Hannah Raine

Recently-Released minutes fRom an extraordinary meeting of Queen margaret university’s student Parliament show that the disciplinary action which ended with the sacking of union president Blain murphy w initiated by vice-president and former running-mate christie mcmonagle.

the governing body of Queen mar-garet university students’ union (Qmusu) voted 12-6 to support a no-confidence motion on the grounds that mr murphy had not fulfilled his responsibilities as president, at the meeting on 17 february.

evidence submitted in support of the motion claimed that mr murphy, who was a sabbatical officer being paid a salary of £15,779, exhibited a general lack of effort and poor timekeeping

skills. members of the student Parlia-ment also heard that on one occasion in early february, mr murphy took time off work due to illness, but that he attended a party that evening and that “pictures from facebook show [mr murphy] drunk and not ill.”

the minutes note that ms mcmona-gle “said she assumed, but admitted she had no evidence, that [mr murphy] was hungover after the super Bowl. [mr murphy] is known to be a fan of the super Bowl.”

in his defence, mr murphy claimed that he had been taking medication and had felt much better that evening.

it has also emerged that mr mur-phy had posted negative comments about the national union of students on facebook, around the time of last november’s student protests in

WWW.JouRnal-online.co.uK

edinBuRGH's student neWsPaPeR issue XlV Wednesday 9 maRcH 2011

ousted president Blain murphy claims christie mcmonagle "did not speak to him for five months" before she initiated disciplinary action

QMU VP sought presidential no-confidence vote

scottish universities fall behind by £200m a year

Lily PanamskyAcademic News Editor

scottisH uniVeRsities Will face an annual funding shortfall of £200 million beginning in 2014, official esti-mates suggest.

these numbers, released in early march, are the first official statistics to give an estimate of the scottish fund-ing gap. the scottish Government has argued that the actual gap would be just £93 million a year, if higher tuition fees for non-scottish uK students were introduced.

the government has proposed to

increase tuition fees for all uK students outside of scotland from the current £1,800 to £6,375 starting from 2012. additionally, as reported on page nine in this issue of The Journal, universities scotland has recommended introduc-ing tuition fees of £3,290 for scottish students.

last year, Westminster decided to increase english university tuition fees to anywhere between £6,000 and £9,000 following nation-wide education cuts.

While most high profile universi-ties will hover around the £9,000 mark, it has been suggested that the average tuition fees will be £7,500. this sparked

concerns that universities north of the Border would lag behind in funding and prestige.

education secretary mike Russell stated that £93 million, “is a significant amount of money but, critically, it is an amount that allows a political choice to be made. it is nothing like some of the ridiculous scare-story figures [being] bandied about.”

another proposal to bridge the scot-tish funding gap has been to introduce graduate contribution fees.

liam Burns, president of nus scotland, said: “over recent weeks we’ve heard doomsday scenarios from

university principals including threats to cut university places by 40 per cent next year.

“However, we can now see that some of these warnings have been nothing more than scaremongering, trying to bounce students, parents and politi-cians in scotland into reintroducing tuition fees into scotland.”

mr Burns remained optimistic that the funding gap could be solved without resorting to higher tuition fees or grad-uate contribution. a proposal from the scottish government on how to bridge the funding gap is expected in the next few weeks.

first official figures suggest a larger funding gap for scottish universities than expected

» 9Protests in Edinburgh as Universities UK urge the introduction of tuition fees in Scotland

Continued on Page 2

» 13IN NEWS >> 3

Art imitating life

Results revealed

IN NEWS >> 6/7

IN FILM >> 17

edinburgh’s students cast their votes and elect their sabbatical officers for the 2011/2012 academic year

can beleaguered microfinance pioneer muhammad yunus

and his Grameen Bank resist the Bangladeshi government's onslaught?

Yunus' reckoning

a new biopic presents a challenging re-examination of the life and work of Beat poet and literary legend alan Ginsberg

Walking the Beat

IN COMMENT >> 15

an investigation by The Journal reveals that as eca’s finances were crashing, senior staff pay increased

The internet: where humans dare to treadThe CEO of an Edinburgh social web startup tells The Journal how internet crowd-sourcing is redefining how we gather and intepret data

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011

BBC stick their red nose in as a part of their charities Week events, esca’s plans for comic Relief have drawn interest from the BBc

» 19» 8

2 News

this week in The Journal

For AdvErtiSiNg iNFormAtioN :call our sales department on 0131 651 6057 or email ads@journal-online.co.uk

Plans to align Britain with the european time zone has led to fears that scotland will be too dark in the mornings

Rage against the dying of the light london. despite mr murphy’s conten-

tion that this took place outside busi-ness hours, the chair informed him that “any negative comments against nus, even posted outside working hours, were not appropriate.”

ms mcmonagle told the meet-ing that she had expressed concerns about mr murphy’s performance toward the end of last year, but that the disciplinary panel did not con-vene until december. ms mcmonagle has since claimed that she was forced to take on additional work in order to complete mr murphy’s duties. this suggestion was disputed by mr mur-phy who claimed that she “did not speak to him for five months.”

as previously reported in The Journal, Qmu has been criticised by students for its handling of the dis-missal, particularly regarding a brief email received by all students and staff on 17 february informing them that he had been removed from office.

since mr murphy’s dismissal, Qmu students have been left largely in the dark about the reasons for his sacking. the former president was repeatedly approached for comment

by The Journal, but has declined to speak on the record. mhairi steele, chair of the student Parliament, said she “preferred not to comment”, while presidential candidates have refused to discuss mr murphy’s removal until after the present election.

during the extraordinary meeting, one member of the committee claimed that “most Qmu students do not know [mr murphy] is the student president.”

However, comments left on Qmu-su’s facebook page seem to suggest otherwise. one student wrote: “i think they should have let us decide as stu-dents, as we are the ones who selected him to be president. He was fun and approachable and everyone knew who he was.”

in line with the requirements of the Qmusu constitution, a by-elec-tion is to be held in order to elect a new president to serve out the rest of the semester, until the 2011/12 presi-dent takes office on 10 June. the union have also confirmed that only stu-dents not currently in full-time educa-tion will be eligible to stand for election as caretaker president.

By-election nominations will close on Thursday 24 March.

Qmu VP sought presidential no-confidence voteContinued from p1

» 23

england cling to hopes of icc World cup glory on the subcontinent - but just barely

England bale out?

The Journal is published by the edinburgh Journal ltd., registered address 37 Holyrood Road, edinburgh, eH8 8aQ. Registered in scotland number sc322146. for enquiries call 0131 651 6057 or email info@journal-online.co.uk. The Journal is a free newspaper for and written by students and graduates in the city of edinburgh. contact us if you’d like to get involved. Printed by morton’s Printers, lincolnshire. copyright © 2008 the edinburgh Journal ltd. elements of this publication are distributed under a creative commons license - contact us for more information. distributed by two Heads media, www.twoheadsmedia.co.uk. our thanks to PsyBt, scottish enterprise, and all who make this publication possible.

» 4

Penguin Cafearthur Jeffes' mob transcend genres with their special brand of infectious entropy

Jenny Kassner

eXtRemist Voices on university campuses must be engaged with and not margalized, a report from univer-sities uK (uuK) has urged.

uuK, a lobby group that represents university principals, claims that stu-dents need to be exposed to extremist views in order to challenge them.

the report was commissioned after it emerged that umar farouk abdul-mutallab, the man who attempted to blow up an northwest airlines flight in 2009, was a former member of the islamic society at university college london, although it was concluded that abdulmutallab had not been rad-icalized on campus.

the report is concerned with how universities can promote freedom of speech while protecting staff and student welfare. universities and stu-dent societies are to be seen as a safe place where students can express and test extremist views without harming other people in the process. it states:

“universities are open institu-tions where academic freedom and freedom of speech are fundamental to their functioning. Views expressed within universities, whether by staff, students or visitors, may sometimes appear to be extreme or even offen-sive. However, unless views can be expressed they cannot also be

challenged.” surveys carried out by uuK showed

that roughly half of institutions have faced difficulties with extremist speakers. most ideological difficulties were had when approached by British national Party (BnP) speakers.

the report has been endorsed by the federation of student islamic societies.

However, critics claim that it gives little guidance about how to identify and handle individuals with extrem-ist views and that students might not be equipped with the ability to iden-tify extremist speeches as such.

liam Burns, president of nus scot-land, said: “clearly it’s a delicate line to walk when inviting controversial speakers to campus, but our advice to students’ associations will always be that policies such as “no platform”, which excludes speakers who wish to incite fear and hatred from being invited into a students’ union, are ultimately in the best interest of their members.

“freedom of speech is a corner-stone of education, one we need to fight for. But we should never let this principal masquerade as an excuse to put fear into students on their own campus. in this regard, uuKs extrem-ism report is dangerous, misguided and naive.”

a “no platform” policy was rejected at edinburgh university students’ association aGm in november 2009.

universities urged to tackle extremismnus scotland criticises report by uuK that encourages engaging with extremist voices on campus

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Investigation 3

Marcus KernohanEditor-in-chief

senioR staff at the edinburgh college of art received large increases in pay and pensions even as the troubled art school’s finances deteriorated to near-bankruptcy, an investigation by The Journal has found.

financial records show that by the end of the 2008/09 financial year eca was left with only £16,000 cash in hand, next to debt liabilities totalling nearly £3 million.

the college is now set to merge with the university of edinburgh in august, after a damning inquiry by the scottish Government reported that financial mis-management had left eca close to col-lapse. education minister michael Russell told The Journal that “the financial situa-tion at the college should not have been allowed to develop and it points towards very significant weaknesses in eca’s inter-nal controls and governance structures at crucial stages in recent years.

“the scale of the financial difficulties at the college are such that even with an equivalent injection of funds to those being provided for the merger it would not be able to continue to operate to its cur-rent level and range of provision.

“i very much regret that these matters have overshadowed, and had a bearing on my decision.”

Beleaguered principal Professor ian Howard has now announced his inten-tion to retire a day before the merger takes effect, citing a desire to see a new princi-pal “take the college forward into a bright future.”

despite significant financial turmoil at eca, senior-level pay continued to increase even as the art school’s finances were failing. Prof Howard’s salary grew from £94,559 in 2005 to over £125,374 in 2009 – an average yearly increase of 5.8 per cent at a time when the college’s overall income was increasing at just 3 per cent, and its debt at twice that rate. His employer’s pen-sion contribution, meanwhile, increased by 48 per cent over five years, rising from £11,820 to £17,511.

a spokeswoman defended Prof How-ard’s pay deal, telling The Journal: “the Principal’s salary is determined by the college’s Remuneration committee on an agreed set of criteria covering both finan-cial and non-financial factors, and reflects salaries in the sector.”

the official also noted that Prof How-ard does not receive ancillary benefits, such as subsidised accommodation or a company car.

However, information obtained by The Journal shows that over a three-year period between 2007 and 2009, Prof How-ard made extensive use of an eca expense account, charging over £17,000 to his col-lege credit card. the documents seen by The Journal did not detail the nature of specific charges, but show that the larg-est single transaction totalled £2,556.25 in february 2008. the college refused to clarify the nature of this expense.

challenged on these expenditures, eca’s spokeswoman said: “We continu-ously review in detail the expenses of senior staff and we are satisfied as to the validity and necessity of these expenses.

“in light of [Prof Howard’s] role as an ambassador for the college, the level of expenditure is considered reasonable.”

at the same time, there have been reports of cuts to estates services at the college’s lauriston Place campus, with

students becoming increasingly frustrated by declining standards of campus cleanli-ness and limited out-of-hours access to buildings, including studio space.

in an emailed response to the com-plaints, sent to students by union presi-dent francesca miller in mid-february, students were informed that the college had decided to recruit eight students to work as part-time cleaners on a tempo-rary basis. she went on to say that “the students will be paid by the college to clean studios and corridors, working part-time two to three days a week for the next three weeks.”

speaking to The Journal, ms miller defended the use of students as clean-ers as a stop-gap measure, saying that the union “would rather students were employed over contract cleaners as we see a constant stream of students looking for jobs.”

it is understood that since november the college has sought to reduce its staff-ing budget by £1 million, and that univer-sity of edinburgh cleaning staff are now being used at eca’s campus. However, ms miller confirmed that “we are currently of the understanding that the college has not yet reached the £1 million target, and so more cuts are to come.”

she went on to condemn eca manage-ment for their handling of the cuts, saying that she was “unsure as to why the man-agement did not foresee problems” with the staff cuts, and that the union “would encourage the college management to con-sider the impact of all upcoming decisions regarding staff cuts with greater attention

to detail.” the college’s accounts show a worry-

ing pattern of financial decline over a five year period, with the most pronounced deterioration taking place since 2007. an analysis of eca’s balance sheets from 2004/05 to 2008/09 (the most recent avail-able filing) shows that, on average, annual expenditure was increasing at twice the rate of income. By the end of the 2009 financial year, staff costs had increased to 72 per cent of annual income.

eca would not disclose exact salary information for senior officials other than Prof Howard, but annual reports show that the number of employees being paid over £70,000 a year – the highest salary band – rose from just one in 2006 to four in 2009.

the institution is shown to have expe-rienced a major cash flow crisis, evidenced by a disastrous reduction in its liquidity. in 2005, eca held cash reserves of £804,000, but over five years that figure dwindled to just £16,000; an average decrease of 54 per cent a year.

eca officials described the reduction as “a reflection of capital expenditure incurred during an extended period of estates rationalisation.”

the college’s debt, meanwhile, has spi-ralled out of control. the art school’s end-of-year reports show that in mid-2005 they were already facing debts of £1.5 mil-lion. By the end of the 2008/09 financial

year, this liability had increased to £2.7 million. in that year alone, its debt rose by some £700,000.

these figures refer only to debt falling due in the coming financial year – the col-lege’s longer term debt by the middle of 2009 stood at just over £13 million. this is largely connected to the controversial purchase in 2006 of the evolution House building on West Port, in edinburgh’s Grassmarket area.

eca secured an £11.5 million loan from lloyds bank to partially fund the acquisi-tion, and borrowed a further £1.5 million from the college’s endowment fund. But a report in the Sunday Herald last october revealed that, despite college administra-tors pouring £21 million into the purchase and refurbishment of the building, it was recently valued at just half that sum.

the merger deal, which is currently awaiting final approval from the scottish Parliament, includes a £14 million cash infusion from the scottish funding coun-cil. it is predicted that much of this sum will be spent relieving eca’s debt burden.

details about the precise mechanics of the merger are still scarce, but gov-ernment figures have expressed a desire to see the art school’s collegial identity preserved. mr Russell said that he had “made clear that i regard the universi-ty’s expressed commitment to preserve the identity of the college and its ethos and studio-based culture as binding.”

eca: Painting over the cracks

Read more news online @ www.journal-online.co.uk

Northern Lights seen over Scotlandscots witnessed an impressive celestial spectacle in the highlands

Fall in teenage pregnanciesReports suggest the number of teenage pregnancies in the uK have dropped, but final targets have not yet been met

as staff cuts force edinburgh college of art to start employing students as cleaners, an investigation by The Journal reveals that senior-level pay rocketed while the college's finances were in freefall

An institution in decline?ECA's debt stacks up

Longer term debt Cash in handDebt due within

one year

The purchase of Evolu-tion House (left) in 2006 has caused major problems for ECA

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011

Aleksandra Jurczak

tHe dayliGHt saVinG Bill, which passed its second reading at the House of commons in december last year, would put the British time one hour in the summer and two hours in the winter ahead of Greenwich mean time (Gmt).

the Bill will now be scrutinised by the Public Bill committee. the change would mean the British summer time (Bst) is maintained for winter and a “double summertime” applied in the summer months.

in such circumstances, in John o’Groats, the most northern point of mainland Britain, the sun would not set until after 11 pm in mid-summer but it would not rise until 10 am in mid-winter. one scottish argument against the notion is that darker mornings will mean more dangerous trips to schools for children.

a scottish Government spokesman said: “changing the current system of daylight saving would adversely affect scotland, which is why we oppose it.

“the impact would be felt by rural communities and outdoor workers and businesses, while reduced daylight between 8 am and 9 am in scotland could potentially increase the danger for children travelling to school in the dark.”

However, a report by dr mayer Hill-man of the Policy studies institute points out that road crashes are more likely to occur during the evening peak and extending the daylight hours would actually result in reduction in road accidents in scotland.

the report also finds that in scot-land, the change would mean that chil-dren would gain about 200 daylight hours yearly, with roughly half of these falling on school days, whilst adults in nine-to-five-employment would earn almost 300 additional hours of daylight per year.

the plans to change the uK time were made to improve tourism. mal-colm Roughead, chief executive of Vis-itscotland, told The Journal: “We wel-come the debate on daylight saving and what the potential changes could mean for scottish tourism.

“However, we also appreciate that this is not just about tourism and that there are wider concerns surround-ing the proposals. We will continue to seek the views of scottish tourism busi-nesses on daylight saving.”

the change was made twice in the past, first during World War ii to maximise productivity in factories and ensure people got home safely before the blackout, and again between 1968 and 1971. that time it ended with complaints in scotland and northern england, many related to an increased number of deaths on the roads dur-ing dark mornings. david cameron is said to only approve the plan if it is clear that it is supported by the British citizens.

However, a scottish Government spokesman told The Journal: “the Rural affairs secretary Richard loch-head has previously written to the uK environment and Rural affairs min-ister to make his concerns clear, and received reassurances that the uK gov-ernment had no plans to review current arrangements.”

4 General News

Beyond EdinburghStudents at Uppsala University in Sweden had the opportunity to listen to the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Benny Dagan, at a talk held on 24 February.

the controversial speaker was there by invitation from the foreign Politics society, and emotions ran high from the start. a young man from communist Rev-olutionary youth interrupted the ambassador almost immediately by shouting “mr dagan, go home! you are not welcome in uppsala!” and was subsequently escorted out. after the disruption the talk went on to discuss israel’s economy, the recent events in egypt and the ever-present peace process with the Pales-tinians. mr dagan said the two-state solution was the obvious answer, but that it needs to be two states for the two peoples, with israel as a Jewish nation.

The Cambridge Student reports that the police arrested two students who had taken part in a peaceful demonstration against the educational cuts on 24 February.

after they had returned to King’s col-lege the police entered through the main gates and arrested one of the students. as his friend tried to inter-vene he was pepper-sprayed and also arrested. the college Porters repeat-edly told the officers to leave; as col-lege grounds are private property police are only allowed to enter if there is a serious incident. Rahul mansigani, cusu President, was quoted saying: “this is an unac-ceptably disproportionate action: we condemn not only the violence used, but the contempt that police showed towards the college, and that they constantly show towards our students.”

