Cherwell 7th week MT17 by Cherwell

NEWS

INTERVIEW

Mansﬁeld accuses New College of planning to build “literal ivory tower”

David Mitchell on what separates him from Mark Corrigan Oxbow, page 2

7th week Friday, 24 November 2017

AT LENGTH

The harsh barriers facing Britain’s refugee communities

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INDEPENDENT SINCE ��

University trawled sensitive data to drive donations

Oxford told: ‘Clean up your investments’

University hired private investigators to screen animal conservation donors By FRED DIMBLEBY Oxford University employed private investigators to examine the ﬁnancial backgrounds of individuals who donated to the University following the death of Cecil the Lion, Cherwell can disclose. The Information Commissioner’s Ofﬁce (ICO) has now begun an investigation into revelations that British universities breached data protection laws by passing the details of donors on to private investigators. Following Cecil’s death, 11,000 individuals donated a total of over £750,000 to an Oxford campaign in support of the University’s wildlife conservation unit, which had previously been tracking the lion.

200k students were accidentally sent the list of other scholars’ names Oxford then passed donor details onto the private scheme ‘WealthPoint’ in order that they could identify individuals wealthy enough that might donate again. According to a freedom of information (FOI) request, seen by Cher-

well, the University had employed Blackbaud Inc – who run the service – since 2013, but has now ended its subscription. When contacted for a comment on this, a spokesperson declined to provide any further information. An FOI request made by the Daily Mail revealed this week that Oxford has also been using privately employed investigators to examine the financial status of former students. Data gathered included information about the present job, position, and wealth band of alumni. The records of almost 200,000 Oxford alumni have been inspected since August 2007. Three private companies have been used by the University to collect and analyse this data, including a company called Prospecting for Gold and another named Wealth Engine. These assessments can be used to find out the likelihood that individuals will donate in future, or even write Oxford into their will. In November and December 2014 private firm ‘Wealth Engine’ was provided the details of 3,669 individuals in preparation for a telethon.

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Students of oxford...

Demonstators dowsed themselves in ‘an oil like subtsance’ outside the Clarendon building on Wednesday to protest the University’s investment in oil and gas PHOTO: JON STOCKS/CHERWELL

Public schoolboys dominate Union election By MATT ROLLER The Oxford Union’s elections are still dominated by the privatelyeducated and men. 21 of the 30 officers running in Friday’s elections attended fee-paying schools, Cherwell analysis has found. Just one of the twelve candidates for senior positions – defined as Standing Committee and above – attended a state comprehensive school, according to social media profiles. 70% of those running identify as male. There are only three female candidates for senior positions, all of whom attended private schools. According to the most recent data that the University has made available, 59% of offers Oxford made to students studying in the UK went to state school applicants. Under 7% of secondary school students in the country attend independent schools.

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But the Union is set to continue as a private school-dominated society, with students who attended fee-paying schools running uncontested for the roles of President and Librarian. Only one position, Treasurer, is guaranteed to be won by a stateeducated member: it is being contested by Redha Rubaie and Daniel Wilkinson, both of whom attended grammar schools. Chris Garner, who attended Uffculme Secondary School in Devon, is the only candidate for a senior position to have been educated at a state comprehensive school. The imbalance of backgrounds is even more apparent in junior roles, which tend to be contested mainly by ﬁrst-year students. Of the 17 candidates for Secretary’s Committee, 14 attended private schools, including St. Paul’s Boys, Abingdon, and Sevenoaks. The news comes after a recent Cherwell investigation found that 76% of elected ofﬁcials on this term’s

committee attended independent schools. 52% of JCR presidents went to fee-paying schools, the Cherwell investigation found, as well as half of senior editorial staff acrossCherwell and The Oxford Student. In 2010, following a similar investigation, a Union source told Cherwell they had been encouraged to use contacts they had met at public school to win votes. “When I ran for the Union, I was encouraged by members of my slate to make use of the number of Oxford undergrads from my old school and to contact them for votes,” they said. The gender imbalance amongst those running for election follows criticism of a male-dominated term card. “Just twelve of the 61 speakers scheduled to speak at the Union this term identiﬁed as female.

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Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

News Revealed: 70% of Union candidates are privately educated CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE The St. Hilda’s Women’s Rep said at the time of release: “The Oxford Union’s term card proves that success and intelligence at Oxford are continuously and persistently equated with whiteness and masculinity.” Rachel Collett, the Women’s Officer for both Class Act and Oxford University Labour Club, said the Union was “dominated by private school boys.

At the time, Union president Chris Zabilowicz, stressed his commitment to widening access to the society. “Anyone who knows me will support me when I say I very much care about diversity, as the first openly gay President of the Oxford Union and an access member myself,” Zabilowicz said. Polling in this term’s Union elections is open today, and the results are expected to be announced on Saturday.

Fee-paying schools on top 70% of those running for election attended private schools

John’s votes against new ofﬁcer to defend freedom of speech By SAM RICE St John’s have dropped plans to introduce a ‘religions & beliefs’ officer to protect students’ freedom of speech. The original motion argued that those who hold certain religions or beliefs are “at risk of unjust discrimination, yet have no liberation position in the JCR”. It said the role was necessary after a series of incidents of alleged “religious discrimination” at Oxford. The motion passed narrowly at its first reading two weeks ago, but failed to pass at a JCR meeting on Sunday. Students instead passed a motion to endorse the college’s freedom of speech policy. The original said: “students are entitled to hold personal beliefs and participate in open discussion about those beliefs without fear of being banned from college/ JCR events, being discriminated against, or having their events hijacked by protesters.” The motion called for the creation of a Religions and Beliefs Officer, who was to have a budget of £300, with the responsibility of “representing all the religions and beliefs held by students in the

JCR”. A separate ‘Religions & Beliefs sub-committee’, consisting of five to ten people, would be set up to “represent the range of beliefs held by students in the JCR.” At the meeting two weeks ago, JCR members questioned whether the religions and beliefs officer could adequately represent the faiths of all College students. Concerns were also raised about the religions & beliefs subcommittee potentially becoming dominated by Christians, the most common faith in the College, and therefore not representing the beliefs of other students. “One individual would not be able to represent all the religions and beliefs that the students hold,” one student said. Another said: “As the dominant belief in the college is Christianity, and many other beliefs have far fewer students, how would you ensure that there is representation on the sub-committee from these other groups.” Despite opposition, the motion narrowly passed in a secret ballot, with 26 votes in favour, 24 against, and eight abstentions. This Sunday, the religions and beliefs motion was put to a vote again, as it was constitutionally

mandated to pass twice. However, at its second reading, the motion failed, with 34 votes for, 44 against and seven abstentions. Instead, an amended freedom of belief motion, noting: “there has been some controversy recently within the JCR concerning what is acceptable as freedom of speech” and resolving to “endorse the College freedom of speech policy”, passed almost unanimously, with 81 votes in favour, one vote against, and two abstentions. The initial two-part freedom of belief motion noted concerns about specific incidents on campus which had been “interpreted by some as religious discrimination”. The motion highlighted the Balliol JCR committee banning representatives of the Christian Union from its freshers’ fair in early October, over concerns their presence could lead to “alienation or micro-aggression” for new students. The decision was condemned by a JCR motion which accused the JCR of “barring the participation of specific faith-based organisations” and describing the step as “a violation of free speech [and] a violation of religious freedom”. St John’s JCR committee declined to comment on the motions.

Government inquiry launched into data breach CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS An article published in Cherwell on 10 November repeated claims made in The Guardian newspaper that Oxford University Endowment Management (OUem) could have avoided UBTI taxes through the use of ‘blocker corporations’. OUem in fact used ‘blockers’ to save costs, rather than to avoid taxes. An article published in Cherwell on 17 November claimed that Magdalen College JCR had passed a motion to make race workshops compulsory.

The motion was in fact to constitutionally mandate the BME representative to run workshops during freshers’ week. Cherwell takes complaints about editorial content seriously. We are committed to the codes and practices of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso). Requests for corrections or clariﬁcations should be sent to editor@cherwell.org or by post to The Editors, Cherwell, 7 St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1BS.

The FOI request showed that 24 Russell Group Universities have been using similar data screening methods, some of which have been running since 1997. £1 billion was donated to UK universities last year, with the majority going to Russell Group institutions. Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said: “Personal data belongs to the individual. That means telling people what it’s going to be used for and who it’s going to be shared with. This is what the law required. “We will look carefully at the evidence provided by the Daily Mail to see if and where any rules have been broken.” In 2017, the ICO ﬁned eleven charities a total of £138,000 after they breached data protection law. If an institution failed to gain consent from individuals to screen them, or their reasonable expectation that their data would be stored, they may have broken the law. An Oxford University spokesperson told Cherwell: “We have used wealth screening ﬁrms to support our efforts to raise money for our research and teaching objectives, but it is a tiny part of our fundraising activity and the vast majority of the

screening happened at least eight years ago. “We have not tried to hide this – every email sent to alumni has a link to our data protection statement, which clariﬁes that our development and alumni relations system may be used for fundraising and hold donor status and wealth assessment information. “For many years, all alumni have been able to opt out if they do not wish their data to be used in this way, and we would never sell their data to external partners.” “We are committed to transparency in the use of our data and we will continue to review our data protection statement to see if we can make it clearer. “We are proud of the results of our successful fundraising campaign – it has funded thousands of students from all backgrounds to study at Oxford, and research which has transformed the lives of people around the world.” Cherwell has seen emails that have been sent to alumni in which a data protection statement has been attached. The link is usually placed at the very bottom of emails and leads to a website that lays out the policies of the University’s Development and Alumni Relations System.

NEWS

OPINION

Graduate sues Oxford for poor teaching

page 7

In ﬁgures ��.�� billion � the amount that the university attempted to raise for its fundraising campaign Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford. 199,369 – the number of alumni records that were collected and screened since August 2007. 24 – the number Rusell Group universities that were covered by the Daily Mail freedom of information request. £46,000 – the amount of debt that the average undergraduate student will leave university with. 301,769 – the total sum of alumni documents, which were screened by Cambridge through companies such as Prospecting for Gold.

SPORT

Should we impose Women’s Blues gender quotas in come from behind Uni Challenge? to beat Brookes page 11

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Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

Mansfield up in arms over ‘ostentatious’ New College building plans Mansfield students angered by New College’s plans. Below: area where construction is reportedly taking place By HENRY STRAUGHAN Mansfield students have attacked New College building plans, describing the proposed structure as a “literal ivory tower”. New College reportedly intends to build a new accommodation block overlooking Mansfield. They also intend to build a tower – above the height of Carfax tower – on the corner of Saville and Mansfield road. The accommodation block will be built just two metres from the Mansfield perimeter at the nearest point. New plans to spend around £2.5 million on the tower, which will house an ‘Institute of Philanthropy’. The entire project is expected to take around four years with a projected cost in the tens of millions. Mansfield are expected to put in an official planning objection. However, it shaping up to be something of a David versus Goliath battle. Mansfield is one of Oxford’s smaller and poorer colleges, while New College is far larger and wealthier: as of June 2015, it had a financial endowment in excess of £190 million, and net assets of over £220 million. In 2016, Mansfield had an endowment over around £14 million. Questions have been raised over the timing of planning application, which is set to be lodged in December. Students suggested that with 30 days allocated for response, any objections will be hindered by the vacation. The plans will not go public till next Thursday. This means most Mansfield students will be leaving Oxford for vacation only days after. This is

Somerville votes against gender neutral toilets

By FELIX POPE

likely to inhibit what is expected to be a considerable response from the Mansfield student body. Mansfield members have alleged that the building works will lead to significant disruption within the college. JCR president, Joe Inwood, suggested that the issue concerns “being a good neighbour”. He noted that Mansfield has only just established a large on site community, and have recently “begun to flourish as one of Oxford’s newer, poorer, but also more representative, colleges. While their far wealthier neighbour is constructing a large disruptive development”. The accommodation block will provide New College with 70 additional rooms. Inwood suggested that New’s decision was an “ostentatious demonstration of wealth”. He described the plans as New “spending four years on a literal ivory tower and quad to the great disruption of their poorer neighbours”. Particular concerns were raised over the noise pollution the project will create. The groundworks, a particularly loud part of the building process, will run from Michaelmas 2018 to Trinity 2019. The overall construction will not be finished till at least 2021 and so will affect Mansfield finalists sitting exams in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Moreover, some Mansfield students take exams in college in rooms only eight metres away from the projected construction site. Daria Lysyakova, incoming president of Mansfield JCR, told Cherwell:

“I am deeply concerned with their building works disturbing Mansfield students, particularly during exam periods. The building site will of course be disruptive on a daily basis but... perhaps the worst consequence is that it could have a serious impact on Mansfield students being able to revise for their prelims/finals in their college rooms. “I’m further concerned with how close they have moved the school ‘assembly room’ (actually a music room) to our boundary and think that this could cause disturbance to our college long after the building works are complete. “Their uncompromising approach to this project puts Mansfield in the very poor position, where it is clear that all of our undergraduates living on site will be strongly impacted by the building works, but we are unable to get our concerns heard or appropriately addressed by the planning committee at New.” Mansfield students have also raised concerns about their level of privacy within college accommodation. Rooms in the planned New block will look into Mansfield’s rooms. In response to Mansfield raising this issue New College promised to take measures to obscure the view. However, such measures will only be effective for students sitting at their desk, with New College defending the decision by claiming “people don’t tend to stand in their rooms for extended periods of time”. New College’s Warden told Cherwell: “There has been close consultation with Mansfield College

as the project has developed. Oxford building projects are always likely to inconvenience neighbours.” “We are ready to do whatever is necessary and practical to minimise disruption. Our architects and advisors are very clear there is no issue of over-looking. The really important issue here is that by housing all our students in college we will be taking significant pressure off the Oxford housing market which benefits all students, and I hope it will be possible for people to see that big picture.” Inwood also questioned the efficacy of building a tower, a large quad, and a music hall as a way to take pressure off the Oxford housing market. Conleth Burns, New College JCR President, told Cherwell: “The New Quad represents a unique and exciting opportunity for future New College students. The New Quad will include: one of Oxford’s first fully accessible towers... state of the art study and teaching facilities and a brand-new

arts and performance space. “I’ve been in close contact with the JCR President at Mansfield in the past few weeks seeking to understand the concerns of Mansfield students better. I will be feeding these concerns into the planning process going forward. I am confident that Mansfield College and New College can be and will be good neighbours throughout the development of the New Quad.” Mansfield student Josh King, said: “It seems the management at New College have little consideration for the effects their actions will have on others. This new development will subject those at Mansfield and Wadham to constant noise pollution for at least four years, including throughout revision and finals. “It is ironic that New College are building a Philanthropy tower to teach people about the rich helping the poor - when a rich college is exploiting the weakness of a poorer college.”

