Stop the Cuts in pictures

Gay-friendly Christian group will rate churches in Sussex

A newly established gay Christian group, Changing Attitude Sussex, is aiming to make churches in the local community more gay-friendly.

Changing Attitude claims they are: “Drawn by God’s love to work for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Anglican Communion.”

Last month, over 70 people attended the group’s first meeting, held at the Chapel Royal on North Street, Brighton. The meeting was addressed by the National Director of Changing Attitude, The Rev’d Colin Coward, who urged attendees to “challenge the hostility gay people face in some churches.”

The organisation describes itself as “dedicated to telling the truth about Christian teaching on homosexuality and to working for the full inclusion of LGBT people in the church.”

The Sussex group is set to create a dossier entitled ‘Which Church?’ which will categorise churches in the area based on how gay-friendly they are. The brochure will divide local churches into categories ranging from ‘open and welcoming’ to ‘judgemental and rejecting’.

Provisional group convenor, Keith Sharpe, told the Badger: “Church leaders increasingly make overt homophobic statements which foster hatred and bigotry and demonise gay people. It is very damaging for gay people’s mental health to find themselves in a judgemental and rejecting church, and we hope that our ‘Which Church?’ dossier will give them the information they need to make an informed choice.”

The group has received hostile reviews from some church leaders, including the Bishop of Lewes, Wallace Benn.

Benn is the president of the Church of England Evangelical Council, a traditionalist group that is opposed to the ordination of gay bishops. In a recent letter, he wrote: “In classic Christian teaching, homosexual actions leave the actors facing God’s judgement without Christ’s mediating work. Teaching which encourages such behaviour is profoundly cruel, as it encourages people to sin.”

In 2008, Benn boycotted the Lambeth Conference in opposition to Archbishop Williams’ attempts to liberalise the church on sexual issues. However, in an online article he wrote: “Compassion and care are needed. Homosexual people should be warmly welcomed in our churches. God loves us, whatever our orientation”.

In 2003, Dr. Jeffrey John became the first openly gay man to be appointed a bishop. Dr. John, who was celibate at the time, later stood down so as not to divide the church.

The University of Sussex chaplain, The Rev’d Canon Dr. Gavin Ashenden, commented: “There are a large number of gay people as well as Christians in Brighton, and a good many know each other and like each other as people.

Several of the Brighton churches are enthusiastically welcoming and protective of the gay community, including St Nicholas, the Anglican Parish Church of Brighton, and of course, the Metropolitan Community Church, which is made up mainly of LGBT Christians.”

Sussex UCU votes for strike action

Last Wednesday 3 March, the University and College Union (UCU) at Sussex voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in their fight to save jobs and services at the university.

Turnout totalled a record 80.9 per cent, the highest the union has ever received in a ballot.

The union said the unprecedented turnout was indicative of the strength of feeling among UCU members over the savage funding cuts and damaging job losses proposed.

Over three-quarters of staff who voted supported strike action, and more than 82 per cent agreed to action short of a strike.

Sussex UCU said it still hoped the dispute could be “resolved without any disruption.”

Paul Cecil, president of Sussex UCU, said: “UCU members have today delivered a clear mandate for industrial action at the University of Sussex. We thank our members for participating in such large numbers and reiterate our belief that a negotiated settlement is still possible if the university steps back from implementing its job-cut plans, votes to delay the decision, and considers our alternatives.”

University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) president, Tom Wills, offered a statement of support, declaring, “We are right behind Sussex staff and the principled stand they are taking in defence of their jobs and our education.”

“We will hold the university management responsible for the devastation that will be wrought on our education if they succeed in pushing through with their cuts proposals.

“Strike action by staff is the key to winning this battle and we will do everything we can to support it.”

A Sussex spokesman said the proposals were being consulted on and that no decisions would be made until the university’s council meets on 12 March.

He added: “We have been notified of the result of the ballot by UCU members. We have already made clear and repeat our position that ballots for industrial action are not the way in which the process will be influenced.”

