Alex Jones, Author at The Orbital

6Feb

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

The Day Britain Left

The mood was convivial and fairly relaxed as Rhubarb TV’s Station Manager Charlotte Hutton and I strolled on to Parliament Square on Friday evening. Union flags and St. George crosses flapped and furled in the icy January air and yet the revellers were seemingly insulated by the atmosphere of hope and relief. This was the day that Brexiteers had been expecting for over 25 years and a cold January evening punctuated by fittingly British drizzle was not going to lower the mood. In one corner of Parliament Square the mood was particularly excitable. The ‘Liberty Bell’ was sounding a tune lacking both rhythm and timbre while flares were colouring the night sky in red and blue and men and women of all ages were hiding cheap cans of lager from the police. This wasn’t just a Brexit party; th...

11Dec

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

Ex-Orbital Editor Running To Be Conservative MP Published Content Deemed to be Homophobic in Orbital Magazine

The Orbital Magazine is politically independent and neutral and is committed to reporting accurate journalism to a high standard. Mario Creatura, Publications Editor for Orbital Magazine in 2007, printed a story in the November issue containing homophobic language. The article entitled "Harry Poofter and gay Prof Dumbledore", written by Libby Dhingra, talked about JK Rowling's revelation that Professor Dumbledore is gay. In the article the author insinuated a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia writing "Was Dumbledore's relationship with Harry as innocent as it seemed?". Furthermore Ms. Dhingra expressed frustration at gay people suggesting they "have to treat it [sexuality] like some sort of medal or badge to be waved around and flaunted on every occasion?". The conn...

25Nov

By Alex JonesNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Only The Dead Have Seen the End of War

Michael Ware gained a reputation in Iraq for being one of the few journalists to live in the country near-continuously for the duration of the American occupation. He also was not only embedded with American forces but also with insurgent groups. The film itself is a compilation of footage filmed on a Handycam by Ware and a fellow journalist. It is simply a taste of the hundreds of hours of footage he accumulated over the almost decade he was there. This leads to an outlook on war, those who have not been privy to first-hand, have never had. You are drawn into intense firefights, terrifying insurgent meetings and the shocking and often gruesome aftermath of suicide bombings. The sounds of the war are occasionally drowned out by a smooth Australian drawl as Ware offers commentary to make se...

RHSU ‘No Platform for Hate Speech on Campus’ Policy Passes

8Nov

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

RHSU ‘No Platform for Hate Speech on Campus’ Policy Passes

It was announced three weeks ago that infamous journalist and broadcaster Katie Hopkins had been invited on to campus by Debating Society to take part in a debate with students. This was cancelled by the Students' Union on the grounds of security and logistical concerns. Despite the reasons cited by the Students' Union, less than 24 hours later, they announced a referendum on a policy to allow them greater control over who is allowed to speak at a Union venue or at an event organised by an Union affiliated group. This led to fierce debate both on campus and online with both sides being equally passionate in their reasoning. The engagement across the student body was reflected in the turnout for the referendum with 1018 students voting. This is possibly the largest ever turnout in an ...

Make your mark and register to vote this Autumn!

30Oct

By Alex JonesNo Comments

Features

Make your mark and register to vote this Autumn!

Social media. Phones. The internet. We live in an interconnected world in which everyone has an opinion and are one click away from showing it off for everybody to see. Why then is voter turnout, especially in the 18-24 age group slowly decreasing? We all clearly want to express our opinions but it seems we’ve lost the ability to do this in a meaningful way. Don’t get us wrong; we are fed up of talking about Brexit and for people who are interested in politics we are both bored and deeply upset with the political situation in Britain at the moment. And that is why we are going to vote. Knife crime, poverty, the NHS, cuts to education funding, climate change and a deeply divided society are issues we all face in this country at the moment. These are the issues that we all care abo...

Students’ Union Releases ‘No-Platform’ Policy For Vote on 4th November

23Oct

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

Students’ Union Releases ‘No-Platform’ Policy For Vote on 4th November

The policy is drafted with the intention of allowing the student body more control over who is allowed to speak at Union events or activities and would prohibit the entrance of said figure to any Students’ Union premises. The reason this is so prohibitive as giving anybody a platform to speak “implicitly classifies their views as a legitimate position”. This would suggest the policy is designed to, in the minds of Royal Holloway students, delegitimise certain views if they are deemed to be hateful. Further to the question of legitimacy there is another problem posed by the policy. Under this policy democratically elected politicians who had engaged in hate speech and had a “sustained history” of it they would not be allowed to speak. Who will decide this and how can they possibly ...

Ceiling Panel Collapse Sends One Student To Hospital

16Oct

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

Ceiling Panel Collapse Sends One Student To Hospital

Monday night at the SU was the scene of the first ever Rodeo Rave, an event organised by students, running concurrently with Toast at Medicine as a final opportunity for those who missed out during Freshers' Festival. The night was set to be another fun night at the SU with "dirty bass and house music" a rodeo bull and lots of alcohol. However, over the course of the night "a customer/ group of customers" punched an acoustic panel hanging above Tommy's Lounge a Students' Union statement explained. This resulted in the "failure of one of the fixtures attaching the panel to the ceiling." Subsequent to this, the SU states, the individuals involved "pulled the panel from the ceiling, losing control and injuring the customer." The injured customer received medical attention at the venue bef...

RHSU Releases Statement Announcing ‘No Platform’ Referendum In Light Of Katie Hopkins Debacle

11Oct

By Alex JonesNo Comments

Opinion

RHSU Releases Statement Announcing ‘No Platform’ Referendum In Light Of Katie Hopkins Debacle

Since the leaked announcement and subsequent event cancellation there has been significant debate on campus and on the Facebook page Overheard at Royal Holloway University. The debate has often been pointed and lively with students from both sides of the argument, proponents of ‘No Platform’ and those of unadulterated ‘Free Speech’ weighing in. The main thread of the debate is this; does allowing Ms. Hopkins onto campus encourage healthy debate or does it create an unsafe and intimidating environment for the student body which is open and diverse? Both sides have been argued passionately, which, at face value, is good as it has taken a controversy of this magnitude to pull Royal Holloway out of the political apathy that the student body was previously languishing in. However...

Katie Hopkins’ Visit To Royal Holloway Cancelled Amidst Security Concerns

10Oct

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

Katie Hopkins’ Visit To Royal Holloway Cancelled Amidst Security Concerns

Royal Holloway Debating Society, headed by President Jessica Lee, wanted the journalist to speak at an event in the upcoming week. This is now not going forward. The SU, in a statement released today, explained that due to safety concerns regarding protests and counter demonstrations there is too much of logistical demand regarding the provision of security for the event. The SU have made it clear that the safety and security of their students is their primary concern. They felt that the number of signatories to an open letter published by Jack Stokes, President of Labour Society, in which Katie Hopkins was heavily criticized, constituted a significant security risk. There has been widespread backlash across campus which was spearheaded by the open letter and has prompted statements ...

Man Arrested In Connection With Stabbing in Englefield Green

15Sep

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

Man Arrested In Connection With Stabbing in Englefield Green

In an update to our previous article Surrey Police confirmed today that a man has been arrested on the charge of attempted murder in connection with the stabbing that occurred in Englefield Green on Friday (13/09) evening. Surrey Police declined to comment as to whether either the victim or the alleged perpetrator of the crime were students at the university or whether, in fact, any investigation was being conducted into a university student in connection with this incident. They have commented today that there has been an increase in officers in the area as a result of the incident. This is the second stabbing in the area in the last nine months after the attack outside the SU shop in December 2018. It is still up for debate as to whether Surrey Police believe this incident is m...