Issue 215

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SAINT ST ANDREWS, 2 November 2017

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The independent voice of St Andrews students since 1997 THESAINT-ONLINE.COM

Conservatives suspend two students over online comments following Saint investigation TOM WILLIAMS News editor JOSEPH CASSIDY Editor The Scottish Conservative party has suspended the party memberships of two students at the University of St Andrews pending an investigation following online comments revealed

by The Saint today.

The extreme and offensive online comments were made by members and former members of the University of St Andrews Conservative and Unionist Association (STAUCA).

The two students who have been suspended are Elliot Jordan, a member of the society and East of Scotland Chair for Conservative Future Scotland (CFS), the youth wing of the Scottish Conservatives, and Konstantin Velichkov, Postgraduate Representative for the society.

The comments range from offensive remarks against transgender people, Muslims, and female politicians to generally extremist views.

On a Facebook status Ian Donnell, a former student, president of the society, and former chairman of Conservative Future Scotland said, “The world really has gone mad. I asked it to stop and let me off when I heard about Gender Neutral bathrooms but now people are mourning the loss of Firing Squad [Fidel] Castro.

Please just stop.”

On the same status Mr Velichkov commented, referring to trans women at the University who make use of its gender neutral bathrooms as “men in dresses.”

Finally Mr Jordan endorsed a post on Twitter using the word “tr*nny,” a derogatory slur for trans people.

Ryan Hay, the Students’

Association’s LGBT+ officer, commented on the offensive remarks, saying, “I’d like to just respond with our mission statement, which is that Saints LGBT+, and by extension the Students’ Association, is opposed to any and all discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. It is our job to make sure that LGBT+ people feel safe and comfortable in St Andrews, and to ensure that the Union is a safe space for all students, and we take that role very seriously.

“We’re delighted that TransFest, our groundbreaking festival of gender identity (now in its second year), is coming up on 15-19 November and this should be a real chance for trans/ non-binary students to use their voices and to see that they are a valued and respected part of the St Andrews community.

“Students who may have been affected by these comments, or anyone struggling with gender identity, can get in touch with Saints LGBT+ through Facebook or by emailing saintslgbt@ to find out about how we might be able to help.

“Alternatively, Nightline and Student Services are both trained on a diverse range of LGBT+ issues if people would prefer that kind of support.”

Members of the society also made and endorsed offensive remarks about female politicians. Calum Richardson, a former student and member of the society’s committee, posted that Mhairi Black should be “returned to the donkey sanctuary.”

Mr Jordan furthermore endorsed a post on Twitter referring to Hillary Clinton as a “cackling... witch.” The tweet in question was posted by Paul Joseph Watson, an extreme far right online personality who serves as an editor-at-large for the conspiracist

Features On the northern lights

website InfoWars, known for manufacturing conspiracies about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, among other conspiracies.

It was one of several tweets by Mr Watson liked by members of STAUCA. Several offensive posts and remarks against Muslim people have also been revealed.

Mr Jordan furthermore accused London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim to be elected to run a major Western capital, of being “terrorist accepting” on Twitter.

Mr Jordan also expressed sadness when Geert Wilders was predicted to lose the Dutch elections.

Mr Wilders is known for his far right-wing tendencies and asserted that up to 15 per cent of all Muslims were extremists, Mr Wilders has also compared the Quran to Mein Kampf.

Mr Jordan has also endorsed the tweets and publications of English Defence League founder and anti-Muslim campaigner Tommy Robinson.

Several generally extreme rightwing remarks, generally considered to be outside mainstream views in the Conservatives, were also made by members of the society online.

On abortion, Earlier this year Mr Jordan posted to Facebook, “I pray that someday those who have had practices, undergone, legislated for and campaigned for abortion will be tried and executed as criminals against humanity.”

Mr Jordan represents the East of Scotland for Conservative Future Scotland, the sister organisation of the suspended Conservative Future.

Conservative Future was ended in 2015 following allegations of sexual crime, bullying, and blackmail against the executive committee.

Continued on page 4...

Photo: Ranald Dinsdale

National party to conduct investigation as University condemns comments as “puerile and abhorrent”

Students dressed in flamboyant costumes descended upon Lower College Lawn last Monday 23 October for a shaving foam fight as part of Raisin festivities.

Viewpoint Why reading week should be abolished

Arts and Culture Anything Goes: A preview

NEWS

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News

Page 5

Local magazine editor hits out at students over Raisin weekend Page 8

Viewpoint

The Students’ Association Joint Councils should have endorsed Srdja Popovic’s manifesto aims Money

Page 13

A railway for St Andrews?

Page 21

Features

Town meets Gown: an orchestra of collaborations

Photos

Page 22-23

Raisin Weekend photo story

Events

Page 25

Welly Ball preview

Page 32

Arts and culture Interview with author Ursula K. Le Guin

Sport

Page 39

Men’s indoor cricket makes strong start The Saint Student Newspaper Ltd c/o St Andrews Students’ Association St Mary’s Place St Andrews, Fife KY16 9UX

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S

EDITORIAL

Inside the paper

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

This extreme bigotry should be condemned by all The University has described the comments by members of the St Andrews Conservative and Unionist Association, revealed by The Saint today, as “puerile and abhorrent.” They could not be more correct.

The comments range from the insensitive, to the offensive, to the completely bizarre and it is heartening to see the Scottish Conservative party take such swift action in suspending the students in question. To refer to trans women with derogatory slurs, and to refer to trans students who make use of gender neutral bathrooms as “men in dresses” is simply hateful.

Trans students have a right to our respect and our support. In The Saint’s view this extends to gender neutral bathrooms, which we supported when first announced and continue to support now. To endorse the extreme

right Dutch politician Geert Wilders (who, as our story noted has compared the Quran to Mein Kampf) and the founder of the anti-Muslim organisation the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, also shows a startling level of acceptance, or even support, for Islamophobia. Endorsing a statement referring to Hillary Clinton as a “cackling… witch” also reveals an underlying misogyny. When are male politicians referred to as “witches”? It is an inherently gendered insult and deserves to be called out as such. The extreme comments on abortion, climate change, and terrorist attacks also betray a worldview at the fringes of the far right in this country.

These views are not only offensive, but they are far to the right of any mainstream views within the Conservative party. Especially un-

der Ruth Davidson in Scotland, the Conservative party has made great strides from the days when it defended moves to restrict the rights of LGBT+ people, for instance. If the Conservative party wishes to remain in tune with the values of modern Britain, it should continue to make clear that views such as those revealed today are not welcome in their organisation.

There will be those who argue that these students have every right to free speech and to say and think what they like. Indeed they do. However freedom of speech also extends to the many who find these comments, as we do, repulsive and believe they should be called out as such. Freedom of speech is not freedom from critique, and it is certainly not freedom to express bigotry without condemnation.

THE SAINT

The independent voice of St Andrews students since 1997 Editor editor@thesaint-online.com Deputy editor print@thesaint-online.com Web editor web@thesaint-online.com Production manager production@thesaint-online.com

Video editor video@thesaint-online.com Illustration chief illustration@thesaint-online.com Business manager saint.businessteam@gmail.com Business team saint.businessteam@gmail.com

Joseph Cassidy Editor Andrew Sinclair Deputy editor Olivia Gavoyannis Deputy editor Ashley Llewellyn Web editor Tom Williams News editor Max Waller Viewpoint editor David Hallengren Money editor Kenalyn Ang Features editor George Wilder Events editor László Szegedi A&C editor Seoras Lyall Sport editor Bri Chu Video editor Sammi Ciardi Photography chief Gabby Wolf Illustration chief James Fox Senior copy editor Amy Elliot Senior copy editor Wesley Garner Business Manager Advertise with The Saint advertising@thesaint-online.com thesaint-online.com/advertising @saint_business

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The Saint is an entirely independent newspaper, run by students of the University of St Andrews. It is published fortnightly during term time and is free of charge. The Saint is not affiliated with the University or the Students’ Association. The text, graphics and photographs are under copyright of The Saint and its individual contributors. No parts of this newspaper may be reproduced without prior permission of the editor.

NEWS

News editor: TOM WILLIAMS Deputy editors: Grace Gresset, Annie Smith, Rashed Kamal, Brooke Siegler news@thesaint-online.com

thesaint-online.com/news

Alex Salmond and SNP attack University admissions Mr Salmond was backed up by SNP’s Director of Communications

Former First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond, hit out at diversity at the University of St Andrews on Question Time last week.

Appearing on the discussion programme hosted by David Dimbleby alongside a panel which included Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, Mr Salmond asserted of his alma mater, “I am a doctor of the University of Glasgow, I was a student at St Andrews.

He’s out of touch with present day St Andrews “They are both highly rated internationally orientated universities but Glasgow has a huge social mix in its student population, St Andrews doesn’t. The idea you maintain excel-

lence by having a fairly exclusive social mix is entirely wrong headed, it’s entirely mistaken.”

Mr Salmond studied Economics and Medieval History at the University.

A spokesperson for the University of St Andrews was quick to respond to Mr Salmond’s comments in The Scotsman, stating that there had been “big progress” in attracting students from diverse backgrounds.

They continued, “We were glad to see that in the true style of a good St Andrews debater Mr Salmond was able to give the impression he actually knew what he was talking about, even if it was mostly blethers.

“He’s out of touch with present day St Andrews. The student body has never been more socially and internationally diverse, we’ve made big progress in recent years and are one of the few Scottish universities to be ahead of the curve in meeting the SNP Government’s ambitious targets on widening access to our universities.

Over a third of all the Scots who started here this year came from an access background.

“We lower our entry requirements for young people from disadvantaged

backgrounds, use tailored support programmes and first-year mentoring schemes and offer a very broad range of bursary and scholarship assistance.

The [University of St Andrews] doth protest too much methinks “Alex doesn’t have to take our word for it though, we hope he’ll come back to find out for himself.”

In response to the University’s comment, Mr Salmond again hit out on Twitter, “First step for Scot oldest uni [sic] in restoring its duty to the Scottish people is to recognise reality.”

Mr Salmond was backed up by the SNP’s Head of Communications and Research at Holyrood, Fergus Mutch.

Mr Mutch tweeted statistics which placed the University of St Andrews as having the 14th largest proportion of lower-income students out of high-

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

TOM WILLIAMS News editor

er education institutions in Scotland.

The report asserted that only 5.1 per cent of students at the University were from deprived areas.

Mr Mutch along with the statistics tweeted, “on the facts, [Alex Salmond] may have a point? [The University of St Andrews] doth protest too much, methinks.”

Last year it was revealed that the University of St Andrews had the

highest intake of privately educated students of any Scottish University.

56.7 per cent of those admitted to the University had received a private education.

St Andrews intake of these students was second highest in the UK. Only Oxford had a higher percentage of privately educated students among the mainstream higher education institutions.

Local residents express concern over new HMO application

Occupants of the cul-de-sac were worried over the potential for noise disturbance and increase in rubbish GRACE GRESSET Deputy news editor A new property in St Andrews outside of the HMO (House in Multiple Occupancy) ban applied for a license, causing worry among residents.

The application was submitted for a house in Learmonth Place.

However, soon after the application was submitted, local residents and other occupants of the cul de sac raised concern over the potential for noise disturbance and an increase in rubbish as the new property is in a residential area.

They also expressed

worry about the impact it could have among other homeowners keenness to apply for licenses, since the property was able to get a license.

Locals are worried about new HMOs moving into the residential areas as they view the centre of St Andrews as having too many HMOs as it stands. HMOs can prevent permanent residents for being able to live in town as many properties are geared up to support multiple students passing through year after year.

This dramatically influences the population and dynamic of the centre of town as it occupied by a disproportionate num-

ber of students.

Since June 2011 there has been a ban on new HMOs in town Likewise, it has been a long standing issue for students of the University to be

able to find housing at an

affordable cost.

This issue is not only due to the small amount of available accommodation in St Andrews, but also due to

the need for the residence to have a HMO license before it can be leased out to students.

Since June 2011 there has been a ban on new HMOs in town. This has created a problem as the University has substantially grown since 2011 creating a greater need for housing to cater for the increasing number of students.

The outgoing Rector, Catherine Stihler, did not support the HMO ban and stated in her campaign that she would work on “alleviating” it.

Earlier this month Srdja Popovic

w a s elected as the next Rector of the University.

During his campaign he also laid out in his manifesto that he wanted to fix the housing crisis, however, his manifesto did not specifically mention fighting the HMO ban, it asserted that more affordable student accom-

modation was needed.

He has already named a few ways of accomplishing this, including: lobbying the University to construct an affordable student accommodation unit with every two new units constructed, improving standards of student housing, creating a list of landlords, and allowing students to rate and review the cost and services of a particular landlord’s flat. He hopes that these goals will lead to an increase in access to affordable accommodation.

The applicants trying to bring new HMOs outside of town centre have made efforts to compromise and lessen the worries of neighbours. They have explained that the University will be acting as a local agent in order to decrease and handle any unwanted behaviour, as well as limiting the number of cars the occupants are allowed to park and banning parties and overnight guests.

NEWS

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On climate change, Mr Velichkov also asserted that man-made climate change was not real and called climate change activists “Gaia worshiping alarmists.”

These comments are puerile and abhorrent and will be seen as such by the majority of students Mr Velichkov also blamed the 2016 Munich shootings on immigrants.

Blaming “the new Volkswanderung” (a term meaning the “migration of people”) an apparent reference to the refugee crisis, the incident did not involve refugees or migrants.

Mr Velichkov furthermore routinely mocks the mourners of victims of terrorist attacks. In response to the Machester attack earlier this year he tweeted, “Not to worry, just tweet #WeStandTogether, light a candle and sing ‘Imagine’, and it will all go away… right?”

Following a post by the London Metropolitan Police on Twitter in the wake of the Westminster terrorist attack which read, “Please use common sense and restraint in circulating pictures and videos of those that have

been injured during the incident,” Mr Velichkov questioned why this was important.

Mr Velichkov has mocked mourners of the Berlin Christmas market attack, as well as the 2017 Manchester attack.

In May of this year, a bomb was detonated in the foyer of Manchester Arena at an Ariana Grande concert, 250 people were injured and 22 killed.

The youngest victim was eight years old.

In December of 2016, 11 pedestrians were killed and 56 more injured when a hijacked truck was deliberately driven into a Christmas market in Berlin.

The online posts have been condemned by the University, with a spokesperson saying, “These comments as reported are puerile and abhorrent and will be seen as such by the majority of students.”

Mr Jordan issued The Saint with a statement regarding his online views, however later opted to retract it before publication.

Endorsed a post on Twitter using the word “tr*nny” The Saint also reached out to STAUCA, Mr Velichkov, Mr Donnell, and Mr Richardson for a comment.

No response in regards to their online comments was received by The Saint.

At the Festival of Politics hosted in Holyrood, Professor Mapstone said, “I would really want to resist the notion that just because you know a lot about a subject that puts you into, if you like, some class-based elite.

“But I do think if you’ve got expertise you need to develop the capacity to explain it in a way that makes people feel engaged and involved and that they want to hear some of that.”

She however joked that, “I worried for some time that his distaste for experts comes from having to sit through my Chaucer lectures.”

Professor Mapstone said her former student had characterised experts as “distanced” and that they “thought they knew best”.

Photo: University of St Andrews

The Principal of the University of St Andrews, Sally Mapstone, has challenged the comments of government minister Michael Gove during the Brexit campaign regarding experts being elitist.

Mr Gove was in fact taught by Professor Mapstone during his time at the University of Oxford, where he studied English at Lady Margaret College, receiving an upper second-class degree.

During the Brexit campaign, Mr Gove had remarked that the UK had “had enough of experts.”

“I pray that someday those who have had practices, undergone, legislated for and campaigned for abortion will be tried and executed as criminals against humanity.”

“Not to worry, just tweet #WeStandTogether, light a candle and sing ‘Imagine’, and it will all go away… right?”

Principal rebutes Michael Gove TOM WILLIAMS News editor

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

“The world really has gone mad. I asked it to stop and let me off when I heard about Gender Neutral bathrooms but now people are mourning the loss of Firing Squad [Fidel] Castro. Please just stop.”

“Having a terrorist accepting mayor has to be pointed out” “Hopefully they can return her to the donkey sanctuary” “Take your bets on #Munich-ISIS or fascist? Either way, underlying cause is the new Volkswanderung...”

“What will it take to make you Gaia-worshipping alarmists understand that man-made ‘climate change’ is NOT real?” #Manchester #ManchesterBombing I really oughtn’t be this cynical, but at this point I just can’t help but refer to the chart”

How far down the chart are we now? #BerlinChristmasMarketAttack

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

NEWS

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Organisations fight against University’s Kenly wind farm BROOKE SIEGLER Deputy news editor The University of St Andrews has run into difficulty in its mission to become the UK’s first carbon neutral campus.

It is facing challenges from campaigners against the University’s plan for a wind farm.

The movement started in 2011 with an effort to decrease the carbon emissions of the University. The University is looking to install six wind turbines at Kenly wind farm near Boarhills, which is three miles south of St Andrews.

The wind farm was partly constructed so that the University could better comply with the Climate Change (Scotland) Act of 2009. The turbines are expected to save the use of approximately 9,000 tonnes of carbon each year once completed.

The University further asserts that the wind farm will benefit the local community with the introduction of more jobs to the area, both during construction and maintenance.

The challenges come from Fife Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, and the Ministry of Defence.

Graham Lang, of Kenly Landscape

Protection Group, told The Courier, “The university should call time on this ill-fated project.

“After six years, local residents, businesses, and communities deserve relief from the stress and blight of a major industrial installation appearing on their doorstep.”

Fife Council and Scottish Natural Heritage have raised concerns about the impact the wind turbines will make on the natural skyline and beauty of the Scottish landscape.”

There are also concerns about the 33,000-volt cable that will run down the A915 and the impact this will have

with air traffic control radar in Leuchars.

Many campaigners argue that the University should drop the project in order to b e t t e r improve town and gown relations.

University halls of residence trigger almost a third of unwanted fire alarms

Local magazine editor hits out at “little posh and rich students” Town residents have become increasingly concerned over student behaviour with regard to Raisin festivities taking place throughout St Andrews.

Recently, St. Andrews Magazine released a statement detailing their concern about the events that take place throughout Raisin Weekend.

Matt Hooper, editor of the magazine, posted on Facebook on Raisin Sunday saying, “The utter carnage and chaos that is Raisin Sunday has already begun in the centre of St Andrews…If you’re visiting the town today beware of students running round [sic] in pyjamas or not very much at all in some cases and heavily under the influence of alcohol.

“If you see or experience any inappropriate behaviour please report to the police. The vast majority of businesses and residents in the town have had enough of this insane day when a lot of little posh and rich students lord it in the town centre, acting like they own St Andrews because their ‘campus’ happens to be spread over the town.”

Raisin weekend has been a tradition at St Andrews for at least a century, although some sources date Raisin weekend back to the 1400s.

The tradition stems from the system of academic families; students would be “initiated” into the University by their academic families and a few months later the children would thank their families by giving their parents a pound of raisins.

The students who gave a gift would then receive a raisin receipt and would not be thrown into the town fountain for failing to thank their parents. Raisin, however, has evolved to have more rambunctious activities that take place throughout the town.

The Saint reached out to the Mr Hooper asking for further comments on the magazine’s post.

Mr Hooper described ways in which the actions of students during the weekend had directly impacted him, “I personally was woken at 7 am by those in the flats opposite playing loud music, it is not the first time that loud music has been played at an extremely anti-social time. Secondly both myself and housemate witnessed two people chucking a rugby ball across a busy main road in the

centre of town, this could have caused a catastrophic accident... thirdly, I witnessed a young man, before 1 pm in the afternoon, being violently sick on Links road next to the Old Course, and his ‘friends’ or ‘parents’ walked off to the beach and left him.

“He was totally out of it, he had no idea where he was, I could not help as I could only see from my workplace window. He was behind a reversing car which had to be extremely careful not to run him over.”

Mr Hooper continued, “I have also heard from members of the golfing community that they witnessed someone throwing up on the first tee of the Old Course…next, I witnessed several students running across roads when cars were within inches of hitting them, as well as large groups of students congregating on my street, making it very difficult to walk home without using the road.”

The Saint also asked if the University has done enough to address the concerns of the residents to which Mr Hooper said he believes that Raisin has become so out of hand that it should be confined to University spaces like St Salvator’s Quad and Lower College Lawn.

Mr Hooper further asserted, “The sad thing is I think the tradition of academic parents is one of the great, unique things about the University, if used properly it is something which can help a new student immensely, and foster a sense of community among the students. But in my experience, the arrogant, disrespectful and downright stupid behaviour, encouraged by the academic parents in many cases, has made Raisin Sunday something everyone else living in the town wishes to avoid.”

A student responded anonymously to Mr Hooper’s original post through the Facebook page ‘St Feuddrews’. The post read, “Dear Mr Hooper, following your earlier post regarding raisin Sunday. I’m sorry to announce that we all had a jolly good time and are sincerely looking forward to next raisin.

“If you were once a Student here which I presume you weren’t you’d understand and appreciate what ‘us students’ give to this town.Hope to hear from you next Raisin.”

The Saint reached out to the Students’ Association Community Relations Officer, Hannah Rose Raleigh. Howver, Ms Raleigh declined to comment.

Almost a third of needless fire alarm calls last year came from student residences at the University of St Andrews.

Last year fire services were called to student residences approximately The Courier reports. The number of unwarranted call outs to firefighters for the academic year 2016-17 was up 12 per cent on the years 2015-16.

Other common sources of unwanted call-outs were hotels, university and college buildings and hospitals and other healthcare premises, putting St Andrews and Cupar’s rate above the Fife average.

St Andrews streets most ticketed in Fife Fife council has revealed that over 400 drivers between the months of July and September were issued with tickets by traffic wardens.

St Andrews’ South street was a close second in Fife with 323 tickets issued in the same time period, narrowly beating Kirkcaldy High Street.

The tickets issued over this time frame have the potential to raise £340,000 for the local council. Fife Council parking wardens issued a total of 5,698 tickets across Fife between July and September of this year, with 409 of those in North Street.

Skating rink planned for the Fairmont The five-star hotel, The Fairmont, has announced plans to install an ice skating rink to coincide with Christmas festivities.

The rink is scheduled to open on Saturday 9 December. The Fairmont St Andrews hopes the new attraction will not only prove popular with guests but also local people and visitors to the area. The skating rink will be located adjacent to the front entrance of the hotel and will be open daily from 10 am to 9 pm until 6 January.

Donations for homeless man exceed expectations

Photo: Ranald Dinsdale

BROOKE SIEGLER Deputy news editor

NEWS IN BRIEF

Courier readers have raised hundreds of pounds to help homeless man John Hunter. Mr Hunter, who is waiting for a heart transplant, is facing winter living on the streets as he cannot bear to be parted from his dogs Bruno and Nacho.Local businessman Steven Cooke set up the appeal.Mr Cooke, who has been at The Barber’s Pole in South Street for 22 years, started a JustGiving appeal to raise funds for Mr Hunter.

He originally set a target of £500 but raised it to £750 as the money rapidly rolled in. The total is now increasing by £250 every time the target has been reached.

NEWS

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

Plans for 104-bed private student accomodation revealed Robertson Property Ltd. also plans to construct a 90-bed hotel, also in Abbey Park

Robertson Property Ltd. recently announced their plans to build a new development consisting of a 90-bed hotel, 104-bed student accommodation building, 89 car parking spots, and bicycle parking spaces. The development would span over two blocks and be located at Abbey Park.

Robertson announced their plans on Friday 6 October at a public consultation meeting with the community.

The citizens of Abbey Park, many of whom are retired, reacted passionately and in anger, telling Fife Today of the “disruption” the construction and developments would bring to their lives and the “unpleasant” nature of living near student accommodation.

Ross McNulty, development director of Robertson Property, in a statement regarding the consultation said, “We are keen to hear the opinions of the community over our proposed Abbey Park development and were pleased to welcome the many views we received at the public consultation event last week.”

He continued, “We will also reintroduce an attractive public realm with a sense of place. Key mature trees will be retained as part of two linked public gardens which will be landscaped to encourage use by both local residents and hotel guests.

Courtyard parking will be provided at the north of the site, leaving the

buildings to benefit from direct access to the open spaces.”

The plans for more student accommodation come at a time of increased construction by the University to house its growing number of students.

In March 2016, the University announced their plans to invest £70 million in student housing, which will offer over 900 new accommodation spaces once the construction is complete. In total, the number of student bedrooms will increase from the current 4000 to 4900.

Citizens of Abbey Park ... reacted passionately and in anger Construction efforts taking place in the 2017-18 school year include the Albany Park renovation, the 220-bed University Hall annexe, the 180-bed Agnes Blackadder Hall addition, and the Andrew Melville Hall renovation.

In terms of the construction, Emily Watson, who serves as senior student of Agnes Blackadder Hall, expressed positivity towards the process and the workers.

“[The construction] is going really well. It’s been pretty fast, and a lot’s been done quickly,” she told The Saint. “The workers have been really nice and friendly, and very cooperative with the students’ hours.”

Ms Watson also commented on the new developments, as this is her second year living in ABH, and concerns over prices.

“There wasn’t any construction when I was in my first year, but we knew that there were plans for more rooms to be built and more space for the students,” Watson said. “I think it’s a good thing that there’s more availability for student accommodation, but I don’t know whether that would raise the prices.”

The University of St Andrews press office addressed the concern for the costs of these new rooms in their statement released on 4 March 2016.

“Student leaders, who have worked closely with the University’s Residential Services team on the detailed proposals, have welcomed the ambi-

£1,300 defibrillator stolen

I would expect St Andrews to be a prime candidate for becoming an RPZ However, the Act also allows local authorities to apply to Scottish Ministers to designate an area as a RPZ, where the sum by which a landlord will be entitled to increase the rent will be capped, at an amount set

by Scottish Ministers.

Ministers have to be satisfied that

The device was stolen from Abbey Walk TOM WILLIAMS News editor Earlier this month a defibrillator was stolen from Abbey Walk. The device belonged to the University of St Andrews and is worth £1,300.

A spokesperson for the University said, “This life-saving device was attached to the external wall of our building in Abbey Walk and is one of a number of similarly sited public defibrillators in St Andrews intended to ensure immediate access to critical care 24 hours a day in the event of a cardiac arrest.

“Our own staff helped fundraise for it. The theft was spotted by one of our staff members who immediately raised the alarm.

Our own staff helped fundraise for it Photo: Richard Joseph

St Andrews councillor, Brian Thomson, has called for St Andrews to be designated as Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ), which would see rent increases being capped. The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, which is set to come into force in December 2017, entitles a landlord, every 12 months, to increase the rent payable under a tenancy to match any increase in the open market rental value of a rented property.

most existing tenants within an area are experiencing excessive rent increases. Rent capping would apply to existing tenants only, and landlords would not be precluded from charging higher rents for new tenancies.

Councillor Thomson said: “It’s well known that high house prices and rents are a major issue in St Andrews, with the majority of properties, either to buy or rent, outwith the reach of most people on modest incomes, never mind people on low incomes.

“Many students are also affected by high rents in St Andrews, and a little known fact is that of the ten most SIMD ‘housing deprived’ data zones in Fife - in terms of over-crowding or having no central heating - seven are in St Andrews.

“The relevant data zones are in or around the town centre, and it would suggest that many students are having to pay premium rents for overcrowded accommodation, or accommodation with no central heating.”

He continued, “Given the extremely high and rising rents in St Andrews, the hardship that it often brings to tenants, and the huge pressure on Fife Council to provide affordable housing in the town, I would expect St Andrews to be a prime candidate for becoming an RPZ. “To that end, I’ve raised the matter with the Council’s Head of Housing Services, and I’m keen to further explore the possibility of RPZ status, either for the whole of St Andrews, or certain pressured areas within the town.”

fordable accommodation.”

“Obviously, it’s a good thing that the University is investing more into accommodation.

“But there needs to be more of a focus on affordability. Increasing the number of rooms in halls like ABH is not going to solve our accommodation crisis.”

tious

Local Labour councillor calls for St Andrews to become a Rent Pressure Zone TOM WILLIAMS News editor

plans,” the statement reads. “A range of rents will be available, and substantial bursary and support packages are in place to assist with costs.”

