Year: 2017

Interview: Labour candidate Afzal Khan

Written by Lily Sheehan on 22nd May 2017. Posted in Features.

I meet Afzal Khan on a rainy Wednesday afternoon at his office in Hulme. He shares this office, which is part of a local Methodist church, with the local Labour Party. With election campaigning in full swing, it is a hub of activity, with phones ringing and printers whirring almost constantly. As he sits down on a sofa in the corner, Khan jokes that he might fall asleep during our interview. With his candidacy announced in late March, the current MEP has been campaigning for nearly two months.

When did you join the Labour Party? Why?

I joined mainly because I was unhappy with the councillors where I lived. They were Liberal Democrats. The thing with Lib Dems is that they’re dishonest — they’ll go to one street and promise one thing, and then promise another on the next street. I don’t have time for them. I have the Liberal Democrats to thank for me joining the Labour Party.

Was it difficult for you to become involved in politics?

I wouldn’t say it was difficult — personally, I was never really that bothered about it. Once I got going, the Lib Dems wound me up enough to continue. I have always supported the Labour Party, but I was never motivated to get involved when I was young.

Why did you decide to run for MP? Why in Gorton?

I genuinely love Manchester. I was born in Pakistan, but I was made in Manchester. From 2000-2016, I was a local councillor; in 2005, I was Lord Mayor. I’ve been involved in all kinds of things in this city, particularly in equality and education. Currently, I’m a Member of European Parliament, but I’m still based in this area. It’s almost continuity for me.

The second thing that has motivated me now is Brexit. I’m a very strong Remainer. I believe our country’s interests lie within the European Union, not outside.

The result has torn me. As an MEP, I’ve experienced first hand so many ways in which we benefit from the EU. The world is moving in one direction and this country is now moving in the opposite. Many generations will pay the price for this. The battle is in Westminster now. I feel that, with my experience, there’s something I can do. This decision was made for me.

I worked with Sir Gerald [Kaufman] for twenty years. He was a friend of mine and an amazing constituency MP. All of these things came together at the right time for me — that’s why I’m running.

What is Gorton’s biggest issue? How would you fix it?

I don’t think there’s any single issue as such. We’re not without problems though. At the heart of it, I think, is the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition and their austerity policies. Year after year, they made deeper cuts.

We all need public services, especially those who aren’t so well off. Because of these cuts, everyday little things — bin collection and the roads, for example — are issues that need to be looked at. We’ve had 2000 jobs cut in the police; as a former police officer, that is particularly worrying to me.

Education is something I’m passionate about. I was adopted, and I left school with no qualifications. I joke that I left school with nine no-levels! I went back as a mature student, doing night classes.

I want young people to have the same opportunities that I did, and education is the way to do that. The idea of having one job for life is an old one — no one can do that anymore. People will have four, five, ten jobs — I certainly have! I’ve been a labourer, a bus driver and a police officer.

Education is a foundation for many other things. In Gorton, every single school is facing cuts, totalling £2.4million. That means fewer teachers, bigger classes or fewer facilities, and none of those options are right.

Housing is another issue. When I started as a councillor in Gorton, if somebody needed a council house, we could sort it out in a couple of weeks. Now, the waiting list is a few years. I blame the Tories — it was Thatcher’s idea to sell off council houses, as well as preventing us from building more social housing.

Manchester is growing in size, but the number of council houses is shrinking. I like what Labour is offering — a million new homes, half of which will be social housing.

Everything I’ve spoken about is a basic need. It’s not right that we don’t have them at the moment. I’m sick and tired of austerity policies not working. The Tories are making the vulnerable more vulnerable, the better off even better off. That’s not what politics is about.

As an immigrant to this country, have you always felt welcome?

Honestly, yes. Having been all over the world, I think Britain is a pretty good place to be. Manchester is a very diverse place with lots of different people, and I saw all of that when I was Lord Mayor. We’re not perfect and of course there are issues, but overall the British are very accepting.

Do you feel your background has influenced your politics?

We are all products of our life experiences. Mine has been pretty tough. I was adopted [from Pakistan by a Manchester family] because of poverty. I was separated from my family, my culture and my language at a critical age [Khan was 11 at the time].

That’s why I feel so passionately about poverty and social justice — I wouldn’t have gone through that had my family not been poor. I have never been motivated by money, probably because of my childhood.

Do you have a role model?

There are loads of people I think are incredible — Nelson Mandela is an inspiration — but I’d have to say the person I look up to the most is Muhammad Ali. From a very young age, I’ve been a very big fan of his. I watched all of his fights. He was a character! He was very strong, both physically and mentally. Muhammad Ali stood up against what he thought was wrong and was willing to go to prison for that. People wrote him off in ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ but he bounced back and knocked George Foreman out.

Why do you think many young people are apathetic towards politics?

It’s a vicious circle — young people feel they are not being listened to, so they don’t vote, so they’re not listened to. I’ve been part of the campaign to lower the voting age to 16. Had young people been fully engaged, I doubt Brexit would have happened. They understand the world we are now living in better than older people. Politics affects everyone and everything — it’s very important.

You have been the Lord Mayor of Manchester and are the current MEP for the North West of England. What did you learn from these experiences? Which was more enjoyable?

Both opened up the world for me and gave me local and global connections. We tend to live our lives with tunnel vision, and both helped me to stop doing that. Being Lord Mayor was a unique privilege. I got to see so much of Manchester that I never would have seen otherwise.

I learned more in one year [about Manchester] than I’d learnt in my previous 25 years there. I knocked Nick Griffin [of the British National Party] out of office when I became MEP. That alone was worth it!

You applied for selection as Labour’s candidate in the 2012 Bradford West by-election. That election was won by George Galloway, who is now standing independently in Gorton. What do you think of him?

I used to like George Galloway… from a distance. I campaigned with him against the Iraq War. When he stood here, I started to look into him more closely. I’m not sure I’m impressed with him anymore. Why hasn’t he been able to hold a seat?

Is he trying to compete with Nigel Farage in who can lose more? The people of Bradford West put their trust in him in 2012 but he lost massively in 2015. That to me says that he’s just a showman, not a grafter. He only attended 11 per cent of his Parliament meetings — that is appalling.

I took my seat [as a councillor] from a Liberal Democrat and turned it into a safe Labour seat with 84 per cent of the vote. George Galloway has accused me of being a Blairite, even though I campaigned against Iraq and have spoken at rallies for Jeremy Corbyn!

How do you feel about Liberal Democrat candidate Jackie Pearcy’s comments about Labour? She said the party are “too busy fighting amongst themselves to provide a decent opposition”.

You already know how I feel about the Liberal Democrats! Jackie Pearcy is from a party that was willing to get into bed with the Tories and dished out millions in cuts, and she didn’t try to stop it [as a Gorton councillor]. Their nine MPs were split in the Brexit vote, so they’re hardly a united front.

The results of the last Labour leadership election were decisive; the overwhelming majority of members support Jeremy Corbyn. Since then, I think Labour has been moving in the right direction. After reading our great manifesto, I feel quite excited for our future.

How do you view the relationship between politicians and the media, especially in the current political climate?

The media undoubtedly has a role to play in politics. I value freedom of the press. However, I’m uncomfortable with how the media in this country is run.

Ownership of the media is shrinking to a very small number of people. That’s unhealthy for a country — we should have diversity in names and opinions.

My deeper issue is that our media is led by negativity. The cultural shift to pure sensationalism is doing readers and consumers more harm than good. Generally, in our society, we need to be fairer to others.

My Erasmus experience in Manchester

Written by Irune Vega on 22nd May 2017. Posted in Lifestyle.

Before catching the cheapest Ryanair flight I was able to find from Madrid, there were many things that I had in mind when thinking about what Manchester as an Erasmus destination could be like. I had already visited the south of England a couple of times at 14 and I knew — I promise I knew — the South and the North of the country were meant to be quite different.

My impatient self had already been looking for all sorts of information about the city, and I found some interesting as well as not that positive remarks, such as Manchester being as ugly as the back of a fridge — something that I’ve found not to be true, thankfully.

However, no matter what other people may have said about the city, as an English music lover I knew I had made the right choice. It wasn’t only about all the well-known bands that were born in Manchester, such as Oasis and The Stone Roses, but about the passion for music that this city seemed to have — something that I have been able to witness later on.

I also felt quite interested in the whole ‘Madchester’ music and cultural scene and sat in front of my TV a couple of months before arriving here to watch the film ’24 Hour Party People’.

Once in the rainy city, I tried to search for what The Haçienda had been a few decades ago — I felt disappointed to see it had been converted into apartments, but also fairly excited to discover the name of the legendary nightclub had been preserved on the walls.

When my fifteen-year-old self found out about the TV series ‘Skins’, she thought that’s what the English teenage life was all about: raves, drugs, and more raves — which in some of the cases didn’t seem to be too far from the truth.

I did find myself in a Skins-lookalike house party in the middle of Fallowfield and danced until my feet couldn’t feel the ground in a rave-like venue — that’s right, Antwerp Mansion. But hey! Felt like listening to some cheesy indie music you never got tired of? The Venue and 42s were there for you. Wanted to feel like a posh cocktail-drinking grown up and leave aside your usual cheap ASDA cider or beer for a day? The Font was there for you. Manchester has it all.

That’s what Manchester represents for me: variety. Not only in terms of all the options that one can find across the city but also in terms of the people. Manchester is a synonym for multiculturalism. Manchester has made me feel at home. Manchester has called me ‘love’ and has let me love it back.

And so, once my year abroad is over, if someone ever says that Manchester is as ugly as the back of a fridge, I know what the reason behind it is. They haven’t been lucky enough to appreciate the love that lies behind the city’s red bricks.

Review: Grand Pacific

Written by Jennifer Sterne on 22nd May 2017. Posted in Food & Drink.

When I first saw images of the Grand Pacific’s opulent interior, my thoughts turned to graduation dinners — that one day within our student lives that we’re finally able to justify eating somewhere other than Spoons, and our chance to pretend to our families that university has transformed us into refined adults.

The first impressions when arriving at the restaurant did not disappoint. I was instantly greeted and led up the impressive oak staircase to the bar, where I was served a Rose and Lychee cocktail in a room where you could not help but be in awe. The cocktail alone is worth making the trip to the Grand Pacific.

However, on a student budget this is probably all you need to do in order to experience this historic venue. After being taken to the table and served our food, the bubble of grandeur and history began to burst a little.

