Gingerbread houses always seemed a bit out of my league with me not being very artistic or patient but nonetheless the last two years I’ve tried. I’ve made two successful gingerbread houses, and two…prototypes… Here’s the recipe I use, including my tips on how to avoid some of the catastrophes I’ve encountered.

There are loads of templates on the web, I use the one on the BBC’s Good Food website: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4900/simple gingerbreadhouse

Gingerbread House
250g unsalted butter
7 tablespoons golden syrup
200g dark muscovado sugar
600g plain flour
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
4 teaspoons of ground ginger
200g flaked almonds
500g icing sugar
2 eggs – separate yolks and whites – keep whites
2 boxes of chocolate fingers
1 chocolate mini roll
Marshmallows
Desiccated coconut
Sweets of your choice for decoration

Preheat your oven to gas mark 6 or 200 degrees C. Melt the butter, syrup and muscovado sugar in a pan on the hob. Mix the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, and the all important ingredient: ground ginger in a large mixing bowl, add the warm butter mixture and stir it all into a stiff dough – if it doesn’t seem to stick together add a splash of water.

Put a sheet of baking paper on a work surface and roll a quarter of the dough into the thickness of two pound coins. Cut a section of the template (see weblink left) out of the dough and place it with its baking paper onto another piece of baking paper. Repeat with the remaining dough and template pieces. Make sure you have two roof panels, two sidewalls and a front and a back. Use any leftover dough to make Christmas trees, reindeer or gingerbread men and women.

Use the flaked almonds and poke the most intact almonds gently into the roof panels to represent tiles – they look really cool once done but be careful, its quite fiddly and they snap really easily.

Bake all the sections on a flat baking tray with their baking paper for 12 minutes or until firm and slightly darker around the edges. Trim around the templates again and then leave to cool completely.

Making the mortar of your gingerbread house: sift the icing sugar (leave a small amount for dusting) and mix with the egg whites. Spoon into a piping bag with a nozzle, and pipe generously along the wall edges and join them together. Put a small bowl in the middle of the house-in-progress to stop it from caving inwards.

Do not try and put the roof panels on before the walls have set completely, every year I try and every year it’s the reason for the (fairly traumatic) collapse. I’ve taken to leaving it overnight to distract myself from poking it so it really has a chance to set. Once it is dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels – hold them in place for a few minutes to allow the ‘glue’ to set.

If you have a gap in your roof, line each side with the icing glue and stick marshmallows in the gap – gap all gone! Use the chocolate fingers to make panels on the sides of the house, a door and a window if you wish.

To make icicles squeeze a little icing and then pull it down leaving a little pony tail, to make it more distinct you can use a cocktail stick to pull the icing down while its still wet. Cut a chocolate mini roll at an angle and stick to the roof for a chimney – add some icicles to this too. Decorate any trees, reindeers you’ve made too.

Now the best bit, use any sweets you want to make it a Hansel and Gretel’s paradise, surround the house with some desiccated coconut to add
some more snow, sprinkle with icing sugar and don’t get too attached, people think it looks amazing, but it’s soon discovered that it tastes just as good as it looks!

The crowd in The Globe, Cardiff tonight are jumping up and down furiously, shouting themselves hoarse as they scream angsty, sarcastic lyrics back to frontman Matt Bowman.

Wrapped up in microphone leads and whipping up a fury on stage, the venue can barely accommodate the massive presence and frenetic energy of the Northern indie-rock outfit.

Luckily, I got to speak band members Jimmi Naylor (on drums), Ryan Wilson (rhythm guitar) and bassist Dave Best before they start working up a sweat on stage.

Crammed into a cupboard sized room with the industrial groaning of the sound check creeping under the door, it’s hard to imagine the calm and collected, well-groomed men in front of me becoming the frenzied animals I know them to be on stage.

Having heard lots about their summer festival experiences, we start talking festival season. It becomes apparent very quickly that the boys prefer playing the smaller independent festivals despite having played the Saturday at V Festival this year.

“Although V festival was really good and there was a big crowd, one of our favourites was Brownstock which is making quite a name for itself right now.”

