Roar News - December 2022

Clarifications and corrections

Roar aims to have the highest editorial standards in the paper and on digital. You can help us by letting us know if we’ve made mistakes. You can email us at: editor@roarnews.co.uk, or write to us at Roar News, 7th Floor, SouthEast Wing, Bush House, Strand, London, WC2R 1AE. We aim to correct errors, factual or otherwise, as soon as we can.

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION RANKING: KING’S RISES TO 6TH IN THE UK

Aman Patel Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Aman Patel reporting on KCL’s latest Times Higher Education Ranking.

There are several rankings that are widely trusted by prospective students, academics and the broader public. One such ranking is the Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking. This year, King’s has ranked 6th in UK and 35th in the world. This is a minor improvement from our ranking last year, which had us 7th in the UK, and again 35th in the world.

Rankings are simply determined by which criteria are most emphasised in the calculations. For example, King’s tends to rank far better when

our research output is given more weighting over say, our student satisfaction. For this reason it is fruitless to take one ranking as a shut case. However, what is more worthy of consideration is what trends emerge over the medium term. Regardless of the particular ranking, trends in specific areas can tell us if KCL is improving or declining generally.

It is no secret that over the last decade or so, KCL has suffered from somewhat of an academic slump. Over recent years, King’s has either declined or staganated in both the Times Higher Education Rankings and the QS Rankings. The plummeting satisfaction of our student population, and general under-investment are usually pointed at as reasons for this slump. Furthermore, it has been tough to see our rivals such as UCL shoot up the rankings while we have slumped.

So what can we learn from the latest improvement in KCL’s THE ranking? We cannot know anything for sure at the moment. The best we can do is look to see if the upward progress continues. KCL’s President and Principal, Shitij Kapur, was appointed in June of last year. After the new appointment, the university was pivoted around an Education Strategy designed to reaffirm our world leading status by 2022. This is part of a wider Vision 2029 that will culminate in the university’s 200th anniversary. Perhaps Professor Kapur and the wider KCL administration have caught our slump at the right point. We can only hope that King’s returns to the world leading position is rightfully held. More importantly, this ought to translate into a richer and more satisfying higher education experience for the student community.

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ROAR INTERVIEWS MS ZUBAIDA CHOWDHURY ON INDUSTRIAL ACTION BY UNISON

On 27 September, the second day of term, the King’s College London (KCL) branch of UNISON carried out industrial action. To find out more about UNISON and the reasons underpinning their recurring strikes, Roar interviewed the KCL branch’s Black Members’ Officer and branch committee member, Zubaida Chowdhury.

Justine Noble News Editor

What is UNISON?

UNISON is one of three recognised trade unions at KCL. Their KCL branch represents staff in the following areas at the university: Administration, Catering, Cleaning, Estates, Finance, HR, KCLSU, King’s Sport, Libraries, Professional Services, Residences, Student casual staff, Student Services and Security.

In Ms Chowdhury’s words, UNISON’s central purpose is “to create a really good environment for workers in an organization such as King’s,” and that their main goal is “to have good conditions, good pay and have overall good satisfaction for members.”

Why did UNISON launch industrial action in September?

Ms Chowdhury, Programmes Officer in the College’s English department, stated that UNISON is currently in a dispute with KCL due to their failure to pay workers in line with inflation:

“We want pay that’s good and that’s in line with inflation, which is 14.3% plus 2%, and it keeps going up.”

She clarified, however, that “taking industrial action is a last resort”:

“We’ve had negotiations, we’ve come to the table, we’ve spoken- but we’ve been pushed by KCL to take strike action.”

How long has UNISON been tussling with KCL?

UNISON has launched industrial action at KCL for fair pay several times over the past decade.

Ms Chowdhury noted that feeling undervalued at work was especially a problem for UNISON members during the pandemic:

“As I’m sure you’re aware, cleaners and security staff were all on campus during the pandemic, during the storm - they kept the buildings open, safe, clean - they were sacrificing a lot while the rest of us were working from home.”

“We’re just asking that they’re - because they are usually the lowest paid - that they’re paid in line with the rest of the country and inflation.”

How do UNISON’s frustrations with KCL impact members in their day-to-day lives?

Ms Chowdhury made it clear that UNISON’s struggle with KCL impacts members beyond the picket line:

“It means really poor working conditions. Contracts are terrible. They’re precarious, as you’re aware of with the current Graduate Teaching Assistant campaign. It means lots of stress. Work’s just manic.”

She attributes the high stress levels KCL staff are facing to an increase in student numbers this academic year that has failed to be met with an appropriate rise in staff numbers:

“That’s security, that’s all professional services staff, that’s academic staff. We’ve had so many students this year that, I’m sure you’ve heard, there was no accommodation for students. We’re just taking on loads of students but we can’t fulfil the demand.”

“Staff sometimes do two peoples’ jobs, sometimes even three peoples’ jobs, within the college, just to give you guys a good student experience.”

When it comes to being paid out of line with inflation, Ms Chowdhury noted many staff members have faced hardships such as taking on second jobs, using food banks, and suffering the physical, social, and mental ramifications of high-stress levels.

How did KCL respond to UNISON’s most recent industrial action?

Ms Chowdhury stated that UNISON has heard nothing from KCL in response to their most recent industrial action.

She added that the college keeps referring UNISON back to the university employer, UCEA, who they allegedly say makes decisions about pay. She questioned KCL’s inability to influence these decisions given its large size as an institution and the power that comes with that.

Ms Chowdhury also challenged KCL’s response given the £1 billion it made during the pandemic, of which £81.5 million was surplus:

“Why are we being backed into taking industrial action when there is money there, but we keep being told there isn’t money.”

She additionally referred to the increase over the past decade in the number of staff who are on annual salaries of £100,000 or more, which rose from 185 in 2012 to 263 in 2017. In 2021, KCL’s annual Financial Statements stated this number was 259.5.

Given these figures, she stated, “I don’t buy the story and the lie that there’s no money.”

When  Roar reached out to KCL for a statement on UNISON’s claims, they released the following statement:

“Professor Adam Fagan, Vice President (Education & Student Success), King’s College London said: “No member of staff takes the decision to withdraw their labour lightly and we fully respect the legal right of our staff to take industrial action. Not all staff are taking industrial action and the university will remain open, with continued access for students to the facilities and services on campus including informal study spaces, libraries and computer rooms.

“The issues raised on pensions, pay and conditions are felt across UK universities, and while it is important to understand that decisions on pay and pensions are decided nationally and not by King’s, we are supporting staff with the rise in cost of living within the context of national pay bargaining. This year’s national pay increase ranged from 3% to 9% with those on the lowest end of the pay scale receiving the higher percentage increase. In addition, most of our staff also received an incremental progression award which is equivalent to a 3% increase.

“We also increased the London Weighting Allowance by £500 to £4,000 in August and staff also received a one-off ex-gratia payment of £1000 (pro-rata) in July. The current London Living Wage is £11.05 an hour and King’s pays a minimum of £12.55 per hour. This is in addition to the increases in pay from national bargaining.

“Precarious employment is something we are taking action on and our default position is to employ staff on indefinite contracts. However, the nature of some roles does mean that we will always have a need to employ some staff on fixed-term contracts or on an hourly paid basis. This can be helpful to support parental leave, and roles covered by external research grants. Where we can anticipate a need for particular roles, we are employing staff on permanent contracts beyond the end date of the research project or teaching assignment.

“We do understand the intensity in workload and we are taking steps to tackle it for example, by offering additional resource - but we know that is not a long term solution. Fairness and equal opportunity are deeply important to who we are as a university, so we’ll continue to address issues of workload so that we can make improvements for all of our staff.”

What are UNISON’s goals moving forward?

Ms Chowdhury stated that UNISON’s goals remain the same:

“Our priority is that members have a good working environment and are being paid for the work that they are doing.”

She shared that to achieve these goals, UNISON

will be joining the University and College Union (UCU) in their industrial action on 24 and 25 of November.

How can students support UNISON’s industrial action?

Ms Chowdhury encouraged students to support UNISON’s future industrial action by spreading the word and talking to peer staff about why they are sacrificing their pay to go on strike.

She also invited students to join UNISON on the picket lines on 24 and 25 of November:

“It’s something that we should be out together supporting and fighting for.”

She further noted that for students interested in going into academia, UNISON’s cause is particularly relevant given their battles with employers over pensions and pay.

What else is UNISON working on right now?

Beyond future industrial action, UNISON is currently working with KCL on a disability passport scheme. This is something that already exists for students, while decisions depend on managers. UNISON feels there should be a clear process from the day someone with a disability signs their contract with the college to get the adjustments they may need.

UNISON is also working on building their branch at KCL in terms of increasing their visibility and creating self-organising groups.

They are also continuing to have conversations with UCU, trade union Unite, and KCL at the senior level.

Finally, they are looking to launch an Unsocial Hours Allowance Campaign, aimed at granting staff such as security and cleaners who work early mornings, late nights, night shifts, an allowance that matches their pay to other UK universities and councils.

In a final message to students, Ms Chowdhury stated, “Your experience is affected by how we are treated in that for a better student experience, there needs to be a better staff experience- we need to be paid better.”

She said while she will always “go above and beyond” for the students she works with, KCL makes this difficult:

“I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to have staff be paid better, have better conditions, and be happier at King’s.”

What Rishi Sunak's Education Policies Mean For UK Students

KCL ANNOUNCES

Clara Ana Goilav Staff Writer

Rishi Sunak has been Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party for over a month now. Accordingly, it is due time for an overview of what education policies he has supported in the past, and what they have meant for students across the UK.

The two main policies Sunak has supported throughout his previous roles as Chancellor and Chief Secretary to the Treasury have been to eliminate low-earning degrees, and to increase the duration until which student loans could be erased. These policies aim to improve the education of UK students and alleviate the strain on banks giving out student loans which are never repaid: this is at the expense of narrowing down options and placing a higher toll on student finances. The question remains, however, if these policies will be enacted or if he will back down.

During the first race for the new PM in August of 2022, Sunak vowed to eliminate university courses that have low employability rates and do not improve “earning potential”. This policy was an effort to raise the quality of university education in the UK and to produce graduates with more applicable and valuable skills to the UK workforce. Although “earning potential” sounds like a vague criterion, Sunak plans to break down the assessment of degrees into two: dropout rate, and employment opportunities. He excludes courses with high social value such as nursing. However, it remains unclear exactly

In February this year, Sunak supported a policy to increase the length of time required to elapse in order for student loans to be forgiven. This policy is tied to the first pledge Sunak made, as he argues that the loan debt gathered by students can be easier paid off if their degree is conducive to high-paying jobs. The 2023 university cohort will now have to pay more towards their student debt each year and loan balances will be written off only 40 years after repayment has begun. Reports by The Guardian show that this policy will disproportionately affect women who are significantly more likely to take maternity leave, or even elect to drop out of the workforce during motherhood.  During these times, debt will accumulate interest and will lead to these women being subject to steeper student loans repayments than their male counterparts. This has the potential to widen gender income and wealth inequalities.

While Rishi Sunak has repeatedly stated that education is a core focus for him and the Conservative party, these reports have inspired

little confidence in the possibility of actual reform. So far his policy pitches have remained as mere statements and promises. However, it is necessary to remember that we are still in the early stages of his leadership. Students and student media (including Roar) will be watching closely in the coming months to see how this government enacts its education policies.

Tamara Kormornick Staff Writer

On 3 November, 2022 King’s College London emailed a newsletter to students which announced the new £3 million living fund package to support students who are struggling financially. Business Correspondent Tamara Kormornick interviewed students on campus to gather opinions on the package and the degree of support it provides for KCL students.

The additional funding measures have garnered a mixed reaction among students amidst rising living costs. The measures include a one-off bursary payment, an expansion of the Student Hardship Fund and subsidised meals in selected university cafes.

The living fund measures are a response to record high levels of inflation amidst the looming global recession and rising energy costs due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As part of the financial package, the university has allocated £1 million to further support students who receive bursaries. This one-off payment is calculated as ten percent of a student’s total bursary for the year and is designed to bridge the gap over the winter break.

Alex, a second year English student, receives the maximum bursary from the King’s Living Bursary and is due to receive the one-off payment in December. He told Roar: “The last bursary payment came through in November and the extra amount only comes

how Sunak defines “high social value”.

COST OF LIVING FUND ANNOUNCES PRICE £3MILLION

in December, which is quite late. It’s a one off payment so it doesn’t cover too much. [But] it should get me through to the next bursary payment in January, I think.”

Alex wasn’t aware of the extra funding until very recently and thinks that the university’s response to the crisis is unclear.

“I think there could be more clarity to the funding processes. It depends how the university wants to approach (the cost of living crisis) and whether they want to help everybody, or students on bursaries, or those that live in London.”

On October 1, government energy regulator Ofgem announced an 80 percent increase in the price of wholesale energy since 2021. In addition, the Office of National Statistics states that the price of consumer goods has risen almost ten percent in the last twelve months. These rises have heavily impacted people across the UK and many of the students  Roar spoke to have been on a tight budget as a result of price hikes. Rob, a second year Classics student, is also a recipient of the King’s Living Bursary and has taken out the maximum student loan.

“It is pretty expensive at the moment, energy bills and food particularly. There’s not a lot of money to spend on anything disposable, it’s a case of getting through. I do have a weekly budget and that’s all I can spend.”

Whilst he appreciates the help, Rob ac-

knowledges the gaps in KCL’s response to the current crisis: “There are a lot of outside pressures for the university and it seems like a cash flow problem. The hardship funds are useful if you are in that lowest bracket, but now it seems like there are a lot more people below that threshold and I don’t see things changing in regards to how the university approaches people.”

Students who don’t qualify for a bursary can apply for a Hardship Fund. The fund has had a £750,000 cash injection to award undergraduate students grants of £100 - £4000 to help with living costs.

Daisy is a second year Politics student who saw the newsletter in her inbox and tried to apply for the Hardship Fund. She is struggling financially since moving to privately rented accommodation and has since taken on parttime work as a waitress in a local pub to help bridge the gap. She hit a hurdle at the beginning of the process, as the application requires annotated bank statements.

“They wanted me to show three months worth of bank statements with each expense over £100 itemised but I had only just moved in and didn’t have three months of expenses to show,” she told Roar. She was also encouraged to take a financial education class before applying for the loan. “The process is long and arduous and seems to work on the assumption that students spend irresponsibly” she added.

As a result of the lengthy application process and bank statement requirements, Daisy has not yet applied for the Hardship Fund.

Professor Adam Fagan, Vice President (Education and Student Success) says the living fund package is designed to help students who are concerned about the rising costs of living. “We encourage any student who is worried about money - whether that’s paying household bills, affording travel expenses, or understanding the financial assistance available - to reach out for support,” he said in a statement.

As part of the recent measures, there has also been an expansion of the International Hardship Fund which awards up to £6000 for eligible students.

Anaya, a first year Political Economy student, is feeling the pinch: “The accommodation prices are skyrocketing. Grocery prices are high too, although I’m from Singapore so it is relatively cheaper.”

Not all students are aware of the university’s recent measures as the newsletter has been the only mass communication from the university. At the time of the interview with Roar, Anaya was not aware that she could be now be eligible for a grant:

“I didn’t know international students could get funding. It’s hard to get because there are a lot of limitations like background and parents income. It would be nice to have some help but I

get that there are students who might need it more.”

In addition to grants, KCL has allocated £750,000 to subsidise food at six eateries across the university campuses. Students can now pick up a porridge, reduced from £1.50 to 50p and a jacket potato with beans and salad, reduced from £4.25 to £1.50 at multiple locations. The discounted offers can be found at Chapters (Strand), King’s Kitchen (Strand), Bytes Restaurant (Waterloo), Henri’s Deli (Guy’s), WEC Restaurant (Denmark Hill) and the IoPPN Restaurant (Denmark Hill).

