On the other hand...Columnist

gair rhydd

New Vice-Chancellor Colin Riordan talks to gair rhydd

Alleged doctored images taint University’s research

gair rhydd takes a look at Cardiff University’s fallen applications and the possible implications

Full story on p4

p8 p13Act One’s King Lear at Edinburgh Fringe Festival p20

Monday 24th September 2012 | freeword - Est. 1972 | Issue 983

p5 >>

2 / Editor’s Note

gr

CONTRIBUTORS

Amber BellLucy BarclayJack ParkerEllie WoodruffGareth DunnChristina TranVictoria PeaseDavid MasonSarah PhilipsRebecca GardnerAngharad HywelFelix BrambeyNye DaviesKieran Davey

EDITORChris Williams

CO-ORDINATORElaine Morgan

CREATIVE DIRECTORLuke Slade

SUB EDITORTom Parry-Jones

NEWSKendal ArcherTom EdenBethan JonesAnna Hickman

OPINIONAlice BriggsNick EvansAlex Greig

COLUMNISTLiam McNeilly

POLITICSHelen CoxThom Hollick

SCIENCEAlexey UnderwoodRhiannon Davies

SOCIETIESVanessa Platt

LISTINGSvacant

TAF-ODTom Lewis

SPORTRhys ClaytonViktor TsvetanovJames Shapland

Firstly, I think I need to start this with an apology, not least to Xpress Radio. If you've been contact-ing information@

xpress.co.uk, you probably won't get an answer.

You see, in my brash, rushed position as the deadline was ap-proaching for the Freshers edi-tion, I managed to screw up (more than once, actually, but I'll get to that later). The e-mail ad-dress you're looking for is infor-mation@xpressradio.co.uk. So, for that, I apologise.

The next apology is to you guys – the readers. You see, the thing about the first issue is that I didn't have my editorial team with me when I was building the paper and putting pages togeth-er.

So, a few things slipped through the net, which meant that, frustratingly, there were a few spelling mistakes and typos and design errors.

I don't think it caused any ma-jor problems, but we try to be as stringent as we can on getting things right. (It's one of the things I'm most passionate about!)

But anyway, we'll move on from that as Freshers has begun.

On reading this, it'll be at least day four of the club nights and you'll probably be bleary-eyed from the nights and settling into wherever you're living this year.

The Union will probably be packed and the fayres will be in full swing. (Always head to the companies fayres, there's so much free stuff!)

Up on the fourth floor, we'll be busy preparing the next issue of gair rhydd and Quench, as well as starting the first shows on Xpress Radio, and CUTV should be out and about filming the first week of the year.

And, if that wasn't already enough, we'll be preparing our-selves for the first meeting and the first social on October 1st. Join us in Solus for our meeting at 5pm and for the social later in the night.

We should (fingers crossed!) have our big surprise of the year ready for you by the next issue of gair rhydd, but, in the mean-time, check out the new websites and enjoy the first week of what is shaping up to be an awesome year!

Chris Williams Head of Student Media

GAIR RHYDD AND QUENCH MAG-

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VERSITY

3Monday September 24th 2012 | @mediacsu

World news The Pentagon has claimed that the last of the 33,000 extra troops sent to Afghanistan by President Obama has now left the country, although 68,000 soldiers remain.

K-pop track Gangnam Style by South Korean artist PSY has gone viral after being shared heavily online by mil-lions, including T-Pain and Katy Perry.

Alison Whelan, 51, has been jailed af-ter going on a drunken rampage and stealing the 100-seat Dart Princess ferry in Devon. She staggered aboard the boat, untied the mooring ropes and was heard to shout "I'm Jack Sparrow, I'm a pirate!"

Protests have continued in Muslim countries such as Egypt and Pakistan in response to an American-made anti-Islam film.

#CUFreshers2012

Bullfighting has been declared legal in France, after pleas from animal rights campaigners were rejected by the coun-try's top legal authority, the Constitutional Council.

4 / News

30,377Total applications to Cardiff

3,018Number of international students

44.5%Total percentage of male applications

55.5%Total percentage of female applicants

University applications fall

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Applications to Cardiff University are down by 4 per cent this year, reflecting the rise in tuition fees and applicants not achieving their predicted grades. This loss of ap-plicants is considerably higher than the overall loss experienced by other Welsh universities, where applications are down only 2.9 per cent.

Cardiff received a total of 30,377 applications this year, as opposed to 31,671 for the 2011/12 intake. However, when compared to the national average, Cardiff has expe-rienced less of a drop in applicants, with universities across the UK seeing a 7.4 per cent reduction.

With the average annual fee in 2012/13 estimated at £8,123, such a total could cost institutions more than £700 million in funding over the next three years.

Three factors are believed to be behind the shortfall: higher fees deterring students from accepting places; a high number of students deferring entry until next year coupled with a low number that deferred last year; and the lower-than-expected number of AAB stu-dents.

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of leading uni-versities, says that the underlying

longer-term trend remains an in-crease in demand for university places; even these latest figures are higher than the average applica-tions three years ago.

She emphasises that ‘despite all the hype, fee reforms are unlikely to cause a long-term decline in ap-plications. In the past, a fall in ap-plications in the first year of higher fees has been followed by increases in subsequent years.’

When asked how the University plans on increasing applications next year, a University spokesper-son said that the undergraduate recruitment office had undertaken work to encourage high achieving students to apply to Cardiff.

The work will focus on promot-ing the academic reputation and rigour of the University and each individual school, capital city liv-ing and living costs in Cardiff rela-tive to other locations. It will also seek to promote employability, student life experience and the Students’ Union.

It includes redesigning the Uni-versity Prospectus and other pub-lications, as well as overhauling the undergraduate web-pages to include clearer information, and a more intuitive search function. They will also include more media rich content, featuring accommo-dation videos, student interviews and student lifestyle videos.

Anna HickmanNews Editor

4%Drop in Cardiff applicants

University Intake Statistics from 2011/12

5Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddnews News4-8

Easy Cardiff ’s Tiger Tiger has been granted a ‘sex establishment li-cence’, allowing the venue to host weekly performances by male strippers.

The club applied for the li-cence in July, and saw it approved by Cardiff Council this month. Weekly performances by ‘The Dreamboys’ – a male dance and strip group – will now take place every Saturday in Tiger Tiger’s Club Room.

The application for the sex establishment licence received numerous objections from South Wales Police, local councillors and other sexual entertainment venues in the city.

Tony Bowley, licencing offi-cer from the South Wales Police said that the new licence would change the nature of Tiger Tiger as a club, and also of Greyfriars Road.

There are only four other sex establishment licences in opera-tion in Cardiff – the only four in Wales – and all belong to small venues with a single entrance, and therefore are much more controlled.

Mr Bowley asked Cardiff Council to reject the application for several reasons; in particular the main concern for the Police is the proximity of Tiger Tiger to the New Theatre, which is known as a very family orientated ven-ue. There was also concern sur-rounding Tiger Tiger’s lack of experience as an operator of a sex licence, especially in terms of whether the audience will be al-lowed to touch the dancers.

It has also been pointed out by Councillor Chris Weaver, a ward member for the Cathays area, that Tiger Tiger is a multi-purpose venue that allows families with children inside before 7pm.

The Hilton Hotel made a strong objection to the new licence. Ma-rie Fagan, general manager at the Hilton Cardiff, said there is al-ready an “excessive” amount of activity and “extreme” late night noise on Greyfriars Road. Ms Fa-gan said the licence would have a detrimental effect on the Hilton and create a further negative im-pact on the city, which has previ-ously attracted bad publicity be-cause of its active nightlife.

Speaking for Tiger Tiger, An-drew Woods said that any licence granted to the venue would be

heavily restricted by conditions set. He stated the performances taking place would be heavily su-pervised and no full nudity would take place.

Cardiff Council approved the application with a number of specific conditions including no physical contact between per-

formers and audience members, no individual dances, no audi-ence participation and no adver-tising of the weekly Dreamboys performances. No children will be allowed on the premises when the Dreamboys are performing.

Bethan JonesNews Editor

Medical research called into questionCardiff University is formally investigating alleged research misconduct in papers published by Professor Paul Morgan - the Dean of Medicine.

Having undertaken a prelimi-nary investigation, the Univer-sity has confirmed it has found ‘sufficient substance’ in the alle-gations to investigate further.

A spokesperson for the Uni-versity stressed that the claims of academic misconduct by Pro-fessor Morgan, or members of his research team, have not been substantiated at this stage.

It is not the first time aca-demic research conducted un-der Professor Morgan has been thrown under the spotlight.

A similar investigation was undertaken last year, which re-sulted in the retraction of a med-ical paper.

In this separate case, the study had been published in the Journal of Immunology but was found to have contained inappropriately altered images.

He had led the research group, but the investigation concluded that another author, Dr Rossen Donev, now a lecturer at Swansea University, took full responsibil-ity and that ‘the other authors were unaware of and had no part in the manipulation of the im-ages.’

Whilst the results of the study remained scientifically reliable, the University’s adherence to good academic practices meant the paper was retracted.

This fresh investigation is be-lieved to be looking into at least one paper on cancer research, al-legedly produced between 2006 and 2012, with several published papers supposedly containing manipulated images.

Photographs appeared online in July supposedly indicating that images within Professor Mor-gan’s papers had been artificially manipulated.

Published annotated photos, said to be from the research, al-legedly showed the duplication of experimental evidence and spliced blotting paper.

A spokesperson for the Uni-versity outlined their approach to the situation, saying: ‘Allega-tions of misconduct in academic research are extremely rare at Cardiff University.

When allegations are made the University takes a highly serious approach in accordance with the University's Procedure for Deal-ing with Allegations of Miscon-duct in Academic research.

The University’s procedure is in line with guidance issued by the UK Research Integrity Of-fice, to which the University sub-scribes.’

Whilst nothing has been prov-en at this stage, the accusations of manipulated evidence, if true, would constitute academic mis-conduct.

Tom EdenNews Editor

A similar investigation was undertaken last year, which resulted in the retraction of a medical paper

The application for the sex establishment licence received numerous objections

“

Cardiff Student Letting excelled at The Lettings Agency of the Year Awards. The awards are in association with The Sunday Times and the Times this year. Not only were they awarded the ‘Wales Best Single Office,’ but were also shortlisted for ‘Property Management Lettings Agency of the Year 2012’, and ‘Student Lettings Agency of the Year 2012’.

This is undoubtedly a huge achievement, and as the UK’s first Student’s Union-owned letting agency, they are setting a precedent for other letting agents. Indeed, over 5,000 offic-es and agencies were represent-ed this year, but only the best were shortlisted or presented with awards for their efforts.

Delighted Manager Eoghan Conway commented, “We are thrilled to have received such a prestigious award and to be shortlisted for two others. The

office staff and Cardiff Universi-ty Students’ Union are extreme-ly proud to have achieved such recognition for the services they provide to students.”

Winning such an award will also prove important in the long run, as it will encourage land-lords to use Cardiff Student Let-ting, providing the agency with more properties, and ultimately allowing more students to use their services.

It is clear to see why Cardiff Student Letting did so well in these awards; they know exactly what you are looking for in a student property, are one of the only student letting agencies who do not charge agency fees, and are always friendly and help-ful no matter how many house viewing appointments you de-cide you need to make before finding your perfect house.

Cardiff Student Letting can be found on the ground floor at the back of the Stduent's Union, or through the Union website.

6 / News

Cardiff Student Letting wins goldKendal ArcherNews Editor

‘Super’ University ApprovedA proposal to merge three Welsh institutions and leave South Wales with two major universi-ties, including Cardiff University, has thrown the future of Cardiff Metropolitan, formally UWIC, into doubt. The plan, put for-ward by the Education Minister, Leighton Andrews will see a ‘su-per’ university of over 40 000 students from Glamorgan Uni-versity, the University of Wales, Newport and potentially Cardiff Metropolitan, with the aim of rivalling Cardiff University in it’s capabilities to compete on a world stage.

However, Cardiff Metropolitan has been particularly opposed to the merge, details of which were unveiled in November last year. It is ranked higher than its poten-tial merger partners in the Good University Guide, is financially sound, and possesses good inter-national relations.

The merge has received a posi-tive response from Glamorgan University and the University of Wales, Newport as it is set to give students more opportunities and benefit the economy. It ‘will be designed to remain open for further expansion,’ and aims to ‘avoid institutional competition,’ as well as playing to the strengths of its component parts, according to the Education Minister.