“It were a really good little set up,” Ryan chips in with his Northern twang . “Some of the bigger festival, no disrespect to the people who go to them but I think perhaps they go to just get absolutely leathered. Some of the smaller, less corporate ones, it seems the people are more into the music”.

When asked about their festival essentials, the boys come up with a few obvious (and some less so) suggestions; “money for food and drink, face wipes, deep -heat for performances, Diorolyte for when ” … at Jimmi’s last suggestion I quickly turn the conversation over to their latest DJ’ing ventures!

Jimmi: “We’ve been Dj’ing for a couple of years now, when we started getting bigger as a band, clubs started asking us to DJ at after-parties – to put our name against the set y’know? It’s easy but enjoyable”

Ryan: “Our first DJ session, we just turned up with our iPods! The resident DJ there was like ‘what the …..?’ But we’ve got better at it and we’ve DJ’ed all across England and Scotland now. We do Propaganda quite a bit – it’s the biggest indie night across the country.”

Finally I strike a topic that provokes a response from bassist Dave Best.Having mentioned their performance of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend’ in the Radio 1 Live Lounge and asking what they would cover if ever asked back, Dave springs into action.

“Oooooh there’s that new Sugar Babes songs in’t ther? CHOOOOON”  he says excitably looking at his fellow PD’s.

Touring since the 17th of September following the release of their fourth album ‘We Met at Sea’, the boys divulge their less-than-wild touring antics.

“Since we’ve become a bit bigger, we just sort of get chauffeured to and from hotels and venues.  We’re never on the bus long enough for it to get messy even.” Jimmi takes charge again as Dave turns his attention to a banana.

“When we first began, it was hard being on tour for weeks and weeks. Imagine being in a boy’s bedroom…. it stinks! With twelve men on a bus, by the fourth week its like ‘oh God’”

“What do you miss most about home?” I ask. The normal answers emerge; Sky TV, a home sofa, the other half, specific teabags. However, I quickly uncover that the absence of Yorkshire tea aboard the tour was a big problem for guitarist Ryan Wilson than I could have anticpated.

Following a tweet complaining about just that, Ryan reveals how a special box of Yorkshire tea was sent to the boys by the Yorkshire tea team! This is evidently a good move on their behalf as the boys look ecstatic!

Talking of twitter, I ask the boys about their less -than-shy approach to social networking sites, referring to occasions when the PD’s have addressed ‘dirty little gig b****es’ and thanked ‘sexy Scottish b*stards’ via tweet.

“That’s just generally the way we talk”, explains Jimmi. “It’s kinda post gig excitement that. You’re still buzzing y’know.”

“We’re obviously quite energetic on stage and it passes onto the crowd. Half the time you come of stage and we’re all still ‘adrenalined up’. We feed off the crowd as much as they feed off us. I think we just get a bit excited”.

Considering the commitment from their followers, particularly from one fan as Ryan lets on, it seems to be a rather successful if not conventional method of communication!

“Jimmi’s genuinely got a stalker,” he explains. “Anytime Jimmi mentions anything on twitter or either of us mention Jimmi , this one particular lad goes crazy. He turned up in a bar in York once because he thought Jimmi was going to be there!”

The interruptions from the sound check going on outside are a reminder that the boys soon have business to attend to. I asked them how they prepared before going on stage. “Matt drinks half a pint of Gin”, says Dave piping up again for a few seconds.

“The rest of us are pretty chilled out ; couple of beers, have a chat, rub each other down and go on stage,” Ryan clarifies. When it comes to chilling out afterwards, “We’re all a bit different actually” he says.

“Sometimes after a good gig, adrenalines still going, some band members will run to the nearest bar and go party and some just want to chill out. Depends on how much energy you have after the gig really”.

Jimmi adds in, “We’re generally more chilled because it’s so intense. For about ten minutes after, we don’t even really like to be bothered because we just need to sit down. We’re all a little bit achey and tired but you don’t feel it when you’re up there playing, it’s generally the next day when you’re like ‘ooooh me back!’

