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underpass has been spared a prison sentence. Andrew Jonathan Harding committed 12 offences in the A3 tunnel at Egerton Road between May and October last year. He was sentenced for four charges of sexual assault and asked for another eight similar offences to be taken into consideration.

He first struck on May 14 last year. A 23-year-old University of Surrey student was walking through the tunnel when she felt a hand over her left breast. “She described being in shock,” Ruby Selva, prosecuting, said. “She shouted ‘pervert’ and the defendant turned towards her, patted his backside and sniggered.”

He struck again on July 31, putting his hand under the bra of a second student. Another victim was on her way to work at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. “She was on her mobile phone,” Miss Selva said. “She heard footsteps behind her. She kept on walking expecting someone to walk past her. Her breast was quickly grabbed, she screamed and saw him face to face [before he] ran off.”

Harding had previously pleaded guilty at South West Surrey Magistrates’ Court. One of his victims was a juvenile. The others were aged in their twenties.

Simon Connolly, for the defence, told the court Harding did not realise the seriousness of his offences. “At the time he was mimicking something he had seen on YouTube and was not thinking about the consequences,” he said.

following advice from sex offender specialists. He said if he had sent Harding to prison, it would only have been a short sentence and would have had little effect. Harding, of Devoil Close, Guildford, who has no previous convictions, was ordered to sign on the sex offenders’ register for five years and attend a sex offenders’ programme.

barefacts has been holding the NUS to account after it was revealed the organisation has relationships with companies that uses forced child labour in Uzbekistan. These companies include Matalan, as well as Topman and Burton part of the Arcadia Group.

A NUS spokesperson contacted barefacts on February 8 and sent the paper a statement from Matalan, “Following an investigation into and careful consideration of all the issues surrounding Matalan’s suppliers sourcing cotton from Uzbekistan, Matalan today [January 31] announces that it has instructed all its suppliers not to source any cotton from Uzbekistan. This decision takes effect immediately.”

world where tens of thousands of children are forced to pick the cotton harvest each year. Classrooms are emptied so that the crop, known as “white gold”, can be harvested. Cotton big business is big business in Uzbekistan – it is the third largest exporter in the world. The NUS were slow to react to questions about its relationship with companies that are accused of using cotton produced by forced child labour in Uzbekistan.

However, things have quickly changed. Only a couple of weeks ago, two of Britain’s major high street companies, Tesco and Marks and Spencer announced that they were no longer going to allow cotton from Uzbekistan in their clothes.

Artem Basirov, 20, a university student, was part of a group of pro-democracy activists that was planning a protest against President Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule ahead of last December’s elections. However, on the night before the planned demonstration, Basirov was snatched by Russian secret service officers and taken to a state psychiatric hospital and forced to undergo a month of “treatment”, during which he was fed mind-numbing drugs. Mr Basirov’s incarceration inside the Soviet-era psycho-neurological clinic is the latest case in which opponents of Kremlin

A survey by Cambridge student newspaper “Varsity” found students who have the most sex get the worst results. At Homerton, the worst-performing college in the university’s league table, students have had, on average, seven sexual partners. Christ’s College, second in last year’s Tompkins table of Cambridge exam results by college, reported the highest number of virgins, with more than a quarter of respondents never having had sex.

The University of Surrey has agreed to adhere to the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), which were unveiled by a group of scholars and leading academic organisations at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in July of 2007. The PRME provides a framework for academic institutions to advance the broader cause of corporate social responsibility and incorporate universal values into curricula and research.

More than 150 girls from across Guildford recently staged a dance performance, entitled ‘Guildford Grooves’ at the Electric Theatre in the Guildford town centre. The girls had all been involved in weekly dance clubs at their schools, with instruction provided by specialists from Campusdance, based at UniSPORT, which is the biggest University dance and movement programme outside of London.

NUS’ Women’s Campaign is hosting the national “Reclaim the Night” demonstration on Saturday 1 March 2008 to make a stand to end violence against women, as one in four women experience domestic violence, less than six per cent of all reported rapes end in conviction, and women deserve to live without the fear or reality of abuse, rape and violence.

Gastrointestinal problems are common among night workers, in particular loss of appetite, peptic ulcers and indigestion, according to Debra Skene of the University of Surrey.

Sunflower Therapy experienced a 60% improvement in health and behaviour/study skills, which could provide fresh hope for conditions such as dyslexia, autism, ADHD and general academic underperformance.

The views expressed within the paper are those of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, the University of Surrey Students’ Union or the University of Surrey. This publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in any form, copied

DEPUTY EDITOR(DESIGN)| POSITION VACANT| u s s u . b a re fa c t s @ s u r re y. a c . u k
DEPUTY EDITOR(MARKETING)| POSITION VACANT| u s s u . b a re fa c t s @ s u r re y. a c . u k
NEWS EDITOR| BEN MILLER| b f. n e w s d e s k @ g m a i l . c o m
FOOD EDITOR| VERITY KIRKPATRICK| b f. fo o d @ g m a i l . c o m
SCIENCE EDITOR| EMMA ROGULSKA| b f. s c i e n c e @ g m a i l . c o m
FEATURES EDITOR| AMUL GURUNG| b f. fe a t u re s @ g m a i l . c o m
PG TIPS EDITOR| ALEX ILLSLEY| a i 0 0 0 1 1 @ s u r re y. a c . u k
ARTS EDITOR| JAKE SOUTH|bf.arts@gmail.com
SOCIETIES EDITOR| SIMON MOORE| b f. s o c i e t i e s @ g m a i l . c o m
SPORTS EDITOR|DAVID HALLS|bf.sport@gmail.com
PUZZLELORD| COLIN EVERETT| m a 4 1 c e @ s u r re y. a c . u k
COPY EDITOR|YASMIN DANIEL| u s s u . b a re fa c t s @ s u r re y. a c . u k
COPY EDITOR|JESSBLOOMFIELD| u s s u . b a re fa c t s @ s u r re y. a c . u k
WEBMASTER| JOSH BATES| u s s u . b a re fa c t s @ s u r re y. a c . u k

Chris Foster, an 18 year old student at the University of Bournemouth, had no recollection of swallowing a 5cm key in a bizarre drunken stunt – until his friends and the NHS helped him piece together the events of the night before.

