GlobalGathering, voted the best dance festival at the 2012 UK festival awards, is set to wow its happy campers with a new and improved experience after revamping their stage environments on a mouth-watering scale.

After bringing you the news that the Godskitchen fusion cube will be making its British debut at Global this summer, the event organizers have also confirmed that they have designed a whole new main stage arena, and two new productions entitled the Global Freight Depot and The Bunker.

The new main stage at Global was brought into life by 250k, who were also responsible for bringing the fusion cube to our island in the process, and follows the theme of ‘Industrial Cubism’; basically a crazy appearance of nicely defined and coloured shapes that form an awesome set up that will make a great backdrop for the likes of Plan B, Nero, Disclosure, Rudimental and Example this summer.

The Freight Depot meanwhile is a venue constructed from industrial freight containers – the name gives it away – and gives the festival goer a warehouse experience which features “state of the art projections within the structure to create a unique dance music experience.” This particular arena will be hosted by Toolroom 10 and Born Electric, and so will boast names including Mark Knight, James Zabiela, Eats Everything and Dusky.

The innovations don’t stop there though, and in The Bunker attendees while find a venue hidden in the grass of Long Marston Airfield, specially unearthed and transformed into a special, intimate clubbing environment. That is, if you can find it of course.

If this isn’t enough, the sounds in The Bunker will be provided by FutureGods, an emerging pioneer in the electronic world who currently hold down a monthly residency in Seoul, South Korea and are now establishing themselves around the world. For the student about University who sets the trends and gets to every innovation first; this venue will be an essential this summer.

For more information and to secure your ticket for this must see festival, head to the GlobalGathering official website at: www.globalgathering.com

                                                                                                                                                           Picture: Sportography.tv

David Florence, nickname D-Flo, is a Scottish canoe slalom athlete who has won two Olympic silver medals and is currently ranked number one in the world in his favoured category of C1.

He spoke to Ben Ramage about his upcoming competitive year, his experience of London 2012 and his aspirations of making a third Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.

You just won selection for the British Team for the 13^th year in the row, how important was that win and how happy are you with your current form?

It was important to qualify well and I’m happy with my performances so far this year. In Olympic years it’s a much bigger deal as generally speaking only one boat qualifies, but for competitions like the World Cups, European and World championships that happen every year there are three boats for each category, so there is a bit less pressure. As its canoe slalom anything can happen on the day as the margins are so small, but I’m happy to have qualified again and am now looking forward to this year’s competitions.

Why did you have to qualify for C1 and not C2 at the British selections?

It was criteria brought in for the year after the Olympic Games, anyone who won a medal in that category the year before is pre-selected. As we won silver in the C2 in London, we didn’t have to qualify this year.

What upcoming competitions are you currently training for?

First up is the European Championships in Krakow, Poland, which is a one off event each year. Then we have the first race in the World Cup Series, which starts in Cardiff this June. There are five races in the canoe slalom World Cup and most paddlers don’t end up doing them all as it’s often difficult logistically to attend them all. Any individual triumph is very prestigious on its own, but they also all add up in the end to make the World Cup champion at the end of the year.

You had an incredible result in Cardiff at last year’s World Cup, can you repeat it?

We managed to win both the C1 and C2 last year at Cardiff which had never been done before so to repeat that would be absolutely incredible. It’s not impossible but the widely held view in the sport is that no-one will ever repeat that, so I’m not necessarily expecting to do that but I’ll certainly give it my all. It was an incredible day as it was a first in the sport and overall it was probably the best day racing performance wise of my life.

How do World Cup events compare to the Olympics, do they have the same intensity?

World Cup races are very difficult to win, in many ways they’re more difficult because more athletes compete as it isn’t such a narrowed down field. But the fact the Olympics comes along only once every four years makes it that bit more special and intense. It’s also a multi-sport event whereas the World Cup is just for canoe slalom athletes so it’s nothing like the same spectacle. Saying that, within the sport there is a huge amount of respect for winning world championships. For me winning an Olympic medal is the most important and means far more to me, I feel the Olympics are the pinnacle of the sport.