Andrew Wilkinson, chair of

the board of governors at the Uni-versity of Wales, Newport, said: ‘The governors of the University of Wales, Newport welcome this development as both institutions seek to build on their respec-tive strengths to develop a new, entrepreneurial model of higher education across South Wales.’

His counterpart at Glamorgan University, Professor John An-drews said: ‘This is a good time for us to further develop the scale and range of our combined high-er education across South Wales to create an institution that can compete not only in the UK but on a global basis.

The University of Wales, New-port and Glamorgan provide similar disciplines and serve the same demographic, yet Cardiff Metropolitan has cited that it is concerned that a combined in-stitution of over 40 000 students could impact on provision and that it would be ‘unmanageable.’

Cardiff Metropolitan has also expressed that it will seek legal action if forced to merge. In re-sponse, Leighton Andrews has said that he is keen for the merge to be voluntary, but will not hesi-tate in invoking the Education Reform Act 1988, which can force dissolution of post-1992 insti-tutes.

Professor Sir Steve Smith, who compiled the report upon which Leighton Andrews based his de-cision, stated that Cardiff Met-ropolitan is ‘dangerously small,’ and could not survive the ‘me-

dium term without merger.’However, the Chairwoman of

governors at Cardiff Metropoli-tan, Barbara Wilding has said they would be prepared to fight against an enforced merge at the High Court.

Moreover, Cardiff Metropoli-tan has the potential to go pri-vate, and thus avoid any public law that requires they agree to the merge. Instead, it would go without the £24m allocated by the Higher Education Funding Coun-cil for Wales, which is around 35% of their total income.

It has also emerged that a re-port advised ministers not to go ahead with the plan over four years ago. The leaked report, complied by a leading academic to investigate the potential for a merge, concluded that a full-scale one was ‘unrealistic at this time.’

Despite concerns that courses, lecturers and assets may be lost in the merge, along with the chance of campus closure, the plan to be-gin merging Glamorgan Univer-sity and the University of Wales, Newport could being as early as September next year. The Educa-tion Minister hopes that Cardiff Metropolitan will join by 2014, with the projection that all three will be working together by 2015.

However, with the threat of le-gal action from Cardiff Metropol-itan, the future of the University and the completion of the merger remain in doubt.

Anna Hickman News Editor

Despite funding and space issues, the number of societies at Cardiff Students’ Union has now reached approximately 150 - and it is still growing.

Funding has become an issue for societies this year, as a mas-sive underspend of £20,000 last year has resulted in the budget being cut this year. Last year, £10,000 was not allocated to any of the existing societies, and another £10,000 was not spent. However, the guild of societies still has a budget of £44,000 this year, though this only includes societies affiliated with the Stu-dents’ Union.

Space has also become a de-manding issue for the Union and current societies. In particular, performance and dance societies want more space than the Union is currently able to provide. Due to this, some of the performance societies have been hiring space outside of the Union. However, an increase in funding for dance and performance societies to support their need for space may have a detrimental effect on the quality of other societies.

It also appears that the Uni-versity has started rejecting so-cieties; over the last two years nine in total have been rejected. Surprisingly, 150 societies is not the maximum allowed for the union, with 15 new societies cre-ated over the past two years. It would be possible to have more societies, but it has been argued it would compromise the quality of the current societies.

Adam Curtis, Societies Officer at Cardiff University, has said he still wants to increase the number of societies, but with an emphasis on “quality and diversity”.

In comparison to other universities, UWE only has 30 societies and 20 associations, but the same number of students as Car-diff University. Swansea Univer-sity were only al-located a £10,000 budget for their societies in the last academic year. Meanwhile, Man-chester University has over 200 societies, which could imply Car-diff ’s ever-growing societ-ies would be manageable.

Adam Curtis has said it is important to encourage course-based societies in light of a recent study, which showed students who are part of a course-based society are less likely to drop out of University. Course-based soci-eties encourage students to be in-volved in their course and make a lot of friends at university. Curtis believes it is important to em-power students to be involved in university societies particularly because of the new £9000 tuition fees.

Despite this, the Economic So-ciety has been disaffiliated this year. Also, the English Literature Society have been put on ‘proba-tion’ until further notice on the basis that neither the Chairman nor the Secretary attended any societies meetings in the last aca-demic year. Curtis emphasised that if societies are not active

throughout the year then they will not be allowed to continue.

New societies have to prove they are different to any existing societies. More importantly, it is vital to make sure existing soci-eties are not ignored by the cre-ation of new ones, but ensuring all societies are as good as they can be.

The Students’ Union has to make a decision as to whether it would be more beneficial to have fewer, well managed and well funded societies, as oppose to a large number of societies, many of which have a tendency to fail through poor management.

7Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddnews

London Met University licence revoked by UKBA

News4-8

Kendal ArcherNews Editor

Societies struggle with space and funding

Bethan JonesNews Editor

Disgraced Cardiff binge-drinkers caught on camera

Ever woken up and not been able to remember what hap-pened the night before? Car-diff binge-drinkers will soon have a solution to this problem.

Those who are admitted to hospital on nights out because of the amount of alcohol they have consumed are to be filmed when they enter and leave the hospital, with the aim of reducing binge drinking.

Once they have sobered up, they will be given the chance to

watch the videos of themselves. With an incredible 60% of am-

bulances and A&E beds used for alcohol related incidents each weekend in Cardiff, it is hoped that the shock of seeing them-selves when they enter the hos-pitals will encourage a change in attitude towards binge drinking.

Certainly, Conrad Eydmann, Head of Substance Misuse Strat-egy and Development for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board stated that ‘Our intention is that the vast majority of people will be surprised and hopefully con-cerned about the state of their

behaviour.’This is all part of a twelve

week trial that will be funded by the Welsh Government, setting them back £85,000. It is to take place from mid-September until the end of January in order to film hospital antics at two of the worst times for alcohol related incidents: Freshers and Christ-mas festivities.

The University has been asked to evaluate the success of the project in the New Year, and if it is thought to be successful then the project could be made permanent.

Kendal Archer News Editor

A recent decision by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to re-voke London Metropolitan Uni-versity’s licence to teach foreign students has left over 2,000 inter-national students without autho-rised visas.

Cardiff University has called ‘upon the UKBA to allow all cur-rent international students at London Metropolitan University to complete their programmes of study at London Metropoli-tan and be afforded all the usual rights of international students.’

In order to keep its licence to teach international students, a university must monitor the progress of each student by en-suring they regularly attend lec-tures and complete assignments. They must also ensure that each

of the international students has a competent ability to speak the English language before they are able to give the student a visa to live and study in England.

However, the UKBA were con-cerned that London Metropoli-tan University was not adhering to these regulations. They found that 20 of the 50 files checked did not show evidence that a good level of English had been tested or attained and 57% of sampled records showed that attendance was not properly monitored, re-vealing that the University had no way of knowing if students were attending lectures and sem-inars or not.

Yet their action to revoke Lon-don Metropolitan University’s license has left thousands of students in limbo, unsure as to whether they will have to leave the University, and even the

country unless they can find an alternative institution to sponsor them.

This decision is likely to im-pact upon the economy, as an es-timated £5billion is contributed a year to the UK economy from foreign students. Also, as the Universities’ UK Chief Executive Nicola Dandridge points out, ‘it is damaging to our international reputation.’

Fortunately, a Cardiff Univer-sity spokesperson has assured Cardiff University students that “the recent action by UK Border Agency (UKBA) against London Metropolitan University will not affect international students who are coming to Cardiff University in September 2012 and will not affect international students cur-rently studying at Cardiff Univer-sity,” of whom there were 3,108 studying here last year.

It is vital to make sure existing societies are not ignored by the creation of new ones

I was the first of all the elected officers to talk to our new VC. It was an odd experience, but I put to him some of the questions that were raised by gair rhydd over the past year and tested him on some of the hot topics gair rhydd reported on over the past year.

How is the new house?

A house has value which will in-crease, the building becomes a capital asset. Keeping money in a bank and you can earn very little. Let’s be clear, it’s not money to be spent on salaries – we’re not spending money which would have been spent on something else.

It is a domestic space for enter-taining – part of the job that Uni-versity Council wanted me to do. It is very useful, a benefit to the university.

What are your priorities this year?

Aiming to be a top 100 University in the world; we’ve managed it before, but we need to be consis-tently in the top 100.

Cardiff needs to become a global university and that means more students should be studying, interning or doing placements abroad. It will help make students more employable and research has proven that the experience of working or studying abroad helps people to do better and helps you develop personally.

We [also] need to protect our re-search excellence. It’s a precious asset.

The next one is student experi-ence: we need to invest in teach-ing and learning facilities that make people choose Cardiff.

We also need to focus on engaging with Cardiff and Wales. There’s a danger that Cardiff University can seem rather remote and of a perception that Cardiff doesn’t do much for Wales.

The perception from some of this year's intake of students could be that, as they’re pay-

ing three times more than other students, they should be getting three times more for their money – how will you manage this expectation?

Students need to know that uni-versities are not getting three times more money – students will be responsible for the money which was previously received from the Funding Council. For Welsh students, the Welsh Gov-ernment will pay the difference.

There will be some increases in some subjects for funding. But, for example, science subjects will get less – we won’t end up with more money we’ll probably end up with less. The University won’t necessarily gain an advan-tage from this.

What’s important is that students have a way of making their griev-ances known and acted on.

What do you think of the Stu-dents’ Union?

I understand that there’s a good and close relationship with se-nior University management and senior Union staff. What we need is good and open channels of communication. We have a joint responsibility to students.

What do you think of the nightclub in the University?

I don’t know – I’ve not been there yet!

What was university like for you and how will this affect how you are as VC of Cardiff?

I went to Manchester in 1977 and some things don’t change: the lecturers were varying in quality, but I had a wonderful time there. Manchester is a great place to study and I largely had the free-dom to study what I wanted to study.

I did German so I spent a lot of time in Germany – by the time I graduated, I had studied in three universities [one in England and two in Germany].

I think language is important; going back to this idea of inter-national students, I think all stu-dents should have the opportu-nity to learn language.

What did you least enjoy about your own University experi-ence?

I least enjoyed at University when lecturers didn’t seem very committed. In those days, there wasn’t much oversight on what lecturers did. The other thing was a lack of information – not being told what was going on, I really wanted to learn.

When students go to university, they come here because they want a degree – we have a re-sponsibility to give them a top-quality education, but we have to have expectations of students as well, which is why a Student Charter is such a good idea.

Do you mind if students never know who you are?

It’s not like being a headmaster, you have a rather different role. I don’t mind students not knowing who I am and I don’t exist, but if they want to know about me they should be able to know – there shouldn’t be any barrier to that. I think what’s most important is that I work hard with students, staff and for Cardiff University.

What do you think of Dr. Da-vid Grant’s portrait, which cost almost £30,000?

There needs to be a sense of proportion about these things. If you talk millions of pounds, you can go into the intricacies. The university does, however, need to decide its priorities, be-ing the kind of University it is. Essex started doing photographs instead of portraits, but I’m not about to leave any time soon.

8 / News Interview

New Vice-Chancellor Colin Riordan talks to gair rhydd, in his first interview with Student Media since joining the university

Monday March 12 2012 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 973 gair rhydd

The Vice-Chancellor

of the University is

currently sitting for

a £18,000 portrait to

commemorate his

time at Cardiff. Dr

David Grant, who has been Vice-

Chancellor since October 2001, will

spend a reported 16 days posing for

an artist. The painting will mark the end

of his tenure as Vice-Chancellor of

the University, following his deci-

sion to take retirement in August

2012. It will join the portraits of

past Vice-Chancellors on the wall

of the Council Chamber in the

Main Building. Portraits are traditionally taken

of Vice-Chancellors on leaving the

University as a means of commem-

orating their incumbency. However,

the decision to continue this prac-

tice at a time when many of the

schools at the university are facing

serious funding shortages might

come as a surprise. Asked whether the University

felt this was an appropriate invest-

ment to be making in the current

climate, a spokesperson said: “Yes.

It is a long established University

tradition to commission and invest

in a portrait of the outgoing Vice-

Chancellor, marking their contribu-

tion to the University.”

