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Month: February 2011

Live: Youmeatsix @ 02 Apollo

Youmeatsix
O­2 Apollo
13 December 2010
3 Stars

Youmeatsix were one of the highest rising bands of 2010, having played the British invasion of the US Warped Tour (which also included Enter Shikari and Bring Me the Horizon); the main stage at Reading and Leeds and finally ended the year supporting the album, Hold Me Down, released in January.

Tonight’s openers, Canterbury, are simply boring. Their music seems to be almost background noise and very few of the crowd seem to even care that they are playing while Californian pop-punkers, Set Your Goals, come across as an odd mismatch of post-hardcore instrumentalists and a pre-pubescent frontman. All of the songs sound similar, blending into one another, with little crowd involvement.

Yet, when Welsh sextet, The Blackout, hit the stage with ‘Children of the Night’, the energy suddenly pours from the crowd. Known for their energetic sets, The Blackout blend, almost perfectly, content from the past 2 albums in a short set and are even joined by Youmeatsix frontman, Josh Francheschi, for ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’. Closing on ‘I’m a Riot? You’re a Fucking Riot!’ The Blackout give Youmeatsix a challenge to match up to this support.

And Youmeatsix certainly come out to upstage them. Unfortunately however, having picked up some vocal troubles after the Bournemouth gig a few days before, frontman Josh Francheschi’s voice is not as good as it could’ve been. They put on a great show nevertheless, choosing to open with ‘Save It For The Bedroom’, really getting the crowd going and never letting up from start to finish, with a set featuring ‘Always Attract’, ‘If I Were in Your Shoes’ (dedicated to Bring Me the Horizon, who are backstage) and ‘The Consequence’ where Sean Smith from The Blackout decides to join in.
Overall though, Youmeatsix put on an average performance with vocal problems being the main cause for hindering tonight’s gig.

James Birtles

Album: Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean

Iron & Wine
Kiss Each Other Clean
4AD
3 stars

Before listening to this album, my only previous encounter with Iron & Wine was via the overly twee ballad ‘Such Great Heights’, courtesy of the Garden State soundtrack. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised by the overall content of Kiss Each Other Clean

What is initially good about it, is that every song sounds a little bit different from the last.  Opener, ‘Walking Far From Home’, has a simple beauty about it, mostly down to Sam Beam’s angelic vocals and the cooing background harmonies. Compare this to ‘Big Burned Hand’ and the album starts to tell another story – one of jazz funk basslines, synths, an electric organ and a saxophone, all melding into a sound that could be described as avant-guard. The wide range of sounds Beam explores is what gives this album its charm.

Kiss Each Other Clean is not, however, without its flaws. For a start, some of it is boring. ‘Tree By The River’, for example, is middle of the road in every respect, as is ‘Glad Man Singing’, and even after several plays, it becomes a struggle to remember what the less stand out tracks actually sounded like. Having said this, it is the pious lyrics that I really take issue with. ‘Tree By The River’ formulaically drones on about lost innocence when we had the “sun on our faces”. As Beam himself says in the lyrics, he was ‘coy’, and this song is certainly that. It’s also rather dull while ‘Godless Brother In Love’ comes across as self-riotous. Consequently, I get nothing of the apparent loss and pain we are supposed to be hearing in Beam’s words.
Musically then, the album is good. I just don’t care much for its lyrics.

Emily Talbot

Album: Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil


Deerhoof
Deerhoof vs Evil,
ATP Recordings
4 Stars

Deerhoof have lingered in the left field of pop idiosyncrasy for more than a decade, loved by critics and existing as a name that is ever-present in the music blogosphere. While their influence is cited by many of the most innovative artists in the alternative world, they have yet to pierce the skin of the mainstream in the way bands such as Grizzly Bear have in the past couple of years. With Deerhoof vs. Evil, their critical adoration will continue, although whether they can gain the level of visibility that has so far eluded them remains to be seen.

It certainly would be a shame if it did, as this is an album that is not only original and full of crazed invention, but is also catchy as hell and seriously fun. The spontaneity that characterises Deerhoof is as clear as ever on the album, yet there is nevertheless a pop sensibility to be savoured if you just embrace the madness.

And it isn’t hard to embrace. As impressive and energetic as Deerhoof are, they’re not desperate for your attention. This is a record that is as warm and as comfortable as it is perplexing and dazzling. The soft tones of vocalist Sitomi Matsuzaki are charming, innocent without being twee and gentle without being fey. Her voice is the logic that runs throughout the album, particularly effective on the gorgeous ‘No One Asked To Dance’ (complete with delicate guitar picking and synth drone loveliness), and the beguiling and seductive ‘Must Fight Current’.

Deerhoof vs. Evil is an album that manages to combine invention and entertainment. It is an album that will no doubt keep the critics happy and yet it may still be an album that will be heard by fewer people than it has the potential to delight.

Rich Gall

Keep us away from “disapproving” feminists at student fair, asks MENS society

A society which deals with male health and social issues made a request not to be placed near a number of left wing and feminist groups during last month’s student fair, it has emerged.

The Masculinity Exploration Networking and Support (MENS) society feared they would be disturbed by members of feminist, communist and socialist societies on other stalls if placed too close to them.

The MENS society was formed last year amidst extensive debate over their aims and purposes, with some accusing the latent group of sexism.

Gareth Morris, the society’s Chair, said, “The MENS society did ask to be allocated a stall away from other societies – to wit Communist Students, the Socialist Workers’ Party, the Riveters and New Student Writing. The reasoning for this was very simple; in the past, certain members from these groups (though by no means all of them) have disapproved of the activities of the MENS society.

“We therefore wished to be able to speak about the society away from already-critical individuals […] and to keep the atmosphere of the fair friendly and open by putting distance between ourselves and these societies.”

Communist Students were refered to as “commies” when MENS intially made their place request . Morris claimed that he welcomed the opportunity to “break down preconceptions regarding the MENS society.”

The founders initially intended to call themselves the Men’s society but acronymed the name MENS amidst opposition from feminists in the Students’ Union.

Sarah Kerton, an MA Gender, Sexuality and Culture student and active feminist, said “I would expect any organisation that placed its focus upon gender-based issues to want to work closely with other such societies, and form links with LGBT and Riveters, not distance themselves in a form of what looks like the very separatism that their feminist critics are often accused of.

“This reinforces the suspicions some have about the nature of the group, and calls in to question its purpose. We should be working together to tackle gender discrimination.”

Kerton continued, “I think any group that exists to examine and challenge gender inequality is a positive and welcome step, and to have a space in which to focus on these issues from a male perspective is brilliant […] but I question if this is the reality of MENS.”

Jeremy Buck, the fair’s organiser, said, “It wasn’t a big deal […] loads of societies made space requests and in the end space wasn’t a problem. To the best of my knowledge [the MENS Society] didn’t even show up in the end.”

Canal streets

Mancunion Photo Editor, Nicholas Bojdo, recounts Manchester’s history through its vast canal network, and tells how our fair city came to be known as the ‘Cottonopolis’.

