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Day: 11 January 2017

Manchester refute claim that Vice-Chancellor is highest expenses claimant

Written by Alex Whitcomb on . Posted in News.

The University of Manchester has today contested claims made by the Sunday Times that the University’s President and Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell is the highest claimant of expenses in the country.

The Freedom of Information requests sourced by the newspaper reported that the Vice-Chancellor — who earns a yearly salary of £275,000 — claimed £32,993 in expenses last year. This figure included a reported £29,751.21 of travel payments.

The figures also show a rise upon those reported in The Mancunion for the previous year. In that year, Professor Rothwell claimed £22,256 on flights — including in excess of £15,000 on business class seats.

However, in response to this news a spokesman for the University of Manchester stated that: “The figure quoted in the Sunday Times includes business expenses related to travel and hotels costs accrued during the President and Vice-Chancellor’s work for the University. Many other universities only include personal sundry items in their freedom of information responses which has provided a distorted perspective on expenses related to The University of Manchester.”

They also cited the University and College Union’s (UCU) ‘Transparency at The Top?‘ review into executive pay at universities. This report from February 2016 does not place Dame Nancy Rothwell among even the top 20 in terms of expense claims by Vice-Chancellors. Professor Simon Gaskell of Queen Mary University of London topped that list.

Manchester are not the only university to voice concern with the figures quoted in the newspaper. The Sunday Times also claimed that Edinburgh University’s Vice-Chancellor Sir Timothy O’Shea had claimed for parking tickets and buses, in spite of being “provided with an executive car and driver”.

Edinburgh University responded to the claims, telling The Independent that while the numbers quoted in the piece were indeed correct, the “executive car” in question is owned by the university and is not only used by the Vice-Chancellor.

These came as part of a report by the newspaper into a number of eye-catching expense claims by university heads.

These included Glasgow University’s Vice-Chancellor, whose expenses ranged from nights at the Ritz-Carlton in Singapore to banana cakes from Pret a Manger.

Glasgow University told The Independent that they would not be providing a comment.

News on executive pay at universities has become more prominent in recent years, particularly after the rise in tuition fees to £9,000 and now to £9,250 per year.

According to Times Higher Education, Southampton University’s outgoing Vice-Chancellor Professor Don Nutbeam topped the list of salaries for 2015-16, including £252,000 for leaving his post early, plus a £43,000 “performance related bonus”.

Sergio Ramos: The best defender in the world

Written by Dane Massey on . Posted in Sport.

Yesterday, Sergio Ramos watched his Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo pick up the first edition of FIFA’s ‘The Best’ award, crowning him the best footballer of 2016. It was an extraordinary year for Ronaldo, who won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Euro 2016, FIFA World Club Cup as well as the prestigious Ballon d’Or.

It was not such a bad year for Ramos either, as he was part of the same Real Madrid team that won the Champions League for the second time in three years. In the two finals in Lisbon 2014 and Milan 2016, Ramos found the net as Los Blancos beat their city rivals Atletico on both occasions.

Ramos was a key part of La Decima and La Undecima as Real Madrid won their tenth and eleventh European cups. His role in the 2014 final will be remembered fondly, as he headed in a Luka Modric corner to send the game into extra-time where Real scored three goals, eventually winning 4-1.

In 2016, the Real Madrid and Spain captain lead his team in the UEFA Super Cup final, scoring a last-minute equaliser to earn his side a draw, and take the match into extra-time – where Dani Carvajal netted a stunning late winner.

Ramos has become iconic for last minute goals. As well as scoring late equalisers in the 2014 Champions League final and the Super Cup final in August, Ramos rescued a late point for Real Madrid against rivals FC Barcelona in early December.

When Zinedine Zidane’s men look back at the end of the season, this could be a pivotal point, which also caused FC Barcelona to drop two points.

Courtesy of Ramos, Real Madrid earned precious points again a week later, as they came from 2-1 behind in the 85th minute to beat Deportivo La Coruna 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu. Ramos scored deep into stoppage time as Real Madrid snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Ramos is the scourge of even Spain’s biggest teams, and not just for his unique ability to score goals at vital times. His never say die attitude is evident in his defending, he is a tough old-school style defender who always leaves his mark on the game.

He is also useful on the ball. Ramos has a 90.4 percent pass accuracy in the 2016/17 season so far as he has been instrumental in Real Madrid’s unbeaten start to the campaign. Ramos has transformed from a marauding right-back to the ultimately perfect centre-half.

In UEFA Euro 2008 and the FIFA World Cup 2010, Ramos operated as a right full-back for the Spanish national team as they won both tournaments while having the best defensive record. Spain only conceded five goals in 13 games across both tournaments, and Ramos was ever-present.

In the next major tournament, Ramos formed a central-defensive axis with FC Barcelona’s Gerard Pique, who himself has figured in four FIFPro World XI’s, including the latest. In Euro 2012, Spain only conceded a single goal as they marched to their third major international triumph in four years.

Ramos is a legend for Real Madrid and Spain, he has earned 140 caps for his country at the age of just 30. It is possible that by the end of his career that Ramos could become the first international player to have 200 caps to his name.