This also follows the recent dis-

covery that the University is in the

process of purchasing a new house

for the incoming Vice-Chancellor,

Colin Riordan. gair rhydd reported

in February (Issue 970) on the deci-

sion to spend a reported £675,000

on buying a new property, which

would serve as both a residence for

Professor Riordan and a location

for entertaining “national and in-

ternational partners.”

Some students have expressed

frustration at the amount that the

painting will cost, especially when

also taking into consideration the

Vice-Chancellor’s wage. In the year

2010-2011, University accounts show

that Dr Grant was paid £246,000 as

well as pension contributions of

£39,000, meaning that the Univer-

sity in total pays him roughly £780

per day. If the painting were to take

sixteen days then this would equate

to the University paying Dr Grant

around £12,500 to pose for the por-

trait. Ryan Shippey, second year An-

cient History student, said: “I was

extremely shocked and annoyed

to hear that [the University] can

afford to spend £18,000 on a vain

self portrait, when I can’t even get

printed hand-outs from my tutors

anymore because of the cut backs

in my department [School of His-

tory, Archaeology and Religion]. I

can’t believe they’re going to pay

him to sit there for his last days

at the University, instead of doing

something a bit more useful.”

Another student, Laurence As-

till Wright, second year Medic, sug-

gested that it was absurd that such

a large amount of money was being

spent on keeping up the portrait tra-

dition at a time of austerity. “In this

day and age of cameras and Photo-

shop, do they really need a painter

when they can just do a digital por-

trait? But I suppose photography

doesn’t lie…”A spokesperson from the Stu-

dents’ Union said: “We sympathise

with our students and we don’t be-

lieve that this level of investment

follows the University’s mission to

enhance the student experience.

Therefore this should not be a pri-

ority for the University.”

The painting is due to be com-

pleted in July.

Leonardo da VCgair rhydd investigates why the University is spending £18,000 on a painting

Matt JonesNews Editor

As part of Volunteering Week 2012,

SVC joined forces with RAG to host

Cardiff University’s first ever Jail-

break. For the week’s grand finale,

volunteers had just 48 hours from

Friday March 2 to get as far away

from Cardiff Students’ Union and

back in time, without spending a

penny on transport.

Wearing fancy dress and Jail-

break 2012 t-shirts, students taking

part, had to put their persuasion

powers to the test in order to travel

as far away from Cardiff as pos-

sible. Within hours of leaving the

Union, many Jailbreakers man-

aged to make it down South and

onto ferries across the channel, or

were travelling on pre-arranged but

donated flights and buses.

Back in Cardiff, HQ were logging

and tracking the progress of all 29

teams and this continued through-

out the night. Teams that failed to return

within the 48-hour period were dis-

qualified and their points were not

counted. Out of the many teams taking

part, some reached countries such

as France and Germany with the

winning team managing to travel to

a ski resort in Switzerland.

Along the way, students collected

donations and sponsorships from

bystanders and completed chal-

lenges such as standing naked in

front of a landmark, creating a gi-

ant conga and riding an animal.

Points and prizes were awarded to

teams who impressed Headquar-

ters by documenting the weird and

wonderful sites they experienced

along the way.

Maggie Gaston, Public Relations

Officer for SVC told gair rhydd:

“Jailbreak provided an opportu-

nity for volunteers to do something

truly different and memorable with

their weekends and will hopefully

encourage them to volunteer in the

future! The event was an absolute tri-

umph, raising at least £3000 in

sponsorship and donations for SVC,

so that their local community proj-

ects can continue. We are currently

waiting on a final figure.

It is thought that Jailbreak will

become an annual event so we have

high hopes for next year.”

SVC success with Cardiff JailbreakLaura Evans

News Editor

Head to page four to find out what the teams got up to ...

#LeonardodaVC

Monday April 23 2012 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 976

gair rhyddHenry McMorrowNews Editor

He’s not Brinning now

continued on page 4...

Above: James Brinning with Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband

Cardiff University’s purchase of a property for the new vice-chancellor has cost almost £100,000 more than previously suggested. The house, situated in the prestigious Queen Anne Square, has been purchased for £765,000, making it £90,000 more expensive than the cost of £675,000 reported in issue 970 of gair rhydd.

As previously reported, the house has been bought by the University as a home for new Vice-Chancellor,

Professor Colin Riordan, who takes over from the retiring incumbent Dr. David Grant in September 2012.

The University had previ-ously come under criticism for its judgement in spending such a large amount of money on a prop-erty, when Professor Riordan will earn around £225,000 per year. In response, a spokesperson had explained that “the University re-quires a variety of venues for for-mal and informal events with ex-isting and potential partners. The intended new property, which will

be used by the new Vice-Chancellor as a residence, will also host social events with key University part-ners.”

However, it has now also come to light that in addition to the £765,000 spent on the house, the University will also be paying for a number of developments which will ‘bring the property up to the specification re-quired’. These will include a small extension, a modernisation of the heating and electrical systems, and improved facilities for University guests. The house will also be re-

decorated and refurnished. A spokesperson explained that

it is hoped that these redevelop-ments will make the house ‘suitable to welcome existing and potential partners of a world-leading Univer-sity’, while helping to establish the house as a long-term asset for the future.

The University is currently contracting the jobs, ‘seeking best value in all cases’, so no total cost is immediately available. However, a source in the University has sug-gested a conservative estimate of

£65,000. Asked how students would ben-

efit from the investment in a house for Professor Riordan, a spokes-person said: “The University is in a highly competitive environment for the development of learning and teaching. Development of edu-cational resources can often only be achieved by building relationships with external partners. The Uni-versity believes this asset will help secure productive partnerships for the benefit of the entire Cardiff community, including students.”

Matt JonesNews Editor

Cardiff student

forced to

withdraw from

local election

after racist

comments

A Cardiff University student who was running as a Cardiff council Labour candidate has been suspended from the party for a series of offensive Face-book and Twitter comments.

James Brinning made face-tious comments about killing Justin Beiber along with racist and sexist remarks, whilst ad-vocating violence against David Cameron and Nick Clegg on the social networking sites.

The 19 year old was running for Cardiff council’s Llanishan ward, where all four seats are hotly contested and which the Labour Party need to reclaim in order to regain control of the authority they lost in 2004.

VC house costs spiral

The previous VC and gair rhydd had a fractuous relationship over the past year

Students need to know that universities are not getting three times more money

“

10 / Opinion

So you’ve done well in your A-levels and have been accepted into Cardiff Univer-sity. Congratulations are in order. You may

have been told that Cardiff is a cosmopolitan city with excel-lent nightlife, and while this is true, you probably haven’t been informed of the hostile natives and their attitudes to outsiders who disturb the peace they have become accustomed to.

You may have heard of a dark and hopeless land known as ‘Merthyr Tydfil’. It may surprise you to learn that Merthyr isn’t actually that far from Cardiff. In fact, Merthyr’s local hard men (a.k.a. Roiders) frequent Car-diff ’s nightclubs on the weekend to quaff WKD in vast quantities and flex their machismo in cardi-gans that are three sizes too small for them. They are fond of brawl-ing and speaking in a bizarre and guttural code. Roiders are most closely likened to the sun; bright orange, and you never stare di-rectly at them.

At some point during your time in Cardiff, you will no doubt visit a club called Live Lounge. A great number of anthropological studies have been conducted in Live Lounge and the dancing and mating rituals performed here have been confirmed as being al-most identical to those of Celtic Wales. Copious amounts of hal-lucinogens are ingested, discor-dant music is played and groups of males will try to rub up against females in an attempt to seduce

them.The likelihood is that, in your

second and third years, you will live in the Cathays/Roath area of Cardiff. Some people will tell you that it has a truly communal atmosphere and that you will al-ways see a familiar face. This is a lie. Cathays is a barren place, full of students shuffling home awkwardly in last night’s clothes, smelling of shame. It is littered with takeaways that have re-ceived a 'zero' score by the Food Standards Agency, and the pave-ments are jagged and uneven as the local council are too afraid to send workmen in.

Don’t mention sheep to any-one, anywhere, ever.

If you are a man, it is worth always keeping a spare tenner in your wallet with which to bribe bouncers. Cardiff ’s bouncers are

notoriously easily influenced by the feminine shape, as it is new and exotic to them. Cardiff ’s na-tive women still adhere fervently to the ideals of feminine beauty displayed in the paintings of Rubens and Renoir; this is one of the many ways in which Cardiff hasn’t advanced since the 17th century.

So there you have it: a brief yet concise and entirely factual account of life in Cardiff. Car-diff is not guaranteed to kill you, but it will almost certainly break you emotionally, if not physically. Keep your head down, keep your heart strong and heed the words of wisdom in this article and you may just get out alive. For those who choose not to listen: be afraid, be very afraid.

It seems like every few months train fares are back in the news, regularly being allowed to rise above inflation and they’re set to rise by another 6.2% yet again in January. Despite the govern-ment’s pledge to be ‘the greenest yet’, there seems little incentive to using public transport and many students will doubtlessly be considering bringing a car to University.

My strong advice is not to bother. There will be some stu-dents who live nearby and will be regularly hopping back and forth between their Cardiff home and their parents and I have no doubt that in this and other exceptional cases, cars may be the economi-cal and convenient option. For most of us however, it’s expen-sive and unnecessary.

For those new to Cardiff, you’ll soon find that pretty much every-where is within walking distance, even from as far as Talybont North - just make sure you have

sturdy shoes! Many students also seem to forget that there are buses going in and out of the city centre regularly, as well as to Cardiff Bay and several train stations. Bike racks are found in most places, as well.

The grid of pedestrian areas, traffic lights and one-way streets in central Cardiff also make navi-gation a nightmare. The council

are also likely to further discour-age road driving in the future too, with a new bus station be-ing slowly but surely planned for the city centre and rumours around social media of a poten-tial Cardiff congestion charge. This anti-car ethos means many students who do bring cars leave them abandoned and unused for several weeks in residential ar-

eas around Cardiff, a habit which frustrates the local community immensely. Meanwhile students are paying tax and insurance for a car they’re not using.

So if it’s feasible for you, I’d suggest selling the car and buy-ing a bike and a railcard instead. With the savings made on tax, insurance, petrol and mainte-nance you can easily afford to

get about and still have change left over. Using public transport is less convenient for sure, but it can work well so long as you plan ahead. Book your train tick-ets home a couple of weeks in advance, google and print the bus times for the routes you’re likely to use and you can save some money, as well as the environ-ment, in the process.

Jack ParkerOpinion Writer

A miserable git's guide to student life in Cardiff

On yer bike and leave the car at home

#CARDIFFUNI

Our Welsh Opinion Editor Nick Evans is disillusioned after three years in Cardiff. But don't take him seriously...

Photographs courtesy of Cardiff Cycle Chiccardiffcyclechic.wordpress.com

11Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddop

Opinion10-14

Imagine being refused a Big Mac in McDonald’s: never going to happen, right? The infamous 490-calorie sandwich consist-ing of two beef patties, lettuce, cheese, onion and relish inside a sesame seed bun has been a best seller for the firm since 1967, and now sells at approximately 20 ev-ery minute worldwide.

However, the Big Mac will be strictly off the menu in McDon-ald’s first completely vegetarian outlet in Northern India, which is due to open in the middle of next year near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar.

This brave and controversial decision has sparked debate over the company’s ethos: how can a firm whose best-selling product is a beefburger begin to promote vegetarianism?

How successful the vegetarian outlet will be also remains to be

seen, as strict vegetarians may be unwilling to buy from a company that happily sells meat products in its 33,000 other restaurants worldwide.

Rajesh Kumar Maini, a spokes-man for McDonald’s in northern India, commented that “there is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants as many Indians are vegetarian.”

The McDonald’s’ menu in its other outlets in India is typically already 50% vegetarian, and it is no secret that the firm increas-ingly adapts its range to local de-mand. Public health concerns in the UK were responded to when McDonald’s moved to provide salads and healthier options with reduced salt and sugar content.

Set to replace the Big Mac the vegetarian outlet is the McAloo Tikki burger, which uses a spiced potato-based filling, and accounts for 25% of the company’s total sales in the country.