Photography by Nicholas and Michael Bojdo

The words ‘Canal’ and ‘Manchester’ may nowadays be most associated with a famous street, but 250 years ago they became synonymous with the dawn of a new era in Britain. The world at that time was changing dramatically, as pioneers of new technology invented machines that would bring the fruits of manual labour to the wider world and propel standards of living to levels beyond imagination. Between 1740 and 1901 the population increased fivefold thanks to improved living conditions, sanitation and healthcare. During that time the urban landscape of Manchester changed considerably, thanks in part to the emergence of a new transport system: the Canal.

Early Beginnings

The first waterway to penetrate Manchester was the Bridgewater Canal, built by Sir Francis Egerton in 1759 to transport coal from the mine he owned at Worsley in west Manchester, into the city centre at Castlefield. Having been inspired by the French canals he witnessed on a ‘Grand Tour’ of Western Europe, Egerton was keen to set up a direct connection between his vast coal resource and the burgeoning city. Goods at the time were already being carried by boat along navigable rivers, but at the cost of tolls, increasing congestion, and most importantly the rivers’ self-made, inconvenient route.The construction of canals allowed products to be transported directly from sites that had become established in the absence of fresh water, such as coal and fragile pottery. Up until that point, the only means of reaching such sites was a horse-drawn cart on a bumpy road. Pulling a fully-loaded 30-tonne barge, the same animal could transport 25 times as much coal in half the time. As a result the price of coal in Manchester plummeted, attracting investors to increasingly mechanised industry and workers to heated factories.

As Egerton reaped the rewards of his endeavour, the benefit of canals became clear to all. Constructors found no trouble in finding funds from prospecting share-holders eager to make a quick profit, and started laying out routes to potteries, mills and coal pits nationwide. The period of ‘Canal Mania’ had begun, and soon the network was reaching out all over Britain.

Industrial Revolution

By the turn of the 19th Century, Britain’s Industrial Revolution was in full swing. An improved, coal-powered steam engine invented by James Watt in 1775 was soon integrated into the cotton spinning process, facilitating rapid production rates in the textile industry. Coupled with the expanding network of canals, such changes negated the need for proximity to a fast-flowing river when building a cotton mill. Industrialists exploited this benefit by building new mills closer to a workforce and raw materials. The canals played their part by supplying the mills with coal and cotton (imported from North America) and delivering finished products around the country.

One route that really became the backbone of the textile industry in the North of England was the Leeds & Liverpool canal. Covering a distance of 127 miles, it traversed the Pennines, cutting through towns such Bradford, Burnley, Blackburn and Wigan, contributing to their emergence as centres of industry. Also lying on the canal’s route on the outskirts of Bradford is the model-village of Saltaire, a beautiful example of Victorian socialist utopia. Its founder, Sir Titus Salt, built the village to house the workers of his new textile mill, providing their families with all the amenities to enjoy an elevated standard of living: a local library, a school, a concert hall and a church, plus accommodation with running water. It remains a physical legacy of industrial Britain, and an ever-present reminder of the importance of the textile industry.

But you don’t need to travel to God’s Own Country to see evidence of industrial Britain. Much of Manchester’s urban landscape owes its form to the status the city held in the mid 19th century. Thanks to its prime location, abundant workforce, and high concentration of investors, inventors, and innovators, Manchester had become the global epicentre of the cotton industry. The 100 or so cotton mills that emerged in Manchester, shaping in particular the area of Ancoats, led to the city being dubbed ‘Cottonopolis’. While signs of the factories still remain in Ancoats today, it was the construction of almost 2,000 warehouses in the city, to which Manchester owes its legendary look.

These warehouses were built by factory owners, not only for storage, but also the displaying of finished products, and can still be seen today along Whitworth Street and Portland Street. To make large-scale cotton trading easier, Sir Oswald Mosley built the glorious Victorian Royal Exchange in the city centre in 1829, which served as a trading hall. Equally impressive were the many lavish banks that also became established in the city to lend money to traders and keep safe investors’ returns. Many banks still serve the same purpose from the same buildings today, in Manchester’s Central Business District.

The city of Manchester was well and truly on the global map. In fact, the name became so synonymous with cotton products that it replaced the word ‘linen’ in New Zealand, and is still used so today. Canals continued to play a part, but were facing increasing competition from the railways, to which investors were now turning. The technology of steam power that had once gone hand-in-hand with the emergence of canals, was now threatening their very existence.

Manchester Ship Canal

The spread of railways began in the 1840s, and soon led to their dominance in the transport of goods in the latter half of the century. Many canals were bought by the railway companies to penetrate competitors’ territories or to be filled in and used for routes. Canals that remained lost their economic viability and became platforms for communities of boatmen who, with very little work, resided on the waterways with their families. However, Manchester’s aquatic scene remained resilient to change and underwent a mini-revival towards the latter half of the century, in a development that would thrust the city into an even more prosperous 20th century.

In 1887, work began on the building of a new canal in Manchester. This came about as a solution to the growing taxes currently incurred at Liverpool, in the transit of goods en route to Manchester. At 36-miles long, the canal bypassed the Albert docks and permitted huge transatlantic liners to continue their journeys inland, negating the cost of transferring goods to rail before reaching Manchester. It followed the original route of the Irwell and the Mersey, arriving into the West of Manchester at Trafford and opening out into what has become the now famous Salford Quays.

The canal served as Manchester’s portal to America. To cope with the enormous levels of trade, Manchester needed some docks of its own. Ultimately two were built: Pomona Docks to the east, and the larger Salford Docks to the west. Of the produce that was brought into the docks, most frequently carried by the ‘Manchester Liners’ was grain, frozen meat and live cattle. The influx of such goods was reflected in the rapidly developing urban landscape.

The access to imported goods prompted expansion of the industrial estate into Trafford Park. In the early 20th century it attracted many American firms such as Ford Motor Company and later Kellogg’s, while providing a base for newly establishing British companies. Household names like the penicillin-producer ICI and the Spitfire engine-manufacturer Rolls-Royce settled in; but it is perhaps the story of Mancunian Arthur Brooke that lends itself best to the legacy of Trafford Park. It was to here that Brooke moved from his little tea shop on Market Street to mass-blend his product ‘Pre-Gest Tee’ with the ‘tips’ of tea leaves imported from India and China. It is claimed that 35 million cups of PG Tips tea are now consumed in Britain every day.

The jobs created by the growth of Trafford Park and Salford Docks helped to buffer the impact of the Great Depression on the people of Manchester. Yet the area would not have existed without the construction of the giant waterways and the sea-linked artery that fed them. One needs only to head by tram to Salford Quays ­to see the legacy of this period: in the stops announced along the way – such as ‘Pomona’ – in the huge blue rusting cranes that line the docks; or in the names of apartment blocks like  Labrador Quay, that echo the origins of the great vessels that once steamed up the Manchester Ship Canal.

Modern times

Despite the strong connection with an industrial Britain of the past, canals remain to this day vital yarns in the fabric of both urban and rural life. In the cities they serve as a peaceful and attractive backdrop to residential development, as well as arenas for sporting events such as boating and canoeing. In the countryside, they stretch out along green meadows and traverse wonderful feats of engineering such as aqueducts and complex lock sequences, passing old riverside pubs along the way to provide a pleasant stage for calm and leisurely boating holidays.

