One of the highlights of the week for many horror fiction fans was my three-part interview with Stephen King’s son Joe Hill. My chat with this charming American – a spitting image of his dad – was conducted in the grounds of Liverpool’s renowned Bluecoats art gallery following his book signing at the Liverpool One branch of Waterstones.

And here’s a press release I wrote at the time about the week-long event we dubbed ‘LiveRead’:

STARS LINE UP FOR UK’S FIRST ONLINE LITERARY FESTIVAL

Monday 15th- Friday 19th March 2010

A host of celebrity authors and playwrights will be taking part in the UK’s first ever online literary festival next week.

LiveRead, an exclusively web-based five-day event, will be hosted by the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper and feature contributions from the likes of Frank Cottrell Boyce, Linda Grant and Ramsey Campbell.

Frank Cottrell Boyce joins the line-up only months after his 2009 novel Cosmic was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. The Millions and 24 Hour Party People writer will be participating in a live web chat on the Daily Post website and reading an extract from his shortlisted book.

Award-winning novelist, playwright and journalist Linda Grant will also be taking part in a web interview, giving readers the chance to ask her questions about her main influences – her Jewish background, family history, and Liverpudlian heritage.

A third live chat will feature Ramsey Campbell, the acclaimed horror writer who served as inspiration for his American counterpart, Stephen King. The author of Demons by Daylight said he is delighted to be involved with LiveRead as he is a big fan of the Liverpool Daily Post.

Other well-known literary talents lending their names to the billing include former Brookside actor and star of Funny Money Neil Caple, legendary crimewriter Martin Edwards, rom com author Jane Costello, Eastenders scriptwriter Fred Lawless and Wirral-based author Caroline Smailes.

As well as web chats and author readings, activities include live video debates, a daily literary quiz, an interactive Choose-your-own-adventure story, a writer’s clinic with literacy consultancy BubbleCow, e-books, a poll to discover Liverpool’s favourite novel and much more.

Event organiser Susannah Birkwood commented: “LiveRead is an incredibly exciting project for the newspaper to stage because it allows us to extend our influence beyond the city and engage with a truly international audience. Thanks to video footage, live streaming, web chats and podcasts, we’re able to facilitate more interaction between readers, authors and journalists than ever before.”

All LiveRead content will be available online at www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liveread and updated daily between 15th-19th March 2010.

ENDS

The four homeless pooches are looking for a family to call their own this festive season after they were handed in to the RSPCA when their owner was unable to look after them.

Seven-week-old crossbreeds Petal, Tiger, Fluke and Benji, were part of a litter of seven pups which were handed into the Rhodes Bank rescue centre in Oldham, Greater Manchester, last week.

Three of the dogs have already been rehomed with loving families, but the remaining four cute canines now have only one week left to find a new home or face spending Christmas in the kennels.

From mid December the RSPCA centre staff will stop looking for prospective new owners for the pets in a bid to prevent people taking them on as spur of the moment Christmas presents.

The charity’s clinical supervisor Vicky Walsh said: “The puppies desperately need a loving home. Ideally someone will come forward who has lots of spare time, because they’re very mischievous and into chewing everything. They’re very sweet though.

“We tend to be cautious about rehoming animals at this time of year as lots of people still want dogs for Christmas presents – but then they bring them back again in January. That’s why we close over Christmas.

“Kennels are a very stressful environment for dogs to be in. They’re much better in a home, where they can be house-trained from an early age.

“They don’t want to be here – they want to be curled up in front of a warm fire and going on long walks. The staff here will be sad to see them go though!”

If you are interested in adopting one of the pups call the centre on 0161 624 4725.

[First published in the Sun in December 2009]

Photo: Cavendish Press

The cookbook, which has 150 recipes and was written in Middle English, was compiled in 1390 by Britain’s original young masterchefs at a time when the main use of the F-word may have been ”feudal.” The cooks wrote their Old English recipes while working for King Richard II and came up with a string of outlandish dishes which might even baffle the most unorthodox Michelin-starred chefs like Heston Blumenthal.

