With the General Election due in the next few months, The Linc has taken a look to see what each of the main three political parties have planned for students and higher education.

The decisions taken by the Labour party, who have been in power for almost 13 years now, have widened access to higher education, but also caused some head aches for students.

In 2003 Charles Clarke, the then Education Secretary, raised the limit on tuition fees from £1,100 per year to £3,000, resulting in student debts that have reached £30,000 in some cases.

In addition, the Labour government has also scrapped the general student grant, meaning that students who come from poor backgrounds have borne the brunt of student debt.

While students from poor backgrounds can claim a maximum grant of £2,906, and those who are lucky enough to come from wealthy backgrounds can afford to live without government financial aid, students from middle-income backgrounds have been left stranded by Labour’s policies.

In terms of local support, it appears we cannot even rely on that since Gillian Merron has refused to oppose tuition fee increases, saying that the good Labour has done for education outweighs the damage.

However Labour have just passed legislation that specifies that people between 16 and 25 who are unemployed for six months will be guaranteed a job or training placement. Is this Labour returning to its roots, or just a display to attract floating voters? The latter is more likely.

The National Union of Students is also rallying troops to get the UK student population to vote in the upcoming general elections, in an attempt to slide the vote in the favour of future university undergraduates.

So if Labour don’t support student interests, the Conservative party do, right? Unfortunately not. They certainly have more university-specific policies than Labour, but are no more inclined to support students.

During Labour’s time in power, the Conservatives have had four leaders and spent a lot of time jeering at the government’s policies and decisions rather than actually displaying any strong, principled opposition.

An example is this quote from their website: “The proportion of young people going to university has scarcely changed in eight years. At the current rate, it would take Labour over a century to meet their 50% target.”

Labour have pledged to develop 20 new university campuses if they are re-elected, and unless these campuses have a capacity of less than 500 students each, we can rest assured that Labour’s plans will absolutely outweigh the pledge of 10,000 new university places from the Conservatives.

The Conservatives have also suggested they want to “offer a fairer deal to part-time and mature students,” though the nature of this “fairer deal” is completely absent from any of their policy or manifesto material.

The ambiguity of their manifesto means they could be referring to bigger grants, or a free chocolate bar with every enrolment, and until they clarify what they mean, no one can know what their plans are.

One of their few policies that actually explains itself is the “early repayment bonus” policy. This policy seeks to provide students who are able to pay back their loans immediately after graduation with a cheaper cost.

Yes, you read that right. The Conservative party is happy to aid wealthy students by helping them to pay their loans back at a reduced cost, while poorer students are left saddled with their debts. It’s absurd to forget about poor students while aiding rich, wealthy students.

They do, however, have one policy which seems to be beneficial to the average student: the creation of a new “all-age careers service”

Students who have used the Connexions service, or even the careers service in their college or university will be aware of how much they can help, though whether that’s worth your vote is down to you.

As for the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, the party’s leader, was under fire last autumn for appearing to u-turn on their policy to scrap tuition fees. Speaking at Birmingham University’s open-day, he said the party needed to be “realistic” on their main education policy.

With such obvious hesitation, it’s difficult to establish whether the Lib Dems can be trusted to follow up on their policies, and due to having never been in power, it’s still too early to confirm whether they will maintain the best interests of students anyway.

Regardless of who manages to become your MP this election, make sure that you get yourself heard.

Writing letters, publicly lobbying them, and talking to them at their surgeries are just some of the ways students can ensure they are listened to.

The candidates

We’ve given Lincoln’s prospective parliamentary candidates the chance to tell you why they deserve your vote.

Gillian Merron — Labour

Many students in Lincoln today would barely recognise our city in 1997. The last 13 years has seen Lincoln transformed, with over £100 million worth of government investment in the university alone.

Tackling a legacy of Conservative under-investment, Labour has made the University of Lincoln one of the fastest growing universities in the country.

I know that some students are concerned at the savings announced at the end of 2009, but they must be seen in the context of a decade of record public investment. Universities will have to do their fair share of belt tightening, but no more. That is why I am particularly concerned to hear that the University of Lincoln is exploring cutting bursaries, and I want to assure students that I am taking this issue up with the vice-chancellor Mary Stuart.

As students will know, the government has launched an Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, which is about ensuring that the future of funding and student support is based on evidence and facts. The review is underway and its conclusions should not be pre-empted.

But I appreciate that students want to know where I stand on the important issue of finance and who gets a chance to go to university.

The current system, in my opinion, is much fairer than it used to be. Full-time graduates no longer pay fees upfront, and there has been a significant increase in the student support available. Not only are more young people going to university, and more young people from poorer backgrounds going to university, but thanks to the huge investment in our state schools there are more young people qualified to go to university.

I want a system that is fair, that brings the widest range of people into university, particularly those whose backgrounds wouldn’t have naturally brought them there, like myself the youngest of a big family, from a council house in Dagenham – and a system that maintains our universities and students as amongst the best in the world.

This election, students have a real choice about their future and the future of Lincoln.

Karl McCartney — Conservatives

The Higher Education debate, organised by the University of Lincoln and Bishop Grosseteste SUs was a great opportunity for the main political parties to discuss the important issues relating student funding.

Funding for education is an issue that ought to have been addressed in the last 14 years and certainly should be in the next parliament.

The current economic state of nation and the skills shortage we are facing will have far reaching and negative effects on our nation’s economy and society’s well being. France and Germany have 50%+ and 60%+ educated and skilled workforces, whilst we have 28%. The current government’s solution has been to cut HE funding by nearly £500million this year with further 6% cuts planned for the next two years.

By restricting funding and capping admission rates at 2008 levels, many who wish to study are denied this opportunity. There should be no limit placed by government on an individual’s aspiration. President Obama is increasing youth training and higher educational spending in the US by 38% because of the economic downturn. Our current Labour government is cutting spending, and lowering expectation and places at a time when planning for economic and skilled workforce prosperity in the future is a must.

The proportion of young people going to university has scarcely changed in eight years. At the current rate, it would take Labour over a century to meet their 50 per cent target. So what will a Conservative government do?:

Introduce an early repayment bonus on student loans thus enabling more student places to be available; offer a fairer deal for part-time and mature students; and create a clearer pathway from vocational routes into further and higher education.

Education should be available to all and there should be no barriers to aspiration. As I said recently in my closing remarks in the debate, my late grandma always reminded my two brothers and I “nobody can take your education away from you.” So to all students in Lincoln I would stress the need to take the opportunity you have to enjoy and fulfill your education needs, and I trust and hope your future will be that much more enriched from your HE experiences as mine were.

Reg Shore — Liberal Democrats

Students I speak to demand change. They seek a fairer world built upon honesty and principle; a place where their talents can help build a brighter tomorrow; free from speculators who gamble with our economy for the want of a fast buck.

They seek a country that invests in young people because it recognises their worth. A country that is safe, progressive and forward thinking.

As an educationist, I am appalled by the present state of education funding and this includes tuition fees, student loans, compromised bursaries and cuts to Higher Education. A graduate who works for me took out a £20,000 loan in order to fund her studies. She recently started to repay that loan which has risen, in a few short years, to £25,000.

The Liberal Democrats greatest commitment is to education. We will scrap tuition fees, as we’ve done in Scotland, so that graduates will not be saddled with thousands of pounds worth of debt at a time when they are already struggling to find a job and make ends meet.

Liberal Democrats believe that a university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go to university and not be put off by the cost.

Liberal Democrats say education is important because we mean it. The educated citizen will access better pay and return higher levels of tax payments for reinvestment and their positive input into society is priceless. I am very concerned about the impact H.E. cuts will have upon research and development in universities as this government is advising that these budgets could be used elsewhere.

To maximize our ability to compete with global competition, it is essential that we have the people with the tools to re-invigorate and maintain our position as a potent force, with the strength and depth to help generate the new industries so vital to our nation’s future. We need to rediscover our talent for making things as well as placing bets on the international money markets. Liberal Democrats offer that change.

Considered to be the editors’ editor and one of the finest journalists in modern times, Harold Evans is a big name and a big character. He has written many books on journalism, such as “Essential English”, which have now become standard textbooks for any budding journalist.

He was the editor of The Sunday Times for fourteen years. While there, he created the team “Insight”, a group of investigative reporters, who uncovered the now infamous Thalidomide scandal, as well as other notable scoops.

With a plethora of awards under his belt, in 2004 he was knighted for services to journalism. The Linc spoke to Sir Harold about his career and how he sees today’s journalism.

With such a long and successful career, is there anything he regrets? “I’d say that my biggest regret is that our bid to take over Times Newspapers did not succeed. We made a gallant effort — but when sports writers refer to ‘a gallant effort’ you know you’re reading about an effort that failed,” he says.

In 1981, Rupert Murdoch took over Times Newspapers from previous owners the Thomson Corporation. Before eventually being given the editor’s job at The Times by Murdoch, Sir Harold mounted an unsuccessful bid for The Sunday Times, by trying to create a consortium of stakeholders including the journalists who worked there.

“We failed for several reasons. First, and most important, the Thomson management, certainly the management in London if not Canada, preferred Rupert because they thought he would deal with the wrecking print unions. Second regret I had, but don’t any longer, is that I did not flat out lead a campaign against Rupert Murdoch’s bid once it was more or less accepted by Thomson. The journalists’ chapel saw the writing on the wall, but at the last moment could not muster a majority to risk a court action under the monopolies law.

“That apart, Murdoch was much more adroit than we were, and Thomson sold it to him for a song,” says Sir Harold.

He believes that with more vision from the banks who backed him, after he had lots of trouble getting them to put up the money in the first place, they could have outbid Murdoch for Times Newspapers.

“We knew The Sunday Times was a great enterprise enterprise with a wonderful future if we could control the union wreckers, [of which] I was chairman of the executive committee. But Thomson [made] The Sunday Times look a poor bet. Having said that, Murdoch did prove to be a most effective owner in terms of getting in computers etc and his planning for that was quite brilliant.”

Within a year The Sunday Times was earning around £50 million profit.

He believes that, while journalism is in a state of change from the traditional models, the fundamentals each journalist should possess are the same. “Curiosity. Willingness to listen to bores. That will never change. Nor will the need for persistence in following a hint, a lead. Don’t take anything for granted – and follow up. Too many stories die on the vine.”

