and work is progressing well on bring-ing the space to life. The Centre will give the Students’ Union an incredible profile boost for the fantastic services that are relocat-ing into this space".

"We're very grateful to the Uni-versity who are supporting us with this project, and it's pleasing to be part of a University which recognises the huge benefits of the Students' Union, and is keen to help us develop forward. With Freshers fast approaching, we're looking forward to welcoming students to this new space at the start of term".

5Monday September 17th 2012 | @gairrhyddnews News4-7

Plans approved for controversial "Talybont Gate" halls of residenceThe controversial proposal for a student residence, Talybont Gate, has finally been approved by the Welsh Government’s Plan-ning Inspectorate, after initially being rejected by city councillors earlier this year.

The six-story accommodation, which will be situated at the top of the Talybont student complex in an overspill car park, will pro-vide 178 en suite rooms for new Cardiff University students and is due for completion in 2013.

The proposal encountered strong resistance by local resi-dents, who claimed that the building would reduce parking in a congested part of Cardiff, as well as contribute to the overde-velopment of an area which al-ready has a high concentration of students.

A campaign led by Lib Dem councillors Gareth Holden and Ed Bridges on behalf of the local community drew attention to the ‘overbearing’ impact of the six-story block and led to the pro-posal being rejected.

However, planning inspector Andrew Poulter overturned the decision in May, arguing that the car park is a ‘little-used’ overspill and there would be ‘no signifi-cant loss of existing parking'. He also claimed the site has ‘excel-lent’ pedestrian, cycle and trans-port links for students and would not lead to ‘unacceptable visual, amenity or highway impacts.’

Cllr Holden expressed, ‘this is very disappointing for local residents…the parking pressure it will create is unacceptable. It’s a shocking decision.’

In response to the concerns addressed by Cllr Holden and Cllr Bridges, the University out-lined that the ‘parking provision

on the site has been designed in accordance with Cardiff Coun-cil’s sustainable transport agen-da, encouraging the use of more sustainable transport, particular-ly cycling rather than cars.’

There are also concerns that the construction of the building, which will be very close to Taly-bont North, is likely to impact on students trying to study in their rooms over the course of the year.

A Cardiff University spokes-person said, ‘the construction process will be managed and overseen by Campus Services Di-vision and the Estates Division in liaison with the appointed con-tractor, to ensure the minimum disruption to students living at Talybont North.’

When asked why the decision had been made to build new ac-commodation, as opposed to improving older accommoda-tion such as Talybont North, the spokesperson said the ‘additional rooms are being built at Talybont in order to meet demand, and to ensure the continued supply of good quality, purpose-built student accommodation. For all halls, we have a rolling pro-gramme of planned maintenance in order to maintain the standard of accommodation as high as we can, and for instance, two houses are being refurbished on Taly-bont North this year.’

Another concern is that there has not been sufficient student involvement in the decision, as the plans were submitted in the summer and the deadline for comments ended halfway through freshers’ week last year. This meant that Talybont tenants had a very short period in which to express any concerns with the proposal.

Yet Cardiff University claims it is pleased that the ‘high-quality’

development could go ahead. A spokesperson for the University said, ‘Talybont Gate will offer modern, sustainable accommo-dation, complete with the latest

IT facilities. The University is an active member of the community and is in continual discussion with councillors and other repre-sentatives about local issues.’

The building, estimated to cost £6.5 million, is scheduled for completion in 2013, ready for the new intake of students in 2014.

Anna HickmanNews Editor

Taly

bont

Gat

e in

num

bers

£6.5 million

The amount Talybont Gate will cost

178The number of rooms it will have

2014The year students will be able to live in it

2The number of Talybont North

houses being renovated this year

Up an impressive 55 places from last year, Cardiff University has improved its place impressively in the 2012 People & Planet Green League.

The People & Planet Green League 2012 is conducted by stu-dents and measures how envi-ronmentally friendly universities are. Compiled annually by the UK’s largest student campaign-ing network, People & Plant, the survey awards first-class and 2:1 ‘degrees’ to the universities that they consider to be the greenest.

In previous years, Cardiff had the worst rating of the Russell Group Universities, coming 130th out of the 142 institutions that took part in this survey. Yet this year has shown that there has been a massive turnaround in the uni-versity’s attitude towards making Cardiff a green institution, and as a result it was presented with an upper second-class award for its

environmentally friendly efforts.The survey takes into account

a huge range of factors when ranking the universities. It con-siders everything from visible en-vironmental policy to sustainable food, numbers of staff involved in environmental management to transport emissions and water consumption. Carbon reduction, recycling, energy efficiency, stu-dent involvement and green cur-riculum are among other factors that determine each institution's place in the ranking as points are awarded.

Professor Tim Wess, Pro Vice Chancellor for Estates, an-nounced: "We are pleased that the concerted efforts across the University to improve our en-vironmental and ethical perfor-mance have been recognised in the movement in this league table.’

However, he added that the university recognises the ‘need to continue to progress even fur-ther - carrying out our policies and getting to grips with tougher questions. For example, we are also now getting a measure of the

social cohesion side of sustain-ability and looking at how the University can play a key local role in driving this forward."

Cardiff University's People and Planet Society were delighted to hear the news that the University scored a 2:1. grade in the Green League this year.

Megan David, President of People and Planet Society said that “it is great to see the Uni-versity's dedication to the envi-ronment, hosting a sustainability week this year and supporting the Students' Union successful

Go Green Week. "People and Planet have had

a brilliant year working with the University, finally gaining the use of the garden outside the Stu-dent's Union to be used for allot-ments and also last July getting confirmation that the Univer-sity will be joining the "Worker Rights Consortium" - a labour rights monitoring organisation, ensuring that university garments will be made in factories of a high standard of labour rights.

"The success of the past year will mean that the University's position in the Green League is sure to improve. Hopefully, my new full-time position in the Student's Union as Welfare and Community Officer will allow for more student input into the Uni-versity's environmental commit-tees and for my plans to create a huge Go Green Week and Fair-trade Fortnight, and to perhaps even ban bottled water across campus. "

6 / News

Cardiff succeeds in the Green LeagueKendal ArcherNews Editor

Societies smash charity totalCardiff University’s societies have experienced huge suc-cess this past year, raising over £110,000 for charity.

The total came to £115,823.15, though this figure could poten-tially be higher, as a percentage of fundraising was not reported.

Various events were hosted throughout the year to raise the money, with particular success for the Islamic Society, who man-aged to raise over £12,000 in one night as part of Islamic Aware-ness Week.

Another popular and success-ful event was the University’s first Jailbreak, a free charity hitchhike in which many universities take part across the UK. Teams had just 48 hours to get as far away from Cardiff as possible and back again, by any means possible without spending any money. The winning team reached Ver-bier in Switzerland and in total, the event raised over £5,000.

The money will go to many different charities, some of which are connected to specific societ-ies and particular to what they do.

Harry Newman, the outgoing Societies Officer said, ‘it’s a great achievement to raise so much.’ To improve, he says, it is neces-sary to make it as easy as possible for the societies to raise money. RAG, the University’s Raising and Giving Society, is also considered

a key focus, and Newman hopes that this year’s RAG Week will be ‘the biggest and best it can be.’

The amount raised last year has improved hugely; in 2011, the societies raised £75,000, while in 2010, the total was £50,000. Harry Newman is confident that by aim-ing high, the University can con-tinue to improve on the figure.

"We hope we can hit £150,000 this year."

Incoming Societies Officer, Adam Curtis, claimed that the amount raised was “impressive... the RAG committee this year have done exceptionally well.

“Currently, RAG has a few very hard-working individuals who pour their souls into it. I want the responsibility of raising and giv-ing to be not just on a few, but on every Cardiff University student.

“While at uni, we have more time and fewer commitments than at any other time in our lives. Instead of filling this time up with countless TV shows stu-dents instead should put their efforts into tackling major world issues.

"It’s surely more important that an abandoned child gets an education than what occurs on Eastenders. I know how easy it is to fill up my time with point-less activities and, looking back at my three years, I know I could have done so much more. I also know that you put the most effort in when you actually care about the cause.”

Whilst an impressive total, the

Union are some way off other Unions such as Nottingham and Loughborough, each of whom raised over £1 million for charity this year alone.

Curtis, however, insisted that “some Unions raise over a mil-lion pounds, and without a doubt this is our aim, but overall Cardiff RAG has done incredibly well over the last few years and we will always continue to aim for the stars.”

Anna HickmanNews Editor

Below: The Wallies, winners of Rag's first Jailbreak

7Monday September 17th 2012 | @gairrhyddnews

Cardiff University’s Student Sup-port team are launching a new help service for Freshers, starting this September.

The ‘Student High Street’ has been created to help new Univer-sity students settle into life at Car-diff, with the intention of raising the prominence and awareness of the Student Support Services. The Student High Street will be located centrally on Park Place (near the Student's Union), one of the University's main streets for student services.

This new service is being viewed as a part of investing in the student experience. Students helping within this service, sepa-rate to the Freshers Welcome Crew, will be positioned around the grounds of the University, offering help to new students, handing out information cards and specifically directing people to certain buildings. Park Place, the newly branded ‘Student High Street’, will be decorated with bunting and banners to create a warm, friendly area for new stu-dents in Cardiff.

The University have set up this new service with the intention of bringing a more welcoming and personable feel to Park Place.

This is particularly important at Cardiff as the University is not campus-based. A recent survey of University staff suggested that the University was in need of a service such as a Student High Street, as they spend a great deal of their time directing new stu-dents to their right location.

The lack of clarity in direc-tions to University buildings is also not helped by the majority of the buildings along Park Place being conservation buildings; this means that council permission is needed to make any changes to them.

Last academic year, the Student Support Service saw 5,000 people through their door. Not only does this figure indicate the need for the Student High Street service, but there is also an awareness of a ‘market change’ within the Uni-versity. Due to the rising fees, the University is aware that students must receive the best support possible.

The success of this service will be measured in the num-ber of students walking through the door to the Student Support Service, and with the interaction helpers have with students.

Follow the Student High Street on Twitter at @thestudenthigh-street to find out more informa-tion.

The first ever Stu-dent High Street

News4-7

Bethan JonesNews Editor

You're Hired! Cardiff grad-uate wins The Apprentice

With increasing uncer-tainty about job pros-pects once university is complete, Rich-ard 'Ricky' Mar-tin's victory on The Apprentice showcased why Cardiff Univer-sity consistently produces such high levels of graduate em-ployment.

Martin, a Biochemistry graduate from the School of Biosciences, man-aged to impress Lord Sugar with a business proposal for a new niche market re-c r u i t m e n t c o m -pany,

specialising in the science in-dustry. He will now be working

with Lord Sugar to develop his plans, aided by the £250,000

investment for winning the show.

Whilst at the Uni-versity, he devel-

oped an interest in professional wrestling, where he competed under the ring-

name 'Ricky'. This lycra-clad hobby, and his claim to be the 'reflection of

perfection', had Martin ridiculed

before this sea-son of The

A p p r e n -t i c e

had even begun, but the recruit-ment manager made it through to the last four would-be Appren-tices in the series final.

BBC1 viewers saw Martin grilled by The Apprentice's noto-riously tough interviewers, as he pitched his idea. The 27 year-old fought back after criticism of his personal statement, in which he compared himself to the Norse god Thor, to be chosen by Lord Sugar as his business partner.

Dr Tim Higgins, who taught Richard at the School, said: "Martin was an enthusiastic and confident student during his time at Cardiff School of Biosciences, with a particular interest in bio-technology and the environment. He was a student who continual-ly strived to achieve results. We were extremely proud to see one of our graduates do so well on The Apprentice, particularly as

Martin's winning proposal to Lord Sugar will make such

good use of his scientific background."

Martin had been working as a recruit-ment manager in Portsmouth before embarking on the gruelling series of tasks against 15 oth-er entrants. He was identified by Lord Sugar's advisor, Karren Brady, as the candidate who had improved the most over the course of the se-ries.

The latest fig-ures provided by the Univer-sity indicate that around 90% of students enter employ-ment within six months of grad-uating, with only 6% being unemployed af-

ter that time (4% were 'unavail-able for work').