The University of St Andrews launched its 600th anniversary on February 25, with His Royal Highness Prince William and his fiancée Kate Middleton attending the ceremony.

the visit marked the couple’s first official engagement in scotland, and they were also able to fit in a pri-vate reception with university offi-cials. from there they paid a visit to the museum of the university of st andrews where they viewed the last surviving Papal Bull, issued in 1413 by Pope Benedict Xiii, granting st andrews university status. the Prince was quoted saying the visit was like coming home, and he also spoke to some of the students. two third-years told The Saint, the university’s student paper, that he had told them “less drinking, more dinner parties”, and the couple was described as being lovely and very friendly.

By amanda svensson falk

new daylight saving scheme is opposed by scotsPlans to move British clocks forward meet scottish disapproval over fears of a rise in traffic accidents during dark mornings

Breakthrough in breast cancer researchHopeful scientists believe the discovery of a key enzyme could mean improved treatment of breast cancer

Leighton Craig

a siGnificant deVeloPment in the treatment of breast cancer has been made as scientists have discovered that blocking a key enzyme could prevent it spreading to other organs.

in studies published on 22 febru-ary, the institute of cancer Research (icR) found that the action of a specific enzyme is involved in allowing breast cancer cells to progress to other parts of the body.

dr caitlin Palframan, senior

information and policy officer at Break-through Breast cancer said: “although this research is in the early stages, it raises the exciting prospect of a new target for breast cancer treatment. if further research in the clinic supports these results, it could allow for the development of further tools to help reach our goal of a future free from the fear of breast cancer.”

the findings, published in the jour-nal cancer Research, show that the enzyme lysyl oxidase-like 2 (loXl2) is required in order to allow cancer cells to travel to distant organs.

significantly, it was found that there was a direct relation between blocking the function of loXl2 and a decrease in cancer spreading from the breast to the lungs, liver and bone.

icR researchers found that loXl2 allows cancer to spread by dictating the amount of two types of molecules, named timP1 and mmP9, which have previously been shown to play a part in the process.

although more research is required, scientists believe that a drug designed to stop loXl2 could be used in order to treat women with advanced breast

cancer. the latest figures published by

the charity cancer Research uK have shown that breast cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the uK with around 46,000 new cases being diagnosed each year.

loXl2 has also been linked to other types of cancer, including oesophageal and colon, meaning the findings could be significant in the treatment of these other forms of the disease.

The proposals may have a negative impact on rural communities

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WINTERTIME

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Local News 5

Liam Bolton

in a moVe to improve regional ser-vices in scotland, network Rail has set decentralised plans in place for april this year.

the plans come in response to recent customer complaints which cite communication and delays as major problems during the extreme winter weather. it is hoped that devolving power to local operators will improve operating services and reduce business costs.

these plans come as a relative shock despite the fact that plans to decen-tralise power have been discussed since autumn; experts were not expecting implementation by network Rail until 2012.

the government-created firm cur-rently owns and operates most of Great Britain’s rail infrastructure, managing 18 of the largest and busiest railway stations in the uK.

david Higgins, who took over as chief executive of network rail earlier this month, said: “We’re devolving account-ability to the route level so that we can get closer to our customers and be in a better position to deliver improvements to passengers and freight users, while reducing costs.

“each new route managing direc-tor will, in effect, be running their

own infrastructure railway business with significant annual turnover and resources.”

network Rail will transfer respon-sibility from the company to route managing directors who will manage their own infrastructure. the move will enable route directors to make deci-sions about rail maintenance, safety, operations and customer service matters.

the programme will preliminarily focus on scotland and Wessex, which matches the lines operated by south West trains from london to surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire and dorset.

the initial programme will be used to pilot the new structure and its suc-cess will determine whether the other seven routes in the uK will follow the devolution process.

during the extreme winter weather, network Rail failed to deliver suffi-cient information to customers at edin-burgh’s Waverley station. furthermore, over christmas, significant delays meant that only 81 per cent of trains ran on time in scotland.

last year, tom Winsor, who was the uK’s rail regulator for five years, described network Rail as a “beast ripe for slaughter.” He urged the new Gov-ernment to take radical steps towards railway reform, by breaking up net-work Rail to form regional companies who were more responsive to customer demands and needs.

Melissa WongLocal News Editor

maRcH maRKs a month of raising money for and awareness about one of the most deadly cancers affecting women in Britain.

ovarian cancer claims the lives of around 4,400 British women every year. in the uK, around 6,600 women are diagnosed with the disease and, on average, only a third of those diagnosed will survive. this makes ovarian can-cer the highest gynaecological cause of deaths in the country.

dr cameron martin, consultant gynaecologist at the Royal infirmary of edinburgh for the edinburgh, lothian and Borders region, said: “if women present ovarian cancer in the early stages, there’s a very high chance of cure.

“We see around 150 patients with ovarian cancer every year. the incidence of the disease is around one in 10,000 to 11,000 so it’s comparatively rare, none-theless, because of the way it presents, most women who have ovarian cancer won’t survive because they often pres-ent late.

“When you’re diagnosed with ovar-ian cancer, 70 per cent of patients will be dead in five years.”

the eve appeal, an organisation which supports research into gynae-cological cancer, is launching a ‘make time for tea’ campaign for ovarian cancer awareness month.

Hannah noble, fundraising man-ager of the eve appeal, said: “‘make time for tea’ is an annual campaign that we hold throughout ovarian can-cer awareness month in march and ask people from all over the uK to organise tea parties.

“it’s something that can be done at school with staff and students, people at work or with friends and family. it’s an all-inclusive campaign and we’re asking people to have a cup of tea, some

cake and raise some funds and aware-ness for the eve appeal.”

the campaign was created because the eve appeal, abbreviated t.e.a, links Britain’s popular brew with ovarian cancer. Research institutes in sweden and america have developed theories stating that women who drink at least two cups of black tea a day may reduce their risks of developing ovarian cancer by about thirty percent.

currently, there are not effec-tive methods of screening for ovarian

cancer and it cannot be identified by smear tests. the uK has a poor survival record and is currently rated seventh for ovarian cancer cases and mortality rates in europe.

If you are interested in arranging your own tea party for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and a chance to win afternoon tea with Lorraine Kelly, please visit The Eve Appeal website on http://www.eveappeal.org.uk/make-time-for-tea.aspx

Rose street to be revamped

Alex Thompson

PRince cHaRles’ aRcHitectuRal charity is drawing up plans to revamp Rose street after it was accused of look-ing “unloved”.

Rose street is a prominent attrac-tion for rowdy pub crawls and stag nights. the Prince’s foundation for the Built environment looks set to reinstate Rose street, as a pedestrian friendly road, by controlling traffic and bringing business back to redundant buildings.

set up in 1998 by Prince charles, the charity helps regenerate towns and cit-ies and assists in the design and plan-ning of new communities.

a spokesperson for the foundation said: “the foundation uses an enquiry

by design approach, which is a com-munity engagement mechanism to discover exactly what local people and stakeholders require from the area.”

she added: “We hope that by listen-ing to businesses, residents and citi-zens and by paying some much needed care and attention to Rose street, we might help to restore some of its leg-endary appeal.”

With the charity’s assistance, Rose street will host regular street markets and festival events and its transforma-tion will include new floral arrange-ments, a light display and a clean-up of ‘clutter’.

Rose street is not the only area to get a facelift. urban design consul-tants Gehl architects have been com-missioned by the city council to advise

necessary improvements to the city centre to decrease traffic and reinforce a more people-friendly approach. their report ‘edinburgh revisited: Public space, Public life’ sets out a vision for a ‘vibrant, liveable city centre’.

Gehl director david sim said: “Princes street is effectively scotland’s high street and should be a flagship for the whole country but it is a disap-pointment. our research found there had been a 50 per cent drop in the num-bers of people going there over the last ten years.”

He said there should be a “cul-tural change in how Princes street is used, with pubs, cafés and restaurants opened up to give it life at night-time, temporary closures for special events and more cyclists instead of buses.”

network Rail to hand power to regional operatorsin response to customer demands, the uK rail operator announces plans to devolve power to regional operators in scotland

'unloved' street in edinburgh is being renovated by Prince charles' architectural charity

edinburgh takes action for ovarian cancerstudy suggests drinking two cups of tea a day could prevent cancer with high mortality rate

Read more news online @ www.journal-online.co.ukScottish government grants Edinburgh Trams ten year extensiontram network in scotland's capital has been given an extension on land to continue project

Vistor numbers for Botanics on the riseedinburgh's botanical research establishment says visitor numbers are up after development of the John Hope Gateway

Lorraine Kelly is the face of the Eve Appeal's new campaign

EvE AppEAl

John GrEy TurnEr

Network Rail were criticised for service failures last winter

The JournalWednesday 9 march 20116 Student Politics

Tommy McCallum

micHael Bottom Has been elected president of Heriot-Watt university stu-dents’ union (HWusu), beating his oppo-nent Paul murphy by 705 votes to 493. mr murphy was, however, elected to be an nus scotland delegate. mike Ross, mean-while, ran unopposed and was elected senior Vice President with 1007 votes.

Ross mcKechnie, also unopposed, was elected secretary of the union with 894 votes. Poor turnout at the election for Vice President (scottish Borders campus) saw Katie Barr elected with just 65 votes - a majority of just 32 over her opponent emma Pellegrini.

low turnout was a problem across the election, with the highest turnout for any single race hovering around 10 per cent of the total student body.

Recent months have been difficult for

HWusu: in september, university officials ordered the union building closed amid concerns over its financial viability.

the election comes as financial pres-sures have forced Heriot-Watt univer-sity to postpone construction of its new accommodation building, which was due to begin last month. Building on the devel-opment was due to begin at the end of feb-ruary, but financial pressures have forced the university to postpone the project until later this year.

a spokesman told The Journal: “Heriot-Watt is committed to the scottish Borders campus, and to the development of new university residences in Galashiels.

“However, given current uncertainties relating to the uK and global economy and discussions relating to university funding, it is considered that it would be prudent to undertake this development in phases.”

the £26 million project is intended to rejuvenate the ageing residential blocks on two of Heriot-Watt’s scottish campuses.

the university plans to replace the exist-ing 1970s accommodation - nicknamed “the ghetto” - with state of the art modern facilities, including en-suite facilities in every room and open space for students to socialise.

Peter Kerr, director of estates for the university, said: “these new residences, the latest phase of the university’s dynamic programme of investment to upgrade its estate, will be a major improvement to our student residences provision.

“they will replace buildings which are reaching the end of their useful lifespan with modern, attractive and welcoming accommodation with generous space standards and facilities, which are at the leading edge of market expectations.”

the first phase of the project, which will provide 218 bed spaces, is now expected to begin in april. the second phase of the project has not yet been scheduled.

HWusu elects president as building plans are postponedmichael Bottom elected with 200 majority as university officials announce temporary suspension of new campus development

Jessica AbrahamsStudent News Editor

liam BuRns, PResident of nus scotland, has announced his candidacy in the forthcoming nus presidential elections following aaron Porter’s deci-sion to step down.

it recently emerged that current presi-dent mr Porter would not be seeking re-election this april, making him only the second president since 1969 not to serve a second term. the decision comes amid claims that the nus leadership has lost touch with the student voice over the issue of tuition fees.

criticism of mr Porter increased after he publicly denounced violence during student protests and was slow to sup-port university sit-ins, at one point finding himself the target of threats of violence at a rally in January.

the announcement that he would be stepping down came just days after his re-election manifesto was leaked, which

included claims of a “record breaking year” in the history of nus.

Writing in the Guardian, mr Porter said: “the last year has been an incredible one for young people and for the national union of students […] as a group we kick-started the resistance to the government’s cuts agenda that came from all quarters. it is a campaign that i am proud to have been involved in […]

“unfortunately, attempts to discredit the movement by those who stand to gain by splitting us have threatened to do just that and the politics of personal attacks threaten to turn the campaign inward at a time when our resilience must be at its highest.”

two prominent figures in the national union of students have announced they will be standing for the position: shane cowen, who is currently vice-president, and liam Burns.

mr Burns initially won his place as president of nus scotland in 2009 by a coin toss after elections ended in a tie

draw. He was re-elected in 2010 with a strong majority.

mr Burns said: “since november 10, we’ve lacked direction. We’ve allowed ourselves to become wound up in pain-fully insular, divisive arguments […] i am standing because we can no longer afford to waste time arguing amongst ourselves when people across all walks of life are starting to feel the full effects of the gov-ernment’s cuts.”

mr Burns, who is in favour of a gradu-ate tax proportional to earnings above a certain threshold, has already received support from liz Rawlings, president of edinburgh university students’ associa-tion. mr cowen and mr Burns are joined in their candidacy by mark Bergfeld, spokesman for the education activist network and member of nus’ national executive council, and thomas Byrne, co-founder of ‘students for tuition fee Reform’.

nus presidential electionsaaron Porter steps down as nus President as liam Burns announces his candidacy for the position

Student elections

QMU candidatesMelvin Henley

melvin is a member of the student Parliament and if elected he promises to continue pursuing matters which are important to students. as an international student, melvin feels that he will address the needs of the inter-national student body and increase their involvement with the student union. melvin wants to increase partici-pation in extra-curricular activities such as societies and volunteering and even has plans for a second fresher’s week at the beginning of semester two. finally, melvin hopes to improve communication with students includ-

ing an up-to-date website and ‘open door’ policy amongst others. “i want to help make the university a better place for students, those that live

on campus or off and further enrich the student experience as much as possible. if elected i will strive hard to ensure that the issues which affects you (students) or which give rise to concern are addressed and resolved. i will be responsible for rep-resenting you, the students, through the various committees and representational systems in place and will do my utmost to assists through my role”

Ektor Tsatsoulisektor is a postgraduate student of arts and cultural management. His previous roles have included mar-keting and communication officer at the union, mem-ber of the student Parliament, union officer and a class rep. His main aim is to bring students back to the union and improve the services within maggie’s Bar and the union offices. His proposed agenda includes new events at maggie’s Bar for all students, special promotions, improving communication with students (via facebook, Qmu radio etc). finally, he plans to introduce an ‘open

door’ policy and effectively represent and promote the interests of the union at nus and the university.

“Vote for me cause we can do it harder, better, faster, stronger! i have a VP and four officers running as a team and we have a strategic plan to revive the union. i believe that the union should be a part of the student’s everyday life, and we plan to make it so.”

Michael Breckenridge michael is a third year events management student so knows how to throw a good party! if elected, michael would represent students in the best way and make sure that the views and opinions of the student body are heard, both within Queen margaret and further afield. first on michael’s agenda is to give the rather dated students’ union bar a ‘makeover’ and he has big plans to get the students of Queen margaret back to the union, with events running during the day throughout the year. michael believes that by strengthening the

Qmu ‘community’ and promoting positive student spirit he will deliver a union the students will be proud of! you can follow michael’s campaign on facebook or twitter (@su_breckenridge).

“‘michael Breckenridge - the best thing since The King’s Speech!’ i believe i can really make a difference that will benefit Qmu and make it a better place to be a student. i believe this is a time for change and that we need a strong president who can bring about reform and represent you the way you want to be represented.”

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The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Student Politics 7

Marcus KernohanEditor-in-chief

fouRtH-yeaR socioloGy student and current welfare convener matt mcPherson was elected president of edinburgh university students’ associa-tion (eusa) last week in a close race for the top sabbatical job. seven candidates contested the position, in an election which saw over 7,000 students vote – but at around 25 per cent turnout was slightly down compared to last year.

speaking shortly after his election, mr mcPherson told The Journal: “i think the toughest thing about this race was not only that there were seven different candi-dates running, but that there were divides in our student politics which were not representative of any such divides in our student body.

“We’re one university, and we’re one union, and i’ll represent every single one of the 27,000 students here.”

mr mcPherson is joined on the 2011/12 sabbatical team by Philippa faulkner as Vice President services; emma meehan as Vice President societies & activities and mike Williamson as Vice President aca-demic affairs.

mr Williamson’s victory was the most successful race for the anti-cuts defend edinburgh slate, which won 15 out 31 seats contested by its candidates. How-ever, the alliance faced defeat in the tight presidential race when James mcash lost out to mr mcPherson by a slim margin in the sixth round of voting.

asked about his defeat, mr mcash said: “i really enjoyed the campaign, and i feel quite pleased that i got so many votes. i’d quite like to have won, but i don’t see it as the end of the world.”

mr mcPherson and mr mcash clashed repeatedly during the campaign on the subject of higher education funding. the president-elect has been vocal in his sup-port for a graduate contribution in scot-land, but defend edinburgh have taken a vigorous stance in favour of continued free education.

speaking to The Journal, mr William-son expressed disappointment at his running mate’s defeat. “i’m obviously gut-ted,” he said, “i’ve been campaigning with mcash for a long time.”

He also suggested that the gradu-ate contribution issue could be a stick-ing point for the new sabbatical officers, saying: “if anything about cutting higher education comes up, i think matt and i are going to be at loggerheads, because i fun-damentally disagree with him.”

mr mcPherson denied claims that political disagreements at the sabbati-cal level would impact eusa’s ability to represent students effectively. “of course i’m concerned,” he said. “But if there are no divides and no disagreements within a sabb team, how can you actually expect good ideas to come out and progress to be made in one direction?

“We need clear leadership and clear direction, and that’s not about everyone doing the same thing.”

it is expected that defend edinburgh will continue as a force in eusa politics. Graham smith, one of the slate’s archi-tects, told The Journal: “it’s clear that there is a demand amongst the student body for reps that will fight for free, fair, funded higher education, and we will continue to campaign for it both inside and outside eusa. you’ll see us next year!”

mr smith contested the position of academic services convener, but was defeated by Hugh murdoch.

