Skip to main content

Day: 7 December 2015

Safe and senseless: Why university safe space policies trigger me

Written by Ryan Khurana on . Posted in Opinion.

This weekend I met Milo Yiannapoulos, the controversial journalist, who was banned earlier this year by the University of Manchester Students’ Union, accused of misogyny. He was a quite nice individual, and spent time talking to everyone at his party, openly considering whatever anyone was saying, never rude or self-interested. When I asked him about the decision taken by universities across the country to ban him, he said that their claims were unsubstantiated, and it was a means to censor dissenting opinion.

This is a view to which I have come to sympathise with as a result of my recent experience with the Safe Space policy. It is my belief that it is responsible for a culture of fear on campuses.

Milo agreed to give a talk at St. Anselm’s Hall on the 10th of December, on issues facing young men today, such as the trends of men falling behind in school, and the high rates of mental illness found in boys. The talk, not organised by the Students’ Union, would not have come under the jurisdiction of the Safe Space policy, as there is no formal adoption of such a policy by the University.

This however, did not make it any easier to arrange such a talk. I received concerns from many people regarding the repercussions of hosting such a talk, and the University in the end allowed us to host it, on the condition that the topic be changed. Instead of focusing on pressing issues facing young men, the discussion must now be framed around his personal experiences, as to avoid students being offended. It baffles me how men’s issues are considered offensive, and even worse, how an institution committed to intellectual growth can be afraid of causing offence.

I have come to realise this fear of offence is not a result of any formal policy, or the actual content of the talks being given, but rather a student culture that has come to dominate academia. I cannot comment on whether it is the views of the majority being taken into consideration, or rather a very vocal minority, but what is clear is that higher education institutions are afraid to go against consensus.

Yale University’s recent protests serve to highlight this, as staff positions were called into question as a result of dissenting against the Safe Space prescriptions given. This culture—one that believes students ought to be protected from offence, and that criticism is identical to hate—is harming intellectual discourse at universities. It is not the role of a university to mollycoddle its students, nor to provide a safe space to indulge in self-righteousness. Universities ought to be a place to be challenged, and if necessary that can include being offended, for that is how personal growth can be achieved.

Offensiveness is provocative and it starts conversations; offence that is purposeful is the root of intellectual development.

A retort I have heard to this claim is that universities have an obligation to prevent hatred and bigotry. This, however, is not the point I wish to make. No-platforming a journalist is different from no-platforming a random racist. There is a difference between a researched and well-formed, albeit controversial, argument, and uninformed hate speech. The former must be encouraged, the latter, acceptably discouraged. If one does not confront dissenting opinion, just because it can be found offensive, neither group can learn or challenge the other.

A culture that aims to protect one’s right to have an opinion, without scrutinising said opinion, encourages complacence of thought, and is not intellectually stimulating. A dialectic between point and counterpoint is necessary for growth to occur. This is seriously lacking when safe spaces become the norm.

This all brings me back to my experiences regarding this policy, and to explain the fear it causes me. Since inviting Milo to speak—which I must make clear is not an endorsements of his views, but a belief in the value of free speech and open discourse—I have been made to feel insecure about my decision. My role as the President of an extreme-poverty charity has been called into question; my personal political views have been called abhorrent and immoral; and I have been worriedly ruminating over the effects of my actions on my future career prospects.

None of the insults or claims have been substantiated, and I feel there is no reason my work ethic or beliefs should be questioned as a result of my actions. The issue is that my conservative views do not fit with the popular narrative that exists among students. There is a perceived monopoly of righteousness held by left-leaning students that brands me hateful and evil, simply by virtue of my beliefs. I am caricatured as a result and a tactic of fear is the only way that this culture achieves its’ ends. This desire for hegemony of opinion is killing academic discussion, and there must be a better alternative.

I do not believe in a monopoly of righteousness, and I strongly believe there is a benefit to the plurality of opinion that university campuses are expected to have. Open debate must be allowed on campus, because I guarantee there are students who have become afraid to share conservative views as a result of this culture.

This culture encourages conformity instead of personal development, which is contrary to the goals of a university education. This is why I stand by the decision to host a talk by Milo Yiannapoulos, and hope to invite many more controversial speakers in the future. This is why I believe that there must be more discussion of opinions commonly disagreed with, whether they be based on political, economic, religious, or social beliefs. Only a culture that rules by reasoned argument, and not fear, is worthy of being present at university campuses, and I hope enough students will begin to question the complacence surrounding them.

If you are willing to be challenged and to listen to unorthodox opinions, please do come to the talk on Thursday the 10th of December. I will discuss with Milo, through the frame of personal experience, his journey from Manchester to success, his battles with modern left-wing culture, and the issues he faces as a homosexual, Catholic man today.

‘Milo Yiannapoulos: The Man Behind the Views’ is a free event, but has limited seating. Tickets can be found on the Facebook event of the same name.

Was Hilary Benn right to evoke the ‘F’ word?

Written by Simon Youel on . Posted in Opinion.

It was hard not to get swept up by the hype surrounding Hilary Benn’s barnstorming speech in favour of bombing Syria. If a speech garners applause in a parliament characterised by insincere laughter and jeering, it must be powerful. Even if we ignore the possibility that the applause was orchestrated to undermine Comrade Corbyn’s leadership, there was still something about Benn’s speech that pulled at Britain’s political heartstrings. Could it be that the British public are still easily led by just the mere mention of the word ‘fascist’?

As The Telegraph and The Independent picked up on, the crowning achievement of Benn’s speech was that he helped us to realise that we are faced by “fascists”. This is not to deny that whoever we are calling so-called IS, or now Daesh, are in fact fascists. They probably do meet the criteria—whatever that may now be—with their desire to form an authoritarian state defined by religious dogma.

We should, however, note what power the suggestion of ‘fascism’—either directly or by proxy through references to the Second World War—holds in justifying the use of the British military.