They include Piment, a red wine drink mixed with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper and Payn Puff, which is boiled fruits wrapped in pastry. Tart in Ymber Day is said to be a type of egg custard tart sweetened with raisins and compast consists of cooked root vegetables in a sweetened vinaigrette. Other dishes include Frumenty, a porridge-type dish made with bulghar wheat, chicken stock and saffron and Gingerbrede, which involves spiced breadcrumbs bound with honey and rolled in sugar and ginger.

Now the cookbook has been dusted off by officials at Manchester University’s John Rylands Library and dishes from it will be offered for lunch at the canteen to give book lovers a realistic flavour of cordon bleu cooking in the 14th century. Entitled the ”Forme of Cury”, 20 of the recipes in the cookbook were translated by history experts and librarians to reveal a variety of old-fashioned delicacies believed to have fed both servants and members of the royal family alike.

The idea of adapting the ancient manuscript to satisfy contemporary appetites was thought up by cooks from the library’s adjoining café. John Hodgson, who looks after the library’s manuscripts and archives said: ”One of the difficulties we faced was that a lot of the recipes are very vague.

“It wasn’t like Delia Smith or Gordon Ramsay books at all. The book doesn’t specify particular quantities of ingredients or cooking times, so it was a case of trial and error in order to get the recipes to suit modern tastes.”

“The plainer dishes would have been served to the lower levels of the royal household while the more exotic things would have been reserved for the king,” said Mr Hodgson. “Though there were restrictions on what ordinary people were allowed to eat at the time, the manuscript is certainly an accurate reflection of what the aristocracy and the wealthy gentry used to eat and the sorts of ingredients they had access to.”

He added: “Bringing this manuscript to life in this way is a wonderful idea and it coincides with the library’s initiative to make some of our rarest manuscripts available on our website.”

The book itself, which is now deemed to be one of the library’s most important documents, was part of a large collection of manuscripts put together by Lord Crawford of Wigan’s Haigh Hall in the 19th century that was purchased by John Rylands in 1901.

Lorraine Crippin, who heads up the University’s catering department, said: “One of the dishes contained porpoise. “We’ve looked at recreating it but I don’t think people would be very impressed with us if we did in the current climate.

“You can still get dolphins off the coast of Cornwall, though.”
The new menu additions will be available from January 2010 and a copy of the manuscript may be accessed online now via the John Rylands website.

Alison Aucott, general catering manager, said: “Cooking from these recipes was a real challenge to the team – they were very hard to translate.

“We worked really hard experimenting with the recipes, they were very difficult and don’t describe how to create the dish like we do today.

“There are no measurements, no precise instructions, just boil or mix.
“We also had quite a challenge to make these dishes palatable to the 21st century taste.”

The complete collection of manuscripts will also be available online.

[A version of this article was published in the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in December 2009]

So what exactly does it cost to be a student in 2009? Estimates by both the National Union of Students and the University of Manchester state that it cost approximately £7,000 to study full-time at Manchester during the year 2008-09.

£7,000 would pay for accommodation (the average cost for self-catering halls at Manchester is £3,250 for 39 weeks), meals, books and stationary, clothes, local transport and other general living expenses, such as photocopying and printing, laundry, phone calls, entertainment, sports and cooking equipment.

The term ‘entertainment’, a pseudo-necessity, will no doubt be met by many a wry smile from those who recognize exactly what those expensively hedonistic nights on the town often entail. Such fond memories will probably be countered by the sobering knowledge that the average student living outside London has just £13.87 per week to live on after paying their housing and utility costs out of their student loans.

With the average graduate debt totaling £12,363 in 2007, such a conundrum leaves hard-up students with three options: apply for one of several scholarships offered by the University, apply for a Hardship Loan of between £100 and £500, or go out to work and become a (partially) self-financing adult. While modern-day students loans are designed to pay a proportion of the tuition fees, as well as living costs, the Hardship Loan is only obtainable by those who have applied for the maximum amount of student loan. As a result, many students have little choice but to seek employment.

Whereas in the past top universities such as Oxbridge prohibited their students from working part-time, the class of 2009 really does have to work to pay its way. More than half of students work during term-time to fund their studies, while 86 per cent have worked during the summer vacation period.

