gair rhydd - Issue 922

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CARDIFF'S STUDENT WEEKLY

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ISSUE 922 MAY 03 2010

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Gareth Ludkin News Editor Continued overcrowding issues in the Julian Hodge 24-hour computer room have once again raised questions over the need for more library and computer facilities for students.

Students have complained of overcrowding in the building, with reports of queues forming throughout the day.

Students have also been forced to wait on the stairs outside the only 24-hour computer room available at the University.

Despite the overcrowding issues, capacity has greatly improved since last year. 160 seats are now available to students, with further seating and Wi-Fi connection for laptop users available in the café area.

A spokesperson for the University stated that 50 more computers

are avaliable this year than last year, but a member of staff at Julian Hodge suggested that there had actually been almost a five-fold increase in the number of 24-hour computers available.

With students experiencing such overcrowding, many have questioned why the Main Building is not open 24hours a day during such busy times as exam period, when demand for computer and library facilities is high.

Library opening hours have been extended in the past two weeks in order to cope with the high demand for facilities. Trevithick Library is currently open on Wednesday and Thursday nights until midnight, while the Aberconway, Bute and Humanities libraries have had Sunday opening hours extended to 10am until 9.30pm Michaela Neild, the Students’ Union Academic and University Affairs officer, has worked hard to extend opening hours and will continue to pressure the University to provide

more 24-hour facilities. She said: “This isn’t acceptable. Armed with testimonies from students, I will be challenging the University to respond to the pressing demand for more 24hour working space during the exam period.

“I would like students to send me their experiences and need for the facilities so that I can take it as evidence to the University to see what emergency action is feasible for the exam period.”

You can send details of your experiences relating to the lack of 24-hour facilities to Michaela at: academicofficer@cardiff.ac.uk.

Despite library opening hours having been extended recently, there are no 24-hour library facilities currently available at Cardiff University.

There are a number of problems involved with opening 24-hour facilities, particularly those concerning staffing and student welfare. The make-up

of the libraries at Cardiff is one of a number of problems preventing the expansion of 24-hour services.

A spokesperson for the University said: “Providing 24-hour access to libraries across campus is not currently feasible given the number of separate libraries, their design and locations.

“However, we recognise the increased student demand for 24-hour access to study facilities, and will continue to work with the University to further extend opening in a limited number of the libraries.

“It should also be noted that a very wide range of electronic resources are now available via the Information Resources tab in MWE from any location and at any time.”

Providing staffing throughout the night is an issue, and for the extended opening hours to be achieved, extra staff would have had to be hired. >> continued on page 4

Film Music Photos Features Interviews Travel Food Fashion Books Arts Gay Going Out ...and more!

Summer Ball 2010 LINE-UP ANNOUNCED! FRIDAY, JUNE 11, COOPER'S FIELD

Tickets available at the box office or at www.cardiffstudents.com

02 NEWS

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EDITOR Emma Jones DEPUTY EDITOR Simon Lucey CO-ORDINATOR Elaine Morgan SUB EDITOR Sarah Powell NEWS Ceri Isfryn Gareth Ludkin Emma McFarnon Jamie Thunder FEATURES Daniella Graham Robin Morgan OPINION Paul Stollery Oli Franklin POLITICS Damian Fantato ELECTIONS SPECIAL Paul Stollery Damian Fantato COLUMNISTS Tim Hart Oli Franklin LISTINGS Ed Bovingdon TAF-OD Nia Gwawr Williams Branwen Mathias Cadi Mai SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT Amy Hall Priya Raj JOBS & MONEY Katie Greenway SPORT Jon Evans James Hinks Adam Horne Lucy Morgan Robbie Wells CONTRIBUTORS Morgan Applegarth Miranda Atty Sebastian Barrett Elizabeth Blockley Alex Bywater Tomos Clarke Alex Evans Adam Gray Katie Greenway Rachel Henson Holly Howe Ayushman Jamwal Abby Johnson Dom Kehat Laura Lee Pippa Lewis Carl Noyce Jack Parker Hannah Pendleton Benjamin Price Helen Read Chris Tarquini Hamish Thompson Matthew Wright Jack Zorab

gairrhydd | NEWS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Plan B and Tinchy Stryder to headline ball Ceri Isfryn News Editor Chart-topping rapper Plan B has been announced as this year's Summer Ball headliner.

The star (pictured below, far left), whose album The Defamation of Strickland Banks clinched the number one spot, will be closing the event at Cooper's Field on June 11.

Joining him in the live tent will be fellow rappers Tinchy Stryder (pictured below, second from left), Pro-

fessor Green and Battle of the Bands winner Whytel. Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills will also be performing a set.

Dance-pop trio Chew Lips will be headlining the ballroom tent, joined

by The Cheek, The School and Cardiff University's very own King Louis Collective.

Presenter of BBC Radio 1's Introducing, Bethan Elfyn (pictured below, second from right) and Cardiff-based DJ Killer Tomato will also be hitting the decks.

DJ Zinc (pictured below, far right), Jakwob, Foamo, and Chesus and Rod-

ski will all be featuring in the C.Y.N.T tent.

Cheap drinks and more speed bars than last year have been promised in order to ease queues.

Due to strong ticket sales, the Students' Union has been able to spend more money than ever on this year's ball.

Finance and Commercial Officer, Rich Pearce, said: "We had a tough decision to make in September about whether or not to host the Summer Ball this year. However, having looked at the ticket sales we now feel totally

vindicated in our decision."

The one-day sale in February proved highly successful, with over 3,000 tickets sold.

"Ticket sales are continuing to rise quickly, and we anticipate that this could be the first time in six years that tickets could sell out before the week of the ball," added Rich.

What do you think this year's line up?

Post your comments on our website: www.gairrhydd.com

University chaplain releases top selling book Morgan Applegarth Reporter A new book released by Cardiff University’s chaplain, Reverend Trystan Owain Hughes, that seeks to aid those dealing with suffering has become a best-seller.

The book, entitled Finding Hope and Meaning in Suffering, endeavours to guide those who have experienced suffering in their lives, be it in the past or the present. “[The book] touches on an area that everyone has an experience of”, Rev. Hughes told gair rhydd. “It isn’t a

book that explains suffering, but asks how, when we do suffer, we can find hope”.

Diagnosed with a degenerative spinal condition at the age of 34, Rev. Hughes found it difficult to accept something that rapidly changed his way of living.

“I used to play a lot of sport, even at the age of 30 I was playing for my college team at Oxford University. I was really active and so it was really difficult to accept, but acceptance is what we need in order to move forward”.

Rev. Hughes takes readers through five areas in which he believes we can

find hope and meaning to aid situations of distress.

“I look at nature, as we can be uplifted by things such as a sunset. I then move on to the arts looking at how mediums such as books and films can be used to face suffering and help get us past the negative”.

The book also explores how we can use music, laughter and other people in the quest for optimism.

Published last month, the book has peaked in the top 2,000 best-selling books on Amazon, beating over four million other titles. The launch of the book was also a success, with publishers SPCK labeling it as one of

the most successful in their history – which stretches back to 1698. “[The success] is good, but for me the main thing is that it is helping people," commented Rev. Hughes.

When asked if he had any advice to give to those faced with suffering at present, Rev. Hughes said; “Whatever happens, it is not the end. You need to accept the situation, which will hopefully lead you to establishing hope and meaning.

“It’s like the flu, if you just carry on as normal without accepting it then it’s no good. It is not a self-help book as it doesn’t have all the answers, it’s more like guidance.”

gair rhydd has been Cardiff University's independent student newspaper since 1972 NEWS 1 EDITORIAL & OPINION 9 ELECTION SPECIAL 10 POLITICS 13 FEATURES 14 LETTERS 19 TAF-OD 20 SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT 21 JOBS & MONEY 22 LISTINGS 24 FIVE MINUTE FUN 27 SPORT 28

NEWS FEATURE 03

gairrhydd | NEWS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

The NUS's Porter in a storm? gair rhydd talks to NUS President-elect Aaron Porter about top-up fees, transparency, and his priorities for the next year Jamie Thunder News Editor If Aaron Porter is at all nervous about taking up the role of NUS President-elect in a time of cuts to higher education budgets, the prospect of increased top-up fees, and a grim graduate jobs market, you certainly can’t tell.

Two weeks ago he won nearly two-thirds of the delegates’ votes at the NUS national conference, beating Black Students’ Officer Bell RibeiroAddy and Chris Marks from Hull Students’ Union. He doesn't officially take over from Wes Streeting until July, but he’s not resting on his laurels.

“I’m already actually in dialogue with the government and whoever forms the next government, and I’ll be ensuring we provide more internships, and more graduate job opportunities,” he explained to gair rhydd in an interview.

“Increasing numbers of students are going to university primarily in order to aid them to get a job, so we need to figure out how we can increase support at a local level, whether that’s increased careers provision or extending careers provision beyond graduation.”

Aaron, 25, has been Vice-President for Higher Education in the NUS for the last two years, so it’s no surprise he shares the organisation’s opposition to a rise in top-up fees.

He helped to come up with the graduate tax proposal that the NUS has asked Lord Browne’s higher education review to consider, but insists that he’s not sold out.

“I do retain the principle that free education should operate,” he says, “but I believe the best way of getting there is ensuring that fees don’t go up in the short term. The only way we’ll get fees not to go up in the short term is to put forward a credible alternative which is on the route to a better system, and I believe that the graduate tax should be presented as the best alternative out there.”

To not call for the immediate abolition of fees is likely to prove unpopular with some in the NUS. For Aaron, though, it’s firstly about ensuring that fees don’t increase.

“The worst possible outcome would be for NUS to shout for something that was not taken seriously by any party in government. I believe if we end up with a marketisation of student fees, it’d be almost impossible to reverse that and ultimately we’d never win or achieve our long-term final aim.”

He admits it’s “disappointing” when various factions argue, and says he’s much more interested in what they’ve got in common than what separates them. He wants, he says, to “unite the NUS in a way we’ve never

AARON PORTER: 'I want to unite the NUS in a way we’ve never been united before' been united before”.

It’ll have to be united without one of the UK’s most prestigious institutions, however. Durham Students’ Union recently narrowly voted to disaffiliate from the NUS after controversy over some NUS Officers’ response to a planned debate on multiculturalism including Andrew Brons, BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, and Chris Beverley, a BNP councillor in Leeds.

Not that Aaron will say this has distracted him at all: “I’m wholly focused on ensuring the NUS is leading the fight for and winning a better deal for the students. Demonstrating results is the best way to make the case for continued affiliation.

“If we can win on the issues [of preventing HE budget cuts and higher fees] I don’t just think we can retain the members we’ve got, but I want to make the case for those that are not affiliated.”

The most high-profile issue for the NUS at the moment is student fees.

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives will give a position on the subject until Lord Browne’s review reports back

after the election, but the NUS has managed to get more than 700 MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates – including some who voted for top-up fees in 2004 – to sign its pledge to vote against any increase in fees and to push for a ‘fairer alternative’.

“We’ve got more signatories to our pledge than any other campaigning organisation in the country,” says Aaron, evidently proud. “It’s a significant achievement for the NUS. The rough proportions are around 200 from the Labour Party, 300 from the Liberal Democrats, and around ten from the Conservatives. I think that says something about the parties’ stances.”

It’s a big election issue for the NUS, and they’re campaigning in 20 key ‘battlegrounds’ where the student vote could be decisive (including recentlydisaffiliated Durham). Aaron says he wouldn’t consider voting for a candidate who supported top-up fees, and wants other students to do the same.

“If a candidate isn’t prepared to back students they should expect to lose their seat,” he says. “If a candidate has not signed our pledge I would not encourage a single student to vote

for them.”

He certainly knows his lines on the subject, but when asked about the potentially negative implications of a graduate tax, he dodges the question, instead criticising the current system again for not ensuring that those who earn more pay more. It’s a tricky position to be in, strongly lobbying for a system that you don’t actually support yourself, and it’s hard to tell how comfortable he feels with it.

It can be easy to dismiss the NUS as a single-issue group, such has been the media focus on their fee protests.

But it’s clear that Aaron has more goals than just top-up fees. He says he wants to provide “sophisticated, personalised support” to students’ unions, and to give more information about their campaigns and how they spend members’ money.

“At the moment [the documents provided to students' unions about the benefit of the NUS] are heavily skewed towards the commercial benefit of being a member. Lots of the large unions benefit from being members of NUS services and the fact that we can deliver cheaper beer to the bars.

“That’s important but that shouldn’t be the primary reason why a students’ union is affiliated to NUS. I want to ensure that we’re showing all of the national committees we sit on, the campaigns we’ve run, the outcomes of those campaigns, the research that we’ve conducted, and the ability to shape outcomes whether that’s policy or decisions made by universities.

“If we can put that in the hands of students’ unions and trust them to communicate that with their own members then I think that will make the case for the NUS membership a great deal more effective. It’ll also put to bed some of the understandable questions people will continue to ask until we get better at communicating what we do,” he adds.

The next year will be an important one for higher education and the NUS’s seven million members in colleges and universities. With the prospects of smaller budgets and higher fees it won’t be easy, but Aaron Porter’s confident he can lead the NUS through the difficult decisions.

Is he right? We’ll have to wait and see.

04 NEWS

gairrhydd | NEWS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Questions raised over 24-hour library and computer access continued from front page

If students use the extended library opening hours and prove to the University that they will use extended hours consistently, a case can be made for extended opening hours all year, and perhaps even later during exam periods.

A University spokesperson added: “The crowding in the Julian Hodge 24-hour computer room has occurred due to there being especially heavy student demand for the room at this time of year, as exams and coursework deadlines approach.

“This year, there are 50 more 24hour PCs available than last year, due to opening the Julian Hodge building 24/7.

“In order to further alleviate this, five libraries across campus – Aberconway, Arts and Social Sciences, Bute, Law, and Trevithick – are trialling limited extended opening hours during the exam period.

“User demand during the limited extended opening pilot will be evaluated during July to see if it can continue in the next academic year.”

This will not solve the issue of overcrowding for students who continue to feel frustrated by the lack of facilities and space, however.

Ruth Sweetman, a third-year Social Sciences student, raised her concerns, stating: “I have spent every day until the early hours of the morning for the past three weeks at Julian Hodge.

“At lunchtime there is a queue of around two to seven people. It then goes quiet in the middle of the afternoon. At 9.30pm when the other libraries kick out, the queue is really, really long.

“The library is nearly always full and only a few seats become available at midnight. One problem is that people lock their computers to go for breaks. Some computers are left for a couple of hours.

“One evening the IT guy went round turning off the locked computers and handing them to people waiting.

“I have heard business students getting very annoyed when they come in and can’t get a computer, as they say that it is their school.”

“Julian Hodge is a fabulous 24-hour

computer room but we need Julian Hodge and one more, one more which is just a space with plugs all around at least. People overflow in to the café at night, so there is nowhere to socialise for a break as people are desperate for a quiet place to work.”

Daniella Graham, a third-year Modern History and Politics student, also complained about the lack of 24hour library facilities: “I find it impossible to work in Julian Hodge as it is always unbearably hot and stuffy.

“It is very frustrating when it is the only option if you want to work after the other libraries are closed. It's also quite annoying that it is just a computer room - if you want to just read or revise there is nowhere that is open 24 hours.”

A member of staff based at Julian Hodge told gair rhydd that although they had encountered overcrowding, they have opened up as much space as possible for students to work. They said that they remain limited by the physical space they have available, and have encouraged students to bring their own laptops to use in the wireless enabled café areas.

Union rewarded for being green Holly Howe Reporter Cardiff Students' Union has been awarded a Silver Standard in the National Union of Students' (NUS) Sound Environmental Impact Awards.

Sound Impact is part of the NUS's green scheme designed to encourage student unions to become more environmentally friendly by nurturing, rewarding and celebrating good environmental practice.

This year, at the fourth annual awards, 83 unions took part at the ceremony hosted by Roy Walker of Catchphrase fame.

There was an increase in student unions taking part, with 31 more applicants than in the Award scheme’s first year in 2006/7. The awards dinner, held at the Aldelphi hotel in Liverpool, awarded 55 student unions, including Cardiff, the prestigious silver standard of environmental awareness.

Susan Nash, NUS’s Vice President of Society and Citizenship, said: "We have demonstrated that we have collectively made a really positive impact on the environment."

The highest score was awarded to Edinburgh University Students' Association for their environmental work including providing at cost medicine developed on campus to some of the world’s poorest countries. Winchester Students’ Union received the second highest score.

Some of the other environmental innovations that were rewarded included bra banks, capturing waste heat from dancing students as an alternative to outdoor heaters and creating an alternative allotment scheme for locals making use of student gardens.

Other unions recognised included Hull University Union, which picked up the The Co-Operative International Development Award for collecting 18,000 used textbooks from schools and sending them to Tanzania.

NEWS 05

gairrhydd | NEWS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

First bisexual event Cardiff rated fourteenth in held at Union most competitive economy Benjamin Price Reporter

The first ever bisexual event in Wales was held at the Students’ Union last week.

The event, which took place on April 24, comprised of a series of workshops, which taught those who attended about bisexuality and relationships, bisexuality in the media, and bisexuality in the community.

BiFest Wales provides the opportunity to discuss such issues as biphobic hate crime, biphobia in the workplace, and living in a world seen as gay and straight.

Kay Barnes, chair of Bi Cymru/ Wales and Bi Cardiff, said: “This event is about providing a safe and fun social area where bi people and their allies can come together to find out about services that are bi inclusive. Bi people told us that there was nowhere for them to find out about bi issues and no safe social spaces for them, as some have experienced biphobia in

both straight and gay venues.”

Bi Cymru/Wales is a voluntary organisation set up to challenge biphobia. Bi Cardiff is run by local bisexual people who wish to provide social support for bisexuals. The organisation also helps people living in the area who think they may be bisexual.

Next year’s LGBT officer, Mark Anderson, attended the event.“The event was well worth attending, but from a student perspective it was a bit intimidating as it was aimed at people aged 18-50 and beyond,” he said.

“This event was a diamond in the rough in terms of delivery, but it is something I plan on bringing to the students as the LGBT officer next year, with a more student focused line-up,” he added.

Rachelle Simons, the current LGBT officer, said: “I am really pleased that they have held an event like this. Bisexual people are often subject to biphobia from both gay and straight people, and it is great that the event was held in such a visible place.”

