James Sanderson

I have just returned from an interesting discussion between myself and other ‘involved’ students about the shortcomings of the University system. Chairing the debate was Lord Tony Young, Secretary of State for Skills and Apprenticeships who was surprisingly receptive to all issues which were raised.

The key objective of the meeting was for Tony to gauge what was wrong with Nottingham University and how the Government could aid in rectifying problems which are outside of the Jurisdiction of the University. Being on a specialised degree course, it was interesting to hear about the additional pastoral care which those on more popular courses were getting. By far the most vocal of us all was an International student studying Law who clearly had benefitted from a well established and effective pastoral and tutee care system. Hearing his musings on his satisfaction suddenly struck something with me, how on earth can this person be representative of the student body?

Personally, the tutorial and contact time that i receive as a student here is nothing short of a joke, one wonders in these half yearly personal tutor meetings whether the tutor knows your name. It became clear that many within the meeting were on degrees such as Medicine, Mathematics and Engineering and that appropriate representation of hybrid degrees and smaller courses was largely amiss. Despite this though, Lord Young recognised that there is something to tackle in terms of the consistency of personal tutorials and contact time, perhaps something which once rectified, could significantly change Nottingham’s place in the League tables.

Finally I raised a point about grants for students with wealthy parents but with problems benefitting from their wealth. Currently, means tested grants require statements of parent/guardian income to properly assess eligibility. However, there have been some cases recently of students being disowned by wealthy parents due to various reasons and being denied funding due to assumptions that they are still associated with their parents. Furthermore, I have heard from many students who have wealthy parents but just don’t get enough support- we are then presented with this bizarre situation where those on grants are better off than those allegedly being supported by wealthy parents. Lord Young was particularly concerned by this and promised that he would look into it, he did however acknowledge that it can be demanding on the grant process to determine parental support levels.

The overall feeling of the meeting was a political cliche, almost a version of the BBC’s have your say campaign. The reality is that changing University policy is demanding, expensive and can be disastrous in the short term. Regardless of whether Lord Young takes some action on these Issues, it is down to the University to Listen to the little people and introduce standards of pastoral care for all to adhere to.

Not many Newspapers bore me as much as the Independent but after a short stint on the travel desk i may pick it up occasionally, that’s if they are still in operation after this year.

I had the opportunity of spending my first week with Simon Calder, chances are you won’t know the name but whenever GMTV or BBC Breakfast have a quirky travel story, Simon will be there in an open collar linen shirt having arrived on a bicycle 5 minutes before they go live. Along with Simon I worked with Kate Simon, editor of the Independent on Sunday Travel, Ben Ross, Editor of the Traveller magazine and Sophie Lam, a highly efficient editorial assistant for Simon.

Based near Canary Wharf, the office comprises three floors with the news and senior editorial on the top floor which gives the phrase ‘I’m not sure the guys on the top would approve’ a literal meaning- it may also be a deliberate attempt to exert authority but the extent of the editorial independence afforded to the sections made this seem unlikely. The travel desk is near the sports section which surprisingly was the tidiest area on the floor, the largely male contingent made a good job of filling the extra space they had with talk-sport- esque banter regardless of the time of day. I recall some conversations about a work experience girl and how they had only invited her because she was single, attractive (in a rather less eloquent fashion) and knew something about the champions league.

Another odd portion of the day was when the obituaries desk had their roundup chat about who had died last night and why. I almost felt sorry for the editor who would regularly call up newly made widowers and ask if there was a chap who could write their obit. Generally though, they are extremely hard working and have, from what was overheard, perfected the art of obtaining information from relatives of the deceased. Not a job I would want to do but anyway.

Apart from opening the mail every morning, I was largely accepted as a member of the editorial team for the two weeks, editing, fact checking, proofing and writing daily for them. Although I rarely had time to leave for lunch, it was a pleasure working in such a motivated environment and one with industry professionals at the top of their game. I was given two articles to write which will feature in the traveller magazine some time this Jan, I will post the links once they are uploaded to independent.co.uk.

With 90 people to lose their jobs and a relocation to Northcliffe house, the home of the Daily Mail, this informative and often overlooked newspaper should hopefully survive. Who knows, maybe the move in with the DM will kick them up the backside and start producing some interesting and controversial debate flourising their readership, either way i will pick up a copy occasionally vainly hoping that my £1 will keep them afloat.

@impactnottingham.com

Nicholas Burns is best known for playing Nathan Barley, but has also appeared in The Mighty Boosh, The I.T. Crowd, Nighty Night and a host of theatre productions. He is now starring as the Hotness in ITV’s No Heroics and as Tom in the Neil La Bute play Fat Pig…

When you first devised Nathan Barley, did you ever think it would be such a cult hit?

Well, no, we didn’t really, we didn’t know what kind of impact it would have, but it really has a very devoted, small cult following. I can’t walk around certain areas in London without people shouting Nathan-like idiocy at me, which is quite bizarre at times, but good fun. It is something I am really proud of and really loved doing.

Were you worried at all that you would be typecast as Nathan, do you think he has closed any doors for you?

I don’t think so, he is quite different to a lot of the parts I have played. I don’t think he has but who knows, it’s not really for me to say. I hope I am far enough away from Nathan that people can see there is other stuff going on and that I can play other characters. I hope it hasn’t typecast me – the part I am playing at the moment is very different.

What is your favourite comedy series?

I used to watch Blackadder and The Young Ones when I was growing up, those where my first comedy loves. In recent years I have been a big fan of Chris Morris’s stuff, the Office and the Mighty Boosh. Over in the US things like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development.