Jamie Rodney, who successfully led Srdja Popovic’s campaign for rector, focused on affordable accommodation as one of the campaign’s aims.

In its manifesto, the campaign listed two goals for “fixing the housing crisis” and ensuring all students have access to affordable accommodation, including lobbying the University “to build one unit of affordable accommodation (£4000 or less p e r year) for every two new units that are constructed” and encouraging a replacement of Albany Park with “more af-

Photo: Grace Gathright

ANNIE SMITH Deputy news editor

“This is a hugely irresponsible theft which could cost a life.

“We hope the person responsible comes to their senses very quickly and returns this defibrillator without further delay.”

The investigation around the theft is ongoing. The police request that “anyone with information [to]

contact St Andrews police station on 101, quoting incident number 0997 of October 5.”

This is a hugely irresponsible theft which could cost a life In the town of St. Andrews there are currently 19 defibrillators at different locations available for public emergency use. Bystanders are capable of doubling the rate of survival by providing CPR, but many are unaware of how vital an immediate response is.

In addition to a quick response, early defibrillation, provided from an automated external defibrillator (AED), can save lives.

The state-of-the art device does not require members of the public to have any prior training before use. Audio and visual cues allow for members of the public to apply the device to a person in cardiac arrest with no prior first aid experience.

The defibrillator is also able to monitor heart rate. The Red Cross asserts that “shock is only administered if the AED has identified a life-threatening heart rhythm which requires treatment with an electric shock.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

NEWS

7

InFocus: Jamie Rodney, campaign manager for Rector Srdja Popovic “Srdja was by far the most impressive candidate in terms of what he’s done and achieved” OLIVIA GAVOYANNIS Deputy editor, design Memes, stripy hats, selfies, stickers, students standing outside the library, endless Srdja posts on the St Andrews crushes page. All of these things made the presence of Srdja Popovic’s Rectoral campaign unavoidable during the elections. But who was the student masterminding this move to “Start the revolution?” The Saint caught up with Mr Popovic’s Campaign Manager, Jamie Rodney, to find out.

Mr Rodney, a third-year English Literature student from Glasgow, is an active member of the St Andrews’ Amnesty International Society.

Inspired by the organisation’s work, he decided to get involved in high school and went on to join the St Andrews committee during his first year at university.

Before the election kicked off Mr Rodney had chatted with a couple of his friends in Amnesty International about approaching a candidate to put forward for the elections, but the group had come to no concrete decisions.

That was until he saw a YouTube video of journalist Nick Cohen interviewing Mr Popovic. This sparked Mr Rodney’s interest in the activist, and he decided to read his book Blueprint for Revolution. While reading the book Mr Rodney wondered whether Mr Popovic’s approach could be used successfully within the St Andrews community.

“My main takeaway from the book was how clearly and lucidly Srdja laid out his points. He made fairly complex concepts and ideas seem incredibly obvious, which made the prospect of fighting for a better St Andrews seem less of a daunting one.”

To his surprise, when Mr Rodney reached the end of the book he found that Mr Popovic had included his email address with an invitation to get in touch with him to discuss interesting projects or ideas. Mr Rodney decided to email Mr Popovic - asking him to run for Rector - and the campaign was born.

Mr Rodney explains that there were three main things that made Srdja their candidate of choice.

Firstly, he was willing to take up the challenge. Secondly, he “has arguably the most impressive CV of anyone to run f o r

Rector” and thirdly, his day job involved working with students and young people to empower themselves, which “made us think he was perfect for it.”

Although Amnesty International initiated the project, Mr Rodney points out that it quickly became a much more inclusive movement.

was successful. Mr Popovic secured 2183 votes, which amounted to 62 per cent of the vote, and meant that he beat his competitor, Willie Rennie, to the post by a massive margin. Mr Rennie, the MSP for North East Fife, received 1083 votes, while Re-open Nominations received 220 votes.

But why was the Srdja for Rector campaign so successful? Mr Rodney suggests that it was partly to do with Mr Popovic’s credentials and clear message.

“With all due respect to Willie Rennie (who I actually think would have made an excellent Rector), Srdja was by far the most impressive candidate in terms of what he’s done and achieved. Secondly, I think Srdja’s message, about how he was going to fundamentally change the office of the Rectorship from a semi-ceremoni“It started out as a group of us al one to one that actively helps stuwithin the Amnesty International sodents solve their problems.” ciety looking around for a candidate, Nevertheless, Mr Rodney acand then once we settled on Srdja it knowledges that the effective techturned into a broader project that niques employed by his campaign wasn’t really limited to a society.” team also played a massive part.

The initial stages of the campaign “I think our campaign was (again, took place over the summer, so Mr with all due respect to Willie Rennie’s Rodney faced the challenge of recruitteam) by far the more effective oneing a team over Facebook. we were more energetic, we spoke to “We ended up having more than more people, our social media oper70 people in the Srdja for Rector ation was stronger, and our ground group chat. Recruitment was a little game was better.” awkward because it was mainly done When asked about the memes that over Facebook over the summer, and filled the Srdja for Rector Facebook it’s hard to get people to commit to timeline, Mr Rodney explains that things.” “memes were obviously a big part of “I think I must have messaged the campaign because that’s the kind something like 200 people asking if of thing students like. They’re also a they’d be willing to support Srdja, really effective way of making a seriwithout that much of a success rate,” ous point in a simple, memorable and he adds. funny way.” He admits that diehard Mr Rodney explains that the incluWillie Rennie supporters probably sive recruitment approach extended weren’t converted by the memes, but to the creation of the manifesto, which believes that they “helped to create a drew heavily on the complaints and lot of heat and light around the camworries of current students. paign, which kept people interested “Our manifesto was put together in us.” through hundreds of conversations With regards to the hats, selfies between team members and different and chats outside the library, Mr St Andrews students. We literally just Rodney explains that they “were all got people on the campaign team to about creating a presence, making talk to their friends, find out what the ourselves noticeable.” main problems people had, and “We knew that because of then tried to work out Srdja’s outsider status and what the easiest soluthe lack of knowledge tions for those probamong students lems were.” of what a Rector In terms of the does, we’d need campaign itself, to work extra there is no dehard to stay relnying that whatevant, and that ever Mr was our way of Rodney doing so,” he did adds.

And the “Let’s start the revolution” slogan? “Basically we thought that it boiled down Srdja’s entire appeal- his message, his past achievements, his offer to studentsin as few words as possible, and in a really memorable and striking way.”

The planning that went into the campaign paid off, and the response that Mr Photo: Jamie Rodney

I think our campaign was by far the more effective one

Rodney and his team received was on the whole – rather encouraging.

“Obviously, lots of students had concerns about and criticisms of Srdja, and I was pretty surprised by the size of our margin of victory.

But even so, the response we got from people was overwhelmingly positive- one of the most common responses we got was a variation on ‘I’m voting for the guy with the unpronounceable first name.’”

Just to clarify for everybody The Saint asked Mr Rodney how you actually pronounce Mr Popovic’s name, and he explained that it is in fact “Sirja Pop-oh-vitch.”

3,486 students voted in the election, and as Mr Rodney points out “obviously, turnout could have been higher.” Nevertheless, he tells The Saint that he is “especially proud that we managed to pull in voters and campaigners from demographics that don’t usually participate in elections.”

“A lot of our best campaigners were people who had previously had zero engagement in this kind of thing, and I think that translated to a lot of people who voted for us. That’s revolutionary in itself in my opinion,” he adds.

Now that Mr Popovic has been elected as the 53rd Rector of the University of St Andrews, Mr Rodney is looking to get on with delivering Mr Popovic’s campaign pledges.

To kick-start this movement Mr Rodney proposed a motion to support the manifesto aims of the Rector elect.

The proposal gained over 60 student signatures. However, on 17 October the student governance body voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposal at a meeting of the Joint Councils, Student Representative Council (SRC), and Student Services Council (SSC).

Memes were obviously a big part of the campaign “We proposed the motion because we felt that coming to some kind of understanding to allow a better working relationship between Srdja and the Union was a priority. That’s what we’re hoping to put across more effectively with our second motion,” Mr Rodney said. “I’m disappointed it failed, but it’s meant that we now have time to work on a better motion, which we’re in the process of drafting and which I’m confident will pass,” he adds.

In spite of the failure of the proposal, Mr Rodney has high hopes for the future.

“Our first priority is going to be on housing, as mentioned in the manifesto. We’re going to put together a database of all the landlords in St Andrews, so students can have a better idea of who they’re buying from, and so landlords can be incentivised

to provide a better, cheaper service.”

Mr Rodney says that reintroducing a rail link to St Andrews is also high up on his priority list, and that the process has already been started.

“We’ve been speaking to people from STARlink to discuss tactics for making that happen- it’s becoming quickly apparent that all the pieces are in place for us to have a rail link, the only missing ingredient is pressure from the student body to make it happen. The first step to creating that pressure is going to be education- there’s a lot of ignorance about the campaign for a rail link among students, and we’re hoping to correct that.”

And how will Mr Rodney improve awareness of this issue?

Unsurprisingly, he has already thought the whole thing through.

“The timing of Srdja’s election is quite fortunate, because it coincides with the creation of a new society called Students for a St Andrews Rail link, who we’re going to be working very closely with in the future. We’ve also got some awareness-raising stunts in the pipeline but I can’t tell you too much about them unfortunately.”

During the election some students were sceptical about whether the rail link plans were realistic. But Mr Rodney assures The Saint that the plan is feasible and that the team have already drafted a time frame for the delivery of the proposal.

“Ideally, we’d want the rail link to be delivered, or at least be under construction by the end of Srdja’s tenure as Rector, though depending on a number of factors it might be earlier than that.” When asked about how he thinks Srdja’s rectorship will be different to Catherine Stihler’s, Mr Rodney explained that Mr Popovic’s approach will have a much greater focus on the students themselves.

“I think that Srdja’s approach to the Rectorship will be much more student-focussed, and much more engaged in the student body than that of Mrs Stihler. Obviously, he lives in Belgrade so he might be of less use at cutting ribbons and attending ceremonies than Mrs Stihler was, or a figure like Willie Rennie could have been, but he’ll more than make up for it by helping to equip the student body with the skills it needs to grapple with our problems.” His more immediate aim for the future is finalising a campaigning team. In his interview with The Saint Mr Popovic placed a heavy emphasis on how the students will be the ones campaigning for the issues, and Mr Rodney has already begun to build up a team for Mr Popovic’s tenure as Rector, and hopes to have “at least 30 committed activists by the end of Independent Learning week.”

From sending off the initial email to hosting Mr Popovic in his flat during the campaign, the whole thing has been a bit of a whirlwind for Mr Rodney. Reflecting on what it was like to have a political activist staying in his flat for the week Mr Rodney says, “I still can’t quite believe it actually happened, but then again that’s the way I feel about most of this campaign.”

VIEWPOINT

Viewpoint editor: MAX WALLER Deputy editors: Laurent Belanger, Lewis Frain, Sasha Gisborne, Kimon Sourlas-Kotzamanis

viewpoint@thesaint-online.com

thesaint-online.com/viewpoint

@saint_ viewpoint

The Union’s decision not to endorse our new Rector’s manifesto aims is a disgrace

Max Waller Viewpoint editor

Photo: Harry Gunning

On October 16, at a Joint Council meeting of the Student Representative Council (SRC) and Student Services Council (SSC) a proposal to support the manifesto aims of Rector-elect, Srdja Popovic was almost unanimously shot down. There was a sense of panic among council members as they scrambled to react to the last-minute proposal and reorganise prior commitments to attend what would have otherwise been an ordinary meeting, where ambiguous absences are commonplace. Association President, Lewis Wood, who was not expected to attend the meeting, his apologies of absence even appearing in the final agenda, was present throughout to give his staunch opposition to the proposal.

As Jamie Rodney, the first signature on the proposal, took the floor to introduce the motion, there was undoubtedly tension in the room.

Mr Rodney had asserted in his opening statement that involvement in elections was taking a negative turn and the Joint Councils subsequently needed to address this. Association President, Lewis Wood, was quick to oppose this statement, interjecting before members could begin their questioning. He maintained that the proportion of students voting has decreased, not the number of votes, which he said had been increasing.

Yet, on the whole, student participation as a percentage has decreased year on year from election to election since 2013, suggesting the Mr Rodney was correct in his assertion that student involvement has decreased.

It comes as no surprise that sabbatical officers were quick to defend their record on convening the Rector’s election, which on the whole was poorly advertised to students.

Posts on Facebook and Twitter this semester encouraging students to run candidates to represent them on the University Court were infrequent, with barely anything advertising the upcoming election during the summer.

On the morning of deadline day for submitting Rectorial candidates, despite rumours of alternatives, it seemed likely to The Saint that Mr Popovic was the only candidate set to run for the position.

Union officials entered into a frenzy, as their half-hearted attempts at getting students to

run candidates became a horrifying reality. It was looking as though it would be a one-horse-race yet again Srdja vs Re-Open Nominations.

I arrived at the union at about 2.30pm that afternoon. In between then and five, I was asked to sign nomination papers for two different campaigns, both were being run by union officials, and both were being put forward with the aim of increasing the options available at the ballot box. One of these campaigns did not get off the ground, while the other one was the Willie Rennie campaign, a campaign which I was informed had started at about midday. I was asked to sign his nomination papers at about 4.15pm – the deadline for filing being at 5pm. This was a last minute bid to prevent Srdja from having a guaranteed victory, a campaign so last minute and disorganised that Mr Rennie was not even able to clear his schedule in order to be in town at the time of the campaign.

Given that both campaigns were being run by union officials, given the last minute nature of the campaigns organisation, given the accusations levelled at Mr Popovic’s campaign team at the debate, and given the reasons I was asked to sign the nomination papers for, it is abundantly clear that there were factions in the Union who were clearly opposed from the start to the very idea of Srdja being Rector. It was effectively predetermined that Joint Councils would not endorse his campaign aims despite the fact that they were clearly in line with those of the union. Despite the fact that Rennie’s manifesto was virtually the same as Mr Popvic’s, I am willing to bet it would not have been opposed in this manner if Mr Rennie had won. This raises serious questions of the Unions purpose as a representative body of the students, if they fail to endorse a rector of good moral standing who has been endorsed by the students.

One of Rennie’s campaigns biggest claims was that Rennie would be present during his rectorship: a great irony considering Mr Popovic was very much in attendance during campaign while Rennie was absent, leaving Mr Popovic debating Mr Rennie’s empty chair. The debate was an overwhelming victory for Mr Popovic, he secured 49 votes, Rennie 18 while 21 abstained. This might have been an early warning for Rennie supporters of things to come.

This raises serious questions of the Union’s purpose as a represtentative body of the students The situation was similar again at the Rectorial Question Time earlier that week. A spattering of Srdja supporters littered a rather empty crowd, whilst Mr Popovic answered questions alongside an image of Mr Rennie projected on the wall behind another empty chair. Had the campaign been better organised, the debate possibly would have swung in Mr Rennie’s favour.

Mr Popovic was by no means an ideal candidate. Throughout the campaign, he made no secret of the fact that he was due to be an absentee Rector. This was indefensible, as he is based

in Belgrade and currently stretches his time across multiple continents, it would have been near impossible to argue that he would have been a common sight in town. Whilst some debate the actual impact of Catherine Stihler’s Rectorship, she was a local one nonetheless.

Furthermore, it seemed as though Mr Popovic did not fully understand what the role of Rector really is.

Despite Mr Popovic’s personal experiences in Serbia, the campaign slogan “let’s start a revolution!” might not be applicable to students in a small town in Scotland. However, Mr Popovic’s campaign had plenty of what Mr Rennie’s simply lacked – innovative campaigning with an inspiring message for students. Instead of staying at the Fairmont or Old Course Hotel, Mr Popovic opted to commit to learning about the issues that students face by staying in student accommodation with his campaign manager.

Everyone I talk to can either recall seeing Srdja drinking and socialising with students at pubs, or can remember those unmistakable red beanies standing outside the library campaigning on his behalf. The same cannot be said of Willie Rennie’s campaign, which remained next to non-existent.

One particular comment during the debate likely got under the skin of sabbaticals. In the middle of discussion of the candidates, a student asked what the purpose of Mr Popovic’s agenda was if the Students’ Association was meant to be doing everything in his manifesto anyway.

The Students’ Association has frequently been marred by questions surrounding its usefulness. In a straw poll earlier this year conducted by The Saint, 58 per cent said that the Students’ Association was not vital to their University experience. As the Joint Councils meeting on October 16 progressed, it seemed as though the proposal to support Mr Popovic’s manifesto was just adding insult to injury in their eyes.

Fierce opposition flew at the proposal from the beginning, with only Debates Officer Ru Ferguson speaking in

favour.

Instead of questioning the proposal, as is usually the case, council officers used the questions phase of the motion to hurl antipathy, sometimes forgetting to ask a question at all. This led many others members to ask the Association Chair if they were still indeed in the questions phase of the motion, this had to be clarified three times. Before long it was over.

Members gave up awkwardly phrasing their opposition as a bastardised question, to move quickly onto the debate period where they each took turns to lambast the proposal.

This did not stop numerous members realising the debate was quickly becoming an onslaught, thus they attempted to balance out their bias by frequently stating on the record that were ecstatically looking forward to working with Mr Popovic in the future, before continuing with bitter objections. Members were keen to cite “technicalities” and “wording” as the reasons for why they could not support the motion.

Commenting during the event, the Association President said that he opposed the motion because he was concerned over the Joint Council’s ability to challenge the University saying: “Do we still retain our ability to challenge the University if we sign a motion that says we faithfully support Srdja whatever his objectives are? I don’t believe that it can carry on.” Yet all the while, the proposal made adamantly clear that it did not request that members specifically agree with Mr Popovic’s exact manifesto policies or methods.

It merely asked that sabbaticals support Mr Popovic in his aims, which were to pursue affordable accommodation, better transport for students and to emphasise the importance of student power in making change at the University. All of these are principles for which the Students’ Association stands for. All the Students’ Association had to do was accept that Mr Popovic won and reaffirm their commitment to fulfilling their own duties as representatives of the student body.

Undoubtedly they seemed more at home taking a side on more trivial policies. Such as making the use of confetti acceptable only if the small pieces of coloured paper are biodegradable, as they have all agreed on in the past.

Based on reporting by Tom Williams.

The views ex- The views expressed in Viewpoint do not represent the views pressed Viewpoint doindividual not of TheinSaint but are opinions.

represent

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

VIEWPOINT

9

Devil’s Advocate Should we Abolish Private Schools?

YES

Sasha Gisborne can start talking about hard work making people rich.

On top of this, private schools, particularly boarding schools, aren’t that good for the child going there. Kids spend most of their lives interacting with people who are of a very similar social background. They’re aware that this is because their parents are richer and this inevitably brings out some type of entitlement.

Now, I would like to reiterate my point that I’m not talking about all people who went to private school.

This is not some manifesto against the rich, and why they’re awful. But I do believe that private schools, especially more elite ones, will by their very nature give some students feelings of elitism.

To reiterate a point (I feel it’s my strongest), seven percent of the population just should not have an easier time in life because of their wealth. It is not fair on the other ninety three percent, and it also is simply against principles which this country supposedly believes in.

We should have an education system in which everyone has an equal chance of being successful in life.

So, what would the advantages be? If we were to ban private schools, what would happen? Well, the truth is we don’t know.

It would make society more equal, but not completely. Richer people live in areas where housing is more expensive, and the catchment area and local state schools in said catchment areas reflect that fact. The richest could always send their children to international schools, although of course that would bring about a slight change, as RP became replaced with something more American.

So, why bother? The reason is simply because it would make a difference. More middle-class people would go to state schools.

State schools would receive more funding. Middle-class students would experience a wider range of people from different social backgrounds from a younger age – which would increase understanding among richer people of the unpleasant circumstances a lot of poorer families live in.

Private schools are a thing of the past, a relic of a time when people believed in aristocracy and being a lord meant something. By abolishing them, we would be moving Britain into an age of more social equality which can only be considered a good thing.

Being born into a family where your parents could afford private education should not entitle you to a better life

“

Private schools should be banned.

They go against the idea of social mobility and meritocracy. They disproportionately favour the children of rich parents to get the best jobs, places in the best university and undue influence on our political system.

Only seven percent of the population went to private school, but the entire top strata of society is filled to the brim with those whose parents could afford to pay for a better education.

Now this isn’t to criticise those who went to private school – they had no choice in the matter. However, private schools do represent the consolidation of money and power to the few. What they do is give people an education that is more future proofing.

One that prepares people more for university and teaches people how to pass exams more successfully. But knowing how to pass exams is not the same as being smarter than someone who didn’t have your advantages in life.

This is sort of were the fundamental problem of private school lies – it is unmeritocratic. Being born into a family where your parents could afford private education should not entitle you to a better life. Meritocracy means that people should have equality of opportunity, not some having a better life just because they are rich.

There are also some counter arguments I would quickly like to attack. The fact that more people from private schools do end up going to the top universities and getting the top jobs does not mean that they are smarter than other people. To be very crude, anyone can teach a monkey to dance.

Which is to say that people who go to private schools are trained up in exam performance. In fact I almost feel a little sorry for people who went to private school, as they almost have a harder time proving that they are where they based on personal skill and intellect as opposed to some kind of pot luck, where they happened to be born to a wealthy family.

Another argument in favour of private schools, is that if parents are hardworking and have made a lot of money why shouldn’t they be allowed to give their children a good life?

Well, because being rich is not the same thing as being a hard worker.

Lots of people work forty or over forty-hour weeks for their living and do not have enough money to pay for private school.

When the people in Eton are children of kitchen porters, then people

Archie Batra

Moves to abolish private education are a blatant attack on personal liberty[...]I’m sure many former soviet citizens will be very happy to tell you, is not exactly an ideal situation

“I disapprove of what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Evelyn Hall wrote this in 1906 to try and surmise Voltaire’s beliefs: that every individual should have freedom of thought, action, and speech. The United Kingdom has gone arguably further than any other country in pursuit of this ideal.

England is, after all, the “mother of all parliaments,” and the UK consistently leads the world in resisting tyranny and spreading the principles of democracy, freedom, and rule of law.

And yet, despite our nation’s rich civic heritage, there remain calls to attack one of the most sacred of all freedoms: the freedom to raise your own children as you see fit.

Let us be clear: I don’t like private education. I think its existence poses a lot of problems in British society, and when the time comes, Archie Jr. will not be attending an independent school. (Sorry, son.) However, this is a personal choice that I am making in a free society and if someone else makes a different choice, they should not be prohibited from making that choice because I (or anyone else, for that matter) disagree with it.

Moves to abolish private education are a blatant attack on personal liberty: the alternative is to give the state a complete monopoly on education, which, as I’m sure many former Soviet citizens will be very happy to tell you, is not exactly an ideal situation.

However, I do understand the reasoning behind wanting to abolish private schools; they are incredibly exclusive, and those (un)fortunate enough to have attended one tend to dominate politics, journalism, and business. A private education confers many advantages that are simply unavailable to the majority of state school children, and this is rightly thought of as unfair.

But, at least to my mind, the way to solve this incredible disparity in British education is not to abolish private schools, but to endeavour to make our state schools better. The 93 per cent of children who are educated by the state want their schools to improve; they don’t want to just abolish the kinds of school that the other 7 per cent attend.

Of course, this is easier said than done. But, to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Teachers, politicians, and parents alike are crying out for educational reform, and we should direct our energy and resources to

NO reforming British state education, and improving the lot of the majority of our nation’s young people, not spitefully punishing those we consider the “other.”

As I have argued previously in Viewpoint, the large-scale reintroduction of grammar schools in the UK could do wonders for British state education. (And, might I add, could be done without greatly burdening the taxpayer.) I honestly believe that reintroducing selection in our nation’s schools would drive up standards very quickly and bring state schools in contention with their independent counterparts. Surely we should work to bestow the benefits of a private education to students educated by the state, not try to eradicate those benefits altogether. Not only this, but I think we have to consider what would actually happen if all of our private schools closed, because I’m not sure we’d like it. Firstly, there would be about 600,000 more children for the state to educate almost overnight, and that wouldn’t come cheaply. Our current education system is bloated and beset with difficulties; adding hundreds of thousands of more children at once would only exacerbate these problems.

Further, I am not convinced that abolishing private education would prevent the extreme consolidation of power and wealth by the few. If moneyed parents can’t send their child to a private school they will quite happily spend vast amounts of money on private tutors instead, which, again, are only available to those with money.

It is also a well-known phenomenon for wealthy families to congregate around a good (but nominally free) state school, and price lower-income families out of the catchment area.

Finally, it would be remiss of me to omit the fact that not all privately educated students are the progeny of a privileged, wealthy upbringing.

There are plenty of children in the private school system with full scholarships to their schools, and don’t pay the fees which they can’t afford.

It’s simply unfair and inaccurate to paint all those who attend private schools as part of Britain’s exclusive elite. Abolishing private education wouldn’t automatically improve state education, and nor would it necessarily loosen the grip the wealthy have on the upper echelons of society. I don’t agree with private education, and I certainly won’t engage with it personally, but I respect the opinions of those who do, and others should too.

The views viewsexpressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do The do not not represent representthe theviews views of of The TheSaint Saintbut butare areindividual individual opinions. opinions.

VIEWPOINT

10

A report from Raisin Sasha Gisborne Deputy viewpoint editor

It’s the night of Raisin eve, the night when all the good little freshers go to bed early and wait for the horrific delight of tomorrow. Staying up late with all your friends, you discuss in soft tones what you think your parents are going to get you for Raisin.

“My parents have stolen my room keys and matriculation card, and are going to take me at some point during the night!” one bright eyed fresher says, ecstatically beaming as though they aren’t going to be painfully dragged out of bed and tied up at 2 am. “Oh, I’m so jealous” moans another, “mine are only going to force me to do soy sauce shots!”. As you contemplate the day ahead, going one by one, there are — invariably — the one who is already drunk, the one who doesn’t drink (who you really

Your academic brother has a collar and a lead put on him and you all go out for a walk

Photo: Ranald Dinsdale

resent as your stomach churns with anxiety), and finally you, the moron who has only met his family once and hasn’t a clue what’s going to happen.

(Sorry people, if you haven’t figured it out, this one is semi-autobiographical.) Finally, you go to bed, wondering when in the night your family will come.

You spend the night in a fitful

sleep. At four in the morning you hear a loud banging sound, like some rude monster banging on a door. You go to check what it is, and what a surprise!

It’s your next-door neighbour’s family wearing wolf masks banging on the door. You say hello and go back to bed, pretending you not irritated that you got woken up by two people wearing plastic dog faces. At 7 am you awake to the sound of your phone ringing — you are then told that you have five minutes to get a towel and some spare socks. Running (tiredly walking) downstairs, you get dragged into a car and are told to do a shot. Pretending to be disgusted at the concept of drinking this early in the morning, you drink it quickly and begin to feel better. Perhaps alcoholism isn’t that bad. After about 15 minutes the rest of your family has been collected and you head off to the North Sea. This is when you get told you were meant to bring a change of clothes, not just socks. Realising you are about to go into the North Sea in your underwear, you can’t decide if getting hypothermia and going to the hospital is something to fear or crave. After nearly freezing yourself to death, you go back to your parents.

You all have a look at the guy who passed out and embarrassed himself on the beach, but then everyone gets really worried as to why you are shaking. If only there were some reason why you might be cold…

After two showers and a proper change of clothes you go back to your parents. The fun begins by an immediate drinking game – stairway to hell. Which you do twice because you have a death wish, much to the disappointment of your parents. Then your academic brother has a collar and lead put on him and you all go out for a walk. After getting some weird looks from strangers and knocking on a door to ask for poo bags (brother on lead standing next to you, woofing) you go back to your parents’ house and have a quiet afternoon of drinking games. A scavenger hunt happens, during which a drunk friend

aggressively bear hugs you, nearly breaking your back (you know who you are, and, yes, I judged you), as well as pretending to be sober at the Tesco checkout.