Study reveals increased violence against children

ABUSE: Study shows rise in child violence

Miranda Atty Reporter A report by Cardiff University’s Violence and Society Research Group has discovered a worrying rise in violence against children.

The University’s annual survey of hospital A&E units has revealed a 7.5% increase in the number of children under ten who needed treatment for violent injuries. This brings the number to 431 children admitted to A&E departments in Wales and England last year.

44 hospitals, including the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, were surveyed.

One possible explanation for these figures is the rising expense of care placements for children, leaving them at risk.

Professor Shepherd, Director of the Research Group, said: “We saw a similar increase two years ago after it

became more expensive for local authorities to take children into care.”

Greta Thomas, director of NSPCC Cymru, said: “We know that in too many cases where children have died or suffered serious harm, signs of possible abuse were not properly shared or acted on.”

Lord Laming developed a report in early 2009, commissioned by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, School and Families, after the Baby P case. The report stressed “the importance of early intervention” for children-in-need by local services.

Overall, the violence report does reveal a drop of 0.4% in serious violence-related hospital cases.

“The downward trend reflects the effectiveness of community partnerships between local authorities, the police and NHS but there is still more potential for prevention as I think violence levels are too high,” Professor Shepherd said.

Hannah Pendleton Reporter Cardiff has been rated the fourteenth most competitive economy in the UK, despite the Welsh economy as a whole being ranked last.

The academic research, carried out by the UK Competitiveness Index, highlights a city’s economic factors, including exports, research and development, business start up rates, sustainability, gross weekly pay and unemployment rates.

Academics at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) warn

that the country is becoming “increasingly detached” from England. UWIC Professor, Robert Huggins, said the findings show the “increasingly desperate state our economy has fallen into”. However, the Welsh Assembly Government argues that the findings lack supporting evidence.

Cardiff is now competing with major UK cities like Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol. The findings have shown Cardiff to be in fourth place among the large cities, and overall it is the fourteenth most competitive.

Cardiff offers many parks, the Millennium stadium and the bay, and the city centre has undergone major in-

*

vestment in urban regeneration. The city’s leisure and tourism has boosted the economy. The Centre for International Competitiveness said: “competitiveness involves the upgrading and economic development of all places together, rather than the improvement of one place at the expense of another”.

Cardiff Council calls the city: “the key driver of the creative economy in Wales”.

Between 1991 and 2005, Cardiff’s employment rates in the creative sector increased by up to 53.7%, accounting now for a third of creative jobs in Wales.

06 NEWS

gairrhydd | NEWS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Professors receive social science award Alex Evans Reporter Cardiff University consolidated its position as one of the leading institutions for social sciences in the country this week as two of its professors received prestigious awards.

The recent honours bring the total number of Cardiff staff honoured in the field to 24.

Professor David Boucher, Head of the School of European Studies, and Professor Rick Delbridge, Associate Dean for the Research in Cardiff Business School were both conferred the Award of Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) in the Academy’s latest set of nominations.

The AcSS represents social sciences in the UK, promoting the field of study, advising the government and organising events and schemes which relate to social sciences.

Recipients of the award can range

from academics to policy-makers and practitioners.

Professor Boucher told gair rhydd: “The School of European Studies has always been an enthusiastic participant in Social Science and Humanities developments in the University, reflecting our interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary character. I am particularly delighted to have had my work recognised.”

Professor Delbridge was keen to acknowledge the input of his peers: “I have worked closely with colleagues in Cardiff and I would readily acknowledge their contribution to any success I have had.”

Cardiff University’s Teresa Rees, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and also an Academician of the AcSS, said: “These latest AcSS awards confirm that Cardiff research continues to make a valuable impact on the major issues facing society. I am delighted that the University continues to excel and gain recognition in the field of social science.”

University strikes due to take place

PROTEST: Students at King's College oppose

Rachel Henson Reporter Strikes are to take place at four universities next week, in response to proposed redundancies.

Staff at Westminster University, King’s College, Sussex University and University College London will strike on May 5, in opposition to 590 jobs cuts.

The proposed cuts are a direct result of government cuts to higher education funding.

Under current plans, a redundancy committee will be set up at University

College London, to decide which staff members are to be made jobless.

The strikes follow mounting protests against the funding cuts. A strike, supported by staff and students, was led by the College Union at King’s College last month, in response to the decision to close departments such as the 170 year old Engineering department. The University is also set to axe the only chair in palaeography – deciphering ancient texts - in the UK. The strike at Sussex University will be the second round of action taken against the proposed redundancies. A previous student demonstration resulted in riot police being called to buildings on campus, and the suspension of

six students from the university.

Cuts at UCL threaten jobs in the modern languages department and the Faculty of Life Sciences, which covers diverse research areas such as neuroscience, psychology, genetics and linguistics.

Protests at the University of Westminster came after management plan to close the department of ceramics and make 285 redundancies in May. Sally Hunt, University and College Union general secretary, said: “The impact of funding cuts will be quite simple – staff will lose jobs and there will be a diminished experience for students.”

Welsh parliamentary candidates hold hustings Ayushman Singh Jamwal Reporter

The United Nations Association of Wales, Cardiff, held a hustings event last week, to allow members of the public to ask parliamentary candidates questions.

The panel of candidates attending included Jenny Willott, from the Liberal Lemocrats, Rhys Llewellyn, from Plaid Cymru, Julie Morgan, from the Labour party, Simon Hall, from the Conservative party, and Rob Griffiths, from the Welsh Communist party.

In the run-up to the general election, political parties in Wales have engaged in many hustings or question-and-answer forums through local organizations, to articulate their party manifestos and policies on various issues.

The debate, which took place at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff centred on the role of the United Nations in the world, and what role the UK can play to strengthen the organization’s reputation.

All of the candidates agreed that the United Nations Security Council requires more than five members.

Jenny Willott said that because many developing countries such as Brazil and India are emerging both economically and geo-politically, the Security Council should include more members. This would allow UN powers to

be exercised by a greater cross-national agenda.

An audience member raised the issue of the lax compliance of many member nations with the UN Declaration of Human rights, and asked the panellists about their views on resolving the issue.

This sparked a debate between the panellists. The Lib Dem, Conservative and Plaid Cymru candidates argued for a practical case by case approach towards human rights, and called for the United Nations to be reformed and strengthed. The Communist and Labour candidates supported the notion of ‘absolute human rights’ for every individual, and advocated the UN adoption of criminal liability for its volition. Each position got its own share of applause from the audience.

The debate became controversial when the issue of the UK’s role in the reduction of nuclear weapons was raised. Welsh Communist party candidate, Rob Griffiths, spoke about the imperialistic agendas of the UN Security Council, and argued that the UK should give up its nuclear weapons.

Plaid Cymru candidate, Julie Morgan, partly agreed.

Conservative candidate, Simon Hall, spoke about the need for the UK to keep its nuclear weapons, and criticized the Liberal Democrats’ plans to scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent system. However, he did not give any concrete solutions to reducing them.

Lib Dem candidate, Jenny Willott, and Labour candidate, Julie Morgan, said that the nuclear reduction alliance between the US and Russia opened up opportunities for nuclear reduction, but didn’t specifically answer the question.

After the statements, an audience member rose up and told the panellists that they weren’t answering the question, and accused them of avoiding the issue. He then asked them if they supported a gradual reduction of nuclear arms in cooperation with other nucle-

ar powers. While Rob Griffiths stuck to his resolve, all of the other party members unanimously agreed with no opposition.

Another audience member asked the Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour party candidates if the Iraq war was justified. All three party members said that the ends did not justify the means.

Jenny Willott and Julie Morgan, who had opposed the decision to go to war, questioned the legality of the issue, yet sympathized with the victims

HUSTINGS: Welsh parliamentary candidates debate policy

of Saddam Hussein. They said “other avenues” should have been followed to remove him from power, although they did not give any details.

Simon Hall, on the other hand, said that every nation should recognise itself as free, and with the knowledge that Iraq did not have threatening WMD’s, the responsibility of deposing Saddam Hussein should have been in the hands of the people of Iraq, not the UK.

WORLD NEWS 07

gairrhydd | NEWS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

You'll never guess what...

Is that a baton in your pocket?

Prospective policemen with a desire for a larger package had better reconsider.

Any men who have undergone penis enlargement will be banned from becoming police officers in the Papua region. Many locals use a type of leaf, the ‘itchy-itchy’, to increase penis size as it makes the organ swell up.

The practice is now being considered unfit for those seeking to join the police, as it can supposedly cause training problems.

Royal rumble Matthew Oakley Reporter A right royal rumpus has kicked off in Scandinavia following the revelation that a lowly Norwegian student may have caused the third-in-line to the Swedish throne, Princess Madeleine, to call off her engagement to playboy lawyer Jonas Bergstrom.

Supposedly, student Tora Uppstrom Berg, 21 - who is currently studying at the Arts University in Bournemouth - slept with prince-to-be Bergstrom when they met at an exclusive Swedish ski resort in February last year.

In a candid magazine interview, Ms. Uppstrom Berg admitted : “I had an affair with (Princess) Maddie’s boyfriend. We were intimate. He followed me home in a taxi at four o’clock in the morning ... He was extremely nice and a gentleman all night long.”

The embarrassed student maintains that she had no idea about the high

profile of her seducer and his connection to the Swedish throne, at the time of their liaison: according to Ms Uppstrom Berg, the calculating prince-tobe concealed his identity when they met, and that it was only when she called his mobile and listened to his voicemail that his true identity became apparent.

“Had I known that he had a woman, I would never have done anything like this,” she lamented. “I feel sorry for Madeleine who has an unfaithful man.

She deserves better.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ms. Uppstrom Berg has been absent from her university classes since the news surfaced. There is speculation that she has gone into hiding in a bid to avoid the swarm of Swedish reporters who have descended on Bournemouth, baying for her blood.

Meanwhile, the Swedish palace issued an evasive statement about the royal couple deciding “to go their separate ways” in the light of the scandal.

AIN'T LOVE THE SWEEDEST THING: Princess and fiance before split

Compare Toad in the hole Wearing the trousers the meerkat Matthew Oakley Reporter

A prize-winning sailor who is heir to a hosiery business has been named monarch of a tiny autonomous region.

Marcello Menegatto was elected by inhabitants of Seborga (population 360) to be their new King. Many insist that the area is separate from Italy, as it was not included in the unification of the country in 1861.

Marcello I, also known as ‘King of Nylon’, has pledged to improve infrastructure in the area, which produces its own currency.

Puppy love?

SIMPLES: New dating agency launched

Matthew Oakley Reporter

A blind man was banned from a restaurant due to his guide dog's supposed homosexuality.

Ian Jolly was looking forward to a meal in the Thai Spice restaurant, Adelaide, with his partner Chris Lawrence when he was refused entry along with Nudge, his guide dog, as staff thought he was a gay dog.

The restaurant is now AU$1,500 worse off, as an Equal Opportunities Tribunal ordered it to pay Jolly compensation.

Staff at a park in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, have set up a dating website after failing to find a male mate for a single meerkat.

Lilly, a single lady meerkat, had begun to pine after an arranged marriage fell through, so staff started meerkatmarket.com.

“With her being on her own for a while, we were worried that she had become a bit humanised and about how she would react to another meerkat - she was either going to accept him or not - but it's worked out really well,” said park manager Sandy Gyorvari. “She's actually become quite possessive over him.”

Described as an “alert, dark-eyed, inquisitive, free spirited lady with a good sense of humour who enjoys

Scientists in Australia have designed a special cane toad “sausage”, which may just save the lives of vulnerable predators.

The idea behind this specially made sausage is to try and help train animals not to eat the large, poisonous toads. Researchers believe that adding a nausea-inducing drug to cane toad meat will cause animals to associate the smell of toads with feeling sick.

Heading the project, Jonathon Webb of the University of Sydney said that he came up with the idea while reading the modern version of Little Red Riding Hood to his children.

“At the end, the grandma, to get her own back, puts a bag of onions in the wolf’s tummy so that he wakes up

feeling sick,” he explained.

“At that point I thought: What if we added a nausea inducing chemical to the toads?”

The research team has focused their experiment on quolls – small carnivorous marsupials that were once abundant in northern Australia. It is believed that when the cane toads invaded that area of Australia the quolls seemed to become almost extinct.

It has been reported that so far the results of the tests with the sausages have proven to bea success. However, according to Dr Webb what has not yet become evident is whether the quolls that eat the sausages then avoid the real cane toads.

The team are also looking to use this method on monitor lizards and bluetongue lizards, both of which are affected by the toads.

fine dining, digging and cosy nights in,” Lilly found love with the appropriately named Mr. Darcy. The twoyear-old from Cambridge has since joined Lilly at the park, where the pair are said to be settling in well.

Emma Roe, office manager, said: “'We are delighted to have found Lilly a partner, we were contacted by a breeder who offered us a possible match - he turned out to be perfect - a two-year-old male from Cambridge.

Meerkats live in large social groups and within the group there is only one dominant breeding pair, he was an underdog in a mob of nine and the ideal catch for Lilly.”

The site drew in over 74,000 visitors before a match was found for love struck Lilly. The creators are now planning to continue with it after the initial success by turning it into a social networking site for meerkats.

QUOLL: Now protected thanks to sausages

22 LETTERS

gairrhydd | LETTERS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MARCH 01 2010

OPINION 09

gairrhydd | OPINION@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

National Heroin Service?

The NHS supplying drugs to drug addicts is a simply ridiculous idea

Elizabeth Blockley Opinion Writer The General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Peter Carter, has this week controversially suggested that the NHS should prescribe heroin to recovering addicts and implement ‘drug consumption rooms’, which provide a safe environment in which to take drugs.

His comments have been met with a mixed response from other healthcare professionals, many of whom have implied that the proposed scheme is both risky and impractical. My own intuitive response was that to even contemplate this would be social liberalism gone too far.

Carter argues that recent studies conducted in this area have concluded that to introduce these measures may reduce crime and prevent addicts from using drugs in areas such

as school playgrounds and stairwells.

Some nurses have also agreed that the scheme would help to reduce the risk of diseases associated with heroin use, such as HIV and hepatitis. Claire Topham Brown, a nurse from Cambridgeshire quoted in an article in the Guardian, has supported the idea as providing a good ‘stepping stone’ for drug abusers.

What the advocates of this scheme have failed to address is where the NHS draws the line. If we start handing out prescriptions for heroin, must we also do so for cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis or any other drug to which people can claim an addiction? Prescribing heroin to addicts is truly not only a very slippery slope, but also morally dubious. In the media there are frequently stories about cancer patients who are told that the NHS cannot afford to give them life saving drugs, or that people must seek operations abroad because our health system is already too strained to do

everything.

It is unreasonable to expect the NHS to be able to achieve everything and it is a fantastic institution that we in Britain are lucky to have. But even if this scheme may be a pragmatic solution, how on earth can people contemplate handing out a prescription for heroin to someone while potentially denying a cancer sufferer lifesaving drugs?

Coming off drugs isn't supposed to be easy and probably shouldn't be Matthew Elliot of the Taxpayer’s Alliance agrees and states that "There is no reason why taxpayers should fund someone’s recreational drug habit," Imagine if this had been an article headlined ‘NHS gives Pete Doherty

heroin dose.’ There would have been a public outcry, and rightly so.

David Green of the think-tank Civitas has professed that he is completely against the idea and believes, instead, the government should be focusing on therapy-based approaches to get people off drugs. He has suggested the use of ‘opioid antagonists’, drugs that make people sick if there is heroin in their system. This, to me, seems like a far more morally sound approach than prescribing people drugs that are supposedly illegal in this country.

I, for one, cannot fathom why the contemporary rehabilitation of drug users tries to focus on pleasantries.

Coming off drugs isn’t supposed to be easy and probably shouldn’t be. A friend who works as a prison guard frequently sees people suffering from withdrawal symptoms in the cells, and yes they are miserable and ill, just as I am when I have an entirely self-inflicted hangover.

But it doesn’t kill them, unlike the

drugs they are on. Instead of the softly, softly approach employed so frequently in modern Britain we should uphold British laws against drug use, which should apply to everyone, instead of making exceptions for those who have already broken the law.

Arguing that Peter Carter’s solution is the most practical does not necessarily make it right. Financially speaking, the most practical solution for those who are convicted child molesters would be the death penalty instead of lifetime imprisonment at the taxpayer’s expense, but we do not carry out executions because we believe in the sanctity of life. Likewise, the government should be seen to be tough on drugs and consider alternatives such as therapy and residential rehabilitation that would not undermine the law and morals upon which our society is founded. Just because a scheme offers a straightforward solution, it does not necessarily follow that it is the right solution.

The doctor will see you now If the BBC want Doctor Who to be brave, they can't shy away from the issues Jack Zorab Opinion Writer So Doctor Who deals with the big issues now. Yes sir! You’d be hard pressed to actually notice them of course, but officially it’s dealing with a moral checklist similar to Hard Talk. So far we’ve had religion, the callous torturing of a star whale within a civilised state and last week; the holocaust.

Before discussing the big issues, let’s put things straight. The newest take on a very old Doctor - 906-yearsold now - is very good. It wasn’t at all what I wanted but regeneration is an unsettling process for all involved.

Indeed the eleventh Doctor may very well have been nobody’s perfect reincarnation. But such is Doctor Who. Its fans are forced to constantly assess what they think the Doctor should be.

In this way, each series is a heck of a journey. Certainly there were all the hallmarks of what has made Doctor Who so popular in the last decade: quirky lines (none of which I can remember), a great new get-up for the Doc “Bow-ties are cool!”, and a cracking looking, gutsy, ginger assistant.

Now, firstly, I don’t believe social commentary is crucial to every Doctor Who episode. Indeed, comments on modern society should be sprinkled sparingly for increased effect, but when done well it really makes Doctor Who a triumph. What’s more, Doctor Who absolutely should aim to hit home in this way to its large audience.

Subtle references are naturally important in this process to make children enquire so the new super-Daleks purging their own, yet inferior, Dalekscum-iron-sides in a WW2 setting is a smart way of raising the event. Well done.

Other moments in the first three episodes are not quite so praise-worthy and made the programme seem constrained to a worrying blueprint of entertainment. Namely that the viewer is to be made to laugh, cry and be scared but under no account are they to be made to think.