A “vigilant, intelligent scepticism” should be applied to official explanations and sources, but this doesn’t amount to “cynicism and mean spirited malice”. This is common on the internet and isn’t journalism, says Sir Harold: “Many people with some kind of authority in public life do want to serve and should not be automatically derided or abused.”

He also emphasises the importance for would-be journalists to be able to write sharp copy: “One of the delusions is that “writing” is the thing — which leads to a lot of hot air.”

Having previously criticised US journalism schools for being “homogenous”, how does he think journalism should be taught? “I so strongly believe that at The Sunday Times we were enormously strengthened by the diversity of staff experience… Most of them had seen a bit of the world. They’d learned something of the complexities of life, beyond academic theorising. If I were teaching I’d take case histories of important investigative stories and go through them – without revealing the hidden path to the truth. For instance, the DC 10 airliner crashes killing 358 people.”

Sir Harold had the benefit of editing a paper which had heavy investment into its journalism. This allowed “Insight” to conduct lengthy and rewarding investigations. He laments the obsession with enormous profit from media proprietors, often at the expense of journalists.

“A good bottom line — viability — is essential, but greed is not. Too many newspapers milked the market over many years, not providing enough resources for emergencies — and then too many cut back on the reason for being.”

Born in Newton Heath, Manchester, on June 28th 1928, Harold Matthew Evans was very much a working class boy, his father being a railway driver.

After leaving secondary school, Evans’ journalistic career started at just 16-years-old, when he worked as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Following his national service, he studied politics and economics at Durham University, before completing a masters in foreign policy.

He subsequently worked as assistant editor at the Manchester Evening News, then after a year studying and travelling in the United States he returned to Britain in 1957 and became editor of The Northern Echo.

Eventually, having earned a great reputation, he became editor of The Sunday Times and then The Times, the director of Goldcrest Films and Television, editor of The Atlantic Monthly Press, editorial director and vice-chairman of US News and World Report, the founding editor of Conde Nast Traveller, president and publisher of Random House, as well as working for the New York Daily News, and The Atlantic Monthly.

He’s also written 18 books, including “They Made America” and “War Stories”.

Results of The Linc's student survey

Q1. Do you know who your subject rep is?
Q2. Are you proud to be a University of Lincoln student?
Q3. Do you feel you get value for money on your course?
Q4. Have you ever witnessed an intolerant act (racism, homophobia or sexism) while at Lincoln?
Q5. Have you, or anyone you know, been bullied while at University?

Value for money

Overwhelmingly, the students polled were not happy with what they get for their tuition fees. Over two thirds feel they do not get value for money from their degree.

Some students feel their degree isn’t as valuable as those at other “top ranking” universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, or Warwick and shouldn’t be paying as much. Others suggested that the content of degrees was a severe problem, that they just don’t get enough out of it to justify the cost.

University of Lincoln students paid £3,225 in tuition fees for 2009/10, with extras that one may expect to be included on their course often costing extra.

Proud students

The majority of students are proud to be University of Lincoln students, with over three quarters saying so in our survey.

Whether it’s because the university leaping 29 university league places within two years, the university receiving the highest commendation possible in its recent QAA audit, or for many other reasons, students just seem to be happy to be Lincoln students.

Course reps

According to our survey, over a third of students polled have no idea who their course reps are.
According to the SU’s “Representation Charter” course reps are supposed to “effectively represent constituents to the university and and the Students’ Union.

Perhaps the subtantial number who aren’t familiar with their course rep reveals that the top-down nature of the system is out of touch with students.

Intolerance

One in six students have witnessed an intolerant act while at the university. The question defined intolerance as racism, homophobia, sexism, and ageism.

Recently there has been a fairly high-profile campaign by the LGBT society about homophobia, and the SU now has a “liberation officer”. Also, the new vice-president for welfare, Kayleigh Taylor, says she wants to work with “diverse groups”.

Bullying

Thankfully the vast majority of students reported that they had not, and don’t anyone who has, been bullied while at university.

There are already options for students being bullied to get some support, such as from Student Services. Also, the university charter takes a hard line on bullying.

But with over 15% of students saying that they had been bullied, there’s still progress to be made.

Last Friday saw the culmination of a week-long period of voting for the University of Lincoln’s Students’ Union. Full details of the results can be seen here.

The total turnout was 16% of the student electorate — an increase on the year before of 3%. So out of a student population of roughly 10,000, the Students’ Union elections managed to attract approximately 1,600 voters. Hardly representative of the student body.

The first question that begs to be asked is why the apparent lack of interest amongst the student body? Especially when you consider that four of the roles being voted on attract an annual salary, allegedly £19k a year.

I spoke to a first year student, Besma Ayari (20), to find out why she didn’t vote. She said: “I had read about people campaigning for the Students’ Union. Read some of their manifestos, which I thought were pretty good. Andreas Zacharia’s campaign was brilliant.” But when it came down to the actually process of voting Besma said: “I had other things on my mind.”

Perhaps this failure to vote was related to the Students’ Union being perceived as lacking in relevance? Perhaps the reason why roughly 8,400 students didn’t vote in the Student Union elections was that they saw no reason to do so.

The second question that needs to be asked is do we really need a Students’ Union as currently constituted? In my mind, a Students’ Union should be run much like a conventional union. For the protection and support of its members during times of crisis. Do we really need a Vice President of Activities, a Vice President of Welfare and Diversity or even a Liberation Officer? Should anyone be paid for their work, apart from covering expenses? When I was as a union representative (UNISON) I did not receive payment but was expected to work for nothing.

Is it time for the Students’ Union at this university to take a good look at itself? Ask some hard questions concerning its organisation and its relevance to the student body? Possibly consider cutting itself down to a streamlined organisation, staffed purely by volunteers, who concentrate on acting as advocates for those students in need of help?

This year’s SU elections saw five part-time positions uncontested and unfilled. These were the three satellite campuses positions, the events officer position and, what will be one of the most important ones, the societies officer position.

Were these positions left open because no one is capable of fulfilling them or because there was a lack of information available to get involved? Or perhaps students just didn’t care about participating beyond a vote.

I can’t quite believe that in our student population of over 10,000, there aren’t numerous people who are capable of fulfilling these positions, let alone one person, and again I’m not so sure that students would be reluctant to get involved if they knew how.

It all comes down to access of information, or more a lack of access. I’m not able to comment on how good advertising was in the satellite campuses, but I can certainly say that it was lacking here on the Brayford Campus. We had a few posters, a banner which evidently little took notice of, and some information published in the Agenda.

Notably, nearly all the candidates that ran in the elections already had ties with the SU through the Student Council, or were an officer when running, and sadly it’s that “elite” connectivity that allows the elections to appear democratic, with choices between candidates.

If we removed those who we know to be already connected with the SU, we would see a tremendously minimal selection of candidates. Liberation would have no one, nor would VP for Welfare and the VP Activities would have probably seen better luck for Katie Blackburn.

Of course it would be unfair to suggest that these people were only running because they were lucky enough to be involved from the beginning, but I’m sure with much better information distribution we would have seen more applications made by other students.

If the SU want to see an increase in participation for next year, I suggest they scrap using the Agenda as an information outlet and instead send an election package in the post to students. It will grab attention and they will read through it, as opposed to the emails which don’t quite spell out the importance.

But for now we’re missing vital representation for our satellite campuses. Hull, Holbeach and Riseholme are missing officers, which will mean that their voice will be lost against the backdrop of the Brayford.

Not having a societies officer will ultimately cut off societies representation since Andreas Zacharia, VP Activities-elect dedicated his campaign to sports, with little to no mention of societies at all. Without one, nothing will change for the the 58% of students who haven’t found a society, nor will the call for recognition from political societies be answered.

And the SU’s events will continue to produce the same poor to average results that they have for the last year, without a dedicated events officer available to gauge what students want from them.

The elections, this year, have not fully completed their purpose.

The up and coming hip-hop artist, Chipmunk, has announced that he will be playing Lincoln’s Engine Shed as part of his summer 2010 tour.

The 19 year old rapper will play to the Lincoln crowd on July 14th and tickets are expected to sell fast.

He has experienced immense success since he released his first album, “I am Chipmunk” in October 2009. The album went straight to number one in the UK R&B charts and number two in the UK singles chart.

Not a stranger to award shows, Chipmunk has an Urban Music Award for best newcomer and an American BET Awards nomination for Best Rapper under his belt.

Most famously though, he has received MOBOs for Best Newcomer in 2008, and for Best Hip-Hop Act in 2009 – all this and he’s still in his teens.

More recently he’s been teaming up with other hip-hop successes such as working and touring with N-Dubz and having his MC talents featured on DJ Ironik’s hit single “Tiny Dancer”.

Tickets for the show are £14.50 and go on sale tomorrow, Friday March 12th at 9am. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Engine Shed’s website or call the ticket hotline on 0844 888 8766. Doors will open at 7pm and the show is strictly for 16 years and above. ID will be required.

The one-handed controller, similar to the Nintendo Wii remote, contains sensors that detect movement. It works in conjunction with the Playstation Eye video camera, with a glowing orb on the top of the controller to measure where you are pointing.

Look familiar? The Playstation Move controller is reminiscent of the Wii Remote. Photo: Sony

A secondary, “sub-controller”, includes an analogue stick for more complicated gameplay closer to games already seen on the console.

The announcement was made at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. “Playstation Move” faces tough competition from Microsoft’s 3D camera “Natal” and the Nintendo Wii.

Sony also announced a limited selection games to be released with the device, many of them being based on sports or minigame collections. These include a bare-knuckle boxing game that called “Dukes”, a family-aimed party game creatively titled “Move Party” consisting of games that include catching bugs and painting lines, and “Sports Champions” which includes table-tennis and archery.

“Move” can also be used with existing titles. The sidescrolling platformer “LittleBigPlanet” which encouraged players to build levels themselves will be recieving a free update to enable the new controller to work with the game. It will allow for one person to control the character Sackboy whilst the other can manipulate objects during the game for co-operative gameplay.

Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said at the conference that the company will be releasing 20 games using the controller this year, and that 36 other companies are also working on titles for the system.

The technology has garnered praise but there have been concerns about the range and creativity of the titles scheduled for the launch of “Playstation Move”.

