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Female athletes: the acclaim they deserve >>p10

The Big Debate on grammar schools >> p7

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SCIENCE Hinkley Point C: what are the issues? >>p19

BADGER

FR

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The Official Weekly Term-time Newspaper of Sussex’s Student Union The Official Weekly Term-time Newspaper of Sussex’s Student Union

Funded by the Student Union • Edition 1 • 26th September 2016 • thebadgeronline.com • Twitter: @TheBadgerNews • Facebook: /thebadgersussex • Printed on recycled paper

Alison Smith speaks out on domestic abuse scandal: “Students will feel safe” Freya Marshall Payne and Daniel Green Editor and News Editor

Housing headache

• 180 home students living in hotels in Lewes • 150 exchange and visiting students in hotels in Lewes and Hove • The university makes over £1m surplus from rent • Students start ‘Cut the Rent’ campaign >>p3

ARTS

The Independent revealed in August that Lee Salter, a senior lecturer in the Media department at the University of Sussex, had been convicted of beating a now former student with whom he was in a relationship at the time, despite which the university allowed him to carry on teaching.

Since then, Sussex has announced that Salter is no longer employed by the university and on his first day as Vice-Chancellor, Adam Tickell announced an independent review into the university’s handling of the case. In an email to students and staff, Prof Tickell said: ‘[the review] will be led by Professor Nicole Westmarland, from Durham University and one of the UK’s leading researchers in the field of domestic violence.

‘We will publish the report and make any necessary changes to our approach and policies. I also plan to appoint a Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equalities and Diversity, who will report directly to me, and who will ensure that we embed a commitment to these values in everything that we do.’

The Badger reached out to Allison Smith, the then Sussex student who was a victim of domestic assault.

Asked how she felt now that Lee Salter was no longer in the employment of the university and a review had been launched into the handling of the case, she said: “It’s difficult to say exactly how I feel at the moment, it’s mixed emotions. I feel relieved that no other student at Sussex will have to go through what I went though, but I also feel completely drained from the whole process. I should not have had to discuss such personal feelings publicly, but it has meant students will feel safe and that was the most important thing to me.”

Salter was convicted of assault by beating and causing criminal damage to Ms Smith’s belongings in Brighton Magistrates’ Court in mid-July. During the violent attack, he punched Ms Smith in the face, knocked her out and stamped on her, and poured salt in her eyes.

Salter pleaded not guilty at court but received a 22-week jail sentence suspended for 18 months, an order to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and a restraining order.

He has since lodged an appeal.

Continued on page 3>>

“You have the absurd situation where you have a terrible trailer for a wonderful film.”

Trailer Trash: 2016’s Screening Process >>p11

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The Badger 03.10.2016

the

BADGER

Editor-in-Chief Freya Marshall Payne

badger@sussexstudent.com

Badger Time Capsule Monday October 1st, 2007.

Deputy Editor Glenn Houlihan

Professor Michael Farthing had just taken over as Vice-Chancellor of Sussex and The Badger ran an interview, much like we would do ten years later when Farthing handed over to a new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adam Tickell.

They led with the headline ‘I wouldn’t rule anything in, or rule anything out.”

In the interview, The Badger at the time quoted Professor Farthing saying: “I think the public sector has a lot to learn from the independent sector - in the way it looks after its staff, in the way it gives a voice - but I’m not pretending it’s a democracy.”

Elsewhere inside the issue we can find other big changes coming to Sussex almost a decade ago: plans to re-open Park Village bar were scrapped that week, and after 10 years of “battle” as one comment editor called it, the construction of Falmer Station was finally announced. The Badger wondered at the time: “how will it effect us?”

Online Editor Remel Logan Crichlow

badger@sussexstudent.com

The News Team Daniel Green Luke Richards Tom Richardson

badger-news@sussexstudent.com

The Arts Team Bianca Serafini Miles Fagge Rosie Dodds Lucie Andrau Monica Cherrie Lauren Wade The Comment Team William Singh Devin Thomas

badger-opinion@sussexstudent.com

Letters Editor Fraser Coppin

badger-letters@sussexstudent.com

Features Editor

Charlotte Tuxworth-Holden

badger-features@sussexstudent.com

Lifestyle Alex Carter badger-lifestyle@sussexstudent.com

Science Editors Duncan Michie Kate Dearling badger-science@sussexstudent.com

Sports Editor Aaron Stephen badger-sport@sussexstudent.com

Events and Publicity Coordinator Sophie Clark

badger-publicity@sussexstudent.com

Proof Reader: Billie-Jean Johnson

Hannah Rose Shaw Front page headline image: Daniel Green.

All other images: credited on the article they illustrate within the paper.

Editorial:

Speaking up for student journalism

Freya Marshall Payne On the week of 26th September, the Mancunion student newspaper at the University of Manchester released a hard-hitting front page: their headline was an editorial,“Silenced by the University”.

In the editorial, Jenny Sterne explains: “The university forced The Mancunion to pull an interview with [Manchester’s Vice-Chancellor] Nancy Rothwell from our first print edition of term by threatening legal action.”

She went on to explain that the university had requested to see the article before publication although no prior agreement had been made, and that the university went on to request changes in the interview.

The Mancunion sought legal advice, after which the university retracted the claims and the newspaper went to print - with the editorial, the interview itself in full and now an opinion piece from the intervieweer himself, Jacob Nicholas.

All of the content of the interview was on tape and should not have been disputed, but over and above this, the incident shows disregard for the editorial independence of the paper and the duty of accurate reporting.

In the days since the news broke,

I have been in contact with Jenny Sterne and our discussions of what happened have only reaffirmed my belief that the editorial independence of a student newspaper must be safeguarded. Manchester University should never have asked to see the interview before publication in the first place: it is not their policy with national publications, and the same respect and trust should be extended to student journalists.

Last week, it was also a full year since The Badger and Sussex University made headlines for the publication of a controversial story which we were told was potentially defamatory: we ended up cutting the story itself out of the paper in order to avoid having to throw the whole thing away when we were prohibited from distributing it.

Whatever the final view Sussex students hold on that incident - maybe some think it was censorship, maybe some think it was not - the issue remains that student newspapers are closely linked to their Students’ Unions and to their Universities, and that sometimes conflict arises.

Whenever these problems surface for student newspapers, I don’t believe it is simply an issue for that publication. It is a general issue, and one which could effect any and all

publications across the country. I have offered my support to The Mancunion team, but I believe it is now time for both readers and writers to speak out in favour of the rights of student papers. You deserve a free press, even if we’re funded by a university or Student Union. You deserve transparency and you deserve to hear the news which student journalists uncover.

The coexistance between universities, Student Unions and student newspapers doesn’t have to be one of conflict: with clear guidelines, respect and transparency, things can go well. At The Badger we’re greatful that (although we are in the same boat as The Mancunion in that we are completely funded by our Student Union, and that the budgets for our Student Unions come from the University) we had a very ineteresting ineterview with our new Vice-Chancellor in which there was absolute agreement from the start that everything on tape would be printed just so.

However, we know it isn’t always as easy as it has thankfully been for The Badger in recent months, and I’m sure we’ll all keenly be following the Mancunion and offering support and encouragement as they start the process of clarifying and fixing the

Badger fact:

Badger is a main character in beloved children’s book The Wind in the Willows and protects the forest.

relationship.

Serendipitously, I found the Manifesto of the 2007-08 Badger editorial team in the same edition we have featured for our Badger Time Capsule: there is a section which I would like to share with you as I believe it is pertinent to the times: “The Badger is a union publication but belongs to the student body. It should be loyal to our readers and accountable, focusing on the audience, rather than the writers. Although The Badger is funded by USSU and, ultimately, by the University, it is a paper made by students, for students. Students should at all times feel it is their paper and that they can contribute to it at any time.”

I believe that what The Mancunion have clearly shown us is to whom a student paper has a duty: to readers.

To students.

And in order to safeguard the rights of readers and indeed of student

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The Badger 26.09.16

NEWS

Tutor domestic violence scandal

Continued from the front page: The independent review was launched by the university as a result of concerns raised about the support which was offered to Ms Smith. When The Independent broke the story, they pointed to domestic abuse charity Refuge indicating concerns that Ms Smith ‘was not offered the degree of support listed as available in the university’s own policy statement’.

The National Union of Students also called for a full review of welfare policies and said that Sussex ought to apologize for what they said showed‘a total disregard for women’s safety’.

In a statement addressing the independent review, Prof. Tickell said:“I believe that it is crucial that our campus community understands what happened on this matter. We can then take the appropriate actions to ensure that in the future we do absolutely everything we can to meet the

wellbeing of our students.

“I know that staff and students at Sussex feel deeply about this issue and as part of the review, Professor Westmarland will be providing opportunities for our whole community to share their opinions as well as talking to a range of people who were close to the case. Ms Smith, who has already been incredibly brave in telling her story, will also be contributing to the review.

“I have given my commitment to publish Professor Westmarland’s report, which we expect to be available in early November. The review will identify aspects of poor and good practice in the handling of this case and Professor Westmarland will make recommendations as to how we can improve our University’s future policy and practice.

“I believe strongly that this institution should learn lessons from this case, and

rectify any failings, and I’m committed to ensuring that Sussex does what is right for our community.”

Asked for her thoughts on the independent inquiry, Ms Smith told The Badger: ‘I was really glad to hear from the new Vice-Chancellor about the independent inquiry, and how he would like for me to be involved. His positive response has made me feel more optimistic that the inquiry will identify what went wrong in the handling of the case.’

She continued:‘I’m sure that there will be recommendations made to improve future policy and practice from the outcome.

‘Nicole Westmarland, a professor of Criminology from Durham University will conduct the review and she has a long history of working with women’s organisations, so I have no doubt that her knowledge and experience will help bring

“Absolutely gutted” Sussex students in hotels Tom Robinson and Luke Richards News Sub-Editors The University of Sussex has placed 180 students in hotel accommodation. Coming at a time of increasing student numbers following the admissions cap being lifted in 2015, this has affected students who were not guaranteed accommodation by the University; such as those who put Sussex as their second choice, who came through clearing or are on a part-time ‘Study Abroad’ program.

Thirty students are sharing twin rooms at the three-star White Heart Hotel in Lewes, paying £148 per week each.

Located 4.7 miles from campus, they are not permitted to use the kitchen facilities and are instead served two meals per day at set times by the on-site restaurant.

The hotel does not currently have laundry facilities and, while these are being built, students have been advised to use the launderette at Park Village. They must also share the hotel’s social spaces with other guests.

There are also 150 exchange and visiting students staying at the Langford and Imperial Hotels in Hove.

Students who were offered accommodation at the hotel have raised concerns about both missing out on the University experience and the distance it lies from campus.

Current student Siad who was offered accomodation at the hotel but turned it down said, ‘I don’t think the hotel should be considered an option of accommodation’.

Dominic - also a first year student - was given an unconditional offer

by Sussex but decided he wanted to live in Brighton. Having struggled to find somewhere within his price range he was ‘delighted’ to receive an offer of accommodation from the Housing Office, but was ‘absolutely gutted to see I had been offered a hotel in Lewes and for such a high price’, going on to state that he thought the price was ‘ridiculous’.

In a statement, Charles Dudley, the University of Sussex’s Director of Residential and Campus Services, said: ‘We’ve been pleased that not only have we been able to house all students who are guaranteed accommodation, but we’ve provided housing to an additional 600 students who are not on the guaranteed list.

‘From speaking to the students, we know that this has taken away the hassle of looking for housing at

a time when they are trying to settle into their studies and socialise.

‘The University also provides help and advice for those students who want support to get private housing and this year over 50 students took us up on that offer.’

Last year rent in Brighton increased by an average of 18%, compared to the national average of 4.9%. It is also one of only two cities in the UK where rent is over £1000 a month on average.

The price of campus accommodation has become a contentious issue within the student community.

It was revealed that the university makes over £1m surplus a year from student rent, which in some accomodaton excedes 70% of student loans.

A group of students have set up a campaign called Cut the Rent, their chief damand being that the highest rents be capped at 70% of the maximum student loan.