Has anyone ever prayed to Father Christmas at Easter?

I ask you: has anyone ever prayed to Father Christmas at Easter? Seriously. While we live in a religiously diverse country, the official religion is Christianity. We haven’t gone the secular ways of the French just yet.

So what would have been wrong with little Amelia Pond praying to God to send her a Doctor? The answer? Nothing. I know science and religion don’t always go hand-in-hand so perhaps such a paradox would have quantum locked the temporal vortex leaving the Doctor stuck in South Glamorgan for the remainder of the series. Not good for viewing figures but I think I would still watch it.

Assuming this isn’t the case; an ob-

viously British girl living in England praying to Father Christmas at Easter smacks of being a cop-out from representing what Britain still currently, officially, is.

The creators of Doctor Who, or rather the BBC controllers who I suspect were behind this one, are, on other issues, champions of all things British. In series two, the Doctor said it himself, on being asked if all other countries were of the ‘great’ variety such as ‘Great France’ he vehemently replied, ‘No, only Britain is Great’. It was fantastically patriotic stuff.

One of the episodes couldn’t have marched any further down this avenue. Set in a quiet English village, Amelia drives a red Mini, and there's even cross-border Scot-bashing from the Doctor about fried food. Yet the simple notion that Christianity might, possibly, tie in quite well with this setting (and it simply must have been suggested at the writers meeting when they discussed to whom a Scottish girl might possibly be praying to. Mohammed? Jesus? God? Don’t be ridiculous.), gets shelved for a figure that is certainly very out of season right now.

It's classic hypocrisy. Lets all be royally British is the message.

But let’s not totally nail our colours to the mast for fear someone might change the channel. A valid argument stands in the fact that the majority of people in Britain probably aren’t religious or even Christian, but almost everyone celebrates Christmas, so to mention Father Christmas is more representative of the population. But

the majority of people in Britain definitely don’t drive Minis nor do they live in quintessentially English towns.

No-one watches Doctor Who for its representation of inner city life and I certainly don’t want to see the Doctor travelling in a burnt out plastic phone box with the windows kicked in. Well, maybe for one episode.

However, if Doctor Who wants to

be really brave and bold, as it often professes to be, particularly in those morality speeches in season finales, then it can’t shirk the big issues like it has done in the first episode. Long live the Doctor, and you know that he will, but if he’s to inspire, and you know that he can, he desperately needs to grow up a bit and shake off the shackles of what society deems decent.

10 ELECTION 2010

gairrhydd | POLITICS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

The unstoppable rise of the viral campaign Tomm Barnett Politics Writer

Buzzwords are never far away from election campaigns and 2010 has been no exception. Words and phrases such as 'social media', 'politics' and even 'trending' have been on the lips of journalists, commentators and politicians up and down the country over the past month and, with less than a week left until polling day, it's now or never for the 2010 General Election.

Each of the three main parties have spent big on social media campaigns.

The Conservatives campaign in particular catching the attention of Wired, who featured a ten page spread about it last month. 2010 has offered the first real opportunity for the internet to be an essential part of an election campaign simply because more people use it now (and more regularly) than ever before and, well, as reasons go that’s a pretty good one.

Despite all the hype and talk, leading politicians have not been engaging with the public via twitter

The internet has also matured far more since the early days of the 1997, 2001 and even the 2005 General Elections. These days there are singular, monopolistic interactive websites that have captivated the nations attention (think Facebook, Twitter and You-

The Online Election

Tube), making audience targeting a far simpler task than when social usage of the internet was more fractured, such as in 2005.

So with all this money and hype, you’d think that the parties would use the internet as an effective campaigning tool, right? Wrong. Despite all the hype and talk, leading politicians have not been engaging with the public via their Twitter and Facebook accounts, having a casual chat with Sharon from Banbury about domestic policy. Instead they’ve been out canvassing and

allowing their researchers to post updates on their Facebook profiles and, you suspect, on their Twitter feeds too.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some interesting uses of the internet during this campaign (the brilliantly engineered Labservative website for one) – but it’s all been very one way, reminiscent of the internet campaigning of yore (if yore could ever truly mean 1997) and, as a result, parties have failed to harness the true potential – the scope for interactivity

It's been billed as the 'first online election'. But how does the web mirror the polls? We track the trends to find out...

35

Voter intentions (%)

#imwithnick begins trending as Lib Dems popularity surges after first televised debate.

SATIRE: The best viral campaigning comes from unofficial sources. Source: mydavidcameron.com and mylabourposter.typepad.com

Following attacks in the press, #nickcleggsfault becomes one of Twitter's most trended topics

30

25

#ukelection and #LeadersDebate surge up the global popularity list on Twitter as the first debate approaches

15

20

25

#bigotedwoman comments overtake Twitter within minutes of Gordon Brown's mic gaffe

April 2010

Sources: Poll of Polls / twitter.com

– of the internet.

Labour in particular have broadcast live video footage of Gordon Brown fielding vetted questions from the 'public' (put forward over Twitter, hence making it an “online” session) – in theory something which sounds great and as though politicians are really embracing the internet, but in reality it’s just reinforcing existing offline structures.

One field where the internet has made a difference is in unofficial campaigning One field where the internet has made a difference is in unofficial campaigning (if it can be truly called that), with the success of underground websites such as mydavidcameron.com (a direct aping of mybarackobama.com, the social networking site at the centre of Barack Obama’s 2008 digital victory) and unofficial commentators who have spread their message – be it political, satirical or both – to a public who previously would only have been able to see this type of satire through publications such as Private Eye, which are niche at best. It might not have further democratised politics but it might just have made more

people laugh at politicians – which is better than not knowing who they are, right?

For the political parties, the internet has made the biggest impact this year behind the scenes, as with Barack Obama’s successful digital campaign.

Parties have been better able to coordinate party activists and research what the public think of the parties and candidates outside of a formal survey environment.

Every tweet and blog post with even a mild relevance to campaigning (particularly regarding the TV debates) has at some point been pored over by a party researcher as part of an overall strategy to take on feedback and to give the public the leader they appear to want.

It’s hard to say whether or not the internet in its own right will have a telling impact on this year's election when there are still a few days left and plenty of room remaining for gaffes to upset a campaign.

However the reality of the situation is that, on its own, the internet is far from the biggest single factor – but then, there is no one factor that will win a General Election, whatever the media may tell you. Instead it’s a dripfeeding process of the right policies, effective canvassing and intelligent campaigning – for which the internet has definitely been a contributory and essential factor.

ELECTION 2010 11

gairrhydd | POLITICS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Murdoch unleashes the dogs It might be the 'internet election' but it is the papers that are changing opinion Oliver Franklin Opinion Editor While this election has no doubt been fought on new ground – online as well as on our television screens – one age-old and declining medium is proving it’s worth.

The rumoured death of the newspaper seems to have been greatly exaggerated.

As ever, the spanner in the works – the works that is, of newspaper giant and generally sinister character Rupert Murdoch – has been the unexpected rise of the Liberal Democrats following the first ever TV debates.

Murdoch’s News Corporation empire, which includes Fox, Sky News, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and The Times, has since been set on destroying the credibility of Nick Clegg and eliminating any prospect of a hung parliament.

As such, the day of the second debate, Murdoch sent his attack dogs with teeth bared. “Clegg in Nazi slur on UK” screamed The Daily Mail.

“Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem donors, and payments into his private bank

account” claimed an indignant Telegraph. The Times took a subtler approach, with the calm and reassuring “Cameron: hung parliament will risk economic disaster.” The message was clear across the board: kill Clegg’s credibility and get Cameron’s majority back on track.

The quality of the journalism across the British press that day took a stunning and reprehensible dive. The Mail’s comment was sneaky misreporting of a 2002 article Clegg wrote for the Guardian. The Telegraph’s was a laughable attempt at tainting Clegg with the toxic brush of the expenses scandal, despite all claims being well within the legal government guidelines – the Lib Dem leader was using the money to pay his staff. Even better, a later investigation found that Clegg had actually been paying more to his staff than was going in: he was paying staff out of his own wages.

But the worst was yet to come.

During the second debate, Sky’s adjudicator Adam Boulton violated the rules drawn up for the debate with a brief but sharp attack on the Lib Dem leader, calling him out for the Telegraph’s headline the day before, in an

unscripted personal attack. Behind the scenes, Murdoch was no doubt showing a wry grin; with the debate going out live, any repercussions are likely to be insignificant in comparison to the subliminal effect it may have had on the four million people watching at home.

The quality of journalism across the British press has taken a stunning dive And therein lay another interesting statistic. Just over four million viewed the second debate, hosted by Sky News – less than half the number that watched the first debate on ITV. In snap polls held immediately after, it looked like Clegg had again come out firmly on top. But if you went to a news stand on Friday morning, you would have come across a very different picture. “Cameron fights back” claimed the Telegraph. And The Times. And The Sun. And The Daily Mail. To quote a Frenchman, quelle

surprise.

It would be presumptuous and perhaps even insulting to suggest that the British public was at all swayed by the press coverage in the papers that day and their blatant discrimination in favour of the Murdoch-backed Tories.

But almost immediately, polls began to take a turn in a surprising direction.

Despite most internet polls during and immediately after the debate seeing Clegg and Cameron equal or Clegg taking a narrow margin of victory, in the three days after the debate (and subsequently), the Tories have thrived in many polls and reopened a large margin. In fact, by the following Monday, the Poll of Polls had the Conservatives leading with 35% - a majority they had not held since before the first debate.

Given the drop in viewing figures of the second debate, and the immediate result gauged online, this surge in support for the Conservatives seems counterintuitive unless the influence of these papers are taken into account.

With Murdoch’s steely hand guiding The Daily Mail, The Sun and the Telegraph, his influence reaches across

every major demographic and holds three of the biggest selling newspapers in the country at a time when circulation is temporarily rising due to political interest.

No doubt there are similar forces at work in other media outlets. The Guardian and the Independent, both officially unaffiliated but unashamedly left-leaning, have led an outcry against the Tory press in retribution for their biased reporting.

The fight is getting dirtier and less professional as May 6 rapidly approaches – and with polls still showing each party in close contention, it is only like to worsen as this election comes down to the wire.

This election has been groundbreaking across all media. The televised debates have had an unprecedented effect on the public and the polls, and the internet has finally come of age as a tool for political campaigning, coverage and debate.

But when it comes to influence, it is the newspapers that are proving their heft. If Murdoch continues to have his way, there could be life in the old dogs yet.

The theory of devolution Plaid and the SNP may kick up a fuss, but they don't belong in the debates Damian Fantato Politics Editor The Scottish National Party (SNP) has been complaining recently about its exclusion from the television debates. Last week they asked the Court of Session in Edinburgh to rule on whether the BBC had breached its rules on impartiality by excluding the party.

Unfortunately for Alex Salmond and his Scottish mates, their bid failed and the SNP wasted £50,000 of their election kitty in fighting this battle against the BBC. Maybe if they spent that money on winning seats they could be in the next election’s debates.

The SNP claim that this is a “simple argument for fairness”, however the BBC’s lawyer claimed that their actions were “completely contrary” to the public interest and that they had a “considerable problem” with the timing of their actions, claiming they “stood idly by” when the two earlier debates were held on ITV and Sky. There are, however, bigger reasons why the SNP, and also Plaid, should not be let anywhere near those debates.

For a start, neither the Scottish National Party nor Plaid Cymru hold the slightest hope of winning any

form of power in the election. The SNP boasts seven MPs while Plaid has a grand total of three. Salmond has boldly claimed that the SNP can win 20 seats this year. The truth, however, seems quite far from that: it’s more likely that they end up with around ten. Plaid, meanwhile, can only reasonably expect to gain around two seats. Even if there was a hung parliament, it’s unlikely that either the Tories or Labour would choose to band together with the 15 nationalist In the 2005 elections, Con Labour won by far 1 the most seats in SNP Scotland. The 7 SNP came in third, after LD the Lib Dems 12 Lab 39

Labour also took more Ind seats than any other 2 party in Wales.

Con Plaid Cymru PC 3 and the Tories 3 both won LD 3 seats 4 Lab 29

MPs (who refuse to enter a formal coalition and will only support a government on a vote-by-vote basis) over the stable support of the 60-odd Lib Dem MPs. It’s more than likely that both parties will find themselves in the same position they are in now: on the fringes. The SNP and Plaid Cymru are akin to UKIP. Their only hope from this election is to campaign on a specific issue, but, after the result is announced, continue their work in other forums. For UKIP, this is the European Parliament. For the SNP and Plaid this is the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly respectively.

The other reason why the SNP should have no place in this debate is down to devolution. Many of the topics covered in the debates will include health, education, welfare, justice, economic development and the environment. These, however, are all devolved issues (this is not an exhaustive list). The SNP and Plaid have no place commenting on these issues in the context of the British General Election. I’m sure they’d get annoyed if Barack Obama told them how to run their education systems.

Now they have to live with the fact that the

Westminster parliament only runs the English education system. England is a foreign country as far as education, welfare, health and transport are concerned. Any comments they might want to make about topics such as this

are severely out of place (if not undemocratic). More to the point, the reason that Wales and Scotland are not mentioned as much as they would like is that whoever wins will have limited power in these two countries.

You guys wanted devolution? Fair enough. Now you’ve got to live with the fact that some of the time the debates in British politics simply won’t concern you. Any supporter of devolution will simply have to live with that.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a supporter of devolution. In fact the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament should have more power as far as I’m concerned. What’s more, if this were a devolved election then it would be a different matter. Both Plaid and the SNP, however, need to know their place instead of complaining just for the sake of complaining. All this amounts to what is, essentially, an attempt to gain attention. The sad thing is, it has worked.

12 ELECTION 2010

gairrhydd | POLITICS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Lib Dems under the spotlight

gair rhydd finishes its weekly cross-examination of each major party with Tom Rouse taking a long, hard look at the Lib Dems

F

ed up of 65 years of ‘labservative’ government? I thought so, which is why you should be considering voting for the Liberal Democrats on May 6.

In the 20 years since they formed, the Liberal Democrats have been the forgotten middle child, caught between a resurgent New Labour and a Conservative party struggling to shake off its Thatcherite heritage. This election has seen a surge in support for the party, in large part due to Nick Clegg’s sterling performance in the first televised debate.

Clegg - and as a result the party has benefited to an extent that no one could have predicted prior to the election. His personal popularity rating has shot up, the nature of the party as perennial outsiders means he has been able to portray himself as a fresh start and as the right person to clean up politics. However, this election should be about more than just style, so how are the Liberal Democrats on policy?

Unsurprisingly, the one policy everyone can tell you about concerns reforming the voting system - a system that currently sees the Liberal Democrats poll approximately 20% of the vote but only win ten percent of the seats. What may surprise you is that the Liberal Democrats have a whole manifesto’s worth of policies, some of which you’ll also like. As students, we are understandably going to be sympathetic towards their plans to scrap tuition fees. Similarly, scrapping trident appeals to the hippie inside all of us.

As important as we may consider these issues to be, in reality the economy is rightly the issue over which any party should be scrutinised. In this area they again seem to be com-

CLEGG: "And what I do is I feel them like this..." ing up trumps. A report last week by the Institute for Fiscal Studies praised the party for their projected budget actually matching their commitment to raise taxes by £20billion over the course of the next parliament. However, much like the other two parties, the Liberal Democrats have been careful to avoid spelling out exactly what cuts they will inflict on the public sector.

To do so without the other two parties making a similar declaration would be akin to electoral suicide. We all know that drastic cuts will be needed at some point, but honesty is likely to backfire as people cling to some degree of hope.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Liberal Democrat policy concerns immigration. The policy has two

highly explosive elements: the first, giving all current illegal immigrants an amnesty has had the press and the BNP up in arms. The Daily Express in particular has been so appalled that they have managed to go two weeks without mentioning Diana.

The second aspect is, on the face of it, quite simple, and shows the advantage of being willing to learn from Europe. Issuing immigrants with a visa that only allows them to work in certain areas of the country will help steer talents to where they are most needed and address potential overcrowding in urban areas.

When it came to the expenses scandal, it was the Liberal Democrats who proposed a law giving constituents the chance to recall their MP. Both Labour

and the Conservatives rejected this law, yet they have now appropriated it and are actively campaigning on the issue. This is by no means unique; the party have been campaigning on green issues for years and the recent increase in the top rate of tax was ripped straight from the 2005 Liberal Democrat manifesto.

The additional coverage has, of course, not all been positive. The Daily Mail and Telegraph in particular are waging war on Nick Clegg, with the Telegraph running a front page story which can be boiled down to: Nick Clegg properly declares expenses.

The Daily Mail accused him of making a Nazi slur against Britain, on the basis of one quite old Guardian article where he suggested some people may

still resent the Germans - "don't mention the war" and all that.

As is the norm for the Liberal Democrats, some members are now getting over-excited and are allowing themselves to believe that the party may have a chance of forming a government alone. I’m as naively optimistic as the next Liberal, but lets be honest, hell will freeze over before the Lib Dems are the single largest party under the first-past-the-post system. Such optimism is entirely in character for the party. If any of you are lucky enough to be members, you’ll recognise the tone as the same one that permeates every email from them. Every situation is turned into a positive, every defeat is just a nearmiss where everyone tried their best and should be proud. In this sense, the party are quintessentially British. Of all the leaders involved in this debate, can you imagine any of them being as polite as Nick Clegg in a busy shopping queue?

In reality, if you’d offered Nick Clegg 28% and close to 100 seats prior to the first televised debate, he’d have bitten your hand off. Achieving the largest ever third party share of the vote would almost certainly force a hung parliament and give the Liberal Democrats a decisive say in the future of the country. They might not inspire quite the same devotion as Barack Obama, but they are the only party offering real change in this election, change that will benefit the entire country.

And for those of you with a more cynical take on politics, every vote for the Liberal Democrats lessens the chances of a Conservative majority, and I’m sure most us can agree that that’s a good thing.

ELECTIONWATCH...THE BEST OF THE ELECTIONS SO FAR Cock-up of the Week Boo! Hiss!

Gordon Brown revealed this week just what a bastard he actually is!

He's behind you!

After a brief exchange with Gillian Duffy this week, he accidentally left his microphone on and was heard saying the following: "That was a disaster - they should never have put me with that woman.