VPsa-elect ms meehan, a third-year english literature student, won by a mar-gin of around 1000 votes over rivals Har-riet Page and anna forrest, expressing great surprise at such a significant vic-tory. “i definitely didn’t expect that much of a win,” she said, “Harriet and anna were both really good candidates.”

incoming VPs Philippa faulkner, mean-while, was keen to defend her manifesto’s achievability. the fourth year biology stu-dent told The Journal: “my manifesto was a combination of very achievable and very aspirational things. i am con-fident that i can deliver on a lot of the things i promised.”

mcPherson elected eusa president in close seven-candidate racea divided sabbatical team emerges from a hard-fought election at edinburgh university

Student elections

Vice President Services

Vice President Academic Affairs

Vice President Societies & Activities

Presidential Election Results

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011

Sophie Marion de Procé

tHe neW BuildinG for the Roslin institute of the university of edinburgh is soon to open its doors, after three years of construction on the easter Bush campus.

the vision for the easter Bush cam-pus was to create a world-class centre for animal health care education and research. the new building has just been completed by the employee-owned architecture firm HdR.

the £60 million building will host the Roslin institute as well as the scottish agricultural college and the university’s Royal Veterinary school, accommodat-ing around 460 members of staff.

in line with the genetic components in some of the research groups, the building’s design was inspired by the shape of a chromosome. to achieve this, on both upper floors, strands of labora-tory facilities are combined with strands of office space, linked by meeting rooms, social space and transit routes.

the colourful, modern building gives

out a feeling of spaciousness and light through open plan rooms and large win-dows. the nearby dick Vet community garden, featured on the Beechgrove Gar-den BBc show, should provide an area to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

inside the building complex, a 250-seat auditorium is supported by four seminar and conference rooms, a res-taurant, appropriately named ‘dolly’s’, a library, and freezer archive.

the minimal use of infrastructure contributed to push down the cost but means that the main challenge for its users will be to change to an open plan shared work environment, in both laboratories and offices. this should be eased by state of the art acoustic design elements minimising excess noise.

the offices will not be air-condi-tioned, since their open plan design allows natural ventilation.

the building is nearly ready to wel-come the research groups, and the move of all laboratory equipment and staff from previous buildings should be over by the beginning of april.

new Roslin building design unveiledWorld-class centre for animal health research soon to open its doors

8 Academic News

facebook friends cause real-life stress

Caroline Nguyen

a HiGH numBeR of facebook friends increases the likelihood of nega-tive facebook-related psychological effects, an edinburgh napier univer-sity study has revealed.

a team of psychologists found that of 175 participants surveyed, 12 per cent reported that facebook made them feel anxious. on average, these users had 117 friends each. the remaining 88 per cent of the participants, who did not experience facebook-related anxi-ety, had only 75 friends on average.

dr Kathy charles, who led the study, said: “our data […] suggests that there is a significant minority of users who experience considerable facebook-related anxiety.

“We found it was actually those with the most contacts, those who had invested the most time in the site, who were the ones most likely to be stressed.”

the results of the study may indi-cate that a greater amount of friends leads to more pressures to “be inven-tive and entertain”, which leads to

negative psychological consequences. “it’s like being a mini news channel

about yourself”, said dr charles. “the more people you have the more you feel there is an audience there. you are almost a mini celebrity and the big-ger the audience the more pressure you feel to produce something about yourself.”

further, the choice to withdraw from facebook if it is causing a user stress, is itself accompanied by feel-ings of anxiety. the site now has over 500 million users worldwide.

“many also told us they were anx-ious about withdrawing from the site for fear of missing important social information or offending contacts.

“like gambling, facebook keeps users in a neurotic limbo, not knowing whether they should hang on in there just in case they miss out on something good.”

dr charles also cited “feelings of exclusion”, “having to use appropri-ate etiquette for different types of ‘friends’” and “paranoia or envy of oth-ers’ lifestyles” as other forms of face-book-related psychological tension.

an edinburgh napier university study links stress levels to the number of friends you have on facebook

hDr

DAviD sElby

Read more news online @ www.journal-online.co.ukEarth sphere to complete National Museum of Scotland redevelopmentGiant sphere will be the centrepiece of the new Restless earth gallery

Edinburgh vice-principal in slam poetry triumphyoung dawkins, the uofe chief fundraiser, is crowned national champion at the scottish slam Poetry championships

Italian postgrad receives scholarship boostitalian postgrad scholarship scheme created with the help of nicola Benedetti

Hannah Raine

edinBuRGH scientists aRe the masterminds behind a new colour-changing label that can tell us when our food is going off.

the new invention, produced by Pete Higgins and dr Will shu from the school of engineering and Physical sci-ences at Heriot-Watt university, has been shortlisted for the prestigious John logie Baird award.

the use Within (uWi) label, which the team have been researching for three years, can be placed at the side of a jar of food and will change colour when it is unsafe to eat.

mr Higgins is one of six inventors who made it through to the final round for the John logie Baird award. He commented on what makes his label the only one of its kind, saying: “it is the only item that activates a time device when something is opened. i can’t explain the secret behind it because our patent is pending, but it works through a chemical solution.”

Higgins also revealed that he has found a manufacturer and claims that the label could even be on supermarket shelves by the end of the year. the label can also be used on medicines and cos-metics such as mascara which have a limited shelf life.

the new invention could also help reduce the amount of food which we throw away each year. statistics from the Waste and Resources action Pro-gramme (WRaP) campaign ‘love food, Hate Waste’ reveal that “8.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away by uK households every year”.

WRaP also claim that if we reduced the amount of food we throw away that could have been eaten “the co2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road”.

new invention will tell you when your food has gone offa new smart label could be on supermarket shelves by the end of the year

Facebook anxiety increases with the number of friends you have

The £80 million building at Easter Bush will house over 400 staff

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Student News 9

esca hosts comic Relief extravaganza

Polly Dallyn

BBc scotland Has expressed inter-est in covering an event organised by edinburgh university students in aid of comic Relief, which hopes to raise over £1,000 in the run up to Red nose day.

‘the Big Red Variety show’, run by edinburgh students charities appeal (esca), will showcase talent from a wide selection of the university of edinburgh’s performing societies. the show includes two fringe favourites, the improverts and the edinburgh Revue, alongside singing, dancing and juggling acts.

tabby Gould, esca deputy fund-raising coordinator and organiser of the event, told The Journal: “comic Relief is such a massive event and esca are really excited to be involved for the first time.

“the combination of societies will really bring together the best of edinburgh’s home grown talents, all for an amazing cause. With any luck,

the show’s popularity will grow and become a major event in the university of edinburgh social calendar.”

other acts performing include the Rock Gospel choir and Barbershop society. BBc scotland has suggested it might be interested in broadcasting the event, bringing widespread recognition to the university societies involved.

ms Gould said: “if we can get BBc coverage and get lots of people attend-ing this event it has the potential to bring students all over edinburgh together in a unique event.”

comic Relief was founded 25 years ago to fund grassroot projects tackling poverty and social injustice in the uK and abroad. it has raised £650 million to date which has been put to work in 76 countries.

esca is an independent student charity which runs a number of events throughout the year including the meadows marathon and sponsored hitch-hikes to Paris and dublin. last year esca raised over £70,000 for charity, including children in need,

Waverley care and scottish love and action.

the Big Red Variety show will be held on 15 march in teviot’s debating

Hall from 7:30pm. tickets are £4 for students in advance or £5 on the door, and are available from the teviot book-ing office and online.

BBc scotland may broadcast edinburgh university societies in variety show performance

nus scotland plans edinburgh demo

Imogen Block

nus scotland Has organised a dem-onstration through edinburgh on 22 march, calling on the scottish Parlia-ment to invest in education.

the demonstration, part of the ‘Reclaim your Voice’ campaign, is aimed at securing scotland’s tuition fee free education, protecting the number of graduate and college places available, and improving student support for the poorest students.

it is planned to coincide with the last working day of the scottish Parlia-ment and follows recent calls to intro-duce tuition fees in scotland, including a leaked report from universities scot-land and a submission to parliament by lobby group cBi.

liam Burns, president of nus scot-land, said: “We’ve seen how students have been let down and betrayed in the rest of the uK. millions of people invested their trust and their votes only to see their trust entirely undermined.

“the scottish Parliament elections are a chance for students to reclaim their voice and to ensure candidates, hoping to get elected, listen. However, it’s also a chance for the scottish Parlia-ment to reclaim its voice, and to choose a different way to the astronomical tuition fees and spending cuts we’ve seen in the rest of the uK.”

students from across scotland are expected to attend the demonstration. several students’ associations, includ-ing aberdeen and strathclyde, have booked transport to enable students to travel to the event. Paper petitions have also been circulated.

a spokesperson for nus scotland told The Journal: “msPs may claim they will not introduce fees only to change their mind when elected. the aim of the demonstration is to ensure msPs hold their feet to the fire once the elections are over with.”

nus scotland said they were not concerned about the levels of violence seen at demonstrations south of the border. the spokesperson continued: “our concern is the safety of those stu-dents who wish to demonstrate. We are doing a lot of work with the council to ensure this safety.”

four days later, on 26 march, the trades union congress will be holding a national demonstration in london against further cuts, which is set to be one of the biggest demonstrations seen so far.

edinburgh’s protest will begin at 1pm at Johnston Place on the Royal mile. from there, students will march down to the scottish Parliament to hold a rally.

students will march to the scottish Parliament on 22 march, demanding investment in education

Kathryn Richardson

scottisH students aRe facing the possibility of tuition fees after a leaked report from universities scot-land recommended their introduction and lobby group cBi have said fees will become necessary.

the scottish Government has repeat-edly promised that tuition fees are not an option, the only definite assurance given by their higher education funding Green Paper at the end of last year.

However, a leaked report from uni-versities scotland has recommended introducing tuition fees at scottish uni-versities fixed at £3,290, similar to the current level in england, bringing the cost of a four-year degree to £13,000.

universities scotland has been clear that it will not be possible to maintain free higher education in scotland but had previously been backing a graduate contribution. two previous attempts to introduce fees in scotland were unsuc-cessful. £2,000 a year fees were imple-mented between 1998 and 2000 and a one-off graduate endowment fee of £2,000 in 2008 was also dropped.

the main concern is that up-front, fixed tuition fees will affect the acces-sibility of higher education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

However, it was recently estimated by a panel of expert economists that scottish universities will be left with a funding deficit of £200 million

compared to their english counter-parts, following the rise in fees south of the Border.

following the report, cBi, the uK’s leading business lobby group, have also submitted a proposal to the scot-tish Government in support of tuition fees. they claim that the average gradu-ate will earn around £160,000 more over their lifetime than non-gradu-ates so that university will remain a worthwhile option for disadvantaged students.

iain mcmillan, director of cBi scot-land, told The Journal: “if our universi-ties are to remain internationally com-petitive and continue to deliver high standards of teaching and research to a significant number of scottish stu-dents, then it is reasonable to expect graduates to make a financial contri-bution once their salaries have passed above a £21,000 per annum threshold.”

the snP maintains that the funding gap will not be as high as £200 million, claiming that they can make up funds by charging higher tuition to english students. they have estimated the gap could be as low as £93 million.

liam Burns, president of nus scot-land, said: “While there is a funding gap, it can certainly be bridged without resorting to charging people for their education, through tuition fees or a graduate contribution.

“We now need to move on from the constant debate over fees or not. We’ll now be asking all political parties to

commit to ruling out tuition fees, to maintaining graduate numbers and to improving student support in scotland.”

the snP and scottish labour party

have both ruled out the possibility of tuition fees, while the scottish con-servatives have proposed a graduate contribution.

scotland urged to introduce tuition feesdebate continues as universities scotland and cBi back tuition fees

Read more news online @ www.journal-online.co.ukLSE-Libya controversy claims senior scalplondon school of economics director sir Howard davies resigns over the institution's ties to the Gaddafi regime

Legal challenge to tuition feestuition fees decision facing a judicial review after claims it breaches human rights laws

DAviD sElby

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� official estimate of scottish funding gap: £200 million per year � scottish government argues that it will be only £93 million per year, if

tuition fees for non-scots rise � Proposed tuition fee increase for uK students outside of scotland: £6,375 � tuition fees in england: £9000 (maximum) or £7500 (predicted average)

The Big Red Variety Show takes place on 15 March at Teviot

Win

a free trip for tw

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to Ireland

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 National Politics 11

Jonathan BaldieNational Politics Editor

liByan dictatoR colonel muam-mar Gaddafi has been accused of per-sonally ordering the lockerbie bomb-ing by former justice minister mustafa abdel-Jalil.

abdel-Jalil claims he has proof that the libyan leader was behind the 1988 bombing of Panam flight 103 over scot-land, which killed 270 people.

He told a journalist for swedish newspaper Expressen that Gaddafi per-sonally conversed with abdelbaset al-megrahi and ordered him to carry out the attack.

colonel Gaddafi accepted libya’s responsibility for the lockerbie bomb-ing and paid compensation to the vic-tims’ families in 2003. However, this is the first time that he has been seen as directly behind the attack.

abdel-Jalil claimed that: “to hide it, he [Gaddafi] did everything in his power to get al-megrahi back from scotland.”

al-megrahi had been in prison in scotland since 2001 for his role in the attack but was controversially released at the end of 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

the motivations behind his release have been at the centre of controversy ever since 2009. critics have claimed that it was related to an oil deal between BP and libya.

in Wikileaks cables, released in december 2010, it was revealed that the British government had feared retali-ation from libya if al-megrahi died in prison in the uK. it was alleged Gaddafi had made “thuggish” warnings to British diplomats.

a us prostate specialist told congress that the report on al-megrahi’s health, in which uK doctors claimed he had three months to live, was “ridiculous”.

the Wikileaks cable also revealed

that american diplomats were con-cerned about the scottish national Par-ty’s motives.

Robin naysmith, who served as the snP’s representative in Washington, said alex salmond was shocked by the us outcry. as previously reported by The Journal, there have been increasingly frosty relations between some us sena-tors and the snP.

a relative of one of the american victims last month said the claims con-firmed her suspicions about tripoli’s culpability.

lisa Gibson, of colorado springs, lost her 20-year-old brother Ken in the bombing. she said: “i’m not surprised for him to say that Gaddafi is responsible because ultimately we know that.”

in the uK, anguish over the locker-bie disaster is still rife. following the

bombing over twenty years ago, relatives described the experience of hearing the names of the dead as “gut-wrenching” but insisted it was important that every single one was read out.

When the new allegations became public, deputy leader of the scottish conservatives murdo fraser said: “Given the events of recent days many people will find this a disturbing but believ-able claim. if true, it makes all the more questionable the role of the last labour Government’s drive to do all it could to send al-megrahi back to tripoli.”

When questioned by The Journal, the scottish Government were brief in their response to the new allegations against Gaddafi. a spokesperson said of the al-megrahi sentencing: “ministers have never doubted the safety of the conviction.”

new bill promises greater rights for patients in scotland

Jenny Kassner

a Bill tHat would legally force GPs to treat patients within 12 weeks has been passed by the scottish Parlia-ment. the Patient Rights (scotland) Bill, unanimously backed by msPs, is meant to speed up the process of patient treatment.

the bill, that will also introduce a charter of patients' rights and responsi-bilities within six months of the legisla-tion coming into force, was described as an “important milestone” in the history of the nHs by health secretary nicola sturgeon.

However, the bill is controversial and has sparked much criticism. the British medical association (Bma) said that a limited treatment time will have “serious

consequences for patients and the health care system” and was more about “politi-cal rhetoric that patient rights”.

the Bma raised concerns that a treatment time will force doctors to be hasty with treatment choices and deci-sion, and could put the patient under a lot of stress:

“for every patient, there will be dif-ferent and often unique needs and doc-tors are concerned that this new target, enshrined in law, will create an inflex-ible system that forces doctors to rush patients into treatment without consid-eration of the particular needs of the patient.

“in order to achieve the new 12-week treatment time targets, the bill will require that patients be sent to hospitals often miles away, instead of waiting to be seen closer to home at a local hospital

or peripheral clinic.” friends and family may no longer be

able to support the patients due to the possible distance.

to hurry up the process of treatment in general is, however, seen by some as beneficial to the patient.

“i think the bill is great. time is of essence every time when treating an ill-ness and it might speed up the diagnosis of possibly terminal illnesses such as cancer as well”, says Katri Vanhatalo, a student from edinburgh.

ms sturgeon said: “We have a bill that will make a difference to patients in scotland.

“the measures contained in it will reassure everyone that if they have con-cerns about care or services, they are exercising their legal rights in raising a complaint.”

a new bill has some worried that patient treatments will be rushed

salmond to hold summit with old firm managers

Jonathan BaldieNational Politics Editor

scottisH fiRst ministeR alex sal-mond has called for a meeting between the managers of Glaswegian football teams celtic and Rangers.

mr salmond confirmed the move after player and fan conduct at the scottish cup replay at celtic Park earlier in the month was described as ‘shameful’.

three Rangers players were red-carded during the match, which also saw several touch-line and tunnel confronta-tions and 34 arrests inside the stadium.

the scottish football association (sfa) is to investigate events at the match.

el Hadji diouf, a Rangers player who was the last player to be sent off after the final whistle for dissent, was involved in an argument with the celtic coaching team in the first half.

following the end-game, Rangers’ assistant manager ally mccoist and celtic manager neil lennon argued, prompting fights across the stadium.

strathclyde Police made 34 arrests inside the stadium for a variety of sec-tarian, racial and breach of the peace offences.

chief constable stephen House made contact with the first minister after the game, writing to the scottish Govern-ment and pleading for a meeting between

himself, the government and old firm management.

annabel Goldie, leader of the scottish conservatives, raised the issue during first minister’s Questions last week.

in response, mr. salmond confirmed that he had decided to hold a summit in order to bring ‘transparency’ between the two Glasgow clubs.

mr salmond said football fans were “representatives of their clubs” but noted that players and managers had a special responsibility, being in the public eye.

However, the first minister added that “the disgraceful scenes last night cannot be ignored”, and called the suggestion for a meeting from the strathclyde chief con-stable “a welcome one”.

celtic players were given three yel-low cards, compared with 10 for Rangers, which led to three red cards for Rangers.

Peter lawwell, celtic’s chief executive, insisted that his players deserved plau-dits for their behaviour.

“the team remained composed throughout what was, at times, a dif-ficult game, and the fact that only three of our players were booked is evidence of that composure and discipline which provided the foundation for us to go and win the match.

