» David Rennie, political editor of The Economist

How plausible is to expect that Scottish will have a referendum for independence in 2014? Actually, is Mr. Salmond such an influential political figure to push this matter forward?

It’s quite clear that Scottish government has a political mandate to hold a referendum, while the British government has the legal powers to decide how that referendum takes place. I think both sides understand that at the end of the day they’ll have to do a deal, because the British government is not going to imprison the Scottish people. If they want to vote and want to leave, it’s clear that they’re going to be allowed to leave. So there will be a referendum, but what’s happening at the moment is that the British Government moved fast because they were worried that the Scottish government would come up with a plan that suited them perfectly, presented as a fait accompli. Then the British Government would be left saying you don’t have a legal right to do that, so we might want to take you to the court. And it would happen after the event, so it could potentially leave an impression that they want to use judges against democracy. Therefore, they wanted to get ahead of the process, saying that they will help them do it in the legal way; however, there’ll be some conditions. The crucial issue now is whether Scotland will have a single question if they want to stay or if they want to leave. The crucial debate now in Scotland is if there should be another question on the paper – to have transfer of power for almost everything apart from foreign policy and defence. Personally, I hope it doesn’t happen for the sake of Scotland and Britain. Even more, being British is a more valid identity than Salmond is ready to admit, and I find it depressing.

Is there any space for possible compromise? Is fragmentation of parliaments a possible solution ? Clearly, if you look in the opinion pools, there’s support in England for pretty big changes. There’s a resentment that Scottish representatives in Parliament get a vote on English schools, motorways, and hospitals, and then English members of Parliament don’t get a vote on similar Scottish institutions. The current half devolution we have upsets quite a lot of English voters. Actually, IPPR’s pool survey which will be published this week says that 79 per cent of English people want to see English laws decided by English MPs, as well as 50 percent support for the English Parliament. The problem is that’s really hard to pull off, and there’s one technical problem. On the whole, conservative parties get a majority in England; however, parties of the left get a majority across the whole of the UK once you take Scotland and Wales. Therefore, if you allow English votes for English laws, does it then mean that you have two governments? It’s clear that the status quo is unsatisfactory for more and more people; 85 percent at the moment.

What do you think has a higher probability of falling apart: the eurozone or the UK, if any?

Well, if you mean people leaving the eurozone or the UK, I think the eurozone will get there first. There’s a depressingly big chance that Greece and possibly some other countries will be out of the eurozone by 2014.

So do you expect any stronger agreements to be reached on the next EU summit, which will be held on the 30th January?

The markets have lost confidence in the single currency. Most people think that the only realistic chance of stopping the market panic is a so-called big bazooka – a massive, unlimited intervention of the European Central Bank with maybe some elements of debt neutralisation. The problem is that it is politically unacceptable to German electorate. They need to be made happier. What does the fiscal path we discussed earlier this month actually mean? It’s not a mechanism to deal with the fire underway that the eurozone has. It was more of a promise to German voters that this won’t happen in the future, because in the future after this emergency, the restrictions will get so tough that it won’t happen. Instead of a fire brigade putting the fire down now, they have convinced the fire brigade to let the brigade leave the fire station. There’ll be further steps; there is also a French-German document with some more detail on what they want to do, but I doubt it will be done in the near future as Sarkozy is facing very nasty presidential elections at the moment. I’m afraid that the right things will not happen soon enough; and the market is definitely losing patience.

In one of your reports from a couple of years ago, you discussed three major Ms which influence the enlargement of the Union? How relevant are they today – money, migration and Moscow?

We got a big enlargement in the nick of time. At that moment (in 2004) we were feeling quite rich and generous; Russia was unusually silent and people were not feeling so anxious about migrations. However, there’s a whole variety of things you cannot get today: the European single market, the Geneva Convention on refugees. Obviously there are cycles in politics, and recession cycles are always nasty. However, our hope is that organisations like the EU which we didn’t have in 1930 offer a guarantee as a defense mechanism for social liberal values to be preserved. But it’s tough today; look at what’s happening in Hungary now: the EU has fairly limited resources when a government are eroding core values such as juridical independence and central bank independence. The EU is a club, which is meant to be a one-way journey towards modernity and democracy, and the test will come down if countries are going the wrong way.

» Research at Learning Grid

Reinvention is a journal exclusively written and compiled of research papers by undergraduate students. The journal, which is available online, is published twice a year by the Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL), and provides the unique opportunity for UG students to publicise their own research papers under professional and educational circumstances. In fact, the journal “only houses papers written by undergraduate students.”

In order to get a paper published in this journal, one must first submit the essay and “upon receipt, submissions are screened by the editorial team and the articles that make it through are sent out for double-blind peer review.” Providing a positive impression by the anonymous peer reviewers, “the editorial team makes a decision to reject the article or provisionally accept it.” When all the suggestions from the Reinvention team and reviewers are carried out by the author, “the article is then copy-edited and uploaded to our website in time for publication,” in the words of Naomi Falkenberg, editor of the journal.