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, conceded that industrial action is always a last resort but insisted that the proposed job losses will “impact massively across the University of Sussex and result in a far worse experience for students.”

University calls police on students who protest outside Sussex House against university cuts

Last Wednesday 3 March at 12.30pm students occupied Sussex House for five hours in protest against proposed course cuts and job losses. Police in a convoy of vans were called onto campus to contain the occupation and the accompanying rally.

University management seek to reduce the budget for 2009/10 by £3m on a turnover of £160m, with additional savings of up to £5m in 2010/11. As a result, 115 staff across campus face redundancy. A statement from the occupation said: “The job cuts would eradicate the environmental science degree program, and significantly reduce the size of the English, history, and life science departments. The student advice service, the crèche, security services and catering staff also face savage cuts.”
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Brighton is named UK’s ‘ghost capital’

Brighton and Hove has been named the UK’s ‘ghost capital’, according to a recent report published by the Argus.

Ghostly spirits are said to be roaming the narrow, cobbled streets of Brighton, including murder victims and drowned sailors from years gone by.

Organisers of the first ever World Horror Convention said Brighton will be the only UK venue due to its “high number of restless living dead.”

Leaders of the conference claim that sailors from the ship ‘The Nicholas’, which sunk off the city’s coastline in the 12th Century, can be seen out at sea in the dead of night, while the old brewer from the Black Lion in Black Lion Street, who was burnt at the stake in 1555, is still hanging around in the pub’s cellar.

More than 300 horror enthusiasts will be meeting at the Albion Hotel in Old Steine from Thursday 25 March until Sunday 28. Guests attending the convention will participate in a number of ‘ghost walks’ and will also hear readings from star authors.

The sold out convention has attracted aficionados from across the globe. The event is themed ‘Brighton Shock! – A Celebration of the European Horror Tradition from Victorian Times to the Present Day.’

Mouse trap universe

The atmosphere is electric. All eyes are on eight-year-old Louise, to whom I have bestowed the momentarily ultimate honour of being master of ceremonies. A countdown worthy of mission-control cuts through the excited murmurs; my inner ten year old boy squirms with excitement. Will it work?  Louise flicks the all-important trigger and the ultimate machine kicks into action. In its sixth major iteration of the afternoon, the product of the collective mind of a room of twelve-year-olds (and several overexcited fathers too, who boast wistfully of their Meccano creations of youth) is wacky, hilariously complex and, to my joyful pride, works pretty darn well, maybe with an occasional prod en-route. A (by now, disturbingly leaky) can of spam wobbles toe-curlingly down a ramp, nudging a seesaw whose action pushes a plastic superman down a zip-wire to decapitate a Barbie, whose head tumbles onto a toy car, which rolls majestically down an incline to set off the next table of events. A bewildered mother enters the room with her sprog and asks me what I’m doing. After a brief moment of existential crisis, I welcome them to the Science Festival and explain that we are building a Heath-Robinson contraption, whose ultimate aim is to make a cardboard frown in the corner become happy (obviously…). (I overhear a boy utilising impeccable pre-pubescent logic to explain the same to a pal: “We’re boys, so we don’t like girls, so we are trying to kill as many Barbies as possible.”) I begin to wonder whether our universe is like a big game of mousetrap – whether, in theory, if we had data on the initial states of every fundamental particle, we could predict exactly what were to happen in, say, half an hour’s time. To answer the question, I went to speak to Dr. David Seery, theoretical cosmologist here at Sussex, who would be my guide on a journey into the extraordinarily weird happenings of the very small.
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Stop the cuts, start the music!

Last Thursday, 25 February, protestors braved the wind and rain to make a stand on student cuts in Library Square. At 1.15pm, representing the 115 threatened jobs at the University of Sussex, a band of protestors took to the square to promote ‘Stop the Cuts, Start the Music!’ to get their voices across in a positive way.