“they should be congratulated in this regard,” he said.

the management of Rangers and celtic are to meet with the first minister to discuss greater transparency between the old firm

libyan dictator 'personally ordered' lockerbie bombingmuammar Gaddafi faces new allegations from a former cabinet minister turned rebel leader over his role in the 1988 tragedy

Read more online @ www.journal-online.co.uk

Lib Dems forced to select a new candidateParliamentary candidate for aberdeen resigns over prostitution charges

PM accompanies arms manufacturers to Egyptdavid cameron travelled to post-revolutionary egypt in february, alongside leaders of major arms manufacturers

Welsh vote 'Yes' to greater legislative powersa referendum has been passed in Wales, giving its devolved parliament greater powers to pass legislation

niColETTE

sArAh ArMiTT

270 died at Lockerbie, allegedly on Col Muammar Gaddafi's orders

Police made 34 arrests at the last Old Firm clash in Glasgow

The JournalWednesday 9 march 201112 Editorial

The JournalWednesday 15 September 201016 Comment

EDINBURGH’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER ISSUE XXXVI

PublisherDevon Walshe

Editors (Acting)Marcus KernohanMegan Taylor

Lead DesignerDorothy Butchard Deputy Editor (News) Megan Taylor

Edinburgh’s uniVErsiTY nEwspapEr

A marriage of convenience?

Harry Potter and the Regenerative Neurology Clinic

Proposed ECA and Edinburgh University merger

JK Rowling MS donation

JOIN OUR TEAM

The Journal APPlAUDS J. K. Rowl-ing for her altruism in donating £10 million to the University of Edinburgh to establish a new research centre studying treatments for multiple sclerosis.

Ms Rowling is likely the most successful author of our generation. The current Sunday Times Rich list estimates her fortune at some £512 million. Of all possible uses for such wealth and status, there are few more worthy. Her bequest, hailed by the co-director of the University’s Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research as a

“generous and far-sighted donation”, will undoubtedly help advance our understanding of the disease.

Multiple sclerosis lacks the profile of cancer. To many, it is seen as less damaging. But it is not. It is a terrible illness; a protracted degeneration of the human body that destroys families and compromises the sufferer’s abil-ity to live comfortably and indepen-dently. In the UK alone, 100,000 people suffer from the disease. Ms Rowling’s mother, after whom the clinic is to be named, died from the disease aged just 45.

At this stage, with no cure yet in sight, our focus must be on treating the disease’s effects; on mitigating, where at all possible, its worst excesses. This can only happen through careful, methodical clinical research, properly funded and supported. We hope and expect that the Anne Rowling Regener-ative Neurology Clinic will make a sig-nificant contribution to that research.

Ms Rowling has already lost a loved one to MS. Her commitment to ensuring that others will not have to is fundamentally and undeniably praiseworthy.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES Of the pro-posed merger of the University of Edin-burgh and the Edinburgh College of Art are not entirely fortuitous. Earlier this summer, we were promised a thorough consultation and told that 2013 was the earliest possible date for a merger to take place. Now, however, we hear that financial expediency may have forced the acceleration of these plans. ECA’s lack of transparency about the state of their balance sheets has led to rumours of fiscal instability at lauriston Place. The negotiations thus far have taken place behind closed doors, leading to claims that we are witnessing a “hostile takeover”.

The merger is not, in itself, a bad idea; who can argue with a free and egalitarian exchange of academic expertise and resources? But rushing the process, and attempting to force

two very different institutions together mindless of their histories and their traditions, has the potential to prove a costly mistake. ECA is rightfully proud of its small, collegiate community and its well-respected academic stature. Its staff and students will not take kindly to becoming the University’s Depart-ment of Art.

The question of representation is a crucial one. ECA’s student president acknowledges the possibility that her position may disappear as a result of the merger. There is yet to be a frank and open discussion of how ECA’s 1,600 students, with their distinct location and representative culture, will be rep-resented in the new unified institution. The priority must be to ensure that they possess an equal voice; they must not feel disenfranchised or outcast. The campuses may remain physically

divided, but in spirit there can be no division.

In principle, The Journal supports the merger - as long as it is a union of equals, properly considered and carefully executed. If money truly is the force driving this merger forward, then so be it: we must act to protect the future of art education in Edinburgh. In any case, improved access to various resources for students at both institu-tions can only make their educational experience richer. The two already share a close bond, and there is no rea-son this cannot continue to grow and develop to the benefit of all students and staff.

If there is resentment about the nature of this marriage-cum-bailout, however, we run the risk of ending up in a ‘staying together for the kids’ scenario - a situation that rarely ends happily.

Editor-in-chiefWorking with a large team of writers, editors, layout designers and photographers the editor-in-chief supervises the production of The Journal from commissioning to final layout and proofing. It’s a big responsibility, but it offers an amazing opportunity to take a hands-on approach in shaping the direction of Edinburgh’s independent student newspaper.

What we’re looking for

The editor is responsible for making key decisions about the paper’s coverage and development, and so must take an active interest in all areas of the publication’s coverage, from news and comment to arts and sport.

We are looking for a person who:

• is a great writer and editor

• is confident and comfortable with managing a large and diverse team

• has a sense for a compelling and eye-catching story

• is passionate about both print and new media

Deputy Editor Comment & featuresWith a team of three junior editors and reporting directly to the editor-in-chief, the Deputy Editor (Comment & features) oversees the commissioning of informed, incisive opinion pieces and in-depth features that are relevant to both our audience and the key issues of the day.

You must be:

• relentless in chasing public figures for comment, whether politicians, journalists, academics or artists

• adept at writing and editing thoughtful, balanced commentaries on tight deadlines

• tuned in to current affairs on a local, national and international plane

Deputy Editor SportWith four universities and three colleges, Edinburgh’s student sports scene is a busy place. The Deputy Editor (Sport) is responsible for ensuring that The Journal continues to provide broad, interesting coverage of both student and professional sport in Edinburgh and across Scotland.

You need to possess:

• a wide general interest in a range of sports, and a solid understanding of what’s going on in Edinburgh sports (particularly at the universities)

• good writing skills in a range of formats, from match reports to interviews and opinion pieces

• great ideas about how to develop and enhance the publication’s sport coverage

• the ability to turn around tight, highly readable copy on tight deadlines

Head to www.journal-online.co.uk/recruitment or email recruitment@journal-online.co.uk for more information.

Picturing your name in this box?The Journal is currently recruiting. Visit www.journal-online.co.uk/recruitment or email us to find out more about joining our team.

General News Amanda S. falk Local News Melissa WongNational Politics Jonathan BaldieFeatures Emily Johnston

Deputy Editor (Arts & Entertainment) Marcus Kernohan

Theatre Amy TaylorArt Rachel CloughtonComedy Emily Carson

Music Kane MumfordFashion Jessica HeggieFood & Drink Ben Kendall

Deputy Editor (Sport)Jonny Brick

Photography Editor Edmund Fraser

last WeeKend, tHe scottish labour Party performed a surprise u-turn, reversing its stance on university funding and pledging not to introduce any form of tuition fees or graduate contribution for scottish students in the next parliament. the party’s intentions are laudable, but in performing such a volte-face they may have favoured crude politicking over practical policy.

until very recently, scottish labour could be heard loudly browbeating the snP for treating higher education as a “political football”. labour argued that the snP was promising to keep university free in the full knowledge that such a plan may be unsustainable in the long term. if scottish labour wants to be taken seriously as a party of government again, it must quickly demonstrate how its stance is more sustainable than that of the snP. scottish universities need a long-term sustainable funding solution,

not a quick patch-up job. this newspaper has consistently

argued in favour of the principle of free education. access to tertiary education must continue to be on the basis of a student’s ability to learn, not earn. this principle, however, is proving difficult for policymakers to uphold when faced with a floundering economy and rival demands for public spending. Politicians are proving too quick to flinch in the face of public opinion, and too eager to pledge what they may not be able to deliver.

Very few people favour tuition fees in principle, but it is a brute truth that our universities need to be adequately funded. thanks to the cuts in higher edu-cation funding in england, the amount of money allocated to scotland through the Barnett formula will continue to decline. in these pages today we report on new estimates of an impending £200 million funding gap between england

and scotland. if scottish universities are starved of funding, they will not be able to compete with those south of the border - or indeed, around the world. labour, the snP and the scottish liberal democrats must explain how they will fund our universities without income from tuition fees or a graduate tax.

lib dem leader tavish scott has suggested that university funding could be protected by reducing other benefits - like free prescriptions or free bus travel for pensioners. in practice, these popular benefits will be difficult to cut back: the sight of pensioners struggling to meet travel costs and the sick unable to afford medicine would shake the political will of any government. furthermore, pensioners are far more regular voters than students.

the experience of the liberal demo-crats in Westminster should remind mr scott - and his fellow party leaders

an artless pretense

labouring the point

eca's finances

We RePoRt today what we hoped in our first editorial of this academic year was not the case: that it appears the decision to merge the edinburgh college of art with the university of edinburgh was driven primarily by financial insta-bility rather than the spirit of academic fellowship.

a sustained examination of eca’s financial records for the last five years, alongside other information obtained through freedom of information requests and conversations with eca students has revealed a startling narrative of eco-nomic decline at the college. moreover, it has shown that senior staff - and most particularly the principal, Professor ian Howard - felt nothing of the college’s financial ruin in their own pay packets.

the pattern of rising debt, falling liquidity, over-ambitious expenditure and high staff costs which is clear from

eca’s account statements leaves little doubt as to why eca found itself on the edge of bankruptcy. in particular, the ludicrous expense of purchasing evolution House - for the sake of which administrators both pillaged their own coffers by borrowing £1.5 million from the endowment fund, and all but mortgaged the entire college to secure a £10 million commercial loan - is shown to have left eca bearing a long-term debt burden almost as large as its total endowment.

nor can it cannot be claimed that this weighty debt remained in the abstract: successful institutions do not decide suddenly to reduce their staffing budgets by £1 million, necessitating a voluntary redundancy scheme and major cuts to support staff. nor do those cuts go unnoticed, as students’ union president francesca miller acknowledged to us

this week. eca spokespeople, meanwhile,

have flatly denied that the college was “forced” to merge with the university of edinburgh, or that financial despera-tion played a role in that decision. in annual reports and official statements, they have painted a suspiciously rosy picture of major expenditures as being part of an illusive long-term plan. But the facts we have shown today; the facts that have been previously reported; the fact that the merger will require a £14 million payout from the scottish funding council and the harsh criti-cisms offered by Holyrood education secretary michael Russell when we approached him for comment this week, suggest that the time has come to drop the facade: everything at lau-riston Place is not all right.

scottish university funding

EDINBURGH’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER issue XlV

Student elections: the candidates

our student elections spread (the Journal issue 44, p4/5) did not include an election statement from eusa Vice President services candi-date Jo smith. We were informed late in the production process that mr smith had withdrawn his candidacy, which turned out not to be the case. We apologise for failing to provide a comprehensive overview of the can-didates for this position.

King's theatre reduce show times

due to an editorial error, the head-line 'King's theatre reduce show times' (the Journal issue 44, p6) was accidentally placed above the text from an article about pandas at edinburgh Zoo. the actual article is available on our website, and we would like to cordially thank the edi-tors of the student for alerting us to the error.

CorrectionsPublisher devon WalsheEditor-in-chief marcus KernohanCreative director dorothy Butcharddesign team Joni Langdale Lisa HendersonProduction managerBethany ridley-moranPicture Editordavid SelbyChief subeditorJen owen

deputy Editor (News) megan taylorgeneral News Amanda Svensson FalkLocal News melissa WongNational Politics Jonathan BaldieAcademic News Lily PanamskyStudent News Jessica AbrahamsStudent Politics Al innesdeputy Editor (Comment & Features)richard martyn-HemphillComment Joe CowardFeatures Alexa Caldecott interview/Profile robbie marwick

Crossword

interested in working with TheJournal?The Journal is currently recruiting: visit www.journal-online.co.uk/get_involved or email us to find out more.

deputy Editor (Arts & Entertainment)João Abbott-gribbentheatre Amy taylorArt matthew macaulayComedy Emily CarsonFood & drink Ben Kendallmusic Saskia rothstein-LongarettiFashion Jessica Heggiedeputy Editors (Sport) Jamie timson, mark Simpson, Sean gibsonSubeditors Jenny Kassner, greg Bianchi

CoMpilEr: Jon bAlDiE | DEsiGn: Joni lAnGDAlE

Across:

1. a man who seduces women, often to their financial ruin (3)

3. Global (9)9. British petroleum (introduction) (2)10. Reverberation (4)11. the study of existence, knowledge

and morals (10)14. city in california, usa (abb) (2)15. However (4)16. irritating (10)19. member of the clergy (6)20. europe's second longest river (6)21. match official in cricket (6)23. to remove (6)24. one who studies the origin of words

(10)26. state in the usa (4)27. He, she, it (in latin) (2)28. Broomstick (10)32. the first man created by god in juda-

ism, christianity and islam (4)33. the journal's student politics editor

(2)34. Review positively (9)35. Japanese currency (3)

down:2. device measuring acceleration (13)3. opposite of down (2)4. treatment for tb (3)5. 45 inches (3)6. cider (regional british name) (5)7. surface between knee and hips when

seated (3) 8. area of water surrounded by land (3)9. Bolsheviks follow this ideology (10)12. introduction (5)13. Knobbly-headed sea mammal (13)16. Recruited sir mansfield cumming as

first head of mi6 (7)17. one who suffers (7)18. cyclical (10)22. established doctrine (5)25. Pre-columban civilisation in modern-

day tabasco (5)28. a container (3)29. used to row a boat (3)30. alternative name for the ancient egyp-

tian sun god, ra (3)31. enemy (3)33. to (in latin) (2)

Looking for the answers?

Find them at www.journal-online.co.uk/crossword

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Comment 13

it can Be argued that tech-nologies define their times- and that, by extension, big thoughts use the language of technolo-

gies to both unearth and define the metaphors of their times. descartes, Hobbes and newton all used the vocabulary of mechanical engineering to describe the self, the body politic and the universe. indeed, the phrases “ghost in the machine”, and “things working like clockwork” are still used and understood today. in our times, scientists like Richard dawkins insist that we describe the genome as a col-lection of “bits of information”, and the economist niall ferguson recently framed cross-cultural political debate by speaking of “killer apps” that allow non-Western cultures to “download civilisational software.”

it seems, then, that the vocabulary of information technology and data processing is increasingly used to describe the world we currently live in.

We all probably use this language ourselves and are increasingly aware of how much information and data we have to wade through and the means at our disposal to do so - from finding bus times to looking for football scores via websites, apps, tweets, and so on.

But are we also aware of how much information we create ourselves?

to clarify, let me speak of our “infor-mation footprint”. With all our tweet-ing and facebooking, Googling, email and texting, we are creating a mass of information the likes of which has never been seen before. the footprints are only getting bigger and bigger; more and more global.

all of this information has a value, and there are countless projects under-way to scrutinise these information

footprints; to gather, scrape, com-pile, aggregate, cross-reference and benchmark this information - and from there to repackage it and sell it on to those who are willing to pay for it. the buyers in this scenario are mostly large corporations looking for consumer feedback and information to enhance and develop old and new products and services, adjust pricing and so on.

i have been in the business of gathering data for over a decade and

have seen that information that was once hard to come by - literally begged and bribed out of people - is now being freely volunteered thanks to new technology platforms and a new understanding of what privacy means. People’s chit-chatting has moved onto the social web and with that become more open and documented: it can be data-processed, cross-tabulated, inte-grated, pattern-analysed, et cetera. all of this can sound “creepy” – and indeed,

speaking of Google’s stance on these matters, ex-ceo eric schmidt claimed six months ago that “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

it is equally clear, however, that the benefits and convenience, and even the revolutionary political potential of these information platforms cannot be overlooked: from keeping in touch with friends over facebook, to using twitter as a documentation tool for

shining a light on old media coverage black-spots: the “creepy” is contrasted with the “liberating”. in short, there is a risk/reward binary at play here.

an information gathering tech-nique particularly close to my heart is “crowd-sourcing”. Put simply, informa-tion crowd-sourcing encourages mass-contribution to collect data from the web, so the “wisdom” of this crowd can be expressed and measured.

When done right, information crowd-sourcing should include a list of key attributes: it should be a rewarding, open and transparent exercise, only minimally edited; it should provide a robust, user-friendly platform, which helps lend a voice to its data contributors. in this way, a pool of information is created which is actually useful, meaningful and inter-esting to everyone involved – both the contributors and those who consume the data. it should lead to a win-win situation for all.

in terms of consuming data, there are encouraging signs that transpar-ency and free access to information are growing trends. in 2009, tim Berners-lee, the inventor of the web, was put in charge of data.gov.uk, a project tasked with making government data more transparent and accessible on the web. this constitutes a shift in think-ing and of expectation: the default position now is that data “should be in the public domain unless there is a good reason not to - not the other way around.” some of this government data has already been processed, visualized and published - perhaps most notably by the Guardian’s datastore.

i hope this trend of transparency and free access continues and extends to the collection of data. i look forward to seeing more good crowd-sourcing projects in future that collect and ana-lyze and display interesting, meaning-ful data so that we can all benefit from the information footprints we create.

Steven Drost is CEO of Edinburgh social web startup Stipso.

Walking in the information footprints of othersWe should praise, not fear, the way in which the internet has changed how we gather and interpret data

opTE proJECT

It’s a new way to travel - it’s fun, convenient and green too.

We have set up goCarShare - a website to help people share car journeys.

Drivers earn money towards their fuel and passengers make big savings.

It’s built around Facebook so you can easily find a fun person to share with.

Life’s a journey - share it!

Check out goCarShare.com and add a car share entry for your next adventure.

Flyer draft 3.indd 2 07/09/2010 18:19:45

Visualising the internet: the image shows how web-pages connect and interconnect

Steven DrostCEO of STIPSO,Edinburgh

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*booking fee Illustrations by Timorous Beasties. Photography by Nisbet & Wylie. Registered in Scotland No. SCO65497. Registered Charity No. SCO08037

World Premiere20–23 AprilBox Offi ce: 0131 529 6000* Online: festivaltheatre.org.uk*

£10 tickets for under 26s and full time studentsFor full details visit scottishballet.co.uk

World Premiere20–23 AprilBox Offi ce: 0131 529 6000Online: festivaltheatre.org.ukBox Offi ce: 0131 529 6000*

Online: festivaltheatre.org.uk*

Conceived byAshley Pageand Antony

McDonald Original music byRobert Moran

www.students.stipso.com

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The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011

muHammad yunus, tHe Bangladeshi winner of the nobel Peace Prize in 2006, is internationally

renowned as the pioneer of microfi-nance, having founded the Grameen Bank in 1983.