According to the Office of National Statistics, food and non-alcoholic beverages prices have risen 13.1 percent in the past year and are currently at the highest rate since August 2008. Rob, who relies on his bursary to cover living costs, was not aware of the new cut-price meal options: “I didn’t know about the cheaper meals. Breakfasts and lunches here are really expensive, so I will definitely look into that.”

The university has allocated an additional £500,000 as a contingency fund to provide additional support over the next few months.

If you are a KCL student who struggling financially, visit the university’s new dedicated cost of living webpage for information on the living fund, grants, and money-saving tips and tools.

Jana Bazeed Staff Writer

Staff writer Jana Bazeed interviews particle physicist and King’s professor Dr. Teppei Katori, the first speaker of the yearly Maxwell Lectures.

The much anticipated Maxwell Lectures are back, with the first talk taking place on Tuesday, November 15th. The talk was delivered by experimental particle physicist Dr. Teppei Katori, a member of King’s College London’s Experimental Particle & Astroparticle Physics (EPAP) group.  In the lead up to the talk, Roar sat down with Dr. Katori for a quick chat about his research and talk.

Background

The Maxwell Lectures are a series of talks given by members of the scientific community to promote current research, industry advancements and science communication. These have been hosted by KCL’s very own Maxwell Society (the Physics Department’s student society) since the 1950’s, and have welcomed acclaimed international researchers such as Prof. Jim Al-Khalili, Prof. Sean Carroll and Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell over the years.

For the first talk in this year’s series, Dr. Katori was invited to talk about neutrinos and the origins of matter and of spacetime, introducing recent developments in the field and the groundbreaking research being conducted by the EPAP group at King’s. His main focus is neutrino physics, understanding the properties of neutrinos and using neutrinos as tools to search for new physics.

Travelling at near

MAXWELL LECTURES RETURN:

DR. TEPPEI KATORI ON THE ORIGINS OF MATTER AND SPACETIME

believe they may just hold the answers to some of our biggest questions about the universe.

Why neutrinos?

In the grand scheme of things, neutrino physics is still a relatively new field, with lots of answers waiting to be uncovered.

“I’ve been working on neutrinos for almost entire my career, so since my PhD--so I’ve been doing this for like 20 years”, Dr. Tappei continues, “[the field] is new and new results were coming and, many mysterious results were coming [...] with lots of data, people didn’t understand it. Many people thought that’s it’s kind of the future because it’s a new field and there lots of a new discovery and lots of excitement.”

Dr. Katori research covers a vast range of topics, one of those being the study of neutrino interactions.

“[Neutrino interactions] basically means how neutrinos collide with a nucleus, and then what happens after.” He states that,” Neutrinos are invisible, so the only way to see a neutron is to see the particle made by the neutrino colliding with atoms. But to do this, you have to understand how neutrinos collide. [...] Using this information then you can kind of retrieve information on neutrinos.” Dr. Katori adds, “understanding how neutrinos collide is fundamental to understanding neutrinos themselves.”

Another area of interest for Dr. Katori is using neutrinos to look for new physics, especially with space-time structure, via the IceCube project.

matter.

Dr. Katori hopes this research could help shed light on some of the most pressing questions in modern science:

“[Understanding neutrinos] could be a way to understand all of the most important fundamental questions: the whys of matter and the origin of space-time”.

Neutrinos, Uncovering the Origins of Matter and Spacetime.

During his Maxwell Lectures talk, Dr. Katori aimed to introduce how neutrinos could provide answers to these “big questions” by discussing interesting questions about the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem, and ongoing projects like the T2K experiment and upcoming Hyper-Kamiokande project in Japan. These are key projects in the search for new physics, which scientists hope may provide some explanations for the existence of our universe.

When asked about what he hoped people’s main takeaway would be, Dr. Katori exclaimed, “It’s just exciting things!”. He then continued, explaining how he wants people to be able to get a better grasp of how these interesting processes work, “since I’m experimentalist, I also want to emphasize, you know, these kind of intangible ideas like space time or neutrinos right? But it’s all connected somehow, right? [...] So I want to [explain] how this kind of process works so that the people can feel it their connection with it, I guess.”

“Don’t

ask, just do it.”

From starting out in Japan, to completing his PhD in the United States, and now working in the UK, Dr. Katori had some interesting advice for aspiring physicists:

“So I [have] seen some difference[s] between the British student and American student, [...] lots of British students are bit shy, and that’s not good!” he started, “One: nobody cares about your grade, alright? Nobody, absolutely nobody cares about your grade. So don’t worry too much. And two: don’t ask it, just do it. Don’t ask for permission to do anything. Just do!”

Closing Remarks

We asked Dr. Katori for any final remarks he had to say to Roar readers.

“The particle shrine. Yeah. Please stop by!” urged Dr. Katori excitedly. The Particle Shrine is a part of the Testing Ground, Science Gallery London’s latest exhibition.

He then continued about the EPAP group’s ongoing projects:

“We are working on many projects, but I think if I had to say one project, which is the Hyper-Kamiokande , which has been a very huge effort for all the group’s members. So, you know, please keep eyes on its developments”

The first Maxwell Lectures Talk was held on Tuesday, 15 Nov 2022 at 18:30 GMT. Please check the Maxwell Society’s Instagram page

DISMANTLE KING’S COLONIAL LEGACY: ROAR INTERVIEWS NEW KCLSU CAMPAIGN LEADERS

Ansel Bayly Staff Writer

King’s College London Student Union (KCLSU) launched its Dismantle King’s Colonial Legacy (K.C.L.) campaign earlier this semester, alongside an open letter with four demands for King’s leadership. Roar sat down with the campaign leads to discuss the changes they want to see and their plans for the next year.

Sara Osman Saeed, KCLSU VP for Education (Arts & Sciences), and Martina Chen, VP for Welfare & Community, are leading the Dismantle K.C.L. campaign this year. They worked with a number of societies across the College to release the open letter to King’s leadership.

“From the beginning of this campaign, what was really important to Sara and I is that this was a co-production with students”, Chen stated.

“We wanted every student group to have a say in this campaign and make it feel like this is by the students, for the students.”

‘Empty words’

Both leaders of Dismantle K.C.L. are critical of King’s work on decolonisation. Osman Saeed suggests that culture wars may be preventing King’s from pursuing the campaign’s agenda:

“They don’t want to make anybody disappointed that is on that side of the fence of the culture war, so they’re kind of feeding into it. At the same time they’re neglecting the students who have been calling for years for antiracism. They

to talk about how they have so many documents and policies talking about committing to race equality and how inclusivity is one of the key principles for their vision 2029… they put out statements about the George Floyd murder in 2020, but we’ve not seen any actions or commitments being made. When we see all these words but not followed by any actions, it feels like empty words.”

In light of this perceived inaction, Dismantle K.C.L.’s open letter listed four demands: acknowledge and investigate King’s colonial history, improve the experiences of racialised and marginalised students and staff, build a global, critically reflective curriculum, and reflect on King’s global impact.

Acknowledge & investigate King’s colonial history

Research has suggested that around 10% of the donors founding King’s were slave owners. Osman Saeed compares the university’s progress in analysing its history with that of other universities:

“The Universities of Glasgow, Manchester and Cambridge all have some type of centralised research on the front page of their websites, telling the public ‘this our university, this is our history, we’re not proud of it but it’s here for you to see.’ I don’t see any of that with King’s, it’s all hush-hush and only people who are interested in it know about it.”

Chen says that pushing King’s to “commit to acknowledge its own colonial past” is a central primary goal to build on.

“Once we have that commitment, we can work to reaching long-term goals.”

Improve the experiences of racialised and marginalised

King’s

“The working group was quite successful in decolonising the curriculum. They had a coalition of students and staff from different faculties doing work with King’s on how to decolonise different departments. They did a lot of this work already, but it didn’t finish because King’s didn’t pay enough attention to the people doing this work and they didn’t get paid for their time.”

Chen, who was part of the working group last year, adds:

“Staff and students put a lot of time and effort into these issues, looking at the attainment gap, putting on educational events, data and surveys.”

“They fought for a long time to get any recognition from King’s, like trying to get a space on the King’s website. They had meetings with management at King’s but it never resulted in anything.”

Reflect on King’s global impact

“As well as looking at King’s colonial past and present, how students and staff of colour are treated, looking at King’s global impact and their neo-colonial future [is important].”

Osman Saeed says, “There’s a lot of concern among students about King’s investments, where they’re going, and whether they’re actually ethical.”

Osman Saeed continues, “With global conflicts that have happened in the world, they leave themselves open to speculation, they’re not clear about where the money is going. So that’s another one of our demands, to have King’s acknowledge this neocolonial complicity”.

Student Involvement

Both leads believe there is strong support for decolonisation. Chen notes, “decolonisation is something a lot of students are really passionate about and want to see King’s commit to. It’s one of those issues that has been coming up year after year after year.”

However, they are aware of barriers to student engagement. Osman Saeed says, “Student engagement is quite low because everyone has a lot going on in their lives, they might not want to join a society specifically about antiracism”, but she encourages any involvement “just being there, making your voice heard, writing about it, talking about it.”

They both see the role of Dismantle K.C.L. as a uniting force for decolonisation. Chen asserts, “by uniting different groups and centring the voices of the marginalised and the othered, we can build a united front and put pressure on King’s to change.”

The college has not yet responded to Roar’s request for comment on this matter”

Decolonising Working Group, which the campaign intend to restart this year:

TWITTER: THE END OF AN ERA

Twitter has never been a squeaky clean platform, free from keyboard warriors and trolls. Nor has it maintained a perfect balance between what is considered free speech and what is offensive. But its executive board structure meant that at least more than one person was deciding what was, and was not, allowed to be said on the platform. A concern with Twitter’s privatisation is that what is considered a global platform will now be controlled by a single, independent actor. A new era for Twitter has begun, one where our voices can be curtailed by one man: Elon

the freedom fighter that he portrays himself as. Just last year, his automotive company Tesla asked reporters to sign non-disclosure agreements and 'sign-off' reviews with the company, while customers were asked to guarantee that they would not post unsympathetically on social media about new software.

“Just setting up my twttr”.

The first ever tweet, posted by Twitter's cofounder Jack Dorsey on 21st March 2006. The polite and mundane message that got the ball rolling on what was to become a giant of the social media world. From the start, Twitter has been a platform for the people. An egalitarian virtual world where anyone can share a thought, a feeling, or a piece of breaking news. The place where the public has just as much say as celebrities, politicians and even the legendary Paddington Bear.

While Facebook was born a telephone directory and Instagram a never ending photo album, Twitter was born a “town square”, as Elon Musk has recently described it. The irony is that Musk’s recent acquisition of the company may prevent Twitter from being just that. Twitter’s future is as unpredictable as its new owner. Whether or not “the bird is freed” remains to be seen; while Twitter seems to be headed downhill at an increasingly rapid pace, it may yet escape crashing and burning. But it is undeniable that the social media platform has reached the end of an era.

Musk's $44 million deal was closed on 27th October and Twitter has already started to go through drastic changes. Around 50% of workers have been laid off, including the dissolution of the entire Board of Directors, and these grass root changes may come at the cost of institutional company knowledge.

one that it must adapt to. If not, the blue bird’s life is at stake.

Not only is the financial stability of the company at risk but Twitter users themselves may be in trouble. Elon Musk is a provocative, erratic character. He has been compared to Marvel Comic's playboy billionaire character Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man (who nearly destroyed the planet in an attempt to improve it, but I’m sure that doesn’t mean anything). His unpredictability is worrying for users as Twitter is currently going through a process of rewriting security rules. In a recent tweet, he asked users to “please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months”.

In a haphazard attempt to reduce the number of bots, trolls and bullies on Twitter (as well as raise some more revenue), Musk released a new scheme asking users to pay $8 per month in order to gain a characteristic blue 'verification' tick. This has made Twitter a utopia for scammers. It is now relatively easy for anyone to create a fake account and pay a subscription to be someone they are not. A fake Eli Lily account (an American pharmaceutical company) recently tweeted that insulin would be given away for free, resulting in a substantial stock market drop for the firm. It's easy to see how disinformation may thrive in this new media environment. Actions like these will push Twitter further into an unsafe space for users and the worst may still be yet to come.

Musk has claimed to be an advocate for free speech for several years, you need only look through his own Twitter feed to see that he is unafraid to speak his mind. In fact, one of the main issues that he is looking to address is Twitter's supposed left-leaning bias. An argument amplified by Donald Trump's ban early last year after the January 6 US Capitol riots.

In response to this, Musk decided that Trump would be reinstated based on the results of a poll posted on his feed. This comes after a string of other accounts, who were previously deemed in violation of Twitter's terms of use, were also unbanned. But this is not opening dialogue and safe parameters for free speech - it is an act of recklessness perpetrated on a whim. Not only is the format easily rigged (due to the bot problem) and the respondents selfselecting, but the outcome of this unscientific and unregulated poll could have a devastating impact on the state of democracy in the US. If Trump is allowed to return to Twitter, then why shouldn’t every other account spreading misinformation and inciting violence be allowed back on as well?

Musk has positioned himself a champion of public voice, but his actions are not worthy of this self-proclaimed accolade. In fact, you don't need to look far for examples of him not being

Musk seems to think he alone can drive forward free speech on Twitter, but this is bound to come with his inherent biases. It seems impossible for one man to determine what the boundaries for free speech should look like. He recently endorsed the Republican Party in the US Midterm Elections; surely this is evidence that there will be a trickledown influence on Twitter of Elon Musk’s moral and political views? While some may think that Musk will take a balanced stance (as he believes he is doing), no single person, or tight-knit group of people, can ever appropriately determine what is fair and balanced free speech over an entire global platform. We all have our own opinions and biases. The pursuit of balance is an endeavour best undertaken collaboratively, thoughtfully and using proper procedure, not through Saturday night Twitter polls and a desire to wipe out his predecessors' decisions.

KING’S VOTES DEMOCRACY IN THE LAND OF THE FREE

matteo Cardarelli Staff Writer

Comment writer Matteo Cardarelli suggests that this year’s US midterm election results vindicated democratic values, but warns against any complacency.

It’s been a rough few years for American democracy. Insurrection, political violence, electoral fraud – the marks of authoritarianism – have all instilled self-doubt in the fabric of American society. Pessimism permeates the political biosphere. The cracks in the Liberty Bell take on a different meaning. As identity devolves into a matter of red or blue, the country’s fundamental institutions have been placed under unprecedented strain.

Last month’s midterms were widely expected to be a new, grim chapter in American de

to contest unfavorable results. Importantly, Americans overwhelmingly punished Republican candidates for their adherence to the Trumpist narrative of a stolen election. Democrats cashed in on their rivals’ extremism, and in a series of close races, election deniers were dispatched en masse. State governor races in the key battlegrounds of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona all went Democrats’ way – the radical red wave forecasted by commentators turned out to be little more than a swell.

Given the media’s warnings of doom, gloom and the end-times, this was certainly a bathetic outcome. Yet it was sorely needed. In a badly fractured country, the fact that political parties can once again find common ground on a basic observable fact – who got the most votes – is a sign of progress. The midterms proved, despite concerns to the contrary, that

tax fraud to seizure of classified documents, bears witness to America’s immune system in the wake of a four-year macro-dose of MAGA. What is bad for Trump tends to be good for democracy. The abysmal night his candidates suffered in the midterms points to his weakening as the undisputed populist puppet-master of middle America’s masses.

In addition, major lawsuits against “fake news” providers have shown a growing intolerance of the epidemic of pseudo-journalistic conspiracy theories that have increasingly polluted the airwaves. Alex Jones’ lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut dealt a death blow to his news company, InfoWars, and America is undoubtedly better off without it. Making an example of fringe theorists who have built up a reputation of purveying “alternative facts” is a message to others who regard them as pioneers of a new way of doing news. Rupert Murdoch’s appar

remains tempered. Despite the moderate success that pro-democracy advocates have had in countering the autocratic wave, it has not been all smooth sailing. The waters ahead are riddled with uncertainty.

The attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a few weeks ago should serve as a reminder of the normalisation of political violence for some extremists. Democrats counter-intuitively funding extreme Republicans in primaries for electoral gain denotes a double standard that is unlikely to prove healthy for the integrity of the public sphere in the long run.

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, nonsensical from a financial point of view, starts to make sense when his free speech absolutism is take into account. Should he succeed in turning Twitter’s platform into an unmoderated space,

Russia Sanctions

or Tory Screwup:

Why is the British Economy Broken?

Fred Taylor Staff Writer

The situation of the UK economy does not look good. Our economy is contracting, energy bills are increasing and inflation is off the charts. To make matters worse, the impact of all of this is hitting the worst-off the hardest. Food bank usage is at historic highs, one in six people are living in “relatively low income” and recent research suggests that the bottom 20% of households only have £2.66 in weekly discretionary income, down from £55 last year.

In an exclusive comment for Roar News, Conservative MP Sir Gary Streeter blamed these “extreme circumstances” on “inflation following the lockdown and escalating energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine”. However, there may be one other factor that Mr Streeter has let slip his mind: twelve years of Tory mismanagement.

Cameron

It all starts with David Cameron, who made many consequential mistakes. Firstly, his coalition government refused to implement his predecessor, Gordon Brown’s, nuclear energy proposals because they would “only come on stream by 2021 or 2022”. Then, he blocked plans to make homes more energy-efficient and cut back government support for renewable energy schemes, policies he called “green crap”.

As a consequence, our homes leak heat three

times faster than German homes, the percentage of our energy that is imported hit 36% in 2018, compared to 13% in 2005, and under 20% of our energy is generated by nuclear sources, compared to more than 70% in France. Cameron’s premiership left our energy infrastructure totally wrecked and our country very prone to a global energy shortage.

Johnson

We then fast forward to Boris Johnson, who took office in 2019. It’s hard to imagine a better way to respond to the war in Ukraine than the one he took. He immediately granted a large number of weapons and large amounts of financial aid to Ukraine and hit Russia with the “largest pack of sanctions” ever. Johnson emblematically announced to the world that “Putin must fail”.

It’s a shame that the response to the domestic pressures created by the war was nowhere near as admirable. Following the invasion, the boycotting of Russian goods created the first ever “global energy crisis”, and prices for basic items skyrocketed. The consumer price index (CPI) hit 10.1% inflation in September. Labour started a campaign to introduce a windfall tax on energy companies in order to provide financial aid to those suffering the most. This was an attempt to ensure that the burden of the war would not be placed on the shoulders of the most vulnerable.

After initial reluctance and infighting, and weeks of waiting, the government finally proposed a budget. It had a windfall tax, yet it was offset against investment and only taxed 25% of windfall profits. It hit a perfect balance of incompetence: similar enough to Labour’s proposals to be politically humiliating but falling short of making any substantive difference. Just two months later, Johnson conceded the point when he announced that further support was needed.

This budget massively underestimated the extent of the cost of living crisis and, therefore, failed to provide any appropriate long-term solutions. It was the result of disorganisation and ideological infighting not serious policy-making.

Truss

by the Tories, who were preoccupied with a leadership campaign between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. In their campaigns, there was talk of tax cuts and culture war issues but relatively little about how the next Prime Minister would deal with the cost of living crisis. Most notably, Truss was left stut tering after being repeatedly asked by journalist Laura Kuenessberg about what her plan was for the economy, an economy she would inherit under a week later.

Following on from these months of inaction, Truss came into power and announced that she would mass-borrow billions in order to fund tax cuts for the rich and to partially pay for energy bills.

This was not an effective solution, to say the least. It was clearly poorly thought-out and did not lift the burden from the shoulders of the poorest. While her energy bill reduction plan was good in principle, the fact that it relied on loans did nothing but pass the buck onto future generations. It was a cop-out, not a real plan. The infamous “mini-budget” caused absolute havoc. It destabilised the economy, sunk the pound, and hiked mortgage prices.

Again, we saw the Conservatives refrawin from taking a serious and competent approach to the problems that faced our country. Ideology was placed above feasibility. Serious economists such as Tom Scholar were sacked, and expert bodies like the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) were not consulted. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was replaced by the more moderate Jeremy Hunt but for Truss this was the equivalent of applying a plaster to a shotgun wound.

Sunak

Out of luck and out of power, Truss was swiftly deposed and replaced by Rishi Sunak. He came into power with the express purpose of being reliable and competent, tasked with cleaning up the mess that the past governments had created. The autumn statement was a strong step in the right direction: a rise in the minimum wage, benefits increased in line with inflation, a real-time rise in public spending, and the ‘triple lock’ on pensions being maintained. Even Labour’s proposed windfall tax was more-or-less finally imposed. But it is too little, too late.

flatlined, and the UK is predicted to be in a re cession for the next 2 years. The disproportionate effect of the war in Ukraine on the British economy can only be explained by Conservative incompetence.

Blaming the War

If Cameron had invested in nuclear energy and made our homes greener, we would not be suffering so much from the global energy shortage. If we had provided a clear, competent plan on how the energy crisis would be managed from the very start, investors would have been reassured. If our leaders had not spent the summer infighting, we could have prepared better for the winter. If we had not allowed Trussonomics to sink the pound, our economy would not be receding as much as it is.

The fact is, all of our allies are faring much better from the conflict: Russia is the only major economy set for worse economic growth than the UK. Our GDP is 0.4% smaller than pre-pandemic levels, while the Eurozone’s economy is 2.1% larger, and the US is also up by 4.2%. Furthermore, inflation in the UK has surpassed 10%, while it’s at 8.5% in Germany and just 6.8% in France.

This can be explained by other countries preparing for and reacting to pressures created by the Russian war in a far more competent fashion. France used its investments in nuclear energy to cap energy price rises at 15%. Spain used a windfall tax to lower energy costs and provided a range of free public transport measures to lower the burden on commuters. The EU set out plans to reduce consumption to decrease demand and lower prices, amongst other measures.

After Johnson, came 2 long months of complete inaction

Just before Hunt’s budget, the OBR made the dire announcement that the UK is set to receive

The Conservative government’s lack of coordinated preparation or response to the cost of living crisis has made the most vulnerable in our country take the brunt of Putin’s war. We have everything to be proud of when it comes to supporting the people of Ukraine but we should be ashamed of who is paying the price. The next time the government tries to use the war as a justification for the terrible state our economy is in, you should have none of it.

Staff Writer Fred Taylor examines the state of the British economy and questions the narrative that the war in Ukraine is fully to blame.

SUELLA DE VIL OUR HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE

Daisy Eastlake Staff Writer

Suella Braverman, Sunak’s Home Secretary and a cabinet figurehead for the Tory right wing, has faced press backlash over her comments about the “invasion of our southern coast” by "illegal migrants". Charities, legal professionals and even Tory colleagues denounced her language as “inflammatory” and “heinous”. She shows little sympathy for channel-boat crossings, arguing that not all of them are crisis-stricken refugees. Although, the elephant in the room is apparent - why would economic migrants make life-endangering channel crossings in small, cramped and unsafe dinghies? These people are not crying wolf, but crying war.

This anti-refugee attitude came to a head on 30 October, when Andrew Leak, 66, threw multiple homemade incendiary devices into a migrant processing centre in Kent. Counter Terrorist Policing South East (CTPSE) declared the attack was motivated by right-wing terrorist ideology. Though thankfully no one was seriously injured in the Dover attack, its occurrence reflects a gloomy scene for British politics. News of small boats crossing the channel has not been uncommon in recent years; unfortunately, neither has the hostility returned by the government.

First World Problems?

To inhabitants of the UK that consume British media, it seems as if refugee overcrowding is a British problem, or at least a solely European one. Yet this is simply not the case. EU countries had actually seen a 4% decrease in asylum applications in the year up to September

2021, and the countries with the largest number of applications for asylum in Europe were Germany and France, with around 200,000 between them. The UK had around 45,000 applicants and had the 18th largest refugee intake per head of population in the EU+ Area (including the European Economic Area and Switzerland).

The problem can not even be solely attributed to Europe. Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Uganda, and Sudan have the largest refugee populations - all of which are outside the EU. At the end of 2021, under 10% of global refugees were within the EU. The United Nations (UN) has described the situation as the “worst refugee crisis since the end of WWII”; and called for governments to come together “behind a more humane and coordinated approach”.

Comparably, the UK and Europe’s share of asylum seeking population seems much smaller than politicians and media are suggesting. The narrative of an 'unavoidable siege' sells papers and wins votes. The tactical rejection of refugees because ‘we can’t host them all’ is a smokescreen for growing unwillingness to extend help to those with nowhere else to go.

More Than Just a Priti Face

The Braverman era is an echo of Priti Patel's time in office, whose antirefugee rhetoric sustained a 'hostile environment' for asylum seekers in the UK, a policy pioneered under Theresa May. The headline policy which characterises Ms Patel's time as Home Secretary is the Nationality and Borders Bill. Encapsulated by three key initiatives, the Nationality and Borders Bill aims to make a 'fairer' system for those "in genuine need of asylum", deter illegal entry to disincentive human trafficking, and deport people with no right to remain in the UK. On the surface, its policies appear sensible; but their implicit messaging has a sour

aftertaste.

The bill has been widely criticised for being inhumane - refugee help foundation FreedomFromTorture deemed it “the biggest overhaul that our asylum system has seen in decades”, and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) declared that it undermined “the established international refugee protection system”. It is apparent in the international sphere that the UK’s incredibly low tolerance towards refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict is simply cruel.

The influence of Patel on the perspective of refugees in Britain lay the groundwork for Braverman, whose continuation of right-wing, anti-refugee policies establish her as a continuity candidate for the Patel doctrine. Much like her predecessor, Braverman’s asylum plan also risks breaking the UN's refugee convention. Her attempts to 'blanket ban' anyone claiming refuge in the UK through illegal means of arrival seemingly clashes with the principle of non-refoulement - sending refugees back to countries where they face serious threats to life.

The Rwanda Plan is also another policy creation of Patel’s that Braverman is eager to deliver. Announced on 14 April 2022, the policy is to send refugees and asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda - "They may be granted refugee status to stay in Rwanda. If not, they can apply to settle there on other grounds, or seek asylum in a "safe third country". Although the government repeatedly insists that Rwanda is a safe country for refugees to be relocated to, campaign groups say otherwise. They claim that the scheme is in contradiction with human rights legislation, especially considering Rwanda's unsavoury human rights record.

In an exclusive interview with Roar News, Conservative MP Sir Gary Streeter commented on the Rwanda refugee

plan, stating “we can find a better way to solve the problem than sending people on an aeroplane to Rwanda, and it isn’t my dream to see an aeroplane taking off full of vulnerable [adults] and children going to an African country.” This was alluding to Braverman's comments that the Rwanda deportation plan was her "dream" and "obsession".

Not-so-Great Britain

Braverman and the Home Secretaries before her are contributing to a vitriolic culture of British hostility - Ipsos MORI polling from February 2022 shows that 42% of British people want to decrease immigration into Britain, despite only 29% disagreeing that immigration has had a positive impact on the country. Despite large organisations such as the UN promoting compassionate government and humanitarian conduct as key to resolving the global refugee crisis, ministers such as Braverman, who have the power to whip up nationalist sentiment, hold the real authority.

“How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity.” Ambassador Matthew Rycroft’s claim has rung true for years, but is still falling on deaf ears. I dread to think how many more news stories it will take, of fatalities in the English Channel, and children washing up on Turkish beaches, before governments realise that they have no right to play God and determine who deserves aid. The refugee crisis cannot be pushed away through criminalisation and flights to Rwanda: our philanthropic practice will improve when we recognise that. Unfortunately, the Braverman era is a black mark on our humanity.

Staff writer Daisy Eastlake discusses the context of global refugee flows in 2022 and examines the immigration policies of Foreign Secretary Suella Braverman and the Conservative party.

King’s Votes: Brazil’s Right Out of Office, But Not Out of Power

Carolina Claudino Staff Writer

Staff writer Carolina Claudino discusses attempts to subvert democracy in this year’s presidential election in Brazil and asks if these same forces will undermine returning President Lula da Silva.

October 30 marked a drastic change in Brazilian politics. The re-election of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva represents a seismic shift from the anti-democratic practices of Jair Bolsonaro. Yet, the last round was still very competitive, with Lula winning 50.9% of votes and Bolsonaro 49.1%, a difference of only around 2 million votes in a country of over 200 million. The election result provoked an unsettling wave of protests, violence and doubt amongst right-wing supporters of Bolsonaro.

In the weeks preceding the election, a series of events took place, giving a glimpse of what would follow once Bolsonaro failed to win re-election. During the first round of elections from 16th August to 2nd October, the Agencia Publica (Public Agency), registered 148 cases of electoral violence directed at voters, candidates and journalists - an average of 3 cases every day. 25 cases involved guns and at least 6 people were assassinated, along with 9 further attempted murders. 36% of the acts of violence were perpetrated by Bolsonaro supporters, compared to only 8% by Lula supporters.

A few days before the second round, Roberto Jefferson, former congressman as well as Bolsonaro’s ally, attacked Federal Police with grenades and a rifle. He fired over 20 shots when resisting arrest in “the name of freedom, democracy and family values”. Not long after that, far-right congresswomen Carla Zambelli drew a gun and threatened to shoot a Lula supporter. She took to Twitter with a racist rant saying “they used a black man to come after me”. On the contrary, footage appears to show her pursuing her “assailant” after tripping over. Not only that, but it is illegal in Brazil to bear weapons 24 hours before and after the election, a law which she ignored by her own admission, saying “I was and will continue to deliberately ignore the resolution”.

This situation escalated when the Federal Highway Police began operations in the northeast of the country. This was allegedly an attempt to delay leftwing voters en route to the polls. The states in the northeast region of the country are historically leftwing and were bound to have a large impact on the results. These operations ran against the demand of many electoral staff, and both national and international watchdogs, that voters should have easy access to polling stations. The chief of the Supreme Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, stated the chief

of the highway police should stop these operations. While Moraes claims that no voters were stopped from voting, it’s clear that many citizens faced huge obstacles in their attempts to cast a ballot.

Bolsonaro supporters argue that the operations were related to illegal vote-buying and the collective transportation of voters by Lula’s Workers’ Party, but there is little proof of that. Moreover, the Brazilian press reported that Bolsonaro himself asked the Minister of Justice to order these interventions. And the operations went further than just checking buses: in the city of Cuité, they targeted motorcycle drivers who were not wearing helmets or had expired documentation. Charles Cristiano, Mayor of Cuité, told the Washington Post about his suspicions: “Coincidentally, on Election Day, a blitz on the main access to the city? We are trying to get around it, calling people to come and vote, but unfortunately, many people are not voting. I think it will increase the number of abstentions.”

These conditions show several attempts to undermine the national electoral system. Ilona Szabó, president of the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian think tank, described it perfectly. “Since his election, Bolsonaro has tried to subvert Brazil’s democratic institutions… What we are seeing today — hundreds of federal road police operations impeding citizens from casting their vote — is yet further proof of his efforts to undermine the democratic process.”

Yet despite these subversive attempts, Bolsonaro lost the election. Lula’s win wasn’t unexpected, but it was definitely impactful. For the first time since the beginning of Brazilian democracy, a president was not re-elected for a second term.

Bolsonaro intially reacted to the result with radio silence, refusing to even admit that he had been defeated for two days after the election. Many feared that he would follow in former US President Donald Trump’s footsteps and refuse to accept the results, a path that he has clearly been tempted to wander down. While he affirmed that he would follow all constitutional commands, he has since alluded many times that the election results were fraudulent.

The transition process beginning implies that, ultimately, Jair Bolsonaro has accepted the results. However, the ambiguity of his statement fuelled his supporters to rally in protest against the results. The demonstrations were filled with anti-democratic messages such as reports of Nazi salutes and requests for military interventions. Moreover, illegal roadblocks caused by lorry drivers were reported all over the country, closing major highways, lasting multiple days and impacting many sectors of the economy. Such protests are now known to have been

financed by businessmen and important public figures - the Federal Court of Justice has announced that 43 people are being investigated for the financing of anti-democratic acts.