Not only has the proportion of students in part-time employment been increasing dramatically over the past decade, but we’ve also seen an alarming increase in the number of students working full-time. It’s not difficult to understand why Oxbridge and other Russell Group universities have discouraged their students from seeking employment: a quarter of students who work report having missed lectures, seminars or tutorials due to paid responsibilities, while almost one in five have missed deadlines. Law graduate and Students’ Union Welfare Officer Ellie Reyland is concerned by the findings:

“Around 40 per cent of students working full-time feel that employment has impacted on their studies. This is a worrying trend. Low paid jobs mean students have to work for longer, which affects their studying to a greater extent. Trade union membership is also very low among full-time students. I would encourage all working students to join a trade union.”

Unsurprisingly, most students are forced to undertake work which has little or no relevance to their studies. Like almost a quarter of full-time students, final-year English and Drama student Jennie Agg works in the hotel and restaurants sector, spending more hours per week waitressing at a noodle bar in popular student haunt Fallowfield than she does in the lecture theatre. “While I do enjoy my job, I certainly wouldn’t do it if I could afford not to,” she says. “I want to be a journalist when I graduate, but in the meantime I get treated like a skivvy by some of the customers who come in. When it comes to my coursework, extracurricular activities and job, it can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the week!”

Working isn’t the only option the contemporary student has for curbing student debt however. While one can only predict that fewer students will be able to afford the rents in ensuite catered halls of residence, the sight of a tracksuit-clad student carrying the ubiquitous Lidl bag along Oxford Road, laden with cans of baked beans and other cut-price essentials is far from just a stereotype these days.

One way many students avoid perpetrating this stereotype further is by participating in a mass exodus: back to Mum and Dad’s. A surprising 22 per cent of students now live with their parents, although this figure almost doubles among the poorer social classes. Yet, despite hailing from the Greater Manchester town of Urmston, third-year Pharmacy student Ali Yazdi preferred to live with friends while studying at the University, in spite of financial pressures.

“In my second year I worked part-time in Tesco, stacking shelves and working at the check-out, to make a bit of extra money,” he recalls. “But in third year I really need to concentrate on my course work, so I moved into the ‘box’ room of the house I was renting with my friends. The size of the room meant I could pay less rent and was able to stop working part-time thanks to the money I saved.”

Perhaps students’ problems should be looked at in the light of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s plans for 50 per cent of young people to attend higher education by the year 2010. With that deadline only months away, it’s probably just as well that this goal will not be reached. Widening participation and facilitating the education of more gifted pupils is undoubtedly important in the UK. Nevertheless, have we as a nation seriously considered the real cost of such an ambitious policy?

[First published in Your Manchester alumni magazine in June 2009]

Awarded the freedom of the city at a town hall awards ceremony last month, Charlton, who was knighted for services to football in 1994, appeared emotional at being recognised for the role he’s played as an ambassador for Manchester. He described himself as “humbled”. While much of the world is aware of Charlton’s most eminent sporting achievements – he’s scored more England goals than anyone and helped the squad win three league titles – significantly fewer are cognisant of the efforts the 71-year-old has made for his adopted city. In addition to his continuing his involvement with Manchester United, currently in the role of club director, Charlton is involved with a local organisation to campaign against landmines as well as helping the Council with its Olympics bid and the Commonwealth Games.

“It’s a very vibrant city and I’ve been proud to be a part of it,” he says. “Ten or 20 years ago, when you said you were from Manchester, they used to just politely nod; but now they don’t question it, as everyone in the whole world knows where Manchester is.”

Manchester’s notoriety on the international scene has of course stemmed from the overwhelming success of Manchester United. Charlton unmistakably feels as much allegiance with the club as that which he now exudes for the city itself. “Everything I’ve done in Manchester has been with the club, from the early days in Europe to the tragedy of Munich up to today.” The tragedy to which Charlton refers is of course the Munich air disaster of 1958, which saw the entire United team involved in a plane crash which killed 23 people. Understandably reserved on the issue, the former footballer described how in some ways the event had a bigger effect on the fans than on the team itself. “It was a very young team on the verge of doing great things when it happened,” he remembers.
But despite the catastrophic accident, which killed eight players as well as several staff members and plane crewmembers, the team proceeded to go from strength to strength over the years. Indeed, today Charlton would be wholly justified in predicting five trophy wins for United this season. “You have to be careful [about saying the team will win everything],” he says cautiously. “Alex [Ferguson] has been a little bit careful with regards to his statements when he’s been asked the same question, but we are getting really excited about it. When you talk to the players, it doesn’t seem impossible at all.”