How do you feel looking back on your experience at the London Games? Was the weight of expectations on British athletes intimidating?

I don’t think it affected me but I was aware of it, it could have been a huge distraction if you let it but I tried to keep it out of my mind.

There was a huge focus on any British athlete, especially previous Olympic medal winners. There was a real sense of, being a home athlete, that everyone was there to see you which was pretty daunting but I just kept thinking of my own race. The crowds at Lee Valley were incredible, I’ve never experienced anything like it and I doubt I ever will again. The noise was just unbelievable, the coach and psychologist talked to us about it beforehand but it massively exceeded anything we imagined. To be a part of it was incredible, but you had to focus on not being too overwhelmed and remaining focused.

You picked up your second Olympic medal in London, can you pick a favourite?

London was such an amazing experience and it was brilliant to be part of it but to come second on the day (in C2) was probably a bit of a disappointment at the time. Beijing was incredible because I had all the excitement of it being my first Olympic games.

Although the Games overall weren’t as great as London in my opinion, to get to my first Olympics and go and win the silver medal in C1, I was so ecstatic with that medal that in some ways it was more enjoyable to win. I was in with a very good chance for Beijing but I wasn’t a favourite like I was for London so maybe my Beijing medal just edges it.

How excited are you at the prospect of a 3^rd appearance at the Olympics in Rio 2016?

Having gone to Olympics in London and Beijing, immediately after competing at London I knew I wanted to go to Rio, because they are such fantastic global events. To get to them is a huge challenge and I by no means have a guaranteed place. I’m going to work incredibly hard and give it my best over the next four years to try and get there and then have a chance to compete for more medals.

Are you still going to compete in both C1 and C2?

I’m doing both this year but it depends on a few things, we have to weigh up what will give us the best chance of winning medals at the Games in Rio ultimately. I definitely want to compete in C1 because that is my passion and has been for a long long time, but we will work out over the Olympic cycle what we are targeting. We were the first to ever compete in two categories at London so me and Rich Hounslow (David’s partner for C2) have a piece of canoe slalom history already. It was disappointing to miss out on C1 at London, that’s just canoe slalom and it’s a very on the day sport, but to win the medal in C2 was fantastic, so we’ll think long and hard before we ever consider dropping any class. The medal we won in C2 was hugely historic for me personally as it made me the first paddler to win Olympic medals in different classes, which is something I’m very proud of.

How does it feel to be the World number one in your sport?

It’s a fantastic thing to have achieved. If I’m honest I would probably have rather been Olympic champion given the choice, but nevertheless it feels fantastic to be able to say I have been at the peak of my sport. And there’s still a chance of adding that Olympic title yet at Rio!

Despite finishing top of their BUCS division in the previous campaign, the University side were denied a spot in the top Scottish flight due to a newly introduced rule which allowed 1A table-footers Dundee to maintain their position due to a lack of games played.

With the new outdoor cricket season ready to launch, Priddle has stated that he reckons his team should be playing in the Scottish 1A this year, and believes that because of their past woes the club will be more motivated than ever to retain their 2A crown.

“It’s quite frustrating,” confessed the cricket president. “Last year we won the BUCS 2A quite convincingly and we didn’t get promoted because Dundee in the top league, who finished bottom, didn’t get to play all their games because of the weather.

“We fell foul of Dundee because they weren’t having a good time but they got beaten in the games I did see too.

“A couple of seasons ago we were in the 1A but we got demoted because we hadn’t played enough games, and since then BUCS have brought in this new rule, so we do feel pretty aggrieved about it and have put in complaints but there is nothing that we can do.

“We just really want to get back to playing where we should be playing.”

Although the outdoor cricket season was scheduled to start on April 17, Priddle’s men are still waiting for their first taste of league action, with poor conditions cancelling their first two potential meetings.

He continued: “We were supposed to have two games on the last two Wednesdays but unfortunately due to the weather we have had to call them off. It’s a bit frustrating but that’s the way it goes.

“It’s a summer sport at a winter University, which is the same anywhere in Britain, so we have all of our games in April and May on Wednesdays, but it is frustrating when we finally do want to get games in.