The rest of the afternoon things begin to calm down, and at about 5:30

You can’t decide if getting hypothermia and going to hospital is something to fear or crave pm you leave. Afraid of going to bed this early, you bump into some mates and decide to go over to one of their flats. As the hangover is beginning to hit, you pick up the cheapest booze you can find and do a bit of the old hair of the dog treatment. This does wonders for your headache but not so much for your head. At about 8 pm you have declared yourself a Marxist and are now really angrily ranting about how Bill Clinton is a war criminal. The political ranting goes on for a while, much to everyone’s embarrassment.

If I’m being honest, the next morning I slept in and missed the shaving foam fight. I’m not sure I can manage to describe what happened. But, if I had to guess, I’d say people got put into costumes and had a fight with shaving foam. In case anyone is wondering, my Raisin ended when I asked myself how much work I had to do over Independent Learning Week. The answer was far too much.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

The problem with Reading Week Sophie Sanders Lade Braes is decorated with autumn leaves in deep reds, ochres, and yellows. The supermarkets’ shelves are filled with pumpkins waiting to be carved, and comforting bowls of soup with crusty bread seem ever more appealing. Knitted woollens and long boots have been dug out from the back of wardrobes whilst, after much protest, summery skirts and floaty tops have been stuffed into boxes to be resurrected many months from now when the warmth of the sunshine can be felt once more. The clocks are going back, and Freshers’ week is but a memory. The foam fight along with the mayhem of Raisin weekend has been and gone, and so we find ourselves at Independent Learning Week.

For those older students who remember the days when Raisin Monday was a ‘teaching day’ the prospect of a hot cup of tea, some trashy TV, and a nap to recover from the craziness of being academic parents without having to run to a tutorial or submit an essay was certainly an overwhelming relief.

For freshers, exhausted following a weekend filled with bizarre challenges paired with the adjustment over the past few months of living away from home as a university student, the break could not have come at a better time. An almost audible sigh of relief was heard across the town after five exhausting weeks of teaching as students realised that they could pause, take a breath, and catch up on the reading and essays which had piled up over the past five weeks.

It must be said that the semester seems psychologically more manageable when divided in half with the chance to recharge and recuperate before Christmas. This is of particular importance considering the shocking statistic found by government research that one in four students at university suffer from a mental health illness. Independent Learning Week, whilst not slipping off the tongue, therefore seems to be a wonderful idea.

Some students have maximised on a week without classes to jet off to exotic locations and soak up some sunshine before the onset of the freezing Scottish winter. Others have travelled home to enjoy time with family and friends and to enjoy some good home-cooked food and a free laundry service. Sleep seems to be high on the everyone’s agenda, and judging by the ‘ghost-town’ atmosphere in the early mornings during Independent Learning Week that certainly seems to have been achieved.

But are sleep and relaxation justified in Independent Learning Week?

What is the intended purpose of Independent Learning Week? The week should be used for learning and academic work, perhaps to read a handful of books and write some

essays. Well, the university reintroduced a week without classes and deadlines in the Michaelmas semester last year.

It was intended to enable those students struggling with the rigorous academic demands in St Andrews to catch up with their work. But does it really achieve this purpose, and is Independent Learning Week really a blessing? Is it really that different to the average working week of a St Andrews student? The lack of structure for the week seems to have the potential to throw students off the schedule that it has taken them five weeks to establish after a long break from academia over the summer holi-

Tutors seem to have unrealistic expectations of the sheer number of pages that the students will be able to read days. Indeed, rather than relieving the pressure of work, for most it seems that because of the blanket ban on deadlines in Independent Learning Week that a ridiculous number of deadlines have amassed in Week Seven.

Tutors seem to have unrealistic expectations of the sheer number of pages that the students will be able to read and digest over the week, creating an unsurmountable ‘to do’ list. Further to this do we not already learn independently? After all, Honours students doing Arts degrees have only a handful of contact hours per week and therefore spend most of their working week reading and writing by themselves.

The days of spoon-fed learning are long gone, a distant memory confined to time spent at school where we were conditioned to excel at our public exams. So, it seems that some will love and others loathe this liminal phase in the term. Those without a mountain of deadlines in Week Seven will feel revived and ready to tackle the next five weeks of teaching, whilst those who have spent their week in the library ploughing through academic books will feel wearied and worn out.

C.S. Lewis remarked that ‘you can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me’ — copious amounts of tea certainly fuelled my reading week, but a shorter reading list to get through would suit me fine.

The views viewsexpressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do The do not not represent representthe theviews views of of The TheSaint Saintbut butare areindividual individual opinions. opinions.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

VIEWPOINT

Nation State: divided

According to my passport I’m British, and I’m sure that everyone reading this from outside the UK would think that was would be a suitable way to describe who I am. But it’s not! I am a southerner, and since coming here I have become even more resolute about that. In fact I bet that every British person knows whether they are a northerner or a southerner, and some even go as far to say that they are a midlander.

Before I came here, I considered anything north of Oxford as the North, and didn’t even bother with the Midlands. By that reckoning I have successfully survived winter in the Arctic Circle.

St Andrews is an international place, with people from all corners of the world. Nationalities integrate well here, but there is an elephant in the room. I think we have all been guilty of describing where we are from as “a beautiful place” somewhere “definitely worth visiting” at some point, especially at parties when we scrape the barrel of our small talk repertoire.

Our need to defend our own rationality will be far greater than our sense of nationality Maybe you have even found yourself in a lengthy discussion about what your hometown is like, and used some poetic license to help you along your way.

These kinds of conversations often turn into a self-set challenge to describe where we live in the best terms possible.

We cherry pick, emphasise and maybe even exaggerate about how nice it was to grow up in the paradise we call home.

But I find it ironic that the most heated debates about which place is better often comes from people who all live in the same country.

Every nation has their own equivalent to our famous North—South divide. In France, there is a north south divide If you’re from Scotland (yes I do count it as a different country, independence or no independence) the east versus west is alive and well, even going as far as Glasgow versus Edinburgh. In America it is “are you

from ‘the South?” Despite the number of times people have tried to explain the whole ‘I’m southern’ thing, it still doesn’t make any sense to me.

But then again the difference between the South and the South East seems small to anyone but the people who actually live there.

This mythical dividing line we place in my own country seems t o serve an important

something that a mere northerner or southerner wouldn’t be aware of. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with a sense of pride, but these imagined distinctions between places seem very out of place in a town like ours.

When people ask where I am from, I often pause, and then reply with “Surrey” (a county with a deserving stigma to bare).

If I happen to be talking to another southerner, conversation usually flows well.

If I happen to be talking to a northerner, looks of derision are not uncommon. This, if nothing else, is a springboard for debate.

So why do we bother marking out an imaginary line? I think it is stupid, despite being guilty of it myself.

“The people are nicer, we like to use more idioms; in the North”. I have to confess that this makes me want to visit, if only to disprove this myth that the North is better than the South. But I can’t help the feeling that this northern experience may only exist to the people who we r e Photo: Wikimedia commons

Freddie Kellet

purp o s e , p e r haps

e v e n more important than national identity. One thing is sure though, if you don’t live in that

These imagined distinctions between places seem very out of place in a town like ours country then it is impossible to understand. One person referred to their home city of Derby as “Derbaydos”,

born there.

I usuall y re-

spond w i t h “the weather is so much better; we had 25 degrees or more for six weeks this summer.” But I’m sure it produces equal amounts of doubt in the mind of a northerner about the validity of what I said as it does cement my own belief that the South truly is better than the North.

Is there not something very inevitable about this though? After all, we have all decided to live in small strange town in the middle of nowhere.

We could choose to either lose all of our regional heritage and pride, or we could all use hyperbole to preserve our memory of where we are from.

I think this ‘fight fire with fire’ philosophy is alive and well in St Andrews, and for as long as it remains international, our need to defend our own regionality will be far greater than our need to defend our sense of nationality.

The case against grammar schools

Joshua Osborne

The Conservatives lost their majority. A lot of plans got out of the policy freezer to defrost, ready for a larger majority and had to be binned, including the end to the ban on new grammar schools. Regardless of whether you’re a lefty, like me, or a Tory, this should be celebrated. But things are never definitively won in politics, and it is always best to keep stamping on a bad idea while it is down to prevent it sprouting anew. Grammar schools were the standard from 1944 for those who passed their Elevenplus, with those who failed generally going to a secondary modern. From 1965 Anthony Crosland converted them into comprehensives, and now only 164 grammar schools remain in England. They were considered a way for working class children to rise on merit, competing with the privately educated elite. It is a great narrative, and narratives are key. But good policy matters more.

Grammar schools do not help working class children. The Sutton Trust found that only three per cent of the children attending grammar schools are eligible for free school meals (FSMs), despite 18 per cent of children being eligible for FSMs. Thirteen per cent came from private preparatory schools. People eligible for FSMs were less likely to get in even when they performed the same academically. Of children in selective areas who achieved level 5 in English and Maths, only 40 per cent of those eligible for FSMs got into grammar schools, compared to 66 per cent of those who were not eligible for FSMs. This is because those who sit the Eleven-plus grow up in different environments. Inequalities such as not having enough to eat have a large impact on whether or not a child succeeds academically, and are worsened by the ability of wealthier parents to afford tuition, coaching their children through the Eleven-plus. When Buckinghamshire grammar schools introduced a “tutor-proof” test, their proportion of state educated primary pupils fell.

In the past, grammar schools did not benefit working-class children, and in the 1950s Richard Tawney found that of grammar school children leaving with two A-Levels, only 0.3 per cent of them had “unskilled working class” parents. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of high social mobility, but this was not down to grammar schools. It was a time of high structural mobility, where we truly began the transition from an industrial economy to a consumer economy. The expansion in middle class jobs meant that there was more room at the top.

Bringing back grammar schools will not create a new structural change, and will instead worsen educational inequality. Grammar schools were closed because parents were angry at grammar schools writing off their children.

There are serious problems with selection by postcode currently, but the answer to this is to improve schools, rather than making it easier

11

for affluent parents to segregate their children in grammar schools. Years of tutoring are always going to be cheaper than a house in a good catchment area. Our key challenge is to get more good teachers in deprived areas, and pushing most working-class children into secondary moderns is unlikely to help. Teach First, a charity that aims to tackle educational inequality, criticised grammar schools for harming social mobility.

These may seem like tired and predictable facts against selection, but I get angry as a socialist when people actively try and reduce the chance that working class children have to succeed by going against the evidence. Examples of those who have benefitted from grammar schools are far outweighed by those who were consigned to secondary moderns, and yet those who did not pass the Eleven-plus are then deemed to have had their chance, whatever their back-

Grammer schools advocates should not kid themselves that they are helping the working class ground. As James Bloodworth writes in The Myth of Meritocracy; “unequal outcomes lead to unequal opportunities”. Grammar schools perpetuate the sink or swim mentality that cuts across too much of our society, the idea that anyone who has made it has done it purely off the back of their own talent, and that the rest deserve what they get. In a country where the IFS estimate another million children will enter poverty by 2021, and far too many are already left behind, making this situation worse with the reintroduction of grammar schools is unacceptable. We cannot prioritise an elite made up of the upper middle class and a few exceptional social climbers.

Grammar school advocates should not kid themselves they are helping the working class.

Grammar schools are to education what David Miliband is to some Labour Party members: something that has disappeared but would solve all our problems if it returned. Rather than awaiting the return of an exile that will not achieve its promise, I suggest we focus on improving education for all children rather than a select few. Whenever someone tells you they want a grammar school in every town, just ask whether they want the three secondary moderns. They never seem as keen to discuss the reason grammar schools first became unpopular. Just ask Anthony Crosland why.

The views viewsexpressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do The do not not represent representthe theviews views of of The TheSaint Saintbut butare areindividual individual opinions. opinions.

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VIEWPOINT

In praise of

Laurent Belanger Deputy viewpoint editor At 6:45 pm on Sunday 8 October, I finished off the work I had been doing, packed my bag, and made my way, rather excitedly, to the New Picture House cinema on North Street; I was going to watch the new Blade Runner film. Unbeknownst to me — despite, admittedly, my desire for this to be the case — the next 164 minutes would unfold before me in a visual feast the likes of which are rare in today’s cinematic world.

The first Blade Runner film, directed by Ridley Scott and released in 1982, was itself an exquisite experience. This, not only because of Scott’s breathtaking cityscapes, the bleak vision of the future that accompanied them, and the visionary neo-noir cinematography that tied both together, but because of the film’s ability to push the boundaries of contemporary cinematic experience.

In this, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 honours and upholds Scott’s legacy to perfection. Villeneuve seems to effortlessly capture the mesmerising atmosphere of Scott’s classic while infusing his work with its predecessor’s melancholic beauty. He guides us through the dark streets and even darker underground of a future Los Angeles, across vast, intricate landscapes sculpted from industrial waste, and into mysterious urban deserts from which we emerge with different perspectives on ourselves and the world we live in.

Yet although certainly a stunning spectacle, Villeneuve’s film surpasses merely the visual. The Blade Runner story ultimately depicts the decline of an empire and the eventualities of capitalism: the never-ending drive for profits has destroyed the environment; those wealthy enough to do so have escaped to off-world colonies; and those who remain on Earth live in a fog of pollution, ash and dust, scurrying the ill-lit streets in pursuit of hedonistic impulses whose results are rendered meaningless by the penury of daily life.

It is undoubtedly a disheartening portrait of our future, and yet what Scott and now Villeneuve have managed to show us is that even in such a future there is beauty: a light patter of rain, a fragment of a song now forgotten, a fleeting but unmissable smile.

These moments, to me, capture perfectly the true value of experience, of life. And at this juncture we are faced with questions that we rarely consider: what does it mean to be alive? More importantly, what does it mean to be human? every viewer is faced with them, and no matter what

we may conclude, we are compelled to uncertainty about our society, our identity, our existence.

What I look for in exceptional art is an ability to do just this: to make me question my beliefs and to make me look at the world in a different way, even if just for a passing moment.

Above all, I like to be challenged, to be confronted with something that shocks me into reflection. Yet I also recognise different desires and different perspectives on art.

To some, art fulfils its purpose so long as it entertains and captures the mind of those who experience it;

It entertains in classic, grand, sci-fi fashion, then transcends this narrow-scoped genre into something more undefined and philosophical to others, art must make explicit the technical skill of its maker — and I agree with these perspectives.

Herein lies the quality that makes Blade Runner 2049 undeniably exceptional: it fulfils all of these desires, and more. It entertains in classic, grand, sci-fi fashion, then transcends this narrow-scoped genre into something more undefined and philosophical.

It indulges the senses and stimulates the mind.

Remarkably, this is not done overtly, and yet the film is not obscure, nor does it feel the need to cater to those ostentatious characters looking for new ways to express their “cultural superiority,” their “heightened analytical abilities,” and their “sensitivity to the subtleties of art.” In short, it is unpretentiously profound.

What makes the film so unique, then, is that it can excite, surprise, and leave breathless, all while confronting the viewer with existential enigmas that are complex but fundamentally accessible. In an era of big-budget, poorly-written “epics,” Blade Runner 2049 offers a rare experience, and one not easily forgotten.

The case for political pragmatism Kimon Sourlas-Kotzamanis

When he said that as Rector, he would

Deputy viewpoint editor St Andrews students have recently elected a new Rector. The winning campaign’s slogan was ‘let’s start a revolution’, but there is a silent understanding — I presume even amongst most of Srdja Popovic’s voters — that that is not going to happen.

Not just because the voter turnout was pretty low, not just because the Rector doesn’t really do all that much, or because the system is rigged, but because Mr Popovic himself was quite bluntly open about his inability to enact change both in his interviews and his speech at the rectorial debate.

Still, apparently talk of revolu-

Angry students in Scotland’s most privileged university demanding a rail station because they don’t like a twelve minute bus journey to Leuchars doesnt really play the sympathy card tion appeals to stereotypically young idealistic university students more than the choice of a more pragmatic, ‘status quo’ rector. Who would have thought!

Yet, I don’t think we should take this election that lightly. Sure, the rectorial election is never going to have a very high impact, but there is an underlying principle in Mr Popovic’s rhetoric which I do take issue with.

Mr Popovic himself was quite bluntly open about his inability to enact change both in his interviews and his speech at the rectorial debate teach us how to fight for change, using the methods and strategies developed during his time as leader of the student movement against Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević, which he uses to advise non-violent protestors across the globe, the implication was that if enough students signed a petition, wrote enough angry articles for The Saint, or protested in the streets of St Andrews, we would get a rail link built. The rail link is in his campaign’s manifesto (he didn’t have much input on what is actually written on the manifesto, it was written by his campaign team), so it’s not particularly difficult to connect the dots here.

Besides the implication that the local council or the university administration are in some way equivalent or at least comparable to an oppressive regime, which I’m not very comfortable with, this way of thinking about enacting political change is wrong.

Firstly, while a massive protest could pose serious problems for the viability of a regime, angry students in Scotland’s most privileged university demanding a rail station because they don’t like a twelve-minute bus journey to Leuchars doesn’t really play the sympathy card that well.

I would sure love it if the train station hadn’t been closed down in the ‘60s, but a train line to Leuchars that would cost millions, possibly never turning a profit, only to cut down the

time it takes to get to Edinburgh by a handful of minutes is never going to be built. What’s worse is all this exciting talk of a rail link distracts from what is within reach and would actually make a difference to us students.

Imagine if we petitioned for ScotRail to issue electronic tickets so we wouldn’t have to worry about the queue at the ticket machine at Leuchars, forcing us to take an earlier bus and therefore spend more time to travel.

When it comes to student politics, this tendency to stand on the side of radical change that never comes is more or less inconsequential. However, it is unfortunately very much not unique to it. People who believed that this sort of radical change can happen are the people who voted for Trump and Brexit.

When a complex phenomenon, like deindustrialisation in the American Rust Belt or in the English North, which has complex root causes such as the ever-increasing automation which is becoming more and more economically advantageous over human unskilled labour and the shift from coal mining to renewable resources, is reduced to pointing the finger and blaming immigrants and past governments, we are unable to see the larger intricate picture that is reality.

That is why populism, both on the left and the right, will never achieve any significant long-lasting improvement for its voter base, perpetually pushing it towards more radical populism.

We all have opinions on how things should be run. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing.

But we can’t hide our head in the sand. Just because one would like a more egalitarian American society, one is not justified in excusing Bernie Sanders’ complete lack of realistic policies branded as another ‘political revolution’, or refusing to vote for Hillary Clinton because she’s a ‘compromise’. What’s worse, is that we tend to stick to our own media bubbles, reaffirming again and again our beliefs.

I am not suggesting we abandon our opinions altogether, but we should all bear in mind that, even if in spirit or in principle, we are right about our ideal of how things should be run, we are most likely wrong about how to get there.

So, before we take any promises at face value, let’s first scrutinise them, and ask ourselves if they are in fact feasible or just empty rhetoric.

The views expressed in expressed Viewpoint do represent of The but opinions.

The views in not Viewpoint do the not views represent theSaint views ofare Theindividual Saint but are individual opinions.

MONEY thesaint-online.com/money

money@thesaint-online.com

Money editor: David Hallengren Deputy money editors: Rebecca Feng and Acacia Beaton @saint_ money

A railway for St Andrews?

Image: Wikimedia Commons

A growing, vocal group wants to see the return of the long-defunct St Andrews Railway, but the idea just might be a nonstarter

ACACIA BEATON Deputy money editor

D

o we need a railway link to St Andrews?

From 1842 to 1969 St Andrews had a railway line passing through the town and connecting it to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. Many now bemoan the lack of a railway station in St Andrews and the minor inconvenience of travelling by bus to Leuchars Railway Station. Yet should we develop a new railway link in St Andrews, as the StARLink campaign demands?

For more than 100 years, St Andrews sat well-linked to the rest of Scotland. A local scheme implemented following considerable community demand, the St Andrews Railway was an independent railway company founded in 1851, which created a line stopping at Guardbridge to then connect to the main Leuchars line.

The original Links Station was built just beyond the seventeenth hole of the Old Course. Yet after years of servicing the town, the introduction of bus services to St Andrews and construction of the Tay Bridge in 1966 rendered the line so unprofitable that it was then closed in 1969.

There is no longer any railway use of the former line, and the original Links Station has been largely absorbed by the Old Course Hotel, although the Station Master’s House

remains, now the popular The Jigger Inn. The platforms of St Andrews New Station have been removed, the station filled-in and a car park and recycling facility now occupy the site.

Leuchars station, originally built as a rudimentary wayside stop, was never intended to service all transport to what was then a small university town; and now one of the most visited localities in Scotland.

The St Andrews Rail Link Campaign, ‘StARLink’ has advocated for the reconnection of St Andrews to the railway. A formal campaign launched in 1989, it commissioned Tata Steel to prepare a report and track layout proposal in 2012. Despite regular campaigning in local and national media, through radio, print and social media, no concrete progress has been made since the 2012 proposal was developed. Is a rail link an outdated idea for an ancient town? Have we progressed past the need for a closer railway station with the modern developments of road transport? Is there a genuine and pressing need for this station?

The lack of any further progress since the campaign’s commissioned report in 2012 would suggest that the project is a nonstarter.

StARLink has built its campaign around three arguments. Reducing the number of cars in town, assisting those who commute into town, and supporting town and University infrastructure.

Cutting down some of the conges-

tion of cars passing through St Andrews would certainly be welcomed by students, locals and commuters alike.

The benefit to those commuting into town may be greatest, as many academics and professionals live outside of St Andrews in places such as Dundee, Cupar and Kirkcaldy.

Reducing the travel time and cost through the provision of a single journey would certainly be welcomed, and would allow for more affordable housing options.

Finally, linking St Andrews more effectively to the rest of Scotland would provide greater economic and employment benefits for the town; enabling visitors to come for shorter and more frequent journeys.

Srdja Popovic recently won the University rectorial election on a campaign for equality and accessibility and representation. The second of his three aims was to support the development of transport to, from and within St Andrews, including a train line, to allow for greater movement and sustainability.

He argued that by campaigning for a rail link into St Andrews, we could help the University become carbon neutral and bring down housing fees. The lack of choice of affordable housing options within the town is not a new issue, but the failure of the University to provide any real solution to this issue for students has certainly influenced the demographic of

those choosing to apply to and attend St Andrews; for better or for worse.

Providing a real option for students, academics and businesspeople to live around St Andrews would benefit all who engage with St Andrews.

Decreasing the number of cars passing through St Andrews (Popovic quotes this as approximately 14,000 a day on average) and the environmental and health impacts that this has on the town and its student body would certainty be welcomed by all. But how realistic is this?

The report and track layout proposal prepared by Tata Steel in 2012 suggests that reuse of the original route would cause disruption to the golf links and buildings and is therefore not a viable option.

A new route would have to be developed to avoid any golf courses or other essential St Andrews features.

The report proposed that it would be possible to achieve an hourly service from St Andrews to Edinburgh and Dundee (via Leuchars), perhaps increasing services during peak times such as key golfing events or at the beginning and end of University terms.

Its operating costs are likely to be covered by the revenue and savings generated, but initial capital costs may need to be supported by grant funding; hence the lack of progress to date.

So do we really need a rail line in St Andrews?

If there was a genuinely press-

ing demand, then surely one would already exist? And do you want one; would it improve your student life in St Andrews?

The idea of increasing ease of travel for tourists and visitors to St Andrews is not a simple one. To the chagrin of many, the Home of Golf already sees a steady stream of visitors throughout the year; do we need to make the town even more accessible to the mass tourism?

There is the possibility that increased connectivity to major cities such as Edinburgh would attract more speakers, academics, business startups and research institutes; benefiting both the town and the University.

Whilst the lack of a rail link certainly doesn’t appear to have deterred many major speakers from visiting St Andrews in the past, it is true that given its remote location, the University doesn’t have access to many resources that more cosmopolitan universities have on their doorsteps.

Finally, could the improved links to larger cities attract a greater quantity and quality of live music, perhaps improving the nightlife in St Andrews? Or provide the opportunity for greater ease of transport for nights out in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee; with a train station on our doorstep?

All these questions bear further discussion before we decide that a rail link is practicable or even desirable.

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

Personal Finance 101

Jennifer Lipman

A

s a student, making your way into adulthood, perhaps the most valuable skill you can learn outside of the classroom is how to create a budget. This skill is invaluable when it comes to managing your finances, preventing debt while also allowing you to save for the future. Furthermore, it’s better to master the skills of budget-making at university (while you still have the safety net of your family and the institution), instead of waiting until after graduation.

When managing a budget, there are two forms of payment one must be familiar with: debit and credit.

While both are vitally important to managing your future savings, they have crucial differences in how they are treated in currency, as well as their role in budgeting. Debit deals with the liquified wealth (balance of currency) in your bank account. With withdrawals, you take out funds directly from your account. However, with credit, you are taking out a loan in debt directly. Interest on your credit card bill quickly accumulates over the time you take to pay off your debt with each purchase.

When managing your budget, you should deal primarily with debit charges which draw directly from your bank account from the funds you know you have. Thus, the first step in creating a budget is to go to your bank account records, to pull out your physical currency saved up at home, and to make a count of how much money you currently have amassed in total.

Before the budget is even divided up into various ‘spending categories’, there is the issue of incoming wages.

Do you have a part-time job? Is your family helping you by sending regular payments of money? Or do you only have a single lump-sum balance from which to organize your budget?

This is a very important distinction because it determines how the budget may be divided: whether your current bank account total will be replenished at regular intervals with wage or you need to manage a fixed amount. If you do receive a regular income, your budget will be divided by percentages determined by your spending patterns.

However, if you only have the set amount in your bank account, it will be divided by percentages based upon your spending patterns, then divided by the months until your next ‘payment.’ For instance, an income of £350 a month should be budgeted the same way as a lump sum of £1,750 that has to last for five months.

After determining which of the two categories you fall into, it’s important to look at your bank statements, receipts, and personal records on where most of your money is be-

ing spent. You should divide these payments into easily identifiable categories, such as food, housing, clothing, entertainment, phone bills, laundry, etc. Eventually, after sorting how much money is spent into each category, you can use your budget to determine if you want to spend less on items like clothing to be drawn from savings if you’ve exceeded your

This skill is invaluable when it comes to managing your finances monthly budget.

When budgeting, there are certain expenses which are necessary payments which cannot be reduced, such as housing, utilities, and phone bills.

These are set prices and therefore must be paid first in the budget before allowing for extraneous spending on categories such as ‘entertainment’, ‘alcohol’, or ‘clothing’. While this may seem a no-brainer, it’s important to recognize that these bill-categories will always eat out a large portion of your budget. As a result, when organizing your budget, it’s key to work your way down in order of importance for spending necessities. For example, if you’re staying in prepaid University accommodation which covers utilities and partial meals by a lump-sum payment at the beginning of the year, your budget won’t lean so heavily on the payment of bills outside of a few small set expenses like laundry or phone bills.

After you’ve totaled your available spending funds, divided your spending categories, and set aside funds for necessary bill payments, it’s time to explore the possibility of creating a “slush fund” for savings and unexpected spendings. While I’ve heard this category called everything from ‘pennies for a rainy day’, the ‘dream fund’, or simply ‘emergency funds’, you can dedicate this spending to whatever you want — as long as it’s in the future.

It partially acts as a disincentive to making impulse buys by limiting your budget’s funding in specific categories for things you don’t need, helping you quickly save for that bigger ticket item later down the road.

Or, it can be a lifeline if you one day go over budget, you have emergency funds at your fingertips to make your payment.

As a goal, try to set aside about 5

— 10 per cent of your monthly budget into your emergency slush fund.

While it only makes a small dent into your overall monthly funds, these savings quickly add up overtime. Remember, it is important to pay yourself when budgeting, and when things don’t go as expected in life, this ‘slush fund’ of extra cash can be an invaluable resource to have at your side.

Finally, successful budgeting depends heavily upon the constant review and revision of your plan. The art of budgeting helps you manage funds in your day to day life, and if certain aspects of your life’s schedule begin to change, then often your budget should too. Remember, that is not a bad thing. A budget is not a harshly regimented schedule with no leniency, but a helpful tool to keep your life on track according to your specific needs. In that sense, everybody’s budget will be slightly different and it will change over time as you grow with different needs. So, if you find you are repeatedly spending more in one category out of necessity, it’s time to rethink your budget categories and reorganise your funds to give yourself more leeway.