As we saw in the 90s, the major government had no interest in any military intervention in the Bosnian war until the British public were confronted with harrowing images of the systematic atrocities associated with the Srebrenica massacre. The images stuck a dissonant chord in the national memory amongst the images that had emerged from Nazi concentration camps 40 years earlier. As such, comparisons were made between the Bosnian war and World War II—the Serbs were labelled as fascists and were promptly bombed by Britain as part of a NATO mission.

We only need to glance at twentieth century history to understand this. Since the Second World War, it had appeared that Britain’s identity as a nation—and subsequently its foreign policy—had been in crisis. As decolonisation accelerated following the war, an idea of British exceptionalism could no longer be sustained by ownership of the world’s largest empire. Instead, Britain’s victory over fascist Germany was a convenient replacement source for this narrative, and Britain’s national identity to this day is still empowered by its noble opposition to fascism.

Hilary Benn has invoked the grand narrative of Britain versus fascism in order to legitimise and lend authority to token military action against a poorly defined enemy. Such a diorama is indicative of Britain’s identity crisis as a power in the twenty-first century.

We are no longer facing a clear cut enemy in the form of a state like Nazi Germany. Rather, in the case of Daesh, we were confronted with a transnational rabble of ideologues, who could not easily be differentiated from ordinary citizens. But now, we are fighting fascists, and that serves to make things so much more simpler.

A brief examination of the confounded mess in Syria makes Benn’s historical analogies—where he compared the situation we are facing today with that of Mussolini and Hitler—seemed somewhat disingenuous. Furthermore, even if we were to ignore the contentious claim that the British government stood firmly against Hitler, there is also perhaps a dangerous irony in Benn’s references to the International Brigades. The same International Brigades who had fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, and who were also bombed by fascist planes whilst the British government had stood idly by in a state of non-intervention.

But it is not just the British for whom the claim of anti-fascism can justify violence—we have some interesting company in this habit. Russia has legitimised the separatist violence that it had fuelled in Ukraine by denouncing the pro-European government as fascist. Likewise, during the Yugoslav wars, all sides had accused each other of fascism, even as they partook in their own ethnic cleansing.

What all of these national identities have had in common is that they were strongly shaken by a war started by fascists over 70 years ago—they are all Eurasian. Just as Benn claimed that the Labour Party is a party “defined by its internationalism”, perhaps it is not only Britain, but it is Eurasia, too, who are a spatial entity still defined by its struggle with fascism.

MBS students’ Student Nucleus reaches finals of Grad Factor

Written by Charlie Spargo on . Posted in News.

The Student Nucleus, an online platform allowing students to find information about accommodation, books, internships, scholarships and skills in one place, has been announced as a Grad Factor finalist.

The startup, which is the brainchild of two Manchester Business School students, has been named as one of the final three to win a Best Social Enterprise award.

The winners of each of the four sections will win prizes invaluable to a business getting underway—dedicated PR service, tickets to The Millionaire Business School, six sessions of free bespoke mentoring with RBS or NatWest, an iPad, and more.

“We are really excited to be through to the finals of The Grad Factor,” says co-founder and CEO Martin Hedley. “To have made it to the final three of the social enterprise category for a nationwide student business competition is fantastic recognition of all our hard work and a great motivation for our team.

“We have come so far in such a short space of time, from just an idea in my head, to now having already won two awards and with a great chance to make it a hat-trick with The Grad Factor.

“At the final we will be giving a five-minute televised presentation, it will a great opportunity to showcase our platform and the vision we have for making student life as simple as possible. We want to replicate the success we have had in Manchester across every university.

“The exposure we have already received because of the prestige of the competition has been a great boost to our growth. To win the overall competition will be fantastic.”

The Student Nucleus is still very young, but has already made an impact on the business world. They have won the ‘Do It For Real’ award from UnLtd. This means that they have been given funding to find a student entrepreneur of their choice who is also starting a social enterprise, and the winner of the competition will receive mentoring by the Student Nucleus team.

HOME Pick of the Week: Carol

Written by Barney Weston on . Posted in Film.

Despite Carol being named after Cate Blanchett’s character, the film is not about her. Although the film’s opening moments initially reflect both Terese’s (Rooney Mara) and the audience’s lust for Carol, whom we initially gaze upon from the other side of a dining room, we soon learn that there is much more than lust at play as the film goes on. Carol is undoubtedly a love story, but it is how it is a love story about two women at a time when society was not okay with it—this is what makes Carol a great love story.

As a love story, Carol is also a love letter to cinema, written and carefully-crafted by the film’s director, Todd Haynes. None of his other work comes close to this masterpiece of queer cinema. Each shot is full of love, be it of Terese looking out of a fogged-up, tear-dripping moving car window, or of Carol and her short, blonde hair from a distance. The latter is a perfect example of the voyeuristic behaviour that Haynes encourages the audience to engage in throughout the film.

Blanchett and Mara stand out both because of Haynes’s direction and because of their own individual performances. Both actresses have already emphasised how much they liked working with Haynes because of how well he understands women. Julianne Moore also commented on this in regards to the films in which she worked with Haynes.

Of course, it takes a certain quality of actress to demand a voyeuristic gaze as well as Blanchett does throughout the film. Yet, there is more to her character. In a scene where Carol tries to reason with her husband in front of their respective lawyers, she puts everything on the table so “honestly and exhaustedly” that you’re left as shocked as everyone else in the room is. There’s another moment when Blanchett pleads with Terese, simply saying, “I love you.” This scene in particular leaves you with an inescapable lump in the throat. Similarly, Mara commands the audience to admirably gaze upon her as “less glamorous, more ordinary, and above all, achievable.” Both of these performances are definitely Oscar-worthy, although they will presumably face considerable opposition from Jennifer Lawrence as Joy.

Carol is ultimately a fantastic film that invites the audience into the development of a tense sexual relationship between two women, looked down upon by society. Haynes does incredibly well to immerse the audience in 1950’s America, only looking to entertain them with a great love story. It is this simplicity that Carol rejoices in, boosted by the occasional scene-stealing performance. In years gone, by as with several of Haynes’s films, Carol will certainly gain a cult following.

