THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 ISSUE 249 Lecturer Assessment - Wanted By Almost Everyone? LSE Resist Improvement by richard snell Saunders' Strip By ROSS BROADSTOCK Last week's controversy over the booking of a striptease act in Carr-Saunders nearly erupted in picket violence and at one point threatened to engulf the jobs of two sabbaticals. The fact that strippers were to perform in one of the School's Halls of Residence very quickly created some strong feelings from all sides as the arguments started to rage, on not just whether the act should take place, but, also whose final decision it should actually be. The movements to stop the event were started by Helena Catt, who explained to (General Secretary) Pete Wilcock on Tuesday that many people, in particular members of the Women's Group, felt strongly enough on the issue to take action. She stated that they objected on moral, religious and ethical grounds and that if there was no other way to stop the event taking place, they would even form a picket in front of Carr-Saunders entrance. (They presented their views in the form of a red hand-out which they distributed throughout the school). On finding out about the stripping for the first time, Pete Wilcock informed the school and asked them what action, if any, would be taken regarding the incident. The Bursar stated that he had not heard anything about the event, and he would ring Wilcock back when a decision had been made - something he had failed to do twenty-four hours later. An Executive Meeting was then convened to decide the Union's stance, and it was decided that a letter should be sent and leaflets distributed encouraging people not to attend the event. They also decided that some measures should be taken to try to stop the picket from taking place, something particularly important now with the recent developments in the Carr-Saunders' court case. It was after this meeting that Pete Wilcock made the now infamous phone-call to Carr-Saunders Hall Warden, Ed Kuska. This single call turned out to be the most controversial factor in the whole issue and triggered the censure motion against both Wilcock and Senior Treasurer, Rory O'Driscoll. Wilcock has claimed that his motives in making the call were to simply ask Kuska what was going on and to warn him of the possible dangers of the evening; Dr. Kuska later claimed that initially he took Wilcock's call "at face value" and assumed that he was "just being helpful". However, many people, including those on the Hall committee, believe that Pete Wilcock made the call purely to further his own personal desire to stop the event by threatening a picket and potential violence. Whatever the intentions of the call, it certainly did place a lot of pressure on the warden, with violence still a very important issue and the 'Stabbings case' having been resolved less than two weeks ago. Because of the pressure placed on the Warden, the Hall President decided that the event could no longer take place and as a result it was cancelled with the introduction of a bar subsidy instead. This decision caused a strong reaction - not only from the people who had wanted to attend the performance, but, also from many others in the hall who objected to outside interference in the decision. As the social secretaries, Kate and Emma, explained, "After we decided that we might put on strippers, we did in fact go to the Hall committee. Bar committee SEE PAGE 3 On the 23rd October this year, the LSE hit the education pages of the new "Indepencient" newspaper. A mole posing as a student had infiltrated the lecture theatres to see if our lecturers were up to it. 1 got quoted three times: "We knew there were one or two appalling lecturers around, but had no way of bringing this to anyone's attention or channelling comments." § "In the US, virtually every CO college has lecturer assessment. and good teaching is considered important to promotion." "The point of our question--naire was to pick out those 5-10% of lecturers who were particularly bad." Those quotes sum up why the Student Union carried out a lecturer assessment survey last year. In Britain, teaching is often regarded as an unfortunate interference in research. The system encourages this by giving no weight whatever to teaching skills in promotion con- siderations. Yet brilliant researchers may not be able to explain simple basic ideas, which is what students need most in their early, especially undergraduate, vears. In past centuries, when universities were small enough to give all students some individual attention, it may have been enough for students simply to sit at the feet of the academic greats and soak in their aura. SEE PAGE 4 LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE Athletics Union Finances Satisfactory By KATIE BALDOCK & SARAH BRONZITE This week, AU finances have finally been approved after over a year of mismanagement on the part of the AU executive - gross neglect of books and lack of receipt-collecting when authorising payments to students. The present administration have made a strong effort to get matters under control, and it's greatly to their credit that they have been able to improve the situation to the satisfaction of the SU auditors, Knox Cropper. In the 12th May edition of "the Beaver" earlier this year, various allegations were made concerning the AU finances: there were no books kept up to date or presented regularly to the audjtors, and as a result, the auditors were not happy or satisfied with this state of affairs. Accusations were also made of blatant corruption. At the beginning of the summer, the AU overdraft stood at £11,926, on top of necessary interest payments of approximately £1,000 p.a. According to the AU, there are four main reasons for the size of this overdraft. Firstly, there is always an overdraft during the summer due to the fact that bills come in at the end of the academic year. Secondly, there was extensive capital investment involved in purchasing rowing boats, as well as travelling expenses incurred as a result of the success of LSE AU teams. £2,000 p.a. is also due to the school in repayment of a loan to build the squash courts. Phil Barlegs, this year's AU treasurer, informs "the Beaver" that the overdraft hmit is to be reduced by £1,000 per quarter. m ml and that he expects the overdraft to be down to £7,000 by the end of the SU financial year. All societies have taken a budget cut to help pay off the debt, but the reductions will be in proportion to the size (in numberical terms) of the group, not an equal amount from each. Barlegs also hopes to reduce the Football/ Rugby Club's net expenditure from what he estimates to have been £7,500 last year, to £4,500 this year - although he stressed this is a provisional figure. As far as the books are concerned, Barlegs is updating the figures every week. The AU are quite prepared to allow a SU administrator to inspect them at any time, but they will not allow the SU to write the books; they claim that as elected officials, it is their job. The auditors have examined the books this year and returned a "satisfactory" verdict - standard audit terminology which means that the figures have their approval. Whilst denying any malpractice, the present AU Executive accept that procedure needs tightening. To this end, as well as wriHng the books every week, they have resolved that no money will leave the office without presented receipts. Barlegs has qualified this by saying that this can only be done "within reason", protesting that there are some areas of expenditure where it is difficult to get receipts, for example, tube fares. However, AU preseident Edrich Selous has "guaranteed" the original statement "100%". Only time will tell whether Selous can achieve this, but there is to be another audit in February, at which time we will be in a better position to judge what cut-backs and management improvements have been made to reduce the overdraft. Certainly the present administration are trying very hard to ensure that everything is finan-. cially above board. However, the auditors have recommended various changes in policy over and above those already implemented. These include budgetary controls on each society and inventories to enable physical verification of assets involving large amounts of expenditure of a capital nature, for example, surfboards. It is sincerely to be hoped that the AU Executive improve on the record and reputation of their predecessors, and that the auditors find significantly less to criticise in February than they did over the summer. CONTRIBUTE TO THE BEAVER COLLECTIVE MEETING MONDAY 5PM E204 PAGE 2 THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 Dear Editor At lunch-time on Wednesday (5/11/86), I was standing in Houghton St. with a fellow student. A group of five or six students came walking by and one of them made a cynical remark that my frind was a racist. When he turned around to see who had said this, he was greeted with a torrent of very serious abuse. The group turned on him with a viciousness I have rarely seen. I naturally stepped forward in his support only to be labelled as a fellow fascist. My friend was unable to say a word as the group continued with a tirade of totally unfounded accusations, all to the background of amazed students standing in Houghton St. The attack, and I measure my words, lasted several minutes. My friends has been a supporter of anti-fascist organisations since he was 16, and he has been a strong and fervent activist against all forms of racism. To accuse someone who has fought so clearly and consistently against racism of being a racist naturally causes great distress, and I can only describe it as disgusting. My friends was apparently abused because he was involved in the Labour Club's examination of the Tony Greenstein affair. I was educated at the International School of Geneva, where racism, fascism, and sexism are questions which virtually do not exist, because of the healthy internationalism of the environment. I have never, and I repeat, never given any consideration to the racial or religious background of my friends or acquiantances. Therefore, to come to the LSE and see a close friend, who I know to be a dedicated anti-racist openly accused of racism by a group of students who do not know him both saddens and sickens me. This kind of slanderous public intimidation is disgraceful, and I believe totally unacceptable. Yours sincerely, James H. Paget Dear Editor: Regarding the Friends of Palestine meeting with Tony Greenstein, the Labour Club was approached by several members of the UJS. We contacted several national organisations for information about Tony Greenstein, and as a result, produced a leaflet with the two contradictory accounts of his views and activities. We distributed this outside of the meeting, where a speech was made condemning the Labour Club for being racist and anti-semitic. The members who heard this left in a distressed state after the insults and ruthless accusations. One of the Labour Club Exec members who had left earlier was approached in Houghton St. by several members of the UJS, who proceeded to insult him publicly, calling him a racist, anti-semitic fascist. He was deeply distressed and grossly insulted as he has been involved in anti-fascist groups for nearly 10 years. We are firmly opposed to all forms of racism, including anti-semitism. We utterly condemn this slanderous public intimidation of members of our club. The LSE Labour Club Executive The view of the Advisory Panel to the Adviser to Women Students Jonathan Putsman has apparently taken it upon himself to decide what is and what is not 'useful' for women and to report on what women 'do and do not want'. This is an awesome responsibility, and we should perhaps excuse him if he gets it wrong. It is particularly unfortunate that his comments ridiculing the idea of computing courses for women appeared opposite the article giving details of those same courses. The article provided the statistical evidence that indicates why these courses are necessary and likely to prove popular. To recapitulate: boys in Britain are 13 times more likely than girls to use home computers and 75% of students taking 'O' and 'A' levels in computing are male. We would like to express out thanks to the member of staff who has undertaken to run these courses, and to register our satisfaction that, Mr. Puts-man's strictures notwithstanding, the women's computing workshops have been fully subscribed. Dear Editor: We are surprised and saddened to note the absence of Jonathan Putsman's witty expose of the U.G.M. We consider that the omission of Mr. Putsman's contribution is due to published complaints against "the Beaver", and Mrs. Putsman in particular, from ten students. Alas, Mr. Evans and Ms. Baldock's column lacks both of Mr. Putsman's two most outstanding talents: firstly, his humour and sharp wit' on paper, and secondly, his unique ability to trivialise the egotistical political hacks who take themselves far too seriously. We the undersigned eleven students, being a larger body than the aforementioned ten, would like to express deep disappointment at Mr. Putsman's removal, and we trust that the situation will be rectified with all due haste. If this is not to be the case, please publish an answering paragraph explaining why the voice of ten is stronger than that of eleven. Yours, etc. Chas Begley Nigel Gurney Hendrik Meesman Jayne Sloan Lindsey Hemingway Arabella Munford Fiona Bibby Matt Milsom David Waksman Babs Band Joanne Law Dear Editor: I am writing to congratulate the management of "The Cafe" (nee Flories) for providing a long-awaited service for students of this establishment. Vegetarianism is spreading wildly accross the UK and it is only right that at last we can enjoy a superb healthy and varied meat-free meal in this refurbished cafe. Wishing "The Cafe" continuing success. Yours Sincerely, E.G. Burns, alias Urko the madman P.S.Congrats too, to Beaver staff for making the paper a regular weekly (now howzabout making it a daily national?) Dear Editor: It struck a discordant note to read Mr. Kilby's letter in the last edition of the Beaver. I, of course, refer to his slightly less reprehensible missive, Free Speech and open government. Let it be known that Nigel Kilby is a Tory, a member of the party that tried Clive Ponting on account of a breach of the Official Secrets Act. Open government is a major item of policy on the Liberal agenda, but even the most assiduous 'reading between the lines' cannot find any commitment to such a policy from the Conservatives (or Labour). For years the Conservative and Labour parties have entrenched the position of central government and vastly increased bureaucracy. We denouce the C.H.B., why not the C.G.B.(central government bureaucracy)? The Conservatives have a distorted view of freedom if they believe in it at all. Witness the present Public Order Bill, restricting the right of citizens to assemble and demonstrate. So what is Mr. Kilby up to? Espousing Liberal views again? Or merely trying to get his hand in another political pie on the safe ride! Yours in liberation, Adrian Dixon Dear Editor Amidst the nursery crisis, the School's intransigence over South African divestment and the tumultous campus-wide celebrations for Alan D. Evans' 21st birthday, the rabid Right (Putsman, JJ, Bexon, et al) have found time to be preoccupied with my attire. This is flattering, but it is also vacuous and irrelevant. 