Against a back-drop of increasing

youth unemployment, these figures make for

positive reading. As a new academic year

begins, there can be hope that many more Cardiff stu-

dents can follow in Ricky's footsteps.

Tom EdenNews Editor

Aspiring Lawyer to Thrive at Cardiff Uni

Cardiff University has an-nounced the winner of the first Lifetime Scholarship award. Chris Nation, an aspiring lawyer, has been awarded the University scholarship by proving his aca-demic ability, commitment and skill during a range of tests and activities called the Thrive Chal-lenge. 18 year old Chris can now look forward to a lifetime of free tuition.

After being invited to an as-sessment day at the University, along with five other finalists, Chris took part in group chal-lenges, one-to-one interviews and had to give a ten minute pre-sentation of the subject he ap-plied to study. Chris specifically impressed the judges through his discussion on controversial legal topics such as human rights and super-injunctions.

With the introduction of high-er fees for University tuition this coming academic year, the Life-time Scholarship is an incredibly valuable scheme, and will allow the chosen winner to pursue ed-ucation beyond a degree. Chris already has his sights set on a PhD and legal practice training,

which would mean tuition fees in excess of £50,000.

Professor George Boyne, Chair of the Undergraduate Recruit-ment Campaign and Dean of Cardiff Business School said: "Congratulations to Chris who is a worthy recipient of the Life-time Scholarship. He embodies the spirit of the Thrive Challenge and the values of the University. It was a really tough decision as all the finalists impressed the judges.”

Chris said: "I was impressed by how modern and switched on Cardiff University is – it has a nice student feel to it. The law course at Cardiff is also really good and has all the modules I am looking for. I have really enjoyed taking part in the Thrive Challenge and I am thrilled to have won the Lifetime Scholarship.”

The Thrive Challenge was open to all undergraduate stu-dents from the UK and EU apply-ing to Cardiff for 2012 academic entry. All finalists have a firm of-fer from Cardiff University and must fulfil the academic terms of their offers with their exam re-sults to receive the scholarships.

Bethan JonesNews Editor

CARDIFF STUDENT MEDIAgair rhydd

Contact: Editor@gairrhydd.com for details

time; just turn up to a meeting and write!paper. Anyone can get involved at any

Cardiff Students’ Union’s only student

Quench Q

Contact: Quench@gairrhydd.com for details

with with music, fashion, food and more. essential guide to student life in Cardiff,gair rhydd’s fortnightly magazine is the

Contact: Information@Xpress.co.uk

and live sessions, seven days a week.

Listen to the latest music, interviews

Contact: Controller@CardiffUnion.tv

check it out at www.cardiffunion.tv

Cardiff’s award-winning TV station

Want to get involved? Come to our first student media

meeting at 5pm, 1st October in Solus, then join us at

9pm for our first social!

Love Cardiff, Love Xpress Radio

which covers the biggest student events -

w

11

The great £9k debate

Freshers of 2012 are handing over up to £9,000-a-year for their degree, after tuition fees were hiked from around

£3,000. This increase, which an-gered students nationwide, is set to leave graduates over £27,000 in the red. Now, more than ever, we need to question whether university is really worth it.

The three major factors to consider are:

Is university a good invest-1. ment for what you want to do?Is there another, less costly 2. route for getting what you want?Is your motivation for uni-3. versity to learn and increase your job prospects?

It’s not easy to judge if your degree is a good investment, because no one can predict the future. But, interestingly, ac-cording to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the average graduate earns a £22,000 start-ing salary - £8,000 more than the estimate for non-graduates. So, if/when Average Joe Graduate manages to land a job, with his three-year fees and loans debt of £36,000, plus a £2,000 overdraft and three years of missed earn-ings (totalling £42,000), he’d be £80,000 behind his non-gradu-ate counterparts - just to have an equal net income would take

10 years! And that’s not to men-tion additional uni years and the non-graduate’s inevitable rising pay. If you’re not guaranteed a job come graduation, your po-tential earnings are low or your degree’s not highly valued by employers (for example, you’re unlikely to get a high classifica-tion or it’s irrelevant to the job you want), then university isn’t the wisest financial investment.

For many careers, a degree isn’t essential and alternative vocational routes - such as ap-prenticeships, interning, starting at the bottom and working your way up, or workplace-based courses - are just as effective for reaching your end goal, without the excessive cost.

Finally, it seems dull to say so, but if the primary attraction of university is a few fun, easy years, then you probably shouldn’t go. Yes, university is fun and great for making new friends, trying new things and being indepen-dent, but it’s not necessarily true that these experiences are exclusive to university or that they’re truly ‘invaluable’. Are non-graduates really less happy and poorer in life experiences? Gone are the days when anyone and everyone flies the nest to uni because that’s what’s expected of them; they want to move away to a fresh, exciting city; to delay getting a job; or they just want to get drunk a lot. GB

For & Against

Georgie Bedford and Alex Greig question whether tuition fees increas-ing to £9,000 makes going to university at all worthwhile

I’m an English / Phi-losophy student and, contact-hours wise, this represents just about the worst value for money available. So why, I hear

you cry, do I believe university to be worth £9,000 a year?

To state the obvious, you get a degree out of it (providing you do some work) and whilst some question the worth of a degree, as far as I can tell, they really are valuable. There are far more jobs you can do once you’ve got those little, unassuming letters after your name, and generally speak-ing the better you do in your de-gree, the more likely it is you’ll get a decent job.

Moreover, you’ll come out of university far more clever than you went in, and I don’t just mean academically. Yes, you will learn a large amount about your subject choice, and even start to think in new ways, but you will also learn much outside the lec-tures. You'll probably be living with a large number of people your age for the first time – you’ll learn how to put up with others and (cue a cliché) you’ll even learn how to live with yourself. You will discover a lot about people, relationships, indepen-dence, maybe even cooking and cleaning (although some people believe these to be optional). Best of all, you’ll go through all of this in an environment where

everyone else is new to it too and your only responsibility is your-self - you need worry about little else.

University is awesome fun outside the lecture theatre. The living arrangements are great, the nights out, the lie-ins, and more. Where else do you meet thousands of people with whom you have something in common? Not only does everyone share University as common ground, but people will have very few friends in a new city, if anyone at all. Everyone is out to meet new people. Who knows, you might even find your future spouse.

The activities you can try out at university are worthwhile too. As well as there being societies you’ve never heard of, they are all easy to access and enrol in. These groups offer the ability to try things at a far cheaper price than they would be in the ‘real’ world. So what if the bell ringing society wasn’t for you? You only paid a few quid.

Whilst all of the above are great, they are all completely worthless unless you act upon them. The key to university be-ing worth £9,000-a-year is to make the most of it. Unless you get out of bed at some point and take advantage of all that is on offer, it won’t be worth the mon-ey. If you do, however, it will be utterly priceless. AG

“University is awesome fun outside the lecture theatre. The living arrangements are great, the nights out, the lie-ins, and more.

Opinion11 - 13Monday 17th September 2012 | @gairrhyddop

For Against

Congratulations are in order, for the 5 University associates rec-ognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list over the summer. But is the imperial association with such awards not detracting from the significance of the re-cipient’s achievements?

In receiving the awards, the associates, whose brilliant work I do not contest, will become com-manders and officers of the Brit-ish Empire respectively. This is not only hugely irrelevant to the work that they have done, but also strikes as a glorification of a history of Empire that we should be trying to disassociate with.

Professor Ian Hargreaves, part of my home school of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies led a government review in to intellec-tual property, which now forms the basis of government policy. Professor Julie Williams is being recognised for her leading work in Alzheimer’s research. Both will now become Commanders of the British Empire for their work, something which seems entirely inappropriate to me.

Whilst I do not hold it against anyone who accepts such an ac-colade, I’m not sure I’d be com-fortable accepting and award that holds such connotations.

It seems some are in agree-ment with me, as Queen's lord’s lieutenant (advisers) have called for all reference to Empire be dropped. On the other hand, in June, David Cameron reintro-duced the British Empire Medal, also referred to as a “Working class gong” which was gotten rid of 1993.

The reintroduction of such an award presented the Prime Minister with an opportunity to rebrand the award, and remove the essence of Empire. Instead it appears that he still deems such an association appropriate.

I appreciate that some might not make the link between Brit-ain’s history of Empire and the Queen’s honours, however whilst the stagnant essence of imperial-ism remains associated they will continue to be out dated and in-appropriate.

On such grounds, poet Benja-min Zephaniah would not accept his OBE in 2003 due to his firm opposition of both Empire and the Monarchy. Others to reject awards include David Bowie, Roald Dahl and Dawn French.

I do not disagree with impor-tant work and contributions to society being rewarded, but rec-ognition needs rethinking to re-flect the forward thinking nature of recipients. After all, their con-tributions were to British society, not a nearly forgotten Empire.

12 / Opinion

The future of education

An experiment into the viability of e-learning for students in fur-ther education is going to be car-ried out by more than a million students this autumn.

Harvard University, the oldest university in the United States, now seems to be attempting to bring itself into the 21st century and is dragging others with it. In theory, it sounds like a great idea; qualifications from Harvard University in the comfort of your own living room without having to pay the fees, pass the appli-cation process or make the trip across the globe.

Harvard says that it is ‘revo-lutionising education around the world’ by providing online courses to anyone in any country, and, at least for the time being, at no cost. edX – an unnecessar-ily short but important-sounding name – is the e-learning platform designed by Harvard and the

Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology (MIT) to deliver online interactive courses that has cost £38 million to launch, and this is only at a trial stage.

But there must be something to it since other leading US univer-sities such as Stanford and fellow Ivy League university Princeton are launching similar learning platforms.

The first president of edX, Anant Agarwal, released a state-ment that summarises the poten-tial for the course. He said that the first online course was taken by more students than the num-ber of living Harvard graduates. What’s more, there were nearly more people taking the course online than the total number of students who have ever attended the university since the 1800s.

Once completed, the courses will stand as qualifications in their own right, although they will not give students univer-sity credits to take onto other courses. Students already attend-

ing Harvard will not be able to take the courses instead of their regular modules, but will be able to take them as an enrichment of their university experience.

The courses will consist of on-line textbooks, access to library material online and recorded lectures from real courses at the university. Recorded lectures give you the opportunity to pause, fast-forward and rewind so you don’t miss any vital information. But all assessment of the courses is fully automated – there’s no one at the end of an email to help you if you’re struggling.

Personally, I think it’s a great idea, a non-profit educational scheme to allow people to en-hance their knowledge from the comfort of their own homes. It provides great accessibility to all and creates a sense of inclusivity surrounding an institution which is renowned for being exclusive to those with huge intellect and moderate wealth.

For me, I think the only prob-

lem would occur if edX were try-ing to replace the conventional degree system. As it stands, it is an addition, not a substitute.

For me, university is about the experience, about taking the time to get to know new people, to get your head around new concepts and to enjoy being in a thriv-ing educational (amongst other things) environment. An online degree would be a lonely expe-rience, but these courses from Harvard give the flexibility back to the student.

It would be easily feasible to have a full-time job as well as completing the 10 or so study hours a week required to com-plete the qualification. This would give people the opportu-nity to enhance their skills whilst still earning money and not hav-ing to fork out huge course fees; an opportunity that should only be embraced in the current la-bour market.

Is it really an honour?

Felicity BoxOpinion Writer

Liam McNeillyOpinion Writer

The maintenance loan is in, ev-erybody is rich and free from parental restraint and there’s a big city with cheap bars and sticky dance floors waiting to be explored. It’s supposed to be the best week of your life, dancing and flirting into the early hours of the morning before sleeping off the hangover and starting the next cycle of pre-drinks along-side breakfast in front of repeats of Jeremy Kyle. Welcome to Car-diff.

Unfortunately, the reality isn’t that simple. Freshers also has awkward moments as you gain your bearings and endure repeti-tive introductions. You may as well invest in a T-shirt embla-zoned with your name, degree subject and hometown. It’s what everybody asks for first. Drinking opportunities are plentiful for those interested, primarily in the miniature kitchens of your flat or in the Students' Union, the obvi-ous place to start exploring.