McDonald’s is still trying to grow in India where it still has a relatively small presence, and plans to open more restaurants in the country including another vegetarian store in north-west-ern India, near the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in Kashmir, which is a Hindu pilgrimage site that at-tracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

The opening of meat-free Mc-Donald’s restaurants in India is simply an example of a global company taking advantage of a business opportunity and adapt-ing to the specific needs of local

consumers. Its vegetarian options have proved successful in India, where both the country's differ-ent religious groups can enjoy the same meat-free dishes. M c D o n -ald’s is the s e c o n d biggest food outlet in the world after Subway, and they have not achieved this status with-out making some radical decis ions . While the customer may not always be right, listen-ing to their

No Big Macs allowed as McDonald’s goes veggieEllie WoodruffOpinion Writer

McDonald’s is still trying to grow in India

The Big Mac will be strictly off the menu in McDonald's' first com-pletely vegetarian outlet

12 / Opinion

Disabled or just differently abled?

I do not deny that, in the last two weeks, Paralym-pians have shown us all what can be achievable in the face of extreme adversity.

I do not deny that they have the potential to become heroes and an inspiration to us all. However, as the glamour of the games fades evermore quickly, the long entrenched prejudices and perceptions of the disabled remain. This cannot be altered in just 11 days – fact.

One could argue, perhaps callously, that by holding the games at all only serves to wid-en the gap between the abled and the disabled. Why? We do not see the accomplishments of these Paralympians in terms of just achievement – a fact that, of course, does not hold true for the Olympic Games. We see these athletes as 'amazing' be-cause of their disability – ‘look what he did even though he’s in a wheelchair’. In my mind, this does not alter perceptions, it merely reinforces the idea that these athletes are disabled. To make true leaps towards alter-ing perceptions, we must see people in terms of ability not disability. The Paralympics, while emphasising achievement in the face of adversity, inadver-tently emphasises achievement because of adversity.

An unfortunate irony of the London 2012 Paralympics is that London itself is not truly acces-sible to the disabled. Try being a wheelchair user and attempt-ing to use the Tube for example. This, of course, is one of many, more pressing concerns for dis-abled people. While I hope it proves to be an inspiration to many, to broadcast 11 days of Paralympic sporting achieve-ment puts the interest of an elite minority above the concerns of the majority. 11 days of sporting achievement does not change the reality for many disabled people. The Paralympics does not articulate the emotional ef-fects of disability in its more negative forms, nor does it artic-ulate the real concerns of many disabled people facing day-to-day tasks.

Disabled people are facing the terrifying prospect of 20% government cuts, should the co-alition push ahead with plans to abolish the Independent Living Fund in 2015. With this in mind, I find it hard to believe that be-coming a Paralympian is top of the agenda for many. And in that respect, I do not be-lieve the Paralympics will radically im-pact public per-ceptions of the disabled.

For & Against

Amber Bell and Lucy Barclay discuss whether the 2012 Palympic Games will have an impact upon the public's perception of the disabled

I've never been an avid watcher of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – until this year. True, the fact it was on home turf meant I felt compelled

to get involved, and the media frenzy surrounding it definitely worked its magic on me. But throughout it all, there was one advertising slogan that grabbed me: "Meet the Superhumans."

The build-up to the Paralym-pic games was a work of art. The advertising campaign and docu-mentaries about the athletes re-minded us that these were not disabled people who wanted our pity; they were humans worthy of our respect. True athletes of superhuman ability showed us that disability doesn't stop you from achieving pure brilliance; it is courage and determination that allows us to reach extraordi-nary heights.

Watching the Games, I soon forgot I was watching athletes with disabilities. Their sheer strength, speed and talent were beyond belief. Tao Zheng, the 100m backstroke swimmer who has no arms beat other swimmers with one or both arms, smashing the world record in the process. Here was a man who proved he could achieve just as much and more than those more techni-cally able than him, regardless of his disability.

And is that not the whole mes-sage of the Paralympic Games?

That despite disability, these ath-letes were parallel to those com-peting in the Olympic Games? Disability doesn't even come into the equation. These are purely amazing, awe-inspiring people.

The Paralympic Games has given us just as many household names as the Olympics: Da-vid “the Weirwolf” Weir, Ellie Simmonds, Jonnie Peacock, the list goes on. And they are not household names because they are 'fighting against the odds', they're household names be-cause they are sensational ath-letes.

The Games gave Channel 4 their highest viewing figures in over 10 years; therefore, the mes-sage of the Paralympic Games will have been driven home through the televisions of the common British household: those with disabilities can achieve as much as anyone else. Disability should not be factored into our perceptions of people; it is our inner strength and character that determines who we are.

Some may see it as naivity to believe the Games have changed public perception of disability, but I couldn't disagree more. The Paralympic Games of London 2012 have shown us all that it is time society realised the irony of using the term 'disabled', these athletes have proved they are as able, if not more so, than the av-erage human.

“Athletes of superhuman ability showed us that disability doesn't stop you from achieving pure brilliance

For Against

Got a

n opinio

n?

opinio

n@gairr

hydd.com

The wait is over. Months of eager anticipation will finally come to an end as MTV’s The Valleys hits our

screens this week. South Wales will become the latest area to be mocked at the hands of TV com-panies as a handful of apparently aspirant teens and 20-somethings move to Cardiff from various re-gions in the hope of ‘making it’ in the capital. Fantastic.

After Essex, Newcastle and West London, the Welsh Valleys aren’t the first region of the UK to have a spurious representation of local culture broadcast to the country in the name of 'celebrity.' Before their associated ‘reality’ shows, the previously mentioned areas were already associated with distorted and simplistic ste-reotypes, and perhaps ones that are more prevalent than in other areas of the country. Playing on such stereotypes for cheap laughs has been the key to the success of The Only Way Is Essex, Geordie Shore and Made In Chelsea. We can’t expect The Valleys to be much different, can we?

As the reality television band-wagon arrives in our region, we’re provided with the premise from MTV UK that this new series will seek to provide a realistic portrayal of life in South Wales. I don’t feel fully qualified to draw conclusions on what a realistic portrayal of South Wales life is,

having only moved here for Uni-versity. I am, however, quite sure from what I have read, and seen on advertisements, that The Val-leys won’t be providing a realistic portrayal of the area I have come to know and understand over the past 12 months.

“Smart, funny and authentic” is the official line from the MTV producers, although from what we already know, it seems un-likely to live up to that billing.

Criticism has poured in for the show, as many fear that this will shine a negative light on the region and fail to live up to the promise of authenticity and ac-curacy. It’s really no wonder that there is such a feeling of appre-hension, having seen other shows of a similar format. As such, the ‘Valleys are here’ campaign was set up to combat MTV’s pres-ence, aiming to provide onlook-ers with the balance that the show is unlikely to provide.

“This is entertainment at its most outrageous and souped-up, playing on crass and over-simplified stereotypes,” said Ciaran Jones for WalesOnline, having been invited to the pre-view screening earlier in the month. High-profile figures such as Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for the Rhondda, who called the show "hideously patronising", have also added their condemna-tion.

Before the show has even aired, I can say with relative confidence

that it doesn’t pass the authen-ticity test. I have never been so unlucky as to have my night out in Cardiff city centre hijacked by the Valleys cast and their produc-tion team. However, I’m reliably informed by those who have that not only is it generally unpleas-ant, it also says a lot about the show's production. With crew members directing the cast, and telling them how to behave, it seems very unlikely that this show will present an authentic representation of the cast mem-bers, never mind the wider South Wales region.

Then there’s the cast itself, many of who aren’t even from the Valleys. Hailing from towns and cities such as Bridgend, Port Talbot and Swansea, it suggests a lazy perception that Wales is all the same: full of declining towns and, as seen littering the advert, sheep. The cast breaking away from their communities to make it in the big city strikes of a show focused solely on entertainment, as opposed to a supposed authen-tic portrayal.

Coming to Cardiff to make it, in a city smaller than Coventry and not much bigger than Stoke, represents the supposed pin-nacle of ambition in the Valleys. But many will be able to see that there is far more to South Wales. Towns such as Merthyr Tyd-fil were once giants of industry and business through the steel trade, while the first ever £1 mil-

lion business contract was signed right here in Cardiff at the Coal Exchange, now a fantastic music and events venue.

That reputation has deteriorat-ed over time, epitomised by poet Dylan Thomas, who referred to his hometown of Swansea as the graveyard of ambition. Shows like The Valleys, and those who see it is a mark of aspiration, show an almost acceptance of that phrase, despite the region still offering so much. For example, the lead scientist at CERN, the home of Switzerland’s Large Hadron Col-lider, was born and raised in the Valleys town of Aberdare; Wales’ first billionaire, entrepreneur and Celtic Manor owner Terry Mat-thews is from the town of New-bridge. People like this evidence what the region still has to offer on an international scale, and that aspirations don’t peak at get-ting wasted in Glam on a Friday night.

So while the show might sug-gest a region all too ready to fes-ter in mediocrity, it’s not neces-sarily the case. Whether or not the British public will fall for the warped version of life in South Wales likely to be presented, only time will tell. I’d like to think that many will be able to see past the clichés, stereotypes and one-sid-ed portrayal, but, unfortunately, it’s likely that many won’t.

13Monday 17th September 2012 | @gairrhyddop

Opinion10-13

by Liam McNeilly

Many fear that this will shine a negative light on the region and fail to live up to the promise of authenticity

“

14/ Politics

Spring in bloom: The other side of the Arab revolutionary coinPolitics writer Gareth Dunn looks at the unrest in the Islamic world following the release of an inflamatory and blasphemous film depicting the Prophet Muhammad

The right to bear arms; the right to the freedom of speech; the intuitive desire to topple auto-

cratic, oppressive and perverse governments bent on the subju-gation and near-destruction of their nations. The United States of America is a nation built and maintained on the principle of protection, in all forms of the word; rights, livelihoods, lives, the list goes on. But when the time comes that the protectors come into direct conflict with the protected, how does or should Lady Liberty react? Restraint? Chastisement? Diplomatic disen-gagement?

The events of September 2012, eleven whole years after the most dramatic and abominable event in relations between West and Middle East this century, heralds a long-awaited change between how not only the United States, but the Western World, engages with the new breed of Middle Eastern governments.

Let us view this chain of events beginning at ‘Act One, Scene One’. On the 11th of September, the US Ambassador to Libya, J. Christo-pher Stevens was killed in a mili-tant attack under the auspices of a religious protest. The object of the Libyans anger was a poorly made, provocative and farcical film, but the idea that that is all there is to it would be grossly misleading. Arab governments new and old, have been half-hearted in their condemnation of the protests, suggesting that the protests are not purely against the film that struck the match-

box. All of this must be viewed against the over-riding context of anti-Western sentiment in the region. Protest against the US itself and her steadfast Middle East ally Israel, may well be the true cause, but it is also an effect of this; anger fuelling anger.

The reason such a firestorm

has erupted now is because of the surfacing of the film, ‘Inno-cence of Muslims’. The very na-ture of these new national gov-ernments, pseudo-Islamist and Islamist sympathetic ushered in with Western democratic values, put them and their citizens on a collision course with the very na-

tions that delivered them to pow-er. Only time will tell whether this will cause substantial trade and military difficulties, but it is true that no such obstacles (cer-tain nations notwithstanding) were in place during decades of autocracy.

With that in mind, how does

Washington tip-toe her way around this new Middle Eastern crisis? By heavily criticising the new governments, the Obama administration runs the risk of looking like ‘toys-out-of-pram’ after not getting what they want for their substantial input in re-gime change, and further charges regional tensions. On the other side of the coin however, a less heavy-handed approach makes the United States and the West-ern World look weak in the face of the defence of the freedom of speech, and in defence of their own international clout. A simple warning may not turbo-charge problems, but it may well under-mine US influence in the region for years to come.

By leading the ‘Democratic World’, the US has finally fallen victim to her own good inten-tions, and finds herself in one heck of a catch-22. The answer, quite simply, would be to do nothing, ride the wave of this fu-rore, and wait for it to wash over, as the US have done for the ma-jority of Western-Middle Eastern crises over the past decade, but then Obama runs the risk of look-ing both weak, but also seeming above the situation. The only outcome this whole episode has served is to show the world that the unadulterated stupidity of a small number of men produc-ing one truly ridiculous film has caused lives to be lost, and for civilisations to so easily, avoid-ably, but once again stand against each other.

On behalf of the insanity of humanity, Mr. President, I apolo-gise.

By the 8th of September, the clip had been dubbed into Arabic, and was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people on-line.

From the 8th to the 12th of September, vigorous protests broke out across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as other Muslim communities across the planet. Fiercest protest was centred around US and Israeli embassies.