1 am flattered that the Right consider me such a "threat" that they have put me on the hallowed list of LSE students at whom they regularly sling personal and bigoted insults. But I am mystified that they believe that my political sense must be dictated by my dress sense. It is of course saddening that this somewhat neanderthal thesis of social behaviour should be peddled by students at one of the country's foremost social science institutions. It is implied by this theory that unless you dressed like one of the thousands of Jews who did in Hitler's gas chambers, you can't really criticise Fascism. (Funny idea, isn't it?) What is further mystifying is how my dress sense (however bad or good it may be) could find its way into a U.G.M. debate on putting the Union's Equal Opportunities Officer on to the Union's employment committee (A.S.C.). But I suppose when one is confronted by such a brilliant mind and as -perfect an exponent of lateral thinking as Mr. Simon Bexon, what do you expect? Anyway, for all you "Persaud watchers" out there, let me give you forewarning of an event not to be missed. Quite soon the India Society will be hosting a formal function on India's Independence Day. There is every possibility that I will be wearing a "nice" (hint) jacket as I commemorate those who struggled for India's independence despite their enormous ideological handicap of not possessing a single proletarian pair of jeans between them. Sincerely, Avinash Persaud Dear Editor The At The Union column in the 3 November issue of The Beaver described the defeat of the Workers Against Racism motion as a victory for "genuine anti-racism"; whilst at the UGM itself, WAR was lambasted as being merely an RCP front. So how do "genuine anti-racists" defend black people? Let's take No Platform, for example, NUS' contribution to anti-racism. Over ten years, this policy has done nothing to defend black students. Overseas students' fees have been introduced; black students have increasingly been asked for their passports when seeking medical care; and now that the Tories are upping the racist stakes, the NUS' paper policy is in a shambles. Recent events in Bristol, after which the NUS and the SWP publicly attacked anarchists who had prevented Enoch Powell issuing yet another depraved racist diatribe, illustrate the decrepit state of the "genuine anti-racist" movement today, and of the No Platform polciy, in particular. Only by organising the NUS members and taking on "common sense" arguments, like "we need immigration controls because Britain is a small country" or "the police aren't racist, there are just a few bad apples in the barrel," can we tackle racist prejudices and build an effective anti-racist movement. The Tories are on the offensive. The NUS is already six feet under. Is WAR an RCP front? WAR was established by the RCP in 1979 because it understood that fighting nationalism (racism being one mainfestation) was central to achieving socialism, and yet the Left in Britain had failed disastrously to take up battle This weekend WAR convened a conference to build a -European anti-racist movement; most of the poeple there - trade unionists, European delegates. Labour Party'members, and representatives from immigrant organisations - had never heard of the RCP but wanted to fight racism. Does this sound like a front? What was said at the UGM was more reminiscent of a McCarthyite "reds under the beds" scare than "genuine anti-racism". When will the LSE SU stop talking about racism and start doing some thing about it! Nico Macdonald Revolutionary Communist Society Dear Editor: In listening to Glenys Kinnock explain the purposes of the campaign pressure group, "One World", one got the distinct impression that unless you're a Labour supporter, you don't have the capacity to care about (and do something about) the atrocities in Africa. What a pleasure it was, then, to hear Bishop Trevor Ruddleston, a week later, in response to a question from the audience, confirming that you don't have to be a Christian to care and do something about getting rid of Apartheid. If you've got a worthwhile cause, don't cut people out by counting them out! Yours sincerely, Julius Gottlieb Dear Sir: I am sure that all your readers will join me in sympathising with the unassertive, defenceless figure of Nigel Kilby. The poor little chap is clearly at risk from women wanting to practise their newly-learned defence skills. May I offer him the following suggestion? I know that there are men who would value assertiveness training or self-defence classes and that it can be even harder for them to have this need recognized that it is for women. If Nigel can find eight or more men - the viable number for a class — who are genuinely interested in joining him, let him campaign for classes to be run for men. If he can't find this evidence I suggest he find himself a new issue. Yours, Gillian Boardman Dear Editor: Neither LSE's Union nor the NUS will solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem! In view of the fact that the core of the Friends of Palestine's motion purported to deny Israel's right to exist, it is my right to live in my own country. Perhaps that is why the UJS's motion, based not on denial by on acceptance, is viewed so sarcastically by Nic Cicutti (Beaver 249). As an outsider Nic takes sides; that's OK, but he cannot and must not ignore the other aspects relating to his own position. Let's get them clear. The fact, for instance, that in 1942 the UN proposed the Partition Plan for Palestine. Who was against it? The Palestinians. The fact that in more than 1500 years in which almost only they were in Palestine, nothing was built there; not state or nation was established. Israel was formed as it was the only place to which Jews could go after WWII, no matter what Hitler's thought or did. We have nowhere else to go. Our presence as a state is a fact There will be no peace in the Middle East unless an agreement will be attained between Israel and the Palestinian people. The UJS's motion was in the spirit of compromise, the spirit in which most Israelis see things now. Sincerely, Daphna Eshkol Dear Editor I'm suprised that Richard Wilson felt the need to put the word "democratic"in quotes when referring to Argentina and Venezuela. As anyone even remotely familiar with Latin American politics knows, Argentina has since 1983 been governed by the Radicales party and its democratically elected leader, Raul Alfonsin. According to THE ECONOMIST a few weeks ago, Alfonsin even appears to be next in line for the Nobel Peace prize for his role in bringing former military leaders to trial. Venezuela is even more firmly rooted in democracy, having been ruled alternately by the Accion Demo-cratica and Kopei parties since 1958. These are hardly countries which have "striking resonance" (whatever that means) with Guatemala. Sincerely yours, Ariel Berschadsky. THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 PAGE 3 News At the Union Sex was on the agenda. Pete & Rory were arrogant enough to believe that the multitudes had assembled to see them censured. This was crap. Stripping was on everyone's mind. To set the scene, the desparate Saunders Hall Committee had booked two strippers. Word got out, a picket was organised, Peter Wilcock phoned the school in an attempt to get the even cancelled/diffuse a potentially violent situation (delete as applicable). The strippers remained fully clothed, and the Saunders Strippists slapped in a motion of censure on the General Secretary, (painful!) The hails of "Resign", and "Get 'em off" from the sex-starved right reverberrated around as Rory stepped through the looking glass, to the left's world of upside-down politics, and announced his intention to go down with the sabbatical ship (no way was Pete going to be captain of the vessel). Case for the defence: Pete gave us the bare facts - stripping at Saunders would be a flashpoint (?that's what he said...), and he didn't organise the picket anyway. In view of the recent Saunders attacks he felt it to be his duty to diffuse a potentially violent situation. He appeared innocent as a lamb. Rory revealed that he was quite definitely NOT innocent cause he'd been to 2 strip shows. He proudly announced that he'd fallen asleep in one, bored shitless through the other. Fair enough - we all sympathise, Rory. Enter the Strippists stage right. Kilby had to speak on this one - and he did. Well, he had to release his frustrations somehow since the show had been cancelled. An ego-wank's almost as good as anything. Kil-by's perverse obsession with the Feminists led him to believe Pete was chained to the Women's group tailings ("We all object," screamed the prudish/socially conscious left). Rachel Piatt "non-aligned Saunders super-hack" angrily. denounced orthodox hackery, to orgasmic applause of her comrades. It's reassuring to know that the Non-AIligned Part (NAP) have at last got a clear policy stance on somethin. And now tor the moment they'd all been waiting for -Arise Sir Stripper. But to the disappointment of all, not a single garment was removed. Lusted, we were presented with a well-argued defense of stripping. The strippist sat back in anticipation of a job well done, until the fateful phrase sputtered through the microphone. He nearly brought the balcony down on the hack's heads! The motion was lost, the left rejoiced - many Whitehouse would have been proud of them (Liberal sarcasm from Alan) and our heroice Irish contingent lived to fight another day. His lordship, Simon Bexon, laid into us this week our "At the Union" last Monday -"I am not racist, sexist, or homophobic". But, at Thrusday's Union he was challenged twice - on racism and homophobia -Touche! Exhausted by all this sexual politics, the meeting rolled over and went to sleep for a while. Several financial motions were passed almost unanimously, spending SU money on various good causes which relased all our guilt & made us feel socially conscious. Phil Evans woke us all up with his simple but moving speech condemning the NF & its march to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. The Exec were mandated to attend the counter-demo. With peace & remembrance on our minds we launch onto the "Anti-War society" motion. We voted it down. We voted for war. Consensus -RIP. Katy Baldock Alan Evans P.S. Alan's tips for Sabbaticals: Ron "turncoat" Beadle - if he can win the Tory nomination. And Martin "F**k off" Flatters -probably the most exciting Social Democrat in Union Politics today! Good luck to you both -you can't be worse than Rory & Pete. Katy's disagreement: I'm still cautiously optimistic! COMPUTER WORKSHOPS FOR WOMEN These workshops have been fully subscribed and therefore an additional workshop has been arranged. It consists of two sessions: The times and locations of the workshops are as follows: (A) General introduction: facilities in the School, familiarisation with a terminal and introduction to the VAX computer. (b) Introduction to the IBM mic-rocomputers and word-processing using WORDSTAR 2000. A "follow-up" session for those who have attended a workshop but would like to know a little more has also been arranged. Session A: Wednesday 26th November, 5 - 6.00 p.m., s.018 Session B: Monday 1st December, 5 - 6.30 p.m., S.169 "Follow-up sesion: Monday, 24th November, 5 - 6.30 p.m., S.018 Any women students who want to attend weither the workshops or the "follow-up" sesison should sign the appropriate notice posted outside S.386. Jan Stockdale Nov. 5, 1986 EEC Grants Equal Rights for Students? By Andreas Uterman On 1 July, the government announced that from September 1986 onwards, it would reimburse the tuition fees payable by students from EEC countries attending a wide range of undergraduate and advanced further education courses in the UK (including students from the UK who meet the neccesssary conditions and do not otherwise qualify for support) if they satisfy certain conditions for eligibility. The_ two main conditions are that a student must be a national of, and have been ordinarily resident within the territory of the Community fof the last three years. The purpose of the change in arrangements is to give students from other EC countries (and UK students resident in the EC) the same conditions for payment of fees as^re already applied to UK studnets. The courses affected are those described in the Education (fees and Awards) Regulations, 1983. The passage can be found in a publication by the permanent representative of the UK with the EC in Brussels, concerning reimbursement of tuition fees payable (or already paid, as thre case is for 1986) by EC nationals studying at British Universities. What, then, does this announcement signify in practice for EC Students? This government amendment did not come about without increasing rpessure from EC governments and a ruling of the European Court of Justice in 1985, leaving the Thatcher government almost without any choice! The U.K. Government has decided to extend the fee reimbursement to all European students and not just those who are doing vocational courses, because of the cost of administering such a "split system" of fees. It is sad that such cost consciousness was not present when the Government decided, to reduce the immigration queues at Heathrow with visas for four Commonwealth countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Ghana. It has been esitmated that it would have been cheaper to employ more immigration staff than to impose a "split system" of visa requirements for Commonwealth countries. We can only conclude that cost is no object which the Government wants to make it difficult for black people to visit this country. Finally, on the 31st of October it seemd that the school had at last received the directive. A letter by the welfare office, as precise and succinct as Mrs. Noil's speech on the EC 2 weeks ago, was drafted and published in this week's Beaver, saying that it seems likely that the school will be reimbursed by the government ... .If this overcautious language and the time have elapsed since the beginning of term - 6 weeks at a minimum - until the first steps by the school were actually noticed, gives any hint as to how the question is going to be handled in the future, students will not be reimbiursed until the beginning of summer term. by INGRID DURGADEEN In 1985 the European Court ruled that it was unlawful of the U.K. to charge fees to European Community students on higher education vocation ¦courses. For practical reasons the British government has gone beyond the immediate scope of the ruling and decided to pay the tuition fees of all European Community students on "designated" courses, whether they are strictly vocational or not. To qualify for not having to pay fees, students have to have been ordinarily resident within the Community for three years before their course begins, and they have to be enrolled on a course which is designated for mandatory purposes. Although the administration of this scheme has not yet been finalised, it seems that students will have to apply to Essex Education Authority for the fee reimbursement. How is the LSE going to go about reimbursing the EC students? Point iii of the publication states "detailed advice about this change will be sent to institutions by the end of September, but it may be that some are not yet aware of the change." (You don't say . . . .) The LSE was not "yet aware" of tyhe change by the middle of •October on the 25th, although the ES had confirmed that information concerning the new regulations had been sent to universities in the first week of October. (That must have been 4th class mail.) Strip Tease FROM PAGE 1 