The Freshers experience will be different for everyone. You may have friends from school who have decided to study here too, whilst others will find them-selves surrounded by strang-

ers and people with whom you simply have nothing in common with. Regardless of your situ-ation, don’t worry about it. Be polite, go with the flow and, if in doubt, just carry on asking every-body what degree they’re doing and where they came from.

Regardless of your night time experiences, the real opportu-nities take place during those mysterious hours between sun-rise and sunset. During your first couple of weeks here, there will be stalls and events put on to advertise sports clubs, societ-ies, student media, volunteering, student politics and more. If you want the full university experi-ence over the next few years then you should attend every event, chat at every stall and try ev-erything. Although there will be some introductory lectures and degree-related meetings to attend consider these an inconvenience and don’t worry about homework or revision for the first few weeks of university. If you need an aca-demic justification, remember that you’ll need more than just a degree to get a good job once you leave here.

With the extra-curricular stuff on offer, you can write for news-papers, play a variety of sports, organise and attend events and

competitions, have dinner with world-famous politicians and academics, have your own radio show, travel the world at a sub-sidised rate, teach children and work for charity, create films and learn how to destroy your friends through the power of debate. You can grow vegetables on the grass at the front of the Union or you can hop on a bus and protest in London against the changing face of our education system. Those are just some examples; with hundreds of student groups out there, nobody really knows the full scale of what’s on offer. As an added bonus, you will share these experiences whilst making friends and forging relationships that will last a lifetime.

Although these opportunities will technically always be there, Freshers is the best time to get stuck in, before lectures start and when societies and clubs are geared up and ready for new members with their sparkling in-troductions, initiations and stalls full of cakes and free things. The trick with everything is to say "yes" to whatever looks vaguely interesting. It’s better to join 10 things and drop out when you get too busy than to get halfway through the year realising that most nights still consist of sitting

around in your flat. If you’re new to Cardiff and

you have time to explore, the city has a variety of daytime attrac-tions. It’s little known that stu-dents of Cardiff University can visit Cardiff Castle for free, for example; the museum just down the road from the Union is also free admission and there’s an ar-ray of theatres, cinemas and res-taurants with generous student discounts. If the weather’s nice, Bute Park is the perfect place to relax or you can jump on the long blue buses from the city centre to get to Cardiff Bay.

Remember that there are thou-sands of new students joining you in September this year and over the next three years or longer you will most likely meet hundreds of them. Freshers fortnight is excit-ing and you should relax and en-joy it. However, it is in no way a proper introduction to the actual university experience, nor is this week a test of how well you fit in here. Your time in Cardiff will be defined by the clubs, groups and societies you join, the friendships you choose to pursue and the op-portunities that you grasp with your new found independence. It’s up to you to create your own university experience and to en-joy it while it lasts. Good luck!

13

Jack ParkerOpinion Writer

A guide to your Freshers WeekMonday 17th September 2012 | @gairrhyddop

Opinion11 - 13

“Remember that there are thousands of new students joining you in September this year and over the next three years or longer you will most likely meet hundreds of them

14 / Columnist

The Secret Diary of an Undergrad

The first week of term can be one of the best weeks of the year.

It is the only time in the en-tire academic calendar when you don’t have to feel guilty about not doing work.

For the rest of the year, exams, reading, and essays will hang over your head, like a dark cloud threatening to give you a bad de-gree classification, that will ul-timately lead to never getting a job and being one of the scorned long-term dole claimers. Perhaps that’s just me... Getting back on topic, there is little involved in that first week, you do some sign-ing up on SIMS, have a bit of a chat with your personal tutor, and even the welcome back talk need not be boring if you remem-ber your iPhone.

The long summer months of living off one’s overdraft finally come to an end with the first student loan payment. The first happy loan day of the year is cel-ebrated with friends over a Nan-dos.

And, I urge you enjoy that week because what follow is a book list full of essential texts at eye-watering prices.

The reality that you have to do your own washing up hits. You realise that even though you get Fridays off, you have three 9am starts.

Suddenly the coaxing in of freshers fairs with free food feels like a trap. I know when this point has come because my bag is filled half way with flyers forced on me at the Park Place crossroads. I’m just too nice to say no. The only alleviation from our woe is the welcome back socials run by the

societies you joined. Soon the last of the September

sunshine will disappear and Car-diff will plunge into the seem-ingly never-ending Welsh winter. This part of the year is marked by the death march of umbrel-las on the way to university. The streets are lined with abandoned umbrellas because not only does it rain here, but there’s a strong wind making it impossible to use such contraptions. The well versed Cardiffians among you will have packed waterproof boots and a coat with a hood. If you’re a fresher who optimisti-cally packed sandals, flip-flops and shorts, I recommend you donate them to charity now and save yourself the space in your tiny student halls room.

Perhaps in amongst all this gloom, I have now depressingly made you aware of there is only one hope for us, to make our own fun and happiness. The resolu-tion you made to work harder this year, during the time of revi-sion panic, is long now forgotten. Sure we’ve got to do some work, but let’s be honest, we want a lot more from life than books. At least I do. I came to university, not only to study, but for the ex-perience. As the saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. We don’t all play the same though, do we?

Students are a bit like the spice girls. We somehow merge together well, live together, and have socials, and yet we’re so different a lot of the time. Are you the sporty spice? The one who is running around from ten-nis to rowing to ultimate frisbee.

The person who will spend this week experiencing the infamous initiations, involving a hundred and one different ways to humili-ate yourself? Or, perhaps you are scary spice. The night owl who lives for £1 shots, the person still dancing when the clubs close, and yet still makes it to lectures in the morning. Maybe you’ve just returned from your “gap yah” posh spice, and are perusing the extra-curricular activities for CV worthy material. For you univer-sity is the time to make contacts and get work placements. Hi baby spice, hope that didn’t make you jump. You’ll spend half an hour trying to decide which society to join, only not to attend a single meeting because you didn’t have anyone to go with. Break that habit, find some Dutch courage and jump into university life the Cardiff way- loud and proud.

Because that’s the advice I’m always being given by gradu-ates. The economy is crap, there are no jobs, and everyone’s got a degree nowadays anyway. What really matters in the long run, is what you got out of university, what you did outside of lectures. You get what you put in. These are the best days of our lives they say, and I don’t think they mean the times we locked ourselves alone in our bedrooms to work solidly. They mean all the memo-ries we made with housemates and with society friends, what we achieved with the AU, the of-ficer position you held in the SU, the list goes on. What will you do with your freshers?

By Katie Bennett

A degree is not enoughA degree is not enoughHELP YOUR CV STAND OUT FROM THE REST

FREE COURSES | CERTIF ICATION | ESSENTIAL EMPLOYABIL ITY SKILLS

To see the a full list of courses and to book a place, visit groups.cardiffstudents.com

or email SDS@Cardiff.ac.uk.

Visit the Skills Development Service in the new Centre for Skills, Enterprise and Volunteering, 2nd floor, Students’

Union building.

To see the a full list of courses and to book a place, visit groups.cardiffstudents.com

or email SDS@Cardiff.ac.uk.

Visit the Skills Development Service in the new Centre for Skills, Enterprise and Volunteering, 2nd floor, Students’

Union building.

16 / Special Feature

Meet your elected Officers...

Who are you?

I'm Cari Davies from Rhos-on-Sea in North Wales, I graduated this summer after studying European Politics and International Relations

I'm the President of the Athletic Union. The Athletic Union is the home of sport for Cardiff students; with 60 clubs to choose from, what-ever your interest or ability, we'll have something to suit you!

When should a student come and see you?

If you want to know more about how you can get involved in sport, if you have a problem with your sports club or team, or even if you want to set up a new club of your own feel free to drop by. Most importantly though, I'm here to represent YOUR views to the University; so come and tell me what it is you want from sport at Cardiff. If we don't ask, we'll never get!

What is the best way of contacting you?

Email: aupresident@cardiff.ac.uk Twitter: @aupresidentcsu Facebook: Athleticunion Pres Cardiffsu

What is your big plan this year?

TEAM CARDIFF to smash Swan-sea at Varsity! (again . . . )

Who are you?

I'm Chris, a graduate of Politics from Cardiff. I'm from a small town in Hampshire but have spent the past three years in Car-diff.... and absolutely loved it!I've been involved in student media for three years and have met the best people at university there.

What is your role?I'm the Head of Student Media.

This means that I edit the news-paper and oversee our magazine, Quench, Xpress radio and Cardiff Union TV

When should a student come and see you?If you want to get involved in any aspect of student media, then come and have a chat. Also as editor of gair rhydd I want to hear students' problems, frus-trations and news stories.

What is the best way of contact-ing you? Come up and see me. I'm on the fourth floor and, as such, it can get quite lonely up here so I'm pretty much always free to have a chat.

What is your big plan this year (just name one!)My big plan this year is to try and get our radio and TV stations as well known as possible. There's some brilliant work in student media that you guys need to know about.

Who are you?

Born in northern new town of Warrington, I soon realised the north was not for me and so moved to the lovely Cotswold village of Lechlade, located close to Swindon and Cirences-ter. I left home to peruse an education in City and Regional Planning at the prestigious and party orientated city of Cardiff. I’m sports crazy, food obsessed, a self-confessed lover of TOWIE and enjoy many forms of music and partying.

What is your role?

Union Development and In-ternal Affairs Officer: A simple way of understanding my role is to split it in two: I make sure the Union is developed in ac-cordance with what you want; whether that’s cheaper nights out, more CV boosting oppor-tunities or different menus in the Taff for example… The sec-ond half of my job (the Internal Affairs bit) is to ensure more students are engaged with the Union through such things as student democracy, student voting and more generally that students actually know what services and events we have to offer.

When should a student come and see you?

Pop up to my office whenever you want! If you have any ques-tions, suggestions, complaints (hopefully not too many of these!) then please feel free to come and let me know what you think or what you want when-ever your free to do so.

What is the best way of contact-ing you?

I personally like meeting people face to face or receiving phone calls.

What is your big plan this year?

I want to engage with a wider range of students by creating a new system of student gover-nance – So basically giving stu-dents the opportunity to make some serious changes around the Union!

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,¶P�+DUU\��,�ZDV�WKH�6RFLHWLHV�2I¿FHU�last year and am now Students' Union 3UHVLGHQW��,YH�QRW�\HW�¿QLVKHG�P\�GH-gree - I've still got a year left doing engineering after this!

What is your role?

As President, I co-ordinate the Elect-HG�2I¿FHU�WHDP��OREE\�WKH�WKH�8QLYHU-sity's Senior Management for a better student experience and set direction for our Union based on students' feed-back.

When should a student come and see you?

Come and see me with ideas and we'll chat them through. Being that I meet weekly with the University's Vice Chancellor, this is a really fast and effective route to get heared right at the top.

What is the best way of contacting you?

(LWKHU�GURS�LQ�WR�WKH��UG�ÀRRU�RI�WKH�Union or email president@cardiff.ac.uk.

What is your big plan this year?

With fees rising so high this year it JLYHV�XV�DEVROXWH�OHJLWHPDF\�WR�¿JKW�for more from the Uni. I'd like to see them invest heavily in sports facili-ties and libraries and commit to better teaching. We've got some really excit-ing changes planned for the Union's building as well including a brand new front entrance and a really smart new space for the AU, Societies, aca-demic representation and advice.

President

Who are you?

I’m Meg - some may know me as MEGatron from Election week. I’ m from Porthcawl, a lovely sea-side Welsh town, not far from Cardiff. I did so much at Uni and loved every minute of it. I stud-ied Journalism and Sociology and spent a lot of my time with my society, People and Planet, doing lots of campaigning in the com-munity and with student council in the union but also having fun at Come Play on a Saturday night. Hopefully my involvement with so much already will mean I can help as many students as possible in my role.

What is your role?

Welfare and Community Officer - not Welfare and Communication as it was last year.

When should a student come and see you?

