Class – The Orbital

13May

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

Opinion, Sports & Socs

Cash is King

Is Formula One an Elitist Sport? At the start of 2020’s season, Lewis Hamilton reminded us that ‘cash is king’ in the world of formula one. The paddock is full of millionaires, each race a glittering spectacle of celebrity, champagne spray and the sound of multi-million pound engines. Each team is vying for sponsorship and the driver that can give them that all important sponsorship deal - if there’s no money, there’s no competitive car out on the race track. Take Haas, for example: with limited money behind them the past few years and a lack of points to go toward a constructor championship, the Haas cars have often been left floundering at the back of the grid. 2021 saw a critique of Haas’s new rookies: Nikita Mazepin, son of Dimitri Mazepin, owner of Urakali, Haas’s former ...

Who Really Gets to Be a Scientist? An Interview with Angela Saini

12May

By Luz Sanchez-Real ZielniewiczNo Comments

Science & Technology

Who Really Gets to Be a Scientist? An Interview with Angela Saini

Does it now take three or four minutes to race up to the moon? Is that really important? Or should science be used for what we actually need in order to pursue human development, such as finding new ways to produce crops, combat climate change, and so on? Because how realistic is it really for someone, who had to work themselves up from the very bottom, to get funding for a flying race car? Unless your name is Elon Musk, the odds are terrible and incredibly unfair. And this shouldn’t be the case. Regardless of socio-economic background, or gender, or race. Everyone can be a scientist. So what is stopping us? Last Monday, I was sitting in my maths seminar when this guy suddenly told me that women are biologically less capable of logical thinking than men. I couldn’t believe what I was h...

12May

By Jessica WoodNo Comments

News, Opinion

Defining Class

Defining Class: is it about what you earn or how you act? By Jessica Wood Society is ordered; people, places and possessions are constantly being put into boxes. Have you ever seen a movie and not had the desire to place it into a genre? It is a human instinct to name and sort things, that’s why we have an entire literary category called nouns. But what effect is this having on how we view the people around us? Does it explain why I was once told by a ‘friend’ that they would “only be friends with someone who went to a boarding school”? What defines this elusive term ‘class’? Why am I considered to have a lower status in society than them, even though my household income might actually be higher? This made me think that status in society is much more than what lands in your ba...

From Oxfam to “oh dayum!”: the rise of thrifting

12May

By Jessica WattsNo Comments

Lifestyle

From Oxfam to “oh dayum!”: the rise of thrifting

Picture this… It’s 2013. Katy Perry’s “Roar” is blasting from your brand-new iPhone 5c and you’re getting ready for a shopping trip with friends. As you are yanking on some sexy mood rings and an edgy print New Look crop top, you get a message from a friend: “I really fancy going into the charity shops, can we?” You are stunned, offended even. Charity shops are for Grandmas, weirdos, losers…why would you ever want to step foot into those dusty antique collectors? Fast forward… It’s 2020. You’ve been in lockdown for four months and all you dream of is seeing the welcoming red sign of the British Heart Foundation. How you long to be browsing the aisles of Oxfam, arms brimming with treasures. What could be better than an afternoon of thrifting? A decade ago, buying clothes ...

Class and Disability: Disconnected or Intertwined?

12May

By Beth McCowenNo Comments

Lifestyle

Class and Disability: Disconnected or Intertwined?

According to the Government’s 2020 Family Resources Survey, there are 14.1 million disabled people in the UK. It has recently become more apparent than ever that even in the 21st Century, social class is still a defining factor in people’s lives. But how these classes affect disabled people, and why they might be more vulnerable to falling victim to these systems and the prejudices surrounding them, are not often discussed. Scope’s Disability Perception Gap report found that 1 in 3 people see disabled people as being less productive. Attitudes such as these lead the disabled community to become isolated and often viewed as inferior citizens. There is a lot to unpack here, since unfortunately ableism is ingrained in so much of the way our world functions. Disability does not neces...

22Nov

By Amaan RamzanNo Comments

Opinion

Trapped Youth

At this moment, our youth is more ideologically and socially tangled then it has ever been before. The glamourisation of drugs and gang activity in the mainstream is slowly ruining our mentalities. Instead of thinking for the long-term, we are obsessed with grabbing short-term gains, such as conditional acceptance and temporary self-fulfilment. We are not stowing money away to pay for a mortgage or worthy future investment because systemic class and racial oppression has made it impossible for us to do so. Unfortunately, the enormous property price rise in London and surrounding areas doesn’t enable many people our age to buy their own houses, but there’s still a lack of knowledge on how to finance ourselves sensibly as well as a lack of opportunity for us to get into a better position ove...