Somerville JCR has narrowly voted against the introduction of gender neutral toilets, in part over concerns that women might feel uncomfortable using mixed facilities. This comes despite LGBTQ+ officers making clear to students that college administration backed the change, and merely required a display of support from JCR members. Reportedly, an LGBT Entz rep has now been “pressured” into cancelling the planned introduction of gender neutral toilets at an upcoming bop, reportedly under the threat of disciplinary action brought by other students. The motion was originally proposed by Eilidh Wilson, college LGBTQ+ Officer. She told the meeting it was

“important that this college shows recognition of non-binary people and think this should be reflected in buildings and facilities available to people”. Currently the college bar has no gender neutral toilet, but merely one labelled ‘male’ and one ‘women’. This is also the case in Flora Anderson Hall and Vaughan building, as well as for the toilets serving the dining hall. Toilets in some college accommodation blocks are already gender neutral. Were the proposals adopted one toilet would be renamed ‘gender neutral toilet’ while the other would be named ‘gender neutral toilet with urinals’. Other toilets throughout the college would remain gendered.

Several JCR members raised the point that women would feel uncomfortable sharing a public toilet with men, with one stating that this was particularly important to consider as “many women have had experiences of harassment”. One member was accused of “heteronormativity” for claiming that some men would “feel awkward” using a urinal knowing that women could enter at any time. Others suggested that a gender neutral private room, as opposed to a public toilet, would be preferable. However this reportedly would not be possible as it would necessitate “large scale construction”. In order to prevent social pressure from influencing the outcome of the vote, a secret ballot was held, despite the concerns of

some that such a measure could allow “transphobic” opinion to be voiced. 31 voted against the motion, with 29 in favour, and 7 abstaining. Cherwell understands that students in support of the introduction of gender neutral toilets are set to reintroduce the motion next term, in the hope that it will then succeed. Were the college to have instated gender neutral toilets it would have brought it in line with other colleges including Mansfield, St. Catherine’s, Nuffield, St. Hilda’s, Wadham, LMH, St. Peters, Balliol, St. Johns, St. Benet’s, and St. Hugh’s. It is unclear whether Somerville College will attempt to implement gender neutral toilets irrespective of the outcome of the JCR vote.

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

News Twelve private schools gain more Oxford offers than the north By MIA MILLMAN All major northern cities combined secured fewer places at Oxford and Cambridge than twelve southern private schools, new data has revealed. 483 places were offered to pupils from twelve southern schools, compared to 398 for all northern cities. Of the top six southern schools, which received 344 offers between them, ﬁve are based in London. The twelve schools collectively received roughly one in 14 of all offers made to both universities. In total, the two universities offer nearly 7000 undergraduate places each year. The cities included in the regional data, gathered from an FOI request made by David Lammy MP, were Middlesbrough, Bradford, Liverpool, Bolton, Shefﬁeld, York, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Hull, and Birmingham. Westminster School alone received 88 offers, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the offers made to all major northern cities. The other schools with the most offers were Eton College, with 68 offers, and St Paul’s School, with 53 offers. Other schools named on the list include City of London Boys, Magda-

len College School, Wycombe Abbey, and Charterhouse. The most recent figures available were used for the twelve schools, though some of the latest data is from previous years. In response to these findings, Lammy claimed the data provided “yet more evidence” that change was needed at Oxford. Lammy said: “It is simply not acceptable for these institutions to take £800 million in taxpayers’ money from people in every city, town, and village when they are not reflective of our nation outside the wealthiest areas of the southeast of England.” Catherine Canning, Oxford SU VP for Access and Academic Affairs, told Cherwell: “We believe that the University should set and strive to meet stretching targets for widening access to Oxford. “We believe access stems from long before application and does not stop at an offer letter. The University has an obligation to support students throughout this process.” This comes after statistics earlier obtained by Lammy showed that four out of five students at Oxford and Cambridge are from the top two most privileged economic groups. Speaking to Cherwell, Pembroke

JCR Access rep, Graham Mogridge, said: “This statistic is frankly appalling. It illustrates that the need for access work, and government action, is as relevant as ever. “Work is needed at all levels, from University to student, in defeating Oxford stereotypes, and providing those that have the potential with support before, during, and after the applications process.” A spokesman for the University said: “When students from the north of England apply to Oxford, they tend to be very successful. What we need are more applications.” The data also revealed that Oxford made only 193 more offers to applicants from the whole of northern England than it did to applicants from the five home counties. The University told Cherwell: “One of the most important things to look at in admissions is the fairness of success rates, not just the raw numbers.” “In our case, figures for the latest admissions round show that students whom we flag in the admissions process as being particularly disadvantaged (because they attended an underperforming school or live in an area of high social deprivation) actually have better success rates when they apply than their more advantaged peer applicants.”

Oxbridge admissions Number of offers received by cities and schools

DATA: THE TIMES

Oxford ‘most gentlemanly city’ in UK By HONOR BROCKLEBANKFOWLER Oxford has been named the most gentlemanly city in the UK following a survey of over 2,000 people. In the study, conducted by lifestyle magazine The Gentleman’s Journal, 54% of those surveyed placed Oxford in their top two most gentlemanly cities. London came in second with 40% of votes, and Manchester third, receiving a vote from 19% of respondents. Other major UK cities such as Birmingham and Leeds received no votes at all. Despite being one of the UK’s smaller cities, with a population of around just 160,000, the prestige of the University seemed to influence people’s view of Oxford as

gentlemanly. Oxford’s sartorial reputation also may have impressed the participants in the survey. The survey of cities with the most gentlemen was part of a wider study that looked at the most unfavourable traits displayed by British men. Participants were provided with a list of traits, including immaturity and not helping with housework, and were asked to state all of the traits that they thought British men were most guilty of. Drinking too much and demonstrating “laddish” behaviour was cited as the least gentlemanly trait, with 77% of respondents deeming it unattractive. However, not listening, a stereotypical complaint, was deemed unattractive by only 50% of re-

spondents. “Inattentiveness” and “not pulling their weight around the house” were also among the character traits seen as least attractive in a gentleman. When asked the maximum number of sexual partners a man can have per year and still be considered a gentleman, 37% of respondents said between two and five. However, 35% of those who completed the survey believed the figure had no bearing on whether or not a man can be termed a gentleman. The study also indicated that people viewed Italian men as the most stylish dressers, followed by English men, and then French. Russian men received only 1% of total votes.

Oxford falls in global employability rankings By JOE SIBLEY Oxford University has dropped outside the top ten universities for graduate employability worldwide. The ability of 150 universities to prepare students for the workplace was assessed by employers for rankings published by Times Higher Education (THE).

Oxford, which holds the overall THE world university ranking top spot, has fallen this year from seventh to 15th position in world employability rankings. This is the biggest drop in the top 30, raising concerns that Oxford may have fallen behind its global counterparts in its

ability to offer its graduates good employment prospects in a postBrexit landscape. With ties to European companies and institutions weakening, Oxford graduates seem to have become less sought-after as the advantages of a British education, and the links it provides to the UK and the city of London, become less important in the eyes of employers. Additionally, perceived difﬁculties for international students wanting to come to Oxford to study, and to remain in the UK upon graduation, has led to many European students looking to carry out their education at highly

regarded universities outside of the UK. A University spokesperson told Cherwell: “While there is still a great deal of uncertainty about what the fi nal impact of Brexit might be, we are confident that an Oxford education will continue to be viewed as excellent preparation for a wide range of professions.” The California Institute of Technology once again led the global employability rankings, with Harvard University and Columbia University in second and third place respectively. In fifth place, the University of Cambridge was the highest ranked UK institution.

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Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

University Challenge gender quota introduced at Wadham By CHERWELL NEWS Wadham has imposed a female quota on its University Challenge team in order to prevent an all-male line up in next year’s competition. Students voted at an SU meeting on Sunday that at least one woman must be on the team or the college would withdraw from the contest. After extensive quiz-based auditions at the college, the team selected was all-male. This was despite the college holding femaleonly trials to encourage more women to come forward and try for a place on the team. One of the men on the team has now stood aside to make way for a woman. At the meeting, one student spoke in support of the motion, saying: “it would be regressive and complicit in the sexism of University Challenge to submit an all male team.” The motion to set a quota at Wadham followed a heated debate at a meeting of students on Sunday evening. Some female students said it was “tokenistic” while others said the sole female member may be

blamed if the team does badly. However others argued that the team would be the public face of the college so some form of positive discrimination was justiﬁed. Women’s Ofﬁcer Rhian Friedeberg-Steward spoke in support of the motion, saying: “We have to ask if this is about winning University Challenge or gender equality? “I do personally see it as tokenistic to reserve a place for a woman, it would be more of a visual protest to refuse to enter a team, such a protest would make the papers.” Students are concerned the woman most likely to replace him scored 10 points less than the lowest ranked man in a 50-question quiz. Daniel Villar, who made the team, said: “As a quizzer, this is infuriating. “To see people who know nothing of, and have never partaken in quizzing in their life, saying that this wonderful hobby cannot be enjoyed and it’s practitioners not able to to showcase their talents on television, simply due to their masculinity, seems to be simply injecting politics where it does not

belong. “It doesn’t help anyone who has done well in quizzing from going on University Challenge, while including a woman for no reason beyond tokenism.” The motion was passed along with another stating the college would not enter a team if a willing woman could not be found. Last year had two all-male teams competing in the ﬁ nal, as well as in many proceeding rounds. The college social secretaries, Greg Ritchie and Vita Bax, said: “We’ve always believed that this issue should be decided by the student body. “This is why we brought the issue to the SU again, and we have now selected a team based on the agreement that was reached.” It comes after continued concern over the lack of women on University Challenge. Last month St Hugh’s, a former women-only college, ﬁelded an all-male team, prompting Jeremy Paxman, to joke: “On the basis of tonight’s team, we could be forgiven for thinking they [men] had rather taken it over.”

Magdalen JCR spends £2k on cups By OSCAR BAKER Magdalen JCR have voted this week to spend nearly £2,000 buying KeepCups for all undergraduates at the college. The motion resolved to purchase a KeepCup for all 415 current JCR members and to implement a “rolling scheme” where the cups would form part of future freshers’ packs. The JCR will spend approximately £1,855 from its reserve fund, plus an annual spend of roughly £600. Each KeepCup is expected to cost £4.47. The motion, proposed by JCR President Hannah McNicol, noted that this scheme would “reduce the amount of paper cups used by JCR members, which would be beneﬁcial to the environment”. The scheme would also enable students to take hot drinks into the Library. JCR members are currently not allowed to bring coffee or tea into the newly renovated Longwall Library building unless they are in sealed and appropriate containers – such as KeepCups – to prevent spillages. The KeepCups will be

Magdalen branded, which the motion claims will “act as a sign of welcome from the JCR”, and reserves will be available in the college shop. Amy Wilkinson, a first-year student at Magdalen, told Cherwell: “I really support the KeepCups motion… because it recognises the unavoidable expense… if you want to have a hot drink whilst studying. “It’s definitely a constructive use of JCR money and appropriate considering the effort that has gone into building the new Longwall Library.” The motion passed after a long debate amongst students, with a change introduced to establish an opt-out clause for those not wanting a cup so as to avoid waste. This followed the rejection of an earlier proposed amendment by Sofya Sudets, a first-year historian, who wanted to implement the scheme on an opt-in basis. She told Cherwell she “think[s] that giving out keep cups to everyone… is a bit of a waste of money”. Magdalen MCR is reportedly now looking to pass a similar motion.

‘No more oil’, campaigners tell Oxford By EVE WEBSTER Oxford has been criticised for its “dirty investments” in a protest calling on the University to divest from fossil fuels. The protest, organised by the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign (OCJC), was attended by around 35 campaigners outside the Clarendon Building on Wednesday. It was part of the planned National Day of Action for Divestment initiated by the NUS. Ten students wearing mock formal academic dress were lined up outside the Clarendon Building and “symbolically doused in an oil-esque substance” which was then ceremoniously cleaned up. This was accompanied by chants of “No more coal, no more oil, keep your carbon in the soil” and “Oily Oxford Switch to Green, We Want Our Investments Clean”. OCJC said that students are “mobilising to demand transparent and ethical endowments”. The protest follows last week’s release of the Paradise Papers which revealed the University and 16 of its colleges have been investing millions of pounds in offshore funds that themselves invest in fossil fuels and deep-sea oil exploration. At the protest, Julia Peck, an OCJC representative, told Cherwell: “The issue, for one, is obscured. We’re told that there are only indirect investments and that the University doesn’t even know what it’s invested in them... It’s certainly not transparent.” She claimed that Oxford’s fossil fuel investment has been “normal-

ised”. “Students are not taught to take issue with the fact our education is predicated on things like increased oil extraction, and finding more carbon to burn, which is an absolutely unsustainable approach to the world around us if we’re going to keep this planet’s temperature under 2 degrees of increase,” she said. When asked whether OCJC had more protests planned, she said: “You know it. We’re not going to stop until our University ceases to profit from the fossil fuel industry that’s destroying our futures. “I think the Paradise Papers are finally bringing into conversation the layers of secrecy that protect investment and that keep a university from being held accountable.” Immediately after the release of the Papers, OCJC took part in a protest calling on Oxford to “pay your taxes”. The Papers show that Coller International Partners V – one of the two offshore funds invested in by the University – invested $1bn in Shell. Xtreme Coil, a Shell business partner that specialises in “innovative and efficient drilling rigs” also recieved funding. However, the University defended its investments, telling Cherwell: “As charitable trusts, Oxford University’s endowment is exempt from UK tax. The taxpayer therefore does not lose a penny from our investments. The investments generate some £80 million a year which is spent on key academic priorities in Oxford... That is £80m for UK education and research which the taxpayer does not have to fund.”