Reinvention has, since its establishment in 2001, branched out and been involved in various other projects, such as the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR). From the 19th-20th March 2012, the University of Warwick will be hosting the second British Conference of Undergraduate Research, a British conference that is “dedicated to promoting research at undergraduate level across the UK.” The BCUR is a new annual spring conference, held at a different university each year, which encourages both undergraduates and academic staff to participate. The chief influences of the BCUR have been two American based conferences: the National Conference of Undergraduate Research and the Council for Undergraduate Research. As Susan Brock, an academic manager at IATL says, the BCUR is a means to significantly improve the standard of British undergraduate research. ”The national BCUR Steering Group and its chair Professor Stuart Hampton-Reeves from the University of Central Lancashire – himself a Warwick graduate – have provided invaluable support, as they have the experience of running the first BCUR conference in 2011. Here at Warwick we have a core organising committee which includes students and members of the team at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, led by Caroline Gibson, the manager of the Reinvention Journal of Undergraduate Research. We shall also be depending on a large team of volunteer student assistants to ensure that the conference proceedings go smoothly,” says Dr. Brock, who strongly believes that the BCUR will be very beneficial for Warwick.

“The conference builds on Warwick’s commitment to undergraduate research, research-led teaching and  student engagement, which are fostered by URSS and IATL’s Student as Producer Research and Performance grants and Collaborative Funds. It will demonstrate Warwick’s commitment to styles of teaching that involve students in their own learning and prepares them for their lives beyond the university. And it offers us a chance to showcase the valuable research work that our undergraduates are doing and the great facilities on the Warwick campus to staff and students from across the UK. Some may even choose to be postgraduates here!” concludes Dr. Brock. As mentioned before, Reinvention will be playing a vital role in shaping the success of this year’s BCUR. Naomi Falkenburg states: “[We are] committed to promoting undergraduate research and we look forward to publishing another special issue in support of this national project.” Not only are works by Warwick students being published, this special BCUR edition will feature the papers of students from a total of 41 universities, including 6 non-UK universities. The writings from students of UCLan, Nottingham University, Bournemouth University and Nottingham Trent University will be included in the upcoming special issue. The conference is quickly growing in popularity, renowned for its collaborative sharing and learning, including a wide network of authors, peer reviewers of students and of teaching staff contributing to the process.

Not only will research be presented in academic format, but proposals for interdisciplinary projects such as posters, spoken presentations and workshops have been accepted as well. The topics are widespread, engaging in a variety of academic disciplines, from Veterinary Medicine to Ancient History and Archaeology.
Unfortunately, the call for papers is now officially closed (with the extended deadline having been 18th December 2011), but there is nevertheless the opportunity to attend and be involved in the conference this coming March! An array of academic activities will be on offer, including workshops held by undergraduate students from various different UK universities about various different disciplines. There will also be poster presentations and spoken papers, as well as academic staff sharing “experiences of implementing undergraduate research in their institutions.” 

Furthermore, there will be an open meeting for groups to discuss the future of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research after the academic staff that are attending discuss the development of undergraduate research in British universities. It must be noted that a requirement for future participants is for them to either be current undergraduate students or recent undergraduate students who have conducted their paper during their undergraduate years. Papers can include dissertations done as part of the individual’s course, an assessment to which the topic was devised by the person themselves, or a research paper done as part of an internship as long as it is in a discipline that is taught in Higher Education. BCUR in particular invites either academic staff or students, or a collaboration of both, who focus theirpaper on the introduction of undergraduate research into modules. So why should anyone get involved? The British Conference of Undergraduate Research presents a great opportunity for those who want to share their work, as well as for anyone who wants to learn about other disciplines and, more specifically, how those disciplines would approach research problems. Hosting the upcoming BCUR will hopefully encourage and entice Warwick University undergraduates to generate and publish their own academic work, elevating a platform for developing and sharing knowledge.

Furthermore, Reinvention is also working in conjunction with the Warwick Economics Summit this year to develop a project called Future Leaders. This undertaking has encouraged undergraduate students to send the Summit their original research papers on an Economics-related subject by the 10th of December 2011.

Essays are from 2000 to 5000 words in length and with the help of the Reinvention editorial team and its effective peer reviewing system, the top three authors will be chosen to present their research at the Warwick Economics Summit from the 17th-19th February 2012. A financial bonus is also involved, the top three papers winning a sum of £350 (first place), £100 (second place) and £50 (third place). Lastly, research papers deemed appropriate and academic enough will be published in the next Reinvention issue, due to appear in April 2012.

_If you have missed the deadlines for Future Leaders project and British Conference of Undergraduate Research, you can still get funding for your own research projects. Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme is open for all applications to 1st February, while IATL Scholarship Scheme has ends on 31st January. _

» This year's Refreshers Fair was attended by around 1,000 students photo: Olivia Morton

On Monday 16 January, the Students’ Union (SU) held a Refreshers Fair in the SU Atrium, which aimed to recruit more students to join societies and sports clubs, as well as promoting the businesses of external exhibitors.