When it comes to creating a budget, the incentive usually arises from the desire to be more responsible with your money. Often it can be the little things which can also help you reduce your overall spending in the store. Remember to cut out coupons and make use of store discounts with your student ID. If you can, buy store brand items instead of big brand names- as you can often get the same amount for half the price.

Showing you can effectively pay your debts is a neccessary part of money management It can even be trying to reduce impulse-buys by asking yourself the question, “do I need this, or can I make do without?” before checking out at the store.

Moving on from your physical funds accessed by a debit account, it’s important to also briefly discuss how to avoid the pitfalls of credit cards and its accumulation of debt. While most students at University level

understand that because credit cards use debt to purchase goods, creating a bill you pay off later, several students might be tempted to simply never get a credit card. However, it’s not that easy.

Unfortunately, the accumulation of credit is necessary for basic functioning in adulthood. If you are renting an apartment, taking out a loan from the bank, even buying certain phone plans, certain businesses will require a look at your credit score, which is created by the use of your credit cards and demonstrates how well you’ve paid back your debts in a timely manner. If you never get a credit card, you’ll never accumulate a credit score. As a result, showing you can effectively pay off your debts (even if they are small ones) is a necessary part of money management.

The frequent pitfalls of credit cards comes with spending money you don’t have, because unlike debit cards, credit cards are not linked directly to your account. So when managing a budget, rely more heavily on debit spending, while budgeting out regular small payments to be put on a credit card which can be easily repaid in full regularly. This might be managed effectively by using a card on one or two regular items, such as gasoline for a car or small items of food. This way there should be no surprise charges racking up massive debt, while it amasses a strong credit score as it’s easily repayable.

An important side note to remember: while credit cards give the option to have slow repayments of bills, if you can, pay it off completely every time. If you let your debt sit by sending in only the minimum payments, you’ll quickly amass more debt in the form of interest payments on the card, while simultaneously lowering your credit score.

When creating a budget, remember that its purpose is to be a tool to help navigate spending according to your own personal needs. When used correctly, a budget is an invaluable resource for evaluating impulse buys and managing credit, all while helping you successfully save for the future.

Illustration: Gabrielle Wolf

A primer on the stuff someone really ought to have taught you (but never did)

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

15

Illustration: Olivia Hendren

So you want to be a lawyer?

DAVID HALLENGREN Money editor

Our university, perhaps strangely, lacks a law school. Thus, the would-be lawyers and barristers of St Andrews find themselves lack a clear road to their desired professions. This article

will lay out the various roads to the legal profession open to graduates here.

The process is different based on where you’ll be practicing. Owing to Scotland’s unique legal system, those wishing to become solicitors qualified to practice law in Scottish courts will have to take a different route than those wishing to practice in England.

Most St Andrews students wishing to practice law in Scotland should consider the Graduate Entry LLB, which is designed for those who have graduated with a degree other than the four-year LLB. This route, which generally takes two years of full-time study or three years of part-time, is offered at a number of universities around Scotland, including Edinburgh and Glasgow (good news for those who want to find work while pursuing the necessary qualifications).

The next step for prospective Scottish solicitors is the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, a one-year full-time degree with a two-year parttime option. This, again, is offered at a range of universities across Scotland.

Finally, prospective solicitors will have to undergo a two year traineeship, during which they’ll be examined for fitness for the profession while working in an office environment.

So, all in all, with a standard fouryear degree behind you, you can expect to be admitted to the rolls five years after your graduation from St Andrews.

Those who wish to become advocates – the Scottish equivalent of a barrister – will additionally have to go undergo about nine months of “devilling,” or unpaid training, followed by examination.

Students wishing to practice elsewhere in the United Kingdom without an undergraduate law degree need a Graduate Diploma in Law. This takes half the time of its Scottish counterpart: one year of full-time study or twice that part time. Unfortunately, most top universities don’t offer the qualification, meaning you’ll have to do your legwork on which courses are worth applying to.

Paths then diverge for those wish-

ing to become solicitors and those who want to become barristers.

Solicitors have a similar route to their Scottish counterparts. They will have to go to a Legal Practice course, lasting a year on a full-time basis or two part-time. This is followed by two years of training at a firm.

Barristers, on the other hand, are ready to practice a year earlier than solicitors in England and Wales.

They take a Bar Professional Training Course offered at several British universities and lasting one year full-time or double part time. They than undergo a “pupillage” of one year’s practical experience in a barrister’s office.

So, if you want to practice in England and Wales, you could be a practicing barrister within three years or a barrister within four.

Whatever route you choose, wherever you want to practice, you need to be sure that you’re preparing yourself academically for a competitive application to study law. A good place to start might be by joining the Law Society, to be found on Facebook, and full of those who want to be lawyers, too.

In focus: St Andrews Brewing Co. REBECCA FENG Deputy money editor Brew Co was quiet and dreamlike at 11 am, belying the bustle of the the previous night. Robbie, the bar manager, sat down with me with a laptop in front of him. Our chat was pleasantly interrupted multiple times by punctual staff members fixing light bulbs and the Thistly Cross supplier coming to confirm orders for its biggest customers in the UK. The story starts in 2012 when Sheffield native Bob Phaff, who had been buying, selling, drinking, and writing about beer for most of his life, visited St Andrews. When he asked for a locally brewed beer in town, he was told that there were none. Mr Phaff found that unacceptable. That same night, he decided to found St Andrews Brewing Company.

St Andrews Brew Co was not first opened at St Andrews as its name suggested. Only in 2014 did Brew Co move to town from Glenrothes.

The pub on South Street opened that same year. Over the last three years, St Andrews Brew Co has grown from a small-town brewery to a famous brand sold in major supermarkets.

Now the brewery brews 1,200 pints per day, five days a week, and manages to sell all of it.

The taste of Brew Co beers has remained largely the same throughout the years, during which time its ownership has changed from Mr Phaff to its current owners, Tim Butler and Phil Mackey. While Brew Co kept the beer flavors perfected by Bob, Tim

took over of the sales side of the business by leveraging his connections in the town. The name ‘Butler’ is quite visible in the town. Tim owns Brew Co while his wife owns the the hairdresser next door.

While there are only four ingredients in your standard, run-of-the-mill beer — water, yeast, hops, and malt — no two beers taste the same. What makes a beer special, Robbie told The Saint, are ‘where the four ingredients are from and how the beer is made.’

For example, the British hops give the beer a grassier taste and the American

The hops are locally grown... a rare feat given Scotland’s climate ones are fruitier.

The secret to Brew Co’s popularity is its exclusive use of local ingredients. The hops are locally grown, which is a rare feat given Scotland’s climate; it’s usually too cold here. The James Hutton Institute for Land Use and Environmental Research (based in Aberdeen and Dundee) grows The Brewery’s hops. Even its seasonal ‘Christmas Tree Beer’ stubbornly uses local ingredients; St. Andrews Botanic Garden, literally next door to the brewery, supplies the juniper berries and pines. Even the logo itself is de-

signed by a Fife ceramic artist, Susan McGill, who is famous for merging traditional and modern images in her designs.

The pub now offers a core range of five beers, some 40 gins, 30 whiskies and bourbons, and a large wine selection. Brew Co also offers seasonal drinks. In autumn, its signature blackberry beer add a measure of jollity to the approaching darkness; in winter, the ‘Christmas Tree Beer’ invokes the spirit and spices of the approaching holiday season.

When Brew Co moved to town, it also expanded to three times its previous size. What gave the owners the confidence to expand?

“The demand is there,” says Robbie. Indeed, the pub sells 10 kegs of self-brewed beer and 10 kegs of Thistly Cross cider per week, impressive considering its size. The brewery houses two directors, three full-time brewers, and two sales employees, and the pub boasts 15 staff members, including a handful of part-time student bartenders. The longest-serving student staff members started in their second years of university and are now in their final year.

Brew Co has become the ideal hub for golfers to unwind and get a dose of the hearty spirit of Fife after a day spending fortunes on the course.

“Everybody loves St Andrews. We have a huge student and local base.

There are also many tourists from US, Canada, and Australia.”

Still a young brewery, St Andrews’ Brew Co already boasts a substantial trophy room: CAMRA’s 2014 Champion Bottle Beer of Scotland for its IPA, 2nd Annual Scottish Beer Awards, “Scottish Beer Bar of the Year”, just to

name a few.

However, Brew Co dreams small.

Its core mission now, says Robbie, is still making the pub a more comfortable place for students and locals. One of the biggest changes so far is the kitchen. It started with simple tapas and moved to more traditional and higher-end pub food. Soon, Brew Co will welcome its first fine-dining chef to the team. “We are growing our food

selection. We want to offer not just good beer but also good food,” says Robbie.

Robbie has worked at the pub for two and a half years now. “It is a fun place to work. You have great customers. I love working for independent businesses. Oh, we also let dogs in.”

Here’s to the rainy nights spent in the warm St Andrews Brew Co, and many such nights yet to come!

Features editor: KENALYN ANG Deputy editors: Catriona Aitken, Julia Bennett, Cate Hanlon, Tas Vámos

features@thesaint-online.com

thesaint-online.com/features

@saint_ features

Homeless, and all the richer

RAISA MUHTAR

I

f you remove your headphones as you head onto Market Street, you’ll hear the music of accordions, flutes and harmonicas fill the air. With the sound of each instrument you find yourself at different points around town: in front of Boots on Market street, parked right beside RBS on South street, on sunnier days, between Logies Lane and Bell Street.

You’ll see the people playing these instruments, holding out their hats and newspapers for change. Perhaps you might even find yourself meeting Eddie, a Scotsman with the Irish rugby scarf, who likes playing the harmonica in front of Boots. Eddie, like the others, is just one of the many who find themselves homeless in St Andrews.

Take the man sat beside Holland & Barrett. Like Eddie, he is homeless, but instead of instruments at hand, he has two dogs. You can tell how much he loves his dogs by the way he carefully wraps them up in blankets, while he sits cross-legged between them.

His cardboard sign reads “I had my own company for years now I’m homeless. I get judged on a daily basis. (Why?) If I was out of the EU, I’d have a home. Two dogs not allowed in homeless accommodation.”

It was interesting that the man blamed the UK’s current European Union membership for his homelessness, because I wondered if he had

met the homeless accordion player in front of the Royal Bank of Scotland on South street. A little introduction he’s probably the most cheerful man in St Andrews, always with a smile, and never failing to shout “Hello” to anyone that passes him by as he plays.

However, a small chat with him will reveal that he doesn’t know any more than the “hello” and “thank you” he greets people with; he is in fact Hungarian, from Budapest, with little to no knowledge of English. Here is a man of the European Union, whose “immigration” had supposedly taken away economic opportunities meant for Eddie with his two dogs down on Market street, and bankrupted his company. And yet, this Hungarian man is also homeless. No one is better off. Homelessness does not care about identity and it can affect anyone.

The statistics on homelessness in St Andrews reveal alarming results. The statistics compiled by Shelter Scotland, a registered charity that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing in England and Scotland, shows the Fife region alone has 2,441 homeless applications, the third highest in Scotland after the much larger city of Edinburgh (with 3,352 applications) and Glasgow (with 5,377 applications). Further digging reveals that on average, six homeless households asked for interviews with the homelessness officers each week. In particular, people in east Fife were less likely to be able to access services and have the the

lowest provision of temporary accommodation in all of Fife. Although the number of homeless applications has been going down, Shelter Scotland shows that this is primarily due to the renewed preventative approach adopted by local authorities, coming in the form of housing options, rather than a change in the underlying drivers of homelessness.

There have been a few efforts made by the students of St Andrews to help our homeless community. St Andrews Society for Homelessness (STASH) was one of them. It was a society dedicated to homelessness outreach in Fife and Dundee, with a goal of raising funds for shelters, providing volunteers for existing schemes, and generating awareness about the scale of homelessness in our local area. It successes led it to take second place for the “Best New Society” award in St Andrews for the academic year 2014-2015. However, in reaching out to STASH, they revealed that the society is no longer running, as there here just wasn’t much demand for a student homeless outreach society.

“After we graduated we disbanded in 2015,” they said. Since then, no other society in the University dedicated to addressing the problem of the St Andrews homeless has existed.

This is why self-starters such as Elizabeth Graham are such outliers.

Last year, she started a fundraising campaign on Crowdfunder after stopping to chat to Julia, a homeless woman in St Andrews. Ms Graham

successfully raised the £500 target after only 11 days for Julie, who has now successfully secured council accommodation within St Andrews. Ms Graham remembers, “I just kept seeing Julie in the street, who I kept making eye contact with. She was difficult to avoid!” After getting acquainted with Julie, she later sat in a pub with friends listening to people talking

A simple slip of change to your fellow man would suffice. about the refugee crisis. After a while, however, she realised the need to help our own first before we could help others. Ms Graham is absolutely right. It would be wrong to talk about helping people in faraway lands while we sit ignorant to the problems in our own community, like the homeless individuals we see everyday. There are plenty of ways to help out.

For those that want to help combat the issue of homelessness, you can consider Sleep-Out, an event hosted by Social Bite. It involves thousands of individuals sleeping rough

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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in Edinburgh’s West Princes Street Gardens and city centre, with their long term mission of eradicating homelessness in Scotland within 5 years. They have ambitiously set a fundraising target of four million pounds, and are looking to generate 1,000 employment offers and 1,000 “spare room” supported lodging pledges. No tickets will be sold for Sleep in the Park, so those in St Andrews wishing to attend the event can only do so helping them reach fundraising targets and participating in the Sleep-Out challenge, which people can do by registering on their website, sleepinthepark.co.uk.

For others, a simple slip of change to your fellow man on the street would suffice. If you don’t have change, however, you can always spare a few seconds to greet them, or even ask them how they are. It has been touching to think that the Hungarian man playing the accordion on South Street is often the first person to greet me on my way to lectures, and yet does not even speak English. Indeed, he lets the music do the talking for him. It has been touching to see a man care for his dogs so much that he is willing to sleep in the streets rather than part with them. It has been touching for me to get acquainted with Eddie, whose eyes lit up when I asked him how he was and now calls me a friend.

In interacting with all three of them, my life has felt all the richer from getting acquainted, and hopefully, so will yours.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

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The Bacchae in the Modern World Deputy features editor Cate Hanlon chats with Gabriele Uboldi, director of The Bacchae, about his meta-theatrical play, societal collaborations, and the role of classics in the modern world.

The Saint: What prompted you to put on this play?

Gabriele Uboldi: I’ve always loved Greek tragedies. I went to a particular kind of high school that involved studying Latin and Ancient Greek, and so I did study all of that stuff, both the language and the culture. I studied ancient theatre as well, and I loved it. Actually, for my final project for high school I had to study The Bacchae specifically, so I studied it in great depth and I really knew the play. When I came here, the performing arts environment was really cool and I thought I could do it, so here I am.

TS: And studying something in that much depth didn’t make you hate it?

GU: (laughs) Well, that’s one of the risks of studying something in depth, but no, I actually loved it and I just couldn’t wait to actually make it happen.

Do we have a limit that we cannot go beyond when it comes to making it modern?

TS: What makes this play different from other typical Mermaids productions?

GU: First of all, it’s a Greek tragedy and I don’t think that a lot of peo-

ple have done Greek tragedy here. It’s not only that, though. It’s not literally The Bacchae by Euripides, it’s a theatrical adaptation that I wrote. It’s partly The Bacchae and partly a discourse on how to deal with ancient theatre in modern days. Does it make sense that we still put on tragedies written more than two thousand years ago?

TS: Can you expand on the meta-theatrical elements of your production?

GU: There’s a theatre company that is putting on The Bacchae, but on the night of the first show, the director has some kind of accident, so he can’t come. The two lead actors decide to put on their own version of The Bacchae. There’s one that wants to make it very traditional, he wants to stick to the text and wear togas, whereas the other one wants to adapt it to our present times and make it talk about current political issues.

These two actors are actually the two main characters in The Bacchae.

There’s a structured reason why one of them wants to make it political and the other one wants to make it more traditional. It’s a discussion on The Bacchae, on ancient theatre and classics and how we relate to them, as much as it is the play itself.

TS: What prompted you to make this modern take on it, instead of just performing it as it was meant to be?

GU: I am taking a side on this discussion, and my side is that we need to make it modern. It doesn’t make any sense to repeat the play as it was written, without knowing anything about its cultural context. This is a play, after all, and a performance is an inherently social thing. It is important that we study it as it was part of a different culture, but also we need to make it talk about our present time.

TS: Have you had concerns about maintaining the integrity of such an old work and conveying the cultural and historical significances, even though you’re modernising it?

GU: That is one of the issues that we have been discussing. Do we have a limit that we cannot go beyond when it comes to making it modern?

There is the risk of making something that doesn’t really fit in with the ancient text and what it’s trying to say.

I’m not trying to give an answer to this, I’m just trying to say “let’s think

critically about this.”

TS: What does a typical rehearsal look like?

GU: Well, it depends on the kind of rehearsal that we are having. One of my favourite kinds of rehearsal is where we actually get to devise, from scratch, what we are going to do with that scene. There are so many ways to interpret things, so we discuss it, we think about it, we make it physical, with a lot of music and dancing. We interact with each other: it’s a collaborative process rather than just me with my ideas saying ‘okay, let’s do this’.

TS: This production is a collaboration between a number of societies. Which societies are involved?

GU: It’s Mermaids, the performing arts fund of the University, and we have Bacchae Soc helping us out, consulting and finding articles. If we have any issues with the Greek text, we can just go to them. We hope that we will be able to organise some events to promote it in the future. Other than that, we have an individual from Dance Soc helping us with choreography.

TS: You are collaborating with the Bacchae Society in putting this on, can you tell us about that?

GU: When I was thinking of what I wanted to say, I realised that there was this society that could help me have a deeper insight into what I was actually doing.

We also reached out because we wanted more people to take part in this. We have a Facebook page, and we are trying to talk about the tragedy before it is put on, so that people who are following the page can actually know something about the tragedy before coming to see the play. We have people from the Bacchae Society and from Mermaids writing articles about the traditional play, about how we are dealing with those issues in modern times, and about what it feels like to be dealing with such a classic.

Bacchae Soc can help us with things that seem simple, like pronouncing names from the ancient world. It’s more than that, though. It’s interesting to see what people who are actually studying this for a degree think of what my team and I are doing.

TS: Are you expecting that most people who go to see it will have had some prior exposure to it, then?

GU: Not necessarily. I think that

the play itself can be seen without knowing anything about The Bacchae.

I really want to engage the audience, not only with The Bacchae or ancient theatre, but with culture as a whole.

Does it make sense that we study ancient cultures? Will this be helpful in our present times, in political terms, in social terms? I think that one way of engaging the audience is preparing them for the play, as well. So you can come to the play without having heard anything about The Bacchae, but if you have heard something, then we have already involved you in the discussion.

TS: Can you talk more about the role that Dance Soc is playing?

GU: It’s not really the society, just

It’s partly The Bacchae and partly a discourse on how to deal with ancient theatre. one girl who is part of Dance Soc. We want to do something that’s not so traditional in terms of theatre. We are doing a lot of physical theatre, a lot of dancing. I can’t do physical theatre, I can’t do dancing, so I thought that I could reach out to someone else, who is actually really talented in that. She has really helped us, and I’m really happy because otherwise the play would be very different.

TS: How has it been working with another society? That’s not something that Mermaids usually does.

GU: I think that it is very important and enriching, because I just feel like the University has so much to offer. People always stay in the circle of their own society, but there are so many talented people doing so much and it’s a shame not to use all of it. If there are some people who are actu-

ally doing ancient theatre or who are talking about classics, why shouldn’t we reach out to them? I’m expecting people in Mermaids to know more about theatre and people in Bacchae to know more about the actual matter that we are dealing with.

TS: Do you think that there would be potential for other societal collaborations in the future?

GU: Drama is such a wide kind of performing art, it allows you to put in whatever you want, basically. There will always be someone who is really good at something, and someone else who’s really good at something else, so why not put these people together and do something that is even better?

Collaboration has helped us in terms of promotion as well as getting an insight with what we wanted to do with our play. I think that it’s been really helpful, and I think that theatre definitely has the potential to collaborate more with other societies. There is a lot of talent in this town, and I think that it makes sense for the people who are doing something creative to reach out to as many people as they can. That will make it an experience that will enrich the whole University, because university isn’t just going to lectures and doing assignments.

TS: Who would you envision coming to see the play?

GU: Anyone, honestly. Maybe people who study classics and have heard about The Bacchae. Maybe someone else who doesn’t even like Greek theatre will come to see it and be pleasantly surprised.

It’s interesting to see what people who are actually studying this for The Bacchae will be at The Stage on 24 and 25 November.

Photos: Anna Smith

CATE HANLON Deputy features editor

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The Lafayette Club: ADRIAN

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

WOOLDRIDGE It seems all too fitting that it was none other than Adrian Wooldridge himself travelling all the way north to the middle of the nowhere that is St Andrews to discuss Brexit and British politics, while on the same night, Theresa May flew to Brussels for an emergency talk in an effort to break the deadlock over Brexit negotiations.

Despite the looming deadlines that most classes decided to pile up on week five, coupled with the £7 ticket price being on the higher end of Lafayette talks, students flocked to see Dr Wooldridge speak, and rightly so. An illustrious man, he is the political editor of The Economist and writes the Bagehot column. He previously worked on the Schumpeter column on business, finance, and management and the Lexington column. He received a PhD and was awarded a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford and was also a Harkness Fellow at the University of California in Berkeley.

In his introduction, Daniel Rey, one of the two Lafayette Club hosts, jokingly declared that whilst the future of Britain hung by a thread, “I foresee Adrian Wooldridge’s talk tonight to be a more productive discussion than the one held in Brussels right now.”

Indeed, productive it was. Dr Wooldridge wasted no time diving right in and presenting a disparaging and dismal view of current events, making his own opinions very clear.

He began by stressing the ever-increasing polarity in the political spectrum on all sides of Westminster, and noted that this is an especially fragile and uptight time in British politics.

“The Labour Party is captured by a hard-left set of Corbynites, who are all against Blairism. They take Lenin and Trotsky as models. The Tories, however, are driven by extreme rightwing ‘Brexiteers,’” he stated.

You would think that the Liberal Democrats are doing well as a middle ground alternative, but the General Election in May showed them not doing well at all, as they won eight seats in total and have old leadership in place. Dr Wooldridge finds the cultural shift alarming, “Ideas that were once marginal like nationalism and populism are now right in the center spotlight. Whilst there was once a time when Tony Blair could declare that “globalisation is a fact of life” and not be questioned, now, such ideas are more marginalised and even condemned by people such as Canadian political analyst Naomi Klien.”

As he stated, most people would think that this extreme polarisation is a series of accidents in the making, and indeed there is some truth in that.

Yet the real beginning of these series of accidents had started long before the Brexit referendum. Fundamentally, Dr Wooldridge believes that if a series of accidents are happening and

simultaneously falling in the same direction, it ceases being an accident anymore.

According to Dr Wooldridge, the first accident happened when the people nominated Jeremy Corbyn to become the leader of the Labour party. “Corbyn would not only turn out to win, but also be allowed to keep his position as MP and maintain a tenacious grip on his power” continued

“We’re back in the 1970s, with industrial disorder and discontents around.”

Dr Wooldridge.

The second accident came with the advent of the Brexit right. Former Prime Minister David Cameron wanted to get rid of the Brexit issue and, according to Dr Wooldridge, would have closed the Brexit debate had one of two things not happened. Cameron had unfortunately run a very weak “Remain” campaign, while his opposition ran a very good pro-Brexit campaign. The opposition successfully turned the issue from what was supposed to be a very specific question of the UK leaving or remaining in the European Union, to a more general all-encompassing question about the sovereignty of the UK, the control of the British government and the issue of immigration. “By opening up the question, more people got on board with the idea of a Brexit and eventually, the referendum backfired on Cameron profoundly,” said Dr Wooldridge.

“This Brexit phenomena is essentially a breaking down of an entire political regime [...] Brexit is in fact a long-term echo of the English Civil War; it represents a fundamental breakdown of the capitalist economic model.”

He reflected upon the British regimes that came before; the economic policies that Britain used to help gauge where we might be headed.

“The first regime was rife with the policies of a welfare state to provide for opportunities, trade unions, and mainstream Keynesian economics.

It worked extremely well up to the 1970s, when Britain faced stagflation, low economic growth, and disruptive interest groups,” he said. Thus, a second regime, Thatcherism, began to take over. Margaret Thatcher’s policies gave rise to dynamic entrepreneurs as opposed to big businesses, and privatised industries as opposed

Photos: The Lafayette Club

RAISA MUHTAR

to public ones. In this dynamic economy, trade unions fared well. But then came the global financial crisis.

As Dr Wooldridge said, “No income growth, no money for public services, austerity is rampant.” The “neoliberal project” to control it had failed;

The real beginning of these series of accidents started long before the Brexit referendum. people felt the pain of turbulence, but did not gain the benefits economic growth. Meanwhile, bad jobs were on the rise, with not many good ones to go around. And now, we await a third regime to take us out of this “rut.”

However, Dr Wooldridge finds

the current Brexit policies too incoherent; he believes there is a tangent between working class demands and the demands of those steering Brexit, who seek a deregulated, capitalist state that would damage the working class. He declared, “The leader of it, Theresa May is, in my humble opinion, a woman of low intelligence and even lower imagination. While the Labour party does have more of a coherent blueprint, their plan consists of shutting Britain off from global capital flows and also expanding welfare at the same time, which is unfeasible.”

Meanwhile, he reduced Brexit to what he sees it to be. He said, “All Brexit really is, is a referendum. It has no set of policies it can implement. We’re back in the 1970s, with industrial disorder and discontents around.”

His frustration was clear, the bulk of the blame being placed on Britain’s political and economic elites, whom he feels have reaped too much gain for themselves, alongside rigged markets and corruption. He bluntly stated, “In short, we are really, really screwed for a long, long time to come.” This statement was indeed his finale, as he concluded laughing alongside the audience at the bizarre nature of it all.

As a Malaysian who isn’t too familiar with the political history of the UK, I was initially apprehensive that the talk might be hard to follow for such people in my predicament, espe-

cially with a talk from such a veteran of politics like Dr Wooldridge himself.

Nonetheless, his talk resonated quite universally during this turbulent time of world politics, with the rise of fringe movements of populism and anti-globalist campaigns. Even though his tone was quite pessimistic the entire time, his sharp humor made light of the absurdity of it all.

Although I did anticipate it, it was still an experience to be hearing such open criticism of the UK government and the political elite. Coming from a country such as Malaysia, where free speech is often infringed upon, it was quite refreshing to witness.

Perhaps this is the greatest gift of the Lafayette Club, where speakers, giants, and disruptors of all sorts of backgrounds and cultures come together to give talks that inform and inspire, uninhibited.

For that, I salute the club for their efforts to keep talks like this ongoing.

Their next event, “A Conversation on US-China Relations,” welcomes former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd on 6 November at the Buchanan lecture theatre. Visit their Facebook page or Official Website at http://www.thelafayetteclub.com/ for more information on past and upcoming guest speakers.

You can also subscribe to the podcast found on their website and follow their brand-new Instagram page.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

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FOR HER: Promoting Girls’ education abroad

JOLIE MINH TRAN

Historically, education has been used as a tool to benefit people from all walks of lives. moment For Her was mentioned.

Ms Atwell grew up in Bozeman, Montana, also where the Central Asia Institute was founded. The organisation’s mission is to help solidify a foundation for peace in developing countries. Although the Institute educates both girls and boys, they have found that focusing on girls generates more impact.

As Anna’s high school was engaged in the Institute’s activities, she soon got inspired to take part. Coming to St Andrews, she realised that she wanted to bring their mission forward - to empower communities and promote peace through education, in particular the education of women.

For Her was founded soon after.

In response to a question about what education meant to her, Ms Atwell eagerly responded, “Historically, education has been used as a tool to benefit people from all walks of lives. In daily life, this means an improvement to living conditions. In a bigger picture, education provides opportunities to have more control over one’s future. Such impact is enhanced even more when girls are educated, as children of educated mothers have a greater chance of surviving and are more likely to go to school.”

