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virus despite more than 2000 people having been tested. The first case recorded was a student at University of York. Hannah Bentley Liverpool student asks lecturer to stop using ID scanners

The Liverpool Tab received an email from a third-year Computer Science student at University of Liverpool asking his lecturer to suspend using the ID scanner.

The unnamed student expressed concerns with the possibility of spreading the coronavirus over use of a handheld scanner. The email stated that “over 100 people each lecture” use them. Some of whom are “coughing, sneezing and blowing their nose throughout”.

The NHS website reports “similar viruses spread through cough droplets” and advises individuals to prevent catching the virus by “try[ing] to avoid close contact with people who are unwell.”

The risk to individuals from coronavirus remains low according to the NHS. Among those who contracted the virus, the mortality rate remains at only 2%, indicating a disconnection between the small risk of catching and possibly dying from coronavirus.

As of 16 February, only nine people in the UK have been tested positive for the coronaThe incident may have contributed to concerns over the spread of the virus at universities. The high proportion of Chinese international students on the Computer Science course at University of Liverpool was considered by the anonymous student as an “all the more important” reason for implementing safety measures.

The concerns has led to some Chinese students to have experienced xenophobia as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Newcastle University's student body contains students from 120 countries, including over 1800 Chinese students.

One Chinese student told the Courier: “When I was on my way to the Metro station, I heard three English girls saying “here comes a Chinese virus”, and they hid their faces under the jumpers. I was disappointed and sad about being in such a situation as I don’t really think the virus is an excuse for racial discrimination.

"It’s kind of showing me that Orientals need to cover their eyes rather than noses and mouths because it seems that people care more about if you’re Oriental than whether you’re carrying the virus or not.”

Chris Day, the Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University has reported in a “Message of support” last 5 February that he has been “appalled by some alarming reports on social media of racial incidents within the city aimed at [Newcastle University] students.”

In the message, Day reiterated that students Among those who contracted the virus, the mortality rate remains at only 2% The concerns over the coronavirus has led to cases of xenophobia in various universities Image: Newcastle University Newcastle University has over 1800 Chinese students Edinburgh students have beef with banning beef

should focus on supporting students who may “be worrying about family and friends who are still in China”.

However, not all students are worried about the coronavirus. When asked about their fears of the risk of catching the coronavirus, Ellen Lawrence, a second-year student study- ing English Literature at Newcastle University

stated: “Asian students don’t pose any more risk than any other students on campus”.

This has been echoed by Evie Garvin, a third-year Geography student at Newcastle University. She considers the coronavirus as “something I [do not] think about when walking around campus”.

On 14 February at 11am, a strike was held in awareness of climate change. They were supported by university students, as they were on 29 November last year. This round of climate strikes comes at a complex time in environmental politics. The defeat of Labour’s Green New Deal at the election, coupled with a decline in support for Extinction Revolution and the failure of the Green Party to translate their wins at local elections into wider holdings, has resulted in some commentators arguing that the movement built up over 2019 losing some of its momentum. sations” and highlighted the fact that “over 1000 people took part and I’m proud that so many of our school children did as their voices need to be heard.”

‘We were really happy with the climate strike turn out! So interesting to hear many people, all ages, all backgrounds coming together to discuss the crisis we are facing.’ Despite these complicated ongoing cirAlex Walker Newcastle sees second major climate strike in 3 months

Edinburgh SU has rejected a beef ban on campus Image: Flickr

Monika Song

Earlier this month, students at Edinburgh University voted against the ban of beef products for sale on campus.

The proposal was raised on 30 January during a Student Council meeting, receiv- ing 51 percent of votes in favour of the ban among the present elected representatives. Following this result, the motion was pro- ceeded by an online ballot open to all ma- triculated students on 7 February.

