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Day: 12 October 2011

Not going all the way

Two stars out of five

It is appropriate that this new play from Salford-born playwright Ayub Khan-Din, best known for writing East is East, is having its premiere at The Lowry, surrounded by Salford Quays and the burgeoning Media City. All the Home Way is a glimpse into the communities that have been ‘regenerated’ over the last ten years.

The unseen Frankie lies dying in his bed, his breathing supervised through a baby monitor, while his family gather in the kitchen beneath contemplating the impending death of their brother/ nephew/ cousin and the demise of the Salford community that they have grown-up in.

There is clear affection for Salford and its people but too many characters are close to caricatures. Carol (Kate Anthony) is the sibling, who has moved out of Salford and now lives in ‘Didsbury Village’, cue references to Waitrose, petty snobbery and sniggers of recognition for, its fair to guess, a overwhelmingly middle-class audience. Philip (Paul Simpson) the semi-literate younger brother who pours endless spoonfuls of sugar into his tea is an embarrassing parody. Brian (Sean Gallagher) is a London-based creative professional who reluctantly returns to Salford. The character is unrelentingly dull and so contrived and stilted that he comes across as not simply emotionally and culturally dislocated from his siblings but entirely alien to them. Janet (Susan Cookson), the dependable centre of the family and Sonia (Julie Riley), the troubled recovering drug-addict, do add some balance, their performances capture both a sense of hopelessness and resilience in the community. But overall the characters are not sufficiently engaging to justify the plays emotional climax and neither do they have the depth to give an insight into the complexities surrounding the breakdown of white working-class communities. The various characters’ illiteracy or alcoholism or casual racism is rarely explored or contextualised and is often simply used as an excuse for a one-liner.

The Salford setting is largely convincing but there are occasional superficial references that are unnecessary. Apparently Manchester United tickets are quite expensive. Who knew?

It is a credit to the Library Theatre Company and The Lowry that they are willing to stage vaguely political theatre that does attempt to explore and reflect Greater Manchester’s communities. It is a shame that All The way Home ends up having so little to say.

All The Way Home is on at The Lowry until Saturday 15th October.

Tickets are available from £11 for students.

Lost World Competition

On Sunday 16th October at 4pm, Cornerhouse will be screening the 1925 version of The Lost World with a live piano score by JJ, keyboardist of the Scissor Sisters. Details here. Cornerhouse have very kindly offered to give away 5 free pairs of tickets to this incredible one off event. All you have to do is answer this simple question and this amazing prize could be yours:

WHO DIRECTED THE 1925 VERSION OF THE LOST WORLD?

A) James B. Renaulds

B) Harry O. Hoyt

C) Toby T. Goodge

D) Curtis J. Jackson

Email your answers to [email protected] GOOD LUCK!!!!

Triceratops Family from John Garden on Vimeo.

Debt-ridden former student robs store he used to work at

A former student of Salford University who was unable to repay his tuition fees and debts stole around £20,000 in an armed robbery.

Michael Hill was sentenced to three years in jail after he carried out the raid at a Co-op store where he had previously worked, armed with a knife.

Hill entered the store on August 26, having travelled from Manchester City Centre to Astley. Hill had concealed his face with a scarf and produced a knife, forcing the staff to open the safe. He also told staff he had planted a bag containing a bomb in the forecourt of the store. Hill grabbed hold of the store manager and pushed over a security guard in his attempt to get the cash.

Hill was pursued by a security guard when running from the store, with £20,000 of cash in his bag. A motorist blocked Hill’s path after they noticed the chase, during which Hill dropped some of the money. Security stopped Hill from fleeing the scene and held him until officers arrived. Employees at the store recognised Mr Hill from his time working there.

Details of debts, which ran into thousands of pounds, were told at the hearing. It was also revealed that the ex-student of Salford University had been “kicked off the course due to issues about him not paying his fees”. Hill had been threatened with legal action regarding his legal fees.

Hill had been unsuccessful in receiving a loan, and had lost his part time job due to a lack of work.  Andrew Downie, of the prosecution told how the associated failure to pay his rent had caused him to be removed from his student accommodation, making Hill dependent on friends for somewhere to sleep.

Amassing debts with friends and family, resulted in Hill sleeping on the streets of Manchester, saying he had “hit rock bottom” and did not want to seem “a leech and a failure” by remaining dependent on others. The court was told Hill had been “contemplating committing a robbery to gain cash”.

William Swalwell, who was defending Mr Hill, indicated his clean record and instant admission to robbery. Testimonials from friends and family speak of his honesty and out of character behaviour in committing the offense. Hill said the robbery was: “the biggest mistake of my life”.

Detective Constable Suzanne Rigby said: “Hill put those hard-working people through a frightening experience by taking a weapon into that shop, threatening and intimidating them.

 

“Plenty of people face a struggle to get an education but such hardship gives people no right to turn to crime and the jail term Hill is now facing proves that.”

A million unwanted emails sent after Oxford admin blunder

Email accounts at the University of Oxford were suspended for just under a week, due to an error leading to around one million unwanted emails being sent.

The administrative error by the Oxford University Admissions Office has caused anger amongst prospective students when a huge number of emails were generated by mistake. As a result of the blunder, Microsoft blocked all mail from university accounts to services including Hotmail and Windows Live for nearly a week.