When asked about the contrasting response to the new album between the fans and the critics. Ryan said, “I’m not denying it’s nice to get good reviews but it has to be more about what the fans think. The last album we felt we were stereotyped a bit and it can p*ss you off when you put a lot of time and money into an album but its water off a duck’s back really. The fans seem to like it and they are whose paying for it.”

“The best thing as a band is touring and that’s nothing to do with critics. It’s nice to have a good review but it doesn’t really affect us,” Ryan confirms.

Before I leave the boys to have a few pints and ‘rub each other down’ before the gig starts, I take the opportunity to ask the lads’ advice for new bands starting out. With a decade’s worth experience touring, gigging and creating music, Ryan replies straight away; “Gig as much as possible.”

Jimmi, who also spends a lot of time in the studio with new and up and coming bands agrees. “It makes you a better band. Start Networking. See what the crowd respond to and work on that”.

“Oh and don’t act like Liam Gallagher,” Ryan chirps. “Only act like a big time b*stard when you are one! And don’t be naive and believe all the bulls**t either!”

Leaving the interview, the only thing I can say I enjoyed more than chatting to these genuinely awesome lads was watching them perform an hour or so later. Matt Bowman completes an awesome show in Cardiff by inviting the crowd to flood the stage during the encore (despite the bouncer’s efforts to prevent this happening) and everyone crashes around the stage in true Pigeon Detectives style!

JAMES: The album was funded through kickstarter. How have you found that different to working with a label?

HARRY: you have to put a lot more stuff in jiffy bags. If we had to do an album which we didn’t think was great we’d have found it quite hard to feel like we could say to people “give us some money” because its only going to be hardcore fans who do something like that. We tried to get people feeling involved, which they are of course because they’re making it possible to do it. I was a bit wary of it because I think sometimes it looks a bit shit and I’ve seen some really shit ones. They try to sell it, it’s pretty weird. We treated it like a big pre order of the record and some other cool stuff, like t-shirts a couple of things we had kicking about. Mainly most of the things were vinyl, cd, picture disk or something. It’s scary, now we’ve had all these people give us some money, we  really do have to make this happen now, otherwise we have to give it all back and if we’ve spent it how do we give it back if it doesn’t quite work. No one was saying “Where are your singles?”, we could do whatever we want.

JAMES: In the past you’ve recorded on your own label, was that different to doing it with a kickstarter?

HARRY: It was funded by a distributor so we didn’t have to ask anybody for the money because they were giving it to us but that was like having a label telling you what to do. This time it was a bit more like, this was our label. We found a distributor but after we’d done the kickstarter. Our manager wanted us to make a stadium pop record, and what we wanted to do was make a noisy as shit record, make a fun record. A record label can’t really afford to take risks so I think people get a bit more creatively squeezed. People don’t buy records unless they are big poppy records. I think it’s the way forward, but it’s a bit weird because you couldn’t be an emerging artist and use it very successfully. I don’t know how you’d do it nowadays, it will sort itself out. It just doesn’t create people or create fans. Music creates fans. You can’t really access a bunch more people using one of those things. How do you get people to listen to your music? It’s a micro-economy now, there aren’t the three big players.

JAMES: when you were recording it you used a lot of homemade percussion. What led you to choose tha?.

HARRY: Some of that was stuff we found around and about, scaffold pipes and stuff like that. And skips, I like getting in a skip. One was a barbeque I had that sounded wicked. We went up to this old air hanger with a bunch of stuff to record just to record the huge reverb and stuff in these big hangars that was insane. Used a load of software as well, a lot of free iPad apps. There’s a load of good free iPad apps, so if you think “I really need a toy piano” you can just download an app where someone’s sampled it and there you go, you’ve got a free piano. Used quite a few synths. We wanted to make it industrial sounding. A lot of my favourite bands use quite mechanical industrial noises. I like mixed that up with drums and other noises and synthy drum sounds and just mess about with production, you know have fun, something that’s quite difficult to do in a studio where you’ve got a producer who thinks you’re a three piece guitar band who sets the base up, sets the drums up and what if you want to do it in a different way know? I was quite happy for the idea we could try loads of stuff out. At least we’re trying it.

