10 Really good reasons to vote

1.       We live in a democracy.
In many countries citizens don’t have the right to vote, they live in a place where one leader decides everything, North Korea for example. It’s a right we however, to have access to. So vote and take advantage.

2.       The suffragettes.
Thousands of women spent years campaigning to get the right to vote, many even gave their lives, perhaps most famously Emily Wilding Davison. We owe it to them, out of respect, to use our vote.

3.       You have the power.
Choose a candidate whose policies best suit you. You can make the change you want.

4.       Young people will benefit more.

Nick Clegg stiffed students in the coalition but that doesn’t mean you have to give up. The more young people who vote the more they will benefit. If a large percentage of votes are coming from the younger generations, politicians will create more policies to benefit them.

5.       Safe seat constituencies.
You may live in a safe seat constituency but that doesn’t mean your vote won’t make a difference. Don’t let politicians get too comfortable. If you give up change will never happen.

6.       You can leave your ballot blank.
A lot of people say they don’t agree with any of the parties, that all politicians are liars so in an attempt to rebel against them they don’t vote. By going to your local polling office and leaving the ballot blank you are making a much more effective stance than not voting at all.

7.       It takes a few minutes.
You queue up, you enter the booth, you mark your vote (or don’t) and you pop it into the box. Simple as ABC.

8.       Your vote does count.
Some 17million people failed to vote in the last election. Many of them though they’re vote wouldn’t make a difference. If those 17 million people had voted we could have had a very different government.

9.       You will regret not voting.
If a policy or law comes into action and you don’t agree with it, it’s likely because you didn’t vote the party you wanted into government.

10.   It’s not that far!
A lot of people say they simply can’t be bothered to register or even to go down to their local polling station. Registering takes 5 minutes, going to your local polling station takes 5-15 minutes depending on how close you live. That’s not that long 

Commuter misery and £200,000 taxpayers' bill over Virgin Media roadworks row

Sunderland commuters are the victims of a roadworks row involving Virgin Media, which could cost the taxpayer an extra £200,000.

Fibre optic cables running under the A19/A1231 have been blamed for a three-month delay to major works at the Hylton Grange interchange in Sunderland.

Engineers asked Virgin Media and other companies to inform them whether any further work was required before starting the project.

A spokesperson for contractors URS said: "Virgin Media returned a nil response indicating that they had no services in the region.

"Once the contractor was appointed and on site, his trial holes revealed ducts that no-one would lay claim to, until Virgin Media acknowledged that they were indeed theirs.

"The obstruction was a series of fibre optic cables that have proved to be very costly and time-consuming to divert."

The roadworks, aimed at relieving traffic congestion on the Sunderland-bound A1231, have already cost the taxpayer £2.9 million, and the extra costs of the project looks likely to be met by the taxpayer-funded Highways Agency.

Virgin Media have refuted the claims that URS were not informed of the presence of the cables at the site of the works, which began in May last year and were due to finish by early December, but will now run into next month.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “We made our requirements clear before construction started and have been ready to start our side of the work since August last year.

Other aspects of the build need to be finished before we can go on site and we will begin our work as soon as these are complete.”

The company claim to have tried to complete their works three times. However, drainage and street lighting are among the issues which Virgin Media claim have prevented them from diverting the cables.

Virgin Media maintain they did advise the roadworks planning team of their requirements ahead of the project – and have been ready to complete their side of the work – diverting the cables - since August 2014.

A spokesperson for the Highways Agency said: “Highways Agency works closely with contractors and others to try and ensure all works are planned correctly and are delivered at the best value possible.

On occasions where works overrun for whatever reason we do our best to ensure that all those affected are given clear and detailed updates."

The spokesperson for URS added: "Final costs are not yet known as the works are not complete, but will be in excess of £200,000. Virgin Media will not be responsible for any part of the works.

The roadworks are expected to be completed in March.

Blue tack and bananas

For the past few weeks I have felt like my life has become increasingly busy. I find myself today however, sitting in my room with nothing to do except revise the joys of shorthand.

I figured what better way to distract myself than to write a little post about what's been happening in my life, not that I'm under any illusion that people care. Except my mum, my loves to hear about life. Even when all I can tell her is that I washed my bedding.

Anyway, about a fortnight ago I suddenly became much more driven than is usual for me. I don't know why, maybe super noodles added an extra bit of energy to their noodles or something...