A university spokesperson explained the problem, saying, “An email list was created but misconfigured in such a way that recipients hitting ‘reply all’ responded to all users on the list, which is not normally permitted on this kind of list.”

The mistake became apparent when one prospective student accidentally messaged everyone on the list asking why his prospectus had not been delivered, in reaction to this over one million emails were exchanged. Initially these were from people wondering why they were receiving the misdirected mail, but the exchanges soon escalated to abuse, and finally to pleas for everyone to stop sending the emails.

By the time the Admissions Office realised the problem and closed the mailing list on 26th September, members had received between 400 and 500 emails each – including one from the father of the boy who initially hit the “reply all” button, apologising for what his son had unknowingly set in motion.

Microsoft blocked all emails from Nexus accounts following the incident, causing further frustration among students.

Although the blockade was lifted on October 3, many students had to wait days for the emails that were sent to them during the ban to arrive.

The Oxford University Computer Service (OUCS) explained, “We believe the Microsoft blacklisting has been removed but we have to be extremely careful not to re-trigger it with too much mail too quickly. OUCS intends, therefore, to start releasing the queued mail in batches.”

Lecturers threaten to strike over pension dispute

University staff have threatened to stop lecturing and marking work if employers refuse to negotiate the terms of their pensions.

Lecturers at 67 universities, including the University of Manchester have begun “working to contract” in an attempt to force employers to negotiate over changes to pensions, and have promised to step up their action if their demands are not heard.

Working to contract would mean lecturers refusing to work outside of their contracted hours or undertake extra duties such as voluntary meetings or uncontracted cover. A recent survey has shown that lecturers work an average 55-hour week, despite the national working time limit being set at 48 hours a week.

The industrial action comes in response to a package of changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) implemented this month. Under the new scheme, new members would be put on Career-Average, rather than Final Salary, pensions. This modification, combined with increased contributions and less protection against inflation, could make the average lecturer lose £100,000 over the course of their retirement, said the University and College Union (UCU).

The UCU has expressed opposition to the package ever since it was proposed in June 2010. 90 percent of those pension scheme members who voted opposed the changes, while an industrial action ballot saw 77 percent of union members backing a sustained action campaign.

The UCU maintains that it had hoped to avoid industrial action, and that its hand has been forced by the stubbornness of the universities. ‘The union has consistently called for a negotiated agreement, offered counter proposals and sought the assistance of Advisory, Consolation and Abitrary Service (ACAS) to try and resolve the dispute. The employers have refused to talk,’ said the union’s dispute briefing.

The UCU hopes the new tactics of working to contract will convince universities to reconsider their terms without having a detrimental impact on the students themselves. If not successful it has warned that rolling strikes will follow, along with a boycott of student assessment, affecting up to one million students.

“Despite our best efforts to resolve this dispute, we cannot negotiate with an empty chair,” said Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary. “Our action will start today and will see thousands of UCU members at universities across the country stop going the extra mile.”

“We are keen to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible with minimal disruption and hope those universities keen to avoid unnecessary confrontation and disruption will start to apply pressure on those refusing to talk.”

650 pupils stranded as university goes bust

Hundreds of overseas students have been left stranded in the UK after a London college closed suddenly last Friday.

Students at the Tasmac London School of Buisness were said to be left feeling emotional and in a state of shock when it was announced that the college had ceased trading on 7th October.

Tasmac awarded both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in business validated by the University of Wales (UoW).

Speaking to the BBC, Sameer Dua, who was the joint managing director of Tasmac UK business school, said that the college had been forced to close after changes to UK visa regulations brought in by the UK Borders Agency.

“These changes have not only impacted Tasmac, they have impacted many more colleges that could be shut down,” he exaplained. “Most of our students are non-EU students. All these students require visas to come. It became difficult to sustain ourselves.”

Mr Dua also stated that the UoW is now working hard to transfer the stranded students onto courses at partner colleges.

Representatives from the UoW last week met up with students at Tasmac in a bid to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, staff at Tasmac have been quick to criticise the college. Joanna Oman, who was the marketing manager for Tasmac school of business, claimed that the sudden collapse of the school had left students in the lurch.

“Tasmac is extremely unlikely to transfer any… tuition fees towards the new colleges as the company has gone into liquidation in the UK,” she said.

If Ms Oman is correct, this will mean that students have to pay more if they choose to transfer to another college affiliated with the UoW. Many of the 650 students had paid their fees upfront, with some Masters students paying as much as £7,850.

Ms Oman also said that as the student’s visas had been tied to their place at Tasmac it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to get a new visa. This means that many students, some from as far afield as Nepal and Cameroon, may be forced to return home.

Staff at Tasmac have also described how vans arrived to remove furniture and computers from the colleges’ Wembley campus just hours after it was announced that the institution was set to close.
The sudden closure of Tasmac casts doubt over the future of the University of Wales, which has been hit by numerous scandals over the last 12 months.

The Welsh Education Secretary Leighton Andrews has even gone as far to say that the university should be shut down given its recent troubles.

“I made a statement in the assembly earlier this week which made it clear that the Welsh government is very concerned about the University of Wales and the damage it is causing to the reputation both of higher education in Wales, and of our country around the world,” said Andrews, adding. “I think the University of Wales probably requires a decent burial.”