The grade II listed building used to be home to the Manchester Reform club, a gentlemen’s club for Liberal politicians from 1871 to 1988, and sitting in the grandeur of dining room you really do get a feel for this history.

Winston Churchill and Lloyd George have both addressed the crowds of Manchester from the balconies of this building. The wonderful preservation means that if you want to get a taste of history on your evening out, then not many other places can compete.

On their website they describe themselves as paying “homage to the golden age of high society, where deep rhythmic baselines writhe through the air and sweet botanicals tantalise the senses” and claim that they are “the new home of exotic cuisine and sophisticated sipping”. The characteristic colonial design throughout certainly takes you back to a time of splendour and extravagance. Sadly, the food did not have the same effect.

The food was good and every plate was emptied, but it did not live up to the extravagance of the setting in which it was served. The Pan-Asian meals arrived very quickly, which was the first indication that we perhaps were not about to have the dining experience I had expected.

Asian spiced duck cottage pie, with pork crackling and soused onions, seemed exciting on paper, a fresh twist on a much loved dish. While the flavours worked, it was not a remarkable enough variation on the cottage pie to deserve any hype.

The crème brûlée with jasmine tea bread and rose-petal jelly also got my hopes up. However I did not feel the jasmine tea bread, decorated with jelly and flowers added anything to the meal other than decoration.

My dining partner had the tempura szechuan sea bass with crispy noodles, pineapple and cucumber, followed by the chocolate fondant. They formed the same opinion of the food as I did: it was good and not too pricey, but we could have left after cocktails and have had just as good an experience.

Jeremy Roberts, CEO of Living Ventures (who own the building), describes the heritage of the building “as a place to relax, eat and drink and just enjoy some of the pleasures of life simply oozes from the walls” and there is no doubt that this is true.

Simply sitting within the building’s walls was an experience unlike anywhere else in Manchester, but if you are expecting the food to match the grandeur then you may be disappointed. My advice? Start the night at the Grand Pacific to soak up the atmosphere and sip a cocktail or two before moving on, perhaps for a more purse-friendly option.

Day One: Lancashire vs. Yorkshire

Written by Arthur Salisbury on 20th May 2017. Posted in Sport.

County Championship cricket, like theatre attendance and the study of Latin, is always in decline. You can pick up a Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack from pretty much any year since the inaugural 1864 edition and find a piece bemoaning the death of the domestic game. The editor’s note in the 1907 edition predicted that the introduction of a second division would be the final nail in the coffin. It was always better then; nostalgia, in its most melancholic form, appears to be inherent.

Like all the great rivalries, the Lancashire and Yorkshire have been gnawing at the bone of contention for hundreds of years. I have met West Ham fans who are still angry about the (probably apocryphal) scabbing that occurred on the Millwall side of the Thames during the general strike of 1926. Indeed, I am one of them. And I have no doubt that there is a section of Lancastrian opinion that is still resentful of Edward IV’s accession to the throne as the first Yorkist King in 1461. The mitherer.

The very first Roses cricket match took place over three days in June 1867, and produced a handsome innings victory for Yorkshire. The Manchester Courier, conceding nothing, reported it thus:

It is but fair to add that in this, the first contest between the two counties, owing to a feeling of jealousy on the part of some of the leading Lancashire gentlemen players, the team was not a fair representation of the cricket of the county; whilst that of Yorkshire, as we have said, was about as good as it could be.

Yorkshire went on to win the next four matches, all convincingly and twice with an innings to spare. Fred Reynolds, the Lancashire opening bowler, perhaps understandably tiring of the whole affair, opened by bowling underarm in the fifth. It was not until the sixth meeting that the Red Rose finally triumphed, with a degree of rancour the predictable by-product. Yorkshire veteran Joe Row endsam, in a huff, twice refused to bowl after Lancashire had reached 300 runs.

It was the interwar years that cemented the reputation of the Roses rivalry. Of the 21 seasons from 1919 to 1939, 17 were won by one of the two counties (Yorkshire, boasting the likes of Wilfred Rhodes, Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton, were the dominant partner with twelve titles).

More than 70,000 people paid entry to witness the match at Old Trafford in 1926. The great Neville Cardus explains their borderline masochistic mind-set:

And that crowd did not go to Old Trafford on a Bank Holiday expecting to see sixers, or any suspicion of a demonstration of “bright” cricket. They went to look at North-country character in action, skill and unselfconscious humour superbly mingled proportionately… These ancient Lancastrians and Yorkists didn’t score dourly or slowly because they lacked the ability to score faster. No: they scored dourly and slowly “on principle.”

They home crowd were not disappointed, as Lancashire posted their highest Roses score of 509-9 dec., including a 126 from Harry Makepeace that took just ten minutes shy of five hours to complete. The match ended drawn with only two innings played.

Lancashire and Yorkshire have played 216 first-class matches against each other in total, but the ignominy of defeat, the fear of transpennine one-upmanship, means that the majority of them — 121, or 56 per cent — have ended up drawn.

To the present day. Having lost the toss Lancashire were asked to field and opened the bowling with James Anderson and Tom Bailey. For an hour period it was all Red Rose. The recurrent disappointment Adam Lyth was out for a duck edging Bailey to Anderson at slip, who at the other end was underlining the divide between the national regular and the county jobber. Keeping it tight with just one run off his first 32 balls, including the wicket of Alex Lees (bowled), he suddenly gave way mid-way through his sixth over and had to hobble off, with the score on 19/2.

This will likely see the end of Anderson’s long run of games for Lancashire. It’s too soon to tell whether this will affect the upcoming series against South Africa, or even his participation over the next three days. But Jimmy is 34 years old now, and it can’t be long before he sustains that twitch too far and is carted off to the glue factory.

With Anderson out of the attack, the match reneged on its promise to intrigue as the batsmen regained their composure. McLaren, his replacement, lacked the same bite, and Handscomb and Ballance settled into their groove. Thereafter wickets, when they came, were not the result of ‘turning the screw’, but rather popped up unpredictably and seemingly from nowhere. McLaren trapped Handscomb LBW for 29, but Yorkshire were never in any danger of collapsing.

The second session was cricket at its least demanding, Lancs skipper Davies opting to hold down both ends with spin. As the run stealers flickered to and fro, it was easy to see why the longest form of the domestic game lacks widespread commercial appeal. The last two sponsors of the competition, Specsavers and LV life insurance, might also indicate an ageing demographic. In a bid to tackle this, Old Trafford opened its gates to pupils of seventy nearby schools. Four thousand primary-age children galavanted about the place, lifting the support several octaves higher than I’ve experienced before. When they departed mid-way through the second session they took something with them (although they also left a lot of tat behind). A plastic bag tumbleweeded across the field in dour, and correct, silence.

The audience were jolted out of their slumber when Ballance, who had played classily and without controversy to reach 74, slapped a wide ball from Bailey to mid-off, with the score on 138, the game arguably in the balance. Tim ‘Brezzy’ Bresnan replaced him at the wicket, but fatally misjudged the mood by lifting Kerrigan for six. He was subsequently reminded reminded that Roses matches aren’t about such flimflam and tomfoolery and departed shortly after, bowled by McLaren for 13.

Lancashire had over-performed in the light of Anderson’s injury to reduce Yorkshire to 178-6 with the wicket of Azeem Rafiq, caught at mid-wicket off the slow and economical — hell let’s say it, boring — spin of Stephen Parry. The rest of the day was seen out with some competent batting, play closing on 251/6 with Leaning on 54 and Hodd 41. Lancashire have probably edged it, but will struggle to win their first four-day Roses match since 2011 without Anderson playing a central part.

A slow opener then, one that never quite got going, but one that nevertheless sets up the match nicely. Tomorrow will probably see Sidebottom bowling to Hameed and Chanderpaul. It’s not high octane, but it remains a lovely way to spend a day.

The Sikh Kirpan and Italy: Religious freedom or a threat to security?

Written by Spyros-Nikitas Tsamichas on 19th May 2017. Posted in Opinion.

The Italian Supreme Court has recently ruled against a Sikh migrant carrying a ceremonial knife in public. News of this are travelling all around the world, raising serious questions about respect, freedom of religion and the relationship between law and religion.

According to the Italian media, the specific case concerns a Sikh man’s appeal against a court’s decision that ordered him to pay a £1,700 fine because he left his house armed with a 20 centimetre-long knife.

The specific knife is a religious symbol of Sikhism and is called the Kirpan. Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru/spiritual master of the religion, gave a religious commandment in 1699 ordering Sikhs to wear five articles of faith at all times: the Kirpan, Kesh (uncut hair), Kangha (a wooden comb for the hair), Kara (an iron bracelet) and Kachera (100 per cent cotton tie-able undergarment).

Despite, the defendant’s religious arguments, the court ruled that he, as an immigrant, must ensure that his beliefs are legally compatible with those of his host country: “Multi-ethnic society is a necessity, public safety is an asset to be protected.”

On 24 October 2006, Denmark was the first country in the world to ban the wearing of the Kirpan. In Belgium in 2009, it was declared that carrying a Kirpan was regarded as “carrying a freely obtainable weapon without any legal reason”, overturning a €550 fine.

On the other hard, in 1994, it was held in the US that Sikh students in public schools have the right to wear the Kirpan. It is also allowed in most public places in Canada, including the federal parliamentary building and school premises as long as it is sealed and secured on the person.

In England, possession of the Kirpan without valid reason in a public place is illegal. However, the defendant could invoke the defence of carrying it for “religious reasons”. It should be highlighted that while all kinds of weapons were prohibited at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, the Kirpan was allowed.

Despite rulings in other jurisdictions, Italian courts do not accept religious reasons as a defence. Italian judges defended their ruling with the reasoning that “attachment to values which violate the laws of the host country is intolerable, even if they are lawful in the country of origin”.

It is surprising that a first world country in the 21st century, where fundamental human rights are established, does not allow such a religious requirement.

Judges could argue that if they accept the religious reasons for carrying a weapon, they are obliged to accept many other ones, such as ceremonial reasons. If this happened, the risk of endangering public safety would be extremely high. However, facts and statistics show that there have been no incidents where a Sikh person used his Kirpan against another human being.

Despite being valid in other countries, this argument has proven to not suffice in Italy. Of course, extremists would argue that immigrants should go back to where they are allowed to carry their religious weapons. But again, these countries, where the Kirpan is worn freely, offer statistical proof that it has not been used for violence.