and try to find a general consensus of the residents. These were procedures which we were, in fact, not obliged to carry out, but did so just to make sure. The fact remains that noone was obliged to attend the function and it was self-financing." These feelings led to the censure motion against Pete Wil- cock (which Rory also later included himself in) that was debated in the last union meeting. During the UGM, both Pete and Rory reiterated that Wilcock had acted according to his duties, and that, in fact, to have done nothing would have been negligent. In the meeting, even the speech of the stripper himself could not sway those present against the inspired rhetoric provided by Rory and the motion was defeated. Some of the questions raised by the issue, however, were still left unanswered: Exactly when and with what powers should the Union be allowed to intervene in Hall issues, and who, in the final analysis, should decide exactly what is offensive or unsuitable for Hall entertainment? Executive Editor: Paul Klebnikov Managing Editor: Kate Meyrick News Editors: Ross Broadstock, Greg Lane Features Editors: Nic Cicutti, Paul Wood, Johanna Eigen Societies Editor: Stavros V.S. Makris Arts Editor: Fiona Chester Assistant Arts Editor: Ann Henry Sports Editors: Nick Moreno, Hendrik Meesman Photography Editors: Mark Moore, Sivan Lewin Layout: Nico Macdonald Chief Copy Editor: Ann Henry Copy Editors: Marita O'Brien, Andy Blakeman Special Thanks to: Loren, Jane and Judith for typing. Kazuko, Charles, Sandy, Shirin for layout. Typeset by: Gee Graphics, 16-27 Gee Street, London ECl Printed by: Eastway Offset, Cambridge Heath, London E9 Published by: The Students' Union of The London School of Economics and Political Science, East Building, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE Tel., (01) 405-7686 Ext. 2870 PAGE 4 THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 News Lecturer Assessment- FROM PAGE 1 September resits for students who fail exams in June; assessment of students is still done principally by a 3 hour exam at the end of a course; and lecturer assessment is still left to a handful of dedicated individual lecturers who are concerned about their own teaching standards. The School Waves A Carrot in fact, two years ago the School were finally persuaded to implement a lecturer assessment survey. A large, nine page questionnaire was drawn up, to be sent out to all undergraduates. Two years later we are still waiting. Even then, most of the information from the questionnaire was to be kept secret from students. Self-regulating systems rarely work except in the interest of the self-regulators; and it would still leave students feeling they had no channels for effective comment. Students Go It Alone Many staff are clearly genuinely supportive of a survey. This is especially true of the more junior lecturing staff, but many of them are afraid to speak up for fear of jeopardising their promotion prospects. So those who have control continue to stifle progress, and for two years plenty of invisible hands have been ready to lose the questionnaire in a dozen committees. So last year, despairing of a School response with its limited resources, the Student Union ran a small survey. But even then, vested interests felt very threatened. I was informed that if the results were used for shock-horror revelations, the School would take very serious action indeed. We didn't use the results that way. But the continuing inaction on the School's part has led may students to feel that such revelations may be the only way to goad the School into doing anything. The Government waves a stick In what looks at first glance like a ghastly unholy alliance, the Government has suddenly started taking an interest in assessing lecturers. But their motives are entirely different. They want to introduce regular assessment, so that they then have some justification for sacking large numbers of lecturers, saving lots of money - and ultimately coercing many academics to toe their line. On the way, some of the worse lecturers may lose their jobs. But the criteria the Government uses are almost bound to emphasise research and "management" skills, and whether lecturers are prepared to be involved with Government schemes for private funding from industry, rather than teaching skills. The last point really does raise fears for academic freedom. For if tenure is removed, the Government will be able to interfere to a considerable extent in what is studied in universities, by direct and indirect financial pressure. And they will almsot certainly do so, for they complain long and loud about anything taught in schools and universities that doesn't suit their political aims. No Gleeful Support So students should beware of gleefully supporting the Government's attacks on lecturers, just because of lecturer recalcitrance in the past. But now is the time for lecturers to support student demands for September resits and lecturer assessment, so that students and lecturers can fight together against Government attacks on academic freedom. What is needed is a recognition of the importance of teaching. Lecturers should be rewarded for good teaching, and teahcing skills should be a major criterion for promotion, just as research skills are. This should never be used to hold good researchers back, but should be used positively to push some of the good teachers forward. Let the academic staff be seen to be making the effort, and they will no longer be giving the Government (or the students) a stick with which to beat them. CND COMES TO TERMS By Gavin Evans Unilateral nuclear disarmament was a vote loser in 1983. Monsig-nor Bruce Kent admitted this quite frankly when he spoke to the Chaplaincy's 'Open Forum' on Monday last. For 1987/8 he believes it can be a vote winner. Whether or not it actually becomes so seems to be a question, in Bruce Kent's eyes, as to whether the terms of the debate can be shifted fast enough. In fact it was this theme, rather than the age-old arguments for and against nuclear weapons, which took precedence at this meeting. Monsignor Kent definitely did not intend to get involved in complicated, tactical questions; instead, he rubbished the very fundamentals upon which the nuclear arms strategy is based. What could the Soviet Union possibly want from attacking Britain? TSB shares? Threatening the Soviets with nuclear weapons is unintelligent - just because suicide is unintelligent. No, these were not the terms upon which the ' Monsignor chose to fight his argument. He did wish to point out, however, how the collective public consciousness has been persuaded to believe that nuclear weapons have ensured peace for 40 years - in a world where, in fact, over 150 wars have taken place since 1945. Perhaps more dangerous still to these peddlars of nuclear arms race was the recent Superpower summit in Reykjavik. Suddenly, the curtain was raised on a world without nuclear weapons - and then swiftly dropped. This, in the post-Chernobyl climate, in which the public is more anxious than ever about the horrific potentialities of a nuclear accident. What would have happened if that submarine explosion on 6th October had launched a nuclear missile? That the electorate can be convinced of the arguments against nuclear weapons presents itself to Bruce Kent as the crucial task facing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmanent between now and the next election. With the demise of the SDP/Liberal Alliance defense policy, the choice between Trident missiles and disarmament appears clear-cut. Recent polls conducted by CND suggest that public opinion is shifting in favour of unilateral disarmament - and this shift must be continued. Whether the next Labour government will have the capability - do we doubt its willingness -to cancel Trident, to dismantle Polaris and to eject the Americans is another matter. mil travel comes to LSE Call into the new ULU Travel office and see how far you can go this winter W • Special fares for students and academics. • Worldwide scheduled flights on quality airlines. • Ski holidays • Winter breaks around Europe • ISIC cards, ISIS insurance, Group rates Winter Warmers include — daily flights to New York £222 rtn. Read all about it in your free copy of HOT.NEWS Enquiries and Bookings: E3 European 01-581 8233 Intercontinental 01-581 1022 UlU travel London School of Economics. East Building A service of sm TheWorldbeaters The world's greatest student travel organisation - getting bigger all the time! THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 PAGE 5 News Chief Anyaoku: Eminent Persons Group By Avinash D. Persaud Chief Emcyka Anyaoku (Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat) was the leader of the Commonwealth Secretariat's delegation to South Africa when the "Eminent Persons Group" (EPG) was sent there earlier this year. He told an Overseas Student Society lun-chtime meeting on Wednesday 5th November that the EPG had gone to South Africa with a strong hope that some dismantling of apartheid could be negotiated. Indeed, the EPG were most surprised on meeting Nelson Mandela, who has been on the infamous Robbin Island prison for the past twenty years, that despite the South African Government's many atrocities, the ANC would be willing to enter into meaningful negotiations with them. The main stumbling block to peaceful change in South Africa are not, it seems, those who suffer daily from apartheid. The main impediment to peaceful change in South Africa is the white minority government. They, according to Chief Anyaoku, showed no sincere belief that apartheid should be dismantled at all - peacefully or not. Even before the bombing of three Commonwealth countries the EPG was despairing about their task. The bombing sealed the fate of the Commonwealth's attempt at avoiding a revolution. No Commonwealth group of experts could operate in a country which had illegally crossed the air space of three commonwealth countries and bombed their capitals killing commonwealth citizens. It was unthinkable for the EPG's mission to South Africa to continue after the bombing. The "failure" of the EPG led mant commonwealth countries to lend their support to the only remaining credible method of promoting peaceful change in South Africa - sanctions. Of course, before the EPG mission had started, many commonwealth countries had already imposed some sanctions against South Africa as they were convinced some, time ago that peaceful change in South Africa would only come about through international pressure. But it was hoped that on the basis of the EPG report some typical "commonwealth concensus" might be reached on a package of effective economic sanctions that would hurt South Africa, if most commonwealth countries applied them. As we all know, that hope was shamefully shattered by Britain which was the only country at the August Commonwealth Summit in London which was opposed to effective sanctions. For the first time in its history a Commonwealth meeting ended without a joint communique. The cost to Britain for taking this unilateral stand to continue supporting the Government of South Africa is large. When black majority rule is won in South Africa it is unlikely that the blacks will forget those who assisted and those who hindered their cause. Black South Africa's trade and markets might well be closed to Britain and open to her competitors. Further, there are many large commonwealth economies like Nigeria and India whose governments are so dismayed by Britain's attitude that they might place informal trade boycotts against Britain. Britain gains far more from the trade of commonwealth countries than it does from trading with South Africa and it should not forget that. Britain's stance over South Africa and her presence within, the Commonwealth may prove difficult. The break up of the Commonwealth would be to Britain's economic and political disadvantage. But the most important cost of all to Britain's intransigence over sanctions is the moral cost of siding with a regime that is clearly "evil". There are few regimes in the history of civilisation that can match the evil of South Africa. Not only have 2500 people died in the unrest this year but every year in South Africa Apartheid kills 78,000 black babies of malnutrition in a country rich in gold and diamonds. As Chief Anyaoku reminded us at the end of his talk. Apartheid is the only system of government which the UN Commission of Human Rights has called "a crime against humanity". It is shameful indeed that the British government should be supporting such a system. Chief Anyaoku's talk was well received. (The Eminent Person's Group Report on their mission to South Africa" has been sold out at the bookshops, but copies may be available at the Commonwealth-Secretariat, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SWl.) LSE and Shell: Partners in South Africa By the LSE AA group (Andrew Blackman) Last week. Shell Oil was again implicated in an effort to supply oil to South Africa, in direct contravention of the sanctions imposed by the many oil-producing nations. This time. Shell was fooling the Brunei government who produced the oil and has recently toughened its stance against the regime in south Africa. However, breaking sanctions is nothing new to Shell. They were heavily involved in supplying Ian Smith's embattled Rhodesia regime, that time breaking sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. Shell's actions should be of particular interest ot students at the LSE, as the school's investment in Shell is the greatest it has in any company that operates within south AFrica. In 1986 the shares had a total market value of £130,845. The support of companies like Shell is crucial to Pretoria, as oil is a vital resource which South Africa lacks. If the sanctions decided upon by the oil-producing nations were to be implemented by companies, such as Shell, then South Africa would soon grind to a halt. The South African Defence Forces would not have the fuel to send in tanks and personal carriers to occupy the black townships, air strikes into neighbouring states would become impossible as would the continuing illegal occupation of Namibia. These are the kind of activities which Shell's continued presence in South Africa make possible. Those who attempt to justify Shell's role in South Africa do so by telling us that Shell is sincere in its wish to assist the black population. The benefits Shell provides for its own workforce are aptly demonstrated by events at the Reitspprunt mine, of which it is the co-owner. There, 86. workers were sacked after goind on strike in support of two fellow employees who were fired for attending a memorial service for men killed in a recent accident at the mine. Surprisingly enough, those sacked were members of the mineworkers union whose membership was decimated by the 86 dismissals. It would seem that union-busting is just another element of the glorious part Shell plays in upholding South Africa's ruling elite. Shell plans a further expansion of its role in South Africa by exploiting tungsten deposits which can then be sold to the S.A.D.F. The S.A.D.F. will benefit from the continued supply of the raw materials necessary for the production of napalm which is frequently used by the defence forces. Shell's activities in South Africa and Namibia have generated many campaigns to force a change in its policies. This has been done by either direct pressure on Shell - boycotts of their petrol outlets - or by forcing other institutions to rid themselves of the stock they hold in Shell. LSE