News Interview p9 Comment p10 In the wilderness Fashion p16-17 Starter for ten – Varsity His own planet: alum Jeremy Paxman on is Putin right to student fees, the Empire reach for the red and “stupid questions” planet? Friday 11th November 2011 The Independent Student Newspaper since 1947 Issue No 747 | varsity.co.uk ANDREW GRIFFIN News p3 And on your left: Cambridge students establish new guided-tour company Theatre p27 “It was Hell for the characters, but Heaven for the audience” No Ifs, No Buts: Cambridge students were amongst thousands of university and school students in London on Wednesday, protesting against changes to the Tom Powell funding of higher education 3 » on Jerry Springer: The Opera Sport p30 Cash for honours Amidst the chaos Helen Charman & Tristan Dunn Oxbridge Essays is a company that The company employ Oxbridge of Queens’ Ergs, NEWS CORRESPONDENT & NEWS EDITOR was set up in 2006, and describes itself graduates and current students to on its website as “the UK’s largest £4,000 write any essay that their customers Tom Marriott Essays are the primary mode of and leading provider of guaranteed request – the rates for which are assessment for many courses at Upper 1st, 1st Class and 2:1 essays The approximate market value of a something to behold. spots plenty of Cambridge and the ‘essay crisis’ is and dissertations, custom written history undergraduate’s termly work A fi rst class undergraduate History fresher talent something familiar to almost every by academics from leading UK essay of 2,500 words will set you back Cambridge student: the coffee, the universities”. £790, but a 2:2 only £360. frantic reading and the working in the Anyone in need of an essay, review, The prices also increase in relation library until the early hours. project or dissertation can simply go to the time frame given, with an Yet there are some students and onto the website and request an essay £790 essay required for a fortnight’s graduates of Oxford and Cambridge on their chosen topic, specifying the The price of a fi rst-class 2,500 word time significantly less that are making serious money out of length of the essay and the timeframe History essay expensive than one 6 » other people’s crises. within which they need it. needed the next morning, Take the Varsity Class Survey Are you a working class hero or the Lord of the Manor? Take it at varsity.co.uk 11th November 2011 Something to say? 2 EDITORIAL www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] DIGITAL DIGEST Established in 1947 Issue No 747 Old Examination Hall, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RF Telephone: 01223 337575 Fax: 01223 760949 VARSITV Space Invaders episode 2 – Rachel’s House “I’m often told it smells like a crack den, but I’m OK with that.” This week VarsiTV’s Jocelyn explores Rachel’s house and found many a strange Aims and outcomes object (stuffed foxes included). ake your mind back to last winter: an undeniable discrepancy here between These are perfectly acceptable issues violence on the streets of London; aims and outcomes. for protest and condemnation but, as you Tthe Old Schools occupied in Smash down the front door of Fortnum may have noticed, they fail to address Cambridge; Charlie Gilmour dangling & Masons and expect the opprobrium of the central point: the anger felt towards from the Cenotaph. the red-tops; peacefully march through tuition fee increases. E Now remember the reaction: 3 years Westminster square and expect, well, Does this desire to change the subject of educational self-indulgence demanded silence. betray a lack of confidence in the VERIFIED by bored middle-class students; A year on, again the argument is essential argument? Or, more likely, recreational violence the means by somehow lost. Instead, we are treated has a wider realisation taken place that Why I Left Cambridge for Oxford which hard-working taxpayers are to be to headlines and announcements that without changing the subject or seeking “The combined effect of switching to Oxford is a very happy and fulfi lling defrauded. bemoan the supposed heavy-handedness to address wider social concerns, the existence of the sort I assume nobody Ignoring for a moment the rights and of police tactics, or the wider inequalities voice of the student protestor is either at all gets in Cambridge.” Cherwell wrongs of raising tuition fees, there is of society. condemned or ignored? writer Robin Mcghee explains why he made the move to ‘the other place’. what do you actually think can be done Letters, about it? Neither birther Republicans nor (what Bell calls) self-righteous British left- Emails & ists will care about someone wagging their fi nger at them and telling