One such player is Ryan Giggs, who broke Charlton’s illustrious appearance record at Manchester two years ago. Having played an astounding 758 games for the team himself between 1954 and 1973, doesn’t he feel the smallest twinge of resentment towards the younger man? “No, not at all,” he says convincingly. “Ryan Giggs has been a terrific footballer, the shining light of Manchester United and a terrific presence within the dressing rooms and outside the dressing rooms and wherever he’s gone. He’s probably playing the best football of his whole life now.”

Nor does Charlton begrudge the money he could have earned had he been born in another era. Though contemporary salaries are incomparable to his heyday earnings, Charlton maintains that wealth is something that never even occurred to him. “I worked hard and with people who I trusted very much, and if they said they were going to pay me a certain amount, I just accepted it. It’s not something I’m envious about at all with regards to the players… I woke up every morning thinking about when I was playing and how many days I would have to wait until we played a full match again. I just loved the game.”

Having devoted his entire life to playing, supporting and promoting the sport about which he is so intensely passionate, it must be difficult to imagine a another career path than the one which continues to provide him with such fulfillment. “I was planning to be a journalist actually,” Charlton smiles. “The Evening Chronicle of Newcastle asked me if I would like to play for them and they’d give me a job as well, because you had to work in those days, you couldn’t sign professional until you were 17.”

Though clearly lacking the zeal for journalism that he so patently expresses for football, Charlton continually refers back to an unyielding work ethic, leading you to believe he’d give any task his best effort. “I was proud to come to a city where they understand the work ethic,” he says, returning all thoughts to the honour that’s been bestowed on him with his latest award. “In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d be sitting here today thinking about being given the freedom of the city. It’s just a dream to me and it’s marvellous.”
Marvellous it is if we consider that, aside from his contributions to sport and campaigning against landmines, Charlton was also described by his former manager, Matt Busby, as “as near to perfection as possible, not only as a footballer but as a human being”. “I was set off on a great adventure being a footballer,” he concludes gravely. “I’ve loved my football and I’ve loved being here. It’s been sensational ever since I arrived.”

[First published in Student Direct in April 2009]

“People are always asking ‘why are you wearing this’ and ‘why aren’t you wearing that’ so I want to get to a place where no-one gives a damn what you’re wearing.”

Eddie Izzard sits in front of me dressed somewhat conventionally in a dark grey suit with a white shirt, open at the collar. Culture Minister Andy Burnham perches by his side as both soak up a few moments of relative calm following their appearance at a question and answer session hosted by the Manchester Labour Club, an event with all the flavour of a party political broadcast, albeit that the event wasn’t broadcast – indeed the press weren’t permitted at all…

His conservative dress (I refer, of course, to its modest, non-flamboyant nature as opposed to any political overtones) is what you might expect from a comedian who wants to be taken seriously as a politician, for that is evidently just what Izzard is. It’s only when you consider that he also has the reputation of being one of the most notorious transvestite entertainers in Europe that the sight of him today seems rather incongruent. “I’m in kind of boy mode at the moment but then I’ll go back to girl mode,” he explains.

A renowned pro-Europe campaigner who speaks fluent French and near-fluent German, Izzard cites the draw of the continent as the main impetus for his move into the world of politics. When asked about his motivations, he launches straight into lauding the benefits of European integration. “I can see the vision of Europe,” he says. “I can see that if you want to get a world minimum wage, you’ve got to get Europe working first. It’s one of the major continents to get this far. All these different countries used to murder each other for so long and in so many different ways, and now [Europe] is being used as a leverage of peace.”

Izzard’s multilingualism betrays an empathy with our overseas counterparts. “We should be inside Europe; we’ve got to be at the heart of Europe,” he insists. “People are exactly the same; they speak a different language but they still go to supermarkets, they want families, they want jobs and they want to trade.

“I’ve met them. They’re very similar to us,” he reveals in all seriousness. “They say different words but they still have a glass of wine or a beer or chips.”