The increasing number of tourists floating along the canal routes of Britain may interact with another of the waterways’ users: cyclists. The ‘Sustrans’ charity, whose aim is to promote sustainable transport, was set up in the late seventies and teamed up with the owners of the canal network, British Waterways, a few years later to improve the condition of towpaths along the many routes nationwide. Thirty years on, the Sustrans network now covers over 10,000 miles, many of which are waymarked out along canals. The National Route 66, for example, follows on its proposed route from Kingston-upon-Hull to Manchester parts of the Leeds & Liverpool and the Rochdale canals. The pleasance of the canal side coupled with the absence of traffic, make such transport routes ideal for this green form of travel.

As the 21st century unfolds and threat of climate change increases, it is not only in providing cycle routes that canals are contributing to a greener Britain. In 2007 the Manchester Ship Canal was thrust back into action, when Tesco announced it would used the route to carry 1.6 million litres of wine into Manchester each week, saving 700,000 haulage miles per year. Given the enormous impact that canals bestowed on Britain in the Industrial Revolution, it seems rather poetic that this great system should once again be seen as a cheap alternative to the roads. The only difference this time, is in the currency.

 

Album: Skepta – Doin’ It Again

Skepta
Doin’ It Again
All Around The World
3 stars

Most grime novices will know the name Skepta as being that of the man partly to blame for an embarrassing dance craze, known as the ‘Rolex Sweep’ (a kind of, ghetto Macarena). But he may also have reached your radar lately in the form of the recent chart tracks ‘Bad Boy’ and ‘Rescue Me’, both taken from his third studio album Doin’ it Again.

With this release, Skepta is the next grime artist to take on the transition from underground acclaim to chart success, in search for international recognition. The question is whether he has managed to succeed in this task, without losing the purity of his grime roots.

He has certainly had a good crack, but there is still an element of disappointment caused by the content-light lyricism of tracks such as ‘Thrown in the Bin’, and by one too many gratuitous guest appearances from the likes of N Dubz; Eastenders actress, Preeya Kalidas and Chipmunk, which seem out of place next to the self-professed ‘king of grime’. The irony of the album’s title is that Skepta is not ‘Doin’ it Again’ in quite the same way he did with second studio album, Microphone Champion, but seems to have succumbed to the pressures of appealing to the wider pop audience at the expense of some authenticity.

However, two stand out tracks remain; the dubstep influenced ‘Rescue Me’, with it’s strong choppy bassline and heavy synth backdrop perfectly complimenting the rapper’s blunt lyrical delivery, and an exceptional remix of P Diddy’s ‘Hello Good Morning’, both of which deserve high praise. Despite not being likely to satisfy many pure grime fans out there, Doin’ it Again’s catchy beats and choruses, combined with Skepta’s distinctive voice and flashes of sharp wit, mean that the album is still likely to be a hit with a wider modern audience.

Sarah Pollen

Hot Head – Letters

To those who say the letters page isn’t important,

To be called a ‘man of letters’ was a badge of respect, a mark of erudition. Now since I’m writing this article, and not you, I’m going to anthropomorphize our paper and say that equally to be a ‘paper of letters’ is the mark of a truly worthwhile enterprise. It’s the interaction between reader and medium that distinguishes the newspaper in its popular form from the more esoteric journals, and a student paper that is by its very nature created to serve a specific population should be accountable to them in this manner. We elect our Editor for the paper, so it makes sense there should also be a simple point of contact for students to express their views? Not only that, but with participation in Union politics and an all-time ebb, an anonymous e-mail to the paper is probably a much more realistic way to get an opinion voiced easily by a member of the student population not already involved with Union politics, for everybody knows our Union is an essentially oligarchical system.

It’s not just for serious matters that we need our letters page; I’ve written (and had published) numerous nonsense letters during my time as a student here as well as more thought-out ones, and remember distinctly how much more approachable the Union Executive became after their beard-related exchange though those very pages at the beginning of the year.

One might say that articles should address these concerns, and I concede they often will, but from a reader’s point of view, the brevity and style of a letter renders it more easily digestible than an article.

We talk a lot of ‘participation’, and the letters page in a student paper is the simplest and best form of participation that the majority of students have real recourse to.

In Conversation

Y: What sort of stuff affects LGBT students?

E: Say there’s a policy about anonymous marking, people debate whether it’s valuable or not, but no one is talking about what a value it is to LGBT students, you can’t guarantee that voice in the room unless they are elected. If you have a homophobic lecturer, it’s really important to have anonymous marking.

S: We need representation, so that LGBT students always have a voice on counsel.

A: There are places on counsel for ethnic minorities to be represented. LGBT people are underrepresented and racism definitely takes precedence it terms of discrimination. I grew up and experienced racism, and tackling that is more important than homophobia. Neither is good, obviously.

G: Any group that is underrepresented in elected bodies- you need to take steps to make sure that doesn’t happen, and while that prejudice exists you may need to have specific positions.

AS: From schools that I was at, I know people who were black or Asian, and they didn’t have a problem at all, but until the age of 18 nobody came out. But two or three years after that, I know about ten, fifteen people who all came out. To an extent, in areas where there isn’t such racial division, race isn’t such a big issue, but homophobia; especially amongst children and teenagers is still quite a big problem.

E: What’s interesting with LGBT societies at a university level is, as [Andrew] just said, is that a lot of people start to come out then, so it’s really important to have representatives on council, but also to ensure that the university is a friendly welcoming place where people can come out.

Y: But why do we group LGBT all as one group?

G: LGBT people have very similar issues and challenges in society, but there is also a place to have separate groups and we do recognise that as a society.

E: I think one of the things is that legally, they’ve been oppressed under the same laws, so although two people’s individual experiences might not be the same, but they experience the same oppression.

S: It does seem a bit forced though sometimes. Sometimes trans people berate me for not knowing about their issues. However, I think it would be very difficult if we said: ‘Trans people go and deal with it yourselves’, because they’re the minority within the minority.

G: There’s also a lot of overlap between the groups.

ES: Isn’t it true that 50% of trans people experience a change in sexuality during transition as well?

E: Most people, there’s going to be a question mark about your sexuality at some point in the process. The same with all liberation campaigns, if you create divides then you’re never going to win a campaign, but if you can work out where you do have things in common then you have a chance of winning campaigns.

Y: So why do we have an LGBT week?

S: I meet a lot of people who are very ignorant of LGBT issues, people who are completely onboard with LGBT rights but who turn around and say things that are phenomenally ignorant to me. Someone I know who is completely socially liberal in every respect asked me if it was appropriate to refer to trans people as ‘it’. I told him – ‘You use the pronoun that they want to use.’  If he’d gone and said that to someone who was trans, if they’d been of any size, they would have decked him. Awareness week is about going, ‘Hi, we’re here, we exist.’