The biggest incidents occured at the US embassies in Yemen, Egypt and Libya where compounds were breached and flags torn down. On the 11th of Septem-ber, the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi.

By the 12th September YouTube "temporarily re-stricted access to the film in Libya and Egypt, but by then the protests had al-ready caused considerable devastation.

The 14 minute film was first posted online on the 1st of July, but did not gather much attention until it was picked up by various Arab TV stations.

September finally brought an end to Parliament’s long summer recess and also meant a new look Cabinet that contained some new faces, who could have wide-ranging effects in the weeks and months ahead.

It’s a favourite hobby of Po-litical Commentators to dismiss reshuffles like this one as com-pletely meaningless, since the bulk of the voting public prob-ably do not know who the old cabinet were, let alone the new ministers who will be replacing them. But as well as this being mildly offensive to the intelli-gence of the population, it seems just incorrect, as frequently, ministers are shuffled out of of-fice in order to make way for a new policy.

The prime example from this reshuffle is the removal of Jus-tine Greening as Secretary of State for Transport. She was inside No. 10 for over an hour before she finally came out and announced moodily that she had been appointed as the new Inter-national Development Secretary, suggesting she definitely saw it as a demotion. The rumoured reason for her removal was her long-standing opposition to the building of a third runway at Heathrow airport as she is MP for the London Borough of Putney which lies right beneath possible new flight-paths. Her successor is former Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin, who is on record as being “open-minded” about a possible third runway. Unsurprisingly, opponents of a third runway have widely criti-cized this change, the most high-profile of which was London Mayor Boris Johnson who de-scribed Greening as “a first-rate Transport secretary."

Elsewhere there were other important changes, including the move of Jeremy Hunt to the role of Health Secretary. The former Culture Secretary replac-es Andrew Lansley, who himself replaces Sir George Young as Leader of the House of Com-mons, but it would be fair to say both men have faced their share of controversy over the last 12 months. While Hunt seems to have survived a potentially fa-tal series of misadventures over Rupert Murdoch’s failed bid for BskyB and then giving evidence to the phone-hacking inquiry, he also presided over the suc-cess of London’s Olympics, and buoyed up by that, he has landed

a job he described as “the big-gest privilege of [his] life." On the other hand, Andrew Lans-ley faced huge problems getting his controversial NHS reforms package through Parliament, and faced strong criticism from health professionals such as the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nurses. He has said that Health was the only government department he was ever interested in, so he will be disappointed by this move.

It was not a good reshuffle for women or ethnic minorities (not that there are many choices for David Cameron in the current Conservative Parliamentary par-ty), with Greening and Baroness Warsi being demoted to lower government roles, and Welsh Secretary, Cheryl Gillan and En-vironment Secretary, Caroline Spelman being removed alto-gether. Despite David Cameron claiming he would like a third of his Cabinet to be women, even after promoting Maria Miller to Culture and Theresa Villiers to Northern Ireland, only four of his 27 strong Cabinet are wom-en. On a side note, seventeen are Oxbridge educated.

The reshuffle finally sees the return of a Welsh MP to the role

of Welsh Secretary, with David Jones stepping into the role af-ter a fairly long career in Welsh politics both in Westminster and in Cardiff.

The real question we need to ask about this new cabinet is whether or not it signifies a change of direction for the gov-ernment. All the main players like George Osborne, Theresa May and William Hague are still in position, so that does not suggest any sort of radi-cal departure, but a number of the changes lower down, hint towards a subtle repositioning for the Conservative leadership, perhaps to keep the rank-and-file Tories subdued. The elevation of right-wingers like Owen Pater-son (the new Environment sec-retary), Maria Miller, and above all, of Chris Grayling to the role of Justice Secretary, suggest the age of Ken Clarke’s more Liberal brand of Conservatism may be coming to an end. Clarke was not removed entirely, but kept

on as minister without portfolio, to advise on economic and other matters.

The Liberal Democrat side of the government on the other hand announced only minor re-adjustments amongst its lower-ranking ministers. If it fails to as-sert itself against a Conservative Party drifting rightwards, the party could find itself even more the awkward partner, as Gov-ernment policy on Europe and Social affairs stray even further from what they would hope.

The overall outcome of this reshuffle will probably not be known for some time; all min-isters fall into controversial cir-cumstances sooner or later, it just remains to be seen how well the new recruits will cope with such pressures. In terms of a change of policy direction, that too will probably happen incre-mentally, but David Cameron will no doubt be hoping that this host of fresh faces will be able to revitalize the government with new ideas, perhaps reversing its declining poll ratings. But on the issue of the third runway at least, it looks like a decision will be deferred until some sort of consensus can be reached.

15

Cabinet reshuffle: A shift to the right?Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddpol Politics

14-15

Thom HollickPolitics Editor

It was not a good reshuffle for women or ethnic minorities

“

The reshuffle finally sees the return of a Welsh MP to the role of Welsh Secretary

Ministers are shuffled out of office in order to make way for a new policy

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Does a new Minister mean a new ethos?

The 2012 Olympics opening cer-emony celebrated the NHS as a subject of national pride; how-ever, concerns over its manage-ment and structural reforms are making regular headlines. This is an obvious reflection of Brit-ain's strong emotional attach-ment to its health service. Our obsession over the state of the NHS has subjected it to endless revolution and change, stirring up both political and social up-heaval over the years of its exist-ence. In 2010, former Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley set out proposals for a change in the way our health care would be managed. They received a frosty reception, and were criticised as a perilous shake-up and a con-spiracy to privatise this public service.

The Government has insisted that NHS’s annual costs must be lowered by more than 4 per cent. This task is only manage-able by introducing a scheme aimed at creating substantial savings in healthcare. Unfor-tunately, any cuts made to the system will damage the quality of care. However unpopular the health service becomes, demand for it will never be low. Cutting consultation times may mean pa-tients will come back with more complicated health issues later on. Similarly, a reduction in NHS management could potentially give rise to inefficient organisa-tion of the system at the expense of both patients and workers.

With the loss of over 60,000 NHS posts across the UK and concerns that clinical commis-sioning bodies will seek guid-

ance from larger private health companies, confidence in the NHS is waning. Andrew Lansley is accused of taking a leading role in pushing the proposals for dras-tic NHS reform. A year ago, while he was still in the role, delegates at the Royal College of Nursing Conference spoke out in defiance of the change, with a 98 per cent

vote of no confidence against him. At this year's conference, he was questioned on the issues of NHS savings, pensions reform, and the potential closure of A&E and maternity units across the UK. He was removed in the Cabi-net reshuffle shortly afterwards.

There has been a cut of one-third of all beds in acute and general wards in the last 25 years. Accordingly, patients are being shifted like parcels from ward to ward in the middle of the night to compensate for bed shortages in the face of rising demand. As the NHS struggles with escalating

waiting lists, emerging scandals reveal the cost of understaffing in hospitals. It is not surprising that Lansley was met by unprece-dented unpopularity from groups across the board. There appears to be a significant disconnec-tion between Lansley's vision of a cost-efficient NHS and the reality of a potential healthcare

meltdown. Given this context, it is unsurprising that the Cabinet reshuffle saw Lansley sacked and replaced by former culture secre-tary Jeremy Hunt.

Hunt, however, has not been immune from political scandal himself, having been a key player in public fiascos such as News Corporation’s takeover bid for BSkyB and the Leveson Inquiry. Furthermore, in the interest of a deal worth £650m, Hunt was said to have pushed for a Virgin Care takeover of his constituency's NHS Trust – a push that purely serves to underline the issues

of business and marketisation at the heart of Lansley's unpopular NHS reforms.

To regain even a morsel of public and political support, Jer-emy Hunt will need to re-estab-lish morale by collaborating with NHS staff and their unions. This may prove to be hard work for a man who was at the focal point

of the Murdoch scandal, and ex-pressed an interest in promoting the private sector via govern-mental policy, a stance that will be contentious with NHS staff.

Hunt has also professed that he will back homeopathy as vi-able medical treatment and re-portedly argued for the removal of the NHS tribute from the Ol-ympic opening ceremony. Firstly, the promotion of homeopathic medicine challenges the concept of evidence-based practice. Also, an objection against the celebra-tion of the NHS at the open-ing games raises questions over

whether Hunt appreciates – or agrees with – the fact that the health service is a prized national institution.

Fundamental changes are a necessity to transform our NHS into a system that provides high quality care for each individual. It is first and foremost owned by the public it serves and attention must therefore be given to main-tain the public service ethos of the NHS.

With modern day demograph-ics revealing an ageing popula-tion and rising rates of obes-ity, Hunt will need to make sure that delivery of care meets the nation's high demands and ex-pectations. He must look at the long-term issues, to create a health care system that is sus-tainable both financially and ad-ministratively. Andrew Lansley recognised the need to converge several secondary care services into fewer, high-class centres. Such changes attempt to strike a balance between the opposing requirements of maintaining an efficient service while pushing for savings. He successfully cam-paigned to protect the Haslemere hospital and Royal Surrey A&E, local services of his constituency, but the question remains as to whether he can do the same on a national scale.

Politician Nigel Lawson once claimed that the NHS "is the closest we have to a national re-ligion". Hunt will have to work to avoid the pitfalls of his pred-ecessor and protect the same in-stitution showcased with great acclaim at this year's Olympic opening ceremony.

Christina TranScience Writer

The Government has insisted that the NHS's annual costs must be low-ered to more than 4 per cent

162,129The number of writ-ten complaints received about NHS Service in 2011-2012 (an increase of 8.3% from 2010-2011)

4.3The length in days of the average

stay in NHS beds

8,805,067.4The cost in pounds sterling for all ingredients of prescription medicines in England in 2011

6,700,000The number of outpatients appoint-

ments which were missed in 2010

The NHS is the closest thing we have to a national religion

18 / Science

198,900The number of admissions to A&E where alcohol was the primary cause of incident

19Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddsci

Mobile network giant Everything Everywhere, recently rebranded as EE, is launching the UK’s first fourth generation mobile ser-vice, 4G. The launch, on Tuesday, September 11, while successful, came amid controversy that in-dependent regulator Ofcom has granted EE an unfair advantage by allowing it to launch the ser-vice this early.

Sixteen UK cities are to be included in this year's launch, with Cardiff, London, Birming-ham and Bristol currently being used to test the service, expected to launch within weeks. EE aims to have achieved 98% UK cover-age by 2014, though by this point, they will not be the sole 4G pro-vider.

The current third generation mobile service allows users to connect from a range of devices via wireless network from al-most anywhere worldwide. It is expected that 4G will greatly ex-tend the possibilities of the ser-vice, providing considerably fast-er download speeds alongside a greater level of connectivity, as

well as a stronger, faster signal to mobile devices, hindered consid-erably less by location.

Initially, few handsets will be able to operate on a 4G signal, but it is expected that fourth genera-tion service will rapidly replace its predecessor. Critics however, warn that very little improvement will be seen once the service becomes widespread and congested. Regard-less, the download speed available shows clear prog-ress in the future of mobile broadband.

Other devices, such as connectiv-ity adaptors for lap-tops, are expected to become available throughout 2013 as fourth generation mo-bile services rise in prominence. Alongside greater connectivity, use of 4G networks is expected to allow newly devel-oping cloud storage technologies to reach wider audiences.

Father’s age linked to risks of autism and schizophrenia

A new limited edition of Mo-nopoly has been produced to commemorate the work of Alan Turing. Known as the father of modern computing, Turing played a vital role in cracking

the Enigma code as well as other German intelli-gence for the Allies dur-ing the Second World War. Sales of the 1,000 boards will also raise funds for the Bletchley Park heritage site’s re-construction project.

Originally a math-ematics lecturer at Cam-bridge University, Turing took up work at Bletch-ley Park – the Govern-ment Code and Cipher School headquarters – at the outbreak of the war. Most famously, his de-

sign for an anti-Enigma 'bombe' led to Turing personally deci-phering a form of Enigma that Germany was using in its U-boat attacks. Some historians believe that Bletchley Park’s code-break-ing operation shortened the war

by as much as two to four years. Turing believed that he had

discovered a code-based tactic to winning a game of Monopoly and he tested his theory on a board drawn up by the William Newman, the son of his math-ematician friend Max Newman. Turing lost the game, and the new edition of Monopoly com-memorates this moment, while celebrating the life of one of Brit-ain’s wartime heroes.

