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Year: 2016

Stop pretending Fidel Castro was a hero

The death of Fidel Castro — the revolutionary politician who ruled Cuba for more than 40 years — was always going to be momentous for both Cubans and on the grandest of geopolitical stages. It exposed the differing feelings towards the Castro dynasty, as well as drawing attention to the evolving relationship between Cuba and the United States, and the extent to which this is going to change over the coming years.

Reactions from political leaders were deliberately vague, often with airs of respectability — what we might expect. Barack Obama’s statement was reserved, with a focus on the future of Cuba, and the shared values of the “bonds of family, culture, commerce”. The Guardian rightfully observed that this statement was “carefully calibrating”: neither overtly condemning Castro’s rule, nor supporting him. This stands in great contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s official statement. He vehemently denounced Castro as a “brutal dictator” and said his legacy is one of “firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

Alarmingly, however, this event highlighted the inability of certain groups and people to separate the romantic notions of revolutionary politics with Castro’s tyrannical, oppressive, and damaging practices and policies. Both Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, and the Black Lives Matter movement have failed to address the extent of Castro’s oppressive policies, onset by his overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s government in 1959.

When it was announced last December that diplomacy between the U.S. and Cuba would be reopened, Carlos Eire, a historian at Yale, commented in the Washington Post that, “as an 8-year old […] I watched televised executions, and was terrified by the incessant pressure to agree with a bearded dictator’s ideals”. To have to witness this, let alone as a young child, is not something to excuse. It highlights the brutality of Castro’s regime, and his complete and unwavering lack of tolerance towards anyone who might oppose him.

Eire went on to say: “I began to feel as if some monstrous force was trying to steal my mind and soul through incessant indoctrination,” drawing attention to the lengths to which the Castro regime held domination over the Cuban people.

William Doino Jr argues on First Things that the regime’s crimes need to be recognised for diplomatic relations to resume. He also argues that at the time of the overthrow of Batista, many believed Castro to be a ‘genuine social reformer’. It seems that the Black Lives Matter movement also believe this to be true.

In their article “Lessons from Fidel: Black Lives Matter and the Transition of El Comandante” published following his death, they state: “Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante.” To describe the character and conduct of Castro as “flaws”, to reduce them to mere imperfections, is absurd. Furthermore, to try to rally defence for him is disrespectful to those who fell victim to his oppressive and violent practices. More generally, it is worrying that their focus is on Castro as a figure of inspiration, rather than a tyrannical dictator.

All governments, not that Castro’s regime can properly be described as a democratic government, have successes and failures. Discrimination, exiling, and mass execution cannot be deemed mere failings.

As has been argued recently, it seems as though people are trying to reconstruct and revise history by overlooking the atrocities of the Castro regime purely for the romantics and idealism of the revolution. It seems as though certain news channels and publications chose to focalise the length and “iconic” nature of his rule, rather than the atrocities committed under his watch, often by himself.

These atrocities include the mass execution of his political opponents, often with the carelessness of a firing squad, as well as “dismantling” the Catholic Church and condemning homosexuals as “a deviation incompatible with the revolution.” Black Lives Matter said in their statement that we should strive for “a vision of freedom and the peace that only comes with justice”. This raises the question of where the justice is in marginalisation and oppression.

Pink News reported on how Castro’s regime specifically targeted homosexuals. It says “many received false telegrams telling them they had been called for military service and should appear at a chosen location — where they would then be rounded into trains, trucks and buses and sent to camps with little food or water.” This barbarism cannot be ignored or forgotten.

Black Lives Matter rounded their article off by stating that they summon Castro’s leadership in their recommitment to “the struggle for universal freedom”. This notion of equality and freedom does not seem to connect to Castro’s regime. I’d like to know how Castro’s dictatorship can inspire us to strive for “universal freedom”, given his horrendous human rights adherence record.

How can oppression, violence, and discrimination possibly be overlooked when it is so blatant?  How can other aspects of his dictatorship, such as the length of his rule and its “inspirational” nature, be reported above his tyranny? It fails to give a voice to those who suffered under his watch, and brings unease to future international relations with Cuba.

Album: Peter Doherty – Hamburg Demonstrations

Released 2nd December via BMG

5/10

The Libertines released their sophomore self-titled album in 2004. Following the unarguably fantastic Up The Bracket, it was the last truly great album frontman Peter Doherty would release. Since then, there have been three Babyshambles albums, one solo album and last year’s Libertines comeback album. None of them have come close to reaching the soaring heights of the first two albums.

And yet, I find out that Doherty is releasing a new album and once again I convince myself that this is the one: that this is the album where Doherty reproduces that frantic beautiful chaos we all know he is capable of and reclaims his title as brit-punk royalty. And, once again, I am disappointed.

Taking its name from the series of German protests, Hamburg Demonstrations is a misleading title for Doherty’s sophomore solo release. The album is less a fierce riot and more a collection of unguided ideas. One look at the tracklist and it’s clear that Doherty isn’t inciting any revolutions: songs with names like ‘A Spy in the House of Love’ and ‘I Don’t Love Anyone (But You’re Not Just Anyone)’ will induce a sinking feeling in any Doherty fan’s stomach.  The former track relies on tempo changes to provide any song development, while the latter is a slow ballad that’s about as tiresome and banal as it gets.

That’s not to say that Hamburg Demonstrations is a bad album. Doherty has incorporated a wider range of instruments into Hamburg Demonstrations, which results in a more wholesome and warm sound than previous solo effort Grace/Wastelands. Many songs have the erratic structures and unpredictable melodies which are so quintessentially Doherty.

Certain tracks stand out. ‘Down for the Outing’ is a poetic ode to British disillusionment. ‘Flags From the Old Regime’, a dedication to Amy Winehouse, allows some of Doherty’s old lyricism to shine through. However, the overall product is lacking in energy and this album is one we’ve heard too many times for it to feel original.

Maybe it was the influence of Carl Barat and Mick Jones that made The Libertines so great. Perhaps it was a fresh faced attitude to music and a lack pressure to build on hype. Or, maybe, it was the drugs.

For whatever reason, since The Libertines came out it’s been an endless cycle of anticipation and disappointment for Doherty fans. Hamburg Demonstrations in no way breaks this cold of ‘just okay’ albums.

Anyway, there’s always next time.

Men more likely to suffer from academic ‘imposter syndrome’ than women

Times Higher Education recently ran an article about Imposter-Syndrome and anxiety among academics. They cited a recent study from the University of Houston which found that male academics were more likely to suffer from work-related anxiety and so called ‘Imposter-Syndrome’ than their female colleagues.

Imposter syndrome is when a person feels unable to cope with the position in which they’ve found themselves, like they shouldn’t be there, and are afraid of being exposed as a fraud. The study didn’t have a very large sample size — it involved sixteen academics across a range of levels of responsibility — but it could indicate a larger trend.

Through a series of interviews, academics were asked about the trigger factors that bring about feelings of Imposter Syndrome, leading to stress and anxiety in the workplace and the kinds of coping mechanisms that they employ. The main cause of these negative feelings was having their expertise questioned by either students or colleagues. Female academics were generally found to adopt a more open approach and rely on techniques such as social support to understand and deal with feelings of Imposter Syndrome. On the other hand, male academics were much more likely to use avoidance tactics and instead cope through “alcohol or other substance abuse, working harder or just not addressing their imposter thoughts.”

The study concluded that given the reluctance among men to use active coping mechanisms, they were more likely to suffer as a result of these unresolved feelings. Participants in the study suggested that academics could deal with these negative feelings better if universities offered mentoring and discussion groups to normalise the feelings and clarify the means by which academic performance is evaluated.

