So, it’s been a while…
I thought I’d rear my head again to talk about the upcoming elections. It seems like only yesterday that I nominated myself to run for this very job, thinking that I didn’t have a hope in hell’s chance of actually getting it. And here we are again, a year on, and people are nominating themselves to take the job from me.
gair rhydd were hoping to print the list of candidates in this week’s issue, but the close of nominations was not until Friday afternoon – after we had gone to print. No doubt we will give you the full rundown in next week’s issue, but since you will all probably know by the time you read this anyway, I feel okay about divulging the information.
Welcome to 2010
*Happy New Year and welcome to the first gair rhydd of the new decade. We’ve lots of stuff in this issue for you – we’ve been containing it for the past six weeks! *
First of all, I have to mention, once again, the ‘Gherkin’ off’ front page from the last edition (sorry). It caused quite a bit of upset to quite a few people, but I can’t believe the backlash it caused on the website – 93 comments and counting – the most we’ve had for as long as I can remember.
It's Christmas!
... okay, well not quite, but it’s the last gair rhydd of this academic term and, in fact, of the whole entire year. My, how time flies.
This week, we were lucky. A brilliant front page story fell into our hands – the engineering rugby team had given some of its members food poisoning after they were forced to eat food that had been up someone else’s backside during their initiation. (See photos on front page; they caused quite a reaction when they reached the gair rhydd office).
Awards, horoscopes, and gender-neutral toilets...
We’re the second best student newspaper in the country! We were presented with the runner-up award in the Best Newspaper Category at The Guardian Student Media Awards on Wednesday.
The awards, held in Proud Galleries, Camden, and hosted by the lovely Colin Murray, honour the best of student journalism from across the country. Our very own Quench and gair rhydd were nominated for Best Magazine and Best Newspaper, respectively. Quench was pipped to the post by Oxymoron, Oxford University’s magazine, but gair rhydd won a nice wad of cash for coming second in its category. We were beaten to the top spot by The Leeds Student.
Expenses
Expenses are always a grey area – just take the whole scandal that recently erupted in Parliament for example.
gair rhydd has been sifting through page and pages of Sabbatical Officers’ expenses only to find that they too have been claiming for a little more than they needed to here and there. To be fair to them, the guidelines at the time were pretty slack, so who wouldn’t take advantage?
Editorial
There have been some exciting developments since my last editorial. The gair rhydd news team have been getting their weekly podcasts underway, and I’ve finally worked out how to put them on the website, so they’re there now for you to listen to and comment on.
You can also subscribe to the podcast at http://www.gairrhyddnews.podbean.com. Every week, the news team and I will be discussing the latest front page stories and controversies in student news. This week: the Summer Ball debate. After all, the event will go ahead unchanged, despite the fact that it might incur losses of up to £50,000. We’d like to know what you think. Tell us at www.gairrhydd.com.
Summer Balls, Bomb Scares and Grudge Matches
Well where do I start? So much has gone on this past week: talks of cancelling the Summer Ball at Cooper’s Field, bomb scares at the Union, the University Rugby team beating the Medics Rugby team… It’s all going on.
Let’s start with our front page. Thursday morning and the Union receive a call saying that there is a bomb in or around the Union and everyone has to be evacuated. It was all quite exciting at the time – it’s the first bomb threat the Union have ever had (via phone – a couple of years ago they had a suspicious package delivered), but it could have potentially been very serious. Thankfully, two and a half hours later, the building was declared as bomb-free. And it just had to happen on deadline day didn’t it?! But hats off to the Union staff who dealt with the situation extremely efficiently.
Lads
Although the rugby captain has claimed it was just a bit of friendly banter, it’s not the first time the team has come under fire for their behaviour. It is common knowledge that the boys often enforce a toilet ban on nights out, and they have before been found to be urinating up against the bars and curtains in Solus… Now I don’t know about you, but if I was standing at a bar and I felt the burning sensation of wee on my legs, I wouldn’t be best pleased.
So, allegedly, they have been banned from The Lash at Solus for “at least” two weeks. A suitable punishment? I don’t know, but then the team probably makes the Union too much money on the bars to ban them for life.
So...
So…
So, apparently, Cardiff University School of Medicine are stopping dissection of the head and neck for second years.
Turf war
This edition brings you the latest on the petty promotions row between the Union staff and external promoters Rough Hill, Climax Promotions and Student Cardiff (the latter two owned by ex-Cardiff student Sam Gould).
I hope you enjoy reading about what actually happened now we’ve finally put it into print, and that the whole issue can now be laid to rest. (Although it probably won’t be because a member of Rough Hill has threatened to sue us for something or other. Oo er). I’ll probably even get in trouble for writing this! We’d better watch our backs.
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