University Challenge: Meet the University of Leeds’ New Team
Ria Sharma speaks to the students hoping to represent the University of Leeds on University Challenge
Why More Students Feel Lonely as Days Grow Shorter – and How to Break the Cycle
Ria and Sarah speak to Dr Dominique Thompson about loneliness and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Why the Riots Mean That Nothing Will Be the Same Again
Ria explains the dramatic threat the recent riots had on the UK, and the new reality many in the UK now face
The Emmy’s: The Bear is Not a Comedy
Ria Sharma dives into the confusing comedy nominations for The Bear this award season, and the necessity for clarity between the categories.
Stop Believing These 6 Fitness Myths
Find fitness and gym culture intimidating? Ria Sharma breaks down some common misconceptions that may be holding you back.
Lighting could be installed in Woodhouse Moor to make it ‘more welcoming for women’
It is hoped that a community artwork and lighting project could make Woodhouse Moor more welcoming for women.
Woodhouse Moor is the most visited park in the city with 3 million visitors a year and is a student favourite because of its location next to the University of Leeds.
But the park, which has no street lighting, is pitch black at night which, according to some residents, has led to it becoming synonymous with criminal behaviour.
Sara Sheikh, who lives in Hyde Park, says: “I think it’s dangerous that the park doesn’t have any lights, especially being so close to the university and accommodation, at night it makes it unwelcome and scary. Also, we have seen a lot of safety issues recently to do with women walking out at night.”
A research group in the University of Leeds School of Law have conducted a study that found many women avoid parks and deem them unsafe – especially at night.
Similarly, in 2022, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 82% of women felt ‘very or fairly unsafe alone in a public setting” at night. The ONS also found that women are three times more likely than men to feel unsafe in parks during the day.
However, this could soon change in Woodhouse Moor.
Wow Park, which was announced last month, is a collaborative project by the University of Leeds, Leeds City Council and the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin. It aims to introduce public art and lighting to make Woodhouse Moor safer for women.
It comes despite the fact that Leeds City Council has in the past refused to install lighting in the park due to fears it could allow attackers to wait in the dark spaces to prey upon people in the lit areas.
Anna Barker is an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice & Criminology at the University of Leeds. She has led several projects surrounding the issue of parks and is involved in the proposed project in Woodhouse Moor.
Barker told The Gryphon that she was inspired by statistics such as the ONS research that says that women feel less safe in parks than they do in other types of public spaces such as residential streets, high streets and on public transport.
“Our perceptions of safety matter as they influence our behaviour, and the result is often that women and girls restrict their use of parks and alter their behaviour to keep themselves safe. This can have a significant impact on their lives, and their ability to move freely around our towns and cities as parks provide key connecting routes, to socialise, improve well-being and engage in physical activity and exercise in parks, especially when alone.”
She says there currently aren’t any detailed proposals for the design or location of the lighting as these will be shaped in consultation with the community in the coming months.
“We will be working closely with the local community to hear their views on several different creative interventions which could help to make Woodhouse Moor a more welcoming place for women and girls.”
Barker says that her research has shown that women feel safer in well-used parks, particularly where there is a strong presence of other women who act as a signal of safety.
She said that the women she spoke to in her original research “valued amenities, activities, facilities and interventions that bring people to the park, especially other women, activate and animate the space and create a sense of belonging.”
The project will begin in the next few weeks with the designs revealed in late spring and early summer.
“They arrived at the festival and never went home”: Leeds Festival dealers jailed after police sting
Two men have been sent to prison after they pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine, MDMA and ketamine at Leeds Festival this Summer.
20-year-old Joshua Hague and 18-year-old Wade Taylor from Barnsley were caught by West Yorkshire Police storing drugs in their tents with an estimated value of £32,270.
They were part of a larger group that tried to flee from the police when suspected at the festival and have been detained by the police since their arrests in late August.
Hague pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply whilst Taylor pleaded guilty to three counts. They will both spend the 45 months in a young offender’s prison.
Their case follows several other sentences made in October to men possessing Class A and Class B drugs.
Overall, 56 people were arrested at the festival for possessing or supplying drugs.
West Yorkshire Police confiscated 417 MDMA pills, 160g of cocaine and 236g of ketamine from people at the festival.
Although drugs are strictly forbidden at the festival, the festival website encourages anyone who has taken drugs and is worried or feels unwell to find the drug advisory staff located in the medical tent.
In 2022, 16-year-old David Celino passed away after taking MDMA bought at the festival. Sniffer dogs at the festival entrances were introduced because of this.
The festival also uses the stage screens to display images of pills that people who are unwell in the medical tent have taken, in hopes of warning others.
The West Yorkshire Police Superintendent hopes that these sentences will “serve as a very strong deterrent” to those thinking of dealing drugs at the 2024 festival.
“They arrived at the festival site in August to cynically make money from selling drugs, but they never went home and are now starting lengthy periods in prison”.
Family coming to Leeds? Where to eat without breaking the bank
Ria Sharma lists some of the best restaurants in Leeds to take your visiting family!
2023 Autumn Statement: what you need to know
On the 22nd of November, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt presented the 2023 Autumn Statement explaining future plans for fiscal policy.
The main points from the speech were as follows:
- The employee National Insurance contribution rate will be cut from 12% to 10% on the 6th January 2024. National insurance is a tax on earnings paid by employers and employees. Employees pay national insurance once their income exceeds the £12,750 threshold.
