gair rhydd - Issue 931

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Fresh success This year’s Freshers’ Week is one of the most successful ever Miranda Atty News Editors

This year’s Freshers’ fortnight has been one of the most successful ever, figures from the Union have revealed.

The addition of Freshers’ wristbands this year was so popular that they sold out, selling 3,400 by Saturday September 25.

Around 20,000 people passed through the Students’ Union each day of Freshers’ fortnight, according to sensors located by the main entrance and the two back doors.

The Freshers’ ball was the biggest event of the fortnight, with 3707 students attending.

The all-building event was so popular that, although crowd control was good, students were queuing right along Park Place.

“The Freshers Ball was amazing,” said Alex, a first year sociology student.

“The performers in the Great Hall were fantastic, especially Zane Lowe and I Blame Coco. She was so close you could almost hold her hand.”

There were 32,000 visits to Solus during the fortnight, making it one of Cardiff University’s busiest periods ever.

The all-building ‘MegaLash’ was another of the most popular events of Freshers’ Week, with roughly 3683 people attending events in the Great Hall, Solus and CF10.

The Welcome Party, which took place on the first weekend of Fresh-

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ers’ Week was also very well attended.

First year student, Rebecca, told gair rhydd: “Freshers fortnight has been really exciting every single night.

“I have settled in straight away because there is always something great going on at the Union.”

Finance and Commercial Officer Darryl Light said of the fortnight: “This year’s Freshers’ Fortnight has been a fantastic success, with thousands of students coming to the Union to experience what is widely recognised as one of the best

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Around 20,000 people passed through the Union each day

student night clubs in the UK. “I want to thank the staff in our Entertainments and Food and Beverages departments for all their hard work in making it an unforgettable experience for this year’s Freshers.”

The popularity of the Union looks set to continue, with tickets for New Year’s Eve already selling fast.

If anyone wants to get involved in helping to plan union events, (including next year’s freshers) they can become part of the events committee by emailing fandc@cardiff. ac.uk or by visiting Darryl Light on the third floor of the Students’ Union.

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02News

gr EDITOR Sarah Powell

CO-ORDINATOR Elaine Morgan DEPUTY EDITOR Dom Kehat NEWS Miranda Atty Morgan Applegarth Pippa Lewis Ben Price Hannah Pendleton FEATURES Zoe Bridger Laura Brunt OPINION Holly Howe Chris Williams POLITICS James Dunn Oliver Smith COLUMNIST Henry XPRESS Luke Franks SOCIETIES Bianca London LISTINGS Sarah Powell SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT Tom Clarke Jack Parker SPORT Alex Bywater Lucy Morgan Alex Winter CONTRIBUTORS Alex Calvin Adam Clancy Caio Iwan Elliw Mair Caleb Woodbridge Original Design: Paul Stollery

NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01 OPINION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 POLITICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 COLUMNIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 SCIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 TAF-OD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 LISTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 PUZZLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 SPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Monday October 11 2010 • gair rhydd • news@gairrhydd.com

Medical students Sexual health pilot go out of their way continues Placements for medical students mean further costs and longer travel Miranda Atty News Editor Fourth and fifth year medical students face a financial burden funding transport to and from medical placements throughout Wales.

Students struggle with the extra travel costs incurred through transportation, both with their clinical placements to and from Cardiff and within the communities for specialty attachments.

The clinical placements take place all over Wales, including Rhyl and Wrexham which are both over 100 miles away.

Many medical students feel as though they have to buy a car in order to be able to get to their far out placements.

One medical student told gair rhydd: "It's a fact that the placement system for fourth year wont work unless a certain percentage of students have cars.

"I’ve had to buy a car specifically for this year, which is a huge financial burden on a student’s income."

Medical students can apply for reimbursement, but eligibility depends on the individual student.

The first £303 of travel expenses incurred will not be reimbursed because it is deemed to come out of the standard student-loan as necessary travel.

Students must receive an NHS Bursary in order to be eligible for travel reimbursement.

The School of Medicine itself does not have a budget for reimbursement for fourth and fifth year medical students.

For fifth year students in receipt of NHS bursaries, the school authorizes and verifies travel forms, which are then passed on to external agencies.

For many students, it is a struggle to afford the costs of travel upfront.

“The problem is you have to fork

out for fuel before and then wait until the end of the block to send off the form with your mileage and then wait to be reimbursed," said one medical student.

“Particularly at St Cadoc’s Hospital, Caerlon, there is a lot of driving involved which takes up a lot of time as we are in different places everyday and it can be an hour or more journey going to places like Abergavenny for half a day here and there. This adds up quickly in fuel.”

The School of Medicine said that “clinical placements take place all over Wales in order to give students a real breadth of experience."

A spokesperson told gair rhydd: “We recognize and are sympathetic towards medical students on placement and many of the allocated hospitals have funding or offer free accommodation."

Cardiff University discovers a genetic link to ADHD A successful study offers further insight into the condition Ben Price News Editor Research by Cardiff University has been key to the understanding of the development of the ADHD. The study, led by Professor Anita Thapar, an expert in child and adolescent psychiatry, tested 366 children with confirmed cases of ADHD against 1,047 children without the disorder.

The research discovered that there is a genetic link to ADHD, and that it is not purely a social construct.

The scientists involved in the research were looking for CNVs, which are rare chromosomal deletions and duplications. Both of which have been previously linked to schizophrenia and autism.

The results of the study showed

that there was a high rate of CNVs among the children with ADHD. Individuals with an intellectual disability were also seen to have high rates of CNVs, as well as those without.

"Too often people dismiss ADHD being down to parents or poor diet" The findings offer clues to the probable genetic underpinnings of ADHD, but does not give any definitive answers as to the exact role of CNVs in the disorder.

About one in 50 children have

ADHD. The condition - which makes kids restless, impulsive, and easily distracted - is incurable but can often be controlled with medication and therapy.

In reaction to the successful study, Professor Anita Tharpar said: “Now we can say with confidence that ADHD is a genetic disease and that the brains of children with this condition develop differently to those of other children. We hope that these findings will help overcome the stigma associated with ADHD. "Too often people dismiss ADHD as being down to bad parenting or poor diet.”

It is hoped that continued research into the cause of ADHD will help others understand more about the behavioural disorder in the future.

Rose Savage Reporter

The successful pilot of the satellite Sexual Health Clinic in the University Health Centre last year is set to continue this year running on a weekly basis, an expansion on the service offered

by Cardiff and the Vale University Health Board last year.

The University Health Board and Union have been working closely together to create a system that will suit students at Cardiff University and provide them with a service that is confidential, essential and overtly accessible as it is situated on campus.

The clinic is student focused, running on a Wednesday afternoon between 1.30 and 4:00pm, maximising those who can use the service and make the most of its opening hours.

As a milestone in the service Cardiff University offer its students is it essential that it is made use of, as the pilot is under review as Christmas.

It is predicted to be an extremely popular service and therefore an appointment service is available to you due to demand predictions, booking is being advised on 02920874810.

The Clinic is a confidential service offering routine sexual health testing, which will refer some cases onto the Central Integrated Sexual Health Centre at Cardiff Royal Infirmary on Newport Road, when requires.

The first session will run on Wednesday 13 .

For more information, contact Rose Savage on savager@cardiff. ac.uk.

News03

gair rhydd • Monday October 11 2010 • news@gairrhydd.com

Balls to the Ball?

Morgan Applegarth News Editor Cardiff University students have reacted to the 2011 Cooper’s Field Summer Ball being cancelled.

Last week gair rhydd revealed how Union officials have decided to scrap plans to hold the traditional event in 2011.

The decision came after a financial evaluation showed that last year’s Ball made a record loss of almost £60,000.

“After The Ball making the loss, and considering the turbulent future of the Higher Education funding, we felt that going ahead with an event on a budgeted loss would be irresponsible and neglecting our duties to students” revealed Students’ Union President Olly Birrel.

The Students’ Union have expressed their commitment to looking into possibilities for a new event

to celebrate the end of the year.

“I’ll be disappointed if it’s just an all room ‘Mega-Lash’ in the Union,” expressed one student, with regard to the ‘new’ event.

I'll be disappointed if it's just an all room 'Mega Lash'

Another stated: “No one would want to pay £40 just for a glorified night in the Union.”

Another student commented on the website: " In all sincerity while it’s a shame I suspect if you asked every single member of Cardiff SU not that many would really be that fussed."

Aside from providing students with a final celebration of the year,

The Ball also provided upcoming student-based bands the chance to play the same event that has hosted the likes of Calvin Harris and Scouting For Girls.

Cardiff Union’s Live Music Society offered a performing slot at The Ball for the winners of their popular ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition.

However, with plans to pull the 2011 Ball, such an opportunity no longer exists.

“It will be a shame that the bands won’t get the chance to play at The Ball,” admitted Live Music Society President, David Hopes.

Last year’s event saw a drop of almost £60,000 in ticket sales, when compared to 2008 figures.

Speaking to gair rhydd, students expressed their thoughts on last year’s line-up, suggesting that it was partly to blame for low attendance figures.

“I honestly believe the line-up for

ments or would like to give us your ideas for a new end of year event, visit gairrhydd.com and have your say.

the main stage last year was pretty awful” said David.

No one would want to pay for a glorified night in the Union

gair rhydd Monday Octobe r 04 2010

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“I was put off by the lack of diversity in the performances, which I think is to blame for not many people attending” another student admitted “It’s an utter disgrace that The Summer Ball has been cancelled” criticised one student, continuing: “I’ve been to The Ball at the end of my first and second years, and had a fantastic time.”

If you have any com-

1972 | Issue 930

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News has a little the Deputy Prim chat with e Minister

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:

Underage drin

kin

Seven sellers named and shamed: gair rhydd revealsCardiff ’s undera ge drinking hotspots.

News, page 2

Poisoned chal

ice

Our resident columnist discusses the Ed Miliband’s new appointment, and what can be done discusses for the Labour party.

Columnist, page 11

Fashion crisi

s

Opinion breaks down the concept of attract a cultural construiveness as gets to the bottom ction, and of fashion stigmas.

Opinion, page 8

Woman’s worl

d

Politics get to know some of the most import ant women in the Politica l sphere in this regular feature Politics, page 15

Complete Ba

Cardiff Students ’ Uni

on is forced to

Pippa Lewis and Morgan Appleg arth News Editors The 2011 Cooper’ s Field Summe Ball has been r cancelled, due to record losses.

The decision, made by the Board of Trustees for the Students’ Union, occurred after the 2010 Summe r Ball incurred a record loss of £58,775.

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The Board – made up largely Elected Officers of – deemed the summer event unsusta inable in the wake of the current econom ic climate.

An official Union source com-

lls up

evaluate the end

of year celebrat ions

Cooking clever

Features investi gate ‘quick fix’ cooking, and let of their own easyyou in on some and delicious recipes to get your mouth watering...

Features, page 17

Hungry for chan

mented: “In the current financia climate the Board l ficult” admitte Our Science Editor of Trustees d Students’ the Union feel of Union £50,000 President delves into that this is not the global food would be irrespon some- go ahead Olly Birrell, with the thing the Union crisis which sible and neglecting our being given after is leaving roughl can afford in duties to student the majorit coming year.” y 15% of the s,” y vote by Student a small said Birrell. population hungry Council In addition, despite them In addition, unease Darryl Light, Science and knowing the financia , Environment Fi- implica nance and Comme expressed by l the local tions. , page 20 rcial Officer, told council regardi gair rhydd: “The ng noise It is not just the levels helped team this year sway financia decision have had many l loss of s. previous years The success discussions with that influenced of the Ball staff about the the partly decision to pull relies event, and the upon the popular the 2011 general consensus ity of the With the uncerta Ball. acts, as well is that this money Will Viles gives as the reputat in future of could be better you Higher Educati ion upheld by previou spent in On the latest blow The Word on funding looking s years.

The Ball, as current the Union.” to affect the Since 2008, football: the Bellamto Welsh financial support ly known, is the Summer one of the biggest the has seen Union receives y fiasco Ball Sport, page 27 in the country from the Univers the likes of costing around Calvin Har, concerns ity, ris, Feeder, regarding greater £250,00-£300,000 Pendulum, Scoutin thus carrying , in the future losses Girls g for huge risks. and Professor have grown.

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The Word On..

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The Summer Ball: we hear your thoughts

Matthew Graham, Journalism, Film and Media I wasn’t too bothered on the actual event being cancelled, but I thought it was depressing to see so much money wasted, especially when it could be spent on other things. I think the spending seems reckless.

I think an all union event would be good, though I would understand if graduates wanted something more like a Leavers Ball.

Jackie Jeffreys, Medicine I was disappointed that The Ball was cancelled because I think it’s a fair price, especially when wellknown acts are booked, though I personally am not bothered by who plays. It’s nice to have The Ball somewhere different and unique. I wouldn’t mind if it was held at the Union, though it would have to be cheaper.