External exhibitors included Rate My Placement, Teach First and NHS Blood and Transplant, as well as Domino’s Pizza. Free slices of pizza were handed out to those attending the fair, as well as carrier bags of free merchandise from various retailers. Societies and sports clubs exhibiting at the fair included Argentinian Tango, Mixed Netball, RAG, the Boar and World@Warwick.

Matt Rogers, the SU Societies Officer, estimated that over a thousand students attended during the course of the day. On the day of the fair, over 600 students had confirmed that they were attending on the fair’s Facebook event.

Rogers commented that society membership would “definitely increase”, as students were “buying all day”. He added that this was partly due to the “reduced Societies’ Federation fee”.

He stated that “societies were doing a great job of advertising themselves” and he was pleased to see the “newly formed societies getting off the ground, such as Robot Wars, Darts Society, Fifa and Philosophy and Literature”.

Student opinion about the relevance of the Refreshers Fair at this time of the academic year was varied.

Suryansh Nagar, a first-year EPAIS student, commented that: “I didn’t go as I didn’t need to. I signed up for my societies at the start of the first term.”

However, one first-year History student said that: “The fair was useful, as I was able to join societies that I hadn’t thought about in Freshers’ Week.”

Should the Labour Party dump Ed Miliband before the next General Election?

Frankie: No! Quite simply, it would be a disaster for the party, and a loss for the country.

Matt: Did you actually say that with a straight face?

F: Absolutely.

M: I’m amazed that as a Labour Party supporter you’re that content with Ed leading you to your demise at the next election.

F: Well see, this is the myth: what demise? He’s actually a point up in most recent polls, or at least even, before the worst of these coalitions cuts have even kicked in. And even Osborne is only estimating growth to be at 0.7% in 2012 – a figure that will further test the public patience for this government.

M: Labour might be a point up in reaction against perceived cuts, but come election time the country elects a leader, which Ed Miliband is not. The public hates him: 17% see him as fit to lead. 17%! As the economy recovers and the election comes closer it’ll get harder and harder to ditch him.

F: Well, this whole ‘Is he a leader?’ debate is as false as it is pointless. According to a poll by the Daily Mail, hardly a utopia for progressive thought, 58% think his policies are right for the country. He’s articulating a clear vision of responsible capitalism that appeals right across the political spectrum; that matters far more than whether you think he’s a ‘leader’ or not. What does that even mean? Would you like him to wear nicer suits?

M: That would be a start, although I think even that won’t save Ed. What are exactly the right policies for the country? All three parties are signed up to this austerity agenda, so it comes down to who is the most Prime Ministerial, which you have to concede, surely. Which leader does he remind you of at this stage? Neil Kinnock? Ian Duncan Smith?

F: Actually, his poll ratings are pretty comparable to Cameron’s at this stage in his leadership, and the IDS comparisons are ridiculous. IDS couldn’t appeal because his views were so out of touch with mainstream opinion; Ed Miliband is doing a better job of tapping into the new centre ground of public opinion than any other leader. However, I think the wider point is that you go for the same ‘cult of the leader’ argument that so many of Ed’s critics are peddling.

M: What is the current centre ground? Fairness? Responsible capitalism? It is clear that all three parties are occupying it – even Ed’s unions say he’s copying the Tories on issues such as public sector pay. The only difference will be his leadership and having favourable media coverage, which is simply impossible as Ed currently seems to be alienating his colleagues, the media and the public.

F: You’ve got the same obsession as the media over every poll or short-term setback. These guys are leaders of political parties, not football managers that can be discarded at will. Journalists and bloggers love nothing more than whisperings about a leadership change, but the point is the public don’t have time for this stuff – they don’t care. Come 2015, we’re still going to be mired in economic trouble with high unemployment, high inflation and falling living standards; all the electorate will worry about is who has the right vision to turn it around.

M: Even if he has the right policies, his problem stems from being perceived to be in the pockets of the unions, which are the only reason for his election anyway. Fairly or unfairly, his position is untenable. Either he loses union support by occupying this centre ground or he shifts the party towards the left, a move which the public won’t accept seeing as there is a public acceptance of austerity cuts.

F: So you think he’s either too in the pockets of the unions or not enough? You should be giving him credit for taking on the vested interests of his party’s purse strings – Cameron wouldn’t dare to pull a similar move with the bankers. The point you’re missing is that Ed’s the only leader who recognizes how much the centre-ground has moved since the financial crisis, and the revelations of corporate irresponsibility, crony capitalism, unfair monopolies and the corrosive effects of extreme inequality. These are now acceptable parts of the political debate where they were once considered the deluded rants of dinosaur left-wingers.

M: The centre ground hasn’t shifted nearly as much as you think. There is a real backlash against these ‘dinosaur left-wingers’. The Occupy movement is not where the public’s mind is. Furthermore, isn’t this ‘compassionate capitalism’ simply a gimmick? The parties are fighting over this issue of how to make society ‘fairer’, so it’s a competence issue, and Ed just isn’t seen as competent.

F: No, the public has shifted. It’s the media that hasn’t and still insists on partying like it’s 1997.

M: The time when Labour’s leader was actually popular?

F: Yeah, and look how that turned out.