Finally, more secular advocators would suggest that it is ironic to let some people carry weapons for religious reasons, but not allow people who live in high crime rate neighbourhoods to do so.

In conclusion, it is difficult to balance both human rights with the need for public safety; there will always be a side that will suffer a detriment or not have their opinion heard.

Therefore, a good proposition would be that Italy looks at the countries around it and learns from their rulings. Most importantly, they should not forget that ‘Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion’ is protected under the 9th article of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Review — Alien: Covenant

Written by Jamie McEvoy on 17th May 2017. Posted in Film.

Possibly the most anticipated sci-fi film of the year, Alien: Covenant hit screens last week. Director of the timeless classic Alien, Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator, The Martian), returns to the franchise after the opinion-dividing Prometheus (2012), and expectations were understandably always going to be high with such a prestigious auteur at the helm.

Alien redefined the sci-fi genre, and is considered a pioneer work in melding the themes of space and horror. Despite being a follow-up to Prometheus, the anticipation to Covenant has definitely positioned the film as more of a prequel to Alien rather than a sequel to the latter.

Even as the film opens with the title screen – accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic theme – the tone truly feels closer to Scott’s first film in the series. But does the newest instalment in the saga live up to the debut venture by Scott into the franchise?

Alien: Covenant follows the crew of the eponymous Covenant ship, who are on course for the planet Origae-6, with 2000 dormant colonists and 1400 embryos also on board. However, after a mysterious signal omitted from a nearby unknown planet following a magnetic storm, captain Oram (Billy Crudup) decides to investigate. The Covenant lands, and very quickly the crew come to severely regret their impulsive foray into the unknown.

The first third or so of the film is slow-brewing and ripe with tension – features which gave Alien the sheer sense of horror it possessed. But, as the crew start dropping like flies, the suspense and foreboding is quickly usurped by gratuitous action set-pieces and self-indulgent CGI sequences.

One of the things which made Scott’s 1979 game-changer so formidable was the fact that you saw relatively little of the alien. As proved by films such as Jaws (1975) and The Blair Witch Project (1999), the unseen is often scarier than the seen, and the longer the director waits to reveal the monster, the greater the fright.

Yet in Covenant, by the end of the film the extra-terrestrial/s end up having probably just as much screen time as some of the human protagonists.

Covenant also suffers from a similar problem as Prometheus, in that there is very little sympathy created towards the characters aside from the female protagonist. This results in a complete lack of emotion during the majority of the characters’ gruesome ends, replacing affinity with revolt as characters are burnt, decapitated, and impregnated with other-worldly beasties.

There is also the issue of the CGI in the film. The computer-generated creatures in the film lack the physicality and heft of those of the originals, with certain sequences resembling scenes from video games rather than that of a film.

The shots where we see a desolate, ancient alien city, or where the Covenant ship crashes through colossal alien structures, just feel unnecessary, and it is frustrating as a fan of the originals, and of horror in general, to see a director with such a good back catalogue sacrificing substance for scale and CGI.

There are indeed positives of the film: Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs, X-Men: Apocalypse) is excellently chilling in reprising his role as the robotic David, as well as playing another android named Walter.

Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) is heroic yet incredibly human as Daniels, and Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, This is the End) becomes the latest member of the Judd Apatow crew to make the successful transition from comedy into drama.

Yet ultimately, it all feels too familiar to the preceding films in the series. The scenario of a Weyland industries ship landing on an unknown planet has truly ran its course, and the final battle between Daniels and the ‘Xenomorph’ feels like a strange mash-up of the finales from both Alien and Aliens (1986). There’s a fine line between homage and mimicry, and sadly Scott has strayed into the latter in Covenant.

Viewers who wanted answers which were unexplained in Prometheus will be satisfied by this sequel-cum-prequel, yet fans of Alien and Aliens will find many scenes in the film all too familiar, whilst the narrative unfortunately fails to live up to the horror and ferocity which its trailers promised.

2/5

Manchester City 3-1 West Brom: Zabaleta says farewell to Manchester

Written by Harry Newton on 17th May 2017. Posted in Sport.

If this game was a film…

PS I love you

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The missus made me watch this film, I swear. I wanted to watch 2 Fast 2 Transformers: The Origins, or other manly films. This film is about when Gerard Butler’s (pft I only know the actor’s name because I wasn’t paying enough attention to know the character name) beautiful and romantic relationship with a woman is ruined when he dies and she is left without him.

The relationship between Gerry… I mean Gerard… and his wife was gorgeous. They just ‘got’ each other! They both made mistakes, but their love knew no bounds. Despite his departure, their love lived forever and it still felt like Gerry was still around, and Holly struggled to replace Gerry.

Gerry was especially good at crunching slide tackles and assisting goals from right-back… okay, fine, I’m projecting! The love between City and Pablo Zabaleta knows no limits, and he will forever live in the hearts of City fans after his departure.

This was Zabaleta’s final home game for City, coming off the bench to a rapturous crowd. He was later given the captain’s armband on the 77th minute to mark his 333rd game, when Vincent Kompany was substituted. The two gave each other a big cuddle.

Man of the match

Pablo Zabaleta

(It was really Agüero and I’ll talk about him later, but just give me this moment).

It was an atmosphere I don’t think I’ve ever experienced. I was at City when Sergio Agüero scored the winner against QPR in 2012 to win the Premier League – but this was different. It was premeditated, and it was pretty lovely.

From the very first minute of the game, despite how he didn’t start the game, Zabaleta was the City fans’ focus. They sang his name for 90 minutes and reduced him to tears at the end.

It’s a little bit sick when you think about it – 60,000 people tormenting a man until he finally breaks down into tears. In his nine-year’s service, Zabaleta played like any fan would hope to, going in for challenges he had no right to.

At the end of the game the fans waited for Zabaleta to come back onto the pitch with his son (who frankly was completely disinterested in the whole shebang and just kept running around in circles crying). He was gifted a First Aid Kit for the number of cuts and bruises he’s picked up in his time, a commemorative shirt, and a season-ticket for life.

Agüero

So, I’m going to actually talk about the match now, but a single tear will remain on my cheek. Despite not scoring Sergio Agüero put in an excellent performance. There’s been murmurs as to whether Agüero will struggle to get into the team next season, with Gabriel Jesus impressing, but Agüero’s performance proved that he could play alongside Jesus upfront.

On the 16th minute, he assisted Leroy Sané in what should have really been the game’s opening goal. With incredible tenacity, he was running at the West Brom defence all game trying to retrieve the ball, and he did it here stealing the ball away from Craig Dawson to play through Sané. Clean on goal, Sané hit the ball straight at the keeper.

But it only took ten more minutes for Agüero to make his the difference. City were struggling to break-down West Brom’s resilient four-hundred-man defence (10), but as the ball was played to Agüero’s feet with his back against goal, he flicked it round the corner for Kevin de Bruyne to latch-onto the ball and shrug off two defenders.

Making his way into the box, de Bruyne pulled the ball back for a Jesus tap-in. That was de Bruyne’s 16th assist of the season, which he followed up with a goal two minutes later with a half-volley outside the box.

Although it is Zabaleta’s exit that will make all the headlines, this could have also been Yaya Touré’s last home game for City, which he capped with the third goal of the game, curtesy of an Agüero assist. A simple yet superb one-two between both of them saw the defence flat-footed, and the Ivorian sauntered into the area to tuck-away the goal.

The Old and the New

I’ve just written a 12,000-word dissertation on the linking of past and future in the ancient epic The Aeneid (see – I’m still italicising it and everything). So, I have a strange obsession with past mingling into future, which was on show in this game.

We saw the end of an era with Zabaleta, and possibly Yaya Touré. The likes of Fernando, Alecksander Kolarov, and Willy Caballero may also have played their last game at the Etihad. Touré scored a classic-Yaya goal, Vincent Kompany was commanding at the back and went off with a slight injury (should be fine for the next game), and City turned a comfortable 3-0 win into a cagey affair in the last five minutes after Hal Robson-Kanu converted from close: it was Classic City. But the future was there too.

Leroy Sané may not have had his best game, but the second half of his season has been promising, having been nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year. And Gabriel Jesus bagged himself a goal. City were playing classic Pep-style, with de Bruyne and Silva playing anywhere across the front line, and Agüero dropping deep like a false-nine. Some of the football was scintillating as the old made way for the new.

Feature: 12 Angry Men revisited

Written by James Gill on 17th May 2017. Posted in Film.

Twelve men sit around a long table in a room. Twelve men with different backgrounds, different upbringings, personalities and prejudices. They are tasked as jurors to reach a verdict on the case of a young man of which the charge is murder in the first degree. If found guilty his punishment would be death. On the surface this looks like an open and shut case, but not everyone is convinced.

Director Sidney Lumet creates something truly remarkable with this, his debut film. Despite fantastic reviews upon release, it did not initially find a following and was a box office disappointment. 60 years later and it is deservedly regarded as a classic, a case study of tension, claustrophobia and subtext.

The jurors, united by their call to duty, do not share any common traits and it is because of this that they are most qualified to judge the case. Each saw their own version of the trial, noticing seemingly irrelevant details such as the indentations on a witness’ nose left by her glasses or the poorly concealed limp of another. Details so small most missed them, but the implications they have can change a person’s entire perspective.

We can summarise the film in five crucial moments, the first of which occurs at the beginning. Once settled down they decide to open with a vote, with some beginning to joke about how quickly they will leave. As hands slowly raise up for the vote of guilty they soon realise one hand stayed down, that of juror #8 (Henry Fonda). Juror #10 scoffs ‘Boy oh boy there’s always one’. The reasoning behind his hand staying down was not because he felt the defendant was innocent, he admitted that may very well be so, but instead that they should not be so hasty sending a young man to the chair.

At this moment, as with most of the first third of the film, the camera is above eye level, looking down upon those seated at the table. The effect of this is that it makes them more accessible and easier to be understood. As we learn the facts of the case through their discussion, the mood is relaxed and open. Notice also here how the depth of each shot changes from this point. Initially the focal length is short, making the depth of view high and consequently give the room an airier feel. This combined with the above-eye camera level allow the audience to see large swathes of the room. All the factors point towards an impartial conversation between civilised men.

As the discussion continues, Juror #8 raises interesting points on topics such as the knife, the ability to hear shouting as a train passes by, and one supposed eyewitness’s questionable version of events. The more logical jurors begin to rethink their decisions leading to the next two crucial moments: Juror #9 taking Fonda’s side making the vote 2-10, and the moment the vote becomes even, 6-6.