Today, there is more awareness and understanding of men’s health issues than in previous decades. Campaigns such as the Movember Foundation are making a big difference by both raising money and opening up discussion. The Foundation raised £6.8 million in 2015 in the UK alone, which goes towards research and support for both physical and mental health. Also around Manchester city centre you are likely to come across a number of CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) posters, which is another major organisation helping to deal with mental health issues among men.

At the University of Manchester, Izzy Gurbuz is the Well-being Officer on the Executive Team based in the Students’ Union. There are general well-being, advice, and counselling services based at the university. But there are also less formal sounding options as well. Over the summer, Izzy helped students to set up the Open Mind Network which is a student society centring around mental health and well-being.

She said that it’s “another avenue that people might feel more comfortable with, to be able to go to for peer to peer discussions.” The Open Mind Network was involved in events on World Mental Health Day and they’re very keen on raising awareness. Co-founder Sakib Moghal was quoted in the Mancunion back in October saying: “Our two goals are to support those students dealing with mental health issues and to educate all students on keeping a healthy and happy lifestyle.”

How to cope with anxiety at university

It’s 8am and my alarm goes off. I have had ten minutes sleep all night. Anxiety has taken such a strong hold of my life that on this particular morning I’ll stand in the shower barely being able to breathe. I’ll have no choice but to skip university, crawl back into bed, and try to calm down. Every time sleep nears, my body responds with a huge surge of adrenaline, my palms are clammy, and my heart is pounding. My boyfriend is fast asleep next to me and has been all night — a part of me feels so bitterly jealous that he will wake up well-rested and hasn’t spent the last 9 hours staring at the ceiling worrying about everything in the entire world.

One of the most difficult aspects of explaining what it’s like to live with anxiety to those who have never experienced it is the way it manifests itself so physically. It’s not just the butterflies that everyone experiences when they’re nervous, it’s not just the cold-sweats that we’ve all had before an important interview. It feels like a full-on near-death experience. When I have a panic attack, or even a half-panic attack, it is physically painful. Sometimes it feels like crushing chest pains and a complete inability to breathe, sometimes it feels like I’m floating out of the room. Sometimes my vision goes completely blurry, sometimes I get a migraine, I almost always feel completely unable to sit still.

In many ways, though, I only have myself to blame. I hope to offer some advice to anyone who may be in the same boat, advice that I didn’t take myself. Firstly, see a doctor as soon as possible. If possible, see multiple doctors. I saw one doctor and found that he wasn’t very helpful at all, and so decided to stop seeking medical help altogether. This was my first mistake: I thought that I knew better than him and that I’d be able to cope on my own. See a doctor as early on as possible, and work with them until you are truly better.

The next step you should take, a step which I never did, is informing the University of your problems. They are here to help, and can offer you academic support such as extensions on essay deadlines and will be far more understanding if you can’t make it to seminars and lectures than if you simply don’t turn up. I always thought it felt too much like cheating, I didn’t want to have an unfair advantage over my classmates. However, it’s not an ‘unfair’ advantage at all if you’re genuinely struggling. Speak to your academic advisor or another member of staff that you trust, no matter how awkward or embarrassed you might feel.

Finally, make use of the support that is around you and be truthful both with yourself and the people who are there to help. The University offers its own counselling service, and it’s often easy to get an appointment within a couple of weeks of requesting one. I used this service a couple of times before completely disregarding it, as at the time I felt that my problems were not due to underlying causes as the counsellor had suggested. I felt a defiance, and a sense that nobody out there would understand what I was going through, especially not a stranger in a clinical room. Not only this but I lied about various things: my lifestyle habits, my personal relationships, how well I was coping with the stress of University. Perhaps if I’d been truthful at the early stages then the whole thing could have been nipped in the bud, rather than escalating to the extent that it has now.

Although this may all seem like a hugely pessimistic view of what it’s like to live with anxiety and panic disorders, I just want to provide an honest account of what can happen if such things are ignored. It’s so important to get help, and there is so much help out there but you have to be proactive and seek it out. Some of the services on offer, like the University Counselling Service, Moodjuice, and No Panic, were extremely helpful for me and I’d strongly recommend looking into them if you are struggling with anxiety or other mental health problems.

Review: Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers

Having finished a summer stint at London’s Barbican, the Martin Parr curated exhibition Strange and Familiar has arrived at Manchester Art Gallery, bringing with it a collection of over 250 photographs documenting the lives of every day Britons from the 1930s to the present day. What makes this depiction the British Isles so special is that it is captured through the eyes of exclusively international photographers.

As a graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University, it is notable that Parr includes no photographs depicting Mancunians, yet this makes the collection no less significant as its voyeuristic perspective mirrors how international fascination with the social, political, and cultural dynamic of the British people is still relevant today, especially in the wake of Brexit.

Much of the exhibition conveys quintessential British scenes: Londoners waiting for bright red buses, lollypop ladies, and young people of the 1960’s. However, many of of these photographs present a somewhat gloomy picture of life in the UK. For example, Axel Hütte’s photographs focus upon lonely and desolate council estates, devoid of human life and shot in black and white.

Some of the most striking photos in the exhibition come from the more contemporary photographers, such as Hans Eijkelboom. The gallery includes a room with a projection of his images, giving a taster of his collection People of the Twenty-First Century, which chronicles some 20 years-worth of ‘photo-notes’ and demonstrates the similarities in the way people dress — challenging the idea of individuality in the modern age.

Close to the end of the exhibition, Parr has also included three photos from New Yorker Bruce Gilden’s Face. Gilden attempts to capture his subjects as unflatteringly as possible, taking close-up facial shots illuminated with harsh light. These photos are the most caricatured of them all and presents grotesque, and arguably cruel, renderings of his subjects complete with scars, veins, pimples, warts and all.

Overall, I felt that the varying perspectives and styles shone through, giving an insightful, quaint, surreal, and often moving slice of British life. The exhibition is a must-see for anyone interested in a Britain’s social history.

Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers, Manchester Art Gallery
Friday 25 November 2016–Monday 29 May 2017

The misrepresentation of the Syrian conflict

As the world focuses on the global refugee crisis, which has sent countless souls into Europe and safe areas of the Middle East, there seems to be a neglect of the cause of the crisis, and an unrealistic reporting of what needs to be done. The war in Syria and the catastrophe in Iraq caused by so-called ISIS are ongoing conflicts that will keep the refugee crisis going indefinitely unless they are resolved.

Considering that many western nations feel an obligation to help those fleeing conflict, a compelling case can be made for us to have a similar obligation to help them return home and rebuild their countries. This line of thinking, however, has been harmed by gross misrepresentations of the conflict in much of the western media, and by different humanitarian groups who seem to be more concerned with their own funding and image than providing sustainable development. The horrors of the conflict have been reported so viscerally that many have become numb to the pain that is ongoing. Much of this reporting has been little more than fabricated porno-violence, which has prevented a more diplomatic assessment what is happening on the ground.

In 2011, even before the war began, there was a horrible misreading of the situation by western onlookers. A culture had grown where liberalism was not only what we deemed ideal for ourselves, but something that needed to be exported throughout the globe — including to our enemies in order to make them our allies — by force if necessary.

The failures of Iraq and Afghanistan had made people lose their stomach for the force aspect, but the underlying trend remained present. This is why the Obama administration, under then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, pursued a pro-Arab Spring policy, regardless of whether the nations were our allies or not. Whereas the Bush administration had the mentality of a missionary, going to enemy nations and “correcting” their errors, the Obama administration found the US to have been on the “wrong side of history,” believing that the championing of liberalism was inevitable. Sadly, in countries like Libya, Obama used bombs and supplied weaponry to rebel groups to support this vision.