Perhaps I shouldn’t expect smooth political rhetoric and seamless soundbites from Izzard; it’s been little more than a decade since he made his debut into the world of politics after all. He has probably spent less time in this world of polished appearances and empty promises than several of the student Labourites who organised tonight’s event. Izzard certainly wouldn’t have been a candidate in his students’ union elections; despite studying for an Accountancy degree at the University of Sheffield, the comedian was “let go” before its completion. “I didn’t get involved in politics until 1997 when I joined the Labour Party,” he explains. “I wanted to decide what I really thought. I worked out I was a ‘social democrat’ – I knew I wasn’t a socialist! For me the idea of being a socialist and being successful didn’t quite go together – the idea of giving all your money away. I spent a lot of time trying to articulate what was in my own head, working out what I believed, before standing up and doing it; I just took a longer time.”

“I worked my arse off to get where I am today,” he adds. “And I’ve taken risks all over the place.”

One such risk would surely be making public his transgender identity while working in the aggressively masculine sphere of comedy. Not only does Izzard describe himself as “a complete boy plus half a girl”, he regularly cross-dresses both on and off stage – and not purely for performance purposes. “Hopefully a more relaxed attitude will develop towards people being transgender,” he muses. “I mean, in the old days Danny La Rue [an entertainer renowned for his drag impersonations] didn’t even admit he was gay.” On the subject of discrimination, Izzard shrouds the gravity of his recollections with characteristic irony: “When I go out in boy mode, it doesn’t matter; [when I] go out in girl mode, I have to be ready to have a fight. I should learn some ninja training.”

Being a veritable glutton for punishment, I can’t help but wonder about Izzard’s take on our Students’ Union’s much-hyped “de-gendered” toilet facilities. “I think that’s cool,” he says casually, clearly oblivious to the media frenzy that surrounded this very topic only months ago. “In Roman times, everyone could sit down and have a poo and have a chat,” he continues, dead-pan. “The thing is, it’s just going to the loo! Everyone assumes that when you’re going to the loo there’s something else happening but it’s all just waste product coming out of our bodies. Everyone should get very relaxed about going to the loo.”

As a liberal thinker and high-profile entertainer whose influence in the realm of politics looks only set to increase over the coming years, does Izzard then see himself as a role model for the trans community? “I am a card-carrying transvestite – even though we have no cards,” he concedes cautiously. “By coming out, more people who are transvestite and transgender will think: ‘Well I’ll come out’.

“However, hopefully I’m a role model for myself, and if anyone can get anything from what I do, then that’s fantastic.”

[First published in Student Direct in April 2009]

Unlike the Students First candidates, who maintained strong affiliations to the Labour Party and Jewish Society, candidates without party political backing experienced victory on numerous occasions.

There was no triumph for proponents of online voting however, despite expectations that it would boast participation. Shockingly, turnout increased by less than one per cent on last year, with only 8.9 per cent of the student population logging in to vote – that’s a woeful 3,605 votes compared to the more than 4,000 cast in the 2006 Union elections.

The largest margin of the night was won by Lib Dem Kate Little, standing for Academic Affairs Officer, who beat political rival and Socialist Worker Party member Dave Sewell by an overwhelming 766 votes. “I’m so happy that all the students at the University of Manchester have put education before politics,” said Little.

The battle for Campaigns Officer was won somewhat less solidly, with newly elected Laura Williams beating notorious megaphone man and member of Action Palestine Katan Alder on second-preference votes alone.

Reclaim the Uni activist Gabriel Hassantopped the bill after the fifth round of eliminations for the position of General Secretary, beating Labour candidate Richard Neudegg – “like an egg that is naked”, as he said at the Candidates’ Debate – by a convincing margin. Throughout the election, Hassan claimed he was proud of his recent conviction for “aggravated trespass” because it represented a triumph for student activism. “It’s a mixed Council next year and we’re going to be really progressive,” he said of the elections. “This entire Union is going to do a lot of social good.”

In what was perhaps the most deserving win of the election, former Student Direct Deputy Editor Jennie Agg quashed Reclaim the Uni campaigner and Student Direct novice Ruben Seveelaventhan by an impressive 560 votes. Since 2007, Seveelaventhan’s only contributions to Student Direct have been letters of complaint, as well as one Opinion article advocating vegetarianism. The disgruntled activist has persistently failed to pass a motion condemning this year’s publication at a number of General Meetings.