From this point on the camera is at eye-level with longer shots being replaced with mid-length shots. The room feels smaller and combined with the rising temperature contributes to an increase in tension. Slowly but surely the more bigoted among them grow inpatient and resort to classist remarks as the amount of evidence supporting a guilty verdict decreases.

An increased emotional intimacy as they open up about their true feelings is emphasised with the closer shots. Jurors #3 and #10 are taking the role of antagonists. The film depicted all twelve as civilised at the start, each as equals but as we learn more, both about them and the case, a positive light is cast upon the non guilty jurors.

The final two moments occur when the vote becomes 3-9 and 1-11. These I feel are the most powerful as they are immediately proceeded by explosive rants by the films two antagonists, Jurors #3 and #10. The remaining guilty voters are not choosing so out of reason, but out of emotion. Hatred towards a class of people viewed as lesser, or out of frustration from a strained relationship with his son. Stubbornness to admit you are wrong causes increased desperation among them, with both only conceding after becoming disgusted with their own actions.

The camera is below eye level now. We, the audience have gone from overseers of the discussion to sat at the table with every slur or hateful remark feeling equally spoken towards us as much as the rest of the jurors. The room is at its most claustrophobic too, as the depth of view is incredibly shallow and the ceiling can be seen in many of the shots making the walls appear to be closing in.

Without exception each man is sweating, trapped inside the room until they reach a unanimous decision. The tension crescendos as Juror #10 erupts, peaking at the moment where he tears up a photo of his son and changes to the twelfth and last not guilty vote.

Finally, 93 minutes in, we can breathe. The camera reverts back to the original state over eye level as the men get dressed to leave. Juror #8, the film’s hero, helps Juror #10 to put on his jacket. Regardless of what just transpired he remains neutral, working for the better wherever possible.

The courage Fonda’s character musters to stand in non-conformity against the intense scrutiny of eleven other people is heroic but also unrealistic. In the event of an 11-1 split, how often will he turn the opinions of them all? The far more likely scenarios involve he himself changing his mind, or if he is relentless, a hung jury.

A real life example to this is the case of Williams vs Cavazos. When it was reported that one of the jurors stood alone against the decision of the rest, each was then cross examined in order. The defiant juror was then dismissed on the grounds that they were biased against the prosecution and, with an alternate juror, a verdict of guilty was reached. However the defence appealed that the sanctity of the jury’s secret deliberations was violated and as such the defendants rights were broken. Interestingly the appeal was successful and the decision reversed.

Where the film grounds itself in the realism of our world is in the blatant ageism, classism and racism of some of the jurors. The most powerful scene taking place after the vote becomes 9-3 in favour of a not guilty verdict. Below is an excerpt of the script that follows:

Juror #10: I don’t understand you people! I mean all these picky little points you keep bringing up. They don’t mean nothing! You saw this kid just like I did. You’re not gonna tell me you believe that phony story about losing the knife, and that business about being at the movies. Look, you know how these people lie! It’s born in them! I mean, what the heck? I don’t have to tell you! They don’t know what the truth is! And lemme tell ya: they don’t need any real big reason to kill someone, either! No sir!

Juror #10: [#5 slams the paper down, gets up from his seat] They get drunk! Oh, they’re real big drinkers, all of ’em – you know that – and bang: someone’s lyin’ in the gutter! Oh, nobody’s blaming them for it. That’s the way they are, by nature! You know what I mean? Violent!

Juror #10: [#9 rises and crosses to the window] Where’re you going? Human life don’t mean as much to them as it does to us!

Juror #10: [#11 gets up and walks to the other window] Look, they’re lushing it up and fighting all the time and if somebody gets killed, so somebody gets killed! They don’t care! Oh, sure, there are some good things about ’em, too! Look, I’m the first one to say that!

Juror #10: [#8 gets up and walks to the nearest wall] I’ve known a couple who were OK, but that’s the exception, y’know what I mean? Most of ’em, it’s like they have no feelings! They can do anything!

[#2 and #6 get up from the table. Everyone’s back is to #10]

Juror #10: [looking around, starting to decline in volume] What’s goin’ on here? I’m trying to tell ya… You’re makin’ a big mistake, you people! This kid is a liar! I know it, I know all about them! Listen to me… They’re no good! There’s not a one of ’em who is any good! I mean, what’s happening in here? I’m speaking my piece, and you…

Juror #10: [The Foreman gets up and walks away. So does #12] Listen to me. We’re… This kid on trial here… his type, well, don’t you know about them? There’s a, there’s a danger here. These people are dangerous. They’re wild. Listen to me. Listen.

Juror #4: [quietly and firmly] I have. Now sit down and don’t open your mouth again.

Juror #10: [the shock of being ignored and silenced sinking in] I’m jus’ tryin’-a… tell ya…

At the beginning when eleven jurors thought the defendant was guilty, most either ignored the discrimination or timidly agreed due to the peer pressure from those much louder than them. They may not have believed in the content of those statements but by not taking a stand they were in silent agreement.

This caused the bigots to continue, under the impression that everybody respected them and their ‘wise words’. Such prejudice is self-perpetuating and as a result very dangerous to society as a whole with the loudest voices often being the least knowledgable, driven by their emotions rather than reason. A quote from Plato reads: ‘An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers’.

When the room for reasonable doubt increases the jurors tolerance for this simultaneously diminishes, becoming disgusted. In the above scene, each juror slowly got up or turned away from him until just one was left, another guilty voter. It was he who put him in his place, saying not to utter a single word more. His remarks became so extreme that no-one could stand behind him, not even those who were on his side.

60 years on from the release of 12 Angry Men, such situations still occur. There are still those who believe themselves to be above others, whether that be due to wealth, skin colour or another reason. In the technological age, everybody has a voice and only those who shout loudest can be heard. The differences being now that more people will take a stand and those who feel such things are more hesitant about speaking.

The same cannot be said about the internet though. A veil of anonymity gives many the confidence to say things they would not dare in public, making discrimination online rampant. This takes place to such an extent that several major sites such as Vice and IMDb have blocked comments sections as they have become a hive of racism.

While groups of people standing up to bigotry does happen, mostly within the domain of politics, it rarely does in such a manner found in the aforementioned scene, with total disassociation from people of both sides.

Upon the film’s release, only one actor (Henry Fonda) was considered a true star, however all twelve men gave fantastic performances, with no single person rising above the rest. Later four of the other actors beside Fonda would be nominated for Oscars (Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley and Jack Warden) showing the wide range of talent amongst the group. The fact that they all were as impressive in their roles is representative of the film itself, with each of the jurors have the same, equally important role in deciding the man’s fate.

There is so little in terms of plot and diversity of environment throughout the film. Every little detail must therefore contribute to the progression of the narrative. The original playwright Reginald Rose, who co-wrote and co-produced this adaptation, made commanding use of the subtleties of his characters. The enunciation of the words, their body language as they spoke and the manner in which they presented themselves all demonstrated the jurors’ unique personalities.

Besides a small handshake conversation between the first and second not guilty voters as they leave the courthouse, there are no names are mentioned at all. The defendant referred to as ‘the boy’ and the witnesses as ‘the lady across the street’ and ‘the old man’.

As the film progresses this keeps a shroud of mystery over all the characters, with the audience never fully knowing every detail of the case and making their eventual not guilty verdict impossible to completely agree or disagree with.

12 Angry Men is an unsettlingly realistic look at the faults of mankind, with each person under the impression that their vote was the correct one and for the greater good of their society.

The issues raised transcend the screen and the message of impartiality has far ranging applications.

Lumet purposefully tackles such controversial ideas in his films (see Fail-Safe or Dog Day Afternoon), doing so with the upmost respect for the audience’s intelligence. He is rightfully regarded as one of greatest directors of the modern era and this is, perhaps, his masterpiece.

Preview: Dynamic Women of Worth Programme

Written by Riddi Visu on 15th May 2017. Posted in News.

Dynamic Heights, a Manchester based social enterprise, is running a training and coaching programme in association with the Manchester Metropolitan University. The programme is for all BAME women every Thursday from the 8th of June to the 27th of July 2017.

The 4-hour workshop from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm intends to rejuvenate, transform and inspire young women by providing them with one to one coaching and exposure to inspirational talks from successful female entrepreneurs.

In addition, the programme also gives its participants the opportunity to interact and receive mentoring advice from business role models. There are also special evening courses available, as Dynamic Heights is a personal development consultancy service firm. It was founded and is run by Mumba Kafula, an award-winning trainer from Manchester.

Dynamic Heights’s aim and priority is to ‘Achieve Ambitious Aspirations’ and, in turn, help its clients achieve those ambitious aspirations. Mumba, the founder, has worked with various people from underprivileged backgrounds in the past and has helped them with their employment. She has also written a book to empower women How to be a confident woman in 7 easy steps. She boasts a very high success rate in improving her client’s career prospects.

If you have just failed a job interview and are looking to improve yourself, or if you are still sceptical about starting up your business or if you do not believe in your capabilities completely, then the Dynamic Women of Worth programme may be perfect for you. After this programme, as a ‘women of worth’, you will be motivated, empowered and more confident about your business and future career success.

For more details about the programme, please contact Mumba: 07957510321 or look at the Facebook event page.

Review: Two Pairs of Shorts

Written by Emily Oulton on 15th May 2017. Posted in Theatre.

The University of Manchester Drama Society’s short play showcase, Two Pairs of Shorts presented four consecutive works of drama at the King’s Arms in Salford on the 27th and 28th of April.

The showcase opened with The Fronts, written by Will Vincent and directed by Jessica Wiehler. In their transatlantic comedy of manners, Wiehler and Vincent effectively recreate the small-minded, insipid atmosphere of a small Louisiana town with an aesthetically pleasing set that depicts a poisonous barren neatness.

Vincent creates compelling characters in the bitterly pragmatic Helen and James Front, played by Agnes Houghton-Boyle and Tom Jones. The play felt slow at times and it was Vincent’s plot decision possibly somewhat exacerbated by a slightly lesser emotional range displayed by some actors which rendered the couple’s decision to have a baby at the end somewhat unlikely and unwelcome.

Jones tackles the sociopathic insincerity of James Front with an exquisite dryness and skilled comic timing, and special mention must go to Christian Hinrichsen who creates the hilariously misogynistic, serious golf-loving Sebastian Donovan with an excellent satirical quality.