University of Sussex

positive changes.

‘Lecturers, parents, students were all concerned about what happened so I’m glad to know that this review will be published for all to access. I have many questions about what went wrong, but I’m sure that by working with the university I will finally get some closure. I really hope that perhaps other institutions will start reviewing their policies surrounding assault and harassment on campus. There’s a lot of work to do as harassment and abuse is widespread, but very much hidden, so it is vital that institutions work to make sure their procedures put the welfare of their students first.’

Ms Smith told The Badger that, since she told The Independent about her assault, she has felt far more supported.‘I felt completely isolated and alone for 10 months,

so to go from that, to feeling cared for and supported by Sussex staff and the public has been hugely reaffirming’, she said.

She added:‘The petition [to sack Salter, started by a Sussex student], the outrage, it gave me and many others a voice, and helped me get through another difficult time. I recently received a copy of a letter with over 300 signatures of support from staff at sussex, it made me, for the first time in a long time, feel cared for.

‘It gave me strength to make sure that I see the inquiry through and it gave me some hope for starting to rebuild my life.

To see some that taught me on the list showing their support reminded me of how proud I was of the MA I gained at Sussex and how much it meant to me. I plan to visit the university soon to reclaim the space that I lost, and help the university

Sussex forced to comply with Prevent

Daniel Green freedom of speech should be guaranteed in the new policy, and that ‘the balance between freedom and protection must be proportional’.

The University of Sussex has been NUS President Malia Bouattia, in forced to change its freedom of a recent interview with the Guardspeech policy to comply with the ian, said: “When we think about the Government’s Prevent agenda. context in which we’re in, where Adam Tickell, the university’s Vice-Chancellor, revealed that Sus- there’s active demonisation of sex is yet to satisfy demands by the being politically active, you’ve got Higher Education Funding Council the Prevent agenda, which is, like, actually hunting down students for England (HEFCE) to make their policy fully compliant with the new that choose to be politicised.

“We’re at a time where things like anti-terrorism strategy to prevent ‘significant legal repercussions’, and the Prevent agenda quite explicitly also launched a rapid consultation target black and Muslim activists.”

In a scathing attack on Prevent, on the policy. the Students’ Union said: ‘The Prevent requires that universities have due regard to the need to Students’ Union executive opposes Prevent and strongly believe prevent people from being drawn in fostering a learning environinto terrorism by assessing risks ment which allows all students around external speakers on campus. The terms of Prevent have now to organise politically, free from harassment. been made mandatory under the Speaking to the Guardian, a Counter Terrorism and Security Act Home Office spokesperson said: and came into force on September ‘Prevent is about safeguarding 19th. people who are at risk of radicaliIn a series of emails to students and staff, Mr Tickell said: ‘Although sation, and prevents those being targeted by extremists and terrorist we are relooking at our approach, recruiters. This is challenging but it does not change the imperative absolutely necessary work.’ that the university must satisfy its Annie Pickering, President of regulatory obligations’.

Sussex’s Student Union, said: “The He also stressed the importance student union stills opposes the of promoting free speech and protecting vulnerable people from government policy of Prevent. The student union response to the uniextremism, and said he intends versity consultation on Prevent and to carry out any decisions and their new Freedom of Speech policy changes in an ‘open and transparwill be available from Monday...We ent environment’.

In response, the Students’ Union hope that the University will give due consideration to our response organised a student consultation and that, with student input, the on the university’s approach to worst effects of Prevent can be Prevent, with students saying that minimised.”

Daniel Green News Editor

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The Badger 26.09.2016

NEWS

NSS boycott looms as Sussex soars Georgia Foxwell

A boycott of the National Student Survey could take place if approved by students at Sussex, in an attempt to sabotage goverment plans to raise tuition fees further.

The National Student Survey (NSS) has been criticised for its limited representation of student satisfaction and its role in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which will rank universities and allow those that score highly to raise their fees.

The NSS has also been accused of undermining problems that Sussex

faces, such as inadequate disabled access and mental health facilities.

In a statement, Undergraduate Education Officer Savannah Sevenzo, said: ‘[The survey] offers only a limited number of questions, many of them multiple choice, and the way these questions are framed inevitably influences and limits student responses.’

She added: ‘Sussex is great, but we need to decolonise education, make teaching and learning much more inclusive and be more accessible to students with physical disabilities.’

When asked about a potential boycott of the NSS, Ms Sevenzo

said: ‘We are in support of a boycott or sabotage, depending on what students and the NUS decide, as part of a wider campaign against marketisation of education.’

In this year’s NSS, Sussex University came joint 35th, with 89 percent of students satisfied with their overall experience, up four percent on last years’ figures.

However, four years ago, the university had boasted of its ranking within the UK’s top 20 universities for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey with the same score as this year: 89 percent.

In a statement, former Vice-Chan-

cellor Michael Farthing said: ‘We’ve had a great year in the rankings, breaking the top 20 of all the major UK league tables and it’s very pleasing to see we’re in the top quartile for student satisfaction.

‘We care about the experience of every student here at Sussex and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that attending university is one of the most fulfilling times of their lives’.

Students voted in favour of a boycott of the NSS in April at the National Union of Students (NUS) national conference in Brighton.

At the conference, Hope Wors-

Geograph

dale, education officer-elect at the University of Warwick, spoke in favour of the motion. She has described the NSS as “a weapon to beat academic staff with and as an excuse to cut courses and close departments”.

She said: “the current reforms would further destroy public education as we know it, so it is fantastic news that the NUS has chosen to boycott these surveys in order to defeat them.”

thestudentsurvey.com

Sussex “beyond appalling” - VICE Juneyna Kabir Sussex recently received the accolade of being in a shortlist of ‘most evil British universities’ according to an article published

by VICE Magazine.

VICE made complaints against a range of universities and gave other short-listed ones poor scores. However, the publication found it sufficient to give Sussex a strongly-worded score of ‘beyond appalling/5’.

Other universities scored an average of 3.42 out of 5.

The article titled ‘Most Evil British University Awards 2016’, shunned reputable institutions across the country for their discriminatory and often outright racist decisions.

Eight universities were rated on their magnitude of ‘evil’ on a scale of 1 to 5, with actions ranging from migrant cleaners being jumped by border officials at an ‘emergency meeting’ at SOAS to UCL threatening to expel students who protested against rising rent and the privatization of halls.

VICE’s dissatisfaction with Sussex centered on the university failing to take sufficient action against its latest controversial figure Dr. Lee Salter.

To quote VICE’s sarcastic

take-down of Sussex: ‘a tutor, Dr Lee Salter, was convicted of the assault of his 24-year-old former student girlfriend. Understanding of this inconvenience to his career, Salter was allowed to continue in his senior post even after being charged and complaints were made. What’s a little punching, stamping on and pouring salt in a young woman’s eyes got to do with teaching ability, we’d like to know?’

The university’s new ViceChancellor Adam Tickell recently initiated an independent review into the way in which the issue was dealt with after the university was heavily criticized.

The review is to be conducted

by Nicole Westmarland, the Director of Durham Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse.

It intends to ‘identify aspects of poor and good practice in the handling of the case’ to improve future policy.

In a statement the ViceChancellor said: ‘there are some things which have happened at Sussex which absolutely need to be looked at and are not what I believe many students and staff expect from the University’.

Further stating that: ‘one of the reasons why I established an

Flickr: Sara Fagg independent review and want to ensure that all students and staff have an opportunity to input into this and to share their views’.

The SU President Annie Picker-

ing is optimistic about a review: ‘where students and staff will be able to express their thoughts on the case’ seeing this as ‘a constructive step’.

‘The university is holding an open session for students in relation to

the review. This will take place at 2pm on the 27th of September in the Terrace Room in Bramber House.

With a report on the findings of the review due to be published in early November.’

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The Badger 26.09.2016

NEWS

SRAs ditched for new graduate scheme said: ‘As the student population and demands change, both in numbers and variety of support needs, we Help and support for students in uni- aim to stay in front of the curve to versity accommodation is changing, provide the best service possible.

The Badger can reveal.

‘We hope the changes of the Senior Residential Advisors (SRAs) scheme will address the rising numare part of Sussex’s Campus and bers of students relying on student Residential Support network, who accommodation but also allow us to co-ordinate a team of student ‘Resicontinue to be innovative in deliverdential Advisors’ who assist students ing a student service modelled on in university housing, but they are the best aspects of residential life set to be phased out and replaced and crisis intervention’. with six new graduate jobs.

This year saw four SRA positions The new roles, known as Residen- scrapped, in favour of three new tial Community Coordinators (RCCs), RCCs, who are also on call once will be on a two-year full-time conevery three weeks to deal with outtract, with a salary of £20,400 and of-hours incidents. provided with on-campus housing.

The last SRAs will be substituted Explaining the reasons behind the by the new positions in time for the change, a university spokesperson start of the next academic year in Daniel Green News Editor

September 2017.

One of the new RCCs, Ollie Harris, said that the new scheme will be more able to deal with student issues.

‘Having full-time members of staff working 24/7 for student welfare is incredibly important, especially given rising numbers of students.

Being full-time allows us to dedicate more time to the students that need it’.

The university also announced the launch of a trial support hotline for students in private sector housing, which is set to start next month.

The hotline, aimed at those with emergency support needs, will offer advice from a member of the new RCC team.

Residential Advisors, who provide

Daniel Green

Corbyn wins Labour campus debate Tom Robinson News Sub-editor

The Jeremy Corbyn campaign emerged victorious in a Labour leadership debate last week.

This was the first in a series of Big Debate events hosted by The Badger and was run in cooperation with the Labour society.

Speaking for the Corbyn campaign was Rachel Godfery Wood, Momentum activist and PhD student, and Max O’Donnell-Savage, a well-known stu-

dent activist and current MA student.

The Owen Smith campaign was represented by Sussex alumni Mark Jackson who is the former candidate for Chair of Brighton and Hove District Labour Party and Duncan Michie, Badger Science Editor and secretary of the Labour Society.

In a show of hands amongst audience members at both the beginning and end of the event the Corbyn campaign saw its majority increase from 15 to 19, whilst supporters for Smith decreased from five to three.

Taking place Tuesday evening before the polls closed the next day, the event was well attended and enjoyed lively and well made arguments from both sides.

The debate began with opening statements from the panel: speakers for the Corbyn campaign argued that he was the best candidate to tackle social inequality and climate change, and called for the results of last year’s leadership election to be upheld; going on to criticise the notion that Smith is the more electable of the two candidates.

Tom Robinson

In retort, speakers for the Smith campaign hailed him as the only candidate able to restore Labour to power with what Mr Jackson described as ‘practical, credible policies’, Mr Michie went on to suggest that his manifesto was the ‘most radical we have seen since Wilson’ pointing to his promises to build more council homes and invest in Northern England.

After the opening statements were read out, the floor was open to questions from audience members with anti-semitism in the Labour Party proving a contentious issue.

The panel were unanimous in criticising Corybn’s decision to award Sharmishta Chakrabarti a life peerage only two months after the independent inquiry she chaired released its findings into anti-semitism in the Labour Party.

However, O’Donnell suggested that Smith was equally as prone to such media ‘gaffes’, using his comments on Theresa May wearing ‘kitten heels’ as a case in point.

Overall the panel agreed that antisemitism was a problem with wider British Society as a whole and that neither candidate would be particularly more effective in eradicating it within the Labour Party.

Those representing the Smith campaign were pressed on how he

would win back support in Scotland and Wales; specifically his opposition to granting further devolution to Wales, with one audience member declaring he had become ‘disillusioned’ with the Labour party over the issue.

Mr Jackson countered by pointing to Owen Smith’s manifesto pledges to invest in the Welsh economy and improve living conditions, suggesting these are of more concern to the average voter.

In their closing statements the panel reiterated their support for their chosen candidate.

Mr O’Donnell-Savage argued that Corbyn could enact real social change and warned against reading too much into the political polls, pointing to the fact that great social movements such as Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage are initially never popular with the general public.

Mr. Jackson made clear that the Labour Party must get back into power as it is the only party that can effectively tackle the social issues facing this county and Owen Smith is the best candidate to achieve this.