This year, For Her has voted to help fund Gamjabad High School in Pakistan. The school has a total of nine teachers and 78 students, 56 per cent of whom are female, which is an astonishingly high rate for a high school in the region. Due to harsh winter months, Gamjabad is only in session from April until November.

Proceeds raised will go towards funding the teachers’ salaries, providing better equipment, restoring the school facilities, and also providing access to clean water for pupils. This ensures that students won’t have to miss school during poor weather, and that potential difficulties posed by the Taliban will be alleviated through

these fundraising programs.

When asked about their fundraising strategies this year, Ms Atwell and Ms Renaut shared a multifaceted approach that aimed to raise awareness and proceeds through fun, social events. Ms Renaut said, “On campus, our big fundraiser for this semester will feature an a cappella night where all of St Andrews’ major a cappella groups come together.”

Additionally, there will be smaller events in collaboration with other societies such as murder mystery nights, pub nights, and movies to help facilitate social interactions. Locally, For Her have also implemented a program called Pennies For Peace, which fosters relationships with local schools in St Andrews. “Through teaching participants about other cultures, we hope to not only connect children who come from different

backgrounds, but also to embrace the values of philanthropy and compassion”, Ms Renaut reflected. Ms Atwell also added, “Find a penny pick it up, it’s an opportunity to fundraise and to help other people.” Through Pennies For Peace, children can come up with their own fundraising initiatives, ranging from placing found pennies in a jar, to holding contests and performances. For receivers on the other side of the world, this offers an opportunity to improve their economic status and gain more opportunities in the professional world, while for child fundraisers, this means realising their power to make an impact. As for Her Choice, Pennies For Peace is one of the small steps that aims eventually to break the poverty cycle and reduce the gender inequality gap.

An individual on the receiving end of the Central Asia Institute’s work

shared what her scholarship meant to her, “I would like to thank you for continuing your assistance so I can finish my education and fulfill my dreams. In fact, with your help, you bring brightness not only to our lives, but also to our families and take away the bitterness with your sweet deeds.”

This letter was written by Yalda, an Afghan girl whose father was killed when she was six, and whose brother lost a limb in a bombing at around the same time as his death. Although she suffered much grief and poverty, she tried to not let these challenges deter her pursuit of education. The scholarship that she received not only funded her tuition and schooling expenses, but gave her a sense of support and hope.

She added, “My dream about my future is that I can help other people like me who have had a miserable life

For women on the other side of the world, all the help can act as the gateway to change many lives.

Photos: For Her Project

Amidst the hustle-and-bustle atmosphere of the bubble this year lies For Her’s aspiring project. A new society at the University, For Her is determined to establish itself through its proactive mission and its commitment to act.

On a quiet Monday afternoon, I interviewed For Her’s President and Vice President, Anna Atwell and Juliette Renaut. The ladies seemed rather demure at first, but their wild ambitions were instantly revealed the

and have not been able to been able to go to school on their own, like myself, so they can also improve their family’s’ life.” To girls like Yalda, education is not just a tool for a better life, but also a purpose to live despite the brutalities that injured her at a young age.

By the time Ms Atwell and Ms Renault graduate, they hope to have established a stable presence of For Her in the community of St Andrews.

“Our immediate goals are to fundraise to assist the Central Institute of Asia in their shared mission of fostering women and girls through education. In the long run, we aspire to raise awareness of the issues encountered by the less privileged, and in turn encourage our peers to become advocates of education”, said Ms Atwell.

It is rather difficult to visualise the impact of For Her’s seemingly small acts. How does selling a cappella tickets, baking brownies, or showing movies transform a girl’s life thousands of miles away?

An answer can be found in the story of Naseem Parveen, a young girl whose life changed dramatically in 2010, when her village in Pakistan

experienced an enormous landslide which consequently covered entire properties and homes. Survival was a question mark, let alone education.

However, the Central Asia Institute stepped in, setting up a tent school near the landslide area.

Naseem continued with her education and went on to college. Now, she is giving back by being a teacher and a role model for the younger generations. She said, “In the areas where there is no school and they cannot receive education, they are forced to marry in their teenage years, around the ages of 14 to 18.”

By fostering education, Naseem is passing on the opportunities that she received to younger girls. Thus while it can seem useless for us to take action, not being able to see the immediate effect of our efforts or foresee the magnitude that they would bring, stories like those of Naseem and Yalda go on to demonstrate that the little steps that we take today, cumulatively, will eventually go on to change someone’s life and translate into further impact on the lives of others.

For current St Andreans, societies like For Her contribute both diverse, collaborative, social events, and awareness. For women on the other side of the world, all the help that they receive can act as the gateway to change many lives.

FEATURES

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS IN ST ANDREWS TAS VÁMOS Deputy features editor

metre voyage across the inner solar system. If the solar wind were to flow

light shows that we call the northern lights. The colour of the light depends on what gas is encountered by these invading solar particles, though the most common colour is green, created by collisions with oxygen.

Occasionally, blue and red lights are also seen. These rarer lights are from collisions with nitrogen and higher-altitude oxygen.

The aurora can appear in a fantastic number of shapes: from bold streaks and waves to formless blobs, to thin lines, to nebulous clouds. The physics behind what produces this diversity of forms is still an active area of research. Although we may now know the basics of the northern lights, there is still much left to learn.

Far from being a passive light show, a potent aurora can also wreak havoc on the world’s communication systems. Since they are caused by electrically charged particles, during a strong aurora, there may be so much extra electricity coursing through the

directly into the Earth, we would be bombarded with dangerous particles, and life would likely not exist.

But fortunately, the Earth has its own magnetic field, thanks to our planet’s iron core. Projecting out beyond the atmosphere, this magnetic field bears the brunt of the solar wind, deflecting it and causing it to circumvent the planet – much like water flowing around a rock in a stream.

Yet the magnetic shield isn’t equally strong everywhere – near the north and south poles, it is actually quite weak. If a solar flare is large enough, then some of the particles carried by the solar wind could pass through this normally impenetrable barrier, causing a disturbance in the magnetic field, also called a geomagnetic storm.

Some of these particles ultimately enter the Earth’s atmosphere, where they encounter resistance in the form of the gas molecules that make up the atmosphere.

And here, it is collisions with these gas molecules – or more accurately, the energy released from these collisions – that creates the vibrant

atmosphere that radio communications and electric grids can be disrupted. The strongest aurora in recent history, in 1859, was so powerful that it allowed telegraph lines to function without any power source. In other words, they were able to communicate using the electricity in the atmosphere itself!

St Andrews is far enough north that we are able to witness some of these celestial events, especially the more powerful ones. The northern lights are almost always seen in winter, when the nights are longest.

Although they may occur in summer, the days are so long at that time of year that it scarcely gets dark enough to see any stars, let alone an aurora.

Yet Scotland is a mixed bag for the aurora-seeker: on the one hand, our northerly latitude makes it a good place to see the lights without having to travel to more polar regions; on the other, there is the tragic reality of Scottish weather, which has the unfortunate habit of bringing rain at the worst times. St Andrews is in a better situation than most in this re-

[The northern lights] will oscillate and twist, almost like an optical illusion.

spect, as Fife receives less cloud cover and rain than the west and the north of Scotland.

So, how can you go about preparing to see the northern lights? The unpredictability of solar flares and a variety of other variables make the northern lights notoriously difficult to predict more than a few hours in advance. The internet, especially social media, will be your go-to for updates.

The AuroraWatch UK Facebook page posts regularly and reliably when abnormal geomagnetic activity is recorded, which might lead to a showing of the northern lights.

But let’s say that the conditions are all favourable, and there’s an aurora alert tonight and the skies are clear. Where should you go to make the most of these fortunate circumstances?

As a general rule, you will want to find an elevated place with a clear view of the northern horizon.

Although in polar regions the north-

good viewing platform (despite being at sea level). Other exposed places, like one of the beaches, have the potential to be good viewing spots as well, but viewers should watch out for the tides.

At one of these locations, looking north on a clear night when they have been predicted, you should be able to see the green glow of the northern lights above the horizon. At first glance, you might mistake a yellowish glow for the lights, but this is just light pollution from our northern neighbours in Dundee. Disregard that, and instead, look for green whorls above the light pollution. As you look at them, they will oscillate and twist, almost like an optical illusion.

Many people expect the lights to appear exactly as they do in photographs – as dramatic waves of pulsating light. But exactly how bright and noticeable the lights are will depend on the strength of the aurora, or the number of solar particles that are en-

Illustration: Cosette Puckett

It’s that time of year again. The days are growing shorter and colder, deadlines are imminent, and exams loom on the horizon. But the approach of winter doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Look up one of these nights at the northern sky, and you might see one of nature’s most fantastic shows – a dramatic display of vibrant colours dancing across the night sky: the northern lights, or aurora borealis.

The northern lights normally make their appearance in St Andrews a few times a year, appearing as a shifting, greenish cloud spread out across the northern horizon, attracting crowds of curious onlookers to the Scores and the pier. But, their enchanting aesthetics and romantic appeal aside, the northern lights have long been a mystery. For centuries, they were the

wards to the rest of the solar system as part of the solar wind, also known as the steady stream of solar particles that constantly flows out from the sun into space.

Some of these particles reach Earth, after a nearly 150 million-kilo-

subject of folklore and superstition.

In Scottish Gaelic legend, they were said to be distant battles fought by heavenly warriors – or, by a different account, dancing spirits. It was only in the 18th century that scientists began to puzzle out the mysteries of the aurora. And only within the last century did researchers begin to unravel the specific details of what causes these haunting, luminous displays.

We now know that the lights we see abstractedly shifting in the sky are the result of countless collisions between electrically charged solar particles, and the gas molecules that make up the Earth’s atmosphere. To understand how this happens, we can trace the journey of these electrically charged particles back to their source.

The particles that will one day instigate such a fantastic spectacle begin their journey as a jumble of electrically charged subatomic particles in outer space. They are protons and electrons, ejected from the sun via an opening in the sun’s atmosphere, thereby causing a solar flare. These charged protons and electrons are then carried out-

The lights we see abstractedly shifting in the sky are the result of countless collisions ern lights can appear directly overhead, they are rarely strong enough to appear that way in St Andrews. The best viewing locations in St Andrews are the Scores, which provide an elevated vantage point with a clear view to the north, and the pier, which projects out far enough to make for a

tering the atmosphere. Some nights they are quite obvious; others, you will have to watch the sky closely to pick them out. They may also change in colour, starting out almost colourless before taking on a more vivid hue later in the night.

Although it is possible to have a fantastic display right here in town, the keen aurora-seeker might consider journeying farther afield. Although St Andrews and other nearby coastal towns are the premier aurora-viewing spots in Fife, a trip up to the darker, less light-polluted Highlands might provide a more vivid showing of the northern lights – that is, if you can avoid the more prevalent rain and clouds in these areas. For the best views in Scotland, however, the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, Orkney and other far-northern islands cannot be beaten, if you are willing to make the trip out to these distant locales.

No matter where you may find yourself on a dark, clear night this winter, be sure to take the time to turn your eyes skyward, and you might just see something breathtaking.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

FEATURES

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Photos: Ryo Yanagida

Town meets Gown: An orchestra of collaborations

CATRIONA AITKEN Deputy features editor In one of only a handful of creative endeavours that sees town meet gown, St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra (StAFCO) is an exciting collaborative project which brings together players of varying abilities from both the University and local area, the University’s music centre, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Founded in 1988 as an informal group for instrumental players with nowhere to play, StAFCO is now under the musical direction of University of St Andrews Music Consultant Gillian Craig, and is going from strength to strength.

The orchestra, who now rehearse in Younger Hall from 7:15 pm - 9:30 pm on Wednesday evenings, prides itself on revolving around cooperation and inclusion, both of which can be seen very strongly through their partnerships, membership, and bi-annual concerts.

Ms Craig told The Saint that StAFCO is a “wonderful blend of students, towns folk, and visitors from much further afield, coming together to have fun playing music.” She continued, “All are welcome which is unusual because most orchestras require an audition, which can be off-putting to many and terrifying to some. Whatever your level of ability and experience, if you are happy, we are happy to have you with us.”

Examples of this inclusivity can be seen both in the lack of auditions to the group, and the fact that StAFCO is unusual as an orchestra in that it includes saxophonists. “We not only accept, but positively welcome saxophones,” commented Ms Craig, “although only rarely used in orchestras, we always have a part for you.”

Orchestra leader and principal violinist Rebecca Clulow is in her third year studying for a PhD in Chemistry.

Ms Clulow also plays with the

University Symphony Orchestra, but told The Saint that she continues to attend StAFCO because “it’s still something I enjoy hugely,” and something through which she has gotten to know so many new people, both students and locals. Ms Clulow continued by

The orchestra... prides itself on revolving around cooperation and inclusion crediting the welcoming and relaxed atmosphere created by Ms Craig and the entire group as a drawing point of the orchestra, as well as the opportunity to ignore any divide between students and locals and work as one community, “Through StAFCO, we get to meet a huge variety of people including both students and locals whilst doing something we all enjoy, bringing us closer together as a community.”

The “town and gown” partnership is certainly massively appreciated by all involved. The Graduate Trainee of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) and University of St Andrews Music Centre, Rufus Sullivan, described STAFCO as “a useful bridge between the University and local people.” He emphasised these strong relations as “one of [the orchestra’s] purposes and an aim for both the Music Centre and SCO.” Mr Sullivan is a former student now appointed as a liaison between the University and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. StAFCO are fortunate to benefit from this partnership

with this world class orchestra, who provide players for sectional rehearsals throughout the semester, and a soloist who traditionally plays a concerto with the orchestra in their spring concert.

Commenting on this relationship and his work with both the University and SCO, Mr Sullivan said, “The graduate trainee position strengthened the ties between the SCO and the University when it was created a few years ago. Now there are several masterclasses for students with world-class musicians every year, side-by-side concerts between SCO musicians and university students, and also many performances from the SCO and SCO musicians that provide an opportunity for local people and students to enjoy the orchestra close at hand.”

Additionally, the SCO has an expanding residency in the local com-

At their winter concert this year, StAFCO will perform a repertoire with a Scottish theme munity aiming to involve people of all ages in performance with the children’s, youth, and community orchestras. There are now also likely to be educational ties with local schools with musicians working to educate all children regardless of their performance desires. These SCO-provided opportunities lend themselves perfectly to an orchestra which already

revolves around collaborations. Mr Sullivan stressed that the “hard work and dedication” of Ms Craig was the driving force behind the running of the group, but additionally acknowl-

“Through StAFCO, students get to meet a variety of both other students and locals edged that “the support of the SCO and its musicians goes a long way to provide the unique learning opportunity that StAFCO provides. He said, “Without the Music Centre, SCO and its funders StAFCO wouldn’t be able to function with the freedom that it does and I am sure everyone involved in the orchestra is very grateful for the fantastic opportunities that are provided for them.” This gratitude was echoed by Ms Craig, who said, “The University is incredibly fortunate to have the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as its Orchestra in Residence.” As well as playing concerts and linking with student music-making, the orchestra’s outreach team, Connect, includes support for StAFCO. “We receive coaching sessions from members of the orchestra, and every year are given a soloist to play a concerto with us. It’s such a privilege for us to make music with musicians of such calibre. Last year we gave a very special performance of Weber’s Concertino with Principal Clarinettist Maximiliano Martin.” These concerts, which are

held in April and November each year, are yet another example of the cooperative ambiance of StAFCO. As well as an SCO guest featuring in their April repertoire, they invite a selection of local talent to join them on stage for their winter performance.

This year’s winter concert will be held at 7 pm on Wednesday 29 November in Younger Hall and StAFCO will perform a repertoire with a Scottish theme, on the eve of St Andrews Day, including ‘The Land of the Mountain and the Flood’ by Hamish MacCunn (considered one of the most “Scottish” pieces ever), Scottish folk songs with the opportunity for some audience participation, Auld Lang Syne, and many more.

Special guests will be the St Andrews Children and Youth Orchestras and Choirs, as well as some surprise performances on the

Now there are several masterclasses for students with world-class musicians every year night. It is sure to be an evening of fantastic music, a little patriotism, and a lot of town and gown collaboration.

“Admission is free and all are welcome, so please, everybody come” Ms Craig urged, noting that the members’ enthusiasm, commitment, sense of working together as a team, and the mix of players of all levels of musical experience playing together is, for her, what makes it all worthwhile.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

This Week in Photos: Raisin Photo Story!

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

Photos of one of the most well known traditions in St Andrews- One family’s journey through Raisin! All photos by Lorelei Elizabeth Pfeffer

Photography editor: SAMMI CIARDI Deputy editors: Harry Gunning, Mika Schmeling, Ranald Dinsdale thesaint-online.com/pictures

photography@thesaint-online.com

@saint_photos

EVENTS

Events editor: GEORGE WILDER Deputy event editors: Bri Paterson, Sarah John @saint_ events

A Tale of Two Raisins

thesaint-online.com/events

events@thesaint-online.com

Two generations of students discuss their Raisin

As a day that is often defined by the evasion of memory afterwards, it is often useful to try and latch onto one particular image of Raisin. Aside from being concrete evidence that you haven’t just woken up from a strangely blurry and blindfold filled dream it also acts as a useful way to re-trace your steps. Who knows?

You might even remember where your clothes went, who you’re lying next to, or why there’s a wok taped to your hand.

My memory was shared with a group of first years at 7am. Nervous, excited, exchanging glances as they considered what might lie in store.

Their discourse was short lived however, as the screech of tires, pound of footsteps, and unmistakable rattle of a Dyspraxic struggling with a door handle, filled the street.

Two figures emerged and chased their target down the road before blindfolding her, tying her hands, and throwing her into the Red VW Polo. It was done, the parents were captured, Raisin Revenge had begun.

7:10 With her capture complete my mother comes to her senses on a staircase. A step forward tells her the inevitable, and she feels her veteran fourth year liver resign itself to a climb lined with drinks. Cries of ‘I never wake up before nine’, ‘why are you doing this?’, and ‘why does this smell like fish?’ are all ignored as she ascends and is told her husband has only forty minutes to find her.

7:15 St Andrew gave yet another turn in his grave as his hallowed turf was once again decorated by my academic dad. The search wasn’t going his way thus far. Every place he went held another clue, another riddle, another glass of something questionable. told him all he needed to know, he was running out of time.

7:40 I sit in a confusing setting, with two bowls, a Jenga tower, sardines, and cumin summoning up images of the strangest gameshow ever to grace the planet. My academic mother, now wearing a bin liner, carefully chooses blocks from the tower.

Her expression falls as she pulls a block with her name on it and, without further ado, we add another ingredient to the wedding breakfast she’ll be enjoying if her husband manages to track her down.

7:45 While it is true not all heroes wear capes, it is also true that my academic dad wasn’t a hero, he was a groom late to his own wedding.

And, with the help of his supportive academic children, he had made it to where T marks the spot.

He finished the Tennents and, with that final clue, he was on his way to the wedding. As he arrived he found

his emotions split, with elation from the sight of wife fading when he saw the less welcome abomination that sat in the microwave.

A sip from my dad was enough to prove that he would most likely fight Anthony Joshua with a toilet brush if that was what it took to rescue his wife.

10:00 Many push for a unique touch in their wedding plans, be it in flower arrangements, music, or by marrying someone they met that night. However, it was with pride that we all felt twister, an online ordainment, and a Tennents waterboarding really made this retaking of our parents vows especially poignant. With this done and our mum, having lost her contacts, now legally blind. We convened a boozy brunch, and tried to get the room to stop spinning.

12:00 My memory is beginning to fade perhaps even earlier than last year, as parties bloom across town and scavenger hunting first years prowl the streets in search of selfies and strangers to serenade.

One of the party lies wrapped in a Dunhill jacket, another dances in the window ledge and tempts the inevitable conclusion. Raisin morning is over, it’s now every man for themselves.

14:00 At this stage I look to my phone for answers and procure an unexpected answer. It seems I was sober enough to use grammar, but the fact that I decided to pose the question ‘If Jesus can walk on water can he swim on land’, makes me question just what the fumes from the microwave had done to my brain.

16:00? As well as the question of what time this was my mind is full of queries about what was actually happening.

Why did so many people seem to have swords? Why is a guy in a lion onesie splashing milk on his face?

Where am I? If life is supposed to be in HD, my memories are the equivalent of a pixelated pirate video being projected through a jar of marmalade.

19:00 When using the word crash to describe what happened to me it’s probably best to describe the situation.

Suffice to say as I sat on a sofa alongside four other survivors, my Dominoes lying ignored in my hands, I actually would have preferred to have been hit by an actual car.

My hangover had materialised out of nowhere, and as I slumped and decided to take a nap it seemed unlikely I’d ever move again.

My night, like a one-thousandpiece jigsaw set upon by an angry Spaniel, lies in pieces around my brain.

Having emerged from my position on the floor I’d been sleeping on for the past four hours I had left to go and wander the town.

Flashing lights imply either going inside or a particularly violent solodance alongside a broken lamppost.

Either way I ended up at home, with most of my clothes, and the majority of my dignity.

Monday morning greeted me, and the rest of the student body, with face of a glowing smartphone as gropu chats began to rumble like thunder.

Yet, it was not this that stayed on my mind as I climbed downstairs and sipped at a Berocca.

I thought over what I’d experienced the day before, what we had all experienced and, as the screams of the foam fight rang out nearby, I broke a hungover smile.

St Andrews can be an exclusive realm, but yesterday brought everyone together in a way that dissolved gaps between years and groups.

STELLA GAGE

The day before raisin is a bit of blur, though not for the same reasons that memories of Sunday are somewhat scattered. Saturday’s haze was due to a total lack of knowledge of what to expect for the day to come. Millions of thoughts clouded my mind as I went through the day, counting down the hours till my raisin fate would be sealed. Unfortunately however, the anticipation of Sunday lead me to be up until 3 am. That was bad decision number one considering I had to be at the pier at 6:32 am–the Facebook event so eloquently read “people who show up too early or late will be punished”.

After a restless night of about one hour of sleep it was time to get up and get ready for the day. 4:45 was time for toast, or rather loading up on carbs so as to avoid being passed out by 8 am.

Luckily for me I live in DR-far far Away and my mum said she couldn’t be bothered to make the trek out of town to “kidnap” me and my flat mate.

Illustration: Gabrielle Wolf

GEORGE WILDER Events editor

There’s no scrabble for tickets to Raisin, no claim from a particular set that it belongs to them, no pressure to focus on the way you present yourself.

Raisin supersedes our modern events culture and reveals a lesson once a year that we would do well to make our mantra for Semesters to come.

It’s about enjoyment, a sort of reckless abandon that is almost impossible to replicate.

Every so often, everyone needs to learn to take themselves that little bit less seriously and remember that, even if the coming days bring suits or tuxes, they spent one day of the year covering each other in foam next to ancient landmarks and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

We quickly got ready and were heading to meet our academic brothers who we were going to walk to town with when I hear my phone buzz.

I look down. It’s my academic dad: oh no.

I answer, put my trembling phone up to my ear and hear the words “where are you?” For fear of having to take punishment shots later I answered with a quiet, “bike path”. He answered, “stay there”.

At this point my palms are sweaty, my mind is telling to make a run for it, but my body is paralysed with a weird combination of dread and excitement for what was to come. Waiting there I see two small figures in the distance making their way towards us.

A blow horn sounds and I hear the familiar voice of my dear old

dad yell “plank for five minutes, any breaks or falters and you take a shot,” to say that my adrenaline kicked in in that moment would be an understatement. I quickly dropped to the ground and prepared for the longest five minutes of my life. With the encouraging cheers from my academic brothers and the vehement desire to not take my first shots at 5 am, I made it through. One challenge down and I was feeling good–maybe I would make it through the day after all.

The four of us, me, my flat mate/ academic sister, and our two brothers, made our way to East Sands. After having passed Sallies to meet up with the rest of our siblings, we found ourselves at the top of the hill before the descent toward the pier. I checked my phone and watched the minutes tick by: 6:29, 6:30, 6:31, 6:32–“RUN”. As time keeper I did not want to be the one responsible for my whole family having to take penalty shots. So down we ran to our eagerly waiting parents, aunts, and uncles.

The morning was filled with many more challenges as we were lead to the shore and put through boot camp. After some shots later and doing what was dubbed a “beer crawl” a siren went off and we knew that was our cue. We started sprinting (and stumbling) towards the water and next thing we knew we were plunging into the North Sea. As the cold water ran along my skin, the rising sun peeked through the early morning clouds, and I looked around at the people before me, an ineffable feeling ran through my bones–I love my school.

I no longer dreaded the activities to come but rather welcomed them with open arms.

The day proceeded with many more challenges and activities, all sewn wonderfully together by the feeling of pure and total fun that they gave me. By 2 pm, I was absolutely knackered and in need of a good sleep, as sprinting around town to complete the odd scavenger hunt list items taking a bit of a toll on me.

One nap and a glass of water later I looked back on my day and thought about all the memories that it held.

For me the morning is the most special because that’s really about the academic family bonding, the games, and just the overall madness of partying before it is even midday.

Whether it be about the foam fight, the weird games, the challenges, the company, or the food, my thoughts on Raisin are as follows: no matter who you are, what you like doing, or where you want to be, Raisin gives you a little taste of everything.

The memories that I made in these two days will be memories that will never be forgotten and ones that I will always look on with incredible fondness.

EVENTS

25

Frat or Ball? Being American in Fife Sarah John Deputy events editor

Illustration: Edward Emery

Anyone who has spent any time at all in this windy coastal town will know that hearing an American drawl in a very Scottish pub isn’t an uncommon occurrence.

Indeed, the twangy accent can be heard all throughout town—underneath fur-lined Canada Goose hoods on Market Street, ordering chunky fries at Blackhorn, and getting confused between “pants” and “trousers” in H&M. There are even those in St Andrews who claim that they know more Yanks than Scots— “in my own country!” they exclaim.

The reverse-pilgrimage across the Atlantic means that over time, St Andrews has developed its own unique culture—and this is especially apparent when it comes to events and going out.

British and American attitudes about having the best possible night out fuse together in this town, and the fact that St Andrews has no real clubs makes it all the more bizarre.

One of the primary differences between going out in the States and in Britain is the drinking age. In the US, anyone under the age of 21 wishing to purchase alcohol will either need to invest in a fake ID or ask their friends who are either over 21 or in possession of their own fake ID. Needless to say, it is an inconvenience.

When your friends are hyping up for a frat party and you are in dire need of some alcohol to pre before you arrive at what is essentially a combination of EDM, underage drinking, and careless sex, not being able to make a quick run to Sainsbury’s to buy some vodka because you don’t own a fake ID can be a real bummer on your night.

Obviously, the Americans, resourceful as ever, have found their own ways around the ridiculously high drinking age. Most frat parties offer free booze (and free entry, if you are female), without any hassle for IDs. However, being in the UK where the cops won’t show up to bust a horde of drinking teens is a luxury.

One thing that shocked me was the discrepancy between the amount of money I spent on a night out in America versus a night out in the UK—or even Europe in general. The

look I gave my friend at the University of Texas when she instructed me not to bring my bank card or any cash was that of complete and utter disbelief.

What? A night out without spending £20 in the first thirty minutes?

Impossible.

But on my night spent frat-hopping until two in the morning in Austin, the only time I found myself wishing I had brought a couple of dollars was when the craving for something carbfilled and salty hit me.

Yes, my European friends, it is entirely possible to have a proper night out, get insanely drunk, and go home at two o’clock without spending a sin-

For instance, balls are unheard of in the US gle dime. Welcome to American frat party culture.

St Andrews does have a reputation for being a luxurious place to live, and this is only amplified when it comes to going out. With one of the most expensive Tesco stores in the entire United Kingdom, funding pre-drinks alone can turn out to be a pricey ordeal.

The price of going out increases as you venture into cities. When my friends and I went to Paris, we were unpleasantly surprised when the bartender at a trendy club on the ChampsElysées held out her palm, requesting €30 for two simple gin and tonics.

30 euros for what would have been four quid at the Union Bar in St Andrews.

The character of a night out changes even more when legal marijuana is introduced. In Amsterdam, I did not spend quite as much money as I did in Paris simply because I did not need to buy many drinks (we were a bit preoccupied with something other than alcohol).