The next piece, Please Take a Seat by Marina Jenkins, was a skilfully paced and varied farcical comedy. Jenkins creates the ‘day-in-the-life’ of a hilariously chaotic London STD clinic with a witty script, perfect casting and the strongest ensemble in the showcase.

Clinic receptionist Gemma was positioned upstage, giving her an omniscient perspective and presenting her as a consistent focus. Orla Quilligan gave this role a very human quality, reacting in tandem with the audience with excellently timed eye rolls and sarcastic quips.

Quilligan’s positioning occasionally meant others’ lines were delivered backwards and the seating in the middle often made the stage somewhat cluttered, but perhaps on such a small stage this is inevitable.

Sam Roberts created the greasy slime-ball Sid with amusing and well-observed facial ticks and, most notably, Nick de Jong won the sympathies of the audience with his hilariously doe-eyed, innocent delivery of lines describing his secret career as a porn-star.

Kicking off the second half was Evening, an experimental domestic drama by Lizzie Morris. Vince Curran-French and Eleanor Royle play a married couple, beset by suspicion and resentment. Conceptually interesting, the play seemed strained in delivery.

An argument between the pair ends in a slap, only for the characters to switch places and relive the scene. Arguably an interesting commentary on conventional marital breakdown, I struggled to pin-point Morris’ overarching intention with her piece. If it is a commentary on gender, the writing did not take us to any particular level of gender disparity in order to mark a tonal change when lines were said by the Man or the Woman.

If it is intended as a commentary on domestic violence, the piece appears to normalise a slap within a marital argument rather than highlight its wrongness, and this feels a little problematic. Further, Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love as a framing device seemed to be a somewhat jarring and forced juxtaposition.

The play, however, was enhanced by strong and sophisticated acting from Royle and Curran-French, who rose to the challenge of both difficult scenes and playing older characters.

The final piece, Spilt Milk by Grace Currie, is a troubling story about the effects of mass production on a small family-run dairy farm. A lovely sense of family was created by eminently capable actors Jack Waterman, Chloe Weare, Nick Kettle and Emily Tandy, and there was an especially heartfelt scene between characters John (Waterman) and daughter Clara (Tandy) due to its stillness and unapologetic sentimentality.

However, the character of the Bank Manager, despite being played confidently by Sophie Crawford, seemed to be written rather two-dimensionally and perhaps the threat of the bank would have seemed more imposing had the manager been absent.

Additionally, the pace was often slowed by unnecessary blackouts. For such a short play, swifter transitions or longer and less static scenes would have significantly helped the flow of the story. Despite these issues, the subject matter of the play was evidently very well-researched, or lived in as I discovered, which resulted in some very poignant writing.

Two Pairs of Shorts can be praised for both its experimental nature and diversity. The creative teams behind each piece should be commended for rising to the challenge of creating well-developed characters in clear setting within a brief twenty minutes.

The run of the showcase has ended, but make sure to keep an eye out for the future work of each of these playwrights and director

Students and staff share shocked reactions to impending job cuts

Written by Mancunion on 14th May 2017. Posted in News.

On the morning of Wednesday 10th May, an email was sent to thousands of staff at the University of Manchester detailing a Board of Governors’ decision to axe 171 jobs within a month.

This leaves hundreds of staff anxious about the future of their careers, and thousands of students concerned about the direction of the university and their educations.

The Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, and the Alliance Manchester Business School have all been informed of the imminent loss of 140 academic posts.

This information forms part of the Manchester 2020 programme manifesto — available to read online for Manchester students and staff — which explains its dedication to “achieving the university’s ambitions” in order to “improve student quality”.

It explained its “ambition to be a world leading institution”, adding that these staff cuts are designed to “ensure the financial sustainability of the University”, despite its own financial statement revealing reserves totalling almost £1.5bn, of which £430m was cash.

Sally Hunt, the UCU general secretary said: “We believe [the university] is using recent government policy changes and Brexit as an excuse to make short-term cuts that will cause long-term damage.”

A spokesperson from the university said in response, “Brexit is not the reason for these proposals”, but added: “Brexit and exchange rate fluctuations are features of the external environment in which all British universities and other organisations are operating at this present time.”

The proposed cuts to SALC (the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures) threaten 104 jobs with 35 proposed cuts, with languages departments being particularly at risk.

Staff in one languages department, speaking to The Mancunion, said that they had received “personalised emails” announcing the university’s plans to cut one third of their department’s staff within a month. This news came less than an hour before they were set to commence final year oral exams.

One senior lecturer said: “We had all been singled out by individual emails, unlike some other staff in SALC, [and] the whole department felt immediately incredibly threatened, as well as bewildered by the suddenness and back-handed way of announcing [and] implying job losses for ourselves.”

Moreover, in contrast to other university departments, they said: “In SALC, there have been no criteria published as to how staff should be selected and redundancies made,” adding to the anxieties of the cuts.

Staff were told of a voluntary severance scheme, to which the lecturer added: “While it is well possible that some colleagues will take advantage of such a scheme, not 35 colleagues will, and so the problem remains of fighting compulsory redundancies after the wave of voluntary departures.”

They added that at a union meeting, “the phrase ‘student marking boycott’ was mentioned”, which could have a huge impact on undergraduate students across the university.

One final year languages student, speaking to The Mancunion, said the cuts were “violating workers’ rights by forcing redundancy on hundreds of hard-working, talented staff members, in the name of unnecessary financial gain.

“Using Brexit and supposed financial constraints (even though the University has swollen cash reserves totalling over £1bn) as an excuse to enact redundancies is completely shameful.”

A group of third year languages students currently on their years abroad, who face returning to a department slashed by huge cuts to staff numbers, started a Resist Restructuring Manchester campaign and petition in the wake of the news, in order to “voice their disgust and opposition to these planned staff redundancies”.

The petition had amassed over 1900 signatures at the time of writing.

One of the petition’s creators told The Mancunion: “The university’s claim that the aim of the staff cuts is to improve the student experience could not be more ridiculous; they will only put a further strain on resources in departments across the faculties of the humanities, science, and business, and deprive the students of these subjects of the high quality teaching they expected when they decided to study at Manchester and pay £9,000 per year to do so.

“We demand that the university reconsiders its apparent prioritisation of financial growth over the value of education.

“The organisers of this campaign are all languages students and we find it especially exasperating that it is our lecturers who are facing job losses as the country enters the Brexit negotiations. Britain now more than ever needs graduates who are able to communicate with and understand people from other countries and cultures, and these cuts threaten Manchester’s ability to do provide its students with such skills.

“Manchester prides itself on being a university with high quality teaching and research and a strong global reputation, however we strongly doubt that this can be maintained if cuts such as this are allowed to happen, and especially not without a thriving languages department.”

The university is expected to enter into negotiations with trade unions in the coming week, as stated in the manifesto: “The University is committed to ensuring that these processes are conducted fairly and transparently and will manage these through the Security of Employment Policy which has been agreed with the Trade Unions.”

Alongside Resist Restructuring Manchester’s petition, student activists SOS MCR (Save Our Staff) have begun organising social action to be taken in the coming weeks, with the collective aim of “standing in solidarity” with the staff at risk.

Manchester City 2-1 Leicester City: Riyad Mahrez spares City’s blushes

Written by Harry Newton on 14th May 2017. Posted in Sport.

If this game was a song…

Move your Feet – Junior Senior

As I graduate in a matter of weeks and I have to become an “adult” in the “real world”, I’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic and listening to some Noughties playlists. I’m hoping that if I close my eyes and think really hard then I may be transported back in time to when music had rhythm and politics was simpler. But no, here I am.

Anyway, ‘Move your Feet’ is a beautiful song about passion, love, future, the patriarchy, and the north-south divide. Na, it’s just a song about moving your feet really quick. And that’s what Riyad Mahrez should have done on the 77th minute. Mahrez was handed a penalty and the opportunity to make the game 2-2, but he accidentally double-hit the ball and the goal was ruled out by Bobby Madley.

An excellent decision from the referee which usually goes unnoticed by other officials… but I’m not going to praise him too much as the penalty decision was already incorrect, as Gael Clichy actually made the foul outside of the box. Referees, who’d be em?

Man of the Match

Yaya Touré

Pep Guardiola has said that he has already decided on whether out-of-contract players will stay with the Club for next season — but this performance from Yaya Touré may make him think twice if he’s planning on letting the Ivorian go. On his 34th birthday, Touré was solid in the first half, and much of the second half. Although it is obvious he does not have the pace that he used to, he rarely loses the ball and can still steamroll through a midfield.

Although often shrouded by controversy, Touré’s time at the Club has been wonderful and has seen him score some of the most important goals in the Club’s history. He has also been an incredible leader in the absence of Vincent Kompany at times, and this was highlighted by Gabriel Jesus’ goal to make this game 2-0.

Leroy Sané won a penalty for the Blues, and the stadium turned to look at Yaya Touré who has never missed a penalty for City. Touré handed the ball to Gabriel Jesus to take the penalty, who converted emphatically. To have the confidence in Jesus, and give the opportunity to a player in fine form, Touré showed signs of a great leader. (Side note: if Jesus would have missed the penalty, I’d probably be calling Yaya Touré all sorts of awful names right now).

Kasper Schmeichel also had a very impressive game. It was almost as if the ex-City goalkeeper was auditioning for Pep Guardiola as he acted as a sweeper-keeper a couple of times quashing City attacked deep into his own half, and showed some excellent distribution kicking long for Jamie Vardy.

He also showed that little bit of craziness that Guardiola likes in his goalkeepers, by rushing up late on for two corners and having a foot race back to the net. His counter-part Willy Caballero also had a good game, but could do nothing from Okazaki’s superb volley, which ended his 26-game goal drought.

Controversy

It was all over the show today! Despite making the wrong call with the penalty in the first place (and it was very close to be fair to Bobby Madley), he quickly made up for it with an exceptional decision from Riyad Mahrez’s penalty. Of course, this wasn’t the only controversy in the game though, because that would be far too boring.

For City’s opener, Sané pulled back from the left wing for David Silva to get his second in two games. However, Raheem Sterling was stood in an offside position as Silva struck the ball. Although Sterling was not in Schmeichel’s eye-line and therefore wasn’t technically intervening with play… he tried to steal the goal away from Silva and swung a leg at it, so he probably was interfering.