Garnett Lee, writer for gaming website Shacknews, said: “Many of these initial Move offerings feel like I’m doing things with the wands just to be using them. That said, it felt good in my hands and lived up to the technical billing for precision.”

No price has been announced for the controller. It will be released this autumn and will work with existing Playstation 3 consoles.

Lincoln City host Hereford at Sincil Bank on Friday and will be hoping to forget the pre-match celebrations surrounding the World Cup trophy and instead concentrate on gaining a further three points towards League Two safety. 

Hereford are no strangers to the Imps, who faced them in early February at Edgar Street, when the Bulls’ took all three points stuffing City 2-0. Friday’s match will be played in front of a bumper crowd due to the presence of the Jules Rimet trophy and manager Chris Sutton believes the sole focus is to win rather than think about anything else.

“Nothing changes for us, we’ve trained reasonably well this week and the preparation has gone as normal. We’ll go into the home game [and] we’ll go in looking to win the game.

“Just because there are more people in the stadium and hopefully at home that will work to our advantage and the supporters will get behind the team,” said Sutton.

Hereford sacked their manager John Trewick in midweek, with Chairman Graham Turner taking temporary control of the first team.

When a side loses their manager, the general mood of the players is one of motivation and wanting to win their next game to impress an incoming manager. Yet Sutton believes City must concentrate on their own performance rather than worry how Hereford react.

He said: “[Turner] has been in the game a long time and has a wealth of knowledge. I just hope that normally when teams’ get a new manager they usually end up winning I just hope we buck that trend and worry about ourselves.”

City, a side plagued with injuries over the previous months are still without playmaker Chris Herd, who is expected to be out on the sidelines for a number of weeks. Assistant player-manager Ian Pearce is also very doubtful with a hamstring problem along with Nathan Baker, Clark Keltie and Lenell John-Lewis, who remain unavailable for selection.

With players constantly picking up injuries, Sutton still keeps a positive head and declares that in these circumstances he looks at players of all ages when choosing the starting line-up.

“We’re looking at anyone really, it doesn’t matter whether they’re in the youth team or the reserves, [and] we just want to put a team out capable of winning a game.

“It’s like anything in life people have to step up and show that they are good enough, we don’t have any favourites here.

“My job is to put the best possible team out, it doesn’t matter if they are 15, 16, 17 or 45, we need to win games but on the other hand the players have to show that they are good enough,” said Sutton.

Lincoln’s goalkeeper Rob Burch has been ever present throughout this season and has on many occasions rescued City from the hands of defeat. The keeper has played behind several back fours this season but is confident of everyone in the side to put in a performance on Friday night.

He said: “I’m sure every manager would love to keep his same 11 all season, [and] then he would.

“But as I’ve said before I’m confident of whoever comes in and whoever plays in front of me. We’ve got a good squad here.”

In recent weeks veteran defender Ian Pearce has featured in City’s depleted side and Burch certainly recognises how important experience is for a team looking to secure survival.

“He’s great to have in the team, he’s been brilliant. He talks to the lads and gets us through it. It’s good to have Pearcey come in and help Moses [Swaibu], keeps us a good shape and keeps us organised,” said Burch.

Hereford are currently 18th in League Two and look to have lost sight of the playoffs for this season. Yet relegation also seems a distant reality as Turner’s men have 11 points between themselves and relegation bound Grimsby.

United’s last encounter was at home to grieving Macclesfield where goals from Reneil Sappleton and Emile Sinclair ensured a 2-0 victory in honour of the late Keith Alexander.

Top scorer for the Bulls, Leon Constantine has scored nine goals this season and will prove to be the only realistic threat for the Imps. The ever-blossoming partnership of Davide Somma and Drew Broughton in attack should provide City with enough firepower to take all three points at Sincil Bank. 

The Smoking Hearts aim to tour extensively over the summer period. Photo: New Music Monthly

Lethal describes his punk rock troupe as: “Good old fashioned, throw a TV out the hotel window, rock and roll. Played by five misfits who grew up on a diet of punk, metal and beer.”

These five misfits are scheduled to release their debut album “Pride Of Nowhere” on March 8th, which Lethal describes as being full of chugging riffs, screaming solos and “more fun than an octopus could shake eight sticks at”.

The album itself plays for only 29 minutes and 25 seconds, and yet the band manage to cram in 13 songs. Describing the tempo as fast would be a massive understatement. Having recorded it in just a fortnight, Lethal says: “Two weeks was probably a good cut off, we could still be there tweaking this here, and that there. But once we realised all we had to do was crank up the volume it pretty much just walked itself on home.”

The Smoking Hearts have toured constantly, supporting the likes of “Gallows”, “Bring Me The Horizon” and the punk legends “The Misfits”. Their live shows often culminate in the smashing up of equipment and throwing themselves into the crowd of screaming punks before them. Lethal says he’s learnt lessons from the bands he has met throughout his life.

“There’s no such thing as a useless lesson, so drink from the cup of knowledge. If it blows back in your face the valuable lesson you took away was to not do that exact combination of things again.”

On the subject of the rise of UK punk, he didn’t have a lot to say on the matter. Merely suggesting that bands such as Gallows and Hexes “open up different music genres to people who might have not even batted an eyelid before”.

The future for The Smoking Hearts may not be set in stone, but Lethal is looking forward to it. Stating he wants billboards, the stars and their names in lights and a bus (which he later changed to wanting a rocket). Sadly though, before a rocket becomes property of the band there is the summer tour agenda. He says there are lots of shows to confirm, but fitting around those are “barbecues, backyard tattoo sessions, cider in the sun…the Summer is fun-fun good times.”

Get more info about The Smoking Hearts and their tour schedule here.

Phil Krstic was the first customer at the Uni Shop. Photo: Alex McQuade

The shop, which offers a large selection of sandwiches, newspapers and pick-and-mix sweets, is located in the Main Admin Building — where the Enterprise@Lincoln services used to be. The Uni Shop also sells tobacco and is expected to take card payments in the coming weeks.

Ruth Butler, the shop manager, said about the shop opening: “It’s fantastic. It’s a good move forward for the university, accessible to all students and staff.” Commenting on the delays and the controversy surrounding the Uni Shop she said: “It’s unfortunate, and was due to unforeseen circumstances, but it is here now, which is the main thing.”

Phil Krstic, the new RAG officer elect, was the first customer to use the Uni Shop, opting for a strawberry flavoured Nutrigrain bar. He said: “I saw Chris Charnley opening the shop. Saw how fresh and beautiful everything was. I look forward to new stuff.”

Chris Charnley, who opened the shop, said: “Better late than never. Opening 20 minutes late is awfully fitting. It’s nice to see [the shop] back and there has been a massive turn around and it is for the university to build on it.”

Charnley has been critical in the past of the communication between the Students’ Union and the university, and told The Linc: “The university told me [the shop would open in] September, but you have to look at the fact that they told me it would be January.”

He then claimed that moving the shop, which was a significant part of his manifesto when originally campaigning to be elected SU president, is a decision he can’t make: “I have worked very hard on this. I have sat in a lot of meetings, I have gained student opinion but I can’t decide whether the shop comes. I have influenced it and sat on the project group to the furthest point. At the end of the day if the money isn’t there, it isn’t there.”

However, Charnley said on Wednesday: “I won’t dwell on the past.”

The charitable British purge their moral consciences by buying fair-trade coffee. They think they are doing their little bit to help the people working back-breaking fourteen-hour shifts in sun-scorched fields. But as they sip their socially-responsible espressos, how much of a difference does a fair-trade sticker really make?

Fair-trade coffee works by setting a minimum price to pay the producers, which is based on their costs. Fair-trade companies must pay the minimum price for coffee, unless the world market price is higher, in which case they must pay that. They are also required to put a premium on their coffee products, which goes towards social, environmental, or economic development projects.

However, this leaves some producers of good coffee unable to compete unless they are fair-trade, as demand is skewed towards that end of the market. This, it is said, undermines free-market trading.

If coffee crops aren’t providing enough yield, or are producing poor-quality coffee, then should we continue to flog a dead horse? It’s argued that fair-trade clamps some otherwise unsustainable producers to the coffee industry. Instead, investment in new industries is needed, to allow these people a chance for a fresh start and to enter markets with plenty of demand and growth potential.

Coffee Aroma in Lincoln’s city centre is an independent coffee shop which doesn’t buy fair-trade. Ben Drury, a barista at the shop, says fair-trade is a double-edged sword: “It can bring you trade and business because you’re a fair-trade registered company, so now the [hypothetical] fair-trade Colombian Farmers PLC are fair-trade they’ll get business, whereas a smaller farm which produces a tiny amount of coffee will not be able to get the same prices in their area [compared with others] because everyone else is fair-trade,” says Drury.

El Salvador coffee costs, on the world market, around a dollar a pound. Fair-trade prices are little more. Coffee Aroma pay £6.07 per pound for the same coffee.

“There’s a massive gap in paying for good quality produce than paying for a label. That label really doesn’t mean much. Most fair-trade coffee is awful quality and it doesn’t live up to standard. It isn’t treated well and it’s not handled correctly. It’s not even marketed very well. People just slap a fair-trade sticker on an espresso brand and think it’s fine and dandy,” Drury says.

The 2008 report “Unfair Trade” by the Adam Smith Institute, a right-leaning think-tank, found that four fifths of fair-trade goods end up in non-fair trade products, and just 10% of the premium price on fair-trade goods goes to the producers, as well as other findings.

The report concluded: “Fair-trade is not an answer to poverty. For those who promote it, fair-trade is not even necessarily intended to aid economic development. Instead, fair-trade operates to keep the poor in their place, sustaining uncompetitive farmers on their land and holding back the changes that could give their children a richer future by encouraging mechanization and diversification.” In response to the report, the Fairtrade Foundation “refutes the unsubstantiated claims that Fairtrade ‘does more harm than good’”.

“[The Adam Smith report] applies totally inflexible dogma and outdated information to criticise Fairtrade producers, without offering any constructive alternative for development other than ‘leave it to the market’.”

Stephen Leighton runs Has Bean Coffee Ltd and is Coffee Aroma’s roaster. He once used fair-trade coffee farmers, but made the decision in 2002 to stop buying from them. In an article on Has Bean’s website, he justified this move: “I’m not an evil capitalist that believes farmers should be suppressed so that coffee roasters can make all the money from coffee,” writes Leighton.