Whose idea was that? Ridiculous... she was just a bigoted woman."

Finally the mask has fallen off this vile pensioner-hating politician.

Would you vote for bastard Brown?

Best election pledges so far....

Give the undead equal rights to the living

This is the key policy in the manifesto of CURE (Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality), the party that's "undeadly serious".

Public officials who are convicted of abuse of office to have their pictures printed on toilet roll packaging The New Millenium Bean Party, led by Captain Beany, has a slogan of "Out with Brown, in with orange". This is part of their "beanyfesto".

Moats around people's houses to keep out randy footballers The Church of the Militant Elvis is standing in Kettering (they feel the town needs brightening up) and is led by Lord Biro.

All socks to be sold in packs of 3 as a precaution against losing one The one and only Monster Raving Looney Party. They'd also like to see the introduction of a 99p coin and pogo stick lanes along roads.

gairrhydd | POLITICS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

POLITICS 13

Chat with Charles Kennedy

This world, Chris Tarquini chats with former leader of the Lib this week

Dems, Charles Kennedy, about elections and Lembit Comic's effect ith the Liberal Democrats changing their stance on tuition fees, is this not reneging on one of the few things that makes you stand out from your political opposition?

W

Well I think we’ve got to be realistic with people, it (the Liberal Democrat's stance) did us a lot of good.

In the seats that we won, the student vote was absolutely pivotal. We’ve got to show people where our heads are when it comes to the financial circumstances while not losing sight of where our hearts lie as well. The commitment is still there albeit phased over six years - we’ve not let go of it. There’s no point looking at a student audience or any audience in the face and saying we can do everything we thought we could do five years ago, given what happened it just can’t be possible.

With the latest YouGov polling showing the Liberal Dem-

ocrats five points lower than they were in the 2005 election, why have they failed to capitalise on the state of Labour and the Conservatives since 2005?

I think, to be honest, that the history of these things is that we tend to enter General Elections lower and come out higher because over the period of the election coverage we get more sustained coverage. Traditionally, national polls don’t tell much about us because to get anywhere under firstpast-the-post, our votes have got to be concentrated for us to win seats. Therefore our target seats and the marginal seats we’re defending, they’re the crucial ones and the polls won’t tell you much about that.

The second thing is the leaders debate: I’d have given my left leg to get into a leade r s de-

KENNEDY: And this is the fist I used to punch Tony

bate with Tony Blair and Michael Howard. At the Leaders' Question Time, the polls afterward showed we won it hands down and I think the same has happened with the debates.

If they all go well I think we can really take off in this election because it’s a launch pad of a type we’ve never had before.

Hypothetically if you were still leader and you could ask one question, who would you ask and what would your question be?

ion that you get in the Liberal Democrats, it’s much more coherent than the spectrum of opinion that you’ll get from one end to the other end of the Labour or Tory party. I don’t want a party that calls itself Liberal Democrat to be uniform and boring, to hell with that.

Could you ever see yourself leading this party again?

Haven’t a clue. I live for today and I enjoy it.

I would probably ask David Cameron actually because at least with Gordon Brown he’s in the job and you know the colour of his money, or of our money.

I think what I’d ask is about the other thing I do which is being President of the European Movement which is all party and non-party for the UK and I would ask him really to flesh out his European policy. He’s taken the Tories out of the mainstream in Europe, but what would he do if he actually had power? I think that if it was spelt out clearly that would cause a great deal of trouble in his own party.

You wouldn’t be adverse to it?

Lembit Opik described the Liberal Democrats as ‘the party of redistribution.’ He also described himself as on ‘the libertarian wing’ of the party. Isn’t this an example of the Liberal Democrats trying to be a different party in different regions of the country?

Blair or Brown? Who was the better Prime Minister?

Well no more so than any other party. A liberal party by the name alone should be a party where you’ve got a diversity of views. So I would say that if you look at the spectrum of opin-

I’m not even saying that, I’m perfectly happy with my position in life personally, and professionally in politics, and I don’t lie awake at night wondering what the future holds. I’ve had the privilege of leading it for quite a long time over two General Elections where we got to the highest level support in terms of parliamentary seats since the days of that great Welshman Mr Lloyd George himself. If I don’t do anything more I can look back and say I tried my best

At this stage you’d have to say Blair, certainly in the earlier years. Iraq will go down as a catastrophic tombstone of his premiership. However, I think a lot of the other things that he presided over, for example devolution, were good, but he’s obvious hugely scarred by Iraq. You’d have to say he’s the more significant Prime Minister as things stand, unless Gordon is about to surprise us all.

Who is Manuel Noriega anyway?

With the former ruler of Panama being extradited to France, Damian Fantato has a look at who he is

T

he United States decided last week that it would extradite the former leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, to France, where he is wanted on charges of money laundering.

Noriega, 76, is also wanted in Panama for the murder of two political opponents.

He never actually became the official president of the Central American country. As leader of the Panama Defence Forces, however, he became its de facto ruler in 1983.

Noreiga very quickly became a top ally of the United States. He had close ties to the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He also aided the CIA in its covert war against communists in Central America.

His ties with the USA deteriorated,

however, in the late 1980s. A US Congressional committee revealed in a report that Noriega was a major player in drug-trafficking in the region. In 1989, US authorites accused him of rigging elections and violating human rights.

Washington began by imposing sanctions. An invasion inevitably followed by the end of the year.

After the invasion, Noriega sought refuge in the Vatican diplomatic mission in Panama City. American forces spent days trying to flush him out until, in January 1990, he surrendered and was flown back to the US where he was given Prisoner of War status.

In 2007, he was due to be released, but France filed an extradition request. Noriega is accused of using his $3million of illegal drug profits to buy luxury apartments in Paris. He was convicted in absentia to ten years

in prison. France, however, have said they would retry him.

Noriega's lawyers contest the extradition because France is a third party.

As a Prisoner of War in the US, they claim, the Geneva Convention requires him to be returned to Panama. The US Supreme Court, however, disagrees and supports the extradition to France.

Panama also lay claim to Noriega, who was convicted in his absence in 1995 to 20 years for murder. They have made numerous attempts to get him back. That said, changes to Panamanian law mean that people over the age of 70 are not sent to prison, but instead are merely put under house arrest.

Nonetheless, Noriega has been flown to France where he will be placed under temporary detention until being referred to a criminal court.

Congolese man is trying to get a controversial Tintin book banned in the comic's country of origin, Belgium.

Bienvenu Mbutu claims that Tintin's "little (black) helper" in Tintin in the Congo is portrayed as being "stupid and without qualities".

"It makes people think that blacks have not evolved," Mr Mbutu claims.

A court will rule on whether the book should be banned or not, but it has already caused some controversy in the UK, where the Commission of Racial Equality call for it to be banned.

A

Sprung a leak

n oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has sprung a leak after it exploded and sank last week. Officials are warning that it could cause one of the worst spills in history.

The leaks from the Deepwater Horizon platform are 5,000 feet under the surface and have caused a slick that now covers 28,600 square miles.

Oil is leaking out at a rate of 42,000 gallons a day.

Eleven of the rig's workers are missing and presumed dead after the disaster off the Louisiana coast.

The US Coast Guard claim that fixing the leak using robotic submersibles could take months

A

Election issues

he leader of Southern Sudan's second largest party has unveiled that there was "massive rigging" in the recent landmark elections.

Lam Akol, who leads SPLM-Democratic Change, is contesting the result in court. He hopes that the result will be declared null and void.

The recent polls were Sudan's first multiparty elections in 24 years. The incumbant President Omar al-Bashir, pictured, won the elections with 68% of the vote, despite facing war crimes charges over Darfur. International observers share Mr Akol's concerns about fraud and intimidation

T

14 FEATURES

gairrhydd | FEATURES@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

A blinding experience To imagine your life without vision is something that has to really be experienced. One Cardiff student tried it for the day...

Adam Gray Features Writer What does a blind person do at lunchtime? Probably something similar to a person who is not blind. I must apologise that I didn't talk to any blind people during the writing of this scribble. My housemate would disagree, but he's only blind in one eye and I don't think that counts.

What I did do though, is try to be blind for a whole day. After watching a blind guy get on a train I decided it would be interesting to find out what it's like. I suppose I could have gone and asked him, but I want to convince you that in a case like this there's only one way to find out! (as Harry Hill once said).

Two days later I spent a few hours in my room wrapping black tape around some lab goggles I still had from school and Sellotaping some white paper to a three foot pole.

The next day, as soon as I woke, I put the goggles on. I chortled a bit to myself as I stumbled around getting changed, having a shower and making breakfast. I didn't know what time it was so I sat down in the lounge and waited for Lowri, another housemate, who had the same lectures as me.

I hope that once you're used to being blind it's not as boring, because it felt like ages before she finally emerged! Stepping out of the house was a bit scary, but Lowri gently took my arm and we did alright. She showed me where to cross the road, told me where we were and made sure I knew who we were talking to if we bumped into anyone.

The lecturers were boring and I fell asleep for some of them. After, I went to get lunch with Rob. Lowri had not really minded looking after me (as she does most of the time anyway), but she told me later she had breathed a sigh of relief when I left. We walked up to the library to do some paperwork we had to get sorted.

He kept on making spelling errors and in the end I quickly had a look over the final version; it was quite important to get it right. Goggles back on, we went back down the lecture theatre but they had just finished.

I started my journey home confidently and walked straight into a wall Rob lived in the other direction and Lowri wasn't coming straight home so I manned up and thought to myself 'how hard can it be?' I started my journey home confidently and walked straight into a wall. I adjusted and walked across the lobby into another wall where the door should have

been.

Someone showed me through the door and I walked slowly to the top of the steps. It was raining, the steps were slippy and I couldn't find the handrail.

A course-mate walked past and asked if I was serious, to which, I'm ashamed to say, I decided I wasn't.

The goggles came off and I rubbed my eyes before trotting down the stairs with ease. I reckon that getting home may well have been the hardest thing I have almost done. I had managed to be blind for about six hours.

I went out that night and chatted to a few people who had seen me that day, but who I had not seen. This, I think, is the most annoying bit about being blind. Your world, the one in which you live and interact, is made much smaller.

My brother read this and closed his eyes for a few seconds, after which he said he “really appreciated this fact!�

He's a sarcastic prat. Anyway, one of the people I chatted to had an interesting thought. I sort of wished it had been my initial inspiration, rather then my aimless agnosticism.

My brother closed his eyes for a few seconds and said he "appreciated the fact". Sarcastic prat He said that stimulating blindness was a step towards empathy. Empathy is when you can really put yourself in someone else's shoes. Sympathy, on the other hand, doesn't require that you understand someone's situation, but are simply sorry for them.

This was of interest because in a year and a bit, I will hopefully be a doctor. All health professionals (nurses, physios and even dentists) are called to be empathetic. I wouldn't be so stupid as to say that empathy can only be derived from first hand experience. However, the few hours I spent bumping into things really opened my eyes (excuse the pun) in a way that chatting to a blind person could never do.

When it came down to it, I didn't make any grand discoveries. But, I reckon I can more readily understand what blind people go through compared to when I started. I think many people, including myself, are blind to the experiences and sufferings of others. I think we can do something about this. On another note, society loves to tell people to lose weight.

So, without any pretence that me losing one of my fifteen stones would be similar to that of any other person, I am going to lose a stone. It might change my perspective, which is usually a good thing.

BEING BLIND: It didn't stop these two (above); Adam kitted out (below)

FEATURES 15

gairrhydd | FEATURES@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

A Tunisian journey

Faking it as a travel journalist has its benefits, as Quench's Travel Editor found out when she managed to blag a free trip to Tunisia...

Dom Kehat Travel Editor To be a travel journalist is to have the greatest job of them all. It is a job I, for one, have always dreamed of - exploring the world with but a rucksack and Apple Mac, looking cool in my multicoloured harem pants with newly dreaded hair resplendent with beads, informing the unfortunate of what they are missing by living such ordinary lives.

Then a week before Easter I received a call offering up a press trip to Tunisia, courtesy of the oh-so-generous Tunisian National Tourist Office, and suddenly it looked I would be getting a taster of the world of travel journalism. I would be faking it as a travel journalist, and sad though it may seem, my first concern was ‘what was I to wear?’

A black skirt and striped top it turns out. I was, after all, seeking to fit in with the other journalists, professional but nonchalant, whilst in reality feeling like it was the first day of school, flushed with nerves and overly excited.

At Heathrow I met my fellow press trippers - Ryan, a food critic by day who took travel commissions when he so fancied; Dan, a local news reporter, who had gone on many of these trips and viewed himself as something of an expert in the field of press trips, and finally Chris, jaded in the way only a tabloid journalist can be. And me, a second year Politics student writing for the University magazine, who couldn’t quite believe her luck.

The introductions were undeniably tense, each person battling with the

next to be viewed as the most credible journalist. I stepped out of the ring early on, leaving the others to boast of important deadlines, past features and circulation figures.

It was then I realised that the next few days, while likely to be incredibly enjoyable, were also going to be a test of endurance in light of some journalistic egos.

Sadly, my first concern when I found out I was going was what I was going to wear The first lesson was thus learnt journalism is not simply about loving writing, but rather loving talking writing - a constant one-up manship whereby assignments from years past can still be used as a means of proving yourself as an expert in any arena. It would be not only my writing but my memory skills that would need to improve if I were to fit in with these pro-journalist types.

On arrival in Tunisia, we were met by Ffion, the representative from the Tunisian Tourist Board, who sought to ensure our time in Tunisia was stress free and enjoyable, and aside from waking up on time, every aspect of the next five days were taken care of.

And it was with this that I learnt another truth of travel journalism - there is very little real travelling involved.

While this was my first experience

of a press trip, the others enjoyed telling me of their various other trips around the world, and assured me that this was procedure.

We were to stay in the best hotels, eat a lot of food and visit a few sights, but ultimately our concern was not of the practicalities – such boring details were to be left for the lowly paid at Lonely Planet. The image of me with dreads was quickly morphing, and with it the whole view of travel journalism.

As our car approached the first hotel, all the rumours proved true – Hotel Afrika stood as the tallest building in Tunisia overlooking the fast developing African capital. With its French colonial style and overly attentive staff, it was as far removed from the hostels I tend to stay in on my own self-funded trips.

Opening the door of my room, I was faced not with a bed but a little lounge area complete with fruit bowl and large windows that looked out of the expanse of city: largely low buildings with no street lighting but a thousand gleaming windows.

Excitement took over, and as a small child would, I took a running jump into the next room and its large bed before exclaiming over the sheer array of bathroom goodies. And then I stopped, straightened my skirt and

walked out to meet the others ready to put my best grown up face on.

Dinner was a buffet, and it was here that I realised that, while my fellow journalists were rather lovely people, I had very little in common with them, and so the reality of going on a weeklong trip with complete strangers hit home.

As I quietly got tipsy off glass after glass of red wine in the corner, the guys continued to competitively talk about past commissions and I quietly listened - a role my friends will confirm I rarely take.

The time came for dessert, and sweet tooth enthusiasm combined with half a bottle of wine forced the excitable me to once again raise its giggling head, encouraging the others to join me in a game of ‘guess the cake’.

I was faced with looks of sheer bemusement. At this point I officially surrendered myself to a week of luxury, culture and very straight-faced meal times.

Everyone knows the sad state of affairs whereby your room is only as you like it as you move house, you hair as you actually want it just before it is booked to get cut, your guy only good in bed just before you stop seeing him.

So it was the case in Tunisia, as on the last night - helped by all-inclusive

cocktails and a table tennis table - the three pro journalists, Ffion from the Tunisian National Tourist Office and I finally relaxed into each others company and realised that, actually, we got on far better than the polite smiles that had defined the previous week suggested. Typical.

This said, on return to England, no numbers were exchanged, only polite niceties – the final reminder that while we had all been together on this amazing trip, in a weird way we experienced it alone. The whole experience was new and exciting, and Tunisia, as a country, amazing - and it was this trip away that taught me the most important lesson of travel journalism.

All of this luxury is only fun if you are with the right people. A huge bed isn’t the same if there is no one to jump on it with; that bottle of wine not as enjoyable if not shared with friends. My trip to Tunisia had all the makings of an amazing holiday, but felt a lot like work, as while I was out of the office, there was still a dress code and need to smile falsely at your co-workers.

Travel journalism: the ideal job? Possibly, but it’s a job nevertheless, and at the moment being a student seems like a far sweeter deal.

Thanks to Tunisian National Tourist Office, and for more information about my time in Tunisia, check out this week's Quench.

16 FEATURES

gairrhydd | FEATURES@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

No fun in the sun?

As soon as the sun is out, most of us grab our sunglasses and head to the beach. But are we taking the health risks seriously?

Miranda Atty Features Writer Lately everyone seems to be talking about the weather. The sun has been shining non-stop. And in Wales, no less! While, like everyone else, I am extremely grateful for any appearance of the sun’s rays in the cold ol’ UK, I have come to realise that, though the arrival of the sun to me equals shorts, Pimms and the luxury of sunbathing, it carries an oft-forgotten danger. Skin cancer.

Typically, the image of a cancer sufferer is someone who is much older, someone who may have developed it through lifestyle choices or inherent genetic predispositions. As young people, most of us don’t feel as though we need to start worrying for a good while yet.

I’m not just referring to skin cancer here though; how many of us think we’ll quit binge drinking or smoking after we graduate and actually have to face the real world? For the moment though, we’re content to carry on, safe in the knowledge that we’re ‘still young’. The student lifestyle, as fabulous as it is, is kind of like a bubble. We feel as though we are protected from normal concerns, technically adults but without any of the accompanying responsibility. The point is that, though we may feel as though what we do now doesn’t affect our long term health, it does. Our actions with regard to the sun affect our likelihood of developing skin cancer later in life.

Non melanoma skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK There are two different types of skin cancer: melanoma, and non melanoma cancer. To understand the difference, you need to know that the skin is made up of two layers: the epidermis and the dermis. Melanoma skin cancer affects the area between the two layers, turning melanocytes into cancerous cells. Melanocytes basically make a colouring or pigment for the skin, which helps protect it from the UV rays of the sun. In the UK each year, more than 10,400 people are diagnosed with melanoma. Unluckily for us girls, it is more common in women than men.