JAMES: You recorded a lot in the hangar, how did you run into that?

HARRY: There’s this old US air force base up the road from here, the air force was there until about ’94 so its quite Cold War and I’ve wanted to go there but we’d never found anyone who’d let us in, but eventually we found one and they have the old flight control rooms all fallen down and decontamination decks which is all still there, the flight rooms got one of those everyone sitting behind a desk with a computer then they all look at a big computer then they have lights which tell you what kind of attacks are happening. Kind of spooky.

JAMES: Did that influence the record at all?

HARRY: I think it fuelled recording really, at times we’d want a sound the guy would let us in and we’d find some stuff to hit, but I wanted to keep stuff fairly. I feel like I wrote some stuff that was inspired by military prowess, we watch the films up there about the pilots and all the ones who’d died and who the heroes were in this dead empty place. I think it inspired some of the lyrical themes, and some of the concrety sounds as well. I didn’t want it to be a bleak record, I wanted it to be fun.

JAMES: leading on from that were there any other key influences on the record?

HARRY: I guess a lot of it was reacting to the way we’d been pushed before, so this one was a bit of a reaction to begin with. We had a very slick sounding record last time we made one which isn’t really what we wanted, but I got the feeling we were told to make it big, poppy and slick. We wanted it like records where its harsh and fun, I don’t like being lumped in with this indie guitar thing. Not what I necessarily what I want to be doing. I don’t feel we need to be part of that, we need to be more out there. We want to be more out there. I’m just looking to make interesting, creative music. We’d never felt we’d had a chance to do that since major labels and you can feel the music industry falling apart. I wasn’t going to go around begging people for money, just make a record, that’s the way to do it. The attitude was quite influenced be being on our terms and being as free as want to be. Let’s make a gnarly record.

JAMES: The big industrial record this year would probably be Yeezus by Kanye West, was that any influential at all?

HARRY: I saw the Jool’s Holland performance and I was intrigued. It was a strong decision. He comes across as a dick and I think that’s brilliant, self assured and weird. Just doing what they want. It’s a pity that the hip hop or dance scene are the only ones really experimenting. I guess its something to do with being American as you have a much bigger audience, there are huge areas of land you can cover and gig. You have to look outside Britain, look outside to push boundaries. Whatever we do, people will say we’ve done an indie record.

JAMES: Would indie guitar music be something you’d ever want to go back to?

HARRY: I don’t know, I feel like you could take it, create it as a theory and create great music. I’m cool to keep it fluid, I would like to do some stuff that was devoid, you cant work out what the instruments are. That seems to me to be the word forward. I like using guitars, but I like it when you can’t work out whats playing and you’re not listening to the guitar, you’re just listening to the music. We have to try a bit harder, we’re not being an indie band anymore, we’re just making some music but that’s very difficult to do.

JD: In the shows for Sick Octave you say its going to be more of a performance

HARRY: We’ve always rocked up and done it pretty natural and like a straight forward rock n roll shows, but sometimes you get lulls and you stay stuff and the audience are like, you know, its Monday night in Macklesfeild, its not a big night for them, they’re just watching. We thought we’d do this record a bit different, just throw everything at them. We do old stuff at the end, but in the context of doing a whole new album. Just make sure it looks good and things look good. Its quite structured. Let’s dress it up bright and throw stuff in between. We build a bit of a story out of it, its freaky and disjointed. The audience thinks, “what’s going to happen next” and things happen.

JAMES: How are you?

ANDREW: I’m okay man I’m just doing work. So only as good as a person doing work can be. It’s a bitter pill but it needs to be done otherwise we would all be living under bridges and robbing people with bits of wood.

JAMES: In your first album your lyrics have some quite strong statements such as “violence should solve everything” and “tories you sleep with the devil.” Do you think this is something that is still present in your music?