Tight margins, but City were lucky with this one. Good old fair Bobby Madley though levelled things up by missing a penalty that City should have had moments later curtesy of a Fernandinho tumble. I guess that’s good refereeing, right? Referees, who’d be ‘em?

Top Four Sweat

The top four is getting a right sweat on now! City go up to third after this win, two points clear of Liverpool in fourth, with just two games left. It’s very much in their hands, but anything could happen in the final two games of the season.

On paper, City have a simpler run-in with West Brom and Watford… which piles the pressure on and will hopefully bring some very entertaining games.

Review: Gorillaz — Humanz

Written by Charlotte Ridout on 12th May 2017. Posted in Music.

Released 28th April via Parlophone

7/10

A lot has gone on in the past couple of years that has prompted many of us to ask ourselves “what has humanity come to?”.

We are living in a time of great uncertainty, where World War Three may or may not get initiated with President Trump dropping a nuke on top of Syria after a particularly disappointing round of golf at Mar-a-Lago.

It was uncertain as to whether we would be getting any more material from Gorillaz after the release of The Fall in 2010 and the subsequent alleged falling-out of the band’s co-creators, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

Apparently, though, the two seem to have resolved their differences and now we have Humanz, the playlist to accompany the end of the world.

Damon Albarn started work on a new Gorillaz album in 2014. Even though this was long before the car-crash-in-slow-motion that was last year’s American presidential election, Albarn set the tone for his album by asking contributing artists to picture a world which featured a President Trump.

At the time, this seemed nightmarish but purely fantastical and the perfect way to get his collaborators into the right frame of mind to create a hellish, post-apocalyptic setting for Humanz.

Unfortunately, Albarn’s dystopia became our reality. Because of this, a great deal of work went into cleansing the record of any references to Trump himself for fear of too much crossover between the virtual world of Gorillaz and the real one where the rest of us have to live.

The opening song, ‘Ascension’, features the refrain “The sky is fallin’, baby, drop that ass ‘fore it crash”. The theme for the album seems to be that the end of the world is here so we might as well party (but that doesn’t mean we’re not pissed off about it).

Vince Staples does a great job on ‘Ascension’, speaking about the powerful themes of racial struggle and police brutality. Then 2D chips in with a comment about armchair activism. It’s clear from this song and plenty of others from Humanz that Damon Albarn has kept his vocal contributions to a minimum for the most part, often sounding more like a featured artist than the band’s frontman.

In spite of the less-than-cheery lyrics, the beat is catchy and it’s quite easy to find yourself bopping up and down in your chair. This statement applies to many songs on this album, including ‘Submission’ and ‘Andromeda’.

To their credit, Gorillaz could never be accused of churning out a bland mix of songs that all sound the same. That being said, this does raise the question of whether this affects the coherence of the album as a whole.

‘Strobelite’ follows ‘Ascension’, bringing a much funkier feel and the smooth, soulful vocals of Peven Everett. This almost sounds like it could be at home on a Pharrell Williams album, but then ‘Saturnz Barz’ throws you into the arms of Jamaican dancehall singer Popcaan and the effect is a little disorientating. However, this is supposed to be the music of dystopia so a bit of chaotic energy is probably what they were going for (this might explain the somewhat unnecessary interlude tracks).

Two of the more poignant, stand-out songs from the album are ‘Let Me Out’ and ‘Busted and Blue’. ‘Let Me Out’ has a profound feel with Pusha T stating “tell me there’s a Heaven in the sky where there is peace, but until then I keep my piece in arm’s reach”.

‘Busted and Blue’ is a wistful moment in the narrative as 2D talks us through his existential crisis — a common theme on Humanz, which feels fitting because what’s more human than a good old existential crisis?

Something that the album has been criticised for is for not making the most of what should have been an impressive arsenal of vocal power. This is most apparent on ‘Charger’, where the few lines growled by superstar Grace Jones barely register.

‘Momentz’ sees the return of De La Soul, who have featured on Demon Days and Plastic Beach. Whilst the song itself is alright so long as you don’t mind industrial smashing noises and auto-tune, it’s something of a step down from ‘Feel Good Inc.’.

Overall, the album is engaging and likeable if not life-changing. There is a great deal of hopelessness and griping, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Upbeat and cheery, ‘We Got the Power’ is a nice way to end the album, reminding you that “we got the power to be loving each other, no matter what happens, we’ve got the power to do that”.

It’s an important thing to remember when social media and Fake News™ have got you down. The takeaway message is that humans can be bad but they can also be good, you just have to learn how to take it all in your stride.

Album: Slowdive — Slowdive

Written by Eliza Slawther on 12th May 2017. Posted in Music.

Released 5th May via Dead Oceans

8/10

A self-titled album is unusual at such a late stage in a band’s career, and yet Slowdive’s choice to self-title their fourth studio album — and first album in 22 years — feels perfectly appropriate.

Shoegaze, dream-pop, ambient — whatever genre the Berkshire band are vaguely categorised as, Slowdive is surprisingly refreshing and original, and yet retains the very distinctive nuances of Slowdive’s earlier work.

The vocals are strong enough to be bold and crisp, refusing to get lost or buried below layers of synth and yet soft enough to be unobtrusive. It’s dream-pop but without the overbearing sickly-sweetness that sometimes accompanies the genre, which can sometimes lead to tracks which come across as music composed for dramatic montages in romance films.

‘Slomo’ is a lengthy yet punchy opening song. It starts off gently, yet progresses to become strangely catchy and memorable, setting a rich, dream-like tone for the rest of the album.

There’s a reason the opening song is this one; it’s introducing the album unapologetically, announcing Slowdive’s return whilst remaining laid-back and ambient. Here, and on the rest of the album, Rachel Goswell’s voice stands out as a highlight, hitting the highest of notes without once sounding shrill or forced, complementing the instrumentals.

The album then progresses into a more synthy, grainy sound akin to the sound of old-school shoegaze, with ‘Star Roving’ sounding exactly as the title would suggest, with vocal layering used beautifully.

The production on the track is key to its success — it is clear that much thought has gone into the placement of each layer, so that nothing is overbearing and the bassline is still audible.

‘Don’t Know Why’ picks up the pace but is one of the less memorable tracks of the album, and a weaker point before ‘Sugar for the Pill’, a touching stand-out track. The lyrics are substantial, holding meaning without belting out some repetitive moralistic message.

For instance the lyrics ‘Our love has never known the way/Sugar for the pill/ You know it’s just the way things are’ feel incredibly personal and communicate the melancholy and futility that comes with love. The song also signals a shift in the tone of the album, serving as a volta at which point the focus and mood becomes reflective, poignant, and above all unpretentious.

One weakness of the album is that after this change in style, each song appears to blend indistinguishably into the next, despite each being individually excellent. The drumming at the beginning of ‘No Longer Making Time’ is notable, but it’s easy to switch off when listening to the rest of the song.

Perhaps, though, that’s the purpose: music that can be both actively listened to and played when multi-tasking. The lyrics are also delicately emotive on the latter songs of the album, although stand out less than on ‘Sugar for the Pill’.

‘Falling Ashes’ is a perfect closer. The piano instrumental builds up gradually and is quietly distinctive, building up the intensity and solidifying album’s emotional power. Every component of the song is so carefully placed, and can only be detected upon multiple listens.

‘Thinking about love, thinking about love’ on repeat may seem like an overly simplistic or even lazy lyrical choice, and yet the way in which the words are delivered gives the track and the album as a whole a greater meaning than the words could ever have written down. It’s pared down in the best way possible and signals the progression that the album has undergone from start to finish. Whilst there is a lull in the second half, ‘Falling Ashes’ is a highlight of the entire album and saves it from becoming too repetitive.

Overall, Slowdive summarises everything that the band has achieved to date. It symbolises the distinctive sound of Slowdive and serves as a reminder that greatness comes in quality, not quantity.

It’s also an album which demands to be listened to from start to finish, in one sitting. For that reason I’m not going to list the top tracks, but rather encourage everyone to take 46 minutes out of their day to lie down and play the whole thing.

University of Manchester to cut 171 jobs

Written by Rosa Simonet on 11th May 2017. Posted in News.

The University of Manchester has announced plans to cut 171 staff. The proposal approved by the board of governors on 3rd of May involves a reduction of academic and support staff from the faculties of arts, languages, biology, medicine and business.

According to the University and College Union (UCU), 900 staff will be put at risk by the proposed cuts. Sally Hunt, the UCU general secretary said: “We see no economic rationale for jobs cuts on such an enormous scale.”

Union chiefs also claim the university blamed Brexit and new government legislation for financial uncertainty.

A spokesperson from the university responded to criticism stating “Brexit is not the reason for these proposals”, but that “Brexit and exchange rate fluctuations are features of the external environment in which all British universities and other organisations are operating at this present time.”

The university “believe that these proposals are essential to meet the University’s agreed ambition” as a world-leading institution. Though “detailed plans to deliver a significant growth in funds” from a range of activities are already being implemented, “further action is necessary”.

“The University proposes to open a voluntary severance scheme for staff at risk, to avoid the need for compulsory redundancy if at all possible.”

The proposals have been heavily criticised in light of the university’s recent financial report. The report reveals £1.5bn in reserves as well as a £59.7m surplus for the year in 2015-16.

In an email to all university staff seen by The Mancunion, the university outlined that “the University of Manchester has a bold ambition to be a world leading institution, with a reputation based on academic excellence.”

They added, however, that “in order to meet this ambition, we must improve the quality of our research and student experience in some areas and ensure the financial sustainability of the University. Realising this ambition will require a capacity to invest in our strategic priorities.”

Students and the University of Manchester Students’ Union have been responding to the proposed cuts on social media. Campaigns & Citizenship officer Sorcha Floyd says the cuts go against the university’s unique core value of ‘social responsibility’.

In another statement, Floyd extended her “solidarity to the workers with their jobs at risk,” adding: “The exec team will be a releasing a statement on our position on this next week, after meeting with the trade unions.”

According to the BBC, Union members are due to meet on Friday to hold talks about the proposed cuts.

The Legend of Thierry Henry

Written by Aadel Shaaeri on 11th May 2017. Posted in Sport.

The legendary Thierry Henry has forged his respectable name primarily at the Emirates Stadium in North London, where he spent eight precious years as a proud Gunner. During his entire career as an exceptional footballer, Thierry has earned countless trophies and personal titles, creating a long astonishing list which most players can only dream of.