Anti-Apartheid is joining with many other groups to extend this pressure. WE have an important role to play because of the size of LSE's investments in Shell, and our proximity to Shell's UK headquarters (a few hundred yards away in the Strand). On Thursday after the Union meeting, in conjunction with a national day of action, LSE's AntirApartheid will be picketing Shell-Mex House which will expose Shell's involvement in South Africa and the LSE's involvement in Shell. So if you want to do your bit in annoying those who have a vested interest in upholding south Africa's racist regime, meet outside the Union meeting at 2 pm and join in other activities organised by the LSE A.A. group. UJS Fail to Prevent Speaker on Zionism Greenstein Meeting Takes Place By Nic Cicutti In an often heated, but generally well-behaved meeting organised by LSE's Friends of Palestine on Wednesday, 5th November, Tony Greenstein, a well-known anti-Zionist, succeeded in delivering his speech on "Zionism and Racism". For days beforehand, the Union had been rife with rumours that the UJS were attempting to get this meeting cancelled. Frenzied phone calls to various organisations failed to elicit any certain information proving Mr. Greenstein's alleged anti-semitism. On the day of the meeting, both UJS and the Labour Club issued leaflets about the meeting. Mr. Greenstein began his talk by stressing his opposition to all racism and fascism and stating, "If even half of the allegations against me are true, I should be banned." His argument on the subject of Zionism was clear and unambiguous. Zionism, Mr. Greenstein claimed, was only one of several strands of opinion achieve its aims. Yet in trying to achieve a Zionist state, it could not fail but to adopt forms of racism with which to oppress those already living in Palestine, the Palestinians. Thus the His-tadrut, the Jewish trade union formed by settlers in Palestine, tried to enforce a boycott of any Arab produce and to prevent Arabs from working on Jewish settlements. Its aim was a self-sufficient Jewish economy. Tony Greenstein gave several examples of Zionism's manifestations in today's Israel. The "Discharged Soldier's Amendment Act" of 1969, which allowed larger child beneifts only for those who have performed army serive is an example. In a society within which compulsory call-up exists, the majority of Palestinians will not serve in the Israeli army. Such acts are clearly discriminatory. The speaker finished by stating his own position. He believes that peace in the middle-east will only be achieved when the Palestinian and Arab people united to bring down wich had been present within the Eastern European Jewish movement at the turn of the century. Although very much a minority view (the majority of Jewish people supported the Socialist Bund or the Bolsheviks), Zionism distinguished itself by accepting that anti-semitism by gentiles could not be fought. As evidence, Tony Greenstein quoted one of the ideologues of Zionism, Pinsker, who wrote, "Judeo-phobia is a psychic aberration. As a psychic aberration, it is hereditary, and as a disease transmitted for two thousand years, it is incurable." Tony Greenstein pointed out that Zionism, born as it was in a period of intense nationalism and imperialism, could not fail to reflect the dominant ideology of the period. It therefore tried to reach alliances with major western powers in order to both the Israeli state and all the other reactionary Arab regimes in the area. This will enable Jews and Palestinians to live together in a non-seculor state. Tony Greenstein was an impressive speaker, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Zionism and Israel which he demonstrated in the questions which often were hostile. The question-time was also marked by the strange sight of Jonathan Putsman, well-known in other spheres, telling a Zionist questioner to "shut up" when she made some fairly ludicrous points. In a short interview after his talk, he told "The Beaver" that "in opposing my visit, the UJS had helped to make the meeting such a success", and he hoped that "at the very least it will give food for thought". He certainly did that. Classified Column Bicyclefor sale (ladies bike, good condition) If interested call 458-2673 in the evening. Trumpet w/ casefor sale. Good condition. For information call Stavros at 387-7743 (S14) , Used IBM typewritersfor sale. 50 each. Conditions vary so act quickly. Call in the eve. at 586-7435. Foreign Students Does your thesis, paper or article need to be transformed into easily-read, elegant and accurate English? If so, contact Judith Perle by telephoning (ol) 625 6673 (evenings and weekends)or (01(458 5431 (messages) or write to me at 29 Sherriff Road, NW6. For your classified ads or your messages, write it down on a piece of paper and drop it into the Beaver office, E804 X THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 College Scene SOCIETIES CORNER By STAVROS MAKRIS The Investment forum presented the first in a series of lectures on Tuesday, 4th November. The theme was Foreign Exchange, and two guest speakers were present. Mr. Richard Comotto from The Bank of England spoke about The Role of Central Banks on Foreign Exchange Markets" and from Merrill Lynch Mr. Brian Hodge, chief Fx. Dealer, spoke about "The Factors that affect Foreign Exchange Markets". I am now informed that lectures are open to members only-they must produce their cards. However, membership is sold for £1 before each lecture. As we are going to print I am informed of events to be staged over the weekend... The Overseas Students Society is presenting its first Big Bash" on Saturday 8th November. This is an affair which includes a three course meal, free wine and soft drinks, to be followed by "great music and dancing". The evening starts at 7.00 pm, and it will be held in A85 and A86 in the Old Building. It will cost a mere" £2.00 for members and £3.50 to non-members. The HUEY Society will hold their first informal meeting on 8th November in the Three Tuns Bar. All members are expected to turn up an participate. The Tequila Society is presenting "A Nightmare on Houghton Street" on Saturday 8th November in the Three Funs Bar. This, their first chaotic party, will climax with The Slammers playing forever. Old students know they do not want to miss it. To you new students, all I can say is that you should dare not miss it. Tequila Society members are guaranteed free entry as long as they wear loud shirts, shorts and shades-otherwise they will be fined 50p. Non-members will be allowed in for £2. Are you willing to pay? The Psychology society's second meeting is on Monday, 10th November. It is an illustrated talk by Professor N.J. Mackintosh of Cambridge University: "I.Q. Testing of Ethnic Minorities". The meeting takes place in S075, Basement of St. Clements Bid., 6.30 p.m. As always, it is free for members and 90p for non-members. The LSE Anti-War Society presents a conference on "The International Situation and the Danger of World War", on Saturday, 8th November, 11.00 a.m. in the Haldane Room (A-45). The LSE Film Society has now informed me of their upcoming features: Tuesday, 4th November, "Beast with 5 Fingers"; Thursday, 13th, "Water"; Tuesday, 18th, Young Frankentein"; Thursday, 20th, "Blazing Saddles". The Drama Society plans to produce a comedy evening in the last week of term. The first half is to be a revue comprised of sketches with contributions from "that humerous, talented barrel of 'lard' Justin Jones, Jonathan 'mass- debater'Putsman and other well known personalities of the LSE". Anyone else interested in writing for the revue is welcome. After gruelling auditions, the Christmas production has at last been cast. The play "Crime Passioned", an existentialist drama by Jean-Paul Sartre, will be directed by Martin "11 A Levels" Newson and will be shown on December 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The Mature Students held their annual reception Tuesday 28th October. The event was well attended by over 200 undergraduate and graduate students who enjoyed scintillating conversation, wine and delicious food catered by the new Cafe. As a result of the support and interest shown on this and other occasions, a Mature Students' Society has been formed for the first time at the LSE. The society will cater for the interests of mature students on an ongoing basis. The first meeting of this society will be held on Wednesday, 5th November in Room C220 at 1.00 p.m. All members are urged to attend to help plan this year's programme. New members are invited to come along. The Welsh Society is organising a Firkin Marathon. All eight Pubs will be crawled. This is the Firkin Pub Crawl, to take place on Saturday, 15th November. This athletic endevour will kick off at 11.00 a.m., outside the Old Building. All are welcome, particularly Americans who care about drinking, but a £1.70 Travelcard is required. The LSE Ecology Group (Global Group) has so far had no meetings. Last year the group was involved in many matters Green or otherwise. Videos of many different topics were shown such as alternative sources of energy, the Greenpeace campaign and Third World problems. A campaign within the LSE convinced the S.U. shop to stock recycled paper. For details of the first meeting keep your eyes on the boards. The Cypriot Society meets every Wednesday in A40, the Old Building, at 1.00p.m. The Hellenic Society has now a regular venue, A40, the Old Building, every Wednesday from 4.00 to 5.30. The Italian Society is to hold the first meeting on Friday, 7th November. Room to be determined. Last week the Debating Society elected its new Com- mittee: Paul Wood (President), Chariz Golvalla and Tess Moynihan (Treasurers), Rynd Smith (Vice President), Tom I'veforgottenhisname (Secretary) and Mary Anne Browne (Women's Officer). The idea of the last post is to encourage more women to speak and to help them get over any shyness they may feel. We are hoping to encourage new speakers and anybody wanting to speak to come to the meetings. The society can always be contacted through E207 (Societies Room). Last week two teams were sent (P. Wood, R. Smith, C. Clarke and B. Smith) to the Lloyd's Bank Competition in Bristol. Both teams reached the semi-final and then got stuffed by Oxford and Bristol. The former were particularly conceited and arrogant, consequently they will be invited to the LSE to be humiliated in Competition and by other means. Next week's motion is "This House Believes That Crime is a Disease-Vigilanteism is the Cure" proposed by Dave Salt (Psychopathic Action). The meeting will be advertised around the LSE. The Students' Union Cafe is willing to cater for your parties. See the manageress, Shirley. The Cafe is also available for hire, for the staging of societies' events, any time after 5.00. The LSE Ents Disco can be booked for Societies'parties. All it costs is £30.00. This includes a DJ plus Disco plus PA system plus records. All interested should contact E206-Babs, the Social Secretary or Nigel the Disco Manager or the Societies Editor in the Beaver Office. I would like to bring to the attention of all societies officers that this space exists to inform your members about your activities. The deadline for each week's issue is every Wednesday at noon, so let me know and I will pass the information along. by D. CORNELL £20 - 147 letters - and David Owen is what the LSE's Amnesty International group can boast it achieved at its wine and cheese party on Wednesday 29th October, which was held in order to give our group publicity and to celebrate Amnesty's 25th anfiiversary. £20 was raised at the door, and if people preferred not to pay, they could write a letter protesting the imprisonment of Nikola Nova-kovic, a 73 year-old person incarcerated by the Yugosla- Amnesty International vian government. Thus, in total and although Owen s visit was 147 letters were sent, including a welcome surprise, let it not those written on Thursday at deter those on the Left and the the weekly Amnesty International letter-writing stall, outside the Old Theatre all day. Finally, the gathering was treated to a visit by Dr. David Owen. After his stint answering questions at the Old Theatre,, though, he barely got a break with eager students rallying round to question him further. He also enjoyed the wine and cheese. Amnesty International is a politically impartial organization. Right from lending their support to the LSE group. Prisoners of Conscience exist under regimes covering the entire political spectrum. We need all the help we can get and hope to follow up this success with some sort of fund-raiser for Amnesty. Please come along to our weekly meetings on Wednesday, 1-2 p.m. in S300, or at least write a letter on Thursdays at our stall outside the Old Theatre. Ireland-The Great Ignorance By BRIAN BOYD Question no. 1: Define clearly what is meant by (a)Northern Ireland, (b)UIster, (c) The United Kingdom, (d) The Republic of Ireland, (e) Britain, (f) that place the British refer to as Eire. Question no. 2: Give examples of (a) a republican, (b) a loyalist, (c) a nationalist, (d) a unionist. Question no. 3: When, if ever, is a terrorist a freedom fighter? Your answer should contain a clear distinction between the terms "gunman", "paramilitary", "murder", "execution". 'Question no. 4: Discuss the role of the following in Irish politics; I.R.A., U.D.A., I.N.L.A., U.F.F., I.R.S.P., U.V.F., S.D.L.P., D.U.P. It's the sort of thing that people like to forget about, a macabre tragedy being played out on their doorstep with a Greek chorus composed of I.T.N, and B.B.C. Many have exited stage left-permanently. It's been a long running show... Ireland reared its head for the first time this year at the L.S.E. when the Socialist Worker Society arranged a talk by Elane Hefferman on Ireland: What is the Way Forward". (Tuesday. 