ANDREW: Well in the case of ‘violence should solve everything’ that wasn’t saying that violence SHOULD solve everything I was saying in a particular case violence did solve everything. I’m not the kind of person who believes violence solved everything. I deplore violence and for me when the aggression of our band is misconstrued for an excuse for violence we try and get that out the show as quickly and painlessly as possible. We’re all left leaning individuals. We all sold certain truths to be apparent. We don’t believe in hectoring or lecturing people about what we believe. Its true that the kind of people who go to indie rock shows are 98% going to be leaning to the left and there are a lot of things you take for granted with an audience like that. There are bands who are more explicitly political and I would suggest those bands are more useful for a younger crowd who are being introduced to new concepts and ways of thinking. Something that a lot of our audience would think they were being patronised.

JAMES: This latest album closely follows the release of your last album. Was there a reason for releasing another one so quickly?

ANDREW: It’s as simple as we had the opportunity to write some songs even though we didn’t rehearse as often the songs came easier. The trick with being in a band is there is no trick to being in a band. You work hard, you write hard, sometimes songs take ages and sometimes they attack you like a bunch of greedy fucking bees and in this case it was just easy. Every time you rehearsed two or three songs came forward to pull their trousers down and let us know they wanted to be considered and it was just really easy. There’s never really a plan or a plot I mean ideally we’d release great new music all the time, but you know there might not be another record for three or four years or there might be another in a year and a half. I don’t know. It all depends on the quality of the creative inspiration which happens around us basically.

JAMES: This album was crowd funded rather than with a label. Was there a particular reason for pursuing this?

ANDREW: Last time we did end up releasing through a label but the whole process of releasing through a label was protracted and painful. Its possible we could have found a label for this record but because of that we didn’t. Crowd funding really, aside from a rich relative dying, and I’m ANDREWraid I have none of those alive or dead, um or taking out more credit card debt crowd funding was really our only option and we went about it in a way that was particular to the band. And we succeeded and though some people weren’t happy with the whole notion of crowd funding they see it as begging, I don’t see this as begging. We’ve earnt enough in leeway in respectful action over the years to be seen to be rather beyond that kind of thing.

JAMES: It was a success, was that encouraging, were there any particularly big donations?

ANDREW: There aren’t any particularly big donations but it was very encouraging but there is a risk of something as explicitly financially based as crowd funding that there is a risk in explicitly financial terms but there was something lovely to see that much faith in practice and to realise that within five hours of putting the whole thing online that we were going to be able to make the record in the exact way that we wanted.

JAMES: What was the recording process of the self service video? Do you think that had a big impact?

ANDREW: Well not a lot of people actually watched it and a lot of people who pledged never actually wrote it but I wrote the script and then we got one of our favourite comedians, Andy Zaltzman who does a podcast with John Oliver called The Bugle, to do the voice over. Julia, one of her day jobs is she works in comedy as a booker so we were able to contact him so I wrote the script, he performed it. Myself and Julia, but mainly Julia edited the whole thing together and it took, for something that is about a minute and forty seconds long, it probably took from beginning to end about 60 to 70 hours of work to get it all exactly right using our rather basic editing equipment but we’re really, really happy with it and I think playing around with something creative probably helped balance our nerves about asking people for so much money. It made it feel like a business decision and more of an explicitly creative one.

JAMES: So now you’ve done this and set up your prescriptions music do you have plans to expand that or just use it to release your own music?

ANDREW: At this stage its been alongside normal life holding down day jobs. I mean, my brother Jacks just had a baby and our guitar player just got engaged and myself and Julia just got married three months ago, aside from doing all that and holding down day jobs and releasing this album, which been far more work than we would have ever had imagined, especially for Julia, there hasn’t been a time good enough sticks it something good enough comes forward but absolutely why not but unfortunately we’re not in a position where we can loose money on anything and running a record money is a really good way to loose money you don’t already have.

JAMES: Sounds like things are going well in your personal lives, but would you say your latest album is still angry?

ANDREW: Certainly on terms of love and life, not in terms of financially but there’s more to life than money I hear.