In Syria, however, the failure was even worse. Considering that Assad was from the Alawite sect, a small minority that was feverishly hated by the countries large Sunni population, a smooth transition was unlikely. His father had continued a policy of fighting homegrown Islamism, ruthlessly persecuting the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist Sunni political outfit. All intelligence indicated that if revolution were to occur, the regime would fight tooth and nail to avoid the expected genocide of their sect.

Despite this, the Obama administration showed vocal support for the rebels, even drawing his line in the sand about intervention. The war began with rebels expecting western support, but were wholly and mercilessly slaughtered without it. Their void was then filled with likes of Al-Qaeda and far more horrifying outfits. The estimates since then have been that over 500,000 people have been killed and over seven million displaced, though the numbers are likely considerably lower.

And this is where the current problem with the conflict occurs. Every week, reports occur of a hospital being bombed by the Russian-backed Assad regime, often without a name or exact location. By the logic of this, Syria would have had more hospitals per square kilometre than most western countries. Newspapers have been caught using photos of children who had died in Clinton’s Libya bombing campaigns as efforts to malign to the Assad regime.

International aid organisations, such as the UN, have been inflating death tolls in order to receive more attention and funding. The problem with this culture of overstating the conflict and making black and white portraits of an evil regime fighting honest rebels, is that its such an obvious oversimplification that people notice it’s wrong. It continues a trend from an established elite in recent years to talk down to the common man, as if lacking a Ph.D makes you an imbecile. The more this persists, the more backlash will come up, and that is worrying.

In Europe, far-left groups, such as Stop the War coalition, have increasingly blamed western powers for the conflict, while not offering any solutions of their own. The Labour leader himself seems more pro-Russian the more he speaks about the conflict, and the constant hate campaign against the Russians is driving droves into Putin’s arms. Oversimplification is being repudiated by oversimplification in the opposite direction. Nobody is willing to acknowledge the complex realities of a Civil War driven by ethnic, historical, and geopolitical tensions.

The Assad regime, while unbearably brutal, at least has a clear vision of stability, though I am by no means a fan of the man. The moderate rebels who were once the hallmark of a future Syria, have now died or fled due to lack of early aid by western supporters. The Russians, while equally brutal and indiscriminate, are being consistent in their actions and allegiances. The current crop of rebels backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey are Islamist extremists who pose, in my opinion, a greater threat than Assad could ever dream to be. Finally, the Western World, with its internal problems and lack of consideration for these complexities, has had a scattershot and piecemeal policy guided more by intent than history.

There are two options to go from here: either we allow the conflict to continue and not intervene, in which case Syria will one day fracture into smaller states which might once again go to war; or we take decisive action and come out clearly in favour of a certain policy, helping to guide the future of Syria in accordance with the vision of a certain allied group on the ground. The chances of such a coherent policy are sadly slim.

Moschino mania: Fashion is not for the fearful

Since Jeremy Scott took control of Moschino’s creative direction, he decided to reinvent the brand’s aesthetic whilst paying homage to the quirky, free nature of its heritage. Summer and Winter collections possessed creative foundations based on famous cartoon characters and the Barbie doll; pink roller skates paired with micro mini dresses infested with the Barbie logo enhanced the wacky motif of the Italian fashion house. Models even strutted down the runway with platinum blonde curls, imitating the perfect doll that would make every girl feel nostalgic. Teddy bear backpacks and shearling coats (channelling the fur of a grizzly bear) made every individual hunger for an ironically funny (and fashionable) Moschino piece. The brand injects sex appeal into every wardrobe, with staples of leather corsets and skin-baring dresses, whilst it also stands as a ubiquitous fashion house within the luxury brand portfolio.

Not many brands can create such a vision in the modern day that would appeal to such an array of celebrities and influential individuals — the Kardashians and even Michelle Obama are fans of the house.

Photo: museumatfit @Flickr

One of the brand’s signature techniques is the play on words, their recent collection replaced “smoking kills” with “fashion kills”, displaying the envelope-pushing, head-turning signature of the brand. Bags and dresses imitating cigarette packets are also in sync with these humorous connotations. What could be more appealing than addressing the dangers of smoking through glamorous couture? Collections also comprised of dresses that were “literally” on fire, explicitly playing with the metaphor that fashion is “hot”.

With curve hugging dresses and embellished red carpet gowns, the brand seems to be a fashion playroom for every rich kid out there. Most recently, the Spring/Summer ‘17 collection paid homage to the paper doll. Old fashioned 50s style gowns were covered with paper inserts at the corsage and shoulder, as if parts of the dress could be detached like the garments on a paper doll. The brand is a dream for the creative rebellion. Paper doll dresses hunger every woman to imitate a vamped, sexed up persona: a hybrid between Marilyn Monroe and Bridget Bardot.

Putting aside the cigarette packets and burning dresses, it is safe to say that fashion has a main mission to entertain and allow people to creatively enjoy. Whether you risk standing out of the crowd is your choice. Will you?

No end to Anthony Burgess

Here in Manchester we are lucky to have such a rich cultural heritage. Of course this is what people from every area might profess outwardly with pride, whether they believe it or not. In this instance though, the case can be made more sincerely, and in my view the author, composer, Joycean scholar and all-round man of letters Anthony Burgess is an important part of Manchester’s heritage. And yet, when many think of Manchester’s artistic output in the second half of the twentieth century, they call to mind an anti-immigration officer named Morrissey who in 2015 tried to write a book but couldn’t, and a somewhat lazy caricature called Liam Gallagher who, sadly, never learned to write at all.

This is not a unique phenomenon.  Towns and cities across the UK have often disowned, disregarded or forgotten their writers. Throughout my years at secondary school in Abingdon, not a whisper could be heard of the pioneering modernist novelist Dorothy Richardson, who was born there. I did once try to knock a plaque into the wall of her birthplace, but the current owners of the house were less than pleased, only getting angrier still when I told them they were living at an historic point of genesis for modern literary narrative as we know it. They simply told me it was because of this kind of thing that everyone in Abingdon hates the public school.

Less in ignorance and more out of ideological opposition, Eastwood in Nottinghamshire has at times had an uneasy relationship with their most famous exponent D.H. Lawrence. The town now has a D.H. Lawrence birthplace museum, but perhaps this act in some respects forms him into something of a prodigal son. It should be of no surprise that Burgess in 1988, somewhat in the spirit of fellowship, writes Flame Into Being: Life and Work of D.H. Lawrence.

I visited the Anthony Burgess Foundation recently and spoke to its current director Andrew Biswell, who is also a central Burgess scholar, and whose book The Real Life of Anthony Burgess was published in 2005. Andrew Biswell has above all two main things in common with author in question. The first is his initials, and the second is an insatiable interest in Anthony Burgess. For the man John Anthony Burgess Wilson created the writer Anthony Burgess. The former was then something inside of John Wilson, some studied part of his character that he projected and enlarged through the latter. In this way, the writer we know as Anthony Burgess was his own first critic and disciple.

I asked Andrew about the state of Burgess’ reputation and he informed me his readership is increasing. This, he told me, is above all the case abroad where new translations of his work have seen new audiences grow;  it is in fact one of the Anthony Burgess Foundation’s main goals to get his work back into print in new editions. Outside of the novel, there are additional ways in which Burgess’ work may extend to wider audiences, and Andrew suggests that the theatre may play a role in this as there are several play scripts in the Foundation archive which have never been performed but could be taken on in the future.

Andrew pointed out that although Burgess was in a self-imposed, Joycean exile for much of his life, in old age he did eventually express an interest to come back to Manchester, but only to die. He did not return to be buried in Manchester, but curiously enough his death mask can now be found at the Anthony Burgess Foundation. On observing the death mask I fancied it projected a duality of meaning. There is the feeling of the grand myth, the self-creation and lofty posturing of a man who generated a literary statue of himself in life and in death. Then the meekness of the smile on his face, however boldly committed to stone, at once undercuts that grandness with a more childlike air. Burgess himself had it that ‘pride and humility conjoin in the writers life’. They do so too in his death, it seems.