The board replaces the origi-nal properties with landmark places of significance in Turing’s life. Other special features in-clude replacing the utilities with the Enigma Machine and Bombe, as well as substituting houses and hotels with huts and blocks (building names on Bletchley Park complex).

The limited edition Alan Tur-ing Monopoly board will be re-leased this November in time for Christmas shopping. It will be available from the Bletchley Park shop and includes a novel paper copy of the original design drawn up by William Newman.

Sarah PhillipsScience Writer

David MasonScience Writer

4G to be launched in major UK cities before Christmas

New research published in the journal Nature (August 2012) sug-gests a link between paternal age and an increased risk of psycho-logical mutations such as autism and schizophrenia to develop in their children. Although the find-ings deriving from this study are previously known, and hence do not prove that increased paternal age alone imparts the develop-ment of a mutation such as au-tism in a child, it emphasises a contributing risk factor linked to such diseases, and is the largest study providing this form of evi-dence thus far.

deCODE Genetics, the com-pany that ran the study in Reyja-vik, Iceland, analyse the human genome to discover genetic risk factors in common diseases that range from cardiovascular dis-ease to cancer.

In better understanding the cause of new hereditary muta-tions, the study compared en-tire genome sequences of 78 trios of mother, father and child. Analysing the complete genome is integral to finding de novo mu-tations, i.e. spontaneous muta-

tions that develop during game-togenesis that are not inherited by parent sperm of egg cells. Analysing complete genome sequences singles out new mutations by dis-tinguishing inherited ones from both pa-rental sides, while available family information al-lows for under-standing any environmental effects that may have an effect on the development of brain dis-orders. To provide effec-tive evidence with a large enough popu-lation sample, additional 1,859 Icelanders were involved in the study in the com-parison of genome sequences.

Furthermore, by nar-rowing study participants down to the Icelandic popu-lation, confounding factors are

limited.Study results showed that fathers passed on nearly

four times as many new mutations as mothers

(55 versus 14), with random mutation

numbers rising ex-ponentially with

age. Narrow-ing their data down further, researchers at deCODE G e n e t i c s found a two m u t a t i o n per year increase in o f f s p r i n g with each o n e - y e a r increase in

the age of the father. In

comparison, the number

of mutations passed on by the

maternal side was 15 at any age, while

a child with a 20-year-old father had an aver-

age of 35 mutations passed on and a child of a 40-year-old

father an average of 65 found mu-tations. For disorders such as au-tism and schizophrenia, the study emphasises the mother’s age as no contributing risk factor, as it is for chromosomal abnormali-ties such as Down’s syndrome.

Dr. Kari Stefánsson, CEO of deCODE Genetics, says de novo mutations would unsurprisingly play a significant role in brain disorders, as at least 50 percent of active genes play a role in neu-ral development, making it less likely to affect organs that are not as exposed to such. Aside from this fact, the greater amount of random mutations, however, do not result in consequential brain disorders, just as an older pater-nal age is only one of many con-tributing factors that may lead to a child being born with autism. Around 20-30 percent of random mutations are thought to account for the case of autism, while the remaining percentage is defined by genetically inherited muta-tions as well as environmental factors.

Alan Turing Monopoly to be released

Victoria PeaseScience Writer

Science18-19

20 / Societies

In February this year, the Uni-versity’s drama society, Act One, gave us their adaption of King Lear, co-directed by Piers Horner and Madison Fowler. It was a dark and savage re-working of Shakespeare’s infamous plot of uncompromising ambition and fierce revenge, set in a seemingly apocalyptic future Britain and retaining the powerful Shake-spearean English. (An excellent overview by Katie Brown may be found in gair rhydd’s February 13th issue, no. 969 in the online 2011/12 archives).

Once the run had finished, however, Piers and Madison (Madison, incidentally, is to be credited with the original idea for Lear) found that the cast were not at all keen to relinquish their characters just yet. The ac-tors asked the directors to take the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

"It was a lovely moment actu-ally," recalls Piers. "One of our original aims as directors was to ensure the actors felt they had ownership of their parts in

the play, and this was clearly the case. It was their excitement that really spurred us to look into it."

They managed, through some swift research and use of Madi's contacts, to secure vital sponsor-ship from the Students' Union, which covered production costs.

As Piers told gair rhydd, "It’s extremely expensive to put plays on at the Fringe, with nearly all productions making a loss, but the prestige is such that thou-sands of the best shows from around the world make the trip." A £300 contribution from the Act One coffers later (the Fringe registration fee) and the finances were set, the commitment made.

A venue was secured next. "It’s essential to match up the feel of a play to the feel of the venue," Piers commented. "We had to put together a marketing pack for the show and sell it to venues we felt were appropriate for the ‘feel’ of the production. One of our fa-vourites was the prestigious Zoo group of venues. We applied for their 60-seater ‘The Aviary’. 60-seaters are the ‘standard’ size for Fringe venues, so we were very pleased, therefore, to hear back from Zoo offering us their 90-seat ‘The Monkey House’. Needless to say, we accepted!"

With marketing now well un-derway and Twitter followers hitting 600, the arduous practi-

calities of streamlining the pro-duction took precedence. Piers reflects on the manic period of activity that was their summer: "There was a lot to learn in a very short space of time. One of the hardest things about a stu-dent society taking a show to Ed-inburgh is that there is very little time to rehearse, with cast and crew focussing on exams, then breaking up for the summer." In this respect, it would appear that the team had some advantage, having already performed Lear – but, as Piers recalls, this would turn out to be "a double-edged sword. New actors were needed, as not every member of the origi-nal cast could make the Fringe, and these actors needed to learn roles and develop relationships with the others" – all in a very short space of time. "The entire show also needed amending", continued Piers, "to account for the fact that the staging in The Monkey House is arranged as a thrust configuration, rather than in the traditional face-on style used for the original production." The show then needed to be cut from approximately two hours down to the venue’s specification of 75 minutes, meaning a total overhaul of choreography and music too (an original sound-track by Glastonbury DJ Nick Cotton).

It was indeed no mean under-taking. "We learned this the hard way!’ shared Piers. By the time they were in Edinburgh, how-ever, the only real uncertainty

was the size of the audience – the average Fringe audience size, ac-cording to rumour, being two. This they blew, with audiences of between 20 and around 70 on their final night. With three Act One shows at the Fringe this year (Lear, Wuthering Heights and

The Institute), Cardiff University has never been so well represent-ed and a huge congratulations must go to the Lear team, & all the teams from Cardiff Univer-sity who presented shows in Ed-inburgh this year.

Vanessa PlattSocieties Editor

Act One’s King Lear at the Edinburgh Fringe

The actors asked the directors to take the show to Edinburgh

How to gain by giving backThe student-led charity, Student Volunteering Cardiff (SVC), is entering another year, and has plans to be even bigger and bet-ter than past years, with the help of the students who participate in their projects helping the young, disadvantaged, elderly and vul-nerable members of the Cardiff community.

There has never been a more pertinent time for students to be engaged in voluntary work as a creative career move. The current deficiency in graduate jobs in the UK has meant that students must think about ways in which they can make themselves stand out, while employers are also looking for these qualities in applicants. Giving some of your time volun-tarily – i.e. for no pay – implies

the best kind of commitment and self-motivation, which employers like to see beyond the successful completion of a degree. A survey by Reed Employment revealed that 73% of employers would em-ploy someone with volunteering experience over those without.

The Evening Standard, in their Charity Special (May 28th, 2012), highlight the advantages of volun-teering, whatever your situation; in economic times that are tough for the majority, the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETS) is brushing one million.

If done with a genuine will to make a difference, volunteering shows great skills to an employer, such as motivation, time manage-ment, good communication skills and the desire for self-develop-ment by practicing such skills

through specific voluntary work; for example, an education vol-unteering project is valuable ex-perience for applying to a PGCE course; a mental health project could be the key to getting expe-rience in a hospital environment; and working with young people would give you a good insight into being a social worker.

There is surely nowhere bet-ter to begin volunteering than at University, where those working with you are of similar age and situation, and there is the oppor-tunity for real bonds to be forged – bonds of both friendship and

success on the graduate job lad-der. Andy Swan, Vice-Chairman of Student Volunteering Cardiff, shares how his volunteering ex-perience had positive repercus-sions when he applied for work placements: "I was on my place-ment year last year, and to get my perfect placement had to send off my CV to various extremely busy psychologists. My boss admitted it was my experiences with SVC (Thrive and Park Road) which caught his attention and made him decide to give me a job."

SVC offers over 40 different volunteering projects, covering areas as diverse as mental health, learning difficulties, the environ-ment, the elderly, homelessness, young people and education. The time commitment varies depend-ing on which project you choose – some need weekly commitment,

whereas others are fortnightly or monthly. SVC is involved in one off volunteering events too, such as playground makeovers and beach clean days, so everyone should find something suitable to fit into a hectic timetable – and there is always room in any time-table for a bit of fun, so why not find some in volunteering? You may be surprised at just what you get back in return.

Vanessa PlattSocieties Editor

My boss admitted my experiences with SVC convinced him to give me a job

21Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddsoc

Watch out for the Jazz SocietySocieties20-21

In September 2011, the Big Band Society arrived at the Freshers Fayre equipped with photos from the success of the previous year. The band had achieved a gold award at the regional round of the National Concert Band Fes-tival, before travelling to Glas-gow to pick up a national silver award.

Although the committee rea-lised the band’s profile had been raised, nothing could have pre-pared them for what was to come. 109 people signed up! A profes-sional big band requires just 20 members, so the committee knew that, in order to improve perfor-mance quality and opportunities, something had to be done. An emergency meeting was called.

Through this, the Jazz Society was formed – a committee initia-tive to reach out to more students, aiming itself not only at those who played jazz, but a variety of students wishing to perform and those who wish to socialise through jazz, keeping up to date with the Cardiff scene. A Jazz Orchestra was created to accom-modate all instruments, multiple solo singers and several conduc-tors. Singers also combined, making the Jazz Choir; the Big Band began auditioning for those wanting to tackle more challeng-ing and complicated music; an established Saxophone Ensemble became affiliated to the society for its funding and performance prospects; and members were also encouraged to set up their own small ensembles. Opportu-nities became endless and the society started to grow.

Barriers were broken at the

first social with a Rubik's Cube theme. Freshers were stripping off and swapping clothes in public, while giving a positive response to the society change along the way. Socials then be-

came jazzier with trips to Café Jazz, where members watched live music, often before ventur-ing into town (a very sophisti-cated pre-drinks!). Later socials included bowling, ice-skating, more gigs and a three-course Christmas dinner.

After many successful socials, the next challenge for the com-mittee was to hold an event for all Jazz Society ensembles. A ‘Jazz Spectacular’ night was planned. Held at Talybont Social Centre

to entice first years, the venue matched the society’s colour theme and provided the perfect arena for a fantastic evening. The Christmas theme proved a hit and the night was great fun for

performers and audience alike.A second Jazz Spectacular was

held at CF10 before the Easter break. This event included more ensembles on two stages – the audience was spoilt for choice!

Global Village is a highlight of the year for most societies, but the Big Band Society had never performed. This had to be rectified, and the Jazz Soci-ety entered to perform Bobby Kaner’s Newblood. The perfor-mance raised the society’s profile

by giving a modern take on the genre through ‘funk inflicted riot jazz’. The eight-piece band had a fantastic time, especially their DJ scratching tuba player, who proved incredibly memorable!

More opportunities came when the Jazz Society made con-nections with Dan and Laura Curtis, protectors of the Great American Songbook. This ven-ture began with last year’s Presi-dent contacting the pair after an appearance on The One Show. Members learnt about the origins of music they love to play and the Big Band was soon invited to perform as part of a 1940s night at Penrhiwceiber Hall. Dan and Laura were so impressed with

the band that they added it to the programme of the Lord Mayor’s Gala Concert at the BBC’s Hoddi-nott Hall. After wowing the audi-ence, it was discovered that they were the first Big Band to ever perform at this venue!

The Cardiff University Big Band went from strength to strength, hosting evenings at Dempsey’s, the Irish bar on Cas-tle Street, which filled the venue and impressed those watching with their professional attitude.

Possibly their greatest achieve-ment to date was the trip to Sun-derland for the Great North Big Band Jazz Festival. Three days, two minibuses, one van, six driv-ers, 26 musicians and a lot of equipment later, the weekend turned out to be well worth the efforts of those involved. The band performed alongside some of the best Big Bands in Britain and did themselves proud. They left the North with fantastic com-ments from professional judges, feeling justifiably delighted with their triumph.