Nearly 6000 students participated in the ‘Cease the sale of all beef products in Stu- dents’ ballot and the final result ended with 58 percent of students voting against the motion. Due to this, the University will continue to sell beef produce in its cafés and restaurants. The motion was proposed as a way of reducing the University’s carbon footprint, in addition to other measures that have been taken to improve sustainability on campus. The Edinburgh University Students‘ Association (EUSA) have issued a number of reasons for the ban including issues regarding animal welfare, water pollution and the increase of methane, nitrous oxide and CO2 emission caused by the livestock industry.

The Edinburgh Farm Animal Veterinary Society (EFAVS) has released an opposi- tional statement in response to this proposal: “The media and many other campaigners are pushing an anti-ruminant or anti-meat rhetoric, communicating the idea that all meat is bad and plant-based options are always a better alternative. This is a massive oversimplification - production methods and their environmental impacts vary hugely within foodstuffs for both livestock and arable. We ought to be far less concerned with what we eat and start to consider how and where what we eat was produced.”

However, this did not seem to perturb the event organisers, UKSCN North East, who cited fires in Australia, Zambia, and flooding in Indonesia on their Facebook page as reasons the climate strike remained relevant. Council bosses have come under fire for excluding the general public from the inviteonly event, while allowing 100 academics, environmental campaigners, businesses and community leaders to take part.

Climate events have also gained reportage closer to home, where a major climate summit on how to make Newcastle carbon neutral by 2020 received negative press attention. Council bosses have come under fire for excluding the general public from the invite-only event, while allowing 100 ac- ademics, environmental campaigners, businesses and community leaders to take part. Thousands of residents were disappointed to be “shut out” of the conference, which will have a marked influence on their future. Council Leader Nick Forbes described the summit as: “an important opportunity for many different groups, organisations and businesses within key industries that create so much of our greenhouse gas emissions to get together and have these difficult conver

Ruby Story Dartford

A new study commissioned by IBM has found that nearly half of sixth form students feel pressure to go to university, with 20% of students asked stating that they would feel like ‘a failure’ if university education did not follow sixth form.

The study found that parental pressure contributed to this expectation. More than one fifth of graduates surveyed did not think their parents would have been supportive if they had chosen to pursue an apprenticeship rather than university. Research found that nearly four in ten parents of children in ducation would not be completely supportive if their children chose not to go to university, and instead pursue an apprenticeship.

A further one third of parents held the belief that you would not get paid as much when you enter the workplace without a degree, and 16 percent thought that their children would struggle to become independent unless they studied at university.

Newcastle University Politics student Sam Bunting comments: ‘I know of many students pressured into receiving a University education as they’re told it’s the only way they’ll receive a well paid career... if their parents have gone to University, then it’s expected that they should follow a similar route’.

IBM’s research considered awareness of other alternatives to University study, finding that 47% of sixth formers were not aware of the option to pursue a degree apprenticeship – completing both a degree and an apprenticeship simultaneously – rather than living and receiving higher education as a full-time student. 57 percent of parents were not aware of degree apprenticeships as an alternative option.

There are several degree apprenticeships that are able to cover all tuition fees whilst the candidate is paid. It is claimed that businesses are missing out on a large talent pool as a result of people’s lack of knowledge of degree apprenticeships.

Jenny Taylor, IBM’s UK foundation leader, said : “Young people either fail to receive the correct information on the routes available to them, or are presented with so much that it can become overwhelming.

“There are different ways to get into the same career path – it just depends on what’s right for you and this does not always mean university.”

Graduates were also surveyed, with 65% claiming that they have regrets about going to university, due to increasing student debt and rising graduate unemployment rates. 57 percent of parents were not aware of degree apprenticeships as an alternative option

Newcastle College is an institution that teaches A-levels Image: Wikimedia Commons

cumstances both local and afar, the climate strike was considered a success, with num- bers easily rivalling the protest in November. The continued striking may offer greater opportunities to grass worms protesters, who may find opportunities to join in soli- darity with other groups, whom oppose the powers of financial groups and big business. The Courier reached out to the organisers of the climate strike, People & Planet New- castle, who said: ‘‘We were really happy with the climate strike turn out! So interesting to hear many people, all ages, all backgrounds coming together to discuss the crisis we are facing.’