E: For me the most important thing is having the banner outside the union that says LGBT awareness week. It’s a symbol that the Union supports [LGBT students] and won’t tolerate any prejudice. You don’t know which students that banner’s hitting that haven’t come out yet.

D: That’s really important. My school was an all-girls school and one of my best mates was the only girl that came out, really young, she was thirteen. She suffered so much prejudice, even from the teachers. Having that sign up does say a lot.

G: It’s really nice to create a safe space, just to show that if maybe you’re not out or if you are out and have experienced homophobia; the union is a safe space for you to be LGBT in.

ES: I think it’s important for those that don’t belong to the group to have that week as well, because there are a lot of people who are quite ignorant, and having it in people’s consciousness is important so that people can think about how they respond to it.

D: It’s important to know that there’s somewhere for people to go to ask questions, if they don’t feel comfortable asking their friends.

A: Homophobia still exists. In some places you can see it more, in comparison to others, especially in ethnic minorities. I will be trying to break those barriers down.

S: The closet is full of fabulous clothes, come and hang out.

Love’s Happy Ending

I came across a wonderful statement during revision a few weeks ago. Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut, contains a bed-ridden character who pines that ‘everything to know about life was in The Brothers Karamazov, “but that isn’t enough anymore.”’ Dostoevsky’s novel of family feuds has a wide authority on life, on love, though, sadly, has very little to do with laughter.  It was also published in 1880, making it 70 years old by the time of the 1950s Slaughterhouse 5. Only 70 years had rendered the sentiments displayed by Dostoevsky seemingly inadequate.

Karamazov’s ending (to remain as spoiler free as possible) reaches a declaration of love, though one that cannot be fully requited, as the characters love others as well as each other. The audience has come to demand that outcome of acknowledged love, for when we are presented with two people who become involved with each other they must fall in love to render the ending satisfactory. Their relationship is where the main play of drama is built up, and, naturally, the consummation of their love lies at the end. The typical way of ending anything is marriage, as it is a safe assumption that the two lovers will stay together, produce hundreds of children and everything should go on, happily ever afterÔ.

However, art has succumbed to life in that a wedding no longer gives certainty to the happy life that one would hope for. Rather each one adds to cynicism – we can joke on the length that they will remain together, raise eyes to the ceiling at every overdramatic airport dash when we know that a phone call would suffice to stop the girl getting on the plane. Marriage has even become middle point in some dramas, where the hero or heroine realizes a mistake, and drama is begotten over an affair that is now more genuine than the marriage. Friends, lest we forget, began with a bride entering a coffee shop in full gown, fleeing her wedding day, thus promptly starting a ten series of drama and comedy. The institution of marriage is no longer the ultimate, binding expression of love.

So where does that leave drama? Well, audiences brought up on Disney films still uphold many of the ideals that directors and authors would want them to. Love as a concept is relatively untouched, it’s just Hollywood can no longer bank on marriage. Instead, movies and books have cashed in different devices that prove love on another level to marriage. Terminal illness has been used in many modern films to higher or lesser degrees of both effectiveness and dignity. Disease acts as the crux on which the relationship of two characters hinges. Love and Other Drugs, for instance, deals with the inevitability of Parkinson’s. Two characters get past the disease to love each other, as no other couple has. Another method of circumventing marriage is the Romeo and Juliet route, as the end of life would set up the two for eternity together in death. Both devices dance around the subject of marriage, its absence signifying a lifelong (or death long) commitment that transcends the exchange of rings; the strength of their bond is in the strength of feeling, and marriage is ultimately unnecessary in displaying that.

The decision as to whether true love in wedlock is anymore believable in entertainment is left to the viewers’ personal view. Essentially, does what is portrayed win one over, to the point where a marriage becomes a believable and important commitment. Yet for many marriage just ‘isn’t enough anymore’, and if its use as a conclusive device is rendered obsolete, then an end becomes an even more difficult proposition for a creator. After all, if there is an uncertainty that taints marriage, that does not allow it to function as the traditional end to a love story, then where, realistically, can a love story end?

If it doesn’t make a profit then let it rot.

It is so very telling that the South Korean government has decided to fund the opening of 180 new libraries at the same time as the coalition has decided to cut over 400. Short-termism used to be a simple criticism pointed at all British governments of every party. In the context of the coalition’s economic shock therapy however, we are seeing complex, long-term intergenerational difficulties ahead.

Even if we ignore libraries as beacons of civilisation, institutions existing on the most British of principles, we cannot afford to accept the threatened closure of over 400 of them. Why? It is because there is such a thing as learning for the sake of learning, improvement for the sake of improvement. If not for this then there are the benefits. If we look to South Korea we see a modern economy with the high-tech and modern, capitalist economy Cameron is always talking about. If Mr Cameron likes South Korea so much then why doesn’t he look to them for tips on education policy? Pretty soon they will also have the knowledge base to challenge us in our supposed academic excellence. We must keep up with countries like this; if not we will fall further and further behind as their pools of human capital increase while ours empty.

Up and down the country, in almost every city and town, we are seeing the categorical denouncing of learning for the sake of learning. It is quite an accusation I am aware, but I am also aware of the current mindset our governors have when they make the decisions that affect the rest of us. This is part of a complete change in attitude to governance, a break with principled governance. It is something a lot of backbench Tories have a problem with. Alongside rising unemployment and no growth, the government has constrained its fiscal policy to a ‘Friedman Shock’: cuts. And when Cameron, Osborne, Gove and pals all sit down to dine at each other’s Notting Hill homes, they finger their iPads and their Kindles not realising the complete and utter tasteless-irony circulating around them. Nothing is sacred to people like this. Masters of hypocrisy, they are disingenuous and they believe in themselves fiercely, completely. Listening to Michael Gove’s sarcastic attempt to hold back a fiery caller on radio five last month only confirmed my beliefs that this government are the true successors to Blair.

They have taken the dangerous pragmatism one step further. It is the same line, the same old false dichotomy being used by every government minister in every interview, the one they have all practiced. “The deficit must be cut and so sacrifices must be made.” It’s either cuts or leave the deficit alone and it seems to be working: for a government with the sole agenda of increasing GDP by shrinking the public sector, it seems that we, as the electorate, don’t seem to have that big a problem with it, Labour are only slightly ahead in the polls! It is nothing short of unbelievable. The marketisation of education policy is being mirrored in every government department. If it doesn’t produce a profit, let it rot. It is tempting to sum up Cameron’s current approach to government as a ‘Show me the money’ approach. With tuition fee increases, library closures, and capital projects for schools cuts, we are seeing the true values of our leaders, namely one thing, money, not later but now.

Geology students given answer sheets during exam

Students were handed out exam papers with answers attached to the back during a geology exam last month.

Geology students sitting a second-year Geophysical Techniques exam were free to use the answer sheets for around half of the test before invigilators were made aware of the mistake.

The exam will now be made void and senior staff members say they are looking for “a solution that is both academically robust and as fair as possible on the students.”

Some students left the examination hall in anger after realising the error.

Last week, The Mancunion also reported that a final-year business exam had received hundreds of complaints from students who claimed questions did not fairly reflect what had been taught in lectures and seminars.

