THE 16th October 1980 BOMBS AWAY!! INSIDE Angry scenes and flour bombings marred last Saturday's Societies' Fair as anti-nuclear ~emonstrators surrounded the stall occupied · y the University Officer Training Corps. 0.T.C._ S.A.NE.'Clash' Heated exchanges letween the placard vaving demonstrators and he uniformed OTC ~embers became more ~tense as a large crowd athered, but a potentially angerous situation was i sarmed by mutual istraint. Although there 1as some Jostling on both Ides, and some flour ombs were thrown, there as never any real danger f prolonged violent onfronlation. ;I'll get you' fhe nearest the situation me to gettin~ out o·f hanrl !s when a university official an handled a placard - vi ng anti-nuclear demon­ ator and told him in a lreatening manner, "If you're Student I'll get you ..." a ;t that ..:as later ~nderlined [the unmarked but ominous rsence of both University r-u rity men and plain­ Handbook that's not so handy fthes police officers who pt watch from what they no .Ubt considered a "discreet An error In the handbook "Managing Your Student A revised edition will be \tance". Grant", produced for the Students' Association by the available in the coming Clydesdale Bank could result In parents paying tax on months. Meanwhile, anyone deeds of covenant. The whole Idea of the deed of who has any queries over the covenant Is to allow parents to give additional sums of question of deeds of covenant Pointless money, In excess of the parental contribution and up to should consult Research the tax threshold, to their children without paying tax on officer Dave de Feu in the the sum of money involved. Association Offices. The The Clydesdale Bank's Association's own handbook ~e protesters, comprising During Freshers' Week it blunder was first brought to "Financial Advice for ply members of Students was temporarily withdrawn the attention of Heriot-Watt Students" should also be unst Nuc lear Energy from distribution points Students' Association by the helpful on these and other f'JE), were not protesting around the University. But solicitor of an irate parent. matters. ut the OCT in particular, several hundred copies have Since then further errors and For details of the amendments about ihe huge amount already gone out to the misleading statements have to the handbook see the 19 spent on defence and a students in the Freshers' n tless nuclear "det- be~n discovered in the advertisement elsewhere in Mailing during t~e summer. this issue. 1nce" programme espe- handbook. 11 y a t a ti me when lmployment soars above I million and public enditure cutbacks are ?P ling Edu cation and The Week of Action by protesting outside the grant from the University ial Services. Colleges of Education Scottish Office while the Court, which was cut from lgnificantly, the OTC had The throughout Scotland con­ meeting is in progress. £1400 to £1000 this year, the most extensive display at tinues today and tomorrow On Tuesday, the Annual Centre is run entirely by Socities' Fair including an with protests in Hamilton and General Meetin g of the volunteer helpers. nsive array of sophis­ Edinburgh. -Today (Thursday) Overseas Students Centre will led weaponry. Week there is to ee a march and rally be held at the Centre in A "Grand Book Sale", as the ne protesters maintained a in the Town Hall, Hamilton. Bucc leuch Place. The posters proclaim is to be held ersed presence around On Friday, Secretary ol State purpose of the meeting is to next Wednesday and Thurs­ OTC s tall for the George Younger will be in elect this year's committee, day in David Hume Tower ainder of the Fair, town for a meeting of the members of which will be Basement. It launches an hing to prefer reasoned Convention of Scottish Local responsible for the running of Edinburgh University Book ment to prolonged Authorities. Students from the the Centre. Funded by its own Agency of which further rontation. affected 4olleges will be fund-raising efforts an<;I by a details elsewhere in this issue. 2 Front Piece THE LEADER If you were around the Societies Fair on gentlemen. But, at the same time, one could not the words of Sen ior President John Sturrock Saturday afternoon there is every chance that help but wonder if all of those qualities were "we're down the tubes". you missed some of the rare action there is to be only sustained by the knowledge or belief that And so to bed, or floor in Po ll ock, or park seen around this doldrum of an institution. If while the rest of us fear what the future may bench or wherever you happen to be lucky or you weren't there t hen you probably should hold tomorrow belongs to t hem. unlucky e nough to spend your dream time. have been. One could not help but admire the Tomorrow may not hold that much for any of There