Skip to main content

Month: October 2013

State regulation of the press is a necessary evil

I am all for free speech, freedom of expression and the free press and I am entirely against government censorship. However, the media regulated as it is today takes away our power to act, believe, or express ourselves freely, imposing restraints that damage our long tradition of liberty.  The inability to find an independent voice in what the tabloids print as news is mainly due to the control of the press by a powerful elite, and this has meant that the public is fed stories which represent a very narrow range of ideologies.

After the recent banning of The Sun from the Union shop, student debate has been fierce over the belief that this is a case of University censorship and a breach of freedom of expression. The decision to ban the newspaper was due to the ‘No More Page 3’ campaign. The campaign, running since the summer of 2012, started when Lucy Holmes found she could no longer stand that the dominant image of women in The Sun was half-naked and there for the gratification of men’s sexual desires, when women such as Jessica Ennis had just won gold medals for Britain. The Sun openly takes away the rights of women to be presented as equal human beings, whose success could be viewed in the same light as men’s.  As already stated, I’m wholly for the preservation of free speech within our society. However, I struggle with Page 3’s continued existence being pinned as an upholding of the right to free speech. To its very core, the everyday presence of women as sexual objects takes the liberties of women for granted.

It has been over a year since the campaign began and it has been practically ignored. The banning of The Sun was not the initial intention of the campaign, but the silence from The Sun and continual presentation of women as little more than sex objects rather than filling the pages with powerful, intelligent, equally presented women has left the campaign with no other option. There were no other means to challenge the tabloids, despite the feeling it was in breach of women’s liberty, therefore the move to ban The Sun from the union was the only option to make a significant group of voices heard.

This draws us onto the topical debate of whether press regulation should change and be challenged in the wake of the hacking scandal and the subsequent Leveson inquiry. Many within the press maintain that in order to uphold free speech in our democratic society they should be left to regulate themselves. However, the government has rejected this, and is proposing to create their Royal Charter. Their proposals are that an independent body with no statutory influence should oversee the self-regulation of the press, ensuring that complaints are dealt with properly and effectively, thus creating a free but accountable press.

In the last few weeks the Daily Mail has clearly emphasised why an arbitrator over press regulation is necessary, by highlighting the sheer irresponsibility and callousness of the tabloids at their worst. The Mail’s attacks on Ralph Miliband alleging that he was ‘The Man who hated Britain’ gave renewed vigor to the arguments of those pushing for press regulation and highlighted an urgent need for action. Ed Miliband’s response, printed in the Mail alongside yet more justification of their smear campaign, reveals quite succinctly his stance on press regulation “Britain has always benefited from a free press. Those freedoms should be treasured. They are vital for our democracy. Journalists need to hold politicians like me to account. But what appeared in the Daily Mail on Saturday was of a different order all together”.
The desire is not to restrict the powers of journalists but a call for responsible journalism, where journalists can be held accountable for personal attacks such as this. Interestingly Paul Dacre, editor of the Mail, is the current chairman of the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee. This is a man who, among other things, believes it acceptable to smear a dead man for his entries in a childhood diary written 72 years ago. This is a perfect indicator of this flawed system. Lord Alan Sugar’s statement in the House of Lords last Tuesday, summarises my stance;  “we need to stand up to these bullies” and “it is about time parliament showed some unity and flexed its muscles to deal with these nasty people once as for all”.

The debate against regulating what is acceptable within newspapers will be a long one, but it is time that the harassment and misrepresentation that unfortunately has become a norm of tabloid newspapers is regulated. After the disclosures of the Leveson inquiry, we can no longer trust newspapers themselves to always do this alone. The liberty of the press will be upheld by allowing the public to have the freedom of expression in order to challenge it. Free speech will be safeguarded by an independent regulator by ensuring that what is expressed isn’t restricted and dictated by the powerful few.

The British Army; not yet redundant

The Imperial War Museum is commemorating the Centenary of World War One, a war transformed by the efforts of the British Armed Forces. Historically speaking, the legacy of the British Armed Forces is rather controversial, but being there I was filled with sorrow, respect, even pride.
However, coming home it sparked a blazing debate with my housemate about whether or not Britain still needs a ‘redundant, imperialist’ army at all. The Conservatives caused uproar in Manchester last month just for plans to axe the second battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, but why not cut defence all together? Even a fraction of the defence budget could transform the lives of British people throughout the country, and that’s before nuclear disarmament.
Britain is spending around fourty billion pounds this year on defence; the fourth highest in the world behind the USA, China and Russia, and the budget is due to increase. The national debt is spiraling out of control, and the recent announcement that we may be out of Afghanistan by June 2014 begs the question: where is the money going, and is it worth it? Historically wars occured an average of every thirty years, now we haven’t had a major war for nearly seventy years and the suggestions of pooling our militia into a NATO or UN based military to patrol our ‘civilised’ world sounds like a pretty smart move.
But that is the point; it’s only been seventy years since the last world war. And it hasn’t  been seventy years because the superpowers have evolved past squabbling or because everyone has forged alliances and peace treaties willy-nilly, but because of nuclear deterrents. The price of war between the superpowers has become too high. For now. But, eventually someone may well use one of those Weapons of Mass Destruction on us or someone else, and we will either be able to stand them down with the threat of obliteration, or be paralysed and vulnerable because we’d put our faith on goodwill. Historically, goodwill has rarely prevented human destruction.
That’s the bigger picture. The daily role of the militia is still under question. There is set to be just 5200 British troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year, out of around 130,000 personnel in total.
Lately the militia have popped up here and there- quashing the London riots and lending Gibraltar a hand. So they haven’t been making many headlines of late, but a glance at their websites revealed that the Navy just made a £58 million drugs bust in the Caribbean, the Army have teamed up with the NHS for their ‘Stop Smoking’ campaign, and the RAF have installed a Typhoon Simulator at the Science Museum… It doesn’t sound like 40 billion pounds worth of work.
However, the consequences of cutting all defence need to be considered. There are 102,000 fulltime regulars and 19,000 territorial reserves in employment whose livelihoods and life’s work would be overturned, leading to an unemployment surge. For many young people it provides structured way into a diverse and meritocratic career; the Manchester and Salford Univeristy Officer Training Corps recruits 100 new officer cadets during Fresher’s Fair every year.
Cutting the army would lead to huge strain on the police force, border control and affect our international relations in terms of alliances, NATO and the UN. Much of Britain’s international influence stems from, or is related to its sizable armed forces, and losing them would affect our global standing.
Finally, much of our technology and medical advancements (which pumps money back into the economy), is developed by the military in places like the Advanced Technology Centre. Cutting the defence budget would mean shutting all of those research facilities down, and sending those discoveries and any profit they may generate to countries like China and America.
Arguably however, these are not meant to be the functions of the military. It is not there to provide jobs and keep our phones up to date. The British Armed Forces are meant to protect and defend Britain and nothing more. And looking at the published list of threats to British security from 2010, we are looking safer than we have ever been, with the top threats being listed as attacks on British ‘cyberspace’, terrorism, natural disasters, nuclear attack on us or an ally and crime. Conventional military attack, the military’s most traditional function, is low on the list and remote as a possibility in general.
However, remote as these threats seem today, we cannot afford to simply ignore them.Scaremongering aside should any of them occur Britain needs an insurance policy to keep itself safe. True, most of these threats could be reassigned to the political budget (terrorism), the Secret Intelligence Service (cyberspace) or the crime budget (crime), and perhaps they should. The defence budget certainly needs some reevaluation and a severe trim. But to cut it completely would be madness. Forget any imperialistic pride or traditional values, or that cutting off a military that Britain has gained so much power and respect for would be foolish. If a country hasn’t got defence it has nothing, because no matter how hard you work on everything else it can be taken from you in an instant. So the military may seem redundant right now, but if push comes to shove they’ll be swiftly reinstated as the heart, soul and pride of the nation.