5/5

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Written by Rebecca Thomas on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

There will inevitably come a time during your Christmas preparation when you will have to hunt for that ‘little’ gift. Be it a stocking filler, a dubious Secret Santa mission or a three-quarter-sized gift that requires that little extra ‘something’ to bulk it out. There is something so lovely yet so difficult about the little Christmas present; it’s only ever going to fall into the two categories of being either an amazing idea… or awkwardly wrong. It can be daunting when trying to choose a Secret Santa for the flatmate whom you have met in the kitchen only a handful of times. Or when you draw names from a hat and later share your choice with a mutual friend, who nods knowingly and commiserates that you have selected the hardest person to buy for. The trick is to hit the spot with something alternative, which demonstrates lots of thought, i.e., avoid the supermarket bubble bath or lackadaisical offerings of a biscuit tin.

The elves have some suggestions:

1. Glitter roots paint pot from Etsy, £10.67

Photo: Etsy

2016 is set to be the year when glitter moves off the face and onto hair roots, this will undoubtedly come in handy for the next few Pangaeas or house parties.

2. Ear Cuffs from Urban Outfitters, cheapest £2.45

Photo: Urban Outfitters

Wearing an ear cuff is like stapling cool to your cartilage, rest easy in knowing that your stocking filler will be well received.

3. ASOS suit carrier, £5

Photo: Asos

Ok, so this might be like giving the batteries to a toy without the toy itself, but the important thing is that you are giving them the illusion of a suit. They can play with it by imagining themselves transporting their future suit crease-free; you are gifting them the first ingredients to a metro lifestyle.

4. Urban Outfitters Silver ponytail hair bobble, £6

Photo: Urban Outfitters

If the Secret Santa candidate has long hair and always looks meticulous, then they will revel in glory with this hair accessory. It explains to onlookers that the wearer has their life together.

5. Topshop nail varnish bauble, £5

Photo: Topshop

In colours such as Rage, Ghost and Croupier, you can hang them on the tree for God’s sake, it’s delightful.

6. ASOS Christmas pug trunks, £5

Photo: Asos

Christmas novelty gifts are important. Pugs are important. The man wearing pug boxers will always be important.

7. Topman beanies, £8-£12

Photo: Topman

Giving warm and cosies is like giving your friend a hug, and they will never be rejected or unwanted. Manchester reaches new sad and cold levels in January, and beanies help make it all OK.

8. MAC pro palette refill eyeshadow, £10

Photo: MAC

This is when you will look super ingenious in the eyes of your gift receiver. You managed to own the little present brief and source something every makeup lover will always crave, a MAC product. Well done. Don’t be put off by its tiny size, it will have phenomenal usage, and earns you serious Christmas win points. Cranberry would be the ideal toasty shade pick, and would look great on their lids at the Christmas dinner table.

9. ASOS Father Christmas Beanie, £10

Photo: Asos

Christmas beanies feature twice but have two vastly different audiences; the former, type A Beanie, for the regular person. And this, for all the others: Featuring the lower half of a Santa body, upside down, complete with leg ears. Gift and watch the hilarity ensue.

10. The Little Book of Chanel, by Emma Baxter-Wright, £9.34 at Wordery.com

Photo: Wordery

For the serious fashion friend, a gorgeous monograph of Chanel. They may weep with happiness, and at such a bargain, this will be immensely satisfying.

Festive make up: The drugstore edition

Written by Laura Mills on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

We all know that Crimbo is an expensive time of the year. Whether you’ve spent too much on presents, too much on yourself during the Black Friday sales, or you’ve simply just run out of your loan, it’s never going to be easy. So here’s a festive make up look that won’t cost you the earth, meaning you can treat yourself to that extra glass of wine at the party instead.

For the base, I buffed in a bit of the Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation, which is a perfect party pick since it’s long-lasting and has a lowish SPF (to stop getting a ‘ghost face’ in any photos). Then I covered up any areas that need a little bit extra coverage with the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer and swept some Rimmel powder all over to set it in place. I then quickly filled in my brows with the Maybelline Brow Satin Pencil and set it with some MUA Brow Gel.

Onto cheeks, I used the Sleek Contour Kit to fake some cheekbones, although mainly to contour away one too many mince pies. Then I swept a little Natural Collection Blush in ‘Peach Melba’ onto the apples of my cheeks to get that ‘post deadline’ glow back into my skin. Finally, I used the highlighter that comes in the Sleek kit along my cheekbones, brow bone and down the centre of my nose.

Photo: The Mancunion

For eyes, I kept it quick with a slick of the Maybelline Colour Tattoo in ‘On and On Bronze’. This stuff takes seconds to apply (yet looks like you’ve taken ages on it), just sweep it all over your eye with your finger and it’s done. For a festive touch, I added a small amount of Barry M’s Glitter Dust in ’15’ to the inner corner of my eye and along roughly half of the lid (any excuse for a bit of glitter). I used the Collection Fast Stroke Liner for a cat-eye flick, and finished off with a sweep of the Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara.

Photo: The Mancunion

Finally, a festive look would not be complete without a red lip. I lined my lips with the P.S. Love lip liner in ’03’ (this is only £1 from Primark and it’s amazing!), and then lightly pressed in the Kate Moss for Rimmel’s Lasting Finish Lipstick in ’01’. I then set that with a slick of Lipcote Lipstick Sealer to ensure it’ll still be there after a few drinks. And there we have it! A completed festive make up look that won’t cost you the earth.

Photo: The Mancunion

Hope you all have a lovely festive break!

Ascending the ladder: Footballers going up and down the leagues

Written by Toby Webb on . Posted in Sport.

Jamie Vardy’s current vein of form is nothing short of exceptional. Vardy has scored in his last 10 games, equalling the Premier League record for consecutive scoring set by Ruud Van Nistelrooy and subsequently resulting in an England call-up. While the ability to score goals is a priceless attribute, the ability to score goals consistently is even more valuable.