Dom Patterson, Geography and Planning

Lisa Mitchard, Journalism, Film and Media I was gutted it was cancelled! I wasn’t too impressed with last years' line up. I was excited when I heard about Florence and the Machine, but lost interest once I found out that weren’t playing. I think a replacement would have to be something formal, because I think it’s nice to have something a bit different to a usual night out.

I think it’s a shame that The Ball was cancelled. I’ve enjoyed myself both times I’ve been. But I do think it’s too expensive, especially when the line-up was as disappointing as last year’s. No, I like the idea of The Ball being away from the Union, something a bit different.

<< Have your say at gairrhydd.com

St. Davids' Centre unveils pink portraits Mark Anderson Reporter Cardiff ’s St David’s shopping centre has, in partnership with the UK Film Council, sponsored the IRIS PRIZE Film Festival.

The Festival will be held within the St. David’s Shopping centre from October 8 for about three months.

Over the past five years, the UK Film Council has been actively searching for leading gay and lesbian professionals in the film industry to take part in a project called the “Pink Portraits” collection which will be exhibited as part of the Festival.

Organised by acclaimed photographer Donald MacLellan, the collection showcases and celebrates di-

versity both in front of, and behind the camera.

Film professionals like Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, Simon Callow, Sophie Ward and 36 others have been captured in this groundbreaking display.

The collection records and celebrates the wealth of talent within the UK film industry.

It also aims to act as a catalyst to

explore, highlight and debate the on-screen representation of gay, lesbian and bisexual people and to establish to what extent they feel reflected in film.

Berwyn Rowlands, co-founder of IRIS Prize, said: “Iris is proud to host the world premiere of the highly anticipated series of portraits of successful gay and lesbian professionals working in the film indus-

try. I am also honored and proud to be included in such a positive and honest portrayal of gay and lesbian life.”

“The LGBT+ Association have been given exclusive VIP invitations to the opening of the collection and are truly proud to represent Cardiff University” an LGBT+ spokesperson said.

04News

Monday October 11 2010 • gair rhydd • news@gairrhydd.com

Students and staff unite against coalition cuts Ben Price News Editor A UCU and NUS national demonstration against the proposed cuts in higher education is set to take place in London on November 10.

The ‘Fund Our Future – Stop Education Cuts’ demonstration, is hoped to draw the attention of the government to the anger of many students at the extensive cuts that are proposed for universities in the UK. The UCU official website states that this demonstration will be an unprecedented coalition of students and staff. They will protesting against the cuts that are to be imposed upon society, as well as against higher fees and increasing privatisation in education.

With a month to go until the demonstration, the government has been warned by UniversitiesUK that there is a great danger of the proposed cuts being misplaced and

mistimed.

It is feared that as a result of the cuts economic growth will be seriously damaged, and that the UK’s reputation as the second best country in the world for higher education will be seriously undermined.

The warning comes as universities await Lord Browne’s report on university funding, which is expected to bring cuts of around 25% in colleges and universities.

Cardiff University will not be directly affected by the proposed cuts which will only affect higher education institutions in England.

Cardiff will only see the changes if the Welsh Assembly decide to follow through with the cuts in Wales.

Jenny Randerson, Assembly Member for Cardiff Central explained that if the government makes these deep cuts in Welsh universities, this will be on top of cuts that have been made under the previous government.

Mrs Randerson added that the decision to make these cuts would

Bank of England CEO lectures at Buisness School Ben Price News Editor The Chief Executive of the Bank of England, Spencer Dale, was the first to speak in Cardiff Business School’s 2010 Lecture Series.

The Cardiff University alumni opened by reflecting on his three ‘wonderful’ years as a student in Cardiff.

He followed this opening with an apology for not choosing a more exciting topic of discussion such as the financial crisis or the possibility of a double-dip recession.

Instead, Mr Dale’s lecture focused on inflation.

The primary message in the CEO’s lecture was the need to have a better understanding of the fac-

tors causing inflation to be above target and to learn from the upside surprises in inflation experienced recently.

Mr Dale also explained the factors that determine inflation as well as the effect of the depreciation of sterling on companies’ costs and prices.

He concluded by suggesting that the challenge that faces the monetary policy is to try and balance the upside and downside risks of inflation. Nevertheless, he stated that no matter what, the objective of policy will always be clear and unchanging: “inflation, inflation, inflation”.

The next lecture in the series will welcome Michael Izza, CEO of ICAEW on November 24th. The other guests in the series are yet to be announced.

be ‘regrettable’, and that Welsh universities are already at a disadvantage due to the £67million funding gap in education funding between England and Wales.

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: "England has much to be proud of when it comes to higher education. We are recognised as a leader both in research and teaching and continue to punch considerably above our weight. However, we do not want to be the most expensive country in the world for domestic students to do a degree.

The Browne Report is also set to deliver a blow to students with the likely increase of tuition fees.

Students’ fees in England currently stand at £3,290.It has been suggested that this may increase to as much as £7000 per year.

Second year journalism student, Jamie Evans, said: “Students are one of the poorest populations in the country. We should not have to be the ones to suffer in this way just because the government has seri-

ous debt issues.”

Alternative plans have been suggested for ways of using student finances to help resolve the government’s black hole of debt.

Many leading political figures have shown much support for Business Secretary, Vince Cable’s idea of introducing a graduate tax.

The graduate tax scheme has been recognised as a fair system, whereby the rate of which students pay back their fees will depend on their income after they have graduated. This will see higher income earners paying higher rates than

those with lower incomes.

Jenny Randerson, AM, supports this proposed graduate tax scheme adding: “Whether this will be a good long term solution to the current problem is hard to tell yet.

However, this idea is most definitely the fairest that have so far been suggested.”

The national demonstration in November is set to send a clear message to the government about seriously re-thinking its plans concerning cuts in higher education and will call on the government to seek alternatives to a tuition fee rise.

News05

gair rhydd • Monday October 11 2010 • news@gairrhydd.com

Plans for new energy incinerator put on hold

Teaching grants face the cut

University chancellors fear a rise in tuition fees will Environment Agency Wales halt decisions fail to cover the coalition's proposed public funding cuts to grant Splott incinerator permit Pippa Lewis News Editor The Environment Agency has delayed decisions on whether or not a grant is to be permitted for a planned waste-to-energy incinerator in Cardiff.

The decision to allow the Viridor Energy Plant will now be made at the end of October, after the agency said that it wanted to assess information regarding the impact the plant may have on locals' health.

Campaigners against the £150m site in Splott have argued that the agency based its original advice on partial evidence.

Although Cardiff Council has already given planning permission for the site, campaigners have complained that the authority wrote to just 17 households and that many of the addresses belonged to businesses close to the plant’s proposed location.

Edmund Schluessel, a spokesper-

son for protest group 'Cardiff Stop the Incinerator' said: "The delay on the decision on the incinerator shows that we are asking the right questions.

"We are finding the weaknesses in Viridor's application and tearing those holes wide open."

He continued: "It's a testament to the way this campaign is bringing together people from across Cardiff and shows the power of a mass campaign to challenge big business interests can make a real change in the community."

Above: Protesters gather

Pippa Lewis News Editor Universities fear that they will not be able to offset cuts to teaching grants by charging higher fees.

Current estimates by top university chancellors show that teaching grants could be slashed by as much as 75% in government cutbacks.

In addition, a drop between 25 and 40% in government funding for higher education is expected to get approval by the coalition.

Universities UK (UUK), the representative organisation for UK universities, warned: “Reductions on this scale could lead to a dramatic loss of income.”

Such reductions, they say, could fall “in the order of between £4.1billion and £6.6billion in cash terms.”

It is expected that universities will raise tuition fees in order to compensate for losses in government funding.

Professor Geoffrey Crossick, Vice-Chancellor of the University

of London and member of UUK, believes that 75% of government grants may be taken away from all degree courses.

In addition, Crossick feels that courses in humanities and social sciences may no longer receive funding at all.

The forthcoming Lord Browne review is expected to recommend an increase in graduate contributions, though there are fears that this will not be financially viable for many prospective students.

UUK have similarly called for a rise in tuition fees, combined with a reduction in the loan subsidy for graduates with the highest salaries.

Such calls have however fuelled speculation that the middle classes will be forced to bear the brunt of a significant increase in the cost of a degree.

An independent review is expected to recommend that the cap on tuition fees should be raised from £3,290 to around £10,000.

A spokesperson for Cardiff University told gair rhydd:"We need to

be careful in reacting to such speculation. Even after the Browne Review recommendations are public and the Comprehensive Spending Review is announced, it will take some time before final decisions are taken and we learn of the consequences for public sector spending in general, and higher education budgets in particular. It should also be noted that the current headlines and speculation refer only to possible outcomes in England. The Assembly Government will reach its own decisions on the funding of higher education in Wales.

"However, the University would of course be deeply concerned about any significant cuts to teaching budgets. Providing an excellent level of education and overall student experience has a significant cost attached – far in excess of current levels of student fees. As further information becomes available, the University will be carefully evaluating the implications of these challenging circumstances for both students and the Institution before reaching conclusions."

World News 06 Unhappy meals

Morgan Applegarth News Editor A Council Official in San Francisco has proposed a city law that would ban McDonald’s from putting toys in their Happy Meals, unless they increase fruit and vegetable portions and reduce calories.

Eric Mar, the city politician who put forward the ordinance, said: “I’m doing my best to protect the kids and promote healthier lifestyles and living.”

Imposing a band on Happy Meals would be the latest in a string of public health laws passed in San Francisco. Soda drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have recently been banned from vending machines on city property.

Knock, knock, who's there?

Hannah Pendleton News Editor A railway station in Buckinghamshire became victim to an unlikely pet infestation this month.

Two dormice of a rare breed known as Glis-Glis, or fat tailed dormice, were discovered inside a ticket machine at the station.

After realizing the machine was not functioning correctly, it was opened up to find the dormice nesting in their new home.

Customer Service Manager, Mark Cooper said; “The permit

Blondes only Miranda Atty News Editor Lithuanian firm Olialia (‘Ooh La La’) plans to open a resort in an island on the Maldives which will be run exclusively by blonde staff members.

The potential resort aims to help quash the dumb blonde stereotype. The resort will include an education centre, which will teach students ‘how to always be perfect and look great’, general holiday services and a yacht and airline service – all run by blondes.

The plan is to open the blondes-only resort by 2015. Managing director Giedre Pukiene, who is also blonde, said “Our girls are very smart and they have degrees. All of them want to do something with their lives. They have lots of business ideas.”

to travel machine was not working and when we opened the machine up to find out what the problem was we found a group of Glis-Glis and contacted St Tiggywinkles”.

"We were glad to see the animals taking such an interest in the Chiltern Railways services from Little Kimble".

The dormice are now in their new home at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital.

You must be joking Goodbye Santa Claus Fishy tale A Brazilian clown has the last laugh during the Congress elections Amelia James Reporter A Brazilian clown has been elected to Congress with more votes than any other candidate in the recent elections.

Tiririca, real name Francisco Oliveira Silva, was elected as a Federal Deputy for Sao Paulo with more than 1.3 million votes.

Tiririca won 1,353,355 votes - well ahead of the next best-supported politician, former Rio state governor Antony Garotinho, who re-

ceieved more than 694,000 votes to be elected a federal deputy for the state.

Tiririca, or "Grumpy", had slogans such as: "It can't get any worse."

Tiririca was the main sensation of the election campaign due to his humorous campaign adverts on YouTube, which attracted millions of hits.

"What does a federal deputy do?

Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you," was one of his messages.

Catholics conspire to rid Father Christmas

Hannah Pendleton News Editor As Christmas looms, a group of German Catholics have condemned Christmas as a load of commercial hype.

Bonifatiuswerk, the church organization, have started a campaign to replace Santa Claus with the traditional St Nicholas.

They believe St Nick is “a helper in need who reminds us to be kind, to think of our neighbours, and to give the gift of happiness”.

For the German Catholics, Santa is a symbol of the advertising in-

dustry and nothing else.

No doubt the Bonifatiuswerk will face a great amount of opposition if they try to lay their hands on Coca cola's Christmas advert.

Pippa Lewis News Editor Europe's smallest fish, the Guillet's Goby, has been found off the coast of Scotland for the first time.

Previously, Guillet's Goby had only been recorded in British waters three times and never before in Scotland.

However, the small fish was found by some divers who were photographing marine life around the Shetland Islands.

Independent marine biologists Dr Richard Shucksmith and Rachel Hope were documenting the islands' smaller species when they made their unusual discovery.

Opinion08 Oh the humanities!

Caleb Woodbridge Opinion Writer Cuts are everywhere, but the arts and humanities have their head against the block.

With plans to cut arts funding by as much as 25%, they are treated as an expensive luxury rather than a vital part of our national life. I've just returned to university to study for a masters degree in English Literature, so I've obviously got a horse in this race, but I find this attitude very short-sighted.

The arts in Britain do contribute massively to our economy, as does the study of humanities to a degree.

The arts employ 2 million people, and contribute £16.6 billion to our exports – not bad value for 0.08% of the national budget. But that’s not the main reason we should protect them. If they are reduced simply to a price tag, we’ve already lost our souls.