As the year came to an end, the society held its Annual Gen-eral Meeting, which included the introduction of two new commit-tee roles: publicity officer and musical coordinator. The new committee was elected and, al-though the previous officers were sad to leave, they knew the 2012-13 group would push the society even further.

For more information on the Jazz Society, contact Rebecca Gardner at jazzsociety@cardiff.ac.uk or visit cardiffuniversity-jazzsociety.co.uk. For more infor-mation on the Cardiff University Big Band, visit cardiffuniversity-bigband.co.uk.

Rebecca GardnerSocieties Writer

The Cardiff EarthSpirituality Circle

A newly affiliated so-ciety this year (so they are small and keen to enlarge!), this group ex-ists to provide support for students of alterna-tive belief systems, and those with an interest in alternative therapies and lifestyles.

They welcome all who are interested or practicing in paganism, tarot, divination, angelic healing, crystal work and reiki just to name some! They will be holding talks and offering workshops to help members to develop themselves spiritually and to have the opportunity to try new things!

22 / Taf-Od Dydd Llun Medi'r 24ain 2012 | @taf_od

Graddau gwell i dros 2,000 o ddisgyblion, newyddion da?

Gwladgarwch a'r Gemau Olympaidd

Yn dilyn penwythnos o ailraddio papurau arholiad TGAU Saesneg miloedd o fyfyrwyr o Gymru, cy-hoeddodd Cydbwyllgor Addysg Cymru (CBAC) wythnos diweth-af fod 2,386 o fyfyrwyr wedi der-byn graddau gwell na y cawsant yn wreiddiol, gyda graddau 1,202 yn codi o radd D i radd C.

Daeth y gorchymyn i ailraddio’r papurau gan y Gweinidog Ad-dysg, Leighton Andrews, oedd yn credu bod newid ffiniau’r grad-dau cyn yr arholiad yn annheg ar y disgyblion. Mae’r penderfyniad i ailraddio’r papurau yn amlwg wedi achosi cryn anghytuno, yn enwedig yn dilyn penderfyniad Ysgrifennydd Addysg San Stef-fan, Michael Gove i wrthod cani-atáu i bapurau myfyrwyr o Loegr cael eu hailraddio. Nid yn unig yw’r penderfyniadau cyferbyniol hyn yn ymddangos i fod yn an-nheg ar fyfyrwyr, ond maent he-fyd yn creu dryswch, oherwydd eu bod yn golygu bod graddau ‘D’ yn Lloegr mewn rhai achly-suron yn gyfatebol i radd ‘C’ yng Nghymru.

Mae’n bosib dadlau bod llawer

mwy o broblemau wedi dod yn amlwg o’r sefyllfa hyn, yn ogys-tal â beth sy’n cael ei drafod yn y cyfryngau yn bresennol. Mor hawdd ag yr oedd ailraddio pap-urau a chodi graddau rhai o fyfyr-wyr, mae’r safon yn amlwg wedi gostwng ers arholiadau TGAU blwyddyn diweddaf, ac nid yw newid ‘D’ i ‘C’ yn profi llawer yn nhermau safon perfformiadau’r myfyrwyr yn gyffredinol. A ddylem ni ddim bod yn galw ar ein myfyrwyr ifanc i anelu at ‘A’, ac nid at ‘C’? Ydym ni’n troi mewn i genedl sydd yn rhy fodlon gyda ‘C’, gyda bod yn ganolig, heb aw-ydd i wthio am y marciau gorau posib? Os felly, ydy’r agwedd hyn hefyd yn cael ei adlewyrchu yn ein cymdeithas?

Yn amlwg, does dim siom mewn cael gradd ‘C’ mewn un-rhyw bwnc, ond rhaid gofyn pa mor safonol yw Saesneg unigolyn os yw eu marciau ar y ffin rhwng ‘C’ a ‘D’. Mewn pynciau craidd, sy’n holl bwysig ar gyfer dy-fodol agos a phell myfyrwyr, er

enghraifft Cymraeg a Saesneg, a ddylem ni ddim gwthio myfyr-wyr a disgyblion i gyrraedd sa-fonau uwch o siarad, ysgrifennu a chyfarthrebu, nid yn unig canol-bwyntio ar lwyddiant a graddau

myfyrwyr yn dilyn arholiadau. Mae Ysgrifennydd Addysg San

Steffan, Michael Gove, yng ng-hanol cynllunio system newydd o asesu, fydd yn disodli'r TGAU traddodiadol mewn ysgolion yn

Lloegr yn y dyfodol agos. Mae Gove yn honni bydd y cynllun yn helpu codi safonau, yn y gobaith i gystadlu yn rhyngwladol yn nher-mau safon addysg. Yn y cynllun hwn, fydd yn effeithio ysgolion yn Lloegr yn unig, bydd pynciau craidd, megis ieithoedd, math-emateg a gwyddoniaeth yn cael eu hasesu trwy gyfrwng newydd - yr ‘English Baccalaureate Cer-tificate’.

Er na fydd y system newydd yn effeithio ar fyfyrwyr TGAU yng Nghymru yn uniongyrchol, mae’n fwy na tebyg y bydd newidi-adau yn system addysg Lloegr yn gorfodi'r Senedd i daro golwg ar y ffordd mae disgyblion yn cael eu hasesu yng Nghymru.

Yn sicr, mae’r digwyddiadau diweddar wedi denu mwy o sylw at y ddadl ynglyn â’r system ad-dysg, a gobeithio y bydd y sylw yn achosi pobl i drafod ag edrych ar ffyrdd i wellhau addysg myfyr-wyr y dyfodol.

Tomos LewisGolygydd

graddau 1,202 yn codi o radd D i radd C

2,386 o fyfyrwyr wedi derbyn grad-dau gwell

Dros yr haf, treu-liodd miliynau o bobl ar draws y byd oriau maith yn dilyn hynt a helynt gemau

Olympaidd Llundain 2012. Mae’n debyg fod y gemau ymysg y rhai gorau a gynhaliwyd erioed, yn enwedig i dîm Prydain, wrth iddynt gipio 29 medal aur. Lle-daenodd ewfforia’r gemau i bob cwr o Brydain gan achosi ymch-wydd mewn gwladgarwch Pry-deinig. Dyma beth awgrymwyd gan y cyfryngau torfol. Honnwyd gan y BBC a’r papurau newydd cenedlaethol fod Jac yr Undeb yn hedfan yn falch ym mhob twll a chornel o’r ynysoedd hyn. Ond, a oedd hynny’n wir?

Dechreuodd y cyffro yn fuan iawn wedi cyhoeddiad y gemau, gan ymchwyddo eleni wrth i’r fflam gael ei chario o ardal i ard-al. Croesawyd y ffagl gan luoedd o wladgarwch yn chwifio baneri yn frwdfrydig ym mhob man yr âi. Nid baneri Jac yr Undeb yn unig a chwifiwyd. Roedd Cymru wledig yn fôr o faneri coch, gwyn a gwyrdd yn mynegi balchder

Cymreig am gemau Prydain. Chwyddodd y cyffro yn fwy ac

yn fwy, cyn ffrwydro gyda sere-moni agoriadol hynod Brydeinig

ei naws. Parhaodd drwy gydol cyfnod y gemau, ac mae dal i’w deimlo, dros fîs ar ôl i'r gemau Olympaidd ddod i ben.

O wrando ar sylwebaeth y BBC, byddai rhywun yn med-dwl ein bod ni gyd: Cymry, Al-banwyr, Gwyddelod a Saeson, yn un genedl falch yn ymfalchïo yn 'medal haul’ Prydain fel criw o forladron newydd ddarganfod trysor. Roedd y sgriniau mawr, y stampiau arbennig a’r blychau post aur hefyd yn cadarnhau’r llawenydd cenedlaethol. Ond, yn fuan iawn fe gafodd y BBC glamp o row am bwysleisio llwyddiant Prydain yn ormodol a pheidio sôn am hanesion eraill y gemau - na sôn am enillwyr o wledydd eraill chwaith. Ac yn dynn ar sodlau’r BBC, oedd y gwleidy-ddion hefyd. Llwyddon nhw ddefnyddio’r gemau, ynghyd â’r jiwbilî yn gynharach yr haf, i hys-bysebu cryfder undod Prydeinig. Yn wir, gyda’r Alban ar drothwy refferendwm ar annibyniaeth, ni allai ddigwyddiadau’r haf ddod ar adeg gwell i roi bawd yn lly-gaid Alex Salmond a’i ffrindiau.

Do, fe ddaru’r 68 o Gymry a

gystadlodd yn y gemau yn rhago-rol. Enillwyd 7 medal, 3 ohonynt yn aur, yn y Gemau Olympaidd, ynghyd a 14 medal yn y Gemau Paralympaidd. Pe byddai Cymru wedi cystadlu fel gwlad annibyn-nol yn y gemau Olympaidd, by-ddai wedi dod yn 23 yn nhabl y medalau, rhwng Brasil a De Af-frica. Yn ôl rheolau swyddogol y gemau, doedd athletwyr Cymru ddim yn cael chwifio baner y Ddraig Goch. Ond, mi aeth Jade Jones o’r Fflint, yn erbyn y rheo-lau hyn; dathlodd ennill medal aur yn y Taekwondo gyda’r Dd-raig Goch dros ei hysgwyddau. Mi wnaeth y Cymry yn anhygoel, gan godi balchder Cymreig ond ar draul cynyddu gwladgarwch Prydeinig.

Er ymdrechion y cyfryngau torfol a’r gwleidyddion i ledaenu’r ymchwydd mewn gwladgarwch Prydeinig ar draws y wlad, ceir yr argraff mai byrhoedlog fydd yr ewfforia hyn. Amser a ddengys. Ond yn wir, nid Jac yr Undeb oedd i’w gweld yn chwifio yng Nghymru wledig dros yr haf, ond baneri coch, gwyn a gwyrdd.

Angharad Hywel sy'n trafod effaith y Gemau Olympaidd ar deimladau o wladgarwch yng Nghymru a Prydain

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The English teams in this year’s Champions League got off to a mixed start last week, as Arse-nal and Manchester United both recorded wins, while English champions Manchester City lost to Real Madrid and Champions League holders Chelsea drew 2-2 with Juventus.

In the biggest game of the opening week, Manchester City travelled to nine-time European champions Real Madrid. Despite taking a 2-1 lead with five minutes to go, City were unable to close

the game out and, following a stunning equaliser from Ben-zema in the 87th minute, Cris-tiano Ronaldo – formerly of Man-chester United – sent City home with no points.

In the other Tuesday game to feature an English side, Olivier Giroud started for Arsenal against his former club, Montpellier, de-spite having yet to break his duck for the club. True to form, Gir-oud again failed to score, and it was left to Lukas Podolski and Gervinho to rescue the Gunners after they went behind to a You-nès Belhanda penalty.

On Wednesday, Manchester

United welcomed a Galatasaray side that seemed a shadow of its formerly terrifying self. Never-theless, United were only able to scrape a 1-0 win, Michael Carrick scoring in the 7th minute. Nani should have made it two, but his poor penalty continued United’s spot-kick woe for the season to three in a row.

Finally, Chelsea squandered a 2-0 lead against a Juventus side that had gone unbeaten in Serie A last season. After an Oscar double for the Blues, Arturo Vid-al and Fabio Quagliarella scored for the Bianconeri to share the spoils.

29Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddsport Sport29-31

Almost two years ago, South Wales played host to golf’s most prestigious international com-petition, the Ryder Cup. The three-day contest between the best players from Europe and the United States is played every two years, with the two regions tak-ing turns to entertain the great and the good of golf.

With Newport’s Celtic Manor having set the stage for Europe’s one-point win in 2010 – culmi-nating with a thrilling final day when the United States were only just unable to overturn a three-point deficit at the start of the day – the focus now shifts to this year’s competition at the Me-dinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois.

This picturesque course in the suburbs of Chicago has pre-viously hosted three US Open tournaments, as well as two PGA Championships in 1999 and 2006 – both won by Tiger Woods – but this will be its first Ryder Cup.