2000 homeless in Manchester, it’s time to take a stand

Last week I read that “If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.” Statistics show that in 2012, over 2000 people in the Manchester region were sleeping on the streets, living in shelters or on the cusp of being evicted – a 9% rise compared on the 1896 recorded the previous year. The exhaustive figures are undoubtedly higher than this.

Our perceptions of homeless people often revolve around the fact that that person has become homeless because of some fault of their own. The stigmatisation of homelessness has led to a societal opinion that those living on the streets should be marginalized, as their situation is a consequence of their own actions. In blaming the victim, we are blinded to the wider issue of the economic and social forces behind the operation. Several articles have highlighted these forces, which include unemployment, limited affordable housing, and breakdowns in family networks. It has been argued that social stigma “occurs in situations where there is unequal social, economic and political power and there is an opportunity to label, stereotype, separate (us versus them), lose status and discriminate”.

There is clear evidence to suggest that the problem of homelessness is due to the effects of capitalism. In 2004 the BBC broadcasted the report “Hidden Homeless Speak Out”. A number of situations were recorded focusing on homeless  individuals such as Graham McEvoy, 57, a man who “had gone from a 2 bedroom maisonette in Ruislip to sleeping in a cardboard box in the market of London’s West End”. Graham admitted that “If you’d have told me two-and-a-half years ago I was going to be homeless I’d have laughed my socks off and told you you were mad”. The crippling effects of debt drove Graham into homelessness, showing that the issue is not always about fault, but about the economic climate.
So, are we part of the problem? Is our societies’ attitude towards homelessness actually making the problem worse?  Jo Phlean performed an experiment, in which he presented hypothetical situations to the subjects to directly compare attitudes toward a homeless and a domiciled poor man. His findings included that the “strength of the stigma attached to the “homelessness” label equals that for mental hospitalization”. These findings are made more horrific when we consider that for most homeless people the issue isn’t actually personal attitudes, fault, selfishness or laziness but that their problems are actually somewhat due to decisions of the government.

The reality of homelessness in 2013 means that the recession is key to our understanding of homelessness, as 7.7% of the UK’s working-age population are currently both unemployed and in search of work. Despite an overwhelming number of people believing that homeless people are drug addicts and alcoholics, most cases of homelessness are instigated by high unemployment rates and other social problems, which then prompt further social problems for their victims. ‘Student Action’ are a society at the University of Manchester working to help the community and arrange a variety of weekly and yearly projects which include feeding the homeless. To find out more about getting involved, visit the Student Union website and search for ‘student action’.

Wait for the drop…

Since its establishment in 2006 The Warehouse Project’s reputation has been in steady decline. The use of hard drugs such as ecstasy and MDMA have tainted the party atmosphere, with the event and drug use going hand in hand in most peoples minds. The Project has a capacity for five thousand entrants with tickets costing around £20 each.
The approximate £100,000 gross profit helps WHP to employ their own private security team that consists of security guards, sniffer dogs and they even go to the lengths of having medical personal on stand by in case of any emergencies. Despite these efforts, attendees have reported there is still a heavy drug presence on site and things took a tragic turn at this years opening event, when a 30 year old man died after taking tainted ecstasy. Another 15 people were admitted to the Manchester Royal Infirmary that weekend, all linked to the same dose of ecstasy.

Although the involvement of drugs in previous incidents at The Warehouse Project has been undetermined, the incidents in September were most definitely caused by drugs being consumed before or during the event. One of the timeless problems of using any drugs is the uncertainty of exactly what the substance is made up of. All kinds of things, from rat poison to household baking flour, have been found in samples of drugs. In the case of the ecstasy taken at WHP, it is thought that instead of containing MDMA, the drug was made up from PMA (para-methoyxamphetamine). The chemical has shown to give off similar physiological effects to MDMA but is far stronger and more toxic. While one of the side effects is a dramatic increase in body temperature, PMA also takes longer for any noticeable effects to take hold.

In response to recent events, Sacha Lord, one of the owners of the WHP called for the government to have an on-site testing facility to try and reduce the use of potentially deadly substances. Any drugs confiscated will be tested and any warnings resulting from this sent out on WHP’s social media networks. Although in theory this is a great scheme that deals with many of the issues at hand, it throws up questions about both practicality and ethics.

There is a clear argument for suggesting that the testing of drugs seized legitimises their use to a certain extent. For example, if there are no warnings sent out to the attendee’s on a particular night then the use will continue and could expand due to an atmosphere of false security. Similarly, by externally addressing the safety of drug users at the event, the organisers seem to condone their use to a degree.

Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that the warnings will be acknowledged by users, given the variety of drugs in circulation. If a warning about a batch of MDMA went out at a particular event, how would one know if it was linked to the substance that they had in their possession? Alongside the risk of an ‘ignorance is bliss’ culture developing at the Project, this extra warning system may only have a very little impact. There is also a challenge in judging the effectiveness of the system, as there has only been one death directly linked to WHP and drug use.

For anyone to argue that drug use is not a problem at WHP would be naïve on their part. For there to be only one tragic incident in the Project’s seven-year history seems to be nothing but a stroke of luck. The owners would claim other wise and would say that the security operation is highly efficient. If this is the case, why are so many people able to enter the venue under the influence of drugs or even purchase illegal substances when inside the event as some reports have suggested? Of course, it would be unfair to put the entirety of the blame on the organisers, but a certain degree of responsibility must lie on their shoulders.

Naturally, it is impossible for the security services at the WHP to be aware and in control of every single case of drug use at each event and it is safe to say that a strong effort is made to protect the people who attend. However, is enough being done to limit drug use in the first place? And will the new system be of any use? Time will tell with the on-site testing coming into place from the 12th October.

Nagging the NEETs might not be such a bad idea…

Last week, the Conservative Party’s annual conference opened a huge debate for the young people of Great Britain. The Conservative leader David Cameron has suggested the removal of benefits for the under 25s. We have all wondered about David Cameron’s attempts to divert attention away from the real problem right now, the cost of living for English families still suffering from the recession. However, are we calling his bluff or is he actually onto something with this proposal? Mr Cameron plans on creating what he himself calls “a land of opportunity” for the generations to come and he might just be spot on with this one.
The National Insurance Act 1911 was implemented nearly a century ago to provide social welfare benefits to the sick, to the disabled and to the unemployed. In 2013, unemployment has reached 7.7% under Mr Cameron’s leadership. One of the ways Cameron has attempted to get the country’s economy back on track is reassessing the role of the welfare state. The first group he has taken aside for consideration is the ‘Neets’, who are people between the age of 16-25 who are not in education, employment or training. Those people are living off unemployment benefits and the Conservatives want to put an end to that.

The current state of affairs allows a youngster to leave school, move out, find a flat and start claiming their “rightful” life on benefits. More than being the fault of the youngsters or their parents or their environment, Mr Cameron believes it is a failing of the State to give them a choice between a life of employment and a life off benefits. The welfare state has led a to a lazy generation that would rather stay at home during an economic boom and collect benefits.  “Think about it: with your children, would you dream of just leaving them to their own devices, not getting a job, not training, nothing? No – you’d nag and push and guide and do anything to get them on their way… and so must we” belted out Mr Cameron during his party’s conference in Manchester last week. When we consider this dilemma simply on the basis of choice, Mr Cameron is probably right in wanting to lead them towards employment in the short-run or even the long-run rather than just living off the dole.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that the proposal to remove state benefits for the under 25s does not stem simply from a vague idea to improve the way of living of the young British. This is after all a tory government, for all intents and purposes, and thus the reduction of taxes always remains a priority. Despite the slightly better current economic state, the obliteration of state benefits for the ‘Neets’ would be more than welcome and would considerably ease the burden off the average income earner’s tax contribution and subsequently improve standard of living.  Even more than that, the Conservatives have a vision of a brighter England with a higher graduate influx and higher employment rate. It has also been assumed that many of those youngsters living off  the dole are willing to go to school, to have an apprenticeship or to go to work. For them, the transition will be seamless and the increased prospect of having employment will come as a relief.  “We can achieve great things if we can get people to work. Languishing on benefits from 16 is no way to realise your full potential. It is a national scandal. There are some people for whom you need not so much a ‘nudge’ as a ‘dunt’ towards the workplace” retorted Michael Gove, education secretary, when asked about the proposal.
Moreover, some of the basic criticism that has been thrown onto the Conservative proposal can easily be dealt with. The case of young single parents with housing benefits comes to mind. Senior Tories have moved to quash reports that the benefits for those parents will be taken away. Moreover, the idea that the Government is piling on the pressure on the less fortunate during a time of economic recovery is based only on a vague idea of a concept.

This transition towards no benefits for the youngsters will not be a brutal one. It will take time. Time for many youngsters to get off the couch and do something with any skill that they are blessed with, be it manual labour or academics. The country is at a crossroad of ideology between the Conservative party and Labour party. Nonetheless, from the time Tony Blair’s Labour party took over power to 2009 when Labour finally gave up power, they made a promise to reduce the ‘Neets’ by reinvesting the money they obtained from privatisation. However, over the years, the ‘Neets’ have continued to grow in number even during the years of economic boom. Is it not time to give in to this Conservative approach? It might just be.

My Political Hero: Gabrielle Giffords

With public confidence in politics at new lows, it is not often that politicians are presented in a good light. Gabrielle Giffords is the survivor of an attempted assassination. Giffords began her political career in 2000 in the Arizona House of Representatives, later moving to the state senate. She eventually won a seat in the US House of Representatives. She sat in congress from 2007-2012 winning three elections in the process and creating a large political following, especially in Arizona. Rep. Giffords showed unyielding support for universal health care and economic equality for the lower and middles classes in the United States. She always made an effort to involve the citizens of Arizona in her policies, regularly reaching out to the people of her state.

Giffords’ Congressional career came to a dramatic halt on the 8th January 2011. Twenty-two year old Jared Lee Loughner targeted Giffords in an apparently unmotivated shooting as she was leading a “Congress on Your Corner” meeting in a supermarket car park. The incident saw 13 people injured and six killed – including a nine year old girl. Despite being shot directly in the head, Giffords survived and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Emergency surgery was performed to stop her brain from swelling. Over the next few weeks, Giffords started to make a strong recovery and was able to start basic physical therapy just two weeks after the attack. She was transferred to a rehabilitation institute where she spent the next few months recovering and her speech and motor functions.