"Impact” is the latest buzz-word in the Higher Education quangos that govern our universities. Doing high-quality research isn’t enough any more; universities have to prove it has “impact” on society if they want to good assessments and continued funding. This is fair to a point; if tax-payers are funding university research, they want to know what they’re getting out of it.

The problem is a narrow focus on money and headlines as the criteria of success.

Rewarding academics for getting their ideas in the papers or on television won’t deliver good research, just sensationalism. Academic study by its very nature is specialised. You can’t expect it to make good 10-second soundbites. And while

humanities subjects don't typically deliver a direct economic benefit in the way that, say, science or engineering do, there's much more to life than just economic competitiveness. The humanities are valuable precisely because they don’t typically have much direct economic value. They teach us there is more to life than the bottom line.

Understanding our culture, past and present, really matters. We need people who have a deep understanding of language, literature, history and so on. We need to support the creation of art – painting, music, theatre, literature and all its other myriad forms. We need voices that will both preserve and pass on, confirm and challenge, our values, culture and heritage.

No society can function for long without creative vision and a humane sense of value and purpose.

While science, technology and engineering tell us “how” to do things, it takes the arts and humanities to tackle the questions of “what” and “why”.

Neglect the questions of art, the wisdom of the humanities, and you are left with a technocratic society that may be efficient, but has no clear purpose.

The point is not to set the arts and humanities against the sciences.

Both sets of disciplines are necessary for our well-being. But we need to resist the idea that science and technology are the “real thing” and philosophy and ethics, literature and theology, are airy abstractions.

We need to fund not just those areas with “survival value”, but ones that give value to survival.

A good humanities degree not only teaches critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of our

cultural heritage, it teaches us how to be human.

Art as its best enlarges our understanding of the world and of other people.

We should join with the artists

from across Britain who are campaigning to “Save the Arts”, and speak up for the humanities in our university, to make sure they don’t become the Cinderella of the academy.

The arts and humanities may or may not help you get a job or fix the economy, but they certainly help you get a life.

Getting wasted is a waste of time Alex Calvin Opinion Writer It is no secret that in the UK, and especially in university, people drink to excess.

With fresher’s week just gone; this will be a recent, albeit hazy, memory. People going out, with the point of a night being to get so wasted you do not know where you are, what you are doing, who you are with, and by the end of the night throwing up, only for pictures of you doing all these things, dazedeyed and vomiting on the internet the next day. When people talk about drinking at UK universities, this is the picture that is generally painted.

We all remember the now infamous picture of a student in Sheffield on the Carnage pub-crawl, organised in many UK cities, including Cardiff.

In the photograph the guy is urinating on a war memorial. To some, this shows the ‘youth of today’ disrupting the calm and disrespecting our national culture, but at the same time, most people I know are not like this.

The above is an extreme case, and while people do drink and do stupid things, I refuse to believe we are a generation of drunken wasters.

For ‘older’ people witnessing this, it must be worrying to see the future generation of doctors and lawyers acting as they are. Yes, as a university student, I have been

out and drank a lot, but never to the point where I was urinating on war memorials or throwing up in clubs. The only time I did throw up was after being spiked at a dubstep night and spent the next day in bed, blacking out and throwing up. I felt terrible.

At the same time, those of us who would say they drink ‘in moderation’ still drink a lot. Every time we go out, we pre drink, enough so that we are pretty drunk by the time we leave the house.

It is fun, and we all enjoy ourselves, and it’s almost worrying to think that as a generation we feel that ‘having a good time’ equates to ‘drinking’. I like to think that I drink in moderation; I will drink every day, but this is a whiskey or a

beer with dinner, not a daily binge.

I think the issue of moderation taps deeply into people drinking from a young age in the UK. When I was younger, I drank from around the age of fifteen at the weekends when I went out to gigs, but at the same time my parents had let me drink with dinner from around that time too.

I learnt moderation when it came to alcohol. For the other kids I hung out with at the time, or most of them, alcohol was something new and mysterious, so they drank and would be sick or end up in hospital having their stomach pumped.

Parents, by letting kids drink in the home, with dinner, in a controlled and safe environment, you take the mystery out of something that oth-

erwise they are going to discover on their own, and abuse.

Maybe it is the British way of not talking about things that make us uncomfortable, but the same is true of drug taking and under age sex.

Many parents are afraid to expose their children to information about those issues, thinking that it will be damaging, only for kids to find it for themselves. Of course, these kids then arrive at university, without any parents, any manner of real control, so kids drink, explore and experiment.

That’s not to say this is a bad thing, exploration is a good thing, but there is no harm in questioning if you are actually enjoying yourself.

Opinion09

Monday October 11 2010 • gair rhydd • opinion@gairrhydd.com

The Celebrity Drug Culture Chris Williams Opinion Editor A few years back I wrote a song for my band which I called “The Art Of Celebrity”. It was crap. Not only did the band not accept it, but they laughed me out of the room and in the coming weeks I denounced it as well.

It was a really, really, bad song, but there’s elements that really hit home, particularly as another of our favoured Americans has taken to the stand again and been sent down.

Lohan is notorious for her tiresome and idiotic ways that have given her a reputation in the film industry as one of the least sought after actresses.

The reason? Well: drugs, alcohol, being stuck up and not being all that great at acting.

So it’s no surprise that, in the depressing state she was in, that she turned to a pick-me-up in the form of cocaine... although the driving under its influence is pretty inexcusable.

The remorseful former redhead took to the stand and pleaded that she’d change her ways and would never touch the naughty salt again (when in fact she was just saying what her publicist told her to say and would be back on it that night, if she walked free).

The story stays the same, but the names and faces keep changing.

Whether it’s Doherty, Winehouse or Hilton, they’re living a life that we all want to lead and are being scrutinised about how they lead it right in the public eye.

Now, if I was living in the public eye, I’d keep all cameras away from me whilst I snorted, smoked and injected (I’d also make sure I was wearing underwear - but that’s a story for another article). But this lot don’t seem to have the common sense.

And it’s for this reason that 'Celebrity' is becoming synonymous with 'drug addict'.

I would say it’s a shame and a tarnish on glistening careers, but when your only claim to fame is that your Dad used to own the Hilton, I think you deserve all you get.

Paris Hilton, just as a side note, is possibly the biggest example of pompous stuck up bitches who believe that they’re famous for something worth while.

Aside from her inheritance, she’s worthless. Yes, I know she earns a hell of a lot of money and is supposedly this ‘shrewd businesswoman’ but it’s her ridiculous image as someone so ignorant and the typical rich american daddy’s girl that gets me angry.

She’s the biggest waste of space that the world has ever seen and yet we lord so many man hours over taking a picture of her vagina, just so the world can see whether a famous person’s snatch is different to

Lohan (left) is the latest to fall victim to the celebrity drug craze. Doherty (above) is a seasoned drugs expert. a normal one.

Yet, thanks to her meticulously expensive lawyers, the blond bimbo can get away with pretty much anything.

She served only five days of a 45 day sentence earlier this year before being released from prison claiming she’d changed.

Of course you’re going to say you’ve changed, you’ve experienced and seen the pain and suffering caused by prison rape and you don’t want to go back to it. But, mentally, you’re still the same little girl who’ll go running to Daddy as soon as the going gets tough and someone says something horrible to you.

I get it. Becoming rich and famous leads to certain perks and rewards that you’ll flaunt where available. I also understand that, thanks to capitalism, you can get away with spending millions of dollars on the most expensive lawyer to get you out of any sticky situations.

If you’re in a fix and you have money, then you’ll try and get yourself out of the fix as soon as possible - throwing as much money at it as humanly possible. But what alarms me more is how status is starting to have a factor in how much you can get away with.

Doherty, the Z list celeb in that band that released two albums before the crack addict singer ditched his them to form another which,

for some strange reason, had a description of itself in the name (babyshambles), has got away with things that the average joe would be screwed for.

For some reason my only example of this is when instead of a tax disk on his car he had a bit of paper that had the words “in the post” scrawled across it. But they all get away with worse.

Just like you and me, they’re members of society who pay their taxes and who contribute, in some way, to the economy. The only difference between me and Doherty or me and Hilton (aside from the obvious biological differences, and the fact that I’m not on drugs 24/7) is that if they started snorting coke off a hookers back in Mexico, they wouldn’t face the same charges as I would.

Actually, they might. Most of the celebs I’m thinking of haven’t done anything like that... aside from Gary Glitter oh, and Roman Polanski but at least he was sensible enough to run into hiding for a few years (actually, that’s not strictly true - he made a few very good feature films before being caught, not exactly the low profile you’d have expected).

He pushed the boundaries of what you can get away with a little bit too far.

A little bit of coke on you? Fine.

A second or third DUI? Sure, why

not! Having sex with an underage child? DEFINITELY not.

Celebs can get away with a lot of things, but arguing your way out of a child sex case is something that even the best of lawyers would find difficult to get you out of.

These latest cases of celebs getting off their tits worse than George Best on his first kidney are proving that there’s inherent problems with the way we reward celebrities and the way we dish out our praise to people.

Just because their dad has lots of money and they wouldn’t look out of place in a Barbie aisle at the local toy shop, doesn’t mean that they should spend their prison sentences at home after only a few days.

Giving special treatment to celebrities in terms of court ordered sentences is not only stupid, it’s immoral and unjust.

They’re are just like us just we don’t have our privates over the front pages of the tabloids.

With our supposed ‘binge drinking’ problem we shouldn’t be encouraging extreme alcoholism or even allowing people to look up to someone like Winehouse as an idyllic figure of an adult.

Winehouse is a living example of why celebrities are not only wrong and immoral but dangerous as well.

If people look up to celebrities

then they probably want to be like them. If they want to be like them then they’ll probably want to do what they do. If the celebs start doing drugs, then they’ll probably do the same.

They’ve lost all sense of how powerful they are and how much influence they have. If they don’t rein it in soon, we’re screwed.

Winehouse looks like a picasso painting attached to a cartoon horse and her antics at 3am getting plastered over the media don’t help her case, or credibility as a decent singer in the music industry.

Imparting this sort of ridiculous image of what makes you cool and of being hammered every night without fail is fine for people who are sensible enough and old enough to either a) have experienced what they’re experiencing or b) aren’t as susceptible to peer pressure and the influence of celebrity. But to kids, it’s pretty dangerous.

It’s already begun with fashion.

When Horse-Face took to the stage a few years ago with Back in Black beehives became all the rage.

If it all carries on the way it is and if people don’t stop praising and lording over images of their favourite celeb, it’ll reach a point where if one of them died from an overdose of heroin, heroin sales will go up.

Columnist

11

Hollywood turns to Miners

I

always find it interesting how some news stories from around the world gather special attention over others.

I read an article in The Guardian a few weeks ago about how the Chilean Miners incident has already sparked interest for a film adaptation. Personally I think this is a wonderful idea, as people trapped in a small dark environment lends itself well to effective inter-character drama, as we’ve seen from such laugh-out-loud comedies as Anne Frank’s Diary. Though I can forsee some slight problems regarding plot, seeing as it’ll basically have to revolve around 30 people sitting in a small room playing Uno for sev-

eral months. I guess the redeeming feature is that, as the incident hasn’t technically ended yet, Hollywood producers are able to hang around the top of the hole and try and get the miners to spice things up a bit.

“We’re dropping down some guns, if one of you could kick off we’ll get Seagal in”. Maybe they should do this with other news stories, and simply supply large amounts of guns and drugs to otherwise mundane events, like tube strikes, or Tim Henman’s life. It’s definitely an exciting way to improve films based on real events, and I have every confidence that this one’ll turn out to be the best movie about exploring a small, dark cavity since Brokeback Mountain.

“

My parents have always lied to me, like that time they said I was black

In the midst of this constant stream of real-event movies, I often wonder what it would be like if they made a movie about my life. Of course, I’ve come to realise that the story of a fat little 12-year old boy with tits is something no-one wants to see, especially in 3D, but some of my experiences do lend themselves well to Oscar-winning tragedy. In primary school, I was so fat that I had to be kept separate from other children so as not to alarm them, and at Sports Day, I was one of the hurdles. It got so bad that if ever I went to take a seat at the cinema, the person sitting behind me would often whisper, “bloody hell”. The film could be a classic comedy of errors; i.e. too many portions. I can see a heartbreaking sequence in which Henry’s chins become stuck underneath a rollercoaster safety bar, and another in which he’s sent to hospital for an urgent X-ray, but has to be scanned with one of those things they use at London zoo to see if elephants are pregnant. If nothing else it's a good advertising opportunity for Ginsters.

I’m hoping that Hollywood buy the rights before Johnny Vegas gets too old to convincingly play 12, but somehow I don’t think they will.

They’ll most likely have all eyes on the Miners film, and besides, with Harry Potter over it’ll probably just be cheaper to run Daniel Radcliffe through FatBooth. Which is a bit disappointing, the boy has all the emotional range of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I could’ve been the next Elephant Man.

Leaked script from the upcoming Chilean Miners Movie Leaked online last week, the first draft of upcoming weepie Mine Your Own Business has recieved widespread critical acclaim for its inventive use of dramatic set-pieces, all of which have had to somehow include the scenario of being trapped in a small dark room with thirty men. In one of the highlights: Hernandez: So it was you all along! And to think, we've been spooning for several weeks.

Segio: Yes, and that's not all... I've been secretly sleeping with Carlos behind your back. Yesterday, when you faced the wall for several hours.

Hernandez: I should've known!

Carlos: (Muffled) Is this going on BBC news?

Juan: Are you talking to me?

Ramone: Ah? Rico: I think the candle's gone out again.

Miguel: Where's my hat?

Ramone: Hello? Is anybody talking to me?

Hernandez: Enough! Prepare to die, old friend!

Rico: Who said that? Who's speaking?

An exilerating chase sequence follows, taking place entirely within the radius of a 3-metre circle. Sergio lies, defeated.

Sergio: Wait! Before I die... take this shovel. Give it to Carlos. Tell him... I've always loved him, and that I dream about his little moustache tickling my buttocks.

Carlos: (Loudly) I hear it's lovely weather outside.

Hernandez: I will. (Close up shot) I guess... the souls of man are darker than any cave.

In which our readers ask a series of common questions. This week: prospects and opportunities Juan: Ah? Are you talking to me? I can't of a movement to try and get the ing’s got weaker, I’ve had to start my facebook status. He always see anything.

Dear Henry, leaves his laptop on during the Hernandez: No, I... law changed surrounding women buying my trainers elsewhere. day – what’s the best way of Ramone: Excuse me, you're treading on I’m passionate about current who are forced to wear burkhas: my burrito. affairs and like to campaign for we don't think they should have I’ve just graduated with a 2-1 getting him back?

Fernando: What time is it? positive causes. How good are eye-holes. It was also the students degree in media studies. Have I Download 40GB of child pornogra- Carlos: I think we need to have another the opportunites to do this at of Cardiff that managed to get a wasted three years of my life? phy and call the police. Quite a de- meeting about turds. petition passed against third-world Cardiff ? sweatshops, where we successfully Not necessarily, you can make a layed payoff but definitely worth Paulo: Are you talking to me? Hello? nice paper hat out of that for par- seeing; he might get preyed on a Hernandez: I should've worked in IT...

Very. Our students have always changed the maximum number of been a drive of political change; hours children can work to just 20. ties. My friend uses his to scrape bit in jail, but odds are he’ll surup until the 90’s, women in Welsh Unfortunately we forgot to specify vegetable cuttings into the bin, vive the 10-15 years and soon see Cut to scene: an unsuccessful game of society were still considered to “per week”, so they’re now doing and I know someone who got £12 the funny side. Might leave him Eye Spy. Sergio's fear of windpipes is exwith a spot of deep-rooted pyscho- plained in flashbacks, and Miguel finally be equal to sheep, but in 1998, we twice as much work as before. for his on eBay, so no, not a waste. logical harm, but they can usually comes to terms with his eczema. Music: managed to get that haggled up to Bit of a shame really, you can tell "Shaft" by Isacc Hayes. goats. Likewise I’m currently head they’re tired because the stitch- My flatmate keeps changing control that with pills.

Letters To The Editor

12Politics

politics@gairrhydd.com • Monday October 11 2010 • gair rhydd

An Audience With Nick Clegg

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg came to Cardiff City Hall last Thursday. Olly Smith wonders how successful he has been as the coalition reaches their four months in office.

I

voted for Nick Clegg: I’m sure many of you did. Recently I’ve been feeling very disappointed with his input over the past few months.

I’m sure many of you have been feeling the same. Last week, I sat down with around 250 people, mainly students, and gave his an opportunity to restore my faith in him and his party.

So 60 minutes later, had Mr. Clegg changed my attitude towards him?

Much of my disappointment arises from the key policy pillars upon which my vote for the Liberal Democrats was based, but which were removed from the party’s manifesto once the coalition formed, electoral reform and the abolition of tuition fees.

Although running late, the deputy premier arrived with an energy that took me back to the election TV debates upon which the Lib Dem’s gained so much of their new found support. The Liberal Democrat leader has a charisma foreign to many politicians and a skill in public speaking which far surpasses the monotony of Gordon Brown or the textbook style of David Cameron. Let's call it the ‘human touch’.

The last time British politics had a leader who had policies and natural charisma was Tony Blair; the American equivalent is Barack Obama. Interestingly, the latter is facing similar problems with popularity that the Liberal leader is. But this ‘human touch’ is what transforms what could be a mundane 60

minute Q&A into a very personal experience.

Nick Clegg opened with a monologue to deal with the elephant in the room: the deficit. It was an impassioned call to arms that “we’re not gonna repeat the mistakes of the 1980’s” but at the same time we can no longer live in what Mr. Clegg called the “never-never-land economy”. And that we don’t want our children to have to pick up the tab for the mistakes we made, like the last generation did.

A fair comment, but unsurprisingly once the floor opened for questions Nick Clegg still faced scrutiny regarding the cuts expected to come on 20th October. Many people seemed concerned that Wales, having been hit by cuts in the ‘80s, would once again face substantial job losses. To this Mr. Clegg affirmed his belief that people are being over-reliant on public sector work, and that the Liberal-Conservative coalition was not about to repeat the mistakes of the Thatcherite government and have the “rug pulled out from under the feet of industry.”

Further delving into the issue of the deficit a question was asked regarding front-line services, and whether they might be hit by the attempts to cut the deficit. To this, Nick Clegg stated his belief that local communities should be able to allocate finances where they see fit, albeit with a smaller budgets for allocation, but a move he described as “quite radical.”

On the subject of defence Nick Clegg, in an especially passionate call while speaking to someone from a military family, argued that “we’re not gonna pull [financial] support from them, its simply not going to happen.” Stating that money is never well spent on big budget defence projects, he promised that the whole nation would be kept aware of how the money is being spent. Maybe have a word with Mr. Cameron about that big budget defence project, you know, Trident?

Although there were surprisingly few questions regarding students and student life, thankfully a few people sought answers to important issues. In response to a question regarding student debt, Mr. Clegg answered that the coalition was working to prevent students from being discouraged from going to university because of the levels of debt involved. Dropping hints as to the plans for some form of graduate tax imposed on students, upon them leaving university, he refused to offer any details, instead stating that details would be made available in coming weeks.

And what about the electoral reform promised by the Lib Dems at the election? Well for now we’ll have to be content with the recently passed bill on constitutional reform, which Nick Clegg seemed positive would calm our concerns with an equalling of constituency sizes and a commitment to a referendum on the alternate vote (a referendum with ever-diminishing chances of

success). The deputy Prime Minister argued that these moves would destabilise the so-called MP’s ‘jobs for life’ and offer more turnover in constituencies, something which would bring about a more accountable Parliament.

Then came the question that I would have asked had I not been hurriedly writing down everything which Nick Clegg was saying. The gist of it “I voted Liberal, and I’m disappointed, was my vote wasted?” and his reply, “Judge us by what we do, not what the tabloids say we do.”

To that he added that the wider picture was often obscured by those same media outlets.

He then listed what he sees as the Liberal-Conservatives successes over the past four months. Legislation to reform the House of Lords; legislation to bring about electoral reform; bringing 900,000 people out of poverty by raising the tax thresholds for the poorest; introducing the Pupil Premium; linking pensions back with earnings and inflation (something scrapped by the last Tory government); introducing a levy on banks, and improving the protection of civil liberties.

Quite a laundry-list of achievements, and something that the Liberal leader seemed openly proud of.

Nick Clegg’s replies were obviously short of actual figures, those being reserved for the announcement in mid-October.

It will be interesting to compare the (mostly) vague answers given to the actual policy which emerges

from Westminster. But one comment that suck with me was his belief that this wasn’t the ideal time for a party to come to power, and more so, to come to power as a coalition.

But what the Liberal-Conservative coalition are bringing around is what Mr. Clegg describes as “plural diverse politics.”

So what do I think of Nick Clegg having seen him in action? Have I been converted back to ‘Cleggmania’? Well its quite amazing to hear how much he has done in only a short few months in government, and even more amazing to think that he is still being given such a bad name from his once loyal supporters.

In my opinion Nick Clegg has made the decisions that just about anyone would have made in his position, the best decisions. Would we instead have preferred him to form a coalition with Labour? Or refuse to form a coalition at all, and open up another round of election campaigning?

I think that sometimes his energy gives him the impression of being out of control, but after seeing him speak it reminds me of the quote “If you want a job done, get a busy person to do it.”

I can safely say that Nick Clegg has been very busy over the last few months and I’m looking forward to his achievements in the next few.

Yea, he won me over...

Politics13

gair rhydd • Monday October 11 2010 • politics@gairrhydd.com

Cameron reveals his plans for Defence Politics investigates the Prime Minister's new plans for the Armed Forces James Dunn Politics Editor The Prime Minister has finally revealed part of his plans for a radical reform of the Armed Forces, in the aftermath of a leaked letter from the Minister of Defence, Liam Fox. David Cameron confirmed that Britain would continue to have 'one of the largest defence budgets in the world', despite what he claims is a complete 'car crash' following the Labour government.

The latest figures indicate that the previous Downing Street incumbents overspent their budget by £38 billion and still have not made

many important decisions.

Notable among these – and something that featured keenly on Mr Cameron’s election manifesto – is the lack of Chinook helicopters supplied to the army.

Their lack is a regularly voiced complaint from army officials to the politicians of the Ministry of Defence.

During an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Cameron outlined his plan for supplying more Chinook helicopters – along with other much need equipment – to the front line.

This is part of his initiative to supply the army with 'everything that they need' in their fight against the Taliban.

The announcement should be welcomed in the light of recent events. With the American withdrawal of all operational combat troops from Iraq – although 50,000 troops do still remain as a 'peacekeeping' force – the war on terror could be firmly shifted into the hands of the British.

A fully functional, and well equipped armed forces would be a reassurance to many.

The Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, warned Mr Cameron against the possibility of making 'draconian cuts' during wartime, writing that it would only have 'grave consequences' on the nation.

This swift response from the premier, it is hoped, will serve to allevi-

ate any fears Dr Fox may have.

Last Friday, the Prime Minister and Dr Fox met at Downing Street for talks on the letter. Having been leaked to The Daily Telegraph the week before, the contents of the letter is an indication of the first serious rift within the coalition government.

The two Conservatives had a 'very good chat'; all the more important given the then proximity of their party conference in Birmingham.

Of particular interest for those scrutinizing the comparisons between the new government and their predecessors, are the comments of Lord Heseltine – a former Tory defence secretary himself.

Claiming that the letter had the look of being written to be leaked, the role of spin in the armoury of the coalition has leaped to the fore.

New Labour are synonymous with spin – using media to enhance their image.

While Lord Heseltine has said that the Dr. Fox may not be responsible, the concern over a new age of spin could be damaging to the coalition, the Conservatives in particular.

Having aimed to portray a new age of politics – in which spin plays no part – the accusation that the letter was written with the intention to be leaked is a worry for the transparency of the party.

Europe put on red alert

With new worries over a renewal of al-Qaeda strikes, Politics examines the impact terror warnings will have throughout the European Union James Dunn Politics Editor The Western world is again facing up to the harsh economic realities of living in the shadow of terrorism this week. Following a frenzy of bomb-threats, both the US and Great Britain have updated travel advice for Europe by warning of a

threat of increased terrorist activity.

Both governments are keen to stress that they are not advising travellers to cancel their plans altogether. Rather, people are being urged to remain cautious.

The announcements come in the wake of the second bomb threat at the Eiffel Tower in recent weeks.

Last Tuesday a call was received

from a local telephone booth, alerting the French authorities to the possibility of an attack. It was the second such threat in two weeks.

The tower, in Paris, was immediately evacuated, although it was reopened in a matter of hours.

However, this is not the only terrorist threat that the Europeans have reputedly discovered in the past fortnight.

Above: Mumbai, 2008 attacks.

Last week, Britain was credited with intercepting a credible-Islamic terrorist plot. It has been speculated that the attack would have been similar to the Mumbai raids two years ago, with a series of commando-like raids devastating cities.

France and Germany were the main targets, according to British intelligence.

The wake of so many suspected attacks is already having a detrimental impact on the members of the European Union – not to mention America. On Friday, Sweden raised the country’s terror alert to the highest it has ever been.

The UK still has a terror rating of 'severe'. This is the second highest threat level, and the country has been at this level since January.

With new international warnings of terrorist activity, it would hardly be a surprise to see the highest alerts become uniform across the continent.

Such threats come at a particularly inconvenient time for the UN and Nato – although convenience is a poor scale to measure such things against. With all American combat troops having been recently withdrawn from Iraq – still touted as a potential hide out for al-Qaida – coupled with the US indiscriminately bombing vast swathes of Pakistan.

Bombing in the mountainous regions of the country – another potential hideout for the al-Qaida headquarters – has reached the highest total in six years.

The US initiated at least 25 drone

strikes in the tribal region of Pakistan in the past four weeks.

