Ben Clatworthy's Blog

… and where had the blog gone? The blog that covered the general election, all the leaders debates then took a summer break – but now we are back.

Ben Clatworthy’s blog may have been gone since May but school AS exams and much more meant that blogging had to take a break and then the summer has been so manic even Ben hasn’t had time to post, but all is back up and running now and Ben will be writing a summer edition of the blog to bring you up to date with everything from Tall Ships Races, to Spain, France, Denmark, Noway and soon Switzerland. It’s been quite a summer!

Until then why not follow Ben on Twitter, or Facebook;

The blog is back!

As David Cameron takes up residence in Number 10 we look at how the Clifton Mock Election gave pupils the chance to experience an election. Ben Clatworthy reviews the Mock Election

Clifton have historically organized a mock election at the time of a national General Election and 2010 was to be no different. The newly established Politics Department took charge of the event and with the support of the Percival Library staff.

It became clear early on that the mock election wouldn’t differ dramatically from the UK picture of uncertainty. It was clear it would be a four-horse race from the off.

Nine candidates stood for election, representing all the major parties including UKIP, Greens, Respect, The Monster Raving Loony Party and even the Communist Party. One ‘Independent’ candidate put himself to the public too.

After a week of campaigning, posters and lots of talk William Rushworth of the Conservative Party came out

Ben Clatworthy and Will Rushworth, the election winner.

on top; 20 votes ahead of UKIP candidate Charles Markham. Labour finished in a close third place.

The Mock Election offered Clifton pupils a real chance to engage and experience real life democracy and for some the idea of going to a polling station seemed so foreign that even if they gained nothing from the event they will now know how to vote when they are 18.

A Hustings session was also held, allowing the 9 candidates to try and win over voters as they set out their ideologies to a 100 strong crowd, last Wednesday.

The 1997 Mock Election was convincingly won by Old Cliftonian, Nick Yarker, who in this years National Poll was the standing Conservative candidate for Bristol West, the constituency that the College is situated.

Pupils can now take Politics at AS and A-Level as a new subject at Clifton and the modest class of 10 is expected to rise in numbers when the next year of students take up AS studies in September. The subject is taught by former Head of History, Peter Lidington whose brother was re-elected as Conservative MP for Aylesbury. He is expected to take up a Ministerial role in the coming days.

Old Cliftonian Richard Hooper teaches the other half of the course and as a politics fanatic seems the perfect second half for Peter.

The result of our election may not have changed the course of day to day life but for the pupils of Clifton it has very much given them an insight into the working of the UK political system.

Words by Ben Clatworthy

Last week Ben Clatworthy blogged about a rather novel way of raising money for Haiti at a school in Bristol.

Clifton College made a 640 foot line of coins consisting of over 15 different currencies, which stretched from the schools Memorial Arch to the Chapel and back again.

In total the event raised £530, however this sum does not include the foreign currency yet.

The event was covered by local media including Bristol Evening Post and also in an article by Ben Clatworthy for Bristol-27.com.

Following one of the world’s greatest recent disasters, fund-raising efforts for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal have been endless. Ben Clatworthy reports from a rather novel way of raising money in Bristol.

There is no doubt that the Haiti earthquake which shock the country on 12 January 2010 is one of the worst disasters to strike in recent history. An estimated 150,000 people have died with scores more left homeless and injured. Haiti, with a $380 million debt to the International Monetary Fund, and just two fire stations on the entire island is in no position to provide care and support for the injured.

That’s where the rest of us come into the picture. Every penny raised for the Disasters Emergency

Pennies on the Parapet

Committee (DEC) helps to provide aid and vital support for those in need. Schools, companies, local societies and many more people have been holding fund raising events up and down the country. Many schools will have opted for a home clothes day, and companies a ‘dress down’ day, but is that really the most effective way of raising money?

Clifton College Upper School in Bristol, where I am a pupil, came up with a rather novel way of raising vital money for the appeal. A 640 foot line of coins was made by donations from pupils, teachers, support staff, porters, catering staff, cleaners and many more people.  The line 3 coins wide in places, stretched from the schools Memorial Arch up the parapet to the Chapel and then back again. The word ‘Haiti’ was also made out of coins in the ‘Quadrant’ next to the Chapel.

The event was the brainchild of Fiona Hallworth, Director of Charities at the school, who told me, “The event has been an undoubted success with everyone giving some money to help make the line. It’s a much better way of raising money compared to a home clothes day or cake sale as everyone is getting involved and wanting to give more to help extend the line.”

