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Day: 24 February 2017

Lie Lie Land

Artists have never been known to shy away from political statements through their work, be it Picasso’s criticism of US intervention in Korea or Ai Weiwei giving up his freedom to stand up to the Chinese government.

However, it is street art where we see some of the most of-the-moment political messages being made. Even the public and — debatably — unownable nature of graffiti is a political statement in itself.

Many of the best graffiti artists go to great lengths to preserve their anonymity, and London-based artist Bambi is no exception. Her pieces cut to the very core of politics today — most recently making headlines with a piece called ‘Lie Lie Land’.

It appeared in Islington earlier this month and plays on the promotional imagery for multiple award-winning La La Land. Lead actors Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have been replaced with Donald Trump and Theresa May, who are seen dancing together hand-in-hand.

Known for her stenciled graffiti works, Bambi employs representational imagery to offer social commentary and address political concerns, often through the depiction of notable contemporary figures such as Ai Weiwei or David Beckham. Her work focuses on contemporary female identity and its relationship to patriarchal culture, as well as the commodification of the art world and various political injustices.

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Bambi said she decided to spray the sketch after seeing film posters plastered across London with a strong performance anticipated at next week’s 89th Academy Awards.

She said: “A happy couple dancing without a care in the world, this film was released during a dark political time in our world.”

But why the rise in political art on the street? With its biting reality and tongue-in-cheek humour, street art has become a kind of public expression to articulate socio-political criticisms all the while expressing individual artistry. Placing them in especially deprived areas only amplifies their message allowing them to reach out to the masses.

Bambi previously sketched a mock up image of the Statue of Liberty in Camden, days after President Trump was inaugurated and called it ‘Make America Sane Again’. Similarly, a mural in Lithuania that showed Putin kissing Trump was shared widely on social media in May whilst a swastika-inspired “Truck Fump” found itself in the Northern Quarter’s Stephenson Square.

2,500 attend Reclaim the Night

2,500 students took to the streets of Manchester on Thursday 23rd of February to ‘Reclaim the Night’, protesting the prevalence of violence against women, street harassment and victim blaming.

The annual march from the student area of Fallowfield to the University of Manchester Students’ Union was attended by a range of student and non-student representatives, led by a women-only bloc. There was also a LGBT block, a youth and families block, and a Muslim block.

The number of students attending was down on previous years, with 2016’s march attracting 3,500 students, but reduced numbers have been blamed on Storm Doris.

The march ended with a rally in the Contact Theatre car park, where Councillor Sarah Judge, the lead member from Manchester City Council on all women’s services, spoke of the fact that “across our city we still have stats like a third of women experience domestic violence, the rape crime reporting rates are so low, yet we all know it’s happening everywhere. This has to change”.

The Mancunion and Fuse FM spoke with some of the people on the march to find out why they were there and why they believed events like Reclaim the Night were so important.

Naa Acquah, General Secretary of the University of Manchester Students’ Union, told us she believed it was “really important that we keep doing this every single year.”

It was her fourth Reclaim the Night, and she explained how “every year it just gives you that real empowerment to take back the streets.”

Saffa Mir, Community Officer at the Students’ Union, said she was marching at Reclaim the Night, in particularly the Muslim bloc, “because we believe our voices are being silenced, and we’re here to show that we, as Muslim women, do have a voice”.

When asked if she believed Manchester’s streets were safe she responded: “No. Certain streets, especially the ones we’re about to walk down now, are not safe at all, they’re not safe from catcalls, sexual violence, sexual harassment, not all at all — and we’re here to tackle that”.

One girl, when asked why she was marching, said it was because she had been raped by her ex-boyfriend.

But she added that she thought it was great “when people do this, it makes you feel so much better to see you’re not alone.”

Personal experiences of sexual violence or assault were brought up by a number of women at the march, with women speaking about being followed to their doors, groped in broad daylight and catcalled on the streets.

Most spoke of feeling vulnerable and unsafe alone, particularly within Fallowfield and along the Curry Mile. Emma, a University of Manchester student, said: “It would be nice to not always have that bit at the back of your mind, saying ‘what if’, and always being on guard”. Another student added that women should not have to “change their lifestyle because of the fear of being attacked.”

One female student told us she was marching because “it’s time that women feel comfortable to walk around by themselves — because we’re not sexual objects, we’re people.”

The march was disrupted towards the end by a group of young people throwing things into the crowd and heckling.

Responding to this incident student Ella said: “It’s sad because they feel that they can’t do anything, because especially when you look at the black community, especially black men, there’s a big divide and it’s viewed as if feminism is destroying the black community. And looking around here there aren’t a lot of black women. I feel there could be a better outreach to the black community here.”