One such strike has, according to a number of sources, killed a British man in the region. Pakistani intelligence officials have said that the man was conspiring with his brother and eight Germans in a bid to carry out commando-like raids on the UK. Days after the warning was issued, a US drone strike killed five German militants in the tribal belt of Pakistan.

The fears of such attacks are still prominent in the minds of most of the British, given the recent anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London that claimed 52 lives.

Yet these recent threats have international governments worried more than ever. Following 9/11, the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 7/7 and the Mumbai raids, the suspicion that Osama Bin-Laden is once again masterminding strikes is causing terror across the world.

The Foreign Office stated that 'attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers'.

Following the claims that France and Germany would be among the chief recipients of attacks, as well as Sweden upping their terror alert to the highest in their history, the tourist industry across the continent is going to be heavily impacted upon.

And, in the midst of a crippling global recession, the effects could be severe for both sides of the Atlantic.

Features

15

Your Space.

We want to hear your stories: anything goes.

Just drop us a line on features@gairrhydd. com. This week Features editor Zoe Bridger tells us about her summer in Vietnam.

F

orget the gap yarr, nowadays it’s all about the summer holiday yarr or the postgraduate yarr.

Having survived a few years at university, done my own washing, cooked my own meals and actually turned up to lectures, I thought it was time I tried my hand at something new and adventurous.

As friends started talking about work placements and job interviews, I realised that this summer was probably the last time in my life that I’d ever have four months off to do what I liked.

So, instead of just moving home, working in my local bar and wasting money on shopping and nights out, I decided to travel around Vietnam for two months. And it was the best decision I have ever made.

I did a bit of travelling before university, with some friends, and although it was fun, we were very young and didn't really know what we were doing.

But this time, a few years later and with a bit more 'life experience' (horrible expression), it was a lot more fun. I knew what I was doing, where I wanted to go and how to go about it.

I flew to Hanoi at the top of Vietnam on June 14 and steadily made my way down through the country. I have been to Asia before, so I expected to find Hanoi pretty manageable, but the heat, the humidity, the traffic, the noise, the dangerous roads and the mass of people really threw me.

Lonely Planets or Rough Guides are invaluable. I often turned up in a town or city that I knew nothing about and after a few minutes looking through the rough guide I was sorted.

Having said that, some things are unavoidable. For example, I read in my Rough Guide that taxi drivers often try to rip you off at the airport and take you to the wrong hostel (which they get commission for).

So thinking myself clued up, I got in a legitimate looking taxi and asked to go to the hostel I had chosen.

Ten minutes later I was stranded in 40 degree heat in the middle of Hanoi with no idea where to go or where I was.

With my 15kg rucksack on and a barely intelligible map, I trapsed around Hanoi in a foul mood and with a terrible first impression of Vietnam.

My initial response was to get straight out of Hanoi and go down to my first stop – Ha Long Bay. But I de-

cided to spend a few nights in Hanoi in order to get to know the place a bit better. This, in hindsight, was one of the best ideas I had.

After a decent night’s sleep, a shower and a friendly hostel, I walked into the city of Hanoi and saw it with completely new eyes. It was hot, smelly, congested, chaotic and absolutely brilliant.

It would have been such a shame to leave the city in a negative mood and with a terrible impression of Hanoi.

And now when I look back, that horrible first day was one of the most memorable.

From Hanoi I booked a bus to Ha Long Bay and spent three nights on a boat drifting between the thousands of limestone cliffs and caves. Once I got past the first day, which was really touristy, the next two days were unbelievable.

For three days on a boat, kayaking, cycling, fishing, and all food included it was only about £50. When you think of how easy it is to spend £50 on a night out, or a quick venture into Topshop, it makes you appreciate the value for money in Asia.

Due to the shape of Vietnam, (very long and thin with Hanoi at the top and Saigon City at the bottom), there was no need to plan a route. I just stopped at every big town/city/attraction on our way down the country.

Some were brilliant and some were completely over-hyped, but everyone gets different things out of travelling and I just stuck to what I knew. I love beaches and sunbathing and boats, but i'm not so good at wandering around temples and pagodas in the sweltering heat.

Another fantastic bonus to travelling, is all the interesting people you meet. I met a lovely Dutch lady called Fenneke while I was in Nha Trang doing a diving course.

Her english was brilliant and she made me laugh so much. People like her, who you meet by chance, are often the people you remember most.

And through the marvel of facebook I can now catch up with her and see where she is on her travels.

But for everyone you like you will meet plenty of people you don't like.

You will be ripped off by certain hostel owners, or you may have your belongings stolen, or you may be stuck on a twelve hour coach journey with some crazy Danish people (yep, they were fun). And at the risk of sounding like a complete arsehole, that is what it is all about.

These people will make you laugh

when you look back and they will be the ones you tell your friends about.

I went travelling with some friends, but plenty of people go on their own, safe in the knowledge that there will always be other people to chat to and meet.

The biggest tourist attractions in Vietnam are also the most touristy places, but you have to see them. For example, at the bottom of Vietnam is the Mekong Delta, which is a vast area where the Mekong River splits into hundreds of smaller rivers before reaching the sea.

We booked a two day tour around the Mekong Delta which included all of our travel, food and accomodation and gave us a guide for the two days.

The guide was called Vinh and is definitely the funniest person I have ever met. His english was pretty good, but every now and then he would make a big mistake.

My favourite of these mistakes is when he pointed to a bush at the side of the road and shouting 'incest!' at the top of his voice. After a few looks of surprise we realised he meant to draw our attention to the 'insects'.

While at the Mekong Delta we stayed in a Vietnamese village and helped the villagers to do their farming and daily work.

This was incredibly humbling and taught us just how hard the villagers work and how much they depend on the river for their livelihood and food.

And I don't think I can go much further without mentioning the food.

People often go away travelling to far off places like India and the Middle East and come back looking very slim and healthy.

Well, sadly, the food in Vietnam is so good you will come back with quite the 'curvy' waistline from all those gorgeous noodles and spring rolls.

And the price of food doesn't help with the diet either. About £4 will get you a slap up meal and probably a hefty gin and tonic on the side. Oh and did I mention that beer is cheaper than water?

It’s hard not to sound like a pretentious wanker when you return from travelling and have had the time of your life. People ask how it was and all you can muster up is ‘yeah, really good thanks’.

But you have to do it before you join the rat race - even if it is only for a few weeks. Jump on a plane, take a camera, and take advantage of the longest summer holiday you will ever have.

Top: Relaxing on a boat trip in Ha Long Bay. Above: A motorbike driver passes one of thousands of rice paddy fields.

Below: With some Vietnamese children acting as tour guides

16Features

gair rhydd • Monday October 11 2010 • features@gairrhydd.com

Facebook: Friend or Foe? In light of the upcoming film, The Social Network, Laura Brunt questions the social phenomenon that is Facebook: is it a good thing or a bad thing?

I

t has more than 500 million users and over half of those check it every day. Due to Facebook mobile an increasing number of people are checking the social networking site several times a day. What are we checking it for? And why?

Is it that little red box telling us that we have had some form of contact from one of our online friends?

Or is to stalk someone that you like/ don’t like?

Most of us struggle to remember a time before Facebook, when phrases like ‘facebook raped’ and ‘are the photos up yet?’ weren’t heard daily.

So it is safe to say that Facebook has impacted on our social lives like no other social networking site ever has. The question is, is Facebook our friend or our enemy?

There are those people who openly confess their adoration for Facebook, those who say that it is helpful for organising social events, but aren’t really that fussed about it (don’t buy that one for a second, by the way) and there are those who say they don’t like it all.

The latter are perhaps the most confusing of all, because they are probably still users, often in spite of themselves. So, Facebook must have some extremely appealing attributes that can keep us all hooked: but what are they?

Friend: Firstly, the site is free. Everyone and anyone can use it as long as they can gain access to the internet. Unlike its predecessors, Bebo and Myspace (remember them?) Facebook attracts people of all ages and of all backgrounds.

Parents who struggle to communicate with their hormonal teenagers, who seem to have glued themselves to their computer screens, are now creating a profile all for themselves in an attempt to share some common ground.

With Facebook as simple as it is to use, many parents will tell you that it has helped communication with their teenagers (as for the teenagers, thank goodness for de-tagging and the limited profile access option on privacy settings).

While Facebook is useful for keeping abreast of the local gossip (simi-

lar to the kind of water cooler gossip you would find going on at the workplace), it can also be used for other important communication.

Before Facebook, accessing friends and family who are abroad, perhaps on a gap year or serving in the armed forces, was a far more difficult task.

The opportunity to contact loved ones away is priceless to millions of users and no one can deny its value in terms of keeping in touch. For many, who have found old friends and family on Facebook, the site has quite simply changed their lives.

The effect on people’s social lives has been nothing short of extraordinary. Those who suffer from any kind of social anxiety disorder or physical disability can now, thanks to Facebook, build their social lives, make friends and in turn build their selfesteem.

As for the majority of users, it is a means to discovering what is happening in their workplace, school, university or any other institution.

The constant emails may be a little annoying, but it certainly helps to feel connected to your institution and a part of something, which can only ever be a good thing for our social lives, can’t it?

As a social media tool, Facebook has proved invaluable. Though others had tried with online campaigning, no one was quite as savvy as Barack Obama's campaign team.

In the 2008 election campaign for US presidency, Obama tapped into the genius idea of using Facebook and other popular sites such as Twitter to gain popularity and campaign funding. And boy, did it pay off.

He even employed Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes to set up his new online campaign, which is noted as one of the least elitist and most democratic election campaigns in history.

As for businesses, Facebook has benefited some big names. Here are the top ten businesses that Facebook helped last year: McCann World Group, Ikea, Vaustralia, Burger King, Red Bull, Doritos, Adobe, H&M, Adidas and Pringles.

For these businesses, Facebook’s audience was just too big to ignore and as a result, these businesses have improved immensely.

In retaliation to some claims that Facebook is dangerous or addictive,

one would have to question the weight behind this argument.

People’s daily fix seem more habitual than anything else, and besides, the majority of users find checking their profile enjoyable, quick and part of their daily routine, much like checking hotmail or MWE. So, is it really that dangerous?

Foe: Do as many as 350 million of us suffer from Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD)? Or is FAD just a fad?

Some psychologists in the US believe that addiction to Facebook is not only a very real and common problem among its users, but also a very dangerous one.

FAD cannot be understood in the same terms as an addiction to drugs (although some 500 groups on Facebook carelessly advocate an apparent similarity), but as a disorder similar to that of gambling.

The little red box notifying you of some activity on your account creates a similar response to that of winning a bet: temporary elation followed by a very strong desire to win again.

So is constant behaviour like checking your Facebook the second you wake up an addiction? If so, wouldn’t that mean that most of us are addicted?

Picture your homepage; most of the information you’re taking in is either totally mundane to you, irritating beyond belief or just plain offensive.

For example, Sharon from primary school, who you’ve added but never spoken to, has updated her status for the third time today.

She has just had a great day with some guy you don’t know and is now going to go to some place you don’t know with people you’ve never met and probably never will.

Despite your frustration, you read on. You might even stalk her to see who she might be talking about.

For a social networking site this kind of behaviour doesn’t seem all that social, it simply seems to be done out of habit and boredom.

When does it cross over into antisocial behaviour when all you do is stalk Sharon and never actually speak to her or see her face-to-face?

Facebook has been met with some controversy in many countries (Chi-

Hooked: Leading pyschologists believe that logging in can do more harm than good. Should be Facebook Addiction Disorder be taken seriously? And how many of us are addicts?

Features17

gair rhydd • Monday October 11 2010 • features@gairrhydd.com

Logging in: The Facebook logo is one of the most widely recognised logos in the world: but what are the implications of the social phenomanon?

na and Pakistan even initiated a ban on Facebook altogether), especially over its privacy settings.

Despite efforts this year to make the privacy settings simpler to use, there is still concern over how much information is available online.

Only this year has it been possible to customise your settings so that others cannot see your friend lists and an option for ‘Only Me’ has become available.

Questions over data mining have also become an issue. Deleting your Facebook account is not only confusing (deliberately, perhaps?) but dubious.

The second you reactivate your account, all of the information you set up your profile with is still there, living on in cyberspace somewhere without you. Are we leaving ourselves vulnerable online?

In our culture we like to see things (at least that’s what the media moguls say that the ‘people want’), like photos of celebrities looking too thin or too

fat or stumbling out of nightclubs.

So, in an inexorably self-conscious world, is it really healthy to trawl through hundreds of photos of other people living their lives?

Judging people on Facebook is inevitably tied in with making assumptions about their lives and in doing so drawing comparisons with your own.

Before Facebook, people had fun, but they definitely didn’t feel the need to show it to their online friends.

Some argue that Facebook is not just a procrastinator’s wet dream, but an environment that, by its very nature, will make you feel bad about yourself.

Google ‘Facebook’ and there is an abundance of literature about the site’s dangers and the reasons to quit.

The most common ones are the element of distraction it creates in so many people’s lives: are student’s exam results suffering because of Facebook?