The biggest surprise of the night saw “random independent” Thomas Fairhurst defeating Mohamed Ghalaeiny, another prominent member of Action Palestine, by 237 votes, leaving Labour student and current Humanities Faculty Officer Alex James trailing in their wake. Fairhurst is perhaps most easily identifiable from his campaign video, which he begins with the words “blah blah blah”, deriding the slick public speaking skills and empty promises of the typical student politician.

Another candidate without overt political alliances, Jacques Graves, achieved the position of Student Activities Officer, beating his closest rival Islamic Society candidate Ahmed Khan by several hundred votes. Graves will now be in charge of almost 200 Union societies – despite never having been member of a society himself.

It was second-time lucky for Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI) candidate Vicky Thompson, who was successful in her election as Welfare Officer, appearing undeterred by her defeat in the race for Campaigns Officer last year. Welfare was however won by the smallest margin of all the contests, with Thompson seizing victory over Jewish Society member Natalie Samuel by a mere 94 votes.

The position of Women’s Officer went to Hazel Kent, already an active member of UMSU women’s rights group The Riveters, who was unopposed in her election.

The blow to the Students First “slate” will have come as a shock to the many students who saw their rows of red and white carbon-copy banners and painted cardboard boxes littering campus throughout the week.

Lib Dem Chris Jenkinson, Academic Affairs Officer and newly elected Postgraduate and Mature Students Officer, claimed that the election constituted “an end to Labour Students in Manchester”. Chair of Manchester Labour Students and Students First Campaigns Manager Mike Joslin was understandably frustrated by the results. “I’m disappointed a convicted criminal was elected General Secretary by telling anyone who would listen that the opposing candidate was a member of the Labour Party,” he said on polling night.

But Students First weren’t alone in their embarrassment. Having run for the position of Academic Affairs last year, Campaigns Officer candidate Katan Alder was hoisted onto a friend’s shoulders in celebration after the second round of eliminations for the position. However, Alder’s festivities came to an abrupt end when Laura Williams was announced the winner in the third round – and supporters rushed to congratulate her instead.

The other non-sabbatical positions on Executive were gained by candidates on both sides of the political divide. Current UMSU Anti-Racism Secretary Oliver Worth secured Humanities Officer, unopposed Jewish Society member Shoshana Ajoodan-Poor is Life Sciences Faculty Officer, Electronic and Physical Sciences Faculty Officer went to Sara Mahmoud of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) and Medical and Human Sciences Faculty Officer was won by Adibah Abdullah (also FOSIS). The position of International Students Officer went to Suha Jafri, another Islamic Society candidate.

Click here to find out how each of the elected officers has been getting on during their year in office and read manifestos and reports from the latest UMSU Executive and Council meetings.

[First published in Student Direct in March 2009]

The students proposed a set of demands to Alan Gilbert, who addressed the group directly upon arriving in the building to attend a meeting.  

In what seemed like a large-scale version of last semester’s UMSU Q&A session with the Vice-Chancellor, enraged students fired questions at Gilbert and made their terms clear. The demands included a boycott of Israeli goods on campus, support for a day of fundraising with proceeds to the DEC fund, and an end to University research into manufacturing arms – without which they refused to leave the building.  

Gilbert appeared unfazed by the anger of many of the protesters, several of whom were members of Students’ Union society Action Palestine. He offered a response to each of the group’s demands, but stressed that he did not have the authority to make immediate decisions without consultation with his advisers and further consideration.  

“I will not be threatened,” he said in reply to an impassioned heckle from postgraduate student John McSweeney, who claimed that it was students, not the Vice-Chancellor, who should be making demands.  

“I don’t want you to think that you can stay as long as you like and the University will do nothing,” Gilbert said. “That is not in your powers… in the end you will leave.”  

After the speech, Gilbert admitted that the confrontation had been “difficult”: “I don’t think I emphasized strongly enough how much the University understands and empathises with these students’ demands.”  

The students, several of whom waved Palestinian flags or wore T-shirts with slogans such as “Does this shirt make me look Palestinian?”, marched into John Owens, the main University administration building following an Emergency General Meeting held last Wednesday in Academy 1. When the meeting failed to reach a quorum of 500 students by a mere handful of attendees, the disheartened proposers of the motion, entitled “Gaza Crisis”, rallied their supporters to “march on the BBC” in protest of the news organisation’s decision not to broadcast the DEC’s Gaza Crisis Appeal.  