In April 2011, after months of gruelling rehabilitation, Giffords was deemed strong enough to travel to Florida to witness her husband take the role of commander on the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour. Upon her return to House of Congress in August Giffords received a standing ovation. However, the following January she resigned from her seat in an effort to focus on her recovery, making an emotional promise to return to public service. Gabrielle Giffords strength, resilience and courage have earned her wide spread accolades from politicians across the international community. The incident reignited the debate on gun control, once again polarising opinions.

The shooting of Rep. Gifford was not an isolated attack; in the same year approximately 11,000 Americans died as a result of gun crime. The 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary became another heart-breaking tragedy in the long list. Two years after the attempt on her life in 2013, Giffords teamed up with her husband to start her work on gun control and responsible ownership, launching the website Americans for Responsible Solutions. Both husband and wife appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to give a rousing speech on the topic. Working tirelessly, Giffords then made a special appearance in the legislative advert Let’s Get This Done that ran on TV stations across the US in February 2013, a direct response to the events at Sandy Hook. To this day, Giffords is still recovering from the attack and is dedicated to tackling the this day, Giffords is still recovering from the attack and is dedicated to tackling the issue of gun control in America with the support of her husband.

‘Mental patient’ stigmas and Psycho-ward killers

Some may have thought the recent headline ‘1200 Killed by Mental Patients’ was your average twisted output from The Sun. However, combined with the news of Asda and Tesco selling and then withdrawing their ‘mental patient’ and ‘psycho ward’ Halloween costumes, the wider issue of the stigma surrounding individuals with mental health problems has arisen.
Whilst it is encouraging that Asda and Tesco have realised they have caused offence and subsequently withdrawn their offensive costumes, has the controversial episode brought to light a deeper issue, rooted in our ideologies about mental illness? During a recent BBC interview, Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind asked the obvious question concerning how the costumes actually got into stores in the first place, describing them as ‘crude and extraordinary’.
Indeed, these costumes could fuel individuals’ already worrying perceptions of the realities of mental illness. The costumes themselves were clearly designed with a misperception in mind. Statistically, 1 in 4 people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year. Whilst Asda and Tesco have been portraying a particularly negative, violent image of mental health patients through the sale of their Halloween costumes, statistics prove that conditions such as mixed anxiety and depression are actually awfully common amongst individuals in the United Kingdom. It is reassuring that both Asda and Tesco, alongside withdrawing these particular halloween costumes, are making donations to Mind, a mental health charity dedicated to giving advice to and supporting those with mental illness, ensuring they do not have to face their problem alone.
However, for The Sun to seemingly fuel the stigma in its headline so soon after the costume incident seems callous. Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change commented “It’s incredibly disappointing to see a leading newspaper splash with such a sensational and damaging headline”. Despite the content of the article being more balanced than its title, the headline infuriated mental health campaigners. The article emphasises the power of the media to twist the facts – however small they may be – to give a particular impression or viewpoint to the reader, particularly as many will see the headline but not buy or read the newspaper. Paul Burstow MP added a valid, key point to the discussion – “the truth is people with mental health problems are more likely to be victims of crime, NOT perpetrators of crime”.
It is obvious that the stigma around mental health patients has been prominent at least since the 1990s when headlines such as ‘mad psycho killers’ abounded. It is within the media’s power to take certain facts and manipulate readers into believing something contrary to the truth, hence the contrast of these headlines with what we find when we actually look at official mental health statistics. According to the Mental Health Foundation, people with mental health problems say that the “social stigma attached to mental ill health and the discrimination they experience can make their difficulties worse and make it harder to recover”. Indeed, in light of this evidence, perhaps we should be devoting more time to the prevention of mental illness, giving victims of the illness the help they need, rather than creating a stigma around them.
Students are one of the demographics in the population where mental health issues flourish. Indeed, the cultural adjustments required of international students only exacerbate the stressful conditions already experienced by the wider student population. It is vital that there is no fear of stigma amongst students when this stress turns into a deeper issue, requiring intervention from an outside source so that they seek this before any problems get worse. Ultimately, an unaddressed mental health problem can unnecessarily ruin lives.
Anyone can be subject to mental health issues and Manchester offers various different methods of help to people who believe they may need it. The university provides a confidential counseling service on the fifth floor of Crawford House for all students. The Union also has a Mental Health campaign, which is a student-led group that aims to promote good mental health and wellbeing throughout campus and beyond. The group is fairly new and aims to hold a series of events throughout the term, including film nights.

If you’d like to find out more, visit manchesterstudentsunion.com/studentvoice/mentalhealth.
The University of Manchester’s counselling service is open 5 days a week and appointments can be booked by calling 0161 275 2864.

Save Our NHS: Where were the media for Manchester’s biggest protest?

Last month 50,000 people marched on the Conservative conference in the largest demonstration Manchester has seen in decades. Not since the Thatcher era have so many people taken to the city’s streets in a show of collective anger and frustration at the Conservative Party’s program of cuts and privatisations.
Jeremy Hunt’s plan to auction certain services provided by the NHS to private conglomerates goes against the ethos of the NHS itself. Many people fear that handing large swathes of the NHS to profit-chasing businesses will have detrimental effects on the care provided.
Allegations of corruption aside, what this process boils down to is the fragmentation of an institution that many believe represents the pinnacle of British society. That is why on a balmy September afternoon in Manchester, nearly every group in Britain was represented in  their opposition to the plans for the NHS.
From Liverpool Road, via the Tory conference in Manchester Central and down Oxford Road, whistles blew and flags waved in what Manchester police called the largest and most peaceful protest they have ever encountered. The march concluded with the 50,000 demonstrators congregated in Whitworth Park to hear talks from the likes of Owen Jones, Len McClusky and even Coronation Street’s Julie Hesmondalgh.
What was surprising was the scant coverage the rally received in both the national papers and on news channels. The demonstration itself featured on no front pages and coverage from the BBC was described by Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Burnham MP as ‘cursory’. Reports of the conference’s announcements in the Guardian, such as George Osborne’s 7-year plan of austerity, barely mentioned the immense protest taking place among the main arteries of Manchester which surround the conference.
It is crucial to remember that despite the momentum behind the Conservative’s program of ‘efficiency saving’ it is possible for communities to unite to defend the services they cherish. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s apparent crusade on the crowning jewel of Britain’s social policy suffered an awkward defeat at the hands of the people of Southeast London earlier this year. An alliance of locals formed to oppose the prospect of their local A&E being shut down. Lewisham Hospital’s A&E, a financially and medically successful service, was to be closed, leaving three boroughs and 750,000 people with only one accident and emergency unit.
Ardent protesting from local communities and a high level of news coverage led to the case being taken to the high court where the cuts were found unlawful. This is an encouraging example of the influence people-power has in regulating the Conservative’s campaign of rampant austerity measures. The protests in Lewisham and Manchester are communicating that the NHS is off limits to the powers that be, with tangible results. If David Cameron wanted a Big Society, he is certainly getting it now.
To win the war against the policies that betray the very foundations of our welfare state, we need the media to bring this degradation of services to the public eye. Not covering stories such as Manchester’s big protest  undermines both the cause and the people who care about it.