People & Planet Newcastle also conceded that “More positive action is needed to con- tinue the fight for climate justice.” Newcastle sees second major climate strike in 3 months

On Thursday 20 February, Auschwitz survivor Arek Hersh delivered a talk at Newcastle University. Taking place in the Hershel building, the event was originally planned to be held in Lecture Theatre 3, but after an unprecedented amount of interest was expressed, it was moved to the Curtis Auditorium, with the 400 seat lecture theatre reaching nearly full capacity. Both Newcastle University’s Jewish Society and the History Society were involved in the organisation of the event.

91-year-old Arek, who in 2009 was award- ed an MBE for voluntary service to Holo- caust education, was also joined by his wife, Jean. The latter expressed her surprise at the size of the audience, explaining how they had been told only to expect around 25 students. Born in Poland, Arek was 10 years old when the Germans attacked in 1939. After his father was taken in 1941, Arek too was sent to his first camp called Otoschono, near Poznan. Jean commented: “On that day, when Arek went into his first camp, he was ten and a half, and that day, he lost his childhood, he was no more going to be that little boy because he had to learn extremely quickly how to survive in this camp.”

Arek described being sent back home in 1941, however their ghetto was soon liquidated. Arek was then sent to another ghetto, called Łódź, where he spent two years in an orphanage, however this was liquidated as well.

In 1944, aged 14, Arek was sent to Auschwitz, along with the remaining residents of Łódź. Arek recounted how, upon arrival, he realised that they were split into two linesone made up of the young, the elderly and the disabled, whilst the other included fitter and healthier people- with Arek belonging to the former line. Taking advantage of a disturbance, he was able to move to the other line; Aimee Seddon News Editor

a move which saved his life. In Auschwitz, Arek pretended he was a 17-year-old locksmith, something which later Arek declared his astonishment at, saying, “they would have killed me if they had asked me to change a lock!”.

Arek was also tattooed with the number B7608, which from that day onward replaced his name; he still has this tattoo today. Later, when an audience member asked if he had ever considered removing the tattoo, Arek replied in the negative, saying “I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Nearing the end of the war, the Germans decided to clear Auschwitz camp. Arek recounted his forced undertaking of a threeday death march, the prisoners wearing only their thin uniforms in minus 25-degree weather.

Arek was eventually liberated in Czechoslovakia in May 1945. And later, he was included in a group of 300 Holocaust-surviving children sent to Windemere, in the Lake District, as part of a rehabilitation plan. Airing in January 2020, a BBC film was made about their experiences at Windemere, called The Windermere Children, with both Arek and his wife urging the audience to watch it.

In the end, Arek lost 80 members of his family in the Holocaust, and only had one surviving elder sister. The siblings were reunited years later with the help of the Red Cross.

Arek published a book, recounting his life story, called A Detail of History in 1998, with Jean describing the book as “saving” her husband. When asked to explain the reason behind the book’s title, Arek said it was a reference to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s dismissal of the Holocaust as merely “a detail of history.” Proceeds of the book go towards the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, which was founded in 1995 by brothers James and Stephen Smith. During their talk, the couple had acknowledged the Smith brothers and celebrated them for all they have done for the Jewish community, and to Holocaust education.

Following Arek and Jean’s speech, an hour of questions ensued, with multiple members of the audience keen to get involved; topics ranged from religion, to politics to personal stories about the couple’s lives.

Jake Hadden, the President of Newcastle University’s Jewish society, ended the event, saying “We cannot comprehend what hap- pened in those days, but the main thing is the message that you can take away from this story.”

Eleanor Killner, Newcastle University’s Ac

Eleanor Killner, NUSU Activities Officer

tivities Officer commented: “Last Thursday evening with Arek Hersh was very moving and to still be able to hear his experience told in person was very special. The room was packed out with at least 300 people and everyone was fully engaged, which I think just shows how important [learning about] the Holocaust still is in today’s society.”