The clubs scattered along Rembrandtplein—a square known for its buzzing nightlife—were all relatively cheap to get into. Club Prime, in particular, cost only five euros for admission.

In total, the cost of the night included a tram ticket to and from our

hostel to Rembrandtplein, getting into the club, a drink or two, as well as our “alcohol alternative.” Still however,

The nightlife in Europe is more enjoyable than that in the US a college night out in America easily beats this price.

Of course, if you are more concerned with the quality of your night out rather than how much you have spent to get smashed, then you should appreciate the fact that you live in St Andrews—yes, even St Andrews, where the word “nightlife” is only mentioned in irony.

Frat parties, though fun, are more of a cheap, convenient venue for stressed college students trying to forget their deadlines, rather than people genuinely wanting to have a nice, memorable time without throwing up on your friend’s hair at the end of the night.

For instance, balls are unheard of in the US—at least, the sort of balls that we have here in St Andrews.

We rarely appreciate the fact that as often as once a month, we can dress to the nines and enjoy champagne and ice cream amidst fun, yet classy surroundings.

Grabbing a couple of drinks at one of the many local pubs in town is another aspect lacking in American college culture before you are 21 (usually your first two years of college).

Pub culture is so common and ingrained in British nightlife, that going back to the States, where I could not suggest casually going to a bar for a gin and tonic to cap the night off, was a jolt back to reality. For American students under the drinking age, this tragedy is the norm.

Personally, after having experienced night outs in four different countries, the nightlife in Europe is more enjoyable tenfold than the nightlife in the US. Being able to legally purchase a drink at the bar and be admitted into clubs are, to me, well worth the steep price tag tacked on at the end of the night.

Once you get past the 21-year mark, however, the incongruences between going out America versus in Britain are less and less clear. The older you get, the more that frat parties become stories that you tell your little siblings in a moment of nostalgia.

As Americans are rewarded for their patience at the age of 21 and hitting up bars, pubs, and clubs becomes part of a normal adult life, there are few complaints that Brits would have upon experiencing true American nightlife.

In the meantime, here in St Andrews we are perfectly happy with our balls, polo tournaments, and fashion shows. Though expensive, the quality of the night out is much greater than a free-of-cost frat party.

We have created our own culture here, a fusion of British pomp and carefree American fun.

Welly 2017: Bigger and Better than ever BRI PATERSON Deputy events editor This year is Welly Ball is going to be big, and not just because it’s the only ball at which you can wear sensible footwear. No this year it’s bigger than ever because it’s the 10 year anniversary of the event.

This means more people are being let in, more live music and food as well as more DJs. The dinner ballot has already been closed and the event been set, so sadly if you wanted dinner you’re out of luck.

But with an after party that routinely sells out its best to have Thursday 2 November stuck in your minds because that’s when the fixr tickets go online. There will also be some tickets sold in person but a date has yet to be announced, although following the Welly ball event page on Facebook is recommended.

Sponsored by big names such as Sipsmith London and Tunnocks, its unsurprising that Welly Ball has long been an event on peoples calendars in St Andrews. Each year seems to be bigger than ever and this year will be no exception.

This years directors Annabel and Georgie promise that the committee has been working hard in order to make this years party all the more memorable.

With the promise of more entertainment they hope to ensure that people don’t get too bored in such an isolated location like Kinkell Byre, promising to live up to even bigger events like Christmas or May Ball.

Despite being in the same place and with a similar hype and attendance to these two other balls, for some reason Welly ball is confined to being viewed as a lower tier ball, like glitter ball or Jsoc. This so called ranking has certainly troubled the reputation of Welly ball and limited it in the past.

Lets hope that this years committee have found a way to break the shackles of this myth.

However in some ways this myth has aided Welly ball: it ensures that it’s always a proper party rather than just people simply eying each other up across the ballroom.

Instead the focus is much more on enjoying the night rather than keeping

Photo: Welly Ball

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

up appearances, much like Szentek promises to be this year.

Yet again this year Welly Ball is supporting a really great cause: the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust which is a charity focused on promoting awareness about mental health and reducing stigma.

With mental health being something that effects so many at this university, its hard to think of a cause that would be closer to the hearts of the student body. Their continued support of the same charity is also remarkable and has won them praise from student and charity alike.

Previous years have meant jumping from success to success for the Welly Ball committee, so there’s certainly something for this years committee to live up to.

However last year the ball was marred by scandal, with Natasha Franks suggesting that funds were being appropriated by the committee rather than being donated to charity.

This was something that the committee vehemently denied and was able to back up with financial records as proof.

While these accusations were proven unfounded and slanderous, the resulting outcry resulted in a blow to the balls reputation, something they

Instead the focus is much more on enjoying the night rather than keeping up appearances are keen to correct this year.

One thing is certain, however, that no matter the motivations behind it the committee have ensured that this year will be bigger and better than ever.

EVENTS

Illustration: Rosie Catcheside

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White Tie Reeling: new venue, same moves GEORGE WILDER Events Editor

Heading out of The Bubble is always nice, particularly when it gets to the point of claustrophobia. I’m a sucker for dirndls and low quality beer so October means Oktoberfest.

And while I’d love to go to the actual thing in Berlin or Munich I am sadly a poor student. So when I heard that Edinburgh was hosting their very own Oktoberfest I knew I wanted to go. So I rallied the troops and set out for night out of the bubble.

Getting to Edinburgh bright and early, admittedly a little tipsy from drinking on the train, we joined the winding queue to get into the beer tent.

Our tickets were of the Bavarian class, which meant we got a free small beer and a pretzel with our tickets, but seating was a free for all. Once we got in we joined yet another queue to get the vast steins from the bar purely for the Instagram picture we all desperately wanted.

Then it was off to the dance floor.

Surprisingly enough my friends and I were the youngest people in the

room by far. Instead of it being a teenage/early twenties event the feel was a lot more middle aged than I was expecting.

Surely they all had jobs that they were missing on a Thursday afternoon? After getting awkwardly hit on by a few nearly 40 year olds I certainly felt a little young to be there.

However just because the crowd was older didn’t mean that they couldn’t party – the atmosphere in the tent was insane. People were standing up on tables and benches dancing, singing along to the band who were a German group singing the most random assortment of classic pop I’d ever heard.

You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ sung in a heavy German accent. It’s truly hilarious. We were also one of the few small pockets of people who had bothered to dress up – most of the people who attended hadn’t put much effort in at all.

The event was selling dirndls and hats that were scattered around the room, but one of my friends was so in costume she got asked if she was working there.

However not everything was perfect on the day. The quality of the

free pretzel that came with the ticket was disappointing – while I’d been looking forward to one of those huge American style ones, instead this pretzel was small and incredibly tough and dry.

The beer that came with the ticket wasn’t the huge tankard that I needed for Instagram and the tankard was a huge £11 per drink, which for watered down beer mixed with lemonade is more than a tad steep. Another downside was the location. Based in Princes Gardens in the centre of Edinburgh, so it was certainly easy to get to and find.

But because it was in a park there was nothing on the ground to stop things getting muddy.

Throw in a ton of drunken people holding huge overflowing beers and you’re left with a wave of mud and grime that filled the dance floor. By the end of proceedings my shoes were ruined, and it certainly made dancing slightly less enjoyable as every time someone jumped you’d get splatters of dirty water on your legs. But still it was a really enjoyable event for all involved and once you got used to shouting over the crowds, or drunk enough to dance, it truly earned the right to call itself an Octoberfest event.

In terms of events culture, St Andrews finds its international contingent is a saving grace, bringing everything from traditional dinners to ruin-bar raves.

In fact, there seems to be so many events from our international brothers and sisters that we are forced to wonder, how Scottish are the events here?

Are we, the humble students of this fine institution, receiving an authentic experience of life north of Hadrian’s Wall?

On the surface it would appear that, despite the occasional presence of a bagpipe or a tenuous historical link, I wondered if our events culture links strongly at all to our position in Fife However, this would be forgetting Reeling Balls which, far from being a facade of Scottish Culture, are a genuine education in a facet of Scottish life that has existed for centuries.

To get a better idea about Reeling and the part it plays in our Bubble, I decided to interview Reeling Committee Chairman Barney Bruce-Smythe.

The Saint: ‘So firstly, could you give the laymen amongst us an idea of what reeling actually is?’

BBS: ‘Reeling is traditional Scottish dancing, with its closest comparison probably being Ceildh dancing.

However, it is less focused on a single partner, and more upon dancing in groups and lines.

It also tends to be more flamboyant, with spins, turns and even a ‘helicopter’. There is also no ‘caller’ in Reeling, unlike a Ceildh, as you already know the dances.’

The Saint: ‘What would you say is the role of Reeling Ball in St Andrews Event Culture?’

BBS: ‘I guess it takes a slightly different line to other events in the town.

We focus less on advertising on social

Hamlet PrinceLaunch of Denmark Catwalk

White Tie Reeling

Gordon Brown

Summer Camp Talk

Bursting the Bubble: Edinburgh Oktoberfest BRI PATERSON Deputy events editor

O

n Thursday the 2nd of November Catwalk will be holding their 2018 Launch in the Beacon Bar of The Union

O

n Saturday the 4th of November the White Tie Reeling Ball brings Scottish Culture right to the heart of St Andrews Event Culture.

O

n Monday the 6th of November Gordon Brown wil be speaking at The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity in St Andrews.

media and rounding up sheer weight of numbers, our events are still large, but not at the scale of most other balls.

We host two balls per year, a ‘White Tie’ and ‘Black Tie’’ respectively, each acting as a platform to help a different charity.

Although smaller, there is still a large build up however, as we host weekly practice in the union, to teach everybody the dances beforehand’ The Saint: ‘Can we expect any changes from last year?’

BBS: ‘We’ve got a brand new venue, who have been extremely accommodating: ‘Balbirnie House’. It is simply a stunning place. We have unfortunately had to reduce our capacity ever so slightly from last year, however other than this I would rather not reveal the last couple of differences before the ball!

Rest assured though, we still have the ‘Infamous Grouse Band’ to take us through the night.’

The Saint: ‘Do you think there’s a lack of truly Scottish events in St Andrews?’

BBS: ‘Not necessarily to be honest. There are several other societies other than reeling that offer opportunities to get involved in Scotland and ‘Scottishness’.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they slip under the radar than might otherwise be expected?’

Besides the interview questions themselves Mr Bruce-Smythe showed a real passion for what the Committee is trying to create. In particular he was keen to mention the Ball’s silent auction for Help for Heroes, who support those suffering with various injuries and problems after serving the British Armed Forces.

All details aside one thing is for certain, seeing as my hand-eye coordination is lower than that of most creatures that don’t actually have eyes, the experts later this month may have a little more to handle than usual.

O

n Tuesday the 7th of November all those interested in working across the pond on a camp this Summer should report to College Gate at 1PM for a talk by CCUSA on opportunities next Summer.

eight

O

BUDS

n Friday the 10th of November St Andrews Snowsport will be hosting the BUDS ski event at Midlothian Snowsports Centre Edinburgh. The event will include racing, freestyling, and ‘all things social’.

O

Welly Ball

n Saturday the 11th of November Welly Ball brings us one of the largest events of the year in Kinkell Byre. Dinner ballot is over but tickets for the Afterparty will be available from the 2nd.

O

CoRchella 2017

n Tuesday the 14th of November Children of Rwanda present CoRchella. Expect festival vibes and a mixture of contemporary tunes with throwback favourites.

O

Szentek

n Thursday the 16th of November Szentek Committee bring us one of last year’s most popular events. A real change from the usual ball vibe, if this year is anything like last year we’re in for a treat.

ARTS & CULTURE

Arts & culture editor: LASZLO SZEGEDI Deputy editors: Zeb Baker-Smith, Toby Symonds, Marianna Panteli, Aimee Rutherford, Emme Hollingsworth, Sam Huckstep, Olivia Hendren arts@thesaint-online.com @saint_arts thesaint-online.com/arts-culture

Illustration: Edward Emery

ARTS & CULTURE

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in Edinburgh: A concert review Having missed London Grammar’s Glasgow set at TRON festival, it was essential to go down and watch what could be the award-winning band’s only show at the Usher Hall for a while, given the nearly four-year gap since their last trek up north.

The night was ably begun with the solid half-hour set of LA-based indie band, Lo Moon, who, despite being somewhat awestruck by the concert venue, as lead singer Matt Lowell explained, displayed the impressive barrages of guitar sound, propelled by powerful drums and airy vocals, with which they are making waves across the Atlantic. The songs “This Is It” and “Loveless” were especially worth a listen.

The 45-minute wait for the main event dragged until, almost unexpectedly, the trio appeared on stage and “Who Am I”, from their 2017 sophomore release Truth Is A Beautiful Thing, gently arose without need for an introduction.

It was a somewhat inconspicuous and understated opening to what was a sold-out, hyped-up show, their only

one in Scotland for this album’s UK tour, one that really typified what proceeded and, perhaps, what the band considers their raison d’être.

This unassuming face put on by the band is not to be sneered at. Aside from the crowd being gently prodded, rather than implored, by vocalist Hannah Reid to sing during the familiar songs like their remarkable debut hit “Hey Now” (whose YouTube video brought them to the fore in 2012 soon after graduating from Nottingham University), there was little revving up of the audience done, nor needed. Instead of this, the band let each of their songs stand up for themselves – tracks from both albums, particularly “Strong” from 2013’s If

You Wait, and “Big Picture” have this reticent way of becoming burgeoning, and big-hitting symphonic crowning moments, enhanced by dazzling strobe effects and sweeping panoramics on-stage behind them.

The quasi-orchestral textures

with timpani sticks was striking), are just as crucial to the group as Reid’s oft-lauded vocal lines. Not only are all three members major players in the band’s approach to songwriting, but the snappy, detached guitar riffs and the strident, thunderous keyboard, drum machine, and drumkit combinations could be listened to separately and retain the same magnetic quality.

Comparisons have often been made to Florence W e l c h , Natasha Khan, and other prodigiously-voiced women of the indie-pop honours board, but there is no doubt that Hannah Reid has carved her own name right up there.

Despite having talked openly of the stage fright she has suffered from photo: wikimedia

ZEB BAKER-SMITH Music editor

provided by diminutive guitarist Dan Rothman and hirsute multi-instrumentalist Dominic “Dot”’ Major (whose thrashing of the cymbals

early on in the band’s rise, the opening of “Rooting For You”, a personal single from the new release, was sung a cappella, much to the confusion of some of the packed crowd, who failed to understand the concept of silence during what was meant to be a charged, yet delicate, moment. Sat down so she “could reach the high notes”, it was a brave and formidable display, parading the scope of her sometimes faltering, sometimes vibrant vocal reach.

Given the vast amount of effort that must go into the vocals and, presumably, the rest of the music, it is understandable, but still disappointing, that the gig was a brief one – the band was barely an hour in when they took the applause and left.

It was only the ten minutes of encores including “Oh Woman Oh Man” and “Metal and Dust” that saved the brevity of the concert from being overly outrageous.

They still had a good few of their biggest numbers to get through from both this year’s album and their last.

Otherwise, this was one of few qualms – it was a stirring performance from one of the most unique bands around at the moment, breath-taking visually and staggering vocally.

The Just So Society’s Anything Goes: A preview CIARA MUNNELLY I’m a self-confessed musical theatre nerd. I am not saying that I know every musical out there but I have performed in my fair share and seen pretty much all of the well-known ones that the West End has to offer.

The St Andrews musical theatre scene is always diverse and now it is the turn of Anything Goes to grace The St.Age. A young Wall Street broker, Billy Crocker, is preparing to say goodbye to his good friend Reno and boss Elisha at the dock on a ship headed for London when he spies the girl with whom he has fallen in love at first sight boarding the same vessel. He soon learns that she is Hope Harcourt, an heiress engaged to be married to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, a stuffy English nobleman. In a bid to convince Hope to marry him and break off her engagement, Billy becomes a stowaway aboard the SS American. What ensues is a series of hilarious costume changes as Billy and his new friend Moonface (public enemy #13) avoid getting caught and continue his mission of getting the girl.

“Anything Goes is such a wellknown show, even if you don’t know the musical itself, the title song is instantly recognisable.” Grace Reid, one of the musical directors, believes it has a lot to offer; “It is a musical for the generations and what everyone

thinks of when you imagine a musical, the toe tapping jazzy numbers with a Frank Sinatra-esque vibe. The great thing about the songs is that Cole Porter really tries to make use of the ensemble with harmonies and massive dance numbers.”

Huge numbers can often be a daunting thing for a musical director but Ms Reid and Lavie have taken it in their stride.

Having a male and f e m a l e musical director partnership means that there is no part which will suffer.

The biggest challenge for Ms Reid is contending with all the different rhythms and parts within just one song and making sure that every part is perfectly in time with one another and the band.

What is really exciting about this musical is that the Just So Society get to use a full band to accompany their musical numbers. For Marcella Denby, the director, the music is re-

ally what sells the show. We will for sure not be short of jazz hands and showstoppers with this production.

Although always impressive, the dance element for this one is taking the Just So Society talent pool to exciting new heights with an entire tap number. As someone who has done three years of tap training in the past, I am well aware of the challenges that

a tap number can present for a trained dancer, let alone complete beginners, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

In rehearsal I was able to observe Caroline McWilliams, the show’s producer, teach a partner routine.

Partner dancing was something that

Ms Denby was very keen to include in this show: “I remember doing a lot of partner dances back in High School and it was definitely something that the last few musicals have been lacking. I’m so glad that we are now getting an opportunity to do this.”

This is Ms Denby’s directorial debut with the Just So Society, having been a cast member in previous productions, and she is really putting her stamp on the role.

One thing that was abundantly clear when I spoke to Ms Denby was her inclusivity aim — the show boasts a 20-person cast and a photo: Chloe Ashley large production team. “There are so many talented people in St Andrews and I wanted to give even more of them an opportunity to get involved and create a crew. A lot of the people who auditioned were also keen to help out in whatever way they could and I love that!”

The audition process for Anything

Goes saw the largest amount of auditionees yet with 72 students going along to show the team what they could do and the standard was high.

Billy, is being played by Connor Norris — you may have seen him in the University St Andrews Opera Society performances. The cast has some new faces in addition to the Just So regulars which is really nice to see.

Knowing a bit about the musical already, I was really excited to find out how Ms Denby and the costume team were planning on dressing the production and they are definitely not going to disappoint. “The theme is red, white and blue with some gold thrown in there”. Channelling ‘30s glamour with a classic slick of red lipstick, some of the cast were actually in fitting at the Barron whilst I was at rehearsal — it is going to be interesting to see how that all comes together, miles away from the offerings of the production calendar last year.

Anything Goes is hoping to appeal to all ages, town and gown alike, whether it is seeing an adaptation of a musical that is so dearly loved or discovering it for the first time. It is a feel-good musical filled with romance and giggles. Go to escape deadlines and the stress of everyday life to settle in for the ultimate classic musical experience.

Anything Goes will be performed on 7, 8, and 9 November at the St.Age. Be sure to get your tickets so you can “get a kick” out of it too!

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Unmissable music from October

Arts and culture editor Laszlo Szegedi has collected the best singles and albums from October that you may have missed. Like last month, there is something for everyone here, from film soundtracks to vibrant electronic dance tunes – for the Spotify playlist, find the article on thesaint-online.com/arts-culture.

Daphni – Joli Mai October was a great month for electronic music, marking the return of Canadian DJ Dan Snaith, also known as Caribou, Manitoba, and Daphni.

Most tracks on Joli Mai may be familiar from the Fabriclive mix released this summer – these have been enhanced with structural complexity, and their combination provides a pleasurable listen. Daphni dives into club culture on this album, and while this work never quite reaches the high standards set by 2014’s Our Love (by his alias Caribou), the memorable bangers of the album’s second half prove that Snaith has turned to his roots. Do not miss the Bollywood-esque “Vikram,” and the four club anthems it leads to: “Tin,” “The Truth,” “Hey Drum,” and “Medellin.”

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice Recorded in the course of fourteen months, Lotta Sea Lice (see right) is the highly anticipated collaborative album of indie darlings Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile. “Over Everything” opens with endearing solemnity, as the singers’ vocals complement each other like the black and white walls and outfits on the album cover. Clocking in at a mere 45 minutes, Lotta Sea Lice is like a road trip with the right company: it’s over too soon, but leaves enough impression for nostalgia in the future.

St. Vincent – MASSEDUCTION St. Vincent finally returns with MASSEDUCTION, an album filled with witty social criticism. While surprisingly less quirky than what she’s known for, there’s still plenty of essential St. Vincent-isms here. “Los Ageless” still stands out, while the latest single “Pills” goes even further in its sarcasm to highlight the frequency of substance abuse, and features Cara Delevingne’s vocals on the chorus. However, pop never quite dominates the generic scope of MASSEDUCTION, as the truly immersive tracks prove to be the melancholic, introspective ballads, such as “Happy Birthday, Johnny,” “Slow Disco,” and “Smoking Section.” As a little extra, search for the Japanese bonus track on YouTube, titled “Power Corrupts”.

King Krule – The OOZ Archy Marshall returns as King Krule for his second album under this alias. The follow-up to 2013’s 6 Feet Beneath the Moon is a gigantic, 66-minute feat addressing the issues of finding oneself alienated from the world.

Unlike Benjamin Clementine’s more optimistic I Tell a Fly in September, King Krule’s approach to the sense of isolation is dark and gritty, and as his distinctive voice echoes through the The OOZ, listeners may find themselves floating on a separate plane of existence with him. “This vessel was delayed / No objects in motion / A subject to smoking / The platform sighs, “My empty emotion” / As trackies walk on by / I’m alone, I’m alone / In deep isolation,” he confesses on “The Locomotive.” Besides the singles “Biscuit Town” and “Dum Surfer,” give a listen to “Sublunary,” “Lonely Blue,” and “Vidual” to warm up for the experience.

photo: Consequence of Sound photo: pastemagazine

Kelela – Take Me Apart The result of four years of work, Take Me Apart (see first image) is R&B singer Kelela’s passionate, erotically charged first studio album. Infused with the glitchy electronica of collaborators Jam City and Arca, the album pulsates with emotion, and composes a layered sound accompanied

by Kelela’s soothing vocals. Highly recommended for fans of FKA Twigs, it’s best to start with the radio-friendly first single “LMK,” continue with hits “Frontline” and “Waitin,” ultimately reaching the darker moments of “S.O.S.” and “Enough.”

photo: bandcamp

Shigeto – The New Monday Zach Saginaw frequently relies on his personal experiences to create music. He has meditated on childhood, sampled his grandmother’s voice for an EP, and now he takes listeners to the music scene in Detroit with his mixture of pulsating electronica, mellow R&B, and occasional jazz. The New Monday is an ideal record for when you’re too lazy to go out: its robust percussions reminisce the best of what a busy club may offer, but avoids the predictable monumental heights and instead dives in directions that justify the five to seven minute average length of its songs. Album closer “When We Low” is an absolute highlight, but “Detroit Part II,” “There’s a Vibe Tonight,” and “Don’t Trip” stand out as well.

MGMT – “Little Dark Age” MGMT have been more and more divisive since their immensely successful 2007 debut, Oracular Spectacular, and their first single after a fouryear hiatus is no exception. The synth-heavy “Little Dark Age” has been labelled too dark by many fans, yet there’s an undeniable grooviness to the track, aptly timed for Halloween.

Joji – “Will He” George Miller is the icon of non-pc, inappropriate comedy – many may know him for his numerous YouTube personalities, including Filthy Frank, Pink Guy, or Chin Chin. Under the increasing pressure of the video-sharing platform’s censorship and consequential demonetising process, Miller has decided to prove himself as a musician. As Pink Guy, he has channelled his dark humour into hip-hop on Pink Season earlier this year, while under the Joji alias he presents a surprisingly personal and heartfelt experimentation.

“Will He” is an emotional R&B track, aspiring to introduce the sensitive man behind the taboo-breaking comedian.

Floating Points – “Ratio (Full Mix)” A friend of Daphni’s Dan Snaith and a returning DJ in London’s Fabric nightclub, Floating Points is no new name to dancefloors. The full mix of “Ratio” is a 19-minute odyssey into the realms of minimal techno, by the end of which you will find yourself gazing into the post-rave 6 am sunrise.

Wy – Okay Up-and-coming Swedish duo Wy refer to their music as “cry-pop” – if you like introspective, sad melodies to catch yourself nodding to, their debut album Okay should not be ignored. With guitar-heavy instrumentals and passionate lyrics, they address the whirlwind of emotions we go through as we grow up – specifically in our twenties. “What Would I Ever Do” and “Bathrooms” are absolute highlights, but more monumental pieces like “Hate to Fall Asleep” and “Gone Wild” may remind you of The Cure’s operatic moments.

Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein – Stranger Things 2 (a Netflix Original Series Soundtrack) Dixon and Stein proved themselves on the first season’s soundtrack, and their musical sequel (see second image) matches the new season’s aspirations to be bigger. Besides the necessary eeriness of some Upside Downscenes, Stranger Things 2 is infused with the expectable ‘80s nostalgia, hitting it off immediately on the first track, “Walkin in Hawkins”. As members of the band S U R V I V E, Dixon and Stein toured the UK earlier this year and surprised fans with occasional tracks from the series. For devotees of the Netflix show, we have good news: they will be performing the soundtrack live in London’s Barbican on 8 April.

Visionist – Value By channelling emotions and personal experiences into his noise-ridden grime, Value is proof of Visionist’s artistic complexity. “New Obsession,” “No Idols,” and “Invanity” reflect the influence of South London’s underground electronic music scene, and Visionist doesn’t shy away from bringing theatrical vocal grandeur to channel the pains of anxiety. Accompanied by occasional chants, “Self-” and “Your Approval” stand out as the more sombre, quiet pieces.

Circuit des Yeux – Reaching for Indigo A mixture of complex instrumentals, uncanny chants and spiritual folk compose the unique, experimental sound of Reaching for Indigo. Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr has always been great as a storyteller, and after exhausting touring and disturbed emotional states she has decided to capture her feelings in what is perhaps her most ambitious project yet. The whimsical “Black Fly” and “Paper Bag” are proper showcases of Fohr’s talent, as she elevates folk to a more atmospheric, almost gothic scale.

Odonis Odonis – No Pop No Pop is a surprising album for Odonis Odonis’s three self-proclaimed fans of alternative rock, as their evolution from garage rock-infused noise towards buzzing, hypnotic industrial couldn’t be further from their genre of inspiration. With their interests rooted in science-fiction and the dark side of technology, the heavy beats running throughout the album certainly cast a dystopian vibe on their narrative, and as the prevailing noise intensifies on tracks like “Check My Profile,” “Nasty Boy,” and “One,” their intentions to keep evolving in sound become clear.

photo: genius

Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch – Blade Runner 2049 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) While it was a shame to see Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson depart the project, fans of his work had the opportunity to give his original theme a listen when it surfaced on YouTube early in October. Of course, Hans Zimmer is always reliable, and his second collaboration with Benjamin Wallfisch (known for horror soundtracks such as the Annabelle sequel and It) after their Golden Globe-nominated turn on Hidden Figures brings enough ambient, suspenseful sci-fi melodies to the table. While the film itself is unmissable, you don’t necessarily have to watch it to respond to its music: moody pieces like “Sapper’s Tree” and “Rain” are gritty enough to activate your imagination, and the cathartic 10-minute “Blade Runner” is guaranteed to satisfy.

Wild Beasts – Punk Drunk & Trembling In late September, one of the UK’s most popular indie rock bands announced their split along with a final EP. Punk Drunk & Trembling (see left) is a collection of outtakes, and while Wild Beasts admitted the songs were not intended to be their farewell pieces, they consider them a mature closure to their 15-year career. The EP comprises a mere three tracks, which may prove unsatisfying for fans, but it’s certainly an appropriate complement to last year’s Boy King.

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

TOBY SYMONDS Film editor

Did you watch a film for Halloween?

The options are endless for 31 October movie nights: a trip to the cinema last week alone offered a plethora of horrors, in the shapes of Happy Death Day, Jigsaw, and The Ritual. As ever, there’s no time to recover from Halloween parties because Guy Fawkes Day is soon after – that enduringly popular celebration of toffee apples, fireworks, bonfires, and burning effigies of 17th-century terrorists.