Since 30th October, Bolsonaro has barely worked in governmental affairs, averaging around 5 hours per week, despite still being the sitting president. Many reports indicate that he has been completely absent from usual political life. However, all sections of government have publicly recognised Lula’s win, which indicates a general approval of the results by parliament and the parties. This is not to say that such a transition will be simple. Notably, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party is still the largest in Senate.

For the international community, Lula’s re-election has been met with optimism. He is seen as some one engaged with environmental and social issues, which resulted in an appreciation of the Brazilian currency the day after the election and the return of international support in the protection of the Amazon rainforest from countries like Norway. In his speech at COP27, Lula pledged to fight against climate change and to protect the Amazon. “Brazil is back” he declared.

However, inside the country, Lula’s return has been greeted with a lot more pessimism. His unspecified economic policies, the lack of information on who will be in charge in each department and the an nouncement of investment in several social policies has created instability in the financial market.

Despite facing backlash, Lula seems determined to follow through with his regime of social policies. He is willing to surpass the federal budget to restore ‘Bolsa Familia’, a form of economic aid directed at low-income families. He has claimed that the longterm benefits of going over-budget will outweigh the short-term negative impact on the stock market, suggesting that the pursuit of social justice is more important than pleasing the financial world.

This is particularly contentious considering the struggling state of the Brazilian economy after the Covid-19 pandemic - many argue that there are sim ply no funds left for such policies. Yet on the other hand, the Brazilian population finds itself in an es pecially fragile situation. The country has recently re-entered the UN’s hunger map and has a high rate of extreme poverty.

While Lula’s policy proposals sound promising, it is hard to understand how he will enact these ideas in such a divided government. Agribusiness gener ates nearly 30% of Brazil’s GDP, and these producers have a powerful influence on Brazilian politics. In recent years they have been a key strategic ally of

Bolsonaro and the anti-regulation “ruralista” right. His subsequent neglect of environmental matters resulted in an all-time high rate of deforestation in Brazil and benefitted the agricultural elite by allowing them to expand farmland. Not only did they destroy parts of the world’s biggest and most important rainforest, but his environmental policies

Keir Holmes Culture Editor

with Great British Bake-Off Winner and King’s Research Associate

First of all, I just want to congratulate you on your success. How does it feel to be a Great British Bake Off winner? How was your experience as a Bake Off contestant?

As she was awarded the title of “Star Baker” no less than three times, it came as no surprise when this year’s series of “The Great British Bake Off” ended with Syabira Yusoff being crowned champion. Not only has Yusoff proven that she is an extraordinary baker to the British public, but she has also proven her academic prowess through her work at King’s College London as a Cardiovascular Research Associate.

While Yusoff has been particularly busy as of late, continuing her usual work while adjusting to her newfound fame, she has still managed to find some time to talk to us at Roar about her victory.

It feels surreal and amazing at the same time. I came to the tent with a mindset to survive every week, then I ended up being in the final and winning. It is the best outcome I could ever imagine! It was an amazing experience and I’ve got 11 friends for life!

Out of your creations on the show, which are you most proud of? And of the baking challenges, which was your favourite and which was your least favourite?

I am very proud of my Krokan. It is a shoutout to my research background. I have a love and hate relationship with the technical challenges. I love the showstopper challenge because you can go wild with it.

Are you at all sad that this SERIES is over?

I am sad but at the same time it is a huge relief not to keep the secret anymore!

Some former winners such as Peter Sawkins and Giuseppe Dell’Anno wrote recipe books after they won. Are you thinking of doing the same? Other than that, what do you plan on doing next?

I am thinking of doing the same approach. Hopefully, some publishers would be interested! [Other than that,] I am continuing my job as a Cardiovascular Researcher.

Final question, what advice would you give to any aspiring bakers out there?

If you love baking, keep on doing it. It is fun and rewarding. If you thinking of applying for Bake Off, just go for it. You will surprise yourself with what you can do.

You can follow Syabira Yusoff on Twitter @SyabiraBakes and on Instagram @syabira_bakes.

Welcome to Reggie Responds, Roar’s advice column! Our columnists are here to provide you helpful, or maybe not so helpful, advice. Tune in to see what they have to say about your problems.

Q: How do I make closer friends at uni? I’ve tried some societies but it feels like everyone already has their friend groups and I end up just knowing the people I meet there rather than being good friends with any of them.

Roar Staff: First things first, you definitely aren’t alone with this one – making good friends at uni can be hard to begin with. It’s almost as bad as dating: “Do they like me? Do they think I’m funny? Am I coming on too strong?” It can be a situation ripe for imposter syndrome. You’ve got to remember though, everyone’s in the same boat. On the surface it might seem that everyone is getting along swimmingly but I can guarantee that they’re probably feeling a similar way. I think the most important thing, and I know this is much easier said than done, is to put yourself out there. No one likes doing this, and it’s a terrifying prospect, but it sounds like you’re halfway there – joining societies is a great step in making friends. If you’re feeling like you need to solidify these friendships, ask people to do something outside of these society meetings, whether its a uni event, a new exhibition, or even just a coffee. It’ll give you the chance to get to know someone, or a small group of people, in a more personal environment. The worst that will happen is they say they’re busy, or you don’t click, in which case you’ll know that you’re better off as people who nod hello in the library and leave it at that. Much more likely, you’ll end up with some great mates and a confidence boost.

Q: I feel like I’m getting too caught up in uni work (there’s so much of it) and don’t have time to hang out with my friends. They mean well but do hang out a lot without me and I’m having some FOMO and I don’t know what to do about all this...

Roar Staff: Uni work can be overwhelming at times. Trust me, you are not alone. That being said, worry not, as there are many ways to restore the balance between studying and hanging out with friends. Firstly, you can incorporate your friends into your studying. Pick out a nice coffee shop, whether that be the local cafe near your flat, or something closer to uni, like a Starbucks or a SOHO coffee, and get to work. Study groups are not only beneficial in terms of socialising but they are also extremely advantageous for actual revision. You can motivate and help each other out and push one another to be the best students you can be. If you find coffee shops too distracting, the library also works well in this context. Pick a good study spot, whichever works for you and every hour or so you can take small breaks to chat with your friends, grab a snack or a coffee with them.

For better or for worse, academics need to be pretty high on your priorities list. Still, it may be the case that not all of your friends agree with this. It is important that you feel comfortable enough to share your feelings with the people close to you. If you are feeling a little left out, say it. Talk it through and try to find solutions which work for everyone. If they really are your friends, they are going to care for you and your feelings. Remember, your studies are important, no doubt about that, but you need to make sure you give yourself the opportunity to relax and have fun.

Syabira Yusoff, a KCL researcher and winner of the 13th series of “The Great British Bake Off”, answers some quick questions from Culture Editor Keir Holmes.

GIRLS ON FILM ‘BLONDE’

VS ‘ELVIS’

Isabelle Hickman Staff Writer

Staff writer Isabelle Hickman uses the recent biopics "Blonde" and "Elvis" to compare the onscreen representation of female icons to that of their male counterparts.

TW: Addiction, Alcoholism, Abortion.

The popularity of celebrity biopics has grown enormously over the last couple of years. We want to be closer to our stars and understand what happened behind the scenes of that film, song, relationship, or scandal. We want to understand them on a deeper, more personal level, to be a part of their successes and see our flaws and anxieties reflected in them.

Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley are two icons that bookend the golden age of Hollywood. Both names evoke the glamour of Hollywood stardom and the darkness lying deep beneath it. Their significance  equally extends beyond their work catalogues Stacey Henley rightfully stated in her comparison of the two movies that Elvis and Marilyn are “more famous for their existence… you will not meet a single person on the street who has not heard of them”. More famous in death, they have exceeded to new heights of popculture significance, forever cemented in our cultural zeitgeist. Considering this, it comes as no surprise that both were subjects of biopics this year. Marilyn Monroe is depicted in "Blonde", directed by Andrew Dominik, and Elvis Presley in "Elvis", directed by Baz Luhrmann. Both icons have equally troubled beginnings, turbulent middles and sudden and shocking ends. However, these two icons of Americana couldn’t be portrayed more differently, begging the question: how do we portray female celebrities in movies?

Luhrmann, known for his garish, gaudy and heavily stylised way of directing, portrays Elvis sympathetically, a controlled show-pony who just wanted to break free; in a recent interview, Luhrmann commented that Elvis was and remains “the ultimate victim of the hysteria around him”. Through this impression of Elvis as a victim, Luhrmann creates a superhero-like image for Elvis – a hero of his own story, who tried to rival his manager Colonel Tom Parker, “The Snowman”, but ultimately failed. Luhrmann crafts a romantic and idyllic image of Presley’s childhood, portraying him running around with a cardboard lightning bolt around his neck in Mississippi poverty before metamorphosing into the beloved bejewelled icon who championed the American Dream.

If Elvis is presented as the superhero, then Marilyn is the doll. Dominik’s style of film-craft couldn’t be more different from Luhrmann’s. Shot mostly in black-andwhite, with emotionally intense close-ups

and nauseating shaky-cam used to add a sense of chaos to her life, "Blonde" does not create a superhero image for Marilyn. Dominik’s style reflects his portrayal of Marilyn. In an interview with Sight and Sound, Dominik flippantly remarked that he is “not concerned with being tasteful... 'Blonde' is supposed to leave you shaking… It's a howl of pain or rage”. Relentless in its portrayal of the real-life trauma that Marilyn experienced, Ana de Armas spends what feels like 165 minutes of the film’s 166-minute run-time intensely staring down a camera lens, pitifully crying. It is exploitative, voyeuristic and repetitive to the point of painful (and quite boring) to watch. For a movie that centres so much on love, "Blonde" is a loveless portrayal of an icon whose sheer influence and presence that continues to define Hollywood.

Luhrmann, on the other hand, adores Elvis, attributing his filmmaking style to watching Elvis’s “cheesy movies which [he] thought were works of genius” as a child. Luhrmann overemphasises the good that Elvis did or tried so desperately to achieve if he hadn’t been controlled; in particular, choosing to emphasise a civil-rights narrative to Presley's career throughout the movie, typified in the pivotal moment during his ‘68 Comeback Special singing “If I Can Dream”. The movie selectively glosses over his darker chapters: his relationship with his "cherries", Priscilla’s age, his puffy and drug addled days, and the infamous circumstances of his death, which have been altogether removed, leaving Elvis with a sense of dignity in the final acts of the film. In comparison, Marilyn’s death is turned into a 10-minute-long naked dream sequence, wrapped in a white bed sheet, and her final moment is going towards her “daddy” in the sky. It’s perverse and humiliating at best.

Although "Elvis" touches on his personal life, the film, according to Luhrmann, is about Elvis's career as a "rock and roll star and movie star" in an era of profound social change in the US. "Blonde" deliberately denies the greatness of Marilyn’s career and solely focuses on her social life, her emotions and her demons. Perhaps this difference in subject matter is a reflection of real life gendered inequalities in the media, where we seem far more interested in the social lives and scandals of our female celebrities rather than their work, compared to their male counterparts. "Blonde" shuns Marilyn's role in fighting for equality pre-civil rights, and how she used her power and notoriety to convince clubs to allow Ella Fitzgerald to sing during segregation. It ignores that she was also the second woman in US history to own a production company, and glosses over her wit, intelligence and talent displayed in "Some like it Hot" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", or “well-dressed whores”, as Dominik described the 1953 musical comedy classic, focusing on her supposed dissociation from the character of "Marilyn Monroe", turning the whole thing into some kind of "Jekyll and Hyde" episodic meltdown.

The film graphically revels in her trauma, according to Henley reducing “her greatest movies to B-movie schlock”, her meaningful actions to illicit relationships, graphic sex and abortions (which there is no evidence she ever had) and her character to a hysterical, infantile diva with daddy issues. Marilyn is portrayed with no strength or voice. The real Marilyn Monroe possessed intelligence, drive and tenacity,

(perhaps even more so than Elvis), to leave behind her impoverished past and make something of herself despite her traumas, in an era that was highly unforgiving of women. Jill Layton writing for Hello Giggles highlights that Marilyn truly broke the mould and challenged the authoritarian structure of Hollywood studios; she wasn’t submissive, lying on a shagpile rug, like Dominik symbolically fetishises her to be.

You may wonder what the problem really is with the obtuse difference in these portrayals and say "well, its artistic license", "two different directors with unique points of view and styles of filmcraft". But when does arguing "artistic license" become a cop-out for actually recognising the problematic nature of what is being displayed?

There is considerate danger in portraying our female icons as "damsels in distress" whilst upholding their male counterparts as heroes. I’m not suggesting an uneven feminist revisioning of history in our biopics. There is equal danger in overplaying greatness; real and fictional characters should be portrayed as threedimensional. However, as sociologist Fahad Alzahrani explains, “representations of gender in the media influence how people perceive gender issues”, depicting men as the stronger sex and women as weak. It is estimated that 77% of the subjects of biopics are men; therefore, with such little representation of women, the importance of how we represent them and tell their stories grows tenfold. We live in a celebrity-driven world where we replicate and imitate what we are shown. Therefore, these stereotypes resonate even deeper within society when projected through our beloved icons and Hollywood elite, replicating and perpetuating cycles of inequality in our world.

"Blonde" didn’t do Marilyn Monroe the justice that she deserved. Alongside the recent controversy of Kim Kardashian (perhaps the subject of her own biopic in the future) wearing the infamous "Happy Birthday" dress to the 2022 Met Gala, there have been calls to finally let Marilyn rest. The likelihood of this happening is slim, as we remain obsessed with her stardom and overtaken by the mystery surrounding her. As for Elvis, attention is shifting from the "King of Rock and Roll" to Priscilla in the latest biopic, based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir "Elvis and Me".

Under the guise of Sofia Coppola and A24, there is hope that this biopic will portray Priscilla as three-dimensional – or will this be another exploitative, tear-filled, loveless jaunt into the past of yet another female icon?

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Review Building a Legacy

TAHA KHAMBATY Staff Writer

Staff writer Taha Khambaty reviews “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. It’s a worthy successor to the muchloved original, let down in parts by its reliance on Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) tropes. This review contains minor spoilers.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” continues the legacy of its predecessor and its lead, T’Challa, building on the themes of neocolonialism, revenge, and overcoming loss.

The film very wisely decides to tackle the tragic passing of actor Chadwick Boseman upfront through the death of his character, T’Challa or the Black Panther. This allows plenty of room for the film to explore its repercussions and weave them throughout its themes and narrative. This lends the film an aura of sorrow which is at its most powerful in the first thirty minutes.

This first half-hour feels especially impactful due to its staunch denial of conventional MCU tropes. The absence of quips or jokes makes sure that nothing undercuts the emotional strength of a scene. Director Ryan Coogler, along with cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw and VFX supervisor Geoffrey Baumann, vividly bring to life the Afrofuturist setting of Wakanda and the culture of its people without ever letting it become your standard CGI landscape.

Despite this strong focus on T’Challa’s passing, “Wakanda Forever” also makes sure to highlight its characters’ reactions to the event, with the film very much being a study of its central characters, T’Challa’s

sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) and his mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett). Here, the film also stands apart from other MCU offerings. The narrative and characters’ actions do not feel orchestrated to meet a specific ending but, instead, the film builds on the consequences of its predecessor and lets its characters feel like they are truly driving the plot forward. Realising that her technology and beliefs failed to save her brother, Shuri, played brilliantly by Wright, struggles to overcome a genuine contempt for the past and present, with Wright embodying a simultaneous feeling of sorrow and vengeance. An even stronger performance comes from Angela Bassett, commanding a regal aura as Queen Ramonda who, despite struggling with grief, puts forward an image of a Queen ready to protect her nation as outside forces try to capitalise on the death of their King.