A geology student, who did not wish to be named, told : “At first the invigilators told us not to turn to the back of the exam, but then of course everyone did. So they had to walk around the room ripping the back pages from everyone’s exam papers.

“Now we all have to do more work on a module that we’d already considered finished and out of the way.”

Head of school Prof Hugh Coe issued an apology to all students on the module shortly after the incident. It reads, “I am writing to you all to apologise for the error that arose in yesterday’s geophysical techniques examination and to reassure you all that we are treating this matter very seriously.

“Please be assured that we are currently working as hard as we can to arrive at a plan for how to take this forward that has as little impact on you all as is possible in your exams and recognise that events such as yesterday only increase the stress of the examination period.”

Prof Coe insisted that he did not yet know where responsibility for the error lay, but stressed that there was “obviously no malicious intent” involved.

“The other part of what we’re trying to do at the moment is to scrutinize our internal systems. Rather than lay the blame at a single individual.”

He continued, “There are a number of places where a process can fail. Clearly this process has failed. Whether that’s an individual error or a process error or a combination of both, we will examine what’s going on.”

The exam constitutes two per cent of students’ final degree grade.

The soft bigotry of lowered expectations

Seeing Michael Gove on Question Time on Thursday (13/01/10) was illuminating. Even one of my Labour friends was drawn to comment that it was “the best QT performance I’ve ever seen from a Conservative.” Amidst this sterling performance, the most interesting by far was the vigorous debate between Gove and some audience members over the new English Baccalaureate (henceforth EB). It was an exchange that highlighted not only Mr Gove’s inspirations and principles but also shone the spotlight on the ideological malaise that has so undermined the British education system in recent decades.

The theme taken up by a quintet of teachers in the Question Time audience – and endorsed by Labour-sympathisers on the panel – was that the EB represented a ‘narrowing’ of academic focus. Diane Abbot stated that the EB meant that its constituent subjects (which are English, Mathematics, Sciences, Foreign/Ancient Language and History/Geography) would be perceived as a ‘tier one’, and that this was a bad thing. I can think of nothing else that so clearly demonstrates how out of touch Labour has been on education. Does Diane really think that there is a majority in the country that doesn’t think that English, Maths and Science warrant special attention? Mr Gove, at one point, reeled off a list of figures from the international league tables showing how the standard of education in the UK relative to the rest of the world had slumped during the last ten years of Labour government. If Diane is any indicator, there would be no change from that course were they in office now.

However, even more worrying than Labour’s position was that taken by some of the teachers themselves. One particularly striking example serves as a suitable illustration. A female teacher in the audience suggested that young women from underprivileged backgrounds “might not be able to have the confidence to take on an academic subject”, and that these teenagers would subsequently feel “like they’ve been pushed to the bottom of the heap”. This attitude, if representative of a substantial proportion of the teaching profession, should be of great concern to Gove and anyone else responsible for educational reform. What it suggests, is that if a child doesn’t have the self-confidence to think they can succeed in an academic subject, then that should be accepted and the child directed to whatever courses their low self-esteem leads them to selecting. Instead of pushing children to work harder and achieve good grades in rigorous and valuable subjects, this approach risks further undermining the core academic subjects that lie at the heart of a well-rounded education.

This latest mutation of ‘trendy teaching’ is hugely detrimental to helping a child recognise and fulfil their true potential and thus to social mobility, which has stagnated over recent decades. The courses selected for the EB (aside from some quibbling about what constitutes a legitimate humanity) are broadly those that are widely recognised as being intellectually rigorous, socially useful and valued by employers. Children are ill-served if they are mothered through school without being properly informed of the value of these subjects, and the underlying assumption that children from poor or troubled backgrounds aren’t up to an academic education represents the soft bigotry of lowered expectations, at the very least.

I was an under-achieving student for most of my school career, crippled by a lack of belief in my own abilities. The probable course of my life was changed forever when I was lucky enough to get into one of Buckinghamshire’s Grammar Schools. There, the teachers were supportive but firm, and never ceased to both encourage me to achieve what they recognised as my potential and to upbraid me when I failed to achieve the standards they knew I could. I was also lucky enough to have parents of a similar cast of mind. Under their tutelage I managed to pull my grades around, achieved excellent A Levels and have since gone to a good university. I could never have done that had my teachers passively accepted my own pessimistic assessment of my capabilities.

Those claims made by Mr Gove’s opponents that this government is placing too much emphasis on a narrow band of academic achievement do not stand up to scrutiny, for the government is both re-opening and re-imagining the old technical colleges and via the Free Schools program, relinquishing the micro-managerial power that Labour sought to assume over schools and putting resources and emphasis into the long-neglected trades and professions. Of course it is not bringing back Grammar Schools (a policy that I, and others of all political stripes who were lucky enough to attend them lament) but a supportive and constructive yet firm teaching environment is not conjured or banished by the presence of an entrance exam. The Education Secretary must accompany his structural reshaping of our education system with a vigorous challenge to the entrenched attitudes within the teaching profession that do so much to sell children short. No student who is ‘spared’ an academic education and then fails to be all that they could have been has cause to thank their teachers.

Jail for rapist who attacked student in Halls of Residence

By Adam Farnell

A man was handed a life sentence after being convicted of raping a student at knifepoint. The rape occurred in a Rusholme halls of residence after the man broke in through an open window.

Paul Atta, 41, of Roberts Avenue, Rusholme, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday 12 January 2011. Atta was convicted of two counts of rape, one of assault causing actually bodily harm, two counts of burglary and two counts of fraud by false representation. He will serve a minimum of 12 years before being considered for parole.

Atta broke into a Halls of Residence on Lower Park Road in Rusholme in the early hours of Monday 19 July 2010, and entered a 19-year-old woman’s bedroom. He demanded a laptop, and threatened the victim with a knife before raping her twice. Atta then forced the victim to hand over her bankcard and pin number, which he used to withdraw cash from a nearby petrol station later that day.

The conviction includes an incident shortly beforehand, where Atta had broken into Hulme Hall in Rusholme. On the morning of Monday 19 July 2010, Atta, who is also known as Tony, broke into the Halls of Residence and entered a 21-year-old woman’s bedroom. Atta punched the woman, and attempted to steal her laptop. The woman raised the alarm and Atta fled, leaving the laptop behind.

Fingerprints found at the scene of both crimes lead to a national search for Atta. A £10,000 reward was offered for information that would lead to his arrest. Atta was discovered in a house in Old Trafford five days later.

Detective Constables Laura Hughes and Liz Howe, of Longsight CID said: “What Atta did to his victim has left her devastated. 

”He is clearly a dangerous man who preyed on students. He obviously saw these women as easy targets and I’ve no doubt he broke into his first victim’s flat with the intention of sexually assaulting her. 

Hughes continued: “Fortunately he is now behind bars, where he belongs, for a very long time. The streets of Manchester are now much safer. 

”I would also like to pay tribute to the dignity and courage of the two victims in this case who have been nothing but co-operative and supportive to our investigation. 