Live: Yuck

2nd October

Soup Kitchen

5/10

Yuck have an often regaled backstory – they’re the guys from twee pop outfit Cajun Dance Party who actually turned out to be Pavement loving 90s nostalgics. Except that’s no longer the case. Lead singer Daniel Blumberg left earlier this year and rather than disband like many others before them, fellow former CDP member Max Bloom was promoted from bassist to front man. Herein lies tonight’s problem – Blumberg was chosen over Bloom to front both CDP and Yuck with good reason: he’s both more charismatic and a better singer. It’s no coincidence that the best songs of the night, such as ‘Georgia’ and ‘Get Away’ (complete with some impressive crowd-surfing for such a small venue), are those where Bloom seems to be making a concerted effort to mimic his old band mate.

For fan favourite ‘The Wall’ bassist Mariko Doi has a go at filling the Blumberg-shaped hole. Though she has a pleasing voice, her delivery of the lines leaves something to be desired – the trademark elongation of each last word is missing. This leaves the only remaining positive from the song as the almost too good to be true line “you can see me if you’re tall” repeated over and over in a venue where even your 6’4 reviewer struggles to catch a glimpse of the band over the crowd.

Just three songs from new album Glow and Behold make it into the admittedly short set but none stand up to comparison with songs from their debut. Bloom seems lost without Blumberg’s past vocals to mimic while the songs themselves just aren’t as strong. The dearth of new material almost seems like a tacit admission of Glow’s inferiority.

All that said, when Yuck get back to what they do best, as is the case on ‘Operation’  (it helps that this is the only song Bloom originally sang on), they can be a formidable band. The Dinosaur Jr. inspired closer provides a thoroughly enjoyable finish to a somewhat lacking overall set.

Top 5 Songs… with samples.

1. Kanye West – ‘Power’

He started his career producing beats for Jay-Z and it’s still his strongest point. Who’d ever think to put classics ‘21st Schizoid Man’ and ‘Afromerica’ together?

2. Washed Out – ‘Feel It All Around’

Ernest Greene singing over slowed down 80s songs helped kick start the chillwave genre and made some of the chillest songs imaginable in the process.

3. Puff Daddy – ‘Come With Me’

The butchering of Led Zep’s ‘Kashmir’ might make your Dad cry, but there’s no denying the epic size and intensity of this beat.

4. Four Tet – ‘Kool FM’

From the newly-released Beautiful Rewind, this is a stop-start jungle beat affair. A tribute to pirate radio, complete with compressed MC “HEY HEY HEY” samples.

5. DJ Shadow – ‘Midnight In A Perfect World’

For any of you who still doubt that sampling is an art form, look no further. This track is sublimely beautiful. Just give it a listen.

A Clockwork Orange: Review

Anthony Burgess’ infamous masterpiece A Clockwork Orange returned to it’s native Manchester last week in the form of Action to the Word’s physical theatre piece at the Lowry. The show, born on the London Fringe, has just returned from Australia after it’s sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival. Being a big fan of the story in all it’s various forms, I went to see it with an open mind and curious as to how the company had taken this timeless masterpiece on, genuinely having no idea just wondering what it was going to be then, eh?

 

For those of you who don’t know the story, it centers around Alex: the charming, attractive and manipulative anti-hero of our story. Along with his band of droogs (friends), Alex’s interests include ultraviolence, in-out in-out (rape), Ludwig Van (Beethoven) and drinking moloko (milk). Set in a dystopian future complete with new fictional language, Nadsat, Alex’s story progresses as he falls victim to the Ludovico technique, conditioning him against his greatest loves using somewhat brutal means, thus turning him into the ‘Clockwork Orange’ so-mentioned in the title. After an attempted suicide and apology from the state, Alex, no longer conditioned, deems himself cured, ready for a life of non-violence.

 

The all-male company had chosen to do the play from a very homoerotic angle. Acts of ultraviolence were accompanied with passionate kisses, a gay couple was attacked and the pumping soundtrack was strictly music by gay or bisexual artists. This was effective as it highlighted the homoeroticism that is present in the work: Alex is a flamboyant, fashionable, open and confident with a raw sexual appetite, not to mention the dominantly-male nature of the piece. It also updated the play somewhat and was an interesting deviation from the norm.

 

The production was solid, funny and a good example of physical theatre. My praise is aptly given to Adam Search, who took the role of Alex, who brought cockiness and complexity to the role. Tempting as it would be to borrow tropes from Malcolm McLaren’s exceptional film portrayal, Search managed to resist entirely, bring an entirely new dimension onto Alex’s character.

 

For all it’s praise, I must say that if there’s one adjective that should always be in the same sentence as all things Clockwork Orange it’s ‘shocking’. Yes, I know we are all impossible to shock these days thanks to ‘the internet’, but I really didn’t feel like the production packed enough of a, excuse the pun, punch. I had (oddly) gone in, wanting to leave the theatre shaking with discomfort. However, in reality, the violence just was too stylized and well, just not violent enough.

 

On the whole, the performance was enjoyable and definitely got better as time went on and the energy built up. I can also safely say it was not at all what I had expected from it and is definitely well worth a watch.

 

Three Stars out of Five Stars

Cornerhouse Pick of the Week: The Selfish Giant

The Selfish Giant, directed and written by Clio Barnard, is brutal. Not in a violent way, not in an overly emotional way, but in a way that never lets you forget that sometimes, life is just bloody awful.