Mr Michie ended his closing statement by stating that no matter what the results of the election, we must ‘take the fight to the Tories’.

At the time of going to print the

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COMMENT

The Badger 26.09.2016

The Big Debate: Grammar Schools

The Big Debate is a regular Badger feature which brings the spirit of competitive debating to the printed page.

Two writers tackle a contentious topic, representing polarised views. They might not agree with what they write on this page, they represent a viewpoint, not an individual. This week, they face off on the topic of streamed education and grammar schools.

IN FAVOUR Daniel Terrence The topic of streamed education has been regurgitated from somewhere deep down UK news media’s ever-expanding list of vaguely justifiable things to get disproportionately up in arms over recently, becoming topical as Prime Minister Theresa May has put forward plans to introduce a ‘new wave’ of grammar schools across England.

The concept of the grammar school is simple- the brightest children should have a learning experience that is more tailored to them and allows them greater opportunities to live up to their potential. However, the argument that invariably gets dredged out against the expansion of grammar schools is that allowances need to be made for the stragglers, ensuring they get more attention, time and sympathy from their teachers so as to rise to the level of mediocrity to which the highest performing will thus be held back.

The idea that grammar schools and streamlined education are offensive, or hold back disadvantaged children, is ridiculous. What this argument really boils down to is bitterness, coming from the people who aren’t able to perform at a high enough intellectual level to compete, and therefore want to ensure those who are smart enough to out-do them are held back. What this creates is a culture of middling and timid students who never find themselves and their abilities truly tested, for fear of backlash by entitled parents against the ‘inequality’ of actually having their averagely intelligent children challenged mentally.

When the right teacher can make so much difference, it seems unfair to deprive gifted students of a teacher befitting their talent and to lump them in with others to spare their feelings. Although this should in no way be seen as the fault of those less able, to suggest that the popular policy of allowing brighter children to sit idly to give others a chance is one enforced in the name of equality is beyond belief.

Similarly, the development of more elite schools for those that can make the right use of them should never be argued to be unequal. By catering to the needs of the lower and middle- ability students only, what we are in fact doing is leaving

those who find themselves naturally at the front in classes behind- an oxymoronic, paradoxical statement, yes, but one which highlights the hypocrisies in our approach to streamed education.

Our current Prime Minister accredits her success and her current role as leader of our country to her grammar school education- hence her allegiance to the institution and her belief in their importance.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn is so adamantly against the concept that he held his own eleven-year-old son back from attending one out of principle, leading to a disagreement with his wife that literally ended his marriage. When your principles force you to send your child to a failing school and to end your relationship with your partner, it is maybe time to start questioning those principles.

It has been found in independent studies that streamed education helps the brightest students achieve even greater heights. It can be shown from the political history of our country that grammar schools are a source of some of the most outstanding leaders and the most inspirational public figures. Those people who actually end up achieving change tend to exceed at an early age- we can choose to foster their abilities, or we can create a culture where it is unacceptable to be anything other than exactly the same as everybody else. I think the

AGAINST

Davinder Baigent For a Prime Minister who began her premiership with a promise of fresh ideas, committed to building a country that ‘works for everyone’, pushing a return to grammar schools just two months in sounds more like a satirical joke than serious policy.

Far from being a bastion of social mobility, segregated secondary schooling flies in the face of the noble idea of comprehensive education. Support for grammars comes from the idea that pupils do best when they are around only people like themselves ‘academic’ schools for ‘academic’ people.

In contrast, comprehensive education was born of the same spirit of common enterprise and social cohesion that gave us the National Health Service and social housing - that people of all backgrounds and beliefs, income and job title, could live together in one community; that they could go to the same schools, because in a fair and equal Britain, ‘non-selective’ is not a mark of poor quality, but a symbol of pride.

We should not forget that schools prepare young people not just for a job, but for a life

in society, and the attitudes and cultures that permeate in the classroom set a standard for the rest of society. Comprehensive education sends a message that we can all reach our individual best in an environment of diversity; grammars preach segregation and elitism as a solution to social ills.

Parents are of course entitled to want the best for their individual child, so if selective education really led to better standards of education you might be entitled to disregard all of the above.

But grammar schools have not in fact been abolished everywhere in the country - and where they remain standards overall are not noticeably better, with pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds performing significantly worse.

Among the 163 remaining grammar schools in England, just 3% of pupils are in income brackets entitling them to free school meals, while 13% of grammar pupils attended private primary schools. By contrast, 18% of nongrammar students were entitled to free school meals.

The cutthroat streaming of education relies on claiming that the students going to grammars would be the best, deserving of their place on their own merit but we know the grim reality that social mobility, the ability of poor

Wikimedia Commons

but talented students to achieve their potential, is let down by selective education.

Furthermore, streamed education does not respect the reality of a child’s learning process.

People develop organically over time - some may know the direction they want to take and have the ability to pass a series of test questions at age 11, but many will not. That doesn’t mean they aren’t ‘bright’ or are incapable of academic study. Giving students a truly comprehensive education allows them to experience a full range of disciplines, subjects and learning styles, and develop their education as a process throughout their teenage years. Improving the state education system so it treats each pupil as an individual with the best chance of success should be the goal - not rigidly forcing everyone down a strict path at age 11.

Opposed to this goal of individualism, selective schools make background more important than the individual student. It is not up to an 11 year old to buy expensive private tuition prior to a selective school test, or to know what kind of education would be good for them. The children who get into grammars would not be the most ‘gifted’ or the ‘brightest’, and certainly not those most ‘suited’ to academic study. It would be those kids whose families believed grammars offered the best kind of education.

We know that kids from unstable family backgrounds perform generally worse at school already - yet this change would only magnify the role of family background in pupil performance.

Social mobility and the tailoring of quality education to every individual child should be the goal.

New grammar schools are not a creative new idea for the future they are a rudimentary harkening back to the past, and they would let the next generation down at

The Comment section are always looking for writers to submit content every week. If you hold a particularly strong opinion you would like to air, we welcome you to contact us to pitch an idea or submit an article by email at Badger-Opinion@Sussex.ac.uk or to come along to one of our regular writers’ meetings on Fridays at 11am.

Our section aims to represent the views of all students, and so relies on its readers to express themselves. No matter how polarizing or controversial you feel your input may be, we would love to have the opportunity to publish it!

7

The Badger 26.09.2016

COMMENT

Have we forgotten the duty of care?

Freya Marshall Payne Editor-in-Chief

We arrive at university to an entirely new environment, often in a new city, often far from friends and family (sometimes whole continents away), and often young.

We arrive at university, then, always to an extent fragile.

The one constant in this confusing initial period and later, the rest of our years in higher education, is the university itself. The course we take is our chief reason for being here, an anchor in a sea of upheaval – so it stands to reason to me that universities have a responsibility above and beyond providing a set number of contact hours. This isn’t a radical new idea: people have been arguing for years that universities have a duty of care towards students.

I would go as far as to suggest that university is the highest pressure environment many people will have found themselves in to date, with the focus on attaining good grades, making friends and planning the future. At universities across the country, and also at Sussex, I believe that non-academic worries are on the rise.

Domestic violence and sexual assaults are systemic, disabled students are fighting for universities to improve conditions for them, university housing is not always affordable, and counselling services are not always large enough…

Although these struggles have

always existed, perhaps now we can see them reaching breaking point and more people slipping through the cracks where there is a shortfall between the care people need and what they receive.

On top of the desire to achieve one’s best, students across the country are facing the need to graduate with good enough grades to find a job in a competitive environment. We are all forced to come to terms with the reality that the economy is still not stable, we will need to secure placements and internships for most careers and work low-waged jobs, and the housing market means it is unlikely they will own a home of their own and even in the wider political context there is little stability on which to base hope for a better future. If university is about honing our knowledge of a particular subject, surely it is also about preparing the next generation to take to the real world, where we ought to function well and, eventually, be prepared to take on decisive roles in forming the future as it develops?

Since the advent of £9,000 tution fees in 2010, there has been a spike in mental health problems. I believe that mental health is not only an issue in itself, but also a direct expression of the other major worries I outlined before.

Rates of depression and anxiety amongst the typical university age group have increased 75% in the last 25 years , with 1 in every

12 UK young adults now selfharming and 1 in 10 clinically depressed according to The Guardian, which has gone so far as to label the situation ‘the student mental health crisis. A National Union of Students survey shows that 78% of UK students who responded agreed that they have experienced mental health issues in the last year. This must surely be a crisis in anyone’s terms.

The mental health-related issues which students face seem to be part of a wider, more abstract issue. The marketization of education has made the university become at once a factory and a supermarket, the student both consumer and product. We buy into universities with £9,000 worth of debt every year and yet the product which we are acquiring is our own future selves.

In an environment where education has such a clear price tag, what happens to the social responsibility of universities to provide education and care accessible to all? In a space which is structured around financial concerns – both about the finances of the university and about the need for students to earn money when we graduate – how can the university provide us with the guidance and care to ensure noone vulnerable is exploited? I’m not sure it can while the education system continues to focus on market ideas applied to education; the more personal side of things is lost and students be-

come alienated, very much like a product. How are universities to see students as individuals who are sufficiently fragile to need looking after, when the main concerns are to keep the institution afloat financially? There is a need to maintain a university’s reputation at all costs in order to get new students as well as a need to prioritise the investment of funds in university infrastructure, and both these factors jeopardise the transparent handling of providing safeguards for students.

I think that what we can see happening is a divide between the university and students, and through this divide students fall, unable to be helped by an educational system which makes it both financially harder for universities to provide for vital things like adequate counselling and affordable housing, and also personally harder for staff to bridge the gap with students who have been abstracted into such an intricate combination of consumer and product.

It is when the awareness fades of students as individu-

als who struggle in a whole array of ways, like a microcosm of the wider world, that the duty of care cannot be upheld. Domestic violence, lack of architectural and educational infrastructure for disabled students, unaffordable housing, and a lack of mental health support – these are a few of the areas I wish UK universities could invest in dealing with, and could handle transparently.

When we arrive at university, our education ought to involve an element of care and concern which will make a hearty effort to stop us from falling through the cracks and becoming lost our own struggles. When we join university, we join a community rather than gaining a loyalty card to a brand: I hope one day to see this reality reflected in universities setting an agenda which does not brush the problems we face under the carpet so as to better sell places to new students, but rather helps us stay strong as we study.

This is my own view written in a personal capacity rather

Wikimedia Commons

Progressive Parties should work together on Electoral Reform William Singh Comment Editor If won, electoral reform would be the most important victory for progressive change to the political system in our generation.

Last year’s general election was the most blatantly disproportionate in the history of our democracy - nearly 4 million UKIP votes, 1 million Green votes, and just two seats in parliament between them. 1.5 million votes for the SNP, 56 seats.

That point need hardly be made. Since the 2015 election the case for some kind of reform to the electoral system to replace the outdated first-past-thepost has become overwhelming.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that that goal is not attainable by any one party. Proportional representation leads to coalitions between parties, and coalitions between parties may be what it takes to win proportional representation.

The Labour Party may have to get used to the fact that, even within the confines of an electoral system designed to give one of two parties a stable government, it could never again command a majority in the House of Commons. The total collapse of the La-

bour vote in Scotland, not just at the 2015 general election but elections to the Scottish Parliament this year as well, has pushed the party into third place behind the Tories - and make claims that the party can ‘reclaim’ the seats it once held above the border look like a deluded pipedream. Add in the resurgence of Plaid Cymru in Wales, the need to win Tory or Liberal Democrat marginal seats in the South of England, and the sentimental loss of traditional Northern heartlands to UKIP, and electoral maths starts to make very grim reading for any hoping for a Labour majority.

This need not be a source of total pessimism, however. The 2015 election put the Conservatives up against a Labour Party that can, being generous, be described as ideologically confused, with unclear messaging and a leader viewed by the public as weak and incompetent on the economy - and yet the government has an effective majority of just 16.

Hardly a landslide in historic terms.