28th October) Ms. Hefferman is an articulate and concise speaker and in possession of an encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish history. To those familiar with S.W.P.'s position on Ireland there was nothing new on offer, short of an affirmation of their desire for a United Ireland. Ms. Hefferman explained how the S.W.P. arrived at this conclusion by means of a factual and analytical description of Ireland that included both an historical and an economical dimension. The root of the conflict for Ms. Hefferman was the "artificial creation" of Northern Ireland in 1921, a "gerry-mandered state that ensured absolute Protestant dominantion"-she went on to add that this domination and suppression of Catholics had led to the civil right marches of 1968/1969. Ms. Hefferman spent less time chronicling the troubles since 1969, and more time offering the S.W.P. strategy for an end to the problem, a strategy which calls for a re-awakening of the tradition of a united Protestant and Catholic working class. Her thesis was that the ruling class had created a successful division between workers that perpetuated the status quo. She blamed the ideology of Orangeism that "sees them (Protestant workers) as different from Catholic workers.". By implication the S.W.P. would not seem to favour a united Ireland which merely replaced British ruling class with Irish ruling class: the "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" syndrome. She went on to criticize the Anglo-Irish agreement as a cynical attempt to marginalise the support of Sinn Fein and having nothing to do with reforming the state. Not that Sinn Fein were spared from her criticism. "They (Sinn Fein) don't have a socialist analysis of the problem." The prerequisites to a United Socialist Ireland, Ms. Hefferman mentioned in conclusion, were a withdrawal of British troops and an end to the border. The Police — Accountability? Savin Evans "In practice, the police are entirely a law unto themselves." These were the words of Chris Smith MP (Camden and Islington) when he spoke to the Labour Club last Friday 31st. Highlighting particularly the case of the Met., he maintained that the police are firstly, inefficient; on average, each officer clears up a mere four crimes per year. Secondly, expensive; there is no limit on the annual expenditures of the Metropolitan Police. Thirdly, and most heinous of all, they are unaccountable. In fact, in London the police are responsible to the Home Secretary, while in the provinces they are effectively responsible only to themsevles. And of course, investigations of complaints against the police are carried out by the Police Complaint Authority. The result, for example, of the investigation into the beating-up, in a police van, of several youths in Holloway last year, was that the police officers responsible could not be identified! As for the recent formation of various so-called Police Consultative Committees to deal with "community leaders,2 Mr. Smith dismissed them as "toothless". His solution? Proper local democratic accountability -with the emphasis on local - to be applied to the police force. Certainly, Mr. Smith was talking to the LSE Labour Club, and was giving them what they wanted to hear. But, let it be noted that this solution is now official Labour Party policy. Things have changed since 1979. Labour are at last prepared to make a firm stand on a variety of contentious issues. Police accountability is one of them. Let us hope it does not all turn out to be too good to be true. BLOOD DONORS NEEDED The Blood in the gym (Old Transfusion Cen^e Building) Tuesday 11 Please give your November 1986 name to Zoe or David in E.297 10 am -1.15 pm 3 pm - 4.45 pm •THE BEAVER, . MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 PAGE 1 College Scene Around the LSE ByJJ What looked like a boring week at the LSE turned out to have a sting it in its tail. The issue was the removal of the democratic right to look at great, huge, wobbly, dangly things! "What, they've banned JJ!" I hear you cry. Fear not my children, "dear, dear Johnny-gone" but not 1. No instead, the Saunders' Strippers stayed warm, but will it leave the Cardinal Wilcock out in the cold? What Pete's role was in the affair isn't quite clear yet, but oh, to have had a bug on his phone! All the same dark faces, murmurs behind doors and Grandma Catt telling me it was a secret and to go away was the order of the day last Wednesday. And on Guy Fawke's Night, too...how sweet. Eventually, Madame Guillotine and Tory O'Whitehouse emerged with a motion designed to send Paul Raymond to the wall and Nigel Kilby up one. And what a difference a year makes...only last year Tory was running cheap weekends to a city famed for its broad-minded and liberal attitudes!! It's a shame, really, that the Labour Club can't arouse the same interest in their social events. Reports vary regarding attendance from the official "around 40" to the "25 trots" by Hot-wax-spinner Kilby - either way, the 100 bags of chips was a bit excessive, and a prime example of why collective economy, overproduction, and silly bloody idea fit so well into the same sentence. Quote of the year so far goes to Avarice, when asked why the party was half-empty (was it even that much?), he replied, "It wasn't, it was just that the room was so big." Of course it was; how silly of me not to realise. Well, brothers AND sisters (please note) maybe next time, you can hold your parties in a phone box; I'm sure as a BT share-holder, Lynne can get you good rates? So much for nationalised industries, or are you just stopping the shares from falling into nasty capitalist hands! Finally, a new group is soon to be launched from the Kremlin, the Y.L.V., that's "Yuppies for a Labour Victory" led by Imogen Tarantula and her personalised filofax!! Quick items ot interest...Assistant Tuns Wino Pete Waterbed celebrated his birthday in true Tuns style...pissed by the start of the evening session. But will the person who stole the caterpillar from under his nose, please return it as soon as possible. Someone resigned as Ents disco-manager, but no-one knows who he was and even fewer people care. And why does Jim Mclnally look out for the postman so much these davs? In closing, I wish to say a few well-chosen words over the death of Jon Putsman's feature in "the Beaver". So often in life the young are plucked from us without warning, leaving a void so large me and Dicky Ford could walk through it side by side. Jon died that others may write free, and no man or woman can ever do more. Thanks, Jon, may you rest and write in peace. P.S. Peter Dawson walks like a goose!! Carr-Saunders Hall Report The hall committee would like to announce the sliowing of a video in the common room on Sunday: "The Confessions of Win-nie the Pooh and Piglet". Is this O.K. with everyone? The Three Stupid Monkeys Passfield Hall Report Well boys and girls, what a nice week it's been at Passfield. On Friday we had a real treat-Uncle Morris said we could stay up and play records as long as they weren't too loud. Lots of people got dressed up and put on funny masks. Lindsey dressed up as a bunny person, Chas dressed up as a vampire which made us all very frightened. About eight o'clock, we all went to bed and slept with our hands above the duvet so as to avoid the need to wear glasses in later life. We were very disappointed to hear of Justin's medical complaint, although apparently chips can now be removed from shoulders. Nigel (Gurney) was seen drinking alcohol' again which is very naughty. I told my uncle Harvey and he said he's smack his bottom. The other Justin (large one) continues to suffer from "Istill-thinkl'mpresidenf-itis and is quite insulting to Kate as he protects her from even little problems. Speaking of our leader, people were none-too impressed by her resignation as sexual-harrasment officer, which let Andrea in by default. On the issue of womens' ofTicer, apparently Lindsey "I hate feminist" Gingernut was seen visiting a very funny type of party, apparently sponsored by one of those shops at the bottom of T.C. road which have screens! On the stateside, our American friends continue to insist on walking around in large groups for safety. Only Jeanine has really plucked up the courage to talk to anyone of non-U.S. persuasion. We also had lots of visitors this week. That nasty boy from Rosebery came and tried to buy some friends for the night, but we don't like him as he is rude and offends the girls. Other friends included Shingler and Cheesy, who later went round to see a few old friends at C-S. All in all, we had a lovely week. This week we are all going to behave ourselves and perhaps in a while Uncle Morris will let us play records and dance again. We have also been invited to a biology lecture at C-S on Wednesday. The next even, organised by Bubbly, is a cocaine party-apparently a huge mirror has been ordered. PORK CHOP P.S. Why oh why does Tory O'Conservative always end up having too much lemonade and sleeping on people's floors? (Chas says he's got smelly socks)-(Typist's note: I can verify that one). THE BEAVER PRIZE CROSSWORD Compiled by THE BATT BROTHERS Once again, word wanglers, the Beaver brings you the best in cryptic entertainment. Complaints that one of last weeks clues were sexist are completely baseless and have been ignored by both of us. According to professional advice in the form of the award-winning best-seller 'The Joy of Sex', the man's position IS usually on top. No doubt some women have different ideas, but that's their problem. Quite a few wrong answers came in for last week's teaser, 11 across being most people's stumbling block, but we are pleased to announce that the winner of a free meal from The Cafe is Also Known As Laura Matthews. His Reverence the Editor told us that due to lack of space, we couldn't have a crossword this week. Ignoring this, and his suggestion of leaving some of the clues out, we have persevered to bring you yet another interesting puzzle, but if we had a few more entries submitted each week, we could put up a stronger argument for keeping it. How about it, people? Last week's solution Across I. Become frightened and burp. (3,3,4,2) 8. Cowardly bird. (7) 9. First man back in sprinted fast. (7) II. Little devil beginning to become wicked. (7) 12. Spiritedly running around. (7) 13. Pile of papers must be obeyed before Air Force leaders (5) 14. Something to see after sixth ball is missed. (9) 16. Barrier around illness of being rich. (9) 19. 'Naughty' Parkinson's first title. (5) 21. Throw the puck for the bloody sauce! (7) 23. City feller split about sleeve for piece of clothing. (7) 24. Laid back about git becoming numerated. (7) 25. One who learns to drive locomotive? (7) 26. Like a machine with electric starter, chain calmly breaks. (12) Down 1. Brief view as MP's lie confused followers of Greenpeace leader. (7) 2. Reduce load to leave the ground. (4,3) 3. Does not surrender clothes to younger brother. (5,4) 4. Have word about fifty making up planet. (5) 5. Misseen, misshapen God. (7) 6. United Nations happening coming apart. (7) 7. Arrangement reminds hacks to have skived off. (12) 10. Sounds like suit of armour worn after dark. (12) 15. Entire ECG is erratic, meaning it's full of life. (9) 17. Uncontrollable fit during fever leads to great tiredness. (7) 18. Bad hunch about it, get a divorce. (7) 19. Cut off dog's rear end. (7) 20. Thrown around any cell, no messing. (7) 22. Sounds like an order to clamber aboard tall carrier. (5) PAGE 8 THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 Features PIRATES OF THE AIRWAVES By JULES O'RIORDAN and SIVAN LEWIN For those in the know, a quick twiddle of the dial on your radio will uncover some hidden treasures. Past the piped muzak of the BBC and Capital can be found some better music. The mysterious stations on the FM dial are London's "pirates" These illegally operated stations are a million miles away from the commercial slop and "Wally DJ" formal of the legal stations. They provide a miked musical formal, mostly black music: Funk, Soul, Reggae & Hip Hop. There are also community stations broadcasting to local minority communities in their own languages. Six months ago, after years of trying to supress these "pollutants of the airwaves", the Government issued a white paper promising to grant licenses to a number of "community-based" stations. One of the qualifications for the much-sought-after licenses was that applicants should not have been involved in illegal radio. The pirates went off the air. Stations invested considerable time and money in applying, hoping that they might be granted a license. However, with a typical governmental about-turn, the Home Office subsequently decided that no licenses would be granted. The pirates came back with avenge; new stations were formed and the airwaves were jammed. Stations are sometimes difficult to find; occasionally this is due to weak signals but more often due to a "bust" by the D.T.I. (Department of Trade & Industry). The DTI constantly monitors each and every pirate station, doing their best to stamp out the pirate studios. It is rumoured that there are almost more sinister reasons why a pirate station may not be on the air. Beaver's special informant says; "The bloke behind one of the largest stations is minting so much cash that he's a new Porsche with a car phone! It's paid for with his advertising revenue and, as fat as he is, he's got a lot to protect. Some of his boys have been known to track down other stations and steal or destroy their equipment, which puts them off the air." The so-called "pirate wars" are no longer the norm (with stations being run for the love of music alone, making very little money) because the risk of "busts" deters potential advertisers. This weekend sees the launch of a new station: WBLS. It promises to have the most exciting and varied musical format to date (and two of the DJ's go to LSE). They also boast some of the best DJ's from the trendy club and warehouse scene. Our informant says, "Do yourself a favour, check it out!" (Later this term, LSE Free Radio Society will be broadcasting to each of the halls. Watch this space for further details.) Biggest London pirate stations broadcasting to most of the Greater London area: WBLS 88.5 FM midday Friday till Sunday night [especially Jules - Friday 3-5pml L.W.R. 92.1 FM 24 hours, 7 days a week [especially Jasper - Mon-day-Friday 12-2pm] KISS 94.0 FM Weekends [especially Normal Jay -Saturday l-3pm] TKO 90.9 FM 24 hours, 7 days a week >OUR BEAVf R ( NEED5 Florrie's/ The Cafe by JACQUES PERETTI Funny how all the First Years call it Florries, while the people who have been here a while simply go. The Beaver paid for me, someone who calls it Florrie's, and a friend who could do the Before of the Before/After, to do our own Foy Maschler on "The Cafe". We had a problem with money; they gave us too much and we pigged ourselves. While those around us bought coffee and a bun, we piled on the heaps of healthiness. It looked suspicious. There was queue consensus that the 60p salad was unreasonable, but your 90p portion was worth it. "Don't like it. Too Matissey. You know, Graham Greeney." But it was raining (snow imminent), and the Mediterranean decor is always more depressing in the winter. "Yeah, Hock-neyish," he said, as if I hadn't got the message. The redesign spares no one with the tables and chairs, either. "Look, posters are making a come-back" (pointing at a biro-sprawl on some A4). Florrie's? "It was a real dive, posters ail over the place. Bit like the Freshers' room in halls now, isn't it? All white and antiseptic. Give it a while. People leave their mark." People had already started leaving their trays. I balanced my own with one hand and cleared the table with the other. There's a constant draft from the door, and the big glass windows are like those in a school gym. But this isn't part of the new design? "Florries was cozy." He thought it was time for his set piece. "Florrie's, to me, was the essence of LSE: seedy, cramped, chaotic, ugly, but also friendly, familiar and genuine." But the food? The food? "Oh, that was lousy. Baked beans on toast. It was marginal to the thing," he added doubtfully. My "dry curried potatoes With sesame seeds" were okay. They would have been better if they had been warm, but that's what happens when you have a door that won't close and you spend ten minutes traipsing around looking for a table that isn't taken by people, their bags or their trays. "Shall we try upstairs?" I asked. "I've never been up there," my Florrie's regular replied. Nothing ventured..... On balance, my friend summed up, this is better than the Brunch Bowl - though neither win prizes for making you feel at home. But then, you're not at home. "You're there for a sit-down, a coffee or quick lunch. It's not a club, is it?" And the food? "What, compared to Florrie's? Don't be stupid." FOOD AND DRINK AT THE LSE The Experience II Brunch Bowl by DAYO FORSTER I had been warned to stay off all manner of grilled meat by a self-confessed, "knowledgeable" friend who sticks to fish and chips every single time he eats in the BB. So with a hint of masochistic glee, 1 headed straight for the steak and mushrooms (£1.10). 