In 2012 the University of Manchester unveiled a plaque in Burgess’ honour, which was the first monument to Burgess in the UK. To redress this imbalance is not to vandalise properties with home-made plaques; I learnt that the hard way. Instead, what we can do is read Burgess’ work. He has over thirty novels, almost all of which are not A Clockwork Orange.

Blairites should not be so self-assured

How is it that the Blairites and their American equivalents can lose so repeatedly but remain able to convince people that they know anything at all about winning? David lost to Ed, Kendall to Corbyn, Remain to Leave, and now Clinton to Trump; and yet, for whatever reason, there is still a ludicrous consensus that these people are who we ought to be looking to for electoral success. And when someone like Corbyn comes along, gets hundreds of thousands of people excited about politics, and makes the hard-left versus the Blairites look like Man City versus the University of Manchester’s Men’s team, the response of the centrists is to put their fingers in their ears, and scream and shout about all that Corbyn is doing wrong.

That’s not to say that Corbyn doesn’t have faults — he does. And he’s probably going to lose the next General Election. But this fact just makes the Blairites’ claims to electability even more ridiculous. If they can’t beat the man who called Hamas a group for “peace” and “social justice”, why would they be able to beat Lynton Crosby’s PR Machine at CCHQ? If Corbyn’s team are analogous to Man City, then there isn’t a team on earth that can be compared to the ruthless efficiency of the Conservative Party.

When you ask a Blairite about the legacy of the Third Way politicians they revere, they’ll have a well-memorised list of some of New Labour’s achievements. They’ll rightly tell you that Blair’s governments introduced the minimum wage and tax credits, brought employment to their highest rates ever, and hired tens of thousands more doctors and nurses. But what do they leave out? They leave out that these were the people whose incompetence brought you Brexit. These were the people who ignored the concerns of the working class and paved the way for the rise of UKIP. These were the people who started an immoral and devastating war in Iraq. These were the people who tarnished Labour’s reputation on matters of the economy.

So, when Tony Blair says he’s going to make a return to UK politics, I’m not sure why he’s surprised that people aren’t very enthusiastic about the prospect. Who are the constituency he thinks he will appeal to? The left hate him. The right hate him. The poor hate him. The rich hate him. Maybe he’ll be able to snag a few liberals who think Tim Farron is a bit of a drip. If Corbyn’s selectorate isn’t enough to win an election, Blair’s disaffected liberals and social democratic policy nerds certainly aren’t either. Even if the impossible happened and Blair did unseat Jeremy Corbyn, he wouldn’t win an election, because the most successful Labour politician of all time is now very mediocre at playing politics.

In a great Channel Four news segment during the first Labour leadership election, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and Labour MP Jess Phillips spent the day together talking about politics between themselves and with Rees-Mogg’s constituents. Phillips said that as much as Corbyn harks back to the 1970s, the Blairites have the same yearning for 1997. And it’s neither. As John Oliver would say, “come on, it’s (current year)!”

If Tony Blair’s miserable cohort want to have a shot at taking over the party after a Corbyn abdication—which could well be twenty years from now—they need to understand the three groups of people that Labour need to persuade to vote for them. Firstly, we need to win the people who voted Leave and are unhappy with the pace of change in this country. The liberal dismissal of barmy Brexiteers is doing the cause no favours, and makes us liable to lose votes to UKIP, especially with its new leader who is well-placed to pick up disaffected working-class ex-Labour voters. Secondly, we need to win the moderates who liked New Labour to begin with, but converted to either Cameron or Clegg and are probably planning on voting Tory at the next election. Thirdly, we need to retain the people who likely voted Green in the last election and have joined after Corbyn’s victory: people who mostly like the European Union and think that we ought to be taking our fair share of refugees.

If this seems like a Herculean task, and that’s because it is. To simultaneously appeal to social liberals, social conservatives, economic leftists, and soft-neoliberals will be difficult. It might even be impossible. But if the Blairites want to win, this is the fusion they must focus on.

Deck the halls with budget holly

Christmas is finally just around the corner and, even if you’re a typical Scrooge, you can’t escape the general festivities of Manchester. Santa is on top of our Town Hall and the Christmas markets have begun so just before the countdown to exams begins  — sorry for mentioning it — here are some ideas for ways in which you can spruce up your halls or house for less money than you might expect.

The tree: Over the past few weeks, Sainsbury’s has been getting more and more into the Christmas spirit, with mince pies having been stocked in the first week of November. However, it wasn’t until just recently that they brought in the abundance of little trees that mark the beginning of Fallowfield’s Christmas season. Christmas trees are going for a budget price of £10 and along with that you can get a 24 pack of baubles for £4. If you’re feeling extra creative, dust the tree lightly in icing sugar or desiccated coconut to make it look like it came straight out of Narnia.

The decorations: Of course baubles aren’t enough, we need more! First things first, get down to Home Bargains and get a 6m string of fairy lights for £3.99, perfect length for the tree. For your room or for hanging around the TV in the living room, try Primark’s ‘Snowflake’ fairy lights for £2.50. These can also be strung around the headboard on your bed or wrapped around curtain poles for a festive glow. Poundland is where you want to head for tinsel, because it’s just £1 of course, but also for the fact that they do Disney’s Frozen tinsel, and it’s pink!

Extra festive cheer: When it gets to Christmas every brand seems to release a scent with the word ‘spiced’ in the name which makes it’s so easy to find a cheap way to get your home smelling great. You can pick up 25 ‘Spiced Cinnamon’ tea lights from Primark for £1 or if you want something a little stronger, Febreze have released their ‘Spiced Apple’ spray which you can find for £3 in Sainsbury’s or Tesco.

Hopefully some of these things have given you a little inspiration for how to decorate your home at university for the Christmas season! For extra decorations and ideas, try your luck in Home Sense, which is entirely devoted to Christmas at the moment, or the home section of TK Maxx where you’re guaranteed to find a bargain hidden gem for a budget friendly price.

Retail staff, no need to be frosty!

Tap ‘working retail Christmas’ into any search engine and you’ll be hit by an avalanche of pessimism, from ‘the struggles of working in retail over Christmas’, to extreme statements such as ‘retail ruins Christmas’. Having worked in retail for three and a half years, I feel I’d be in a good position to write a novel on the bleak aspects of the job. I’m also guilty of being a glass-half-empty kind of person, even extending to the glass of Bucks Fizz on Christmas Day. I’ve counted each hour between clocking out on Christmas Eve and clocking in on Boxing Day, before realising that it wasn’t actually the job that was putting a damper on Christmas — it was my mind-set.

It seems that a preconceived disapproval is developing between retail workers and customers, to the point that workers now expect every customer to be rude, and customers anticipate unsatisfactory service. This is damaging to both staff and shoppers, and it’s time to snap out of the negative cycle in order to make the festive period a more pleasant experience for everybody concerned. Let’s focus on some of the positive aspects that can be drawn from working in retail over Christmas…

Working in retail means that we generally get the first peek of incoming Christmas products and a head start on festive fashion. I don’t know about anybody else, but there’s something about rearranging the gift sets and laying out fluffy pyjamas that makes me feel like I’m part of a Christmas film. As much as we all claim to hate the loop of Christmas music that repeats itself indefinitely, it is nice to be able, if not encouraged, to feel festive whilst at work. There aren’t many jobs where you can plan your New Year’s Eve outfit whilst fulfilling your role, whether you’re taking inspiration in the fitting rooms or tidying up the shop floor.

Speaking of planning outfits, you’ll definitely need a good one for that staff Christmas party. Due to the number of staff employed by large companies, we are guaranteed a great night out for the staff Christmas do, something that can’t always be promised in other jobs. Most companies also offer great staff discount on their clothing and products, allowing us to justify that new pair of shoes.