From that point of view it becomes increasingly plausible that, even if the government has no intention of backing reform - the eternal problem of reform being that winners are not inclined to change the system that

put them into power - there could nonetheless be a majority of MPs in parliament in favour the system that put them into power - there could nonetheless be a majority of MPs in parliament in favour. Between reform-minded Labour MPs - who range from Chuka Umunna to John McDonnell - SNP, Liberal Democrats, and any UKIP and Greens, electoral reform will not come through the traditional route of legislation being proposed and passed by a party with a parliamentary majority, but from a process of working together.

Among the British left, unity is dif-

ficult to find, and squabbling over relatively minor differences amongst ourselves while the Tories have their way with the country all too common.

But there is almost total unity among the left on two things - that the current system is structurally unfair and disenfranchises voters, and that we must find a way of effectively opposing the Conservatives.

Given that, total competition when there are clear items on which we could cooperate seems senseless and there is an appetite for some kind of cooperation. Paddy Ashdown’s ‘More United’ group - which has gathered nearly 30,000 members in just

Sussex Progressives

a couple of months, Caroline Lucas’s appeals for a Progressive Alliance, and the contributions of high-ranking figures in Labour and the Liberal Democrats to a new book entitled ‘the Alternative’ show that key figures on the left are tired of our infighting preventing us from taking the case for reform to the public.

For too long the reformist hopes of those on the left have been confined to academic articles or hypothetical utopian discussions, while our political agenda has been reactive to the framing of issues, not driving it. Only by working together in new and innovative ways, going outside the old and outmoded structures of political parties, can we drive constitutional reform up the political agenda and convince people that the electoral system matters to their lives.

We should take heart from the Brexit vote in showing that people do care about a constitutional question of sovereignty - an abstract notion - if they understand how it shapes their lives in tangible and personal ways.

But only by recognising where we have common cause can we begin to shape a political force capable of driving real change, and reflecting the desire for a serious democratic

FEATURES 8

The Badger 26.09.16

Sporting Women: The champions they should be

This summer’s Olympic and Paralympic games displayed countless female sporting champions. Sadly, the achievements of these athletes are often undermined. Nicole Lachance tells us more.

A

great way to taste the flavour of today’s patriarchy in mass media is to check out any headline, article or commentary on women in sport. In the summer, for example, the Daily Mail labelled outstanding tennis player Anna Kournikova as merely “Enrique Iglesias’ girlfriend”. Nicola Adams, British black queer boxer and gold medalist, has been relatively ignored by major news factions despite her record-breaking achievements in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. When it comes to the treatment of trans, intersex, and disabled female athletes, the media are often even more fierce.

As someone who has swum competitively for over 15 years, the media’s take on women in sport doesn’t necessarily surprise me. My own personal experience is often with an all-male coaching staff who use patriarchal language (“don’t be a pussy”) – my success and ambitions are often undermined and my achievements overshadowed by male teammates and coaches.

This feeling, I know, has been felt and swallowed by so many of the women in professional sport.

Of course it must be said that each female athlete’s experience is different, depending on their sport, culture, coaches, identity or milieu.

What strikes me as particularly sad about the media’s belittling of women in sport is that it reiterates the same old dance of popular media: the objectification of women’s bodies and physical appearance. This contributes to

an ongoing erasure of positive representations of women succeeding, striving and displaying their ambition. This ongoing ignorance continues to undermine the complexity of sport, an experience that breathes a myriad of emotions and a continuous challenge to strive for improvement.

The fact that media has chosen to focus on women’s bodies, their physical appearances or their relation to men is truly disappointing.

Why? Because as well as continuing to perpetuate patriarchal gender roles, this trend strips a zesty opportunity for young people - specifically young women and girls - to look up to female athletes as idols.

Similar to other realms of social, political and cultural life, women in sport are often mocked and belittled when they are reaching beyond the normative expectations that patriarchal values set for them. When women are focused, accomplished and confident, the media’s draconian grip likes to remind them that they are really just a face, a mother, a wife or a pair of thighs.

This is emphasized with women in sport, namely because of how disciplined and goal-oriented female athletes are. Mass media seems to be particularly spooked by this kind of fire and female determination. If we take a look at this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, the most recently reported sporting event, we can see this derogatory treatment in full swing.

Take Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu for example, who won a gold medal in the 400m In-

dividual Medley. After her fierce win, the announcer almost immediately credited her husband for “turning her into a whole different swimmer”.

Or take a startling statement tweeted by The Chicago Tribune in regards to Corey Cogdell-Unrein’s bronze medal in trap shoot, describing her as the bronze medalist married to a Chicago Bears’ football player. The husbands of these women did not win the medals or have anything to do with their actual performance at the Olympics, yet the achievement is partly attributed to them.

As if this old, fossilized rhetoric of tying a woman’s worth to a man wasn’t enough, a 2016 Cambridge study showed some (un)surprising stats on language in sports media towards women. This study compiled over 160 million words of media coverage in sport and it showed that male athletes were discussed two to three times more than their female counterparts. Not only that but the study also brought to light how words such as “old”, “aged” and “married” were disproportionately used to describe female athletes compared to men. These belittling and heteronormative assumptions are easily paralleled with narratives of women in professional capacities everywhere.

For me, one of the biggest tragedies of media’s negative representation of women in sport is that it bars young girls and women from looking up to female athletes as healthy role models. Over the years I have reveled in the posters hung over my bed depicting spectacular female athletes, such as tennis star Serena Williams and Australian swimming champion Leisel Jones. I can attest

for how beneficial and life-giving it was to look up to these women who had discipline and determination, as well as muscles, wide shoulders, and thighs that could crush skulls if necessary. Not only did these women smash the body-shaming rhetoric that criticises female bodies for being too muscular or too powerful, but they enjoyed incredible success in their field. Instead of championing these women and their admirable lifestyle, the media so often warns young women that sport will make your body ugly.

And all this is usually geared towards cis, able-bodied female athletes. If we take into account Paralympic athletes—that is Olympic athletes who have visible or invisible disabilities—then we see how further erasure of achievement from the media. Not only is sport coverage of the Paralympics much less frequent in general, but female Paralympians are given similar treatment to non-disabled athletes in the general erasure of their accomplishments and a focus on their appearance or marital status.

As for non-gender-conforming athletes, there is a pattern of transphobia in media. Take the case of Caster Semenya, the intersex South African runner and 800m gold medalist at the 2016 Olympics.

Semenya was allowed by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to compete with the women even after much controversy following a blood test that showed she had three times more testosterone than the female athletes she ran against.

That being said, the South African runner took appropriate measures to adhere to IOC policy, which mostly

implied taking testosterone suppressants. Since, Semenya has been highly criticized in the media with violent and transphobic slurs which launch attacks on both her failure of not being “woman enough” or being “too manly”.

Her performance was thoroughly attacked by claims she has cheated her way to the top. A particularly shocking example is that of an Australian newspaper who published an article on Semenya that featured disgusting descriptors such as “hermaphrodite with no womb or ovaries”. Even her competitors, including British runner Lyndsey Sharp, have criticised her and undermined her success as a female athlete. All this is despite the fact that the IOC and the Olympic Games’ Court of Abitration have ruled her participation in female events valid.

All this taken into account shows the depth and dearth of this issue, ranging from cis, white athletes to Paralympians to black queer women. Patriarchy in media seems to find joy and fulfillment repeating problematic tropes about women’s normative roles as complicit; as sisters, wives, mothers—never a woman in and of herself.

As an athlete and someone who has knowingly cultivated my individuality through sport, I would like to see more nuanced, accurate and frequent reporting on women’s fierce and unapologetic efforts. I want more bicep; more deadpan faced women on magazine covers; more brute strength, in whatever way that looks like. Really, I just want more of everything: female athletes must become more visible, and their achievements must be celebrated as much of those of their male counterparts.

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ARTS

The Badger 26.09.2016

True Flair or Fortunate Families?

Josie Kidner Kylie Jenner, Brooklyn Beckham and Cara Delevingne are just a few names we hear on a daily basis whether that’s via snapchat stories, twitter updates or news articles.

Although now they are recognised as figureheads in celebrity youth culture, it can be argued that they didn’t necessarily work hard to get to where they are and perhaps they aren’t deserving of their fame and success the way that others are.

Wikimedia Commons In today’s fashion landscape, the most famous faces come with a famous family name too. Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid provide us with the prime example, as their supermodel status appears to have been

Monica Cherrie, Film Editor

handed to them with the help of their renowned relatives. There are very few who have never heard of ‘Keeping up with The Kardashians’ where Jenner first became famous and likewise Bravo’s hit reality series ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ where Gigi’s mother, Yolanda Foster, appeared, helping to position the spotlight onto daughter Gigi and later Bella.

“Some might argue that these models are ‘Instagram famous’ and in reality, don’t hold any weight to the industry without it” Many would dispute that individuals like this (also including Brooklyn Beckham, Lily-Rose Depp and Georgia Jagger) have not earnt their place on the catwalk or in the studio but are simply products of associated fame and extravagant lifestyles that translate into popular media coverage. Personally – prepare yourself for a possibly unpopular opinion – Gigi’s walk doesn’t even compare to that of Naomi Campbell or Kate Moss who take to the runway flawlessly whereas Gigi seems to walk in the same manner and format as

Wikimedia Commons I would to a 9am lecture. However, models like Gigi and Kendall are constantly collaborating with companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs and Versace because the big brands want the big names so they can sell themselves better to the wealthy of today.

Many find this frustrating when there are hundreds of talented individuals who are just as striking as those with the subordinate reputa-

tion but who have worked day-in day-out tirelessly to be turned away from jobs for those whose sister made a sex-tape. You may not approve of this either and just deem all models and fashion icons are as vacuous as each other. Of course, the Instagram revolution completely altered what fame means and how to acquire it, some might argue that these models are ‘Instagram famous’ and in reality, don’t hold any weight to the industry without it.

Cara Delevingne is another whose very famous connections and nobility aided her initial success. With her sister already working as a model and her godmother being none other than actress Joan Collins, it isn’t a shock to see she also sought to join the industry. Her distinctive features and humorous nature meant she stood out from the crowd and in turn has made a huge success of herself. What’s different about Cara is that she has used her platform to branch out into other areas such as acting (and activism), which may not have been her biggest strength before, but now that she’s such a big name many of the major Hollywood producers want her. Now, do watch her films and make up your own mind on her performance, as some may say she should have stuck to what she was best at (possibly also debatable) and left the acting to those who have their spent their

lives working on their performances to make their way into a movie.

Still, the top highest earning models today aren’t the ones who have fast-tracked to the top, with key examples being Gisele Bündchen and Kate Moss who have worked from as young as 14 to reach the level of success they are at presently. Moss, daughter of a barmaid and airline employee was spotted by STORM agency at an airport and Bündchen, daughter of a teacher and a bank clerk was spotted by Elite when at the shopping mall with her friends.

Although since being in the business, between them, they have links to the likes of Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, neither one used famous connections to get to where they are now and are actually the top two highest earners in the industry, perhaps suggesting that hard work is key and being spoonfed is not. However, in the dog-eatdog world we live in now, it isn’t surprising that people are eating up the opportunities being handed to them on a plate. I mean, if someone said to you ‘here’s £500,000 and an opportunity to make a huge success

Contact our Culture Editor Rosie Dodds at badger-arts@ sussexstudent.com

Trailer Trash: 2016’s Screening Process

With our youth unemployment at staggering lows and our financial security in jeopardy, now is a time where we need to find solace in the escapist wonders of cinema.

Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned economic uncertainty of the post Brexit world, we have to be very selective of the films we choose to see in the cinema, if we go at all.

My screening process usually involves clicking YouTube auto-play and watching all the trailers for upcoming films and proverbially judging the books by their covers.

This may not always be the best way to do things, as we’ve seen with the fraught relationship between the quality of the trailer and that of the film.

We saw just that this summer, with Suicide Squad’s sensationalist trailer and the actual shoddily constructed film itself. So the question remains, what makes a perfect trailer?

Entire companies are built around making trailers and in some cases it seems their job is to cheat the viewer by making the

film appear to be far better than it actually is.