Grameen provides financial services to those who are excluded from the traditional banking sector, making small loans available to low-income rural borrowers. indeed, microfinance has been hailed as a silver bullet for development, enabling poor people to develop their own businesses.

yunus, however, is facing strong hostility at home, with the Bangladeshi Government making it clear they no longer view him suitable to continue as managing director of the Grameen Bank, an independent organisation.

this follows on from late 2010 when a norwegian documentary accused yunus of transferring funds from Gra-meen to an unapproved project. this claim, however, was unfounded, with the norwegian government finding that the documentary was incorrect.

there is also a personal dimension to the Bangladeshi government’s inter-vention in the affairs of Grameen. in 2007 yunus attempted to set up a new political party, to challenge the Bangla-deshi political establishment. conse-quently Bangladeshi politicians have sought to discredit yunus, with sheikh Hasina, prime minister, accusing yunus of “sucking blood from the poor”.

thus far, yunus has survived these attacks on his character. Recently, however, he has been informed that at seventy he is five years past the retirement age for managing directors in Bangladesh and must vacate his position.

Grameen is yet to respond to this demand, with the outcome remaining

uncertain. What is clear, however, is that this deadlock is not in the inter-ests of Grameen Bank, or the individu-als who rely on microloans.

once hailed as the tool to end global poverty, microfinance has fallen from grace. this fall predates Bangla-deshi government intervention with Grameen. indeed, in recent years there has been a noticeable backlash against microlenders.

the indian state of andhra Pradesh found many microlenders to be too aggressive in debt collecting and the movement was blamed for a spate of suicides.

there is, however, a crucial distinction between the practices of aggressive creditors and not-for-profit microfinance.

the Grameen Bank has 8.35 million clients, of whom 97 per cent are poor women. these loans enable the women to start small business, with flexible repayment, allowing borrowers to cope with short-term shocks such as illness.

the ongoing dispute between yunus and the Bangladeshi govern-ment is not serving the long term interests of microfinance, and of the global poor. indeed, some fear that continued government interven-tions will undermine the stability of Grameen.

Grameen-style microfinance is not the silver bullet for development but it does aid the poor. What needs to be considered now is the future security of the bank and its borrowers.

Kirsty McCaffery is a third-year poli-tics and social anthropology student at the University of Edinburgh.

Comment 15

microfinance dis-credited?tensions escalate between muhammad yunus and the Bangladeshi Government

"the Grameen Bank has 8.35 million clients, of whom 97 percent are poor women."

Illustrator Tamsyn Mystkowski recently graduated from Edinburgh College of Art

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AbbeyhillEarlston Place, 1300, 4, 4D G, 0844 635 9679Meadowbank Terrace, 800, 3, 2S 1D, 0844 635 3700Royal Park Terrace, 750, 4, 3S 1D, 0844 635 3700Tytler Court, 695, 2, 2D G, 0844 635 3330Milton Street, 480, 1, 1D W CG O, 0844 635 9326Milton Street, 475, 1, 1D 1B E CG O, 0844 635 9679Albion Gardens, 295, 1, 1D G P, 0844 635 2418

BroughtonBellevue Crescent, 1520, 4, Z, 0844 635 9308East London Street, 1250, 4, 4D G CG Z, 0844 635 9460Barony Street, 950, 3, 1S 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9688Huntingdon Place, 750, 2, 2D P, 0844 635 4820Broughton Road, 700, 3, P, 0844 635 9308Beaverbank Place, 650, 2, 2D G PG Z, 0844 635 9558Broughton Road, 650, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 9362Blandfield, 625, 2, 2D -1B -1T E P, 0844 635 9314Broughton Road, 575, 2, 1S 1D -1B -1T G, 0844 635 9332Broughton Road, 550, 1, 1D G O, 0844 635 9334West Ferryfield, 545, 2, 2D -1B -1T G, 0844 635 9332Broughton Road, 525, 1, 1D -1B -1T G, 0844 635 9332Logie Green Road, 475, 1, 1D E Z, 0844 635 4820Broughton Road, 425, 1, 1D CG Z, 0844 635 4820

Bruntsfield Bruntsfield Place, 2050, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Gillespie Crescent, 1900, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Merchiston Avenue, 1825, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Bruntsfield Place, 1800, 5, 2S 3D, 0844 635 3700Gillespie Crescent, 1600, 4, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Bruntsfield Place, 1400, 4, 1S 3D G O, 0844 635 9302Viewforth, 1325, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Montpelier Park, 1275, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Barclay Place, 1250, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Gillespie Crescent, 1150, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 4820Montpelier Park, 1100, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Gillespie Place, 1095, 3, 3D G O, 0844 635 9324Merchiston Bank Avenue, 1050, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Montpelier, 1050, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Bruntsfield Place, 1000, 3, 3D, 0844 635 9316Blantyre Terrace, 1000, 2, 2D G PG Z, 0844 635 4820Viewforth Gardens, 990, 3, 1S 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9322Bruntsfield Avenue, 975, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Montpelier, 900, 3, 3D G O, 0844 635 9302Viewforth, 900, 3, 3D G, 0844 635 9234Bruntsfield Place, 800, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 4820Bruntsfield Place, 650, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Viewforth Gardens, 650, 2, 2D E CG Z, 0844 635 9592Forbes Road, 575, 1, 1D, 0844 635 9334Montpelier Park, 475, 1, 1D E, 0844 635 9320

CanonmillsBellevue Road, 1050, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Rodney Street, 495, 1, 1D G O, 0844 635 6450Canonmills, 475, 1, 1D G O, 0844 635 2627

City CentreSouth Bridge, 1900, 5, 5D G, 0844 635 9302South Bridge, 1850, 5, 5D G, 0844 635 9302South Bridge, 1850, 5, 5D G, 0844 635 9302St James Square, 1680, 4, CG Z, 0844 635 9308Dundas Street, 1650, 4, Z, 0844 635 9352Union Street, 1620, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 9302St Stephen Street, 1600, 4, , 0844 635 9308Union Street, 1600, 4, , 0844 635 9308Simpson Loan, 1450, 2, CG P, 0844 635 9308Merchiston Crescent, 1300, 4, 4D G O, 0844 635 9300Castle Terrace, 1250, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 4820Annandale Street, 1200, 4, 1S 3D G PG Z, 0844 635 4820Castle Terrace, 1200, 3, , 0844 635 9352Old Assembly Close, 1200, 3, Z, 0844 635 9352Lothian Road, 1050, 3, 3D G P, 0844 635 9460King’s Stables Road, 950, 3, 3D G, 0844 635 4820Leith Street, 950, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 6450Broughton Market, 925, 2, G, 0844 635 9300Montgomery Street, 900, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Drummond Street, 895, 2, Z, 0844 635 9352Rose Street, 890, 3, 1S 2D G, 0844 635 9688Lothian Street, 850, 2, Z, 0844 635 9352Lothian Street, 795, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 2418Canongate, 775, 2, 2D G, 0844 Bruns-wick Street, 575, 1, 1D -1B -1T PG Z, 0844 635 9314Forrest Hill, 575, 1, O, 0844 635 9352Maryfield, 550, 1, 1D 1B G CG O, 0844 635 2010

Rose Street, 530, 1, 1D G, 0844 635 9434Rose Street, 525, 1, 1D G O, 0844 635 6604Albert Street, 495, 1, 1D O, 0844 635 2418Picardy Place, 485, 1, 1D, 0844 635 9234

DalryGorgie Road, 1550, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Duff Street, 1500, 4, 4D G P, 0844 635 2418Murieston Road, 495, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0844 635 8696Springwell Place, 495, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0844 635 2418Caledonian Crescent, 475, 1, , 0844 635 9338Springwell Place, 470, 1, 1D G Z, 0844 635 9560

Dean VillageDean Path, 540, 1, G CG Z, 0844 635 4830

Easter RoadCadzow Place, 1300, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Easter Road, 1240, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Easter Road, 1160, 4, 4D G O, 0844 635 9302Easter Road, 990, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 3700Easter Road, 950, 3, 2S 1D, 0844 635 3700Easter Road, 900, 3, 3D -1B -1T E, 0844 635 9332Hawkhill Close, 700, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 4820Brunswick Road, 675, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 9679Hawkhill Close, 675, 2, 2D G P, Elgin Terrace, 500, 1, 1D G P, 0844 635 9560Rossie Place, 495, 1, 1B E CG O, 0844 635 9328Albion Place, 485, 1, 1D, 0844 635 9560Maryfield, 485, 1, 1D, 0844 635 3700Easter Road, 475, 1, 1D G CG O, 0844 635 2418

FettesEast Pilton Farm Wynd, 725, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 8696East Pilton Farm Crescent, 695, 3, 3D G P, 0844 635 8696North Werber Place, 675, 2, -1S -1D -1B -1T G, 0844 635 9596North Werber Park, 650, 2, 2D -1B -1T W, 0844 635 9332Crewe Road North, 615, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 2418North Werber Park, 575, 1, CG P, 0844 635 2010

FountainbridgePolwarth Crescent, 1700, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Dundee Terrace, 1320, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Upper Grove Place, 975, 3, Z, 0844 635 9352Grove Street, 670, 2, 1S 1D G CG Z, 0844 635 9560Upper Grove Place, 650, 2, 2D G, 0844 635 3330Dundee Terrace, 600, 1, 1D G, 0844 635 4820Temple Park Crescent, 575, 2, 1S 1D, 0844 635 9234Watson Crescent, 525, 1, 1D 1B G O, 0844 635 9679Angle Park Terrace, 495, 1, , 0844 635 9338Grove Street, 450, 1, Z, 0844 635 9352

GorgieDalry Road, 975, 3, Z, 0844 635 9352Westfield Court, 880, 3, 3D G CG O, 0844 635 1312Wardlaw Terrace, 525, 1, 1D G CG O, 0844 635 2627Smithfield Street, 450, 1, 1D W O, 0844 635 9688Wheatfield Place, 450, 1, CG O, 0844 635 9352Stewart Terrace, 400, 1, 1D, 0844 635 3700

GrangeSt. Albans Road, 900, 2, 1S 1D G, 0844 635 9560Grange Loan, 750, 2, 2D G CG, 0844 635 2418Grange Loan, 650, 2, 2D G CG, 0844 635 2418Millar Crescent, 650, 2, 2D 1B G CG, 0844 635 2418

GrantonGranton Square, 700, 3, 1S 2D G CG O, 0844 635 9560Saltire Square, 700, 3, 1S 2D G CG P, 0844 635 9388Granton Road, 475, 1, 1D E O, 0844 635 6450Lower Granton Road, 440, 1, 1D -1B -1T G, 0844 635 9332

GrassmarketWest Port, 950, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Grassmarket, 775, 1, 1D W, 0844 635 4820Upper Bow, 525, 1, 1D E Z, 0844 635 4820

HaymarketGrove Street, 1700, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Grove Street, 1700, 5, 2S 3D, 0844 635 3700Grove Street, 1450, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Grove Street, 1150, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Grove Street, 550, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0844 635 9464Upper Grove Place, 525, 1, E O, 0844 635 6604

HillsideHillside Street, 1775, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Blenheim Place, 1700, 5, 1S 4D, 0844 635 3700Hillside Crescent, 1600, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Hillside Crescent, 1400, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Brunswick Road, 1385, 3, 3D G P, 0844 635 2418

East London Street, 1380, 4, 1S 3D, 0844 635 3700Earlston Place, 960, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Dalziel Place, 950, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Cadzow Place, 930, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Montrose Terrace, 850, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Allanfield Place, 750, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 9362Brunton Gardens, 625, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Allanfield, 525, 1, 1D E P, 0844 635 1614

HolyroodRoyal Park Terrace, 1200, 4, 4D G CG O, 0844 635 9322Royal Park Terrace, 825, 3, 3D E CG O, 0844 635 9488Viewcraig Street, 695, 3, 3D W CG O, 0844 635 9679Viewcraig Gardens, 660, 2, 2D E P, 0844 635 9302Dalgety Avenue, 575, 1, 1D 1B G, 0844 635 1614

Leith WalkElm Row, 2000, 5, 5D G Z, 0844 635 9302Smith’s Place, 1600, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Antigua Street, 1600, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 9679Leith Walk, 495, 1, 1D, 0844 635 3700Murano Place, 495, 1, 1D G O, 0844 635 9324Albert Street, 465, 1, E O, 0844 635 9578Leith Walk, 450, 1, 1D E O, 0844 635 6450Albert Street, 420, 1, O, 0844 635 9352

LibertonOld Burdiehouse Road, 650, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 9460Langton Road, 625, 2, 2D G PG O, 0844 635 9316Southhouse Crossway, 595, 2, 2D G O, 0844 635 9390Dinmont Drive, 500, 2, 2D G CG O, 0844 635 2287Claverhouse Drive, 450, 1, 1D G PG O, 0844 635 4820

MarchmontStrathearn Road, 1750, 4, 2S 2D G PG Z, 0844 635 9320Thirlestane Road, 1700, 4, 4D G CG Z, 0844 635 9478Lauderdale Street, 1600, 4, CG O, 0844 635 9352Warrender Park Road, 1520, 5, 5D G, 0844 635 9316Lonsdale Terrace, 1510, 4, , 0844 635 9308Marchmont Road, 1500, 4, 4D G CG Z, 0844 635 9478Melville Terrace, 1460, 4, 1S 3D, 0844 635 3700Marchmont Crescent, 1430, 4, 3S 1D, 0844 635 3700Meadow Place, 1300, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Marchmont Road, 1295, 4, 2S 2D G O, 0844 635 9384Arden Street, 1250, 3, 1S 2D G, 0844 635 4820Marchmont Crescent, 1200, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Marchmont Road, 1200, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Melville Terrace, 1200, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Strathearn Road, 1200, 3, 1S 2D G Z, 0844 635 4820Roseneath Place, 1130, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 3700Marchmont Road, 1075, 3, CG O, 0844 635 9352Arden Street, 1020, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Marchmont Street, 995, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 8696Marchmont Crescent, 960, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0844 635 9322Livingstone Place, 925, 3, 1S 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9334Roseneath Place, 900, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Marchmont Street, 900, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9478Roseneath Terrace, 650, 2, 2D 1B E O, 0844 635 9324

MeadowbankWolseley Terrace, 1175, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Marionville Road, 650, 2, 2D G O, 0844 635 2256Moray Park Terrace, 650, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 2418Piershill Place, 645, 2, 2D G CG O, 0844 635 2287Dalgety Road, 625, 2, 2D W CG P, 0844 635 9312Restalrig Road South, 620, 2, 2D G CG O, 0844 635 2627Lower London Road, 600, 2, 2D E P, 0844 635 9594Cambusnethan Street, 595, 2, 1S 1D G CG O, 0844 635 9422

Dalgety Street, 575, 2, 2D G CG O, 0844 635 9460Piershill Terrace, 575, 2, 1S 1D G CG O, 0844 635 4820Dalgety Road, 525, 1, 1D 1B G CG O, 0844 635 9312Dalgety Road, 495, 1, 1D G CG O, 0844 635 9424London Road, 490, 1, 1D G Z, 0844 635 9478

MeadowsSimpson Loan, 2150, 3, 3D G P, 0844 635 4820Hope Park Terrace, 1700, 5, 5D G Z, 0844 635 4820Livingstone Place, 815, 3, 3S G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Moncrieff Terrace, 595, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Buccleuch Street, 530, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0844 635 9434

MerchistonMerchiston Avenue, 2000, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Merchiston Crescent, 1440, 4, 4D, 0844 635 9316Blackwood Crescent, 700, 2, G Z, 0844 635 2256

MorningsideMaxwell Street, 2400, 6, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Morningside Road, 1800, 5, 3S 2D, 0844 635 3700Morningside Road, 1800, 5, 5D G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Morningside Road, 1750, 5, 2S 3D, 0844 635 3700Leamington Terrace, 1700, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Craighouse Gardens, 750, 3, 3D E CG P, 0844 635 9302Morningside Road, 725, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Falcon Court, 675, 2, 2D E CG P, 0844 635 9558Millar Crescent, 595, 1, Z, 0844 635 9308Balcarres Street, 575, 1, 1D, 0844 635 6450Balcarres Street, 495, 1, 1D G, 0844 635 1614Morningside Road, 310, 1, G CG Z, 0844 635 3880

New TownScotland Street, 2500, 5, 5D G, 0844 635 6450Eyre Place, 1900, 3, 3D G P, 0844 635 9300Mansfield Place, 1750, 5, 1S 4D G O, 0844 635 9316India Street, 1750, 4, Z, 0844 635 9308London Street, 1700, 4, Z, 0844 635 9352Scotland Street, 1700, 4, 4D G CG, 0844 635 9316Dundas Street, 1680, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 9362Eyre Place, 1650, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Scotland Street, 1640, 4, 4D G CG Z, 0844 635 9464Castle Street, 1600, 4, Z, 0844 635 9352Dublin Street, 1600, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 4820Dundonald Street, 1600, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 2418Royal Crescent, 1600, 4, , 0844 635 9308Abercromby Place, 1600, 3, 3D, 0844 635 4820Great King Street, 1600, 3, Z, 0844 635 9308Eyre Crescent, 1500, 4, , 0844 635 9338Barony Street, 1445, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Dundas Street, 1420, 3, 3D G, 0844 635 9316Dundonald Street, 1395, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 4820Frederick Street, 1375, 3, , 0844 635 9338Cumberland Street, 1350, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 4820Dundas Street, 1350, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 9478Dundas Street, 1350, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 4820Dundonald Street, 1300, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 4820Canon Street, 1280, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Broughton Street, 1250, 4, 4D G CG Z, 0844 635 2418Great King Street, 1250, 3, 1S 2D G Z, 0844 635 4820Great King Street, 1250, 3, 3D G, 0844 635 4820Heriot Row, 1250, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 4820Bellevue Crescent, 1200, 2, Z, 0844 635 9308Gloucester Place, 1200, 2, CG Z, 0844 635 9308Hopetoun Crescent, 1125, 3, 3D G PG P, 0844 635 9302Dundas Street, 1100, 3, Z, 0844 635 9308Claremont Crescent, 1100, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 4820Royal Crescent, 1100, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 4820

