Nicky's North London

A representative of Arsenal in the Community has spoken about the positive impact the project has had on people in Islington and the local area.   When asked about the significance of Arsenal's contributions to the local public,  Samir Singh, who has been with the organisation since 2007, said: " We’re a massive disruption to the local community on a match day, so we need to be a good neighbour." Samir continued: " “I’ll give you a good example: men’s health projects, I say this as a man. Stupid men won’t listen to their doctors or their wives but they’ll listen to Arsenal.  "If through our men’s health programme we can help men to lose weight or, to you know, check for prostate cancer, whatever it might be, that’s powerful.” Other forms of support offered by the project include providing children with numeracy and literacy tutoring, visiting hospital patients with players and promoting the inclusion of females in sport.

The Chair of London Met UCU has spoken out on the working conditions and pay of University staff, disputes which have caused strike action across the country in the past few months.  Christina Paine said:   “What we have now is a system where business runs the day, and the demands of business are the things that have led to a lot of the crises that we have.”  “To take strike action for a lecturer is a really, really difficult thing.”  Another contentious issue in the ongoing dispute is the use of zero hours contracts, something which Chirstina believes hinders professional development: "you’re not actually allowed to do research, you’re not allowed to contribute to the rep."  "All of these things that are progressions in career, we’re just not allowed to do." Christina explained:  "We wouldn’t have to take this action unless we absolutely had to, because we’re fighting for a future for you [university students] and for higher education in general.”