Ultraviolet light is the main reason for developing melanoma. There are also other contributing factors, such

SUN WORSHIPPER: Risking our lives for a golden glow? as the number of moles you have on your body or how fair skinned and freckly you are. Unfortunately for them, people with very fair skin are more at risk of developing melanoma.

So the next time your very pale friend wants to sit under the shade of the biggest tree in Bute Park, don’t drag them out into the sun.

Additionally, redheads have a different type of melanin than people with dark hair. Researchers at Duke University say that the melanin in redheads is more vulnerable to damage from the sun's UV rays. Under exposure to the sun, redheads developed a reaction of oxidative stress, where damage to cells may occur and can, over time, turn cancerous.

Non melanoma skin cancer happens to be the most common type of cancer diagnosed in the UK, with around 81,700 cases diagnosed each year.

Even more worrying is that, according to a leading cancer website, this figure tends to be under-reported and is more likely to be around 100,000.

There are two main subdivisions of non melanoma skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Both the cells referred to here are found in the top layer of skin – the epidermis. Both BCC and SCC have been proven to have direct links to our sun exposure.

Incidences of BCC rise in proportion to the number of times an individual has been sunburned, particularly as a child. The risk of developing SCC comes as a result of the overall sun exposure in our lives. Therefore, not

only those with outdoor jobs, such as gardeners and builders, but general life-long sun worshippers increase their risk of developing this form of skin cancer. Non melanoma skin cancer develops most often on areas of the body that have been most exposed to the sun.

The risks for both types of skin cancer increase the more time we spend in the sun, and specifically, the more we burn in the sun. So are experts recommending we spend as little time as possible in the sun? To be frank, no. Sunlight is also important for our health. Throughout the winter we are not exposed to enough sunlight (which contains Vitamin D) and so when spring comes rolling back around we need to spend some time in the sun to re-boost our Vitamin D levels. Even in the spring, however, cancer experts recommend that it is only safe to stay in direct sunlight for around twenty minutes. It seems like a bit of a catch 22.

There are plenty of ways of enjoying the sun and staying safe though.

At the risk of sounding like someone’s mother, moderation is the key. Spending the absolute hottest hours of the day – between 11.30am and 3pm – in blazing sunlight is not a good idea.

Covering up will help protect your skin. Hats are important, not only for the sensitive scalp area but also to stop you getting heatstroke, which carries its own problems. Sunglasses, too, are vital, as, believe it or not, there is such a thing as melanoma of the eye.

Always wear sunscreen; and not

just a tiny amount either. As the Australians say, slap it on! Suncream only gives the level of SPF protection on the label if it is applied thickly; if it soaks instantly into your skin it is not thick enough and won’t give the same amount of protection.

Suncream only gives the level of SPF protection on the bottle if it applied thickly Anything from SPF 15+ should be sufficient, as this allows only seven percent of harmful UVB rays to get through to the skin. If you are very pale though, it might be better to opt for a higher factor cream. Admittedly, they are more expensive, but factor 60 allows only two percent of harmful UVB rays through. Suncream should also be reapplied every one-and-a-half to two hours and after swimming or sweating.

If you really want to reduce your risk of developing skin cancer, don’t use sunbeds. Tanning beds or booths are never safe, and what’s more, they can be addictive. A friend of mine regularly uses a sun bed to top up her tan before she goes on holiday. I warned her that this can be dangerous, but she informed me that she doesn’t do it often enough for it to be a risk. Sunbeds are not safe, it doesn’t matter how

many times they are used, and using them before going on holiday can actively increase the risk of developing melanoma.

According to CancerHelp UK, a study published in 2009 found that people who have regularly used a sunbed before the age of 30 have a 75% increase in their risk of developing melanoma. The type of ultraviolet light used in sunbeds is UVA. It is the wavelength UVB which is known to cause burning from the sun, so developers of sunbeds argued that there was no risk from their products. This is not true. UVA is not safe.

Luckily, a bill was passed on April 13 2010 in the House of Lords which will prohibit children under the age of 18 from using unattended sunbeds. A recent study carried out in The British Medical Journal revealed that roughly a quarter of a million children in England between the ages of 11 and 17 are regularly using sunbeds and thus increasing their risk of skin cancer. The bill can only be a positive thing, and will come into effect a year from the date it was passed.

Skin cancer symptoms can be quite hard to spot as they are often similar to other skin conditions. If you find anything abnormal on your skin that doesn’t go away on its own after about six weeks, you should think about getting it checked by your GP. Either they will be able to reassure you, or refer you to a skin specialist who has the knowledge to treat you efficiently.

The main treatment for skin cancer involves cutting out the tumours.

Skin cancer is pretty scary. Even in our student bubble we need to be aware that the more we are exposed to the sun now, the greater our risk of developing cancer later. That’s not to say that I’m not going to be taking every opportunity to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. I’ll just be wearing a bit more suncream while I do.

COLUMNIST 17

gairrhydd | OPINION@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Our vote is worthless, democracy is flawed

D

emocracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven - H.L. Mencken.

This Thursday, for most of us, will be the first time we can vote in a General Election. Also, for the first time, there are three parties all genuinely vying to get their feet under the table in Number 10. It is the closest and most hotly contested election in decades. This, then, is surely our chance to make a choice and make a difference, isn’t it?

Well, the answer to that hypothetical question is probably not. You could go as far as saying there’s no point in voting. The majority of us live in the Car-

diff Central constituency and our MP is Jenny Willott of the Liberal Democrats (as I’m sure you well know with all the leaflets that have been landing on our door mats). According to www. votepower.org.uk, our one vote is, in realistic terms, actually worth 0.211 of a vote because the seat is considered to be “very safe”. The Liberal Democrats will win because of the stranglehold it has whether we vote or not. In a word, it is pointless.

Then of course there is the firstpast-the-post voting system, which just defies belief. The latest You Gov poll puts the Conservatives first on 33%, with the Liberal Democrats on 29%, and Labour just behind in third place with 28%.

If this is how people will vote, under the current system such a result would mean Labour would come first in seats, with 268, the Conservatives second, with 238, while the Liberal Democrats would be a clear third with just 112. The Liberal Democrats would lose out so badly on a nationwide scale because their votes are geographically too evenly spread.

Labour do so well because, on average, Labour-held seats contain smaller electorates. This is compounded by the fact that turnout tends to be lower in the party's strongholds. Their vote is more efficiently spread than that of the Conservatives, presenting them with more seats by smaller margins.

In a country that professes to be

so democratic, how can this be right?

One party could have far more votes than another but not win because of this absurd system. This is exactly what happened to Ted Heath’s Conservatives in 1966. Had it been based on just the number of votes, Heath would have beaten Harold Wilson and the Labour Party quite comfortably.

Now call me old fashioned but I would have thought the party with the most votes across the country should win. The most popular party would be leading the country. Can it not be that simple? Apparently not.

There has been talk of reform and the introduction of the Alternative Vote. Under this system, voters place candidates in rank order – 1, 2, 3 and

so on. If no candidate wins 50% of the first preference vote, then the votes of candidates at the bottom of the poll are redistributed in accordance with those voters' second preferences, and so on, until someone passes the 50% mark.

The Lib Dems tend to be everyone's second choice. As many as 68% of Labour supporters say they would give a second preference vote to the Liberal Democrats, as do 41% of Conservatives.

So if the Liberal Democrats are running second in a constituency, they can hope to leapfrog into first place on the back of second preferences cast by third-placed Conservative or Labour supporters.

The party could win up to twice as many seats – 217 – as they would under the current system.

Yet Labour, with 238 seats, would still be the largest party. The Conservatives, meanwhile, would be a poor third with just 163 seats.

The Conservatives would lose out so badly because third-placed Labour voters are particularly ready to give a second preference to the Liberal Democrats.

And the system would do nothing to correct the biases in the existing system that hurt the Tories. So, under this proposed alternative, not only would the party that was third in votes still come first in seats, but in addition, the party that came first in votes would be a poor third in seats. Is this really any better?

A democracy means there should be fair elections. This is anything but.

One vote should equal one vote not 0.211. Democracy is a failed experiment or, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.

As H.L. Mencken so eloquently put it, democracy is only a dream. We live in a pseudo-democracy where the powers that be have a system which benefits them and makes the majority powerless to do anything about it. Inspiring. And they wonder why a million 18-24 year olds will not vote.

22 LETTERS

gairrhydd | LETTERS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MARCH 01 2010

LETTERS 19

gairrhydd | LETTERS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

the Comments from the week’s news, opinion, features and sport at www.gairrhydd.com Mr Ambassador, you're wrong Jonathan Offered a state of next to Israel in 1947 as part of the United nations partition plan. Full rights both of property and civil were to be given to minorities in both states.

Tragically this plan was rejected, not by the Jews. Not even all the Arabs, but the leadership of the Palestinians did. These facts are a matter of public record.

Adam The UN had no right to partition a country against the wishes of the majority of its inhabitants, this is an unprecedented move in history.

The partition plan was also profoundly unjust, at a time when the population ratio was around two-thirds Arab, one third Jewish (the majority recent settlers), the Palestinians were to be given a minority of the land in favour of the majority being handed over to a recent migrant population. Would any other people on earth – including the people of Britain or Wales – have accepted such a partition plan?

More to the point, a generation of Israeli Jewish historians such as Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe and Tom Segev have uncovered from primary military sources that the Zionist movement in reality rejected the partition plan and evidence of “Plan Dalet” the military operations accompanying the birth of the Jewish State involving rapes, massacres, wholescale ethnic cleansing, demolition of entire villages ( the birth of Israel saw the complete demolition and depopulation of over 400 Palestinian villages with the refugees still denied

the right to return to this day) and collusion with the King of Jordan to carve up the ‘Palestinian state’ between them.

I recommend a very fine book by Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ that convincingly shows that the aim of the Zionist movement in Palestine was always to build a Jewish state depopulated – as much as possible – of the indigenous population.

If you think about it, the logic is self-evident: The political aim of Zionism was to build an ethnic state, a Jewish State, under the UN partition plan, despite the majority of land being set aside for a Jewish State, this state still would have contained a 40% Arab population, a very substantial number of non-Jews that would have made it extremely difficult to build a state that privileged one race. Thus David Ben-Gurion, later first Prime Minister of Israel, states the facts baldly in a speech in 1947, ‘There are 40 percent non-Jews in the areas allocated to the Jewish state. This composition is not a solid basis for a Jewish state.… Only a state with 80 percent Jews is a viable state.’ – for Ben Gurion and the wider Zionist movement in Palestine being given the majority of land under the UN partition plan was not enough, they wanted more. You can read hundreds of statements in the public domain in the years leading up to 1948, in which all the main actors – right and left wing – in the Zionist movement, speak openly and frankly of the ‘transfer’ (a euphemism for ethnic cleansing) of the indigenous Arab population.

While the understandable desire for a Jewish State from many members of a persecuted people was not racist, the practicalities of setting up such a state in an area already inhabited by another society – the exclusion and expulsion the indigenous population, destroying

a society rather than integrating into it, building a country that is based on exclusivity, ethnicity and race – could only result in a set-up that contradicts universal human rights Ojala We Jews have tried living under Arab/Muslim rule and it was a disaster. In fact we tried it for 14 centuries.

We were virtual slaves to them, subject to every whim and humiliation, bouts of violence and forced conversion. We are not about to give up the freedoms we now enjoy in Israel!

Downs with Frankie Boyle Carole Hi. I was at the actual show and the picture you paint isn’t what actually happenned- you have cherry picked from press reports.

1. The joke poked fun at elderly parents of Downs sufferers, not the sufferers. The “truth” that Ms smith has referred to was that she is not elderly and that she dresses her daughter well – nothing to do with the condition.

2..Boyle didn’t laugh when Ms Smith told him about her daughter. He actually was quite taken aback, went very thoughtful and then asked enquiringly that “it’s true though isn’t it?”

3. He spent quite a while talking to Ms Smith and asking why she had come to see a show that she knew would be challenging. He gave her plenty of space- and then said the “fuck it” line to get the audience back so he could carry on with the show, as it had become very tense.

4. Ms Smith said she had wanted to see his most offensive stuff and sat very happily laughing at jokes about

forum

Jon Venables, Maddie McCann and the Fritzls.

5. The sister you describe is actually EXACTLY like the DS people Boyle described – as his joke was about how they crave to enjoy pop music but their parents are often elderly so don’t buy them any.

You speak very authoritatively for someone who wasn’t actually therebeware on forming your opinions from heresay. Journalists are dangerous creatures if they do not commit to the facts.

Rebecca Saunders FAO Carol.

Correct, I wasn’t there, but I was given the link to Mrs Smith’s blog, and also belong to a support network for familes of people with DS which Mr and Mrs Smith are also members of.

So, I grant you, I had Mrs Smith’s side of the story not Frankie Boyle’s – he is more than welcome to put his side of the story across but has not so far been forthcoming with it.

However, this is an opinion piece, it is my opinion based on what Sharon relayed about the night and about how I feel about jokes regarding people with Down’s Syndrome.

Also, please don’t use the word sufferer in connection with people with DS. They do not suffer, it is not a disease, it is a genetic difference that causes no pain or suffering. Alice is the healthiest of all my siblings!

Rebecca julie Carol seems to have her own opinion against down’s syndrome and must be a big fan of the said comedian. but I totally agree with rebecca – Down’s children do not

suffer their conditiion – they put a whole new perspective on life, and bring a lot of joy.

My son can do things better than his older siblings but the stero type, and please carol – older parents dont buy their kids pop music etc – what year are you in – ashes to ashes year – talk about not only stero typing the children but carol stero types the the parents. perhaps carol ought to get her facts straight and stop been such a pain in th arse typical person!!!

Jane The “parents are often elderly” is also a stero type.

I had my son when I was 36 (my third child) and today he is 4 years old and all the mothers in my group who have childeren with DS are younger than me, some of them in their 20’s.

The person that I fisrt talked to when my son was born had her dauther when she was 21 years old. How ever you want to see he was hurting a population with a stereotype that is not even true.

Tab forced to apologise to Lizo Tom I don’t see how someone who is not at all professionally successful in the field of journalism can launch attacks at a respected and influential figure in that field.

They should be ashamed of themselves and relieved of their writing duties. The students must all be intelligent people, and yet seem to have missed the fact when writintg the allegations that they will be likely to cause a lot of distress for the subject and his family.

Disgraceful.

Away on a placement?

Heading abroad?

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20 TAF-OD

gairrhydd | TAFOD@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Athrawon Cymru yn gwneud gwahaniaeth yn Lesotho Laura Lee

Taf-od Writer Mae Dolen Cymru wedi bod yn creu cysylltiadau sy'n newid bywydau rhwng Cymru a Lesotho ers 1985, gan ddatblygu cysylltiadau holl bwysig ym maes addysg, iechyd, llywodraethu a chymdeithas sifil.

Mae Dolen Cymru yn ymgymryd â hyrwyddo dinasyddiaeth fyd-eang yng Nghymru ac mae o'r farn bod gan bobl Cymru nawr gyfle a chyfrifoldeb i chwarae mwy o ran yn y gwaith o greu byd tecach.

Mae’r tîm medrus o staff yn y Swyddfeydd yng Nghaerdydd a Lesotho, rhwydwaith ymroddedig o wirfoddolwyr a'n Noddwr cefnogol iawn, Tywysog Harry, yn gweithio gyda'i gilydd i gynnig y cysylltiadau mwyaf gweithgar rhwng Cymru a Lesotho.

Ym mis Ionawr, cyfnewidiodd chwech o athrawon balmentydd llithrig Cymru am heolydd llychlyd Lesotho yn Ne Affrica. Tra ceisioedd eu cydweithwyr beidio a llithro ar iâ, cerddasant i lawr strydoedd lle bu menywod yn rhostio yd, lle cerddai gwartheg o gwmpas yn rhydd a lle gallech brynu bresych maint pêl fasged o’r un safle y gwerthwyd sbectolau haul a chredyd ar gyfer ffonau symudol. Y mae’r grwp yn cyfrannu tuag at Rhaglen Gosod Athrawon Dolen Cymru ac mi fyddent yn gweithio yn Lesotho am gyfnod o chwech mis.

Yn wir y mae’r athrawon yn gyfforddus yn eu cymunedau a’u hysgolion newydd, wedi bod yno am dri mis.

Er eu bod nhw’n wynebu sialensiau megis tai wedi eu llifogi yn dymhorol a theithiau hygyrchedd cyhoeddus lle bu adar a defaid hefyd yn deithwyr, y mae’r grwp yn gwneud y gorau o’u hamser yn Lesotho.

Bwriad ei hymweliad yw rhannu eu sgiliau dysgu ac i gynorthwyo ysgolion Lesotho i ddatblygu dolen gyda Chymru. Mae Dolen Cymru yn deall pwysigrwydd addysg fel arf i greu dealltwriaeth a goddefgarwch, er mwyn codi pobl o dlodi ac er mwyn

creu dinasyddion byd-eang gweithgar.

Gyda dim ond chwarter o blant ysgol gynradd Lesotho yn mynd yn eu blaenau i addysg uwchradd, mae nifer o heriau i’w wynebu.

Cefnoga Dolen Cymru ysgolion ac addysgwyr yng Nghymru ac yn Lesotho mewn nifer o wahanol ffyrdd.

Mae’r rhain yn amrywio o’n Rhaglen Lleoli Athrawon yn Lesotho, sy’n caniatáu i athrawon o Gymru weithio mewn ysgolion yn Lesotho am 6-12 mis, i’n rhaglenni cysylltu ysgolion yng Nghymru sy’n creu cysylltiadau cynaliadwy ag ysgolion yn Lesotho.

Mae ein holl waith addysgol yn anelu at ddatblygu cysylltiadau hirdymor a all wneud gwahaniaeth positif i fywydau pobl yng Nghymru ac yn Lesotho.

Y mae amgylchiadau dysgu yn wahanol iawn i’r rheini yn y Deyrnas Unedig, gyda niferoedd i fyny at 80 ym mhob dosbarth. Nid oes trydan yn rhan fwyaf o’r ysgolion a phrin iawn yw deunydd defnyddiol gwerthfawr.

Caiff deunydd sylfaenol megis sialc, byrddau du a llyfrau ymarfer eu gwerthfawrogi yn lle. Er hyn, y mae Chris Gozzard o Ysgol Maelor yn Wrecsam wedi llwyddo i greu marcer cemegol gan defnyddio potel dd r yn ogystal â chynllunio modur a grëwyd ganddo gyda defnyddiau a ddarganfu o gwmpas yr ysgol.