If you want someone to chat to about how you are finding uni-versity life – pop by my office

anytime and I will listen and do my best to help and improve the situation. I’m here to run cam-paigns, to improve the whole ex-perience for students, especially on issues like student support, housing, safety and so much more. I am a keen campaigner so if you want to raise awareness and get support for an issue that you care about, whether it effects students at Cardiff, people in the UK or even on the other side of the world – let me know and we can work together!

What is the best way of contact-ing you?

Pop by my office/Phone/Email – I will respond to all! I am also a great believe in social media, so if you want to just share views and ideas on union activity, uni-versity, popular culture or cur-rent affairs – tweet me, it’s a great way to spread the word and spark change!

What is your big plan this year (just name one!)

At the moment I am working on a “Safe Taxi Scheme”. This is a scheme where students will be able to use their student card as payment of their fare in a taxi. They can then go to the union the next day and pay the taxi fare and collect their student card. It’s a scheme I’ve copied from lots of other student unions across the country to improve safety. I have so many more plans but will hopefully be blogging on the website to keep you all updated!

17Monday September 17th 2012 | @gairrhyddpol

Who are you?

I’m Beth Button, a prolific tea drinking West Country girl from just outside Bath, I studied Edu-cation and Sociology and spent most of my time at University in the pub, playing netball or in the lash with my netball team. I was a student academic representative throughout my time at University and through this, I was part of ac-ademic and student council, both of which added to my love of all things union and educational!

What is your role?

My official title is education and University affairs officer, howev-er education officer will do!

When should a student come and see you?

Pop up and see me anytime you like, however I can’t guarantee I’ll

be in my office at 3am on a Sun-day night! I’m here to represent students on the issues and cam-paigns you have, so if you have an idea or an issue you’d like help taking action on I’ll be able to help you take that forward to the University. Students can come and see me with any educational query, question or problem, or just for a chat about University life in general!

What is the best way of contact-ing you?

Pop up to my office on the third floor for a cup of tea, biscuit and a chat, or you can email, phone, tweet or facebook me!

What is your big plan this year?

One of my most exciting projects is to improve the personal tutor system, to ensure every student is engaged in a personal tutor/tutee relationship that is use-ful and supportive. Part of this will involve researching the cur-rent quality of the personal tu-tor systems, so if you have any opinions or experiences please let me know! Another major part of this project will involve lob-bying the University to make it compulsory for personal tutors to undergo training which will include, amongst other things, in depth mental health training which will improve their capac-ity to support students.

Special Feature

Who are you?

Hi I’m Hannah your Heath Park &DPSXV�2I¿FHU��,¶P�D�3K\VLRWKHUDS\�graduate so have a good knowledge of the needs of healthcare students. I’m originally from a little place called Bromsgrove, but love Cardiff so much that I just couldn’t leave!

What is your role?

$V�+HDWK�3DUN�&DPSXV�2I¿FHU�,�DP�here to represent all healthcare stu-dents based up at the Heath on issues such a social, academic and welfare. I sit in university meeting to ensure

the needs of these students are met. Additionally I also want to develop the service provision up at the Heath Hub, so that healthcare students feel they have similar opportunities to those on Park Place.

When should a student come and see you?

Come and see me if you are a Health-care student and have any form of issue with your course. Also if you want to make something happen for healthcare students, or have an idea to make Heath life even better.

What is the best way of contacting you?

Your best bet to track me down is HPDLOLQJ� PH� RQ� +HDWK&DPSXV2I¿-cer@Cardiff.ac.uk

What is your big plan this year?

My big aim for the year is to improve communication between healthcare students and the students union, to ensure everyone has opportunities and is fairly represented.

Who are you?

Hey, I’m Adam Curtis, a graduate in Religious Studies and Theology. I Got Involved and I loved Cardiff. I was a member of several societies and on the committee for the Chris-tian Union. I’m 6 foot 6, so nearly a giant and thus a little intimidating, but hopefully not to intimidating that you will not come and talk to me.

What is your role?

6RFLHWLHV�2I¿FHU��$Q\WKLQJ�UHODWHG�WR�societies and I’m your man. Whether you want to set one up, join one or need help in running one.

When should a student come and see you?

Even though the societies are my main responsibility, I’m also here to repre-sent you and make your time here at Cardiff amazing. So even if it’s not societies related please feel free to email, twitter, Facebook, phone, or even come up and talk face to face with me.

What is the best way of contacting you?

Befriend me on Facebook and send me a message – Cardiff SU Societies 2I¿FHU

What is your big plan this year?

GO GLOBAL IS GOING TO GET ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. Prepare to be amazed.

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ica Affairs

Jimmy Carr hit headlines earlier this summer when it was discov-ered that he had been using a tax avoidance scheme to save him-self a hefty tax bill. Carr immedi-ately apologised when the news went public, saying he had "made a terrible error of judgement", and actually benefitted from the publicity – David Cameron controversially branded him as “morally wrong”, but the follow-ing evening viewer ratings for his show ‘8 out of 10 Cats’ soared by an extra half-million.

So what had he actually been doing? He had been using a tax-minimising scheme called K2, run by the accounting firm “Peak that is actually entirely legal. Tax avoidance is different to tax eva-sion, the former being the one in question here and the latter be-ing against the law.

Under the K2 tax scheme, Jimmy Carr’s earnings went to a parent company by which he was ‘employed’ for tax purpos-es. This allowed him to be paid a basic salary with a low tax rate, and then receive the rest of his earnings in the form of a loan, which would not require taxation. It has emerged that the Treasury has been aware of these

tax avoidance schemes for years, with thousands of wealthy indi-viduals taking advantage of them and sheltering money from the Treasury. It is not just Carr that has been involved in this – it has emerged that Frankie Boyle and Gary Barlow have also used simi-lar schemes, leading to calls from Labour for the latter to return his OBE.

Currently, there is nothing the Treasury can do to reclaim this tax, as it is all perfectly legal, just frowned upon. It is up to the government to change the rules

regarding taxation if they wish to put a halt to these avoidance schemes. Whilst Jimmy Carr accepted full blame for his tax avoidance, Frankie Boyle took the other route and claimed it was false reporting, saying on Twitter that 40% of his income had gone towards tax (making his overall contribution £2.7 million).

Despite David Cameron’s at-tack on Carr, the Prime Minister refused to comment on Gary Bar-low and Frankie Boyle. Labour leader Ed Miliband decided not to attack Jimmy Carr's tax arrange-

ments, saying: "I'm not in favour of tax avoidance obviously, but I don't think it is for politicians to lecture people about morality.”

Labour has accused Mr Cam-eron of having a partial view of "what's dodgy in the tax system". Shadow Commons leader Angela Eagle said: "The Prime Minister rushed to the TV studios to con-demn the tax avoidance scheme used by Jimmy Carr, but he did

not take the opportunity to con-demn as morally repugnant the tax avoidance scheme used by Conservative supporter Gary Barlow, who's given a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Take That'. If it's all so morally repug-nant, why has he just been given an OBE in the Birthday Honours List?"

It remains to be seen whether or not the Treasury can reclaim Carr’s tax, or whether he will repay it himself as a gesture of goodwill and an attempt to in-crease publicity. Ultimately, the real issue here is that tax avoid-ance remains perfectly legal and the government seem to be selec-tive about whom they condemn.

18 / Politics

“

Jimmy Carr: Comedian or Tax Avoider?

Politics reporter Trisha Chowdhury looks into the recent Barclays scandal

Ever since the Bar-clays Libor rate-fixing scandal was unearthed, there has been a politi-cal storm. People’s

faith in Britain’s banking sector is slowly sublimating. Though many key people involved are al-ready in the line of fire, more of this scandal is being uncovered.

Libor is the London InterBank Offered Rate set by the British Bankers' Association (BBA), and is widely considered to be one of the most important interest rates in the financial sector. These rates are a benchmark for a vast proportion of daily transactions, but between 2005 and mid-2012, Libor rates were fixed by traders at Barclays. This scandal has had tremendous global implications and is being investigated by fi-nancial regulators from all over the world. According to a report by the Financial Services Author-ity (FSA), these activities were not limited just to Barclays staff in the UK, external traders based anywhere from New York to To-kyo are also implicated.

The scandal was admitted by Barclays on June 27th. Following this, the bank has been fined by several financial institutions, in-

cluding £59.5 million by the FSA, £102 million by the US Depart-ment of Justice and £128 million by the Commodity Futures Trad-ing Commission (CFTC). Alto-gether, the total amount that the bank is expected to pay is close to £290 million. As of July, the Se-rious Fraud Office (SFO) is inves-tigating the scandal as a criminal investigation and this could lead to the accused facing criminal charges.

The Barclays organisation has suffered a serious loss of reputa-tion resulting from the manipula-tion of Libor. Many of the bank’s top officials have had to resign to avoid further degradation of the bank’s reputation: Chairman Mar-cus Agius, Chief Executive Bob Diamond and Chief Operating Officer Jerry Del Missier. Agius, however, has agreed to stay until Diamond’s replacement is found. Surprisingly enough, sharehold-ers were against Diamond’s res-ignation; however, regulators had lost faith in him and this led to his resignation. The franchise’s reputation has also gone down among credit rating agencies. The highly credible Moody’s has downgraded Barclays' credit rat-ing outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘nega-tive’.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, was quickly earmarked by the Prime Minister to head a parliamentary inquiry into the banking sector, but its formation was not with-out controversy, causing a minor

storm in Westminster. Ed Mili-band and the Labour Party had hoped for a fully independent, Leveson-style judicial enquiry. This option, however, was over-ruled and rejected by Parliament, and the cross-party internal en-quiry was established.

The Chancellor, George Os-borne, is in full support of the en-quiry and said, "I think we have got a really good set of MPs and some real experts in the House of Lords who can get to the bot-tom of what happened quickly so we can change the law and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Meanwhile, Libor emails re-cently published showed gov-

ernment involvement in the rate-fixing scandal. The Cabinet Secretary, Jeremy Heywood, and Deputy Governor of The Bank of England, Paul Tucker, apparently exchanged a series of emails, showing the government’s appre-hension at the high Libor rates and Barclays’ involvement in it. However, it was concluded that none of the emails tend to suggest that Tucker influenced Diamond to reduce the Libor rates, though there was an occasion where a phone call by Paul Tucker to Bob Diamond was misinterpreted by the former Del Missier, to under-report Barclays’ Libor rates.

The Barclays scandal has cre-ated a huge mess for the entire banking and financial sector of Britain; indeed this scandal looks set to affect many more banks. The government should focus solely on this one issue and han-dle the situation with great cau-tiousness in order to ensure that such an incident is not repeated again.

As the enquiry proceeds, more information is bound to be re-vealed and we can only hope that the true offenders are found in due course.

Barclays’ rate fixing rocks financial world

The Barclays scandal has created a huge mess for the entire banking and financial sector of Britain

There is nothing the Treasury can do to reclaim this tax

Jimmy Carr speaks out on Twitter

The highly credible Moody’s has down-graded Barclays' credit rating out-look from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’

Helen Louise CoxNews Editor

On Thursday the 14th of June, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg took time out of his busy ministerial schedule to visit the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff Bay, and give a speech to the Wales Governance Centre, a body comprising members of Car-diff University Law and Politics departments. The speech, en-titled Power and Responsibil-ity: Where next for devolution? was delivered to an audience in the Pierhead Building consisting mostly of AMs, but also a small contingent of academics from the University and press.

As a cabinet minister with a special responsibility for consti-tutional reform, Mr Clegg’s views on the future of devolution and the distribution of power away from the Westminster Bubble will prove very significant in shaping the political future of wales in the uncertain years to come, so all at-tendees where very eager to hear what he had to say on the sub-ject. It is relatively uncommon for leaders of the three main UK parties to give speeches on welsh politics; indeed Mr Clegg told us he was the first to do so since the mid 1990’s, thanks in his opinion to the relatively devolved federal structure of the Liberal Demo-crat Party.

Unfortunately, some of the au-dience may have been left disap-pointed, since Mr Clegg in fact spent a good portion of his lec-ture outlining the challenges of the political situation in Europe, rather than the specific politics of devolution. Of course you can make the argument, as Mr Clegg did, that the two processes are simply two sides of the same coin; as modern pressures of globalisa-tion often force power to migrate from central governments, both up and down. It is no coincidence that the EU has come of age as a political entity simultaneously with devolved assemblies such as those in Wales and Scotland.

