THE RIVER www.riveronline.co.uk 19

COMMENT

PLASTERED yobs fighting, passed out clubbers and drunken girls piling into the middle of a busy road, these are just a few of the memories we’ll have of Kingston’s Oceana.

Following the stabbing and death of Jamie Sanderson, the six-nights-a-week club had its licence suspended, reinstated, and then revoked pend-ing an appeal.

So if you venture over to that side of town at night sometime soon, the odds are you will no longer have to dodge glass, vomit, blood and spit scattered on the pavement.

Oceana did nothing but build a bad reputation and ruin nights for our town’s residents.

The murder of Jamie Sanderson is not the first horrendous knife crime to take place inside the club.

Earlier this year, another young man was stabbed five times in the smoking area.

Nightclubs like Oceana, among the largest in the UK, are obviously a hot spot for violent crime.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not some kind of club-hating bore who stays in on weekends.

But I would much rather have a night in watching Countdown than venture into the unknowns of the ‘Cheese Room’.

Only 30 per cent of Kingstonians want Oceana to stay open, according to a River survey. Kingston Council must have listened to you.

This shows that students and resi-dents feel strongly about the venue shutting, some going as far as to sug-gest that it should be replaced with “something that’s not devoid of soul like the rest of Kingston”.

Most students would like to see Oceana replaced by a music venue, like Brixton Academy or Shepherd’s Bush Empire. A mini O2 or HMV Fo-rum could really be what Kingston has been missing.

Surely it would bring in better crowds, be less hassle for the po-lice and increase business for local shops, restaurants and pubs. Gigs are usually over by 12.30am which would beat the 4am finish of Oceana.

And how good would it be to just walk five minutes down the road to see some top bands and artists?

I am not on some personal vendet-ta against Oceana (even if they did try and kick me out once when I was sober but they thought I was drunk because my shoes were sticking to the sea of gum that is supposed to be a carpet), but I think it’s time for a change.

Do I think it is ridiculous that my friend was not let in because his gum was suspected of being cocaine? Yes.

Is it appalling that a young girl was humiliated after being turned away for walking like she was drunk, when actually she has a serious spinal dis-ability? Absolutely.

It’s looking like last orders for the UK’s largest Oceana, unless they somehow win their appeal.

The cold truth for hardcore Oceana fans is that its owners, Luminar, may be financially sinking anyway. This would see the inevitable demise of Oceana regardless of the fact they are London’s number one hot spot for crimes in clubs.

The figures say it all. A quarter of all crime in Kingston happens in and around Oceana.

Yes, we all love a cheap night on the tiles and, in fairness, Oceana gave us just that.

But just looking at Oceana King-ston’s Facebook page, with hundreds of complaints and demands for it to be shut down for good, it makes me think that the time has come to re-place it with something better.

With sick, blood, spit and stab-bings, Oceana’s got to go. And I’ll be the first in line to say good riddance.

Good riddance Oceana

Forensic teams investigating the murder of Jamie Sanderson outside Oceana in October ELENA BLAGOEVA

By Zoe Birdsall

Student protests are a massive waste of time

SO HERE we go again, another bloody march to protest against the cuts.

People who get together to shout about the government. People who seek support from each other and want to feel part of something bigger, something important. People who believe they are making a difference.

They gather in their Dr. Martens boots, with their placards and their pockets filled with opinions. They gather with their heads held high

By Mimmie Wilhelmsonand think they are on some kind of important mission.

But we are not in Cairo. Nor are we in Syria or Spain. And we are not in Greece. We are not fighting dicta-tors nor do we need a bailout from the Euro.

Do our protesters just feel the need to be part of the ongoing big changes in the world? To feel included?

I didn’t go on Wednesday. Not be-cause I’m scared of vegans, dread-locks or hippies. Not because I’m scared of getting hit on the head by a placard with a stupid picture of Nick Clegg or George Osborne. Or worse, a

falling fire extinguisher.And not because I support the

Conservatives or the Liberal Demo-crats. Not because I’m a big fan of David Cameron. Actually, just like most of you, I think our dear friend Cameron can shove his reforms and Big Society up his arse.

To go to a march where a bunch of angry people act like sheep and where the police are the sheepdogs does not seem like the solution for me. I don’t want to be looked after by Mr ‘shepherd’ Cameron and his little loyal pets.

I don’t want to go on a march

where it is more than likely that there will be a group of naïve youths wearing masks and smashing win-dows just for the hell of it.

No, I want to do it my own way.We already know the cuts are hap-

pening. Let us get on with it and deal with the situation instead. We all al-ready know that politicians lie - this is more a rule than an exception. Why are we acting so surprised?

We all know that prices go up. We have been through rough times before, and it is time for us to get through yet another one. We’re all in this together, after all.

KINGSTON students need to get real about the cuts being made to our university.

It’s easy, and a little naïve, to think that the Vice Chancellor is to blame for all the problems the Uni-versity faces.

Students must remember this man took a pay cut from his last job and, despite his still sizeable pay packet, is doing his best to manage Kingston through unprecedented cuts to higher education.

As a higher education profes-sional, it would be foolish to sug-gest that Julius Weinberg is enjoy-ing making cuts.

The man would love to finance every course, regardless of its popularity or success, but money doesn’t grow on trees, and we sim-ply cannot expect him to throw money at dying courses.

The University’s chief has to make 12 per cent cuts across the board and, while we won’t agree with every decision he makes, stu-dents have to appreciate the task he has at hand.

However, it is right for Kingston students to bring the Vice Chancel-lor before us for questioning and it is right for students to query any decision they don’t agree with.

Professor Weinberg had the decency to give honest and frank answers during a Q & A session with the SU and students, even if he knew they wouldn’t like to hear them.

He’s signed up for Twitter re-cently too, so be sure to badger him at @juliusrwberg if you want to have your voice heard by the Vice Chancellor.

AS QUITE an irreligious bunch, The River newsteam try and keep their nose out of religious debate.

But we are aware of the impor-tance of faith in our incredibly mul-ticultural university, as Prof Wein-berg must be too.

The Vice Chancellor says that he considers religion just as impor-tant as sport or art, as they are all “activities” people engage in.

Sorry Prof Weinberg, but reli-gion isn’t something people do, it is something people’s lives revolve around.

It’s not as simple as, ‘If we can’t cut religion, we’ll have to cut child-care’, as he suggested.

Religion is an integral part of a person’s make-up and Kingston University should accommodate this, even if this means splash-ing cash on improving prayer room facilities.

The

Riverthinks: