TheCheeseGrater
1 TheCheeseGrater Freshers October 2010
The Other Student Magazine of University College London Union
Freshers’ Fayre Issue October 2010
THIS ISSUE Tory Story
Conservative Soc in chaos p.2
UCL WELCOMES FAMOUS ALUMNI
Student Cooking
W.R. Glenfiddich in culinary heaven p.3
FAQ off
We answer your union queries p.3
Undeniable Twat David Irving interviewed p.3
Dirty Scrubbers
UCL cleaners scour for more dosh p.4
FREE BALLOON!!!
plus staple (also free)
Stars shine brightly at benefit event. resAbdulmutallab was a shock really he’s just like any other UCL sure, UCLstudent. under the knife attendeeGlaxo due to hisputs reputation I’m convinced we would
Peter F. Gesbian Wednesday saw the return of a few famous faces to UCL for a Wine and Cheese evening in the North Cloister. The event, hosted by Provost Malcolm Grant, was put on to raise funds for victims of the recent Colchester mudslide. Notable names on show included pen pusher AA Gill, 400m diva Christine Ohuruogu and failed underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (above, left).
for being a shy man and also an international terrorist. However, on the night he was seen liberally quaffing champagne with Justine Frischmann and even engaging in a sing-along with two members of Keane. When asked about the surprise guest, drummer Richard Hughes seemed to be quite taken aback. ‘He’s had a tough time over the past year,’ he said, ‘but
have been friends had we moved in the same circles.’ The fiery fundamentalist, who was allowed twenty-four hours special leave from Michigan Prison to attend the event, was said to be ‘truly humbled’ by the level of canapé on offer. Ricky Gervais was also present.
For more on the party see page 5.
Inv est iga tio n UCL Conservatives plagued by internal division and scandalous accusations Society budget ‘in urgent need of review’
2 TheCheeseGrater Freshers October 2010
The Never Ending Tory Simon Balcairn In March 2010 UCL Conservatives (ConSoc) were handed the Society of the Year Award by UCL Union. Several months later the society appears to be in chaos, beset by infighting and briefly disaffiliated from the Union over the summer. James Hodgson - last year’s Clubs and Societies Sabbatical Officer - suspended the society’s affiliation to UCLU, banned access to Union facilities and froze the society’s bank accounts at the end of July. This followed the resignation of four committee members after their failure to oust society president William Hall with a motion of no confidence at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in the same month. Hall has stated that he will not resign as president, despite the quarrels that have dogged the society since his election. UCLU Democracy and Engagement Officer, Mandy Smith, recently contacted various ConSoc members to inform them that ‘the society is going down the toilet. [Hall] survived the
no confidence, it doesn’t matter how dodgy it was. He is not going to give up the power no matter how much he is threatened because he loves it and thinks he deserves it.’ The Union-funded society achieved notoriety following a trip to an Oxford Union Conservative Association (OUCA) Port and Policy event, which was covered in the national press for expressions of sexist viewpoints. It was reported that a KCL student Vitus van Rij had visited the now infamous function with UCL Conservatives. Van Rij allegedly told Isabella Burton, a second year Oxford theology student who was giving a speech, to ‘shush’, adding ‘you’re a woman’. He is said to have then started chanting ‘kitchen, kitchen, kitchen, get back to the kitchen’. Van Rij’s remarks were picked up by various publications - including The Daily Telegraph, London Student and Oxford Student - in which it was denied that ConSoc had invited him to the OUCA event. ‘We didn’t invite [van Rij] or anyone else from King’s College, but
he may have found out about it from our Facebook group,’ commented president Hall. These assertions were somewhat undermined when it emerged that van Rij had attended several UCL Conservatives events prior to this, including their alumni dinner in March, and was good friends with society members. Despite his lifetime ban from the society, van Rij would again appear with ConSoc on a group trip to Brussels later that month. The trip resulted in a formal disciplinary after members of the public complained about behaviour on the trip. Former society president Kieran Weisberg wrote in an internal email that ‘[Hall’s] behaviour in-particular stood out.’ This included punching Matthew Gibbard, General Secretary-elect, in the genitals and heckling him to expose himself. Gibbard duly obliged to the horror of the public. Gibbard’s finest hour on the trip was also summed up by Weisberg. He apparently ‘complained that he would not be able to make racist jokes for
three days as he would be staying with a foreign ambassador’. Perhaps this despair explains his erratic behaviour at other times during the excursion. These events, as well as the mass resignation of committee members following July’s EGM, led to the society being disaffiliated this summer. Alex Karski, Student Activities Officer, lifted the society’s suspension in August. However, ConSoc’s problems remain manifest; Karski described the society’s budget as in ‘urgent need of a review’. Their Freshers’ Fayre stall has been downgraded due to ‘in-society bickering and division’ and another EGM is scheduled for later this term, as important committee positions remain unfilled. In just six months UCLU Conservative Society has turned from an award-winning organisation into an unworkable, chaotic mess. What comes now is a rebuilding project to restore one of the university’s oldest and most prestigious societies to its former glory. Where will ConSoc go from here? The Tory continues...