Students gathered outside the Clarendon Building in protest of Oxford’s “dirty investments” PHOTOS: OCJC

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

News Oxford SU considers new carbon Education divide led to Brexit, says Richardson footprint levy on students By LIBBY CHERRY

Oxford SU will vote on a proposal to introduce a “carbon levy” on students next term. The levy would consist of an estimated £5.50 termly fee to be paid by every student in order to offset their personal carbon footprint. Dane Rogers, a fourth year DPhil student at Merton College, proposed the motion, which was debated on Wednesday. He told Cherwell: “[the levy is] a way to do something so that it actually gets done.” “As an individual living in the West, no amount of lifestyle change will enable us to cut our emissions [enough], short of us all moving to a different country and living a low carbon lifestyle.” Rogers proposed using the money raised to support the charity Cool Earth. The organisation works to prevent deforestation in rainforests around the world by supporting local communities financially. According to Cool Earth, this offers “an alternative to selling out to palm oil companies, cash

offers from illegal loggers, and pressure from mining gangs”. By maintaining the rainforest, the charity promises to “lock in” tonnes of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. Rogers claims to be “reasonably confident” that Oxford SU will eventually approve of the motion. He added that it would be a “bit rich” for students to complain about the cost of the termly tax. “I don’t think it’s a huge deal when the global poorest are going to be hurt the most.” Michael Coughlan, a student of the Environmental Research Doctoral Training Partnership at Oxford, condemned the levy during the meeting as a “terrible idea.” He told Cherwell that the motion was “a slightly lazy way to get out of real environmental commitments.” Oxford University’s Campaign for Climate Justice, a group of activists lobbying for the University to divest from any possible links with fossil fuels, told Cherwell: “The commerciali-

sation of carbon, through offsets and credits, perpetuates the continued burning of fossil fuels in rich countries. “Instead of feeling guilty about our enormous carbon footprints, we can burn fracked gas to power our lights and warm our heaters, fly to tropical locations during term breaks, and consume more with a clean conscience. “There is no guarantee that the offsets are funding projects that are reducing emissions proportionately. “What’s the point in spending a few hundred thousand dollars per year on offsets as our university invests millions in companies that are actively exploring the oceans for new carbon to burn?” Farheen Ahmed, the Oxford SU vice president for Welfare and Equal Opportunities told Cherwell: “Divestment is a very long term process, but the carbon levy could act as a starting point for greater action on climate change.” The motion is planned to be raised again in Hilary Term, when it will be voted on.

By EMILY LAWFORD

Oxford’s vice chancellor Louise Richardson warned that the “educational divide” could undermine representative democracy. In a speech, entitled ‘Educational Inequality in a Populist Era’, she said: “The single biggest predictor of a vote for Brexit and a vote for Donald Trump was not income, was not age, was not race – it was educational attainment. “In the UK, one quarter of university graduates voted to leave the EU, whereas three quarters of those with no post-secondary qualiﬁcations voted to leave. Similarly, 75% of white people with no college degree voted for Donald Trump.” Richardson warned listeners that “certain shared values, like respect for knowledge” could be diminished by educational division. “If knowledge

is perceived simply as a perk of the plutocracy, the underlying consensus, the basis of truth on which decisions are made, could be eroded”, she said. She added that universities “must be... fair in our admissions procedures and transparent in our governance,” in response. “We must do what we can to address the deep educational inequalities in our society.” Regarding social sciences, she said: “The scale of the educational inequalities in this country is an issue of such import that we should be concentrating all the methods of our discipline in attempting an understanding of the scale of the problem, the causes of the problem and identifying ev idence-ba sed policies... to mitigate the problem.” Richardson was speaking at the Campaign for Social Science.

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Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

Shark Tales Drunk freshers meet world-class journalists. Watch now at facebook.com/cherwellonline

Oxford SU: University should offer free student bike repair

Graduate sues Oxford for ‘negligent’ teaching

By IGGY WOOD

By ETHAN CROFT

Oxford SU will lobby the University to introduce a free bike repair system for students. The University’s ‘Mobile Mechanic’ scheme currently provides staff and students with access to bicycle repair services from two local companies. It is free of charge and for staff only. At a meeting on Wednesday students voted for Oxford SU to try and extend this free provision to students. The SU’s vice president for Charities and Community, Tom Barringer, will now approach the University with the proposal. Barringer told Cherwell: “I’m very happy that this motion passed. Extending access to the University bike doctors for students is already something I’ve talked to the Estates Department about, and having this motion come up independently through Council will serve to highlight how important the issue of bike safety and fair access to bike mechanics is for students.” Despite concerns about funding, the motion proposed by Tiger Hills and Tom Wernham passed without opposition.

Hills and Wernham told Cherwell that the motion was aiming for the “equitable treatment” of students and staff. “Students need to travel around the city just as much, if not more, than university employees,” said Hills, “but for staff, labour costs for repairs are free, whereas students have to pay.” The pair said such costs are especially prohibitive for poorer students. “Cycling in Oxford won’t be safe until students are riding well-maintained bikes,” Wernham summarised. Oxford SU’s resolution forms part of a broader movement to improve cycling safety in Oxford. Last Thursday, the Claudia Charter for Cycling Safety was launched in memory of the D.Phil student Claudia Comberti, who was killed in a cycling accident earlier this year. The initiative, which calls for a minimum of £10 per cyclist to be spent on improving cycling infrastructure, met with unanimous approval from Oxford City Council. Cycling safety has long been a problem for the city. Based on data from 2009-2015, The Plain roundabout – which joins Ifﬂey Road, Cowley

Technology Oxford buys supercomputer Oxford has become one of the first British universities to buy a supercomputer, as part of its Joint Academic Data Science Endeavor (Jade).

Academics and students will be able to use the supercomputer, purchased from tech giant Atos, to test deep learning applications and proof of concepts. The Alan Turing Institute, based at the British Library but founded by Oxford and other universities, will be the primary user of the new service, helping industry and academia to access the latest cognitive analytics technologies.

Spiking Colleges warn against sexual assault after spiking A number of colleges have sent warnings on the dangers of spiking to their students, amidst a rise in the number of reported incidents of drinks being drugged. In an email to Hertford students the college wrote: “There have been reports of Oxford students having their drinks spiked with drugs and some women have then been assaulted… This is a time of year when there are more opportunities to attend parties and clubs – PLEASE BE ALERT.” . In an email to Exeter students the college Nurse warned students: “If your drink has been spiked, it’s unlikely that you will see, smell or taste any difference. Some drugs, such as GHB, may taste slightly salty or smell unusual. If you start to feel strange or more drunk than you should be, get help immediately.”

Dr Feelgood Clubbing kindness helps students and the homeless The club night ‘Dr. Feelgood’ donated 30 blankets to Oxford Homeless Pathways after its club night on Tuesday. The blankets were initially handed out to clubbers to keep them “warm and cosy” throughout the night, but were then collected, washed, and given to the local homelessness charity. One of the event’s organisers, Max Reynolds, told Cherwell: “Our idea was to make the clubbing experience more comfortable for people coming to our night, while… giving a very small but tangible aid to those we share our streets with.”

Road, St Clement’s and the High Street, and serves more than 11,000 cyclist a day – was the second most dangerous roundabout for cyclists in the UK. The junction, which links the city centre with Cowley, has since been redeveloped. In response to the motion, the University told Cherwell it would not extend the service to students. “The service currently allows for students to present their bicycle to the bike mechanic, who would then provide them with advice on what is needed and a quote for making minor repairs,” it said. “University staff receive free labour for minor repairs but must pay for all parts. The service is designed for quick checks/repairs and not for full servicing, for which we would expect University staff to use a reputable bike shop. “The service is funded by the Green Travel Fund (staff parking charges) but due to ﬁnancial and capacity constraints it is not possible to extend the free labour for minor repairs to students. The University is currently in discussions with the Oxford Student Union regarding opportunities to widen cycling support to students.”

Oxford history graduate Faiz Siddiqui is currently suing the University for £1 million because he left the University with a low 2.i. On Tuesday, the legal battle between Oxford University and Mr Siddiqui began in earnest at the high court in London. The 39 year old solicitor, who graduated from Brasenose College in the summer of 2000 with a 2.i in Modern History, is bringing a loss of earning claim against his chancellor, masters, and scholars of Oxford University. He has alleged that “negligent” teaching by members of the faculty during his Indian imperial history module prevented him from achieving a ﬁ rst-class degree and forging a successful career as an international commercial lawyer. Siddiqui claims that his special interest module was poorly provided for by the University and pulled down his degree mark, with four of Oxford’s seven Asian history experts on sabbatical during his ﬁ nal year 1999-2000. Siddiqui now suffers from depres-

sion and insomnia, which he has linked to his exam results and which he claims have led to an inability to maintain long-term employment. As the case opened this week, Siddiqui’s lawyer, Roger Mallalieu, told the court: “Whilst a 2.i degree from Oxford might rightly seem like a tremendous achievement to most, it fell signiﬁcantly short of Mr Siddiqui’s expectations and was, to him, a huge disappointment.” Last December, Oxford University initially asked for the claim to be dismissed given the length of time since the graduate left the college. The University also pointed out speciﬁc instances where Siddiqui received personal attention during his studies, including additional time in examinations after complaints of hay-fever. But the high court then ruled that the case could go ahead. Siddiqui’s lawyer said at the time that the claim is not a direct attack on any particular member of the history faculty, which he understands was under pressure at the time due to staff shortages. Oxford University declined to comment on an ongoing case.

#Inoxcessible disability protest By EVE WEBSTER Around 30 protesters gathered outside the Clarendon Building on Wednesday to raise awareness for disability access at the University. It was hosted by the Oxford Student Disability Committee (OSDC) and Suscam. The OSDC made a series of demands, including that the University creates an accessible housing policy, and open and easy access to all dining rooms and libraries. Miranda Reilly, the OSDC president, said people need to tackle “the mentality that asking for access requirements to be met is asking too much, that it’s being ungrateful, being a ‘snowﬂake,’ being ‘not tough enough’ for the Oxford system”. Marina Lambrakis, one protestor, told Cherwell: “I don’t think the colleges or the university do enough to make themselves more accessible on lots of different levels. “Even really tiny things like pidge rooms not being accessible, means that students can’t do really basic things and have to ask a friend, carer or porter to check their post, which makes Oxford seem not open to those students.” PHOTO: KATHRYN WALTON

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

8 Independent since 1920 Vol. 283, No. 8

Cherwell

I feel no sympathy for the student suing Oxford

EDITORS’ NOTE

Signing off

his is the last Cherwell of Michaelmas 2017 – the last of eight editions made possible by the 60 names listed below. Our front page today features a report revealing the continued dominance of privately-educated men in the Oxford Union’s elections, which take place today. It is the latest in a series of investigations which have attempted to scrutinise and examine the University and its institutions. It showed that we were expanding beyond the role of merely reporting life at the University, and becoming involved in it as well. And that is the way it has been all term. From an online dating competition which pitted students against their (occasionally vanilla) peers, to opening up the pages of Oxbow to original Oxford student poetry, Cherwell has participated in Oxford life this term. And we’ve investigated into more than just the Union. We’ve exposed Balliol JCR for banning Christian Union representatives from their freshers’ fair, and detailed the extravagant amounts which senior university staff claim on expenses. Our opinion writers have interrogated the feared closure of Cellar, and our sport pages have attempted to cover more women’s sports – a topic often ignored. And most recently, we’ve forced Oxford to backtrack on its handling of a sexual assault allegation. “Wrongdoing revealed in a clear and hard-hitting fashion”. That has been the intention at least. But there still a lot of stones unturned. Just one example: the

inexplicable bout of drink spiking cases across several colleges. If it’s a pervading culture of sexual violence among the student body which is at the root of the problem, then we will have more hard questions to ask. As the season of goodwill approaches, we can only hope for a more peaceful 2018. Cherwell wishes all its readers a happy New Year.

By now, our position on the Oxford Union is clear: it’s rotten. Its rules are opaque, its elected officials pay insufficient heed to members, and it is rarely far from another grotty scandal. Change is forever proclaimed, but it rarely ever arrives. The Union, with its slates of photogenic, largely privately educated prospective candidates, has been incapable of reforming itself. This newspaper does not believe that change will arrive with this term’s elections. But it is our duty to back the candidates who offer the best hope of achieving that change. We have consistently said that change can only be achieved through transparency. Union officials have consistently refused our requests to find out more about how the Union spends your membership fee. One candidate for Treasurer, Redha Rubaie, proposes to change this. We will always support greater transparency, and that’s why we support Redha’s candidacy. Cherwell has always been red – but this term, we’re Redha.