More information about Newcastle University Jewish Society can be found on the NUSU website.

Backlash against “It’s okay to be white” posters distributed around the University of Bristol and Bristol city centre has culminated in vandalism of the original posters, as well as the appearance of new anti-racism posters in their place.

Posters reading “It’s okay to be white”, which were discovered around the city and the university campus at the end of January, appear to be part of a larger movement, and have received support on social media from white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups.

The slogan was popularised on website 4Chan, and similar posters have been spread widely around US Universities, before making their way to the UK. They were spotted in Dundee in September 2019 and in Perth in December, where they were condemned by MP John Swinney. In response to the posters appearing, Swinney said “We must stand together to resist this unacceptable material.”. A spokesperson for the University of Bristol commented “The University of Bristol aspires to be a community where everyone should feel safe, welcomed and respected. We would ask that if anyone sees one of these posters on university premises, they take them down and contact security services.” Avon and Somerset Police responded to the incident, and said “We will be looking into this matter, and recording a hate incident due to the effect it is clearly having on members of the university community.”

A spokesperson for the BAME Network at the university said that the phrase “presents ethnic minorities as intruding ‘others’, whose equality, and even existence is detrimental to white people.” The original posters have been modified to state instead: “It’s not okay to be racist”.

New posters have been put up by students quoting Dr Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela,with the main message: “It’s okay to be white, non-white, pink, green, orange, purple…Polka dots and stripes are also okay. But being a racist is not okay. What matters is not your skin colour, but whether you have a good heart, beautiful mind, kind soul and fine character. So please kindly respect everyone. Thank you. Love & hugs”. The posters have received support from white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups

Great North Museum was built in 1884 as a national history museum Image: Newcastle University Press Office

The posters have caused controversy across UK city centres Image: Wikimedia

Lilla Marshall

Cambridge University Students' Union (CUSU) have passed a controversial motion to ban the display of firearms at their annual Freshers' Fair, due to concerns that their presence would upset some students. In a Student Council meeting on 3 February, CUSU Welfare & Rights officer Stella Swain tabled a motion that would prevent firearms from being displayed by societies at the Fresher’s Fair. The motion also aimed to prevent the presence of “external military organisations” from attending the fair, although this part of the motion was removed by an amendment.

Swain’s motion states that Freshers' Fair should be an opportunity to learn and explore student societies, and not an opportunity for military organisations to recruit. CUSU has also stated that it believes the presence of firearms can be detrimental to students mental health – particularly for some international students, who may have grown up in war-zones.

The controversial motion passed by 75% to 25% despite outcry from the Cambridge University Rifle Association. One committee member argued that a rifle “is no different from any other piece of sporting equipment”, especially since they are chained and deactivated at the fair. She also criticised the Students' Union for not informing societies of the motion before it was passed, meaning they could not voice their opinions on the matter before the motion was implemented. A platoon commander of the Cambridge University Officers Training Corps described the ban on firearms as “sensible”, although criticised the student union for trying to use the ban to force through anti-military legislation, that would “restrict the way in which students enjoy their spare time”.

Asked whether other universities should adopt similar policies, Sociology student Charlotte Paige Boulton said "I see no reason why a university would ever need to display a firearm in the first place - students don't need to see a gun in order to join a rifle club!"

Alex Downing

The Great North Museum: Hancock has been granted £24,000 by the Sir James Knott Trust.

The museum will receive £8,000 per annum for three years. This will be used to create twelve interactive museum displays for children between the ages of five and seven. Four displays will be produced per year based on the grant period.

The Sir James Knott Trust is an independ- ent charitable trust aiming to help improve the conditions of people living a working in the North East of England. The instalments will support the development of children under 5s with ‘Mouse House’ play space and the rest of the museum exhibits.

The interactive displays are designed to stimulate multisensory development in young children. The interactive displays will be trialled alongside children and their parents to enhance lifelong knowledge, learning and confidence.