1 added two ladles full of boiled potatoes and carrots (28p each), helped myself to a bowl of mixed fruit (35p), a small orangeade (25p?) and headed for the till. I knew I had been overdoing it a bit but there was a slight tingle of shock as the lady announced £2.28. I had overstepped my £2.00 Beaver allotment...... Next for the tasting. The steak was cold. I chewed slowly and gradually, the "meaty" taste reached my tastebuds. It wasn't that bad. My friends insisted the potatoes looked "over done" and the carrots, "very nice." The fruit salad was very interesting -with slightly exotic overtones of sliced mango. The grapes were fresh, as was the mango; the mandarins and peaches had been untinned. (Are grapes particularly cheap at this time of year? Does the BB management have unlimited access to sack-fuls of mangoes?!?) Verdict: the BB is still expensive. Most people I know stick to English staples such as sausages and chips, sandwiches, etc. and manage to eat at just over a pound. In spite of the vaguely critical tones above, I would still say that the BB cooks are trying -very hard - to make eating a pleasure... Vegetarianism in the Brunch Bowl by ELIZABETH SMITH Despite earlier cynical remarks about the new Brunch Bowl such as; "They spent all that money, and there is still nothing to eat," I was pleasantly surprised by my lunch at The Brunch Bowl on Tuesday, and not just because the Beaver was paying for it. The old Brunch Bowl offered the vegetarian a made-up salad, a variety of side salads, a quiche and a hot dish. There is undoubtedly a wider selection in the "new and improved" Brunch Bowl. In particular, many new, appetising and exotic salads have been introduced. Perhaps it would be a good idea to label them. There is a choice of salad dressings, and they are labelled. My actual choice for lunch was a made-up salad, a selection of other salads, an apple and a cup of coffee, which came to £1.90 altogether. The hot vegetarian dish of brownish pasta in a beige sauce looked rather dubious, but usually their dishes look and taste good and, at under £1, are a good value. The made-up salad was orange, banana and apple slices with nuts and pumpkin seeds on a bed of lettuce. It was not the most exciting plate of food, but it looked terribly healthy and, for 80p, I wasn't going to complain. The bowl of mixed salads for 20p is an even better value because it's possible to have quite a varied, if compacted selection of salads; so depending on one's financial situation, one can have a cheap lunch or side dish. The potato salad with mango certainly was an improvement on last year's rather mundane salads. The vegetarian food has improved in the Brunch Bowl. It looks planned, and not as though it has been on the display units for a long time. A word of warning, however, within eight hours of eating, I collapsed in a delirious state. I wondered afterwards whether it was the effect of a Law Society party or of the lunch. I leave you to experiment with both and draw your own conclusions. Happy eating! THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 PAGE 9 Tanzania - Features The Ndolela Project Grit and Dirt Development Economics The airport at Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania's capital, gives a false impression to new visitors arriving from Europe with our preconceived notions of African underdevelopment and backwardness drawn from black and white Johnny Weissmuller films and television pictures of Bob Geldof in Ethiopia. With its docking ports for aircraft and its bright, modern and spotlessly clean terminal building just completed last year, it has become a paradox in this eighteenth poorest country in the world. In the car park were several gleaming Mercedes and many of the ubiquitous four-wheel drive vehicles - Land Rover, Range Rover, Nissan and Suzuki - not indicative of poverty or of the severe fuel shortages which sporadically plague the country. Reuters, May 27 — Two years after France built a brand-new 50 million dollar air terminal for Tanzania, the two governments signed a 1.5 million dollar aid agreement last week to repair it. Equipment was not working; display screens were blank; machinery parts were missing; and fixtures had been stolen or vandalised. The fate of the terminal sums up the Tanza-nian economy, a derelict hulk. Ndolela turned out to be a debilitating twelve-hour drive away, highlighting perhaps the most important constraint upon Tanzanian development -desperately poor infrastructure. The journey began driving through the outskirts of Dar. The whitewashed buildings, offices and shops are of a modern Western style, but appear to be crumbling into a state of disrepair reminiscent of the tenement buildings seen in the South of Spain. Apparently, few buildings have been built since Tanzania gained its independence from Britain in 1963, and the old colonial style prevails. One of the newest buildings we passed before heading out towards the suburbs and along Embassy Row was that of the Tanzania office of the Commonwealth Development Corporation. From virgin land to viable agricultural project in three years is the brief. The Colonial Development Corporation was founded in 1948 after the end of the Second World War to assist the economic development of the British Dependent Territories. In 1963, it was renamed the Commonwealth Development Corporation, and since 1969 it has, theoretically, been able to operate in any developing country subject only to the approval of the Minister for Overseas Development. Its powers are laid down in a 1978 Act of Parliament which charges CDC with the task of assisting overseas countries in the development of their economies. Required to pay its way, CDC combines developmental objectives with a broadly commercial approach - it does not make grants, but offers investment in the development of resources, maintaining close relations with the overseas government. Contrast this with direct foreign aid. In 1985 CDC drew £41m from the UK Aid Programme and £7.3m from the National Loans Fund - 48% of its annual financial commitment is devoted to Africa. The total investment in Tanzania is estimated to be around £26m spread over several projects, the newest being in the relatively underdeveloped, but agriculturally fertile, Southern Highlands at Ndolela. By training local workers and managers, using indigenous supplies and materials wherever possible and by respecting local customs, CDC is currently operating against the fashionable neo-colonial attitude amongst contemporary developers with their large-scale plans autonomous from native village life. Beneath the Ndolela Mountain lie the thousands of hec-tacres of land that form CDC's newest venture in Tanzania - a £1.6m development in food crops. The land available for the project covers a variety of terrain stretching up from the fertile banks of the Ruaha river to the thinly soiled steeper slopes of the Ndolela escarpment. Development which takes place in an area such as this is hard, laborious and frequently frustrating to those in charge; it is far, far removed from the beautifully tooled theories used by development economists in their citadels at the World Bank. This is development in the raw. The only expatriate in Ndolela is the development manager, one of just twenty people in Britain capable of doing this kind of work, snatched away from a project in the Solomon Islands specially for this job, and paid peanuts relative to his bosses sitting cosily in London. He lives thirty-five minutes' drive away from Ndolela along a dirt track which is deeply rutted during the dry season, when the earth is baked hard, and a treacherous sea of mud when the rains come in November and April. Often working 11 hours a day, he can hardly claim the cachet of the equally hard-working "Big Bang" City boys - he drives a four-wheel drive truck not a Porsche. From virgin land to viable agricultural project in three years is the brief The overall plan is to plant 2,200 hectacres under maize and soya on the flatter land, to develop coffee on the lower slopes and to have on-site administration and labour and managers' quarters within this time limit. However, a year has already been lost due to the failure of the British government, the Tanzanian authorities and CDC to reach an agreement over the release of vital land-clearing machinery impounded after the completion of a nearby road construction project. In addition, the first year's maize harvest was unexpectedly poor -heavy seasonal rain of a sort only seen about once every 25 years did not help. However, the aim is to produce food crops for local and national consumption — 2000 tonnes of maize and 800 tonnes of soya per annum, and coffee for export to earn vital foreign exchange. Reuters, June 19 - Tanzania devalues currency as "Peace Move" towards IMF. Former President Julius Nyerere rejected IMF terms in 1980, saying that the organisation represented an unfair world economic order that must be changed in favour of developing countries. The IMF terms challenged the very basis of Nye-rere's "socialism and self-reliance" economic policy. Since then, the Tanzanian economy has declined rapidly. It has an external debt of $3 billion which it has been unable to pay. The IMF agreement aims at an (optimistic) annual growth rate of 4% with an emphasis on developing the agricultural infrastructure and boosting exports. Farmers of high-quality arabica coffee will benefit from a near 50% rise in prices. Up until this recent price rise, coffee prices were so out of line with rising world prices following successive Brazilian frosts and droughts that farmers in the fertile North of Tanzania around Kilimanjaro received less for their coffee than for the bananas planted as a shade crop. Consequently, over the last few years many coffee plants of the high quality arabica variety have been uprooted and exports of the beans to the UK and other Western markets have declined. The price increase should help Ndolela where both arabica and the inferior robusta coffee (used in Western instant coffee) are being tried. This development project is wanted by the region and much help is forthcoming from the local government, but it is the way of life that hinders development, rather than direct non-cooperation by either the Tanzanians or their government. In the back of the development manager's mind is the suspicion that after the completion of the project and the departure of the CDC in four years' time, the momentum will be lost and the scheme will collapse. To prevent this, local staff need to be motivated and interested, but recruitment of basic labourers is difficult. Statutory government wages for agricultural workers are 650 shillings a month, just £10, and even with CDC providing subsidised basic rations and land for each labourer to have a chamba (allotment), few seem inclined to work at Ndolela. To help alleviate the bottlenecks in supplies of inputs - fertilisers, seeds and spare parts -appropriate intermediate tech- used wherever possible. Land is being developed to minimise erosion of the thin topsoil through contour banks, waterways and forestation on the steeper slopes. Fuel wood crops have been planted to supply domestic fuel; a gravitational water flow system has been built (a pump would have necessitated greater overheads, spare parts and oil) and CDC are investigating hydroelec-tr?cs. All this aims at reducing the dependence on imported oil. What will the benefits of this project be? The development manager is cautious about, and indeed avoids, quantifying the results in terms of export earnings or food production. Any increase in local standard of living is liable to be subjective and transient, and benefits are often siphoned off by the government, either officially through taxes or unoffically through corruption. From past experience though, he says that a small, low-budget scheme like Ndolela's is far more valuable to the local economy through its trickle-down effects than the large direct purchasing projects established throughout the developing world in coffee, tea and palm oil production. "I am totally convinced that a project that goes in as aid... is in the long run doomed to failure" At Ndolela, workers are being trained, and the achievement of a handful of them working directly under management is enormous in relation to the general level of individual achievement attainable in Tanzania. Local farmers have benefitted from new hybrid maize strains, correct use of fertilisers, the instigation of local soya production and the increased availability of fuel, machinery and repairs. Technical expertise will be brought in for the installation of electricity generators, water tanks, a clinic, a shop and a school. Labourers can only benefit from the increased standard of living these welfare benefits provide. With the cooperation of local people, the development of the area is expected to be rapid despite the small scale of the project. It will probably be more rapid than from a large self-contained direct aid project like the hydroelectric station near Dodoma in central Tanzania being built by the Italians (still not complete - the Italians have run out of aid money), or the £100m road project near Ndolela built with British taxpayers' money. The development manager voiced his opinion which has been formed over ten years of LDC work, "I am totally convinced that a project which goes in as aid and solely as aid, is, in the long run, doomed to failure." (Many and grateful thanks to John and Kathleen, The Commonwealth Development Corporation and Reuters PLC.) In the second article of the Beaver series on Developing Countries, Fiona Chester looks at a project in Tanzania PAGE 10 THE BEAVEt . MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 Films Arts LE&AL EAGLES % Universal Pictures - general release "Legal Eagles" is the latest creation from Ivan Reitman, the director of the highly successful comedy, "Ghostbus-ters". Here, Reitmani has teamed Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daiyl Hannah and put them into the glamourous world of the New York art scene and that bastion of justice - the New York District Attorney's Office. Daryl Hannah as Chelsea Dearden Is the daughter of an avant-garde artist, whose death several years earlier and the subsequent discovery of several new works has caused the price of his paintings to skyrocket. She is accused of trying to steal one of her father's paintings from the private collection of one of his former associates. Enter Debra Winger, an up-and-coming defense attorney, Laura Kelly, who is steadfast in her belief that Chelsea Dearden is innocent. In order to secure a fair trial for her client, Kelly needs to garner the assistance of the District Attorney's office, and she has set her sights on no less a target than the much-sought-after golden boy. Assistant DA Tom Logan, alias Robert Redford. After convincing Logan that there are grounds for an official investigation by the DA'S office. Winger, Redford and Hannah find themselves in the midst of art fraud, zealous killers, mistaken identities and lost paintings. Unfortunately, the film doesn't quite live up to the expectations of the storyline or its cast. The glamourous world of the international art establishment, with the power opf the art broker and the gallery owner and the enormous amounts of money spent on works of art does have a certain attraction, but all that is lost in this film. The art world is almost inconsequential as Reitman, who also wrote the film, focuses the attention on Redford, Winger and Hannah. Even the highly-touted special effects are not all that