YES
By Daniel Goddard
What exactly is YUSU’s problem with Carnage? Our own Union has come out in condemnation of the commercially run bar crawl; YUSU President Tim Ngwena came out shortly before Carnage was due to take place in York by saying “we’re disappointed to see Carnage coming to York once again… please be aware that in other carnage events throughout the UK there has been heavy pressure to drink excessively”. Such statements might reek of paternalism, but it is the underlying stench of hypocrisy which should concern us most.
YUSU also hold their own bar crawl, Viking Raid, which some argue, is just as bad as the Carnage events. These people are wrong. From the un-academic binge drinking angle, Viking Raid is a lot lot worse…
Viking Raid is organised thus; catch a bus that you have already paid for from campus at the ridiculously early time of 18.40 and then have at least one drink at eight bars before heading to a nightclub where you’ll pay £1.50 for a drink. This equates to 1700 students enduring nine hours of solid drinking across nine venues spread all over town. Not a problem in my book but some locals (usually of the BNP voting variety) disagree. Carnage, in stark contrast, only has five venues, meaning customers are waiting a lot longer to get served and naturally drink less across the night. I challenge Tim to go out into town and ask locals which event they look forward to the least.
All drinking promotions were off during Carnage; even students who shelled out £3 for Vodka Revs coupons at Freshers’ Fair were disappointed to not be allowed to use them on the night. Even in the club the cheapest drink on the night was two thirds more expensive than it was on Viking Raid. What’s more, with its ‘Doctors and Nurses’ theme, the focus of Carnage seemed to be about fancy dress, as well as drinking.
Nonetheless, ex-YUSU President and now Labour Councillor James Alexander has bizarrely branded this sort of fancy dress as sexist. In what can only be explained as an effort to pander to his electorate, he told The Press: “These hedonistic jaunts encourage drinking to dangerous levels and ecourage young women to dress in a far too provocative way.”
Excuse me Mr Alexander, but which planet do you spend most of your time on? Perhaps you marvel at the ‘good ol’ days’ where women would not have to be subjected to the trials and tribulations of having free will. The very fact that these patronising comments come from a person who sanctioned dozens of University and college events of the same nature makes it all the worse. So bad that my bullshit-o-meter is flashing ‘HARRIET HARMAN TERRITORY’.
Ngwena and Alexander will argue that Union run events are completely different; that somehow because they’re not profit driven, because there are ‘welfare mechanisms’ in place, students will be protected. Protected from what exactly? Urinating on a war memorial? Committing suicide in their rooms? The fact of the matter is that both events have stewards, but their role in how much the revellers drink is negligible. Thanks to the occurance of the two very real, but very isolated instances above, our Prospective MP has slammed all Carnage barcrawls: ‘I do not believe these are safe or reputable events’. My bullshit-o-meter now reads ‘JAN MOIR COCK-UP’.
NO
By Jamie Gallimore
Now, I’m not opposed to a good night out, far from it; indeed, it is an integral part of student life. ‘Carnage’ however, strikes me as a tad excessive. The event serves to encourage drinking to excess. Even though the event organisers, Varsity Leisure Group, tell us ‘VLG does not promote binge drinking nor does it promote drinking to dangerous levels’ in reality the nature of the event paints a different picture. Regardless of whether or not the organisers shirk responsibility with such weasely words, the reality is that in previous events (not just in York) students have very much been encouraged to drink excessive amounts of alcohol. The bars themselves may ‘encourage responsible drinking’ but substantial peer pressure in to ‘pre-drinking’ cannot be fought in this way. Indeed, the Sheffield student who faces a prison sentence for urinating on a war memorial did so after consuming an entire bottle of whiskey.
Carnage puts students’ safety at stake. These jaunts rely very much on the ‘at your own risk’ principle. It puts students in unnecessarily dangerous situations, particularly for the women involved who seem to be encourgaed to dress in a revealing or provocative way. On the whole, it is inevitably going to cause problems for residents as well as people not participating, who often find themselves intimidated by what appears to be an unruly, uniformed crowd of people. Of course people will get drunk on any night out, but under normal circumstances this would be amongst friends, in an altogether more relaxed and ultimately more responsible atmosphere, where personal safety is considerably easier to account for.
Moving away from the ‘carnage’ caused by Carnage, YUSU make the very valid claim that the event is just plain bad value. A Carnage T-shirt costs £8; The total admission prices for the participating venues would be £3, this just for Tru. But when the T-shirt costs just 30p to make, why are they so expensive?
Two years ago, we heard that the organisers of Carnage threatened to sue YUSU when it pointed out the cost to make of these T-shirts and the resulting ethical implications; these T-shirts in all likelihood are sourced from third-world sweatshops. Rather than attempting to address these concerns, or indeed issuing a statement to the contrary, VLG flexed its legal muscles and threatened to litigate against YUSU. This begs the question: surely if VLG has any concern for us, it would not sue the students’ union, a body specifically set up for maintaining our welfare? To do so would make YUSU’s own events, societies and perhaps most importantly its welfare operations somewhat difficult to fund for years to come. with Westminster being spiced up only by scandal and not legislation designed help people during an extremely difficult time.