For those international students who are not in the know: each year, on the fifth night of November, people across the UK commemorate the failure of a band of Catholic rebels to murder King James VI and I in 1605, by destroying the Houses of Parliament. Though the plot was conceived and led by one Robert Catesby, the man best known for the failure is Guy Fawkes, who was caught ready to light the gunpowder in an underground tunnel. As with so many long running traditions, the original impetus for the celebration matters less now than the simple love of a good party; in this case, one with a great big bonfire. But what films should you watch as the embers settle at the end of the night? Is there such a thing as a Guy Fawkes Day film?

There being little precedent for cinematic dramatisations of the Gunpowder Plot, only one obvious example comes to mind; that being James McTeigue’s 2005 dystopian thriller V for Vendetta. The film stars Natalie Portman – with one seriously dodgy British accent – as Evey Hammond, a TV network employee who finds herself rescued by a masked vigilante known as V, before watching him blow up London’s Old

Bailey courthouse. A tale of political revolution against state dictatorship, the film takes place around the bonfire nights of 2027 and 2028, with V plotting to succeed where Guy Fawkes failed in blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Connections to the 1605 plot go further still in V’s costume, which is topped off by a Guy Fawkes mask, of the sort that were popular in the early 20th century. Anarchic and fun, V for Vendetta retains an enduring appeal in a troubled world. Indeed, such is the film’s popularity that Guy Fawkes masks have been commonly adopted by numerous protesters in the twelve years since its release.

Perhaps revolutions in dystopia won’t work with everyone’s idea of a party feature, but it does climax with a rather tremendous fireworks display.

Whilst they’re not common, it is not the case that no filmed versions of the Gunpowder Plot actually exist.

Besides the BBC’s brand new miniseries Gunpowder (available right now on the BBC iPlayer), the sole theatrical iteration was produced

by Maurice Elvey way back in 1923.

Black and white, and silent, the film took its title from Guy Fawkes’ name, with Canadian actor Matheson Lang playing the man himself. It is worth noting that Elvey’s film is based on the version of the events recounted in William Ainsworth’s three-part penny dreadful novel, so comes with a pinch of salt, and also that tracking down a copy of the film today is no mean feat.

Wonderland is another film which sets itself around a fifth of November weekend. Directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Shirley Henderson, Molly Parker and Gina

ic of heroin addiction, swept in like an eleventh plague by the overused prescription painkillers. Huntington, once a picture of small town American life now faces one of the biggest drug problems the States has ever seen.

The figures are quite astounding, with in one in four residents suffering from an opiate addiction and one in 10 babies being born addicted to the substance.

Any story about drug addiction is going to make for disturbing viewing, yet it is hard to escape the particular cruelty of Huntington’s.

The second episode looks at sex trafficking in Houston. It is an epicentre for trafficking, with one out of five victims of this crime coming through this city. Theroux examines all the cogs that turn the wheel of this pernicious industry. He talks to both pimps and prostitutes, and begins to uncover the complex relations that make Houston a hub of prostitution.

Finally, Theroux goes to Milwaukee, where the homicide rate is 12 times the national average. The

number of murders spiked dramatically in Milwaukee two years ago and it is unclear why, but a potent mix of lax gun laws, segregation, poverty, and run-down local schools seems to have led the town down this sad and violent

McKee, Wonderland is the story of three sisters in London told across five days, either side of Guy Fawkes Day. Shot in a documentary fashion, a watching of the film makes for a deeply moving experience. It’s about loneliness in London, about relationships, and about real people. One of the primary selling points of the film is indeed the involvement of unsuspecting members of the public, whose reactions can be seen shot throughout in scenes such as those of the Bonfire Night fireworks. Touching, if not quite party material.

Fireworks do, of course, feature in many a movie. There’s one tremendously uplifting sequence in Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, and a thrilling display of rebellion by the Weasley twins in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix too. To call these Bonfire Night specialities, on the other hand, might be a little too tenuous for uptake.

Fundamentally, the 1605 Gunpowder Plot involved no bonfires, fireworks or explosions of any variety. It was a moment of rebellion against persecution, albeit one in which the persecuted would have been entirely prepared to persecute their enemies were the tables flipped.

Perhaps a Bonfire Night film ought instead, then, to capture the spirit of the epoch rather than imitate the celebrations that commemorate it. Plenty of great examples could fill such boots – Order of the Phoenix would now be a very good call – but lest we forget that this is Scotland and whilst they may take our lives, they will never take our film nights. Remember, remember, watch Braveheart on the fifth of November.

photo: flickr

Films to watch on Bonfire night

Must-watch: Louis Theroux’s Dark States

MARIANNA PANTELI TV editor

This month has seen the return of much-loved documentarian (and national treasure) Louis Theroux to the BBC. In this latest trilogy of documentaries, it is clear his work has continued down its trajectory of a more serious and sombre path as he examines Heroin Town, Trafficking Sex, and Murder in Milwaukee. If you had any faith that the American Dream was still alive and kicking, then these programs pick it up, shake it in your face and show you that it is very much limp and lifeless. These are American stories through and through. They show the inverse of what our collective conscious has been promised that America will be. However, the suffering we find at its core could be found anywhere. We are used to Theroux tackling strange topics and interviewing eccentric people with an often humorous effect. Dark States is the Greek tragedy of the Theroux anthology – its tone is desperate and it will leave you wondering how exactly these situations came about.

The first episode sees Theroux visit Huntington, Virginia, a blue-collar industrial town ravaged not only by the recession but also by an epidem-

Shawnda, holding the rifle she keeps by her bathtub, is such a strange and extreme vision. However, the issues that are so intensely amplified in Milwaukee make sound waves all across America as well.

In many ways, it seems odd for a documentarian who is so well-known for looking at wrestling and swingers to now be tackling some of the most pertinent issues affecting America. Murder and Milwaukee even features a shocking image of a homicide victim still lying in the place he was shot, along with footage of the immedili ate reaction of his devianna Pante ar M y b n Illustratio astated family. There path. Theroux’s does seem to be concern filming comes at a time of heightened that this could be in bad taste and tension, after the police shooting of an insensitive, but Theroux has always African American man named Sylville taken his subjects seriously and even Smith, which brought racism and inhis more lighthearted documentaries stitutionalised racism to the centre of are tinged with a certain sober conthe national conversation. Theroux templation. In his old work, those sheds light on America’s complicated whom society may laugh or cringe at and fraught relationship with guns. are approached with objective sincerThe image of Milwaukee resident, ity, and now he does the same with

those that society has forgotten. The three programmes are conducted on a human level; Theroux’s detached and non-judgemental inquiry makes the interviewees feel comfortable to open up to him and makes the viewer feel comfortable with the questioning they are seeing. Dark States is a must (if very bleak) see that encapsulates the melancholic mood of America’s current social and cultural climate as our focus is brought to particular people’s suffering. However, as the individual stories unfurl, questions naturally arise about the systems that allow for whole areas to be inflicted with these problems. We gain insight into the why this might be from the interviewees and from the interviewer’s final rumination in the closing minutes.

We can only hope that this series encourages serious conversation about the isolated social issues that have become ignored systemic failures. So, if you are yet to catch up with Dark States, get on it and gain a deeper understanding and objective observation of those whom society has left behind, and some of the most impenetrable issues that America must face (and then maybe put on Theroux’s’ Weird Weekends and watch him sing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” to Craig Revel Horwood to cheer yourself back up again).

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

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Edinburgh Film Festival:

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Premiere of the Syrian civilian

VICTOR PILARD The 2017 Edinburgh Film Festival premiered two films this summer focused on the Syrian civil war. The first was Philippe van Leeuw’s Insyriated, which tells the story of a family barricaded inside their home as war surrounds them. The second film was a documentary named Last Men in Aleppo directed by Firas Fayyad, focusing on the work of The White Helmets, a local search and rescue organisation. As I read their blurbs in the film guide, I wondered what these films could add to my understanding of the Syrian Civil War. What images could these films present to me that I hadn’t already seen time and time again on the news?

Perhaps the most important way in which these films provide new insight into the Syrian civil war is through their treatment of the civilian.

Common perceptions of the civilian as a helpless entity are challenged headon in both films. Last Men in Aleppo does this through its principle point of focus, Khaled Umar Harah. As the leader of the White Helmets, Khaled is on permanent standby awaiting calls to respond to the aftermath of military airstrikes. Through him, we are able to bare witness to the actions of the remaining community of Aleppo who take matters in their own hands to save innocent lives. The camera struggles to keep up with Khaled as he and his team rush through the city to rescue families buried beneath debris. In addition, these scenes are

contrasted with scenes of rebirth and renovation. In the silent periods between airstrikes, Khaled enjoys time with his children alongside many other families who refuse to live under constant terror. The White Helmets commit their free time to building a garden, at the centre of which Khaled tends to a water fountain and goldfish. The civilians portrayed in Last Men in Aleppo are not helpless victims awaiting rescue. They are shown as a community actively engaged in their own survival.

S i m i l a r l y , Insyriated illustrates the resilience of the average Syrian family. At the head of the household is Oum Yazan, a mother in charge of her elderly father, daughter-inlaw and young children. As war rages around them, the family refuses to let their way of life be dictated by fear. In fact, many scenes throughout this film depict seemingly mundane parts of every-day life. The camera gently pans around the household as we quietly observe the elderly grandfather tutoring his grandson, followed by the older children cleaning and setting the table for dinner.

The danger outside is ever-present, but life continues.

The central focus on civilians is also accentuated by the absence of soldiers from both of these films. While gunshots and explosions comprise a large part of the surrounding environment, there is no physical representation of an enemy. Our common understanding of the war in Syria, with fighting between many different fronts representing a range of political ideologies, is completely subverted by their lack

the situation go away by closing their eyes. Here, it is made clear that the events unfolding in Syria will not go away by merely looking the other way and waiting for them to end.

The Syrian civil war is now well into its sixth year. Throughout this period, the conflict has drifted in and out of national focus, debating different topics from military intervention, international war crimes and terrorism. More recently, our attention has been directed towards the refugee crisis, questioning what measures should be taken with regard to the millions of Syrians fleeing the war.

With each new topic comes a round of political debate. We form our own opinions and take our sides. In the background, news coverage relays images to which we have by now surely become desensitised: entire buildings reduced to rubble, motionless bodies and families in mourning.

Last Men in Aleppo and Insyriated attribute new meaning to these images. They amplify the voices of those who we assumed had none. Casting politics and nationality aside, these films concern themselves first and foremost with those who are too often overlooked.

They form new representations of the Syrian people and show the will of the those who remain within the zones of conflict and who are willing to take charge and rebuild their own communities. Neither film makes a far-reaching final statement. Last Men in Aleppo finishes with the image of Khaled’s goldfish swimming in a bowl, surrounded by debris.

Insyriated finishes as it began, with a close-up on the grandfather smoking a cigarette as he looks out the window into the distance.

As we leave the cinema, and return to our lives, these films ensure that we remember that the war continues and there are many who must continue to fight for their survival and rebuild.

photo: thehipp.org

photo: Curzon Artificial Eye

of political engagement.

In Last Men in Aleppo, only passing remarks are made referring to the nationalities of the jet planes flying above.

Insyriated provides an even more striking example of this through its claustrophobic indoor setting, outside of which anyone is a potential threat. In effect, both films commit themselves to a project of depoliticising the turmoil of the Syrian people. Instead they choose to enter the lives and homes of innocent civilians caught in the middle of a never-ending crossfire.

While there may be no clear enemy, both films do not hesitate to throw the audience straight into the warzone. They share a sense of immediacy that asserts the on-going nature of this conflict, making it impossible to ignore. In brutally graphic scenes of death and violence, the camera does not shy away. While the news offers us short clips of the atrocities in Syria before swiftly moving on to the next hot topic, these films push the audience to face a lingering reality. In Last Men in Aleppo, the camera rests for uncomfortably long periods while Khaled and his team uncover body pieces and screaming children.

Insyriated seems to address the viewer more directly during a scene in which intruders break into the family home and rape one of the women. While this scene drags on, the camera focuses on the family as they try to make

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

An interview with the great Ursula K. Le Guin SAM HUCKSTEP Books editor Hailed in 2016 as “America’s greatest living science fiction writer” by The New York Times no less, and officially declared a “living legend” by the Library of Congress, Ursula K. Le Guin is among the leading writers in any genre of the past decades. By merely material calculations, she is also among the most successful, with millions of sales to her name; in terms of influence she can be counted among the greats, with writers as diverse as David Mitchell, Salman Rushdie, and Neil Gaiman acknowledging her work’s’ impact on their own. Le Guin’s interests are wide-roaming and frequently speculative, and her books grapple with contexts imbued in anthropology and psychology, tackling profound problems. As part of a long-running project, The Saint spoke to Le Guin, now 88 years old, over email, as part of a long-running project aspiring to discuss the same set of interesting topics with writers of different backgrounds.

The Saint: To what extent do you think a reader can read one of your books, or a book of any writer, and come to understand the writer as well as the book? How much of “you” goes into any piece of work?

Ursula K. Le Guin: Some writers use their work to make themselves known and understood, some use themselves to write works they hope will be known and understood.

I’m the second kind. A whole lot of me goes into my writing, and the better I write the more of me is in it.

But that has nothing to do with “knowing” me as a person, only as an author. Fiction and poetry are arts, so their truth isn’t factual. They can be written from the heart and with scrupulous honesty without being confessional. Their connection to the writer’s individual history and personal experience may be meaningful, helpful in understanding it, or may not. Witness Homer, witness Shakespeare. Why do people waste time on “Who was Shakespeare?” The guy who wrote those plays. Isn’t that what matters?

TS: What motivates you to write?

UKLG: I love writing.

TS: Or to put it another way, what prevents you from not writing?

UKLG: You mean, like, why don’t I have writer’s block? Well, maybe

because I don’t really believe in writer’s block.

TS: What do you consider success to be — by what metric do you say whether you consider a work successful? How does your view on success and life outside of your work influence your aims within your work?

UKLG: I’m with William James: “The exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess Success is our national disease.” The wealth and celebrity that generally define “success” at present – Well, “success” in that sense gives me a better living, and gets more people reading my work.

By my o w n defin i tion,

you to them, and makes you prefer them to the others available?

UKLG: Words are what I have worked with since I learned to talk and read and write. They are my medium.

My breath of life.

question or in my writing. But I do feel strongly that a writer has a responsibility to their audience (which for instance is why I say “their” instead of “his”). Nothing gives me the right, as a writer, to exclude, or patronize, or express contempt or hatred for anybody without being aware of it and considering whether it’s going to do good or harm – taking responsibility for it. Being in the public eye intensifies m y re-

original intentions are being misconstrued in any way — and do you think it matters if they are?

UKLG: I think we consider authors and their intentions and beliefs far too much. What matters is the work. As for the work getting misconstrued, it’s inevitable. Anyhow, the richer a work of art is, the more different ways people can and will and ought to understand it.

TS: What, for you, makes a novel, poem, play – any piece of written work — a good one?

UKLG: I like it.

TS: What have you found to be the greatest challenges in making your own work good by that standard, and how have you sought to overcome them?

UKLG: By the standard of “goodness” I just gave you, the only way I can judge whether my work is good or not is by whether I like it or not.

In other words, did it come out anywhere near what I hoped it would be, and do I enjoy reading it. I’m not saying that the interest and approval of readers is unimportant to me. It’s the only thing that can support and validate my own opinion of my work.

It’s the reward. But I don’t think I was a writer till I could honestly judge the deficiencies and excellences of my own work. And if I didn’t like it, why should I ask anybody else to?

Challenges?

Well, the challenge is the work itself.

Getting it right.

TS: How would you like your legacy to be looked upon?

UKLG: By the eyes of readers.

I would like it to be read.

Illus

t h e nearer something I write gets to what I want it to be the nearer it is to being a “success.” I have no metric for this judgment.

TS: Why do you work in the mediums in which you do? What draws

s

el Cripp

y Rach tration b

TS: As a writer, you have what some might call a very privileged position of access to the reader on a personal level. Do you feel like you, and writers generally, ought to use that position to advance what you consider to be the right, whether through your writing or outside it?

UKLG: I don’t want to legislate morality either in answering this

sponsibility both as a writer and as a citizen, because I have to remember that what I do and say might make more difference than I think it might.

TS: To what extent do you think the reader ought to consider the author and the author’s intentions and beliefs when they read something written? Do you ever feel like your

TS: What is the work of which you are most proud — and similarly, if only one of your works could survive for posterity, which would you choose to save?

UKLG: This question stumps me. I always used to answer it, “The next one,” but now that I’m too decrepit to write novels any more, I can’t do that. Which of its peaches is a peach tree proudest of? I’d like to think Posterity might take some notice of my poetry (which I have been able to go on writing even while decrepit, and which Contemporaneity ignores).

But I really think the choice is up to Posterity itself.

TS: If there was anybody from history that you would wish to be pleased by, or proud of, your books, who would it be?

UKLG: Oh golly. José Saramago, maybe?

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

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Video installation in the DCA Kelly Richardson’s The Wheather Makers

Stephen Hawking believes we need to colonise Mars. The theory goes that the effects of manmade climate change are irreversible, and can get worse, resulting ultimately in the Earth becoming uninhabitable.

Therefore we should be expending our limited resources on an escape plan. Other commentators, like David Attenborough and Donna Haraway, reject this response, although they accept the nature of the forces at work. They would rather see us fight for our home and try and adapt to new environmental conditions. Even if we ultimately fail, it will be nothing but what we deserve.

Canadian artist Kelly Richardson’s The Weather Makers (at Dundee Contemporary Arts until 26 November) is, in part, an artistic response to this problem. It’s something most of us have grappled with (if only during spells of intense melancholy at three in the morning), and which most of us will have to confront with increasing regularity, if recent political and environmental trends continue on their current trajectories.

For Richardson, part of the problem is that it’s difficult to get a proper perspective on “now” because “now” is still happening. It

doesn’t have a beginning or an end, and is both infinite and finite. It can’t be comprehended narratively or visually because it has neither an ending nor a frame. Part of her project, therefore, is to allow us to take “retrospective” stock of “now” by making it “then.” Her three large multi-channel video installations are rich; curved to take up more of our visual field; and accompanied by subtle soundtracks, all to help us project ourselves into her landscapes, and thereby into her futures.

What is in store for us, in Richardson’s futures? The works are curiously ambiguous on this point – in both Orion Tide (201314) and Leviathan (2011) the only decidedly human presence is ours, and we are only a disembodied eye.

Orion Tide is not necessarily devoid of human activity; there is some illumination from an unseen source, and the incendiary projectiles leaving the surface for the starry skies could well be some form of space travel – but who’s to say it’s human? And who’s to say it’s in time? They look like asteroids flying upwards – it’s a surreal, counterintuitive visual, and makes for an arresting artwork.

Similarly, Leviathan is not necessarily devoid of all life – there is nothing to suggest the wonderfully atmospheric cypress forest (in the marvellously and appropriately named: Uncertain, Texas) is dead –

though there is equally nothing to suggest we are not watching it die. In this piece the glowing swamp water is also ambiguous – is it radioactive, or is it bioluminescent? Is it both?

Richardson’s future “now” is as infinite as our own, and just as unwilling to admit definitive answers.

By way of con-

tried to use nuclear power to reach the stars.

The ambiguity here lies in the question of whether this represents final failure – are we seeing this through the eyes of another probe? It is unclear. It is also unclear whether this would be grounds for hope; after all, the littering seems to indicate that we haven’t changed our methods of interacting with our environments at all and we’re still calculating risk and reward in exactly the same way. It is possible this probe, too, will fail and become the space junk it observes.

Less immersive and less ambiguous but no less arresting are Richardson’s Pillars of Dawn prints (2015-17), which depict crystal encrusted trees in a colourless nighttime landscape. The crystals are grey as ash and coat the trees like a close hugging fungus. The night sky is liberally sprinkled with stars, beautiful but disconcerting in proximity to the crystalline structures on which they shine. There is no light pollution; there are no people.

The medium and format enables her to play with time in a different way – harking back to the age of romanticism – an ironic twist on the activity of imagining a future itself; the romantics looked on the landscapes of present as already being ruined, filled with “dark satanic mills” (William Blake) yet they were also the generation of the chemical revolution,

photo: pixabay

SUKAYNA POWELL

trast, t h e third large video installation in the exhibition, Mariner 9, is full of the signs of human activity. The Martian landscape, tangibly and accurately rendered using topographical data in collaboration with NASA, is littered with broken human technology – the technology of space exploration and possibly colonisation. Some of the detritus is still barely functioning, some glows, suggesting that we eventually

whose relationship with nature had a great deal to do with how we got to where we are today.

The artist Yves Klein wrote in 1961 that “it is not with rockets, Sputniks, and missiles that modern man will achieve the conquest of space. That is the dream of present day scientists who live in a state of mind romantic and sentimental enough for the last century.” Is this still something which can be said of those who think we should colonise the stars? Richardson doesn’t give us a direct answer, but the image of the detritus covered Martian landscape and the ominous metaphoric implications of asteroids – those famous disaster-causers – flying from a planet out into space, is certainly a possible takeaway here.

The beauty of this exhibition is that though presenting us unambiguously with the aftermath of “ruin on a sublime scale” (Exhibition Guide) Richardson allows us our subjectivity. We are not allowed to question the fact of the disaster, but we can meditate on it as a physical reality from a temporal distance as individuals. To step into one of her future landscapes ought, at least, to provide food for thought (as well as a visual feast) for anyone wrestling with the implications of the Anthropocene, of climate change, and of human actions in time and space.

A new space for contemporary art in St Andrews

In August, something rather exciting arrived on South Street – a contemporary “white cube” art gallery with a distinctly international outlook.

You won’t find any picture-postcard seascapes or derivative abstracts destined to be bought because they fit a colour scheme here. To get a sense of the project, The Saint spoke to curator Beth Junor, who is as committed to the conceptually interesting as she is to accessibility. Junor, a St Andrews alumnus, who studied Fine Art with Professor John Steer in the 1970s, credits her time here with giving her a highly developed “eye.”

“It taught me to look properly at the world, and at two dimensional representations of the world, and when you leave university with a skill like that it sustains you throughout your life.”

The sustaining power of art helped her through the often emotionally arduous life of a specialist speech and language therapist, working with autistic children, which is what Junor has done for 27 years. She is also a published poet and non-fiction writer, editor and translator, but running a gallery has been a life-long dream – “A childhood friend came to the opening and she said, oh I remember you speaking about this even when you were little... apparently I was saying I was going to have an art gallery!”

The Junor’s current show, Maps of the Imagination, features artists from across Scotland, England, and the rest of Europe. This balance of the local and international is important to her. It also allows her to “tune into the zeitgeist” of the contemporary art world as a curator – maps and mapping are popular themes at the moment, with current events leading many artists to meditate on borders, intersections, and migration.

From the NSK State Pavilion and Passport at this year’s V e n i c e Biennial, to Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project (2008–11), shown last year at MoMA in New York, these are issues that are only becoming more and more prominent in the collective artistic consciousness.

One amusingly tongue-in-cheek

work currently showing at the Junor is Bulgarian artist Yanko Thiov’s Brexit Passport Map (2017), which lampoons the absurdities of nationalist nostalgia, whilst simultaneously presenting the consequences of that nostalgia as reaching inexorably and materially into the future, culminating in

nating and “literary” aspects of maps as well as the relationships between time (history) and space (geography and cartography).

Not only is geography of increasing interest to artists, the “geography” of the art world is rapidly changing too. According to Beth, “in the last twelve years in London I witnessed this massive cultural shift in galleries and I want my gallery to be a part of that...

It’s an exciting time for me to be opening.”

Rising rents in “cultural capitals,” the prominence of international art fairs, and the globalism of the internet age mean that the monopoly of big cities on quality contemporary art galleries is being somewhat eroded, as is the emphasis on exclusivity – something Junor is determined not to encourage. photo: pixabay

SUKAYNA POWELL

a reunified Ireland and an independent Scotland. Another work worth checking out is Mick Manning’s striking Red Dog Black Dog (2016), which plays with the interplay between sign and symbol – one of the most fasci-

All this is of course excellent news for St Andrews, as it means we get The Junor, which can have its feet planted firmly in the local community without being provincial, and keep a finger on the global pulse of the contemporary art world without being inaccessible to the casual visitor.

“I want an open, inclusive, non-intimidating space for people to enter and experience something new,” Junor said. She also aims to provide as many points of entry to the artworks as possible, from poetry (by Lyn Moir and Tom Pow) to examples of decorative arts, such as fine jewellery by goldsmith Dominic Walmsley, which complement the theme, and give visitors as many points of connection to the artworks as possible.

As the evenings draw in, The Junor Gallery will be putting up its next show In the Long Evenings Colour and Light, which will feature photography and painting around theme of colour at night from a bevy of Scottish and International artists. They will also be hosting poetry readings and artist talks – all of which will no doubt serve as an excellent distraction from deadlines, marking, and revision this winter. In the meantime, however, Maps of the Imagination is on until 30 November, so if you’re in the mood for an art break but can’t quite find the time to make it to Dundas Street or the DCA, just pop along to South Street.

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

Four ways to spice up popcorn for the perfect Netflix binge

OLIVIA HENDREN Food editor

CHILLI AND LIME POPCORN Ingredients: 4 tbsp of melted butter 1 tsp Cajun seasoning

SALTED CARAMEL POPCORN

½ tsp mild chili powder

Ingredients:

½ tsp smoked paprika

100g popcorn

3 tsp salt

250g caster sugar

Juice of half of a lime and the zest of a whole

100ml water

lime

2 tbsp butter 1 tbsp of coarse sea salt

a)

Pour the melted butter and lime juice over

the popcorn and toss. a)

First make your pop-

b) Add the seasoning and lime zest and toss

corn. I like to make popcorn

again to coat evenly.

on the stove with popping kernels and sunflower oil but you can also opt for mi-

GARLIC PARMESAN POPCORN

crowaveable salted popcorn if

Ingredients:

you don’t have time. b)

2 tsp garlic paste

To prep, line a baking

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

tray with baking paper and

1/3 cup grated parmesan

turn the oven on to 130 degrees.

4 tbsp of butter

c) Next, coat a large mixing bowl with spray on cooking oil

a) Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.

which will prevent the caramel

b)

from sticking later.

cook on a low heat for another two minutes until the

d) To make the caramel add

flavours are combined.

250g caster sugar and 100ml wa-

c)

ter to a saucepan on the stove. e)

Add the garlic and parsley to the butter and

Pour the garlic butter over the popcorn and add

the grated parmesan.

Set the burner to a me-

d) Toss the popcorn and enjoy!

dium-low heat and simmer until the sugar and water has become a golden brown colour. f)

DARK CHOCOLATE AND CRANBERRY POPCORN

When you see that the

sugar is golden, add two table-

Ingredients:

spoons of room temperature but-

200g dark chocolate

ter and immediately turn off the

3 tsp salt

heat and remove the sugar from

Dried cranberries or cherries

the stove. a)

g) Pour the caramel sauce onto

Line a baking tray with baking paper

and spread the plain popcorn on the tray.

the popcorn, coating evenly by

b)

tossing the popcorn in the bowl.

wave or over the stove until it can be

h) Add the sea salt now so that it sticks to the popcorn. i)

While the caramel pop-

corn is still hot, transfer it to the baking

Illu

poured easily.

stra

tion

tray and bake for 15 minutes. j) it cool.

Melt the chocolate in the micro-

Take the popcorn out of the oven and let

by

c)

Rac

hel

Pour the melted chocolate over the

popcorn and add the dried berries and salt.

Cri

pps

d) Place in the fridge or freezer until the chocolate has set.

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A Birdseye View Andrew’s column

amount to Hamilton, Farah does not.

Even within the sports of tennis and athletics as a whole, there is hardly a major gulf of interest. It is clear then that money has little to do with it, nor is it to do with any stigma against the sport. The greats of Nigel Mansell, Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark all have honours from the British Empire. But then again, Hamilton has more wins, poles, and now drivers championships than any of them and is still left only with the consolation of being a multi-millionaire.