Vardy’s rise to success is even more remarkable given his history. He spent the beginning of his career playing for various non-league clubs, playing outside of the Football League until he was 25. In the 2011/2012 season, he scored 31 goals in 36 appearances for Fleetwood Town, securing the Conference Premier title and progression into the Football League. Vardy was snapped up by Leicester City following this, where he remains today. In Vardy’s second season with Leicester, they were promoted to the Premier League.

Vardy is a perfect example of a player assailing the English football pyramid: he has reached the peak and had success there. His story is quite the fairy-tale. However, it does open up a debate around player mobility in England. With the amount of foreign players brought into English football, one might think that the ability to move up through the leagues is unattainable, top clubs choosing to buy more proven players from abroad than take risks on players from the lower English leagues.

While buying from abroad over buying from below is generally the favoured option, it is not always the case. Numerous examples can be reeled off of current Premier League players who have journeyed through the leagues to the top. Manchester City’s Joe Hart began his playing career at Shrewsbury Town, making 54 appearances before being bought by Blues. Similarly, Manchester United’s Chris Smalling played at Maidstone United, before joining Fulham, and subsequently United, in the Premier League. Further examples of players who have risen to the top include Ashley Williams, Craig Dawson, Neil Taylor, Yannick Bolasie, Lee Tomlin, Michail Antonio, Dwight Gayle, and Callum Wilson.

Out of all those, Joe Hart is the only one that will go down as a Premier League great. Premier League stars of the past to have played non-league include the likes of Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand, Stuart Pearce and Stan Collymore—notably, 3 of these are strikers. With the exception of Pearce, this shows again that the ability to score goals is priceless, something that has helped Vardy get to the Premier League. As well as ascending, players can also descend down through the leagues. While the majority of players move down when in the latter end of their careers, some simply find that they aren’t good enough for the Premier League. Moving down the leagues is more common than moving up. Alan Smith, once of Manchester United, now at the ripe age of 35 plays in League Two for Notts County. A lot of ex-Premier League players can be found in the lower leagues, seeing out their careers.

The tendency to import talent in the modern day Premier League has been hugely detrimental to player mobility. Every team now exercises the ability to buy players from abroad to bolster their ranks, limiting the opportunities for players to move up the leagues. This is even more of a problem given that the majority of lower league players are English. With less opportunity to advance up the English football pyramid, the quantity of English players in the top division has diminished. Indeed, in the opening weekend of the current Premier League season, less than a third of starting line-ups were made up of English players. Less English players in the Premier League means a smaller pool to pick the national side from. One could contend that greater mobility in English leagues, more English players reaching the top of the pyramid, would lead to a better national team. Playing in England’s top division breeds international quality.

If there was more player mobility amongst the English leagues, Jamie Vardy’s journey wouldn’t be so astonishing. There is a huge disparity of quality between the English leagues, with the influx of money, and therefore quality, since the inception of the Premier League. There is a massive difference between the Premier League and the Championship, while a much smaller difference between the Championship and League 1. Player mobility is far more prominent within the 3 leagues below the Premier League. The decline in player mobility up to the Premier League is ultimately a consequence of the affluence of top level clubs.

Sport in the City: Santa Dash with Man City and Man United

Written by Adam Selby on . Posted in Sport.

Well… what is it?

If all the mentioning of Christmas puddings and mince pies has yet to whet your appetite enough to go and want to undertake an admittedly difficult 5-mile-long run on a Sunday morning, then this week’s festive offering may do just the trick in inspiring you to dust down your running trainers. They say that football has little spirit and connection with the fans in a modern-day focused solely on profits and success on and off the pitch, yet it is community events like a Santa Run that maintain solid links between your everyday fan and the city’s two heavyweights in world football. Both Manchester City and Manchester United therefore cordially invite you to join in their annual Christmas Santa Run for 2015. As we’re here to showcase the best of what Manchester has to offer, it is only fair to ensure some neutrality by offering both and we will leave up to you which race you sign up to, or more importantly, which colour Santa outfit you would prefer to wear.

Yes, that’s right, and in keeping with the colours of both Christmas and their iconic home shirt, Manchester United have opted for a traditional red Santa outfit, whilst their “noisy neighbours” Manchester City are bang on trend this AW2015 with a stylish yet simplistic sky blue Santa outfit to complete the race in. Again, the choice is completely yours, but it is worth noting that regardless of the colour of the outfit, of the stadium around which the race unfolds, and of the team hosting the event, all proceeds from both events go to charities that help to support the clubs’ respective foundations, which for us, is surely the most important thing this Christmas! In terms of distance, both runs offer a 5KM route, but please, please note there is no expectancy in either race to run the whole distance, and walking is encouraged. The race element is not what is important; instead, raising money for the respective foundations at both teams is paramount.

There is, however, the option for anybody who regularly runs to take part in a Santa Dash at Manchester City, but unfortunately no Santa outfit is provided for this elite race. Whilst at Manchester United, there is a shorter route of 2KM available to choose for those who don’t particularly want to run a full 5KM!

How do I get there?

For those unfamiliar with two of Manchester’s most iconic landmarks, or simply for anybody who has yet to tick it off their list of places to go and visit whilst they study here in the city, let us be your tour guides in directing you to both stadiums.

Etihad Stadium (Manchester City): I would recommend the Metrolink tram system, since the club are lucky to have a dedicated tram stop—Etihad Campus. The stop is located adjacent to the Stadium, beside City Square. The journey time from Piccadilly is less than ten minutes. On event days, trams run to/from the stadium stop every six minutes. A number of public bus services run from all directions and, from experience, the 216 service as well as several others leaving from Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens offers a reliable connection between the city centre and the Etihad Stadium.

Old Trafford (Manchester United): Again, like for the Etihad Stadium above, I would recommend the Metrolink tram system. From the city centre, you can catch an Altrincham tram, alighting at Old Trafford, or alternatively choose an East Didsbury tram, alighting at Trafford Bar. However, if you would prefer to travel by bus, there are again a number of services that run directly to Old Trafford football stadium including the 79, 250, 255, 256, 263, X50. The X50 and 250 both run every 15 minutes from Manchester Piccadilly Gardens and would be my two preferred services.