We see this a lot with comedies, where all the best jokes are shown in the trailer, sucking out all the juice until you’re left with a stale lump of disappointment.

Now although I think we can be in agreement that watching the trailer of a film isn’t always the best way to judge the film it advertises, sometimes it’s really helpful in letting you know the film is going to be a painful waste of time.

“Then you have the absurd instance where you have a terrible trailer for a wonderful film” During my most recent trailer binge, I came across a trailer that was so rubbish I had the urge to e-mail everyone involved in the making of the film with a simple ‘why?’

The trailer in question is for the film A Same Kind of Different as

Me, which I implore you to watch.

The trailer, that is, I do not by any means want you to give these people your money.

It is so hilariously bad that everyone watching it with me was in hysterics. It almost reaches The Room levels of so-bad-it’s-good. Seriously, stop reading now and watch the trailer. Come back though, I’m not done.

Lets put aside the stupidity of the narrative, if you want a scathing review of the trailer, I direct you to check out The Guardian’s piece written by Stuart Heritage.

What I will instead speak of is this recurring thing where you watch a two and a half minute trailer and come out of it feeling as though you’ve seen the entire film. This is also seen in the trailer for Mr Church where absolutely nothing is left to the imagination.

I can’t see how anyone could possibly believe condensing a film into a mini movie and using it as a trailer sells tickets – if anything you just get to watch loads of little movies.

Then you have the absurd in-

Wikimedia Commons stance where you have a terrible trailer for a wonderful film. This is less common but so annoying when it comes to trying to convince your friends to watch a film you know is good, but after watching the trailer they point blank refuse.

This is the case for the Frenchbelgian film, Love Me If You Dare don’t be fooled by the trailer or the title in this case. The title is badly translated from the original French one Joue d’enfants.

Clearly translation is to blame here, just as the essence of the film got lost in the title so too did it disappear in the trailer.

So I ask again what does make a trailer great? Christopher Nolan’s official announcement trailer for Dunkirk is the best trailer I have seen in a long time.

It’s brevity, minimal information and stunning shots make me crave this film. Come summer 2017 I will be there, ready for Dunkirk, having waited oh so long.

Unfortunately, this trailer is an outlier – in fact, it isn’t a trailer at all. It’s just the teaser trailer. The real trailer will come out a little later on.

Hopefully it won’t be a massive disappointment and give too much away.

Perhaps from now on, I’ll only

10

The Badger 10.09.16

ARTS

Theatre Miles Fagge Theatre Editor Spoken word is an art form that often evades definition or categorisation, and that is no bad thing.

Regularly viewed as distinct from, although closely associated with, written poetry, it also has strong links with music. This is most apparent in hip-hop, and many spoken word artists are also MCs, many of whom wouldn’t be averse to their work be described as a style of poetry. Def Poetry Jam was a show that aired in the noughties hosted by Mos Def and showcased countless talented spoken word artists and poets, interspersed with well-known figures from the music industry like Kanye West, Eryka Badu and Common. Poetry slams also partake in this melding of art forms. Anyone who has attended Poets vs MCs, a staple of the Brighton cultural calendar, will be well aware of the crossover of styles and performances between the two teams.

So the links and crossover between spoken word and music is well established, but a less well explored link is with theatre, and it would not

Sophie Clarke

Kate Tempest Speaking Against The Grain a piece of theatre as well as spoken word, and the printed poem would go on to win the Ted Hughes Prize for poetry. The fact the same piece of art was effective over multiple platforms shows either the malleability of a great work of literature, or“Art the wayis it supposed can transcend generic to and categorical limitations.

wikipedia be a stretch to say that spoken word is in itself a form of theatre. This is well-embodied by Kate Tempest (director for Brighton Festival 2017). A multi-faceted artist, she started out melding hip-hop with spoken word, before adding playwright and later novelist to her CV. None of these forms of expression are isolated though, but are instead entwined and interlinked. Anyone who has seen her perform a spoken word set can testify to the visceral energy that stems from the stage. Her show at Glastonbury this year was the epitome of this – a 10 minute set that melded new pieces with older

ones from both her poetry and music back catalogue. The pieces were stitched together into one grand over-arching performance. Tempest stormed about the stage clutching the microphone and performing the words. Both sight and sound are essential to the show, the whole thing builds into a powerhouse of emotion and depth in a way that is undeniably theatre. Tempest authored her first play Wasted in 2012, the same year her extended spoken word piece Brand New Ancients was performed at the Battersea Arts Centre before being taken on tour backed by musicians. This again was a show,

challenge and provoke, to carve out new paths rather than simply tread water”

Ultimately Tempest represents not just the way in which different branches of the arts are intertwined, but also the way that whilst categorisation can be useful it can also be limiting and in some cases inaccurate. Art is supposed to challenge and provoke, to carve out new paths rather than simply tread water – it is why Shakespeare is so often reimagined and reinvented. A sound knowledge of an art form and of the greats who helped create and shape it can only be a good thing –

Tempest has spoken of her influences such as Beckett, Shakespeare and Wu-Tang Clan – but this knowledge cannot be a limiting thing. It must be used as a basis to build from rather than rest upon. For art to evolve it must test preconceived notions of what is expected of it, and it must push at generic boundaries within the art form it belongs to.

flickr:kimleng

Even more that this though, it can challenge the divisions between art forms themselves, and spoken word

Stonewall Stand-Up Preview

On 27th September, the LGBT charity Stonewall is producing a fabulous night of stand-up comedy at Milton Court, Guildhall in London. Not only will the audience be dazzled by the hilarious all-female line up, but the money raised by the night will be going towards the charity’s crucial LGBT Role Models programmes, making the event an all-round jubilant occasion.

“Joining her will be Suzi Ruffell, a comedian described by the Guardian as ‘a real stand-up gem’, who is known for her insightful take on the world and celebration of her working class roots” Attendees should be prepared for outright amusement, as they will be treated to stand-up sets by some of the country’s finest comedic talent.

Headlining the show is Brighton resident and Mock the Week regular, Zoe Lyons, who will no doubt be on top form after a successful performance at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. Joining her will be Suzi Ruffell, a comedian described by The Guardian as ‘a real stand-up gem’, who is known for her insightful take on the world and celebration of her working class roots. After supporting an array of other comedians, Barbara Nice, the comedic persona of Janice Connolly, will be hitting

stonewall the stage in her own right, and will be bringing hilarious excerpts from the world of the housewife to the show. Winner of 2014 Funny Women Jayde Adams, multi-talented and multi-lingual Maureen Younger, and Fresh Comedian of the Year 2015 finalist Sarah Keyworth will also be entertaining the crowd, as will Jen Brister, who will be compere for the evening.

With such impressive talent set to take to the stage, Stonewall’s Stand Up Session should be a lively night of entertainment and laughs, made even better by the fact that it is supporting a brilliant cause.

Tickets are available online and Badger readers can use the code ‘standup20’ to get 20% off their

Interested in Theatre Journalism?

If you’re interested in theatre and want to get involved then email badger-arts@sussexstudent.com and we’ll get in touch. Writing for the theatre section can mean attedning perfomances to review them, interviewing performers and those working in productions amongst other things. We would love to work with you!

-Miles Fagge

11

The Badger 26.09.2016

ARTS

Reviews FILM

Bridget Jones’s Baby Monica Cherrie Film Editor Bridget Jones’ Baby is a warm brain massage of a film. The film begins with Bridget on her 43rd birthday with “all by myself” playing yet again as we immediately get a return of the flavour of the beloved franchise, in all its lovely vapid splendour. The start of the film goes about establishing the events that followed where we left Bridget off. The film starts off strong with its trademark self-deprecating humour as we find out Hugh Grant’s character has been rather gracelessly killed off, in a manner that screams here lie the bones of someone who believes themselves to be too good to agree to be in the film. Which is what genuinely happened.

There is a return of our favourite lines in the original such as “oh come the f*ck on Bridget”. After re introducing us to the slapstick world of Bridget Jones, much like the title suggests, she becomes impregnated with either Patrick Dempsey or Colin Firth’s child. They spend the rest of the film vying for her affection, in the bid to win her heart and be the best father. Fans of the Bridget Jones franchise will love this film. It retains all of the quintessentially British charm even with the addition of an American love interest. Patrick Dempsey is great as the cool and sensitive American serving as a polar opposite to Colin Firth’s severe, traditional, bumbling Englishman. I would say it sometimes, at least initially, felt as though it was far too conscious of trying to be hip and down with the kids. This was seen through the inclusion of far too much Ed Sheeran, the use of ‘nutri-bullet’ as a verb and a rather painful addition of a scene where everyone is dancing to the

FOOD

The Cow Rosie Dodds Culture Editor Taking a break from the roast-dinnerrush of Sunday lunchtime, The Cow, a spacious bar/ restaurant in the heart of Seven Dials transforms their evening kitchen into a cheap and cheerful burger joint from 7pm onwards. Most importantly, all burgers are 2-for-1, so at 8pm on a Sunday night when Aldi is closed and food supplies are dwindling, going out for dinner suddenly seems like a guilt-free option.

They’ve kept the menu simple: classic beef, spicy chicken, and a butternut squash/ chickpea medley for vegetarians. It becomes clear that The Cow is a place for burger purists.

There are no halloumi or caramelised onions additions available here,

Gangnam Style – four years too late. It did at times seriously reek of trying to be in and failing miserably. Except after a certain point it became clear that was the point.

It was part of this self-deprecating admission of how hilariously tragic the film really is. The film is too self aware for you to class it as a guilty pleasure so I recommend you find pleasure in it with pride. There was an undercurrent theme of female empowerment throughout the film. There’s a reference to Pussy Riot or the “menstruation castration liberation”, an actual line from the film. My favourite character by far was Emma Thomson’s portrayal as the doctor. She had all the most hilarious, empowering lines such as - “You’re absolutely capable of doing this on your own” a concept Bridget Jones has never quite

MUSIC

Waste A Moment Track review Sophie Clarke In the early days of Kings of Leon’s career, their sound was as southern as bourbon, fried chicken, and the confederacy, harping back to their Tennessee roots. The fraternal four piece became known for their ability to pump out pounding bluesy tunes throughout the early 2000s, as well as their synonymity with the south.

However, as the decade went on, this innovative sound evolved into something darker and moodier, with the bands’ eyes clearly set on international arena stages, rather than southern dive bars. Yes, ‘Sex on Fire’ was a huge hit, commercially and critically, and carved Kings of Leon’s name into the mainstream music scene, as well as earning them multiple dazzling awards, but it is undeniable that their initial appeal, vibe and ‘je ne sais quoi’ was beginning to wane.

“It is safe to say that the single does not sound like the work of a band who has been together and been on the road for over 15 years” universalpictures grasped.

Comedies about middle-aged women are few and far between, making this a quasi-important film. It won’t be added to the cannon anytime soon but I’m glad it exists. In short, it and a side salad is described appetisingly as “leaves” at the bottom of the menu. However, not every restaurant needs to follow Burger Brother’s menu in order to serve up a good meal to hungry students.

“‘Cheaper than MEATliquor,’ he says.

Yes, cheaper than MEATliquor, but arguably less good, and definitely less filling.”

All burgers are priced at £10 without chips that are available at an addition of £3.50. We opted to share three portions between a group of six, but with the arrival of our food

Their previous album, ‘Mechanical Bull’, which was released in 2013, did little other than demonstrate the need for a shake-up, and hiatuses, break-up rumours and personal problems solidified this view.

After a three year break, the band has returned with their latest single, ‘Waste A Moment’, a more indie inspired track that urges listeners to around fifteen minutes later, we soon learnt that this order wasn’t quite enough. The burgers are small.

Not obnoxiously small, but small enough to wonder if you would have perhaps felt hard done by if you had payed the full price on another day.

Taste wise, it’s obvious that The Cow’s kitchen uses good ingredients.

take a break from the monotony and Kings of Leon have been lacking pains of everyday life. over No doubt it strays from the iconic ‘southern garage-boogie’ sound of their younger years but the key accomplishment of the track is that the band has managed to avoid falling into the ‘stadium syndrome’ trap that they’ve been prey to over the past five years.

