Opinion – Page 23 of 31

28Feb

By Natasha PhillipsNo Comments

Opinion

Why Activism Has Been Given a Bad Name

Natasha Phillips on the power of student activism. An activist is defined as an individual who campaigns for social or political change, who sees a problem and acts on it to make a difference. This is the type of endeavour we should encourage and support, but many don’t. Activists have a bad image – they strive to vocalise the opinions of the overlooked, but are instead alienating the very people they are fighting for. Many associate the word ‘activist’ with being eccentric, militant, and aggressive - these are all negative adjectives despite the positive ambition of these people. We have come to disassociate ourselves with groups who are actively fighting for causes that we believe in, whilst we sit idly by. It is often the extreme, unorthodox acts of activists that tend to be remember...

23Feb

By No Comments

Opinion

The student strategy

We all share anxiety. We all have good days and we all have bad days. With anxiety, one almost becomes hyper-aware, but that doesn’t mean that everyone isn’t feeling the same, it just means that those who are hyper-aware feel entrapped within their acute perception of reality. Even for those who believe they have a certain amount of empathy and consideration can never fully understand until they have felt it themselves. But this is the underlying point, everyone has felt it, but some people hold onto it, and it manifests into a confusion of adrenaline and numbness that doesn’t necessarily structurally coincide with everyday life. Sometimes it’s there, and sometimes it isn’t. For those who don’t understand this feeling, it is sometimes difficult to gauge how it can affect someone to such an...

20Feb

By Thomas VaughanNo Comments

Opinion

A Super-cycle Highway to Hell?

The 18 mile segregated cycle route costing £160 million and set to become the longest of its kind in Europe, will take cyclists via segregated bike lane past some of the capital’s busiest and most iconic monuments and sites including Somerset House and Hyde Park, leading all the way up to the Parliament building. The majority of the path which will run parallel to the roads of London, will include pedestrianised crossings and conversions of existing roads to cyclist one-way paths. The measure will allow commuters and students alike to travel safely to and fro their destinations, as it provides separation from Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs), which caused nine of 14 deaths to cyclists in 2013. With it comes the hope that more people of London will begin cycling, moving away from use of priva...

20Feb

By No Comments

Opinion

The Clash of Cultures

Ryan Woods on why migration isn't as simple as it may seem. The fairly recent attack on the Munich subway by four migrants will undoubtedly add to the deafening roar of arguments both for and against a more inclusive Europe. One side more welcoming to refugees and migrants and the other a more closed off ‘each for their own’ alternative. The far right will use the recent video that has surfaced showing four migrants verbally assaulting two elderly German men after they stopped the migrants from allegedly harassing the woman they were sitting next to. The left will be quick to state that those perpetrating the attacks are in the clear minority of migrants and refugees. Unfortunately, neither solves the issue, one caused by the inevitable clash of cultures that comes with the arrival of l...

19Feb

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Opinion

The Perils of All-Nighters

Beth Carr on why we need to stop the habit of staying up all night to complete work It’s 3am on a Wednesday night and campus is buzzing. But it’s not the SU that’s full: it’s the library. Not so much buzzing with activity but buzzing with caffeine. This is a picture of end of term deadline season and it’s worrying to think about. A second year historian floats into her sixth consecutive all-nighter. An MA student spends 50 hours awake to complete an essay and falls asleep in the SU. Even first years don’t escape the lure of skipping sleep in order to complete work on time. Third years in the midst of dissertations keep the quietest about their essay writing habits, but with the increasing trend of squeezing work into the night before the due date, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of t...

18Feb

By No Comments

Opinion

Chapter: University, Term 1

I still have a vague recollection of what life was like before I came to university, and to summarise it in one word, it would have to be, simply, easier. Now, I’m not trying to portray myself as some overworked, caffeine-riddled genius after one term of university, because let’s face it, no one is. But never before have I had so much to do in so little time. The first three months of my degree completely flew by, and with term two looming upon us all, I feel that now is the opportune moment for some reflection on the weeks gone by. It would be mid-August of 2014 when I received my results, and the first call of university beckoned me. At the time, I knew I wasn’t mentally prepared for such a leap, so I took a year out. Another year vanished, and all my family and a select number of ...

“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim”

16Feb

By No Comments

Opinion

“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim”

Right? Western media seem to think that the word ‘terrorist’ is interchangeable with the word ‘Muslim’, with no one seeming to question the validity of this. This assumption is leading to a whole religion being demonised. An example of this, is how after the Paris attacks, there were calls for British Muslims to condemn the extremists publicly. While, I’m sure, British Muslims do condemn terrorism, it is not reasonable to demand they state this publicly, in the same way it is not expected that Christians should publicly condemn the attacks. It isn’t just our media that is churning these lies, but our politicians too. Nigel Farage stated that British Muslims have a ‘split of loyalties’ between the ‘British way of life and the conservative strains of the religion’. But this surely implies...

31Jan

By No Comments

Opinion

The B Word

'Bi-erasure' is the reduction of bisexuality to merely a 'phase' or even denying its existence as a valid sexual orientation. It is an extremely harmful and increasingly prevalent ideology. Orbital spoke to Josephine Chick, President of LGBT+ at Royal Holloway who defined Bi-erasure as "a behaviour that attempts to wipe out the experience of bisexual people for not fitting into the binaries of straight/gay". Now, a friendly reminder that there is nothing wrong with labelling yourself as bisexual, and then later realising that another sexual identity fits better! Sexuality is fluid and can change a little or completely as you grow as a person, much like any other aspect of a human’s identity. However, while for some people the time they identify as a bisexual may indeed be transition...

Economical with the Truth: Lying on Your CV

30Jan

By Natasha PhillipsNo Comments

Opinion

Economical with the Truth: Lying on Your CV

As the job market is becomingly increasingly competitive, it is becoming harder to stand out to employers. Gaining experience and qualifications is often an essential requirement for candidates but exaggerating or completely fabricating your achievements is seen as a way out for many prospective employees. Despite lying on job applications being illegal, with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, 58% of employers claim to have caught an applicant lying on their CV. But why must people resort to lying to be considered suitable for a role that they have no experience in? Of course, some embellishments are more serious than others – it is commonplace to make yourself seem as desirable as possible on a CV, but at what point do morals take over? Extreme fraud can cost employers a lot of money...

The Irony and Failures of the Right to Buy Scheme

16Jan

By No Comments

Opinion

The Irony and Failures of the Right to Buy Scheme

When Margaret Thatcher unveiled the Right to Buy scheme in the 1980s, my mother took it as an opportunity to purchase the council flat she had been born and brought up in on behalf of my grandma who still lived in it. The three-bedroom maisonette in an enclave of looming council flats off the Caledonian road was purchased for a whopping sum of £18,000: a bargain by anyone’s standards. This, the opportunity for council house tenants to purchase their homes at a large discount, was seen as a victory for Britain’s workers and working poor. My grandma, who eloped to London with £3,000, was finally able to own the home she had lived in for years and raised four children in, bringing security and dignity to her home, and when she passed it would become a source of income for my mother. Now...