University Oppose Patrick Retirement

Journalism lecturer Patrick Stoddart has today been given the green light to continue  teaching students at Westminster university next year. It had initially been suggested that Mr Stoddart was due to retire at the end of the current semester, due to a university ruling that lecturers aged 65 and over are no longer considered for teaching.

Mr  Stoddart was delighted with the decision to overturn the ruling, he stated “I didn’t want to give up teaching, it’s not about money, it’s the job i love teaching”. Mr Stoddart was quick to acknowledge the “Amazing support” he had from students studying on his course. He said “I was really taken back by the amount of warmth and support they gave, I had no idea that the students felt like that”.

Many Students had first seemed outraged at the decision that Mr Stoddart should retire, together with Mr Stoddart they campaigned against the decision. The students set up a Facebook group named “Oppose Patrick’s Forced Retirement”, encouraging students to join and also sign a petition against his retirement. The group was a success and generated 215 different members.

The decision to keep Mr Stoddart on was made by the Vice Chancellor committee, they acknowledged Mr Stoddart’s experience and know how in Journalism and came to the decision, for the benefit of all concerned.

Voice from Poland: about the elections’ results

Today, BBC announced the Conservatives have won the UK elections 2010. Cameron’s party has gained the most MPs but fallen short of a majority, which has led to the first “hung parliament since 1974″. What does it mean to the Polish audience?

According to the Polish opinion polls ran by a number of country portals and newspapers online including Gazeta Wspolczesna, Wyborcza and Newsweek, majority of Polish citizens living in Poland have not cared much about the elections due to the tragedy which has occured in the past month.

The main controversy during the “boring as always British elections” has aroused around the issue with Gordon Brown insulting a 65-year-old English citizen. “I think Polish people get too personal with their choices. Recent events might have increased ‘the level of partiotism’ and thus has led to such a strong reaction towards racist-sounding comments”, said Grazyna Szankowska, psychologist from Bialystok University. “We tend to make wrong decisions and then complain. Gordon Brown became our ‘puppet’ only because we decided to think he might have stood up for us which was not the truth, really”.

Karol Wlodzirej is a 38-year-old construction worker. He spent over 3 years in the UK. “I am quite happy for Conservatives. I do not think these elections will change anything though. I only know that there will be more restrictions put on immigrants”.

Immigration has become the main issue. Polish news portal WP.PL announced the first sign of the war between the Polish and British, stating “the Eastern European immigration is now seen as a threat” and will be restricted by any chosen party.

I have managed to get in touch with Magda Krzemien, a 24-year-old student of Journalism, currently living in Aberdeen. “To me, as a Polish immigrant, these elections were extremely important. To be honest, I am not surprised with he results and I am only a bit worried that because of this political chaos and misunderstandings, British-Polish relations might get worse”.

The media have visibly played a huge role in shaping public opinion in Poland. Poles seem to justify their lack of interest in current elections with the presidential tragedy and plainness of British political campaigns. But is that really the case? Why have Polish people stopped caring about the situation in the country, they (or their families) have been massively migrating to? Maybe one day we will find answers to these questions.

Faculty Music & Media: Urban Division

Faculty Music & Media is our own creative agency, based at the University of Westminster and run by Katie Thiebaud, also a label manager for Breakbeat Kaos. FMM’s new urban division was created by students, and specializes in (surprise!) Urban music, with a target audience of 16-25. Although a part of an educational institution, F:Urban tries to distance itself from the university and create an industry standard platform to launch young talent.

A quick drop and a sudden stop for the pound

Pound drops by 2%

With the UK parliament hung in the balance between possible deals and collaborations with Liberal Democrats, will the pound suffer as the market fears?

Mark Blossom of Currency exchangers Travelex, said “I’d expect some turbulence against the dollar and Euro on election day” and that prediction has turned out to be true with the pound punished by the insecure government.

By 10am on election day, losses against the pound had gone down by 2% to a year low at 1.46 to the US dollar, before it rose by another percent, recovering slightly and matching the loss against the Euro.

Currencies Direct dealer Phil McHugh warns, “If something clear and decisive does not go through very quickly the ramifications are likely to be a further sell-off of the pound.” McHugh went on to warn that the UK’s credit rating could potentially downgrade.

Travelex currently values the pound against the dollar at 1.42 with the Euro at 1.22.

Breaking news: Patrick is staying!

You’ve just heard on the news show that our very own Patrick Stoddart is not being forced to retire at the end of this semester.

There has been a Facebook campaign opposing Patrick’s forced retirement. Student Rita Lobo started the group less than two months ago and it has attracted hundreds of students, who have helped to save such an important member of staff.

Patrick will be taking on a part-time position at the University.

Praise the parodies

People will remember this election for many different reasons, be it the live television debates or the angry Facebook groups. We however think the most entertaining thing to come out of it so far has been the parody posters. How better to find amusement than by seeing an MP’s campaign turned against them in such an act of mockery. Here’s a few of our favourites:

David Cameron’s 2.30pm statement

David Cameron has just given his brief statement to the nation. It seems to be full of praise and thanks to party supporters. But also he talked about brokering a deal with Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

It seems as though the deal would be to lay down the ground for a Conservative government. Mr Cameron is calling this a coalition. But it seems to be more of a deal rather than a coalition. Mr Cameron has proposed that if the Lib Dems work with the Conservatives, then they could see some of their policies pushed through by them. It has been stated on BBC news that Nick Clegg will not be making a statement about this until tomorrow.

A recent tweet by Laura Kuenssberg says: Lib dem source – Cameron’s statement ‘interesting and we have to consider it’ but they won’t say any more for now.

It seems that the Lib Dems have not started to try and enter into talks with the Conservatives. They are thinking about the proposals and will issue a statement tomorrow. The main points of David Cameron’s speech would see them work with the Lib Dems on education, electoral reform and green policies. A mixture of support and outrage has broken out across Twitter.

Gordon Brown is refusing to resign until the talks have been completed. And is keen to for Labour to enter into talks with the Liberal Democrats, to form a coalition opposing the Conservatives.