Are you more comfortable treading the boards or in an Air-Conditioned studio in London?

They are very rarely Air-Conditioned! I love doing both, they are just completely different and offer real variety. Before this play I hadn’t done one in 3 years. It’s nice to be back doing something that I did when I started out.

What attracted you to Neil La Bute’s Fat Pig?

They came to me and asked me about playing the part of Tom. I went to see it and then read the play. It was a great play, a good part and threw up interesting ideas. I thought, lets have a go. It is a real challenge, I haven’t played an American professionally before and Tom never leaves the stage so it really is an exercise in focus. I thought it was the right thing to do at this moment in time.

Barley and Benidorm both seem to take the piss out of idiots, people with websites and working class holidaymakers respectively. Is this a hidden agenda?

I think Barley does take the piss out of those people, but I am not sure that Benidorm does. I don’t think it’s sneery, it just presents a funny situation for a comedy. Barley absolutely definitely did, it was lampooning all those idiots who have websites who do nothing apart from produce videos and graffiti shit. They think they are Banksy or some kind of urban guerrilla. Those are the people who absolutely deserve to have the piss ripped out of them.

What is the easiest way to get on TV?

Be a bit mental and go on the X-Factor. If you are really bad at singing and completely deluded about your ability, they will definitely broadcast your performance.

So here is the published article:

Article

“A Student and already in the Nationals…TALENT ALERT!”

Daren Forsyth (Director of Innovation & New Media at the BBC MediaTrust)

Having just read the news that MFI has ‘ceased trading’, it got me thinking. What do the businesses going under have in common?

The Woolworth’s in my town was always a bit depressing, it didn’t serve a definitive purpose other than being the last port of call when other retailers had been exhausted. Apart from the mismatch of products, quality was always an issue, to get such ridiculously low prices there needed to be a compromise and this came in the form of tacky chinese imports. Many seem to have taken some sentimental affiliation with the company, as if they were a british institution embodying fine craftsmanship. Indeed in it’s early years, the chain was largely respectable, selling good quality haberdashery items, but since then it has transformed into a shadow of it’s former image, priding itself on being the leading supplier of pick ‘n’ mix in the UK.

There is no reason for Woolies to be in your heart, unless you are are heading for a cardiac arrest. Among a few items that i own from this great institution is a large fan which appears from my wardrobe every summer. Put yourself in the shoes of Woolworth’s head of fan design, a colleague comes over and asks ‘Shouldn’t we place a better cover in front of our new metal fan blade?’, there is only one answer, but Woolworths picked another causing my hand to gush blood everywhere. This was a disaster waiting to happen, but did i take further action? Of course not, i’m British, fetch me the Savlon. I Digress.

Perhaps these guys should take lessons from the more successful shopping chains out there, Boots for example have made a successful foray into diversification, offering lunch items along with Hair Loss products and a ridiculous array of feminine hygiene products. Their success has come from part-diversification as they have not lost their main customer base through creating a sustainable combination of product lines. Woolworths has unfortunately suffered from an indeterminate customer base making it difficult to target certain customers effectively, let’s also not forget that the markup on these cheap exports is much less than industry average, further reflected in the disappointing reductions in their final sales.

MFI on the other hand had a clear business plan, one could sum it up with the phrase ’sell Kitchen’s and that’. On a separate note, i was slightly disappointed that the Cretin, Paul Lister from the series ‘The Real Monarch of the Glen’ had not become insolvent, his incessant ramblings about bringing back the ‘real’ animals to the highlands made me cringe. MFI had the plan, but as was the case with Woolworths it lacked the quality of which we all strive for in the typical middle class suburban home.

Before you get bored with this article, consider the implications for the other competitors in the retail sector, as the crap gets rooted out from the High Street (I personally would like to condemn the Broadmarsh shopping centre in Nottingham), the products on offer to us should flourish with quality and reasonable pricing as the big chains battle it out to stay solvent or… they could all go under and i will end up shopping in Lidl. I personally plan to take advantage of the former scenario and further laden myself with debt. So in essence go out and grab some bargains, David Cameron did just that and got some lovely half price booty!

Perhaps this is not the best headline for my first foray into blogging, but ask any newspaper Journalist who doesn’t know what a blog, podcast or twitter is, they are getting increasingly worried by the prospect of e-journalism completely taking over traditional print methods. Recently the excuse that ‘online news doesn’t allow for concise comment and debate’ has been blown away by various user generated content integrations, to such an extent that these websites can present stories much more effectively than print journalism can.

Being lucky enough to be invited to the Guardian Student Media Conference i noticed that a key theme throughout was ‘although print is dying, the industry needs young journalists to find new ideas and methods within publications’. Roy Greenslade, a high profile journalist who was editor of the Daily Mirror, amongst many other top positions, mused on how he has adapted his material to include video, audio and animations. It seems that those who will survive within the media arena will be those who are willing to adapt to the rapid changes within the industry and as a result, perhaps die hard Newspaper journalists will be filtered out.

Whether this is a good stimulus for the Industry or not, we are yet to see, but i would like to think that there will always be a place for print. I detest looking at a screen for prolong periods of time, and i am sure i am not alone. The passion seems to be lacking on pixels which can be changed within an instant, but when you are holding a copy in your hands, dog-eared with a coffee stain on the front page it feels personal. User generated content and comment can’t succeed the professionals, it will merely spur them on powered by criticism and insight.

So, i urge you, go and buy a newspaper before people with usernames such as nazbags2000 and sexytexan07 post ill-informed bollocks to the nation. I’ve just realised, that’s exactly what i’m doing!