“the lyrical content is hardly groundbreaking, and there is still an element of the overthought seriousness” Instead, their sound appears to be embarking on a new and refreshing era and, despite the dismay of longterm and die-hard fans at this metamorphosis, the much needed shakeup of their style has arguably done them some good.

‘Waste A Moment’ is the lead single from their album ‘WALLS’, set for release in October, and the new style that the track exhibits appears to be the refreshing change that they were in desperate need of.

Yes, their authentic Southern charm is somewhat lacking from the track, but it has been replaced with a new, exciting energy. It is safe to say that the single does not sound like the work of a band who has been together and been on the road for over 15 years, let alone a family band with such longevity. From the beginning of the track, listeners are treated to a change of direction: the song’s opening bars do not sound like a Kings of Leon track, but after seven albums, that should be seen as a good thing.

Elements of the single, especially the guitar and percussion, sound more like something written by The Vaccines, which is exactly the sort of faster paced youthful energy that The beef patty is cooked rare, proving that it’s most definitely fresh, and the meat is seasoned well. The chicken burger is deliciously spicy without being overpowering, and the butternut squash option gets a thumbs up from the happy, albeit unfussy vegetarian in our group. The burger sauce however tastes suspiciously like ketchup, and the chips are a definite let down.

sony

the past few years. Indeed, the lyrical content is hardly ground-breaking, and there is still an element of the overthought seriousness that prevailed in their previous two albums, but if the rest of the record carries on in this direction, then Kings of Leon are set for a triumphant return.

sony

WRITE A REVIEW See a film recently you absolutely loved? Or a been to a gig you couldn’t stand? Tell us! Contact badger-arts@ sussexstudent.com for a space in the reviews page

Abruptly finishing our conversation about picking up “snacks” from the Co-op on the way home as the waiter comes out to collect our empty plates, he asks us about our meal.

“Cheaper than MEATliquor,” he says.

Yes, cheaper than MEATliquor, but arguably less good, and definitely less filling.

thecow

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The Badger 26.09.2016

ARTS

Music

Together The People 2016

Lauren Wade and Glenn Houlihan

Together The People has carved out a niche in the often oversaturated festival scene by offering an excellent balance of child friendly activities - from rides to the wonders of Lazytown Live - and sentimental headliners, curating an authentic family-centric atmosphere. The Badger picks our favourite and the finest acts of what was a fabulous mix of local and international talent.

Brian Wilson

An undisputed musical genius, Brian Wilson was the creative mind behind The Beach Boy’s staggeringly influential ‘Pet Sounds’, which has been celebrated as a ground-breaking piece of art. The opportunity to see such a seminal work performed live had the entire festival buzzing from the moment the gates opened on Saturday, and the 12 strong band lived up to every ounce of expectation. Whilst Wilson himself took more pleasure from old school Beach Boys rock and roll numbers, he nonetheless breathed life into the stunning intricacy of ‘Pet Sounds’, offering an emotional tribute to what is considered by many the greatest record ever made.

Gig Buddies is a Sussex-based charity that aims to pair people with learning disabilities and those without up with buddies, so that they can attend shows and events in the local area and lead more active social lives.

The innovative project was launched by former Heavy Bass bass player, Paul Richards, in 2006 and they became a registered charity in December 2011. Since their formation, the charity has received a £2,000 award from City Camp, £5,000 from Southdown Housing Association, £11,300 from Brighton and Hove city council and £9,000 kindly donated by the local Sussex community.

The charity works so that people who suffer from learning disabilities experience the opportunity to attend events in the evenings, rather than being forced to miss

The Horrors’ stylish, deliciously gothic aesthetic pushed them to the front of indie-pop culture in the mid 00’s, and the NME cover darlings demonstrated their eerie glory with an abnormally reticent set which polarised the audience.

Half enthralled, half bemused, they watched on as lead vocalist Faris Badwan dominated the stage, tearing at his already ripped jet black clothes and wrapping blood red ribbon round the mic with delicate affection.

Material from their critically acclaimed second album ‘Primary Colours’ was thankfully aired, including the agonizing ‘Who Can Say’, featuring this slice of lyrical brilliance: “And when I told her I didn’t love her anymore,

Mike Burnell

Lauren Wade Music Editor

The Horrors

She cried.

And when I told her, her kisses were not like before, She cried.

And when I told her another girl caught my eye, She cried.

And I kissed her, with a kiss that could only mean goodbye.”

Timeless.

The Island Club

MarthaGunn

BIMM graduates The Island Club looked every inch a class act, with their superbly tight set imploring curious onlookers to gravitate towards the packed tent. Previous singles, ‘Paper Kiss’ and ‘Let Go’ were particularly refined, whilst new material awaiting release sounded equally as spellbinding. If they continue to generate the deserved hype, things may soon get much bigger for the Brighton boys and there’s no question of whether they deserve it.

Local five-piece, MarthaGunn are a band carved for the big time and they proved exactly why with an early evening set fuelled by hits such as debut single ‘Heaven’ amd upcoming material. New track ‘Honey, Let Me Know’ saw the group’s finest moment to date in what they declared to be their “first ever festival performance” and they completely aced it. Expect greater and bolder things from MarthaGunn in the future.

Suede

Fickle Friends

Brighton babes, Fickle Friends appeared entirely in their element over on Concorde 2’s New Bands Stage.

The outfit jammed their set with every hit they’ve ever released and never let the energy drop for even a second. Their latest track ‘Cry Baby’ hit a distinctive high note and new Jon Southcoasting material was warmly welcomed like an old pal. Watch out for Fickle Friends as they will soon be treading Britpop heroes Suede brought the stages far bigger than the ones they festival to a fittingly euphoric close are currently gracing. on Sunday night, with frontman Brett Anderson leaping around the stage in fits of passion; an iconic band coming through with an explosive performance. Asked to leave the stage after a noise complaint from nearby neighbours, they soon returned to deliver an elated encore, Anderson thanking the crowd for their rapturous reception and promising to return soon.

Xavier Clarke

Gigs this week Sep 26 Mura Masa Concorde 2 £13.75 Sep 27 URF Gig 1 - Holy Pinto Room 76 on campus £3 donation Sep 28 Johnny Lloyd Bleach £8.80 Sep 29 Sundara Karma The Haunt £11.00 Sep 29 Honeyblood Patterns £11.50 Sep 30 The Pigeon Detectives The Hope and Ruin £12.50

Make a difference with Gig Buddies out due to a lack of company. The work of their enlisted ‘buddy’ is vital to enable them to live life fully, as often their daytime support workers finish their shifts before an evening show would have started.

The scheme is a beneficial way to volunteer your time wisely and it is designed to fit around your commitments; if you’ve only got a few hours to spare a week, then no problem.

Gig Buddies is the one for you.

“The scheme is a beneficial way to volunteer your time wisely and it is designed to fit around your commitments” By getting involved with the charity, you’ll be helping fellow music fans who are in need of someone to ac-

company them to gigs whilst sharing mutual passions and potentially making a friend in the process too.

Gig Buddies helps people who come from all over Sussex including Brighton and Hove, Worthing, Chichester, Lewes, Uckfield, Eastbourne and Hastings.

Fourth year English Literature student Monica Cherrie previously volunteered with Gig Buddies and had this to say about her time there: “I had the absolute pleasure of working for Stay Up Late as a campaigns assistant intern last summer. As someone whose passion is social justice, all I can hope for out of life would be to find one thing wrong with the world, and change it for the better.

“Paul Richards has succeeded in doing just that. Gig Buddies is a wonderful project, made up of the kindest, most beautiful souls I’ve ever

met. Aside from doing something that really matters, you get to see life from a new perspective.

“Aside from doing something that really matters, you get to see life from a new perspective” “Every adult has the right to go out and enjoy a fun night. With their punk mentality, Stay Up Late refuses to accept the limitations placed on people by society and does the very vital job of enabling people with disabilities to have greater autonomy.”

Participants are matched to one volunteer by the coordinators of Gig Buddies and they can meet up once a month to plan and organise what events they would like to attent together. It is as rewarding as it sounds and the average student is likely to

have a fair bit of spare time on their hands, which they could use to give someone the chance to experience live music.

The scheme has even extended to Glastonbury Festival in previous years and without the dedication, work and support of volunteers it wouldn’t be possible. Many of us take opportunities like going to see our favourite band in a local venue for granted but there are but there are many people out there who face social injustice and a lack of company, who would love to be able to attend gigs but are unable to without someone else to accompany them.

Gig Buddies are currently searching for more volunteers to lend their time to people in need in the Sussex area. Why not help someone out and make a real difference?

Sign up: http://stayuplate.org/ gig-buddies-project/

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The Badger 26.09.2016

ARTS

The Street Some of Brighton’s most captivating aspects can be found in its colourful streets, you can find just about anything over here, all you have to do is look. On this Street corner we will be displaying Sussex students’ very own creative work, and just like the streets of Brighton, it will be truly one of a kind.

We’re always looking for new submissions —be it poetry, photography, cartoons, and everything in between — to showcase any creative talent.

Help us fill up this new page!

Contact Lucie Andrau at badger-arts@ sussexstudent.com for any contributions full length images available online.

Antonios Kotsonias TRANSPORTING HOPE In his project ‘Transporting Hope’, Antonios Kotsonias explores the relationships between humans on public transport and the collective fear of communication with each other.

This project does not give answers, rather it raises questions. The photographic series allows space for self reflection and thus creates awareness of the communication issues that our society faces.

The hybridization of documentary, city and portrait photography is used as a weapon for contradiction: a contradiction between realism and surrealism. Mannequins are used to emphasize how society is losing the gift of expression and communication, resulting in ‘cloning’ humans. Contrarily, documentary photography intends to remind us that we are individuals with the ability to express ourselves.

The acknowledgement that reality cannot always be visualized suggests that the truth is far more complex. The combinations of photographic styles used by Antonios are brewed together, forming a series of multiple exposure images.

Antonios Kotsonias, Media Practice student, 3rd year.

He intentionally challenges the viewer to find their own truth, integrating them into the project.

‘Transporting Hope’ underlines that hope travels along with us on public transportation. As with everybody else, it also uses trains, buses, taxis...

Therefore it is not difficult to find it as we all share the same journeys.

14

LIFESTYLE

The Badger 26.09.16

University: top tips to actually make the most of it

Frank Murphy All too often we’re told that Freshers Week is the best week of our lives.

The message is everywhere, and the internet is full of lists suggesting the ‘5 ways to have the time of your life at university’ or the ‘10 ways to make freshers week the best week of your life’. But sometimes the reality just doesn’t coincide: we’ve got to be honest and say that, sometimes, all the pressure to have fun and enjoy yourself at university interferes with actual enjoyment.

If you’re like me (and a pretty high proportion of other students!) you may actually find yourself feeling impossibly alone or depressed as you start your first term at Uni. Now that can be down to any number of reasons, but through my own experiences and those of other people I’ve compiled a list which will hopefully offer you some more helpful type than ‘5 ways to have the time of your life at university’.

This is the list to help you deal with the complicated feelings starting at university can bring up.

Go to as many societies as you

are physically and mentally able to.

The number one reason I figured out I was spending so much of my first term at Uni feeling isolated and alone in my room was that I didn’t feel like I knew people. Now the best possible way to avoid or remedy that is to know as many people as possible to never feel alone. The best way of doing that at a University is to initially attend as many societies as physically possible in your first few weeks.

That may even be meditation society, or a cat appreciation society… it doesn’t matter! As long as you’re at least vaguely interested in the premise, go to that society and get to know as many people as you can so you have people to trade dank memes with in the future.

Get to know people on your course.

Your course is probably the single best place to meet likeminded people who share your interests and hard-left views of the world. If you don’t currently know anyone on your course, anytime is a good time to start. No one got to Uni by being a dick. A lot of people currently also

don’t know that many people on their course so just meet as many people as you can in lectures or on course socials if your course has them. If it doesn’t then make your own. Lead by example and gain the respect of your peers.

Talk to your flatmates.