“We train indoors throughout winter, once a week, every Thursday afternoon in the sports hall with the nets out, and obviously guys that play for us play a lot of other sports too so we’re always going and trying to keep ticking over winter.

Despite losing some key competitors to graduation this year, Priddle remains confident his team can succeed this summer.

“We’ve lost a couple of our main players,” he added. “Last year we did really well in the BUCS indoors tournament, getting to the semi-finals, but this year we only got to the northern section, where we play against the likes of Durham and Newcastle, so we didn’t do so well in that this year.

“We’ve got a few new good freshers in though. We don’t put too much emphasis on the indoors either, it’s something that we’ve got to play in for BUCS, so we oblige to play in it. BUCS outdoor in the summer is what we really focus on.”

Before the game could get started though, I was confronted with an incident that made me question my sanity – and it wasn’t at all in relation to the unappetising curry lying in front of me. Rather, this notable episode involved a Detroit Red Wings supporter throwing a large, dead octopus over the protective glass and onto the ice rink, leaving this budding hockey watcher in a bizarre mix of mirth and downright confusion.

What was even more surprising was that neither the rest of the Detroit attendees, the players, nor the commentators seemed to be in any way surprised by this development, which lead me to do a little bit of digging and discover that this trend is actually a tradition dating back over 50 years in the Motor City.

We’ll get to why exactly that crustacean invasion is such a conventional occurrence in Detroit a bit later on though, as the incident got me thinking that if flying octopi can work their way into the world of sport, there must be some pretty crazy other stuff going on out there too.

Below you will find the best in bizarre, eccentric and downright creepy rituals from around the sporting globe, from former football managers urinating on their home grounds to witch doctors at work, and, of course, the beloved legend of the Detroit octopus.

5) The NASCAR ban on peanut shells

The first in this series beat the esteemed NHL play-off beard to the final spot on this list purely because of its questionable obscurity, and it comes from the fast and furious world of NASCAR, where no peanuts shells are allowed near the race track.

Indeed, peanut shells are to NASCAR drivers what Luis Suarez is to a dentist that gets too close; pure bad luck. The actual peanuts are fine, just not the shells, and this is a belief that stems back to the 1930’s, when a couple of urban racing legends arose.

One of these myths states that before one race, the broken shells of peanuts were sprinkled across five driver’s cars, all of which went on to crash in the subsequent race. Another rumour tells of a mechanic eating peanuts in the team garage when the engine of his outlet’s car blew out – naturally, the team held the peanuts, and not the slacking team member or any poor mechanical work, fully accountable for this explosion.

4) The college football coach who loves to eat grass

Affectionately named ‘The Mad Hatter’ within the world of college football, Louisiana State University Head Coach Les Miles is known throughout his sport for having a handful of habits which blur the line between quirky and crazy.

The pinnacle of these abnormalities is Miles’ tendency to eat the grass of whatever playing field he takes his team to, with the coach casually admitting: “I played baseball when I was a young man, and I played football, and I always seemed to enjoy a blade or two every now and then. Not that it was a meal in any way. Traditionally I’ll put my knee on the ground and look for a blade now and then.”

Unfortunately Miles, confirming to us that this ritual doesn’t provide you with the nourishment normally taken from a full meal still doesn’t quite make this normal. Oh, and just in case the reader was wondering, astroturf “is not nearly as tasty.”

3) The Ecuadorian World Cup witch doctor

After qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Ecuador decided that top goal scorer Edison Mendez and co. wouldn’t have quite what was needed to progress through the competition by themselves, so employed the help of renowned witch doctor Tzamarenda Naychapi to help out along the way.

Naychapi, who actively practises black magic, travelled to Germany with the national team before visiting each of the 12 stadiums to be used at the World Cup, reciting a prayer at each football ground to dismiss any lurking spirits and place a bless of benevolence upon his footballing compatriots.

The national team went on to qualify from their group after beating Poland and Costa Rica in their opening fixtures, obviously down to the work of the witch doctor entirely, and only exited the tournament when David Beckham sent England to a 1-0 triumph over the side in the last 16.

Someone needs to get Gordan Strachan this man’s number fast.