Apparently, Chris’s friends told him he had drunk too much and they were taking him home from a party in student halls.

However, in his desperation to stay, he swallowed his key and said he couldn’t get into his house. A fellow Bournemouth University student attempted the Heimlich manoeuvre to recover the key but without success.

Chris said: ‘I had to sleep on the sofa in the communal lounge and the next morning I couldn’t remember a thing. I thought it was a bit of a wind-up when my friend said I had swallowed the key. But my throat started to feel very sore and my stomach didn’t feel right, so my friend took me to hospital on the bus. I was given an X-ray and I was stunned when I first saw the key in my stomach but then couldn’t stop laughing – even the doctors were sniggering. .The key is now safely back on the computer design student’s keyring as he said he couldn’t afford the £20 his landlord was going to charge him for a new one.

student at Surrey was runner-up in this years Ford WISE prize. Julia beat off stiff competition to make it to the final three candidates. Julia was informed about her success at the Young Women Engineer of the Year award ceremony in London.

Graham Hoare, Ford Motor Company’s engineering director heading up Dunton technical centre, who attended the ceremony said: “The enthusiasm and passion shown from all finalists has been quite inspirational and it reinforces Ford’s commitment to encouraging young women to consider engineering as a career.”

Julia said: “I was thrilled to be a finalist for the FordWISE prize 2007. It was a great achievement and I enjoyed meeting leading people in the engineering industry at the awards ceremony. I have gained valuable experience working on site for Kier during my summer holidays and industrial year and I would encourage anyone else studying engineering to find

work placements. Kier have sponsored me throughout my degree and I look forward to working for them on my graduation.”

was initiated to recognize and reward exceptional women in the penultimate year of studying for their engineering

This year as an added incentive, all three finalists have been invited to a tour of the Ford’s Dunton technical centre in Essex, the UK’s largest automotive research and development facility, staffed by an engineering team of more

Dave Lewis, National Treasurer at NUS, and Company Chair at NUS Services, said: “We are pleased to see that Matalan took these allegations seriously and took on board the grave concerns of NUS and others. We will continue to push other companies to follow suit.”

It is clear barefacts’ pressure on the NUS and Newsnight’s report has brought about a sea change in the policies of Britain’s major high street clothing companies.

The desire for cheap fashion may be turning a corner. Jane Shepherdson, the woman who turned around Top Shop, believes we have become a nation that’s gone nuts about throwaway clothes. “It feels like something that has gone too far. It feels like people are addicted to shopping and consuming and having new things all the time. I think it has become really boring. Things are so accessible, you can look like a celebrity immediately and for a fiver.”

Ahead of the 2008 London Fashion Week, and in her first television interview since leaving Philip Green’s empire, she told Newsnight: “Things go in cycles. I feel we are about to come to an end of a cycle and go somewhere different. I think people have become a bit bored with the idea of ‘isn’t it great, it is so cheap’, I am hoping people will start to want to be a bit more individual again.”

Campaigners for a greener and more sustainable fashion industry have been urging people to buy less as we are buying a third more clothes than a decade ago. Every year we buy around 2m tonnes, and about 1.5m tonnes end up in landfill. The clothing industry is a close rival to the chemical industry in its levels of pollution. We recycle only a fraction of our wardrobes. And clothes are now so cheap because we pay so little to the people who make them in developing countries far from our gaze. Key voices within the industry are

starting to call for a rethink on our extraordinary levels of clothes consumption. The head of the London College of Fashion, Dr Frances Corner, sets out her stall: “We have to think more carefully before we buy, we have to buy fewer clothes anyway, and pay more for them - and not subsidise people who’re living sometimes on 15p a week so we can change our image all the time.”

Some of the big high street retailers are making efforts to tackle this, but people need to buy fewer clothes. It doesn’t mean the start of austere times - it’s about holding onto your clothes for longer. Clothes will have to cost a bit more if they are going to reflect their toll on the environment - and ensure the people who make them are paid properly.

But the argument that low-income shoppers will be excluded from sustainable fashion gets short shrift from Dr Corner: “We are spending a third more on clothes than we were a decade ago, so the money is there.”

market there’s scope for sustainable fashion - with one big caveat: it has to look great. “The whole ethical clothing market has got a long way to go,” she says, “We don’t want hair shirts, very few people are doing anything interesting and design is critical. We need to be tempted into buying beautiful, ethical, sustainable clothes; not being made to feel guilty… At the end of the day the consumer dictates. The best way to encourage her to buy is to make it as beautiful as you can.”

Something else that would help is government legislation - for example targets and indirect taxation - to make non-ethical clothes less competitive. In the words of Britain’s first professor of sustainability, Tim Jackson, of the University of Surrey: “All the studies find that even people with strong pro- environmental values find it very difficult to maintain those values. They struggle to lead the lives they want to lead. That is where legislation can help.”