must be more students in Edinburgh in "stiff upper lip" resolve of the members of the us if the Government manage to sneak in t heir unsatisfactory accommodation than the official University Officers Training Corps as they plans for alternative Student Union f inancing. figures suggest. If st udents do not complain to faced one of what must be an increasing Education Secretary Mark Carlisle's baby everybody, inclu ding us, the Students' number of nuclear disarmament demonstra­ (conceived, we believe, last year) is rea ring its Association and the Student Accommodation tions. One could not but admire the reticence ugly head yet again. If Mr Carlisle's plans, which Service, then many more students may have to with which they were drawn into conflict. One basically involve making Students' Unions so play tig with the coc kroaches on the f loor ol could not but relish the aura of patience which poor that they can't afford to squeal, even in obliging friends. surro u nded t hese future o ffi c ers a n d papers such as this, are put into action then, in Letters to the Editor Dear Si r, Dear Sir, your "woefully inadequate Civil Defen Pe rhaps I can enlig/1ten your feature writer As long asyouwritearticlesalong the lines of Programme", arguing presumably for great ("Union Blues", 7th October) as to why "the " Disarmament or Destruction" in the 7t h measures for protection AFTER the outbre part with the dome was dubbed Phase Ill" and October issue of The Student you will, it seems of nuclear war, somewhat blunts the edge C'. what Phase II is (or was intended to be!) Phase to me, be banging your head against the your argument. Mrs Whitehouse, in her o I of the Student Centre consisted of the proverbial brick wall in perpetuum - or at moment of true inspiration , arg(Je Refectory and Health Centre, and was built in least, until we all meet the premature death of vehemently against the showing of "The W 1970. Phase II was intended to be a new sports which you seem so certain. Game''on television, andforonce, I fullyagr complex, to replace the existing facilities in Summer morning';,, blueskiesand"embryos Such things, along with more effective Ci the Pleasance. Unfortunately, the financing of in their mothers' wombs" might, given the right Defence, or a more consolidated "Protect a Phase 11 was dependent upon a city bye-pass context, be harmless enough phrases, but Survive" are likely to provoke before the eve scheme which would have incorporated the heardly serve to conjure up the image of such hysteria as they are trying to obviate afr area in the Pleasance, and for which the nuclear terror on the dawn of an unsuspecting the very event they anticipate. University would have received payment from world, particularly when juxtaposed with your Much of your invective is directed the city to finance the new sports complex, but own hysterical prose and shouting figures. figureheads - "the leaders of the big powers this bye-pass scheme eventually fell through. What are figures, except a means by which the and our own Prime Minister and Defen "The part with the dome" was planned as the converted confirm to their own kind that they Secretary. Forhowmanyofher "run"decisio third phase, and was in fact buiU in 1975 (not areintheright?What,forexample,ofhundreds is Mrs Thatcher - or any other Cabinet c 1973 as stated} and was rather unfortunately of thousands killed in the trench warfare of Government figure - directly responsible dubbed "Phase Ill". Its official name is World War One, often for the gaining of mere Every government inherits a legacy from th' "Student Centre House'\ and it is part of the yards of ground? Similarly, descriptions of the previous one: a successful government has; Students' Association. effects of bombing mean little to those who corporate, unified identity, and although tl't= There were also Phases IV and V, but these have not experienced this at first hand: who of voice of each of its members speaks towar have gone by the board for lack of finance as your entire readership can distinguish that identity, that same identity will nev well. between this and any number of purple prose suppose to speak for all of its constituentpartJ Since . the new sports complex was not passages in war novels - or, for that matter, nor for the constituent parts of the count.; viable, the University is presently in the between scenes in "The War Game" and those which it serves. Nobody craves nuclear wa process of building an extension to the in the war films at their local cinema? but if it is to be obviated in the ways yo sporting facilities in the Pleasance, and also Your argument seems to drift from one set of propose, a fundamental change in o has pans for renovation and improvement of assumptions to another.