Mr Clegg described it as one of the major dividing lines in poli-tics today; those who understand the ways in which nation-states are losing power to supra- and sub-national bodies, and those who reject it, and become deter-

mined to maintain the historical-ly strong nation-state in the same form it has always existed in. This could be read as a veiled criticism of some of his coalition partners in the conservative backbenches, who strongly oppose transfer-ring policy capabilities to both the European Union and the UK regions, whenever a vote to such effect is taken in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats on the other hand are firmly committed to the diffusion and decentralisation of powers, having even go so far as to make a manifesto commitment to a federal political structure for the UK, with each region having similar levels of self-governance to that of American States.

It is in this context that Nick

Clegg made a fairly passionate case in defence of a multi-lev-elled structure of political gov-ernance, despite the challenges that all levels face at this time. He argued that the economic and po-litical crises in Europe should not be used as a justification for the strengthening of national govern-ments at the expense of European institutions or devolved adminis-trations. Historically, European integration has progressed much more successfully when times of crisis have provided some sort of impetus for change, but we must not, Mr Clegg stressed, surrender this debate to populist extrem-ists. Political developments have always lagged behind economic realities, meaning that now a

great political leap is needed. But is there any appetite for this?

On the specific issue of Welsh

Devolution, Mr Clegg was ada-mant; the process must progress until the Assembly Government has the power to raise taxes to fund its own activities. Only then he said would it be held prop-erly accountable to Welsh vot-ers. While technical discussions

about tax and spend policies can often leave electorates cold, he said it was vital that welsh poli-ticians find an engaging way to communicate this to the people.

Although much of his speech was quite negative, bemoaning the sorry state of political and economic institutions across the UK and Europe, Nick Clegg did end on a more positive note; call-ing for a more open and consen-sual political system, rather than the current rotten model, which he described as being driven by blame and conflict.

gair rhydd requested an inter-view with Nick Clegg, but unfor-tunately he declined.

19

Nick Clegg delivers speech on devolutionMonday September 17th 2012 | @gairrhyddpol

It is relatively un-common for leaders of the three main UK parties to give speeches on Welsh politics

A note from the Politics editors:

Hello and welcome to/back to Cardiff! If you want to get involved with gair rhydd or write for us, come along to one of our contribution meetings, email us or send us a tweet. Have a great year! - Helen and Thom

Politics18 - 20

@gairrhyddpol politics@gairrhydd.com

Thom HollickNews Editor

20/ Politics

Obama v Romney: The dates are setWith Presidential elections on the horizon, Trisha Chowdhury reports on what we can expect in the months ahead

The US Presiden-tial elections have the whole world watching with bated breath. Mitt Romney from the

Republican Party has emerged as the front-runner. He is the party’s presumptive nominee and would run against incumbent President Barack Obama in the 2012 Presi-dential elections.

Romney is an influential American businessman. He has been actively involved with poli-tics since 1994. He served as the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, and ran in the 2008 Presidential elections, losing his nomination to the Republican fa-vourite, John McCain. In the 2012 election campaign, Romney has targeted President Obama pri-marily on one ground: the down-turn of the American economy. Romney’s corporate background and organisation has gained him a lot of public support. He has also raised the largest amount of money for the Republican Party compared to the other candi-dates. At present, Romney is the Republican Party’s official nomi-nee, commanding tremendous public support.

President Barack Obama is one of the most influential Presi-dents that America has had and a member of the Democratic Party. A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Obama is the first African-Amer-ican President of the United States. His term as President of the United States has witnessed many significant events, includ-ing the end of the Iraq War. He has also worked increasingly

hard to strengthen the United States’ foreign ties, thus improv-ing the nation’s foreign relations with many countries. Obama is seen not only as the President of the United States, but also as a global leader.

The Presidential debates are scheduled to be held on Octo-ber 3rd, 16th and 22nd. The Vice Presidential debate will be on October 11th.

The most remarkable fact in the current Presidential elec-tions is the amount of money that is being spent. Since the start of his campaign, Romney had been spending exorbitant figures on advertisement campaigns against President Obama. Romney has strictly avoided funding his cam-paigns from his company, Bain Capital, but his immense wealth has certainly helped the funding process. The Republican Party, with the help of Romney, raised a combined amount of $100 million in the month of June. Romney’s campaign is being supported by independent groups, resulting in more party donors. On the other hand, President Obama’s Demo-cratic Party is struggling with funding. The President has even joked that he is “in danger of be-coming the first sitting president in history to be outspent by his opponent”.

The passing of the Patient Pro-tection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as ‘Obama-care’, is a possible turning point of public opinion. The reform initiated by the President was considered controversial and was at the receiving end of much crit-icism. The reform involved some

major tax hikes to make health insurance mandatory for every individual and offer benefits to in-dividuals below the poverty line. This so-cialist ap-proach to hea l th -care in c a p i -talist

Amer-ica was an area w h e r e Pres ident Obama lost a lot of confi-dence of the peo-ple. However, this reform has now been passed by the Supreme Court and this might affect pub-lic perspective favouring Presi-dent Obama.

The elections are thick with

controversy with mudsling-ing from both

sides. While President

O b a m a h a s

b e e n c r i t i -

cised time and again by

Romney on the economic condition of the Unit-ed States and the President’s in-ability to deal with it, Romney also has his fair share of critics,

not just from other parties, but from his own party as well, as it is believed in the Republican Party that he is not conservative enough.

Romney says that there are "no new answers" for the economy from the President, but the fig-ures do suggest otherwise: with every passing day, unemployment figures in the United States are steadily declining. Romney says his priority is "jobs", but more Americans are now employed and critics say that Romney’s campaign lacks ‘initiative’. However, new controversies have emerged surrounding Mitt Romney and Bain Capi-tal. The present debate is regarding Romney’s wealth. President Obama’s new cam-paign video poses these ques-tions: "How long can Romney keep information on his in-vestments in overseas tax ha-vens secret? And why did he do it in the first place?”

Recent polls show that for voters, the two candidates are

roughly on a par with each other, and the decision could go either way. The majority of voters are comfortable with the idea of hav-ing a generic white male candi-date; however, with the Hispanic and African-American commu-nity, Obama is extremely popular, and Romney faces a challenge if he wishes to attract these votes.

The picture will become clear-er with the start of the Presiden-tial debates; until then, the rest of the world looks on and waits for the President of America to be elected.

US Election ScheduleNovember 6, 2012

Election day

D R

48% 47%

http://politi.co/OjuBiR

December 17, 2012

President and Vice President are elected by the Electoral College (Presidential electors elected by the people)

January 6, 2013

A joint session of Con-gress is held to officially count the Electoral votes

January 20, 2013

Inauguration DayThe Presidential debates are scheduled to be held on Octo-ber 3rd, 16th and 22nd. The Vice Presidential debate will be on October 11th.

Science21 - 22

21Monday 17th September 2012 | @gairrhyddsci

I actually had to check the cal-endar year when the news about Cardiff University’s kittens re-search broke. It disappoints me that, in the year 2012, some stud-ies are still using animal test sub-jects, despite all of our supposed advancements in medical science and gene therapy. Cardiff Univer-sity says in its media statements that it is trying to conduct less animal testing – yet it accounts for 96% of animal testing carried out by universities in Wales.

The crucial difference between animal and human testing is that human participants are given a choice whether to participate or not - animals weren’t. Cardiff University in its statement, uses the same tactic every pro-test-ing campaign does – tugging at people’s heart strings by alluding to the children that would have suffered without animal testing, or referring to the medications, such as those for diabetes, that needed animal testing in order to be developed. This is almost a dirty tactic, and distracts people from the fact that animals are put through suffering that no one in

this country would allow any hu-man being to endure.

Cardiff University states that there are researchers who are actively looking into ways of cutting down on using animals in experiments – yet it contin-ues to support animal testing in accordance with the Home Of-fice laws. But are these laws not as old-fashioned and useless as animal testing itself? If, instead of kittens, humans were to have had their eyes sewn shut and electrodes cut into their necks, there would have been uproar. We are already at the top of the food chain, and we have caused enough destruction and extinc-tion as it is, yet we still abuse the lives of those weaker than us in order to prolong our own. What gives us this right to play God with animals’ lives?

Cardiff University needs to fo-cus on cutting down on animal research, and instead ask for hu-man subjects, and demonstrate to the public that there are ways other than sewing kittens’ eyes shut to medically advance our-selves in the 21st century.

A controversial experiment that involved kittens eyes being sewn together has been condemned by animal rights protestors.

Cardiff University’s kitten ex-periment has been described as “cruel” and “unacceptable” by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) . Cardiff Coun-cil’s

deputy councillor called the tests “reprehensible” and has even out-raged celebrity Ricky Gervais.

The University used kittens in the experiment for six objec-tives - one of which, information on ‘lazy eyes’ was widely re-ported. It was also jus-t i - fied as the ex-

periment aimed to give a

bet-

ter understanding of the neuro-science of vision.

Whilst the research ended in 2010, the results of the experi-ment - which involved sewing the eyes shut of a group of kittens and kittens raised in total dark-ness - have just been released.

The report stated the differ-ences between each group of kit-tens used in the experiment. “The first group of animals were raised

in a normal 12-hour light/d a r k c yc l e

until 10 days, 3 w e e k s ,

5 weeks, 12 weeks and one

year of age...

An-

other group were raised in com-plete darkness from birth, to-gether with their mother until 3 weeks, 5 weeks and 12 weeks of age....A fifth group was nor-mally reared and then underwent [monocular deprivation] by lid suture under general anaesthesia either starting at postnatal day 30 or 32 for two days or starting at postnatal day 28 for seven days.”

The BUAV launched a staunch criticism of the research, with one BUAV vet claiming the ex-periment could have just as easily used humans, rather than kittens, in the research, although such a claim has been heavily refuted by University staff.

Cats as a species were used be-cause of their eyesight, although researchers could equally have used were monkeys. However, the sheer cost of using monkeys meant that using kittens was the more cost-effective option.

Research into the neurosci-ence of vision has happened for years. The experiment was branded ‘successful’ by the Uni-versity meaning that further

research can be done on the is-sue, this time using rats and mice rather than kittens - something that could not have happened without kittens being used in the original experiments.

In every experiment involving potential pain in animals, sci-entists must justify their use of animals. In this case, the knowl-edge the results would give ren-dered it a 'benefit to the world'. The experiment also needed to be achievable and the scientifi-cally sound. This experiment was deemed to tick all the boxes.

Advice was taken from the Home Office to ensure that the experiment could legally take place, ensuring that the animals were in minimal pain. The Home Office Inspectorate also regularly checks locations such as Cardiff University that are doing experi-ments on animals to ensure their legality.

University experiment sews eyes of newborn kittens together

Chris WilliamsEditor

Whenever considering the is-sue of animal testing, the phrase ‘necessary evil’ often springs to my mind – and in Cardiff ’s case in particular, the situation is no different.

In terms of PR, it is indeed very unfortunate. There’s no deny-ing that the researchers did take quite possibly the world’s cutest animals, and did indeed carry out truly barbaric-sounding experi-ments on them.

However, the reality isn’t quite as straightforward as that, and this isn’t just experimentation for the sake of experimentation.

Neither the Cardiff scientists, nor the Home Office officials are the sadistic monsters the public is making them out to be – they’re human beings, same as us, who aren’t afraid to do what’s necessary to solve issues that are very real.

The university is adamant that such research wouldn’t be initi-ated without direct healthcare benefits – and already, thanks to the controversial research, Car-diff ’s scientists have improved their understanding of the pro-cesses in the brain that adapt it to changes in the developing visual system. Already, real, tangible steps are being made towards un-derstanding and treating amblyo-

pia, thanks to this study.As such, amblyopia may be set

for a place in the long list of con-ditions made significantly more treatable thanks to animal stud-ies – a list that includes meningi-tis, diabetes, polio and asthma.