We spoke with some of those watching the march pass through Curry Mile, including Tony and Anton who were watching from H&D Hair Design. They had not heard about the protest before, and when asked whether they thought protests about sexual violence were necessary, they responded simply, “look at what’s happening — there must be something wrong if everyone is out like this”.

They added that they believed “these things have got to happen, and the voices have to be heard to let people know what’s going on, with all the things that are going on in this world.”

Not everyone on the march believed it was an effective way to tackle the issues, Kritik Patel, a Genetics student, said: “I don’t actually think Reclaim the Night does anything useful.”

When asked why, he said: “Because it’s just one night. And the issues that they are campaigning on tonight are important, but it’s only done once a year. It should be more of a sustained direct action, like more demonstrations, more campaigning on campus, on issues like more lighting on streets, against catcalling”.

Despite this, most of the people we spoke with spoke of the march as a means to raise awareness of the issue, including Helen Clegg, third year and founder of the newly formed Feminist Society at Salford University, who said “if we shout about it enough then people will pay attention.”

After the march, Jenni Smyth, Women’s Officer for the University of Manchester Students’ Union expressed a huge thank you on Facebook “to all 2500 of you who braved storm Doris and came out to Reclaim the Night. Together we raised our collective voices and filled the City with noise, colour and light as we said NO! to sexual violence, street harassment and victim blaming”.

Letter from the Deputy Editor: Women in Media

This week’s issue of The Mancunion promises a look into the yearly Reclaim the Night and what the people marching had to say, as well as a student safety special in our Opinion section.

However, as some of you may be aware, with the help of Amnesty International and the NUS, this weekend the People’s History Museum will be throwing it’s doors open to host our Women in Media Conference. A conference which I am very proud to say I am a Co-chair of.

All money raised this weekend will go to Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH), a small local charity that provides long-lasting help to women involved in sex work; from their safe house in Manchester’s red light district they provide workers with everything they need to keep safe and well.

Women in Media was an idea completely created and developed by the student volunteers involved in the Manchester Media Group, and it wasn’t just the female ones either.

Put simply, we aim to surround our delegates with fantastic women who have incredible media careers and empower confidence in other students to do the same.

As someone who is proud to be from a Manchester working class family I have never felt that my socio-economic status has impaired me in anyway. I didn’t struggle through school or college, my family’s encouragement never faltered and my aspirations weren’t shackled to a postcode. Only now, approaching my final semester, I feel that my class will become a hurdle. And this is because of one simple thing: The education system isn’t the same as the real world.

The media is an industry which relies heavily on unpaid work when first starting out, and unfortunately this is a luxury which leaves many behind. With reports of unpaid internships, poor work experience and even bidding for internships, a large number of high profile media professionals and celebrities have come forward to speak out about this issue.

Although it can often feel that these opportunities are only for the privileged, things are changing.

Creative and industrial industries are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the region, with the industry growing faster than anywhere in the UK. Manchester is home to Media CityUK, which is due to expand in coming years. Hopefully, this is a sign that media concentration in London will spread it’s wings and share the distribution.

This is why I’m particularly looking forward to sessions such as ‘Our Manchester Women’ and Robyn Vinter’s workshop ‘The class barrier: Why Media needs more Working class women’Although last year’s conference exceeded expectations, we’ve made a conscious effort to make this year’s line up even more diverse in terms of media genre, age, race, and class.

Tickets are still available and if you can’t make it you are still able to donate to such a worthy cause! Each day kicks off at 10am and finishes at 4pm, all information can be found at our website: womeninmediacon.co.uk.

There’s something there for everyone, so I hope to see you there!

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this issue of The Mancunion.

Disadvantaged teens four times less likely to apply to university

Official figures reported in The Independent have shown that teenagers from the most disadvantaged areas of the UK are four times less likely to apply to university than their better-off, socially advantaged counterparts.

The statistics suggest that a teenager’s chances of a successful application, or even applying at all, to a degree course are heavily dependent on where they live.

In December 2016, The Independent reported that there was a record gap between rich and poor students winning university places, causing some to express concern about the lack of social mobility within education.

Press Associations analysed UCAS data to reveal that 55 percent of 18-year-olds living in the top ten percent of parliamentary constituencies in terms of university applications applied for a degree course by the main 15th of January deadline.

In contrast, only 24 percent of those living in the bottom ten percent of constituencies had applied by the same point.

The highest application rate, identified by Press Association, was in the Conservative-held seat of Wimbledon, south-west London, where 70.3 per cent of eligible students applied to go to university.