There are also hundreds of stories

“

Do 350 million users really suffer from Facebook Addiction Disorder?

about cyberspace bullying that are disconcerting to say the least.

Found among the thousands of pages, there are some that positively reinforce racism, sexism, even anorexia and bulimia.

This has to be a danger to the vulnerable; especially considering the age of millions of users (you have to be 13 or more to use Facebook). Is Facebook a cyberspace of concern?

If Facebook was taken away from you, could you cope? My instinct is to say yes. In that sense, you definitely do not have an addiction problem (phew).

Without Facebook, you could quite easily carry on your lives with the same friends that you had before and still have as much fun as you did before.

However, would you really want to give it up? Facebook, perhaps, is just too damn enjoyable to let go of.

Even while writing this, I’ve probably checked Facebook twice (no notifications both times, by the way).

The popularity of Facebook has exploded in the last few years. But despite some serious implications for the siteand its users, I can't see that popularity diminishing, not just yet anyway.

Want to write for gair rhydd?

Missed the Media Recruitment Party on Monday? Don't worry, you can always drop us a line at features@gairrhydd.com. No experience necessary and all ideas are welcome.

Science 18 The Second Space Age

Adam Clancy Science Correspondent Just under five years ago, the British prime minister took one of the biggest steps towards British space superiority. The go ahead was given for the first major military attack on a target in space by firing the Cardiff Torchwood’s reverse engineered alien laser at the Sycorax ship fleeing earth and its unofficial guardian - The Doctor.

Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, it is pure science fiction. The sad fact is it really doesn’t remotely demonstrate where the UK stands with space technology today.

At the end of last month the BBC reported on British company Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) project to send up 3 satellites worth £100m. The surprising part of this story is the attention it received as SSTL has long been regarded as a world leader in satellite technology.

It already boasts over 30 satellites in our skies, but this project seemed reportable because of the perception of where Britain stands in space. Until now the satellites were owned by other nations, just built by SSTL and now they would rest solely in the hands of a British company being leased out to other nations.

The US is usually seen as the main space-faring nation, for good reason.

The majority of the original work into modern space travel was completed by the USA and the USSR with some remarkable results; sending a man to the moon still stands as mankind’s greatest achievement. After the fall of the Soviet Union, America remained the public’s poster boy for space and it is a title they have em-

braced whilst largely ignoring the responsibility that comes with it. Plans for a manned mission to Mars scheduled originally for the seventies have repeatedly been pushed back to its current date of 2035 and a lunar base was planned for 2012 and will be a decade late at best. They haven’t even sent a man to the moon since 1972.

Unfortunately, whilst many countries have a space program, no one else has stepped up to the plate to drive the US forward. Russia’s manned spaceflight programme has stalled, India has launched satellites but little else and China’s project is heavily reliant on Soviet era technology.

The UK’s story of space exploration started in the late 40s with the retro analysis of the iconic V-2 rockets used in the blitz, but British focus on rocketry was initially almost completely military. It took 15 years before rockets were developed not for the purpose of blowing up people quite far away, with the initiation of the Ariel programme. This was the first major venture to space by the UK and two particular decisions were made that have had a lasting impact on British space exploration, to use American rockets and use American launch sites. Both were understandable, sensible even; the technology and infrastructure was already in place and whilst there were launch facilities in place on the Isle of White, it was never on a scale comparable to the facilities of NASA. It paved the way for Britain to shelve plans for its own independent launch capacity (of which only 8 currently exist). The chaotic Ariel project effectively ended any possibility of a large-scale government funded,

Above: The latest tourist spot.

“

We joined the European Space Agency, and the rest is history.

purely British space programme. Instead we joined the European Space Agency, and the rest is history.

In the grand scheme of things, the fact that we, with many other nations have chosen the collaboration path is actually a good thing. In our dayto-day lives, it doesn’t matter that we haven’t been to Mars, or that we are overdue a moon landing. What matters these days is satnav (without which i'd be constantly lost!), Google maps and Sky TV. The fact that the European powers worked together has allowed vast improvements in satellite technology and rocketry. The Ariane Rocket, developed by Britain, France and Germany is the worlds most popular launch platform, netting huge profits for the EU. Alongside this Satellites have developed into one of the most important devices in today’s world.

Sky TV is broadcast from the ASTRA satellite that hovers 2,300 miles above the Earth. Europe is also developing Galileo, a highly accurate alternative to GPS. It will consist of a constellation of 30 satellites, some of which will be manufactured here in the UK

by EADS Astrium.

Here is where Britain holds an ace up its sleeve. Although the UK Space Agency may never compete with NASA, the UK has a strategic advantage in the form a number of highly skilled private companies.

The most prominent of these is Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic (VG).

They sell space as a tourism destination. The plan isnt quite to take people wandering around the moon (yet), or even truly leave the atmosphere but to breach the 62-mile Karman Line – where earth officially ends and space begins (and from where you can see

t h e Pentagon, but not the Great Wall of China) and reach a height of 68 miles up.

Their second prototype (the imaginatively named) SpaceShipTwo, has been shown in testing to be able to accomplish this and flights are scheduled for late 2011. Passengers will experience weightlessness, see the curvature of the Earth and only be $200,000 poorer. Still, despite this technology looking promising it is far from complete and the hefty price and large risk involved means that this British venture may well not last.

The potential success of VG was also handed a blow recently with the news that the aforementioned Surrey Satellites was to drop a potential partnership with VG, which was to send up equipment to space using much of the technology used in SpaceShipTwo. The reason for the drop was monetary, with the UK Space Agency deciding to drop any potential funding for the venture.

The future will almost certainly not resemble that of the 27th century in Dr Who with Britain leading the way into the darkest reaches of space.

However it does look to be shaping into a world where space technology plays an ever-greater role in our lives, a place where many of the scientists in nations worldwide are striving together to advance technology.

The future wont be defined by NASA or the ESA, its private companies like Galactic and Surrey Satelites that will define this rebirth of space exploration. But always remember we took part in making the space station, we took part in working on ways to predict the weather and ultimately we helped Google spy on our houses from space.

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Taf-od 20

Y Ddraig am daro'n ôl?

Caio Iwan yn taro golwg ar gem gyntaf Brian Flynn Caio Iwan Taf-Od Ar drothwy gêm ragbrofol pencampwriaeth Ewro 2012 yn erbyn Bwlgaria nos Wener, absenoldeb y capten ac ymddeoliad ffigwr cyfarwydd arall yn nhîm Cymru sydd yn dal sylw’r wasg unwaith eto. Hawdd yw anghofio felly mai hon yw gêm gyntaf Brian Flynn wrth y llyw, ac mai hon yw'r cyntaf o ddwy gêm sydd ganddo i berswadio ‘pobl bwysig’ pêl-droed Cymru i roi’r swydd iddo’n barhaol. Mae Flynn, sydd yn troi’n 55 wythnos nesaf, wedi bod yn chwa o awyr iach ers cael ei benodi fel rheolwr dros dro Cymru, gan ddangos balchder a gonestrwydd

ym mhob cyfweliad cyn belled.

Roedd Flynn yn gyflym i bwysleisio fod gan bob chwaraewr ‘lechen lân’ yn dilyn ymadawiad John Toshack mis diwethaf, felly braf yw gweld Danny Collins, chwaraewr Stoke City ac un o nifer a ffraeodd gyda Toshack, yn ôl yn y garfan. Oes yna bosibilrwydd felly bod Simon Davies, Jason Koumas a hyd yn oed Ryan Giggs am ddychwelyd i wisgo’r crys coch yn y dyfodol agos? Go brin, ond mae argraffiadau cyntaf yn awgrymu fod y chwaraewyr yn fwy parod i chwarae i Flynn yn hytrach ‘na Tosh.

Serch hynny, Danny Gabbidon

yw’r diweddaraf i ymddeol o ddyletswyddau rhyngwladol yn dilyn cyhoeddiad i’r wasg ddydd Llun. Er ei fod wedi methu sawl gêm i Gymru dros y deunaw mis diwethaf, mi fydd ei brofiad, priodoledd prin iawn ymysg y chwaraewyr presennol, yn golled fawr. Bydd mwy o bwyslais ar Ashley Williams a James Collins i arwain o’r cefn o hyn ymlaen, gyda Williams y fwyaf tebygol i arwain y tîm allan ar y cae nos Wener yn sgil absenoldeb Bellamy.

Mewn cyfweliad ar ddechrau’r wythnos, dywedodd Flynn ei fod yn ddigon bodlon gweld Craig Bellamy yn chwarae (ac yn sgorio) i Gaerdydd yn erbyn Barnsley dros y pen-

wythnos, er nad yw am arwain ei wlad yn y Cardiff City Stadium nos Wener. Dadl clwb pêl-droed Caerdydd yw bod dwy gêm ryngwladol mewn llai nag wythnos yn mynd i roi straen gormodol ar ben-gliniau bregus Bellamy. Ond gall trachwant Dave Jones, rheolwr Caerdydd, fod yn ergyd mawr i obeithion prin Cymru o gyrraedd Ewro 2012. Does bosib y buasai pawb ond y mwyaf selog o gefnogwyr Caerdydd yn fodlon i Bellamy, chwaraewr allweddol i Gymru, arwain ei wlad yn erbyn Bwlgaria a’r Swistir? Wedi’r cyfan, os yw Cymru’n colli un o’r ddwy gêm nesaf, mae gobeithion y genedl o fyn drwodd i bencampwriaeth

ryngwladol fawr am y tro cyntaf ers 57 mlynedd drosodd am ddwy flynedd arall, a gyda hynny mwyaf tebyg, gobeithion Flynn o gael ei benodi’n llawn amser.

Diolchodd Gabbidon i ‘wir gefnogwyr Cymru’ am eu cefnogaeth drwy gydol y naw mlynedd a chwaraeodd dros ei wlad. Ond faint o ‘wir gefnogwyr Cymru’ sy’n bodoli bellach? Pan yr oedd Gabbidon yn dechrau ar ei yrfa ryngwladol, roedd dros 70,000 yn mynd i’r gemau a daeth Cymru yn agos iawn i fynd drwodd i Ewro 2004 yn dilyn canlyniadau bythgofiadwy megis trechu’r Eidal ‘nôl yn 2002. Ar hyn o bryd, dim ond llai ‘na deg mil o do-

Cymru'n croesawu'r byd Elliw Mair Taf-Od Cafwyd noson i’w chofio nos Fercher y 29ain o Fedi pan cefais i a gweddill aelodau Aelwyd y Waun Ddyfal brofiad bythgofiadwy i ganu’r anthem yng nghyngerdd croesawu y Cwpan Ryder i Gymru.

Cyn i’r gyngerdd hyd yn oed ddechrau roedd awyrgylch ffantastig i gael yn y tafarndai cyfagos gyda’r Cymry yn codi canu a’r Americanwyr yn gwrando’n astud ac yn ymuno yn yr hwyl. Roedd yn hyfryd i weld y brifddinas dan ei sang i wylio rhywbeth nad oedd yn Rygbi! Wrth gerdded i mewn i’r stadiwm y peth cyntaf a darodd fi oedd y diffyg dioglewch, er nad oedd bwriad gyda fi i osod bom yn y Stadiwm, hawdd iawn byddai’r dasg hon wedi bod!

A gan fod enwogion golff y byd yna a heb anghofio his Royal Highness, buaswn wedi disgwyl bod mwy o ddiogelwch wedi bod. Ta waeth, Catherine Zeta Jones mewn ffrog goch hyfryd a agorodd y gyngerdd a Steve Jones (T4) oedd gyda’r dasg o gyflwyno'r noson a rhaid dweud ei fod wedi gwneud swydd wych o ddal y noson gyda’i gilydd.

Katherine Jenkins a berfformiodd gyntaf gan agor ei set drwy ganu ‘Bring me to life’ gan Evanescence, er nad wyf yn ffan fwyaf Katherine Jenkins, rhaid i mi gyfaddef ei bod hi wedi canu yn wych ac roedd hi’n edrych yn syfrdanol yn enwedig yn ei chân olaf wrth iddi gael ei chodi i’r awyr gan artist trapîs. Lost Prophets oedd y nesaf i’r llwyfan

ac er y gallwn ddychmygu nad oedd y band yma at ddant pawb, roedd y mwyafrif o bobl yn edrych fel petaent yn mwynhau ei hun, er roedd y gerddoriaeth ychydig yn isel yn fy marn i.Daeth y ddau dîm golff i’r llwyfan nesaf gyda’i gwragedd wrth ei hochr ac i fod yn onest, roeddwn yn teimlo trueni dros Tiger Woods gan mai ef oedd yr unig un o dîm America heb neb wrth ei ochr.