2) The Birmingham City manager who tried to remove a curse with his urine

On the face of it, Barry Fry has had a very respectable career in the footballing industry. The former front man spent time at Manchester United and Bolton Wanderers during a 12 year spell in the senior ranks, and went on to manage Southend, Birmingham City and Peterborough United, where he is now director of football, during a 31 year stint in football management.

Fry will always be remembered for something other than his footballing insight though, after famously draining his dragon in each corner of St Andrew’s stadium during his time in the Birmingham City dugout in an ill-fated attempt to remove a gypsy curse, which he had heard about from the club secretary. Oh dear Barry. Oh dear.

“I thought it was a wind up,” admitted Fry. “But what the hell, we were desperate, so I pissed in all four corners, holding it in while I waddled round the pitch. Did it work? Well, we started to win and I thought it had, then they fucking sacked me, so probably not.”

Probably better for Strachan to stick to the witch doctors then.

1) The legend of the Detroit Red Wings’ Octopus

The beginning of this tale takes us back to April, 1952, when the Cusimano brothers, who owned a local fish market, decided to throw an octopus onto the ice at a Detroit Red Wings home match.

The Cusimano’s insisted that the eight tentacles of the octopus represented the eight wins needed to win the Stanley Cup at the time, and, sure enough, the Red Wings went on to win the biggest prize in Ice Hockey that year, becoming the first ever team to record a perfect play-off record in the NHL post-season in the process.

With the media clambering all over the omen of the octopus after this record breaking triumph, the Red Wings fans have been lobbing octopuses for luck ever since, and even now have a giant purple octopus mascot called Al, who hangs ominously over the Joe Louis Arena every time the Detroit side skate out on home ice. Wonderful.

Dundee and Edinburgh join Stirling on the shortlist of potential settings for the new development outlet, with Kinross and Perth council, Midlothian council and St Andrews University all falling short in their offers for the NPCS.

The exciting project has a construction backing of £25 million from the Scottish government and is targeted for completion by 2016, with the final decision on where it will be build set to be announced this summer.

Professor David Lavallee, Head of the School of Sport at the University of Stirling and current manager of the bid, was keen to stress his belief that should the city be chosen for this prestigious venture, Stirling can extend its status as a sporting power in Scotland even further.

He said: “The National Performance Centre for Sport would build on the substantial investments in sport at the University, particularly since 1996 with the introduction of academic activity and significant growth of sports facilities and associated services and then since 2001 with the sitting of the sportscotland institute of sport on campus.

“The University has merged education and sport to create a knowledge hub to inform and develop sporting and economic activity in Scotland.

“This is an opportunity to differentiate further the University’s sports offer and to influence national policies for sport.”

With these developments holding the capacity to potentially enrich the facilities available to students at the University of Stirling, Lavallee continued:

“This project provides opportunities to grow the capacities of the Sports Union and all of its clubs more widely in order to improve the quality of students’ sporting and associated social experiences.

“The Government wish to see the NPCS completed in early 2016 and the construction of the buildings will take around 18 months.”

The requirements for the sporting facility include an outdoor, natural grass, “Hampden sized pitch for football,” and must also feature a full size synthetic football pitch and badminton courts, both with extensive seating, and a beach volleyball court.

The bid from Edinburgh, which saw the Edinburgh city council and Heriot-Watt University combine forces, may prove the biggest obstacle in the way of Stirling’s success.

The Heriot-Watt pulling point focuses around their proposed location for the centre just minutes away from Edinburgh airport, and the capital submission have admitted they are prepared to provide an extra £5 million to the already government provided £25 million project.

Andrew Burns, the leader of Edinburgh council, admitted a major factor in the capital bid focuses around increasing the facilities in Edinburgh to a similar standard of that provided in Glasgow, with the West of Scotland city set to engage in a sporting building blitz in the lead up to the 2013 Commonwealth games.

“Glasgow has stolen the march for all the right reasons in terms of investment in sporting infrastructure,” said Burns. “We’re keen to try and keep that balance coming back this way to the east coast.