The Boxing Day sales may mean an early start and a day of arguing about the fact that you do not decide the price tags, but they do provide us with some stories to tell. Anybody would be lying by claiming there’s nothing amusing about watching customers argue over that bargain of a coat that you know has been lurking in the warehouse since summer 2011.

There’s also a chance to improve your CV by taking on retail work over Christmas. It takes resilience, confidence, organisation, and excellent interpersonal skills to work in such a fast-paced environment at their most crucial time of the year, which allows you to gain those often-mentioned transferrable skills. This experience will be invaluable for future applications and interviews.

I can fully appreciate how tiring it is to work in retail over Christmas, but the long shifts and difficult situations can be made a little easier by carrying a positive outlook. Also, when the snow starts to melt and the sales come to an end, you can breathe a sigh of relief and await an excellent pay slip to reflect all of your hard work and extra hours. Suddenly, it all seems worthwhile.

Alan Sugar: You’re Fired

Over the years, watching the BBC’s The Apprentice on a Wednesday (then Thursday) evening at 9pm became like a ritual for a lot of the nation: the arguments, tantrums and fallings out. Alan Sugar’s ‘banter’ in the boardroom, talking about the latest episode the following day with friends at school, family, or work colleagues.

However, the show has run out of steam. Not only is it laughable to suggest the tasks are somehow representative of real-life business situations but the show is also no longer that entertaining. This year’s crop of candidates are (respectfully) a fairly average bunch. There are no big characters: no one to strongly love or hate. And none of them have particularly shone out business-wise either. Hence, now is the perfect time for the BBC to axe The Apprentice.

One serious limitation to the show’s formatting is the way success is defined. More or less every week, the team that ‘wins’ is the one that makes the most profit over a day or so. However, one team may have achieved a much higher customer satisfaction. Thus, they may have been more likely to make a higher profit over the medium to long term from repeat sales and good reputation. Luck may have also played a role in a team’s victory. Customers may have just so happened to be in a good mood on that particular day and thus been more willing to part with their cash. Alternatively, factors such as weather and traffic may have indirectly affected sales.

Of course, assessing the impact of these external factors is difficult given that economies are complex with their webs of internal and external feedback loops. But that doesn’t mean to say that the potential impact of these factors should be overlooked. Over the long-term, the extent of the impact of luck and external factors would diminish, allowing you to better assess whether or not a product or service is a top-seller. Yet these factors can hugely affect sales figures over a day or two. The Apprentice defines success merely in terms of short-term profit, regardless of the sustainability of the business model.

In addition, there is more to life than money and profit. Absolutely, we need money to maintain a standard of living: buying food, shelter, clothing etc. But beyond a certain point, the extent to which money ‘buys’ us happiness arguably diminishes. Money is needed to pay for nice meals out, buy Christmas presents and fund summer holidays. But in these cases, it is not the money itself that makes people happy. Money gives individuals the opportunity to foster happiness, but the happiness itself derives from the social element attached to these activities.

For example, the joy of eating at a restaurant is is generated by being with friends or family, or from the pleasure received from good food. Equally, in terms of Christmas gifts, happiness derives from buying a family member or friend something you know they’ll love; knowing you’ve done something to make someone else happy in turn makes you happy. In terms of holidays, happiness again derives not from money itself but from building memories with family and friends. Money acts a facilitator in the generation of happiness, but this should not be confused with causality.

Furthermore, the idea that the tasks are somehow representative of real life business situations is laughable. Randomly walking into a bakery in East London and asking for a 10% discount on a large order of rainbow doughnuts does not demonstrate ‘negotiation skills’. Nor does selling a few packet of sweets at a beach somehow demonstrate great sales skills. I mean, seriously, what must people think when they see camera crew, people running around frantically in suits (often engaged in a heated telephone arguments) and Karren Brady standing nearby with a notepad shaking her head? They must know The Apprentice is being filmed. So yes, of course they’re going to buy a packet of sweets for £3 for a chance to be on the telly!

The Apprentice is emblematic of neoliberal capitalism. In dog-eat-dog style, candidates fight for a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar. The message every week is the same: profit, profit, profit. But if we’ve learnt anything from Trump’s surprise victory in the US and Brexit at home, its that the ‘Washington Consensus’ policies of which The Apprentice implicitly endorses are broken: casino capitalism is dying. And not only does the show promote a broken ideology, it is becoming boring too. So it’s time the BBC called Lord Sugar into the boardroom, looked him straight in the eye, pointed and said: Thanks for everything Alan but, regretfully, you’re fired.

Everyday Feminism: Take control of yourselves

I am sick of the faux-feminist nonsense that permeates so many of our media outlets. For example, the Women section of The Guardian is infested by some of the very worst misandry, and arguably misogyny, I have seen. I hate the way that many feminist writers there persistently seek to make excuses for women. One person I must single out is Jessica Valenti. She seeks to justify every feeling that a woman goes through through the lens of female empowerment, but is in reality merely perpetuating a victim culture. She keeps on blaming men for all of her problems, without acknowledge her sense of personal responsibility.

She is the type of person that student social justice warriors look up to. It alienates women like me from the rest of the student body, with a sense of wonderment at how can there be such a lack of common sense at some of our finest educational establishments. Evidently, qualifications are no indicator of intelligence. It is a shame that feminists are upheld as a beacon of truth — they should be an example of what not to be. I intend to be the opposite of everything that Valenti stands for. I must thank her for the providing me with the motivation to live out my life as someone who does not break down as frequently as Southern Rail, but but rather just gets a grip on things.

Let us never forget that the time when Valenti published an article about how sexist it is for men to cat-call her and that they should discourage that behaviour, yet she published another article mentioning how unattractive she feels when men do not cat-call her. Talk about being Schrödinger’s Feminist: we do not know whether you are going to say X or Y until you open your mouth. There is one certainty though, irrespective of what a feminist says, we know that she is chatting complete balderdash.

I have said this before and I will say it again: people like her need to take off their period-tinted glasses and realise that life is unfair, honey. Honestly, if you are complaining about how bad the Western world is because of patriarchy, then I will be the first to say it: the patriarchy has done an excellent job of providing a foundation upon which the women of today can exercise their freedom.

But, no, wherever you look there is always something for Guardianistas to complain about. Most of them are like Freud: every little thing is a symbol of female oppression but they are just as batshit crazy. As well as Jessica Valenti and the like, there is also Everyday Feminism, the online bible for all trigglypuffs everywhere. But do not get me wrong, by no stretch of the imagination is it a moral code to live by.

Everyday Feminism, in its attempts to destroy the gender binary, is one of the most sexist websites that exists. A quick browse and you are also instantly bombarded with articles about “toxic whiteness” and white guilt. Heaven forbid if you are a man, for this site is reminiscent of a nagging wife blaming absolutely everything on men.

I am not one to blame my issues and problems on everyone else, let alone to suggest that specific groups are responsible for what is going on with my life. But it seems that websites such as Everyday Feminism are hell-bent on lecturing to the whole world about identity politics. What is shocking is that it is not a minority of people who believe in this. The fact that it is not merely a small corner of the internet, but rather, it is becoming fashionable within major national newspapers scares me.

Thank heavens Trump won, because had Clinton won, we would have had four more years of feminist propaganda being shoved into our faces. Demeaning men does not work as a tactic. People need to take control of themselves and stop blaming everyone else for their own issues.

Gucci Love

Alessandro Michele was appointed the creative director of Gucci in January 2015. From the beginning the fashion world became obsessed with Gucci. Alessandro stepped in and he completely reinvented the Italian Super Brand — in a revolutionary way.

