The AV debate is one that is far more interesting and complex than the referendum would have you believe. On 5 May when we vote it is to say “Yes” or “No” to switching to the alternative voting system. What this overlooks is the number of people who vote no but would like the voting reform to happen, those who vote yes but really just want anything but first past the post.
BY EMMA GALLEN
Waste Land was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar (however, Inside Job won). It starts off with a festival full of people, lights and sounds. Filmed on an epic scale, it seems more like a setting for a major fiction film. The festival is big, grand and full of life. Suddenly, it’s the next day and bin lorries mill around the same empty streets, picking up the debris of the previous night’s celebrations. The banners and a giant dragon, so vibrant and colourful before, are now wreckage waiting to be picked up. Yesterday’s art becomes today’s rubbish.
BY MATTHEW MCKERNAN
On 5 May we will be asked whether we wish to change the system of voting MPs to Westminster. The question is whether we stick with first past the post the system we have used for centuries or adopt the alternative vote (AV) which is more proportionate. Proponents of this change maintain that it is a no-brainer to adopt a more proportionate and thus fairer system of voting. This is not strictly true as it can be argued that proportionate means of voting promote incompetence and stagnation.
BY ALEXANDER REDPATH
QUB Christian Union saw off a strong second year Medic side in the latest Societies’ rugby match. Both sides have been suffering from poor form in recent weeks. QUB Christian Union were narrowly denied a win by UUJ Christian Union and the second year Medics were comprehensively seen off by their first year colleagues.
It appears everyone in the world is talking about Rebecca Black’s song ‘Friday’. It’s received thirty million hits so far on YouTube, has reached number twenty-five in the iTunes chart and everyone’s united in derision of any merits it could possess. Despite this, Rolling Stone Magazine is praising it saying, “You immediately notice everything that it does “wrong,” but it actually gets a lot of things about pop music right, if just by accident.” It’s a fantastic parody of pop music today.
BY BEN FINCH
Since their debut album To Lose My Life briefly topped the charts in January 2009 London three-piece White Lies have regularly been compared to such gloom-rock luminaries as Editors, Interpol and of course Joy Division. In a recent NME interview, they identified a very different source of inspiration though, unexpectedly citing Kings of Leon as the band whose career trajectory they are aiming to replicate.
BY MATTHEW MISKIMMIN
Eight people were arrested on St Patrick’s Day in the Holylands for offences including disorderly behaviour, criminal damage and assault. There were also a number of people injured and taken to hospital for treatment.
BY KERRI-ANNE CAMPBELL