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5th December 2017
Editorial Royal wedding news fixes student deadline blues Sophie Bunce Deputy Editor
Photos: Peter Preciado and Matt Nixon
Thank you to our readers for sending in their snowy pictures of Norwich!
2017 is drawing to a close... Emily Hawkins Editor-in-Chief 2017 is drawing to a close, the end of term bringing Concrete’s traditional round-ups and reflections with it. There was a general election, UEA brought the Derby Day trophy home once again, and a controversial statue made its home on the roof of the Library. Concrete interviewed Stephen Fry, Ed Balls, Michael Palin, Harriet Harman and many more. We were also reporting on the issues that mattered the most to students, being the first outlet to report on a data breach that saw students’ sensitive information mistakenly emailed to their peers, staying up all night to report on the snap election, and live-reporting on Derby Day with the UEA Media Collective. We’ve asked students about sex, the students’ union, and study spaces. We picked up Highly Commended Best Publication at the Student Publication Association (SPA) awards in May, as well as awards for a feature following UEA Security around for a night and an interview with Norwich South MP Clive Lewis. It’s yet to be determined whether we will survive another production weekend, but the wonky Concrete Christmas tree has been put up, the
Livewire Christmas single recorded and released, and a few paper hats (made of issue 344) are scattered across Media Collective desks. We might not have managed to get any sleep, but it’s been another year with a packed calendar for Concrete.
"We’ve asked students about sex, the students’ union, and study spaces" This issue, we’re also looking forward to the new year and our writers have started to think about the changes they want to make in 2018. In Finance this week, reporter Tony Allen has listed the ways he will try to budget better next term. Head over to page 15 to get some ideas. On the note of progression, it was exciting this week to see a collaboration between UEA Sport
and UEA SU’s LGBT officers in the form of a joint sports night and Colours LCR event. Despite reports of booing at the announcement of the night the week before, students joined together on the night to celebrate LGBT+ students’ involvement in sport and an attitude of inclusion in sport at UEA. You can flip to our back page story for our coverage on the night. We’ve also got not one but two exciting opportunities to join the team here at Concrete, and are opening applications for the role of co-editing the paper’s Features section. (Turn to page 10 for some more info on what the role entails.) Venue are also looking for someone to take over the position of Gaming editor, so if Pokemon or, er, Digimon, is your thing then get in touch! (Gaming is evidently not my thing.) If you think one of those jobs sounds perfect for you, then head over to concrete-online.co.uk/getinvolved to find out about how you can get applying. There are dozens of other ways to get involved in Concrete, from writing to illustrating to copy editing, and fact-checking. Team Concrete will be there at Refreshers’ fair, so come say hi in January if you can’t make it to our last post-pub pub Tuesday 5 December!
I was one of the few women on November 27 who did not feel cheated. There had been months of speculation but now it was official. Harry and Megan were engaged. I received messages from friends and family members throughout the day, all along the lines of “oh it should have been me.” “I missed my chance at being a princess.” And most often, “does this mean we get a bank holiday?” After furiously Googling our fate, a Guardian news bulletin set it in stone. No bank holiday. No day off. No royal wedding excuse to sit at home, maybe watch 10 minutes of the matrimony and then eat copious amounts of cake. However, it might be for the best. I’m not sure how a student bank holiday works. Would the library still be open? Nevertheless, news of royal nuptials truly has lightened the summative load. Why worry about deadlines when I can day dream about their colour scheme and the number of bridesmaids. I wonder what the Queen will wear? While we wait until May to find out, Concrete has some more season appropriate content for you. Head over to Features for Saoirse Smith-Hogan’s ‘Roast with the most’ on page 3, in which she talks the pros and cons of a student cooked Christmas. I am lucky enough to have a housemate whose food is better than most restaurants, but if I had to cook it would be a very different story. For those of you yet to buy Christmas gifts in fear of upsetting your overdraft, take a look at page 15. In Finance, Tom Bedford gives us ‘A Scrooge’s guide to Christmas’ where he suggests the best gifts are the thoughtful ones. Which conveniently appear to be the cheapest. With royal weddings, my final deadlines, and Christmas ahead, I am excited for 2017 to end and 2018 to begin. I hope you enjoy our last issue of the year and you get something out of it. Even if it is using the issue as wrapping paper.
concrete-online.co.uk Concrete_UEA concreteuea concrete_UEA Front page: N. Chadwick
The University of East Anglia’s Official Student newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 5th December 2017 Issue 345 Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ 01603 593466 www.concrete-online.co.uk Editor-in-Chief Emily Hawkins concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor Sophie Bunce concrete.deputy@uea.ac.uk Online Jacob Chamberlain Nathan Price Natalie Cotterill concrete.online@uea.ac.uk News News Editor: Matt Nixon Senior Reporter: Shannon McDonagh concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Global Eddie Booth concrete.global@uea.ac.uk Features Hattie Griffiths Tony Allen concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Comment Jack Ashton concrete.comment@uea.ac.uk Finance Finance Editor: Jodie Bailey Senior Reporter: Will Richardson concrete.finance@uea.ac.uk Science Science Editor: Beth Papworth Senior Reporter: Alex Millard concrete.scienv@uea.ac.uk Travel Beverly Devakishen concrete.travel@uea.ac.uk Sport Daniel Cook Sophie Christian concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk Chief Copy-Editors Hannah Brown Sophie Clayton concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk Events Amelia Rentell Social Media Emily Latimer Freddie Carty Art and Design Yaiza Canopoli Emily Mildren concrete.artdesign@uea.ac.uk
Editorial Enquiries Complaints & Corrections concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk
No part of this newspaper may be reproduced by any means without the permission of the Editor-in-Chief, Emily Hawkins. Published by the Union of UEA Students on behalf of Concrete. Concrete is a UUEAS society, but retains editorial independence as regards to any content. Opinions expressed herein are those of individual writers, not of Concrete or its editorial team.