I wouldn’t say angry, I would say more energetic. Not that kind of frame of mind, we never sit down with a, some bullet points of societal issues or the bullshit construction of language which needs to be tackled, it just turns out that way. I guess I’m just an aggressive person in a lot of ways. I don’t mean physically aggressive, I don’t go round head butting lamp post or taking a piss on sleeping dogs but um you know I’m quite, what’s a good phrase in cricket when people are far too, you know far too tattakcin, “they’re not going to die wondering” and I’m not going to die wondering.

JAMES: I saw from your twitter that you’re shipping your albums from your local post office?

ANDREW: For some reason they don’t like us, we go round, with maybe in the last week of going round there, with three or four hundred records and cds, you know already franked we hired a small franking machine to keep postage costs down. They really don’t want to take our fucking post. I give the bag to the guy and he’s like ‘if there is a problem contact the postman not us.’ And I just say to him ‘why do you hate being a post office?’ your job is to deliver mail, its all been paid for, you’ve got all the documentation’. They’re also now a WHS smith so selling copies of the daily mail and mars bars and they won’t actually post some fucking packages.

JAMES: How do you feel about streaming services, how do you feel about them?

ANDREW: I’m not the biggest fan, but you know, if people don’t stream your record they’re just going to download it illegally. If they love you’re record they’ll end up buying it in some format which can be listened to more conveniently or honestly. I can’t feel its an honest or befitting model for art but you know that’s how it is. There’s a lot of things you get pissed off about the world at large and the particularly the music industry before you get to streaming and getting annoyed about it… its like getting annoyed at the rain for being wet.

JAMES: Your latest album artwork is interesting, what’s going on there?

ANDREW: A friend does the artwork, we looked at some safety cards and he gave us some initial ideas which were very close to that which we loved and we looked at that theme and ideal and we went with it and it’s connected with the album title. I’m very happy with it and feel very lucky that all the artwork for our four records has been very different, very happy with all of them and there isn’t one of them that hasn’t worked. On CD and on LP it’s a gatefold which is a fantastic thing and even though it means we paid top dollar for it and making a lot less money its just a fantastic thing to old rather than something that you’d just stream. It’s a real thing and you think of the love and attention that went into that package.

One incident occurred outside student night club ‘Sin City’ during the first Sin Savers of the year. The sheer weight of people queuing caused metal windows shutters at next door estate agent Peter Alan to buckle under the crush.

A spokesman for Peter Alan said: “We reported it to the police but we take any further action as there is no CCTV to confirm who did it.’’

Students also reported being pushed over whilst queuing for the Freshers’ Ball this year when people at the back surged forward.

Meanwhile, Samantha Booth, an English literature student at Swansea University, was injured at the Summer Ball in June when she was trampled by a crowd.

Sam said: “I was dancing to Wretch 32 and the next thing I know I was at the bottom of a pile-up in which I lost my belongings and injured my ankle.”

“I had to climb out of the crowd where St. John’s ambulance saw to my injury and took me to A&E. I spent four hours in pain waiting to be seen when I should have been enjoying the ball with my friends.”

Student culture encourages people to “pre-load” with alcohol before they go out, which leads to people’s behaviour deteriorating before events have even begun.

Excitable crowds then become impatient and volatile if an event is delayed.

Alan Daventry, who was forced to wait for entry for an over-subscribed Sin Savers, said: “I was going out to Sin with two of my friends and we were waiting in a queue which covered the entire pavement.

“When a handful of students were accepted in it encouraged the people further back to start pushing forward. That’s when the crush happened.”

For many students the discomfort of battling a rowdy crowd and the worry of getting injured are preventing them enjoying themselves on a night out.

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We were out to see Simon and Duncan from Blue perform live at Oceana at the beginning of term. It started out okay but then people started pushing so that we ended up being squashed completely into the stage.

“When we got home we realised that we had really bad bruising. It ruined the night.”

Students say more needs to be done. Politics and German student Olivia Tubby commented: “The risk of injury in crowd situations needs to be acknowledged.’’
Ancient and Medieval student Laura Mullins said: “The pushing and shoving ruins the night, so many students end up heading home.”