For a lot of students, some if not most of your flatmates are likely to become your closest friends at Uni. At this moment in time, your flatmates likely know you better than anyone else here. So talk to them!

Even if they’re in their rooms, busy having some deep Marxist Facebook argument, just hang and chat.

If they’re too busy talking to you at that particular time, then fine. It’s the thought that counts, and they’ll likely reciprocate that action at some other time.

Don’t overdo the WKD. This applies especially if you’re on medication for whatever reason (For me, it’s too many memes). Don’t ever let yourself start casually drinking out of boredom. Not only is that the road to casually destroying your liver, but it also helps you develop a deep loathing of yourself that

you have nothing better to do than drinking the ridiculously overpriced booze from Co-Op. Explore Brighton.

Brighton is probably the most interesting city in the UK outside of London. After being here for nearly 3 years and living on the south coast for much of my life there are still areas in Brighton that I’ve never even been to or heard of. If you find yourself feeling down in your room, just pay a few quid to hop onto the 25 and simply wonder around the Lanes exploring for a while, looking and the exceptionally strange items in Snoopers’ Paradise. If you’re bored of the Lanes head down to the Marina, the beach, Hove etc and explore those. This knowledge of the city comes in handy when you’re called on as the expert to lead your friends on a night out.

Talk to your family or friends back home – No one you have currently met at Uni is cooler then whomever you may know back home. At this moment in time they’re the ones most likely to understand you well as a person and whatever issues you may or may

not have. Talk to them as much as you can. Don’t end up cutting off communications for a while, whilst you are busy binge watching Netflix in bed as it makes it harder to talk to them in the future. And on that note…

DON’T SPEND ALL DAY IN BED WATCHING NETFLIX !

Almost everyone I know, including me has done this. This is the worst possible thing you can do.

Definitely don’t ever end up doing this unless you’re ridiculously hungover from yesterday (even then it’s not an amazing idea). Sitting alone re-watching It’s Always Sunny for the tenth time is the best possible way to make yourself feel isolated. Do something productive like exploring or indulge in a hobby. Sitting around watching Netflix will just annoy you that you haven’t done anything else with your time.

So there you have it. Don’t watch Netflix, don’t overdrink, and go outside and meet people as much as you physically can. Also go easy on the memes.

Food for thought: easy meals to keep up energy studying June Marsh

Lazy day pasta meal

Cheating at asparagus quiche

Living on pasta is at least better than living on packet noodles, so here’s an adaptable dish to make when you want something tasty and quick. This should take absolutely no more than 30 mins to make!

This is the cheat’s way to make quiche. It might at some point have been inspired by my mother, but it’s been what’s saved me at uni when I’m tired and hungry but neither tomach nor afford another bought meal!

This is awholesome fast food at its best - it takes 10 minutes to prepare and then 25 abandoned in the oven.

This is a nice dish which can seem fancy so why not make it for friends to show off? I’ll give you ingredients for more than one person:

Ingredients per person: 1 tablespoon of oil to fry 2 cloves of garlic, peeled 4 small onions, dead 8 baby mushrooms, also dead 500g of unspecified meat / substitute 400g vine tomatoes Spaghetti to serve Pepper and salt to taste Herbs or leaves to garnish

Ingredients for four people: 250g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths 175g Gruyère or Emmental cheese, finely grated - plash out on nice cheese, it’s worth it!

6 eggs, whisked Pepper and salt to taste.

Method: Put the asparagus in boiling water, and keep cooking until it gets tender.

Make sure to get most of the water off, and place the asparagus evenly in your dish. Sprinkle half the grated cheese on top.

Whisk the eggs with some salt and pepper. Pour over the asparagus and cheese, then top with the rest of the cheese!

You’ll need to have preheated the oven by now - oops, check you’ve done that! It should be 180ºC. Cook for about 25, or until set, risen and turning light brown on top.

Serve hot, warm or cold. If you’re eating alone, you can save the remaining 3 portions for tomorrow!

Both: Wikimedia Commons

Method: Remove the skin from the tomatoes and chop up the little mushrooms into nice tiny pieces.

Chp the onions and garlic.

Throw the onions, mushrooms and garlic into a preheated pan.

Gently blend the vine tomatoes - or use a pestle and mortar and vent your anger at exams!

Avoiding impulse to eat raw, add the meat, the quorn or other substiute into the pan.

You probably should have started cooking the spaghetti earlier. Do this now.

When ‘it looks about done’, add tomato sauce to the pan.

Season with salt, pepper and calcium Garnish with parsley, oregano, or any other herbs!

Serve, ensuring the people you like best get a bigger portion!

LETTERS

15

The Badger 26.09.16

Brexit should mean Brexit Dear Badger, At the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton this weekend, Tim Farron announced that they would push for a second referendum on Britain’s relationship with The European union. A similar stance has been taken by Owen Smith in the Labour leadership election, though with a Corbyn victory all but certain this is unlikely to become official Labour policy, which leaves only Farron’s party sticking to this position.

I’m a Lib Dem supporter, but I think that by promising this my party is making a huge mistake.

On the 24th of June 2016, Britain woke up to a shock result. Over 17 million people, or around 52%, voted to leave. A large of number of these are working class folk from socially deprived areas of England and Wales, and were not politically engaged prior to this referendum.

Even if you disagree with the decision they’ve made, to ignore their voices is utterly disrespectful and just plain arrogant. British politics can be incredibly elitist at times, most of the power being held by a select few privileged individuals.

To have more marginalised people involved in the political process would be a fantastic thing, but if there decisions are ignored then why should they bother?

Ignoring the 52% could have serious consequences, which we have seem recently across the pond in The States. The deprived communities in the south and Great Appalachia have been shut out of the political process for decades and are desperate to shake things up, which has led to the rise of Donald Trump and the populist anti-foreign rhetoric that comes with him. Ignore the referendum result, and UKIP could have a field day in the north of England, or the resurrection of even worse groups like The BNP becomes a possibility.

A British version of Trumpism must be avoided at all costs.

Furthermore, it isn’t clear how a second referendum would even work in practice. What question would be on the ballot paper?

Would it be a choice between whatever new arrangement Mr Davis and Mr Fox come up with versus staying in?

Article 50 could have already been triggered by this point, making staying in the union impossible.

And if you’re a UKIP supporter who thinks that the Tory deal is “too soft”,

then which side would you vote for? The practicalities don’t seem to have been thought through at all.

That’s not to say that liberals don’t have a role to play in the coming years, we certainly do. The livelihoods of EU citizens living in Britain needs to be guaranteed. The work The EU has done on safeguarding human rights needs to be protected. And we should push for a Norway/Switzerland style arrangement which would allow us to leave but retain our access to the single market, safeguarding millions of jobs and reassuring investors. Brexit is a startling prospect if we allow Theresa May and Nigel Farage to frame the entire issue. We can’t let that happen.

For better or for worse, Britain has voted to leave The EU. Let’s just crack on and make the best of it.

Yours,

Whatever happened to putting students before profit?

Dear Badger, The University’s relentless crusade for profits and material gain over the safety and welfare of its students is a disgraceful example of careless, pragmatic greed. The current housing crisis underlines this ignominious mentality.

Students are treated like cattle, herded up and penned into accommodation so gruesome it makes going back home feel like a trip to the Bahamas.

Sussex, Cut The Rent’s campaign has done a superb job of bringing this appalling state of affairs to the forefront of campus debate, gathering over a thousand signatures is just four days, and it is ready to influence policy with a set concrete demands, demands which expose

the utter complacency at the heart of University management.

Furthermore, the cynical growth of student numbers has been done without any thought for planning or provisions, putting an intense strain on campus resources. Queues snake through campus from dawn till dusk, while the morning buses are already becoming a running joke among despondent 2nd and 3rd years.

The sheer audacity of University management is matched only by their fierce disregard for student security, and they should be ashamed of the current state of this proud institution.

Yours, A Dismayed Writer

Fraser Coppin

Happy stalers week!

Dear Badger, Visiting campus during Freshers’ week as a 2nd year has a certain sense of morbidity to it. You’re yesterday’s news. Last week’s bread. Old. Stale. Probably edible, but who’s going to risk it?

Searching for free pizza feels like an illicit dip into an unofficially off-limits world, exclusively populated by bright, smiling, striplings. I sat alone in library square, hunched over my complimentary slice, waiting to be called back and reprimanded.

“This isn’t for you! You’re not Fresh!”

“But… But… I still go out! I still have fun!”

“How old are those clothes?”

“Umm, two years, give or take.”

“Hey everyone! Get over here! This oldtimer doesn’t even have fresh threads!

Boo! BOO!” Even the sympathy manages to compound our misery.

“These events are aimed at Freshers, but if you find yourself unwittingly accompanied by a 2nd year we will, reluctantly, allow them in.”

Sometimes even the comfort of cynicism – “Look at them laughing now. Wait till one of those snakes ‘borrows’ a Baby-

WRITE US A LETTER Whether you want to react to a story we’ve published, correct an inaccuracy on our part, ask the editorial team a question, share a secret with the Sussex student community, or simply have a bit of a rant, send a carrier pigeon to:

badger-letters@sussexstudent.com

bel and doesn’t contribute to the Fairy Liquid Fund™. Let’s see who grinning then.” – isn’t enough.

You want to dive into the uninhibited wasteland devoid of morals, get stuck into the back to back nights of wild gratification.

You want all this and more – until you actually pause and recall last September.

Thundering hangovers. Under-cooked pot noodles. Shivering through the inevitable flu whilst gravely waiting for the first loan instalment to clear. Hands trembling as you grasp the mouse, each click triggering a Lost like flashback to last night’s ruinous decision making.

Refresh. Cough. Refresh. Cough. Refresh… COUGH. “But the Sourz were free!”

Free for a reason.

You know the #Fresherslyfe is well and truly bygone when the highlight of a day is new curtains arriving. Strong, sturdy, wholesome curtains.

Who needs glittery wristbands and planned outfits anyway?

Yours, Glenn Houlihan

#sussexfreshers

The best tweets of the week @rachaelsarah_: had the most amazing, craziest week ever #sussexfreshers @presidentUSSU: Lesson no.1 #Brighton : don’t go for a swim in the sea with your keys in your pocket #seatookmykeys @RossSpiller: Great to see the sun shining and campus lively and in full swing again! #sussexfreshers @lily_blackmore: Guess who won the pina colada prize draw at the food fair today .... evening sorted! #sussexfreshers @DanGreen4114 Loads of people down at .@USSU Freshers’ Fair today - great day for it! #sussexfreshers @_RedheadSaid: Freshers fair was awesome fun!!!! I’m sunburnt, lost my voice and also met a lecturer who’s the same age as me... so yeah. #sussexfreshers @LivingLifeInDoc: The drunk freshers have found their way to kemptown. God save us all. #sussexfreshers

Tweet us at #thebadger and you could be published here next week!

The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Student’s Union, unless explicitly stated.

University of Sussex Students’ Union Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QF

16

SCIENCE

The Badger 26.09.16

Black Lives Matter has a point about climate change

The organisation’s recent demo at London City Airport has left many scratching their heads. You may not agree with their conclusions but it is undeniable that non-white people are disproportionally affected by climate change.

OPINION Duncan Michie Science and Technology Editor As each year passes, people often wonder when will we start feeling the effects of climate change?

This is a misunderstanding of what climate change is, it being a slow progression rather than an apocalyptic event. For many people climate change is already devastating their lands, lives and livelihoods. For some, simply getting a glass of water, clean or not, has become a daily struggle, with much of the good work that has been done to improve water sources since 1990 being destroyed. In some places, deadly heat waves that used to occur only every few years are now happening annually. Crop yields for some are getting smaller and smaller. The effects of climate change are even as drastic as devastating communities through war.

Those most deeply affected by such effects of climate change are those who inhabit equatorial regions. The 2011 Arab Spring which shook the Middle East to its core and whose conflicts still rage on seems to have been influenced by rising food prices and water scarcity. Is this even entirely surprising? Looking at the history of wars and revolutions, they often take place during bad harvests, as the struggle to feed self and family frequently results in people turning to any solution to survive.