Clifton College pupils show their support for Haiti

The majority of the 720 pupils at school donated along with countless members of staff and even members of the public who were intrigued by the idea as they walked past the school.

Heather Williams, Head of Marketing told me, “We have an estimated total of around £600 – £800 but it will take a while to count all the money. Over 15 different currencies were laid down and every single last penny will be counted and go directly to the DEC. With pupils from over 32 different countries at the school we expect lots of foreign currency.”

The school are always looking for new ways to raise money and yesterday’s event is yet another success story for the Charities Committee, who meet every Monday. A second ‘Fashion and Music Show’ is planned for Commemoration weekend this May, with more details expected soon, but I’ve been told to it’s going to be X-Factor meets fashion.

I will make sure I let you know the final total raised from the event in the coming week or so. It was quite an event!

Every little helps...

In a society where life never stops Ben Clatworthy looks at the advantages of taking a moment to reflect.

It’s seldom that any week goes by without us hearing of some unpleasant news story or other. Take last week or so, the Togo national football team were shot at on their way to the African Cup of Nations; Sunday Mirror journalist Rupert Hamer was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb and on Tuesday catastrophe struck the island of Haiti when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 destroyed towns and cities. It is reported that the current casualty rate stands at an estimated 200,000 people.

Quickly the world’s attention turned to this small country as one of the largest ever aid operations got underway in the latter stages of the week. This time last week the small country with it’s population of just over 10 million was unheard of by many people, today, I doubt there is a single person in the UK who doesn’t know about the country.

Everyone needs a rest from time to time!

It really isn’t the most uplifting set of news stories by anyone’s measure. Reading the Telegraph this morning I then went on to learn that Monday 18 January 2010 is in fact the “most depressing day of the year”. Nicknamed ‘Blue Monday’, the day was inspired by a British psychologist who worked out that using a pseudo-mathematical formula involving the weather, debt, motivational levels and time elapsed since Christmas that the third Monday in January is destined for doom and gloom. Friday June 18 2010 will apparently be the happiest day of the year.

Regardless, in a day and age when ones phone vibrates 20 times a day, the television is always on, the internet powers life and Facebook is a child’s pastime, do we really take enough time to pause for a little thought and reflection? Be it a moment of quietness each day, or a prayer before bed it seems that these days we rarely ever disconnect from the bustle of day to day life enough.

The other day I found myself sitting next to a businessman on an EasyJet flight, from the moment he sat down out came his BlackBerry and up popped his email. Just before take-off the cabin crew lady exclaimed to him, “that needs to be fully switched off now, sir”, immediately he snapped back, “it’s on flight mode”. I don’t want to speculate over flight safety guidelines for one moment but last time I checked ‘flight mode’ was not fully switched off; never mind. The process was then repeated the moment the seatbelt sign faded out, right through until it was time to land.

I on the other hand had enjoyed a cup of tea, read the in-flight magazine, listened my iPod and even had a quick nap; let me wonder who felt most relaxed getting off that plane.

So, maybe next time you feel a little down, or even just tired, take a moment to reflect on life, and the bigger picture. It might just help blow away those Monday morning blues.

This article was first written by Ben Clatworthy for Clifton College in January 2010.

As the UK starts to recover from the recent snowy weather Ben Clatworthy takes at look at the British reaction to snow.

Snow, neige, nevar, sneeuw, or however you say it is very much a factor of winter weather. In fact, each year 1.27 million Britons up-sticks and head to the mountains all in a quest to find snow.

In the past week the UK has been brought to a standstill as people battle with freezing temperatures, heavy snow and treacherous ice. More than 8,000 schools were closed across the country, including the whole of Clifton College, as a result of the extreme weather. The closures meant that around 230,000 pupils were given the day off school and the perfect opportunity to head out and play in the snow.

The snow really went to the heads of newspaper and television companies as pages and pages, or hours and hours of coverage were given to the snow. On Wednesday night the BBC were left with hours of blank schedule after the League Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Manchester City was called off. How did they fill it? Well half an hour was given to a ‘BBC News Special: The Big Freeze’ – anyone would have thought we were in for an ice age. Many would say they were trying just that bit too hard.

If you watched the BBC at all that day, I would totally forgive you if you were left, stranded indoors, scared, shaking and fearing for your life; they made out snow was the most dangerous, horrible, life-threatening thing that the UK had ever seen.

Supermarkets went without deliveries, thousands of pints of milk were reported to have gone to waste as milkmen and lorries were unable to provide houses and shops and there is no doubt about it that people went panic buying. On Saturday Waitrose was completely out of normal milk with dwindling supplies of bread and vegetables.