terriffic, particularly during one of the "fire scenes" when one notices that the flames coming out of the window look suspiciously like someone had drawn them on the celluloid (something akin to the technique used in making cartoons). The warehouse did explode with a terriffio bang, though; points for the sound crew on that one. The main reason to see "Legal Eagles" is Robert Redford. It is a welcome change to see Redford bring his considerable charm to comedy. Too often dismissed as a serious actor or a man with a cause, here Redford easily demonstrates his facility with light-hearted humour. Watching the insomnolent Tom Logan eating a gallon of ice cream while tap-dancing along with Gene Kelley in "Singing in the Rain" or bicycling through his small New York apartment in the early hours of the morning demonstrates his com-edic flair. Given the bland and rather weak script, Redford gives the film its viiality. Debra Winger doesn't fare quite so well, however. An actress of enormous talent, as Laura KeUy - Ace Attorney she is reduced to something bland, boring and banal alongside REdford. Like her dull and colourless clothes (what happened to the costume designer on the production? Were the special effects so costly that they had to cut back on such frivolous expenditures as wardrobe?). Winger is given very little opportunity to stand out in this film. She is merely an educated alternative to the Valkyrie-like Daryl Hannah. There is little doubt that Daryl Hannah is an attractive actress; however, once the initial impact has subsided and one delves beneath the surface, it is disappointing to discover that what you see is, in fact, what you get. After giving a credible performance in "Splash", one feels that there might have been something a bit fishy in the direction that she was given in this tale. Ann Heniy Latino (ICA Cinema) This film is a revealing (and rare} insight into American involvement in Nicaragua and seems destined to set a precedent for others by putting such military "adventures" onto celluloid. Mixed in with the action - and perhaps designed to give the film a broader appeal so as not appear strictly moralising - are emotional struggles, which go some way in explaining the caption on the poster: "Between Contras and Contradiction." Green Beret, Eddie Guerrero (conspicuously an Hispanic) - veteran of Vietnam and its resulting nightmares - is sent to Honduras to train a group of Contras to launch a covert raid into Nicaragua. The situation is starkly different from what we have been taught by the media to believe: the American forces trade anti-Communist propaganda, Marlboro cigarettes and even smart-looking uniforms for the respect (fear) and allegiance of the locals. The result is distasteful and at times sickening. Innocent villages are raided, people beaten, shot or captured with frightening regularity. Those who believe in the revolution as a liberation from the Somoza tyranny have their views violently reversed. Guerrero, himself, forgets some of his crack professionalism when confronted with thif hypocracy and a Nicaraguan womer. with whom he has fallen in love. The emotional scenes are strained and awkwsird, a coy reminder to us that love and war cannot mix. But the contradiction runs deeper: Guerrero realises that he is an Hispanic, in a predominantly WASPish establishment, chosen for the dirtiest of jobs against (ethnically) his own people and specifically against his girlfriend and her village. The parellel with Vietnam is strong and deliberate and continually evoked both by the Americans and by events. The Americans' humiliation in the end is devastating in its impact; the finger-wagging and moralising are perhaps strongest at this point, seeming to say -perhaps ironically, "Yankee Go Home". The political message is conveyed in no uncertain terms, thanks to some concise direction by Haskell Wexler. The caption on the poster seems an apt, but under-stated, indictment of American policy in Central America. Latino" is not playing for very much longer. Hurry and see it. Sbehyu Swwar ABOUT LAST NIGHT Cannon - General Release "About Last Night", starring Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi and Susan Perkins, looks at the nature of different relationships in the context of today's society. Based on David Mamet's play, "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," the film attempts to put into perspective the various ways in which people meet, become involved and discover their own feelings about commitment and what they feel constitutes a relationship. The characters portrayed in the film are easily recognizable, and the storyline has a ring of truth. Nothing here is contrived or overstated. Danny, a good-looking, single man (Rob Lowe) has never had a problem attracting women but is now beginning to wonder about his ability to make a commitment towards one person. Bernie, his loudmouthed, insecure friend (Jim Belushi) is, in spite of his arrogance and bravado, looking for some kind of steady relationship but would never admit to it. Debbie is a bright, attractive career woman (Demi Moore) who is tired of casual encounters and who is looking for permanence in her life, and Joan is her defensive, caustic friend (Elizabeth Perkins) who feels that men are only out to victimize women but who also wants the strong attachment to another person we are conditioned to expect. As Danny, Rob Lowe seems to be breaking away from his "brat pack" image and has chosen a role that is more sophisticated and adult. He brings a certain maturity to the role, and it is becoming evident that Lowe has the potential to be much more than just another good-looking actor. Demi Moore Ruthless People is also showing a marked improvement in her choice of roles and in the continued expansion of her talents as an actress. She brings to the role of Debbie a quiet maturity and intelligence that serve the character and the film well. Jim Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins (in her fu-st mE^jor screen role) complete the ensemble Trith considerable wit and style. The sparks which fly back and forth when these two characters are on screen together is well worth the price of admission. Although "About Last Night" is not a brilliant film, with" Insightful glimpses into the human psyche or startling revelations about human interaction, it is certainly an eryoyable way to spend an evening. The film is well-acted, well-directed and well-photographed (Chicago never looked better). So, if you're looking for a film about men, i^omen, friendship, love, sex, commitment, disappointment, happiness . . . about Ufe, "About Last Night" is well worth a try. Ann Heniy Easily forgetable, but absolutely hilarious-Ruthless People is the sort of film that leaves you sprawling in your seat and crying with laughter and, in case you hadn't guessed, it's a comedy. Danny DeVito stars as Ruthless Person number one, Sam Stone, a loathsome businessman who, having married his wife for her money, is delighted to learn that she has been kidnapped. Quite in character with the other comic heavy he played in "Romancing the Stone" and "Jewel of the Nile," DeVito is totally unconcerned with wife's, safety since he was planning to murder her himself! Saviour of that otherwise atrocious film Down and Out in Beverly HiUs, (the biggest-grossing movie of 1986, as it happens), Bette Midler, as Barbara Stone, has at last been given a role which matches up to her immense talent. During her time with her two kidnappers, she is denied her usual weight-loss inducing urine irjections, but her boredom and depression about her weight, makes her follow a most bizarre pattern of exercises and she loses 20 lbs! As DeVito delays paying the ransom, his wife's kidnappers become increasingly annoyed at her obnoxious behaviour and progressively lower their price, causing Midler to exclaim. "I've been marked down?!" The impeccable pedigree of this film perhaps explains why it is 100% pure comedy, and not the sort that results in sporadic weak titters through the auditorium. The producer worked for seven years as an associate of Woody Allen, and the team of directors (Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker) were responsible for "Kentucky Fried Money" and the blockbuster "Airplane." Finally, a word about the brilliant soundtrack; the title song, "Ruthless People", is co-written and performed by Mick Jagger, with more material by Billy Joel, Paul Young, Kool and the Gang and-did I say pedigree? - Bruce Springsteen. Hona Chester EUxtbeth Botsford THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10> 1986 PAGE 11 Music Bigmouth Back Again First, the disappointment of coming down to London in the summer and not getting in to see him (where had all these Julian Cope fans suddenly turned up from?); then a frustrating taste of what we'd missed on the Janice Long Show (what do you mean, you don't Usten to it - you're a student, aren't you!) But at last, we were there, and there he was, at the Astoria on a Saturday night. Arts JULIAN COPE That same indefinable sexual chemistry - he may be plain but his arrogance carries it off - that confidence, less self-tQdulgent than in the old days, that "presence". Not to forget that glottal voice. "Treason" and "Reward" are still favourite singles, and let's face it. Cope always was The Teardrop Explodes. His new band is young and tight and the stuff played was a mix of old and new ("Levitation" stood out as a pop peak in the set). He seems to have carried over many old fans from that era, and they got him back for three splendid encores. He is older, but as tounge in cheek as in days of yore; the 34 year break hasn't taken the edge off his maniacaJ wot, nor of his playing. On his manager. Bill Drummonds fetchingly-titled tribute (?) "Julian Cope is Dead" he commented that he'd rather not be immortalised in such a sentiment. Understandable really, but he does take it for granted that he will be remembered in a grandiose way. Don't you just love the modesty? Tamworth has certainly not produced a star of his stature before, (indeed, will it ever?). The support band, by the way, were Primal Scream. Betraying the promise of the engaging name, they turned out to be twee and boring. Too many good band names; too few good bands, methinks. BO _±_ "Prince Ivor" Ivor Cutler As I took a shower prior to writing this review, I found myself regaled with the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel: quite apt, really, as baths which sing are surely something with Ivor Cutler will one day get around to writing about. This new 2-lp set from him compiles a collection of radio plays commissioned •for Radio 3 by producer. Piers Plow-- right, after hearing Cutler on John Peel's programme, where he has been a contributor with his songs and poems for, well, years. Upon listening to these plays, one thing is immediately apparent: Ivor Cutler is the sanest man who ever ate mice with a mole. In his world, you realise that our everyday world is absurd, and his apparently absurd one makes a lot more sense (if one is in the habit of meeting mermaids, that is). Obviously, if you're the other person who knows that helicopters are really silent (being made noisy on the advice of industrial psychologists), then I daresay the wonderous insights here will probably be commonplace (in fact, Ivor Cutler will probably be coming round to see you very soon). However, the prospect of hearing his first-ever 20-minute opera ought to tempt you to Usten. As for everyone else, you'll learn more about the BBC, coal miners and life than you could ever hope to elarn in threee years at the LSE. Honest. And all in one winter's evening. Hue Billy the Kid Billy Bragg is back. The master of the "pay-no-more-than" scheme has a new album (pay no more than £4.49), a new single, an arrest record, and is currently on tour. This is in addition to the recent work he has done to establish Red Wedge (a collective of performers and youths committed to social change) and his active involvement in Artists Against Apartheid. Bragg's concern with politics is much more than just a scam to sell a few discs or herd the punters into a club. This past week he was involved in a CND-supported civil disobedience campaign. As part of Operation Snowball, he cut fence wires (and was arrested) at a military base near Norwich. But, dear reader, contrary to what others might have you believe, Billy Bragg is not only miners and unions and GLC revivalism. In addition to the ideologically sound "There is Power in a Union" and "Help Save the Youth of America", Bragg's third album [Talking with the Taxman about Poetry (Go Discs!) ] contains many well crafted pop songs. The irresistable "Wishing the Days Away" and last summer's "Levi Stubbs' Tears" satisfy the burden of proof. Following his rest behind bars, Bragg resumed his current tour in Portsmouth. In addition to playing every song on the new album and fulfilling many requests, he managed to cover songs by the Buzzcocks and the Jackson 5. The Buzzcocks, sure. But the spokesman of our generation covering the Jackson 5? Yes, and without losing any street credibility either. Billy Bragg appears at the National Club, Kilburn, London on November 12 (Blues guitarist/Venice, California busker/all around good guy Ted Hawkins provides support) and before Norwich magistrates on November 14. Both performances are worth a visit. Jeffrey Btown JAZZ COLUMN A num possessed. This comes closest describing a performance by the great Brazilian percussionist, Airto, at the Town & Country Club last Monday. A bearded man in his forties, who oust a fairly ... 