The crowd of over 200 students, accompanied by approximately six police officers, chanted, “Israel is a terror state” and “Viva Palestina” at full volume. But rather than descending on the BBC’s Manchester Headquarters on Oxford Road, they instead piled into the University administration headquarters where they proceeded to convert the clauses of the EGM motion into a list of demands from the University.  

One of the protest organisers, masters student Katan Alder, commented: “We have taken notice of the fact that there have been occupations in universities across the country. We’re here to protest at our university attempting to ignore Palestinian students and at the Union attempting to gag Palestinian campaigns.”  

UMSU Communications Officer Robbie Gillett participated in the occupation for the first 18 hours. “I think it’s fantastic that students created a space for direct dialogue immediately with the Vice-Chancellor,” he said.  

A group of around 50 protesters remained in the John Owens Building overnight last Wednesday and Thursday, having secured donations of food from local Rusholme businesses such as Falafel. An “alternative day of learning” last Thursday saw a range of lectures and workshops run by academics and representatives from several unions and other organisations. But at 5pm that day University management requested the students leave the building and restricted access to the entrance, preventing the delivery of new food and supplies and the arrival of new participants.  

Some students achieved access to the building via the Student Services Centre, through which entry was later prohibited. Around 15 of the new arrivals barricaded themselves in the University post room, where they remained last Friday afternoon.  

A number of University lecturers, including Jill Lovecy, a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, extended their support to the protest, while political author Judith Butler, who gave a lecture at University Place last Thursday, also expressed her approval: “[Such occupations are] especially important for universities that are research-based because their priorities are totally wrong,” she said.  

A University spokesperson said: “We have recognised from the outset that the students involved have legitimate concerns about the situation in Gaza; however, as the protest has begun to have a disruptive impact on our staff and students we have asked them to leave the building. Any further occupation will be considered misconduct, and potentially a civil or criminal offence.”  

The University refuted allegations that security staff had been heavy-handed or intimidating and maintained that the University had been patient and tolerant for the most part of the occupation. Students at other universities have staged similar occupations over the last four weeks, with mixed results.  

The conflict has killed over 1,300 Palestinians and injured thousands. Tens of thousands of civilians have been left homeless. When Student Direct went to press, the protesters were planning to continue until their demands were met.  

DEMANDS FROM THE PROTESTERS  

1) The University should issue a formal statement condemning Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, acknowledging particularly the effects on educational institutions such as the bombing of the Gaza Islamic University and expressing concern about war crimes allegations.
2) It should support a day of fundraising across campus with the proceeds going to the DEC Gaza appeal.
3) It should publicise the DEC advert in any way possible and put pressure on the BBC and Sky to broadcast it.
4) It should send all furniture and surplus supplies from buildings that are being renovated to Gaza on the Viva Palestina convoy.
5) It should join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement by stopping sales of Israeli goods on University premises and refusing to purchase campus supplies from Israeli companies.
6) It should divest from all companies directly involved in the manufacture of weaponry and take the issue of transparency in its investment seriously.
7) It should publicly support its students’ right to protest, support occupations and provide facilities for a “Students for Palestine” conference in the second week of April ‘09.                                                             8) It should send a public message of solidarity to the Islamic University in Gaza. This should be published on the University website and sent to all staff and students via e-mail.
9) It should give at least five scholarships to Palestinian students and five to Israelis who refuse to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces.
10) It should create a module on the history of Palestine and make it available as an option for any University of Manchester student.
11) It should charge home fees to Palestinian students wanting to study at the University.  

66% of the students with children surveyed said that they were not satisfied by the total lack of information available from the University regarding their rights as students with caring responsibilities, their access to funding, timetables, nursery availability, schools in the local area and family-friendly accommodation.

The University has comprehensive ‘Family Friendly Policies’ for staff but nothing similar in place for students, with no centralised staff training for how to deal with students with caring responsibilities and according to Women’s Officer Jennie Killip, who conducted the survey, an unclear policy on student maternity leave.