Mae holl waith addysgol Dolen Cymru yn anelu at ddatblygu cysylltiadau hirdymor a all wneud gwahaniaeth positif i fywydau pobl yng Nghymru ac yn Lesotho. Dywed athrawon sydd yn gweithio a Rachael Davies o Ben y Bont eu bod nhw am ddysgu mwy o gelf a chrefft i’r plant ond nid oeddent yn sicr sut. Awgrymodd Rachael ddysgu’r plant drwy greu pyped gyda defnyddiau naturiol fel glaswellt, d, dail a phlatiau papur. Y mae Rachael hefyd wedi bod yn gweithio gydag elusen lleol, yn dysgu’r bobl sut i defnyddio pypedau i gynorthwyo pobl ifanc i ddeall mwy am HIV ac AIDS. Y mae athrawes ddrama, Rachael Perry, hefyd yn annog ei myfyrwyr i ddod yn greadigol ac yn fwy hyderus. Dymuna

Rachael dal cyngerdd ‘Lesotho’s Got Talent’ yn ei hysgol ym mis Ebrill.

Ym mis Mawrth 2007, penodwyd y Tywysog Harry yn Noddwr Dolen Cymru. Roedd Dolen Cymru yn hynod falch o groesawu Noddwr sydd wedi dangos cymaint o ymrwymiad personol i bobl Lesotho, gan iddo fod yn dyst i gynhesrwydd ei phobl ac i'r angen mawr sy'n bodoli yno pan fu'n ymgymryd â lleoliad yn Lesotho yn ystod ei flwyddyn i ffwrdd yn 2004.

Mae Dolen Cymru yn gweithio gyda Thywysog Harry i godi ymwybyddiaeth o'r problemau sy'n wynebu ein gwlad neilliedig a hefyd o'r gwaith gwerthfawr y mae Dolen Cymru a'i sefydliad partner yn Lesotho, Laquama le Wales (Dolen Cymru Lesotho) yn ei wneud.

‘Rwy' mor falch o fod yn gysylltiedig â Dolen Cymru. Mae'r gwaith y mae'n ei wneud wrth gynorthwyo ac annog mudiadau ac unigolion yng Nghymru i sefydlu cysylltiadau a meithrin cyfeillgarwch gyda'u cymheiriaid yn Lesotho yn hollol amhrisiadwy.

Rwy'n gwybod o'm gwaith fy hun yn Lesotho pa mor bwysig y mae cysylltiadau o'r fath ac rwy'n rhoi fy nghefnogaeth lwyr i Dolen Cymru a'i ymdrechion sylweddol i ddatblygu cysylltiadau â mudiadau sydd â diddordebau cyffredin, fel fy sefydliad innau, Sentebale, ac i adeiladu ar y ddealltwriaeth a'r cydweithio gwych sy'n bodoli rhwng y ddwy genedl.

Fel Noddwr, hoffwn eich llongyfarch yn ddiffuant am bopeth y mae Dolen Cymru wedi'i gyflawni ac edrychaf ymlaen at fy nghydgysylltiad â chi’ - Harry.

Drwy adeiladu ar sgiliau, achub bywydau a chysylltu pobl, mae gwaith Dolen Cymru yn parhau i fod yn allweddol yn y broses ddatblygu fydeang.

Canolbwyntia Dolen Cymru ar bedwar prif faes – addysg, iechyd, cymdeithas sifil a llywodraethu – ac mae ein hymwneud â chymaint o agweddau ar y gymdeithas yn ein gosod mewn sefyllfa unigryw.

Drwy weithio’n agos gyda sector eang o gymdeithas yng Nghymru ac yn Lesotho, yn sic mae Dolen Cymru yn gwneud gwahaniaeth gwirioneddol gynaliadwy i fywydau pobl. Cryfder mwyaf Dolen Cymru yw eu bod yn dibynnu ar ddatblygu cysylltiadau rhwng pobl ac yn annog sefydliadau ac unigolion i weithio ar y cyd, boed yn weithwyr iechyd, yn athrawon neu'n seneddwyr. Wrth gydweithio â phobl Cymru maent hefyd yn datblygu’r sgiliau a’r agweddau y mae ar Gymru eu hangen er mwyn ymateb i’r heriau mewn cymdeithas sy’n mynd yn fwyfwy byd-eang.

Gyda llai na chwarter y plant sy’n cychwyn yn yr ysgol gynradd yn Lesotho yn mynd ymlaen i’r ysgol uwchradd, mae addysg wedi bod

yn ganolog o hyd yng ngwaith Dolen Cymru.

Mae anghenion iechyd Lesotho yn enfawr – gyda 31% o’r boblogaeth yn dioddef o HIV/AIDS, mae cyfraddau TB yn uchel iawn gyda rhywogaethau aml wrthiannol cynyddol ac mae’r risg i iechyd y cyhoedd o glefyd siwgr yn tyfu. Gyda’r fath ystadegau mae gwaith iechyd Dolen Cymru yn orfodol. Mae Gofal Iechyd yn Lesotho yn parhau i fod yn wael iawn ac mae’r strwythur iechyd yn ddi-drefn, tameidiog ac wedi ei danariannu.

Mae eu gwaith wedi cwmpasu hyf-

liadol a rôl grwpiau cymdeithas sifil er mwyn sicrhau trefn lywodraethol dda. Mae nifer o Undebau eisoes wedi’u cysylltu ag Undebau yn Lesotho a’r mae Gweithlu Nodau Datblygu Mileniwm (NDM) CGGC, a grëwyd i alluogi cymdeithas sifil yng Nghymru i gyfrannu at gyflawni NDM, wedi gwneud Lesotho yn wlad sy’n flaenoriaeth i sefydliadau Cymreig ffocysu eu hymdrechion arni.

Gwnaethpwyd Ddolenni rhwng Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru (CCC) a Chynulliad Cenedlaethol Lesotho (CCL) yn 2005 pan ddaeth cynrychi-

forddiant iechyd meddwl, cyfnodau dewisol i fyfyrwyr meddygaeth, lleoliadau iechyd dwyochrog, a datblygu rhaglen HIV/AIDS. Mae Cysylltiadau Iechyd rhwng Lesotho a Chymru wedi bod yn esblygu dros y 18 mlynedd diwethaf.

Mae lleoliadau iechyd a chyfnodau dewisol i fyfyrwyr meddygaeth yng Ngwasanaeth Meddygol Lesotho wedi bod yn niferus. Yn ystod y ddwy flynedd ddiwethaf mae Memorandwm Cyd-Ddealltwriaeth [MCDd] wedi cael ei gytuno rhwng Dolen Cymru a’r Weinyddiaeth Iechyd a Lles Cymdeithasol sy’n darparu cefnogaeth ariannol i weithwyr iechyd proffesiynol sy’n gweithio gydag Ymddiriedolaeth GIG Caerdydd a’r Fro a’r Ysbyty Queen Elizabeth II ym Maseru yn ogystal â rhwng Ymddiriedolaeth Gogledd Orllewin Cymru ac Ysbyty Quthing. Mae MCDd yn bodoli sy’n disgrifio’r trefniant gefeillio.

Ar hyn o bryd mae gan Dolen Cymru nifer o weithwyr proffesiynol yn gweithio mewn amryw o wahanol feysydd yn y gwasanaeth iechyd yn Lesotho gan gynnwys gweithio yn y Weinyddiaeth Iechyd.

Un maes y mae Dolen Cymru wedi bod yn weithgar ynddo yn ystod y blynyddoedd diweddar yw trefn lywodraethol. Mae gweithdai wedi cael eu hwyluso yn Lesotho i drafod trefn lywodraethol dda, tryloywder etho-

olydd o Bwyllgor Seneddol y Gymanwlad (PSG) Cangen Cymru i ymweld â Lesotho. Ymwelodd Mike German AC ac arweinydd Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru a John Griffiths, AC, Dirprwy Weinidog Iechyd Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru â Chynulliad Cenedlaethol Lesotho ym mis Hydref 2005 i drafod gyda chydweithwyr seneddol sut gall y ddau Gynulliad gydweithio er mwyn gwella gwasanaethau i aelodau a meithrin gallu eu staff. Yn dilyn yr ymweliad hwn, treuliodd bump aelod o staff o’r CCL bythefnos ar ymlyniad yn CCC yn 2006.

Gallwch gymryd rhan mewn nifer o brosiectau Dolen Cymru beth bynnag yw eich oedran, diddordebau neu ddoniau. Mae eich cefnogaeth yn gwneud gwahaniaeth mawr i waith Dolen Cymru.

P’un ai ydych chi’n codi arian gyda’ch cwmni neu drwy eich ysgol neu Brifysgol, yn trefnu eich digwyddiad eich hun i godi arian neu yn awyddus i gymryd rhan yn un o’r prosiectau, mae yna nifer o ffyrdd y gallwch gymryd rhan.

Un o’r ffyrdd mwyaf syml y gallwch ein helpu drwy wneud cyfraniad.

Does yr un swm y gallwch ei gyfrannu yn rhy fach a gallwch fod yn sicr eich bod yn gwneud gwahaniaeth i Lesotho nid yn unig heddiw ond ar gyfer y blynyddoedd i ddod.

gairrhydd | SCIENCE@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT 21

Red Planet in Obama's sight

Obama hits back at critics of his NASA cuts with an ambitious new program aimed at visiting Mars Tomos Clarke Science Editor There are few things closer to the American heart than NASA and the space programme. In a nation founded on the frontier, the explorer has always had a special place in the American heart, and space exploration is the greatest frontier of our age.

With the announcement that President Obama was cutting NASA's flagship Constellation Programme, there were very public murmurs of discontent from many in the industry, including original moon-landers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The program called for Americans to return to the moon by 2020 and for the development of a replacement for the defunct Space Shuttle. It was one of former President Bush's few popular policies.

lines in the early days of aeronautics, Obama's space vision is one of healthy commercial competition rather than state run monopoly. NASA would then be able to buy travel into low earth orbit, the International Space Station and beyond to the moon from

pears in public, let alone passes comment. He brandished it “devastating� and said that it "destines our nation to become one of second- or even thirdrate stature".

The President responded to the criticism in typical bullish style. In a

American explorers could be orbiting Mars by the mid 2030s

However, costly delays and setbacks forced Obama to shift the focus of NASA away from Constellation and toward promoting private sector investment in space technology.

Much in the same way private companies were encouraged to set up air-

these companies.

But with commercial space travel very much in its infancy, the chances of a return in the foreseeable future remain unlikely. This brought anger from Neil Armstrong, who rarely ap-

MARS: America's next target speech to dignitaries at the Kennedy Space Centre, he outlined the most ambitious space policy since JFK said Americans would walk on the moon back in the 1960s.

By 2025, NASA will have devel-

oped and tested a spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts beyond low earth orbit and deep into space.

A manned visit to an asteroid will follow in order to thoroughly test the technology for its main goal: a visit to the red planet Mars. If all goes to plan, American explorers will orbit our celestial neighbour by the mid2030s with a landing to come soon after.

The technology needed to fuel this drive into the wider solar system will be developed with a $6 billion budget increase, with projects only getting funding if they develop new, innovative technology.

"The bottom line is nobody is more committed to manned spaceflight, the human exploration of space, than I am. But we've got to do it in a smart way; we can't keep doing the same old things as before," said Obama.

Priority will thus be given to missions visiting places that have never seen human exploration. First robotic probes will pave the way, and human explorers will follow.

The plans open up huge possibilities for the future of space exploration, as a key point is the need to develop the infrastructure of space. Construction of refuelling stations in orbit will lead to the first true spacecraft, ones that never need land on earth, that are perhaps even constructed in space.

Only then can the real work of exploring the cosmos begin.

Water imports unsustainable Most people in Britain take water for granted, but a new report warns that these attitudes won't last for long Jack Parker Science Writer It is recommended that we drink eight glasses of water every day, but this water maintains our health, not our lifestyle. The average UK citizen actually requires an astonishing 4,645 litres of water every day with the majority being used to create clothes and other goods or to grow crops and feed animals that we later consume.

A recent report highlights the fact that two-thirds of the water used in the UK is imported from foreign countries. This poses a large problem when many of these exporting countries, such as those in Africa, are already suffering from water shortages. The problem is only expected to get worse with global fresh water demand estimated to be 30% higher by 2030.

The amount of water required to produce common daily goods is stag-

gering. It takes 70 litres of water to grow, harvest and transport an apple to your kitchen fruit bowl, 440 litres of water for a loaf of bread and a massive 3,875 litres for one beef steak.

Among the worst offenders are jeans, requiring no less than 10,850 litres of fresh water per pair.

Professor Roger Falconer, director of the Hydro-Environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University, helped to steer the recent report. He commented that, "In the first instance we all need to become much more aware of our water footprint and, in particular, how our water footprint is impacting on the rest of the world and particularly those countries around the world facing increasing water stress".

Many engineering and social solutions are being proposed and implemented around the world to combat water scarcity. Simple ideas include having water butts to collect rainfall which can then be used to water plants or flush the toilet.

Drip irrigation could also be used

to target water more efficiently when growing crops - 70% of global water consumption is currently used in irrigation.

We need to be aware of our water footprint and how it impacts on the rest of the world The Chinese, acting in preparation for surges in the economy and consumption in upcoming decades, have already began to create a network of dams, pipes and pumping stations all over the country. When completed in 2050, the ÂŁ38billion project will transfer 44.8 billion cubic metres of water from the rivers in the south of the country to the booming cities of the north.

However, this plan has been widely criticised as it does not actually reduce water consumption, but simply trans-

ports water from one place to another.

Opponents argue that the infrastructure costs will make future water unreasonably expensive and that it could even render other parts of the country with worse droughts as their water is being taken from them.

Proposed social solutions to the problem are also controversial. One idea is to have water labels on the goods we buy, similar to energy labels on some electrical goods. Another more extreme idea is to encourage vegetarianism within western communities as meat requires much more water to produce than vegetables.

Water shortage is going to become increasingly problematic within our lifetime. This recent report emphasises that the issue goes well beyond our decision to have a shower rather than a bath, or to turn the tap off when we clean our teeth, but it is something that must be considered when dealing with the fundamental issues of consumption and waste within society.

News in brief Full face transplant a success A team of Spanish surgeons say they have successfully performed the world's first full face transplant. The operation took place in March but details have only just emerged.

The patient was injured in a shooting accident five years ago and left unable to breathe, swallow or talk properly.

He received the entire facial skin and muscles of a donor during the 22 hour operation, including the cheekbones, nose, lips and teeth. He is said to be recovering well.

Ten face transplants have previously taken place around the world but this is thought to be the most complex one yet, transplanting the whole face, as well as some bones.

Humans could have interbred with other species Early humans could have bred with other species, such as Neanderthals.

A study by a team at the University of New Mexico looked at nearly two thousand people from around the world. Their results suggest that interbreeding happened about 60,000 years ago in the Mediterranean and about 45,000 years ago in Eastern Asia.

Over 600 genetic markers called microsatellites were studied in nearly 100 different populations. When humans originally moved out of Africa, these markers changed so that researchers could determine when different populations split from each other.

Scientists found that some of the markers in the study were too old to have come from humans and that inbreeding with other species was the most likely explanation.

Mobile phone study The UK is to take part in a new long term study into the effects of mobile phone usage on health.

250,000 mobile phone users will take part in the study - the largest of its kind, spanning five countries.

UK network operators including Vodafone and O2 have agreed to invite randomly selected customers aged 18 to 69 to take part.

The study will be looking for increased rates of cancer and other conditions like depression and motor neurone disease by comparing the extent to which people use their mobiles with the information on their medical records.

New name suggested for planet Earth Author and environmental activist, Bill McKibben, has said he thinks that planet Earth should be renamed because humans have changed it so drastically.

McKibben's book The End of Nature was released in 1989 and was one of the first popular warnings against climate change.

McKibben is proposing the name 'Eaarth' as it looks similar to the word 'Earth' but is different in fundamental ways. He says we are now living on a planet that is physically different enough to warrant a new name.

22 JOBS & MONEY

gairrhydd | JOBS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Recent graduates get behind the spin on graduate careers Liam Doyle Jobs & Money Writer A grad jobs site. Doesn’t sound like the world’s most original idea does it? Pitch that to the dragons and you’ll be out of there faster than you can say “I’m out.” Over on BBC One, Lord Sugar probably wouldn’t even bother to swear at you. Of the overcrowded markets around, this one looks pretty packed.

So why have a couple of recent graduates decided to waste months of their lives, and a chunk of their hard earned cash launching yet another graduate careers site? Having read, and binned their cheesy press release, asking them seemed the most obvious way to find out...

Jamie, a Cambridge maths graduate, says “To be honest it started as a joke. I think the idea of a site that cut through the employer spin first came up over drinks one evening. Every now and then we’d come back to it,

then after a few months of kicking the idea around we decided just to do it for fun.” His partner, Nick explains the background: “I guess there was a shared experience there,” he says.

“We’d both been to all the employer presentations, done the applications, got a decent job, and then realised after a bit that the corporate spiel had been pretty heavily censored.”

In Jamie’s case, that realisation prompted a total change of career.

About a year after joining a major bank, he decided to take a completely different direction, as an acrobat and freelance web developer. “I guess you could say I ran away with the circus.

I signed up for a performance course as something fun to do for a bit after quitting my job, and I’ve ended up performing all over the world. I’ve always been a pretty natural programmer, so I started doing some web development to fill in the gaps between performing.” Jamie’s third career, as a part time web developer, helps make sense of the transition from banker, to trapeze artist, to wannabe web pub-

lishing entrepreneur.

Pressed on what is actually different about their site, Nick explains “Essentially this is a careers website with a difference. Not a single word of it has been written by an employer. You can type in the name of pretty much any major graduate employer and get a bunch of real, uncensored reviews written by their graduate employees.”

At this point, Jamie cuts in to make the point that this isn’t actually quite true, as they do let employers comment on reviews of them, saying, “Well it only seems fair, and letting them reply probably reduces the risk of them suing us a bit.”