Caroline McDonald, The Manager at the Great North Museum: Hancock, said: “The Great North Museum aims to be with chil- dren of every age at every step of the way as they learn about the world around them.

We are extremely grateful to the Sir James Knott Trust for funding our gallery interac- tives, helping us to support family learning and inspiring our youngest visitors.”

The Executive Director of the Trust, Jo Curry, stressed the importance of early learning by “shaping children’s understanding of culture and their environment. Challenging families in and around the museum and the city in a fun way will also potentially make it more memorable.”

The £24,000 award follows from Great North Museum: Hancock’s success in 2019, which attracted thousands of visitors for the Dippy on Tour exhibition. The museum also won the Best Medium Museum at the Family Friendly Museum Awards.

Great North Museum: Hancock was built as a national history museum in 1884. It is currently managed on behalf of Newcastle University by Tyne & Wear Archives & Mu- seums.

If you think back to your open day for Newcastle University, when you asked about fun things to do in the city, it’s very unlikely your guide recommended Student Council.

Having attended a few meetings, it’s not difficult to see why: the appeal tends to start and end with the free pizza. You can imagine, then, the excitement generated among more regular attendants when they were told Vice-Chancellor Chris Day would be coming to a session.

It was a timely appear- ance, given the controversy in which the University has been embroiled in recent months. At the end of last year, a student convicted for stalking and revenge porn was allowed back onto the same campus as his ex-girlfriend and victim. Chris Day’s response via email was to worry about “another ‘Warwick’ about to happen on our own campus” – a reference to the infamous group chat where rape jokes were exchanged – and the damage that would inflict on “our precarious reputation”. The opportunity to ask him what was go- ing to change, and to hold him to account, was desperately needed.

It was also entirely squandered, thanks to two main problems.

First, the questions were all given to Chris Day in advance, meaning he had time to prepare answers. What might have been answered with awkward silence – which would have had the double advantage of revealing the lack of action being taken against sexual harassment and shaming Day into action – was instead filled with buzzwords. Without even any questions from the floor, the odds of shocking Day into more genuine replies were practically nil.

Second, there was Day’s attitude. His ex- cuse for not taking a tougher line against harassment and assault was that no other universities were doing the same. Herd mentality is no way to enact effective social change: the boldest direction of travel is often the one without precedent. Chris Day’s appearance at Student Council made attendants almost miss the discussions over recycling bins.

Image: Chris Day on Twitter (left) and Needpix (right) That'll be the Day Chris Day's attitude was nothing more than herd mentality Joe Molander casts his mind back to the Newcastle University Vice-Chancellor's recent Student Council appearance Student Council next meets on Thursday 12 March from 5.15pm7.15pm in the History Room, on the first floor of the NUSU building. More details can be found (and casual voting places obtained) at nusu. co.uk/yourvoice/council/attend/ A livestream of the meeting this article describes can be found on the NUTV YouTube channel Should we petition for strike refunds?

Newcastle University is one of the seventy-four UK universities to be hit with 14 days of strike action across February and March. The second set of strikes of the academic year is set to be controversial, as many students struggle between giving their support to their lecturers’ cause and their frustration of not receiving the service they pay for.

There has certainly been an active student response to the strikes. A change.org petition set up by Newcastle University student Emily Johnson which calls for compensation for missed teaching has reached a hefty 2500 signatures as of the 16th February. Students frustrations are warranted. UK/ EU student’s pay £9000 or £9250 a year for their education, with international students often paying double the price. With Universities nowadays being ran increasingly like a business, if you pay for a product you expect to receive it. Statistics have been floating around social media over how much students should be refunded for missed teaching days, with estimates laying between £800- 900.