Fun for some

Snowy road in Bristol

Oblivious to the state of emergency scores of children happily played on every green-space with snowmen dotted across the Downs in Bristol and in front gardens everywhere. It’s been a very fun time for children and grown-ups alike who were unable to make it to work. 14% of the UK workforce was reported to have stayed at home on Wednesday 7 January costing the economy £0.5 billion per day.

But questions are being provoked as people ask whether schools were right or wrong to close and if they should have made more effort to stay open. An unnamed primary school teacher in Bristol told me over the weekend, “Bristol Local Authority wouldn’t execute a ‘blanket closure’ of schools and instead just gave schools a single-lined telephone number to call and give details of closure.”

With more snow expected in the coming days these unanswered questions could lead to further disruption.

Ben used information from the BBC, The Evening Standard, The Guardian and the Ski Club of Great Britain to compile this article

Putting on a play is hard at the best of times, doing it whilst trying to balance school work, sport and everything else that is thrown in your way is a different matter.

It’s been a while since I last wrote a ‘proper’ blog entry because any spare minute I seem to have is swept up as I try to Production Manage the Clifton College School Play.

I’ve done the job for the past few years and really I think I would be silly to give up now with just the sixth form left of school. This year it’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’, adapted by Head of Drama at the school, Rob Morris.

The idea of putting on some of Chaucer’s work in a school play does seem like a slightly mad idea, ‘what about the sex?’ is a question I seem to get asked daily as we lead up to the opening night tomorrow. Well, with the mature cast  that we have issues like this have become very unimportant. We’ve kept the sex, kept the bums and most importantly kept the jokes. It’s no less funny, and its certainly no less interesting. We really do have it all, puppets for the Merchant’s Tale, masks for the Manciples Tale, and Beyonce for the Nun’s Priests Tale.

The Redgrave Theatre, Clifton College

Here at Clifton we are very much lucky enough to have a full size, 323 seat, professional theatre on the campus so putting on the school play is no little deal. The play is becoming the talk of the school. The technical and dress rehearsals are done, the lighting is programmed, the sound cued up and I am ready in the wings.

Life goes on though, its a full day of lessons tomorrow and then the opening night. The play runs for four nights, and we have lessons everyday (even Saturday) throughout. Joy.

Drama at Clifton is taken seriously, we have the School Play, the Junior Play and all 11 houses put on a play in the Lent Term during ‘House Play Week’. It’s an awesome week with 3 plays each night, all 45 minutes long and all with a different cast. The School Play may be the big-brother to all the rest but one mustn’t knock such an event. Especially as my house won last year.

John Cleese, the star of the BBC’s ‘Faulty Towers’ was a Clifton boy many years ago and I am sure he would have loved the Canterbury Tales if we go my some of the old rumours that the school believes.

by Ben Clatworthy, blog content editor

First Eleven Magazine

Theres always something exciting about opening a magazine and seeing an article that you have written, often months in advance, printed on that thin glossy paper.

However, theres something even more exciting about walking into your local WHSmith and seeing your article on sale in a real shop…

When I sat down to write my ‘Becoming a boarder’ article for the magazine in late June to be honest I must admit I did think to myself what exactly is the point – it wasn’t the pay (thats a lovely bonus though), it was not in the least bit exciting and too be totally honest it was the last thing I wanted to be doing just after my GCSE exams had finished (and by the way I mean literally that afternoon).

So what exactly is the plus side? Well, now in Mid-October as I finally pick up a copy of the magazine, flick to page 11 and see 3 photos of me and see that article (not just a long word document) I now most certainly do understand the appeal.

It must be strange being a freelance writer with varying length lead times and a new twist always coming just moments after you finish the article… I know the death of Michael Jackson caused me to re-write the section on the latest music trends.

17 years old!

Another year, another year older, I’m 17! Unlike turning 16 when apart from the obvious, really the only main difference is that one is entitled to buy a lottery ticket, or what most people want to do – buy scrap metal. I was joking by the way!

So what is the best thing? Its got to be the thought that I can drive. Obviously I am still to take lessons, or pass the test for that matter but still its an exciting thought. I have my previsional licence too.

I’ve eaten cake in Politics, about to in School Play and lets be honest, again in my boarding house before bed. Thats quite a lot of cake! But lets face it – thats what birthdays are for!

AT LAST I’M 17! (Now all I need to do is find all the various places it says I’m 16 and change them!)