Furthermore, understanding lazy eye was but one of six ob-jectives of the experiment – the study simply wouldn’t have got-ten the go-ahead if there weren’t numerous benefits to be reaped from it.

Despite what the public are saying, Cardiff University has insisted that it is absolutely im-possible to collect this data in any other way – alternative tech-nology such as CT scanning and computer modelling is simply in-adequate for this study.

I’d be willing to bet that sci-entists know their own science better than the average angry Twitter user or overly outspoken critic.

And speaking of critics, I must ask for a little self-reflection on the part of the ones who (this is especially relevant to the student body), in their spare time, insist on partaking in budget supermar-ket food and fast food – markets mired in questionable moral-ity – in spite of genuinely viable and equally useful alternatives. Hopefully, the misplaced moral values will then become more apparent.

Alexey UnderwoodScience Editor

ForA

gainst

Emma DudleyScience Writer

The Students Respond

Over the summer, CERN physi-cists from the Large Hadron Col-lider (LHC) in Geneva have ob-served a particle with properties that are consistent with those of the elusive Higgs boson, marking the beginning of a new wave of scientific discovery.

Sometimes known as the ‘God particle’, the Higgs boson has been at the centre of a search to understand how matter attains its mass for the best part of 45 years.

Speaking at the announce-ment conference in Geneva, the spokesperson for the CMS (Com-pact Muon Solenoid, one of the LHC’s particle detectors), Prof

Joe Incandela, told the assembled crowd : “The results are prelimi-nary but the five-sigma signal at around 125 GeV we're seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle.”

But I shall leave out most of the heavy science (see what I did there?) in favour of answer-ing plainly: what the bloody hell does Higgs want with a boson?

The first thing to get out of the way is talks of bosons and fields. In the early universe, all of the particles that occupied it had no mass. They would therefore move through space unrestricted

and at the speed of light. About a trillionth of a second

after the Big Bang (it wasn’t the early universe for very long you see) what we now call the Higgs field was ‘switched on’. This field slowed different particles down by giving them mass. Es-sentially, it is like ‘drag’ but for particles, weighing different par-ticles down and stopping them from moving freely at the speed of light. An exception, although not unique, is the photon, which remains massless.

Higgs bosons are the particles that make up the Higgs field. In order to detect them, however, we must recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang - enter the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC allows us to fire protons at each

other, creating a relatively ‘big’ bang (but realistically, quite a small bang).

After the collision, all sorts of particles come out of a flash of energy, including electrons and quarks, but most importantly the Higgs boson. What makes the Higgs so elusive is that as soon as it is created and has done its job, it starts to decay into other particles, and they in turn, also decay.

And that is pretty much how it works and why it has taken so long to find anything close to the Higgs.

One question that may be sur-facing, is why not just call it the Higgs boson, then?

What is all this talk about ‘con-sistent with’ and ‘according to the Standard Model’ for? To put it simply: it is because there are so many different decay patterns.

(I’m going to get a tad more science-y now so you can skip to the concluding paragraph if you like)

When you have a Standard Model Higgs, it will choose ran-domly among the decay options it has. That said, it will still do so according to probabilities that are precisely predicted in the Standard Model. But then this is quantum physics and, at this level, individual events cannot simply be predicted.

The Higgs in the Standard Model, as I have mentioned above, is there to give particles their mass. Specifically, however, it is there to give mass to two distinct types of particle: bosons and fermions. The Higgs breaks the symmetry between two of the four fundamental forces of nature – specifically, the weak and the electromagnetic forces - by giving the bosons carrying weak force mass, while leaving the photon, which carries the electromagnetic force, massless. For the Higgs to do this, it itself has to have a mass similar to that

of the weak bosons. This is fun-damentally at the heart of why physicists knew that, if the Higgs existed, they could find it with the LHC.

I shall not go into it further than that for fear of leaving my knowledge zone (which is limited in the world of science), but the whole thing does get more com-plicated and I’m sure if you’re interested then you can do some research into the world of fermi-ons, quarks and neutrinos.

So, Higgs bosons make up a Higgs field that existed to give particles their mass. It therefore accounts for all unexplained mass in the universe. It doesn’t disprove God, as the tabloids like to point out in their wonderfully original headlines. What it does

do is lead us into a wonderful and exciting future of science and one that we are all living through.

“So basically the Higgs boson did to matter what divorce did to Betty Draper” - @RonanFarrow

Editor’s note – For a particle physics discovery to be consid-ered significant (i.e. not due to chance), the data needs to have a 5-sigma level of certainty. Since the time of writing, CERN’s data has now reached 5.9-sigma of cer-tainty, and is therefore more sig-nificant than previously thought.

A recent study has suggested that people can substantially re-duce the risk of suffering from stomach cancer simply by cut-ting down on their salt intake. The study by the World Research Cancer Fund (WCRF), states that by reducing everyday salt intake to a maximum of 6 grams, the UK Guideline Daily Amount (GDA), the chances of stomach cancer could be lessened.

Stomach cancer is the seventh-most common cause of cancer death in the UK. Although there has recently been a downward trend in the UK population’s salt consumption from an average 9.5 grams per day in 2000/01 to 8.6 grams in 2008, it is still 43% above the recommended daily amount of 6 grams. According to the WCRF, an estimated 14% of stomach cancer cases could have been avoided if there were a dec-rement in dietary salt intake.

Salt is not only associated with stomach cancer, but also blood pressure and heart conditions. It has also been closely linked to kidney diseases and osteoporo-sis. The head of health informa-tion at the WCRF, Kate Mendoza, had the following to say - “This places even greater emphasis on making lifestyle choices to pre-vent disease from occurring in the first place - such as cutting down on salt intake and eating more fruit and vegetables.”

Although one can reduce salt intake significantly by institut-ing self-control, it becomes chal-lenging when processed food is involved – especially popular with students. Furthermore, salt is already present in many food items that includes bread, bacon and even breakfast cereal.

In order to tackle this problem, the WCRF has called for food manufacturers and supermar-kets to clearly state their food products’ salt content on their packaging – a call supported by Cancer Research UK and the De-partment of Health. According to the WCRF, products should be labelled using a ‘traffic-lights’ system - with a red label for high salt content, amber for medium, and green for low.

Although much is being done by organisations to increase awareness of the risks of salt, the ultimate decision to alter one’s lifestyle and diet lies with the in-dividual alone.

CERN physicists make histo-ry for the world of science

Luke SladeScience Writer

Cutting salt

could reduce

cancer riskTrisha ChowdhuryScience Writer

22 / Science

www

24 / Societies

On the evening of Friday, June 15th, the Students' Union opened its doors to the biggest, the lon-gest and easily the most antici-pated Cardiff student event of 2012.

This year saw our annual ball brought to its spiritual home at the heart of student life - previous Summer Balls having been held in Bute Park to dubious success - and, fittingly, it saw the physical Union building revamped into a first-class venue, one complete with champagne reception, gar-den, BBQ , Casino room and live music performed throughout the evening, inside and al fresco.

The music was courtesy of Cardiff University’s Big Band & Jazz Society - the University’s ex-cellent 10-piece band Giles Room Jazz performing superbly in the International Lounge, trans-formed for the occasion into a re-laxed and comfy cocktail bar.

Big Band’s Musical Director Jeremy Meddows-Taylor shared his thoughts with gair rhydd: ‘The band and I really enjoyed our night at the Dusk Til Dawn Ball and wish to congratulate the Union on the success of the event.

We had a great stage to play on in the impressive VIP Garden and a large and appreciative audience around us - that always makes a good gig! Personally, I found it a very fitting end to what has been a very exciting and progressive year for the band. We have taken part in a big band festival in Sun-derland, played the BBC Hoddi-nott Hall, and this August (Sun-day 12th) we have been invited to perform at the internationally-renowned Brecon Jazz Festival. To be part of a line-up that will feature some of the greatest jazz artists in the world is a real hon-our and privilege!"

The state-of-the-art third-floor Lounge demonstrated the true versatility of its space, festooned with swathes of swagging - as were three floors of the Union in an Alive in Wonderland theme. The transformation was master-ful and the contribution from JazzSoc and Big Band indispens-able: thanks must go to Jeremy and all the musicians, who gave of their time, their talent, and not to mention their evening at the Ball to give others such superb entertainment.

The end-of-year Ball is a feature familiar to a substantial number of Sabbatical Officer candidates’

manifestos every year, and it can seem that each hopeful is willing their event-themed words full of pre-election zeal to help rake in the votes and propel them into the role of Union officer. It is notable that, for the first time in years, those who promised deliv-ered, and we put on a party to be proud of. It is a success reflected

in the figures: the total income of the Ball, £26,523, outdid the total cost of £25,024, making a total profit of £1,499. Ticket revenue totalled £15,083 and revenue from the bars £11,439, helping to push this event into previously unex-plored realms of success.

Adam Curtis, our newly-elect-ed Societies Officer, shares his

thoughts on this ‘incredible’ event with the gair rhy-dd: "These sta-tistics are pretty impressive con-sidering the fact that the last few Balls have only ever lost a lot of money. Personally, I loved the soci-ety input into the Ball: I thought the Jazz band was one of the best acts of the night and real-ly gave the garden a sense of class. They made it fun and enjoyable, and were a little bit different from the main headline acts, which is al-ways a good thing. The headline Lady Gaga tribute act was very cheesy, but greatly enjoy-able; the Casino room was so much fun and all the ex-tra bits around the Union, such as the henna tattoo area made the event in-credible."

But the Ball should be more

than a party-themed election ploy, as Adam has been keen to emphasise. In the April 23rd edi-tion of gair rhydd (Issue 976), he commented on his use of the Ball as a ‘campaign strategy’, sharing that "people seemed to think it was an easy policy, a cop-out - but I seriously think we can do a good summer ball. People want a good summer ball [and] I would do it differently: I would combine the universities – Cardiff, UWIC, Royal Welsh. Swansea University managed to get a great act – Flor-ence and the Machine – as a head-line, which obviously attracts at-tention and is expensive, but […] if we combined with all the other universities, we’d definitely have enough people interested."

Looking back, many will agree that Cardiff Students' Union (CSU) has now certainly deliv-ered the goods and produced that ‘good summer ball’ by itself, al-though one may well echo Adam when he observes that "it’s a real shame that more societies did not get involved with the ball, even if it is understandable that mem-bers probably just wanted to go and have a good time." We antici-pate along with Adam that "next year the society involvement will hopefully increase - thus making the ball bigger and better."

Even at the beginning of a new academic year, we can surely still look forward to our end-of-year event, coming as it will on the watch of new CSU President and former Societies Officer Harry Newman, and the latest enthusi-astic team of Sabbatical officers. I, for one, look forward to another great night out made particularly memorable by the involvement of our many societies’ members.

The Dusk Till Dawn Ball: A Review from Societies

Vanessa PlattSocieties Editor

www

25Monday 17th September 2012 | @gairrhyddop

Learn something new, develop an interest or hone a skill - here is your gair rhydd guide to this year’s

fayres…

DAY 1: The Capoiera Society – ‘a Brazilian art form combining ele-ments of martial art, dance, acro-batics and music which evolved from the struggle of African slaves against their oppressors.

It benefits fitness, flexibility and rhythm as well as giving an opportunity to learn to play some unusual musical instruments and to speak a bit of Portuguese.’ Entering their second year, this lively young society would love to tell you more at their stall.

DAY 2: The Airsoft Society orga-nises games of this combat simu-lation sport, like paintballing but using plastic ‘BBs’, and is looking for those with a taste for this fun tactical sport to join them.

Young’uns

DAY 1: The Fruit and Veg Co-op is ‘a student-led service society which offers convenient weekly access to economically priced fruit, vegetables, salad and stir fry ingredients’ in the Union.

...and The Cooking Society, is there to help you ‘learn basic cooking skills and recipes which are easy, quick and cheap’.

The Duke of Edinburgh Soci-ety offers students the opportu-nity to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award scheme.

…and Keep a look out for the many course-based societies too.

DAY 2: Students with Disabilities for mutual support, education, discussion and improvement of the Union for differently-abled students.