STRAIGHT LINES BILOLIKAR and JACK CUNTER, Editors

ELEANOR MAGEE and NICE ELLIE DUNCAN, Visual Arts Editors

ETHANOL CROFT, HUW EDWARDS, ENCORE GOLDSBROUGH, DESEAN POPE, and MATT “NO BITING” ROLLER, Deputy Editors

BEAN HERE FOREVER and THE MAMUN OF MY LIFE, Food Editors

JORDAN ‘ORGASM GAP’ BERNSTEIN and WHIP NAE-NAE, Comment Editors DOZY ROSIE and GREG ON THE BRINK OF WORTH, Comment Contributing Editors GREG McRITCHIE and DOXBRIDGE RYAN, Investigations Editors THEO CORNISH PASTY, MAXIMUM PARR-REID, and ALEX WAAAYGOOD, Deputy Investigations Editors SLEM STERN and POSER ROSA, Features Editors ABBY RID–OFTHEUNION and JULIA FAGE, Life Editors WHO EVEN IS DEP LIFE, Deputy Life Editor ALTAIR BRANDON-TROUT and ANOUSHKA KAVHUNTAH, Culture Editors LUCY STRAUGHAN and TILDA LATECOMER, Books Editor SUSIE’S FAVES, Film Editors SPREADSHEET SAYER and BUSY SMITH, Theatre Editors THE EXETER FACTOR and NO PHOTO HENRY, Deputy Theatre Editors THOMAS LOVES LECTURES and JOE THREE IN A ROW, Music Editors

Jordan Bernstein

We’re still Red(ha)

The Editorial Team Michaelmas 2017

PHILIPPA LAWFORD, MIA ‘KEY-LESS’ MILLMAN, and HENRY ENDERBY, News Editors

DAISY LOVES INDESIGN and EDGY ZOE, Fashion Editors CHLOE DOOT DOOT and GEM OF MY DELIVERIES, Deputy Fashion Editors IRTEASE HER ISHRAQ and JON STARK NAKED, Science and Tech Editors ELEANOR BLACKLISTED and OLD MAN MUNRO, Satire Editors

We all know what we signed up for here at Oxford

’m guessing, not at all cautiously, that I’m not the only Oxford student who feels no sympathy for Faiz Siddiqui. If you’ve never heard of him, good: it means you’re reading the right type of news (as Trumpian and distasteful as it may sound). Siddiqui is the Oxford History graduate suing our university for £1 million. He claims that the inadequate teaching he received here meant that in 2000, as he donned his subfusc for the last time and took his place among flocks of students in Exam Schools, he could only muster an upper-second. No other grade was possible or conceivable. Try as he might, the number ‘70’ evaded his every attempt. The ensuing series of events happened like clockwork. Instead of the highly lucrative career at the tax bar he claims to have worked hard towards his whole life, all he could muster with an upper-second was a training contract at Clifford Chance (by many accounts, the best law firm in the world). Note, however, that with all of the pomp and circumstance that such a case deserves, Siddiqui’s counsel Roger Mallalieu has denounced this employment history as “frankly poor”. Frankly, we should all be so lucky. Now unemployed, like the bowler-hat-guy from Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, he has had time to reflect on who really was to blame for him not reaching the heights of a legal career. Certainly not himself, no. That’s right, Oxford. It should be noted there are some anomalies in his case that make his argument sound less petty than it otherwise might. Though the High Court have only just begun hearing evidence, it appears that there was a tangible issue during his time at Brasenose College of absent tutors, limited resources, and my personal favourite, teaching that was “a little bit dull”. It’s also alleged that tutors failed to pass medical information onto examiners. The effects are also, allegedly and rather seriously, not limited to above-average job prospects, with Mr Siddiqui saying that the “inexplicable failure” of life with a 2.i has exacerbated clinical depres-

sion and insomnia. Certainly no laughing matter. But what exactly are we to make of a case like this? Well first, if there is truth to the accusations based on medical grounds, the University still has a long way to go in ensuring students are fully supported, and it’s learning all the time. Data procured under the Freedom of Information Act published in Cherwell last term showed an uptake in the number of students using the counselling service, showing, if nothing else, that there is better advertisement of the resources on offer and, perhaps, better communication with the University itself given the widespread use. On the claim itself, many will know that even if extenuating medical circumstances are taken into account, which is rare, they will rarely result in significant mark increases, and even more rarely across the boundary between upper-second and first class. And on the rest of the claim – the poor resources and dull teaching – I’m incredibly sorry for saying that the blame for a 2.i still should not fall at the door of the University offices. We all know what we signed up for when we came to Oxford. Optional lectures, varying teachers and teaching standards across colleges, small tutorials where blagging your way through an hour means you’re screwing yourself in the long-term. If we didn’t know when we signed up, we quickly adapted. Maybe our college library has poor resources, but we also have a Bodleian Library which by law has to be sent a copy of every book published. An Oxford student makes do with the considerable resources of a University the likes of which are an example for comparable institutions across the world. Some get a first, others aspire to one and instead get a 2.i, itself no mean feat. But the thing about Oxford is that it prepares you for life when you leave, or if it doesn’t it certainly leaves you out in the wilderness, with nothing to expect but fundraising calls. Once you’ve got your degree and you’re training with a city law firm, you lose your right to blame Oxford for anything.

SHIV FOR SESH and NO SCONCE TOM, Sport Editors BEST SECTION ED, Puzzles Editor CALUM SPIELBURG and KATIE KOOKY, Video Editors JULIA OH STOP and CHARLOTTE TEXT-A-TOASTIE, Blogs Editors KINKIA BARRETT, ELLIE BOURNE IDENTITY, POLLY HAD HER DAY, GEORGIE RILED UP, Business Team Cherwell is published by Oxford Student Publications Ltd. Looking For A Magic Circle Internship Ltd. CORPORATE DROID LW2000, Chairman BECKY WITH THE GOOD HAIR, Managing Director KETTY BIRNIE, Finance Director JACK’S MATE, Tech Director STRESS HULTON, Events Director Printed in Great Britain by Mortons Ltd.

Brasenose, where Faiz Siddiqui read law and received a 2.i. PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Life Arts Style

by Cherwell 24 November 17

+ Interview Separating Mark Corrigan from the real David Mitchell Culture When modern politics and classic fairytales collide Books How fairytales reveal Germanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s repressed wartime trauma

Quad Goapagles8

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

2 oxbow

EDITORIAL An ending, a beginning, and a fairytale By ALTAIR BRANDON-SALMON ANOUSHKA KAVANAGH Once Upon a Time... it is the beginning of a story, perhaps of all stories. We must make a leap of imagination, of acceptance, to enter into another world. It may seem slightly perverse that for the final Oxbow of Michaelmas we end at the beginning, but like all good stories, we have circled around and arrived where we started. If Oxford to new students can sometimes appear like a fairytale city, then we should also be aware that not all fairytales have happy endings – as this issue’s exploration of the Grimms’ fairytales shows. And we question too, how appropriate it is

to keep repeating the same stories to ourselves, time and time again, as in the case of Beauty and the Beast, a story first written down in 1740: should Disney still be using it as a vehicle to empower women? Fairytales are not always magical – indeed, nearly all are deeply rooted to a specific time and place and carry the politics of the day with them. Yet as we head towards the Winter vacation, a respite from the pummelling term time schedule, we shall return in the New Year to discover that this term’s tales are at an end and new ones have sprung up in their place. Cherwell will be gone, a slightly different Cherwell in its stead. The story cannot stand still.

Contents

Clockwise from bottom left: overpriced ale for wannabe hipsters 4, a woman weaving herself into history 7, quad goals 8, As You Like It at the Playhouse 15

Interview

Music

12 Flair in annual Varsity jazz off 12 Politics hip-hop’s response to current affairs 12 Playlist Unsung heroes of 2017

Comedy David Mitchell on Peep Show and family life

Life 4 4 4 5 5 6 6

Love Oxland BrewDog is overpriced ale for wannabe hipsters A day in the life of a Cherwell editor John Evelyn the Union’s race and the Tories’ female face How to survive Oxmas Taste Tibet is the taste of Gloucester Green Help me I’ve been hacked

Visuals 7 7

A woman weaving herself into history Magic at the British Library

Style

Film 13 Comedy and cliché at Oxford student film festival 13 Wasted potential in The Florida Project 13 Ones to watch fairytales beneath the surface

Books 14 14 14

Hitler’s Germany in fairytale Twilight’s awfulness Mr Salinger deserves his enduring reputation

Theatre

Culture

15 As You Like It at the Playhouse 15 Confessions the final showdown 15 Five Minutes with the Oxford Revue’s Audrey

Satire

10 11

Shoot quad goals

Dark politics in Beauty and the Beast Picks of the Week Revisionist fairy tales House of Fear and the reinvention of fairytales in the 21st century

16 16 16

Robert Mugabe seeks job Jingle Hell survival tips for Scrooges Ghost of Christmas past haunts May

“There is a selfish core to Mark that is the sort of thing that a sitcom character needs” Interview Comedian and Peep Show star David Mitchell talks to El Blackwood about the similarities between him and Mark Corrigan

istening to David Mitchell, star of Channel 4’s cult TV show Peep Show, talk in St Peter’s Chapel about the “Ten things that annoy or depress me” in the same tone of the fictional character for which he’s most famous, I find myself considering the hardest essay question of them all: “To what extent is Mitchell actually Mark Corrigan?” (Answer with reference to examples) Mitchell’s “diatribe of subjectivity” begins with an announcement that he has a subject of the utmost importance, something that really grates on him: “Dogs”. Example one: “Mark, if I can just get rid of the dog corpse, there’s a chance I still might get laid here.” (Jez) Mitchell says that he doesn’t blame people for having them, that in fact he can see their usefulness (for “warmth in icy conditions, or to aid farming”), but notes that what he can’t understand is why their numbers hasn’t decreased in the same way as horses: “why can’t it be the same for dogs?!”. At this point, one wonders if this dislike had its rooting in something more personal, and it did: “The thing is, just because I know for a fact that it can’t kill me doesn’t mean it can’t hurt me”. Mitchell goes on to describe park encounters in which he has given dogs an absurdly wide berth, lamenting and resenting the fact that dogs made him “look like a feeble person”. Example two: “Those kids have no idea whatsoever of what went on at Stalingrad. Although I can in no way compare my struggle reading it with that of the Red Army, it

has been a very big read.” (Mark) Boredom, he continues, is not something he experienced left to his own devices. However, when going to events of “medium to high culture”, be they art galleries or plays, he has developed the suspicion that in fact “you’re supposed to be bored, that’s how you know it’s doing you good”. Attending a rendition of La Bohème above a pub in Kilburn, in which the novelty of location quickly wore off, he recounts how he thinks that it was now obvious why they do bag checks in the theatre: “they want to make sure they don’t have the wherewithal to kill themselves.” Example: “She is attractive, but brown rice and pop tarts, chamomile tea and economy vodka? That’s a car crash of a shopping basket.” (Mark) Why was it, he asks the audience spilling out of the chapel doorways and straining to hear, that people “defined themselves by their tastes, as if by liking something they’ve done something good” and vice versa? “You never lose credibility by sneering at whatever cup of coffee other people have bought”. He links this to the absurdity of the term “guilty pleasure”: the one thing that could allow you to like something that contrasted with your identity, without being embarrassed. “Here is your opportunity to scream at the world, please like me!… If you like Abba and a bit of dairy milk, why do you have to feel guilty?”. Example: “If text kisses were real kisses, the world would be an orgy.” (Mark) Moving swiftly on from virtue

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

oxbow

interview Mitchell’s life in comedy 1974 Mitchell is born in Salisbury to parents Ian and Kathy. The family later moved to Oxford, and Mitchell attended New College School and Abingdon School. 1993 he is given a place at Peterhouse, Cambridge, to study Modern History. He joins the acclaimed Footlights and becomes president in 1995. 2000 after writing for Armstrong and Miller’s Big Train, Mitchell and Webb break onto the television scene with Bruiser, which they wrote and starred in. 2003 work starts on Peep Show, which is formed from an old, failed script for a BBC sitcom. The show would air for nine seasons before its final episode in 2015. 2007 Mitchell meets Victoria Coren at a party hosted by Jonathan Ross. They started dating in 2010, and married in 2012. Their daughter was born in 2015.

“I remember he was very funny and he didn’t look like he was going to be, he had long hair, an earring and distressed jeans.” signalling and past a dislike of the internet “a massive mistake that might be destroying our society”, our attention is drawn to remakes. Specifically, to the effects of money controlling innovation and film. Lamenting their popularity, Mitchell admits that financially, the remake is a “no-brainer” but “culturally, we haven’t got a future if we’re rebooting Spiderman more often than I descale my kettle”. When later asked by an audience member what he thinks the solution to the problem is, he comments that he doesn’t necessarily see a way out, but points out the problem had got to be a start: “at the moment I’m taking a lot of solace in pendulum metaphors”. Example: “It’s fine. Luckily we’re all English so no-one’s going to ask

“We failed to rehearse and the first night was an absolute shambles” any questions. Thank you, centuries of emotional repression!” (Mark) Mitchell, a weekly columnist for The Observer, is no stranger to commenting on political issues. So it comes to no surprise, particularly after his televised sketch about Theresa May, that he does not, in fact, support Brexit. Britain will be a “worse place to live”, he argues and the idea that we can just assume that whatever is going badly is a “blip”, clinging

on to the inexorable attraction of “progress and improvement” is “complacency”. While both Brexit and dogs make his “ten things that annoy or depress me” list, he clarifies that he is more cross about our current political situation than dogs. Specifying that while he isn’t saying there will be a global collapse, he thinks that “it’s less likely to happen if we worry that it might”. Example: “Looking at porn is like lying to Parliament. It used to be wrong, but now it’s all a big laugh.” (Mark) Continuing in the same tone, it becomes clear that his frustration encompasses the structure of the British political system itself, namely the way that taxation is treated and the way in which the structure makes MPs “vulnerable to the influence of lobbyists”. Starting with taxation, Mitchell poses the question and to why on earth there is this “grey area” that enables people to legally avoid tax? This, he argues, reduces tax to a choice, an optional civic duty. “Nastier people get to keep more money” and that was fundamentally “detrimental to the national good”. His “top irritation” however, is the influence of lobbyists through financial means, arguing that we should protect politicians from the temptations of “directorships” by simply paying them more and then the “standard of government would shoot up”. While Mitchell is clearly passionate about the failings of the present system, he informs the audience member who later asked him if he was tempted to set up a party, that he absolutely was not.