Whatever it was I feel I used this new found enthusiasm quite well. I joined the gym for one. Something I regret slightly now. Pure gym have this really cool website where you can see how many people are in the gym and how many bits of equipment they have and how many classes you can go to with your membership. Then during the process of joining they tell you how fun it is there and how much healthier you'll feel.

All of it really just a manner in which to entice those willing subjects. I have to admit, the gym is pretty nifty. But not so nifty that I'm overly happy I joined. Then again at £15 a month you can't go wrong.

Should probably move on now before it starts looking like i'm trying to sell Pure Gym. I've only been four times...

Around this time I also realised how desperately I needed/wanted some work experience in the area of journalism (you know, since I'm studying it and all).

I spent about 3-4 hours trying to perfect my CV and an email to send of to the Northern Echo. They emailed me back around an hour later saying I had to fill in this lengthy form if I wanted experience.

Believe me, I was only to happy to comply if it meant a chance of getting the experience I wanted. Which I did, after filling it in for 3 days (I had other work to do around this time too, I'm not just some devastatingly slow typer) I got a 4 day work placement. A buzz of excitement followed which had me ringing my mum, my boyfriend and running into the living room to tell my friends.

Imagine what I'd have done if they'd given me a 10 day placement.

A couple of months ago a friend of mine suggested I apply for Camp America, mostly because she was and I really want to travel. So I did.

Since then they've emailed me quite frequently about events I can go to, to try and get hired by a camp but I've always had prior arrangements.

A few days ago however they emailed me about the final meet up in London on the 21st. They also gave me a queue jump pass because I have horse riding skills.

It would only cost me around £30 to get down to London, that's a bus fare and a night in a hostel (Something my mum is very against). I'm desperate to go and I hope I do I'm just worried I'll get there and no camp will want me. Rejected!

Lastly on my list of things to talk about despite no one caring but my mum (hey mum) is how it took me 3 hours to get home last night. It takes 40 minutes to drive from my mums house to my house in Sunderland.

It took a bus an hour and 10 minutes to drive from Sunderland to Hartlepool. I figured there'd be a bus from Hartlepool to Newton Aycliffe (where my mums house is) but after walking around for half hour, asking several strangers for directions and one bus driver for information, I found out there was no such bus. Not at 7 o'clock at night anyway.

Seeing as I had 3 heavy bags on my arms and I was dumb enough to where heeled boots my night quickly became an increasing struggle to get home.

Just to add to all my hardship I had very little way of contacting anyone. My phone contract had ran out, this was my primary reason for going home. On top of that my iPads battery had ran out, so not only could I not text or phone I now couldn't email or inbox.

My only option was a pay phone, but of course I did not have the correct change. Why would I after all, that would make things far too easy...

Instead I had to ask taxi drivers (2) if they had change for a £5 note. Thankfully the second one did. So I scurried back to the phone booth, popped my phone on top to read my boyfriends number and held my breath in prayer until he answered.

"Hello?"
"Drew it's me I'm stuck in Hartlepool."
"What the hell are you doing in Hartlepool?"
"I don't have time to explain, please come get me, I might die." (Forever the drama queen)
"Right ok I'm coming." (Best boyfriend ever)
"Meet me at the big massive Morrisons, it's called Morrisons superstore, you can't miss it!"

Thank God, right? So I make the 10 minute journey to Morrisons, walk around for a while, buy Drew some Haribo to say thanks (I know, I know, I'm a great girlfriend too...).

Then I go outside and sit on a bench waiting for him. I look in my bag for my phone, unsure why I can't use it for anything. But low and behold, it's not there.

A montage of the last half an hour flickers through my brain and I realise, with much disdain for myself, that I have in fact left it on the phone booth.

Drew pulls up outside the 'big massive Morrisons, it's called Morrisons superstore' Morrisons, he seems quite happy considering. I get in the car and tell him that I've left my phone on a phone booth. Smile shatters.

"What? How? Why wasn't it in your pocket? Do you know where it is? We're going to have to go get it!"

It shouldn't be such a big deal, right? The contract's ran out, I'm getting a new phone...

Well, actually the phone wasn't mine. It was Drew's mums. See I broke my phone 4-5 months ago, dropping it down a toilet, and on the floor and in the bath and eventually the poor thing gave up and died. RIP.