Useful favourites

On DAY 1: Look out for the Car-diff University Debating Soci-ety (CUDS), the ideal CV and confidence-booster for all from complete beginners to confident speakers at all competition lev-els.

On DAY 2: Check out Act One’s stall: our long-established, ambi-tious and eclectic drama society is for all budding thespians, with ample opportunities also avail-able behind the scenes.

Old Classics

DAY 1: Mental Wealth Society, a ‘voluntary welfare organisation run by students for students’ de-signed to complement the Stu-dent Support Centre by offering personal welfare information and peer support in a welcoming environment.

The Christian Union and our Catholic Society (based at the Anglican and Catholic Chaplain-cies at 61 and 62 Park Place) are running a plethora of events dur-ing Freshers' Week and through-out the year. See also the Krishna Consciousness Society and Ahlul Bayt Society.

DAY 2: Erasmus Society,the Students with Disabilities Association, the Welsh Students Association and a variety of reli-gious, cultural and International societies.

Help & Support

Societies24-25

On DAY 1: the vibrant Broadway Dance Society offers classes in Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Street, Highland and Irish dancing at levels rang-ing ‘from the complete beginner to the super-advanced’.

Our Pole Dancing Society - a young society based around a skill that is a competitive sport as well as an impressive, edgy dance style.

The Film Society, for all film aficionados, also comprises Diff-Film, their very own production branch.

On DAY 2: For those of a musi-cal turn, there is a host of oppor-tunities: Brass Band, Windband, Music Soc, LiveMusic Soc, Jazz Soc, Operatic Soc and GRIMSoc if you like goth, rock, industrial or metal.

Also watch out for the Bell Ringing Society, a welcoming group of learners and seasoned ringers who partake in the skill of change-ringing church bells; The CU Purcell Singers (TCUPS), ‘a non-auditioning choir who sing everything from Tallis to Billy Joel’, and the female choir Blank Verse.

Ones to watch

Hello Freshers! & Welcome to the Societies sectionJoining a society or two (or 10, as I did as a Fresher!) is a great part of student life. Coming up are the Societies Fayres on the 27th & 28th September, where you learn more about all our societies, meet current members and can join there and then.

Best of luck, have a fantastic year and I’m looking forward to sharing your news!

Vanessa PlattSocieties Editor

4500 MEMBERS60 CLUBS

1 AU TEAM CARDIFF

28 / Taf-Od

Ydy ein hobsesiwn gyda chwaraeon wedi cymylu’r materion pwysig?

Os ydych yn ddilynwr brwd o chwaraeon neu ddim, go brin y gwnewch anghofio haf 2012 mewn brys. Rhwng adroddiadau ar y ra-dio, diweddaru di-baid ar Twit-ter, a’r holl fwletinau newyddion, mae wedi bod yn amhosib osgoi cynnwrf y gemau Olympaidd a gafodd eu cynnal (os na sylwoch chi...) yn Llundain y mis Gorffen-naf ag Awst. Cyfaddefaf fy mod yn bersonol wedi cael fy nal yn yr holl fwrlwm ac wedi mwyn-hau llawer mwy o’r chwaraeon na ddylwn i gydnabod i chi. Yn sicr, ni ragwelais y byswn yn cynhyrfu tuag at ddiwedd y gêm fedal aur rhwng Ffrainc a Sweden, yn en-wedig wrth gysidro mai’r gamp oedd ‘Handball’, gêm na ddeal-lais i o gwbl. Be ddaeth yn am-lwg i mi o hyn oedd bod apêl y gemau Olympaidd yn ymwneud yn bennaf gyda’r cyffro o wylio cystadleuwyr angerddol yn han-ner lladd eu hunain er mwyn cyflawni eu breuddwyd (tebyg iawn i Big Brother...) waeth beth yw’r gamp ac oherwydd yr apêl hon, roedd y boblogaeth, yn y

mwyafrif, yn ddigon hapus bod bob sianel deledu yn awyddus i ddarlledu cymaint o’r gemau a’n bosibl a dim byd arall.

4C gynigodd i mi fy unig ryd-dhad o fy nghaethiwed i’r gemau Olympaidd yn ffurf y bythol dd-ibynadwy Eisteddfod Genedla-ethol, a gynhaliwyd ym Mro Mor-gannwg flwyddyn yma. Roedd y cystadlu yn safonol iawn fel yr arfer, ag yn atgoffa rhywun o’r talent sy’n datblygu bob blwyd-dyn yn ein gwlad fechan. Ar ben hyn i gyd, dwi’n si�r y cefais gip olwg ar Gio Compario (Wynne Evans i’w ffrindiau - y dyn oddi ar yr hysbysebion i weddill y wlad) ar y llwyfan yn ystod seremoni wobrwyo; os yw ei bresenoldeb ef ddim yn brawf o Eisteddfod lwyddiannus, be sydd?!

Er fod y digwyddiadau hyn wedi fy ngludo i’r set deledu ac wedi diddanu’r wlad i gyd (Ni sy-mudodd Nain i ffwrdd o’r teledu drwy gyfnod yr Eisteddfod i gyd...), sylwais ar un nodwedd siomedig o’r cyfryngau Prydeinig yn ystod yr haf - ein gallu fel

cenedl i anwybyddu materion a digwyddiadau o weddill y byd ac ymddwyn fel petai’r byd yn sefyll yn stond am gyfnod.

Yng nghanol cyffro a bwrlwm y gemau Olympaidd, cyhoed-dodd Banc Lloegr eu bod wedi torri eu rhagolygon twf i sero, o’i gymharu efo’r twf o 0.8% a rag-welir ym mis Mai - newyddion trychinebus i’r wlad yng nghanol hyn a elwir yn “double-dip reces-sion” sy’n dwysau, yn ôl arbenig-wyr. Er hyn, parhaodd y papurau newydd a’r newyddion i drafod llwyddiant a methiannau ‘Team GB’ a’r gemau Olympaidd - ge-mau a gostiodd dros £11 biliwn; daeth naw biliwn o bunnoedd o’r gost o’r sector gyhoeddus. Oes rhaid i ni hyd yn oed ofyn â ydym yn gallu fforddio hynny? Gobei-thio fod David Cameron a George Osbourne gydag ychydig ar ôl yn eu cadw-mi-gei ddweda i...

Stori arall a gafodd ei gwthio lawr i gwpl eiliadau gan y BBC oedd y gwrthdaro sy’n parhau yn Syria. Lai na blwyddyn yn ôl, fe laddwyd Colonel Gaddafi yn Lib-

ya yn dilyn gwrthryfel a gafodd gefnogaeth a chymorth y byd. Mewn sefyllfa hynod debyg, mae gwrthdaro yn parhau yn Syria gyda bron ddim cymorth yn dod gan y Cenhedloedd Unedig, Pry-dain nag America, er bod adrod-diadau yn hawlio fod y nifer o farwolaethau yn y wlad erbyn hyn wedi cyrraedd 19,000 o bobl. Yn sicr, does dim llawer o ‘ysbryd Olympaidd’ mewn anwybyddu cymaint o ddioddefaint.

Fodd bynnag, peidiwch â chamddeall - dwi ddim yn eithaf-wr o blaid ymyrraeth filwrol ar bob cyfle a does gen i ddim ateb ar gyfer ein sefyllfa economaidd; gweld angen ydw i am bersbec-tif gan y cyfryngau, persbectif a fuasai, gobeithio, yn dylanwadu ar farn cynulleidfaoedd.

Ar nodyn mwy positif, fy nhwrn i nawr yw anghofio am newyddi-on byd-eang a rhoi croeso mawr i bawb i Gaerdydd am dymor new-ydd yn y brifysgol, yn enwedig i’r myfyrwyr newydd sy’n cychwyn eu blwyddyn gyntaf yma. Mae cyffro’r flwyddyn gyntaf yn fyth-

gofiadwy, a dwi’n sicr bydd eich profiad yn y brifysgol cymaint, os nad yn fwy o hwyl nag oeddech erioed yn disgwyl. Yn ogystal â hynny, croeso nôl i bawb a lw-yddodd i basio'r tymor diwethaf dwi’n sicr eich bod wedi cyffroi gymaint â minnau wrth feddwl am wythnos y glas a gweddill y tymor. A chofiwch, yn ystod eich cyfnod yma, ymysg y cymdeitha-su, yfed a gwaith (oes mae gwaith i wneud ar rai achlysuron yn ys-tod y tymor...), cofiwch gymryd ychydig funudau o’ch wythnos i fwynhau’r newyddion a mwydro bydd yn amlwg o ymddangos bob wythnos yn ‘Gair Rhydd’ a ‘Taf-Od’!

Y GolygyddTomos Lewis

Haf bythgofiadwy; Ond be’ gafodd ei anghofio?

29Monday 17th September 2012 | @gairrhyddop

Puzzles

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answers.

Rhys's riddles.

INTERMEDIATE CHALLENGING

EASYINTERMEDIATECHALLENGINGRiddle answer.

Steve’s office job didn’t go very well and now he wants to fulfil his lifelong ambition of running a farm in Iceland, with his friend Rosie. They’ll need some livestock however, namely chickens, pigs, and cows. A new chicken costs 50p, a pig £3, and a cow £10. Steve and Rosie have £100 with which they want to buy exactly 100 animals, but in such a way that there is at least one of each kind of animal and they spend exactly £100. How many of each animal do they need to buy?

The difference between the real

time and the time of the mirror

image is two hours and ten min-

utes (2 ! hours, minus the 20

minutes of cycling). Therefore,

the original time on the clock at

home that morning could only

have been five minutes past sev-

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How many words of three or more letters, each including the letter at the cen-

tre of the wheel, can you make from this diagram? We've found 20,

While the thrill surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games football tournament is far from over, Cardiff can already pride itself with hosting another top-notch sporting event, and has yet another reason to be consid-ered the sports capital of Wales. UEFA's executive committee an-nounced on June 30th 2012 that Cardiff City stadium would host the 2014 UEFA Super Cup in.

The UEFA Super Cup, which is an annual football game between the reigning champions of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League, is set to leave Stade Louis II in Monaco for the first time since 1998. This year’s Super Cup final between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid will be played on the August 31st and will be the last to be held in Mo-naco.

From 2013, the event will take place in different cities across Europe, a move that aims to en-gage a wider audience. It has been announced by UEFA offi-cials that next year’s Super Cup will be held at Eden Stadium in Prague, while Cardiff and Tbili-si (the capital of Georgia) have been chosen to host the 2014 and 2015 Super Cups.

"The Football Association of Wales is delighted that Cardiff will host this prestigious match," said FAW chief executive Jona-than Ford. "It is a great oppor-tunity for football supporters in Wales to watch two of the best teams in Europe in a one-off game," Ford added.

Even First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones expressed his de-light with the decision: "This is fantastic news and confirms once again how our capital city is in the Champions League itself when it comes to hosting world-class sporting events. The European Super Cup will be a major boost not only to the city, but also for the global profile of Wales."

The stadium, which has a ca-pacity of 27,000 seats, was opened in 2009, but has already staged six international games, including two Euro 2008 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Montenegro, as well as four international friendly games against Scotland, Austra-lia, Norway and Costa Rica.

The Welsh capital has proved able to flawlessly welcome a big sporting event, having played host to 11 games of the Olympic football tournament, including the mens bronze medal match between South Korea and Japan during London 2012, which has attracted thousands of visitors to the city.

30 / SportCardiff City Sta-

dium to host 2014 UEFA Super

CupViktor Tsvetanov Sport Editor

Continued from back page.

Katherine Grainger made the headlines, ending her Olympic silver streak in emphatic fashion in the women’s double sculls.

Even greater British domina-tion was demonstrated in the Ve-lopark, where the team collected a whopping seven gold medals. Sir Chris Hoy surpassed the pre-vious record set by Sir Steve Red-grave to become Britain’s most successful Olympian as he and Victoria Pendleton bowed out of their cycling careers in glorious style.

Despite losing such great com-petitors, the future of British cy-cling certainly looks secure in the hands of the next generation. Young riders Laura Trott and Ja-

son Kenny picked up two gold medals each and showed that there is plenty to look forward to beyond Vicky and Sir Chris.