“The only way the speciality market can possibly grow and succeed is via sustainable methods, rewarding coffee farmers for the hard work they put in.”

He pours scorn on one major fair-trade organisation, who he believes waste money acting like a corporation. “Does the farmer need a full-page advertisement in The Sunday Times Magazine which, trust me, is very expensive. Does he need an army of administrative staff based in a swanky London office, or many other expensive cities around the world? Fairly traded produce has the ability to sell itself on its own merit and doesn’t need all these things,” he wrote.

Leighton also criticises the supermarkets who push guilt on the consumer despite their own unethical practices: “Calculating that, in general, and being generous, the fair-trade farmer gets 12p extra for a fair-trade pack of coffee, compared to a standard, commercial brand.

“However, the price on the pack in [one leading supermarket] is around 75p more than their own brand offerings, resulting in a small reward for the farmer from the supermarkets, but a large return for the supermarkets hitting the guilt strings of its customers.

“Consequently, it is the very people that drive prices down on many items, to a degree that makes it difficult to make a decent living, who are making the consumer feel guilty, whilst increasing their profit margins? This is a perverse situation to say the least.”

The Fairtrade Foundation did not respond to The Linc’s request for comment.

– By Shane Croucher and Rob Wells

Another year, another set of SU elections. And, unfortunately, it’s going to the be the same old thing over again. The problem with the SU elections is that those involved tend to get swept up in the “drama” — ourselves included — but when you step back and get some perspective the whole thing is depressingly unimportant.

The SU elections have come and gone once again. Turnout is still abysmal — just 16% of the total student population. To be fair to the SU, it’s up on last year and it’s progress in the right direction. It just leaves next year’s team to build on this. How can they do that? Well, if we had the answer then we’d have the SU kissing our toes and grovelling for the secret formula. Our feet are currently SU-free.

Disappointingly, three positions were uncontested (if you exclude RON), meaning there was no choice. At least these were all part-time positions though, so no one has effectively strolled into a paid position.

We have some hope for Dan Derricott, who won the vice-president for academic affairs position. He seems pragmatic about his position, realises there are limitations, but importantly he has specific plans, and not generic manifesto guff about “enhancing the student experience”.

His reps system has flaws, which he realises, but the idea behind it is positive. Derricott must steer clear of PR drivel, otherwise he may drown in wishy-washy flim-flam. If things aren’t going well, be honest rather than try to cover it up. Then you can spend your time on solutions rather than distraction from a problem. As ever, The Linc will be on hand next year to scrutinise his progress.

Andreas Zacharia won the vice-president for activities position, and is promising “three wishes” for each club and society — which means they tell him three things they want and he’ll try to get them.

When we interviewed him, we asked how he’ll help to achieve these goals, to which he replied he is a “strong person”, and if people, for example, ask for more time on the astroturf then “I’ll get them more time on there”. He firmly believes that his strength of character, passion, and determination will allow him to achieve these goals.

We like his “three wishes” campaign, and he’s right to say it’s a good way of monitoring progress, but we wonder if his personality is enough to deliver on these promises. We fear that situational practicality may well get in the way, leaving him unable to grant the wishes. As ever, only time will tell.

Until next year, the elections chaos is over. We’ll be keeping our beady eyes on the 2010/11 SU team. It’s important to those involved, mostly for the people running for full-time positions, because it’s an £18,000-a-year job and the chance to add another year to their university experience.

But for everyone else, it matters little. There will be no real, significant changes taking place based on what happened on Friday, March 5th. Generally, that’s not because of the specific people involved. This isn’t about their skill or sincerity. It’s about the way the system works. It’s about the fact that the SU can’t make any real difference.

This is clearly realised by the student population as a whole. This year, like every year, the turnout was appallingly low; roughly 84% of students didn’t vote. If the SU was doing anything, or could do anything, that Lincoln students thought could have a significant effect on their university lives then they would express their preferences.

It’s incredibly clear students think that there will be no ill effect if they boycott the elections entirely. But this is not coupled with a rejection of the Students’ Union. When asked, students will often say that that the SU is generally a good thing.
This difference is fairly easy to square, if you look at the services the organisation provides, particularly funding and support for sports teams and societies. As a functional body, it works, but as a political or campaigning one, it doesn’t.

Even though candidates largely confine themselves to fairly unchallenging, uncontroversial policies, the effect they can have is limited. Take Chris Charnley, for example. Last year he made some fairly vague pledges that no one could object to. But across the board the real power to change things is out of his hands.

It’s the same this year. Take accommodation. Regardless of what he claims, are landlords really scared of the SU?Probably only if the university — an organisation with some clout — gets involved directly. Or jobs. How is he going to get local businesses, or even the university, to employ more students — particularly considering the economy’s current state.

As mentioned earlier, this isn’t about sincerity or skill. It’s about the system.

Turnout

Over 1,500 people voted in this year’s elections meaning, roughly, only 16% of the total student population at the university took part. Due to regulations over who’s eligible to vote — part-time students can’t — this figure may be slightly higher.

Not all of these will have been in support of the candidates as in some categories as many as 144 votes were cast for the option to re-open nominations (RON). So, we do not know what percentage of people actually voted for the people running.

Turnout percentages in context.

This year’s turnout is an increase over the 2009 figure (13%) and puts Lincoln above the national average for turnout (13.8%) as reported by the NUS. However, it is still lower than many universities, notably Sheffield, who had a 25% response rate in 2009.

The last two years are lower than the 18.8% turnout in 2008.

Breakdown by position

The increased turnout is reflected in the number of votes for each category. The overall increase in votes was 23% and this can be seen in the full time positions, with 31% more votes being cast for the role of president, 27% for the vice-president for academic affairs, and 28% for the vice-president for welfare.

The most notable rise is for the now-combined sports and societies role. Last year the mean votes cast for the two positions was 852, while this year saw a 60% rise in votes for the vice-president for activities position, at 1367 — the most votes for a single position.

The paid roles were closely contested with vice-president for activities split 42%/58% between Emily Gough and Kayleigh Taylor. Vice-president for academic affairs was similarly split 59% / 41% in Dan Derricott’s favour.

Facebook groups

Social networking sites were more important than in previous years, with each candidate creating a Facebook group to support their campaign.

The Linc monitored the number of people who joined the groups as a way of checking popularity and engagement with the campaigns, and used them to predict who would win each role.

All of these predictions were correct, with the successful candidates having the most members of their groups. The most popular person was Andreas Zacharia, who finished the elections period with 552 people having joined his group, just beating Chris Charnley in the last week of the campaign (548).

Although Charnley claimed on his Facebook page that he “won with a landslide vote” he only received 58% of the votes cast for president. Whilst 783 people did vote for him this is much less than 10% of the total student population.

A poll on The Linc’s website during the live SU elections simulcast asked “Are you happy with the elections results this year?” Out of over 350 respondents, only 36% of people answered “yes”. Comments from readers on the night included one from “E.C”, which said: “Happy with everything except president.”

Online poll results.

The Facebook tracking also allowed for estimating percentages for each position. The differences in the group sizes were quite large and so for president it looked like Charnley would have 70% of the votes for his position.

The estimated results for vice-president for academic affairs was much closer with only a 2% difference in the predictions, 59% to 41%, compared to the final results.There has been little change in terms of competition between candidates throughout the two-week campaign period.

The majority of the people joining did so at the start making these elections look more like a contest of existing popularity.

– With additional reporting from Stephanie Bolton

Via a bogus account on social networking site Facebook, a local escort agency has been targeting students from the university, encouraging them to join their business.

The Linc’s reporter Stephanie Bolton tracked down one University of Lincoln student who signed up to an escort agency. A friend signed her up to the agency for a joke, but she was soon drawn in by the money. “When I got chatting to the woman in charge I couldn’t resist, getting paid to go for a night out seemed like quick and easy cash. I had spent way over my budget and didn’t want a job because I don’t have time with my studies,” she said.

Agencies entice young women by making assurances about the legitimacy of the work. The website clearly states what is expected of the escorts and sex is not in the job description. After talking to the student, who wishes to remain anonymous, the arrangement all sounded too good to be true: “All my job entailed was to accompany the client to events, meals, and things like that.”

For this service, the girl was told she would be paid £530 for four hours work, which seems like a lot of money just for innocent companionship. The Linc’s Alex Colman signed up to the agency, which operates across the Midlands, acting as a “minder” in order to investigate the truth behind this illustrious career.

The role of a minder is to protect the escort from harm. However, with girls often going into the homes of clients where there could be weapons or even several men inside, it is questionable how much protection one person can offer. The other alarming factor was the lack of training Alex received after being hired after a short phone conversation.

Escorting also fails to offer some of the securities of more conventional jobs, as the only contact Alex had was a false Facebook profile. Without ever meeting his employer in person, Alex awaited a text message with the addresses of the escort and client.

After an hours drive to Skegness, a well dressed, 25 year-old girl emerged from the house she shares with her mother. Dressed in a small black dress, tights and silver six inch heels, she appeared more provocative than the average girl dressed to go for a meal.

She appeared surprisingly shy and later disclosed this was her first job, although she had been a stripper for the last few years and wasn’t a student. On the drive to the client’s house in Cleethorpes the duo went over the plans.

Alex was to make his presence known to the client. Then text after ten minutes to confirm money had been exchanged and that all was ok and then play the waiting game until calling to say time was up.

After less than an hour the phone beeps: “Come to the door!!” Alex is forced to approach the house. Following a knock on the door, the silhouette of a man appears behind the glass panel, saying: “You can’t come in.” “I don’t need to come in just open the door,” says Alex, nervous about what is waiting behind the door. Luckily the bald, middle aged client is more scared than he is.

The client said: “I expect sex for £240, she isn’t leaving until I get my money back.”Alex replies: “That’s nothing to do with me but I need to leave right now with the girl and the money.”

The escort storms out and the man concedes defeat. A frantic fumble for the car keys and they are both safely away with the escort explaining what went wrong. “I was going to have sex with him but it was all happening too fast, I suggested a glass of wine but he downed his.” She said. The man, cigarette in hand, plunged his tobacco tainted tongue into her mouth. Feeling she was losing control of the situation she panicked.