Join the team... ...live the dream The Cheese Grater is looking for writers and cartoonists! We are the only editorially independent publication at UCL and we love what we do. Please come along to our Freshers’ Welcome Meeting, and get to know our team of committed graters.
Tuesday 5th Oct, 5:45pm Outside UCL Union 25 Gordon Street Contributors: George Potts, Ka Bradley, Thom Rhoades, Hugh Foley, Clio Cornish, Max Titmuss, John Bell, Olivia Pyper, Tim Smith, Paul McKenna, Richard Davis, Simon Balcairn. This issue is dedicated to Frank Kermode.
Freshers October 2010 TheCheeseGrater
UCL’s Kitchen
First year Ancient History student, W.R. Glenfiddich, cooks on a budget The baffling array of student cookbooks can lead to confusion. Can you be sure that mummy’s tuck hamper will ingratiate you into your new social circle, or might you sink like the proverbial sixpence in the pudding? This simple three course meal is a recipe for companionship! Starter: Pheasant surprise 1. Pluck the pheasant. This is done by roughly hacking at the bird in a downwards direction with a large cleaver. Don’t worry if the old girl loses a bit of shape, it’s only natural for a bird to go to pieces over a bit of blood!
2. Force the unwilling pieces of meat into your communal toaster and cook for a strong minute. 3. Turn the toaster on its head and give it a good whack over the Dolmio garlic and onion sauce that you’ve spread on the work surface. This helps to disguise any problems you may have had with the recipe so far. 4. Plate up, and leave resting on a piping hot radiator while you prepare the rest of the meal. Save any charred bits of pheasant for later. Small touches can add a lot to a meal. Tired of the same old caviar? Why not try thrusting it into a tin of
baked beans! Cheese on toast getting you down? Why not serve it in a champagne flute! There are a million ways to make your meal spectacular.
Main: Fish surprise 1. Take the finest swordfish steaks your local Waitrose has to offer. Mash into the bottom of your kettle and season generously with salt and garlic. 2. Add 500g of fresh Bucatini pasta while conjugating the Latin verb ‘genero’ – to create. 3. Splash in water to the brim, and bash down the switch. When boiling serve in a wine glass
with a pheasant crouton. Pudding: Surprise surprise 1. Take everything in the communal fridge and empty into a large pan. 2. Cook at 220 degrees (gas mark seven) for three and a half hours. Old favourites such as hog roast can be a fine way to remind your new co-inhabitants of their home cuisine. If unsure what to cook for people you don’t know, it’s always a good idea to cook their own food for them. What can one possibly want more than food that one bought oneself?
FAQ: What is a Sabbatical Officer? We sent our rampant reporter, Richard Davis, to the street to find out Innocently enough, I updated my Twitter with the above question, hoping to unearth some answers. But what occurred was so frightful that one might think it fictional, made up for your amusement. Milling around UCL Union, I received the following text message from an unknown number: ‘I have the answer to your question. Listen carefully, there isn’t much time. From your current position west of the Gideon Schreier building, walk west down Endsleigh Gardens until you hit Wates House. Outside is a man in a hat. His name is Stanley Roscoe. Make a noise like a dying koala. He will give you a brown paper bag. Take it and walk south
down Taviton Street to Campbell House West. Say nothing to Roscoe. He knows nothing. He merely owes me a favour. Open the bag. Inside you will find a balaclava, an energy bar and a lighter. Put on the balaclava immediately. You will need to conceal your identity. Written in permanent marker on the inside of the bag is a 27-digit code. Memorise it. Burn the bag. The energy bar is for you. It will be a long time until you eat again. Head further south down towards Campbell House East. Throw a stone from the plentiful supply at your feet at the window fourth from the top, eight in from the left. You must break the window. After the window is broken walk south
My Freshers’ Week Every year we ask a notable University College London alumnus to regale us with their memories of past Freshers’ Weeks. Debby Lipstadt spoke to David Irving (UCL 19611963), a renowned World War Two historian, whose last book Hitler’s War sold over six million copies- a figure he repudiates.
Debby Lipstadt: What was Freshers’ Week like back in 1961? David Irving: I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about, Freshers’ Week never happened. It’s a mathematical impossibility. DL: But surely you cannot contest the evidence contained in photographs and newsreels from the time? DI: Such sources are historiographically dubious. In fact I tend to agree with the theory that Freshers’ Week was merely an invention of the Soviets, a ploy to cover up their own heinous acts in Eastern Europe, such as the
Katyn Massacre. DL: The Soviets? Why? DI: Why not? DL: How do you explain this photo of students filing into a building with ‘UCL Freshers’ Fayre’ written over the door? DI: Yes, I admit that does look very much like a freshers’ fayre, but my own private research has in fact proven that it was merely a harmles shower room. This is a fake. DL: Mr Irving, you are in this photo, that’s you in the corduroy jacket. DI: I never owned such a jacket DL: What about this document signed by the Provost authorising Freshers’ Week for 1961? DI: Oh, well, I suppose it might have happened, but the idea that many people attended the fayre is absurd. DL: We also found your name on several groups’ mailing lists, including Dance Society and Lacrosse.
quickly. Walk. Don’t run. They’re watching. Work your way through Gordon Square until you reach the west side of the Slade Research Centre. Wait in the foliage outside. When a man with a matching balaclava appears walking from North-East to South-West, apprehend him whilst shouting the code you have memorised backwards. Don’t get it wrong. Your life and more importantly your chances of finding out what a sabbatical officer is depend on it. You can trust this man. Trust nobody else. He will instruct you further. Good luck and Gods speed.’ Turns out that a sabbatical officer is a type of cake.