Daniel,
I couldn’t help but wonder why you’ve implied that locals who condemn heavy drinking events are ‘usually the BNP voting variety’? There are people of all political persuasions who consider the binge drinking culture to be harmful, and, regardless of whether one agrees with them or not, it seems rather offensive to simply dismiss their opinions by wrongly associating them with the BNP. This is how it appeared to me when I read your article but I may have misunderstood, could you clarify what you meant?
Regards,
Sebastian Owen
Sebastian,
Thank you for taking the time to comment. Since this article has been published I have been made aware that there are many parts that some may find ‘offensive’; some unintentional, some not. The example you cited falls into the latter catagory. Let me just be clear, I don’t think that every person in York who complains about ‘binge drinking’ is a BNP voter. But I do think there is a point to be made about the parallels between how locals use scapegoats as a source of blame for the ills of their society. You are not incorrect when you say that “There are people of all political persuasions who consider the binge drinking culture to be harmful”, however I would like to point out that the political persuassions in specifically York lie a lot further right than the national norm. The election of a former leader of the Natioanl Front as an MEP illustrates this well.
Regards,
Daniel Goddard
Daniel, the statements you make in your comments above are downright false. I suggest you actually bother doing some research into what you’re saying (gosh! maybe like a journalist!) and find the actual election figures for York in the latest MEP elections (they’re on the Leeds council website as a starting point). I think you’ll find that the amount of BNP voters in York rested at about 5% – considerably less than the 11% or so regional average which led to the election of a BNP MEP. So, in fact, York lean further *left* than the political norm, as defined in Yorkshire & The Humber at least.
Daniel,
So in clarifying your point you have admitted that you think it is acceptable to make a parallel between the ‘locals’ and fascists, if the ‘locals’ think that binge drinking is a problem? Thank you for making this clear, I just wanted to check I hadn’t misunderstood what you meant before I told you that I think that it’s a ridiculous and offensive thing to say.
I’m a student and I like a drink but I am also aware of the consequences of my actions in the local community. For instance I had a party in the summer which was noisy outside until about 2:30 am. The following morning we had an angry neighbour at our door. Was she a fascist? No. She just wanted a good night’s sleep, and who can blame her?
I don’t know what on earth you mean by ‘locals use scapegoats as a source of blame for the ills in their society.’ What is ‘their’ society? This is a society in which we all live and of which we are all a part. And it’s hardly scapegoating if an angry neighbour blames me for being noisy all night. It was me.
I’m not interested in commenting on the debate about binge drinking, I just think you should recognise the difference between residents who wish to protect their right to sleep through the night and not worry about people urinating on their war memorials, and people who support a rascist political organistion.
Regards,
Sebastian
York local,
I would just like to clarify that the comparision of York was on a national, not a regional level. For clarfication let me remind you what the figures are in reference to votes cast for the BNP: National 6.2%(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_999999.stm, Yorshire and Humber 9.8%(http://www.leeds.gov.uk/Council_and_democracy/Elected_representatives/Elections__results/European_Election_Results_2009.aspx). York City stands at 4.7%, which is lower than the national average, but this is a very small consituency in terms of area and does not include the University or even where most (University of York) students live. They fall into York Outer which only came to fruition after the European elections. At that point the University was under ‘Selby’, which comes in at 7.9% which is more than the national average and a bit behind the region. Thus I struggle to see how my comments on this regard are ‘downright false’. I suggest you actually bother looking at statistics on a more than superficial level (gosh! maybe like a critic!).
Daniel Goddard
P.S. All the county figures are open for anyone to see and can be found on the second link.
>> At that point the University was under ‘Selby’, which comes in at 7.9% which is more than the national average and a bit behind the region
That’s incorrect. For the EU elections, it’s the council area you’re in that decides where you’re counted as, not the parliamentary constituency. York Local is correct, the entire York area is below the regional and national level for BNP voters.
Sebastian,
I completely understand what you are trying to say but I have a sneaking suspicion you stopped reading the article after the BNP sentence. If you had read it fully I feel you would have been able to put that individual statement in the context of the entire piece, both in style and content. Now I’m not saying that I’ll include outrageous remarks just to try and be funny, but you should understand that comment is not news; notwithstanding, I still stand by the said statement.
I’m not going to be able to answer the questions you posed directly as I never used the word ‘fascist’ in my article or in any of my previous comments. There is a world of difference between a BNP voter and a fascist. Again it would take too long to develop upon this and it is not really relevant to the original piece.
Alas I don’t find you’re individual tale all that convincing; my personal opinion is that solitary anecdotes don’t prove anything and also you could have no idea for sure how your neighbour voted. Unfortunately I don’t fell there is anything more I can add to this.
Daniel Goddard
Daniel,
“Alas I don’t find you’re individual tale all that convincing”
*your
you’re = you are
your = possessive adjective
Unfortunately I don’t fell [sic] there is anything more I can add to this,
Yours patronisingly,
Etc.
Well spotted ‘Sigh…’ I’m sure YOUR secondary school English teacher will be very impressed…
Just one thing mate, learn how to use ‘[sic]’ properly, who are you quoting? Yourself? Not impressed.
Yours Snidingly,
Lucius Caecilius Lucundus
Daniel,
Ironically, I was quoting you (see comment #7),
And perhaps you meant ‘snidely’ (uncapitalised)?
Yours pedantically,
Etc.
Incidentally, my half was written before any mention of “hypocrisy” occurred. From my point of view, it was pretty much “Carnage is bad. Discuss. Include YUSU in your answer”.