On a related note and on the topic of self-censoring jokes, he jokes: “ultimately comedians aren’t warriors for social justice, they’re empty people who want to be liked”. Example: “Urgh, more data entry tonight. I guess the only good thing is that my life is so boring it feels like it might go on forever.” (Mark) Mitchell’s lack of temptation to start a political party makes sense in isolation, but he adds that he couldn’t love his job more and praises the comedians he has worked with in the past as “weirdly much more supportive and up for a laugh than you’d expect from a group of people that are acerbic and sarcastic”. Later, over a glass of wine in the college canal house, I find him to be the opposite of acerbic. Warm, interested and witty, he explains that he first met his Peep Show costar and long-term writing partner Robert Webb at an audition for a Cambridge Footlights show in 1993. The play was Cinderella. Mitchell was a first year, while Webb was a second year. “He was in the crowd and pretty much guaranteed a part, which I didn’t realise, I was a newbie.” “I remember he was very funny and he didn’t look like he was going to be, he had long hair, an earring and distressed jeans. He looked like a serious, troubled student – and in some ways that’s what he was – but he would pick up a script and be very funny”. Later that year, both were in the show with Webb playing Cinderella and Mitchell a Palace Servant. Afterwards, Webb asked Mitchell if he would do a show with him

“I thought I had made it. We did a show the year after, which we completely failed to rehearse, and the first night was an absolute shambles but the audience enjoyed it- a terribly bad lesson!”. I ask Mitchell what the name of the play was: “Oh it was called ‘Innocent millions dead or dying, a wry look at the post apocalyptic age (with songs)’ mainly because we just thought it would be funny to call it that”. The play would be the start of a long partnership between the two comedians, including That Mitchell and Webb Look and Magicians. Most recently, the duo starred in Channel 4’s Back. where Webb played Mitchell’s adopted brother. Regarding who he looked up to in comedy, Mitchell says the Pythons, Peter Cook, and Rowan Atkinson to name a few, but emphasises that one of the things working in TV has made him realise was the “professionalism and organisation” of the “real meat of the industry” behind it all, the highly skilled technicians that bring it all together. Referencing a Peep Show Christmas episode involving a Christmas dinner being shot from different angles (and an inordinate amount of turkeys used), he explains that it was “amazing” to see the logistics behind it all. It makes him watch other TV shows differently, it “suspends the wire of disbelief” you “soon notice if a corner has been cut” with continuity errors and Mitchell says that it is vital to keep making British TV shows or the technicians won’t be there. Coming to the end of the interview, I had to know: “How much do you personally relate to Mark

2009 Mitchell wins the Bafta for Best Comedy Performance for his work on Peep Show. Corrigan?” “I personally relate to him quite a lot” Mitchell says, but explains that it was only in part. There’s an element to Mark that is “fundamentally a bit nasty and I hope I’m not”. While they share a “sarcastic look at the world” and a frustration with cool “probably because I’ve never been cool”, they are different.

“You’re supposed to be bored, that’s how you know it’s doing you good” There’s a “deep selfish core to Mark that is the sort of thing that a sitcom character sort of needs”. Clearly, a large part of Mitchell’s life is his family, who he talks of warmly, explaining that while being cynical is his “knee jerk reaction”, his wife (writer, presenter and professional poker player Victoria Coren Mitchell) has taught him “that not everything that ostensibly seems nice isn’t nice. You don’t necessarily have to take a sneery angle, you can just say ‘that’s nice’”. While the two are inextricably linked, David Mitchell and Mark Corrigan are fundamentally different. What really stands out with Mitchell is his ability to draw attention to the absurdities of dayto-day life with the same dry wit and cynicism with which he made his name.

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

4 oxbow

Love Oxland semi-ﬁnal “Alec’s mustard yellow socks aired nicely over the scent of pork-belly.”

Alec Fullerton and Nell Norman ﬁnd that aubergine differences are a barrier to romance Nell Norman Second Year, French and Italian Christ Church

Alec Fullerton Fourth Year, French Trinity When our attentive and oh-soobliging maître d’, Don Jorge (George - who used to work at Wahoo), seductively snarled: “you can even take your shoes off, anything goes here, dear boy”, I knew it was going to be a date to remember. My co-glutton and I, nestled in our Moorish nook, made preparations to embark on a gastro-cultural journey of discovery in a banquet of Rabelaisian proportions. The sexual tension was palpable. For fear of compromising her modesty, I was forced to avert my gaze as she plonked prawn after prawn into her mouth. Apologies for this crustacean-cramming resulted in my getting the better of a pair of meatballs – very high meat content (lamb, seven months), which, alas, is a rare occasion these days.

What was your ﬁrst impression? Unforgivable squandering of tapas Any awkward moments? Baba ghanoush Third date? Baba ghanoushgate was a turn off. Nell’s pretty cool though

Cocktail in hand, Alec’s mustardyellow socks airing nicely over the scents of pork-belly and patatas bravas, the date was going swimmingly. That is, until Alec discovered that our waitress was Italian and, astutely linking this to my degree, demanded I converse with her in an inspired combination of social and intellectual pressure. The stress of this encounter, coupled with the competition posed by Alec’s shameless and relentless flirting with the waitress led me to drown my sorrows in sweet, sweet sangria. And I was troubled by his inexplicable hatred of baba ghanoush - fight me? As I slowly realised that I was fast becoming inexplicably wasted we cleared out and headed to a nearby pub before calling it a night.

What was your ﬁrst impression? Easy to pick up where we left off Any awkward moments? Baba ghanoush Third date? I will literally never decline Kazbar

Are Nell and Alec your Oxland winners?

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“You can’t deny that Spoons’ founder Tim Martin is one of the few true heroes of our generation.”

BrewDog is overpriced ale for wannabe hipsters. Alec Fullerton thinks you should head to Spoons instead.

A day in the life

Cherwell editor

rewDog is a fake. In a bid to continue their corporate expansion over the UK and Europe, the Scottish artisan beer company recently opened a new bar on Cowley Road. The interior inevitably resembles your textbook Islington gastro pub. You know what I’m talking about: the faux cheap and cheerful enamel tableware (think the fries mug at GBK), and the beers listed on old-fashioned cinema-style letter boards. I hope the wanky, millennial-suckering vibe is already riling you up. Pride of place though is their flagship beer: the ‘Punk IPA’. Now we come to the main reason BrewDog stretches my loathing muscles. Every aspect of its brand is desperately aimed at cultivating an image of rebellious and antiestablishment bandits, leading the charge in the fabled ‘Craft Beer Revolution’. Just look at the cringe-worthy rhetoric that drips cynically from their marketing blurbs: “All we care about is brewing world class craft beer; extraordinary beers that blow people’s minds and kick start a revolution.” Ew. Maybe this was slightly less disingenuous when they started

riday morning, 11am. I wake up after a long lie in, recovering from a late night in the Chofﬁces. We had the paper almost ﬁ nished, but at midnight one of the news editors discovered a suspicious student society blog, and four hours and half a dozen cups of coffee later we’d proven a vast international conspiracy. Another week, another shocking Union revelation (President Zabilowicz had misplaced a comma in his latest email accusing us of defama-

back in 2007 as two brothers and a dog selling attractively branded homebrew out of a car boot in Scotland. Skip forward to today, and the brand couldn’t be any more mainstream. BrewDog is a constantly growing international corporation, opening new bars all the time, selling their beers in every major supermarket and charging through the teeth for pretentiously served goblets of

I hope the wanky, millenial-suckering vibe is already riling you up piss. Purists will cry: “at least they didn’t sell out to Diageo or ABInBev”, two behemoths of the drinks industry. Fair point, but the alternative is pretty dreadful: ‘Equity for punks’. An exceptionally ambitious effort to turn buying shares in a capitalist monolith into a cool, hipster activity. This oxymoronic slogan perfectly sums up BrewDog – what sort of ‘punk’ buys shares in a business? Certainly not Sid Vicious and co., tion), more penetratingly insightful comment pieces (a PPE fresher read an article in the Economist and is now an expert on US foreign policy), and another compelling exploration of existentialist literature (an insufferably edgy English student read some Camus the week before). Well done us! I check my LinkedIn, and – nice! – another invitation to connect from a junior Daily Mail hack! If I can just leak a few sensitive details about left-wing student movements

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

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life Evelyn’s diary The union’s race and the Tories’ female face

he coming of seventh week means the coming to the end of another term of this well kept little tract. Were the author a more sentimental fellow, it would be a time for mourning. But I cannot help enjoying the fact that the paradigm shifts are coming ever closer to fore. No more single party slate

wearing bin bags and sporting homemade swastika tattoos on their foreheads. There’s no chance they’d fork out the best part of a tenner for two thirds of a pint of organic, responsibly-sourced, quadruple-hopped ale served in a brandy glass. This marketing bullshit seeps into their kegs too. Just take a look at the names of some of their offerings: ‘Jet black heart’, ‘5 am saint’, ‘Elvis juice’ (which, I hate to say, is easily their best beer and the only characterful one), ‘Cocoa psycho’ and the laughably incongruous ‘Vagabond’, their gluten-free beer. These names, coupled with the faux-edgy presentation, are nothing but a puerile effort to carve out a sexy and dangerous aura around the brand. Even when it comes to the actual quality of the beer itself – surely the most important question in all of this – BrewDog is exceptionally mediocre. Practically everyone I’ve spoken to thinks that they’re over-hyped. The crucial issue links in with their branding – they’re trying too hard. BrewDog beers are simply over engineered, gratuitously hoppy and unpleasantly strong. That’s enough about BrewDog. A far better example of an inde-

pendent brewery doing something genuinely exciting is Flying Dog Brewery based in Frederick, Maryland. Back in May of this year, I was in the area and was lucky enough to go on a tour of the brewery. It turns out that George Stranahan, the brewery’s founder, was a close friend of maverick gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. The Brewery’s punchy and original style certainly reflects his influence, as well as the ‘Gonzo Imperial Porter’ produced in homage to the infamously wild writer. The beers themselves are of a far superior quality, boasting a playful love of experimentation coupled with great taste. It would be impossible not to be impressed by the striking artwork on the bottles and cans, all produced by Thompson’s illustrative partner in crime, Ralph Steadman. His intensely unique and grotesque style lends each type of beer a distinctive character and helps achieve the image where BrewDog fails to do so. After falling in love with Flying Dog, I brought a six pack back to the UK, imagining that I’d be hard pressed to get my hands on their beer back across the pond. So you can imagine my surprise when, like the prodigal son, I sidled back into my local Wetherspoons, and

was able to sup triumphantly on a can of their ‘Raging Bitch’ – a cracking citrus IPA that doesn’t overdo the hop-factor. You might scoff in my face. But I’m sure you’d agree that, compared to BrewDog, Wetherspoon’s is a considerably more anti-establishment and cooler place to drink. There’s no denying that ‘Spoons’ “Pint Man-in-Chief”’ (the official title), the mullet-sporting Tim Martin, is one of the few true heroes of our generation. They couldn’t have been more antiestablishment last year, when they actively supported the Brexit vote with Leave magazines and coasters. Don’t get me wrong, I voted Remain, but that was objectively hilarious. It might be the unique carpeting in every chain of Spoons. It could be the new app that allows you to order ten portions of garden peas and a pint of milk to your friend’s table on the other side of the country. Or maybe it’s the fact that Spoons offers a lively atmosphere, unbeatable prices, and exceptionally consistent quality. But whatever the reason is, no-one has ever had a bad time at Wetherspoons. So, grab yourself a pint of guest ale and thank god you didn’t end up at BrewDog instead.

to him, maybe I’ll make it onto their grad scheme. I grab a sandwich from Pret and head out to conference, arriving just in time to catch one of the fashion editors attempting to justify her decision to place a photo between two columns of text. It occurs to me afterwards that perhaps shouting quotes from the style guide at her until she burst into tears was a bit too harsh, but staff members do need to learn that this isn’t an opportunity to have

fun: we’re trying to hold the University and its institutions to account. After hurriedly scribbling down some notes and thrashing out a crap essay, I’m free to get back to Cherwell business. I give a speech to my JCR defending the freedom of the press, invoking the paper’s noble history, and issuing a grovelling apology for libelling them the week before. As I leave the meeting my phone rings – the corporate overlords are checking in again. They attempt

to convince me to run a front page advertorial extolling the virtues of working in sales at BAE Systems. I refuse initially, but the chair is insistent that he won’t get that internship as Slaughter & May if Cherwell goes bankrupt before the end of the year. So I agree, hang up, and head to bed. And then back to bed. That email with the subject line ‘**NOTIFICATION OF ARTICLE INACCURACIES**’ can wait until tomorrow.

It seems that the Union is, at last, seeing an election contested for the ﬁrst time in more than a year. Das Chief provided the dramatics of the hours, nominating for Secretary and generating a second contest. The author of the Arabian Nights also did as was promised and it seems the race is very much on. A happy reminder that this is a student society and not a single party state of Mugabe-esque proportions. There are so many individuals of the university who make use of Frewin Court as an enhancer to the university experience. One hopes that this and future terms can see a culture of challenging accepted norms, of looking for a student society which works for everyone, and not just the privileged few.

Tim runs out Had someone, three terms ago, even posited the notion of a gender-balanced general committee within the student Tories, they would have been laughed out of the room. But on Wednesday, exactly that took place. In clearing out the drift wood they have turned on their own president-elect, not exactly well known for forward thinking execution of duty. It seems his Tim truly has run out. In the Reds, we see that in the midst of all the electoral murkiness, a Ray of light may better illuminate the future (his partner in the sublime is by no means a Faruk either). The eve(lyn) of change? One must sign off now, for all good things come to an end. But here are the last ringing words that the wisdom of John Evelyn’s advanced years is able to provide. Another Oxford is possible. That you, the reader, have the power to make a difference. To remember that stagnation is not inevitable. It is clear that things need to change. There is no time like the present.

How to

Survive Oxmas By HONOR BROCKLEBANK-FOWLER

s seventh week arrives and we all surrender to the inevitable zombie-like exhaustion, Scrooge’s words can seem more pertinent than ever: “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry?” However, the trick to surviving, if not thriving, during Oxmas is recognising that even if discernible reasons to be merry are a bit thin on the cobbled ground, we all have the right to enjoy ourselves after weeks of gruelling term time. The fi rst and most crucial tactic for getting through Oxmas is to engage in mental time travel, or at least intense wilful ignorance. Accept the fact that a college Christmas tree is up, and that Hall is serving inexcusable numbers of brussel sprouts and soggy Christmas pudding over a month before the big day. It is worth highlighting here how uniquely Oxonian (read: illogical and freakish) these premature festivities are. Nowhere else in the country are the not-so mellifluous tones of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ so universally audible, from the cheese floor of Park End to the depressing shops of Westgate – although, let’s face it, they’ve been decked up in festive trimming since their opening in October. My second tip, although admittedly this may be one more for the

girls and anyone identifying as such, is to fi nd any and all festive formal events, and shamelessly exploit this opportunity for sequins and red lipstick. Let’s be honest, gratuitous formal events (and the consequent Instagram material) are the USP of an Oxbridge education. When academic zeal fails you, and you fi nd yourself crying over the Shmoop summary of Paradise Lost and an unsympathetic cup of Mug Shot instant pasta, put your name down for as many Oxmas formal dinners as you can fi nd within a one-mile radius. Then, spend whatever remains of your student loan (for me, this is a humble £6.20) on a glittery ASOS mini dress. It doesn’t matter if you only attend a single guest formal with incredibly disappointing prosecco: there is always next November!