Both say that the most surprising thing has been how generally balanced, and positive their response has been. Although Jamie says, “We have had some real stinkers. A couple of people actually accused their employers of fraud. One guy actually said he wanted to systematically exterminate their customers.”

So does it actually work? Well, back at the office, five minutes check-

SUCCESS STORY: The Graduate Jobs Uncovered website ing out www.gradjobsuncovered.com quickly turns into ten, then 15. Among the choicer entries are a guy at Morgan Stanley who says, “I enjoy making so much money.” (Seriously?) A salesperson at Carphone Warehouse who signs off by saying, “Also if you have a conscience, don’t take this

job.” And some enterprising soul at a publishing company who says, "Being able to work from home is a bonus; it has allowed me to move to Bulgaria for five months to work while doing a snowboard season." Nice. www.gradjobsuncovered.com will be live from 01/05/2010.

LETTERS 19

gairrhydd | LETTERS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

the Comments from the week’s news, opinion, features and sport at www.gairrhydd.com Mr Ambassador, you're wrong Jonathan Offered a state of next to Israel in 1947 as part of the United nations partition plan. Full rights both of property and civil were to be given to minorities in both states.

Tragically this plan was rejected, not by the Jews. Not even all the Arabs, but the leadership of the Palestinians did. These facts are a matter of public record.

Adam The UN had no right to partition a country against the wishes of the majority of its inhabitants, this is an unprecedented move in history.

The partition plan was also profoundly unjust, at a time when the population ratio was around two-thirds Arab, one third Jewish (the majority recent settlers), the Palestinians were to be given a minority of the land in favour of the majority being handed over to a recent migrant population. Would any other people on earth – including the people of Britain or Wales – have accepted such a partition plan?

More to the point, a generation of Israeli Jewish historians such as Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe and Tom Segev have uncovered from primary military sources that the Zionist movement in reality rejected the partition plan and evidence of “Plan Dalet” the military operations accompanying the birth of the Jewish State involving rapes, massacres, wholescale ethnic cleansing, demolition of entire villages ( the birth of Israel saw the complete demolition and depopulation of over 400 Palestinian villages with the refugees still denied the right to return to this day) and collusion with the King of Jordan to carve up the ‘Palestinian state’ between them.

I recommend a very fine book by Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, ‘The Ethnic

Cleansing of Palestine’ that convincingly shows that the aim of the Zionist movement in Palestine was always to build a Jewish state depopulated – as much as possible – of the indigenous population.

If you think about it, the logic is self-evident: The political aim of Zionism was to build an ethnic state, a Jewish State, under the UN partition plan, despite the majority of land being set aside for a Jewish State, this state still would have contained a 40% Arab population, a very substantial number of non-Jews that would have made it extremely difficult to build a state that privileged one race. Thus David Ben-Gurion, later first Prime Minister of Israel, states the facts baldly in a speech in 1947, ‘There are 40 percent non-Jews in the areas allocated to the Jewish state. This composition is not a solid basis for a Jewish state.… Only a state with 80 percent Jews is a viable state.’ – for Ben Gurion and the wider Zionist movement in Palestine being given the majority of land under the UN partition plan was not enough, they wanted more. You can read hundreds of statements in the public domain in the years leading up to 1948, in which all the main actors – right and left wing – in the Zionist movement, speak openly and frankly of the ‘transfer’ (a euphemism for ethnic cleansing) of the indigenous Arab population.

While the understandable desire for a Jewish State from many members of a persecuted people was not racist, the practicalities of setting up such a state in an area already inhabited by another society – the exclusion and expulsion the indigenous population, destroying a society rather than integrating into it, building a country that is based on exclusivity, ethnicity and race – could only result in a set-up that contradicts universal human rights Ojala We Jews have tried living under

Arab/Muslim rule and it was a disaster. In fact we tried it for 14 centuries.

We were virtual slaves to them, subject to every whim and humiliation, bouts of violence and forced conversion. We are not about to give up the freedoms we now enjoy in Israel!

Downs with Frankie Boyle Carole Hi. I was at the actual show and the picture you paint isn’t what actually happenned- you have cherry picked from press reports.

1. The joke poked fun at elderly parents of Downs sufferers, not the sufferers. The “truth” that Ms smith has referred to was that she is not elderly and that she dresses her daughter well – nothing to do with the condition.

2..Boyle didn’t laugh when Ms Smith told him about her daughter. He actually was quite taken aback, went very thoughtful and then asked enquiringly that “it’s true though isn’t it?”

3. He spent quite a while talking to Ms Smith and asking why she had come to see a show that she knew would be challenging. He gave her plenty of space- and then said the “fuck it” line to get the audience back so he could carry on with the show, as it had become very tense.

4. Ms Smith said she had wanted to see his most offensive stuff and sat very happily laughing at jokes about Jon Venables, Maddie McCann and the Fritzls.

5. The sister you describe is actually EXACTLY like the DS people Boyle described – as his joke was about how they crave to enjoy pop music but their parents are often elderly so don’t buy them any.

You speak very authoritatively for someone who wasn’t actually therebeware on forming your opinions from heresay. Journalists are dangerous creatures if they do not commit to the

forum

facts.

Rebecca Saunders FAO Carol.

Correct, I wasn’t there, but I was given the link to Mrs Smith’s blog, and also belong to a support network for familes of people with DS which Mr and Mrs Smith are also members of.

So, I grant you, I had Mrs Smith’s side of the story not Frankie Boyle’s – he is more than welcome to put his side of the story across but has not so far been forthcoming with it.

However, this is an opinion piece, it is my opinion based on what Sharon relayed about the night and about how I feel about jokes regarding people with Down’s Syndrome.

Also, please don’t use the word sufferer in connection with people with DS. They do not suffer, it is not a disease, it is a genetic difference that causes no pain or suffering. Alice is the healthiest of all my siblings!

Rebecca julie Carol seems to have her own opinion against down’s syndrome and must be a big fan of the said comedian. but I totally agree with rebecca – Down’s children do not suffer their conditiion – they put a whole new perspective on life, and bring a lot of joy.

My son can do things better than his older siblings but the stero type, and please carol – older parents dont buy their kids pop music etc – what year are you in – ashes to ashes year – talk about not only stero typing the children but carol stero types the the parents. perhaps carol ought to get her facts straight and stop been such a pain in th arse typical person!!!

also a stero type.

I had my son when I was 36 (my third child) and today he is 4 years old and all the mothers in my group who have childeren with DS are younger than me, some of them in their 20’s.

The person that I fisrt talked to when my son was born had her dauther when she was 21 years old. How ever you want to see he was hurting a population with a stereotype that is not even true.

Tab forced to apologise to Lizo Tom I don’t see how someone who is not at all professionally successful in the field of journalism can launch attacks at a respected and influential figure in that field.

They should be ashamed of themselves and relieved of their writing duties. The students must all be intelligent people, and yet seem to have missed the fact when writintg the allegations that they will be likely to cause a lot of distress for the subject and his family.

Disgraceful.

Jane The “parents are often elderly” is

Away on a placement?

Heading abroad?

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22 LETTERS

gairrhydd | LETTERS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MARCH 01 2010

LISTINGS 25

gairrhydd | LISTINGS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Monday 3rd May

FUN FACT TREE, Solus, FREE Fun Factory is still producing cheap entertainment for those too stingy to splurge their student loans. Free entry and super cheap drinks are a perfect way to enjoy yourself whilst keeping an eye on the purse-strings. Dubstep, DnB, Electro... it's got everything. Don't even question it, just go for it.

CAI PRESENTS PHARMACY,HYENER & HOUDINI DAX, Cardiff Arts Institute, FREE, 8pm Brooklyn Based, Pharmacy fly into the UK for a series of shows. CAI are fortunate to be one of those pitstops! Catch them here on May Day bank Holiday. Hotly-tipped, Cardiff based support slots in the form of Hyener, a 4-piece alt-pop outfit from Cardiff. Quirky dance-pop with elements of dub and soul. Expect songs about zombies, late night bike rides and lions.

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

Friday

7th May BOOMBOX, Solus, £3.50 Get your weekend off to a good start, with cheap drinks and lots of good music. You can't help but have a good night at the Union, with 99p drinks, and the high probability of bumping into everyone you know. Do it, Boom your Box. APERTURE, Clwb, £5 Off the hook drum and bass night, held up by a community of Cardiff's finest DJ's - with residents such as High Contrast and guest DJs. THE DUDES ABIDE, Clwb, £3.50/5 The Dudes Abide is the weekend's finest way to let your rock hair down, shake your indie fringe wildly or bounce your beehive madly to the best sounds around. The Dudes Abide is the only place to be on a Friday night.

'SATURDAYS' LAUNCH NIGHT, Cardiff Arts Institute, £2 (before 11) Friday kicks off with Bass music legends, Baobinga & ID, showcasing just why they are considered one of the best and most respected duos in the business. Joining them, C.R.S.T. and Diverse Concepts who'll be showing why they have been getting a lot of love from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs, Martyn and Giles Peterson of late.

Tuesday 4th May

FLUX=RAD, Cardiff Arts Institute, FREE, 8pm A night dedicated to delivering the most exciting new acts into the city of Cardiff. Celebrating all things emerging and providing a showcase for the very best in local live talent, this new weekly night is a voyage of discovery.

Erland & The Carnival - Fresh dynamic songs with a nod to the likes of Jackson C Frank, Bert Janch, Davy Graham and early Fairport.

THE NEAT, Barfly, £5, 7.30pm The Neat. A furious foursome from Hull, a bleak city stuffed with abbatoirs, rattling out angular buzzsaw Buzzcockisms to a half-empty Barfly like it was Brixton Academy.

JUST DANCE, Clwb, £3, 10pm Dancing shoes at the ready! Yep, you heard right, 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. No gimmicks, no false promises...just cheap entry, cheap drinks prices and great GREAT tunes.

Saturday 8th May

COME PLAY, Solus, £3.50 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??

'SATURDAYS' LAUNCH NIGHT, Cardiff Arts Institute, £2 (before 11) Full of festival fun, expect to see the best Funk, Ska, Swing, Gypsy, Balkan, Hip-hop and Rockabilly bands picked up from random fields along the way providing the musical background to the best alternative Saturday night out in the city.

CARDIFF STUDENT MEDIA AWARDS, Hilton Hotel, 7pm It's the 13th Annual Cardiff Student Media Awards. Each year. the awards ceremony gets bigger and better, and this year will be no exception. Hosted by Radio One's Greg James, and attended by other important media moguls, the awards ceremony provides a chance for all involved with Cardiff Student Media to have their work recognised by industry professionals.

Wednesday 5th May

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 L.A.D 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 3 floors of cheap bars and trendy kids, this is the place to be every Wednesday.

NO SWEAT PRESENTS WORLD VIRUS ESSAY, Cardiff Arts Institute, FREE, 8pm Word Virus Essay play live drum & bass and trip-hop that make it almost impossible for you not to shake your groove thang. Expect another beanbag boycott this week - No Sweat might get a bit sweaty.

BOGOF Orange Wednesdays There's so much good stuff on this week. There's a brand new Ricky Gervais one, and Iron Man II apparently... Take a friend and have a chilled out night away from exam stress.

Sunday 9th May

ALL TIME TOP 100 PRESENTS ALEX DINGLEY, Cardiff Arts Institute, FREE, 3pm Alex Dingley is a former member of Texas Radio Band, a band who were synonymous with dark humour, farce, politics, myths and legends, trash literature and nostalgia. Alex combines these ingredients into relevant songs reflecting Modern Life. Perfect time to interpret the inspiration into his Top100 tunes. (free Bloody Mary with your Sunday Roast) GO TO THE PARK Take advantage of this recent fine weather and talk a stroll in Bute, a stride in the Bay, or just sit in your garden. Why are you indoors in such wonderful (and rare) sun. Unless, of course, you should be revising... or writing an essay.

In which case, get back to it. You should be ashamed.

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, the end of weekend blues, of general essay/exam hell. Keep going. I'm sending you virtual hugs as you read.

Thursday 6th May

THREE SYLLABLES PRESENT DAMON & NAOMI (ex-Galaxie 500), Cardiff Arts Institute, £2/3, 8pm Ex-Galaxie 500 darlings, Damon & Naomi (USA/Sub Pop),bring their heart-achingly beautiful, serene tunes to Cardiff. We are equally aching for this show to come around.

LA ROUX, Great Hall, £15 adv, 7.30pm Oh La Roux.

BETHAN ELFYN AND FRIENDS PRESENT: Masters In France + Mechanical Owl + Field Commander Short Shorts + Bethan Elfyn, Buffalo Bar, FREE, 8pm The best place to hear new music first in Cardiff with Radio 1's Bethan Elfyn. Up & coming bands, label showcases & DJs, followed by the lady herself DJing in the bar until the early hours.

C,Y.N.T, Clwb, £4 We welcome back to the decks longtime friend and C-Y-N-T resident TOM MADDICOTT! Tom's reputation as a solid consistent DJ earnt him his very own Radio 1 Essential Mix and plays reguarly for iconic clubs like Bugged Out!

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 ◆

22 LETTERS

gairrhydd | LETTERS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MARCH 01 2010

FIVE MINUTE FUN 27

gairrhydd | FMF@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

MEDIUM HARD

sudoku.

crossword.

Across

Down

1. Pertaining to the backbone (6) 4. Not suitable or right (8) 10. Irrational (9) 11. Unprecedented (5) 12. A timid man (5) 13. Investigator (9) 14. Unpredictable (7) 16. All excited (4) 19. Portent (4) 21. A shipping receipt (7) 24. Whatever person (9) 25. Drive (5) 26. Large Asian country (5) 27. Cradlesongs (9) 28. Jack of all trades (8) 29. Semiformal evening dress for men (6)

1. An elderly unmarried woman (8) 2. Unreal (8) 3. Furious (5) 5. Territorial reserve (7) 6. A communal dining-hall (9) 7. Sanction (6) 8. Somewhat (6) 9. Corrosive (6) 15. Not permanent (9) 17. Out of bounds (8) 18. In the open air (8) 20. A short novel (7) 21. Trill (6) 22. Anchor up (6) 23. Aureate (6) 25. Blunder (5)

28 SPORT- WARM UP Previews in brief Spanish Grand Prix Alex Bywater Sports Writer With the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship still in its early stages, the competition moves on to Europe with the Spanish Grand Prix on May 9.

After winning in both Melbourne and Shanghai, reigning champion Jenson Button leads the Drivers’ Championship by ten points in what is a close fought battle. After a one-two in China, and currently occupying first and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, McLaren look to be the team in form.

However, with three different winners in each of the four races so far, the Championship looks to be wide open. The pace of Red Bull Racing at the start of the season has yet to be transferred into consistent points scoring, though there is plenty of time left for this to change.

After his much publicised return to the sport, Michael Schumacher has struggled in the Mercedes GP compared to his German team mate, Nico Rosberg, who currently occupies second place in the Championship standings.

However, with talk of both cars in the Mercedes garage receiving substantial upgrades and improvement, it will be interesting to see if there will be a notable upturn in performance; especially by the former world champion.

Despite this, I expect the race to be dominated by McLaren and Red Bull.

Both have enjoyed successful seasons so far, with Red Bull entering the elite of the sport.

Although Lewis Hamilton has had a difficult season so far, with controversy in Melbourne and the split from his father as his agent, I am going to predict a win for Hamilton in Barcelona. McLaren are on the up and after his second place finish in Shanghai, I think Hamilton can go one better and reign in Spain.

gairrhydd | SPORT@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Adam Horne previews one of the of the fiercest matches in the footballing calendar... the Old Firm Derby The Old Firm Derby is back for the fourth and final time on Tuesday night and, despite Rangers already wrapping up the SPL title, it still promises to live up to usual expectations.

Celtic have had a bit of a miserable season and will most probably have both eyes firmly set on next season’s campaign, but there’s a lot of pride at stake here since they’ve lost two of their last three against Walter Smith’s side, drawing the other 1-1.

Previous results suggest it’s destined to be a tight affair. Rangers stole first blood in October, winning 2-1. A 1-1 draw in January regained a bit of dignity for Celtic, but they went on to lose 1-0 in February. With Tony Mowbray still searching for his first win against Rangers as Celtic manager, the pressure from fans will no doubt be mounting. Usually used to a tight title race, they have had to witness their side underachieve this season, to such an extent that they now trail Rangers by 11 points: an unacceptable gap for fans used to winning back-toback league titles with Gordon Strachan at the helm.

Rangers may have the business end of the season wrapped up, but by no means will they be taking this fixture lightly, or using it as an excuse for a break. The Old Firm represents a massive part of the SPL season, and both league form and position are put on hold for the 90 minutes that these two sides battle it out on the pitch. Rangers will be desperate to complete a hat-trick of wins against their bitter rivals.

No love lost in this match From their last five games, Rangers have taken 13 points from a possible 15, showing no sign of letting up their impressive league form towards the close of the season. One man with a particularly dangerous form is striker Kyle Lafferty who, despite only bagging five league goals all season, has scored three of those in his last four games. He will be eager to extend that run of good form on Tuesday night, in the hope of piling yet more misery on Neil Lennon's shoulders.

Meanwhile Kris Boyd will want to continue his ever impressive league form for Rangers, looking to add to his (already large) league goal tally of 21. They’ve certainly had no problem scoring goals this season; 76 in total,

KEANE: Made such a impact at Celtic...not

averaging out at just over two goals a game. When compared to Celtics average of 1.9 goals per game, you may wonder how the two sides have such a large gap between them at this stage of the season. Well, Rangers have only conceded 22 goals this season, an average of 0.6 goals per game, while Celtic have let in 37, just over a goal a game. This is where the sides’ fortunes differ, and exactly why Rangers will have the upper hand on Tuesday.

This will be the 296th time the two sides meet Travelling to Celtic Park is never an easy experience, however, and the home crowd will have a big say in the outcome of this match. On match day, they can provide one of the best atmospheres seen in British football - not that Rangers will be too unnerved by the experience. This will be the 296th time the two sides have met in the league, and Celtic need to start bagging some important victories against their rivals. They have won 96 previous matches, while Rangers have the edge on 116, and Celtic have certainly not helped that statistic this season.

Nevertheless, they have won their last six matches at home, and have the

added advantage of on-loan striker Robbie Keane in their ranks, who has scored an impressive 11 goals in 16 games.