DI: I guess you win this round, Stalin.
David Irving: Not getting any fresher
4 TheCheeseGrater Freshers October 2010
SAL-YOU!-TATIONS Greetings soft-fleshed fresher, and welcome to your birthright. As you enter the pigeonspeckled steps and hallowed dome of University College London, you may feel as if you are embarking upon an adventure truly new and wondrous. We wanted to tell you that you are exactly right, no one has ever done this before. We have matured the certificate of your final result (2:1 Hons) in a jar of quince jam for 186 years, in anticipation of your arrival. Have you settled into your halls? That building didn’t exist until we heard you were coming. We hope it meets your expectations, we pulled out all the stops for you. Smells! Rodents! Damp rot! What’s more, eighteen years ago, in a middle-England suburb, we raised a frivolous
wench of extraordinarily cleaving pelvic muscles and a nasty love of doing things orally. Your vows to your childhood sweetheart will be obliterated in one WKD-flavoured tongue Blitzkrieg. Be sure to regale your night of passion and premature ejaculation to the guy in your kitchen who likes ‘XKCD’. (No one but the two of you like this blackly hilarious and yet strangely touching work of minimalist internet art.) Here is the new best friend we sorted out for you! He’ll tell everyone that she gave you AIDS. Forget school, there’s a reason why your old friends aren’t at UCL. Blog about it on the new laptop you bought with that convenient student discount. We arranged that discount especially for you. You’re special and unique
and we want you to know it! We arranged an entire Fresher’s Week to celebrate your arrival! And Fresher’s Flu is a term we invented for you, and that you have to use as an excuse every day for the next month! Especially for the classes you skip – ha, the classes! They are
called seminars now. Of course you don’t need to worry about those, it’s not like you have any competition. Of the 11,970 undergraduates and the 9,650 postgraduates, you are the only true student at UCL. We love you!
Malcolm Grant Cleans Up! One man’s brave struggle against the mopping masses Perry Pistons Cleaners at University College London will continue to be paid the minimum wage of £5.80 per hour despite the increasing shrillness of a fringe campaign demanding a so-called ‘London Living Wage’ of £7.85 per hour. While other London universities bow down to liberal pressure from the proletarian workforce, our great institution refuses to cave in to the outrageous demands of its Holland Park Dreams: UCL cleaner living it large greedy contract cleaners. Alone in Bloomsbury, UCL remains an sity. Put simply, he has the equivalent value island of sensible business practice in a sea of of approximately nineteen cleaners- and it craven profligacy and just-plain-loony left- shows. ism. The supporters of this campaign- the Cheese Grater investigated this issue usual suspects from HSBC to Boris Johnson- and found nothing but overpaid scrubbers say that to live in London is more expen- living high on the hog at the expense of honsive and so requires extra remuneration. But est tuition-fee-payers. In fact, most of the hunky UCL Provost, Prof Malcolm Grant, cleaners have a ludicrously generous break believes this is bunkum. midway through their six-hour shifts. His display of contempt for anti-busi‘I am working from 5:30am till 8:30, ness political correctness once again justifies and then also 1:30pm till 4:30’ claimed one his hero’s salary- £160, 000 more per year UCL Cleaner, Juan Carlos Luis de la Manthan his counterpart at Cambridge Univercha Rafael Sancho Panza Benitez, a swarthy
Colombian layabout who didn’t seem to realise how lucky he sounded. ‘I don’t see why they don’t make me work all my hours in one go,’ he grunted, ‘so that I could go home to my family without having to leave again or wait around for hours’. Perhaps he should be grateful for the siesta. Someone who’s certainly not napping is Malcolm Grant, who managed to have UCL running a £12 million surplus for its last budget. Despite accusations of ‘Scrooge-like’ practise from The Evening Standard (24/09/2010), our premier has remained true to his principles. Smarmy Standard hack David Cohen was handed a swift rebuttal when he infiltrated a community outreach event on UCL property to pester Prof Grant with questions about cleaners’ pay. ‘Paying contract cleaners the living wage would cost UCL £500,000 to £1 million a year. That’s a big slug. And what I haven’t got is a spare million pounds, okay?’ quipped the Provost, before adding, ‘Oh, wait. Here it is.’
UCL Union Cheese Grater Magazine Society www.cheesegratermagazine.org Student Publication of the Year - UCL Union Arts Awards 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 President and Editor: Thom Rhoades Treasurer: Max Titmuss E-mail : cheese_grater_magazine_society@ucl.ac.uk Humour Desk: ascheesegrater@gmail.com UCL Union Cheese Grater Magazine Society, UCL Union, 25 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AY The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of UCL Union or the editor.