But how much does it cost to get in?

The Manchester City Santa Stroll costs £10 to enter the race and your blue Santa outfit is included. Meanwhile, for those wishing to compete in the MCFC Santa Dash, entrance fee remains the same, except instead of a Santa outfit you will receive a white t-shirt, which indicates your participation in the dash.

The Manchester United Santa Run costs £15 and like MCFC, includes your Santa outfit in the bundle. Both races are further incentivised by a goodie bag following the completion of the race and a range of festive activities during the event, ranging from spot competitions and early Christmas presents on the day, to guest appearances from club legends past and present!

What are the facilities like?

Given the nature of the event, in that it is largely a fun-run, the route is not published online before very close to the event itself, so do please keep a look out on both Manchester City’s and United’s official websites. However, in terms of the scenery and the landmarks you will be running around in your Christmas attire, they are certainly worth admiring, and this might perhaps be your perfect (and undeniably your most unique) photo opportunity. From personal experience, having run the Manchester City Santa Stroll on two occasions previously, the route involves running both through the concourse inside the Etihad Stadium, before travelling outside to gain an exclusive look at the Citizens’s brand-new football academy complex (most notably where President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister David Cameron visited several weeks ago).

Meanwhile, the Manchester United website has confirmed that this year there is the opportunity to venture down the tunnel at Old Trafford towards the finish line after taking in the sights of the local Imperial War Museum, The Lowry Centre and Media City UK. So make sure to not forget your camera!

Tell me something I didn’t already know…

The 2014 Manchester City Santa Stroll and Dash events saw 1,200 sky blue Santas take to the Etihad Campus to raise money for the local community. The family-friendly run was founded by lifelong Manchester City supporter Jason Manford and former club captain and now Sporting Director of New York City Football Club, Claudio Reyna. Meanwhile at Old Trafford, there were 1,200 Santas involved in the Christmas event, with club legend Bryan Robson starting the race alongside Coronation Street star Anthony Cotton.

Finally, when can I see this in action?

Manchester City Santa Stroll and Dash take place on: Sunday 6th December 2015

Manchester United Santa Run takes place on: Sunday 13th December 2015

For more information on collecting your Santa outfits, the starting times of both events and anything else, please visit http://www.mcfc.co.uk for information on Manchester City’s event and conversely, http://www.manutd.com for details of Manchester United’s event.

If you have any requests for local teams, sports or events taking place in Manchester, or if you wish to be involved, please contact: [email protected].

Review: Model Behaviour

Written by Ashley McGovern on . Posted in Arts.

Before going to the Holden Gallery’s latest exhibition, my mental image of model houses was based on the twee scenery of English country villages, exactly like Bourton-on-the-Water’s Grade-II listed 1:9 scale model of their Cotswold village, so lovingly shrunk that you can see pews inside their St. Lawrence church. A full-time stonemason does the rounds to make sure the slate-roofed homes and the town’s whirring watermill remain safe from giant tourists. You won’t see this bucolic calm on show in ‘Model Behaviour’. Most of the artists here use maquettes as the basis of their work because they are a way of viewing the original social contract, made between designer and developer, before the housing market reduces it to either a redundant or extravagant shelter of capital.

James Casebere’s Landscapes are photographs of a slightly sterile model recreation of American suburbia, based on affluent Duchess County in Upstate New York. They show long, placid lawns of white houses and an involved community spirit: baseball courts, parked bicycles and a yellow school bus driving along the main road. The only thing is that no-one is around; the whole town is deserted with nobody to enjoy the numb prosperity of the place. Instead there are unnerving signs of danger littered across the sloping hills. Piles of logs are stacked outside the homes, as though some scaremongering telecast has told them to stock up, and the town’s distant bit of pine forest, encircled by a wind farm, is quickly catching fire. If this is suburbia build on sub-prime credit, then the sulphurous economic revenge is coming.

This exhibition also has its protesters to match. Jordi Colomer’s ongoing work in progress, Anarchitekton, consists of four videos based on his visits to four cities: Barcelona, Bucharest, Brasilia and Osaka. As a series they form a video travelogue of one man’s outcry against hegemonic power. He acts through a madman alter ego, Idroj Sanicne, and runs around the cities, all the while holding a miniature version of the surrounding architecture e.g. the advertisements plastered over buildings in Osaka, the dull exterior of Ceausescu’s grandiose palace. He is alone; there are no crowds of fellow campaigners, no banners or even text to explain his wild jeering.

Not all of the work is an anti-capitalist demo against the illusions we have about out homes and cities. Some of the artists maintain a romantic awe of the modelesque. Luis Lambri’s photographs are highly formalist interior shots of museum homes like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin House and the rebuilt auditorium of Turin’s Teatro Regio. She stalks through the buildings and snaps narrow views through windows, the nooks of the opera house’s ceiling. They are too formalist in my view, the light and shape are framed for brief decorative pleasure and are photographed too preciously. Oliver Boberg’s Night Sights cast a blue-tinted look at an unusual subject: Industry. His short films, looped every 30 minutes, are practically motionless views of deserted factories and alleyways late at night. Their stillness is interrupted only by the hum of machinery and the occasional gust of steam. Industrial buildings, it seems, have their rhythms and they are made to appear filmic, seductive.

Throughout the majority of the works, the exhibition analyses the architectural contract that is made up before we ever come to inhabit our homes. They can be highly prettified, delicate contracts or they can hint early on at the dangers, greed and oversight of investment. Model houses appear during the period of securing a sale, during the times of spotless presentation before any filthy bricks are laid or foundations dug, and this show keeps us on the edge of unbuilt possibility.

Closes 11th December 2015. To find out more visit: holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk/2015/model-behaviour/

Chapter One

Written by Helena Maxwell-Jackson on . Posted in Food & Drink.