Welfare officer Rebecca Grimes replied: “We take the safety of our students very seriously, and we are aware that it is a minority of students that cause trouble.”
A spokesman for Swansea University Students’ Union said: “The safety of students is paramount in all that we do and especially in the planning of our events. We will continue to look at ways to improve and enhance the measures in place to ensure the safety of our members.

“In doing so we also ask that those attending our events to act responsibly and to be mindful of others to ensure that everyone enjoys their time at our events and venues.”

Pickets were manned by both staff and students as three unions, Unison, UCU and Unite, mounted the stoppage in protest over a 1% pay offer.

Lectures were cancelled, the refectory closed, car parks virtually empty and the campus all but deserted as students stayed away. The library also closed early.

“We are striking because our employers have only offered us 1% as a pay increase and that’s on top of a 13% cut in pay in real terms over the past four years,” said Simon Hoffman, branch president of UCU.

“The last time staff had a decent pay rise was the end of 2009,” added Stephen M Storey, branch secretary of Unison.

Strikers also pointed to the fact that staff were being offered 1% when Swansea University Vice Chancellor Richard B. Davies last year accepted a 20% pay rise – the biggest rise of any vice chancellor in Wales – taking his salary to £222,000.

Adrian Jenkins, branch secretary of Unite, said: “We are just looking for fair pay. Universities are not short of money. Senior staff like the vice chancellor are getting big pay rises yet we still have many staff like cleaners and porters earning less than the living wage.”

UCU, Unison and Unite are campaigning for all universities to pay a living wage to their workers.

“The employers’ representatives are relying on the fact that people are desperate to keep their jobs in a time of recession. They are saying that 1% is all they can afford but that’s nonsense. Most universities have cash reserves and there is a £1billion surplus in the higher education sector,” said Howard Moss, branch treasurer of UCU.

The National Union of Students (NUS) supports the three staff unions in believing that university staff should be properly supported.

Part-time and full-time officers from Swansea University’s student union were on the picket lines. The officers and volunteers helped out by making hot drinks for striking staff to keep their spirits high.

Christopher Whitty, ethics officer for the students’ union, said: “It was a decision taken by the executive board to fully support the strike.
“Staff are key to running the university, and if they feel like they are being treated unfairly, it will reflect in the student experience.
“The best lecturers are turning away from Wales due to low pay opportunities. These lecturers are heading elsewhere, such as universities in America where they would be paid a better wage.”

Not all students were in favour of the strike. James Taylor, a business student, said: “I have paid a substantial amount of money to come to university and because of their actions I am not getting what I have paid for. If uni was free then I would have no basis for complaint but all students pay substantial fees to attend and they are not getting the service paid for.”

Simon Hoffman, branch president of UCU, said: “We appreciate that taking this action causes disruption to students but we hope they understand the reason we are taking action. We have received messages of support from both the NUS and SUSU.”

Staff union members will continue their industrial action. Simon Hoffman said: “We hope the strike will have the effect of bringing the employers back to the negotiating table. The industrial action does not end here – universities rely on goodwill from staff to keep the university going but from tomorrow we will be working to contract.”

The one-day strike was the first national industrial action since 2006 and the first time that all three unions have gone on strike together.

A Swansea University spokesperson said: “The strike is part of a national pay dispute. Locally, the university has good relations with its recognised trade unions. The university has endeavoured to ensure that, as far as possible, disruption to students is kept to a minimum.”

Last Friday, business students were notified that: “The School of Management Steering Group has agreed to suspend all student activities within the School of Management on Thursday October 31st.”

The email also carried the warning: “it would be inappropriate to expect our students to cross the picket line.”

Student James Taylor complained directly to Dean Nigel Piercy: “As a paying ‘client’ of the School of Management the news of the upcoming strike action closing the school for the day and denying students contact hours that they have paid for in their tuition fees is grossly disappointing.”

Since September, the school have removed all references to students internally, renaming the ‘Student Support Office’, to the ‘Client Experience Office’

Taylor went on to ask how the university was going to: “compensate students for this loss of service which we have paid for.”