So Drew's kind and generous mum gave me her back up phone to use until my contract ran out. This is why it was a big deal.

So we drove round town, got beeped at a few times cause secretly I had no idea where we were going, and then I saw it. Like a beacon of hope, a ray of sunshine, all the other cliché things to say about it.

And the phone was there. I wouldn't care, it was a crappy phone and when I think about it I doubt Drew's mum would have cared all that much either. But Drew acted like I'd committed an act of treason so seeing the phone there felt Christmas morning.

The Christmas mornings when you were younger anyway. When the living room was filled with presents. Christmas morning now is gut wrenchingly disappointing.

The sack my mum uses is the same size only now instead of being side splittingly full its sort of depressingly empty. Like an old mans family jewels...

Review: Port of Call Hilarity Bites comedy night

The new venue in Sunderland brought a new event on February 6.

Port Of Call hosted a side splitting comedy night with Hilarity Bites. The night began with MC Andy Fury, who won the Hilarity Bites New Act Of The Year 2010 title. It was clear to see why from the get go.

Fury went for the obvious start of making a mockery of the first row, but preceded to make an even bigger mockery of himself, stating he was aware he looked like the kind of guy who had a favourite calculator. His self deprecating, dark humour was well received all round.

Following Fury was Carl Hutchinson, winner of the Beat The Frog World Series and Magners Comedian of the Year Awards in 2007. Hutchinson was confident, friendly and came across as a likeable comic. The majority of the comedy itself was anecdotal, an awkward story about a chipped tooth.

An impersonation of a greeting he and friends did in school probably received the most laughs.

After a short interval, John Whale took to the stage. The young comic was enjoyable to watch and told intellectual jokes. The audience seemed to have a whale of a time.

Duncan Oakley brought the last act of the night and by far the best. The comedian used a mix of stand up and infectious musical comedy. Retrieving his guitar from the side of the stage the comedian preformed a few of his very original songs all of which are available to download from iTunes.

The best song being Here She Comes, which is about a mother-in-law who is compared to Genghis Khan. Oakley concluded his act using his body as an instrument, to a performance of Headless Bird, another song that went down a storm.

The atmosphere was palpable with success as Port of Calls first comedy night ended on a high.

A spokesperson for Hilarity Bites said: “Initially the venue have agreed to run two shows (February and March) to see how popular it is with the audiences. Hopefully, should March be as successful as the show in February then the show will continue to run on the first Friday of the month from May onwards (it’s unlikely to run in April, as it would fall on Good Friday).”

Top 5 beauty products under £10

Rimmel London Stay Matte Foundation
This is easily one of my favourite foundations. Usually when my student loan comes in I can splash out and buy Revlon's ColorStay Makeup, until I completely run out of foundation AND money. You can buy it from Boots for £5.99 and it lasts for 1-3 months, depending on how much you use on a daily basis.

Topshops Lips in Sashay Away
I had never used any of Topshop's beauty products until a couple of weeks ago and I regret not purchasing something sooner. This lipstick is my everyday wear lipstick, although perhaps too dark for some.

Sleek Makeup Face Contour Kit
I had been searching for an affordable contour kit for weeks until I came across this in Boots for only £6.49. It's definitely easy to use although it would have been better if it came with a contour brush, nevertheless it was worth the money and it doesn't look mucky on my skin - which I found a lot of contour kits seemed to do.

Maybelline Matte Maker Mattifying Powder
As well as a mouthful to say, it is true to it's title and is around £3.99 in stores. I'm obsessed with the clear and matte finish and this is made specifically for that. I find that powders work better when you use a good brush and it even helps with the coverage of spots and blemishes.

L'Oreal Paris Super Liner Eye Liner Gelmatic

While this liner doesn't last as long as other liners, at £5.99 it's one of the easiest I've ever used. It's thin brush doesn't let you make a mess of your eyes and my flicks match now - finally. 

80's style fashion shoot!

As well as my 'It's a mans world' post, my friend Amy on my course did her photo shoot on the 80s. It was inspired by a series of photo's that she took off the internet that were related to the 80s and then created a mood board to get an idea of the different poses and props we would need to do/use.

Although most of the poses and props were decided when we got down to actually doing the photo shoot. We did bring the cocktail glass and wine glass which I used in my own photo shoot to add to the femininity of both shoots, more so in mine due to it being a menswear inspired take on femininity rather than 80s dress up theme of Amy's. 