In regards to his beloved club, Arsenal have earned a special spot in history by the end of the 2003-04 season. They won the Premier League trophy, which Henry clinched twice during the English portion of his timeline, in a very rare pattern. They strolled around the nation without a single defeat, a journey in which Thierry missed only one league match.

As an ongoing recognition, their remarkable squad from that period have been honourably named as ‘The Invincibles’. During that unforgettable year, the spectacular forwarder also achieved a club record of having the most goals scored in a Premier League season (30) — a figure which the Dutch Robin van Persie equalled during Arsenal’s 2011-12 season.

Thierry Henry also adored playing for FC Barcelona, a transfer which was granted by The Gunners. During his phase at Catalonia, he was playing the beautiful game alongside many other legends formed under a mighty emblem.

The attacking force of Barça during that era was unbelievable, as it consisted of Henry, Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi. Within their midfield, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández were mastering the playmaking role, feeding the front with utter precision.

Majestically, the captain who led this magical team was the Spanish Tarzan Carlos Puyol, who was unquestionably a paragon of defence.

As a youngster, Thierry started his professional career in AS Monaco FC, making his debut under Arsène Wenger. Le Professeur managed ASM from 1987 till 1994, during which he discovered Titi (a nickname that most of the player’s admirers fancy calling him by) within their phenomenal youth system.

As a previous member of Les Bleus, he left a memorable mark in the French history books. In personal terms, he became France’s all-time leading goalscorer with 51 goals, a record which still remains intact.

As a squad, the most valuable international trophy he helped to achieve is unanimously agreed on to be the FIFA World Cup in 1998, a marvellous victory that will ever be remembered by the French citizens.

As an ending to his tremendous career, he travelled to another continent in the far west to sign a multi-year contract with the New York Red Bulls. Impressively, Henry led his American team towards winning their first ever trophy in the franchise’s history, which spent seventeen years in the making.

For his last triumph, he boosted the New Yorkers into receiving the MLS Supporters’ Shield in 2013, a grand reward given to the team with the best record in the regular season. As a final token, he left the MLS by leaving another club record behind him, as he became the Red Bulls’ all-time top assister with 42 assists.

After hanging his boots up, Henry remained within the sport’s realm. For a while now, he has been working brilliantly as a television pundit for Sky Sports, a job in which he has long proven to be beyond competent to thrive in. His vast knowledge about the sport, and the characters within it, make him an invaluable gem for this industry.

To progress further, Henry has been learning and practising in deepening his coaching capabilities in order to receive the necessary badges to hopefully manage a professional team one day.

Quite recently, he has been officially welcomed to the Belgian national team’s staff as an assistant coach under the Spaniard Roberto Martinez, which is definitely a profound step towards management.

Dennis Bergkamp, an outstanding Dutch retiree who formed an attacking front alongside Henry during The Invincibles’ historical season, mentioned the Frenchman admirably. He said, “if you look at the whole package, with everything Henry has, I don’t think you can find that anywhere else”.

Well, we can only await for a validation and see if a firing phoenix will ever arise from Thierry Henry’s ashes.

Album: Mac DeMarco — This Old Dog

Written by Joe Casson on 11th May 2017. Posted in Music.

Released 5th May via Captured Tracks

7.5/10

Mac DeMarco had to grow up one day. For a few years now, it seems like the Canadian singer-songwriter has been tentatively trying to get out of the corner he’s painted himself into: despite a notably more downbeat, introspective and synth-streaked turn on 2015’s mini-album Another One, he’s still widely perceived as a carefree prankster — a ‘pepperoni playboy’ in Pitchfork-language — and he’s attracted a cultish fanbase of sixteen year-olds in Mac-approved dungarees and caps.

It’s an image that aptly suited the greasy haze of his earlier music, but more recently it feels like he’s been courting it by necessity. When he gave out his home address and invited fans to visit him at the end of Another One, it felt less like a chance for him to party with his admirers and more like an opportunity to show them that he’s not the person they’ve made him out to be. Turns out Mac DeMarco is a normal dude who gets sad sometimes, just like the rest of us.

His new album, the unassuming This Old Dog, is in the same spirit. After enduring the inevitable twenty-four-seven visits to his home, DeMarco would be forgiven for wanting to turn away from the spotlight to get some peace and quiet. Instead, he’s opened up even more with his barest and most personal album to date. The slippery guitar work and odes to cigarettes are out, replaced by simple, warm arrangements and some serious soul-searching.

It’s not a sea change — you wouldn’t mistake him for anyone but himself on any of This Old Dog‘s songs — but it’s surprisingly becoming. Beneath all the hi-jinks, DeMarco has always had a refreshingly direct turn of phrase and can effortlessly write a winsome melody. By stripping away most of the silly signifiers which have made him something of a marmite figure previously, he’s shown that at his core Mac DeMarco is a very accomplished singer-songwriter.

With a handful of exceptions, the songs on This Old Dog are bright and clear with acoustic guitars front and centre. Over the last few years, DeMarco has been modestly expanding his repertoire, adding synthesizers to a few tracks on 2014’s Salad Days and giving them a more prominent role all over Another One.

There’s still some of that here, but mostly he’s pulled in a different direction; the downtrodden ballad ‘One More Love Song’ boasts a real piano in the chorus to striking effect, while ‘A Wolf Who Wears Sheep’s Clothes’ is streaked with harmonica.

‘Dreams From Yesterday’ is basically a Bossa Nova track, and with lightly strummed acoustic guitars and wafting keyboard lines it’s possibly the most laid-back song he’s written — and this is a man who doesn’t exactly shy away from that sort of thing.

If his previous aesthetic choices have made it feel like you’re watching him on an old ’90s TV set, here it sounds like he’s right there in the room with you.

The songs feel a lot more lived-in than any he’s put out before, likely due to his choice to let their demos sit untouched while moving house over the summer — probably the first time he’s really halted his relentless cycle of recording and touring since 2012.

Photo: Coley Brown

Then there are the synth tracks, which, although strong pieces of music on their own, sit a little uncomfortably with the rootsier sounds on the rest of This Old Dog. Songs like ‘On The Level’ and ‘For The First Time’ resemble distant cousins of previous songs like ‘Chamber of Reflection’: spacey, weightless and just a little eerie.

DeMarco is just as compelling when he’s spaced out and electrified as when he’s lucid and contemplative elsewhere. Yet although it’s certainly satisfying to see him take some tentative steps away from the sound that was just beginning to feel slightly limiting, in the context of the album it feels like he’s pulling in two totally different directions here, undermining This Old Dog‘s cohesiveness a little.

The music’s not the only thing Mac has changed up here. Lyrically, the album is a lot more introspective and serious, miles away from the radio skits that punctuated his first release, Rock and Roll Nightclub, back in 2012.

The grave illness of his absent, alcoholic father is a persistent theme: from the chorus of opening track ‘My Old Man’ (“uh oh/looks like I’m seeing more of my old man in me”) to the frank and painful closing track ‘Watching Him Fade Away’, DeMarco is preoccupied by his complex feelings of grief for the prospect of losing his father and indifference towards a man he barely knows. The last track in particular has some of his most moving lyrics.

Around the margins of this emotional core, Mac isn’t getting any younger and spends a lot of time looking back — see lines like “There’s a price tag hanging off of all that fun” and “No amount of tears/Could roll back all the years/Bring back all your dreams from yesterday”. His songwriting has always been more sincere than you would imagine from his public image, but here in particular he does seems a lot more concerned with directly expressing himself and leaves little room for people to misinterpret how he feels.

If his previous output was suitable for an afternoon barbecue (this is only partially metaphorical — 2015 instrumental EP Some Other Ones was literally composed for a barbecue), This Old Dog feels more appropriate for a campfire heart-to-heart. We’ve always known Mac DeMarco was someone you wanted at a party; now, we know you want him around when times aren’t so good too.

This Old Dog is a welcome change in direction for Mac DeMarco, appropriately changing up a formula that was just beginning to show its age. DeMarco is showing his age too, and his decision to apply his astute songwriting towards more mature matters pays off.

Abandoning the instrumentation and sensibilities he’s best known for, he’s shown himself to be more than the scene he’s come from and the persona that’s formed around him. For the first time, he doesn’t at all resemble the somewhat cartoonish figure his press coverage and social media presence paints him as.

Mac DeMarco is a real person, and a mighty fine songwriter as well — looks like you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Review: Boss Baby

Written by James Gill on 11th May 2017. Posted in Film.

With the constant release of top-tier animations from studios such as Disney/Pixar or Warner Brothers Animation, it is easy to forget how good we have it.

Thankfully every few months a film is released that is such lamentable drivel that we are brutally reminded of our privileges. No, this wasn’t Illumination Entertainments newest endeavour, it was actually a DreamWorks Animation feature.

The most glaring fault with the movie is the lack of, well, anything. It’s difficult to choose a single core failing when almost all it tried to do fell flat. I have to empathise with Alec Baldwin as the veteran SNL performer tried with all of his might to drag the film upwards to no avail.

Go look up a poster of the film. How long until it becomes unfunny? Two minutes? Five? Ten? What about 98 minutes? Writer Michael McCullers seemingly refuses to extend the humour beyond that of ‘Oh look! It’s a baby in a suit’.

When he does, it falls into one of three categories. The first being generic baby jokes. There are only so many times you can see a baby’s bottom before it becomes tasteless. And that number is one. The other two categories can be put down to the need to appeal to adults too, with office and pop culture references.

Now these can both produce incredibly funny moments if implemented successfully. Sadly McCullers seems so desperate to pander to the adult demographic that he forces them in any nook and cranny he can find leading to an incredibly messy script.

The most notable of these is seven year-old Tim’s speaking wizard alarm clock. Each scene it appears in it spouts the most irrelevant Gandalf quotes in a very, very loose impression of Sir Ian McKellen’s iconic character.

It is more than just lazy writing, it’s insulting the intelligence of every unfortunate audience member sitting in the theatre. How any of these jokes made it through every stage of production perplexes me.

After you’ve torn off each layer of stale jokes you can finally look at the story within. But the plot is just as messy as the humour. Babies aren’t born, they are manufactured, but by other babies? When created they are separated into two groups, ones that will go to live on Earth and the rest will be managers to help in the creation of more babies.

Bewildering enough on it’s own, the test to see who goes where is a feather. If you laugh you go to Earth, if not you are upper management. Cue laughter.

Our focal baby, Boss Baby (yes that is his name) is sent to Earth to sabotage ‘competing’ company Puppy Co, who create puppies out of thin air in the same manner.