Everyone knows Keane’s credentials: he’s one of the top marksmen in British football, and many expected him to bully the SPL. That’s exactly what he appears to be doing, and despite the fact he is highly unlikely to be around next season, the fans would no doubt be very grateful if he were to score the winner today.

Aiden Mcgeady will of course be another player at the centre of attention come Tuesday night. He has drawn interest from a number of Premiership clubs this season, and can cause any defence considerable worry down the flanks.

There’s no doubt that it’s bound to be a cagey affair, but both sides certainly have goals in them. Without Robbie Keane, I would be tempted to predict a 1-0 Rangers victory, but the Irishman has been a massive part of the Celtic side since January, and has been scoring goals left, right and centre. Celtic will score, but Neil Lennon will still end the season without a win against Walter Smith’s side. I can’t separate the two sides: Rangers have the better form, but Celtic have home advantage. To me this screams 1-1 draw.

Celtic vs Rangers: Editors' Predictions Robbie Wells: This season has been fairly catastrophic for Celtic, which surprised me, as I thought that Tony Mowbray would bring good attacking football to Celtic Park.

As it turned out, they were far too prone to defeat, with Ross County even prevailing against the Bhoys.

In contrast, Rangers have looked as consistent as would be expected from one of the Old Firm. I cannot see any other result other than a Rangers victory in this one, despite Celtic's home advantage and much needed bid for pride in this fixture.

James Hinks: Rangers are the better team this year, hence their huge league win.

However, Celtic will want to finish the season on a high, and therefore I predict that they will win... just.

Celtic also have the home support, and in these close, tense matches, that could make the difference. Finally, Robbie Keane is leaving, so he will be desperate to prove himself worthy of the 'hype' that he recieved when me made his move up north. I think Celtic will win 2 - 1, and both goals will be scored by the up-to-now failing player Robbie Keane.

Jon Evans: Celtic have had very little to cheer about of late: they've lost the league by some distance, lost Tony Mowbry and lost to Ross County in the cup.

This has resulted in match attendances dwindling at Celtic Park and I feel the fans will suffer even more heartache this weekend. Rangers have been miles ahead of their Glasgow rivals this season and I can see them comfortably taking this one. Celtic are in dire need of salvaging something from this year but I don't think this match will be of any consolation.

Rangers to win 2-0.

Lucy Morgan: Rangers have beaten Celtic twice already this season, so the thought of winning a third will be very tempting to Walter Smith's side, but Celtic are at home, and have a lot of pride to play for. The home crowd are bound to play a huge part, and Robbie Keane can always be counted on during vital moments when goals are needed. They may have won the league but I think that will only serve to work against them. Complacency may come into play, and Celtic will want the win a lot more having only taken one point off them this season.

VARSITY - SPORT 29

gairrhydd | SPORT@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Abby Johnson and Helen Read Sports Writers Swansea Uni Womens' 1sts 6 - 55 Cardiff Women's 1sts Cardiff University Ladies Rugby team stormed to victory at Varsity last week. Despite Swansea University having a clear weight advantage, Cardiff’s pace, discipline and fitness levels saw a clear win of 55 - 6 to the away team.

Size definitely did not matter, particularly in the numerous scrums, which Cardiff dominated throughout the 80 minutes. This allowed the ladies to regularly steal the ball from Swansea, leading to many a successful try.

The game began with a penalty kick to Swansea, however good effort by the Cardiff forwards allowed the team to progress back up the pitch. This resulted in a cleanly executed penalty move by Jen Hawkins and Rosie Hutton, to enable Captain Claire Molloy

to score and convert. Unfortunately, Cardiff allowed another penalty kick to Swansea, but Cardiff came back fighting with excellent runs made by Heather Warwick and Blanche Lumb.

A quick break by Sally Tuscon allowed Claire Molloy to score her second try and convert of the game.

Cardiff Ladies were able to maintain the ball due to fantastic teamwork from the forwards, and scrum half Meg Tudor, who worked well around the ruck area. The one time Swansea got their hands on the ball before halftime, was thwarted by a brilliant tackle from Debbie Harper which allowed Cardiff to regain possession. Fran Thistlewaite then subbed on as hooker and Harper moved to tighthead prop for the injured Mary Poynter.

The second half saw Cardiff Ladies so intent on increasing the score that they did not even notice the Swansea streaker. Further tries were scored by Meg Tudor, Kiri Shuttleworth and Sally Tuscon with Claire Molloy converting a majority of them. This meant a fantastic final score for Cardiff Ladies and a truly defeated Swansea squad.

PHOTO: Anne Wagner

Class shines through for Cardiff Ladies

Cardiff's pace proves too much

Swansea Uni men's prove too much Carl Noyce Sports Writer

Swansea Uni Men's 1sts 5 – 1 Cardiff Uni Men's 1sts

What are you pointing at?

Swansea made it three consecutive Varsity victories in Men’s Football at Sketty Lane as they defeated Cardiff 5 - 1 in the fifteenth year of the competition.

The home team looked more relaxed in the warm-up and carried this attitude onto the pitch as they took an early lead against a nervy away side.

Swansea was backed by a vibrant home support, however, this was not the only advantage that the Swans possessed; three of their players donned

the number seven shirt, making it a nightmare for both Cardiff players and spectators alike to tell exactly who was who; especially as three of the Swansea goals came from these select players.

Number seven scored a spectacular 18-yard volley from the right-angle of the penalty area after only two minutes to set the tone for the game. The lead was doubled after only 25 minutes of play. A mistake by Cardiff goalkeeper Luke Bliss was punished by a headed goal from one of the magnificent seven, after James Pickup’s effort had hit the bar.

The volume was raised further when Swansea’s Luke Mayo cracked in the third shortly after the half-time interval. The fourth goal was scored by… you know who. Substitute Gavin

Lang completed the scoring for Swansea.

Although a painful admission, credit must go to Swansea captain Gary Bansor and his side for their performance. Bansor had his team setup in a 4-3-3 formation (4-5-1 off the ball) and it worked to great effect. Pickup was employed as the target man and was well supported by hardworking and quick wingers.

It was not to be Cardiff’s day. This was, perhaps, best demonstrated when Hogan was through one-on-one with the keeper, only to see his effort drift wide with the score at 4-0. However, Hogan did get a consolation for a determined Cardiff side when he converted a last minute penalty to give the away fans some cheer.

Cardiff Uni's 'No Frills' shut Swans bills Hamish Thompson Sports Writer

Swansea 1sts 4 - 15 Cardiff 2nds This year’s Varsity competition saw teams of all types travel to Swansea to represent Cardiff University - even the Ultimate Frisbee team, No-Frills, were able to go and take on Swansea’s “mighty” Ugly Ducklings.

With a crowd of about ten people, mostly leftover from the women’s football, the match began with Cardiff instantly going into the lead with a quick score from fresher Stan Holt.

With No-Frills punishing Swansea

for all of their mistakes, half-time came quickly, seeing a relaxed Cardiff team 8 – 2 up.

As the match progressed, No Frills continued to dominate. The second half of the game strongly echoed the first, with scores for Cardiff coming with ease. An impressive lay-out block from Cardiff’s Tom Kelly led to an even further lead over Swansea.

With the score standing at 12 – 3, even the Swansea supporters could see that a far superior Cardiff team were always going to run away with the game.

Points now coming hand over foot for Cardiff meant that Steven Miller's concentration level dropped, allowing Swansea to score their fourth point of the game.

With the final score at 15 – 4 the match was called to an end. The Swansea captain Stefan Lewis hailed the game a “success” for Swansea for beating their goal of three points.

After the game, Cardiff’s ViceCaptain Neil Hargreaves said: “I don’t think we should have accepted walking away with anything less than 15 – 0 in that game. Last year we won

15 – 2 and the year before that 15 – 1; you never know they might even beat us in 11 years!”

Where's everyone running to?

PHOTOS: JAKE YORATH AND KATHARINA JOITE

30 SPORT- VARSITY

gairrhydd | SPORT@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

VARSITY 2010 in pictures...

On behalf of everyone at Cardiff University RFC, Head of Rugby Martyn Fowler would like to thank everyone who made the trip to Swansea to support the team and for contributing to a fantastic atmosphere at the stadium.

VARSITY - SPORT 31

gairrhydd | SPORT@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY MAY 03 2010

Swansea edge valiant Cardiff in Varsity showdown Cardiff dared to dream on a fabulous Wednesday night in the Liberty Stadium.

Their vision of claiming a third consecutive Varsity cup was very much a reality for the better part of 80 minutes, before an uncharacteristic lapse in defence saw Swansea steal a win that had looked so unlikely.

In the build-up to the game, head coach Martyn Fowler had stressed the enormity of the occasion. The Cardiff team had been in camp the whole of April preparing for Wednesday night, aware that anything less than their best would be to do a disservice to themselves and the effort that had gone into the previous wins. Fowler was clearly aware of the difficulty in staying at the top: “It’s easy to win the trophy, but it’s bloody hard to retain it. We did that for the first time last year.”

Going by the first half of play, a victory for either team had seemed an improbability Going by the first half of play, a victory for either team had seemed an improbability. Aimless kicking, something which has blighted the game at all levels, was a prevalent feature. Perhaps it was nerves (after all, who wants to be the first to make a mistake on such a big occasion?), but it made for predictable, directionless rugby.

The golden moment came, somewhat ironically, from a kick just

before half-time.

Fullback Cameron Pimlow passed the ball to Brett Chatwin on halfway.

The winger chipped and chased with little hope of regathering the ball.

Somehow, his opposite number let the ball slip and now Cardiff were in possession near the enemy’s 22.

Tighthead Jake Cooper-Woolley thundered into the heart of Swansea’s territory after quick distribution from scrum-half and captain Mark Schropfer. From there it went to experienced fly-half Cerith Rees (recovering from a full 80 minutes playing for Llandovery the previous night, no less), who gave a perfectly-balanced cross-kick to Ieuan Coombes. The winger, challenged by his opposite number, won the aerial battle, plucking the ball from the skies and touching down. The conversion was unsuccessful, but it was a great way to end a rather stagnant first half.

It was predicted that Swansea would play a wider game this year, given Cardiff’s negation of their big hitters in the previous fixture. The truth was that the defence on both sides was watertight for large parts of the game, but for the occasional slipup in concentration. When they came, the side with the ball scored. Admittedly, Cardiff failed to capitalise on the two tries they scored to Swansea’s one, something they will bear in mind come next year’s Varsity.

Cardiff’s forwards have come a long way since the start of the season.

Back then they were being outshone by the backs, which is never good for the ego. They chose the grandest stage of all to rectify that injustice, positively emasculating the Swansea pack on occasions. What a glorious sight it must have been for the coaches to see their team –resplendent in brand-new white kits- drive the scrum over Swansea’s own try line for number eight Dan Lewis to

score.

None other than the watching Warren Gatland, who presented the victors with the coveted cup, conceded that he had handed the silverware to the undeserving side. In the changing rooms after the game, he addressed the proud Cardiff team in the blunt, concise fashion for which he is renowned: “The better team lost.” These were convincing words, coming as they did from a man who knows the agony and ecstasy of a game won or lost at the death.

Cardiff have never had to rely on star power to bring the heat to the opposition But Cardiff are a hard-nosed bunch. They won’t easily be swayed by individual glory and plaudits in defeat. Cooper-Woolley epitomises this quality, even going so far as to eschew praise from Wales’s national coach, who singled the Surrey man out for his sterling performance: “I would have come off after five minutes if it meant we could have won.”

Ever the proud Englishman, it would appear.

The fear before the match was that Swansea, having delayed the naming of their team for an inordinate amount of time, would field a Barbarians-like squad of professional players. They have the capability to do so, with many players contracted to the Ospreys and Scarlets having enrolled in Swansea on a part-time basis. Cardiff, on the other hand, can’t boast the same privilege. Coach Fowler lamented before the game: “We haven’t got that advantage: you make the academic requirement or

Uncharacteristically, a good Welsh line-out you don’t come.” So while Swansea didn’t quite leave the crowd starryeyed by fielding the likes of Andy Lloyd (the 82-times capped Osprey and Welsh international), neither did the men wearing green on the field equate completely with those featured in the team photo in the match programme.

The home crowd were blown away by the Cardiff faithful

Cardiff show their strength and determination right to the final whistle

Cardiff have never had to rely on star power to bring the heat to the opposition. What they have is a tenacious spirit, forged in a hard campaign for promotion this season that saw them lose out to UWE (who they have beaten twice this season) on default. The strong sense of camaraderie runs throughout, and the fact that the squad will be largely unchanged next season bodes well for them.

With the 2011 Varsity possibly being held at the Cardiff City Stadium, one fears for Swansea. This sentiment is reinforced by the incredible support that came in droves from the capital city. The noise that emanated from the Cardiff crowd when Swansea went for a penalty kick belonged in a bloodthirsty gladiatorial amphitheatre. Their rising, guttural

PHOTOS: JAKE YORATH

Sebastian Barrett Sports Writer

roars were astounding, ensuring that the Swansea kickers missed more than once. Sportsmanship be damned, because international referee Nigel Owens was far more inclined to blow up against Cardiff, with the penalty count firmly in the home team’s favour.

It was claimed before the game that Cardiff had only a quarter of Swansea’s support: 2,000 to their 8,000. In which case, it is fair to say that the home crowd were blown away by the Cardiff faithful. However, both sides seized the opportunity to rush the field on the final whistle.

When was the last time that happened in a Welsh rugby game?

This was Martyn Fowler’s first Varsity away game, and the pride he felt for his boys after the match was unmistakable. He knows he has a special group of players whose determination to kick on in style next year will only have been reinforced

by Wednesday night’s results.

The final words belonged to the captain, Mark Schropfer, for whom rugby means everything, having picked up a ball at the age of five and not let go since.

“We’ll come back stronger next year,” he declared, before adding wryly, “but not before heading back to the Students’ Union for a couple of shandies, where hopefully there'll be some ladies."

Sport gairrhydd

PHOTO: JAKE YORATH

INSIDE: SPECIAL VARSITY EDITION WITH ALL THE ACTION FROM THE BIG MATCH, PLUS THE OLD FIRM PREVIEW

Var-city's better than yours Adam Horne Sports Editor Cardiff have once again reclaimed the Varsity trophy after another very successful year for all sports teams associated with the University.

Swansea may have won the main event, with a 16-12 victory for the men’s rugby team, but it was not enough to take the gloss off a hugely impressive day for Cardiff, who came off eventual winners of the Varsity shield with a comfortable 14-8 victory across all sports.

Ladies Rugby enjoyed a resounding 55-6 win against their bitter rivals, ensuring that at least one of Cardiff 's rugby teams came away with a victory on the day.

Men's Rugby, however, will be left with contrasting emotions after la-

bouring to their loss, despite dominating the game for large periods.

The freshers' rugby team will most likely have left unsatisfied, after losing to a Swansea side who just happened to prove better on the day. No doubt the players involved will already be itching to get their revenge next year.

Cardiff Badminton club also endured similar fortunes: the Women's team comfortably beat Swansea 7-1, while the Men's team played out a closely fought contest, eventually succumbing to a 5-3 loss.

The trend didn't end there either.

Cardiff's Women's Football enjoyed a hard-fought win, but the Men's side were unable to emulate their success, outplayed on the day by their neighbours to lose 5-1.

Cardiff Squash Club will have come away very happy, with both the Men's and Women's sides gaining resounding wins, 5-0 each.

Women's Hockey were unlucky not to win their game, losing 1-0 in what proved to be a very close encounter.

Men's Hockey did, however, travel back home with a win under their belt, no doubt happy to get one over on the old enemy.

It proved to be a successful day for Men's and Women's tennis, too. They came away with solid victories, as did Men's and Women's Basketball, ensuring the balance continued to tip in Cardiff's favour.

Elsewhere, both Women's Fencing and Women's Lacrosse were able to grind out victories, but unfortunately their male clubmates were not so successful, as both Men's Lacrosse and Fencing were defeated on the day.

Cardiff Netball also suffered a defeat, as did Cardiff Golf, who were unable to snatch victory on away ground, coming out eventual fourand-a-half to one-and-a-half losers.

Cardiff's American Footballer team will surely be ecstatic after winning their match at Ashleigh Road.

No doubt the day's results would have been closely watched by the members of Cardiff Rowing Club, who made their contribution days before, winning their event 3-1 overall.

Despite a few close defeats, Cardiff can once again celebrate what has been a fantastic year for the University's sports clubs, and winning the Varsity shield serves as a fitting reward for the hard work put in by everyone involved.

What the University can be even more proud of, however, is the fact that this is the seventh year running that they have won the shield. In fact, Swansea have not won the overall competition since it began in 2003, which only reaffirms Cardiff's dominance over their rivals.

This seventh consecutive victory

will only further fire Swansea's desire to win the shield next year, a passion that was evident from their performance last week. This year, the competition proved to be the tightest in recent history as they pushed Cardiff harder than last year, when they were thoroughly beaten across all but a few sports.

Until next year however, Cardiff University, and all those associated with its sports clubs have plenty of reasons to celebrate as the year comes to a close. For those graduating this year it will have provided plenty of memories, both good and bad, but the pressure will now be handed to those who will be staying on to fight for the shield next year.

Swansea have shown they're good enough to win the odd battle, but they've got a long way to go before they win the war.

GAIR RHYDD AND QUENCH MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY UNION CARDIFF, PARK PLACE, CARDIFF CF10 3QN n REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER AT THE POST OFFICE n GAIR RHYDD RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT ALL CONTRIBUTIONS nTHE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE PUBLISHERS nGAIR RHYDD IS WRITTEN, DESIGNED, TYPESET AND OUTPUT BY STUDENTS OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITYn LIZ BLOCKLEY: MOTHS SCARE ME ALMOST AS MUCH AS THE CHINESE DOn JAMIE THUNDER: WHILST SUCKING A FLAVOURED CONDOM: "IT STILL TASTES VERY RUBBERY"n SI LUCEY: "YOU'RE JUST TOO NICE TO EVERYONE", SARAH POWELL: "YEAH, WELL THAT'S HOW YOU WIN ELECTIONS, SIMON" nSI LUCEY: ARE THERE MORE FISH, OR BLACK FOOTBALLERS? n DANIELLA: THEY'RE ALL NICE PEOPLE, THEY'RE JUST SHITn