Bradley Wiggins cruised to an Olympic gold medal in the time trial event barely two weeks af-ter he wrote his name in the his-tory books by becoming the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. A remarkable summer for the newly crowned king of Kilburn.

Track and field has never been a fruitful arena for the British, but a certain Super Saturday turned this curse on its head. In the space of 45 minutes, the Olympic Stadium erupted in celebration for three gold medals to Team GB. Jessica Ennis, the poster girl of 2012, captured the hearts of a

nation with her resounding vic-tory in the heptathlon. Despite the significant cushion of a 188-point lead, the superstar raced her way into a first-place finish in the 800m to round off a domi-nant display across the events.

Next, it was the turn of the injury-ridden long jumper Greg Rutherford to leap his way onto the podium. With an impres-sive jump of 8.31m, he became the first Brit in 48 years to win a gold medal in the event. Finally, the 10,000m saw Mo Farah step up to join the party. An enthrall-ing race had viewers across the country on the edge of their seats as he gained the lead and stormed into a nail-biting final lap. Out in front, there was no way that Mo was letting gold slip from his

grasp, and he crossed the line to a roar of joyous spectators.

Saturday is clearly Mo’s lucky day as one week later he claimed gold in the 5,000m to become only the seventh man to win both races at an Olympic Games. Her-alded as one of the greatest Brit-ish runners of all time by Lord Seb Coe himself, Farah fever has swept across Great Britain.

Across the events, Team GB flourished in front of the home support and dwarfed the medal haul from Beijing, with a stun-ning 29 golds and 65 overall. A third-place spot on the Olympic table behind the United States and China reflects the passion and commitment of our heroic competitors in a fortnight that we will never forget.

The summer of sport Brits will never forget

It’s not an easy question to an-swer, especially considering the number of different sports being represented at each Games, all of which have various disciplines that cannot necessarily be com-pared directly.

Looking only at total medals won, it is hard to look beyond American swimmer Michael Phelps, who – between 2004 and 2012 – won 22 medals, including 18 gold. In fact, his gold medal haul is double that of his nearest chal-lengers, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina; Finnish long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi; and Ameri-cans Carl Lewis (athletics) and Mark Spitz (swimming).

Lewis and Spitz could equally argue to be considered the great-est Olympians of all time, but one for prolificacy, and the other for longevity and diversity. In 1972,

Spitz became the first competi-tor to win gold medals in seven events, setting World Records in each, at the age of just 22. Lewis, on the other hand, won long jump golds in four consecutive Olym-pics from 1984 to 1996, while also winning the 100m in 1984 and 1988, the 200m in 1984 (silver in 1988) and the 4x100m relay in 1984 and 1992.

But of course, sheer medals aren’t the only measure of a great Olympian; a competitor may be remembered for a particular performance, such as Romanian Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10s in the gymnastics in 1976, or Jesse Owens’ four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and the long jump, almost 50 years before Carl Lewis in front of a watching Adolf Hitler.

Britain itself has several Olym-pians who could be considered great, although more in the so-called “sitting down” events,

such as cycling and rowing. In the modern era, the first Briton to win five gold medals was leg-endary rower Sir Steve Redgrave, who won gold in each Games from 1984 to 2000, the last three along with Matthew Pinsent, who himself won four golds.

At this year’s Games, cyclist Sir Chris Hoy overtook fellow knight Redgrave with his sixth gold since his Olympic debut in 2000, the three he won at Beijing 2008 not only making him the first Briton in a century to win three golds at one Games but also earning him his knighthood.

This year has been phenom-enal for British cycling. On top of Hoy’s record medal haul, Bradley Wiggins followed up his Tour de France victory with a gold medal in the Olympic road racing time trial, having already won six med-als (three gold, one silver and two bronze) in the track cycling at the previous three Games. Al-

though Wiggins and Hoy have the same number of total med-als, Hoy even having two more gold than Wiggins, it is Wiggins’ versatility between disciplines that sets him apart from Hoy and Redgrave. Combine that with his relaxed nature in the media and he comes across as not only an accomplished sportsman but also a likeable person.

In fact, the thing that all of the aforementioned athletes have in common – apart from their numerous medals – is that they are big personalities who people want to do well, and perhaps that is what makes a truly legend-ary Olympian. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt – arguably the biggest personality of them all – may not be an Olympic legend yet, de-spite retaining his 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles in London, but if he can retain them again in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, his legendary status may not be far off.

Who is the Greatest Olympian ever?Tom Parry-Jones Sport Writer

31Monday September 17th 2012 | @gairrhyddsport Sport30-32

An Olympic successOf all the articles written in the past few weeks, the best descrip-tion of the Olympics was writ-ten in an article I read on the first Saturday. As the BBC’s Tom Fordyce said, “being at an Olym-pics can sometimes feel like the best house party in the world: even as you're having an absolute blast, there's always a nagging sense that something even better might be happening in another room just down the hall.”

But now, the sporting extrava-ganza is all over, leaving us all with Olympic hangovers. By the time you’re reading this, even the Paralympics will be over. We’re left with memories, sporting his-tory, and a legacy that is yet to be defined.

My favourite moment of the whole Games is one that did not even happen on the field of play, or, to be more accurate, on the water. It was when (Sir?) Ben Ainslie uttered the fantastic quote, “they’ve made a big mis-take... they’ve made me angry, and you don’t want to make me angry.” In a Games where every interviewee said, “it was fantas-tic, the crowd were amazing, I’m so proud, it has been hard work” (all probably true, but still banal), Ainslie spoke with an ominous tone and fire in the eyes in a way that was a complete opposite to the self-effacing and unflustered facade that you saw after he had the gold medal around his neck. After he said that now famous quote, he was as sure to win the gold medal as the British relay team was to mess up a baton change. Ainslie seems to take ev-erything in his stride and exudes the 'keep calm and carry on' per-sona that has allowed him to rule the waves for Britannia.

Everyone will have a differ-ent favourite moment, which is exactly why the Olympics are so special. It’s a unique smorgas-bord of sporting excellence that carried the whole nation on the crest of a sporting wave.

As any lover of sport will tell you, having wall-to-wall sport on television, radio, and in the pa-per, made for 19 days of utopian proportions. But this is not just because we love sport. It’s much more than that. Sport is in the me-dia all the time now anyway. The best part was that 26 sports had their time to shine. Only during this fortnight and a bit can a gold medal in running equal fencing and shooting the same as swim-ming and show jumping. And put those sports together and you get the eclectic mix of the modern pentathlon.

The more eagle-eyed of you

will spot that I said 19 days of sport, but this wasn’t an error. To say that it was 16 days of sport would do a disservice to the foot-ball event, at which there was eleven games, including a bronze medal match, and two near-sell-out Great Britain games, at the Millennium Stadium. Now, I may be slightly biased as I was an 'Ambassdor' (posh way of say-ing ‘volunteer’) for the football in Cardiff, but I think football played a terrific role in the Olympics.

Football provides a brilliant opportunity for some other parts of the country to experience some Olympic fever. What other event could have action in Lon-don, Cardiff, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. The pinnacle of football and tennis might not be the Olympics, but they played their part with de-corum, and seeing Andy Mur-ray sing God Save the Queen was one of my highlights of the whole Olympics. It once again proved that sport is a greater uni-fier than any political summit or trade agreement.

It would take a whole news-paper to cover all the stories in-volved. Every day had enough news to fill a week. Even now, as I write this a day after it has all ended, the opening ceremony seems like an age ago. Bradley Wiggins’ gold? That could have been months ago. But it wasn’t. All of Britain’s 65 medals were squeezed into just over two weeks. As we were often told, our 29 gold medals was the best

performance since 1908. And it was all sandwiched between two breathtaking ceremonies: an opening ceremony with the most interesting economic history les-son you’re ever likely to come across, and a closing ceremony that perfectly told the world what it’s like to be British. Brazil’s part may not have ignited my excite-ment for Rio 2016, but then again, London’s ten minutes at the clos-ing ceremony in Beijing wasn’t much to shout about either.

Praise was lavished on London from all quarters. The volunteers had glowing reports, and it is no surprise. My good friend, Stepha-nie “Birdy” Bird was one of the 70,000 Games Makers, and the multiple training days she and her colleagues went on in Lon-don, and careful planning for their roles, obviously paid off. As well as volunteers’ broad grins, the weather mostly smiled on us, the G4S debacle didn’t prove as apocalyptic as thought, only one gold medalist has been caught us-ing drugs (at time of print), and the empty seat fiasco was quelled after the first few days. On the various fields of play, Michael Phelps became the most deco-rated Olympian of all time, un-known British Olympians Greg Rutherford and Peter Wilson became the centre of attention in their finest hour, and Usain Bolt was on his own planet. Britain’s Alistair Brownlee went through 1 hour and 46 minutes of hell to swim, cycle and run to the finish line, winning the holy grail of a

triathlon gold medal. Bolt, for a combined total work of less than 100 seconds (including qualify-ing rounds), walked away with a cool three gold medals. It pays to be quick, eh?!

Sport showed why we love it so much. Yes, there were bumps. Badminton players treaded the murky line between sportsman-ship and cheating, commentators infuriated me by using “medal” as a verb, and Taoufik Makhloufi won the 1500m after being di-qualified - then reinstated - for not trying in the 800m. But these were outweighed by the mass of heart-warming, emotional stories that we were all carried along for. As John Inverdale put it, “some-times you love sport, sometimes you hate it... but basically, you love it”. Have truer words ever been spoken?

In a week or so, I will be im-mersed in the new football sea-son, getting excited for the Ryder Cup, and it won’t be that long until the Autumn Internationals will start at the Millennium Sta-dium. And before the next Olym-pics, there will be the 2014 Com-monwealth Games in Glasgow, Winter Olympics in Sochi, Rus-sia, and also in Russia will be the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, not to mention the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and 2014 FIFA World Cup in Bra-zil. Having said all that, there’s only 1,417 days until Rio. Not that I’m counting or anything...

Rhys ClaytonSport Editor

Ben Ainslie ut-tered the fantastic quote “they’ve made a big mis-take... they’ve made me angry, and you don’t want to make me angry.”

“

32 / Sport

ONE TO REMEMBER: SUPER SUMMER OF SPORT

Sports editor, James Shapland, takes a look back at a quite spectacular summer - one that Britain will never forget.

With the Euro-pean Cham-p i o n s h i p s , Wimbledon, and the small matter of an

Olympic Games in London, the summer of 2012 was set to be a belter. And it certainly did not dis-appoint.

It may seem like a distant memo-ry, but June 8th saw Euro 2012 kick-ing off in potentially controversial host nations Poland and Ukraine. Fears of racism and violence were fortunately never realised and we were treated to a competitive and entertaining tournament. While English hopes were yet again dashed in a quarter-final shoot-out, Spain created history as they became the first international side to win three major honours on the

bounce.Next came the tennis at SW19,

with British number one Andy Murray hoping to better his pre-vious semi-final finishes and chal-lenge for a first major win. A shock second-round exit for Rafael Na-dal cleared the way for the Scot to reach his first Wimbledon final and a meeting with six-time champion Roger Federer. After blazing to a 6-4 victory in the first set, Murray struggled to contain the firepower and finesse of the Swiss master and succumbed to 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 defeats in the final three. A highly emotional Centre Court saluted the first male Brit to reach a Wimbledon final in 74 years.

In undoubtedly the main event of the sporting calendar, London played host to the Games of the 30th Olympiad. The question of

whether Britain would rise to the occasion was firmly answered in a magnificent opening ceremony, fol-lowed by 16 days of sporting bril-liance.

Despite a shaky start on day 1, with firm gold medal favourite Mark Cavendish among others who failed to pick up a medal, Team GB experienced unprecedented suc-cess throughout the Games.

The traditionally British events provided much of our success and certainly some of the most memo-rable moments of London 2012. With a home crowd roaring them on at Eton Dorney, the rowers dominated proceedings, picking up nine medals in total; four more than the next-best team from New Zealand.

Continued on page 30.