“There is a £25m potential infrastructure project for whoever wins this. Our bid is actually £30m because Heriot-Watt are putting in a considerable amount of effort in finance to it.

“Heriot-Watt has got the space, and it has all the required planning ability to get on and do this.

“It’s a great location, and we’re going to do everything we possibly can to – in the most constructiove sense possible – defeat Dundee and Stirling and bring this to Edinburgh.”

Baltimore quartet All Time Low have risen to the top of the pop-punk genre since the release of their first studio album back in 2005.

The group have culminated a globally loyal fanbase thanks to a charismatic revelry and energetic sound, and are now gearing up for a summer of European travel on the back of an American tour with You Me at Six, Mayday Parade and Pierce the Veil.

Brig Music caught up with All Time Low drummer Rian Dawson ahead of the band’s return to Britain for Slam Dunk festival later this month.

“The tour with You Me, Mayday and Pierce was great,” he said. “This is the first real tour we’ve done where we didn’t have to spend the first week and a half introducing one another and stumbling around nodding awkwardly, because everyone had toured with everyone else before, so we’re all already friends from the get go.

“Doing what we get to do is amazing enough, but getting to do it with some of your best friends is the dream.

“Slam Dunk is cool and we know almost every band that are playing. The festival is a little bit like the Warped Tour in the States, which I know you guys had this year – it’s so perfect.

“We’ve been four times now, and we never thought that we’d be headlining it. To be able to say that we’re the headliners is just unbelievable, and the fact that the festival has already sold out in Leeds is great, it’s definitely another milestone in our career.”

Dawson continued: “We’ve been in the band since 2004 and been touring since 2007 and every year has been a little bit better than the last.

“We’re not one of those bands that one night you’ve never heard of and next night are on the radio all the time. We’ve had a steady career, and for any band, especially in this day and age and especially in our genre, to have a seven year career is so rare. If I can keep doing this for the next five or ten years I will be so damn happy.”

With the group now renowned for their appetite for touring and playful capacity for carousing on stage, audience members can be forgiven for arriving at an All Time Low gig with high expectations for chaos. Dawson joked: “Alex [Gaskarth, vocals] and Jack [Barakat, lead guitar] pretty much just guilt the crowd into showing boob sometimes. Always over 18 of course though! It used to be this thing like ‘hey, you’re at a festival, show your boobs’, and now we’ll be playing clubs and Jack will be like ‘c’mon, if you liked us you’d show us your boobs’, and that kind of thing.

“Quite recently we played in Tampa, Florida too, and there was a woman on someone’s shoulder in a full bridal gown asking Alex to marry her. I think he said yes, but then he started the song real quick so she couldn’t come close.

The drummer added: “We probably tour about 10 months out of the year, so if we didn’t like it we would be pretty screwed.

“When we started off it was just doing a week at a time, then a month, and then two months. We grew ourselves into it, adapted and learned how to make relationships work at home and learned how to deal with one another on the road because we spent a lot of time with each other.”

Now an established pop-punk group, Dawson was keen to emphasise the extent to which his and his band members industry experience had impacted upon the band’s latest album Don’t Panic.

“Going into the studio is daunting, it’s intimidating,” admitted the musician. “You have a limited amount of time where you need to make it work, and once you do, it’s going to be heard forever. It’s not like playing live where if you do something you don’t like you can change it the next night.

“So the first few times you are in the studio you kind of hold back what you might be capable of just so you don’t mess up, but by this time, making our sixth or seventh record and with such a long time in between spent touring, we’re just so comfortable. All of us are really comfortable in what we do now and comfortable in the songs that we write, and I think that shows through.

“When we did Don’t Panic we were unsigned, without a label, so we funded the record ourselves. We were coming off the exact opposite situation where we had had almost an unlimited supply of funding for a record and a major label that would always have two or three guys in the studio telling you ‘yeah, this is going to be a hit’.

“We went from that to just the band and Mike Green, the producer, with us just writing songs we wanted to write and performing how we wanted to perform,” continued Dawson.