Outside Wakanda, a new threat emerges to both their nation and the larger world: Namor (José Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and the underwater nation of Talokan. Huerta gives a stellar performance as Namor, a ruler who has seen the atrocities of the “surface world” and is not afraid to retaliate. Huerta plays the character with real empathy, showing this ruler’s great care for his people. Yet, there is also always a sense of menace about him, as you know that he will do anything at all to make Talokan prosper. While he is clearly the antagonist, Huerta’s performance ensures that Namor never feels like a “villain”.

Aside from Namor, his nation of Talokan is also

brought to life in a style that feels unique, carrying the unique aesthetic of a civilisation raised in the depths of the sea that is still transitioning from human to aquatic.

It also feels important to acknowledge the soundtrack, scored by Ludwig Göransson, which aids considerably in the world-building of Wakanda and Talokan. Using African and Mexican instruments helps separate these nations’ cultures from their Western counterparts. Yet, some of the film’s strongest emotional moments come from scenes with a distinct lack of music, helping the sound and dialogue grab the audience more firmly. Alongside its phenomenal costume design, this helps the film feel less “westernised” and more diverse.

Another key aspect of this film is its runtime, clocking in at about 2 hours and 41 mins (let’s face it, you’re sitting through the whole credit sequence). While this runtime is definitely used well to flesh out Talokan, Namor, and the struggles of Okoye (Danai Gurira), Shuri, and Queen Ramonda, it still feels unnecessarily elongated due to the conventional MCU story structures. This includes an entire subplot with Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross that could have been entirely cut out with very little changing, only existing to set up future projects. Additionally, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, while a good performance, doesn’t get the same development as the

other cast, making her feel as though she was forced into the film.

Another point where the film feels very much in line with a traditional MCU film is in its third act, where we again have a drawn-out final battle. This in itself wouldn’t be a problem if the majority of it didn’t feel like the generic two-CGI army battle that has become a constantly critiqued staple of the MCU. Instead, it would have greatly benefited the film to focus on a more emotionally resonant oneon-one final confrontation. This MCU-ness is also visible in some of the other action sequences which are filled with so many quick cuts that you barely understand what is happening.

Despite indulging in some of MCU’s bad impulses, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” has proven to be one of Phase 4’s best offerings. It manages to carve a unique identity for itself that, instead of repeating

THE 90S ARE BACK IN FASHION

BUT LET'S NOT FORGET THEIR LESSONS

Kiren Graziano Media Editor

When thinking about the influence the fashion industry has, many minds jump to Meryl Streep’s cerulean sweater monologue in "The Devil Wears Prada", arguing that every clothing decision can be traced back to high fashion. While this may be the first thing that comes to mind, the fashion industry influences far more than just clothing choice. Most notably, it influences our beauty standards. The fashion industry has the power to say what’s in and what’s out. Unfortunately, this power has been applied to body types in the past.

The 90s fashion scene brought about an array of styles from grungy looks to slip dresses, but it also sparked the "heroin chic" trend. This, unlike mini skirts or platform heels, was a trend in body type. It put emphasis on emaciated features, dark under-eye circles, and pale skin. Alongside the idealisation of the waif body type in the 90s, this resulted in an unhealthy and unattainable beauty standard for women and young girls.

One of the era’s most famous supermodels, Kate Moss, became the poster child of this "heroin chic" trend. She was photographed embodying this look and was glamorised for it. Moss and malnutrition were set as the beauty standard.

Much like everything else in fashion, this trend lasted about 20 years. Moss’s supermodel status stayed put, and the idealisation of unhealthy body types remained pervasive. Even I remember

waiting in the checkout line at shops and seeing every magazine have a waif model and diet tips on the front page. It was a time that praised and encouraged unhealthy eating patterns, studies have shown that there was around a 5% increase in those diagnosed with eating disorders from 2000-2009 in the United Kingdom alone. The prevalence of "heroin chic" models in the fashion industry no doubt played a part in this statistic.

This toxic culture came to a head in 2009 with a famous statement from Moss, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. This perfectly exemplified the attitude at the time - physical health was the last priority to a fashion industry that was profiting off of looking unhealthy. Kate Moss has since renounced this statement, but it’s too late to undo the damage done to a generation of girls. After this remark made the media rounds, the "heroin chic" trend seemed to fade. Moss’s mantra made people realise how dangerous diet culture was becoming.

As the 2010s rolled around, focus shifted more towards celebrities like the Kardashians. In stark contrast to the beauty standards of the previous 20 years, the Kardashians were praised for their curvy figures. While still an unattainable shape, this trend in body type promoted fewer unhealthy habits in girls.

Social media in the 2010s gave influencers the platform they desperately needed to take the body positivity movement from underground to mainstream. While it didn’t happen overnight, the movement grew larger from 2010 onwards - finally exploding in 2014. That year, we saw

Lena Dunham take over "Stylist" magazine and direct a shoot using plus size models and Meghan Trainor’s "All About that Bass", a song encouraging self-love regardless of size, charting at number 1. The trend in body type had fully shifted from "heroin chic" to selflove. After this landmark year for body positivity, the fashion industry started to take notice of the movement.

In 2016, Ashley Graham was the first plus size model to be on the cover of "Sports Illustrated", sparking lots of discussion. This was a huge step in the right direction for inclusivity. Graham can also be credited as the first plus size model to appear on the covers of both British and American "Vogue" in 2017. Fashion shows such as "Project Runway" began using plus size models at this time as well.

The inclusion of plus size models in the media of the fashion industry was a high for the body positivity movement. However, there has not been much movement since. The major fashion houses didn’t start including plus size models until around 2019, and now there has been talk of a shift back to the dangerous body trends of the past.

In early November of this year, the New York Post published an article called “Bye Bye Booty: Heroin Chic is Back”. Met with great backlash, this article discusses the apparent shift back towards the toxic body trend of the past. Pointing to the increased popularity of thin models like Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber and the resurgence of mini skirts in fashion, the New York Post is of the opinion that "heroin chic" is making a comeback.

This is a scary thought for most women I know. After enjoying a few years of body

positivity, none of us want to go back to unreasonable diets designed to achieve unreasonable standards. The beauty of fashion and media in the last few years is that they celebrated diversity in body type. A lot of different figures were not only seen, but presented as desirable. This is something people do not want to see taken away.

Rather than backtracking to an era of toxic dieting culture and unhealthy body standards, I hope that the fashion industry and media will continue the trend of inclusivity. There has been great progress in the last 10 years towards embracing all body types, but there is still work to be done. Trans models and many male body types have yet to be seen fully included in mainstream fashion. Fixing these issues could be a positive step for the industry to take instead of going back to a dangerous body trend.

My, maybe naive, hope is that the fashion industry will not begin promoting the "heroin chic" body type as something to be attained by the everyday person. This is not to say that putting a thin model in a mini skirt should be outlawed. Instead, I'm just saying that the fashion industry needs to continue reaching for inclusion, even while the clothing trends of the 90s and early 2000s begin to come back. Even though the clothing trends of the 90s are making a comeback, "heroin chic" doesn’t have to.

Media Editor Kiren Graziano looks at the resurgence of 90s fashion trends and warns us against following them too closely.

The Top Exhibitions To See In London 2022/23

Jess Clarke Staff Writer

Looking to get out from under the glaring library lights? Take a trip to one of the exhibitions listed below for some

The New Black Vanguard

exhibition you’ve been to before.

world of Ancient Egypt.

Visit the Tate Britain to see original photographs and print copies from across Bill Brandt’s career. The British photographer was influential during the mid-20th century as photography was starting to become an accepted art form, and he is known for his experimental work that found beauty in the mundane. His works involved landscapes, portraits, and nudes, and he was 100% dedicated to setting up the perfect composition, which is obvious in his photos. This exhibition is a great insight into the photography boom of the mid-20th century and can be enjoyed by photography newbies, and those who know their stuff alike.

‘Bill Brandt: Inside the Mirror’ is showing at the Tate Britain until 15 January 2023

Free

Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel

This relevant and moving exhibition at the Barbican provides an enlightening perspective on pre-revolutionary Iran. Using the painting tradition of egg tempera on calf vellum, Sokhanvari’s work focuses on the lives of 28 women who were silenced by the 1979 religious reforms through exile and imprisonment. Stars of stage and film, these women are feminist icons, and Sokhanvari’s immersive exhibition honours that. This exhibition could not have come at a more poignant time and is a rich insight into Iranian womanhood pre-1979. Featuring murals and music alongside the paintings themselves, this is not one to miss.

“Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel” is showing at the Barbican until 26 February 2023 Free

Lovers of fashion and art must make a visit to this long-awaited exhibition which, after travelling all over the world, has finally landed at the Saatchi gallery. Featuring the works of 15 black photographers, the exhibition was curated by US writer and critic Antwaun Sargent, a champion of black art and fashion. This most recent collection celebrates black creativity, both behind and in front of the camera, and shows a new wave of representation in fashion, art, and photography. There is even a Burberry-sponsored section, “The New Wave II”, where the iconic fashion house has paired with creatives to support the exhibition. This vibrant and groundbreaking exhibition is a must-see.

“The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion” is showing at the Saatchi Gallery until 22 January 2023

£5 for students with a valid ID

When Flowers Dream

From the artist Tanya Schultz, a.k.a Pip & Pop, comes this playful new installation at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens. Included in the Kew Gardens entry ticket, this fun exhibition displays artwork made from sugar, sweets, and an assortment of other materials.

“When Flowers Dream” is showing in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens until 5 March 2023

£6 for a Kew Gardens entry ticket (incl. the exhibition) for students with a valid ID

Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR

Anyone who’s been near TikTok in the last few years will have undoubtedly come across an ASMR video or two. ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response” and is a phenomenon where certain stimuli (like sounds or sights) cause a tingle up the spine and a state of relaxation. The Design Museum is the first to explore the concept of ASMR in an immersive exhibition like no other. Prepare to have a physical reaction as you are introduced into the world of ASMR. Whether you love it or hate it, I guarantee it’ll be like no other

“Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR” at the Design Museum is running until 10 April 2023

£7.20/£9.75 for students with a valid ID (weekday/weekend)

Hallyu! The Korean Wave

‘Hallyu’ is the South Korean pop culture phenomenon that the V&A is exploring in its latest exhibition. The exhibition covers all things pop culture, including cinema, music, beauty, fashion, and tech, and examines the global reach of the Korean Wave. Beyond the dazzling world of K-culture, the exhibition also provides a thorough and well-researched introduction into South Korean history. Once again the V&A does not disappoint, and it’s definitely worth the heavier price tag.

“Hallyu! The Korean Wave” is showing at the V&A until 25 June 2023

£13 for students and those under 26

Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt

The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited at the British Museum for over 200 years and was the key to unlocking the magic of hieroglyphics. 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of this deciphering, and the British Museum has gone above and beyond to provide insight into Ancient Egypt. Perhaps the ‘heaviest’ of the exhibitions on this list, be prepared to do a lot of reading. However, there are plenty of ornate semi-pictorial papyrus prints to provide some light relief. This is definitely an exhibition for those interested in the fascinating

“Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt” is showing at the V&A until 19 February 2023

£16/£18 for students with a valid ID (weekday/weekend)

2-for-1 tickets on Fridays

Ones To Watch In Late 2023: DIVA at the V&A

Celebrating iconic performers, this exhibition is set to open on 24 June 2023.

Skateboard at the Design Museum

Charting the evolution of skateboards from the 1950s to now, this exhibition opens on 20 October 2023.

Women in Revolt! at the Tate Britain

A one-of-a-kind exhibition exploring the artwork of over 100 women working in the UK from 1970 to 1990, Women in Revolt! opens on 8 November 2023.

Staff writer Jess Clarke goes through the best art exhibitions you can see in London during the remainder of 2022 and the start of 2023.

cultural relief.

Bill Brandt: Inside the Mirror

SHAKESPEARE’S THEATRE REIMAGINED

Staff writer Hannah Gordon reviews the “Shakespeare and Race Festival 2022”, a refreshing and necessary exploration into the theatre of William Shakespeare.

The “Shakespeare and Race Festival” is an annual collaboration between King’s College London and the Globe theatre. It spotlights researchers, actors, and directors who explore Shakespeare and race in their work.

Often, conversations about Shakespeare and race fall flat - if they happen at all. I am not sure if it’s the unbearable pain of interrogating an adored dramatist or the fear that Shakespeare could be cancelled. Or maybe it was people like me: tired of characters like Othello being oversimplified and underexplored.

On my first night in attendance, however, I was pleasantly surprised. I witnessed the remarkable Folger Theatre perform “Our Verse in Time to Come”. This new play commemorated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. It followed the character S.O.S, a former hip-hop legend faced with onset demen-

tia. He hopes to reunite with his children before his memory completely fades. Shakespeare’s influence presented itself in the story and words of the play with a mischievous sprite, quarrelling twins and a mysterious griot.

This was the first time the play had been performed all the way through. There were no costumes, no special effects, no lines memorised – just sheer onstage talent. I found it refreshing to see Shakespeare’s works stripped back to their core concepts. The cast even remained on stage to discuss the play with the audience, which created an intimate space to share ideas. Everyone was happy to discuss and even disagree on ways to produce this play for future audiences. Shakespeare was being constructed and deconstructed before our very ideas; nothing was too precious to reimagine.

My expectations for the second night were high. “Politics, Performance and the Poetics of Race” had a very hard act to follow. How could conversations remain engaging without the play’s entertainment factor? Well, firstly I must com mend the infectious enthusiasm of Akiya Henry, Abigail Graham, and Cameron Knight. Their honesty about trials and

successes within the creative industry was so genuine and I appreciated the vulnerability they displayed. They were bold in their theatrical visions, despite their divisive nature. I found this extremely admirable. The lines “it doesn’t always have to be about my blackness” and “people have gone head, not the head, heart soul body” were two stand-out moments, attracting a room of emphatic clicks and nods of agreement from the audience.

Ms Graham delved into her directing process for Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”. She brought a rabbi to speak to the cast and performed the first play in Yiddish. At first, I admit I was slight ly perplexed by this uncanny process. I began to understand, however, she was teaching us to be bold in unlearning creative habits. We must be unafraid to design what we feel rather than what we feel is necessary. This unapologetic con fidence defined the spirit of the evening.

The enthusiasm of the audience, actors and director was so inspiring. I would like to congratulate Professor Farah Ka

‘WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM’: Mahsa Amini and the death penalty

Jessica Berry Staff Writer

TW: Violence against women, sexual assault

On 16th September, protests erupted in Tehran, Iran’s capital city, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish tourist who was detained by Iran’s “morality police” for wearing her hijab “improperly”. She died in a hospital in Iran a few days later. This detention was because she was not viewed to be properly dressed according to the country’s regulations of head coverings and clothes that don’t show a woman’s figure. Given that she was reported to be brutally beaten during her detention and died just three days later, the timeline suggests she died as a result of her treatment in the detention centre, despite Iranian authorities claiming they had nothing to do with her death, citing heart conditions as the reason for it.

It was after the 1979 Islamic Revolution where a mandatory dress code including hijabs and loose-fitting clothing in public became the law. Enforcing these laws has been the Gasht-e Ershad, or “morality police” who ensure compliance. They are allowed to stop and detain women for “relearning”, fines, and even flogging.

There have been protests against these rules before, such as in 2014, when women took to social media to show themselves without hijabs as a part of a social media campaign. These protests see a new scale of intensity, violence, and commitment, not seen before in Iran. Today, the hijab is perceived as a tool of oppression when imposed in this way. According to US news, 72%

of Iranians surveyed that they don’t support compulsory hijab imposition. This is not about hijab discourse as the hijab is undeniably an important and sacred part of Islam. This concerns the oppression of women, as it is in conjunction with unspeakable levels of violence against them and an infringement on women’s rights. It is a stand against an undemocratic, misogynistic government.