  The story follows a pair of young friends from Huddersfield, who take up scrap collecting in order to make some money after they’re excluded from their school. Throughout, the message is pretty clear that they have nothing and no-one to rely on. In fact, barring their mothers, every other character in the film is trying to take advantage of them. The main character, Arbor (Conner Chapman) swiftly becomes obsessed with his new job as a scrap collector, and uses it to support his (seemingly jobless) mother and drug-addicted brother, whilst Swifty (Shaun Thomas) really just wants to look after horses. However, the scrap collecting leads to stealing wire from railway tracks, and looking after horses doesn’t exactly end well either. The horses have a pretty terrible time of it too, because in this film, nobody gets off easy. Not even baby horses (Spoiler alert).

    At times the film drags a little bit, but this kind of emphasises the fact that these boys’ lives are not only miserable, but also monotonous. The impression is given of a middle-aged man, trying to make ends meet and angry at the world, trapped in the body of a thirteen year old. If anything, it’s less of a story and more of a snapshot of a couple of days in Arbor’s life. The fact that you see every side of it, including the parts with no real dramatic input makes the film seem more real, and less like someone had written it. In fact, I would genuinely not have been surprised if it had turned out it was based on a true story.

   For those of you who want their films action packed, or with a bit of comic relief in them, this is not the film for you. It’ll leave you feeling emotionally drained, and a little like someone just punched you in the stomach. And if you’ve never had to sell scrap metal to buy food, it’ll make you very, very appreciative of that fact. It should be seen, simply for how well it manages to get its message across, without ever feeling like it’s preaching.

Live: Jagwar Ma

19th October

Gorilla

7/10

Ostensibly labelled as Madchester revivalists from the off set of their career- it was appropriate that when the Australian triumvirate Jagwar Ma descended on the city where bands such as the Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses originated from, the crowd that greeted them consisted of a blend of young and old ravers alike. Perhaps a chance to reminisce for those who lived through the height of the Hacienda club, and an insight into what the much beloved Manchester music scene of the 80s was like for those who missed out on it.

Having garnered attention for their live performances at festivals this summer, Jagwar Ma came to a sold out Gorilla on the up. As they launched into opener ‘What’s Love’ the crowd bounced as one to the uplifting beat orchestrated by Jono Ma.  Then, appearing from off stage, Gabriel Winterfield’s lackadaisical voice crept in, but he struggled to elevate himself above the cacophony of noise created by Jono. ‘Uncertainty’ was greeted with a similar warmth by the audience with the song building to a really catchy beat that turned the good feeling in the room up a notch. However a temporary lull ensued afterwards, when the weakest song of the band’s album ‘Exercise’ fell flat, although this did give everyone a chance to catch their breath.

Jagwar Ma are keen to disassociate themselves as just Stones Roses copycats – Winterfield said in a recent interview with Louder than War that he hadn’t listened to a Stone Roses Album in years, but when you hear ‘Throw’ live and he breaks into an Ian Brown type drawl, it’s easy to think that their influence is entrenched in Jagwar Ma’s psyche. The highlight of the night was definitely ‘Four’ which showcased more of a dance music feel and a step away from the psychedelic rock; it seemed in tune with the sound that Jagwar Ma should aim for in the future.

Cornerhouse Pick of the Week: Prince Avalanche

Walking out of the cinema, my friend asks me the obligatory question – how did I find it? I honestly didn’t know what to say. Not because it was shockingly bad or breathtakingly amazing, but rather I had no strong reaction to it at all. But I would be lying if I said it was a waste of an hour and a half. David Gordon Green’s portrayal of the unlikely friendship of two road workers is strangely endearing. He manages to capture life after disaster perfectly, not dramatised to Hollywood standards, but just as it would in reality – simply continuing.

The film is set against the surreal backdrop of a Texan forest ravaged by fire. Homes have been destroyed, lives turned upside down and yet here we are watching Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch painting lines on a road. The tragicomedy quietly meditates on the lives affected by the disaster, and there, at the forefront, is Alvin and his simple assistant, Lance, making an honest living, miles away from their loved ones and all the things that make their life worth living. Their woes fade to insignificance, however, when they stumble upon a woman digging through the remains of her devastated home in desperate search for her beloved flying licence, embodying the entire theme of the film – hope where there is none left.  Although the trivialisation of the disaster helps create the quirky and comic tone of the film, I must admit that it also renders it somewhat insipid, as though the fire was no big deal, and that the real problem is what Lance is doing this weekend.

Paul Rudd is excellent as Alvin – the straightforward, everyday man, although admittedly, but I wasn’t completely able to shake his Pete from Knocked Up persona. He effortlessly develops from a simple and unfeeling road worker to Lance’s sensitive confidant and the friendship that forms holds the whole film together. Emile Hirsch plays the harmless idiot perfectly, and single handedly maintains the light hearted feel of the film. All the characters, although plagued by their own troubles, epitomize the simple American country folk stereotype, which partly allows viewers to be justified in grinning through the scenes of devastation.

But aside from the good acting and offbeat angle of the film, gripping is hardly the word I would use to describe Prince Avalanche. Pleasant maybe, mildly entertaining at best. The slow pace and lack of typical – beginning, climax and dramatic ending – structure means it might not be to everyone’s taste. As many independent films do, it certainly lacks a plot. The abrupt and unexpected conclusion didn’t leave me wanting more, or even satisfied, but I was happy it was over.  On second thoughts, maybe the word I’m looking for is boring.

Review: The Escape Plan

Based on Arnie’s disappointing comeback in recent actioners like The Expendables and The Last Stand it was logical to fear that new release Escape Plan would consist of more endless in jokes and self-glorification. Thankfully that’s not the case and this is something of a return to form for Arnold. Sadly though, his revival has taken place within a pretty bad film- Escape Plan promises lots of guns and lots of puns but all you get is soulless dialogue and disturbingly pronounced veins.