Climate change isn’t a future event: it is happening now and it’s only going to get worse, quickly. Although its devastation may not seem present yet in northern Europe, the lives of many sub-Saharan Africans and Arabs are being destroyed. People are fleeing wars and resource scarcity, with many of their bodies washing up on the Mediterranean due to tight EU border control.

This horrific situation is where Black Lives Matter’s recent demon-

stration comes in; their point that climate change disproportionally affects non-white people is true. They were by no means claiming that the destruction of the atmosphere is caused by racism, but instead the circumstances they face are caused by prejudice. Non-white individuals’ lands are being destroyed by the consumer demands of predominantly white wealthier countries, while these very same countries refuse to allow these victims to seek refuge – policies that are killing thousands of people.

You may think that race and climate change aren’t linked. Or believe border controls aren’t influenced by racism. Or that non-white people living in areas with more air pollution is down to socio-economic reasons rather than prejudice. However, whatever your view point, disregarding the arguments put across by the demonstration is ignoring an important debate that needs to be had about the impacts of climate change

Freya Marshall Payne

I want to talk to you about tingles

What is ASMR? Ronan Murphy goes into detail about this litte known phenomenon with a large online following.

Ronan Murphy

Wikimedia Commons

The Hinkley Conundrum

It will cost billions to build, the technology isn’t sound and there are cheaper, safer alternatives, yet we’re still going ahead with Hinkley point C. OPINION

Kate Dearling Science and Technology Sub-Editor The government has given the goahead for Hinkley Point C, the first nuclear reactor to be built in the UK for 25 years. It will generate 25,000 jobs during its construction and 900 people will be working on the site once it’s complete. The plant will provide 6 billion homes with low-carbon energy and will account for 7% of the electricity produced in Britain. At the heart of this construction will be two European Pressure Reactors (EPRs) designed by the French company Areva. These reactors will be the most powerful in the world, requiring less fuel and generating less waste than other nuclear reactors. They will also be the safest, being able to withstand a plane crash, earthquakes and extreme flooding. In addition to all this the reactors will rarely have to be stopped for maintenance and should work almost continuously through their 60 year lifespan.

If you’re thinking all of this sounds too good to be true, then you’re right – these reactors are essentially

mythical. The EPRs which are being assembled in Flamanville, France and Olikiluoto, an island off Finland, are years behind schedule and billions over budget. They’ve also faced several construction problems, most crucially a weakness in the steel liner which is supposed to stop radioactive materials from being released into the environment. On top of this, Hinkley will add 80% more nuclear waste to the UK total and there is still no ideal solution for disposing of this waste.

But these construction issues are hardly the biggest problem; instead it’s the cost we are paying for this imperfect design. The upfront costs for building Hinkley Point C are predicted to be £18 billion, 60% of this will be paid for by UK firms and the rest will come from EDF energy and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN). In exchange for footing the bill on what may be the most expensive object on earth, China will be allowed to develop two more reactors in Bradwell and Sizewell, in addition to a guaranteed 10% return on their investment. The deal with EDF is perhaps even worse; they’ve arranged a guaranteed price of £92.50

per Mega Watt hour (MWh) for the energy generated by Hinkley (for reference, the average family uses between 3-4 MWh of electricity per year). If the wholesale price of the energy is lower than this then consumers will have to make up the difference. This ‘top-up’ fee is predicted to cost UK taxpayers a total of £29.7 billion, in more realistic terms that’s about £15 per household per year.

It seems nuclear power is no longer the most cost-competitive method of producing low carbon energy, in fact Danish renewables company Dong will be building an offshore windfarm that can provide power for £20 cheaper per MWh than the stuff Hinkley is selling. It is concerning that while other European countries are turning their backs on nuclear and investing in renewables, the UK is pouring billions into Hinkley and cutting subsidies for renewables, resulting in more than 12,000 jobs in solar power being lost in the past year.

Perhaps the only way to make sense of this illogical decision is that it’s simply too late to turn back - £2.5 billion has already been invested in the project, what’s £18 billion more?

You may have experienced them before. I’m not talking about the chills you get from music, or from hearing a particularly inspiring speech, known as frisson. I’m also not talking about sexual stimulation, though there’s no doubt that what I’m talking about is intimate. I mean the tingly feeling you might’ve felt at the hairdressers, or from being read a bedtime story when you were younger. You might’ve asked a friend or family member about it, and the confusing glare you were met with was enough to let you know that maybe this was one of those grownup things you weren’t supposed to talk about. And until about six years ago, nobody did.

What I’m talking about has a name- ASMR. It stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, but don’t let the new-age sounding name fool you. ASMR is very real, and it boasts a sizeable internet community dedicated to the creation of videos intended to elicit this effect.

The videos cover a wide variety of content, but popular topics are role plays, such as cranial nerve examinations or haircuts, ‘personal attention’ videos, ‘sounds’ videos making use of common auditory ASMR triggers such as tapping or brushing, and a personal favourite of mine, videos where someone explains something they’re passionate about.

They can range from extraordinarily dull hour-long loops of water being poured, to high production value sci-fi sagas, but the primary goal remains the same- to relax, and to trigger this sensation.

You might be wondering why I’m making such a big deal out of this, if it’s only a slightly pleasurably tingly sensation in the head and the back of the neck, but it’s more than that.

There are accounts of ASMR helping people deal with anxiety, and even chronic pain. Many more report it to be an effective sleep-aid, myself included. I think, however, that the most important factor is the community itself. I won’t pretend it’s somehow uniquely free from drama, but the atmosphere is remarkably

cooperative. ASMR content creators are working towards the same goal, not competing, and the fact that over 99% of them are amateurs making videos for free certainly helps.

Even comments on the Youtube videos tend to be supportive, an unusual trend given the site’s standards.

So far, the phenomenon has gone almost completely undocumented in the scientific literature. In my opinion, this is owed to two main factors.

Firstly, that there is still doubt about whether the phenomenon is ‘real’, and secondly that it was only identified six years ago.

As a former psychology student, I find the first factor particularly disheartening. There’s no denying that this is something which is occurring, unless you’re willing to accuse millions of people of being part of an elaborate hoax. There is obviously something transpiring, and it’s the duty of scientists to find out what it is. In my opinion, the most compelling suggestion is that it’s a vestigial grooming response, but that doesn’t say much for what’s going on in the brain, whether other animals experience it, or why some people do not seem to experience it at all.

In my opinion, this phenomenon deserves much more exposure from psychologists and neuroscientists, as the research which does exist is fascinating. One of the few studies to cover ASMR, Barrett and Davis (2015), compares it to synaesthesia and ‘flow states’. Another, Novella (2012) hypothesises that ASMR is a type of minor seizure.

There is another mystery here, too.

How could a direct perceptual experience go unnoticed for so long? We know that it’s not a new phenomenon. Virginia Woolf described it in Mrs. Dalloway, without naming it.

There’s absolutely no reason that ancient cultures wouldn’t have noticed it, but I’m aware of no mention of it prior to Woolf’s. I don’t think there’s a satisfying explanation for why it took so long for us to discover it, but I think there’s an important lesson to take away from the fact that it did: uncharted territory is always closer to home than we think.

The Badger 26.09.16

17

SPORT

Kadeena Cox: a worthy face for Britain’s Paralympic success

Patrick Isitt Though there were more decorated athletes for Britain at Rio’s Paralympics this summer, it would have been a tough ask to look elsewhere for flag-bearer candidates for the event’s closing ceremony than Kadeena Cox. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) two years ago, Cox is the personification of not only hard work and success, but also the rejection of an ideology that sees disability as the end.

A Gold in Cycling to accompany a hat trick of medals in the Athletics (gold, silver and bronze) made Kadeena Cox the first British Paralympian to top the podium in more than one sport since 1984.

Ms Cox contributed four medals to what became Britain’s most successful Paralympics since Seoul 1988, breaking 29 records across the board. GB’s chef de mission Penny Briscoe claims this is not down to Russia’s ban in the weeks leading up to the games.

“We’ve crunched a lot of stats in the last few weeks because we knew this question would be asked.”

Said Briscoe, talking to The Guardian. “We’ve identified probably half a dozen medals across our sports where Russia came in as world No1.

Of those we think potentially there might have been one where Russian would have won.”

Ms Briscoe claims that the National Lottery played a huge part in GB’s Paralympic success due to their heavy investment in resources for the team. However, she also suggested that having the athletes and the resources doesn’t ultimately mean success. In the same interview, she said: “The range of sports in which we are competitive shows we have a structure that converts resources into success.”

The success achieved by the Paralympians allowed them to smash the 120 medal account from four years ago in London. 147 in total were won in Rio: 64 gold, 39 silver and 44 bronze.

With an incredible team of 264 athletes, GB Paralympics boasted at least one medal in 15 of the 19 sports they were involved in at the games.

The closing ceremony at the Maracana last Sunday saw Ms Cox bear the flag, but there were many worthy contenders in Sarah Storey - who became the most decorated British female paralympian of all time with 14 gold medals - and Jonnie Peacock, to name a few.

Kadeena Cox, speaking to The Telegraph just a few hours before the

Flickr: Agencia Brasil team’s homecoming on Tuesday, admitted her knowledge on MS before she was diagnosed helped her to understand the disability more than others might have been able to. She said in the interview: “When they finally broke it to me, I remembered a couple of the neurological placements I had done for my course. I provided home care for a lady who had very severe MS. The thought that this was happening to me, too?

It totally freaked me out.”

Sport had always been a passion and an area in which Ms Cox

excelled; having once been good enough to train for the Olympics, she saw her disability as motivation toward success more than a daily struggle. Though she admits the volume of medication and injections she goes through every day has been difficult to adjust to. She has said: “I take 18 to 19 tablets a day, plus an injection every other day. I get side-effects from some of the medication that are not ideal. Plus, I hate having to inject myself. It’s painful and it creates a few dramas.”

She, however, represents every-

thing that is great about the British Paralympians. Those that turn to sport despite the potential struggles which their disabilities may cause are rewarded with the success they deserve.

No one should be fooled into thinking the Paralympics is covered as much in the media as the Olympics, but by all means it deserves to be. The physical challenges these athletes face everyday makes their accomplishments seem all the more remarkable.

Ultimate Frisbee: cooler than you think!

Aaron Stephen Sport Editor

Sussex Mohawks

I would be the first to admit that when I first heard my flatmate had signed up to play Ultimate Frisbee, I didn’t have enough time to tease him as much as I wanted to that day.

For some reason there’s a stigma attached to the idea of people playing Frisbee seriously.

But once I had stopped being childish, took the time to investigate and saw his social life get way more exciting than mine, I became intrigued. So what is Ultimate Frisbee - or ‘Ultimate’ as it’s often referred to? Well the Sussex Mohawks, our official team, describe it as “A fastpaced team sport that will have you sprinting your way around the pitch and scoring by catching the disc in the end zone (like American Football, but without the tackling and body armor)” That seems pretty straightforward,

but in truth it’s far more engaging than that. Once I spent an hour or so watching Youtube clips I realised just how enthralling it is, and that there really is much skill involved!

My flatmate Dom Burnham, like most others starting Ultimate at Sussex in his first year, had never played the sport in his life. I’ve watched him grow from a casual player to someone almost obsessed (but more importantly, dedicated) to the sport and the sense of community the society which it provides.

Now Vice President of the Sussex University Ultimate Frisbee society, Dom explained his journey with the sport. “I joined thinking of it as a good way to try something new and stay fit but I didn’t realise how much I’d love the sport. The social side is amazing and we go on many trips away to national tournaments.

I’d encourage anyone who enjoys keeping fit and wants to meet new people to consider Ultimate.”

It is easy to disregard the idea of playing a sport you have never heard of before, or one that initially doesn’t sound enticing. But Ultimate Frisbee is a prime example of why, while at Sussex, you should try something new. I don’t know many societies out there which can offer you both an annual trip to Italy and a party in which the rules include wearing anything but clothes. If that doesn’t make you want to sign up then I don’t know what will!

Love Sport? Write for us about teams on campus and off!

Drop Aaron a line:

badger-sport@sussexstudent. com