”We hope that today’s result makes their support worthwhile and I hope they can now move on,” added Hughes.

Dennis Watson QC, prosecution, said the incidents were “strikingly similar” to Atta’s previous conviction. Atta was jailed for 14 years in March 1990 following the rape of an 18-year-old woman. He pleaded guilty to rape and robbery in January 1991.

Anyone who has been a victim of rape or sexual assault can contact Greater Manchester Police (GMP) on 0161 872 5050 or 999 in an emergency. GMP has specially trained officers in place to provide a first class response to victims and help support them through the criminal justice process. 

St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Manchester can also be contacted on 0161 276 6515. This provides a comprehensive and coordinated forensic, counselling and medical aftercare service to anyone in Greater Manchester who has experienced rape or sexual assault. Services are available on a 24-hour basis and people can access them either as a self-referral or via Greater Manchester Police.

University imposes ban on disposable cups in Halls of Residence

By Adam Farnell

Catering areas in Halls of Residence will no longer serve disposable cups, after a ban from the University of Manchester.

Ten FoodinResidence outlets will be affected by the change. A University of Manchester spokesperson described the ban as “just the start if a plan to discourage their use altogether” at the University.

1.3 million cups and lids are thrown away each year, costing the university £105,000. Staff and students are being encouraged to use re-usable Hug Mugs in a bid to reduce waste.

“600 trees are cut down every year in order to supply enough raw materials to produce the amount of disposable cups being used at the University of Manchester,” said Alex Clark, environmental officer for the university’s directorate Sport, Trading and Residential Services (STARS).

He continued: “A Hug Mug is a re-usable cup that students bring to their Food in Residence eatery but can also take out to other outlets around campus. We are also now selling the re-usable mugs from all our FoodOnCampus cafes and eateries with various savings on drinks and soups for all students, staff and visitors using them.

“Not only will this help the environment but it saves money too. So there’s double the incentive for individuals and businesses. I want us to set an example to the rest of Manchester and encourage more cafes and eateries to ditch disposable cups altogether,” added Clark.

The University has set a target to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 40 per cent by 2020, from a 2007/8 baseline. This target is incorporated in the University of Manchester’s Carbon Management Plan.

The University has been criticised for their environmental record by environmental groups. People and Planet ranked the university 65th out of 133 universities in its Green League Table. The table ranks universities on environmental factors including carbon emissions and water consumptions.

However, the University is part of the Degrees Cooler programme, a collaborative project with the NUS, environmental groups and universities to improve environmental performance.

Dover street building temporarily closed after theft of asbestos tainted copper pipes

By Adam Farnell

Dover Street building was temporarily closed after the theft of copper piping containing asbestos.

On Thursday 3 February, at approximately 1pm, staff members closed the building to for environmental testing and the presence of asbestos. Copper piping had been cut away and taken from a section of the building on the first floor and removed. As The Mancunion went to press, police investigations were still being conducted.

The closure was described as “a precautionary measure” by a member of staff to test that the area was free of asbestos.

Trevor Humphreys, Deputy Director of Estates, said, “We had an incident that there has been a theft of copper piping which is asbestos containing material. It is contained in a room. As a precautionary measure, we are looking at the building to find the probable routes in and out. We have closed the building down while we assess that further.

“All I can tell you is that if I was concerned, I wouldn’t be standing here [in the Dover Street Building], and that’s what I have told staff and colleagues.

“We want to make sure that all the bases are covered. We will do some further assessment and testing. We have already started the air testing and all the air testing so far is showing clearance. There will be further air testing in areas that people will be moving in and out.

He added, “We can deal with the isolated incident separately.”

The Mancunion approached other members of staff in Dover Street building to comment. The members of staff refused to provide information and refused to confirm their names and positions.

A University of Manchester spokesman said: “The building has been closed as a precautionary measure, although we are confident that the risk is negligible.  We are carrying out a full investigation, including air monitoring, before bringing the building back into use.  As a result, Dover Street Building is likely to remain closed until Monday, February 7.”

Promising job prospects for class of 2011

A study of the graduate job market for 2011 has concluded that the top 100 UK employers are expected to increase their graduate recruitment by a total of 9.4% on 2010 figures, with more than 80% of companies maintaining or increasing their graduate recruitment budgets.  The study, conducted by High Fliers Research, assessed the number of graduate vacancies and starting salaries at one hundred of the UK’s most successful employers.

 The University of Manchester is among the top five universities being targeted by employers in the extremely competitive graduate employment market in 2011, where employers are receiving, on average, 45 applications for every graduate position.

Of the 100 companies, the largest employers will be the ‘Big 4’ professional services firms: KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Ernst and Young and Teach First, a scheme that places graduates in teaching positions before moving onto different fields. Elsewhere, high street banks are increasing recruitment by nearly 25% whilst investment banks and accountancy and professional services firms will also be hiring substantially more graduates this year. Across different sectors, 13 of 14 key industries will be increasing their recruitment. The exception is public sector employers where recruitment has already fallen and is expected to be fall further following severe government cuts.

Findings have reaffirmed the importance of work experience, which the vast majority of firms surveyed offer. Up to a third of graduate positions across these companies will be filled by students who have already completed some sort of work experience with the company. This figure is even higher in the fields of law and Investment Banking. In these areas over half of graduate positions will be filled by people who had already completed work experience with the firm. In addition, up to two thirds of graduate employers have warned that students with a complete absence of work experience are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and face little to no chance of gaining a graduate position within their company.

 Starting salaries across the top 100 employers for 2011 will remain the same as the 2010 figures with a median of £29000. One in four graduates will have a starting salary over £30000 and 7% will start on over £40000. The most lucrative salaries are to be offered by investment banks with an average starting salary of £42000. On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest paid starting salaries lie with public sector employers and retailers.

Fork me, Spoon me

Valentine’s day is once again looming its ugly head and the pressure for every lonely-heart to find somebody to share a meal with is on.

If you do manage to find some unsuspecting fool to dine with you but are fretting over how to impress them, all is not lost, with a few tips and tricks you can turn that dull dim of holding hands to a supernova of hot throw-your-pants-in-the-air, romance-any-bit-you-want sexing.

Rule number one is to cook it yourself, it’s cheaper than going to an overpriced restaurant where you’ll be served by a sleazy waiter and more importantly it makes it seem like you care. So fashion a dinner table from a desk, put on some cool jazz and dim the lights (the darker it is the better your food and date will look, so investing in something like a single tea light is a smart idea). Once you’ve got the atmosphere down, the challenge is to create food that lays down your intentions clearly, to enter the world of 21st century cuisine and impress the object of your desire with a meal of character.

Lots of people would say not to go for anything too strongly flavoured, like garlic or kippers. But that can be solved by offering your date a complimentary toothbrush and asking politely for them to freshen up after dinner, so that their breath is not so horrendously offensive. Avoid potatoes, pasta and rice as carbohydrates will just leave your date feeling bloated and sleepy, which is hardly the desired effect. Keep it light, salad is easy and will let them know you like them to keep it trim. Seafood is also regarded as sexy, I don’t know why, possibly the little mermaid had something to do with it.