The moment the Fall 2015 Collection dropped, the rest was history. Gucci went from a luxury Italian super brand to swiftly becoming the ultimate, recognizable powerhouse that is Gucci. From Alessandro Michele’s use of fabrics, to his individual cuts and distinguishable designs; the regal bows to his use of regal colours within menswear and womenswear collections, he truly delivered as a creative director.

Gucci was miraculously transformed, finding its place within the fashion industry becoming one of the world’s hottest super brands that received the fashion limelight for years to come. Sales sky rocketed, no surprise there.

Alessandro Michele’s later collections were playful. Incorporating symbols, from heavy spring floral prints on silk to detailed embroidery of exotic animals such as snakes, tigers, peacocks and bears. The success of Gucci lies in it being identifiable, the collections were cohesive and the history of the house was presented in a new perspective, yet still respectfully maintained on a contemporary and cool level.

Perhaps other creative directors at luxury super brands should take note that sometimes, the world of fashion requires a new injection of ideas. Especially within the world of cut-throat fashion in order to survive within the heavily crowded marketplace. That an outsider’s perspective is sometimes best. Even if it does involve risk. The daring to be different is what is required.

Admirable and astonishing, regal and rebellious is the new Gucci. Perhaps we should take a note from his books. As he states in an interview for British Vogue with Fashion Editor At Large Hamish Bowles, “I think we need to dream”. In fact, I completely agree. We as a society should creatively dream and attempt to pursue them to reach a level of happiness or even enlightenment — all thanks to a bit of Gucci.

Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea

If this Game was a Song…

Kaiser Chiefs — I predict a Riot

Oh yes, I’m taking you back to the days of 2005, when life was easier, politicians were qualified, and the Kardashians hadn’t been invented by the Illuminati yet. Or, I’m taking you back to last Thursday on the middle floor at Factory.

This game was jam-packed with some sexy football, and some golden opportunities (many squandered by City), but it would be wrong to not mention the eruption of chaos deep into additional time at the end of the game. Sergio Agüero got sent off for a tasty challenge on David Luiz, and then we had ourselves a good old fashioned skirmish (wouldn’t go as far to say a ‘riot,’ but I couldn’t find a link to the 2005 hit “I predict a skirmish”).

It was very much the kind of event that your Mum calls a kerfuffle — handbags and poor temperament. Agüero will miss four games now with this ban, as it is his second ban of the season, but he won’t be lonely as he will be joined by Fernandinho for three of those games after he was also sent off. Fernandinho had a heated exchange with Fàbregas which resulted in the Chelsea man taking a tumble over the advertising boards. It is completely wrong to condone violence, but it was a pretty funny tumble. Otamendi will also miss the next game, as he received his fifth yellow card of the season earlier in the game. He still has an immaculate haircut though.

Chances Squandered

I got the feeling early on that this may not be City’s day. They had a goal disallowed, as Kevin de Bruyne’s wicked free-kick was headed in by Fernandinho, but the Brazillian was stood in an offside position. Gary Cahill was too busy waving to his Gran in the stands at one point, which allowed Agüero to pounce on a loose back-pass in the Chelsea penalty area, but that resulted in nothing. Agüero had a few more chances throughout the game too, but it just wasn’t to be.

None of those chances compare to Kevin de Bruyne’s miss though. Just in time for the yearly “Bradley Walsh’s Top 10 Premier League misses” DVD this festive period, Kevin de Bruyne comes straight in at number one, after rattling the crossbar from five yards out on an empty goal. The Belgian has been City’s best player this season by quite a distance so the fans won’t mind too much, and Kevin won’t mind the royalties he’ll get from the DVD either.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Goals, goals, goals

City’s goal came from a Jesús Navas cross that Gary Cahill expertly turned into his own net, as they left Chelsea to the finishing. Chelsea put away three of their four shots on target. The first was curtesy of Diego Costa as he leapfrogged Sergio Agüero in the goalscoring charts this season. He wriggled free of Otamendi to score. Some say Otamendi was beaten because of Diego Costa’s fantastic touch and movement — others suggest it was punishment from the heavens for wearing gloves with a short sleeve t-shirt.

The second came from Willian, who ran onto a Diego Costa pass to slot home. Will.I.An didn’t have time to stop for an interview with me after the game though, as he had to run off and film the fifteenth series of The Voice UK. Where is the love? The third goal came curtesy of a late counter attack from Eden Hazard, to finish off the game. This was yet another goal for the Belgian who is back in form, after taking a gap year (gap yah) last season.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Referee

Being a referee is a tough job. I mean, it’s not like being a surgeon or an American politics expert, but it’s a pretty tough job. Nobody loves a referee. Nobody goes home and kisses their pinned-up poster of Howard Webb — they go home and kiss a poster of Raheem Sterling or Lorraine Kelly (just me?). That being said, we still need to talk about Anthony Taylor’s display this game… but let’s all try and remember that Taylor has a tough job and probably didn’t make these decisions to piss anyone off. Probably.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

City had a couple of penalty shouts this game that were all waved away. These were correct decisions; Jesús Navas fell over an invisible table in the penalty area late in the second half, and Gary Cahill (he really had a nightmare today) handled the ball early on in the game. Both of these would have been harsh.

Taylor however did miss a blatant foul from David Luiz on Sergio Agüero. The ball had made it past Alonso on the left and Agüero was through on goal. Then Luiz arrived and Agüero fell to the ground under his pressure. I mean, it wasn’t like Luiz steamed in like a tank on steroids, but it was definitely a foul. As the last man, there would have been a decision to make as to whether Luiz would stay on the pitch or be sent off. The decision in the end from Taylor was to avoid eye contact with anyone and pretend nothing happened.

 

To summarise, it was a bloody good game with a bloody silly kerfuffle at the end. Celtic next for City on Tuesday in the Champions League! Who knows what will happen, nothing’s certain except that it’s going to be bloody freezing. I hate December.

Brazilian football team tragedy

On Monday the 28th of November tragedy struck the Brazilian football Club Chapecoense, when they lost almost all of their players after their plane crashed in Colombia. Only six of the 77 people on board survived the crash into the mountainside just a few miles from the runway.

Three players from the team survived, with 19 of the first team team and their coaching staff losing their lives.

The team were on their way to Medellin to play Atlético Nacional in the final of the Copa Sudamericana, which would have been the biggest match in the club’s history. Authorities have stated that the evidence is suggesting the crash was due to the plane running out of fuel as it attempted to land.

The team’s fans and family are in mourning after the tragedy, which saw the following players lose their lives:

Marcos Danilo Padilha: Goalkeeper. Danilo was crucial in the club’s success in the Copa Sudamericana, saving a last-minute shot in the semi-final.

Dener Assunção Braz: Left-back. Gained attention in the country after the success with with Ituano FC in 2014, in the São Paulo championship.

Mateus Lucena dos Santos (Mateus Caramelo): Left-back. Signed by the club last year, had a history of playing for lots of other Brazilian Clubs.

Guilherme Gimenez de Souza: Right-back. At the age of 21 he was one of the youngest players.

Marcelo Augusto Mathias da Silva: Defender. Joined the club this year, had previously played for Flamengo.

Willian Thiego de Jesus (Theigo): Defender. Reported that he was negotiating with Santos, after joining Chapecoense last year.

Filipe José Machado: Defender. Signed earlier this year.

Josimar Rosado da Silva Tavares: Defensive midfielder. Joined the team last year after playing for Palmeiras and Internacional. He had also played for for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Watan.

José Gildeixon Clemente de Paiva (Gil): Defensive midfielder. Signed last year, played for the Brazilian clubs Vitória and Ponte Preta.

Sérgio Manoel Barbosa Santos: Defensive midfielder. Was signed by the club this year, after playing for many smaller Brazilian clubs.