Despite the commotion, the girl still left the house with £240 in hand after being inside for just over an hour. She took £130 in cash and the rest was left aside for the agency. The elusive agency boss later divulged that sex was in fact a grey area. “It would be illegal to advertise sex but it is up to the girls what they decide to do,” she said.

Further investigation revealed that the agency itself was, in fact, being run by a student at another Midlands university. With the business being run by a 20-year-old girl, there are further questions raised about the safety of the escorts.

Charity for vulnerable women, Eaves, warned about the risks of escorting. Anna Bowden, spokesperson for Eaves said: “Escorting is an entry-level job into the sex industry. It is outrageous that escort agencies are playing in this way on the economic vulnerability of students, who are more likely than other demographics to be strapped for cash.”

The student The Linc interviewed was unaware of this and had worryingly liberal views on escorting. “I can understand why people might see escorting as immoral, as it is portrayed to be dirty and wrong, but I think if the individual is OK with it and they are safe, then it is fine,” she said.

The appeal of the money was apparent as some of the girls’ friends were intrigued by the idea: “Some thought it was a great idea and even asked for the website to sign up.”

Ultimately it is the right of the individual to decide if they want to be an escort as it is in fact not currently illegal, although the client and the agency can be prosecuted. Despite this, women must be aware of the true extent of the dangers as well as the damage it could do to their reputation.

The National Union of Students expressed concern over the exploitation of students. Olivia Bailey, NUS Women’s Officer said: “Whilst where someone works is a matter of individual choice, the NUS would be deeply concerned if students were being pressured into working as escorts, either by particular organisations, or by the more general pressures of student debt. Anyone with any concerns should contact the Welfare Officer at their students’ union.”

This isn’t a new issue. In November last year Dr Brooke Magnanti admitted to being the author of the famous blog “Diary of a London Call Girl”. Whilst studying for her PHD at the University of Bristol, she worked as a prostitute between 2003 and 2004. She said: “Before graduating I couldn’t find a job in my chosen field.”

Aside from this students are exploited in other ways. They are targeted within medical testing, another area that can be potentially dangerous. This can only raise the question whether students receive enough funding to help them pay for their degree, as in many cases loans only cover tuition fees and accommodation, but not living costs.

— By Barry Turner, senior lecturer in media law at the University of Lincoln

The media has in recent weeks complained of a use of injunctions to not only to prevent publication of controversial stories but to stifle the very discussion of the injunction itself.

This has finally come to a head after such a gagging order was sought to save a premiership footballer from embarrasing revelations in the tabloid press. Justice Minister Jack Straw has finally decided that it is time for parliament to intervene in this gross abuse of legal process.

Applications made to the courts by zealous and perceived powerful defamation and ‘privacy’ lawyers have been granted by judges who seem to have forgotten the very nature of the relationship between the press and the courts and who have more disturbingly forgotten that an injunction is an equitable remedy and not a legal right.

The recent action against the Guardian to stifle stories about an oil company went to extraordinary lengths which went well beyond any idea of protecting the applicant’s privacy and equitable interests.

The lawyers for the claimant were not only seeking to prevent adverse commentaries on the company’s activities but sought to injunct any kind of debate about including apparently debate in parliament.

Such an application defies credibility and represents arrogance on the part of the applicant and their lawyers.  The more remarkable feature of these applications is that they are given any credibility at all.

The injunction is a well established and commonly used legal tool to prevent an individual suffering a wrong and to prevent a wrongdoer form evading responsibilities.  Properly used in the spirit of the English legal system’s concept of equity it is a remedy to be applauded.  When used in less than good faith it represents a fundamental threat to freedom of expression that should not be tolerated in a pluralist democracy.

The injunction is an equitable remedy.  Equity is a cornerstone of English law enabling judges to apply the law in a fair and ‘equitable’ manner.  It is a centuries old tradition that has served those who seek redress in the courts well.  The reason it is such an invaluable tool is because it is discretionary and need not slavishly follow the more rigid legal rules that apply in our legal system.  The super injunction as it has come to be known is in clear violation of the spirit of equity and of judicial discretion.

The nature of the super injunction attempts to entirely stifle debate by acting not only in the individual journalist, newspaper or broadcaster but purports to silence the World, expanding its scope to all who may wish to comment of the issues injuncted.

But Equity is a right in personam, an equitable remedy cannot bind the World an can only be directed at individuals who by their acts may be committing a tort.  A judge granting a super injunction against all and sundry is breaking the rules of equity themselves.  The House of Lords in American Cyanamid v Ethicon made clear that the injunction as an equitable remedy can only be used where there is a cause of action, a triable case.  In another pivotal decision on injunctions the former master of the Rolls Sir John Donaldson declared that the court may disregard fanciful claims. A claim that a national newspaper may not discuss questions in parliament regarding and injunction is about as fanciful as it gets.

The rules of equity in the main mitigate against the granting of injunctions.  Great drafts of the common law on both equity and freedom of expression urge caution on judges before granting an injunction.

The super injunction is an invention of imaginative lawyers and judges who have forgotten the very basics of the law of equity.  Very sadly the myth is perpetuated by imaginative journalists who chose to use the expression without simultaneously dismissing it as a fallacy.

Super injunctions were they to exist would defy legal maxims enshrined since time immemorial (natural justice).

Super injunctions deny the supremacy of parliament.  They deny the authority of statute and treaty (ECHR Art.10 Human Rights Act 1998 s.12) they defy absolute privilege, they abuse the purpose of the sub judice rule, they are an abuse of the legal process, they are contemptuous of parliament.

They are unlawful! It is time parliament made them so once and for all.

With the Conservatives’ pledge to legalise fox hunting, the tranquillity could soon be disturbed with protests and controversy once again.
What many people fail to realise is that fox hunting is, in fact, still carried out legally across the UK, as the law only states that dogs cannot be used to kill the animal. On top of this there are other types of hunting, such as bird shooting, which still continue.

At 9am on a snowy, mid-January morning, I travelled to Bethlem Farm in Friskney to investigate the truth behind the shoot.
Delving into a world of tweed and leather elbow pads, the first thing to notice is that being in a room with peers dressed in plus-fours may seem slightly pretentious, but it does show how a group of young men have a great respect for their sport’s traditions and etiquette.

The farmer’s son, James Wrisdale, was the host and insists the main reason he enjoys shooting is the social side and the sense of camaraderie. “Shooting is really a social vehicle, which is proven by the fact that businesses are using them as corporate days to entertain clients,” he said.

In a world where world-class footballers use their hands to cheat, and professional golfers throw clubs in displays of temper tantrums akin to a toddler, this is quite uplifting. Owner of Bethlem Farm, Philip Wrisdale, who has spent his entire life in the farming community, explained how it is a traditional way of life in the countryside.

He said: “Shooting is a sport people enjoy in the country, but people don’t realise it is also a form of pest control. From a young age you will be introduced to shooting what we class as vermin, like rabbits and pigeons, as well as predators such as foxes and magpies. In fact, they are a threat to the ground-nesting birds like pheasants themselves.”

The plans for the day include a few drives in the morning, sloe gin, pork pie, sausage rolls, and soup for lunch, a few drives in the afternoon, and then roast pork and drinks in the evening. It sounds like a perfect day in the countryside.
Janet Wrisdale highlighted the fact that the dead birds will all be put to use and the day itself does actually support local produce, which the media are so keen to promote.

“I get the vegetables and meat locally, even though we are a potato farm, although I do have to pop to Marks and Spencer for some things,” she said. The day’s prey was game, predominantly pheasants, with the occasional woodcock and ground game, such as rabbits and hares.

After being provided with a fetching wax jacket and some wellington boots, we made our way to the first drive. With around a dozen guns (shooters) everyone is arranged into position with the precision of a military skirmish. Eight guns situated at the opening of the wood and the rest flanking from each side.

With the bush-beaters advancing from the opposite side, waving their arms and shouting to drive the birds, the situation looked a little ominous for the animals. Despite this, after a cacophony of gun-fire, I was amazed to see a few pheasants meander to safety and the odd rabbit find sanctuary in a nearby ditch.

It is then when it dawns on you that this is a sport and the opposition are given a sporting chance. In 2010 it would be quite easy to use claymore mines and machine guns, but that is not the point and instead antique shotguns are used.

James Wrisdale explained how this is not the point of the shoot: “Not only is there respect for the animal but you also learn to respect the gun. In this environment there is a lot of emphasis on how to use the gun safely and being considerate of the people around you. There aren’t many people who know the damage a shotgun can do and at what range it can be lethal,” he said.

The lunchtime conversation wasn’t for the faint hearted, as the morning’s exploits were relived and male bravado kicked in. “Did you see it bounce?” and “that one’s skinned itself — it’s almost ready to eat.” But boys will be boys.

Despite this, he explained they do have respect for the animals they have shot: “I always wear a tie out of respect for what we are shooting. We try to be as humane as possible too. The reason we have dogs is to make sure anything that is just wounded is dispatched easily.”

As the afternoon went on it became obvious that there are a lot of rules about what can be shot: no hen birds until you have shot a cock, for example. Philip Wrisdale explained how it would not be in the best interest to stage a mass culling of the birds. “It’s all about the enjoyment of the day, not the size of the bag. There are commercial shoots nowadays run as a business, but the whole idea behind a shoot is that you attend friend’s days and then invite them back to your own. You just shoot a moderate amount of birds and then eat the produce,” said Wrisdale.

I failed to make it through the day without getting blood on my hands. Despite not having fired a shot, I was coaxed into carrying half a dozen pheasants. I felt embarrassed by the way I grimaced as a bird’s neck was thrust between my fingers.
Animal welfare is often the argument against hunting, but despite the bloodshed the Labrador gun-dogs are in their element, retrieving the fallen prey for their owners. Compared with pit-bull owning, ASBO-laden youths in the city, perhaps campaigners should focus their attention elsewhere.

The amount of wild game on the farm has decreased, but it is not a result of the farming community, according to Wrisdale.
“In the 70s and 80s there were a lot more birds, but different pesticides were used which meant there were less predators such as crows and hawks. Since they have been banned I have noticed a lot more of these species around, and I believe they are more of a threat to the balance of wildlife,” he said.

