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.

MTV has been a bastion of music television for years, why does Jonathan Ridge feel that it needs to readdress its priorities?

Was Martin Amis worth the money? As a marketing strategy, yes.

“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 education. Here’s how they got on.

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?

The greatest genre in the entire world is one which many have little experience with; Stoner rock. It’s a style of music which has very few definite articles; at one edge you have psychedelic, technical acts like Monster Magnet or my personal band of 2010 Sungrazer and on the other you have deep, sludgy behemoths such as Electric Wizard and legends of the genre Sleep. Even within stoner rock there are tonnes of sub-genre’s, fuzz, psychedelic, desert and sludge to name but a few, and as spring approaches, some of the finest examples of these bands are rolling through Manchester. So here’s a preview of the four gigs to look out for if the words stoner and rock sound good to you.

The proud former leader of a hashish trafficking empire talks about legalising cannabis and eating dog food

It was several nights before Christmas and all through the house, nothing was stirring apart from me, in the kitchen, with piles and piles of meat. I was creating an edible homage to one of the greatest spectacles of all time, a sacra-licious nativity scene was a diorama depicting the birth of our savory saviour. […]

All the characters, or ‘real people’ as the titles like to emphasise, have annoying sides to them.

Playing this sequel feels like you’ve made a decision to date the prettier sister, but over dinner realised that she is brain-numbingly stupid

High-profile figures, including Noam Chomsky and Billy Bragg, have sent messages of support to the students occupying a University of Manchester building.

A University of Manchester academic was charged with assaulting a police officer last week. The arrest was made during the third national day of action against the planned cuts to higher education and the proposed rise in tuition fees.

Police charged unarmed, peaceful protesters on horseback and used “heavy-handed” tactics to disrupt protests on Oxford Road last week.

Student Direct: Mancunion, as The Mancunion was known last year, was awarded runner-up in the Guardian Student Media Awards. The River, a Kingston University publication, took first place.

An estimated 5,000 students from Manchester’s universities and colleges marched through the city centre last week. Lecturers, parents, and local politicians joined students in bringing Oxford Road to a standstill.

Voting is underway to determine whether future Union policy should be decided by an online voting system.

Tom Hurndall, a Manchester Metropolitan University student, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper in April 2003. Hurndall was a photographer, and a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organisation that use non-violent protest against the Israeli military in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators from Manchester were among the first to break into Tory headquarters in London last week, as up to 50,000 marched on Embankment to protest education cuts and a rise in tuition fees.

“I want my images to show them not as victims, but survivors.”

The Mancunion speaks to Ed Miliband ahead of his Labour Leadership victory as he gives a Q&A session at University Place.

A 20-year-old female student was attacked in Withington last week as she made her way home from a night out. Police are warning students to take extra care when walking home alone.