‘Wet and Fun,’ were the two words Scott Sheridan, Activities Officer and mastermind of the organisation, used to describe the scenes. Re-worded versions of such classics as ‘Old Macdonald’ (with a cut-cut here…) and ‘Tequila’ resounded around campus, contrasting the gloomy weather.
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Britain’s “rudest place names”

When locals in West Yorkshire won their battle to reinstate the place name ‘Tickle Cock Bridge’ last week, The Times readily welcomed the news by compiling a list of Britain’s top 30 rudest place names.

‘Cocks’ in Cornwall won the coveted title, closely followed by Worcestershire’s ‘Minge Lane’ and ‘Bell End’, which came second and third respectively.

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Universities “should cater for over-50s”

A recent Universities UK report has suggested that British universities must offer more courses suitable for people aged 50 and above.

The study, ‘Active Ageing and Universities’, proposes that as the baby boom generation fast approaches the age of retirement, there should be greater incentives offered to those in their twilight years to regain access to higher education.

The report supported its findings with the illuminating statistic that by 2026 around 20% of the British population will be over 65, while the number of part-time students over the age of 40 has increased by nearly 60% in the last decade.

Indeed, the most recent UCAS figures reveal a 63.4% increase in the number of mature student applicants for undergraduate courses.

The report stresses the importance of universities widening their participation agendas to incorporate all ages, and explains that such a move would be widely beneficial to higher education and British society as a whole.

Chief executive of Universities UK, Nicola Dandridge, insisted the notion that people stopped making a useful contribution to society once they reached the age of 60 or 65 was outdated.

“We are facing a situation where older people are living longer and healthier lives and have, as a consequence, a huge amount to contribute. Universities have a significant part to play in harnessing that contribution,” she said.

“Of course, proposals to support older people into universities must be considered in light of the current funding climate facing the sector. On the other hand, to ignore the potential contribution older people can make to our society and economy is short-sighted, and universities have a central role to play in supporting and reinforcing their contribution.”

In 2000, World War II refugee Bernard Herzberg became the oldest ever university graduate in the UK, when he completed a German Literature BA at the University of London at 90 years of age. He went on to complete an MA in 2005, refuting the belief that OAPs are too old to pursue academic study.

However, some of the views expressed on online forums seem less sympathetic towards the report. In light of the record number of applicants for university places this year, one person argued, “It is morally objectionable to allow graduates to take a second undergraduate degree when so many people are waiting for their first chance.”

Another bluntly stated: “I am not sure how much society will benefit from supporting a mature student who might drop dead right after graduation anyway.”

Man charged over Elm Grove stabbing

A 40-year-old man appeared in court last week charged by police with the murder of Brighton resident Gordon Stalker, a founder of the Lewes Road Community Garden.

Stalker, 51, was found bleeding in the hallway of his shared house in Elm Grove on the morning of Monday 15 February. Post mortem results found he died as a result of multiple stab wounds to his chest and side.

The accused, Stephen Dunne, of Chates Farm Court, Brighton, was remanded in custody until a preliminary hearing takes place at Lewes Crown Court.

It is understood that Dunne fled from the scene of the crime to Dover, but then headed to London where he gave himself up to the police. The motive for the crime is unclear.

Mr Stalker, who was well known in the local community, was described by Marina Pepper, a fellow organiser at the community garden, as a “community pillar.” A gathering was held at the garden on Sunday the 21 February to mourn Gordon’s passing.

The Lewes Road Community Garden was set up in May 2009 on a small patch of derelict land next to the Lewes Road Co-Operative Grocer. About 100 local residents participated in its initial establishment, but over the past year the garden has been widely used by the local community.

The garden recently came under threat from attempts by build a TESCO on the land, resulting in the “Say NO to TESCO on Lewes Road” campaign, which Gordon was also closely involved with.

Elm Grove, notorious for its steep hill, is a popular student area. Julia Welham, a third year English student at Brighton University who lives on Elm Grove, described the killing as “so strange.”

“The weirdest thing about it for me is that he was killed in broad daylight,” she said.

“I don’t really feel any less safe around Brighton because of it, though. I’m just desperately sad for the guy. The garden is really nice and he seemed like a lovely person who was really involved in the local community.”