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

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Life Food

Taste Tibet is the gem of Gloucester Green

Authentic Tibetan cooking makes Ryan Mamun want mo and mo

s Dorothy said, “there’s no place like home.” Even if tapping one’s shoes three times proves pretty ineffective in real life, she certainly had the right idea. For Yeshi, co-owner of Taste Tibet, home is not Kansas but the Tibetan mountains, which he and wife Julie have brought a slice of to the centre of Oxford. And God, is it worth your time. Taste Tibet is a sight to behold The national flag of Tibet waves proudly over what is by far the longest queue in the market. The stall itself is a hubbub of activity: Julie and Yeshi are frantically taking orders, enthusiastically making suggestions and downright heaping food into open boxes. Something about Taste Tibet gives it a distinct character – something appealing about the fact Julie and Yeshi decided to forego a logo for three years, for example. Also, Taste Tibet truly is unique in its cuisine – Tibetan food isn’t known for its curry after all. The food the stall serves is a reflection of Yeshi’s own journey from Tibet to Oxford, via India, hence the curry influence. The pair are also passionate about the environment – that Taste Tibet chooses to use biodegradable boxes made of sugarcane, and will serve customers that bring their own tupperware is a personal touch that is simply not seen in large commercial businesses. Students are also catered for well. A student ID will bag you a 10% discount, and a loyalty card can get you extra freebies. Add to this the fact that vegan options are given equal weight to meat and

the stall is one of a select few food outlets, let alone stalls. On arrival we are greeted warmly by Julie, who manages to extricate herself from the throng to insist that we try a small amount of everything. We’re only too happy to oblige. “You’ve got to try the momos” we’re told conversationally. They’re Tibetan dumplings – packets of savoury goodness that are available in either vegan or meaty varieties. Add some sepen, or Tibetan hot sauce, and you won’t regret it: the crunchiness of the chilli seeds complements the otherwise slightly doughy texture of the momo, and provides a pleasant kick to the taste buds that awakens the somewhat plain filling. What about the curry, then? The Himalayan chicken curry is rich and filling, the spices applied lib-

erally, and the hint of curry leaves in the aftertaste is exquisite. The real showpiece, though, is the daily special – potato and pea curry. The sauce is thick and aromatic, and when paired with the rice is sufficient to convert even the most devoted of carnivores (guilty), especially when considering the price. The spinach and chickpea curry is also impressive. Having left the box spotless, our only complaint is the daal, which tastes strongly of cumin and is slightly underseasoned. The rest of the plate overshadowed this. Taste Tibet advertise their cooking as “soul food”, and when tucking in on a cold Wednesday afternoon, it’s hard to disagree. There’s something unique about their home-cooked food, even though the stall has now moved on

from operating in a home-kitchen. One truly feels that from the ingredients (which are either locally grown, or sourced directly from Tibet) to the service on the day, there has been love and attention put into the food. From the décor to the originality of the food itself, Taste Tibet stands out in the Gloucester Green market, but with the opening of the new Westgate Centre only a stone’s throw from the stall’s regular Wednesday location, it faces stiff competition. Oxford must support its local food stores: the student population and weekly markets give chefs such as Julie and Yeshi a stage for their food. Something so intrinsic to the make-up of the town cannot be allowed to fall by the wayside, and Taste Tibet stands as a figure of what we cannot afford to lose.

“I’ve dropped my phone on concrete a few times and it took several times before my protector cracked. I was happy to see that my phone’s glass was not even scratched.”

can make the occasional bourgeoisfuelled impulse buy, but never silk products. I am not a Chinese empress, I am not a middle-class American from the 1920s,. I am not a shy but sexy high-school cheerleader from suburbia purchasing an alluring nightgown to entice my crush – the captain of the football team – when he comes over to “study” this evening. Besides, I have a badass sleep mask already, with “cruising for a snoozin’” written on the front. This is all a lie, tarnishing my good name.

account, but now my decency too? They have no honour. Do I enjoy video games a lot? Yes, of course. Do I get aroused by them? Only by a handful of characters from the Mass Effect franchise, but anything else would be strange. Oh, and I don’t even own a PS4. Explain that one.

Top picks

From left: soy sauce and chili sauce, a bowl of rice, hummus olives and pitta bread, chicken katsu

Help me I’ve been

Hacked!

Samuel Juniper writes candidly about being the victim of cyber crime

wo months ago, I received a peculiar email from Amazon, notifying me that the email address associated with my Amazon account had been changed to x1feknmhlq@list.ru. This came as a surprise, since I had never heard of this address. Despite changing it back and asking to have my account deleted, I have been inundated with correspondence from Amazon for the last six weeks, thanking me for giving five-star reviews on a wide array of products I have never even heard of. Who hacked me? Why is this happening? Why won’t it stop? Here’s a small selection of what I’ve supposedly been raving about on the Internet: Pansity Screen Protector for S8 Plus Mold ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Best screen protector! (2 November 2017)

Absolutely none of this is true. Why would I leave a five-star review for a screen protector that cracked? It failed in its singular purpose. This is not the sort of esteemed judgement I am famed for in my local community: please don’t believe this review. Hicober Natural Silk Sleep Mask Green ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Five Stars (8 November 2017) “Excellent product, very good quality and so confortable to use.” I implore you to hear me out: I would never write this. Misspelling the word ‘comfortable’, seriously?! I’m so much better than that. Yes, I

Tonicstar PS4 Controller Charger Signal Charging Dock for PlayStation 4 Wireless Controller Black [video game] ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 8 November 2017 “Kool lookintoo!! I like it was very simple to set up .came fast” I will say this once: I never cum fast. They’ve already stolen my Amazon

Q-YEE Bluetooth headset with mic V41 Hand Free Wireless Sweatproof Noise Reduction Earbuds ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – great gift (8 November 2017) “bought it for a gift and my friend loves it.” I drew a Venn diagram consisting of two circles: my friends who like Bluetooth headsets, and my friends on whom I’d spend $29.99 plus postage. There was nobody in the intersection. If you’re reading this, nemesis of mine, who floods my inbox with this crap on a daily basis, please stop: I don’t want to have to call Amazon ever again.

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

oxbow 7

visuals A woman weaving herself into history

Hypnotising acidic colours scream out for Anoushka Kavanagh’s attention

Evidence of magic at the British Library

Harry Potter: a History of Magic wonderfully illuminates the inspirations behind a cultural icon, writes Raffaella Sero

anging mid-way through Modern Art Oxford’s latest exhibition, ‘Blood in the Grass’ (1966) is a piece unlike any of Hannah Ryggen’s other tapestries. Perhaps that’s why it’s so poignant. The emerald matted grass-like threads are intersected by violent, red stripes – hypnotising acidic colours screaming out at their audience for attention. Lyndon B. Johnson stands rigidly to the right: adorned in crimson Navajo prints, and mouth drawn in a tight frown, he dangles his dog by the ears. To viewers of the ‘60s, this image would have been familiar, as it recalls a 1964 photograph of the President, widely circulated in the press. ‘Blood in the Grass’ is the only work in which Ryggen made use of manufactured dye, straying from her practice of natural colouring. And everything about it – from the vigorous colours to repurposing of a symbolic press image – reflects the excitable spirit of the new protest decade in which it was woven. In fact, the Norwegian artist was herself taking a stand against Western media in this work: in Ryggen’s eyes, the papers’ focus on Johnson mistreating his pooch over escalating US airstrikes on Vietnam indicated a disingenuous focus of the press. Ryggen was no stranger to protest though, taking up objection and opposition through her weaving long before the ‘60s. Born in 1894, she lived through the economic crises of the 1930s, Nazi occupation of Norway the following decade, and the Vietnam War. She was a mem-

ber of Norway’s Communist Party and a fierce defender of democracy, her husband was imprisoned in the labour camp Grini, and her only daughter was diagnosed with the then little understood condition, epilepsy. The overwhelming weavings on the walls chart this political and personal upheaval of her lifetime, visualising the struggle against oppression. Both the mental and physical brutality of the Nazi regime are brought out in ‘Death of Dreams’ (1936) for instance, in which a lifeless corpse is dragged by Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Joseph Goebbels over a pit of Swastikas, towards a cage of incarcerated, comatose souls. Nobel Peace Prize winner Carl von Ossietzky chillingly shakes his shackled hands at us from behind bars on the far left – reflecting the artist’s defence of pacifism. Activism for peace again arises in later weavings, notably the symbolic ‘Mr Atom’ (1952). Here, the halo-ed Atom King – a personification of nuclear weapons – floats cross-legged above Adam and Eve. Seen as an almighty God-like figure, and attributed the Norwegian abbreviation of HRH, the focal figure suggests Ryggen views nuclear power as an undemocratic and unassailable threat to the human race. ‘Mr Atom’ depicts one more figure of note – the artist herself. Clutching Eve in one hand, and her tapestry needle in the other, this was not the first time Ryggen had woven herself into her work. She appears in ‘Jul Kvale’ (1956), grabbing the Communist politician’s arm. In ‘6 October 1942’ (1943), in a

mmediately, upon entering the first room of the British Library exhibition, Harry Potter: a History of Magic, one’s attention is captured by the pencil drawing of a familiar-looking boy, wearing round glasses kept together by a certain amount of sellotape. A mass of unkempt dark hair falls disorderly on his forehead, hiding, as the viewer must know, a thin, lightning-shaped scar: the only mark of the boy’s survival, and one of the many symbols the world has learned to associate with Harry Potter. The eyes in Jim Kay’s portrait of Harry have an almost entrancing quality, forcing the visitor to take a closer look, inviting them to start the journey. This is the name of the first room in the exhibition, ‘Journey’, and

nary reader’s report of Alice Newton, the (at the time) eight-year-old daughter of the founder and Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, reading: “The excitement of this book made me feel warm inside. I think it is possibly one of the best books an 8/9 year old could read”. Together with the Rowling’s premise, this note, scribbled in pencil all those years ago, helps the viewer truly perceive how far J.K. Rowling’s story has come, how long and fraught with dangers its journey. The first room, then, puts us in the right mind set to want to learn more, and to explore not only the history of the story, in terms of how it was conceived and written and published, but the past before the story, the hoard of history and myth that is buried at the very foundation of the Harry Potter universe, and that which distinguishes it from all other imaginary worlds. The crowd of books flying against the black ceiling leads us forward, towards two of Jim Kay’s portraits at the end of the corridor, respectively depicting Professor Dumbledore eating sherbet lemons and Professor McGonagall looking serenely intimidating. These seem to be inviting us to peer into the next room, and to the portrait at its entrance. This belongs to another Hogwarts headmaster, Severus Snape (or Snivellus, as we like to call him in the Gryffindor common room), as part of the ‘Potions’ room. Indeed, each room in the exhibi-

A hoard of history and myth is buried at the foundation a very appropriate name it is, too. Just past Harry’s portrait, we find the premise of the first volume in the saga, typed by J.K. Rowling in 1995, “Harry Potter lives with his aunt, uncle and cousins because his parents died in a car-crash - or so he has always been told …”. Next to it, hangs the extraordi-

The exhibition’s best tapestry, ‘Blood in the Grass’, is unusually colourful for Ryggen’s work

small boat in choppy waters, floating among the heads of local police leaders who had betrayed Norway to the Nazis, and in ‘A Free One’ (1947/8), amidst struggling workers, holding a shining sunflower. Encasing oneself in political pieces like this is not all too common for artists, and Ryggen writing herself into the protest raises an interesting point, especially given her gender. In directly tying herself to the issue at stake – be it nuclear armament, Nazi occupation, or dissolution of class boundaries – Ryggen makes a point of bringing women visibly into the public, political sphere. And though her medium may be traditional ‘women’s work’, her compositions and subjects are anything but. Tapestries of this scale and ambition resemble history paintings by the likes of David and

Goya. Recording events of the twentieth century, Ryggen too was depicting history. Yet through her woven works, with the presence of the female artist, she ensured there would now be space for women in the writing. Interestingly, Ryggen never described herself as a weaver, always as a painter. It just so happened that her tool was “not the brush, but the loom”. Unfazed by contemporary gender norms, it seems she was an unknowing pioneer for women in the art - and wider- world, long before the feminist movement of the 1970s broke out. And as activist feminist art seems recently to have peaked once more, this relatively unknown artist’s work is the perfect source of reflection and inspiration we all need.

tion is associated with a Hogwarts subject, allowing those who feel firmly part of the the Wizarding world to indulge in the nostalgia of Hogwarts school, while at the same time helping the crowds of Muggles find their way among objects like Iron Age cauldrons and scrolls detailing the making of the philosopher’s stone.

act as thread all through this wonderful assemblage of enchanting objects. However, the success of Harry Potter: a History of Magic is more than the sum of its parts. It is due at least in part to its bewitching atmosphere, which manages incredibly well to capture the subtle irony of the books. With its star-ridden ceilings, its floating cups, its invisibility cloak “only visible as a slight shimmer if you look at it out of the corner of your eye”, it truly respects the character of the story it aims to bring to life.