At the opposite end of the scale, in another Conservative-held seat in Havant, Hampshire, the application rate was 17.4 per cent.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder and executive Chair of the Sutton Trust, commented on the data and told The Independent: “The fact that London has the highest proportion of young people going on to university reflects both high aspirations and improvement in the capital’s schools.”

“The massive difference in the numbers going on to university between the top and bottom constituencies reflects the fact that the chances of getting to university are very much dependent on where you live and where you go to school.”

The Sutton Trust have also drawn attention to stark educational inequality at a secondary school level, implying a north-south divide.

A spokesperson from the University of Manchester stated: “The University of Manchester is located in one of the UK’s most deprived urban regions — therefore much of our work to widen access is focused on gifted but disadvantaged young people in the Greater Manchester area. We are the only university in the UK to rank social responsibility equally alongside world-class research and outstanding learning and student experience as one of our three core goal.”

The spokesperson pointed out various programmes aimed to increased social mobility at the University of Manchester including the Manchester Access Programme and Undergraduate Access Scholarships, Schools outreach, and Year 10 summer schools.

They also stated that “in the current climate, with recent research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation indicating that 7 million working families are living in poverty, we are committed to helping the next generation achieve their full potential and become global citizens” and that “The University of Manchester offers eligible students one of the most generous support packages in the UK”.

The diversity officer of the University of Manchester’s Students’ Union, Ilyas Nagdee, stated that:

“Educational institutions have a duty to ensure they are attracting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to university – our university does this through their widening participation team and our fantastic Access All Areas group sees students going into communities to support their aspirations for higher education.

“It is vital that universities continue to do and fund this work and we will continue to monitor and push for more work in this area.”

Manchester drug testing lab accused of manipulating police evidence

A forensic lab in Manchester is currently being investigated for internal manipulation of drug test results used in criminal prosecution by the police.

Randox Testing Services (RTS) analyses blood, saliva, and hair samples to provide forensic results for the use of police forces across the UK. An internal investigation at RTS’ Manchester site found that many drug toxicology results may have been manipulated by staff.

Forces around the country are now having to review as many as 484 cases since November 2015 for potential miscarriages of justice, as the false results produced by RTS may have led to the incorrect prosecution of hundreds of individuals.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) have confirmed that a full criminal inquiry has been launched. Two male RTS employees, aged 47 and 31, have been arrested by Greater Manchester Police for perverting the course of justice and are out on bail until March.

Chief Constable Debbie Simpson of the NPCC said that they are working in partnership with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to help police forces in their review of each case. She added that the “CPS will take appropriate action in any cases [of incorrect prosecution]”.

RTS, based in Northern Ireland, said the investigation revealed “manipulation of quality control data” that is used to support the test results, and not of the samples themselves. They also stated that no alcohol samples had been affected.

However, they admitted that many results had been “compromised” and insisted that they are “working tirelessly to fully assess the impact and implications for each case”.

A drug-driving case against a 26-year-old man from Chester has already been dropped following re-review of blood test data originally conducted by RTS. The CPS said that there was “too little evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction”.

On their website, Randox Testing Services describe themselves as “a market leader in the Forensic Toxicology and Drug and Alcohol testing industry”. They have worked alongside Greater Manchester Police for the past two years and pride themselves on being the “[testing] provider of choice”.

Before 2012, an independent state-run Forensic Science Service provided all forensic science services to police forces in England and Wales. Following closure by the Government, forensic testing for the police since then has been conducted in-house, or contracted out to private companies such as RTS.

High student debt is leading to stress and poor mental health

According to a recent study, the accumulation of university debt — along with extortionate living costs — is contributing to stress and mental health issues amongst students.

The research, conducted by the financial technology company Intelligent Environments, suggests that as many as 75 per cent of students who received a maintenance grant for their studies feel stressed about money, with 39 per cent stating that they could not afford their weekly food shopping and 27 per cent admitting to missing payments on rent.

University debt is even going as far as to damage friendships, relationships, and exam results, but for the most part it is leaving students without the means to be independent.

This is the case for English and French University of Manchester student  Gemma, who says: “Now that I’m in final year, with no time for a well-paid job, I’m realising that it was in fact my wages that were helping me stay out of my overdraft every month – now I’m constantly in the red.

“The maintenance loan isn’t enough – I’m lucky that my parents can partially support me, but for people who don’t have that option, it’s a cruel reality.” She also believes that “a lot of people are in genuine need of [greater] maintenance loans”, but there are also “some students who cheat the system”.

The truth, therefore, is that frugality accounts for much more in student life than many expect. Despite this, The University of Manchester is still preparing to raise its own tuition fees from £9000 to £9,250 per year.