- Hunt also confirmed that the National Living Wage will be raised from £10.42 an hour to £11.44 an hour. This applies to over 21s and will result in around £570 more per year for 5.5mil UK households. Before the autumn statement the NLW was applicable to over 23s but the age has been lowered.
- In addition, the National Minimum Wage, which applies to under 18-20 year olds is increasing to £8.60 an hour.
- The ‘full expensing’ tax break for businesses has been made permanent which will allow for businesses to invest more in machinery and technology. ‘Full expensing’ means purchases on equipment and upgrades by companies will be tax-free and is essentially a tax break for corporations
- Universal credit will rise by 6.7%, this is a means-tested benefit available for low-income people. This raise is in line with inflation, meaning those on universal credit will not be more well-off after the increase,
- However, alongside benefit increases the government is cracking down on claimants who they deem able to work but are claiming unemployment benefits.This will include tracking whether Universal Credit claimants have been attending job fairs and interviews and enforcing mandatory work placements for any recipients still unemployed after 18 months.
- There is a freeze on raising alcohol duty, a tax levied on alcohol, until 1 August 2024.
- The Office for Budget Responsibility has said there will be a £19 billion cut to public service spending in order to tackle waste.
- All eligible working parents in England can access 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks per year from when their child is 9 months old, to when they start school.
Despite these changes, Hunt is operating in a context where the tax-burden is at a 70-year high. High taxes are resulting in increased discontent from Conservative backbenchers and media who see the party as the traditionally low-tax, less public spending party.
Hunt attempted to outline more positive news, opening saying that the economy has grown since the pandemic instead of falling into recession.
He then stated that “we [the party], reduce debt, cut taxes and reward work. We deliver world-class education. We build domestic sustainable energy and we back British business with 110 growth measures”.
He reinforced this attempt at optimism saying that the economy is predicted to grow by 0.7% in 2024. However this is lower than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)’s 1.8% forecast.
In addition, inflation is expected to fall down to 2.8% by the end of 2024 which is still 0.8% above the Bank of England’s 2% target.
Labour Shadow Chancellor and MP for Leeds West, Rachel Reeves, responded on the Labour Party website:
“The Chancellor claims the economy has ‘turned a corner’, yet the truth is that under the Conservatives growth has hit a dead end.
What has been laid bare today is the full scale of the damage that this government has done to our economy over thirteen years.
And nothing that has been announced today will remotely compensate.”
Rachel Reeves
The autumn statement marks just another part of the Labour-Conservative fight to establish themselves as fiscally responsible ahead of the 2024 General Election.
BBC SOUNDS: THE FUTURE OF LISTENING?
Written by Ria Sharma Edited by Eve Moat
Created in 2018 and eventually replacing the iPlayer radio app, BBC Sounds is the number 1 place to find BBC Live radio, podcasts and on-demand audio.
But is it the future of BBC listening?
As of 2023, BBC Sounds is drawing in a record number of listeners – up 50% from the last year. Weekly, the platform has an audience of 4.8 million people.
The Artists Icon Collection particularly caught my attention. The episodes are either hosted by artists or presenters playing songs by their own favourite artists (like Griff playing her favourite Taylor Swift tracks). Or, a presenter will find rare performances dug out of the BBC archives. Even better, there are episodes where the artists themselves play the songs that inspired them throughout their careers. The 6 Music Artist Collection is also a highlight. BBC Radio 6 says they are “Celebrating the music and career of artists and exploring their influences and those they have in turn inspired”. The artists celebrated range in genre, from Blur to Phoebe Bridgers.
Sounds is also a capsule for the many defining Radio 1 events that go on throughout the year. Radio 1’s Live Lounge Month was in October and all the tracks have been uploaded to Sounds for anyone who didn’t manage to catch them live – including the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat and Troye Sivan. Similarly, you can access behind-the-scenes content from Glastonbury and a 32-episode Eurovision podcast series. The BBC also uses Sounds to capture their own events, like Big Weekend.
Regarding podcasts, BBC Sounds had 237 million podcast downloads in the 2nd quarter of 2023. Of course, BBC Sounds lacks a lot of independent podcasts that can be found on other platforms such as Spotify. The BBC tends to commission podcasts from already established podcasting companies or pick up podcasts after they have already gained traction. In the music genre of podcasts, Sounds has succeeded in having big names as hosts. This includes Dua Lipa’s At Your Service Podcast which is on its third season. There is also the Eras Podcast which includes episodes in which Martin Freeman narrates the history of the Beatles.
Beyond music, there is also a wide selection of audiobooks on BBC Sounds, from classics like The Great Gatsby to recent releases such as Yellow Face by R.F Kuang. Similarly, there are series of BBC Bitesize content for English Literature, Biology and general study support.
Just by looking at the app, you can see that Sounds is aimed at the younger generation who are perhaps unlikely to tune into Live Radio. Yet, many young people are likely to be surprised at just how much Sounds has to offer – especially the content of their favourite artists.
As a streaming platform, BBC Sounds is in many ways a success. With big competitors like Spotify, BBC Sounds still has far to grow but with its original content and famed hosts, it is definitely ticking the boxes for a great listening experience. So will BBC Sounds take over regular BBC radio? Probably not anytime soon as traditional BBC radio still racks in a large number of viewers with the BBC stating that nearly 1 in 4 of all UK adults are tuning into Radio 2 live.
But with people wanting more content on demand, we can definitely say that BBC Sounds is on the rise and whether you’re into classical music, pop music or even podcasts about music, there is something for everyone!
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