I, alike others, struggled at first with shouting for my refund. Whilst I believed that I should be refunded as I’m missing essential contact hours, I sympathised with my lecturers and worried that I may undermine their plight. I was shocked by how insecure their contracts were, the amount of hours they worked without pay to fulfil all their duties and the cuts to their pensions, and worried that petitioning for a refund may distract from this main fo- cus. Yet now, on evaluation, I realised that stu- dents petitioning for a refund actually does act as another form of pressure for change. If we direct our grievances towards the University and ask the important question of, ‘Where’s our money going?’, we can both show solidarity to our lecturers and show our anger at the effects of the strikes on us. Thousands of students will lose days of teaching and will suffer increased stress and disruption. For third years, the strike effects them in the crucial time of writing their dissertation. Perhaps most important to consider is how many students worry about their excessive student debt and its effect on their future, and how when we are not re c e i v i n g what we pay for, it increases these anxieties. Although many like

myself would prefer not monetary compensation but a return of teaching, we should petition for a refund in hope of a change for the future. Imogen Birkett

Since Newcastle University has shamefully failed to offer concrete solutions in favour of vague promises, as students we are forced to petition to make our needs heard. The focus of the petition should not be only on refunds: it should request a clear plan of action for accommodations for those whose learning was affected by the strikes. In fact, especially for third year students, whose future depends on the exams, a simple repayment does not fix the impact the missed contact hours have on the education.

Although other universities have offered compensation to the students, these are not necessarily examples that should be followed. The mere sum of £100 offered to Sussex students is unacceptable. This is not only because it was clearly less than the students were entitled to, but also because they had to demonstrate having suffered because of the strikes, which is absurd. This move was clearly aimed at avoiding legal action, rather than looking out for the students. In fact, regardless of whether they were materially affected or not, the students are not getting a service they are paying for. This alone makes us entitled to compensation.

But simply paying back is not enough: no one should feel like their education is up for bargain. People choose to go to university to improve themselves: to take away from this process is not acceptable. In fact, the university has a duty to ensure the learning environment for the students is as its highest potential. This is clearly not the case when the staff is forced to strike due to pay inequality, job insecurity, rising workloads and pay devaluation.

We shouldn’t have to petition to make our complains heard. Every university student has enough on their plate without having to worry that their education is being threatened. However, because the University has consistently ignored this fact, we find ourselves in a position where petitioning might be the only way to voice our concerns. In doing this, it should be emphasized that petitioning for refunds does not take away from the support for the lecturers. How can we claim we are getting a world-class education, when our lecturers are not working in optimal conditions? However, it does mean looking out for those whose future is unwillingly being affected by the strikes.

Given how much we all pay for our education, having to petition to have our and the staff’s needs heard is an absurd condition to be in. Yet given that so far we’ve only received empty promises, the more pressure is put on the University, the better. Elisabetta Pulcini Image: Joe Molander

Monday 24 February 2020 the courier @courier_latest courier.comment@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/comment Comment Editors Aastha Malik, Joe Molander & Kelly Corcoran comment Altogether now?

Alec Wilson I reland’s general election results from 8 February 2020 rocked the Irish political landscape.

Sinn Féin (24.5%) broke the duopoly of Fianna Fáil (22.2%) and Fine Gael (20.9%), who up until then had dominated Irish politics. A key question hanging over the coming coalition negotiations will be Irish reunification. Sinn Féin is most strongly committed to seeing it happen, and their demand to hold a referendum on unification is central to any coalition partnership.

However, the issue of Irish unification lies less with the Republic than with the people of Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998 to bring an end to the Troubles, states that a referendum on reunifica- tion can only be called by the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland should they feel a majority of people in Northern Ireland support it. Whilst the success of Sinn Féin will give encouragement to those in the north supporting unification, it is but one of several reasons that Irish reunification is now becoming a real possibility.

Brexit looms large in the debate over reunification. Although the UK has now left the EU after voting 52-48% to leave, 56% of Northern Ireland voted to remain. A ma- jority of people feel that their European identity has been taken away from them; reunification provides a route back into Europe. Furthermore, predictions for the 2021 census point towards Catholics becoming the majority denomination for the first time. Natural decreases in the numbers of Protestant Unionists – who generally want Northern Ireland to stay part of the UK – and increases in Catholic Irish nationalists – who generally want North- ern Ireland to leave the UK and rejoin the Republic – will make the prospect of Irish reunification all the more likely. Sinn Féin’s gains in the Republic are important to the prospects of Irish reunification, but remain just one as- pect. Coupled with the Brexit vote and important demo- graphic changes in Northern Ireland, the stage is set for the thirty-two counties of Ireland to become whole again.