Newly appointed Management Dean Professor Nigel Piercy replied, agreeing with Taylor’s concerns and confirmed: “Teaching and other student-facing activities will continue on a normal basis.”

Dean Piercy went on in a staff email to clarify the situation: “Please accept my personal assurance that this is NOT the policy of the university or the School and this message was sent in error.”

What’s your opinion? Do you prefer being called a client or a student? Comment below.

The girls posed for the 2014 calendar back in April and their efforts are now on sale for £5.

All money raised will go to Swansea-based Lluest Horse and Pony Trust and Cancer Research.

Jennifer Tigwell, last year’s society secretary, said: “We’d like to thank the following people, as we wouldn’t have been able to do or make the calendars without them.”

Photographers: Sam Pendlebury and Emily Peters, Editor: Christopher Dyer, Dinefwr Riding Centre, & Clearprint Solutions who have made the calendars free of charge. www.clearprintsolutions.co.uk

The calendars will be on sale on eBay soon but in the meantime anyone who wants a calendar should email equestrian@swansea-union.co.uk

Tim, who had died 53 weeks after being diagnosed with the incredibly rare and highly aggressive cancer Ewing Sarcoma, had been a determined and active member of university life.

Despite remaining positive and returning to university, to the orchestra, bands and sport teams he represented, Tim lost his battle to the cancer in February at the age of 21.

Inspired by his friend’s resilience, Richard decided to raise funds for The Ewing’s Sarcoma Research Trust by cycling home through six countries from Odense in Denmark.

The idea behind Richard’s remarkable journey was prompted by a friend asking how he was planning on transporting his bike back to the UK from Odense University in Denmark where he had been studying as an Erasmus student.

The incentive behind Richard’s decision stayed with him throughout the gruelling journey and on the afternoon of 10th of August, Richard achieved his goal as he crossed the channel from Calais to Dover to arrive at Exeter Cathedral Green.

He said: “Thank you so much to all the people who helped me along the way, gave me messages of support and most of all the people who donated towards such a great cause. I couldn’t have done it without you all! I am pleased to announce that the current amount raised has surpassed £3,000.”

It is hoped that Richard’s success and commitment will raise general awareness of the Ewing Sarcoma cancer and encourage others to support the cause.

You can make a donation in memory of Tim by visiting https://www.facebook.com/denmarktodevon and support the trust’s campaign to help to ensure that in the not too distant future patience can survive encounters with Ewing’s Sarcoma.

Notice is hereby given of an Election to elect 4 Part-time Officers for the academic year 2013-2014.

The positions are :-

FRESHERS REP. (Only 1st Years are eligible to apply);
POSTGRADUATE REP. (Only Postgraduates are eligible to apply);
STUDENT WITH CARING RESPONSIBILITIES OFFICER;
WELSH AFFAIRS OFFICER (SWYDDOG MATERION CYMRAEG)

We will also be electing student representatives to attend the following Conferences on behalf of Swansea Students’ Union :-
NUS WALES DELEGATES x 3
NUS UK DELEGATES x 4

The Students’ Union will also be electing Subject Representatives for every level of every course in the University. This opportunity is for all; including undergraduates, postgraduate taught and postgraduate teaching students.

More information can be sought from the President, Zahid Raja:
president@swansea-union.co.uk

Nominations will open on THURSDAY, 10TH OCTOBER 2013 at 12 noon.
Nominations will close on THURSDAY, 17TH OCTOBER 2013 at 5.00 p.m.

Candidates can nominate themselves on-line from midday on the 10TH October 2013 at www.swansea-union.co.uk please follow the links for the nomination process.

Publicity deadline is FRIDAY, 18TH OCTOBER 2013 AT 4.00 p.m.

There will be a meeting with the Returning Officers on THURSDAY, 17TH OCTOBER 2013 at 5.00 p.m. Could candidates please make every effort to attend.

Voting will take place via an on-line portal at www.swansea-union.co.uk
on Thursday, 24th October 2013 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Election results will be announced the same evening.

*More details are available from administrator@swansea-union.co.uk or matthewhurst@swansea-union.co.uk