Back at the house the day was rounded off with beer from the local brewery and a home cooked meal, plus a little sweepstake. Ellie Warner, a medical student at the University of Central London, who has lived in the capital all her life, took part in the shoot.
She said: “I have been on shoots before and I love the day out, but this is the first one I’ve taken part in. I managed to shoot my first pheasant but I don’t feel guilty at all.”

Everyone writes down an estimate of how many birds were killed, with the closest guess claiming the pot. The number fell just short of a hundred. It is important remember that there will still be birds there next year and the farmer isn’t the only predator the game has to watch out for.

Many people fantasise about a quaint life in the country but look through rose tinted spectacles. Many aspects of the lifestyle could be deemed cruel but the upkeep of an age-old tradition that may kill a hundred of birds seems little to offset against the intensely farmed chickens many people eat.

You couldn’t get any more free range than going to the farm, shooting the bird yourself, and taking it home with you to eat at the end of the day

At 26 years old, Laura admits that the natural desire to have children is extremely strong but she feels that the bigger issue of protecting the environment is more important: “Over the last couple of years I’ve had a feeling that I want more from life or something meaningful and that’s probably my body’s cue to have kids. People would call it a mothering instinct but I’m interpreting it as something else, to find some other meaning in my life.”

Laura explains that she feels extremely fortunate that her boyfriend of nearly ten years feels the same way on the issue: “My boyfriend would like kids, but he knows there’s bigger reasons than, he just wants kids. We’re both lucky that we’re together and we both feel the same way on the issue.”

Interestingly, Laura says that as well as support from her partner, she also feels reassured and justified by organisations like the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) and the Optimum Population Trust (OPT). Both organisations campaign to raise awareness on the issues surrounding overpopulation and its impact on the environment. The VHEMT want a gradual extinction of the human race through non-reproduction. The group argue on their website: “The hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens… us.”

The OPT, who Sir David Attenborough is patron of, aim to raise awareness of the problems and implications of overpopulation in the UK, and suggest that while the population in the UK currently stands at 61 million and is due to rise to 77 million by 2050, a population of only 30 million is sustainable on a long term basis. This argument they say is replicated on a worldwide scale too, claiming that while the current global population stands at nearly seven billion people, in terms of food, water and fuel for long term survival and prosperity this figure needs to be significantly reduced. The group advocates population control policies implemented by governments.

The argument that growing population damages the environment is supported by a recent report by Oregon State University. The study concluded that having a child was twenty times more important than taking other environmentally friendly actions like recycling or driving a low emission car.

“Sometimes I think it’s not worth me explaining to people because either they won’t understand my reasons, they tell me I’ll change my mind or you’ll insult them because you’re effectively challenging their world view. Or once you say that you don’t want kids, they think maybe you can’t have kids and the conversation ends through embarrassment,” she adds.

The decision to never have children, has taken Laura a long time, which she began considering when she was around the age of twelve or thirteen. Due to events that happened in her family, as she grew up she realised that life wasn’t all positive and events such as her parents divorcing made her think about traditional families. This made her aware that life didn’t have to run a pre-determined path involving children. She feels that many people almost sleep walk into marriage and children without considering the ramifications and wider implications, just because its what is expected for young adults to do.

She also admits that her conviction not to have children was shaken in her early twenties when one of her best teenage friends fell pregnant. During their school years Laura and her friend had both shared the same belief that having children was not for them. Her friends’ pregnancy made Laura think that she might change her mind too. She now insists this is not an option and her desires are of secondary concern to the needs of society at large.

Laura has heard before that the population needs to grow to support the older generation in society. John Jansen, Project co-ordinator of the Pro-life Action League argues this very point, he says: “It’s unfortunate when someone makes the decision to not have children based on a mistaken belief that the world is overpopulated. Quite the contrary, the real danger in our world is underpopulation. This is the looming demographic and economic threat that no one wants to talk about. If there are not enough babies being born today, who will support tomorrow’s pensioners?”

However, Laura questions this logic and says that there are more pressing issues than the state of the economy, she says: “You can’t have more and more people, there’s not enough resources on the planet as it is. Pensions will be the least of our problems if we don’t have food, water and other vital resources.”

“At the end of the day who’s more selfish, someone who’s giving in to their natural urges, wanting to have a baby so you’ve got someone to love you and look after you when you’re old, or me who’s sacrificing all of that, for the good of the Earth and mankind?”

Erik Hassle had to have patience to get to where he is now.

Growing up in the Swedish village of Katrineholm, Erik Hassle didn’t originally want to be a musician. Despite playing drums from the age of five, it was a football advert that first caught his eye, saying “Are you ready to practice? You should be, only one out of 52,000 Swedes get to become a professional footballer.”

With hindsight, Hassle realised that this was not very motivating for a 13 year-old. It was through attending a musical secondary school in Stockholm that Hassle began to develop his interest in music.

“One of my biggest influences and one of the first artists I ever got introduced to was Wilson Pickett. He has one of the wildest voices, always dancing through the harmonies, but still never leaves one single word of emotion out. Him, along with some other old American soul and rock ‘n’ roll singers, have been very important for me shaping my own voice.”

Once leaving school, it took three years of patience and determination before Hassle was finally picked up in 2008 by Roxy Recordings, only to be given an international contract with Island Records a year later.

“It’s always important and hard for all new artists to kind of take that big step and show people that you are not just one thing, one song or just a look. But if you work really hard and stay very passionate about your music, you will eventually gain the reputation you deserve.”

Hassle was instantly thrown into a whirlwind of success. Upon the release of his debut single “Hurtful” into the Swedish Top 40, the track went in at number 11, followed by another top hit “Don’t bring Flowers”. His debut album “Hassle” peaked successfully at number two. The redhead describes the album as a story of his youth.

“I would say it is 12 minimalistic Scandinavian pop songs, and me trying to tell you what it’s like being young, while aiming to keep the soulfulness that originally got me into breathing music.

“I wrote and produced the songs on the album together with three friends in Stockholm. The process was very intimate and over quite a long period of time. Right after college I basically moved in to their studio for a couple of years. We discussed a lot of common social, love and friendship situations happening to people around us and of course ourselves. So the songs became the conclusion of all that from our perspective.”

The chart popularity wasn’t the end of Hassle’s success. Last year the pop singer won both P3 Guld Newcomer of the Year and Swedish Grammis Newcomer of the Year awards, a surreal achievement for Hassle.

“I remember I was so happy to receive the nominations, I didn’t give one thought to the actual chance of winning. When my name was called up and all the lovely people I have been working with started to cheer and scream, total euphoria hit me. I got blind for a second, my knees started to shake and I made a quite crappy speech.”

Now, Hassle is focusing on the UK and America. He has already released his singles “Don’t Bring Flowers” and “Hurtful” which are both available online. His album “Hassle” however has been renamed “Pieces” and four tracks remixed especially for the UK market.

One of the most prominent moves Hassle recently made in the UK though was his duet with fellow upcoming artist Ellie Goulding. The pair did a heartfelt rendition of Robyn’s “Be Mine”, an experience that Hassle looks back fondly on.

“I love to work with other artists that I find interesting. And for me coming to a new country and getting to sing with someone as talented as Ellie was a lot of fun. We both have busy schedules now, but hopefully we’ll do something soon again.”

Hassle is also currently touring as a support act for Mika, something the Swede had been looking forward to due to his love of touring. Of course, not all gigs go to plan, especially when in the midst of a hectic schedule.

“I had a very memorable evening last summer at one of Sweden’s main festivals “Hultsfred”. I went to Sweden a few hours before the show was due to start after a very hectic two day video shoot in LA. I had managed to catch really bad pneumonia. Fifteen minutes before the show, I was still in the medication tent without my voice. At that point I couldn’t even speak. They fed me a lot of different stuff and it made me very dizzy, but did not give me my voice back.

“I had never cancelled a show and had no plans on doing it this time either. I decided to go through with the show, tell the audience about the situation and ask them if they could take the choruses. They did that and man, did I get the shivers.”

Hassle is currently promoting the “Pieces” album in both the US and UK, as well as trying to find time to work on a new album. As a songwriter, there is even a chance he could write for other artists out there, and already has some ideas forming.

“I think it would be a great challenge to write with or for someone who already has a very striking and specific sound, but wants to try a new environment. For example, seeing a garage rock band trying pop and synths.”

He finished with some advice for those looking to have his instant success.

“I started to work on this album when I was 17. I’m 21 now, so patience has really been a key for me. Patience and being open to take advice and inspiration from other people that you look up to.”

So a Top 10 album, hit singles, two awards and tours —all at the age of 21. That’s not bad going on anyone’s watch really.

Erik Hassle’s debut album “Pieces” is available now.

“The noise that they can make is pretty special, so when you feel that you’ve got them on your side and you can hear them singing and see them dancing, that’s an amazing thing.”

Editors frontman Tom Spring on stage. Photo: Paul Frideriksen

Editors’ website boasts that the band are “renowned for their explosive live performances”, Tom is extremely modest when describing his stage presence: “I don’t know how you connect with an audience. I’m not very good at chit-chat, but I throw everything I have into playing live, it’s quite an energetic and visceral thing. If we make mistakes, it doesn’t seem to matter.”

Visiting venues such as the Lincoln Engine Shed and Preston’s Guild Hall, Editors are determined that the audience and the band will experience the evenings together: “We want that spirit, that energy in a room that can be easier to attain in the places we’re going on this tour.”

Their touring success is not limited to the UK. In recent years the band have taken Europe by storm, playing gigs for thousands of fans in countries such as Belgium, Germany, and Poland.

“We’re probably bigger there than we are in England,” he said, “It’s amazing to go that far away and meet people who your music means a lot to.”

Tom recalls that his favourite place to perform is Madrid, where he feels a real connection with the audience even though English isn’t their first language: “There’s that Spanish passion in the air. They sing louder and quite often it’s the melodic parts on the guitar that they’re humming along to. That means that I get to hear them going mad for once as I’m not singing and it’s just amazing.”

Taking their music further afield, Editors have tried their hand in the American market. This February saw them playing on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show. Although the response was smaller than in Europe, not surprisingly, they left their mark nevertheless.

“America is a funny old place,” Tom said. “It’s a lot harder to make an impact [because] radio is very nationalistic and we don’t get played on American stations or get talked about in the press.”