Finger Foods are not a good idea, unless you enjoy fondling each other with fajita fingers. If you know that they have a distaste for certain foods then you can take advantage of their weakness and pretend that you thought they “loved them” and have double portions for yourself. Eating in bed is the biggest no-no – nobody likes a crumby arse.

Dessert is the course where you can make up for any previous culinary mistakes. It’s probably best just to play it safe and go for some collection of fruit and ice cream. Enjoy the luxuries of international trade and get some Egyptian strawberries in the frost of February. As long as everything seems expensive and like you’ve thought about it, that’s all that matters.

Finishing the evening with a cheese board is not necessarily a bad idea, you can read the back of the packets beforehand and then pretend that you know loads about them. When it comes to buying the wine ensure that you pick not necessarily the best or the most expensive but the most expensive looking.

A word of warning, there is a very real danger that throughout the meal you may be forced to partake in the horror of all horrors – conversation. Fear not, the key to avoiding this terrible fate is to be constantly eating, thus constantly having a full mouth, thus constantly being polite and well mannered by not talking.

Following these tips it’s almost a guarantee that your date will desperate to accompany you to your personal quarters, well, almost.

Hot Head – MTV

Music Television. Those two words will conjure up many images in your head, but the most obvious is that you are probably now imagining a music video. These, of course, range from the classic (And I will fight anyone who doesn’t believe ‘Coffee and TV’ is a classic by now), to the ludicrous (as in pretty much anything by Lady Gaga).

This is obvious, you’re thinking. But to others, Music Television is the unabbreviated name of the iconic channel, MTV. However, I’m pretty sure this contravenes the Trades Description Act, as I’m certain MTV doesn’t actually play music videos any more, just endless shows about 16 year-old Valley teens squawking at each other.

The original American channel has already dropped the words ‘music television’ from its name, presumably in anticipation of my lawsuit.

And now, those students lucky enough to have Sky, or those who correctly prioritise it over course books or food, will soon notice that MTV wont be found in the ‘Music’ section any more, but ‘Entertainment’. Leaving the question of how entertaining ‘My Super Sweet 16’ is to one side, it is a sad state of affairs for a channel that was once revolutionary.

But while once MTV trail-blazed the future of the music industry, it now leads the way in vacuous shit. We once tuned in and saw a channel that invented the Music Video, we now get ‘Brooke Knows Best’.

The problem is spreading, those who rely on free music channels will notice 4Music and Viva going the same way. I never thought I’d call TMF the golden era of anything, but at least it played bloody music videos.

£80,000? I can think of far stupider things to spend it on.

Marketing is a difficult thing; how exactly should you get your business/your ideas/yourself into the public domain to be debated and absorbed by the general population? It always takes money, it always takes time and it always takes energy. So how should a university, focused on educating, attempt to market itself and get a profession image in the increasingly competitive sphere for academia.

The University of Manchester is moving up in the world rankings, with the vision to be in the Top-20 by 2012. It’s part of what drew me to study at Manchester, their desire to move further and keep pushing to be better. While other universities I visited talked about how good they were, Manchester talked about how good they could be. But how are they meant to promote themselves globally as a university that is taking risks and pushing boundaries?

Martin Amis’s appointment was controversial for many reasons, but mainly due to his £80,000-a-year salary and extremely reduced teaching hours. Leaving aside many of the reasons regarding his personal beliefs and opinions, a lot of the reason for his appointment was marketing. While there are plenty of other, cheaper, probably better, lecturers; it makes more sense to have someone who brings in students as well as media attention. While many students may never have been to one of his public lectures, they managed to bring in experts from all kinds of fields to debate with Amis about sexuality, science and religion with literature. Would students have had the opportunity to see these speakers and hear their thoughts without the draw of Amis? Probably not.

Universities bring in high-profile lecturers like Amis all the time, to bring in more students and to promote to the world that they also have the contacts and draw for major academics and speakers. While the University of Manchester may have been controversial for bringing in Amis, the influx of interest in the University of Manchester, and the influx of students to his course (a 100% rise) has proved that maybe, the University of Manchester may have been right to appoint someone so expensive.

As I said, marketing is a difficult thing, especially for a university. Sure, Martin Amis was, and continues to be, a controversial figure, and a controversial person to associate with the University of Manchester, but I believe he gave back more than he took and maybe the university should increasingly look to invest in people like Amis, who draw both column inches and students.

The Big Idea: Hillel Steiner on Left-libertarianism

“When I started teaching, if students got a bad essay mark they apologised to the tutor. Today, when students get bad marks there’s a chance they will come to see the tutor with their lawyer in tow”.

University of Manchester professor Hillel Steiner is a world-renowned thinker on matters of political theory. Features Editor Nick Renaud-Komiya met up with him to chew the fat on Libertarianism, politics and the state of higher

Do you have the right to the fruits of your talents? This seems like a simple question. Yet, people have gone to war over this question; those who say ‘yes’ have fought those who say ‘no’. Libertarianism? Socialism? Communism? All of these ‘-isms’ are essentially attempts to answer this question in one way or another. Are you and you alone the arbiter of your lot in life? Or do you have a duty to help others and they you?

Shortly before the Christmas break, the Manchester Debating Union hosted a public debate asking this very question – thankfully, there wasn’t any violence. One of the debaters was Professor Hillel Steiner. For someone who has often been described as one of the foremost contemporary political philosophers, Steiner, 68, cuts a very relaxed and modest figure.

In addition to his extensive writing on rights and theories of justice, Steiner’s claim to intellectual fame is his pioneering of the ideas of Left-Libertarianism. Having taught at the University of Manchester for over 40 years, he is now officially retired, although he continues to mentor PhD students in addition to teaching part-time at the University of Salford.  It’s not everyday that you get the chance to meet someone who essentially created a political ideology. The Mancunion went to meet the man himself.

Nick Renaud-Komiya: Libertarian is an often-misunderstood term. Would you give readers a summary of what Left-libertarianism is in a nutshell?

Hillel Steiner: What all libertarians have in common, right or left, is a dislike of an over-extended state, a state that is involved in too many spheres of social activity. Right-libertarianism might just stop at that. Likewise, Left-libertarianism agrees that it doesn’t want an over-extended state, leaving a lot to market forces and to voluntary exchange. But, it is concerned also about the distribution of property rights in society.

Right-libertarians just seem to take the existing distribution of property as legitimate, however it came about. Whether you conquered it from Native Americans or bought it with hard-earned money and so on. Whatever is yours legally Right-libertarians think is yours morally as well. Therefore, they say the state shouldn’t interfere because you’re just disposing of what’s yours morally.

In contrast, Left-libertarians say what is yours legally might not be yours morally, it all depends how you got it. They are very focused on the Lockean idea that, when it comes to appropriating natural resources such as land, it’s not a matter of moral indifference as to who gets how much. All the stuff that’s not a product of human labour has to be divided equally. That’s obviously a complicated demand to fulfill in view of an almost infinite succession of generations.