Broughton Place, 1090, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 9316Gayfield Square, 1060, 4, 1S 3D G Z, 0844 635 9316Grindlay Street, 1000, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Grindlay Street, 990, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 3700Dundonald Street, 960, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700St Stephen Street, 950, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 3700East London Street, 875, 3, 1S 2D G P, 0844 635 4820Dundonald Street, 850, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 4820Royal Crescent, 800, 2, 2D, 0844 635 3700Dundonald Street, 800, 1, 1D G Z, 0844 635 4820East London Street, 795, 2, O, 0844 635 9352Cumberland Street, 750, 2, 1S 1D G Z, 0844 635 4820Eyre Place, 750, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9679Jamaica Mews, 725, 1, 1D E P, 0844 635 4820East London Street, 700, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9679Northumberland Place, 700, 1, 1D W Z, 0844 635 4820Perth Street, 675, 2, 1D 1B G Z, 0844 635 4820St Stephen Street, 675, 2, 2D, 0844 635 3700Silvermills, 625, 1, 1D G P, 0844 635 4820Huntly Street, 495, 1, 1D -1B -1T W CG Z, 0844 635 9314High Riggs, 475, 1, 1S, 0844 635 3700Jamaica Mews, 475, 1, 1D P, 0844 635 9324

NewingtonNicolson Street, 3200, 8, 8D G Z, 0844 635 9679St Leonard’s Bank, 2400, 6, 6D G PG Z, 0844 635 9302Newington Road, 2300, 7, 7D, 0844 635 2418Rankeillor Street, 2125, 5, 5D G PG Z, 0844 635 9302Brown Street, 2100, 6, 6D G P, 0844 635 9302Lutton Place, 2050, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700South Clerk Street, 2050, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Lutton Place, 2000, 5, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Newington Road, 2000, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Buccleuch Terrace, 1440, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700East Mayfield, 1400, 4, 2S 2D, 0844 635 3700Rankeillor Street, 1400, 4, 2S 2D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1380, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1380, 4, 2S 2D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1380, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1360, 4, 1S 3D, 0844 635 3700Lutton Place, 1360, 4, 1S 3D G Z, 0844 635 9322Montague Street, 1350, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Blackwood Crescent, 1330, 4, 2S 2D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1300, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1300, 4, 4D G CG O, 0844 635 2418Dalkeith Road, 1300, 4, 4D G CG O, 0844 635 9302Montague Street, 1280, 3, 3D G CG Z, 0844 635 9679Rankeillor Street, 1260, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Macdowall Road, 1250, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Dalkeith Road, 1220, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Buccleuch Street, 1200, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Lutton Place, 1200, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 9679West Nicolson Street, 1200, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Oxford Street, 1160, 4, 1S 3D, 0844 635 3700Oxford Street, 1150, 3, 3D G O, 0844 635 9679Macdowall Road, 1140, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 8696Brown Street, 1050, 3, 3D G P, 0844 635 9302South Oxford Street, 1050, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Spottiswoode Road, 1050, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700St Leonards Street, 1050, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Montague Street, 1020, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Blackwood Crescent, 1010, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700South Oxford Street, 1005, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 9316Montague Street, 1000, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 3700Rankeillor Street, 1000, 3, 3D -1B -1T PG Z, 0844 635 9314

South Oxford Street, 1000, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Causewayside, 990, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Montague Street, 990, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700West Richmond Street, 990, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Montague Street, 975, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700South Oxford Street, 975, 3, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Macdowall Road, 950, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Blackwood Crescent,, 800, 2, 2D, 0844 635 3700South Clerk Street, 800, 2, Z, 0844 635 9352South Oxford Street, 775, 2, 2D G CG Z, 0844 635 9334Nicolson Street, 720, 2, 2D, 0844 635 3700East Preston Street, 700, 2, Z, 0844 635 9352Lutton Place, 700, 2, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Upper Gray Street, 700, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 4820Dalkeith Road, 695, 2, 2D G CG O, 0844 635 8696Causewayside, 675, 2, Z, 0844 635 9352East Mayfield, 675, 2, CG Z, 0844 635 9352West Preston Street, 675, 1, 1D -1B -1T Z, 0844 635 9314Buccleuch Terrace, 650, 2, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Moncrieff Terrace, 650, 2, 2D G, 0844 635 9424Drummond Street, 650, 1, 1D E CG Z, 0844 635 9558Causewayside, 625, 2, 1S 1D G, 0844 635 9245Buccleuch Terrace, 600, 2, 1S 1D G, 0844 635 9245Buccleuch Street, 575, 1, 1D G Z, 0844 635 9424Buccleuch Street, 575, 1, 1D G Z, 0844 635 9558East Crosscauseway, 575, 1, 1D -1B -1T P, 0844 635 9314Hermits Croft, 575, 1, 1D G P, 0844 635 9424Mayfield Road, 575, 1, 1D 1B G CG O, 0844 635 9302Causewayside, 560, 1, 1D G, 0844 635 9245East Crosscauseway, 550, 2, 2S G Z, 0844 635 9312Causewayside, 520, 1, CG Z, 0844 635 9352

Old TownBank Street, 1800, 4, Z, 0844 635 9308Broughton Street, 1650, 5, 2S 3D, 0844 635 3700Castle Wynd North, 1300, 4, 4D G Z, 0844 635 9578Forrest Road, 1150, 3, 1S 2D, 0844 635 3700High Street, 1150, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700High Street, 1150, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700St Marys Street, 1065, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Brighton Street, 990, 3, 3D G CG, 0844 635 9578Bristo Place, 870, 3, 3D, 0844 635 3700Forrest Road, 850, 2, 2D G Z, 0844 635 9578Old Tolbooth Wynd, 795, 2, CG P, 0844 635 9308Old Tolbooth Wynd, 650, 2, 2D G P, 0844 635 4820Niddry Street, 625, 2, 2D E, 0844 635 9488Tron Square, 625, 1, 1D P, 0844 635 3700Canongate, 595, 1, , 0844 635 9338Canongate, 540, 1, 1D G Z, 0844 635 9320

PolwarthPolwarth Gardens, 1800, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Polwarth Gardens, 1800, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Polwarth Gardens, 1750, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Hermand Terrace, 1700, 5, 5D, 0844 635 3700Polwarth Gardens, 1700, 5, 3S 2D, 0844 635 3700Ardmillan Terrace, 1550, 5, 2S 3D G, 0844 635 9318Polwarth Gardens, 1520, 4, CG O, 0844 635 9308Murieston Crescent, 1340, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Polwarth Gardens, 1300, 4, CG O, 0844 635 9352Fowler Terrace, 1240, 4, 4D, 0844 635 3700Mertoun Place, 1200, 4, G CG Z, 0844 635 9478Polwarth Gardens, 1100, 3, 3D W, 0844 635 4820Polwarth Gardens, 1100, 3, 3D G Z, 0844 635 9478Yeaman Place, 575, 1, 1D G CG Z, 0844 635 4820Temple Park Crescent, 550, 1, 1D, 0844 635 3700Polwarth Crescent, 525, 1, 1D E Z, 0844 635 9320

Watson Crescent, 525, 1, CG Z, 0844 635 9352Watson Crescent, 525, 1, 1D G CG, 0844 635 9245Watson Crescent, 500, 1, 1D CG Z, 0844 635 9594Ritchie Place, 495, 2, Z, 0844 635 9352

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The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Arts & Entertainment 17

Matthew MacaulayArt Editor

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by mad-ness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through

the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix..” howl, Alan Ginsberg.

I first encountered Alan Gins-berg through his photography. I was visiting Washington D. C. and there was a retrospective of his work at the National Gallery of Art. Although I recognised that his photographs were of no great artistic merit, I was nonetheless transfixed by them. These black and white portraits were my first experience of the ‘Beat Genera-tion’; a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and who fought against the empty promises of the American dream. Rejecting white picket-fence living, they experimented with both drugs and sex, and sought an alternative existence in which conformity was spurned in favour of the ceaseless pursuit of creativity.

I recall appreciating the irony that these images, documenting a cultural revolution, were being exhibited in a museum, which in its monumental white neo-classicism, represented a bastion of conservatism. Similarly contradictory was my reaction to Ginsberg’s photographs; I was simul-taneously repulsed and enthralled by the hedonism of the people pictured.

Initially, I felt an aversion to the freedom and lack of responsibility Ginsberg and his circle exhibited, thinking it selfish and reckless, but I realised this was just envy on my part. Envy, that they had had the courage

to break the cycle - to escape the monotony of everyday life.

In a remarkable scene from the new biopic about Alan Ginsberg, howl, Ginsberg, played by James Franco (of spider Man and 127 hours fame), recounts a moment of crisis in his life that every human being experiences in one form or another. Unfulfilled by his job and deeply conflicted about his sexuality, Ginsberg comes to the realisation that what is holding him back from ultimate happiness is the fear of abandoning ‘conveyor-belt life’. He worries that leaving behind a secure job and the material comforts that go with it will result in poverty and growing old alone in a garret with piss-stained pants. This fear of leav-ing behind comfort in pursuit of what we really want resonates with all of us, but unlike Ginsberg, few have the nerve to do it.

The poem howl is Ginsberg’s most famous work; its publication led to the publisher’s prosecution in an obscenity trial, and it is this event that the new film focuses on. The poem, a celebration of life as well as a critique of capitalist society, upset middle America which considered words such as, ‘snatch’ ‘fuck’ and ‘blow’ unpalatable, and not condu-cive to great literature. The film is composed of portions of the obscenity trial, Franco’s recitation of howl in its entirety accompanied by anima-tion which illustrates the poem and recreations of interview excerpts with Ginsberg, in which he discusses the work in relation to his life.

My initial worries that watching this film I would see James Franco as opposed to Alan Ginsberg on screen were entirely misplaced. Franco may be a pretty face, but he played

Ginsberg with serious conviction. Then again engaging intellectually with howl shouldn’t have been too difficult for Franco as he is currently studying for a PhD in English Litera-ture at Yale, and recently published a series of his own short stories. Given Franco’s predilection for excessive role research (he earned his pilot license for his role in Flyboys and spent eight months in the boxing ring for annapolis), it wouldn’t be surpris-ing if he’d taken on the PhD for a bit of light context.

Franco has done well out of gay roles; playing James Dean in a televi-sion biopic, Sean Penn’s boyfriend in Milk and now Ginsberg in howl. Though by no means an exclusively gay film, howl examines in some depth Ginsberg’s conflicted relation-ship with his sexuality. As Franco says in the film: “Homosexuality is a condition and because it alienated me or set me apart from the begin-ning it served as a catalyst for self examination or detailed realisation of my environment, and the reasons why everyone else is different, and why I’m different.”

The dominant message in the film is a positive one, with Ginsberg coming to a sense of self acceptance through writing. An excerpt of howl reveals this: “Who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcy-clists, and screamed with joy”, this is not just a description of a sexual act but as Ginsberg says: “an acknowl-edgement of the basic reality of homosexual joy.” The court ruling that howl was not obscene was a tangible expression of the tolerance and understanding which the protagonist in Ginsberg’s poem, Carl Solomon, so desperately sought.

Ginsberg's primal screamThe Journal takes a look at the recent filmic representation of alan Ginsberg’s best-known ‘Beat’ poem

feature

'Howl' led to its publisher's arrest on obscenity charges when it was first published in 1956

the Journal On the horizonTHEATRE19/03/11Theatre Uncut: BedlamBEDLAM THEATRE, £1, ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE CHILD POvERTy ACTION GROUP.the Bedlam theatre present 7 plays by some of the uK’s best playwrights to protest against the cuts all in World debt day.

TuE 15 - SAT 19 MARCHJourney’s EndKING’S THEATRE, £14.50 - £27.50david Grindley directs R.c sheriff’s tony award-winning first World War drama.

THuRS 10 MARCH – SAT 19 MARCHSomersaultsTRAvERSE THEATRE, £8.00 - £12.00 (£5.00)Part of the nts’ Reveal season, Vicky featherstone directs this exploration of language and identity.

THuRSdAy 24 – SATuRdAy 26 MARCHSmalltownTRAvERSE THEATRE, £14.00 - £16.00 (£10.00/£12.00)a polluted water supply turns the residents of a small town crazy in Random accomplice’s most recent production.

ARTunTil 3 ApRil Jean-Marc BustamanteFRUITMARKET GALLERy, FREEan eclectic mix of materials and me-dia from one of france’s senior artists.

12 FEbRuARy – 10 JulyArtist Rooms: August SanderDEAN GALLERy, FREEaugust sander has dedicated his life to photographing the German people, and his work forms an important social document.

unTil 1 MAy French Drawings: Poussin to SeuratNATIONAL GALLERy COMPLEx, FREEfrom its first showing at the Wal-lace collection in london an eclectic exhibition of french drawing comes to edinburgh.

18 FEbRuARy - 3 ApRilWhite KnightCOLLECTIvE, FREEshow investigating the concept of architecture as a frame.

FRidAy 25 FEbRuARy – SundAy 5 JunEMarcus Adams: Royal PhotographerTHE QUEENS GALLERy, £5 (STUDENT)an exhibition celebrating the work of

marcus adams, who depicted genera-tions of royal children.

unTil 30 ApRilRosemarie Trockel: ‘Drawings, Collages and Book Drafts’TALBOT RICE, FREEthis is the largest display of works on paper to date by the internationally renowned artist, Rosemarie trockel.

COMEDyTuESdAy 5TH ApRilSimon Munnery - Self-EmployedTHE STAND £9 (£7 CONC.)a beautifully honed set of nowhere near the knuckle material about life, death, children and work performed with love, while wearing a suit. mun-nery uses a mix of impersonations and musical humour to wow the crowd.

FRidAy 25TH FEbRuARyDaniel SlossPLEASANCE THEATRE £10 (£6 STUDENTS)scotland’s youngest comic prodigy comes to town

SundAy 17TH ApRilScott Capurro Opens UpTHE STAND £10 (£8 CONC.)this openly gay san franciscan has graced British television screens on 8 out of 10 cats and promises to give a challenging and cutting performance.

MUSICSATuRdAy 19 MARCH, 11-3Hercules and Love AffairTHE ARCHES £14/£7 (SIGN UP TO ARCHES MAILING LIST FOR HALF PRICE)an unbelievably good live act, com-bined with the full force of a death disco make this a night to remember.

15/03/11ElbowSECC (GLASGOW) £TBCGuy Garvey promotes new album ‘Build a Rocket Boy’ no doubt playing old favourites along the way.

WEdEnSdAy 9 MARCHNapoleon lllELECTRIC CIRCUS £6loops, beats and swirling synths accompany one man’s stirring vocals that whirl round your head and make you move your feet. Powerful stuff.

11/03/11Iron and WineHMv PICTURE HOUSE £15.50sam Beam’s whispers (so as not to wake the kids) define these melodic lyrics and laid-back style.

More reviews online @ www.journal-online.co.uk

artCLAUDE CAHUN AND SUE TOMPKINS, 4*

MARC CAMILLE CHAIMOWICz 3*

SHADOW CATCHERS: CAMERA-LESS PHOTOGRAPHy 4*

FRANCESCA WOODMAN 4*

TAyLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIzE 4*

theatreA MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 3*

AGE OF AROUSAL 3*

PETER PAN ON ICE 4*

RAMBERT DANCE COMPANy: AWAKENINGS TOUR 2011 5*

ROB DRUMMOND: WRESTLING 4*

THE BLUES BROTHERS PARTy 3*

THE COMPANy WILL OvERLOOK A MOMENT OF MADNESS 4*

THE HAUNTING 3*

The JournalWednesday 9 march 201118 Arts & Entertainment

Alexandra Wingate

ShakeSpeare iS revered worldwide as the greatest play-wright who has ever lived. But he’s not everyone’s cup of tea thanks to the antiquated and complex lan-guage, one too many poor produc-tions, and an insistence on sticking faithfully to the historical context of the text. So finding a real gem of a Shakespeare production can be like finding a needle in a haystack. But look no further – there’s a diamond before us in the shape of propeller, an all-male ensemble who specialise in reigniting and exploring Shakespeare’s plays.

propellor perform one of his earliest works, which overflows with farce and slapstick as two sets of identical twins separated at birth coincidentally find them-selves in the same town. Unaware of each others’ existence, there are multiple and increasingly worsen-ing cases of mistaken identity, as the ever-complex confusions lead to adultery, accusations of theft and even demonic possession.

director edward hall has pushed his imagination to its abso-lute limit, from an elvis-inspired conjurer to a streaker. With the audience in stitches, hall’s produc-tion manages to make the original script feel so fresh and new that it could have been written yesterday, and yet the text is barely altered, with only a few modern-day jokes

or songs thrown in to maximise the humour, making it truly recognis-able and enjoyable for a modern audience.

all of the actors are of an incredibly high standard without exception. Missing or not quite understanding every single word doesn’t matter, as the cast bring the complicated language to life by acting everything so clearly and palpably that it is impossible not to understand what’s going on. as if performing an entire Shake-speare play with huge comic zest isn’t enough, the cast lay on further entertainment in the interval by performing intricate harmonies of popular pop songs to raise money for charity, proving that the cast don’t just act, but sing, too. all of them are full of energy, and their enthusiasm and love of what they do is indescribably infectious.

propeller’s production is incredibly accessible, and a perfect introduction for those new to Shakespeare. But this accessibil-ity isn’t because the play has been in any way simplified or dumbed down – it is simply a fantastic and hilarious piece of theatre suitable for both novices and Shakespearean academics alike; surely an industry guide of how Shakespeare ought to be performed in the 21st century.

Venue: King's Theatre; Dates: Tues-day 22, Thursday 24, Saturday 26 February; Price: £14.50 - £27.50

Jessica Abrahams

The success of The King’s Speech has inspired a new fascina-tion with a royal family at once so far removed from, and similar to ourselves. Quickly followed by channel 4’s documentary The Real King’s Speech, the film owes its suc-cess in part to the representation of the King as an ordinary man. As a result, one of the many virtues of this exhibition is its timing.

Marcus Adams was a successful society photographer who, over the course of his career, documented the development of two genera-tions of royal children. his London studio opened in 1920 and quickly attracted the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of York. In 1926, the same year in which the Duke enlisted the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue, they brought their newborn daughter elizabeth to the studio for the first of many portrait sessions. here, the seven-month-old child, later to become Queen eliza-beth II, appears both by herself and with her parents, with one photo affectionately signed by her father – ‘Bertie, 1926’.

The exhibition closes with a photo from 28 years later; a large portrait of Queen elizabeth II with her young children charles and Anne, holding hands and laugh-ing. In between are numerous

photographs which attest to an affectionate and close-knit family, always laughing and hugging, and it is impossible not to be charmed.