“The way it works generally is that Alex will produce a blueprint of a song, a verse and a melody, and he’ll go back and forth with Mike Green, they’ll come up with a chorus and send an acoustical take over the band with programmed drums. Then we’ll all do our parts, get in a room together and hash out the final thing. The master plan is all Alex though, and the lyrics are all Alex, so we’re lucky to have him.”

“What came out was a record with a bit more energy; Alex sings with a little more fire in his voice and with a bit more of a lyrical edge. For me I think that this is the best record we’ve done. It’s got that combination of everything at once from our past few records; that energy and rawness from earlier records, but with the much more polished, mature sound that is developed through years of playing.”

The boat parties will run from Thursday August 29^th till late on Sunday September 1^st, with tickets going on sale for the floating showdowns on Monday 20^th May at 8pm, priced at just £17 +bf for what will be one of the most memorable moments of your Croatian experience.

Tickets shift incredibly fast for these memorable parties though, so make sure you have you take advantage of the fact that you can book up to six tickets in one sitting, and have all the usual details ready by your side to make it a quick transaction.

You can check out all the boat party line ups by clicking this link, with some features that Brig Music are particularly excited about to be found in the Rinse label outing, as well as the Digital Soundboy event, which sees Shy FX lead a line up including B.Traits, who is standing in for Annie Mac on BBC Radio One while Mac is on maternity leave, as well as Breakage and more.

P Money is also set to return to the boat party scene to host one of his highly praised water gigs, while Goldie will be appearing on a couple of boats and Andy C’s RAM records has announced a line up featuring Wilkinson, Rene Lavice and MCs Visionobi & AD so far.

You must have a ticket for Outlook Festival to attend a boat party, so make sure you snap up your festival ticket for a very reasonable £135 +bf before the event, and don’t fret too much if you miss out on your favourite artist, as all acts who play on the water will also be appearing live on land.

For more information about booking boat parties, tickets and accommodation for Outlook Festival head to their official website here: http://www.outlookfestival.com/

The 41 year-old Hunters Bog Trotters runner proved to be the fastest from more than 250 runners that took part, and was forced to put in a hard sprint at the finish to fend off Carengie Harriers’ athlete Andrew Wright, who finished 17 seconds behind Naylor after his shoe dramatically fell off near the finish.

“I’ve competed in the Dumyat race now five times but I had no idea how I would fare, as you never know who will turn up,” admitted Naylor after claiming the win. “Andrew [Wright] should have won it, and I’d have settled for second but that kind of thing can happen.”

Third year computing science student Andrew Gilmore was the pick of the University of Stirling student selections with an impressive time of 32.26, while Ashim Burungu and Kevin Schenk took second and third place after crossing the line in a 44.05 and 44.13 finish respectively.

The Dumyat race also now doubles as teh Scottish Student Sport (SSS) Hill Running Championship, which on this occasion was dominated by Edinburgh University, who saw Tom Marytn take the male trophy with a time of 35.32 and Jenny Dybeck claim the women’s title with a 44.00 finish.

The race, which encompasses a 8km run ranging from roads and woodland to hills and boggy terrain, sees competitors challenged with a 390m climb, and first began in 1972 after a University of Stirling psychologist made a £1 bet that the return trip from the Gannochy pavilion to the top of Dumyat could not be completed in under an hour.

On that day, the pound wager was lost by a narrow three minutes, and the event has been a yearly event ever since.

The weekend music holiday extravaganza has announced its line up of extreme sports set to accompany the top quality acts and carnavalistic vibe from June 20^th-24^th, with travellers getting prepared to revel in the likes of windsurfing, kitesurfing, regular surfing, wakeboarding and a catalogue of beach based endeavors that include football to rugby.

Taking place over two of the most famed beaches in England, Beach Breakers can take to the water at either Watergate Bay or Fistral Beach, competing against hundreds of semi-professional, professional and country wide societies for the title of Extreme Sports Champion.

Last year’s winner and Professional Kitesurfer, Ali Barrett says: “I’m stoked about the move down to Newquay, it’s such a perfect setting for Beach Break. Music on the beach, kiting competitions at Watergate bay and we’ve got the wake board pool gap right next to the campsite! What more could you ask for!”