Similarly, those with disabilities and special support needs are also being hit significantly hard due to budget cut-backs, but have even less freedom to pursue part time work.

Alex Smith, a University of Manchester second-year languages student, is an example of such a student: “I would identify as a disabled student and have found the lack of funding for students with additional needs to be highly unsatisfactory, I love my course… but times are getting hard… especially for disabled students.

“I attend meetings with a study coach as part of my DSA entitlement, but next year this will be cut… I’m now highly dependent on antidepressants just to cope with the financial burden of university.”

In a statement, The Students’ Union’s Wellbeing Officer Izzy Gurbuz outlined some of the services that the Union offer students who find themselves with money troubles: “Financial pressure can have a huge effect on students’ wellbeing, from worries about debt affecting your mental health, to the need for a part time job leaving you with no time for socialising or sports. £9,000 fees are already too much, which is why we’re asking students not to fill in the NSS, as it’s being used as part of the TEF to raise fees even further.

“The scrapping of maintenance grants and slashes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance have also exacerbated financial problems for students. The Students’ Union Advice Service can give advice on Student Finance and additional funding sources, and they can also provide emergency loans of up to £100. The University also has some great online resources around managing your money here.”

The University of Manchester’s Press Office added: “We know that 4 out of 5 students worry about having enough money to get through the academic year, and that money worries can affect diet, academic performance, and mental health. With this in mind, the University has partnered with Blackbullion, an online financial education resource designed for students. The resource, which is free for University of Manchester students, comprises of a series of online modules helping students to gain skills in saving, budgeting, and more.

“What we love about it is you can access the modules from your phone and get money skills wherever you are. We have also developed a series of online resources with tips and apps to ease the stress of managing money, available through the My Finances tab on My Manchester. Our online support accompanies our Student Support and Advice Service based in the Atrium of University Place where we are happy to speak with students about any money worries they may be having.”

Former UoM student Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from Breitbart News

On the 21st of February, former University of Manchester student Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from his position as Head of Technology News at Breitbart.

This comes amid huge controversy over comments Milo made on a livestream video for the podcast Drunken Peasants in January 2016, suggesting that sex between boys and older men “could be a coming-of-age relationship, in which those older men help those younger boys discover who they are.”

His resignation came just a day after publisher Simon & Schuster cancelled his autobiography Dangerous and the American Conservative Union uninvited him from their annual CPAC conference because of the comments.

Renowned for his inflammatory comments and opinions, leading to his permanent banning from Twitter in July 2016, Yiannopoulos has become a figurehead for the movement known as the ‘alt-right’, a loose collection of ill-defined groups and forums based largely on the internet.

Milo has been vocal in his criticism of Islam, feminism and political correctness, and is one of the most vocal supporters of President Trump, whom he refers to as ‘Daddy’. In 2016, he infamously described feminism as “cancer”, whilst also condemning Muslims and the Black Lives Matter movement, claiming the latter “does not care about black lives” and is instead motivated by “attention, money and like most activism, more money”.

In October 2015, he had been scheduled to speak at the University of Manchester’s Free Speech and Secular Society debate with Julie Bindel, before he was banned because of his comments on rape culture. Earlier this month he was prevented from speaking at the University of California, Berkeley, following violent student protests on campus.

In the Drunken Peasants podcast, Milo condemns consent as “arbitrary and oppressive”. Though he admitted the law regarding the age of consent was “probably about right,” Milo alluded to his own relationships as a young teenager in order to argue some people are capable of giving consent when they are under the age of consent.

In a recent Facebook post he stated that one of his own sexual relationships began “when I was 17 with a man who was 19,” and that the video had been “selectively edited” to cast him in a negative light.

To the disbelief of the livestream’s viewers, he said he was “grateful for Father Michael”, adding that he “wouldn’t give nearly such good head, if it wasn’t for him”. Milo denies he was supporting the notion of paedophilia, defining it as “attraction to children who have not reached puberty”, which for him makes it a separate issue to younger teenagers’ relationships with older men.

When asked if he was advocating “cross-generational relationships”, he replied: “Yeah, I don’t mind admitting that.” In the final segment of the video, he describes “hugely positive relationships” in the gay world between younger boys and older men.

The conversation has exploded on social media, with it becoming clear on 20th of February that Breitbart were considering sacking Milo if he did not resign.

Defending his comments on Facebook, he admitted that “I am certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret”, before describing paedophilia as a “disgusting crime, of which I have personally been a victim”.

Martin Shkreli Harvard talk interrupted by fire alarm and walk-outs

Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical, was invited to speak at Harvard University by the Harvard Financial Analysts Club earlier this month.