Picture: Richard Elzey @Flickr

The rain beat down on us as we made our way through the brick-clad lanes of the Northern Quarter. The wind chased us forward until our saunter broke into a reluctant jog. As we ran, we jumped, and swerved to avoid the puddles; until we were half-hearted gymnasts vaulting over ponds of murky city rainfall.

We had left our gloves in London. My friend was wearing a pair of socks on her hands, in an attempt to escape the inevitable fate of chilblains. My hands were bare. My pale face shivered beneath my acrylic beanie cap, like a rippling white flag, as I surrendered to the cold.

As we turned on to Lever Street, we came to a grey concrete building. The ground floor jutted out from the mass of the building above, literally stopping us in our path.
We slowed our pace until I could feel the slow squelch of cold water in my saturated shoes.

The grey façade of the building was punctuated by floor length windows. I peered through one.

Inside the building were large, fabric, coloured armchairs that were dispersed between displays of books, some of which were perched upon dark green picnic tables. My eyes drifted upwards toward the ceiling until they reached the sculptural lights. Their refulgence cascaded from the ceiling, meandering between the exposed copper pipes that hovered just below.

I peered at the shop sign at the front of the buildings. ‘Chapter One’, it read.

I reached out to open the door, and let the warmth of the room guide me inside. The sound of babbling water from a stone fountain in the middle of the shop mingled with the playlist of soft folk pop that trickled through the space.

I walked between the chairs and tables, between the books. As I walked I saw that the shop gave way to an exhibition space, its presence foreshadowed by the many art books situated at the back of the room.

Just short of the art gallery was a row of typewriters, each one separated by a glass plane. I tapped one of the metal keys, and I watched as the 4 letters instantaneously formed in front of my eyes.

First a C, then an A, a K, an E.

‘Cake’, we both whispered, in unison. We spoke the words as if we were possessed, for we could sense that vegan cupcakes were in the vicinity.

We found ourselves striding toward the café counter.

We stared at the selection of loose teas as we were hit by an enchanting ultimatum: berry tea and red velvet, or vegan chocolate cupcake with rose bud tea?

The latter materialised. Sitting upon the large, tarted armchairs, I watched as the amber liquid poured itself into the delicate china tea cups. As I did so, fragrant notes of vanilla and orange filled my nostrils.

Outside, the wind and the rain quickened to form a swirling vortex of fallen leaves, cigarette butts and….

‘Rose buds’ my friend gasped. Rays from the lights above hit her spectacles, and a pink glare filled the frames.

I looked down to the chocolate cupcake. It was a real old-fashioned fairy-cake with a moist crumb and glacé icing. With each bite of the cake, I could hear the wind swirling faster and faster outside. The sound filled my ears, as chocolate cake filled my mouth. And then, I wasn’t sure if the storm really was outside at all. Perhaps the windows had buckled under its force, for the whole room seemed to be spinning now. Books, and tea, and art works whirled around me, until I lost all sense of space, of time, of place.

I didn’t know if I was in Manchester any more. All I knew was that I was caught up in the magic of Chapter One.

Diary of a Tinder Addict

Written by Aj Mal on . Posted in Lifestyle.

Swipe, swipe, swipe

Stacey has found herself matching, chatting, flirting and arranging dates with new men in the most unusual of places.

Swipe, swipe, swipe. Flicking through potential love interests with a wave of a finger, Stacey wondered how long she would have to wait to hear back from Will, her date from the night before last. “Call him, text him, Facebook message? Definitely don’t call… who does that now anyway?”

She sends a text and waits…

Still waiting on the bus to uni… considering replying to the good looking photo with the standard cheesy opening: Heyyy. Possibly the least pervy message she received in the last 24 hours.

During lectures, and Will has posted on Instagram and Facebook, yet no reply… Stacey considers updating status to: Fuming.

Messages sent over lunch and revenge date arranged for tonight. Also just recognised recent Tinder match after passing on street. Definitely worse in real life.

Her non-stop 20-second cycle of looking at her phone screen, responding to messages, and just seeing if there was anyone new online has become an addiction. She knows this because her date has just told her. First date dress and makeup on, butterflies in her stomach on the way to the bar, but completely bored and wondering how to make an early exit before she has finished her first drink.

He said he was into comics and rolled his eyes when she said she likes all types of music. Why did she agree to a meal… rookie mistake.

It’s going to be a long night. She reaches for her phone as the red flame beckons…

Get Involved: Sporticipate Squash & Racketball

Written by Harry Newton on . Posted in Sport.

If the university team isn’t for you, or you simply want to play a sport, such as squash/racketball, at a more chilled level, then maybe the more relaxed Sporticipate sessions are for you! With attendance at these events increasing each week, around 30 students are returning each week to take part in the squash/racketball sessions. This is a great way to make friends and be part of a team whilst learning and playing squash/racketball.

Also, you don’t even need much experience to play the sport, since one of the participants in the sessions states, “I did not have much experience before I started this September getting into squash. At the start it is easy to learn the basics, but to improve is a slower and longer process. The feeling is nice when you finally get better and own the T in the court. When you play against better players and never stand on T, it can be off-putting, but I try to see the positive and learn from it. I recommended squash to many of my friends and some off them started to get into it, too.”

With the university squash club already full up, this is a great way to play the sport, but also a great way to learn the sport ready for next year (or even semester two if spaces become available). The sessions themselves are really relaxed, as coach Max Gibbs mentions, “I try to make the sessions feel as welcoming and relaxed as possible so that it won’t deter anyone who wants to join in. I usually start assessing who needs my attention the most and set others off with practices or free play… then I leave them to it, which allows them to discover things for themselves and play the game in an even more relaxed environment.”

Although Sporticipate is arguably less competitive than the university teams, due to the results not actually counting for anything beyond your own personal accolade, it is a much more relaxed environment. Coach Max describes how he splits the group into teams of equally skilled players to play each other in competitive games. The sense of challenge and competitiveness is evident still. Max also states that “the difficulty of the sessions is easily managed by switching between racketball and squash and by varying the type of ball used for the session.”

