Tuesday, April 23Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Author: Jordan Thorne

Let the “bodies pile high”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s Covid response after the first lockdown was enacted
1Jun By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
News

Let the “bodies pile high”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s Covid response after the first lockdown was enacted

Whilst a large part of Dominic Cumming's explosive testimony centred around the early stages of the pandemic, as the main purpose of the select committee was essentially focused around what we can learn for future prevention of pandemics, there were other parts of the pandemic response that came under scrutiny. The person that came in for the most brutal criticism was Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary. Cumming's claimed that he should have been fired for "15 to 20 things" including "lying" to people "on multiple occasions". He allegedly lied about everyone getting the treatment they required, about the supply of PPE, and lied about the government’s test-and-trace planning by misdirecting resources for an arbitrary 100,000 testing target. The most damaging lie was the one he tol...
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“We are absolutely f****d!”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s early Covid response
1Jun By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
News

“We are absolutely f****d!”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s early Covid response

I was planning to write about Covid, Government corruption and the Greensill scandal; but after my exams were finished and my dissertation was submitted I couldn't help but be glued to my laptop listening to Dominic Cummings’ testimony to a select committee. It only feels right to cover what was alleged and what it reveals about the government and our country. In this short piece, I cannot cover the full breadth of the allegations that emerged from Dominic Cummings' many hours of testimony, so I would encourage you to read about the allegations in full somewhere else. Some would argue that we haven't learnt anything; these are allegations from a man who has seemingly shown little regard for the importance of the truth in the past, so how can we trust him now? It was a stark image to se...
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How have international UK university students been affected by the COVID pandemic?
17May By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
Features

How have international UK university students been affected by the COVID pandemic?

At the inception of 2020, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in over 3 million deaths worldwide and countries went into lockdown to minimise repercussions. This meant that borders were closed, travel was suspended, and working from home became a norm. The real world came to a standstill whilst the virtual world took on a life of its own. Alongside the issues that the whole population has had to face, such as periods of isolation and the loss of loved ones, students are continuing to deal with further issues. We have lost an important stage of social development, been the victim of last-minute changes, and often had a less-than-standard quality of learning and some of these have had implications for mental health and well-...
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How students have adapted to the new university life during a pandemic
17May By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
Lifestyle

How students have adapted to the new university life during a pandemic

The university life which many of us were sold towards the end of A-Levels was one of partying, fun, laughter, and memories. Whilst this has been true for some and they were able to experience some degree of normality before the pandemic, this was not the case for many. Adapting and adjusting our lives at university has been difficult. Many were thrown into the deep end, going from partying and socialising every night of the week to being limited to the house in which you live. The impact has been tremendous and we have all been expected to just go along with it. But how have students adapted to the new university life and what has changed?  Education: University education has been taken and flipped upside down. At the beginning of the pandemic there was a lack of communication wi...
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Sex in the Grey Area
17May By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
Opinion

Sex in the Grey Area

*Trigger Warning: issues of sexual consent* When I was 17, I dated a guy for about three weeks. He was considerably taller than me, a first as I normally date guys around my height so I don’t feel inferior. He was far too popular for me, although he was a total softie on the inside. It was very intense, and we moved quite quickly with everything — other than the sex. One evening we’d planned a pizza date at my house. Earlier that day, though, I’d noticed him calling me “his woman” and telling me how I should wear my hair or do my makeup. Call me a ‘woke feminist’ all you like, but that was a major turn off. I texted him earlier that evening to let him know I wasn’t sure about him coming round, but he insisted that it would be nice. I obliged, but laid out there and then that I di...
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Happy Earth Day!
22Apr By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
Sports & Socs

Happy Earth Day!

Inspired by the giant Oil Spill in Santa Barbara, California in January 1969, the first Earth Day of April 22nd 1970 was an American movement spanning coast to coast, uniting senators to students and a total of 20 million Americans to take to the streets to demonstrate against American industrial development that was, and still is, polluting the world we are stewards of. It was a movement that united huge portions of the American public around the universal issue of the protection of the environment. The political impetus of the first Earth Day led to businesses donating tens of thousands of dollars to Earth Day projects, the prevention of an anti-environmental advertising campaign by those same businesses and, while they refused the offer, an invitation from President Nixon for the organ...
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420
20Apr By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
Sports & Socs

420

Happy 420 Within recent times there have been some interesting developments in cannabis legislation, with Mexico set to be the next country to join the list of ever-growing nations to legalise recreational marijuana use. However, in the UK, we appear a good while away from being able to legally purchase weed for recreational use, with the Liberal Democrats being one of the only large parties to support legalisation. The Lib Dems outline in their manifesto the benefits that come with legalisation, arguing that it could raise around £1 billion in tax which they would spend on crime prevention and tackling the climate crisis. London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has also spoken about the topic before, claiming the UK needs to rethink its drug policies. It's not hard to see why the Lib Dems are pushi...
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Bicycle Day
19Apr By Jordan ThorneNo Comments
Sports & Socs

Bicycle Day

What do you think of when you hear ‘Bicycle Day’? If you’re anything like me, you probably thought, as the name suggests, that it is related to the two-wheeled vehicle many of us have used at least once in our lives. However, Bicycle Day is not a celebration of the bicycle, but something entirely different. On the 19th of April 1943, the first recorded LSD trip happened. A guy, named Hofman, ingested a small amount of the psychoactive substance and experienced unusual and profound changes in perception. Worried that he might’ve poisoned himself, Hofman got on his bicycle and rode to his doctor, who could not observe any bodily irregularities, except for dilated pupils, meaning Hofman was experiencing a trip. Hence, on “Bicycle Day” we celebrate the discovery of LSD as a psychedelic. You m...
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