Dilynwyd hyn gan Ysgol berfformio Mark Jermin, Ysgol Glaenaethwy, Only Boys Aloud ac Only Men Aloud. Daeth y grwpiau yma a chymaint o egni a lliw i’r llwyfan gan ganu caneuon adnabyddus a wnaeth i’r gynulleidfa ymuno i mewn yn yr holl fwrlwm drwy ddawnsio a chanu. Ond, os cododd y gynulleidfa i’w traed i Only Men Aloud, fe neidiodd y gynulleidfa ar ei traed i’r gantores nesaf sef Shirley Bassey. Roedd ei pherfformiad o Goldfinger yn anghredadwy a phob cymeradwyaeth i’r band a oedd yn cyfeilio, am ddynes 73 oed roedd hi’n edrych yn ffantastig. I gloi'r seremoni daeth yr holl berfformwyr ar y llwyfan i ganu'r anthem genedlaethol.

Roedd pawb yn cytuno ei fod yn noson a hanner a bod Cymru wedi dangos cymaint o dalent sydd gyda ni ac wedi dangos i’r byd pam ei bod yn cael ei alw yn wlad y gân. Cafwyd gystadleuaeth llawn cyffro yn y Celtic Manor a braf oedd gweld Ewrop yn cipio'r cwpan Ryder, braf hefyd oedd gweld tywydd Cymru yn gwneud hanes gan mai eleni oedd y tro cyntaf i’r gystadleuaeth rhedeg ymlaen i’r dydd Llun!

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11th Oct

12th Oct

13th Oct

FUN FACT TREE, Solus, FREE Fun Factory is an absolute institution among Cardiff students, and therefore you simply must check it out. Playing the very best in alternative music, and with various cheap drinks promotions, you're sure to have the best night of the week here - and I'm not even biased. It's a staple. Free entry and super cheap drinks are a perfect way to enjoy yourself while keeping an eye on the purse-strings.

LATE NIGHT LIVE, Ten Feet Tall, FREE, 9pm Every week, 10 Feet Tall selects the finest in local new and up-and-coming bands to perform in the Rock Room, with 50s and 60s garage rock in the bar.

THE LIGHT DIVIDED, Clwb, £5, 7.30pm The Light Divided is a powerful, and emotional, four piece rock band from Southampton. The band is ambitious, determined and talented. With driving guitars and strong vocal harmonies, The Light Divided believe in creating a large, epic sound that will capture an audience with every performance.

JUST DANCE, Clwb, £3, 10pm Cardiff's hottest music venue just got a little hotter. Just Dance returns every Tuesday night at Clwb Ifor Bach with one simple mission...to get you dancing all night long.

A mixture of modern day pop, rock and R&B, thrown together with some cracking blasts from the past ... cheap entry, cheap drinks prices and great, GREAT tunes.

FAIL, Solus, £3.50, 9.30pm A brand new night at the Union, hurrah!

We wait for ages for something different to the usual Come Play playlist, and what do we get? The very imaginatively named 'Fail'. Stunning. The person who came up with that name should be sacked.

STRAIGHT LINES, Clwb, £5, 7pm Straight Lines was initially conceived by lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Jenkins and drummer Dane Campbell after the demise of their previous band. The Welsh duo then set about collating ideas and writing new material that would later form the basis for the band's debut album. I haven't heard of them, neither have you.

THE LASH, Solus, £3.50 The Lash promises 'all the best in chart and cheese', which doesn't really sound all that tempting, to be honest. But, if you're a sporting LAD then it's most definitely the place to be.

LISTEN UP, Clwb, £3 Listen Up has become an institution within an institution. Everybody loves Clwb. Everybody loves Listen Up. Playing a mix of motown, funk, indie and pop amoung three floors of cheap bars and trendy kids, this is the place to be every Wednesday.

BOGOF Orange Wednesdays There's so much good stuff on at the moment including the amazing Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Inception. Have a chilled out night.

JAZZ AT DEMPSEYS, Dempseys, £5, 9pm Music ranges from piano or guitar trio, saxophone or trumpet quartet, quartet with vocals to big band. Hear jazz standards made famous by the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, as well as original tunes.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

15th Oct

16th Oct

17th Oct

BOOMBOX, Solus £3, 10pm Playing an eclectic mix of Electro, Funk, Drum and Bass, Hip Hop, Dubstep and Breaks with a turntablist twist. Featuring dance classics, chart remixes and old school classics. Expect to hear Pendulum, Calvin Harris, Dr Dre, David Guetta, Major Lazor, A Skillz, High Contrast, Prodigy and much more. To be fair, it's the cheapest Friday night this side of the bridge, fulfilling all your student needs, and perfect for bringing those visiting mates too. Go ahead kids, BOOM YOUR BOX. HELL'S BENT, Barfly, £4, 10.30pm Hell's Bent is Cardiff's only alternative gay night and everyone is welcome. It's a fun, relaxed night where you can hang out with your friends and maybe meet some new ones. You can be guaranteed to hear at least one song you’ll want to dance to.

SHAKESPEARE IN MUSIC, St. Davids' Hall, £18, 7.30pm A programme of Tchaikovsky Overture 'Hamlet', Mendelssohn Music from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sibelius Prelude to The Tempest and Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite.

COME PLAY, Solus, £3, 10pm A safe bet for a Saturday night. If none of the other events do it for you, head to the Union for guaranteed good music and cheap drinks. Not the most imaginative of nights out, but you'll be sure to have a good time.

And who said that being able to predict the playlist down to the very last minute was a bad thing?

JOHN BARROWMAN, Cardiff International Arena, £37, 7pm One of Britain's most successful all-round entertainers and one of the most familiar faces on British television and the West End stage. Who can resist such fame, and such shiny white gnashers? He's the epitome of perfection.

MADE IN ROATH, The Globe, TBC The festival will be taking place on 15th-17th October 2010, in various locations around Roath, Cardiff. It's a community-based project promising an exciting and eclectic mix of exhibitions, residencies, workshops, performances and more, Made in Roath aims to give local people the opportunity to view, enjoy and celebrate local arts.

HAVE A SUNDAY ROAST The Taf do a wicked, and cheap Sunday roast - as do the CAI. Have a lie in, and then get some classic comfort food to help beat Saturday night's hangover or stave off the end of the weekend blues.

10 FEET TALL SUNDAY SOCIAL, 10 Feet Tall, FREE, 8pm A brand new night featuring Greg Ramshackle and Steve French, whoever the hell they are. However, if you have nothing better to do on a Sunday night, and fancy heading out for two-for-one cocktails, perhaps give this a go.

PROFESSOR GREEN, Millennium Music Hall, £10, TBC Professor Green is apparently one of the UK's best freestylers/rappers. Did you miss him at this year's Summer Ball? Shame.

Well, here's your second chance. Lucky you. To be fair, I do like that one song he did, but I don't think I fancy waiting around for the whole night for him to play it. If you do, then definitely go. I probably won't be seeing you there.

14th Oct

LIVE MUSIC, The Taf, FREE, 8pm Pretty much what it says on the tin really. Live music. In the Taf. They had a pretty good line up last week, so expect great things from this night.

BOUNCE, Walkabout, £4, 9pm If you really, honestly, have nothing better to do... actually, no, even that isn't a valid excuse No reason for going to Walkabout is acceptable in my eyes. Okay, so perhaps you have to go once in your University career, but I know that the debauchary and filth will put you off going again. If you're have any personal morals, that is.

C.Y.N.T, Clwb, £4, 10pm Voted as one of the top three nights in the UK

by Mixmag. The biggest midweek rave this side of the Bridge. Expect big queues as ravers descend for their dose of Electro, Techno, Dubstep and DnB. Advance q-jump tickets from c y-n-t.com. This is the only legitimate thing to do on your Thursday night.

Venues Students’ Union, Park Place, 02920 387421 www.cardiffstudents. com ! IV Lounge, Neuadd Meirionydd, Heath Park 02920 744948 !

Clwb Ifor Bach, 11 Womanby Street 02920 232199 www.clwb.net !

Barfly, Kingsway, Tickets: 08709070999 www.barflyclub.com/ cardiff ! Metros, Bakers Row 02920 399939 www.clubmetropolitan.com ! CAI, Park Place 02920 412190 ! Buffalo Bar, 11 Windsor Place www.myspace.com/wearebuffalobar ! Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Canton 02920 304400 www.chapter.org ! Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay 0870 0402000 www.wmc.org.uk !

The New Theatre, Park Place 02920 878889 www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk ! The Sherman Theatre, Senghennydd Road 02920 646900 www.shermantheatre.co.uk ! Cardiff International Arena, Mary Ann Street 02920 224488 !

Societies 22 The ones to watch Bianca London Societies Editor

Monday Oct 11 Law Society: First Year Law Rep Election and First Social

The Tea Party and the Kenyan Societies are the newest additions to The Cardiff University Guild of Societies.

With impressive stalls and plentiful member sign-ups at the societies fayres last week, the committee members spoke to gair rhydd about the inspiration behind their new societies and their plans for the future.

Oliver Denton-Turner, President of the Tea Party Society, explains how his society was originally inspired by a lack of daytime events for students as well as the founders shared love of tea and cake! ''We initially had no idea how many people would want to join the Tea Party Society, so at the fayre it was very heartening to see that not only were lots of people interested, but many were genuinely excited to see us.''

The society were thrown in at the deep end when twice as many members as anticipated signed up.

However, they accomodated the eighty-five new members at their first ''Tea Crawl'' social and it was a huge success. The society visited several tearooms and cafes and managed to drink lots of tea and eat a truly phenomenal amount of cake. ''The majority of members were new, but the friendly atmosphere meant people were soon chatting and forming new friendships and everyone seemed to really enjoy the event'' says Oliver.

Following the success of their first social, the Tea Party society will be holding many more events over the year.

The next event will be a tea tasting event held in CF10, which will be open to non-members too.

From classic English Breakfast Tea to Lapsang Souchong, there will something to suit every taste. Oliver and his fellow committee members urge everyone to ''come along and

visit Cardiff University’s friendliest society."

To join visit http://groups.cardiffstudents. com/tea/about/ The Kenyan Society is another brand new society to Cardiff University 2010.

The society was established to encourage members to experience the diverse features of Kenyan culture.

Amrit Roopra, society President, describes the freshers fayre as ''a huge success with a considerable number of students showing their interest toward the society, though we are still encouraging more members to join via the Cardiff Students' Union website.

It is a society for one and for all where everyone is welcome.''

The society attracted 63 members and has great plans for the coming year.

Amrit and her committee hope that all of their members can experience the Kenyan culture including food, clothing, dialect & history, meet other Kenyan students all around Cardiff and gain an insight into the country’s political, social & economical issues.

The first event will be an introductory Kenyan cultural dinner which welcomes everyone.

The society aims to organise a number of other events throughout the year such as club nights, sporting activities, guest speakers and much more.

To get involved visit http://groups.cardiffstudents.com/kenyan/about/ Congratulations to all the societies recruiting at the societies fayres, particularly the Paint Balling Society who gained 67 members and the Pole Dancing Society who enrolled an epic 95 members.

Next week we will be speaking to the Pole Dancing committee and hearing about their plans for the coming year and why they believe that Pole Dancing is so fantastic.

-Law School - “Cops and Robbers” Welcome Social at Fat Cats 8pm

AISEC:Team Building -Law Building1.30, 6.30pm

Tuesday Oct 12 The Labour Society: Meeting -Gareth Edwards Room (top floor of the Students Union) 7pm - Guest speaker: former MP Julie Morgan

Help for Heroes Society: Military Themed Social -8pm at Kokos. 10.30pm at Vodka Revolution

Debating Society: The Monarchy Debate -Bute Building, room 2.32, 7pm

Wednesday Oct 13 Broadway Dance: Musicals Social -Meet behind the Union at 8pm followed by drinks at the Woodville then on to the Lash

Fashion Society: 'TRASHION' -Meet at 8pm at Cardiff Arts Institute ending in Welsh Club; dress trashy!

Spanish and Italian Society: Language Exchange Night - 6pm, Vulcan Lounge

Thursday Oct 14 Act One: Auditions -6-9pm, Main Building

Iranian Society: First Social - 7-8pm, Rona Griffith Room, 3rd floor SU.

Friday Oct 15 Medsoc: Ethical Electives Evening -5pm fayre followed by speaker event at 6.30pm

Saturday Oct 16 GRIMsoc: Beastial Invasion Gig -7.00, KoKo Gorillaz

Broadway Dance: Made in Roath Dance Festival -8-11pm at The Gate Theatre, Keppoch Street

RAG: First RAID -Come Play in the SU at 10.30, fancy dress

Sunday Oct 17 Live Music Society: Acoustic Attic -8pm at 10 Feet Tall

To feature an event or article email societies @gairrhydd.com Above: The Tea Party society at the societies fayre

If you would like to join a Society, or see a full list of opportunities, visit: http://groups.cardiffstudents.com/societies/home

Puzzles

23

sudoku.

EASY

MEDIUM

Found on Facebook:

crossword.