Sylvester Stallone is Ray Breslin, a world class escapist and computer hacker who gets paid to break out of maximum security facilities and thus reveal their flaws. He is apparently authorised to use any means to achieve this, which can include but are not limited to blowing up cars and stabbing fellow inmates in the chest. Breslin’s latest assignment lands him in hot water; whisked away by masked gunmen in brutal fashion, he wakes to find himself  trapped in a highly advanced complex known as ‘The Tomb’. It gets worse. Breslin soon discovers that his own book was the key reference point during the construction of this illegal facility and what’s more, someone has paid a lot of money to make sure he never leaves. Help is at hand in the form of one Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who befriends our distressed hero and agrees to assist in his escape.

Try to forget the nonsensical premise; this film is all about Arnie and Sly, who have never properly co-starred in a film until now. Their brotastic -chemistry is quite a thing, though the sheer presence of ‘Guvnor’ Schwarzenegger far outweighs that of Stallone, who is on auto-pilot as the resilient, morally incorruptible hero. No one else really matters; the maniacal Warden Hobbes (Jim Caniezel) is as one dimensional as they come and all 50 Cent does is tap some buttons on a computer to slightly alter the shape of a cube. Far and away the worst piece of casting was Vinnie Jones, whose turn as a merciless prison screw is unconvincing to the last- in my screening his every movement was met with popcorn spilling hilarity.

Escape Plan’s plot is insultingly dumb and contains more holes than a book written by Neil De Grasse Tyson. If a criminal syndicate really wanted to ‘disappear’ an enemy ‘for good’ then they would probably kill that person. They would not, arguably, pay for them to be placed into a state of the art, inescapable, billion dollar prison which was constructed by a dodgy offshoot government agency to contain the world’s most dangerous men. The film masquerades as an intelligent thriller, patting itself on the back for thinking up such ‘remarkable’ escapes- in reality they lack suspense and are oh so convenient.

A final twenty minutes of gun toting madness which recall the glory days of classics like Rambo and Commando kick things up a notch but it proves too little, too late. An overall lack of action coupled with an awful script will leave you feeling unfulfilled…but still glad that Arnie came back.

 

★★

Album: Love Inks – Generation Club

Released 24th September

Monofocus Press

There’s something a little other-worldly about Love Inks’ second album. One can imagine drifting off to sleep to Generation Club, not, I hasten to point out, because it’s boring, but because the soft pulse of the percussion alongside synths and Sherry Leblanc’s lovely, smooth, dipped-in-caramel vocals creates the soundtrack to a blissful dream. That is why, I suppose, Love Inks’ music has been described as ‘dream pop’, though the band are not too comfortable with the moniker, preferring the broader ‘minimalist electronic pop’, which also makes sense, the band can be described as a more colourful version of ‘minimalist electronic pop’ pioneers The XX.

Made up of Husband and Wife Kevin Dehan and Sherry Leblanc, and close friend Derek Brown, Love Inks’ critically acclaimed first album E.S.P was a very personal, grass roots affair. Generation Club is no different; self-financed and recorded on a half inch tape machine at the couple’s home in Texas, the album is a labour of love. You can feel it.

Opening Track ‘Solar Diary’ is quietly epic, Dehan has claimed the song to be ‘about a girl running’, the low, murmuring synthesizers and relentless beat do a good job of constructing this image and create a sense of foreboding. “Scream against the sky” Leblanc sings, conjuring all manner of dark images. In contrast, single Time has all the attributes of a perfect pop song; a catchy, memorable melody, a driving rhythm, euphoric synths and a punk-rock length of 2 minutes.

Leblanc’s vocals are reminiscent of a softer Karen-O, at times her lyrics are almost whispered over beautiful, flying melodies. She sounds like a more sophisticated Lana Del Rey at the lower end of her range, and a more polished Debbie Harry at the top. The upbeat single ‘Outta Sight’, led by a rather lovely reverb-y guitar line, particularly benefits from Sherry’s sleek vocals, as does final track ‘Waiting on A Plane where Sherry sounds truly heartbroken as she wavers through the simple tune.

Love Inks have managed to create a record that, despite its glossy finish, sounds raw and full of emotional significance. The tracks have a tendency to merge together (one of the perils of going down the ‘minimalistic’ route I feel) but do so in a listener-friendly way. Generation Club is a modest gem, definitely worth a listen.

Interview: Portico Quartet

Mercury award nominees Portico Quartet have been bridging the gap between Jazz and Dance music since 2007. Having cut their teeth busking on the South Bank, they’ve broken onto the electronic music scene this summer with appearances at Dimensions and Outlook festivals in Croatia.

For a band that started out as acoustic buskers, playing big festivals where the crowd expects ground-shaking volume can present a challenge: “We’ve had to beef up our sound a lot. The acoustic instruments started to sound muddy on bigger sound systems so we’ve had to bring in more sub-bass frequencies and electronic drum sounds. The live set’s changed a lot, it’s very different to the album.” They have not spent their whole summer “beefing up their sound” for festivals however. Apart from Green Man, Wilderness and the Croatian festivals (Wyllie described the set they played for the Dimensions opening concert in the old Roman Amphitheatre as “magical” and as the “highlight of the summer”) the band has “mostly been concentrating on writing for [their] new album”.

Playing ‘electronic music’ focused festivals such as Outlook and Dimensions suggests Portico Quartet may be changing their approach but Wyllie insists that they “don’t think of it as ‘electronic music’; it’s certainly not produced in an electronic style. Myself and Duncan have been getting more into electronic music recently, and we find ourselves spending more and more time hunched in front of computers trying to get the ‘right’ sounds.”

On their new album they work with Swedish singer Cornelia, who’s recently collaborated with Bonobo and Henry Saiz. Her emotive and girlish voice gives the formerly instrumental quartet a new dimension, and her philosophical lyrics are an excellent marriage to the band’s new, more serious sound. For Wyllie, it “all just came together really quickly” with Cornelia “replacing the sax as the ‘voice’ in our music”. This frees up Wyllie to play more keyboards, and shifts things away from acoustic ambience to minimal electronica. Wyllie lets on that they’ve got more stuff with Cornelia in the pipeline, and she’ll be featuring in a few tracks on their next album, out some time in 2014. She’ll also be at their Manchester gig, not to be missed!