Bringing it back to homeland, Tom makes it clear that although touring is a part of their job that the band look forward to, it is an essential in the music industry’s current climate to tour extensively in order to make any money.

“It’s a complex issue. We don’t see any money from selling records because there’s no money in it,” he said. “To make a living you have to have audiences that want to come and see you night after night. We love being in the studio but once we’ve done, we have to tour it for well over a year.

“Thankfully we like what we do and understand that it’s all the cycle of being in a band.”

Tom recognises that quality is suffering and homogenous records are being released time and time again (think X Factor) in the desperate attempt to make money from records. But the Editors are adamant that they must write the music they want to, and compromise on nothing in order to appease the masses:

“We’ve always split opinions – it feels like tossing a coin when I pick up a review of our records. There’s an element to the band that can’t please everyone and that’s fine, I don’t want to.

“We would find it boring making the same record over again as though there’s some formula to adhere to,” Tom said, “The bands I loved growing up changed, evolved and challenged their audience. I respect that. I bought the first two Oasis records, I don’t need to buy anymore.”

The Editors have come a long way since their days at Staffordshire University dabbling in the hopes of making it big, and they are now set to work with top producer Mark ‘Flood’ Ellis for a second time. Tom summed up that for upcoming artists the best advice he can give is: “Don’t worry about being cool and don’t listen to anyone else.”

Jonathan Cresswell's farm on Zynga's Farmville.

Day 1
I’ve started on the farm. My previous experience of farming mainly consists of four-something crop rotations from GCSE History so I’m hoping this will provide me with a highly accurate guide to how life on the land works as a possible future career path. It seems pretty easy so far. You click somewhere to plough the land, you click again to make the strawberries start growing, and then you check back in four hours. Not the most complicated game then.

Day 2
I’m not particularly sure about the point of all of this. I’ve leveled up (whatever that means) and unlocked new things to buy from the store, but there’s still no reason why I’m doing this. There’s no final goal, personal enjoyment or reward, so it’s turned slave labour in to a menial task of clicking squares on a grid on Facebook. I’ll plant more strawberries. Maybe some pumpkins overnight, as they take eight hours to grow…

Day 3
There appears to be a bit of strategy behind the game that I’m trying to figure out. With different crops earning you different money for different lengths of time planted, you’ve got to be a bit tactical about things. Well, not really. After one quick go on the calculator you realise that to make the most money you’ve got to play as often as possible but not for that long. It’s completely backwards compared to most games.

Day 4
I’ve come up with a way of making sure I check my strawberries. Seeing as one session Farmville only has about ten minutes of what can barely be called “gameplay”, I’ve had to turn to playing other games in between checking the farm. That might seem weird to have to do that to keep me interested, but getting some time to play “Peggle” isn’t something to complain about.

Day 5
Everytime I check, Farmville’s all over Facebook. People sending gifts for you, notifications about someone visiting the farm, people posting about what they’ve done on their walls. It’s like some internet disease. You see it, try it, it multiplies, infects people’s walls and gets everywhere. It’s a digital form of peer pressure with the upside of gift sending being a great way to annoy people.

Day 6
Blast. One simple mistake and all my hard work is gone. I forgot to check my plants once and they’re all dead. I’m late by an hour and all the money I’ve invested in crops has gone. No wonder people check this so religiously – you don’t have a choice to.

Day 7
In my attempt to fully immerse myself in the culture of the game I’ve found the official Farmville podcast. Ten minutes of a female voice explaining in detail every little change they’ve made to it this week in the most detail possible. Well, I have had troubles sleeping, so this is just what I needed.

Day 8
Playing this is feeling a bit like a chore. No wonder everybody else’s farms are full of patterns of flowers, animals roaming around, and buildings that don’t serve any purpose. Trying to make it look nice is the only way of keeping yourself occupied. However being the highly mature person that I am I’m just trying to see if I have enough room to write rude words in flowers. Nope, I’m going to need a bigger farm.

Day 9
Every time I log into the game it’s coming up with a pop-up message, suggesting something to buy saying “Ooh wouldn’t this be nice”. However, when you click it throws up a price in Farmville Dollars, a currency you mostly have to spend real money on. Tempting you in with nice treats before stealing your wallet and life away effectively makes it the childcatcher from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, in the form of an agriculture game.

Day 10
Today the game’s trying to tempt me with an unwither ring, but that’ll cost at least £30. Every time there’s a new pop-up suggesting that I should buy something. I’m waiting for one of them to ask if I’m interested in getting a timeshare.

Day 11
It turns out that if you have a pink cow you get strawberry milk. This appears to be less factually accurate than Wikipedia.

Day 12
Must check farm. This is turning my life in to a downwards spiral. Energy I should be putting in to so-called “important” things such as assignments and research is being wasted on a silly 16 x 16 grid. I need to break free.

Day 13
I’ve got another notification saying that there’s a lost animal on my farm and that I should help it find its way back home. They really should increase the security on these farms as I’m pretty sure none of these have any fences.
Maybe I should buy some fences from the in-game store but that will just take away from my investment in these crops. I get the feeling random animals will still find their way on to my farm.

Final Day
It’s the last day of the experiment and I’ve forgotten to check the site. Oh well, I’m not bothered. I’ve escaped! The second you stop caring, the hold it has over you is broken. Though really it’s got no reason to have a hold on you in the first place. It’s very cleverly engineered. The idea of short bursts of playtime is perfect for Facebook but when they made this they forgot to have any purpose behind it.

Conclusion
Farmville is just a shallow excuse for a game. It’s as complicated as a light switch: click it, and you get more money. There’s no sense of reward at all. You invest time in it and all you get in return is a bigger chore to complete as your farm expands. In terms of getting something out of it, smoking is a much better addiction for you. It might give you cancer, but at least it makes you happy.

Jaguar Skills is not your typical DJ, he is also a ninja. We caught up with him for a five minute interview before he disappeared again.

What made you want to become a DJ?
I wasn’t very good at anything else really, and after 10 years doing it, I can finally pay the rent for my secret hide-out in the mountains.

How did you develop your sound?
I guess my style is an old-school Hip-Hop style of DJing. Lots of tunes, one after the next, bullet-style. Old School Hip-Hop DJ’s, the grandmasters, developed Hip-Hop by playing any record that had a groove to it, and they changed the records really fast too. You shouldn’t think what I do is anything new really. It’s just today you have the technology that enables you to bring your entire collection to the club with you. So my style is a kind of cut and paste style, pioneered by Steinski, continued by dude’s like DJ Yoda, mixed with a mash-up style all of my own. I like to say my style is kinda like a brick being smashed into you face, delivered with a smile behind a mask – a ninja mask.

When did you realise that you were actually a ninja?
When I was 6 and saw the film Revenge Of The Ninja.

You have a slot on Radio 1. How did that come about?
I did a warm up spot for Zane Lowe, at one of his university gigs. He put me in contact with a producer who was looking for a DJ to do a mix slot on Trevor Nelson’s show. I started doing that two years ago, and continue to do that. I also have a show, which is basically an hour slot where I can do what I want. That’s every fifth Thursday of the month. Which is basically, one show every three months. It takes me a few months to make each show, so that’s perfect for me. The BBC have been super supportive with all my work. It’s been just amazing working for them.

I notice on your Facebook you mention a good tip about bubble baths; do ninjas actually have a soft side?
Yeah, and I’ve got another tip for you. Try next time you go to the toilet, sit on it the other way around. Like you’re riding a horse.

Where has been your favourite place to tour and what was the worst/weirdest?
I’m touring the UK at the moment, but I’ve DJed in a lot of different countries. I love them all.

What’s coming up for Jaguar Skills?
I have a tour and a compilation album coming out soon. I’ll be doing a load of festivals over the summer, rounding it off with Bestival. I’m one of Bestival’s resident DJ’s this year, which I’m really happy about. Also I’ve just started my residency at Gatecrasher Birmingham. You gotta come down to that. It’s dope. Now I must go. HooOOOOOOOO!!!!

The group has been touring extensively for years, so the fact that they are not recognised demonstrates the highly competitive industry that they are working in. After speaking with member Matthew Crosby, their survival can be put down to two factors: sheer determination and a passion for comedy.

The aim and challenge with Pappy’s is to try and make their private jokes accessible to large audiences. Each tour is themed with different tasks they must complete set by their unseen benefactor, Pappy, which Crosby says makes them “A bit like Charlie’s Angels, except not as sexy.”

Crosby, who is one third of the group along with Tom Parry and Ben Clark, said that their growing success was never planned but “Is a dream come true”.

“Comedy was always something I loved but it was like wanting to be a rock star – you never have it as your plan A. I watched a lot of comedy on television but could never work out how you go from being silly with your friends to doing it on stage.”

Pappy's have also done a sketch show on popular entertainment channel E4.

But Pappy’s clearly worked out how to be professionals as they have gone from playing the odd show on the London comedy circuit, to performing to more than 7000 fans at Edinburgh’s Pleasance venue.

“We started off doing shows that were us messing around for friends and family and at this time I was doing stand up comedy alone,” Crosby said “So if someone wanted to book me for a gig I would suggest booking Pappy’s.

“That went well so we put together our first Edinburgh show and now we play all over the world.”

That is no exaggeration. Recently they have played gigs like the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the San Francisco Sketch Festival and the Dublin Comedy Festival. “It’s great being able to say, ‘I’m going to work now…by plane!’ It’s like being famous, except no-one knows who you are.”

Being influenced by classic British comedy like “Monty Python”, Pappy’s humour isn’t always appreciated overseas: “The Australians found us confusing. It took them around 30 minutes to get into it. At first they were just thinking ‘what is this?’ but eventually they enjoyed themselves.”

Crosby has positivity running through his veins, something that helps when things aren’t going to plan: “With sketches, you can’t bail half way through. When you’ve written a show you have to keep going until you wear the audience down. It’s like high altitude training: you just do it until you’re good enough to keep on doing it.”

They appear to have a love-hate relationship with the broadcasting media, seeing it as a publicity tool rather than somewhere they would like to work more in: “The only reason we do TV or radio is to encourage people come and see us live.
“With a TV show, not only do you have to write the script and send it off to producers, but then they have to send it off to their bosses and so on, and you end up having to wait ages to get anything done.”