'substantial' figure, Airto set the place alight with, of all things, a tamborine! No mean feat, I hear you say; no mean rhythms either. He transported us from prievai jungles and the thunderous beats of the interior (throTring in a few screeches along the way for good measure) to the sometimes lilting, and at other times frenzied, sambas of the coast. There was not let up, no respite, no monotony, no time to catch your breath. Airto's skills ran across the whole range, to items of percussions that I, and the doubtless hundreds of others, had never seen before in our lives and would find it difficult to describe. But aside from his technical accomplishments, he had the great gift of communication, of madness, of one who is infected with the vitality, variety, sensuality and power of rhythm. This is the best kmd of fever you could possibly catch. Get it on vinyl, tape or record. It's funny, but this review was meant to be about the female "jazz" vocalist. Flora Purim (generally acknowledged IS one of Brazil's greatest singers) who Mpped Monday night's bill. A couple of things got in the way: (a) the mics were'nt turned up enough and (b) the songs she sang were, frankly, middle-of-the-road for my liking If you concentrated well, it was possible to hear that she was singing in a rounded and tuneful way, hitting complex series of notes bang on. But that said, I wasn't there to cup my ears like some offi-cionado of gramaphone music. It seems an unfair judgement to pass on someone so widely acclaimed. In fact, it is more a suspension of verdict. After all what else can I say if I didn't hear her, or, if I heard her Uke a computer sample sound? The fact that she works works with man who is undoubtedly the best percussionist I have ever seen and heard, suggests that she's probably a heck of a singer. In fact they've recorded a series of records which I understand are available at the new HMV shop (My hunch would be to check out some of the older recordings.) As for the venue, the To«m and Country Club is highly recommende What they screwed up in terms of' microphones, they make up for in terms of a good acoustic balance of sound and atmosphere. There was even somewhere to hang up coats and the Uke - a nice touch, I thought. George Heszaros Apology Profose apologies, with accompanying grovelling, to Bo who wrote the Mighty Warning! Lemon Drops review in last week's issue. Sorry, city hobgoblins to blame... In future any Arts articles not typed or neatly written will NOT be accepted. Be fair on the typists' ^es! Arts Editor Too True to be Good (Riverside Studios - Hammersmith) This is a minor George Bernard Shaw play which has been revived by one of Britain's best theatre companies -"Shared Experience". Set in the 1930s, it is a satire on the kind of issues with which Shaw is always concerned; namely, religion, class, sex, poUtics and personal freedom, aU of which are represented by a collection of very colourful characters, drawn from aU walks of EngUsh Ufe. The basic plot is the kidnapping of a spoilt heiress by a vicar and a nurse, their Ufe among natives and Army officials in North Africa, and their pursuit by the heiress' mother and the vicar's father. Other characters include a Lavfrence of Arabia look-aUke and a microbe in the heiress' body. Obviously, Shaw leaves no stone unturned in his pursuit of objects of ridicule, but the flaws in all of his plays are weU in evidence here. Some speeches are mind-numbingly long, and no sign of editing is evident anywhere in the play. At times the urbane wit and sophistication for which Shaw is famous are overdone to such an extent that you wish the characters would stop cracking jokes and show some real emotion. The director, Mike Alfreds, is hampered by unedited script but makes the most of the moments of briUiance in the play. As usual, his attentio to detail and characterisation are faultless, and he is served by an exceUent cast. SeUna Cadell is hilarious as the heiress, enjoying the comforts her position affords her, while yearning for Ubera-tion and adventure. David Beames and Sian Thomas are also good as her inept kidnappers, and CoUn Small is worth watching out for. KfiiTefet Sink The Belgrano! (Mermaid Theatre) General Galtieri, the Iron Lady, Port Stanley, the Task Force, Hunterkiller nuclear submarines. Total Exclusion Zone, FaUdands Factor, The Belgrano .. . Gotcha! Yes, it was four years ago that Britain wrapped itself in the Union Jack to the tune of "Land of Hope and Glory". In "Sink the Belgrano!" Steven Ber-koff fires hiw own Exocets, poking fun at (and asking questions of) the jingoism which surrounded the Falklands War. Berkoff has adapted the well-documented conflict using the lyrical style of Shakespeare's "Henry V" and the satrical style of Luck and Flaw's, "Spitting Image". The result is pacey, sharp and energetic theatre. The script is poUtically angry, but the improvisation and interpretation of a fine cast make for a very entertaining evenuig. Louise Gold gives a brutal but excellent performance as the Prime Minister, 'Magot Scratcher'; however, it is the Chorus which particularly impresses as the backbone of the show. The four actors, dressed in tracksuits, pose at varying points, as Falkland islanders, British troops, MPs and even coax us into beUeving that they are Jump Jet Harriers 'flatulently' bombing the Argentinian bases. While versatiUty may seem a necessity from such a small oast, the famiharity of the actors, in differing roles, throughout the play, adds to the tenacity of Berkoffs script. There is no doubt that the show more than leans to the view that the confUct, and indeed the order to 'Sink the Belgrano!, was for domestic poUtical advantage rather than out of miUtary necessity. References to making a Span- Theatre ish omlette by cracking some 'Argie eggs' and poignant lines such as, "Britain doesn't rule the waves, she simply waives the rules," should not detract from a particularly eiyoyable evening of satirical theatre. Julius Gottlieb THE BEAVER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986 PAGE 12 RUNNING? WHY NOT! If you look more like Elwyn Watkins than Seb Coe, the word "athletics" no doubt fills you with dread. But you don't have to be the next potential Daley Thompson to fight the flab. Running, believe it or not, is more natural than downing twelve pints of Webster's. Just buy a decent pair of running shoes and let your legs do the rest. Central London, though, is not the easiest place to run. Even in relatively quiet places south of the Thames, street runners have to run the gauntlet of traffic. BEAVER The only answer is to swallow your pride and proceed directly to Hyde Park. There, for the small price of being mistaken for a yuppie, you can run to your heart's content. Accompanied by a Walkman, the pain in your legs will soon dissipate, and you may even enjoy the experience! Jim Fixx's "Book of Running" is the sports' 'bible'. Forgetting the fact that Mr. Fixx dropped down dead a few years ago while out running, his book will tell you everything and anything you want to know. After a few months training, and despite being the butt of many jokes from your friends, you might like to enter an actual race. For a £2-3 entry fee you can try your hand (or legs) at anything from a fun run to a fall marathon. Races are numerous, but entry dates close early since the number of people who want to enter is always more than the race limit. The best local club by far is the London Road Runners Club, at the Alexandra Gate Lodge in Hyde Park. Membership is £5 a year, but you well and truly get your money's worth - newsletters, equipment, discounts and access to the Hyde Park showers and changing rooms. They organise sever races a year (the next is on December 28th, entry £2.50) and can also give you information on other clubs in London. Finally for the more serious minded, contact the Southern Counties Amateur Athletic Association at Francis House, Francis Street for details of the nearest athletics clubs. BASIL SPORT FOOTBALL This was another fine result for the ever-improving LSE 1st XL In a closely fought first half, LSE forged ahead, thanks to a great header from Jon Ship-stone, bringing his season total to 7. LSE went further ahead when Ally Mackenzie, maintaining his place in the side despite giving the captain a barrage of abuse, finished off 'inside the six yard box following a good run from Robert O'Neil. The second half was completely dominated by LSE with Wakefiled and Connolly gaining control of the midfleld, whilst Shingler and Watson handled the Sussex attackers with relative ease. Russell replaced the injured, but amazingly brave, Markin and proceeded to haunt the Sussex back four, and it was following a run from Russell that Robert O'Neill clinched a victory for the LSE Ists. Sussex managed to snatch a consolidation goal at the end, but nothing could detract from a fine victory for the 1st XI, their first in the U.A.U. this season. The seconds lost their chance of progi'essing in the U.A.U. to a Sussex team which was always superior. Sussex dominated the first half with a combination of skill and strong off-the-ball running. At half time they were two up, the first following a goalmouth scramble, and the second, yet another Nick Price scorcher from a full 15 yards past his own keeper. An inspirational Easton team talk meant LSE performed better after the break, and a few chances were created, although blown by Henry and Nadine, before Sussex settled in with a late third goal. A special mention must go to the Cat and Matt for keeping the team going. LSE's 3rd team put up a good display on Wednesday and were unluckly to lose 3-2. An early lead was taken with an excellent header by Darren Wallis, but Sussex countered with another good header. 1-1 at half time, the wind behind us in the second half - surely time for the long-awaited second win. How-ver, a sloppy own goal was conceded early in the half, and after about half an hour, Sussex scored a third with a well taken goal. At this point, LSE rallied, and after Crispin scored with a tap in, we really looked to be in with a chance. Crispin took a perfect free-kick; it looked like a goal all the way, but the opposition keeper pulled off a superb save. A good team performance which deserved some reward. Special mention should be made of Luca in goal, Tom, in defense, and the "hard men", Darren and Doug, in the middle. Basketball By Kevin Koga The LSE Basketball team travelled to Loughborough on Sunday where it improved its warm-up season record to 2-1 with a win over Loughborough University. The socre remained close throughout the first half At the intermission LSE held a 39-38 lead. The team began the second half without the services of leading scorer Mike Swell who was on the bench with three fouls. With four players in early foul trouble, LSE had to rely on its zone defence most of the second half. Swell reentered the game with twelve minutes remaining and scored fourteen straight points to lead LSE to an 83-73 victory. Swell finished with 27 points while Patrick Shannon added 18 and Paul Bradshaw 14. LSE's next game will be played Sunday at the Micheal Sobell Centre, the team's home centre, against Warwick University. Houghton St. Harry Well, I never would have believed it. - Manila winning "the Breeder's Cup" the other week - and the great "Dancing Brave" coming 4th due to the fact - so his trainers say - that he had dust in his eyes. Pull the other one - it's got bells on it. So all you punters who followed me and stuck it on Manila - well done - it's good that some people have faith in me. In fact, the reason why there was no article from me last week was because because I was living it up in the South of France on my winnings - I've always said it "bet big, win big". Now for my red hot tip of the week - on the 16th of November the Hollywood Derby will be fought out - and the horse that is going to wing - but don't quote me or that will be "My Generation" - yes I can see it now... a bit about the horse. -he's won the Andy Capp Handicap at York in August and the "Hennessy Cognac Glencairn Stakes" (what a mouthful) at Leopantstown - and I must say he did these in style - the race on the 16th is over 9 furlongs -just the right distance for the colt. Also a race to note - in fact on the same day, Sunday 16th November, is the "Primio Umbria" in Rome - now my favourite for this race - in fact I'll go all the way and nap it. It is "Matou" - Well, that's it for this week. I would give a few day racing tips, but I did my brains last week at Harringey -you know how it is. N. Jones Men's Hockey By BOB LEVINE The LSE goal-machines continue to fire them in, with Orville bagginfg a brace for the Firsts, and Chris Aiken a hat-trick for the Seconds. In an eight-a-side encounter, LSE's second team proved much too strong for a poorly organised Sussex side, so much that they could afford the luxury of playing the first quarter with no goalkeeper. Againt the weakest of UAU opponents the Firsts continued to finish the first half a goal behind, testimony to more inadequate marking at the back and an unwillingness to clear the ball beyond our danger area. However, inspired by Raoul Chaddra's determination and the prospect of an extremely rare win in the UAU, LSE overpowered the opposition in the second half Cooper dominated in midfield and cleverly dummied (missed) the cross from the left wing which was guided in by Orville for the equaliser. Intelligent approach play down both wings created numerous chances before and after Orville had grabbed his second, a firm shot between the keeper's legs, and the 2-1 final score barely reflected LSE's second half dominance. Hockey: Men: LSE 1st XI 2 vs SUSSEX 1st XI 1 LSE 2nd XI 4 vs SUSSEX 2nd XI 0 Women: LSE 1st XI 0 vs SUSSEX 1st XI 4 LSE 2nd XI 0 vs SUSSEX 2nd XI 0 Football What a difference a month in football makes (so I'm told anyway). Try telling that to Ron Atkinson - not a lot has gone right for United this month, still languishing at the foot of Division 1, blasted out of the Littlewoods Cup and more injuries than UCH out-patients. Still, look on the bright side, Ron. Remi Moses has "fought" his way back into the first team. I guess George Craham must have read my last report in "the Beaver"; somebody at Arsenal did anyway. Highbury is certainly no place for that afternoon kep anymore, goals galore (well, quite a few) in the last two or three weeks and second place in the League - remarkable! However, with Forest still on top and Liverpool an ominous third, it looks like the South has got a fight on its hands if the Northern domination of the League is to be broken. Looking at the lower divisions, Portsmouth have made a strong start as always, and this year I expect them to sustain their challenge with Oldham or possibly Sunderland filling the other promotion spots. From Division 3, Middlesbro and Gil-lingham look like strong contenders, and runaway leaders, Northampton, in the 4th look a sure thing. Finally, previewing England's match with Yugoslavia this Wednesday, I'd like you to join me and pray that Bobby Robson does not pick Ray Wil-kins to replace Bryan Robson. After an encouraging start to our European Championship campaign, we can do without old Mr. Negative. By the way it only costs £4 to get in at Wembley and if we play as well as against the Irish, it certainly represents value for money. Back next month with more in-depth analysis. Until then, love & kisses. May P.S. Can anyone confirm whether it was Big Ron in the Manchester Job Centre last week? Taffy's Tales Cambridge Wins The Boat Race! The LSE started the new month by making the long journey up to the hallowed halls of Cambridge University. In keeping with the gravity of the occasion, naturally, all donned silly hats and loud ties which provided quite a reaction from the rather mundane locals. The firsts plays Christ's College in a game in which gross ineptitude from the backs lead to a 14-6 defeat. This was in spite of a Stirling performance by the back, who were obviously inspired by the blistering try of Paddy Regan - bursting over from almost a full yard. The seconds played St Clare College with a rather makeshift team in which the Guest brothers were the most ous-tanding. The game was played in a very open, light-hearted manner, with the LSE finally slipping to 15-10 after having lead earlier. nsH a cwIP SHOP The after-match reception of Cambridge consisted merely of a guide to the nearest Chippy and a bar which only opened from 6 till 8. (No wonder all the locals were so mundane.) Despite trying very hard for this space of time, the lads decided they hadn't yet drunk enough (surprise, surprise) and along with some Cambridge lads invaded a local. It was at this stage that the LSE sunk to their second consecutive boat-race defeat. After their seventh pint, the LSE were well in the lead, but neither Paddy nor Chris would admit to being 8th man. Paddy's excuse was that he had been fined so many times for "swooping" (randy devil) that he couldn't manage another. Chris was too drunk to think of one - dear, dear -severe punishments I think, lads.n the serious stuff of the UAU on Wedpesday, the firsts lost 22-16 despite a powerhouse try from Edrich, elegant try from the other taff, Neil Cornelius, and a 40-yard drop goal from good old "Top Gun" Finley (what a hero!). The seconds were battling well in an even game until accident-prone Jim Mclnally was forced to leave the field with a broken shoulder. After this, the team degenerated, finally losing 24-9 despite some good play from Saun