This has resulted in women across Iran leading protests, setting their hijabs on fire in symbolism along with cutting their hair on social media to express their anger and frustration with the laws passed since the 1979 Revolution. This galvanised support due to this situation’s relatability. When Mahsa Amini died, it lit a fire of anger and resentment from women, with a recount from Al Jazeera journalist Dorsa Jabbari detailing how almost anyone could find themselves in the position of not appearing proper and facing the abuse of the morality police.

Every woman has been at risk of systematic abuse since 1981 when the hijab law was passed. Women can lose their jobs, be denied service in shops and taken out of education for the way they dress. Moreover, for women in Iran, it is harder to get divorced, harder to retain custody of their children, and can be prevented from getting jobs by their husbands. Despite police brutality and violent crackdowns, women and sympathetic men have continued the protests since September calling for the “death of the dictator”, in reference to the ruling Ayatollah, and for “women, life, and freedom”.

These protests are the first to be solely fixated on women’s freedom. Many

Iranian men are seen to be just as committed to the cause, given how deeply they are impacted when women they know are so easily detained and punished for something as private as what they choose to wear. According to an article from Time magazine, “the men are fighting for their sisters and their mothers and their daughters, and they don’t want this for them either.” What’s worse is that what constitutes proper dress is often based on what the morality police decide as opposed to a specific outline.

Protests have spread across Iran and across the world, and while they have bravely continued, protestors have been faced with brutal crackdowns. Police have been seen beating peaceful protestors, opening fire on them, and dragging women across the floor by their hair. Niloofar Hamedi, the women’s rights journalist who broke the story on Mahsa Amini, was jailed by Tehrani police and is now in solitary confinement.

The most recent and horrifying development is that 95.5% of the Iranian parliament have signed an open letter to the judiciary asking that the death penalty be invoked against the protestors who had been arrested thus far. Nearly 15,000 Iranians have been arrested in conjunction with the protesting and on 13th November, one was sentenced to death for setting a government building on fire. Twenty more people are facing charges pun-

ishable by death.

Other punishments include prison sentences of 5-10 years. This violation of human rights has appeared with an apparent trend of forced marriage and sexual assault of unmarried women who are imprisoned. Young girls who are detained in prison and due to be executed are being married to and raped by prison guards the days before their execution because the death of a virgin is against religious law.

What this indicates is a gross violation of human rights. It begins with the oppression of Iranian law, to the control of women, and the inhibition of the right to protest.  These protests are symbolic of a tipping point in how women are willing to be treated in Iran. To be clear, it is not simply wearing the hijab that is oppressive to women, because the empowerment of women differs across the world depending on the context. The oppression is governmental control over women and their choices; France’s law on the ban of the hijab is just as misogynistic and controlling of women.

Mahsa Amini has become a martyr and a symbol of hope for women and Iranians who continue to protest despite the horrifying efforts by the government to crack down. Given the scale and power of the protests, the government’s ability to continue to survive comes under question.

Staff writer Jessica Berry evaluates the continuing protests in Iran and the government’s decision to use the death penalty on protestors.

Image Courtesy of Mahsa Amini Social Media

A ‘COP OUT’ or not?

IMPORTANT CHALLENGES IN COP27 AND THE ROLE OF EGYPT AS A HOST

CATHERINE HERVIEU Staff Writer

Will this year be different from the last?

Footage of Alok Sharma resisting tears was what we were left with at the end of the Glasgow COP. Many countries watered down their commitments, particularly over the use of coal, at the last minute during COP26. This year the Egypt presidency has tried to set their focus on implementation and “mobilising collective efforts for ambitious emission reductions”. Too many promises from states have not been kept in the history of climate action. The Paris Agreement of 2015 agreed that the global average temperature rise would be kept below 1.5%; 2% at the most. It has been unanimously agreed that the efforts promoted in line with this goal are not enough to achieve it. Have talks in Sharm El Sheikh appeared to solve these shaky promises?

It’s unfortunate that governments need a catastrophic war to come around to clean energy. But this year it seems that commitment to action is being pushed by that very stimulus. Clean energy is now seen as the “energy of freedom”, helping us remove our reliance on Russia. PM Rishi Sunak certainly advocated this stance in his COP27 address, outlining the need to “insure ourselves against energy dependency”. In this sense, Egypt’s COP may seem to be meeting its implementation aims through an opportunity in crisis.

But the agreed draft of the COP27 text, announced early Sunday morning, includes disappointing elements. The practice of watering down commitments to emissions has been adopted. It’s been accepted once again that coal emissions will be “phased down” rather than “phased out”. The Guardian outlines that proposals for all fossil fuels to be “phased down” were also excluded at the second draft of the text; in terms of cutting emissions, it seems COP27 has not delivered.

Big economies versus little ones: “your payment is well overdue.”

The ‘100 billion goal’ was a commitment from large economies to help poorer countries with

their adaptation to climate change. Made in 2009, this $100 billion was aimed to be fulfilled per year by 2020. It is still yet to be achieved.

“Every leader before us has postponed until tomorrow what needed to happen yesterday. And now tomorrow is here today. And countries like mine are out of time” — Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis

In a nutshell, lower-income countries will experience a greater struggle to adapt to climate change. Ironically, these are the countries which have contributed the least emissions. Separate from the need for adaptation funding is the idea of loss and damage, where large economies need to pay up for unavoidable climate impacts.

This COP has been described by some as an “African COP”. The opportunity for Africa to have a large voice in Egypt’s COP opened up discussions of its role in the crisis. Africa is predicted to experience some of the worst effects of climate change, including surface temperature rises above the global average. The World Bank has predicted that if climate conditions continue to worsen, around 86 million Africans could be displaced from their homes by 2050. How much does it contribute to the problem? Africa produces only 2-3% of global CO2 emissions.

Another example is the Bahamas, for which an eloquent address was given by Prime Minister Phillip Davis: “The Bahamas is not now and never has been the problem. But yet we are forced to pay the price.”

How far have countries committed to adaptation this year? The UK, as one example, has announced £200 million of funding to the African Development Bank (AfDB), as well as tripling its adaptation funding by 2025. The COP27 presidency has announced an “adaptation agenda” to build climate resilience and “address the adaptation gap”. This global plan sets out 30 clear targets focusing on food and agriculture, water systems, human settlement, and other key issues of adaptation. Also outlined is the need to mobilise up to $300 billion by 2030. However, there are still doubts as to whether enough will be done.

Doctor Megan Bowman, from King’s College London, recalled that the initial 100 billion goal and its failure to be met signified both a trust gap, “the gap between promises and action”, as well as an instrumental gap: 100 billion still simply isn’t enough. In fact, it was presented at COP27 that

around $2tn is required per year by 2030 to really help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Then we have the need to address loss and damage. PhD student at King’s, Hannah Getachew, commented that compensation to low-income countries would mean “we could collectively build a world that is equitable and beneficial to people and our planet”. Her ideal COP resolution would result in a “financial mechanism dedicated to loss and damage”, separate from existing mechanisms. Getachew also mentioned that this year’s focus on loss and damage is extremely late — 31 years late, in fact. It was first proposed in 1991 by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Vanuatu.

Passionate students at a debate with King’s College London’s Sustainability Team, Climate Action Network and Climate Action Society, discussed the issue of loss and damage. Larger income countries need to commit to helping adaptation alongside funds, they claimed. Among their discussion, the recent flooding in Pakistan and its relation to climate issues caught much attention. The loss and damage agenda now cannot be ignored or excused.

Concerning loss and damage compensation, or, increasingly, “climate reparations”, final decisions from the plenary have largely been dubbed as “historic”. This is where COP27 can be deemed successful. The first loss and damage fund has been set up for countries to accept their “common but differentiated responsibilities…in the light of differing national circumstances”, which is a huge step of progress. However, it must be noted that the fund remains voluntary. Arguably a major setback. Questions of whether China and India will contribute remain to their discretion.

What about the human rights violations in Egypt?

There are around 65,000 political prisoners in Egypt today.

While a crying Alok Sharma was left in our heads after COP26, the lasting image of COP27 may be of a lonely prison cell. The case of Alaa Abd ElFaatah is one which argues whether Egypt is an appropriate COP leader. Other heads of state are increasingly reassur ing the press that they have raised

concerns with Egypt’s President Sisi about the pending release of political prisoner Alaa. Alaa gained British citizenship in 2021 and is still yet to be released. He has implemented a hunger strike against his imprisonment for spreading incorrect news about the Egyptian state. Can we focus on important decisions for the climate when the team leader is oppressing its activists?

Naomi Klein discusses the connection between Egypt’s attempt at being an inclusive eco-leader and its fundamental human rights violations. She labels it as a “greenwashing police state”.  320 organisations and 830 individuals from across the world, including activists such as Greta Thunberg and charities like Amnesty International, have petitioned against Egypt’s human rights issues ahead of its leadership of this year’s COP.

To dispel this non-inclusive reputation, the ‘Green Zone’ at COP27 allows protestors and activists to come to the COP and express their opinions. It must be admitted that it looks very pretty. It warmly welcomes the “registered public”. In order to book a place in the Green Zone you must be affiliated with a certain climate organisation or group. Human Rights Watch indicates that this registration restricts the participation of anyone simply interested in attending and expressing their views.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concerns not only over violations to the right of participation, but also of the right to privacy, over speculations that surveillance is being misused during the conference. Adding to Egypt’s poor hosting capabilities, the atmosphere of concern for young activists includes the experience of many youth delegates attending the conference. Their two weeks have allegedly included staying in rooms without locks and not enough beds. This is a far cry from the luxury beach destinations where most world leaders are rumoured to be staying.

It seems that COP27 has struggled to tackle its intended problems whilst simultaneously bringing attention to new ones. Has the conference given enough commitment, or is this another COPout? Some historic steps have indeed been made and looking at the glass as half-full can push us to carry on. But a climate crisis and a human rights

Staff writer Catherine Hervieu assesses the decisions made at the COP27 Conference and the implications of Egypt as its host.

GREEN GURU John ELkington SPEAKS TO ROAR

FINTAN HOGAN Comment Editor

Comment Editor Fintan Hogan sits down with climate activist and author John Elkington.

John Elkington has been described as “a world authority” on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and green business. In 2008, he was listed as one of the top 1,000 most influential people in London. In 2009, he was ranked as the fourth most important CSR leader – behind only Al Gore, Barak Obama and Anita Roddick.

He was a faculty member for the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 2002-2008. Breaking through with his landmark work ‘Cannibals with Forks’ (1997), he has authored and co-authored 20 books. His most recent work, ‘Green Swans’ (2020), stresses the importance of achieving exponential positive change.

When not travelling, writing or blogging, John primarily works at Volans, a company he cofounded, to consult with corporations and projects on their sustainability practices. Volans is based in Somerset House, adjacent to King’s College London’s (KCL’s) Strand campus. On Tuesday, 16th November, he invited Roar to sit down with him for an interview.

Having worked in sustainability for over half a century, what achievement are you proudest of?

What am I proudest of? I think we’ve managed to get people talking and thinking about sustainability, but it’s taken a hell of a lot longer than I imaged back in the 80s and 90s. Now it’s endemic – everyone thinks that they should have a sustainability set of commitments, goals, targets if they’re in business. If part of our goal had been to get people to speak the language of sustainability, I think that we can put a tick in that box.

Literally most of them thought that anyone coming from the environmental side was a communist – and that was a good reason for them to not even let you through the front gate, let alone the front door. They tended to see it as anti-capitalist, anti-business, anti-growth. I think that was one of the early challenges which was bridging between generations, but I’m excited that we’ve got business into the game in a way that they weren’t originally.

I wonder at some level if it’s even possible with many people. I think that as a country and as a culture we have chosen to slump into scientific illiteracy. If people don’t understand science, then it is really unlikely that anything will persuade them that climate change is not only real, but on an accelerative curve.

I did my first report on climate change in 1978 and over the subsequent decades there has been this awakening and we are beginning to move, but it’s all incremental. On the plus side, average people are herd animals. So when the rest of the herd starts to move, they move too.

Ordinary people – by which I mean people who gets their news by watching television or by reading the slightly more popular end of the press – even they, with the drought this year, are hearing this through their own families.

Do we need to consume less, consume better, or both?

It’s very difficult to say that everyone has to consume less because the consumption patterns across the world are so radically different. You look at what people have come to expect in a country like this one and you compare that to people in Sudan or wherever, it’s very clear that there are many people who need to come up some version of the growth curve.

In 1986 I came up with the idea of green growth. What I meant by that is that we’ve got to destroy certain industries – we’ve got to drive them out. But at the same time you need absolutely ferocious growth in those areas of the economy which can deliver real value, but with a much lower footprint.

It’s inevitable that there will be terrible things happening as a result of this, but I do think over time it will have an impact, in the same way that the Suffragettes did. They were loathed by many people at the time, but afterwards we learnt to celebrate them.

Greta [Thunberg] I think is a stunning gift. One of those very, very rare individuals who come along every so often. I think that in speaking truth to power she’s done something that many people struggle to do. I’m starting to hear people in business tell me that they’re being beaten up at the breakfast table by their own children.

“In the past we’d tend to run them out of town, burn them at the stake or elect them queen.”

How do you convince people who believe that capitalism cannot co-exist with genuine climate action that green growth is possible?

Capitalism is a bit like the core of a nuclear reactor. It produces immense energy, but it’s deadly dangerous if it’s not controlled. I think that capitalism has to be consciously and coherently regulated. We tend to see efforts to regulate capitalism as ‘killing the goose that lays the golden eggs’. I don’t see it that way at all – I think an effective, sustained balance between the interests of a country and of capitalism is absolutely crucial.

You’ve called the next few decades the “most politically dangerous” of your working life. What should the UK government do tomorrow to combat climate change?

I think the agenda that people like me have championed for so long is becoming mainstream and so dangerous for a set of industries which still have a lot of political power. I think these changes are going to be forcefully contested.

compensate the smaller ones who are experiencing much of the pain, I absolutely think that’s true.

I do think we need something like a Marshall Plan for the world, one that needs to be funded by the wealthier countries. Technology is evolving at such a pace that we’d be idiotic if we didn’t invest in that.

What can international organisations do at COP27 to convince you that they’re still a suitable platform for change?

I think that the COP process has been a profound failure, which isn’t to say that good work hasn’t been done. Huge amount of talk, huge amount of commitment and policies, but really not moving the needle at all.

“THERE IS A DELUSIONAL SENSE – AND YOU SAW IT IN MANY EARLY RELIGIONS – THAT YOU COULD GO DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY AND THINGS WOULD RESOLVE THEMSELVES. THIS IS AS DELUSIONAL AS WHAT WE’VE SEEN THE SUSTAINABILITY MOVEMENT DO.”

The question is, if it’s not going to come from there, where is it going to come from? I think that the anxiety, anger and drive of young people is going to be absolutely essential in driving these issues up the agenda. I think that we are close to young people being so enraged with older generations that it becomes almost an intergenerational war.

You recently said that business leaders in the 1970s thought that every environmentalist was a “communist in disguise”. How have you convinced corporations to allow you on board?

I didn’t view them as the enemy, I had quite a lot of respect for the Second World War generation. It was almost like having uncles or grandparents disagreeing with what you were saying. It was a more intimate conversation, and I thought it was important that they understand.

Now I think it’s less of a problem because the younger generations, particularly in business, the people who we are dealing with now at board and C-suite level are just radically different. What people are effectively moving from is the question of ‘why should I do this?’ To ‘how should I do this?’ And that shift is accelerating still.

Do you think that the work of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion (XR) have detracted from the climate change movement?

No, I don’t. In fact, I think they’ve been a huge help.

I did a letter for The Times with 20 CEOs saying that you may disapprove of some of the tactics, but this is a new generation emerging. I think that the facts are now so scary that, to some extent, we’re all climate deniers now.

I think that we should be investing in the sort of infrastructures that would radically reduce our carbon and biodiversity footprint, most obviously renewable energy.

I think that this government has been singularly poor at thinking long-term. What I would love to see would be a coherent government. I think we need a radically different generation of politicians. In war, that’s what happens. In the first two years of any world war you have people who are incompetent because they were trained in a different world.