them what they “should” be doing. Comments I’m sure you realise this – arguing in poli- tics in the fi nal analysis is not about winning ADDRESSING THE BIG ISSUE? debates based on evidence or even winning COMMENT BLOGS for the greater good, it is about winning full Dear Sirs, stop. Isn’t this kind of emotive politics the Schmidt speaks The interviews and documentary (‘Hom- logical result of the fusion of mass media Hugo Schmidt argues that the world- lessness: A Big Issue?’) was well done as with politics? I don’t see this changing soon ending potential of nuclear weaponry a media exercise but the piece addresses without reform of the political system as a is a secondary consideration. The nothing. The vendors of the Big Issue are whole, no matter how many editorials like problem lies with those tyrannical the public face of homelessness but not the this are written. governments that possess them – and extent of it. Each month, in every British wish to use them. city, obituaries list the deaths of members Vince Garton, Cambridge of an economic sub-class. Alcoholism, drug via Varsity.co.uk addiction and violence affect large portions of society. What advancement will the cel- ebrated in society announce next when they Corrections intend to do nothing to challenge the conse- quences of these economic considerations on Varsity wishes to correct errors made in the vulnerable in society? edition 746 (4th November 2011) with refer- ence to the article entitled ‘Pack your bag, VETEMENTS James Elliott, Cambridge tourists’. In this article we stated that plans via Varsity.co.uk were being put in place by the council to Interview with Sophie Ellen ban tourists from the city centre, and that A graduate from Cambridge School HATE IN POLITICS these were being mooted by the city’s cur- Of Art, Sophie Ellen recently exhibited rent mayor, Cllr Hipkin. We recognise that a show titled “Sur Les Pointes” (On Dear Sirs, no such plans are being put in place and The Tips of the Toes), inspired by It’s all very well to point this out (‘Hate that Cllr Hipkin is in fact a former mayor of the beauty of ballet and fashion. she has no place in politics’, Charlie Bell), but Cambridge. speaks to Maria Dimitrova. Varsity has been Cambridge’s independent student newspaper since 1947 and distributes 10,000 free copies to every Cambridge college, to ARU and around Cambridge each week. E Rhys Treharne & Laurie Martin edtor@varstycouk A E Andrew Griffi n assocate@varstycouk D E Joe Robertson dgtal@varstycouk D E George Shapter desgn@varstycouk N E Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman news@varstycouk C N R Matt Russell & Joanna Tang deputynews@varstycouk C E Felix Danczak comment@varstycouk S E Matt Blythe sport@varstycouk D S E Michael Taylor sport@varstycouk C S C Matt Dickinson sport@varstycouk M E Louise Benson magazne@varstycouk F E Kirsty Gray features@varstycouk A E Zoe Large arts@varstycouk T E Sophie Lewisohn theatre@varstycouk R L E Madeleine Morley & Helen Cahill revews@varstycouk F T Yinsey Wang, Chloe Spiby-Loh, Lucia Corsini, Aurien Compton-Joseph, James Evans fashon@varstycouk VTV E Millie Riley vtv@varstycouk P E Joseph Snelling photos@varstycouk C F W Clemmie Hain-Cole and Freya Berry features@varstycouk F T C Megan Marsh, Rebecca Jacobs, Richard Stockwell & Tom Powell theatre@varstycouk F C India Ross, Alice Bolland & Charlotte Green flm@varstycouk L C Charlotte Keith lterary@varstycouk V A C Holly Gupta, Louise Paterson & Jessica Cherry vsualarts@varsty couk M C Rory Williamson musc@varstycouk C M C Hanna Grzeskiewicz classcal@varstycouk F C Jessica Donnithorne food@varstycouk VARSITV P M Alice Hancock & Natasha Pesaran producton@varstycouk C S E Patrick Sykes, Laura Blomvall S E Felicity Davies & Steph Davin subedtor@varstycouk Homelessness: A Big Issue? B A M Michael Derringer busness@varstycouk Half of Cambridge students have V B Dr Michael Franklin (Chair), Prof. Peter Robinson, Dr Tim Harris, Mr Chris Wright, Mr Michael Derringer, Miss Alice Hancock (Varsity Society President), Miss Charlotte Wu, Mr Rhys Treharne never given money to the homeless, & Mr Laurie Martin according to a VarsiTV documentary released this week. To see the full fi nd- NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT Varsity, Old Examination Hall, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF. Tel 01223 337575. Fax 01223 760949. Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd. Varsity Publications also publishes BlueSci and The Mays. RECYCLING ings and interviews visit the VarsiTV Recycled paper made ©2011 Varsity Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. 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