With three of the top four-

ranked golfers in their ranks, including world number 1 Rory McIlroy, Team Europe will be hoping to win the tournament on American soil for the first time since 2004, when they recorded their greatest margin of victory in Ryder Cup history at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield, Michigan.

As well as McIlroy, there are six other Britsw on the Europe-an team, including the two most

experienced team members: Lee Westwood (39), making his eighth Ryder Cup appearance, and Paul Lawrie (43), in only his second.

Europe’s only Ryder Cup rookie (in comparison to the United States’ four rookies) is the 29-year-old Belgian, Nico-las Colsaerts, who could be one to watch over the course of the competition, having won the

World Match Play Championship and finished joint-seventh at the Open Championship earlier this year.

There is plenty of experience in the American team, Phil Mick-elson, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods all having made at least seven appearances at the Ryder Cup. However, there are also plenty of unknown quantities, with Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Webb

Simpson and Brandt Snedeker all making their debuts at Medinah.

Both teams are full of quality, but judging by the world rank-ings of each player, and given the advantage of playing on a home course, the upper-hand may just be with the United States this year.

Team Europe get set to retain Ryder Cup

Tom Parry-JonesSub-editor

Coming off the back of a medio-cre summer against South Africa, the England cricket team began their defence of the ICC World Twenty20 title last week with group matches against Afghani-stan and India.

As reigning champions and leaders in the ICC T20I Cham-pionship rankings, England were widely expected to qualify for the Super Eight stage of the competi-tion, which is being held in Sri Lanka, and looked in good shape with warm-up wins over Austra-lia and Pakistan.

With Kevin Pietersen in inter-

national exile, England will be relying on their youthful open-ing pair of wicket-keeper Craig Kieswetter and Alex Hales to pile on the runs. Youth is prevalent throughout the side, and captain Stuart Broad (26) will look to spinner Graeme Swann (33) for experience and vital wickets.

Although England sit atop the T20 world rankings, hosts Sri Lanka were widely considered to be the pre-tournament favourites, and they will be hoping that the inventive batting of Tillakaratne Dilshan and iconic bowling of La-sith Malinga will provide the im-petus for them to claim their first world title since they hosted the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy.

England kick off World T20 defence

Tom Parry-JonesSub-editor

Indifferent start to Champions League

Tom Parry-JonesSub-editor

With just two years to go until World Cup fever hits the samba nation, FIFA have announced their new mascot for the up-coming tournament in Brazil. The mascot, a yet-to-be-named armadillo, was unveiled on Sun-day during a national television show, with the assistance of for-mer Seleção favourite Ronaldo.

The three-banded armadillo, an endangered species in Bra-zil, was selected by members of FIFA, including Secretary Gen-eral Jérôme Valcke, who said that the mascot was chosen to com-municate "the importance of the environment and ecology".

FIFA have also given the Bra-

zilian FA un-til November to choose the mascot's name from three pos-sible options: Amijubi, Fuleco and Zuzeco.

"The mascot will play a key am-bassadorial role in the next two years," said Ronaldo. "I'm sure he will inspire many young football fans in Brazil and all over the world with the great passion which he has for the sport and for his country."

The FIFA World Cup has a colourful and varied his-tory of mascots, from Wil-lie, the pioneering lion in

England's victorious 1966 cam-paign, to South Africa 2010's leopard, Zakumi, who appeared in the green and yellow colours of his country. It remains to be seen whether Brazil's new hero can have the same impact on the global stage as those before it.

30 / Sport

On April 15th, 1989, Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield hosted an FA Cup semi-final between Liv-erpool and Nottingham Forest. The match is remembered as one of the greatest tragedies in foot-balling history, with a death toll of 96.

The Leppings Lane Stand al-located to Liverpool was hugely overcrowded. This, combined with an insufficient number of turnstiles and inadequate polic-ing, spelled disaster.

When the overcrowding reached tipping point, people were forced forward against the metal fencing that surrounded the pitch to prevent invasions. This meant that there was no es-cape and those unable to climb the fence were brutally crushed and trampled.

Initial reactions to Hillsbor-ough failed to acknowledge the most palpable cause: inadequate policing. Instead, statements were released blaming Liverpool fans for hooliganism, claiming that malicious violence caused the disaster.

Even at the time, police failed to see the problem and prevent-ed ambulances from entering the stadium; over 40 ambulances arrived, yet only one was let in. Further, police prevented people from leaving the stadium to ac-cess the ambulances. Among all of the tragedy, this, unbelievably,

was to prevent clashes between the Liverpool fans wishing to es-cape and the Nottingham Forest fans situated on the side of the ground nearest the ambulances.

The Hillsborough disaster has re-entered the public domain as the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel were released last week. The report found that based on post mortem examina-tions, had the emergency servic-es' reactions and co-ordination been improved, up to 41 of the deceased may have survived. In

addition, it found that no Liver-pool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster, and that the main cause of the disaster was a "lack of police control".

This report draws a line un-der the disaster, restoring the re-spect of Liverpool Football Club through unveiling the truth. The tragedy will never be forgotten, but at least now it will be remem-bered correctly.

Hillsborough: a hidden tragedyFelix BramleySport Writer

Initial reactions to Hillsborough failed to acknowledge the most palpable cause: inadequate policing

“

On September 15th, 2012, Ulster Rugby lost one of its greatest young talents, as Nevin Spence tragically died in a farming ac-cident alongside his father Noel (52) and his brother Graham (30).

As well as rugby, Spence also had great talent in association football, in which he was capped by Northern Ireland at U16 level. Ultimately, though, rugby won his heart, and he joined Ballyna-hinch RFC, where he was part of their 2008/09 season, in which they famously won the quadru-ple.

During his time with Bally-nahinch, Spence won 11 caps for Ireland U20s, scoring four tries. He was awarded his first Ulster cap against the Ospreys in April 2010.

His first full season at senior level was 2010/11, when he made his Heineken Cup debut against Biarritz. That season, he gained international ‘A’ grade honours when he was called up to the Irish Wolfhounds squad for matches against Scotland ‘A’ and England Saxons.

In 2011, he was named Young Player of the Year at the Irish Rugby Football Union Players’ Association Awards.

While he only made 18 appear-ances for Ulster last season due to injury, he continued his prog-ress in the Ireland jersey, playing against the Barbarians last May.

The death of somebody so talented and so young has come as a shock to everyone across the game. Nevin Spence will be greatly missed by his family, friends, team-mates, and every-one who knew him.

Nye DaviesSport Writer

OBITUARY

This meant that there was no escape and those unable to climb the fence were brutally crushed and trampled

World Cup mascot revealedKieran DaveySport Writer

The three-banded armadillo, an endangered species in Brazil, was selected by members of FIFA, who said the the mascot was chosen to communicate "the importance of the environment and ecology"

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31Monday September 24th 2012 | @gairrhyddsport Sport29-31

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This summer, three Cardiff Students helped contribute to the best Olympic Games ever. Here are their stories…

As it turned 4am, I expect many of you were fast asleep (or just finishing your kebab after a night in town), enjoying your well-earned summer break. However, I found myself wrapped up in a regal purple and poppy red uni-form, umbrella in hand, making my way to the Olympic Park as one of the 70,000 Games Mak-

ers.With my initial application

and interview a distant memory, I was ready to put all my training into practice. My role with Event Services Games Mobility was to ensure that every spectator, re-gardless of their disability, could enjoy the Games. This involved driving a golf buggy, manning

the shuttle stops, free loaning of mobility equipment and helping push wheelchairs. I even helped several athletes, including Para-lympicsGB's Martine Wright and French silver-medallist Stéphane Houdet.

The atmosphere inside the Olympic Park was electric from start to finish and each day brought something new; whether it was seeing Boris Johnson, be-coming an ‘unofficial’ photogra-pher, having a near-collision with

a ketchup stand or escorting Sue Barker across the park.

The best experience of it all was not meeting the well-known athletes, the free trip up the or-bit or even being in the Olympic Park. No, it was being able to be part of something truly magical that put beaming smiles on peo-ple’s faces across the world and showed how wonderful Great Britain is.

I got to meet many inspiration-al people over both Olympic and

Paralympic Games, which is why I urge those who have never vol-unteered to do so. My summer may have been crammed with 12-hour shifts, early mornings, late nights, downpours, sunshine, achy feet and too many stories that I couldn’t possibly list, but would I do it all again? In a heart-beat.

Steph “Birdy” Bird

This summer, I took part in the Paralympics as a Wayfind-ing Team Member at the North Greenwich Arena, better known as the O2. This meant I became one of the thousands of peo-ple wearing the crazy uniform and the big pink finger, smiling through the rain and revelling in the sun.

When I turned up for my first shift, I was unsure as to what my duties would be, but I was in-stantly welcomed into the group and taken under the wing of an Olympics veteran, Anu. Having worked at the North Greenwich Arena during the Olympics, she was completely in the know and made me feel right at home.

As the first spectators trickled in, she was a bouncing, shouting beacon of joy and it was so infec-tious I found myself joining in,

dancing for the public and chant-ing directions. From then on, I knew I’d made the right choice in volunteering, meeting more like-minded people and some amaz-ing spectators, including the occasional Paralympic athlete coming to support their country.

My shifts became a blur of pic-tures with the public and pink fingered high-fives. As the week went on, I began to converse more with the spectators and realised just how appreciated I was, continually thanked for my contribution, even receiving the occasional badge and spare ice-cream when the sun decided to come out.

But I think the best bit for me, as a Londoner born and bred, was travelling to and from my shifts in my uniform. From door to door, all I received was welcoming smiles and friendly chatter. The Olympics and Paralympics truly transformed London for one un-forgettable summer.

I’m now planning to get in-volved with the 2014 Common-wealth Games in Glasgow, and the next Olympics in Rio! I would recommend it to anyone, paid or unpaid, it’s a brilliant experience and you make some true friends.

Jo Redman

What an honour it was to help Cardiff host part of the football at London 2012. People forget that the very first Olympic event was in the Millennium Stadium.

Just like our Games Maker col-leagues, we'd had our training

days, we'd been kitted out in very flattering pink and purple tops, and we were ready to go.

To my mind, Wales embraced the Team GB football idea bril-liantly. Despite the posturing from the Welsh FA, and the Welsh

players childishly refusing to sing the anthem, the public loved it. I spoke to numerous locals during my shifts, as well as people from all over Britain, and no one had a bad word to say about it. The first game day, played out in blazing sunshine, had an atmosphere that I’d only experienced previously at the Cardiff Half Marathon.

The best element for me was, indeed, the atmosphere. It was

a completely family-friendly af-fair. There was no comparison between this and a Premiership football game. And I've seen the abuse my English friends have had after a Wales v England rugby match; it's vitriolic. No, this was something completely unique.

Naturally, the highlights were the two Team GB matches. Sell-ing out the Millennium Stadium is something the Welsh FA could

only dream about. What's more, the Welsh players contributed hugely. Joe Allen played beauti-fully, Neil Taylor increased his reputation, and Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy both got on the scoresheet.

Anyone who visited the capital during these brilliant few weeks will leave with nothing but good words to say about Cardiff. We did ourselves proud.

Rhys Clayton

Cardiff Uni student helps Paralympics GB claim bronze

In the midst of the London Para-lympics and just a few weeks before the start of the 2012/13 academic year, Cardiff Univer-sity student Jenny McLoughlin, joined by Bethany Woodward, Katrina Hart and another Welsh athlete, Olivia Breen, finished third in the T35-38 4x100m relay behind Russia and China.

Despite the amazing perfor-mance of the British athletes, McLoughlin and the rest of the team faced an anxious wait to see if they were disqualified.

“I think I went a bit too early," McLoughlin said. “I tried to slow down a bit, but I really thought I was out of the box at the end."

Eventually, the British team could sit back in relief as they were confirmed as bronze medal-lists, while Australia and Germa-ny were disqualified. This meant that Wales kept up their record of winning a medal on every day of the Games.

“I didn’t know, but then Olivia ran over and said we got bronze. I was so relieved. I thought I had messed up, but I hadn’t,” McLoughlin explained.

London 2012 was not the

first Olympics for 20-year-old McLoughlin, who was born in Stockport. At Beijing 2008, she took part in both the 100m and 200m sprints in the T37 class.

Along with her sports engage-ments, in 2010, McLoughlin, who now lives in Chepstow, Mon-mouthshire, completed her A- levels, which allowed her to take up a degree at Cardiff University.

Viktor TsvetanovSport Editor

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