For a creative group of people, this restriction is frustrating and is precisely what keeps their heart strings attached to the stage: “Theatre is what we love. In TV or radio, you have to justify everything you do and then the more you talk about and analyse it, the less funny it becomes. I just think: ‘That will be funny so let’s do it.”

Their current show, “Pappy’s World Record Attempt: 200 Sketches in an Hour”, sees them trying to do on average one sketch every 18 seconds. “We do tend to mess around, so occasionally a sketch will last three minutes and we’ll have to make up the time somewhere,” Crosby said.

The appeal of the show is to see how and if they do it: “Audiences like to see performers who aren’t just running off a script, to see people trying to do something different and enjoy themselves. That’s what we do in every show.”

Dreams in sport can be chased for years without any end result. A footballer’s dreams might feature playing in a World Cup final; tennis players often picture themselves on the centre court at Wimbledon; whereas for motor racing drivers it’s the adrenaline rush of turning yet another corner at the famous Monte Carlo circuit.

However, to call yourself an Olympian is something else — that little bit extra that sets you apart from the rest. The gruelling daily training sessions are needed just to qualify for warm-up events, let alone to represent your country on the grand stage.

The Olympic Games and the global circus that follows will arrive in London in 2012 and is a perfect opportunity for the nation’s athletes to fly the flag for Great Britain. Competition for places adds extra pressure to athletes attempting to qualify as a second, metre, or point could mean the difference between representing Team GB or letting years worth of training go to waste.

Matthew Bowser, a highly successful runner who competes across the board in running disciplines, opting for 5,000 metres to be his favourite, is currently in training for the World Championships.

However, last year’s Lincoln 10k winner is hoping that with the help of a new coach he will be encouraged to work hard to improve his chances of achieving a place on Team GB — with the London 2012 Olympics etched very strongly in his mind.

“This year on the track I lowered all of my PBs which enabled me to go to the National Championships. I got selected for England to run abroad in a couple of races.

“To get in the Grand Prixs all around the world my times will have to drop a few seconds and that’s what we’re looking to do this year.

“The Olympics is obviously the gold event [and] it’s going to be in London. For me, I’ll be 29 and at my peak for 1500m at that age and I just think it would be amazing to make an Olympic final,” Bowser said.

In the past year, Bowser has acquired a new coach who takes a lot of the strain and stress off his back leaving him to concentrate on one thing only — running the best he possibly can.

The Lincoln Wellington runner said: “I’ve been sitting down with my coach and I think a lot of my problems have been psychological. I kind of get in a race and say ‘I’m going to try and run this time’ and forget that you’re actually racing the guys in front of you.

“We’re working on it a little bit more, surrounding the area that we are actually going to win races instead of getting in a race and seeing what position you come in.

“I’ve been able to run top 20 in the country without the help of anyone, so putting the work in should hopefully leave me in the top five or six in Britain, that’s the main aim. I want to make the Olympics, I want to make the Commonwealth games.”

All of the true running greats such as Haile Gabrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Sebastian Coe have all stressed that having a strong, winning mentality is crucial to achieve great successes.

The 26-year-old also follows this same viewpoint and believes your mindset can be the difference between winning a race or finishing 2nd.

“You can have all of the ability in the world, but if you’ve not got the right mindset for it, it doesn’t matter how good you are.

“I used to know people who would talk themselves out of a race even before they’ve got to the start line. It’s a great weapon to have to use against someone, as you can knock someone and go ‘I’m training great’ and you can see them getting nervous.

“As an athlete you’ve got to channel that energy into the performance rather than worrying about what someone else is going to do. I’ve not seen a sports psychologist, but the moment you’ve got a losing mentality it’s difficult to get off it.”

He said: “I go with the Lincolnshire Sports Partnership to go and help schools. You put the Great Britain kit on and the kids love seeing it, but kids are taught not to be competitive because the people who are unable to do the sports are left out. Well, I’m not being funny, but we live in a competitive society and when I was young I used to love beating everybody.

“If kids aren’t taught a winning mentality from a young age they aren’t going to be competitive in anything they do.

“There are loads of facilities. Up at our track now [Yarborough School] we’ve got a kids starter day so they come up on a Tuesday at six o’clock and basically they can have a bit of coaching. It’s all light-hearted and good fun with a little bit of competitiveness.”

While top male England footballers earn hundreds of thousands of pounds per week playing for their clubs, the females are forced to juggle full-time jobs alongside it, often having to take their annual leave of holiday when competing in summer tournaments such as the World Cup.

But football is not the only example where this is the case, it can be applied to basically any professional sport in Britain.

The All England Club didn’t start paying equal prize money at the Wimbledon Championships until 2007, when they finally increased the women’s pay out to bring them in line with the grand slam tournaments in United States and Australia.

Going for the top: The England Women’s Cricket team won the ICC World Cup and Twenty20 World Cup. Photo: Paddy Napper

When attitudes within official bodies are seemingly so unwilling to change, it’s no wonder public opinion is often as discouraging.There is often a certain amount of derision at the mention of a woman playing a traditionally male sport, and there is often a certain amount of disdain that follows the mention of girls playing the likes of football, rugby or cricket.

But is this fair? Genetics mean that strength and power could not be equalled when comparing a male sportsman to a female, but the same can’t be said for skill and technique, which are surely the aspects of a sport that make it aesthetically pleasing.

The national women’s football team made it to the final of the European Championships earlier this year, while England’s women cricketers won both the ICC World Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup. With successes such as this in the nation’s two most popular sports, you would hope that the appropriate media coverage would be given to celebrate the achievements of our top sportswomen.

But this hasn’t been the case. Even the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports, Andy Burnham expressed his concern over the issue in The Observer, stating that ‘women’s sport is woefully absent from our television screens, radios and newspapers. Half of the population is not being adequately served. We need culture change in sport and broadcasting.” Chief Executive of the Women’s Sport and Fitness Federation (WSFF), Sue Tibballs, commented: “Our research shows that the lack of women’s sport on TV means that girls grow up in a culture which says that sport isn’t really for them.

“Any glance through the TV listings will show that women’s sport gets only a fraction of the coverage that men’s sports get and given that our women are currently having much more success than the men internationally we believe this should be reversed.”

University offers a fantastic opportunity for students to take up a sport and it’s no different here at Lincoln where there are male and female teams from sports everything from badminton to volleyball.

According to a report by the WSFF, the highest levels of women’s participation in sport are among students. The Linc spoke to three key members of women’s team at the University of Lincoln to find out how their experiences had differed.

Sophie Barker, 19, plays for OOH Lincoln City Ladies and as a first year is part of the Women’s Football Club. “When I was younger none of the girls ever wanted to play football so I always used to play with the boys. The girls just used to sit and watch admiring all the boys play, while I was just trying to be better than them,” she said. “I played in a boys’ team until I was 11 and the standard was a lot better than the girls and I used to enjoy playing with boys more. “I was the youngest player to have played for Lincoln Ladies first team at 15 and I found it extremeley difficult to fit in as the other girls didn’t really want to associate themselves with me at first. I nearly quit football because I really didn’t enjoy playing.

Although now I can express myself and get to know the girls that’s all changed. “I have never been picked
on but there is a lot of banter from the boys, they say the usual ‘girls can’t play football’. Some girls just look at you with stuck up noses but I don’t really care what they think, it hasn’t affected my participation in football, although if I were insecure I’m sure it might have done.”

Jessica Starling, 20, is a member of the Women’s Basketball Club and says she can understand why some women’s sports aren’t as appealing. “Athletics and tennis always attract a lot of coverage and deserve to because of the level they compete at. Even though I enjoy watching women’s football, if I had the choice I would still watch men as I think it’s more enjoyable to view. “Within basketball I haven’t come across as much sexism as I have when playing football or other sports. Normally people just ask me why I don’t play netball instead! “I have never been discouraged from playing basketball because of comments or other people’s perceptions. Even though I was bullied for being a ‘tomboy’, it never stopped me from playing.”

Joey Render, 22, is President of the Women’s Rugby Club, which boasts over 40 members. She commented: “I think the coverage of women’s sport is ridiculous. We really don’t get a fair deal. I think if a national team reaches a semi-final or final then it should be broadcast on an easily accessible channel. “In my league games at home the men’s teams always come to support us which I found really suprising, although a women’s game will always be put on the worst pitch because the good ones need to be kept for the men, which really makes me mad. “Occasionally you come across men who think women should not play. One bloke once told me it was ‘against nature!’ “But it doesn’t really bother me because i know how happy rugby makes me – it has given me so many opportunities.”

With the increased level of participation in female sports continuing to rise, hopefully there will be a shift in attitude so women can stop living in the shadows of their male counterparts.

Roller derby is an American contact sport based on formation skating. It takes place on an oval track, with points scored when certain players lap members of the opposing side.

It is a sport that has gone through quite a transition. Originally starting life as a professional sport for both men and women, it has since become amateur and largely female-dominated. Bombers’ Anna Thomas’ skate name ‘Synyster Motives’ says that the sport is still very much developing in this country.

She said: “Roller derby is still quite a new sport in the UK. In the USA, where it started and has been going since the early part of the last decade, they play on a national level for the title of National Champions.

“Over here, there is nothing quite so organised at the moment. We play teams from all over the UK but there is no official tournament. Last year London Roller Girls held the first European mini tournament, which they eventually won and a European Interleague table has just been organised so hopefully we are on our way to having a more structured league.”

“It is a wonderful way to get exercise and keep fit without having to go to a gym,” she added.

“There is also the competitive aspect. The actual game is so enjoyable, the competitive side and the skill and tactics that you have to learn, nothing is as satisfying as finally perfecting a move you have been working on. The most enjoyable part is that I get to do all this with a fabulous bunch of like minded women who are all now good friends.”

Thomas says she is pleased with how the team is progressing, and that they are looking raise the sport’s profile.

“We have just played our first bout of the season, which we lost 79-130. It is only our second ever game as a team so we are pleased with the result. We have at least another two teams we will be
bouting against so we have at least five more games to play this year, one home and one away for each team.

“We may also be involved in some exhibition event later in the year but we have no concrete plans at the moment.”

For more information: The club are currently offering “newbie sessions” on Saturday 9am-11am at Yarborough Leisure Centre.