Images: Wikimedia Commons

Alex Walker F inna Fáil has ruled out forming a coalition with Sinn Féin, blocking their path to power, but the election result still marks a continued transformation in Irish politics.

The former political wing of the IRA remains the largest party in the Irish Parliament, and have a larger presence than ever before in the Northern Irish Assembly. Something Irish Republicans have been predicting for years seems to have come true: Ireland has no popular left-wing parties other than Sinn Féin. Young Irish people don’t feel as closely tied to conservative, Catholic values as their parents and grandparents, as seen in the 66% ‘yes’ vote for the legalisation of abortion in 2018.

Young people both in Britain and Ireland also value the concept of the Union far less than they did a few years ago. Those raised in Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement have seen the Brexit referendum pass without their support, making British identity less attractive than it used to be.

The wins Sinn Féin are seeing across the Republic of Ireland hint at a growing unity and anti-British tendency, the intensity of which hasn’t been seen since the 90s. Brexit is not popular on either side of the border, and the majority of both peoples want to be European citizens. The Brexit question threatens to overwhelm the divides in Ireland, and we might see – one day very soon – a united Ireland. Perhaps this is as it should be. If the Union is no longer as important as it used to be to the young people in Ireland, why would they want it to remain? Religion, while not as powerful as it used to be, is still important. In a 2018 study, 54% of Irish people described themselves as Catholic, but another 39% said they didn't have religion. Influential or not, being Protestant doesn’t necessarily mean being British.

Will Sinn Féin’s rise continue? Will the party one day see their dream of a united Ireland? As a Brit, I can only say one thing: I hope so.

With the Labour leadership campaign, Brexit, and many other issues constantly thrusting British politics into tumult you would think that the media would have a bit more to discuss than an off the shoulder dress. Yes…an off the shoulder dress! The way women look has always been policed far more than men, and women that stray from these expectations are hounded, and their contribution to the discussion disregarded. Tracey Brabin, Labour Co-operative MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire, was the most recent to fall victim to this criticism. This supposed scandal however isn’t about the level of professionalism displayed by Brabin, but about policing women and devaluing their positions of authority.

Why is it clothes only seem to be an issue when it comes to women? The idea this would happen to a man is unfathomable. But whether it’s Theresa May wear- ing brightly coloured heels, or debates about whether women should be forced to wear make-up and heels to work, women’s appearances are constantly under intense scrutiny. If you wear flat shoes it’s criticised for not looking professional, if your heels are too bright then its too much. These arbitrary rules mean that women are not simply allowed to exist in the world of politics and busi- ness without their appearance being constantly brought up and used to undermine them. Female politicians are not there to look nice and professional, they are there to create legislation, and the constant abuse that they receive only makes this more difficult for them.

This also has more lasting consequences. We already know that women who wish to pursue a political career face many barriers, and issues like this only worsen our political culture and make it so women don’t feel comfortable being outspoken about politics.

If there was any doubt over the motivation of this criticism, look at some of the messages that Tracey Brabin has received, notifying reporters that people have branded her a ‘tart’ and a ‘slapper’. This isn’t legitimate political criti- cism, it’s just old-fashioned sexism dressed up. And until more is done to combat the toxic way in which we discuss female figures of authority then their work will continue to go undervalued, to the detriment of all of us. Female politicians are not there to look nice and professional, they are there to create legislation The bare truth of the Commons controversy Faye Navesey discusses Tracy Brabin's shoulder criticism This isn’t legitimate political criticism, it’s just old-fashioned sexism dressed up

Images: Loose Women on YouTube, UK Parliament