Another theme that could be associated with the photo-shoot could be rebellion. The overview of what she wanted to achieve was a female getting ready and waiting around to go out, in this instance - to wait for her hair to be curly and turning to wine to make that impatient wait a bit more bearable. Mostly the photo's that I chose to feature in this post is me in a lingerie style dress, this was chosen due to it being a lot like underwear so it looked like I was in the process of getting ready.

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American Sniper

American Sniper has caused controversy since being released. It is a film that glorifies a marine who killed at least 160 Iraqis, so it comes with little surprise that it has provoked such a strong reaction.

 If you are completely ignorant about the Iraq war, as I was before watching and then reading up on this film, then it seems like a great movie.

But, is it American propaganda? Should we suddenly start worshipping the ground our troops walk on? Should we kill every person with a Koran in their hands? Is this film inspiring a group of Muslim hating, America loving morons? Probably...

Twitter was, as it is always, the playground of moral highs. People were either tweeting "this film has humbled me, thank you to every soldier fighting for freedom" or, rather contrastingly, "this film is pure propaganda delivering racist stereotypes of Muslims".

"@NathanRyan At the end of the day it's a movie. Enjoy it or watch another one."
I assume this rare species of complete and utter moron is about as ignorant as his tweet suggests.

Correct, it is a movie, but movies are often the source of inspiration. When people watch movies they do so because they feel a connection to the star, in the case of American Sniper people either became humbled by his actions, annoyed that his actions deserved a film, or they became driven by his actions, evident in these tweets:

"@ItsReeceyYh American sniper made me appreciate soldiers 100x more and hate Muslims 10000000x more."
"@desmondharmon American sniper makes me wanna go shoot some fuckin Arabs *gun emoji x3."

With these kinds of imbeciles living in our world is it really safe to create a movie as suggestible as this one?

I don't believe that Clint Eastwood or Bradley Cooper had any intention of creating a film so full of propaganda but that is exactly what they have done.

One tweet seemed intelligent enough to understand the damage something like this can do.
"@fouseyTUBE we are being conditioned to "fear the Muslims" we are reminded "war is good" we are being taught that killing is "necessary"."

The film depicts Chris Kyle, a navy seal, as a hero, I don't for one second doubt that it takes an unimaginable amount of bravery to go to warzones and fight for your country. I also don't for one second doubt that our troops deserve recognition and appreciation.

However, if everyone on twitter decided to actually read the book the film is based around they'd realise that the film portrayed this soldier in a much kinder light than his own book does.

Going there may be something the troops have to do, it may be unavoidable whilst there to have to kill people in order to prevent your own deaths but it should never become a sport, a thrill, an excitement to be killing anyone or anything.

The film portrays this man as a tortured soul, someone who struggled with each death he dolled out but in the beginning of his book he speaks very blatantly of how he loved killing people, he claimed the only regret he has is that he only wishes he'd killed more.

This isn't to say that I believe Chris Kyle was a bad person, I think that he believed that he fought to protect his troops but I also believe that it's twisted to enjoy killing a child.

Rani Khalek, an independent journalist spoke to RTNews about her views on the recent release. "What the movie does is (portray) almost every single child or woman in the movie or every Iraqi for that matter as a terrorist who's trying to kill US soldiers.

The really creepy part of it is it almost elevates marines to this status of civilian where they're helpless and Chris Kyle's this God-like figure who has to snipe people down to save them."

She also says that the woman, men and children who take up arms against the occupier are portrayed as these "irrational, violent savages". 

As I watched the film myself I never thought 'all Muslims are the same, they must all be trying to kill me' but scrolling through twitter it is evident that, that is what many people took away from the film.

The primary reason for going to war with Iraq was because Al Qaeda flew two planes into the twin towers and killed 2,996 people. Al Qaeda, one extreme terrorist group.

Imagine, just for one second, that some extreme group of Christians from America had flown planes into some huge building that housed thousands of Iraqi people over there. And to retaliate millions of Iraqis occupied America and killed millions of Americans. Sounds ridiculous right?

People believe that violence answers violence but by forming kill counts and competing for the most deaths on your name is and always will be wrong.

If people are coming out of the cinema thinking things like this:

I can't imagine how a Muslim with no connection to the war would feel after viewing it.