The sabotage is to stop the puppies getting a majority of parents love, taking away from their own share. While this seems to be the bizarre result of a focus group of small children, the film reaches a semi-heartwarming moment at the end of the second act once they have achieved their nonsensical goals.

Rather than end it here, the baby and ‘brother’ Tim then board a plane of Elvis impersonators to Las Vegas for the third act.

You might think that this film is so wacky it would be a hilarious watch. Don’t be fooled, director Tom McGrath somehow manages to make it impossibly dull. If you are on a long-haul flight, and this film is your only option for entertainment, go to sleep.

Interview: Enemies Within

Written by Eloïse Wright on 11th May 2017. Posted in Film.

French director Selim Azzazi brought his captivating short ‘Enemies Within’ to the Lift-Off film festival this year in Manchester. Over a run-time of 27 minutes the audience could very well be watching a play due to Azzazi’s attention to detail, sharp dialogue and use of only two lead characters in one space.

These elements emphasise the multiple layers to this necessary short about the scars of France’s colonial past. After asking Azzazi himself questions on the subject of ‘Enemies Within’, we begin to delve into these layers.

Beginning with the production process, Azzazi explained that it started in May 2015, gathering around €100 000 through the CNC’s financing (French National Centre for Cinema). This allowed them to pay every crew member and build a set. An important aspect this budget allowed them was to rehearse for two weeks with the two actors, “just like we would for a play”.

As the subject has such depth and the actors’ performances are so gripping, I could have imagined a full-length feature version being equally as powerful if it could hold the same high-standard throughout. But Azzazi had always imagined ‘Enemies Within’ being a short film and was meant to remain that way, making it clear that he “never imagined or hoped on doing it a feature version”, and was always meant to be “only worked as a 20-30 minute intense duel”.

Despite only being a half hour long, the script took three years to write and to gather the financing, then taking ten months to produce entirely. This time was essential to the development and perfecting of details, such as the feeling of claustrophobia.

Azzazi stated that “the sound was crucial in order to get that claustrophobic atmosphere”, turning the space into an anechoic chamber that absorbs sound instead of it reverberating. To do so, they made use of “several huge velvet curtains” with which they surrounded the set, and hung large acoustic foams from the ceiling.

The sets location being in an unused government building, they managed to reduce the original cathedral like sound “to a very pure dry sound”. An important factor for Azzazi, in order to “enhance the feeling of claustrophobia for both the actors and the audience”.

In an article published on the Qualia Films site, Azzazi mentioned rehearsing for a play that centred around the HUAC (House of Unamerican Activities Committee), and how he made the link between America’s despising of communism and their “enemies within” and France’s refusal to see Algerians as French, especially after the war of independence.

I asked if he could go into more depth about how he felt the way HUAC dealt with communism in America was similar to how France dealt with Franco-Algerians, to which he replied: “There are similarities in the way a society builds up the image of ‘an enemy from within’. In France for example it was the case after the 1870 war against Prussia after which many accused French-Jews to be responsible for the defeat. Antisemitism grew on that idea and it led to the Dreyfus case 1894.

“The same with the French -Muslims originating from North-Africa (mainly Algerians) especially when the independence war started in 1954. In the mind of many, every French-Muslim became a possible threat. So this idea that North-African people are a threat from within has been around for over 60 years now and it’s been very costly to our society (lack of integration, inequities, unemployment, riots, etc)”.

He also pointed out that it is easy to find the same mechanics in the Soviet system “with the ‘enemy of the people’ image”, in addition mentioning a British play he loves that deals with that called “Collaborators” by John Hodge.

Hassam Ghancy and Azzazi worked together as actors in an adaption of The Sunset Limited, of which the setting was also in a singular closed space. This was another source of inspiration for “Enemies Within”, with actors Hassam and Najib’s insight and feedback enhancing the quality of the script.

On this subject, Azzazi responded that “great playwrights are always inspiring as they manage to bring characters to life from what they say/do or don’t say/do. So working as an actor was definitely crucial for me in order to grasp what writing was about.

“The same with working with Hassam: his feedback was very important to me because although he isn’t a writer, he could tell me when what he was reading didn’t feel right. He would say it with his own words, which would necessarily translate into answers for a writer, but which would point out problems to solve. It is very important when you have no experience to be able to trust the actors you work with. Both Hassam and Najib were dedicated to help me bring out the best of this script”.

‘Enemies Within’ is powerful because it’s topic is the much-ignored bloody colonial history of France, which led to questioning France’s trouble facing this past. Azzazi expressed disappointment and shame, observing that France’s political debates constantly overlook the subject.

Azzazi does not mince words — “there is still a large amount of my fellow countrymen who refuse to acknowledge that the French military went into the undifferentiated slaughtering of a massive number of people in order to invade their land. You can call that however you’d like: the fact remains that the French army came to Africa and they burned, killed and expropriated.

“We have to live with this. Yes France also built cities, roads, railways and hospitals but it doesn’t wipe out the slaughtering. To get over this and happily live altogether with this common history will remain difficult if this isn’t at least acknowledged”.

This led to the government’s paranoia of enemies within the country, and looking at when this idea of enemies from within started. Azzazi located the French-Muslim target as a problem coming “at least from the Algerian independence war in the 50s”. It is in fact from a book by French sociologist Mathieu Rigouste that covered this area called L’ennemi intérieur.

Whilst Azzazi could not divulge much about his future projects, he did say that he will “keep on writing about identity and the French colonial past but not only!”

His inspiration is fuelled by great plays and character driven stories, which led to me asking him which in particular touched him the most. Too many coming to mind, he settled for his three personal favourite playwrights: “Shakespeare – Ibsen – Pinter”.

Along the same lines but mostly just out of interest, I asked him for his personal top five films: “That’s very difficult to say. There are so many. All I can say is that my favourite films would involve Kurosawa, Truffaut, Hitchcock, Tarkovski, Lumet and The Monty Python!”.

‘Enemies Within’ is a rare window into the paranoia of the French government. Azzazi’s profound knowledge on the subject in addition to his background in theatre are very much what made this short such high quality.

Anti-Semitic tweets force resignation of Labour Students Co-Chair

Written by Charlie Spargo on 10th May 2017. Posted in News.

The recently-elected MMU Co-Chair of Manchester Labour Students (MLS), Tayyib Nawaz, has stood down from his position, after the uncovering of offensive tweets seen by The Mancunion.

The tweets – some of which have now been deleted – regarding Jewish and gay people, as well as feminists, surfaced late last week and were brought to the attention of the society. At an official MLS meeting on Monday night, a motion calling for his resignation, brought by outgoing University of Manchester Co-Chair Zak Deakin, was unanimously backed by the committee. On Tuesday afternoon, Nawaz chose to resign from the post.

Former MLS Campaigns Officer Marley Bennett, speaking to The Mancunion before the resignation, said Nawaz was “largely unknown to Manchester Labour Students before winning the position of Manchester Metropolitan Co-Chair. It is unclear whether he ever attended an MLS meeting prior to winning the role.

“Tayyib says that the main reason he ran for Chair is to pass BDS policy [at MMU]. It is clear that he did not have our Labour values to heart when he did so.”

In a tweet on April 1, 2016, Nawaz said “the same victims of the Holocaust are now murdering and ethnically cleansing Palestinians…The irony”. At other times he makes comparisons between the Israeli state and the Nazis, and has posted such comments as “there were approximately 150,000 Jewish SS who personally were involved in the holocaust” and “Hitler was Jewish himself”. In April 2015 he seemed to make light of the Holocaust, tweeting: “Debating with an Israeli *Uses the Holocaust card* Automatic victory”.

In one tweet he appears to compare Israel to ISIS – “ISIS is not a democratic organisation like Israel but both murder civilians and claim their authority is from God”. In another, he says “Zionism is scum, even Einstein was against the Zionist terrorism which pressured the creation of israel”.

Labour Students societies across the country have faced scrutiny over alleged anti-Semitism in the past year; Oxford University Labour Club students were found to have engaged in anti-Semitic behaviour in a Labour inquiry launched after the high-profile resignation of their co-Chair, Alex Chalmers, who said members had “some kind of problem with Jews”.

Furthermore, groups on the political Left of politics have struggled with anti-Semitism. Last month the Labour Party was criticised for handing a one-year suspension, rather than total expulsion, to former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone after an interview in which he claimed Hitler “was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.

Nawaz also seems to have tweeted homophobic and anti-feminist statements, such as “Muslim feminism supporters? Muslim Gay rights activists? If my kids were any of these I’d slap them […]”.

In one tweet, posted on 24 July 2015, he uses a homophobic slur: “When you spell Gay wrong but your phone auto corrects it to Fag”.

Zak Deakin, also speaking before Nawaz’s resignation, said: “The tweets that have surfaced in the last few days are completely abhorrent. Tayyib’s views have no place in the Labour Party and the fact that they came from an individual who holds an elected role within our movement makes it even more sickening.

“I stood on a platform of tackling Anti-Semitism and so I’m incredibly dismayed and frustrated that I once again find myself having to make a statement in regards to this blatant racism: I can only apologise to Jewish students who have again had to be put through this.”

Leoni Benabú Morales, President of the Manchester Jewish Society (JSoc), also condemned the tweets, highlighting that Jewish students in MLS “have already raised concerns about his election and what that means with regards to the increasing number of Anti-Semitic incidents in the labour party”.

He added: “Claiming that Hitler himself is Jewish and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is an insult and should not be tolerated from anyone, much less someone who is meant to represent our students. For us, it is of uttermost importance that Jewish students in Manchester feel safe, and we believe that this is a step backwards in achieving that. The JSoc will not stand for this kind of racist behaviour”.

Mo Ahmed, a former MMU Co-chair of MLS and current branch secretary of MMU Labour Students, said: “I think the tweets are abhorrent. People who tweet these kind of things have no place in the Labour Party. Antisemitism is one of the oldest kinds of racism in the world, it has no place in a left-of-centre party… Also these tweets, other than being disgusting and abhorrent, are against Labour Party rules too.”

President of the MMU Students’ Union, Lewis Bartlett, said: “These comments do not represent the views of the staff and/or officers at The Union, Manchester Metropolitan University.

“The Union has and will continue to be an open and inclusive space for all of our members. We have worked closely with UJS, NUS and other organisations to ensure discriminatory behaviour is unacceptable within our organisation, and that we have the resources in place to support all students and religious groups at our university.”

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Year: 2017