So the political classes are failing, the COPs are useless and there’s a possible intergenerational war coming. Where do you actually see hope for radical, Green Swan changes?

I know I sound like an Old Testament prophet very often, but my favourite subject has always been History. I loved to study the patterns in the evolution of societies, economies and technologies. If there’s one thing that I think I’ve learnt it’s that most civilisations go down in flames, but as a species we do our best work when we’re backed into a corner.

I am an optimist in that I believe that progress is not inevitable, but progress is much more likely when the scale of what we’ve created is clear to most thinking people – and I don’t think we’re far from that point now.

What one thing would you like all of our students and our readers to take away from this interview?

Some of the pushback on decarbonisation in the UK tends to be ‘we’re so small’, ‘we don’t emit much’. What do you say to that?

In this country we have a criminal record which is almost singular in the sense that we started the Industrial Revolution. We learned how to break into nature’s carbon deposits, so we taught the world how to destabilise the climate.

With this ‘loss and damage’ push now coming up now at COP27 (Conference of the Parties), where people are saying that the rich countries have to

I think that one of the most important things is that conversations are the most important way that people learn to think new thoughts. What I would encourage them to do is to seek out people who not only think like them, but are in contiguous fields. It can’t just be you in a missionary mode, it’s got to be an exchange where both sides give.

Roar would like to thank author John Elkington and Volans’ Hoey Wong for their time.

“I’VE GOT A BRITISH AIRWAYS ‘GOLD CARD FOR LIFE’ – THAT’S A CRIMINAL RECORD IN A TINY PIECE OF PLASTIC.”

“WE ARE NOT IN A WAR, BUT WE ARE IN SOMETHING VERY EQUIVALENT AND OUR POLITICAL CLASSES ARE ABSOLUTELY DYSFUNCTIONAL.”

BEN EVANS & ED DUCKER Staff Writers

on the controversial manner in which Qatar secured the right to host the 2022 World Cup and the issues this has highlighted in the Gulf state.

A remote desert peninsula with very little football heritage and an appalling record on human rights is currently hosting the world’s premier footballing competition. Let that sink in. After years of controversy and doubt that FIFA will successfully host the event, the Qatar World Cup is happening. Here’s the story of how over a 20-year period the Middle Eastern nation managed to beat the USA to host the tournament.

A foreign policy of “sports washing”, incredible levels of fossil-fuel fuelled investment, modern slavery, and a hint of corruption got Qatar over the line. After the former FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s futile apology for making “the wrong decision”, this article aims to expose the atrocities to ensure they are never repeated, but also reassure fans that there is no shame in supporting one’s team on the pitch. Despite the toxic environment FIFA has created, we should still aim to find enjoyment in the beautiful game.

Follow the money and see where it goes…

In the run-up to Qatar’s World Cup bid in 2010, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani outlined a foreign policy strategy of worldwide sports investment in order to expand the nation’s standing on the global stage and make the country more attractive to tourists. This is a necessary move for the Kingdom due to the reducing supply of fossil fuels available to Qatar. This began with the opening of the Aspire Academy in Doha circa 2004. The state-of-the-art training facility continues to be branded as a “humanitarian” project designed to equalise footballing opportunities across the globe. With the outreach programme operating in over 60 nations (many of which are in the so called “Global South”), there are grounds to call it this.

However, one does not need to look too much further to see the other geo-political uses of the academy for Qatar. Firstly, Qatar’s small population has led to the nation having a naturally reduced talent pool so having young players grow up in the nation has been a good strategy for assimilating talent. This has dramatically boosted the prospects of the Qatari national football team, with the entirety of their 2014 U-19 Asian Cup winning side coming from Aspire, and 18 out of their 26 World Cup players coming through the programme.

Many of these are not domestic Qataris but are eligible through a loophole in FIFA’s rules. Secondly, many of the countries benefited by the academies happen to be places where members of FIFA’s executive committee originated from in 2010. These included Guatemala, Thailand, and Paraguay (the home nation of Nicolas Lopez, the then President of COMMEBOL, the South American footballing body). Evidently, this allowed Qatar to curry favour with the highly influential FIFA elite.

“Was

The opening of the Aspire Academy marked only the beginning for Qatari “sports-washing”. In more recent times, the nation managed to attract ageing talent to its growing Q-League, it now has a regular F1 Grand Prix; Doha was the host city for the 2019 Athletic Championships.

All of these have been statements of intent as the Gulf nation aims to shape itself as a world leading sports venue. Back in 2010 however, such events were yet to take place and Qatar needed further reassurances to secure the bid. A report by The Times in 2019 amounted the value of the Qatari bribes to be $880 million. Nearly half of these came just 21 days before the announcement. At a time when the United States seemed almost certain to win, Qatari-based broadcaster, Al Jazeera, paid $400 million to FIFA for a “TV rights deal” in a dubious attempt to mask modern-day corruption.

Pure proof is impossible to attain, however one should examine such payments further. In early 2010, the Qatari Sovereign Investment Fund (QTI), placed a €500 milllion bid for a debt-ridden and struggling Paris Saint Germain. Which happened to be the favourite team of the then-French President, Nicholas Sarkozy. Subsequently, just 9 days before the infamous vote, President Sarkozy hosted the Emir’s son,

Thamim al-Thani and Michel Platini (a member of FIFA’s executive committee) for lunch. The meeting saw the creation Al-Jazeera’s sports channel, “beIN Sports”, and it re-assured Platini’s support for Qatar. It should be stated that Platini maintains, to this day, that his mind was in favour of Qatar prior to the meeting, despite him originally supporting the USA as hosts for the 2022 World Cup.

In addition to this, a 2015 Swiss corruption case uncovered that the FIFA President at the time, Sepp Blatter paid Platini €2 million in a “dishonest payment”, which later saw his removal from his position. These stories demonstrate that corruption in FIFA was rife, with 17 out of the 22 executive committee members from 2010 “accused, banned, or indicted over wrongdoings” to do with either the Russia 2018 or Qatar 2022 bids. Overall, it was huge levels of spending from the Qatari state that secured the World Cup with an institutionally corrupt FIFA implicit in the act. The financial developments have left people to question why it was so necessary for Qatar to spend so much to improve its image.

The controversies of the Qatari State

At this moment in time, and particularly upon the recent commencement of the tournament, the majority are aware of the atrocities that have occurred in Qatar - particularly the abhorrent human rights abuses carried out in the state. Such controversial occurrences range from the regime’s oppressive social policies, to the vast amounts of reports covering the mistreatment and deaths of the nation’s migrant workers.

A 2021 Amnesty International report provided a damning evaluation of the country’s democratic institutions, the treatment of workers, women’s

rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. Elections for the Qatari Shura Council in 2017 were restricted to a very small percentage of voters as civilians needed a Qatari grandfather in order to vote. Of the 30 elected to the “advisory body”, all were male. The “Kafala” (Arabic for “Guardianship”) system of labour has resulted in hugely suppressed pay for workers and of course horribly dangerous conditions in the construction of stadiums. Many workers were promised higher wages and job prospects if they made the trip from SouthAsia to the Gulf State. Workers were paid less than a dollar a day, until the minimum wage rise in 2019, and could only change jobs with permission from their employers. Approximately, 6,500 workers have died constructing the 8 stadiums, new metro system, and airport expansion for the World Cup, over 100 deaths for each game that is to be played.

Regarding the suppression of women in Qatar, Amnesty International described the situation as women being “tied to their guardian”. This means that they require permission from their father, brother, or husband to seek employment, travel abroad, or marry. Shockingly of all, some forms of reproductive healthcare can be dictated by their male “guardian” and, in the absence of a male guardian, any children are cared for by the state and not their own mother. Finally, the report stated that Article 296 of Qatar’s 2003 Penal Code stated that “sodomy” (samesex intercourse) remains illegal. The impact of the

QATAR ‘22

‘WE WANT FOOTBALL TO COME HOME, AND FIFA TO GO TO COURT’

Staff writers Ben Evans and Ed Ducker

all of this legal… absolutely f*cking not”

hard-line interpretation of Sharia law has made many gay football fans fear attending the tournament. Fears were only heightened by the recent statements of Qatari officials claiming homosexually to be “morally wrong”, and “damaging to the mind”.

The controversies of the Qatari state have continued into the World Cup with a strict alcohol ban in stadiums and reports of Qatar paying South-Asian expats to replace the absent fans of other participating nations. A report by the New York Times discloses that Qatar are paying fans to attend the World Cup on the condition that they promote matches and report negative comments. This suggests that the demand for tickets in the Middle East is below expectations. Excerpts of the instructions provided by Qatar state say:

“We are not asking you to [be] a mouthpiece for Qatar, but it would obviously not be appropriate for you to disparage Qatar or other relevant entities related to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022...You agree to report any offensive, degrading or abusive comments and if possible, to take a screenshot of those comments and then promptly delete them.”

The  New York Times’ report was published days before Qatari authorities evicted thousands of foreign workers from apartment blocks in Doha. In order to create space for travelling fans and officials, over a dozen buildings were evacuated and shut down, forcing the mainly Asian and African migrant workers to seek shelter elsewhere. In one building, which housed an estimated 1,200 people in Doha’s Al Mansoura district, authorities told the workers at 8pm that they had just two hours to leave. The officials returned at 10.30pm, forcing everyone out and locking the doors to the building regardless of some of the workers being unable to collect their belongings.

Nonetheless, a Qatari government official has since stated that the evictions weren’t related to the World Cup but rather carried out to be, “in line with ongoing comprehensive and long-term plans to re-organise areas of Doha”.

Western Media Hypocrisy?

Qatar’s foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, publicly condemned the range of criticism directed towards his country, denouncing them as “double standards”; these comments were echoed by FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino. He argued that the attacks on Qatar are “peddled by a small group of

people” and do not accurately reflect the opinion of many fans. Al-Thani also questioned further why the events in Qatar are systematically blamed on the government as opposed to in Europe, where primarily private businesses are scrutinised the most.

In July,  The Guardian published an article titled, “Outrage in Qatar over shooting of 29 dogs as it prepares for World Cup”. The article however, associated two exclusive occurrences in an act of deceiving editorial bait as the killing of said dogs was not in relation to the World Cup. Contrastingly, when due to host the Commonwealth Games in 2002, the UK culled over 6 million cattle due to foot and mouth disease. The two events were never homogenised in the same headline across western papers, as opposed to the coverage regarding Qatar.

Scholars have started to acknowledge a skewed media representation of the Qatar World Cup, labelling it an ‘exceptional’ phenomenon. Natalie Koch PhD alludes to the idea that there is a prevailing sense of “moral superiority” among western viewers in relation to the Qatar World Cup. Since FIFA’s declaration of Qatar’s winning World Cup bid in 2010, UK papers have named Qatar approximately 1,735 times in their headlines; 40% (685) of which explicitly concern the World Cup.

The coverage has been overwhelmingly negative. Of the 685 articles about the World Cup published by the British media, 66% (454) were critical, 29% (201) were neutral and 5% (33) were positive. Nonetheless, it’s necessary for UK news outlets to criticise certain aspects of the Qatar regime especially in light of Amnesty International’s report.

Controversies aside, the Qatar 2022 World Cup is projected to bring in $6.4bn in revenue for FIFA in its 2019-2022 cycle, the highest of any World Cup prior. The increasing revenue has transpired despite concerns that fans and sponsors would boycott the event, with Qatar 2022 generating nearly $1bn more than Russia 2018. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that Qatar 2022 will be the costliest World Cup on record at a reported $220bn, over 10x the cost of any other.

Oases of hope in the face of adversity

With a fear that the tournament looks like an endorsement of or distraction Qatar’s human rights abuses, the debate sparked by the tournament has provoked some positive action. The collective effort from other nations with subtle acts of retaliation have been encouraging to see. Such as the pledge from the Danish football association that for every goal scored during their leagues in November they’ll donate to the bereaved families of the migrant workers. At around 10 Kroner per goal (£1.56) estimates have placed the potential at 550,000 Kroner (£85,800) with 55,000 goals scored in the same period last year.

This demonstrates that despite the actions of

oppressive autocratic regimes and corrupt organisations, this beautiful game can prevail and come together. It is in this spirit that one should try to enjoy a World Cup that is happening whether we like it or not. Educate yourself about the failings of the Qatari state and the corruptions of the once proud organisation, FIFA. From this, we can make positive change. Qatar 2022 is a symptom of a broken system with the interests of elites at its heart. Through action and exposing these truths we can make the change needed to retake the game we love and bring football back to fans of all creeds, colours, sexualities, and genders. To bring football home...to everyone.

Please check out Tifo’s detailed series on the build up to Qatar 2022 using this link on YouTube for more information.

GOING FOR GOLD?

WHAT ARE ENGLAND’S CHANCES AT THE WORLD CUP

England achieves record-breaking victory at T-20 World Cup

Syed Ahmad Staff Writer

The England National Cricket team became the first ever men’s team in history to hold both the 50-over and 20-over iterations of the World Cup title, following their victory over Pakistan in the Melbourne final.

The initial Pakistani innings saw the side fail to impress, scoring just 137 runs for 8 wickets. A strong Pakistani bowling performance saw the game re

A return to form with three consecutive wins saw their marginal chances of qualification to the semi-final rest entirely on Netherlands achieving a win against heavy favourites South Africa. They did this emphatically, much to the ju bilation of Pakistani fans. The semi-final against New Zealand saw Pakistan put on a strong batting display, with Mo hammad Rizwan and Captain Babar Azam showing great composure and each scoring half-centuries to lead them to the final.

strong displays, culminating in a near flawless victory over India, with the openers Alex Hales and Captain Jos Buttler achieving the Indian-set target of 168 in just 16 overs. Each had a terrific innings,

If their performances in this tournament are any indication, England may prove to defend their ODI world cup title in the upcoming 2023 edition of the competition. Having shown themselves to be a side capable of effective and calculated play against any team and indeed in any format; they will certainly be the team to beat. In the meantime, the two finalists will be meeting again soon, with Pakistan hosting England for a series of test matches this

GOING GOLD? ENGLAND’S

THE 2022

and they have conceded only 11 goals this season. This is the joint lowest in the league with Newcastle, who have also only let in 11 goals.

Speaking of Newcastle, Nick Pope is the man between the sticks. The former Burnley shot-stopper signed for the magpies for £10 million in the summer. Since first coming into the England squad in 2018, Pope has made 10 appearances for the three lions. In March 2021, Pope became the first England goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in each of his first six England appearances. His acrobatic style of goalkeeping makes him a reliable shot-stopper, but injuries have left Pope on the sidelines for lengthy periods of time. In July 2018, Pope received a shoulder injury which forced him to miss 28 games for Burnley. He also missed the 2020 Euros due to undergoing knee surgery. Southgate is likely to pick a goalkeeper who he can rely upon. That’s where Pickford comes in.

squad for the 2020 Euros. While his attacking capabilities have been praised, the defensive side of his game has come under much scrutiny this season.

Trent was at fault against Fulham, where Aleksandar Mitrovic won a header over him at the back post. Against Brighton, Trossard put him in the spin-cycle before thumping a shot past Alisson to open the scoring. Despite this, injuries may force Southgate to include the Liverpool right back in his plans.

Southgate has many attackers to choose from.

There’s strength in numbers in England’s attack. Harry Kane is looking to break the all-time England top scorer record. The striker has 51 goals in 75 games, 2 goals behind Rooney’s record of 53 goals. 6 goals at the 2018 World Cup led Kane to win the golden boot. Southgate will hope the striker can replicate this form in Qatar, but help will be needed to achieve this.

SIRAAJ KHAN Staff Writer

The whole nation watched intensely as England faced Italy in the European Championships final. The date was 11th July 2021. It was the 2nd final England had ever played in, and their first at the Euros. Luke Shaw’s early goal gave hope to the whole country. A dream start for England, but the Azzurri were not disheartened. Italy began to dominate the game in the 2nd half and equalised through Bonucci on the 67th minute. No goals could separate the two teams after regular and extra time. The game was decided on penalties where Italy came out as victors.

