Editorial
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According to Egon Zehnder, the expensive consultancy outfit brought in to hire the replacement of former City vice-chancellor Malcolm Gillies, “recent experience has demonstrated the substantial costs” of hiring the “wrong” person.

We see it differently. Recent information “shows the indefensible costs” of getting rid of the “right” person. The £500,000 spent by the university on Prof Gillies’ severance package and on the recruitment of his successor is an incredibly expensive error at a time when the university cannot afford to mess up.

An open letter from Muslim City Students

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There is verse upon verse in Islam’s holy book – the Quran – which only differentiates people based on the content of their hearts and their good deeds. Allah, the word for God in Arabic, “loves those who are just”. Therefore, the Quran emphasises that there “shall be no fear” in those who believe in God and follow a true religion; this religion subjectively can be the belief of any believer who has openly and sincerely believed in the divine religions.

It is therefore surprising that in the last issue of the Inquirer, it was reported that one of City University’s Societies hosted a lecture where the speaker had propagated religiously intolerant and sexist views.

A statement from City Islamic Society
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Over the past two years, the Islamic Society has received numerous verbal and written attacks from bloggers, the odd newspaper journalists, right-wing think tanks, self-professed neo-conservatives who are hell-bent on demonising all Muslims, a few university staff members (although the vast majority have been extremely kind, supportive and helpful), and our very own “friends” from the City Inquirer, who produced an incredibly flawed report regarding the Islamic Society and its speakers.

By Dyveke Nilssen
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Three years ago, I made a radical decision. It was probably made on a Monday, as most life changing oh-my-god-I-have-to-do-something-with-my-life-decisions are. And all of a sudden I found myself on a flight from Norway to London, taking my first baby steps towards grown-up life with an education overseas…

Editorial
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Tragically, the Islamic society has become both victim as well as a perpetrator of discrimination within the space of a week. The horrific mob attack in which four Asians were stabbed (two of them City students), appears to have been racially motivated.

Portobello Road market on a slow, sloppy Sunday afternoon. I thought I’d take the time out to see if I could find any nice Christmas trinkets before I suffocate under the masses of people frantically searching for quick gifts.
 
As I pondered and wandered between stalls I noticed that although there were plenty of Christmas gifts to choose from, surprisingly this included very few traditional Christmas albums. I flashed back to primary school when we sang Christmas carols to the locals. Then to when I had a Saturday job as a …

I’m launching a bid to turn commuting into an Olympic sport. You’ve got to admit that navigating the journey to work requires a consummate amount of skill and agility, what with negotiating the ticket barriers, avoiding the sneezers, and (in the evening) having to slalom through the numerous free newspapers thrust in your
direction.

That’s not what democracy looks like
So another City SU election has come and gone without ruffling any feathers. At the candidate’s meeting prior to the election, all of those running were read the rule book to ensure that the election was run legitimately – or else, the SU would be breaking the Electoral Law of England. And that would be very bad, natch.
Yet, it’s hard to believe what is legitimate about an election where such a tiny percentage of the students bothered to vote. If this were a scientific research …

If you’ve got no time between lectures and working to follow the banking crisis, here’s a primer
Every day brings more news of billion pound banks going bankrupt and million-trillion-zillion dollar bailouts by world leaders. The news is suddenly full of bewildering jargon: special payment vehicles, junk bonds, collateralised debt obligations, derivatives, hedge funds, credit ratings agencies, monoline insurers… it goes on and on. But beneath all this bank-speak, there is a vague sense that we, the taxpayer, have just been robbed to the tune of £500 billion. So what is …

Many say it’s ‘unrealistic’ to call for a return to the days before student fees. They’re flat-out wrong. This month, campaigning in the union elections, there was one point that I had to debate over and over again. Right at the start of our manifesto, we’d written: “No to all fees – for free education and student grants.” Not “a fairer funding system”, not “keep the cap on fees” – free education. Like they still have in Scandinavia, and in much of the rest of Europe… oh, and in Scotland, …