Max adds, “I believe in making things manageable for players but also giving them a sense of a challenge.” So, whether to keep fit, pick up an old sport, or fall in love with a new one, you should go down to the squash/racketball sessions every Thursday 6:20 – 9pm.

‘Twas the knit before Christmas

Written by Kassi Allcock on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

The Festive Animal

Photo: ASOS, £18

Without a doubt, the reindeer is the most graceful, most aesthetically pleasing festive animal. Although penguins and polar bears can make a cute addition to December’s knitwear, they are not exactly the epitome of elegant. Unless you’re on the hunt for a Christmas jumper that is so outrageously bad that it’s actually jaw-dropingly good, I would opt for Dasher, Prancer, and Blitzen.

 

The Festive Decoration

Photo: Warehouse, £46

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a stylish festive jumper that celebrates the love we all share for Christmas decorations. Unless you want to walk around Manchester City Centre lit up like a Christmas tree or, even worse, have carols playing from your bosom, the search continues. This classy getup from Warehouse, however, ticks all the boxes. Fashionable, check. Colourful without being eccentric, check. Holiday loving, check. The zenith of Christmas jumpers.

 

The Festive Fair Isle

Photo: Next £22

A classic in anybody’s Christmas jumper wardrobe. Whether a navy background with white and red stitching, or a white background with navy and red detailing, a fair isle knit is a must-have during the holiday season. Usually featuring our fave festive animal again (the reindeer, who else?), or alternatively decorated in a cosy Christmas setting, there is plenty of choice along the highstreet.

 

The Festive Snowflake

Photo: Superdry £64.99

Although damp and bitterly cold winter weather may accompany the holiday season, there is no reason to dismay. A white Christmas brings along beautiful jumper designs, celebrating each intricate snowflake as they fall one by one. This festive piece from Superdry hits with full force; embellished with dazzling sequins and thick enough to shelter you from the terrible weather.

 

The Festive Wreath

Photo: John Lewis £49.95

Hey, look who it is! Our trusty old friend, Rudolph. This masterpiece from Joules just screams festive fun, whilst remaining fairly elegant. With a mixture of all the key Christmas colours, and knitted using an intarsia technique, you can’t really go wrong. If you can’t afford to decorate your front door with a real wreath this December, decorate your wardrobe instead.

 

The Festive Slogan

Photo: Marks & Spencer £29.50

What would a Christmas jumper list be without at least one slogan? Avoiding the obvious clichés, and some of the more embarrassing ‘trendy’ phrases such as ‘Santa is my bae’ and ‘#elfie’, I’ve chosen an old classic. Although I don’t agree with the message—snow is my least favourite weather, ever—there is no denying that a jingle starts to play as soon as the jumper catches your eye. Especially with the addition of glitter detailing, this M&S beauty would create the perfect Christmas Day ensemble.

Jeremy Corbyn’s omnishambles

Written by Colm Lock on . Posted in Opinion.

Back when most current students were just getting out of nappies, New Labour was emerging from a staggering victory at the 1997 general election. They had won it with a mix of sound political promises and very smooth and co-ordinated media coverage. It was the time of ‘cool Britannia’, and when the Labour party seemed unstoppable. For the whole of Blair’s first government, he managed to completely eclipse the then Leader of the Opposition, William Hague.

Well, how the mighty have indeed fallen. The party has had something of a Bolshevik revolution with the established Blairite royalty being taken down into a cellar and shot by the Corbynite communists. The likes of Liz Kendal, Yvette Cooper, Chuka Ummuna, and Tristram Hunt have fallen, and with them, Labour’s electability.

Let us first deal with the Shadow International Development Secretary Diane Abbott. Rightly sacked by Ed Miliband, this woman—whose behaviour was described by another shadow minister as “fucking nutty”—has returned. She appears to be the person Labour want to throw under the bus for terrible interviews. If she isn’t insanely cackling through tricky questions, she is defending the indefensible.

Recently this took the form of her claiming on The Daily Politics that John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, had not signed a certain petition calling for MI5 to be abolished. A point she chose to defend even when the host pulled up a picture of Mr McDonnell holding said petition. Not much can be said of her taste in men either, when past partners include the chief comrade himself.

Now we come to John McDonnell. He is a man about as qualified to be Shadow Chancellor as a sheep that has somehow come to be in possession of an abacus. As mentioned above, he has previously chosen to back the disbanding of MI5 and Britain’s armed police forces, probably so that his friends in the IRA have an easier time. He is known to have supported anti-British terrorists to the extent that he said dead IRA terrorists should be honoured. These being the same people that bombed the Arndale centre back in the 90s. Furthermore, his economic policy is about as coherent as a Glaswegian after a hard night out in Motherwell. He plans to increase the deficit, print more money and in the process, raise your taxes! How would you like to surrender 50, 60, or 70 per cent of your hard earned pounds to a man who would waste it on such anachronistic vanity projects as reopening the coal mines and subsidising unprofitable industries?

Now we come to the main man, the first among equals, Jezza Corbyn. Now, as students of the University of Manchester, we have all had to achieve a certain academic standard to attend this fine institution. Mr Corbyn however only managed two Es at A-level before going on to do Trade Union Studies, which he did not even complete, at North London Polytechnic. I don’t know about you but I want my leader to be, you know, actually clever.

His frankly dismal Commons performance has shown that he about as capable a debater as an unusually timid dormouse. Then there’s his dubious past. Following the Brighton IRA bombing, he invited the leaders of Sinn Féin to parliament. He has called Hamas and Hezbollah his friends and encouraged Iraqi resistance to the 2003 invasion, which is tantamount to an endorsement of the killing of British troops. He is also a member of the pressure group Stop the War which recently blamed the Paris attacks on the West, saying that it is our fault a bunch of nutty murderers chose to slaughter innocent people.

Then of course there are the other failings of his party. One of the most glaring is his Shadow Minister for the City of London, Richard Burgon MP. He has never even had a meeting with city bosses. Instead, he chooses to go to a friends of Venezuela meeting and other assorted socialist events, showing the party’s lack of respect for an important part of this country’s economy.