Particularly striking is a photo-graph of elizabeth taken just four days after the Duke was crowned sovereign following his brother’s abdication. It is a beautiful picture that shows the young heir staring intensely out at the viewer, as if pro-foundly aware of her new responsi-bilities. Also included in the show is silent video footage of the four year-old elizabeth posing in Adams’ studio as she plays with toys and laughs with the photographer. The intimacy is remarkable and the exhi-bition offers a glimpse of the royal family as real people with whom we can connect and sympathise.

off-setting this, the public face of the family is displayed in cabinets showing commemorative porcelain, postcards and other souvenirs. Adams’ vintage photographs are beautiful, charming, and inti-mate, but the exhibition’s ultimate strength lies in its timing. hot on the tails of the critically acclaimed The Kings Speech, which showed us the soft side of the monarchy, this show offers a further, extremely enjoyable, insight into the royal family.

Venue: The Queen's Gallery; Dates: Until: 5 June; Price: £5.50 (student)

art

marcus adams: Royal Photographer

from The King's Speech to his photo album, adams' work inspires

theatre

comedy of errors

new life for shakespeare's great farce

W ith an ironic Bieber-style flick of the hair and possessing the confidence to match, Sloss man-ages to win over the audience with a relatable and personal account of ‘his generation.’

the routine presents a typi-cal Edinburgher lad’s view of life, intersected with some cringe-wor-thy anecdotes about living in Fife which, holding true to its stereotype, provides plenty of incestual, paedo-philic material. Cheekily told with a confident swagger, the only thing that lets the routine down slightly is the rather generic quips at some all-too-easy targets including that infamous bald bouncer outside Cabaret Voltaire (good luck trying to get back in there Sloss!)

the routine covers everything that our generation loves to bitch, moan and laugh at, and this is exactly why Sloss remains so like-able and current throughout his performance: his comedy is like lis-tening to a really funny mate down the pub recounting the events of last night, even though you’re paying him to do so!

Between heading to the bar after the show for “a hug or more, so long as you feel you get your money’s worth” and getting his warm-up act, Davie Connor, on stage for a round of ‘unicorn wars’, you can’t help but love him. For Sloss, who clearly loves doing what he does, it is certainly all fun and games on stage (at least until someone loses an eye) and the audience can’t help but feel a connection to his down-to-earth style.

the fact that someone aged 20 already has to ‘retire’ some jokes - now that he’s learnt to shave prop-erly - is testimony to the success and recognition he has achieved so quickly. Despite self-confessing that he hates getting introduced at parties as ‘the comedian’, if Sloss continues on the way he’s going, it seems unlikely that this introduc-tion will be letting up anytime soon. Daniel Sloss

Venue: Pleasance Theatre; Date: Friday 25 February

comedy

daniel sloss

Debbie Currie

MAnuEl hArlAn

sTEvE ullAThornE

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Arts & Entertainment 19

Penguin cafe

arthur Jeffes and his talented orchestra prove that even penguins can fly

musiccomedy

steve Williams: stand up story man

Gráinne O’Hogan

It’s a raIny tuesday night in Edin-burgh, and inside the jam-packed stand Comedy Club, steve Williams is attempting to work up a storm for his audience. Williams gets off to shaky start with his uninspiring warm-up banter as the audience don’t offer up much for him to bounce off. However, what is most disappointing is that he

seems completely unprepared for this eventuality. Leisurely leaning against the wall behind him, unfazed and unen-thused, Williams drags out this part of the set for far longer than it merits, before eventually turning the topic of conversation around to his prepared material. this is where things start to improve.

Drawing from his experiences as a working-class Welshman married to an alpha-female lawyer, Williams bases his gags on his aversion and

awkwardness to situations which call for maturity. the laughs begin to flow more freely at the descriptions of his encounters with gnome-like floor staff in the cosmetic stands of department stores, and he brings a whole new meaning to the ‘vajazzling’ craze when he accompanies his wife to the gynae-cologist and accidentally lets her use a glitter spray on her private parts to freshen up beforehand.

On this occasion, Williams’ set unfortunately consists of more

forgettable than formidable observa-tions on exhausted topics. With only a few instances standing out among a series of non sequiturs, the Welshman only serves to offer us a glimpse of the potential which one fears might never be realised when combined with his seemingly passive attitude to his trade.

Venue: The Stand

Date: 22 February 2011

orlando

in their translation from italian to english, scottish opera lose something

theatre

Derval Tannam

The name GeorGe Frideric handel rarely connotes opera, and so Scottish opera’s production of Orlando comes as a novelty for even the most steadfast of aficionados. There is something refresh-ing about going to the opera without bias (excepting the vague idea that handel employs a pleasing profusion of strings and horns).

originally written in 1719, this ver-sion of Orlando is set in 1939 and tells the story of a brave soldier divided by love and duty, driven mad by the faith-lessness of his lover, angelica (Sally Sil-ver). This fickle woman is in love with medoro (andrew radley), who is in turn loved passionately by the charming nurse Dorinda (Claire Booth). But when orlando discovers angelica’s duplicity he swears bloody vengeance until Doc-tor Zoroastro (andreas Wolf) restores him to sanity via electroconvulsive therapy. Orlando is described in the pro-gramme as ‘one of the jewels of Baroque opera’, and So’s production, directed by harry Fehr, whose previous credits with So include Cinderella and The Secret Marriage, does sparkle in places.

The orchestra performed magnifi-cently under Paul Goodwin (in his So debut), the set was simple yet striking and the costumes were superb. however, the pleasure of opera arguably lies in the transcendence of emotion over lan-guage, and much of its brilliance has been lost in the translation from Italian to english. With no need to look to the supertitles for plot, one’s eye was drawn to the projections on the backdrop which were heavy-handed, at one point looking more like an advertisement for a jewellers than the appropriate visual accompaniment to the degeneration of a man’s mind.

In translating Orlando Scottish opera have allegedly made opera more accessible ‘to young people,’ but the result is a less affecting piece of music, as performers struggle to give meaning to their lines. at one point orlando (Tim mead) was trying so hard to enunciate that his voice was overwhelmed by the orchestra, a shameful tax on his talent. he and the undeniably gifted radley sang countertenor and the falsetto effect was more than slightly jarring, but Booth saved many scenes with her pas-sionate but playful performance. Ulti-mately there is no doubt that great tal-ent is on display in Orlando but much of

it is undermined by the distracting pro-jections and the folly of translating sub-lime Italian into sentimental english.

Venue: Festival Theatre; Dates: Thursday 3, Saturday 5 March; Price: £16.00 - £65.00

Saskia LongarettiMusic Editor

Restless and excited, tonight’s audience are about to experience the unforgettable sound of arthur Jeffes’ Penguin café, a re-incarnation of his late father’s orchestra of the same name.

this is the last date of their UK tour with Portico Quartet under the banner ‘Music Beyond Mainstream’ - a little too obvious a characterisation for the two thrilling acts.

Portico Quartet, with a steve Reich-inspired countenance, stun the audience to silence with their eerie experimental jazz improvi-sations. Here it is all about tex-ture; Jack Wyllie’s muted saxo-phone drone melts itself into the surface of Milo’s dark double bass, as a scattering of trendy electronic bursts, topped with nick Mulvey’s enchanting ethe-real hang drums constitute the ingredients of a sumptuously rich dish.

if that was pudding, then the audience are in for one hell of a feast. arthur Jeffes’ poignant love for his father’s talent admi-rably transcends stagnant nos-talgia: performances of ‘in the Back of taxi’ and ‘telephone Rub-ber Band’, in which Jeffes plays the back up rhythm via iPhone, blends their blinding creativ-ity with a relaxing confidence. Jeffe’s hypnotic presence is chal-lenged by the central violinist, duncan Berry, who, clad in an endearing top hat and waist-coat, infuses the stage with his infectious entropy. ‘Music For a Found Harmonium’ and ‘Perpe-tuum Mobile’ satisfy followers of Penguin’s better-known composi-tions, while ‘swing the cat’ lay-ers and loops eccentric rhythms until you want to grab the sound and put it in your pocket.

Penguin café is no doubt an act of orchestrated genius. From ukulele to cello, the acous-tic intensity of their richly embossed arrangements is sum-marised in Brian eno’s confi-dent panegyric that their music is all at once “eccentric, charm-ing, accommodating, surprising, seductive, warm, reliable, modest and unforgettable,” stating, “it’s a true friend.” after playing the Penguins on repeat since their stunning performance, i would have to firmly agree.

Venue: Usher Hall; Date: Monday 21 February;; Price: £15 (£12.50)

riChArD CAMpbEll

Welsh comedian's boyish humour largely falls flat

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011

Ben Kendall Food & drink Editor

tRaditionalism is a food trait of the highest order. Innovation, though progressiv-ist and entertaining, does not render the same comforting flourish of familiarity that a good spot of tradition gets you.

to that end, it is with happy heart that the following review on ecco Vino – a bastion of italian tradition – were written.

the delightful little enoteca leaks soothing charm from every pore. the soft lighting, rich oaken furnishings, glistening wine bottles and colossal italianate bar cohere into a space of warmth and sophisticated repose. you can dine a on table of rich dishes or nibble on little antipasti and sip

prosecco at the bar: flexible, affordable, cosyingly pleasurable dining.

We start with honest, simple bread (£3.75) served in that most italian of ways, with olive and balsamic vinegar. nothing beats this combination, acer-bic and smooth: so simple, so good. Progressing through the spaghetti with roast chorizo, peppers and tomato sauce (£10.30) and a salad of roasted butternut squash, goat’s cheese, cherry tomato and basil (£8.95) was a rare delight – such authentic and unabash-edly good italian fare. chorizo, though obviously not italian, belongs here with its natural bed-mates of tomato and parmesan, cushioned on a spread of pasta, spiced meatily and slightly sweet. the salad was a hearten-ing symphony of flavour, soft nutty squash, tangy cheese and sharp-sweet

tomatoes. such an excitement for tastebuds

was this dish that you hardly notice it’s a salad, so substantial is the pleasure derived from it.

Pudding manifested itself in a simi-lar fashion. the chocolate fudge-cake (£4.95) was a rich gooey exercise in self-fulfilment; you can’t feel complete without having tried this cake. the tiramisu (£4.50) was a floating pillow of cream, a soft and yielding foil to it’s espresso-soused biscotti base and cocoa crown.

ecco Vino is not really a wine bar; it’s a wonderful restaurant with a bloody good wine-list.

19 Cockburn St, EH1 1BP, 0131 225 1441

Caroline Bottger

i don’t KnoW about you, but i prefer sitting in a bar and listening to music rather than going to club and dancing to it. there are many

pubs in edinburgh which offer live music, some better than others, but hav-ing been round the block, i can say with some degree of confidence that i have found two which are worth your time as lovers of alcohol, a cosy atmosphere and drunken sings-alongs to ‘Galway Girl’.

John leslie’s Bar (45 Ratcliffe ter-race) is a little far afield if you are based in Bruntsfield or marchmont, but the anticipation (and thirst) built up is rewarded by an impossibly large ale

and whisky selection. every week they feature ales from one part of scotland at lower the normal price. educating yourself about others ales is both fun and cost-effective. John leslie’s, like your mother, knows best. they also have a whisky menu, which should in itself tell you that John leslie’s is pretty damn serious about whisky and the consumption thereof. instead of the standard 25ml dram, the good folk at John leslie’s increase it by a cheeky further ten.

enough about the booze, you protest. What about the music? adam and ewan are there every friday night, playing an assortment of scottish, irish and canadian folk music, and welcome the participation of other instruments and voices. John leslie’s is the perfect

pub to sit back with a dram and listen quietly.

the polar opposite of John leslie’s is the White Hart inn (34 Grassmarket), and is an unabashed favorite among of the cognoscenti of drunk and disor-derly. friday and saturday nights are the best if you like singing along with the crowd, and trust me, there will be a lot of singing. expect a hoarse voice the next day. Week nights are pleasant, though, and the White Hart can be a lovely, quiet haven in which to enjoy a good dram or pint with a small group of friends. come friday, the small bar is filled to the brim with edinburgh folk with two things in mind: getting drunk and having a fine time. the live acts are superb, and take most suggestions. But their set lists never change, like the ales

the White Hart serves. the White Hart inn has a whisky

menu, but unfortunately it’s back to those 25ml measures again. most drinks are a wee bit expensive, owing to the inn’s location in a focal area of edinburgh tourism, but to be sur-rounded by around a hundred people, all bellowing ‘country Roads’ by John denver, is a feeling second to none.

fact: live music pubs are everywhere in edinburgh. However, just because they are everywhere it does not mean that they are all good. any pub can put up a mic and anyone can get up and play the guitar, but the feelings of camaraderie and shared experi-ence generated in John leslie’s and the White Hart inn cannot be easily or faithfully replicated.

20 Food & Drink

Rebecca MonksClubs Editor

cHeese and cRacKeRs are a British institution. their beloved place alongside board games and sunday lunches has

been firmly established through the decades. sadly, sin’s thursday night event of the same name does not carry that same warm feeling.

cheesy pop music - once an interest-ing niche market - has unfortunately soured, leaving something of a bitter taste in the mouth of edinburgh’s club nights. While Journey’s ‘don’t stop Believing’ was once a classic hit, ironically revived for the pleasure of students and crooners alike, it has now come to represent a stale market for cheesy pop music that has far sur-passed the realms of ironic pleasure. sin nightclub’s ‘cheese and crackers’ represents everything that this night has degenerated to. Generic tunes are played repetitively and monotonously, highlighting everything that the 90’s had to offer, thankfully with the excep-tion of parachute pants and union jack dresses. the night is a diluted Big cheese: taking the student fun out of the classics, it is a mere shadow of a well established event.

sin has done well to reinvent its image in recent years. Quite literally transforming itself, the church-like venue has become the regular haunt of those in search of a cheap night out. if the price is right and the drinks are cheap, cheesy pop music is as bearable as it ever will be. But while Potter-row has become a mecca for those in search of spice Girls, s club 7 and a shot of sambuca, sin has yet to achieve the sense of an ironic guilty pleasure that the Big cheese does. atmosphere is lacking somewhat, but this is more than made up for by reasonably-priced drinks. if you can’t wait until the week-end for a slice of cheese, then have it with crackers. But be warned, it is a lit-tle hard to digest, and leaves a slightly astringent aftertaste.

Cheese & Crackers ;Venue: Sin; Dates: Thursdays;10pm-3am; Price: Free Entry

the other side of edinburgh's nightlife

for both raucous and restful live music, edinburgh's pubs have a lot to offer

cheese goes crackers at sin

cheese & crackers

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The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Fashion 21

Jessica Heggie

tHe edinBuRGH cHaR-ity fashion show is swiftly approaching and, after the huge success of the launch

party at the caves, it is expected to be a big one. With designers such as Prin-gle of scotland presenting collections at the show, it’s definitely going to be

one of the biggest events of 2011. this year, ecfs, sponsored by

citylets and supporting Breakthrough Breast cancer, is hoping to raise more money than ever before. the theme of the show is [d]evolution, hoping to bring things back to basics by combin-ing the best of student talent with high fashion. the opening, taking place on friday 18 march, is a student night with tickets priced at only £20. the ViP

night will take place on saturday 19 march, and is a black tie event with a three-course meal. Both nights promise to be incredible, if previous years’ shows are anything to go by.

ECFS 2011

ecfs promises to host a programme of exciting and glamorous events, and it's all for charity

Anna Warren

sometHinG VeRy eXcitinG is happening in edinburgh this year in terms of beauty and fashion. Renowned make-up artist to

the stars, allie smith, and business-woman alison Boyes are set to launch the edinburgh school of media make-up (esmm). Wednesday 23 february heralded the launch party of edinburgh school of media make-up. in order to find out some more about the school and what it has to offer, i was privileged enough to attend what turned out to be a fantastic event .

the school is set to open in sep-tember in an unfinalised location and will provide first class training in media make-up. Running fourteen week courses, students will be fully prepared for a career in the arena of professional hair and make-up in the media. allie smith, make-up artist and director of the school told me how the school has already been “overwhelmed with positive feedback”, a fact that was clearly echoed by the excellent turnout to the esmm edinburgh launch party.

allie told me how the principles behind the school lay in the “gaps in good training north of the border that are industry focused” illustrated by the majority of successful make-up artists graduating from london based schools. However, there is still hope for us up north, as all involved with the school are passionate about edinburgh and seeing local people and students make it as the next big make-up artist.

as if this doesn’t sound excit-ing enough there’s more to come; the school is firmly based on a bank of world-renowned make-up artists and hair technicians as well as having close links to television directors and film producers, providing direct access to the work in the industry.

the edinburgh school of media make-up are extremely privileged to have on board tina earnshaw, a twice oscar nominated make-up artist who has previously worked alongside stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow, also teach-ing at esmm ia Jan archibald, a make-up artist and wig professional who has a repertoire including an oscar for her work on film la Vie en Rose and eight Bafta nominations. Both earnshaw and archibald helped to design the courses for the school and will provide hands on, industry-focused teaching. if you’re going to learn why not learn from the best?

allie smith herself has worked in films such as Harry Potter, providing a wealth of contacts, preparing all students for the world of make-up in

the media. usually such name-dropping may be

viewed unprofessional, but in this context i believe the esmm provides a fantastic opportunity. When catching up with the girls they told me how many students were coming out of beauty college without any contacts. With the teachers and make-up artists on board at this school this is what they hope to provide.

they aim to provide hands on teaching from experienced make-up artists who have spent years in the world of press, media, tV and film giving you the tools to prepare you for the industry. But if a career in make-up isn’t something that you wish to pursue then don’t think this isn’t for you. the school is also preparing to put on make-up master classes in which groups of women can learn from some of the best about how to apply your own make-up, whilst picking up some new tips and tricks straight from the screen.

the launch party itself screamed glamour and high fashion, something we can all agree edinburgh needs and i personally am extremely excited about the opportunities and new chic esmm is going to bring to this city. flown straight in from london fashion Week, lauren Gollan, mac pro make-up artist and one of the schools fashion tutors, was at the event and i was able to catch up with her getting the ‘straight from the runway’ tips on this seasons hot looks.

Working with designers such as nicole farhi, mulberry, Vivienne Westwood and Henry Holland, lauren dropped hints that this season’s make-up was focused on the skin with dewy, 14 year old natural skin, glossy eyelids with a full lip. models wore mac c1 on their face with a clean blush falling within the dewy tone, with a “less is more look with the skin” and then a dark lip in deep reds and berry tones. i asked lauren for her thoughts about the opening of esmm and she seemed just as excited as everyone else commenting that “this is something edinburgh has been missing for a long time, i wish there had been somewhere like this for me to train”.

so if a future career in media make-up is something you may consider or whether you’re looking for a fun day learning how to do your own make-up, look out for what is an exciting place to be: edinburgh school of media make-up in september.