It’s been over a year since those events. England’s squad has strengthened since. The 2018 World Cup saw England reach the semi-finals. The 2020 Euros saw them reach the final. Could 2022 really be the year many have dreamed of for years? It’s been 56 years since England’s only World Cup win in 1966. Do England have the players to challenge reigning champions France, or other strong nations such as Portugal, Brazil and Argentina?

Starting with goalkeepers, England has some depth in this field. Pickford, Ramsdale, and Pope have been in the England squad for recent nation’s league games. It is likely Jordan Pickford will keep his position as the first choice for England, but Aaron Ramsdale is a worthy challenger for the starting position. After signing for Arsenal for £30 million last season, he has been a key player in their team. Arsenal currently sits at the top of the premier league,

Pickford’s time at Everton has not been the best. While he’s made some sensational saves, he’s also made many mistakes. Everton just survived relegation last season. Despite this, Pickford has always been a solid foundation for England during the last 2 major tournaments. He kept 5 clean sheets in Euro 2020, the most for any keeper in the tournament. Donnarumma was second with 3 clean sheets. If Pickford can perform as he did in Euro 2020 and if Southgate plays 5 defenders at the back, opponents will have a tough time breaking England down. However, these are big ifs. Defending is a key part of Gareth Southgate’s tactics but recent injuries may have Southgate altering these plans.

What are England’s defensive options?

Reece James and Ben Chilwell have been ruled out of the World Cup. Kyle Walker has been included in the squad even though he has been injured for over a month. While Chilwell finds himself behind Shaw in Southgate’s choices for left-backs, James and Walker have become key players in Southgate’s team. Reece James has been highly effective for Chelsea in the right wing-back position. His pace and attacking ability make him a formidable threat against opposition defenders. James has played this position for England in recent games.

With James ruled out of the World Cup, Southgate still has options. Kyle Walker has often been used as a right centre-back. His blistering pace allows him to recover well against a counter-attack. Kieran Trippier and Trent Alexander-Arnold are both fit and have played regular football this season. Trippier has been having a brilliant season with Newcastle, who sit third in the Premier League. He’s also well-liked by Southgate, who started him at the last Euros. His versatility allows him to play on the right side and left side of defence. His ability as a free-kick specialist makes him an asset in the England team.

Alexander-Arnold is another choice. Like Trippier, he is also a free-kick specialist. Alexander-Arnold has been a core part of Liverpool’s team for the past 4 years. He has won the Champions League, FA Cup, and Premier League during his time at Liverpool, but he was left out of Gareth Southgate’s 26-man

Southgate has a wide range of centre-backs to choose from. Fikayo Tomori has been playing well for AC Milan. Chris Smalling has also been starting for Roma for the past 2 seasons, yet that isn’t enough for Southgate. He seems swayed by Harry Maguire, the Manchester United captain, who has spent much of the season warming the bench. Maguire has had a tough time since moving to Manchester United in the summer of 2019. Despite his bad performances, he never seemed to get dropped. This season, the arrival of Lisandro Martinez has left Maguire out of favour. John Stones, Conor Coady and Eric Dier are also included in Southgate’s squad.

Ben White is a man who could be beneficial to the team. His versatility allows him to play as a right back as well as a right centre-back. By occupying the right centre-back role in a back 5, White could be a worthy replacement for Kyle Walker. White has won 54 duels this season and he also has 2 assists. He can provide creativity for England, which may be vital in tight games.

A good midfield partnership is key to keeping possession of the ball.

When talking about England midfielders many fans will have one name on their mind: Jude Bellingham. The Dortmund midfielder donned the captain’s armband against Cologne in early October. At only 19, Bellingham has already made 17 appearances for England. With Kalvin Phillips only recently returning from injury, Bellingham finds himself in a position to start for the Three Lions.

Declan Rice is also another name that is certain to be featured in the starting line-up. Rice finds himself as one of few central defensive midfielders in the England squad. Jordan Henderson is another reliable option for Southgate. He has featured in 5 international tournaments for England, which makes him the most experienced player in the England squad.

Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount is almost guaranteed to start in an attacking midfield position. His passing and shooting ability has led him to become one of Southgate’s favourite players and a definite starter in the team.

Alongside these names is a fresh one: Conor Gallagher. The Chelsea midfielder rose to prominence last season during a successful loan spell at Crystal Palace. Gallagher registered 8 goals and 3 assists in 34 games during the 2021/22 Premier League season.  While it is unlikely he will start, Gallagher’s inclusion helps add depth to the midfield. He may be required to play, as Kalvin Phillips is not match-fit going into the competition.

Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford are all wingers selected in the 26-man squad. While Sterling has struggled at Chelsea this season, his performance for England in the 2020 Euros helped the three lions get through the group stage. His 2 goals were the only goals England scored in the group stage. While Sterling could start on the left wing, Bukayo Saka could fill the space on the right wing if England decide to play a 4-3-3 formation. The Arsenal winger has 6 assists and 4 goals in 14 games in the Premier League this season. He’s bounced back after being on the receiving end of racial abuse after missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 final last year.

While a regular starter for Man City, Phil Foden may find himself on the bench alongside teammate Jack Grealish. Southgate prefers to play defensive football and hit teams on the counterattack. Saka and Sterling offer blistering pace compared to Foden and Grealish’s playmaking abilities. Another player with blistering pace is Marcus Rashford. He is Man Utd’s top scorer this season with 8 goals in all competitions. Callum Wilson is the backup striker for England. He’s been in brilliant form for Newcastle this season, bagging in 6 goals in 11 games.

Personally, I think England will reach the quarter final stage. If England finishes 2nd in their group, it would be possible they come across France in the quarter final which would be a tough game to win. France are the reigning champions and the strike force of Mbappe may be too much for the three lions to handle.

In short, Qatar should be a good tournament for England. Many players such as Saka, Foden and Bellingham have matured and improved since the Euros last year. Jordan Pickford is likely to start between the posts, continuing his solid career in the number 1 shirt. If by any chance Pickford is injured, England have strong backup choices in Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale and Newcastle’s Nick Pope. Injuries have ruled Reece James and Ben Chillwell out of the World Cup, and while Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker are both not match-fit yet, they’re included in the squad. Southgate does have options to replace these key players, with Ben White able to function as a right back or right centre back, filling the void left by James. Harry Kane is England’s star player and main attacking threat. If provided with good chances by the midfield and wingers, Kane will not waste his opportunities. While some players like Mason Mount, Harry Maguire and Raheem Sterling have struggled this season, the depth in the 26-man squad will create competition between players, and in turn, elevate the overall performances.

Staff Writer

The badminton season has started, and no one said it was going to be easy. In the last month, the first fixtures have taken place, and we can confirm that the King’s Bad-

minton Club is on the right track to victory, although there are still some areas of improvement.

While the Women’s 1st and 2nd team have already accumulated some important victories, such as the ones against UCL 1 (6-2) and UCL 2 (6-2), the Men’s 1st team haven’t had as good a start to the season. They have faced and lost against the big fishes of the competition, such as UCL 1 (1-7) and

Oxford (1-7). Although, this is just the beginning of a very long tournament. It does not matter where you start but where you finish.

The Men’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th team are going through a sweet moment, however, with multiple wins, some draws and few defeats. Also, we should not neglect the magnificent performance of both the 1st and 2nd mixed teams who have comfortably won against

opponents such as UCL 1 or Royal Hollo way by 7-2 difference.

Overall, the balance is good despite some defeats. As it is commonly said, Rome was not built in a day. It is clear that more vic tories are soon to come. What’s important is that either they win or lose, the teams are having fun playing a sport they love.

Staff Writer Siraaj Khan on England’s line up for the 2022 World Cup and their chances at the tournament.

Will Pickford retain his spot in the starting line-up?

Gabriel Alzamora Vaquer

Staff writer Gabriel Alzamora Vaquer on the opening fixtures of the KCL Badminton Club.

PROFESSOR ADAM FAGAN

ON

THE COST OF LIVING, STAFF STRIKES, MENTAL HEALTH AND MORE

Ishaan Rahman Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief Ishaan Rahman interviews King’s Vice President of Education & Student Success, Professor Adam Fagan, on the cost of living, staff strikes, mental health and more.

Professor Fagan assumed his role as VP of Education and Student Success over a year ago. Since then, he’s overseen the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, further investment in KCL’s campuses and the development of a new student app.

However, his tenure has also been marked by growing dissatisfaction amongst university lecturers and non-academic staff over pay and pensions, precipitating strikes last month. The cost of living crisis has also pushed many students to the brink financially, prompting King’s to offer an emergency “Hardship Fund” (see page 5).

Roar sat down with Professor Fagan in his Melbourne House office to discuss these issues further.

For students who are not aware, can you explain the main components of the Hardship Fund?

“Let me just start by saying that this is a really tricky time for students, irrespective of household income. I can’t imagine it’s easy for anyone. I was talking to a student yesterday in the lift and [they] said, all of a sudden, their dad’s lost his job and there’s financial tensions and that must be being replicated across the board.

“So one of the most important things we’ve had to deliver, and I think we have been successful, is that we’ve got to put together a package of additional measures that as many of our students can access and benefit from as [soon as] possible. We’ve got to do it more for the most needy. But, if we only put money in the hardship fund or the emergency part or if we only increased bursaries, we wouldn’t be responding to the real need.”

On that topic, we’ve spoken to some international students (see page 5) who said that tuition fee increases offset any temporary gains from the Hardship Fund. How do you respond to that?

“That’s a really good question. There was a lot of talk about bursaries and some of our competitors put all of their resources into bursaries. And we said no because, while we have increased bursaries a bit, it’s a very small and specific category and international students can’t benefit.

“We have a really large international student community and it goes back to my point: we have to make sure [that this is not temporary] because we don’t know how long this period is gonna last. We’re talking about getting through the winter but we are in a recession for at least 18

months, probably two years. Inflation is incredibly corrosive. We’ve committed £3 million...but we’ve got to keep it under review.

“[...] So I would say we don’t want to be having to continually [take] emergency measures but we are possibly in this for the long term and we have to keep that under review.”

So does that mean more assistance in the future and then possibly something in relation to fees for international students?

“I think the fees is a separate discussion. I’m not trying to avoid that but...I still think the measures [like] the bursary hardship and [...] affordable food is what impacts on the day to day [...] You know a student comes to London with a budget and that budget is shrinking in real terms. And as a university, we’ve got to do something to enable students that live in London to function, and do their studies.”

Some students have had difficulty applying for the Hardship Fund. One student Roar spoke to said “They wanted me to show three months worth of bank statements with each expense over £100 itemised but I had only just moved in [to my accommodation] and didn’t have that”. How do you respond to those issues?

“I have to say, I’m not as familiar with the details on the form. I think we can certainly take that away and look at that; we are reviewing all of these things all the time. It is really important that we emphasise that [the Hardship Fund is] designed for students who are [...] in a crisis where they really need help. From talking to colleagues [...] there’s a real strong push to be as responsive [as possible] and to [...] support students as quickly as possible. So it’s a really important point and I will take it away.”

Let’s talk about strikes. The UCU General Secretary Jo Grady said “If university vice-chancellors don’t get serious, our message is simple – this bout of strike action will be just the beginning.” What plans does the university have to resolve this dispute and minimise the impact on students?

“We understand why there is industrial strife this term: we’ve got 11% inflation. Every sector is experiencing ballots for strikes [...] it’s not just universities [...] The measures that we’ve taken locally in sourcing, cleaning staff, security staff [...] and [the continued work to do] around gender and BAME pay gaps are the strongest reflection of our [...] genuine commitment to respond. But even if we suddenly said “tomorrow we can meet every single demand of the local union” that would not end this dispute because this is national.

“Look, if you had four lectures and a seminar on a strike date, you have lost learning. And, and there’s nothing we can do about that but what

we can do [...] is mitigate the impact of that lost learning.

“Now, thankfully the vast majority of our students are not impacted by strikes [...] you know, it’s in two or three faculties. And even in those faculties it’s very varied in terms of the impact.

“So we know what we need to in order to ensure that [for example] if you were on track for a first class degree, you will get it. The thing that really worries me is that is the [Widening Participation] student who lives at home, [for whom] travel is extremely expensive, they travel an hour and a half to get to that 10 o’clock lecture, and it’s been canceled because of strike action.

“But what I’m really delighted [to hear] is that even where we’ve got the strongest commitment to strikes, [there is still] the good communication. So if you’re not gonna teach on a day, if you’re taking strike action, let [your students] know [...] and I think it’s about common decency. It’s not undermining the industrial action but it’s managing it in a way that ensures that the impact on students is lessened.”

If strikes do become more routine, as the UCU has suggested they would if universities refuse to negotiate, are there specific plans so that the damage to students’ learning is less devastating?

“Well, no more strike days have been announced. We know there is action short of a strike, which is, in some ways, quite tricky to manage. But again, we have quite a bit of experience, for better or worse, at managing that. Obviously, if the number of strike days increases, then we need to increase our efforts to ensure that assessments reflect the loss of learning.

“I think the key message is that, unless there was all out strike, which is very unlikely, or even if there is, on non-strike days, staff are available; they’re doing their office hours, teaching their classes, answering emails, resources are on Keats. We’ve just got to make sure that students make maximum use of the resources on non-strike days. But to answer your question directly, the focus is making sure that students are assessed on the work they’ve studied, the lectures they’ve had, the seminars they’ve had and that ultimately they can progress and graduate.”

You mentioned that strike action is nationalised. However, one issue that the King’s unions (UCU & UNISON) have highlighted is local is pay. They argue that, with the surpluses accumulated over the last two years, that their demand for a pay raise adjusted to inflation is reasonable. What do you say to that?

“First, I just have to say that I’m not involved in negotiations, there are other colleagues who are much closer to all of that than I am. What I would say is, I’ve been in this post [for] 15 months and one thing that absolutely has blown

me away is how phenomenally expensive it is to run and invest in a university.

“You know, let me just give you one example...I come from [the] Social Science faculty so I’d never had any dealings across the whole university. But for single items of equipment in the health faculties, maintaining laboratories, doing all the things, the cost is astonishing.

“We also have some wonderful buildings, but we’ve got some really dilapidated ones that we’ve got plans to improve. If you take the Strand Building, [which] we’ve invested over £1.5 million in bringing it up to date with accessibility, we can only do those sorts of things because the college has been run in a prudent way.”

Mental health and academics are inevitably intertwined at KCL. A number of students we spoke to in September complained about slow responses to mitigating circumstances requests and a general lack of empathy. How do you plan to address that?

“We’ve got this partly as a result of the pandemic but it was happening before as well. The number of mitigating circumstances claims has skyrocketed; I think it was 8,800*. We’ve got to address this. My own view is that there is too much assessment [...] the burden is too high and every single one of my colleagues across the Russell Group says the same thing.

“Actually, though one of the most positive outcomes of the [Covid-19] period was that when we had to shut everything down and exams couldn’t be held, we suddenly became very focused on program level assessment. Did we need a student on a Geography degree to write five essays when they’d basically met the program requirements through the assessments they’d already done? So what I’m saying is we have learned a lot.

“I think then we’ve got to look at our process. We need to look at whether, for example, you do need to put in a mitigating circumstances form for every single item or whether we can streamline some of that. The burden of evidence is difficult. I know that KCLSU are very keen on self-certification. We are exploring that but I think we’ve got to be careful because, for every student who complains about the slowness of the process, you will hear another who is really worried that some are getting extensions illegitimately. So a lot of students are not in favor of self-certification for that reason.

“So we’ve got to get this right. The last thing we want to do is when someone’s had a bereavement in the family to make this even more burdensome. I think it’s too clunky at the moment. We are reviewing this.”

*Note: Professor Fagan later corrected the figure of mitigating circumstances claims from 8,800 to 37,600 in 2021

The full version of this interview will be published on our website shortly.