In a nutshell, Left-libertarians hold that people who own natural resources have to pay taxes on them, which should then be distributed equally to everyone. The tax, or what I get out of that tax revenue, is my compensation for not owning land or natural resources to which I should be as entitled to as their current legal owners are.

NRK: What is the Left-libertarian view on direct action and student protest? Is it justifiable within that realm of Libertarianism?

HS: Libertarianism has nothing really distinctive to say about this particular issue. I personally think, and I guess most Libertarians right or left would think, that if you have a just cause then you should be allowed to express it. Anything to advance that cause is legitimate as long as it doesn’t encroach on the legitimate rights of other people. By this I mean the legitimate rights of other people, not the legal rights of other people. Those two are different things.

Libertarians are only interested in legitimate rights. That is, if someone who should not be as wealthy as he actually is, sees some of his wealth trampled on in the course of a student demonstration, for example, then Left-libertarians will not lose sleep over that. But, you wouldn’t want student demonstration resulting in, say, broken windows in poor people’s neighbourhoods.

NRK: Talking about just cause, what are your views on the big issue of the moment, the increase in tuition fees and spending cuts on arts subjects?

HS: I’m not really clear that these cuts are unjustified. Statistics seem to show that people with university degrees have, on average (and of course with important exceptions), much higher lifetime earning prospects than people without degrees. That’s an argument for inviting more people to get degrees, and making it easier. But, it’s also an argument for charging those people a certain amount for the privilege of getting into a category within the labour market with greater earning power.

Whether the best way of charging students is through raised fees, a post-graduation tax or a system of raised fees plus loans that don’t need to be repaid until the beneficiary starts earning a particular income level, neither libertarianism nor, I think, any other political theory has any clear answer. But, the idea that people should pay for what ultimately is going to bring a lifetime advantage strikes me as fair enough.

NRK: A big argument against these fee rises is that university education benefits society as a whole, in a more abstract, broad way. So, everyone should contribute to university education. Is it a valid point?

HS: I’ve got a very long and complicated answer, but it is essentially true. We’ll leave aside the sciences and medicine because it’s very clear how they benefit society. The big question is how do the social sciences and especially the humanities benefit society? How does society benefit from graduates doing an archaeological dig in Egypt, for example? That’s harder to say. Perhaps you could say that a modern society that doesn’t support the humanities is going to find itself sooner or later importing a lot of its cultural entertainment, like television shows.

It’s also the case, though, that aspects of those disciplines are, in a sense, public goods, useful to everybody. We all want see museums. But, if other people are willing to pay for them, or pay for whatever is necessary to maintain them, like archaeologists, then why should I pay? Economists understand well that a collective good like a museum, can only be supplied by government, generally speaking. If private enterprise can do it, then as far as Libertarians are concerned, let them do it.

We don’t want the government supplying us with apples, for example, because private enterprise does that well enough. The same cannot be said of museums. Museums and other products of the humanities and social sciences are public goods and need to be funded by government via the tax system.

NRK: How do you think the British higher education system has fared since you first started living and studying here in the sixties?

HS: When I started in the sixties, I was immediately involved in teaching undergraduates as a PhD student. In our department at that time we had an average of seven students per one-hour tutorial group. Now, I’m not even sure they bother to call them tutorial groups. They’re more seminar groups and have 25 people. Certainly, by the time I finished teaching two years ago the average tutorial group was about twelve.

Only eight per cent of each generational cohort in this country went to university when I started teaching. Now it’s about 45 per cent. Of course, this number rose sharply with the doubling in the number of universities in 1990/91. Even if you had combined the attendance to both universities and polytechnics, when I started the number was a lot lower than 45 per cent.

The effect of the increase in student population is that it has changed to some extent the culture. When I started teaching, if students got a bad mark on an essay they were embarrassed and apologised to the tutor [laughs], promising to do better next time. Today, when students get bad marks there’s a chance they will come to see the tutor with their lawyer in tow. They certainly can be a lot more indignant. University education tends to be seen now more often like a vocational preparation, something to equip you with at least a credential, if not the skills, to get a better job.

NRK: Do you think that is a change for the worse?

HS: I can’t honestly say that. It’s certainly nicer to teach students who are intrinsically interested in the material rather than just instrumentally interested in what you’re teaching them. Because it’s very difficult to separate these two groups, they all have to be taught together and the teacher has got to find the right balance to accommodate both expectations. It’s certainly challenging. I think it’s good that there’s a larger proportion of each generation going to university today than in my days.

NRK: How does David Cameron’s much-trumpeted Big Society concept come across to you as a Libertarian? Do you see any merit in it?

HS: [Sighs] Oh, I have no idea. I’ve always been and as far as I can imagine will always be a member of the Labour Party. I think the Labour Party’s heart is in the right place, but sometimes its head is not. The party has a hostility to the market that I believe is just a superstition. David Cameron’s Tories are obviously much more pragmatic than Margaret Thatcher. Insofar as the idea of the Big Society has a connotation of lots of volunteer groups doing certain things in the neighbourhood and in their towns, as a Libertarian I like that. I really think that people on the left who are critical of this approach are being ungenerous. The idea that the state should do everything for us is really one about which we have to grow up.

Cameron’s right in that he’s hit on this idea of reducing the state. As a Libertarian and even as a Left Libertarian, I support this move. But I would like to see accompanying it a wealth distributing policy that is obviously lacking and will never occur under a Tory government. The kind of redistribution policy, and this might bear on the tuition fee question earlier, that Left Libertarians on the whole favour goes under a number of forms.

One form is unconditional basic income. Rather than receiving an income from the welfare state based on one’s particular condition – single mum, disabled, etc – citizens get a guaranteed unconditional income. There’s a big worldwide movement in favour of unconditional basic income and most Left-libertarians support it.

An even more radical idea is not this unconditional basic income, but what’s called an unconditional ‘basic stake’. Instead of everybody receiving a monthly cheque from the state out of tax revenue, when they reach the age of 18 or 21, people get a huge capital stake, which they can choose to invest as they see fit. They can invest it in higher education, opening a small business or something along those lines. But everybody gets the same stake.

NRK: You’ve been described as a pioneer, a conference was held in your honour last year and a book based on your philosophy and containing essays from your colleagues was published in 2009. How do you respond to such accolades? Is it surreal?

HS: [Laughs] It’s a little surreal, also a little misleading. The basic ideas of this theory of Left-libertarianism have been around for centuries. An American philosopher and I published a two-volume anthology on Left-libertarianism. The first volume dwells on the concept’s history. Key ideas can be traced to Grotius, Locke, the Levellers and others.

All I’ve done is pick up on those ideas, try and excavate philosophical roots for them and see how they connect up with our general thinking about morality, politics, economics and rights, in particular. I make the concept of rights central to the whole theory. I guess I have pioneered the casting of this view of justice into modern analytical philosophy terms.

NRK: If you were given the opportunity to meet a political philosopher from the past, which one would it be?

HS: [Pregnant pause] Gosh. Well, it’s kind of corny, but I guess it would have to be Aristotle or Plato. I think I’ve got what all the others are saying. Aristotle and Plato, I’d like to push them a little bit more on what they said.