For more information about the school visit the website.

www.edinburghmakeup.com/

scottish media gets made upBeauty college north of the border gets an international makeover

The show will take place at Mansfield Traquair on 18 and 19 March 2011. Tickets are available online. www.edinburghcharityfashionshow.com

AlExio MAnChon

The JournalWednesday 9 march 201122 Sport

Mark SimpsonSport Co-Editor

steVen daVies, tHe england and surrey Wicket Keeper, has this week become the first professional crick-eter to come out as a homosexual. it may not appear to be a big deal, and it really shouldn’t be, but to just look at the coverage the story Welsh rugby star Gareth thomas is gaining in america, in a sport americans don’t even seriously play, shows the scale of the issue. Pro-fessional sports stars in teams around the world remain in the closet with ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policies commonly enforced. Gareth thomas and steven davies are the only two openly gay cur-rent participants in leading team sports in the world.

the national survey of sexual atti-tudes and lifestyles (natsal) found that 6.4 per cent of males in Britain have had sexual relations with another man. therefore the number of homosex-uals currently playing sport in the uK should be much greater than two.

Homosexuality has only been legal in Britain for 34 years, and around the world in many areas such as latin america it is still a massive taboo. the term ‘gay’ has even become a slander-ous way to describe a homosexual, as

when used by a child it often simply means something is bad, highlight-ing the negative connotations of the word. Worse still homosexuality is still considered sinful by most leading religions. By some interpretations, the Bible literally tells people they will be punished for eternity for what they are, unless they can pray the gay away. We still have a while to go before we can consider ourselves a truly accepting world.

With championships like the Pre-mier league having an international following, and squads having an inter-national makeup, perhaps many do not feel they can be honest with less open-minded team mates. andy Gray and Richard Keys did their part to highlight problems of exclusion in football with their derisory comments on the selec-tion of sian massey as an assistant ref-eree for a Premier league match, and similar problems exist for homosexuals as for women.

then of course there is the hound-ing from the terraces. sol campbell, perceived to be a homosexual, upon his return to former club tottenham Hotspur was subjected to horrendous abuse that included references to his gaining HiV from his alleged sexual preferences.

the inclination to stay in the closet could all stem from the plight of the most famous openly gay footballer Justin fashanu. during his career he was prevented from achieving his potential by rifts with coaches like Brian clough who disapproved of his sexu-ality. upon publicly announc-ing his sexual orientation he was disowned by his brother, derided by fellow profession-als and many clubs were reluc-tant to offer him a contract. after his playing career ended he was accused of sexual assault, which led to him committing suicide, the suicide note stating, “i realised that i had already been presumed guilty,” which highlights the inordinate pressure of being openly gay in the sports media spotlight.

so what is being done to change the sporting world for the better and promote inclusion for all?

in 1982 tom Waddell pio-neered the first Gay Games in san francisco. the games promote inclusion with participants from all sexual orientations. this helps promote

a more open and tol-erant attitude towards

homosexuals in sport, but more must be done for

mainstream sporting events. Gareth thomas could be

the role model for change. His story has made news headlines on both sides of the atlantic with a film in the pipeline star-ring mickey Rourke. the film could help change attitudes and stigmas

around homo-sexuality and

increase pub-lic understand-

ing of the pressures on such individuals. a role model for

change would have to have a huge influence, and be a large success in a popular sport. two of tennis’ most successful female players are lesbians. Perhaps

team sports need a simi-lar inspiration to bring change and hopefully

the portrayal of Gareth thomas by mickey Rourke

wil go some way towards that.

time for professional sport to come out of the closetThe Journal explores homosexuality in team sport and the possibility that change may finally be on the horizon for sport's oldest taboo

Jamie TimsonSport Co-Editor

How’s the season been so far? the season started off excellently with

a 5-0 win at home to strathclyde in the opening game of the season. things went from strength to strength with wins away to Glasgow uni and most importantly a 1-0 win away to edinburgh uni. as well as a great start to the sus league, we also had a great start in Bucs when we picked up the university’s first win in the Brit-ish championship in over 6 years against lancaster uni at Riccarton. a win away to northern premier section side northum-bria uni continued our good form before our bogey team edinburgh uni 2s put a stop to our winning streak with a 1-1 draw at Riccarton. the bad weather forced us to have a longer break than expected and this was to be our downfall when we started slow in our first game back against Bucs champions loughborough conceding 2 goals in the first 10 minutes. although we came back strong, the game finished 2-1

to the visitors. this result put a bit of a downer on the team and we havn’t seemed to be able to bounce back yet. We drew games away to strathclyde and edinburgh uni 2s and at home to Glasgow uni which we really felt we should have won. There’s one game coming up with a lot riding on it?

yes, our final game against edinburgh uni will be our biggest challenge yet, a win for either team will see them crowned champions and a draw will leave edin-burgh uni knowing that a win at home in their last game against Glasgow uni will award them the title. What were your expectations at the start of the season?

Before the season began we firmly expected to be challenging for the Queens Park shield. With last year’s champions stirling university moving up to the north-ern premier division and the fact that we only lost one player from our squad over summer, we felt that the sus 1a title was ours for the taking. maybe if we had been a bit more clinical in front of goal and had

a little more concentration in defence then we would have this league wrapped up already but we have let edinburgh uni back into it and we will have to wait and see who takes the glory in next Wednes-day’s (16/3) “league final”. Which was the standout game of the season?

our highlight of the season was probably our 4-2 victory in newcastle against northumbria uni. after going a goal behind at half time the whole squad showed great grit and determination to pull it back and go 3-1 ahead in the sec-ond half, with myself getting the equaliser before Gavin malin, Ricky Burke and aaron James on the score sheet. the game was also special to many players as it was the first time Heriot-Watt fc had won away in Bucs in a long time and it gave us belief that we could do something great this season. Are there any areas to work on for next year?

as i mentioned before, our lack of com-posure in front of goal and concentration

in defence have hurt us in the final part of our season and this is something head coach michael Renwick and assistant coach Ross campbell have been focusing on in training.

our hope for the rest of the season is obviously to get a win at home to edin-burgh uni on the 16th in which is sure to be the game of the season. We have also got ourselves into a relegation dogfight in our saturday campaign in the east of scot-land league. How did you arrive at the esteemed position of club captain?

last year i was elected to sit on Heriot-Watt’s sports union executive committee as an executive officer and mainly for this reason i was elected by members of the football club to be the club captain for this season. this is my third year playing for the first team and i am currently this season’s leading goal scorer in both the Wednesday and saturday campaigns and have been selected for this season’s scottish universities 24 man training squad.

Heriot-Watt's it all about?after a dismal 0-0 draw against edinburgh uni, The Journal caught up with Heriot Watt’s football club captain chris donnelly

Fergie in the thick of it

the manchester united man-ager last week proved once again that no matter how long you spend in football or how many great successes you achieve, you can never quite have enough. not content with publicly defending Wayne Rooney’s blatant violent conduct at Wigan the weekend before, ferguson last week found the gall to accuse martin atkinson of being neither “fair” nor “strong” as his side went down 2-1 to chel-sea. and his ‘in-for-a-penny...’ atti-tude has seemingly compelled him to attempt an appeal of the subse-quent fa charge of improper con-duct. Perhaps the man responsible for excusing Rooney’s offence, and also, if you remember, for allow-ing nani’s ridiculous goal against spurs to stand earlier this season– referee mark clattenburg – should take charge of all manchester united’s matches?

Klitschko vows to return to his Haye day

the fight many boxing fans predicted would never happen has been scheduled. WBa heavy-weight champion Brit david Haye will fight the younger Klitschko brother Wladimir in Germany this summer. announced for either the 25 June or the 2 July the fight will finally bring together the pair who have been on and off more times than Ross and Rachel. on satur-day, Kiltschko withdrew from his title defence against dereck chi-sora seemingly paving the way for the agreement of the Haye fight. Haye described it as “the fight every boxing fan has to see” and The Journal only hopes every box-ing fan gets a better show than the Hayemaker’s last fight against audley Harrison.

Fallout from old Firm derby continues

Rangers duo madjid Bougherra and el Hadji diouf are likely to face further punishment following their dismissals against celtic last Wednesday as their behaviour has been mentioned in referee calum murray’s match report. Bougherra appeared to restrain murray’s arm as he attempted to show him the red card, while diouf ignored his dismissal after the final whistle and went over to the Rangers fans and threw his shirt into the crowd. old firm managers ally mccoist and neil lennon also face disciplinary action with the ex-Question of Sport captain look-ing at a two match touchline ban, while lennon could spend up to eight matches away from the dug-out due to previous bad behav-iour. since Wednesday’s game calls have been made to play the derby outside of Glasgow due to the trouble caused.

sean Gibson & Jamie timson

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011 Sport 23

Jamie TimsonSport Co-Editor

many HaVe claimed that the rise of twenty20 cricket would prove the death of the 50 over game, if not claim the scalp of the five-day game as well. However, in this icc cricket World cup - currently taking place on the sub-continent - one team is singlehand-edly keeping alive the excitement.

set 292 to win by those cricketing powerhouses netherlands in their first game, england survived a major scare to win with just 8 balls remain-ing. a match-up with pre-tournament dark horses india then followed, and england’s bowlers toiled as the indi-ans - led by a peerless century from the little master sachin tendulkar – racked up a huge total of 338. eng-land’s response was top drawer with strauss playing a captain’s innings finishing up with 158 from 145 balls and the game ending in the unlikely occurrence of a tie. unlikely, it must be said, to all but aussie legend shane Warne who predicted a tie seven hours before the game on his twitter account and was then promptly inves-tigated by the Pakistan cricket author-ities after the game; a sad indictment of the present day cricketing universe. this left england entering their game against another associate nation ire-land on a high, however a combination of poor bowling and fielding allowed

the irish to complete the highest run chase in cricket World cup history with the highlight being Kevin o’Brien – a club cricketer in ireland – scoring the fastest World cup century off just 50 balls. last saturday, however, eng-land turned the tables and pulled off the unlikeliest of victories, success-fully defending the paltry total of 171 against one of the tournament favou-rites south africa. stuart Broad was the hero, taking four wickets for just 15 runs in a devastating display of fast bowling. despite never really hit-ting top form in all areas of the game england are still within touching dis-tance of a quarter-final spot and, who knows, maybe even a tournament win should they make it through to the knockout stages.

of the other contenders, The Jour-nal’s pick would be a West indies/australia final. the Windies have been quietly picking up victories and momentum seems to be with them, although having lost to south africa they will most probably need a win against england to qualify. the auss-ies on the other hand are past masters at these tournaments, the sheer length - some 6 weeks of cricket - dictate that the winning team will most likely be the most consistent. The Journal wonders if maybe shane Warne could help his former teammates out with his new-found crystal ball.

england: over and out?icc cricket World cup stumps up plenty of excitement as shane fails to heed his own Warne-ings

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JuliET JAMEs

The JournalWednesday 9 march 2011

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24 Sport

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Hacker:pro sport comes out of the closet

League Table

FootBALLBUCSScottish Conference men’s 1A

P W d l f a Gd Pts

Heriot-Watt 1st 7 3 4 0 15 5 10 13

edinburgh 1st 6 4 0 2 14 4 10 12

Glasgow 1st 7 3 2 2 15 14 1 11

edinburgh 2nd 8 2 3 3 7 9 -2 9

strathclyde 1st 8 1 1 6 9 24 -15 4

rUgBYBUCSScottish Conference men’s 1A

P W d l f a Gd Pts

edinburgh 1st 8 8 0 0 333 52 281 24

aberdeen 1st 8 6 0 2 320 147 173 18

st andrews 1st 8 5 0 3 274 184 90 15

stirling 1st 6 1 0 5 115 257 -142 3

Heriot-Watt 1st 7 1 0 6 91 224 -133 3

Robert Gordon 1st 7 1 0 6 55 324 -269 3

HoCKEY

BUCS Scottish Conference Women’s 1A

P W d l f a Gd Pts

edinburgh 1st 8 8 0 0 25 5 20 24

st. andrews 1st 8 4 1 3 16 13 3 13

Glasgow 1st 7 4 0 3 15 14 1 9*

edinburgh 2nd 8 1 2 5 12 25 -13 5

caledonian 1st 7 0 1 6 3 14 -11 4*

BUCS Scottish Conference men’s 1A

P W d l f a Gd Pts

Heriot-Watt 1st 7 6 0 1 25 6 19 21*

edinburgh 1st 8 7 0 1 25 7 18 21

Glasgow 1st 8 3 0 5 16 24 -8 9

dundee 1st 7 2 0 5 9 24 -15 6

aberdeen 1st 6 0 0 6 9 23 -14 -3*

* = points deducted/awarded

Nick Roberts

HaVinG secuRed tHeiR Premier league status for next season by beat-ing newcastle 4-1 in the first Round, edinburgh’s men’s first team travelled down to Birmingham for the quarter-final. Hopes of a first-ever trip to the semi-finals were eventually quashed with a 5-0 reverse, despite some good performances and close matches.

alex iveson kicked off the matches at number five, continuing his recent run of good form playing some intelligent squash and after losing the first game 7-11 he had game points in both the second and third games but didn’t manage to convert any of

them eventually going down 13-15 10-12. nick Roberts was playing at four and,

in much the same way as alex, he played well but didn’t manage to get any games on the board – losing a tight 10-12 8-11 8-11.

dan Ward took a break from his foot-ball duties to represent the team at three and, despite not really playing squash, put in a great performance. dan lost the first game 5-11 but hit some strong drives to level at 1-1 taking the second game 11-8. the third game was tight but dan was always behind, losing a tight 8-11. the final game was by far the greatest spec-tacle of the day; both players were fetch-ing well, hitting some nice drives but also some fairly horrendous shots. the game moved to ten-all, with both players needing to win by two clear points, but neither of them were capable of stringing two solid rallies together. dan saved game ball after

game ball but at the eighth time of asking he couldn’t find the winning drive, finally going down 16-18 and a 3-1 defeat in the match.

at number two, Rik Keating had a very tough match playing a very accurate oppo-nent. Rik tried his usual trick of running around a lot but ultimately his opponent was just too consistent winning 3-11 5-11 3-11.

the final match of the day was between the two number 1’s, iain tennant of edin-burgh and ali mutch of Birmingham. they were supposed to have met in the Bucs individuals championships the weekend before, but mutch had had to pull out. iain started slowly, making uncharacteristic mistakes at the front of the court and los-ing the opening game 5-11. after receiv-ing advice from his team between games, iain came out and stormed the second

game 11-2. mutch’s movement appeared to be slightly laboured but after a game’s recovery he was back on form, taking the third 7-11. the fourth game was very tight with neither player moving more than two points clear. iain managed to get two game points at 10-8, only to lose his concentra-tion and again play some unusually sloppy shots allowing mutch to win the next four rallies and the match, 3-1.

as Birmingham decided to stay on court post-match and play their women’s team – rather than offering the customary refreshments to the edinburgh boys before their long trip back north – there was no doubt who held the moral victory on a proud, but ultimately unsuccessful, day for the men’s first team.

BUCS Squash Men’s Championship Knockouts Quarter Final

edinburgh's racquet finally dies downscoreline fails to reflect edinburgh’s spirited fight as Birmingham edge through to the semi-finals

Sean GibsonSport Co-Editor

WitH edinBuRGH fiRsts not play-ing, this was a chance for Heriot-Watt to take the initiative in the title race, and leave their fellow contenders with it all to do in their remaining games. But Heriot-Watt’s destiny is no longer in their own hands, even if they defeat their title rivals in their final game next week. although still undefeated, they now haven’t won in four matches.

this was by no means the worst nil-nil you will ever see, but the vague sense of despair – seemingly shared by spec-tators and coaches alike – was tangible throughout the game. the recent relief from relegation fears that the edinburgh seconds enjoyed should perhaps have proved liberating in this, their final out-ing of the season, but alas, no. andy cum-mings’ cheap booking ten minutes from time – for throwing the ball away, and not very far at that – summed up the all-too common lapses into apathy.

Both teams were sloppy in posses-sion; it was a game of overhit passes and little movement off the ball. in fairness, both sides were committed in defence and there were very few errors for the forwards to exploit. Promising wing-play was also stunted somewhat by the condi-tions of a pitch in need of a serious roll-ing – players waited an age for the ball to stop bobbling before they could cross it.

of the two teams, Heriot-Watt started the brighter with big striker lars Berger dominating the early exchanges. although the away side struggled to create anything truly threatening, they certainly offered more than edinburgh.

despite the battling of tom timmins and the probing runs of winger steve Kenny, their play often fell flat.

edinburgh’s big chance came at 26 minutes, as timmins was put clear by a punt from defence. as the edinburgh bench went up for a foul on the provider, timmins’ awkward chip and narrow miss almost went unnoticed. the teams cantered into half-time with only a burst of life on the part of Heriot-Watt - three dangerous crosses in succession and the forcing of a goal-line clearance – stirring things up.

in the second half, Heriot-Watt’s wide men Gavin main and aaron James began to make a more significant impression, coming more into the game as edinburgh got to grips with target-man Berger and

new avenues of attack were sought. it was James on the hour who showed good strength to wriggle free in the box and hit a trickling shot on the turn, but, with the keeper beaten, it was inches wide of the post.

several minutes prior, Josh cannon had better demonstrated Heriot-Watt’s seemingly growing reluctance to score as he bundled his way through and rounded the keeper, only to lose his footing before getting in any meaningful strike. edin-burgh were keen not to be outdone and so issued a sequence of tricky-long throws and flick-ons blithely ignored by team-mates. indeed, by the final stages we had progressed to the stage where edinburgh were doing their damnedest to score for Heriot-Watt, as first nick Ghamgosar

sliced a clearance dangerously close to the target and then dan Patterson went one better and clattered his own crossbar under little pressure.

With two minutes remaining, aaron James headed a deep cross just wide of the target to spark a surprisingly frantic final scrap in which edinburgh looked likely to steal it. first david oswald found himself clean through, but whilst his shot beat the keeper it didn’t have the legs to cross the line. from a corner, amo armstrong had his strong header cleared off the line before comically missing his rebound - having already begun to cel-ebrate a goal. Heriot-Watt goalkeeper craig saunders had the last word as he brilliantly turned armstrong’s next header around the post.

shot-shy Watts short on poweredinburgh firsts the only winners as a grim stalemate keeps the title race tight

Edinburgh 0 Heriot-Watt 0

Birmingham 5 Edinburgh 0

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