If he keeps playing the way he is, he will receive this accolade with ease. Real Madrid’s defensive rock and inspirational leader is very much in the prime of his career and hungrier than ever before — under the guidance of Zidane.

Despite all his achievements, he is not liked by everyone. Ramos has a poor disciplinary record that has seen him pick up 13 career red cards. His aggressive style of play is evident, but the numbers elsewhere do not lie.

No defender has ever managed to make it into six consecutive FIFPro World XI’s. Aside of this, Ramos has been named in seven of the last nine. In yesterday’s team of the year, Ramos received an impressive 488, 908 votes — more than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

The team was dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona players, with only Manuel Neuer of Bayern Munich and Dani Alves (who spent half the year with FC Barcelona) of Juventus the only other representatives.

Ramos was undoubtedly one of the big names in the team, and his achievements of the last few years prove that he is not just the best defender in the world right now, but perhaps the best of his generation.

NUS Vice-President caught on film planning to oust President

Written by Jennifer Sterne on . Posted in News.

Richard Brooks, the National Union of Students’ (NUS) Vice-President, has been implicated in an attempted plot to oust Malia Bouattia, as revealed by an undercover Al Jazeera investigation.

Brooks was secretly filmed by the undercover reporter, claiming that he played a significant role in attempts to undermine Bouattia.

The undercover reporter claimed to be a political activist linked to Shai Masot, the Israeli diplomat who was caught out prior to these revelations plotting to “take down” MPs he viewed as hostile to Israel.

When asked if Brooks knew how to get in touch with people who opposed Bouattia, Brooks told the reporter, he could “speak to me, because I’ve been organising them”.

The investigation by Al Jazeera also revealed that Brooks had visited Israel on a trip paid for by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and alleges that Brooks was involved in secret meetings prior to Bouattia’s election with Russel Langer, the UJS campaign director.

According to the Al Jazeera investigation, Michael Rubin, who at the time of Bouattia’s election was National Chair of Labour students, told them that in secret meetings with Brooks they would plan “how to get moderate people with good politics and any number of things elected to certain places.”

He also told the reporter that he worked “with the ambassador and embassy quite a lot” and stated that Bouattia was “really bad” and “awful”.

Bouattia has been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism, often referencing her description of Birmingham as a “Zionist outpost”.

A report published last year by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee claimed that Bouattia “does not appear to take sufficiently seriously the issue of anti-Semitism on campus”.

In response to these allegations, many involved in the NUS have tweeted their responses, including Hareem Ghani, Women’s Officer for the NUS who stated: “Just going to say it as it is, I’ve never been so disappointed work for this organisation [sic]. Solidarity to @MaliaBouattia.”

Richard Brooks however called the claims “wrong and offensive”, tweeting his response in which he states: “It’s no surprise to anybody who knows me, or has heard me speak publicly, that myself and Malia don’t see eye to eye… It’s therefore not a shock or an exposé that I politically organise against what I think to be an ineffectual and damaging Presidency for Students’ Unions and students.”

He added that he was “proud to stand with UJS in ensuring everyone feels they have voiced in our open, inclusive, democratic debates”.

However he claims to have never met, to his knowledge, someone from the Israeli Government, instead arguing that “the ‘exposé’ documentary shows me saying that I do politics and disagree with the far left. None of these thing [sic] are surprises.”

The Campaigns Director for UJS, Josh Nagli said in a Facebook post that, “our work taking student leaders to Israel and Palestine is not secret, it’s even mentioned on UJS’ Wikipedia page, and the fact that some participants choose not to broadcast their experiences reflects the toxic nature of student politics”.

He added that “the insidious suggestion that Jewish students — or Jews in Britain more broadly — slavishly support specific government policies or actions, conspire with or take direction from Israeli officials, is grossly offensive”.

When asked for a statement on the allegations, an NUS spokesperson told The Mancunion the “NUS takes these allegations seriously. We are looking into them and, when we have all the information available, the behaviour of NUS officers will be reviewed and appropriate action taken”.

The revelations surrounding Richard Brooks were not the only Israeli influence within the student movement uncovered by the six month investigation. The undercover reporter alleges that the Israeli embassy is influencing students and founding youth groups in an attempt to infiltrate the UK student movement.

The reporter was offered support by Israeli diplomat Masot to set up a new pro-Israel group. Masot boasted to the reporter that he had been involved in setting up a youth branch of Conservative Friends of Israel and was involved in the youth arm of the Fabian Society, a Labour party think-tank.

He offered the reporter a job running the youth wing of Labour Friends of Israel, as “there’s no-one who’s educating the grassroots of the party… Specifically in the Labour. Conservatives don’t need it.”

The Israeli Embassy released a statement when Masot’s remarks concerning hostile MP’s were released, apologising for his comments and stating that he would be “ending his term of employment with the embassy shortly”.

The Mancunion has contacted the Israeli Embassy for a further statement about these allegations, and has reached out to Malia Bouattia and the Union of Jewish Students for comments.

This is a developing story and will be updated.