Matheus Bitencourt da Silva (Matheus Biteco): Defensive midfielder. Joined the club this year, after starting with Grêmio and his career in 2013.

Cléber Santana Loureiro: Midfielder. Had played for some of the biggest teams in Brazil. He was one of the most experienced players.

Arthur Brasiliano Maia: Midfielder. Been playing football since childhood, and joined the team this year.

Bruno Rangel: Striker. With a total of 81 goals, he was the top scorer for the Club.

Tiaguinho: Striker. In a video that has now gone viral, we see the team telling him he’s going to become a dad, only a few days before the tragedy.

Ananias Eloi Castro Monteiro: Striker. Was signed by the club last year, and has played for a few of the countries biggest teams.

Everton Kempes dos Santos Gonçalves: Striker. Has played in the past for lots of smaller Brazilian clubs.

Ailton Cesar Junior Alves da Silva (Canela): Striker. Only joined the club this year, after playing for many smaller teams.

Lucas Gomes da Silva: Striker. Joined Chapecoense last year.

Only three of the team survived:

Jakson Ragnar Follmann: Goalkeeper. Has had to have a leg amputated and could also lose the other foot.

Alan Luciano Ruschel: Left-back. Received spinal surgery and is described as being in a critical but stable condition.

Helio Hermito Zampier Neto (Neto): Defender. Has severe injuries to his skull, thorax and lungs.

Sports journalism was also a heavy victim in the tragedy, with twenty Brazilian journalists who were following the team losing their lives in the crash.

The journalists that lost their lives in the crash were:

Renan Agnolin: A radio and TV reporter

Victorino Chermont: Reporter for Fox Sports Brazil

Rodrigo Santana Goncalves: Cameraman for Fox Sports Brazil

Paulo Julio Clement: Sports presenter at Fox Sports

Douglas Dorneles: Sports journalist at Chapeco Radio

Laion Espindula: Reporter at Globoesporte.com

Ari Junior: Globo TV

Guilherme Laars: Globo TV

Guilherme Marques: Globo TV

Djalma Neto: RBS TV

Giovane Klein: Reporter for local TV station RBS

Lilacio Junior: Outside broadcast coordinator for Fox Sports Brazil

Gelson Galiotto: Sports journalist at Chapeco’s Super Conda radio

Edson Ebeliny: Sports journalist at Chapeco’s Super Conda radio.

Andre Podiacki: Diario Catarinense newspaper

Mario Sergio Paiva: formerly a commentator for Fox Sports

Bruno Silva: Technician RBS TV

Fernando Schardong: Sports journalist at Chapeco radio

Devair Paschoalon: Fox Sports Brazil

Only one reporter survived the crash, Rafael Henzel, now in a stable condition after having surgery for his injuries.

Out of respect the team, Atlético Nacional asked for Chapecoense to be awarded the Copa Sudamericana title and many Brazilian clubs have offered players to the team for free in order to prevent them being relegated.

A motion has also been proposed to the Brazilian FA to request that the team is immune from relegation for the next three years.

FIFA have asked all players wear black armbands in remembrance, and a minutes silence will precede every match played this weekend in their memory.

Happy holidays – where to get away this winter

Advent is finally here: the mulled wine candle is out, you’re eating mince pies by the dozen, and it is finally acceptable to play Bublé’s Christmas album 24/7. December is great, but it is hard to get super excited about another Christmas in rainy Manchester. A Christmas break usually means being free of lectures and reading for a few weeks, but have you thought about taking a real break?

You might be dreaming of a white Christmas or somewhere a bit more exotic than the Arndale to do your shopping. The options are endless, but if you need some inspiration, here’s a round up of the top places to get away this winter — all on a student budget!

Christmas markets

We’ve all heard of the incredible German markets of Stuttgart and Cologne, but Germany isn’t your only choice for a glug of gluhwein and a nice dose of Christmas cuteness. There are much cheaper and much less touristy options available; loads of low-cost airlines fly to Prague; you can get the Eurostar to Lille or Bruges for as little as £29; the famous sprawling markets in Riga in Latvia are really popular with locals and full of Christmas cheer — at half the usual prices. Wherever you’re thinking of heading you can also check out last-minute deals if you’re tightening the purse-strings!

Top tip: Passport theft is rife in big crowds, and some Scrooges will be out to steal them and more, even at the Christmas markets. Check out the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) #PassportAware campaign for information on safeguarding yourself against this type of crime abroad.

Winter sports

We’d all love to be able to afford a trip to Verbier this winter, but sadly most students don’t quite have the bank balance for that. Skiing isn’t totally off the cards though: Eastern Europe is much cheaper and has some secret gems where the slopes will not disappoint. Bulgaria, for example, has all the most wonderful ski resorts that you’ve never heard of, and while there won’t be any Made in Chelsea stars in the bars, there certainly is an affordable après-ski scene, as well as reasonably-priced accommodation, equipment, and lessons if you need some practice.

Top tip: Winter sports are not, however, without their risks — make sure you take your EHIC card and comprehensive travel insurance before your trip, in case of a medical emergency. In 2015, FCO research revealed that almost a third of winter sports lovers travelled without appropriate travel insurance, with some incurring huge costs as a result. (Better to be #SkiSafe than sorry.)

City break

A mainstay of the student-friendly travelling roster is the European city break — you can’t go wrong in Edinburgh for Hogmanay, the world-famous new year festival with events all over the city: it is sure to be an NYE to remember.

Alternatively, why not spend New Year’s Eve on the continent? With a new Eurostar route and low-cost flights from all over the UK, it is easier than ever to visit Amsterdam! You can sample the Dutch delights in one of Europe’s biggest party cities — with impromptu street parties, thousands of bars and clubs that just don’t shut, and an impressive fireworks display illuminating the whole city, Amsterdam is the place to be this NYE. The markets will still be open too for your last dose of Christmas spirit and there are hostels galore for low-cost living.

It is important to stay #TravelAware in such a touristy city — read the FCO’s travel advice for guidance on your time away and make sure you take out comprehensive travel insurance.

Cosy cottage

If you’re really short on cash, or just don’t fancy going far this Christmas, why not cosy up to a log fire in a cottage or cabin in the countryside, right here in the UK. Browse sites like Airbnb and Holiday Lettings for reasonably priced homes from home, from the Lake District, to Scotland, all the way down to the south coast, and get set to snuggle up with family or friends. The more the merrier (and cheaper!) and make sure you do your research before choosing a place to stay — you don’t want to end up in a village with no pub!

Whatever your destination, the FCO are there to help if you get into trouble — follow them on Facebook and Twitter @FCOtravel for the latest foreign travel advice. Happy holidays!

Album: The Weeknd – Starboy

25th November via XO and Republic

6/10

Performing under the pseudonym of The Weeknd’, Canadian R&B singer Abel Tesfaye shot into modern pop superstardom with last year’s Beauty Behind the Madness. Tesfaye’s mix of down-tempo, smooth soul and digitally altered hip-hop beats alongside sexualised and drug-inspired lyrics brought commercial success and gave the 26 year-old a somewhat unique position in the modern pop scene.

Fast-forward a year to late 2016 and Tesfaye has looked to take advantage of his newfound pop-prince status through Starboy. There are certainly promising moments within Tesfaye’s latest album, often propelled by outsider’s contributions. The influence of Daft Punk in titular lead single Starboy adds a much-needed slick edge.

Indeed, the French electro-duo’s presence on the album’s second single and album closer ‘I Feel It Coming’ provides one of the album’s highlights and forces the Canadian singer to embrace a smoother persona which is more akin to Thriller-era Michael Jackson. This is an influence Tesfaye seemingly aims to channel in this album, and it comes across better on this song than elsewhere on Starboy.