Moments before his talk was due to start, the fire alarm was set off, resulting in an evacuation of the building by police. The event eventually proceeded after a half an hour delay, but not without further interruptions by student heckles and walk-outs. The Boston Globe reports that Shkreli responded: “Nobody cares, goodbye.”

In 2015, Shkreli was widely condemned and criticised for increasing the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat AIDS, from $13.50 to $750 per unit.

He is currently awaiting trial, free on a $5,000,000 bail, for an unrelated case of securities fraud. Shkreli was also more recently under fire for the alleged harassment of journalist Lauren Duca on Twitter, earning him a suspension from the social media site.

The event at Harvard was mainly focused on hedge fund management and healthcare. During the talk, several waves of students walked out to attend the ‘teach-in’ event held in a lecture theatre close by.

Organised by the Harvard College Global Health and AIDS Coalition, the panel discussion raised issues on unethical pharmaceutical practices and the treatment of AIDS.

Shkreli did not address any of the past drug-hiking allegations. However, towards the end of the event he did comment on a solution to high drug pricing through government intervention, stating that President Donald Trump should start a drug company, something he would be happy to support.

Another event was held the day after at the University of Massachusetts, in Boston, where Shkreli defended the high price of some drug treatments. Although similar controversies were raised before the event, the talk ran with minimal interruptions.

Shkreli was also set to appear at University of California with right-wing sensationalist Milo Yiannopoulos earlier this month, but the visit was cancelled just half an hour prior to its start due to the break out of heated protests.

The NHS needs a digital healthcare revolution

A unified health care system to take care of an entire nation, especially one as large as the United Kingdom, often seems like a Herculean task. To have over 60 million people to go through one, more or less, centralised system, often when facing life-threatening situations, often delays people from getting the help they need as they need it.

Endless bureaucracy, outdated technology, internal politics (and the constantly changing actual politics out of Westminster), as well as a vast administrative burden all contribute to various inefficiencies affecting public health care. As the nation’s population ages, and the cracks in the health care system become more apparent, urgent change is necessary to ensure that the health of the nation is not put at risk.

The political capital needed to make these changes is often not there, with special interests fighting to get politician’s ears, and other pressing matters almost always arising. Since even modest reforms to the system get criticised vehemently, politicians often do not take the burden upon themselves to address the NHS, instead hailing praise upon it and moving on to other things.

Luckily, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence, specifically Deep Learning, are kick-starting a revolution in health care that requires no political manoeuvring. British companies such as Babylon Health, and the recently Google-acquired Deep Mind, are racing to bring modern technology to the NHS, adding to the efficiency of its procedures.

One of the major hurdles to effective treatment is the time and technology constraints to providing patients with the care they need. Doctors, having been booked solid all day and working in a high stress environment, are not given the opportunity to spend as much time with patients and provide them with adequate counsel.

Other issues such as the number of staff necessary to maintain scheduling, and the tremendous costs to the system of individuals failing to turn up for their appointments add to the various impediments to adequate care.

Babylon Health’s two apps available for free download begin to address some of these issues. Their own machine learning powered consultant asks patients to answer a series of questions about their medical needs, and having been trained using a plethora of medical data, provides advice on next steps.

Their subscription service also offers virtual doctors appointments, reducing the need to book appointments and go to a physical location. This ease is not only more convenient, but helps to identify the seriousness of issues, and speed up the processes for those in most need.

In conjunction with the NHS, they have also released a 111 app for non-emergency cases. Powered by the same underlying technology, it provides advice to patients and speeds up appointment bookings through an online scheduler. This system, though in its trial phases currently, has the potential for allowing patients to schedule, change, and cancel appointments more easily, allowing for greater allocative efficiency of doctor’s times. Simultaneously, such consultations allow for a reduced need to visit doctors, as there may be simple over the counter remedies that the patient would be recommended instead.

Deep Mind Health, another London based company, is working with the NHS to use their Artificial Intelligence systems to aid in specialist medical diagnosis such as Head and Neck Cancers, and Eye Diseases. By using these technologies, the potential to greatly reduce the potential for misdiagnosis and accidental deaths is within reach.

These new technologies provide the infrastructure to further improve the quality of offering to the near million patients who use the NHS every 36 hours.

For all its failings, serious internal reform to the National Health Service is a difficult task. Luckily, innovation and entrepreneurship are driving businesses and technologies that can offer radically improved care within the current framework.

The accidents and avoidable deaths within the UK are at astonishingly high levels, but advances in medical technology can aid in reducing these ills and will dramatically improve the quality of care on offer.