Its bewitching atmosphere captures the subtle irony of the books While it is certainly pieces like the golden-enclosed bezoar (apparently, a mass of undigested fibre actually found in the stomach of goats!) which immediately attract the attention of unashamed, hard-core potterheads (like the writer of this article), the magic of the British Library exhibition is that all its items, apart from their Potter associations, are incredibly fascinating in their own right. In fact, a beautiful balance is achieved between all that is Rowling-related, such as the writer’s notes and plans and the lovely sketches she drew while working on the books, and items whose only association with Harry Potter is their existence in the same world of magic and mystery. Moreover, Jim Kay’s superb illustrations of the first three books

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

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Quad Goals

By WILLIAM HOSIE

he fashion scene in Oxford doesn’t attract much public attention. We don’t have the established legacy of a fashion show like Cambridge, or any haute couture shops – for obvious reasons. And yet, when we think of Oxonians through the fashion lens, we see three vibrant categories emerge. Through this typology, understanding the strange place that is Oxford, and its even stranger inhabitants, has never been easier. First category: those who don’t know what looks good or bad and don’t care. They’ll probably be wearing a pink shirt under a dark green tweed jacket just like that girl you met at interview who didn’t get in. Second category: your ‘personnext-door’, those who look like they dressed up as Bob the Builder one day for school when they were five, thought it was cute and haven’t really changed style since. You’ll typically see them wearing a white Zara top under a green Zara shirt. They probably spent their summer holidays across Europe going from one friend’s house to another, networking their way through Goldman Sachs-employed parents. Their style is as bland as their personalities – although they don’t really care because they’re the kind of people who would argue that their bright career prospects are a definite alternative to a personality like yours: flamboyant and anticipating perpetual unemployment as optimistically as

you can because, let’s face it, you study English. Then you have the ones who care, enticingly enigmatic until you realise they’re really quite shallow. These people are conscious of the faux pas which those in the first category are unknowingly guilty of but rather than avoiding these no nos, they reclaim them. It’s sad to think that by competing to see who can look most edgy, they all end up looking the same. It comes to the point where the naked eye can no longer dissociate their pink socks from their yellow tops (which, let’s be honest, could as much have come from Urban Outfitters as from Octavia Foundation): it’s just one huge blob of colour, bum bags and the odd fishnet socking, like a cobweb in an abundant garden. These people go to Cellar every Thursday without exception. They live and die by Bullingdon. They have never been to a single Bridge Thursday. Still, at the end of the day, we’re all quite jealous of these people. They may all look and sound the same, tied up in a co-dependent network of edginess which culminates in emotionally stunted debauchery at Notting Hill Carnival every year, but deep down we envy their ability to back themselves on even the most headache-inducing outfits and managing to come across as in control. As the icing on the cake the attention their clothes draw means they’re rich in a currency more valuable than the happiness, blissful fashion ignorance and career prospects of others: they get Oxloves.

Styled by: Daisy Chandley and Zoe Harris-Wallis Photography: Sophia Spralja

Models: Towyeen Ihinmikalu, Charlotte Tosti, and Dais

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

sy Chandley

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STYLE

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

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Hollywood’s glamourising of Beauty in the Beast buries its troubling implications 21st century reimaginings of classic fairytales do not address the dark politics that underpin them. Susannah Goldsbrough explores.

o become grown up is “a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.” So wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, so clearly believe the producers at Disney, who for the past decade or so have commissioned a series of live action remakes of the fairytale cartoons of childhood. Into the Woods (2014), Cinderella (2015), Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), and Beauty and the Beast (2017) have all barged their way back onto the big screen, complete with spell-binding budgets, jazzed up scores, and A-list casts. You might think the idea is a shortcut through creativity, from a studio that has fallen into a lazy cookie-cutter formula. Yet the remakes have proved hugely popular – Beauty and the Beast is the tenth highest grossing fi lm of all time. Far from running out of ideas, Disney is astutely capitalising on our desire to relive the fantasies of childhood. But is feeding our fetishisation of a child’s world a sufficient justification for serving up stories that are deeply unsuited to a modern adult audience? Disney has updated

Picks of the week

Revisionist fairytales

By AMBER SIDNEY-WOOLLETT

the stories for contemporary consumption. Fairytales have origins twisting back hundreds of years, only beginning to be systematically written down in the early nineteenth century, and have always been targeted at children. They were always going to need adjustment to meet the requirements of twenty-ﬁ rst century audiences

Fairytales were once reflective of the societies which produced them made up of as many adults as children. And if the evidence of the box office is anything to go by, Disney has done pretty good work. Yet I’m unsure the takings tell the whole story. Once upon a time, fairytales were reflective of the societies which produced them – their fantastical elements provided a mirror on the wall to the contemporary contexts. But while the recent revisions have proved undeniably popular, I’m not convinced that the fairytale is the right story

for our time. Does fairyland work in a 21st century world? Well, Beauty and the Beast, the most recent addition to this nascent tradition, offers a useful way into the question. It’s the obvious choice for a fairytale that will satisfy a modern audience: the character of Belle is a book-worm rather than an airheaded princess, while the doctrine of inner over outer beauty fits snugly into an era concerned with disentangling attractiveness from power. But these comfortable narratives can only take us so far. In the fi lm’s fi rst scene, Belle’s love of books deems her “peculiar” in the eyes of the village; one person goes so far as to “wonder if she’s feeling well?” In an attempt to reconcile a 21st-century expectation with an eighteenth-century setting, Belle becomes exactly what she really is – out of place, born before her time, a strange prophet from a feminist future that cannot bear to see its own historical inequalities played back to it on the big screen. The ideas that Disney are so anxious to underpin the story – that inner beauty is worth more than outward appearances – is undermined by the facial capture of the Beast. He needs to be an emLeft:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Can’t dispute a classic. For bonus points watch whilst playing a drinking game involving tequila and apple juice. Right: A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women by Siri Hustvedt. Hustvedt’s thought-provoking essays explore the placement of women within patriarchal societies (past and present). These women certainly do not need saving. Far right: Maybe Eve was a Wild Thing by Caitlyn Siehl. Once upon a time Eve was actually given a voice. Famous Tumblr poet re-appropriates Fall of Man to show how it actually equivocates to rise of woman.

Clockwise from top left: Lilla Crawford in Into the Woods (2014); Emma Watson in Beauty in the Beast (2

bodiment of ugliness, but in fact, he looks more like a rather handsome dog than the grotesque monster of children’s nightmares. Director Bill Condon might have wanted his audiences to leave the cinema with the charming belief that human-

Belle’s love for the Beast is a based on a power imbalance ity is capable of loving something despite its physical ﬂaws, but he doesn’t seem to believe it himself. More than that, the snuggly

inner-beauty interpretation that this version places so much emphasis upon has limits. Of course, the Beast’s duality of self – the handsome prince and the hairy monster – does work as a metaphor for someone who’s beautiful on the outside and ugly on the inside, but only up until the ﬁ nal scene. If the moral of the story is that physical attractiveness is subsidiary to goodness, why is the Beast changed back into his handsome self? Despite the characters’ protestations to the contrary, this plot point surely leaves the viewer with the sense that ‘Beauty’ deserves or requires beauty in her lover, even more so than goodness. As the inner-beauty interpreta-

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

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culture ous concerns – progressive, right? There is also one pretty horrible moment when Belle chucks a snowball at the Beast and he responds by ﬂ inging one back about the size of her head, which knocks her ﬂat on her back. The camera cuts away before you really have time to digest what you have seen – an aggressive physical demonstration of the unequal power balance between the two lovers – and you

Their story is a classic example of Stockholm Syndrome

2017); Lily James in Cinderella (2015); Mia Wasikowska as Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

tion crumbles around the edges, it reveals a far more troubling allegory. In the most authoritative written version of the story, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s late eighteenth-century novel La Belle et la Bête, Belle lives in the Beast’s castle for months, waited on by invisible servants and dressed in an endless supply of expensive clothes. It does not take much imagination to work out what kind of arrangement would involve a young woman kept in a life luxury by an older man in eighteenth-century France, suddenly making the scenes in the ﬁ lm where Belle lives in the Beast’s castle become less romantic, and the illustrations of the tale you

fi nd in children’s books, in which a monster sits opposite a young girl in a virginally white dress, begin to make a lot of allegorical sense. Most traces of a less consensual kind of relationship have been submerged in sugar-syrup sweetness, but it is impossible for Condon to completely untangle their relationship from the dynamics of power. The fi rst indications that Belle is falling in love with the Beast come after he’s gifted her his enormous library, and she has pointed out that he has begun to crack jokes. The implication is that their love is based on the male figure bestowing wealth and knowledge on the female, while she adds a lighthearted humour to his seri-

A beastly tale of life and death

foreboding wooded labyrinth where destinies are altered and lives transformed... Sound familiar? Like something from a dream? Or perhaps a nightmare? For many children, the Grimms’ forested fairytale world allows imaginations to roam free, uninhibited by the restrictions of daily life. But don’t be fooled. In fairytales, nothing is as seems. To cross the threshold into the old German forest, to wander along its mysterious snaking paths, amongst enchanted towering trees, is to succumb to its remorseless authority. In the face of imminent peril, the Grimms present Man’s contradictory, and often brutal, relationship with nature as a paradigm for the ruthlessness and vulnerability of human life. Take a fairytale character’s interac-

By JOSEPHINE SOUTHON

are left with a haunting shot of the Beast chuckling to himself The story is, after all, the classic example of Stockholm Syndrome, the phenomenon in which a captive develops powerful emotional ties to their captor. It may sound obvious, but it is neither healthy or desirable. Yet Disney has no problem celebrating the diseased love of captor and captive as long as the captor is a prince and the prison is a castle. To continue to unpick the allegorical resonances of the story means unearthing another really unpleasant idea. In La Belle et la Bête, the Beast asks Belle to marry him every night of her imprisonment, only to be continually refused. Right at the end, however, she fi nally declares her love for him, and he is transformed back into a handsome prince. It appears to be a great victory for love, but it seems more like her defences have fi nally worn down, and she has succumbed to his persistence and her own warped Stockholm feelings towards him. Sure, he is a Beast when she has strength to publically refuse his affections, but as soon as she gives in to him, he becomes a paragon and a prince, regardless of the means he has used to get the girl. So no, I do not think Walt Disney Studios has any business glamourising the horrible undertones of old stories to fulfi ll the childish desires of a contemporary audience. As much as I don’t think we have any business walking into cinemas and paying money to watch it to do so. tion with the forest animals. At times they are feared by man, as in The Skilled Hunter – “when evening came he seated himself in a high tree in order to escape from the wild beasts”. At others they fear man, as in Strong Hans – “wherever they went the wild beasts were terrified, and ran away from them”. Others still, they are comforted by his presence, as in Snow White and Rose Red – “no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them”. But for the Grimms, an amicable encounter with a woodland creature is hardly sufficient grounds for heroic triumph. In primitive territory, the protagonist is stripped of basic necessities in the ultimate test of survival, often through means of hunger: “In his madness he ran into the forest

House of Fear and the reinvention of fairytales By LIBBY CHERRY

n his Preface to Carrington’s House of Fear, Max Ernst defined the ideal reader of Leonora Carrington, one that would less read than imbibe her prose. Written in 1974, The Hearing Trumpet is the focal point of Carrington’s new period of artistic creation, and in part acts as a meditation on her Surrealist art of the 1930s. Like any fairytale, reading Carrington’s most extended piece of prose is coloured not only by the story itself, but by its accompanying artwork. Her painting, The Giantess adorns the cover of my edition and captures the haphazard, mythic strands of the novella in a single tableau, from the egg to the wolf to the black geese. The fairytale is a collision site of temporality, combining the childish and the macabre, and The Hearing Trumpet is no different. “People under seventy and over seven are very unreliable if they are not cats,” attests Carmella to the nonagenarian protagonist, Marion. Childhood and old age become fused and separated from the ‘adult’ world. Indeed, it’s only through Camella’s gift of the eponymous trumpet that Marion can pierce this divide and is able to discover her children’s plot to send her to retirement home. Yet the home itself has more of the atmosphere of a lively all-girls boarding school, watched over by the ineffectual Dr Gambit. Guided by Marion through the story, we find the wild ramblings of an infant equivalent to demented mental wanderings, as the “wild anemones” of fairytale morph into the “wild enemas” of aging’s reality. Carrington’s work represents an outgrowing of fairytale, grotesquely lurid rather than romantically tinted. Within the institution, the women live in parodies of fairytale houses such as “dwellings shaped like toadstalls”, shaped being the word of significance here. For the institution is a place of falsities, the saccharine pastel shades of their houses are cloying and the furniture an illusion, painted on the walls. It’s “like banging one’s nose against a glass door” grumbles Marion in her deadpan tone. Despite the ridiculousness, there is a sinister element to the home, perhaps reminiscent of Carrington’s own experience within a Spanish mental asylum in 1940. Dr Gambit’s continual and must have died there of hunger, for no one has ever either seen him or heard of him again” (The Two Travellers); “They always got deeper into the forest, and if help did not come soon, they would die of hunger and weariness” (Hansel and Gretel). The Grimms’ ultimate message is that, if death is at the heart of nature, then it resides at the core of human life also. The tales were not

mantra to “Remember Ourselves” in order to “create objective observation of Personality”, denies imagination and forces the women into an identity socially prescribed to them. The image of the glass door and, by extension, the glass ceiling becomes all the more important because the story progresses, as the retirement home becomes a female utopia that “creeps with ovaries” and where women dance under the moon and pray to Venus. Out of a mishmash of myths, Carrington creates a pseudofeminist creed offering the women a literal and ideological escape from their damsel-like languishing within the prisons of their plastic fairytale homes. Old age, with its associated wisdom, ugliness and menopauseassociated androgyny, becomes a route out of feminine passive beauty. Marion’s “short grey beard” re-claims and re-purposes female masculinity as not “repulsive” but “gallant”, witchlike features not only a symptom of societal ostracism but power. In this way, Carrington’s own voice and philosophy is defiantly audible. “I shall never get on with my narrative if I can’t control these memories”, Marion/Carrington declares, and indeed amongst the mythic references with the novella itself are threads from Carrington’s own extraordinary life, rupturing the fictional world she has created. We imagine Marion’s companions were taken from real life, the European crones sequestered in an unspecified Spanish-speaking country mirroring Carrington’s own French intellectual community in Mexico. Carrington uses Marion as a platform for her own sentiments, from bewailing the domestication of Surrealist art that hangs in “almost every village rectory and girl’s school” to recounting her own life experiences. The Hearing Trumpet may be a piece of flagrant and unabashed escapism, in its own words, “not an intellectual book, just fairytales”. Yet like any fairytale behind the psychedelic effects, there are moments of cogent truth, such as “why was Eve blamed for everything?” and “for real understanding one can only depend on dogs”. Carrington’s novel offers the literary equivalent of Andre Breton’s surrealist “dizzy descent into ourselves”, where the strangeness of the fictional world reveals the true oddities and malformities in what we consider reality. an escape from reality but rather a reflection of it, this battleground of beast against beast in a brutal test of survival paralleling the rampant individualism of capitalism, and the world in which the Grimms lived. So next time you decide to take a jolly-old stroll through a German forest, think about the consequences. Or take a map.