Across

Down

9. Give lifelike qualities to (7) 10. Set apart from others (7) 11. Vex (7) 12. Bearing a title signifying nobility (7) 13. Undergarment (9) 15. Sir, in India (5) 16. Popeye ate this (7) 19. Any person (7) 20. Not outer (5) 21. Frailty (9) 25. A red transparent variety of zircon (7) 26. Visual (7) 28. Yield (7) 29. Hot sauce (7)

1. A four-wheel covered carriage (6) 2. Overlooked (6) 3. Maori club (4) 4. Weak (6) 5. A type of bacterium (8) 6. Prognosticator (10) 7. Hoopla (8) 8. Frightfully (8) 14. Speedy largely terrestrial bird (10) 16. A type of tuna (8) 17. Not guilty (8) 18. Make more extreme (8) 22. Devoid of warmth and cordiality (6) 23. Cut into (6) 24. The color of the sun (6) 27. Hose (4)

Check out these sexual predators

Has your housemate done something stupid? Pissed you off ? Got drunk and made a complete arse out of themselves?

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Sport 26

Alex Bywater looks ahead to the 214th Merseyside Derby

T

he Merseyside derby, first played back in 1894 is England’s longest running top flight rivalry. The city of Liverpool has long been associated with supreme footballing success, with the derby matches seen as the most important games in the local area. Liverpool one of the country’s most decorated clubs, with 18 top flight titles, has traditionally been the dominant force in the city, with 82 wins in the derby matches.

The first clash of the year takes on a different complexion this year however, with both teams languishing on just six points from seven games having endured a terrible start to the season. Beset by financial and ownership problems, Liverpool under new boss Roy Hodgson have had their worst start to a season since 1953-54 and are currently marooned in the relegation zone. Rivals Everton, notoriously slow starters in the league, are just one place above them in 17th.

So what does the first derby of the year have in store? The usual frenetic tempo, tough challenges and plenty of yellow cards will all be in evidence. For many reasons, the game at Goodison Park will see both sets of fans looking for a victory to kickstart their club’s season.

So what of Liverpool? Beaten at home by Blackpool, dumped out of the League Cup by Northampton Town and hindered by boardroom infighting, the club are without a doubt going through one of the toughest periods in their history. After last year’s seventh placed finish, and the departure of Rafa Benitez, there was hope that Roy Hodgson could take the club forward. The signing of Joe Cole and star striker Fernando Torres’s decision to stay at the club merely added weight to that train of thought.

It is clear though that Hodgson faces an extremely difficult job.

The question of ownership has plagued Liverpool over the last 18 months. Previous owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who bought the club in 2007, proved unpopular with fans and have saddled the board with a debt of cerca £300 million. The

instability behind the scenes has clearly manifested itself on the pitch, with the club really struggling in recent times. Although a new ownership deal has been arranged; American John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team has offered to buy the club. Things behind the scenes still remain unclear.

This farcical situation now sees Hicks and Gillett still trying to cling onto power at Anfield. Clearly, they do not understand the fans' wishes.

However, legal matters could see the American duo lose up to £140 million of their own money in any possible takeover. Mess. The future of the clubs ownership will now be decided in court as Hicks and Gillett contest the new takeover bid. Liverpool fans will be cautiously optimistic about New England Sports Venture's takeover. After buying the Red Sox, Henry delivered two World Series titles for the Boston side. Supporters of the red side of the city will be hoping for something similar. However, fans

Above: Steven Gerrard will lead Liverpool into another feisty Merseyside derby

have witnessed too many false dawns regarding potential new owners from as far afield as Syria and Dubai to get their hopes up too much. Boss Hodgson has welcomed the new takeover saying, “it's very positive and of course I'm delighted to hear the news and have it confirmed that it looks like it is going to go through."

Everyone connected to the club will be hoping that some sort of stability can be achieved, though the reliance on England captain Steven Gerrard and Torres still evident. As the club’s only two truly world class players, plenty will be expected of them.

Though with Torres expected to miss the game at Goodison, it looks difficult to see where Liverpool’s goals will come from.

Though Everton have also had a poor start to the season, the structure of their club is the antithesis of their great rivals, well led by a long term manager and with prudent financial investment, David Moyes will turn things around. Tim Cahill and Spain’s

“

The question of ownership has blighted Liverpool over the last 18 months

Mikel Arteta (the idea that he should play for England was ludicrous) are key men. This could also be the breakthrough season for Phil Jagielka, who impressed for England in the Euro qualifiers. Like Liverpool, Everton have struggled for goals though they did record their first win of the season with a 2-0 win away at Birmingham City.

That’s why I see this game being a low scoring draw. The early kick off time, usually called for by police to try and minimise crowd trouble, only convinces me further. With Torres likely to be out with an adductor strain, David N’Gog will most probably lead the line for Liverpool. With all the board room upheaval taking place, a draw would not be ideal for 63 year old Hodgson. Indeed the manager has described the current situation at the club as, “very, very bleak.” With a draw looking like the most likely outcome, 1-1 looks like a decent bet.

The wildlife is quite amazing. A safari gives you the chance to see these animals in their natural habitat. Certainly better than the badgers and foxes we have to offer in Britain.

Sport27

Monday October 11 2010 • gair rhydd • sport@gairrhydd.com

Alex Winter reviews a wet and wonderful Ryder Cup in Wales...

T

he 2010 Ryder Cup provided terrific entertainment. But it rained. The park and ride buses ran like clockwork. But it rained. Europe won a thriller. But it rained.

Despite all that was good about the first Ryder Cup to be held in Wales, the tournament in the principality will forever be remembered by rain. A third of a month’sworth in 15 hours that forced the Ryder Cup into an unprecedented fourth day.

There have been rain delays before. The 1997 event in Valderrama will forever be remembered by a rain-soaked Colin Montgomerie celebrating with his captain, Seve Ballesteros. The difference in Spain was guaranteed sunshine after the rainstorm had cleared. Standing around the first tee at 7.45am on Friday, no-one knew if rain would ever return to the Usk Valley.

Even though Monday had to be used, marvellous weather complimented a glorious sporting spectacle – mysterious mist over the lake in the morning giving way to tremendous sunshine. And the sun shone on the Europeans. Just.

British sports fans never fail to deliver and despite horrendous conditions – the mud was Glastonbury in a bad year – the wit and sarcastic humour remained. It was that good, even the Americans got it. “We’ve got more hair than you” tickled the bald Jim Furyk, whose peer into the mist on Monday morning was greeted with a cry of “I can’t have Tuesday off as well”.

Seven hours of play were lost on the opening day. “What a total disaster, man,” said one American journalist. It was. But the fans dripped dry in the tented village and were out in full voice as play resumed for two hours into the evening gloom.

A long drone of “Luuuuuuuke” rang out in support of Luke Donald, for whom Clare Balding declared her love on national radio.

Everyone was in love with him.

Donald provided three points.

“G-Mac, G-Mac,” followed Graeme McDowell. “Oh Rory, Rory…” for his countryman, Rory McIlroy. “Ole, ole, ole, ole…” was the signature song of success.

But despite the songs, on Saturday afternoon, European captain Montgomerie was bemoaning a lack of passion. His team weren’t generating enough. Understandably so: the Americans, written off as not caring about this team event, were suddenly 6-4 ahead.

Tiger Woods was rejuvenated and alongside Steve Stricker, had won the pair’s sixth consecutive match-

play tie. A revised format was in progress. Every player was out on the course in six, rather than the usual four lots of four matches.

The Europeans were behind.

Another six matches went out for two more hours until the light faded. They ended the day up in all six and the Ryder Cup was about to be turned on its head. After more rain Europe took five and a half points and transformed a deficit into an almost unassailable lead.

The half point came from the Italian brothers, Eduardo and Francesco Molinari. No-one quite knew what to think.

They occasionally provided sensational golf and occasionally resembled Super Mario and a slightly shorter Luigi.

Pure hilarity as they bounced around the course, whooping up the crowd – a small gathering on the eighth green on Sunday actually struck up a few bars of the Italian national anthem before realising the Molinari’s would probably be on the 10th tee before they had completed their rendition.

The brothers inspired the week’s best song: “There’s only two Molinari’s”. As opposed to only one Lee Westwood. Officially the num-

Above: The victorious European team surround the trophy after their 14!

- 13! victory

ber two golfer in the world come the final day. Unbeatable in the pairs, he ran out of steam and lost his singles match.

It was great to have the Molinari’s around. They brought a real innocence to the whole event and fought back in their fourball match to secure a half-point on the 18th green, ramming home the advantage Europe had developed in a glorious afternoon.

Montgomerie said that the Ryder Cup was won in an afternoon. He was right.

It was nearly lost on Monday as another blue-soaked scoreboard was consumed by a red surge, typified by Jeff Overton.

The American had been two down against Ross Fisher at the turn but completely turned the match around to win three-and-two. Fisher's missed putt on the 16th was indicitive of the nerves the Europeans felt.

It all came down to the last match, and G-Mac held his nerve to bring the Ryder Cup home.

“They’re going to need a few sick notes,” said Montgomerie when asked about the possibility of a smaller numbers of fans on Monday – only those with tickets for Sunday were al lowed back. The fans returned. The atmosphere returned.

“

A long drone of Luuuuuuuke rang out in support

During the rain delay on Sunday morning, John Inverdale, presenting BBC 5 Live’s coverage, said how he could only hope for the fans who had suffered so much, that this Ryder Cup went to the final putt. It nearly did.

30,000 people gathered within sight of the 17th hole as Graeme McDowell, playing the final singles match against Hunter Mahan, teed off. Oh the delight – the line of his shot was good. It touched down on the green – cheers – before the ball spun far too close to tipping into a greenside bunker. It stayed up. Relief. Mahan was short. Mahan’s chip was fluffed; putt missed. Mahan removed his cap. Euphoria.

The scenes were exactly as Sir Terry Matthews had envisaged. Fans tumbling down the banks onto the green to celebrate a famous victory.

A victory for Montgomerie – so deserved.

The European captain had tried to claim this meant nothing to him personally. This competition was for his 12 players. Not a chance. And no-one believed him. This was Monty’s major.

Sport

Europe win a wet Ryder Cup in Newport << Inside

Above: Cardiff Medics rally the troops on their way to victory

Medics edge UWIC in thriller Cardiff Medicals RFC secure a narrow victory over rivals UWIC Oli Luton Sports Writer UWIC 20 - 22 Cardiff Medicals RFC

After a well fought battle between these two sides earlier in the week, it was Cardiff Medical RFC’s turn to travel into the depths of Cyncoed to once again face one of the great rugby adversaries of their time: UWIC. The previous meeting between the two clubs was a promising affair, showcasing the talent and potential of freshers and veterans alike, and, although classed as a ‘friendly’, a distinct sense of irony could be found in this phrase.

On Wednesday October 6 Cardiff Medicals RFC exploded into life from the first whistle.

A hurricane force blow to the knee of the Medics captain, Nicholas Willetts, forced him to observe from the side line as a superb take from the kick-off by the starting Lock set the tone for the first 40 minutes. Although this was an immature UWIC side who had not yet gained the experience needed to compete fully at University level there was evident talent that shone through on a number of occasions resulting in broken lines in the Medics' ranks.

Throughout periods of light drizzle, the classic Medics scramble defence held and in combination

with a lack of finite finishing from the UWIC team resulted in many a missed opportunity for the home side.

Preview Merseyside Derby << Inside After the first quarter the scores were tied up, there was evidently one way traffic from the Meds but the strong and determined youth side, eager to impress coaches and fellow peers alike, held strong.

The first try came from a brilliant

pickup at the base of a ruck and a typhoon-like explosion of power from back rower Joe Bell, allowing him to crash over the line like a tsunami onto a deserted beach. Soon after, a good passage of play from the Meds lead to an abrasive sandstorm of back oriented play, resulting in a try from Vice-captain Ifan Patchell.

Again this was not converted.

The second half kicked off, and with a completely new set of players on the pitch for both teams this really was an exhibition match for individuals to prove their worth.

The new UWIC pack was strong and like an electric storm slowly wore down the Meds to score their first points in the corner from a rolling maul.

The Medics struck back like lightning from an inspired tap penalty feeding the ball through hands until an injection of blizzard-like pace from the 2nd team captain, Amlyn Griffiths, resulted in another Meds try. This was not converted.

UWIC struck back swiftly putting more points on the board and in true Cardiff Medics style they responded with points of their own.

After the final whistle had blown both sides looked expectantly at each other, neither realising who was the victor.

A 22-20 victory to the Cardiff Medicals RFC seemed fitting, and a promising start to their BUCS Premiership campaign.

GAIR RHYDD AND QUENCH MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY UNION CARDIFF, PARK PLACE, CARDIFF CF10 3QN • REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER AT THE POST OFFICE • GAIR RHYDD RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT ALL CONTRIBUTIONS • THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE PUBLISHERS GAIR RHYDD IS WRITTEN, DESIGNED, TYPESET AND OUTPUT BY STUDENTS OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITY • LUKE: WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE NO BALLS OR NO TEETH? • MORGAN APPELGARTH: MILF HUNTER • WILL TO LUCY: I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST SAYING BANTER, I DIDN'T THINK YOU MEANT BANTER • LUCY: HOW DO YOU SPELL BANTER? •PROOFREADER, NOT A DOGSBODY • ARE YOU VEGETARIAN? NO, I JUST DON'T EAT MEAT • WILL HAS FASION CRISIS • LOL