One respondent to the survey said: “I’m very unsatisfied. I received no information on nurseries until I actually started at uni, by which time it was too late. I also received no information on finances.”

Killip, who submitted the results of the survey and an accompanying draft report to Head of Student Support and Services Pat Sponder last week, said: “I feel this shows the systematic ignorance of these students. Those from the local area are demonstrated to have less reliance on the University for information, whilst international students particularly are shown to have received no information whatsoever.”

The second most concerning finding was that half of students with children felt they didn’t receive their timetables in enough time to be able to plan their childcare arrangements, leaving many feeling that they were expected to fend for themselves. “There is no flexibility because of caring responsibilities,” said one parent. “I have been told ‘we cannot make the week longer for you’”, while another told of how she had to cancel her first break away in six years due to a last-minute change in exam timetabling. Killip stressed that not having notices of timetables reduced the choice of childcare and increased the cost.

And while more than half of students with children had accessed the Access to Learning fund (a fund administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England designed to enable the University to help students with course-related costs such as childcare), a Local Authority grant or other student support, almost three-quarters felt that the process of accessing such funding was not straight-forward. One mother explained that the process was “humiliating” and that she would have liked some support from the University in filling in the forms.

120 students with children responded to Killip’s survey, which was conducted via the UMSU website, as well as 20 others with other forms of caring responsibilities.

The results are particularly disappointing considering an 18-page childcare report that was published in 2005, and distributed to more than 30 University officials, including Pat Sponder. Then Women’s Officer Kate Byron, who compiled the report, called for increased support for student parents within the University, and in particular, more nursery places in the University’s nurseries and better help with funding. Not only have more nursery places not been made available for students in the three years since the report, but the dissatisfaction of 73% of students with children who accessed financial support suggests that students still aren’t receiving sufficient help with funding.

Mother-of-two Maria Canizalez graduated this year from the University of Manchester and feels that the information on childcare with which she was provided during her degree was not straightforward. Formerly a student of Italian and Spanish, Maria, originally from Venezuela, said: “They give you information about the University nursery but when you go along, they don’t have any spaces.” 33-year-old Maria received financial help with the care of her sons Daniel, seven, and Roberto, five, from the Access to Learning Fund in 2005, but despite being on a four-year course, was put off applying again because the process was so time consuming and difficult.

A University spokesman confirmed receipt of the report and said that the Student Support and Services team was currently examining its contents. Department Head Sponder met with Killip last week to discuss the contents of the draft report, which she described as “interesting”.

“I can see how we can seek to improve on certain things immediately, but other things will take more time to put in place,” she said. She declined to comment further, leaving Killip to have the last word: “There seems to be a ‘once you are in, you can fend for yourself mentality’ with regard to students caring responsibilities. We are calling on the University to start acting and stop ignoring this demographic of students.”

Students with children have their say:

Michaela, English Literature, second year

My 12-year-old son goes to school on his own and is a ‘latch key kid’. I’m not at home when he returns home. If I hadn’t been proactive, I never would have known that the University had any information about being a student with kids. I am annoyed that I had no information about the childcare help associated with the access to learning fund until the last date of applications when I stumbled across it on the intranet. I received my timetables in no way near enough time to plan my childcare arrangements which makes work life and family life very hard indeed. The University seems incapable of giving timetables until the induction for lectures, and not until a week into the course for tutorials.

Jane, German and Linguistics, final year

In my view a childcare service for students does not exist at the University. If it does then very little is said about it so I had to fend for myself. It is even harder if you are an international student, like I am. I am very dissatisfied, as I also received no information on finances, although I tried to apply for the Access to Learning fund in first year but found the form very overwhelming and daunting to fill in. It seemed quite intrusive in the sense that it asked for every single little detail of my income and expenditure. I may have benefited from having assistance to fill this in as it’s a nightmare.

Helen, PGCE, first year

I have never received any help, support or information whatsoever from the University as regards the care of my children. It is tedious and time consuming finding information and the Access to Learning fund is humiliating. I went to apply for funding over the summer holidays as we literally had no cash and a leeking roof. I was told we were not in need, that my mortgage would need to be in arrears for them to help. I do not know anyone with children who would let their mortgage get into arrears before they have exhausted every credit option first.

[First published in Student Direct in November 2008]