Why study languages? This may sound like an encouraging opening line to a university prospectus, but sadly this is a question heard all too often, with emphasis put on the ‘why.’ No surprises that the Daily Mail of all newspapers also agrees.
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Paisley’s thyme is cumin to an end: so is NI still a big dill?
After many turbulent decades of politics and controversy, the life of Ian Paisley is finally quietening, and perhaps close to permanent rest.
With his family at his bedside, the 85-year-old former First Minister of Northern Ireland is being treated in hospital after suffering heart problems. If this is indeed the end, the obituaries will no doubt reflect on how Paisley so powerfully embodied the historical forces that swept his nation.
Dieting – worth the weight or a complete waist of time?
Christmas: all about spending time with your family, giving and receiving presents and of course, food, lots of food. Not just any food either, we are talking high-fat, high-sugar, and high-calorie food. From the enormous turkey being heavily stuffed, to the potatoes roasted in fat – even fruit is usually covered in chocolate.
The Only Way is…Tango
A year after the emergence of the reality television series The Only Way is Essex, based in the county of Essex, and Geordie Shore, set in Newcastle upon Tyne, the programmes have captured the hearts of the Great British public.
Let down: why students should fight S10 for every last penny
A year after Goodwin first closed it’s pool – a closure that saw members, including the swimming club sorely disappointed – the anger rumbles on. It’s hardly any wonder. The handling of the whole affair has been a top notch example of how to cheat and insult your customers, while providing students and public alike with a lesson in how to run a business without any sense of fairness or consideration.
Cannabis is a joint adventure
You are in an out-of-the-way place, aged between 13 and 16, huddled in a tight circle with your excited mates. Out of a jacket pocket comes a measly-looking ten-bag, acquired from some local shifty character or an amused older brother. A joint is inexpertly rolled; it is bulgy and misshapen, drooping whimsically at the end. Many people will no doubt recognise this tale of youthful dabbling. Indeed, smoking cannabis is increasingly seen as normal teenage behaviour, with a Guardian poll finding that over 81 per cent of people consider it a rite of passage.
Tis the season for slutty spirits and hot hedgehogs
Prepare your pumpkins and collect your kindling, we have now settled into the depths of autumn. It’s that time of year when small children smash their way into the homes of OAPs and demand sweets; when any childless person with pubic hair spatters themselves with red paint and tears holes into Primark’s latest clothing range; when fully grown adults watch out-dated horror films on a volume that renders their door bell useless.
No let off from housing rush
cI thought I must be dreaming when a man was floating outside my bedroom window at eight o’clock on Saturday morning. We made eye contact through the gap in my blind, but I sleepily dismissed this as part of my dream and went back to sleep. On opening the blind at a more reasonable hour, sometime in the afternoon, I saw a big ‘TO LET’ sign on the side of the house.
Students’ CVs full of panda-monium
Being a very sociable bear the panda enters a café, it then eats, shoots and leaves. Discounting the possibility of an armed panda entering Starbucks, this grammatical construction is clearly misleading.
We have learned this week that students, as well as being incapable of waking before midday, are also lousy job applicants. A leading consultancy firm has slammed the “lazy” culture that underpins student jobseekers.
Nobody will loos out with the Union’s unisex lavatories
If I were to tell you that the Student Union was contemplating introducing unisex toilets in order not to discriminate against students of “particular sexualities or gender identity,” I’m sure for many the phrase “a little too PC” might spring to mind.