Guest performers and producers are crammed into the album in an attempt to increase creativity and interest to the album, totaling eighteen songs and lasting sixty-eight minutes. Lana Del Rey assists another one of Starboy‘s more original and most interesting moments, performing as the love-interest character in Stargirl Interlude’. Tesfaye has often spoke of Del Rey’s impact on his work, and this interlude – placed mid-way through the occasionally sluggish album – allows both artists to play up to the theatrics which they have often been praised for.

Another shining light is offered in the form of fourth track ‘Reminder’, which offers, incidentally, an actual reminder that Tesfaye has the ability to channel the inner-personality he so often intends to show. Throughout Starboy, there are many indications that 26-year old can supply the poetry and melodies he found so succinctly in his past work.

However, it is frequently difficult to overlook the realisation that perhaps Tesfaye has attempted too much on this album: much of Starboy feels reused and lacking in new ideas. Six Feet Under’, which features Future, feels like a cheaper version of the duo’s previous collaboration on Low Life’ and follows the Kendrick Lamar-featuring ‘Sidewalks’.

Lamar’s contribution to this track feels appropriately unenthusiastic; coming at the album’s midpoint, where Starboy begins to feel like it has given up on breaking new ground. Only a final flurry of encouraging songs in the form of ‘Die For You’ and ‘I Feel It Coming’ deliver a fresh element to the album’s second half.

Starboy will undoubtedly prove a commercial success, powered by its namesake lead single and the promise of smooth R&B from one of the decade’s most popular artists. Yet, despite its occasional bright sparks, the disfigured and stumbling filler prevalent within Starboy may leave fans and critics feeling that The Weekend still has yet to perfect his true identity as a songwriter.

Australians and the changing faces of British sport

This weekend’s rugby action saw England against Australia. There is something iconic about this fixture, across all sports.  You may not be a cricket fan but you will know about the Ashes. It is a rivalry that taps into the primal part of our soul. Beating the French, it is true, comes close to matching the nexus of feeling conjured up by a win over Australia. But it is still not quite the same thing.  The fact is that England has many things in common with France: centuries of shared history, a love of literature, a richly multicultural society. A common climate. Such a long relationship has caused areas of expertise to emerge among the two nations, respected and accepted. England knows that France has the superior cuisine (a French word, of course). France knows that England tries very hard with food.  The relationship is sometimes antagonistic, but what relationship isn’t?

England has no such relationship with Australia. Beyond a common language and a love of tea, there is nothing. A void. Returning to sport, it is easy to see that the two countries are opposites. Their styles are not compatible. In cricket, England have tended to favour conservatism and endurance. England produce grafters and accumulators: your Geoffrey Boycotts and Michael Athertons. Occasionally there have been mavericks. Denis Compton was one; Ian Botham was another. But these players have always been treated with faint suspicion, as having arisen in spite of the system not because of it. Meanwhile, Australia favours dashing, charismatic players. Don Bradman was the epitome of this style, the so-called ‘Australian way’. More recently, the likes of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Shane Warne have crushed England’s grafters with unrelenting aggression. The difference is starker in rugby. The World Cup final of 1991 demonstrated this. The team that took England to the final that year was built on forward domination orchestrated by the likes of Brian Moore and Jason Leonard. The team that took Australia to that final relied on the twinkling feet of Michael Lynagh and David Campese. Australia won this clash of ideologies.

In the build-up to the game on Saturday, the England coach, knowing his history, tapped into this ideology by raising concerns over Australia’s scrummaging technique: “Australia have issues with their scrum, some technical issues.  I am not going to sort it out for them.” For his part, the Australian coach retorted: “Maybe we are naive, idealistic, but we want the Wallabies to be loved because of the way we play footy”. England pinpoint areas up front, while Australia are concerned with ideals, with the way they play. This is standard stuff: grafters against the stylists. So far, so familiar. But it is worthwhile considering who exactly the coaches in question are. The England coach is Eddie Jones, an Australian, and former club teammate of Michael Cheika, also an Australian, and Jones’ opposite number. How has this turn of events come about?

English sports fans of the 2000s have been fed a diet of ‘us’ against ‘them’ of the type mentioned earlier. But change is afoot. The Australian team famously conquered by Jonny Wilkinson’s right boot in 2003 was in fact coached by none other than Eddie Jones. England’s rugby league side is coached by an Australian, Wayne Bennett. The cricket team has witnessed a similar phenomenon. The Ashes-winning side of 2015 was coached by Trevor Bayliss, a New South Welshman and former (temporary) coach of Australia. Meanwhile, the former supremo of British Cycling was Shane Sutton, another Australian. Not since the heyday of Kylie have Australian tones so dominated the airwaves in this country.

This is not a complaint — far from it. England’s cricketers, their latest annihilation at India’s hands notwithstanding, have started playing with flair and aggression, more like Botham than Boycott. In a quirk of fate, Eddie Jones has overseen England rugby’s longest winning streak since 2002/3. He himself was a victim in that sequence of English victory. The style of play he has instilled in the class of 2016 is dynamic and intelligent: the definition of ‘heads up’ rugby. Jones has added an attacking element to England’s traditional forward dominance and the results are there for all to see.  Whisper it quietly, but England seem to be mastering the ‘Australian way’. Scary.

It seems that the line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ has blurred. Ideologies have been shattered. English sport is reaping the benefits of an Australian-led regeneration.

As the dust settles, it appears that there has been some sort of revolution. See, I told you we had more in common with France.

The Lowers Depths remains relevant in film

There is seldom a text whose characters and locations have the ability to exist for over 100 years. The Lower Depths is a play written by Maxim Gorky around 1902. It was a depiction of the lower classes of Russia, and it is supposed to be inspired by real people and events that happened during Gorky’s life.

Anton Chekhov — a famous playwright himself — wrote in a letter to Gorky “I have read your play. It is new and unmistakably fine.The second act is very good; it is the best, the strongest, and when I was reading it, especially the end, I almost danced with joy. The tone is gloomy, oppressive; the audience, unaccustomed to such subjects, will walk out of the theatre, and you may well say good bye to your reputation as an optimist, in any case”.

Moreover three eminently distinct and adroit film makers, Jean Renoir (French), Chetan Anand (Indian) and Akira Kurosawa (Japanese) also presented their own version of such societies in their respective times and culture. Renoir made Les Bas-fonds in 1936, it was a satirical take on the lives of different people living in slums. The central idea of the film like that of the play is that, despite the immense pessimism and inhumane environment of the characters, there is a presence of the rudimentary presence of emotions. The film won the prestigious Prix Louis-Delluc in 1937.

Chetan Anand made Neecha Nagar in 1946, this film was similar only in the idea of the presence of upper and lower class societies. The screenplay of the film is different as in this film there is a confrontation of the two societies, and also the uprising of the lower society to fight the evil of the rich and privileged. Neecha Nagar can also be seen as a film of protest as 1946 was the time when India was fighting British empire for the freedom and self rule. Neecha Nagar won Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the 1946 Cannes film festival.

Finally comes the film of Akira Kurosawa, Donzoko, made in 1956 and was based on the Edo period, this was the period when Tokyo was becoming a large urban setting which gave rise to the distribution of people into different classes. Donzoko was not changed much from the original play and was adapted the same way play was written.

The reason that this play and these three films need to be discussed is because even after 100 years many would argue that the ghettoisation of people is still taking place, and it is happening in places like New York, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi. Be it the Calais jungles, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, we have left a huge number of people behind. We think that we have created a civilised society but we have only created a situation where on one side we have a secure society and on the other hand a society where everyday new rebellion is happening and being crushed everyday.

It is a sad fact that even today we have more than a billion people who do not have adequate housing facilities. We live in times where The Lower Depths still exist, it is just we have come high up and become myopic enough to not acknowledge the existence of such depths.