The conversation veers away from the current Portico Quartet arrangements and towards their musical heritage. Nick Mulvey and Jack Wyllie met at university and shared a love of American minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. This influence can be heard in the hypnotic rhythms and gradual metamorphosis in the music. Milo Fitzpatrick and Jack are both into their Jazz while
Nick was big on World music, particularly from Africa.

When I ask about the band’s signature instrument – the hang – Jack reveals that while there are many things they love about it, “there’s just something ancient and strange about it, a sound that you can’t quite put your finger on… It’s kind of like an Indonesian Gamelan or Caribbean Steel drum, and it’s very versatile” and can acknowledge it has given them a strong identity, they are actually “phasing it out”, no longer happy being “that hang band…’’.

Well, with or without the hang, we hope that Portico Quartet will carry on making their signature brand of minimal acoust-electronica. If you feel like kicking back to something hypnotic and truly unique on a Sunday evening then don’t miss them at their Manchester gig at Gorilla on the 27th!

From the Vault: Nirvana – In Utero

Released September 1993

Original Recordings Group

Following the commercial success of Nevermind, In Utero is Nirvana’s response to the different world that such success threw them in to, with the associated crises and conflicts that arose. As a counterpoint to Nevermind’s slick polish and practised sounds, In Utero was recorded in two weeks by Pixies producer, Steve Albini. The album benefits from the rawer, immediate and more natural sound this different approach allowed. On ‘Milk It’, we hear what I think may be a chuckle from Kurt Cobain as he screams, and there are a few fluffed drums and arsing about guitar sounds throughout. The band’s charm comes through, despite the album’s obviously dark and melancholy tones.

The album stands on the brink of mainstream rock, wails, screams, shouts and heavy guitars with their distinctive grunge sound place it on the precipice of popular acceptability, not quite falling in to the heavier stoner rock around at the time, saved by melodious hooks. Despite the noise factor, the album feels intimate like the radio at night.

When the tempo slows, for example with the emotionally complex ‘Dumb’ and its resonant strings, it provides temperance to the louder, faster counterpoints of rollercoaster tracks, such as ‘Very Ape’, which features a wicked groove in the chorus, as close to boogie friendly as the album gets, reminding us, as can be forgotten, that Nirvana wrote some great tunes.

As a perfect swansong, In Utero builds on the fresh and rough sounds explored in Nirvana’s first album, Bleach. As the follow up to Nevermind, In Utero provides a bitter, beautiful repost to the media whirlwind that followed their most popular album. It’s almost worth having Nevermind around to inspire such a response.

You can read Steve Albini’s letter to Nirvana before recording In Utero here. It’s ace.

Live: Turisas

Manchester Club Academy

12th October

9/10

“Have any of you brought swords or drinking horns tonight?” Not a conventional question to ask your audience – but then, Turisas isn’t a conventional band. The Finnish Viking metallers invaded a sold-out Manchester Club Academy to take their leather-and-fur clad fans on an adventure as epic as the Viking legends that inspired their formation.

Battling on through a few technical faults – with frontman Mathias Nygård’s microphone being persistently temperamental all set – Turisas went on to finish the final night of their European tour with a bang. The Scandinavian six-piece have spent the last two months promoting their new album Turisas2013, but if the band were feeling fatigued, it didn’t show. Their set was as impressive as always, flawlessly replicating the tighter, more professional sound of their new record.

After whipping up a storm in the hot and crowded SU basement with a mix of new songs and old favourites, Nygård momentarily interrupted the set to praise Manchester beer and demand his enraptured audience sing him a local drinking song. Soon the entire room was merrily singing ‘You can shove your fucking Scousers up your arse’, accompanied by Olli Vänska’s mighty violin. Turisas followed this up with their drinking song ‘One More’, before a barrage of classics including ‘Battle Metal’ and ‘Stand Up and Fight’ had the crowd screaming for more. Cue the band’s gloriously heavy cover of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’, which sent the audience into a true Viking frenzy.

In short, Turisas put on one Niflhel of a show. Join them on their quest one night and even the not-so-Viking-inclined of you won’t be disappointed. True, more songs would’ve been better – but when your best hits are four- or five-minute-long epics, that can be forgiven.

Live: Joy Division Reworked – The Heritage Orchestra

The Lowry

29th September

7/10

Taking on the legendary material of Joy Division is in itself a brave move, but to do so in their own backyard, at The Lowry on the banks of Salford Quays, is really inviting the pressure.

The Heritage Orchestra, in collaboration with electronic pioneer Scanner and visual artist Matt Watkins, are not here tonight for faithful covers of the Manchester post-punk outfit’s work. They take to the stage with the rather ambitious intention of completely dismantling the treasured work of Ian Curtis and co., and rebuilding it from the ground up. It is a re-imagining of the music that so brilliantly captured the zeitgeist of late ‘70s Manchester, spawned from the dark psyche that both haunted and inspired Curtis.

The performance begins in style with an extended instrumental of the ‘Transmission’ synth intro; before long, that trembling bassline kicks in, delivered with trademark Hooky ferocity. The relentless drums that propelled the 1979 single forward are present here, setting the pace and unleashing an electric atmosphere upon the audience.

The duration of the performance sees the electro-orchestra stray dramatically from Joy Division’s recordings, with only occasional snippets sounding somewhat familiar. The distinctive riff from ‘Dead Souls’ is faithful to the original, but many other songs are reinterpreted beyond all recognition. This is not necessarily a criticism; it would be unfair to label the performance as anything less than impressive, but at times it is arguably a little too loosely-based on the subject material to bear its name.

Visually there are some nice throwbacks to the Manchester quartet. During ‘Dead Souls’, the famous white-on-black pulsar radio waves of Peter Saville’s Unknown Pleasures album artwork are projected behind the orchestra, traveling towards the audience like a jagged mountain range. Better still, a clever visual trick during ‘She’s Lost Control’ sees abstract shapes and lines projected onto a mesh screen veiling the orchestra. They appear to move randomly at first before taking on the familiar form of Ian Curtis and his infamous epilepsy dance.

A stripped-down, string-laden version of classic anthem ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ sees the show out, with the original baritone vocals of Ian Curtis binding the two eras together in a satisfying union. The performance is inventive and polished, so much so that it comes across as a natural evolution of Joy Division’s revolutionary musical output. A fitting tribute and an impressive display of originality.