Perhaps it is in achievement that Hamilton is lacking. Mo Farah has won it all. He is arguably one of the the greatest British sportsmen of all time and easily of the great athletes of the modern era. Likewise, Andy Murray has won major titles in a sport that Britain has punched below its weight in. His victories at Wimbledon and the Olympics have been a source of inspiration for many and he is by every account a national treasure.

But Hamilton? I listed three other great British drivers above, and there were plenty I missed out on.

While Hamilton may now be the most successful driver from this country, he does not stand up against the all time greats as of yet in the same way that Murray and Farah do. He is not yet Schumacher, he is not yet Ayrton Senna. Perhaps he will need to go on a title streak similar to what Sebastian Vettel did between 2010 and 2013 to truly propel himself.

What is clear however, is that Hamilton’s time will come. Formula One clearly is a sport, yet at the moment seems to be struggling to recognise its biggest star formally. Besides, Hamilton should not be too fussed about getting a knighthood. After all, the entire 2005 Ashes team was honoured for retaining it, which means Ashley Giles has an MBE. More poignantly, Hamilton was crowned champion this weekend in Mexico at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the scene of much of the recovery effort for the two earthquakes that hit the country last month. Perhaps then, it isn’t about the titles, but the people who love the sport so much that they feel the need to honour their heroes who are the real story. Sport’s ability to unite people together in times of tragedy is a certainly a theme worth exploring.

@saint_ sport

A Look Ahead to the Autumn Internationals

HARRY DEAN Deputy sports editor

Seoras Lyall

O

sport@thesaint-online.com

Once again this November, the Southern Hemisphere rugby union powerhouses will be travelling to Europe and in particular the British Isles to engage in a series of contests against their Northern Hemisphere adversaries. The series of games always provide great opportunities for teams from these shores to test themselves against some of the strongest outfits in world rugby and this year should be no different, with the rugby community still energised after the riveting Lions tour of New Zealand last summer and the prospect of the upcoming World Cup in 2019 looming large. Here is a selection of five of the countless games taking place next month not to be missed.

of three games in the month. The “red rose” are still high on confidence on the back of their consecutive triumphs in the Six Nations Championship while Argentina also have a point to prove, having endured a difficult Rugby Championship this year, losing all six of their games. England will go in as clear favourites, having also triumphed on both occasions when the sides met on Argentinian soil over the summer. However this game also has an added dimension to it as it is likely the final time the two teams will meet each other before the next Rugby World Cup, when they will clash in the pool stage. This therefore should be the last time for coaches and players alike to test their strengths against their adversaries on the other side before the stakes are heightened significantly in their scheduled 2019 meeting in Japan.

Barbarians vs New Zealand, 4 November, London (Twickenham)

Wales vs Australia, 11 November, Cardiff (Principality Stadium)

This is the only game of the month that doesn’t count towards world rankings or even national pride; however in terms of pure entertainment, this will probably be the most exciting matchup of the month. The Barbarians are an invitational side who only play a handful of games a year, but also play with a commitment to running, attractive rugby and to entertaining the crowd and television viewers alike. With star players such as Julian Savea confirmed to represent the “baa baas,” the fact that they are facing world champions New Zealand who will be desperate to kickstart their tour with a victory and that it will take place at Twickenham, the spiritual home of rugby, this is a game that should not be missed.

Expect plenty of tries, an abundance of flair and spades of entertainment in this one-off classic.

Wales will kickstart a packed Autumn series of fixtures with a match against a team who they harbour a miserable record against in recent years. Since their last victory over Australia in 2008, the Welsh have lost their last 12 matches against the men from down under. Most people are anticipating that this run may continue on after this fixture, with the Aussies high on confidence following their thrilling victory over New Zealand last week and Wales still licking their wounds after an underwhelming Six Nations campaign. However it’s also worth noting that the vast majority of recent fixtures between these two have been very close affairs, with perhaps Wales’ mental fragility being the only factor holding them back from victory. Their inspirational head coach Warren Gatland also returns in this game following his sabbatical coaching the Lions, while the Welsh will surely be spurred on also by their home support, which promises to be as loud and passionate as usual. All the ingredients are therefore in place for this game to be a clash for the ages.

England vs Argentina, 11 November, London (Twickenham) Following on at Twickenham the subsequent Saturday is England’s first

Photo:Wikimedia Commons

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The same could be said about Formula One. My physics teacher had had the privilege of working with NASA during his career, yet on his classroom wall was a picture of the F1 calendar for that year. He even remarked that what the drivers will have done last weekend in Mexico was far more technologically challenging that putting anything into space. So does that mean that F1 is an application of science? For him it certainly was.

Yet, take the case of Lewis Hamilton. In 2014 he won the Sports Personality of the Year award after his title win. Yet despite this, and being one of the most successful drivers of all time, we do not hold him in the same breath as Sir Mo Farah and Sir Andy Murray. Perhaps it is necessary to judge the man and not the sport to uncover why this legend apparent gets little to no recognition.

For a start, it could not possibly down to a lack of interest in the sport.

While Formula One may not be in the Olympics, it certainly has the audience and the history. Hamilton is currently on a three-year deal with Mercedes that will see him earn more than £100 million.

Meanwhile the season as a whole generates revenue in the billions. This has seen it travel all over the world to the most bizarre locations to promote its brand, including Baku and Doha in Azerbaijan and Qatar. Whilst Andy Murray may earn a comparable

Sport editor: SEORAS LYALL Deputy editors: Harry Dean, Joel McInally, Jason Segall

Ireland vs South Africa, 11 November, Dublin (Aviva Stadium) An action-packed second Saturday of fixtures will be rounded off across the Irish Sea in Dublin, in what promises to be a bloodthirsty encounter between two sides who love to dominate the physical side of the game. Ireland, having improved steadily under their head coach Joe Schmidt, will look to continue their winning run against the Springboks at home while South Africa will look to continue their forward momentum following a strong finish to the Rugby Championship.

The Springboks will also be looking to cast aside memories of their horrendous November tour last year, where they were defeated in all four of their matches while the Irish will be keen to get their Autumn series of three fixtures off to the best possible start and hopefully use these games as a springboard for an assault on the Six Nations Championship early next year, a competition in which they were pipped to by the English last year.

Scotland vs New Zealand, 18 November, Edinburgh (Murrayfield) Of the three fixtures Scotland are scheduled to play this November, this one is surely the most significant. The Scots have enjoyed a renaissance of sorts over the past year, picking up some notable scalps in the most recent Six Nations and enjoying an impressive summer tour, beating both Italy and Australia before a surprise defeat to Fiji. However, New Zealand will be quite a different prospect, with the Scots having never beaten the All Blacks and the fact that most of the fixtures between these two in recent times have resulted in lopsided victories for the current world champions. New Scotland coach Gregor Townsend will surely relish the prospect of going up against the All Blacks and despite the absence of captain Greg Laidlaw through injury, do not be surprised if this resurgent Scottish outfit give New Zealand a serious fright.

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

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37

Photo: Wikipedia

An Ode to ‘The Count’

ANDREW SINCLAIR Deputy editor When Michael Bisping wends his way to the UFC octagon in two nights time, it will be for the 28th and– almost certainly– final time.

In the 11 years since his debut with the world’s biggest MMA promotion, Bisping has posted an impressive 20-7 record; he’s experienced many highs and some tough lows.

For every TKO win, there’s been a difficult decision loss. For every winning streak, there’s been a solitary defeat that sends the Mancunian tumbling down the middleweight ranks. For all the braggadocio and bravado, there’s been the odd humiliation that left Bisping with a considerable amount of egg on his face.

Winning a UFC crown was all “The Count” sought when he won the third edition of The Ultimate Fighter in 2006, but until last June, it looked as if those that dream would remain unfulfilled.

He won the TUF crown with a scintillating stoppage of Josh Haynes, and followed that with three more impressive triumphs before Rashad Evans used his wrestling to hand him his first loss. Bisping rebounded in customary style: three more wins and a place as a coach for the ninth series of TUF. His adversary there was the former Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson, a true “nice guy” of MMA, yet Manchester’s Bisping could never settle. There was jaw-jacking and

needling throughout, culminating in a real grudge match fight at UFC 100. The end result? One of the most iconic faceplant KO’s in UFC history, and it was Henderson leaving the Mandalay Bay Events Centre with his arm raised.

That defeat would haunt Bisping but he remained undeterred, posting a 5-1 run in the two years after that fight to secure another middleweight title eliminator with the equally loud-mouthed Oregon native Chael Sonnen. Sonnen took a very contentious decision to again leave the Brit in a sort of purgatory, where he would trade wins and losses for the next two years.

One of those defeats was to Brazilian legend Vitor Belfort, a man who courts as much controversy as he does plaudits, and that defeat saw Bisping suffer a severe retinal detachment that almost forced him to retire.

He made a return but was clearly on the downswing of his career.

2015 saw Bisping pick up decision wins over CB Dollaway and Thales Leites. Wins over veterans, and clear ones at that, are nothing at which to be sneered, but they were hardly the majestic performances “The Count” needed if he wanted to final challenge for a world title. That all changed on 27 February 2016.

Bisping stood toe-to-toe against all-time great Anderson Silva, considered by many to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and by all as the greatest middleweight to have ever set foot inside a cage. Over 16,700 people packed into the O2 Arena to

see Bisping, who, for all his faults, is treasured by British MMA fans, face the biggest test of his career.

A solid opening two rounds saw the Mancunian edge clear, before a thunderous knee in the third almost put his lights out.

Some generous officiating and a massive display of heart kept Bisping in the fight and he’d go on to record a decision win, a result that blew the roof off the O2. A three-fight win streak definitely put Bisping in the mix, but even he knew fate would have to intervene if he was to finally get a title shot.

Fate did intervene, in the shape of a phone call from matchmaker Joe Silva. Chris Weidman withdrew from his planned title fight with Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 last June, and Bisping was offered the chance to replace the New Yorker on 17 days’ notice, a chance he grabbed with both hands.

Given the ease with which Rockhold dispatched of Bisping at their first meeting in November 2014, and the way Rockhold decimated Weidman to win the belt, Bisping was the significant underdog.

But when it mattered, and when everyone bet against him, he doubled down on himself and produced the biggest title upset in UFC history.

A right hand wobbled the champion. Another dropped him. A series of left hands against the cage finished him. Bisping’s arms went up and Bruce Buffer’s instantly recognisable voice boomed out “AND THE NEW Middleweight CHAMPION OF THE

WORLD, MICHAEL ‘THE COUNT’ BISPINNNNGGG!” As an acknowledged MMA enthusiast and champion of British talent in all sports, Bisping’s achievements meant a lot to me.

Yes, he’s got a chequered past – his repeated use of homophobic slurs to promote fights is crass, and him spitting at a beaten Jorge Rivera remains one of the company’s worst moments But he was the first British champion in UFC history. His loudmouth style and never-say-die attitude blazed a trail for young British martial artists, and with the likes of Darren Till now coming through, his legacy clearly lives on.

Georges St-Pierre, a career welterweight who hasn’t fought since 2013, was definitely an easier proposition for “The Count” than Yoel Romero or Robert Whittaker, but when you’ve put in the yards Bisping has, you have that freedom of choice. Win or lose against GSP at UFC 217, it doesn’t matter. Bisping’s legacy in the company and the sport are set, and here’s hoping he can go out in style.

The rest of the UFC 217 line-up is also stellar, comprising two further title fights and a bevy of great bouts.

Canadian prospect Aiemann Zahabi, brother of lauded trainer Faras, opens the show in a fun battle against Ricardo Ramos, whilst CM Punk vanquisher Mickey Gall returns to action against Randy Brown.

The PPV line-up opens with a clash between declining veteran Johny Hendricks and rising Brazilian pros-

pect Paulo Borrachinha. Borrachinha is very heavy-handed and will have a massive size advantage over former welterweight champ Hendricks, but he is still raw and could be exposed by the Oklahoma native’s wrestling.

Stephen Thompson and Jorge Masvidal then clash in a battle of top welterweight prospects, where Thompson’s karate background could be exploited by the ever-tough Masvidal’s high-pressure offensive style.

In the first of the three title fights on the bill, the best fighter in women’s MMA, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, looks set to secure the sixth defence of her crown against Rose Namajunas.

The Pole is much more well-rounded than “Thug” and she seems to be consistently working her takedown defence, thereby shutting down the area in which most would expect her to struggle.

Then, to further set the stage for Bisping/St-Pierre, bitter rivals Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw square-off for the Bantamweight title.

Gabrandt’s sheer dominance against longtime division staple Dominick Cruz to win the strap definitely puts momentum in his favour, but Dillashaw is consistently evolving his game and he could have too much speed and quickness for Garbrandt.

The fight is a pick’em, but Garbrandt is a marginal favourite.

UFC 217 is the company’s best card this year and merits a watch because win or lose, Bisping is probably out for the count, and that’s something we should acknowledge and savour.

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2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

Photo:Wikipedia

Scotland, Football, and Failure: Another Campaign of Woe

JOEL MCINALLY Deputy sports editor As Scotland slumped to a disappointing 2-2 draw after being comprehensively outplayed by an average Slovenia side, it was confirmed that they had missed out on yet another World Cup. Despite a six-game

Watching the Slovenia game, it was overwhelmingly apparent that Scottish football is stuck in the Dark Ages unbeaten run, including a thrilling 2-2 draw with England, Scotland ultimately could not get the job done.

Strachan was promptly sacked and Malky Mackay installed as caretaker manager.

Failure to qualify for a major tournament has become a recurring theme since the 1998 World Cup, something that will continue to happen if things stay as they are. This time it must result in change, one that cannot just stop with the sacking of Strachan.

Watching the Slovenia game, it

was overwhelmingly apparent that Scottish football is stuck in the Dark Ages. Nothing typified this more than Strachan’s decision to play a positively prehistoric 4-4-2, a tactic that belongs as the default setup on PES 2005 rather than the formation of the Scottish national team. This was added to by his decision to abandon his Celtic core in favour of the likes of Barry Bannan, a player who used to be promising yet now his best hope for a legacy is as a particularly difficult answer to a pub quiz question.

The fact that Strachan chose to revert to a side that resembled those fielded during the awful start to the campaign as opposed to those in a six-game unbeaten run smacked of arrogance and a misguided belief that his favoured set-up would suddenly come good. Some might call this loyalty to a set of players who did not repay his faith, yet it should be seen for what it was: ineptitude.

This was compounded by Strachan’s bizarre decision to blame Scotland’s lack of success on poor genetics. Not only was this obviously a ridiculous excuse, but it adds to the misleading narrative that there is little Scotland can do to improve their fortunes.

There will be no quick and easy solution to Scotland’s troubles, however the FA has at least made the right decision in relieving Strachan of his duties. Scotland have yet again failed to qualify for a major tournament under his management.

Arguably, this group was the easiest yet for Scotland, with no footballing superpower like Spain or Germany, the best side being an average England team. This time there can be no excuses. Take the example of the Slovenian manager Srečko Katanec, Strachan’s counterpart on the night,

who resigned over their failure to qualify for the World Cup. It is vital that if Scotland are to have any hope of making progress, then they must hold themselves to at least the same standards as Slovenia. Had Strachan stayed it would’ve confirmed that for the Scottish FA failure is acceptable.

However, his sacking does not prove that Scotland has ambition.

What will be a better measure of what the FA hopes to achieve internationally is if his replacement is cut from the same cloth, in which case it is hard to see how anything will change. Obviously, Scotland will fail to attract a truly high calibre manager to the role and to pretend otherwise would be ludicrous. However, talk of Malky Mackay, Paul Lambert, or Alex McLeish being appointed should be worrying to Scottish fans.

All three are candidates whose careers began promisingly yet have since been on a downwards trajectory. Mackay especially is not fit to serve as Scotland manager after his scandal-ridden tenures at Cardiff and Wigan. To give him the job on a permanent basis would be to make a mockery of any plans for the FA to improve diversity in Scottish football.

Furthermore, MacLeish has already had a spell as Scotland manager, albeit a successful one, but his reappointment, especially given his recent failures, would undoubtedly be a backwards step.

Rather than appointing a manager who a few years ago would consider the job a backwards step yet now view it as their only hope, Scotland should seek a manager who is not interested out of desperation. Out of the pool of Scottish managers at a decent level in the game, Derek McInnes is the outstanding candidate. Admittedly, he would not be the most exciting

appointment but at least would be a manager whose career is on the way up.

Another name being linked with the job is David Moyes, who like Mackay and McLeish has struggled recently, yet at least he has recently managed Manchester United as opposed to Wigan or the Egyptian side Zamalek. While Moyes would not be a progressive appointment, he has at least managed at the top of the game.

There is another option for Scotland, and that is to appoint a foreign manager. Of course, this is not ideal, but if there is no suitable Scot then there is no point hiring someone solely based upon their nationality. The sense in this can be seen in England’s decision to appoint Gareth Southgate simply because the FA saw him as the only Englishman for the job, despite him being grossly underqualified.

The perfect person for the job would be Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neil. By guiding his country to the European Championships, as well as the World Cup playoffs, he achieved what Strachan could not and that is getting the best out of an average group of players. By fostering a team mentality O’Neil has overachieved massively with a pool of players who individually are far weaker than the options available to Scotland. Moreover, he spent much of his playing career in Scotland and still bases himself in Edinburgh, so it is very possible that he would be interested in the vacancy. Should Northern Ireland fail to beat Switzerland in the playoffs, then surely the Scottish FA must make O’Neil their number one target. Although, it must be noted that Scotland have only ever had one non-Scottish manager in Berti Vogts, so whether the FA are willing to look

abroad remains to be seen.

While the appointing of a replacement for Strachan is important, it will by no means fix Scottish football’s problems. Instead, sweeping reforms must be implemented, both at youth level and at the top of the game. The FA must consider all options, including league restructuring and seriously

The perfect person for the job would Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neil, who led them to the Euros last summer exploring the possibility of Celtic, and even Rangers, being admitted into the Premier League. While such options may not work, or even be possible, the FA simply has to try something different or forever be mired in mediocrity. Scotland have the potential to be reaching the major tournaments, but it will not simply happen on its own. The end of the Strachan era simply must herald change.

‘Seagulls’ make strong start to indoor season ANDREW WILLIAMS

Short days, cold afternoons, and long nights are finally arriving in St Andrews. Summer is but a vague memory and autumn is hastily drifting into a cold winter. The poster sports of winter have re-established themselves at the forefront of the sporting world and the cricket season is nothing more than a spec on the horizon. Yet, indoor cricket has now begun in earnest and the St Andrews Men’s Cricket Club have got off to a flying start.

Whilst most in the town were celebrating Raisin, 14 players in two squads represented the “Seagulls” in the first round of group stage matches of the BUCS indoor cricket tournament to which St Andrews played host.

To say that the first and second teams had varying degrees of success would be an understatement of some magnitude

Photo: James Earnshaw

To say that the first and second teams had varying degrees of success would be an understatement of some magnitude.

Led ably by club vice-president Ben Kempley, who retired twice in three games and supported strongly by his five teammates, the First Team cruised to three comfortable victories which will stand them in very good stead for the next round of matches in Edinburgh.

But the second team struggled to make their mark on a competition in which the club have historically underperformed and failed to register a solitary win.

The day started early with an in-

tra-club battle between the two teams which turned out to be the most competitive game both teams experienced throughout the day, for contrasting reasons.

The firsts opened the batting and opener Alexander Sachak played a mature innings of little risk to retire not out on 25 and give them a strong start.

However, after star fresher Shujaa Khan was run out by wicketkeeper Toby Jones and Ben Kempley and James Earnshaw holed out to this author fielding at long off, an upset was on the cards.

However, coming in at five, Thomas Abbot came in to also retire and once Sachak had come back in, the firsts posted a total of 120.

The seconds never kept up with the required rate and despite some lower-order resistance, were bowled out for a resounding 73.

The day continued in almost identical fashion for both sides as the seconds succumbed to heavy losses against Strathclyde and Stirling, with Gus Portig’s 25 not out against the former proving to be the only notable score posted by a team that are definitely in their developmental stage.

Conversely, poor running between the wickets from Dundee first team gifted the St Andrews firsts three easy wickets and once captain Kempley retired, the result was never in doubt.

Dundee’s meagre total was knocked off with little sweat.

The final game against Stirling followed a similar theme with Cameron Russell causing havoc with the ball and taking three wickets to limit Stirling to a highly uncompetitive total. Kempley once again retired as did Shujaa Khan to see the “Seagulls” fly into the next set of matches with a healthy 100 per cent record.

Yet, this indoor success is not consigned to BUCS. A week prior to the tournament, the Club hosted their first indoor charity tournament in support of the Rob George Foundation (RGF).

With eight teams of six competing in a two group semi-final and final format the day was filled with big hitting and lunchtime burgers.

Although the burgers undoubtedly were in higher demand, rugby Fresher Richard Monroe’s powerful innings of 75 not out lit up the tournament and won him the prize for best player.

In keeping with the Indoor precedent however, Kempley’s strong team won the tournament. Y et, with over £500 being raised for charity, it is safe to say that everyone is ready for a repeat.

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Photo:Flickr

2 November 2017 • thesaint-online.com

The Return of Tiger?

JAMES FOX Senior copy editor

In the last two weeks Tiger Woods has posted a series of videos on his social media channels depicting him hitting full shots, indicating his return to fitness following his most recent layoff due to injury. Unsurprisingly, this has sparked a great deal of excitement among fans who all now ask: is this the return of golf’s biggest name?

High-profile comebacks are something Woods has had to make all too often. The first was in 2010 following his much-publicised scandal surrounding his marital infidelities.

Strong showings in the opening two majors of that year seemed to suggest a return to business as usual, however, he failed to capture a tour win and didn’t even make the top 20 in the second two majors.

After another decent showing in the 2011 Masters tournament, injury struck and he was sidelined for the next two majors, only to miss the cut in the PGA championship, just the fourth time he’d done so in a major his entire career.

Again he finished the season without so much as a minor tour event to his name and fans began to wonder whether he would win again at all, let along in one of the sport’s most coveted events.

High-profile combacks are something that Woods makes all too often In 2012, however, things began to look up. An impressive victory at the much sought-after Arnold Palmer Invitational was the kick start for a season in which he won three times

and showed glimmers of the form that had propelled him to the status as one the greatest of all time in the previous decade. All that was missing was a return to the major winner’s circle.

In the first major of 2013 it seemed as though that was finally to come as well as he negotiated the first 32 holes at Augusta imperiously.

Then disaster struck. A textbook pitch shot on the 15th hole which looked certain to nestle close to the hole and continue his charge instead crashed into the flagstick and spun back into the creek, incurring a penalty stroke and forcing him to retake the shot.

But to make matters worse, a fan watching on television noticed that for his retake Woods moved his ball slightly from its original position; they phoned in and he was handed a further penalty and even threatened with disqualification.

From that huge blow Woods never recovered and was forced to settle for another disappointing finish.

Nonetheless, 2013 went on to be a great year as he recaptured some of his best form and won five times, a tally most players would consider a decent career total. Despite further poor showings in the subsequent majors of that season, he went on to be named player of the year and seemed optimistic about his chances for the coming season.

But then injury hit once again. A long layoff at the beginning of 2014 was frustrating for fans, a fact which was only compounded once he returned to competition clearly shy of full fitness.

He appeared in constant discomfort and his results reflected that. He finished way off the pace at the Open Championship and again missed the cut at the PGA. Perhaps, fans though, the 201415 off-season would be a chance for Woods to get his game together but instead things went from bad to worse.

Some late heroics salvaged a semi-respectable result at the Masters but he then went on to miss the cut at each of the following three majors. In

minor tournaments he was no more successful and at the Memorial tournament, an event where’d previously been unbeatable, he carded a humiliating score of 85, his worst ever. It was clear that Woods was fit in neither body nor mind for tournament golf.

As such it was announced that the player would be taking a season-long break from the game to fully recover: frustrating for fans, but no doubt the right thing to do.

At the end of 2016 he returned to the game once again and it was hoped that this would finally initiate a period of stability in his career. A new equipment contract with Taylormade and a modified swing designed to nullify potential injuries all boded well, as did a bogey-free second round 65 in his first tournament back.

Is this recent comeback a return for good? It seem unlikely But from there things began to turn sour and he ended up finished second from bottom in the small field.

Another missed cut at the beginning of 2017 and Woods has not competed since.

Is this most recent comeback a return for good? Based on the last seven years, it doesn’t seem likely. Woods, approaching age 42, has many other interests now in his family and business ventures. Even if he can return to something resembling his best form, he’ll have to compete with a generation of young, hungry players two decades his junior, to whom he is more a role model than rival.

So let’s not get our hopes up, but looking at those sumptuous stingers on social media, can we dare to dream?

SPORT

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What next for Scottish Football?

Page 38 @saint_sport

JASON SEGALL Deputy sports editor

The Saints women’s hockey first XI’s game against Edinburgh Napier could have easily been described by the weather during the game. We saw the full St Andrews repertoire, from blazing sun to driving rain, and even a full double rainbow stretching from horizon to horizon. The play on the field was similarly topsy-turvy, with some truly excellent hockey played alongside some which wouldn’t look out of place on a U13’s pitch.

St Andrews went into the game off the back of a 5-0 away win at Glasgow the previous week, and sat in fourth in BUCS Scottish 2A, but with a game in hand over the teams above them.

Napier, one of these, came in second, with one win and one defeat. On paper, it was an even contest. Alas, it was not to be.

The start of the game was scrappy, with neither team finding a passing rhythm, and counter attacks were repulsed with ease at both ends of the field. It didn’t take long, however, for the theme of the day to be established as a careless piece of play at the edge of the Napier circle by the Saints disrupted what was looking like a promising attack. The home side continued to dominate possession, and began a long siege of the Napier goal. Just after 10 minutes of play, their pressure resulted in the first short corner of the game, with the ball cleared following a goalmouth scramble.

Not long after, a foot from the St Andrews forward squandered what was probably the best chance for the home side to take the lead in the first half, with a long ball finding her clean in on goal in the circle, but she failed

Some excellent hockey was played, along with some which wouldn’t look out of place on a U13’s pitch. to connect with the shot and the foul was conceded to squander yet another excellent chance on the Napier goal. It wasn’t all St Andrews though, with a Napier counter attack late on in the half resulting in a short corner. The

Saints defence was clinical, however, and the ball was easily cleared to resume the pressure at the other end.

That pressure showed right before the halftime whistle blew, with a short corner defended illegally by the visitors resulting in a second short corner, but it was not converted, and the half ended scoreless.

The second half started much as the first had ended, with attacks in the Napier circle broken up by the visiting defence. But finally, 15 minutes into the half, a mistake by the Napier keeper resulted in the breaking of the deadlock, with St Andrews taking the lead. It is often said that you are at most risk of conceding when you’ve just scored, and this almost played out, with Napier’s first real open play attack of the game resulting in the ball trickling into the Saints’ goal, only for the equaliser to be disallowed due to an unfortunate foot in the preceding play.

With that minor hiccup negotiated, the home side began to slowly but surely wind open the floodgates.

They scored again not long after, a clinical finish from medium range about which the Napier keeper could do nothing but watch as it sailed into the back of the goal. Not long after, the Saints found a third from a short corner, scoring from the brilliant clearance by a Napier defender who denied the low shot which began the play.

In the five subsequent minutes, the visitors mounted somewhat of a resurgence, with two short corners coming within that period. Both were squandered, with the St Andrews defence easily dealing with the rather toothless Napier attack. Normality was resumed, however, not long after, with a short corner at the other end resulting in the home side’s fourth following a goalmouth scramble, driving the final nail in the coffin of the game as a contest. With the game drifting towards its conclusion, the frustration began to show for the visitors, and a Napier midfielder saw a green card in the dying seconds of the match. It would not affect the result, however, and the game ended 4-0 to the home side.

While this was indeed a good result for the Saints, there was definitely still a feeling of what might had been on the conclusion of the game. There was too much sloppy passing, too many squandered chances in front of the Napier goal.

When the passing rhythm was there we saw what can be done by this team, and one might go so far as to say that there should have been far more than four goals scored based on some of the play leading up to the squandered chances. There was serious potential shown in this performance, let’s just hope that that potential can be turned to goals before too long.

Photo: Maddie Tarr

Saints annihilate Napier to go top