For wakeboarding fans, The Pool Gap will provide a dose of adrenaline filled madness, while the Student Windsurfing Association will be in charge of highlighting their sport, and beginner taster sessions will even be available for those who fancy trying out kitesurfing.

Applications for competitors to compete in the extreme games opens on May 10^th at 12:00pm, and for those looking to grab a ticket to the event, you can click this link to enter our competition to win two tickets to BBL.

You can also grab tickets to the Newquay showdown from the official website at www.beachbreaklive.com, where you can book your place at the festival from just £40.

The University of London Union, which faces closure                                                                                                                                 partyhardpolitics.com

Lucy Jane Drummond 

In 2010, over 50,000 students took to the streets of central London to protest the trebling of tuition fees. These were imposed by Cameron and Clegg, just six months into their first year of government. It would be naïve to assume that the government is the only body taking decisions that adversely affect the lives of students in the UK. The University of London Union (ULU) has today been told that it will cease to operate as a student-led, democratic body as of 2014. The panel that voted on such an unprecedented measure was completely closed off to all students, meaning that the decision was taken by those who will not be affected by the cessation of vital student support and representation.

Currently, ULU represents over 120,000 students in the capital, from well-known institutions such as University College London and the London School of Economics, to small and specialist colleges such as the Central School of Speech and Drama and Heythrop College. It is the only pan-London organisation which exists solely for students, bringing together thousands of people from different colleges, backgrounds and cultures in a place that offers them safety, security and a voice.

But amidst the anger and the upset, there exists a feeling of unity and of defiance amongst the students and their elected leaders alike. “This decision is totally illegitimate” argues ULU President, Michael Chessum, “No student sat on the review panel, no student got a vote in the decision, and student responses have been ignored or brushed aside throughout. It’s not that we won’t go down without a fights – we simply won’t go down.”

This chronic lack of student representation is becoming increasingly common at institutions throughout the UK, not just at ULU. Indeed, Vice President of ULU, Daniel Cooper is keen to make it known that no Union in the UK is immune. If what is one of the most politically active and famous student-led organisations in Britain can be attacked from the inside, then we must all stay vigilant on our own campuses. Nobody is safe.

ULU’s Community & Housing Officer-elect, Hannah Webb, a second year History student at University College London was keen to talk about plans to extend the positive reach of ULU “There were plans to extend ULU as a representative body beyond current University of London colleges, to many universities across London, and Further Education institutions as well.” But, she also notes “ULU is in the process of becoming relevant again, and this is probably why the University Vice Chancellors feel the need to close it down.”

Currently, the combined salaries of all the Vice Chancellors of all University of London’s collegiate colleges amounts to over £4 million, yet ULU receives a grant of just £800,000 per year, with the vast majority being paid back to the University in the form of rent. This is a direct result of the increasing marketing of Higher Education as a commodity, where universities can cherry-pick students based on how much income they can generate by way of fees. The situation at ULU transcends even elitist access attitudes and attacks both current and future students alike, by effectively devaluing the importance of student representation in their University. Some would say that the University of London values income more than it does the welfare of its students, based on today’s vote.

The increasing activism and relevance of ULU in the face of opposition from senior management is a testament to the strength of the student movement, not just in London, but all over the UK. This, if anything, is a call to arms for every single student in the United Kingdom.“If senior management can come in and shut down our union, that sets a terrifying precedent for other unions around the country.” Royal Holloway’s LGBT Officer-elect, Jack Saffery-Rowe continues “We cannot allow this to happen. We will fight in any and every way we can to keep ULU open. We will lobby. We will petition. We will occupy if we have to. They won’t take our Union from us.”

Often is it said that if you put your head above the parapet, you get shot down. The notion that ULU should be a victim of its own campaigning success is nothing short of a disgraceful insult to every single student. The University has become fixated on making a profit and will shut down those who argue that education is a right, not a privilege. This is a sad, sad day for British education, which has come to rely more on capitalist ventures than it does on nurturing ability.

The message from today’s vote is loud and clear: students of Britain – defend your democracy, defend your representation, defend your welfare and defend your Union. Remember that students, united will never be defeated.

I stand in steadfast solidarity with ULU.