We also must not neglect politics north of the wall, where Labour is declining under his leadership in Scotland as he lets the Scottish cohort become more and more SNP-lite. This has understandably frightened the unionists amongst Scottish Labour’s voters who appear to be deserting to the Tories in numbers that could see Labour pushed into a narrow third place.

However, there is one thing I can not fault Mr Corbyn on and that is his remembrance day performance. He behaved above and beyond the call of duty. I say shame on Mr Cameron for not following suit. Corbyn chose to stay behind to applaud and chat to the veterans as they marched on Horse Guards. The names of my village war dead are ingrained on my memory. I would personally love the chance to meet some of the veterans and hear their stories. They have lived history and like many in my family, have seen things many of us couldn’t even imagine in service of their country.

I will leave you with this one thought readers. The Labour Party has never in its history deposed a leader because he is unpopular. They kept Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock and Ed Miliband until they had lost the next election. So, for all of Corbyn’s trials and tribulations, he is likely to hold on until 2020 and then we will see what the British people truly make of him. Does anyone else smell toast?

Live: Chvrches at the Albert Hall

Written by Oscar Talbot on . Posted in Music.

Thursday 19th November

Albert Hall

8/10

As Lauren Mayberry leaps around the stage, flicking her microphone cable around like a whip and singing “We will take the best parts of ourselves and make them gold”, it somehow seems a little trite, too unequivocal. The balance is slightly off for the whole night, meaning I am struggling to make out her excellent vocals, but the synths are buffeting the crowd around. Someone’s mum looks a bit uncomfortable.

There’s no doubting Mayberry’s energy. I feel a little tired just watching her, and her charisma and stage presence demonstrates that Chvrches are truly in their element. Her controlled aesthetic compliments the 80s dance music, and is undeniably catchy. Although ‘Make Them Gold’ is not my favorite track on Every Open Eye, the band’s latest offering, it’s still a good tune, showcasing Chvrches blend of 80s revival complimented by cycling crescendos that have made the Glaswegian band so popular. As beautiful as the Albert Hall is, its over 18s only policy slightly screwed Chvrches in my opinion, as it seems highly likely a large part of their appeal is to the under-18 demographic.

However, the more cinematic songs of the first album, such as ‘Gun’, generally still reign. There are some songs that could have been omitted from their discography. Open Every Eye is such a strong album that weaker songs such as ‘Under the Tide’ could finally be dispensed with; easily the weakest song of the night, it sees Mayberry get behind the synths while the overly enthusiastic Martin Doherty takes center stage. Destroying the carefully constructed feeling of contained emotion that Mayberry creates, Doherty’s dancing is too reminiscent of Gob Bluth’s chicken dance to be taken seriously. Fortunately the next song on the roster is the excellent ‘Recover’, clearly still a crowd favourite, and although Chvrches must be bored of their stand out track by now, they don’t show it.

The encore ‘Leave a Trace’ is also excellent, although it seems a shame to keep the stand-out single from Open till the end. Nevertheless it merits a triumphant return to Manchester, and while Chvrches could have quite easily converted to being a stadium band, it shows a particular kind of integrity that they haven’t. Many of the songs would lose their meticulous ensemble, and there is a sort of wonderfully shambolic enjoyment that Chvrches emulate. And as often happens at the Albert Hall, it was a star-studded event, meaning I got the immense pleasure of watching a very drunk Jack Whitehall scream along to ‘Recover’, which was the icing on the cake for a fantastic night.

Record reappraisal: Burial – Untrue

Written by Jacob Bernard-Banton on . Posted in Music.

Released 5th November 2007 via Hyperdub

Somewhere on YouTube exists a rather ad hoc interview conducted by esteemed DJ Gilles Peterson—and featuring an uncharacteristically cheerful Thom Yorke—in which Flying Lotus claims that Burial’s Untrue only really made sense when he went on “a road trip” around the UK. That it had been raining on his visit only endeared him more to the album. Truth be told, the only backdrop that feels appropriate for Untrue’s deeply affecting, haunting soundscapes would have to be a cold, grim day in south London, cast in grey skies at the same moment that the heavens have opened.

The beauty of Untrue lies in its undimmed, elegiac melancholy; this is an album that sounds like the wistful memories of an ageing clubber. There are muffled swells of UK garage and deep house flavours; warped vocal samples cribbed from 90s UK hardcore; the rattling thump of 2-step. The result is amorphous and nebulous, though strangely lucid. Stranger still is the warmth that emerges from the album’s ghostly ambient textures. The song titles are stark and unembellished (‘In McDonalds’, ‘Homeless’), visceral tunes told as matter-of-fact. Untrue sounds so authentically like dark winter nights in the SE postcode area that it spawned the short-lived pseudo-genre ‘night-bus’—the musical incarnation of the type of person who elects to sit at the very back of the top deck of any night bus, dressed silently in a hoodie with their headphones on, nodding incessantly.

Untrue’s mood belongs to a specific era of exciting British music: The early-noughties dubstep explosion, an era that evokes images of lo-fi Boiler Room-imitating sessions in someone’s basement listening to bass-heavy music amongst a dense cloud of cannabis smoke. Such a scene may never happen again—dubstep bore inextricable ties to the environments it was produced in, now rendered unrecognisable in the age of austerity and cancerous, homogenous gentrification. As ever, things got lost in translation when dubstep was belatedly embraced across the pond. The woefully unsubtle, commercialised American variant amplified the sub-bass showboating but lost its cutting-edge spirit. And yet, Burial remains thoroughly unique. Untrue wasn’t and isn’t like other dubstep landmarks: Not nearly as deceptively abrasive as Benga’s Diary of an Afro Warrior, less spartan than DMZ’s output. In fact, it still sounds winningly alien, by turns mysterious (‘Ghost Hardware’, the loping stride of ‘Etched Headplate’) and desperately moving (‘Shell of Light’). An astonishing masterpiece.