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

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music

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Playlist

Unsung heroes of 2017

he desolate days of December offers a chance to reflect on the year that has passed. During the rush of 2017 we all forget and miss great things. The big hits such as ‘Despacito’,

‘DNA.’, ‘Mask Off’, and ‘Shape of You’ are all deserving of praise. They are catchy songs packed with fun. However, I hope this playlist can offer some hits that were unfairly missed.

Memorable sax solos and individual flair in the annual Varsity jazz-off By THOMAS ATHEY KENJI NEWTON

Vince Staples ‘Yeah Right’

Laurel Halo ‘Jelly’

This track could be considered the ﬁrst pop song to incorporate PC Music’s hyperreal sonics. Staples and Lamar spit bars that make this song slap.

Off-kilter and confusing at ﬁrst, this song comes together halfway through. Its disparate elements combining for a summery and dancable sound.

Kelala ‘LMK’

Sampha

A fast-paced and punchy track with impassioned lyrics from Kelala. This track is a catchy anthem that harkens back to the 90s heyday of R&B.

The Mercury Prize is not usually known for choosing the catchiest or most enjoyable of music. This years winner, however, provides a slow burning banger in ‘Reverse Faults’.

‘Reverse Faults’

Politics

Pick of the Year

Talaboman ‘Loser’s Hymn’

n the World of Oxford Jazz, events don’t come much bigger than the annual co-hosted gig with Cambridge. A musical equivalent of a Varsity match, the show involves back-to-back performances from the Oxford University Jazz Orchestra (OUJO) and their Cambridge equivalent, with each side showing the very best they have to offer. Having been held regularly since 2004, this year was billed as one of the biggest yet. Held in the Magdalen College Auditorium, it took place last Friday in the appropriately chosen venue. Naturally the acoustics were excellent, both for the audience and the performers themselves as you could tell from the tightness of the performance that for the most part the orchestras could hear each other well. Admittedly, there was a small amount of home advantage. Cambridge seemed to suffer more from technical difﬁculties (sabotage?), and to some extent Oxford was able to be more adventurous given they knew the surroundings better. To be fair though, the Tabs handled the constraints well, and their male singer Harry Castle deserves to be commended for his ability to recover from originally not having a working microphone.

“Talented artists are rising to the challenge” This year’s music has been surprisingly bereft of summer dance anthems. For me, this song has been a companion at all the significant points of this year. A simple drum track offers the backdrop to a symphonic masterpiece. Its synths glimmer and shine and basslines fizz and swell to a euphoric climax. Let this track take you back to summer sunshine.

Hip-hop’s response to current affairs is fresh and compelling, writes Jonathan Egid.

Cambridge were ﬁrst to take to the stage this year, and worked through a mixture of covers and original arrangements. I particular liked the performance of ‘Crazy’, originally by Gnarls Barkley, which for me was when Cambridge seemed most relaxed and able to enjoy their performance. Robin Jacob-Owens also deserves a special mention for his alto sax solos, which received appraising applause from the audience as indeed

Oxford had ample opportunity to show everything they had to offer did all the solos throughout the show. More generally however, it was a solid and well-executed performance from the Cambridge orchestra that grew in conﬁdence as the show progressed. Oxford’s set too consisted of many impressive individual performances and solos, indeed too many to separately name. However, Matt Ward’s many trumpet solos were the most memorable, especially the one in Oxford’s second number ‘Basically Blues.’ In addition as drummer, Matt Venvell, seemed to have been

he resistance to Donald Trump started early in the hip-hop world. Before Trump had even ofﬁcially secured the Republican nomination, the anti-Trump sentiment was given its ﬁrst, bold and blunt expression in YG and Nipsey Hussle’s ‘FDT’, the acronym referring to the emphatic refrain of the chorus: “Fuck Donald Trump.” But reactions in the rap community since have been rather more subtle. Brooklyn’s Joey Bada$$ tackles Trump, racism and terror in several tracks, particularly in the powerful ‘Land of Free’. There the rapper examines the current predicament through the lens of African-American history, rapping “Three K’s, Two A’s in AmeriKKKa”, “Still got the last names of our slave owners / In the land of the free, it’s for the free loaders.” He brings lyricism and wit to the discussion, but his desire to shock can occasionally spill over into paranoid fantasies of race wars and organ

given greater freedom for moments of individual flair as well as keeping rhythm. To reiterate however, it was a strong performance all round. Again encompassing a variety of covers and original arrangements, the orchestra showed an impressive unity of sound with clear focus. With at least seventeen musicians on stage at any one time, and sometimes more when singers were present, this was an impressive achievement. It was perhaps best expressed in arrangements such as ‘Pennies from Heaven’, where Oxford had ample opportunity to show everything they had to offer. If this show was about demonstrating the very best they can do, then OUJO delivered. With the show having been brought to a climax with Oxford’s final number, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’, as way of an encore there was a slightly rouge arrangement of ‘Wonderwall’. I wish I could say that OUJO managed to breath life back into this tired classic, but to be honest, it’s just too far gone. However, at least this gave the performers a chance to relax on this final number, with all musicians clearly enjoying themselves. The jury’s out on whether either orchestra can be said to have ‘won’, but it was a highly successful show and on this evidence there deserve to be many more such line-ups in the future. donors. The most interesting voice in hiphop’s political discourse is also the most enigmatic. Kendrick Lamar is undoubtedly the most original and creative figure in the current generation of American rappers, and ‘the struggle’ has been the central theme of his work. The blurring of lines between the tribulations of his community (although its precise identity remains elusive), and the constant switches between microcosm and macrocosm serve at once to imbue political issues with the poignancy of a personal tragedy, and demonstrate the impact of the impersonal forces of mass politics on the individual. Whilst hip-hop has been a political art form ever since Public Enemy came out with ‘Fight the Power’, the disturbing developments of the last two years call for a renewed artistic response, and hip-hop is fortunate that so many of its talented artists are rising to the challenge.

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

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film Comedy and cliché mix freely at the Oxford student film festival For Jack Allsopp, Bacchae was the best film of the night

he Michaelmas Oxford University Film Festival screening on 14 November was held at the Keble O’Reilly, and saw a set of great student-made short films. Huge amounts of time and effort had gone into making a series of incredible short films, with some conceptual and cinematographic elements of supreme quality. The creative talent on display was impressive, but perhaps showed that, whilst Oxford student film excels visually and conceptually, the writing does not meet the same high standard. Take Say it and it Exists, which layered cliché upon cliché in a love story lacking energy and romantic chemistry. Despite intricate camerawork (with the audience being made to follow the two characters as they ambled around a ruined stone site) and the gorgeous credit sequence (where white stencil motifs imagined during the film were brought to life), the writing was uninspired at best. A similar set of troubles afflicted Traceless. In it we were allowed a peak into to a parallel universe where members of our own society who no one cares about were transported to and left apart from our world. The effect was ghostly, intellectually stimulating and

By JONNIE BARROW

highly effective. Particular praise must go to the production team who did the impossible in keeping Radcliffe Square empty of people during the day in order to create this alternative world within Oxford. Nonetheless, the dialogue was often stilted, from abrupt digressions to another manufactured romance, although it might have just been a friendship, it was hard to tell. However, when filmmakers opted to little, or no, dialogue, the results were mixed too. The pick of the night, Bacchae, was incredible, with a psychedelic, electrifying, and utterly haunting score, which engrossed the entire audience. The whole piece was tense and well paced – although not a single word was uttered throughout. Thoughts, feelings, and action were conveyed with clarity through gesture, facial expression and action. On the other hand, Kung Fu was less successful. Credit must go to the cinematographer, whose

visual work was impeccable. Each still was aesthetically gorgeous, and particular moments of note included the slow pan towards the conversation between the two main characters on chairs in the warehouse, and the opening scene in which the blinds were opened with the help of a ladder, with the suggestion of sunlight finally giving way to a brightening of the screen. Nonetheless, the decision of the producers to do away with a plot backfired, as the film dragged as a result of its lack of narrative drive. Humorous pieces did well at the OUFF screening – Happy Endings and Odradek both balanced the inexplicable with the comical masterfully. The creativity of the writers deserves a special mention in each case. Happy Endings charted the career of a sex toy saleswoman who went awol by undercutting her boss to sell the latest dildo model door-to-door. The clincher was when she informed one disappointed customer

that the last one couldn’t be sold, as she intended to keep it for herself. Ordagek was perhaps even stranger, but surreally funny, as the home of a young couple was invaded by a 30cm high sentient wooden seven-pointed star, who maddened the boyfriend but became increasingly close to the girlfriend, who is later found in

Pan’s Labyrinth

A.I. Artiﬁcial Intelligence

Adventures of Prince Achmed

In exploring the dark and sinister side of fairytales, the ﬁlm mimics the dark nightmare of life in 1940s fascist Spain. The worlds of fantasy and reality are seen through the unassuming eyes of Ofelia. Inﬂuenced by classic fairytales, the deteriorating labyrinth hides mythical creatures. Yet the terrifying beasts lurk within the real and dream realms – the supremely fearful status of the insipid child-eater is only rivalled by Ofelia’s chilling stepfather.

A.I. is one of the most touching, and moralistically rich ﬁlms out there. Based on the tale of Pinocchio, Spielberg reimagines the classic with consummate child actor Haley Joel Osmont as robot boy David who yearns to be a real boy, with devastating results. The oedipal fairytale follows his crushing quest for a mother’s love as he somehow shows more humanity that the humans he is surrounded with.

Reiniger’s beautiful masterpiece is the oldest surviving animated ﬁlm of all time, proving Disney hasn’t entirely monopolised the arena. The silhouette animation of detailed cardboard cut-outs is elaborate and haunting as it depicts the fairytale classic One Thousand and One Nights. Prince Achmed embarks on a journey of discovery that sees him come into contact with Aladdin’s lamp, creating an ambitious adaptation.

The ﬁlm chartered the career of a sex toy saleswoman who went awol bed with said star. You couldn’t make it up, but it worked very well. All-in-all, the Oxford film community did itself proud at the Keble O’Reilly, showcasing a diverse set of films. There was a significant range in quality, with Ordagek, Happy Endings and Bacchae being the biggest successes of the night.

Ones to watch

Films with fairytales lurking below the surface

Wasted potential in The Florida Project he Florida Project is an odd movie to talk about, because the best things in it are also the things that ultimately hold it back from being a truly great cinematic experience. It follows six-year-old Moonee and her mum Halley, who live in poverty in a motel near Disneyworld in Florida. The fi lm’s title is derived from an early name for Florida’s Disneyworld, but it also invokes the idea of ‘the projects’, and the abject poverty of this neighbourhood. Willem Dafoe, in one of his most grounded roles, plays the motel manager who often has to deal with Moonee and her friends running riot. Most of the fi lm is from Moonee’s point of view, and the opening half-hour is just lovely. The director, Sean Baker, establishes an emotionally tactile childhood environment that almost makes you nostalgic for a place you’ve never been to. For the kids, the garish colours of the surrounding motels and complete lack of parental monitoring turns the whole world into a playground, but their unbridled technicolour joy contrasts starkly with the desperation of the grownups who are all too aware of their deprivation. These well-constructed juxtapositions help to capture the reckless, freewheeling abandon of childhood as well as Boyhood did, and display poverty as keenly as Moonlight – but unlike both of these cinematic triumphs, The Florida Project’s pitch-perfect invocation of childhood turns out to be a double-edged sword when the fi lm itself lacks the discipline and focus to work out what story it wants to tell. Once the fi lm settles down and you realise that there’s no thread of story to link the vignettes, each potential inciting incident which evaporates before your eyes becomes even more frustrating than the last – moments where the children get in trouble, or new guests arrive at the motel, seem like they’re begging to be the fi rst act of a story that never comes. And the performances are good enough that you want a story to coalesce around them. Newcomers Brooklynn Prince and Bria Vinaite, playing Moonee and Halley respectively, centre the fi lm with a weighty emotional realism, with Prince in particular striking a real presence that’s sure to result in a stunning acting career. Overall, the social injustices at the heart of the fi lm ring true and are emotionally punchy, with a knockout fi nal 20 minutes that will take your breath away. But the 100 minutes it takes to get there simply aren’t worth the journey. A missed opportunity.

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

14 oxbow

books Why Twilight is awful By TILDA COLEMAN

s a teenager, I loved Twilight. Its idealised, old fashioned romance and moody tone hooked me, and I got through all four books quickly. Growing up, I’ve realised that they are horrible books to market to young women. Not all young adult books need to have protagonists that can be straightforwardly categorised as good role models. Bella, however, is not just a bad role model, but a completely unrealistic portrayal of what any girl thinks about, values, and needs. She is a vessel, an empty shell of a character, who has no independent thoughts, friends, hobbies or interests. Every day, for three books, she goes to school, comes home, cooks her dad dinner, does her homework, and waits for her boyfriend to come over. In Eclipse, she goes to her classmate Angela’s house to write addresses on envelopes for graduation announcements. The books reach new levels of fantasy by presenting this as a fun activity for two teenage girls. Bella feels she can’t talk to Angela, but then thinks, “and yet, with a strange, sudden intensity, that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted to talk to a normal human girlfriend.” It’s surprising that Bella thinks this want is “strange”. It’s not. And it’s predictable and sad that the two then talk about their boyfriends for half a page. That’s the only time Bella says what she’s thinking and has a good time with someone approximating a normal friend. It’s dull and painful to read. The most damaging aspect of the Twilight series is the blank space where a heroine should be. The huge popularity of books mediated through the consciousness of a girl with no discernible personality, painfully shy and scared of everything, speaks to society’s worst impulses about femininity and gender roles.

Fairytales can show us the horrors of Hitler’s Germany The stories of Günter Grass bring Germany’s repressed trauma into the light, writes Henry Straughan

airytales often combine innocence with darkness, naivety with sin. Children stand on the edge of a great, dark wood with sex and violence at its heart. Reading the works of the Brothers Grimm, we find tales which contain murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and incest. Through a lens of fantasy and magic these stories take us into the blackest and most

In writing on Germany’s sins he seeks atonement brutal elements of ourselves. It’s little wonder then that Günter Grass made prolific use of fairytales in exploring Germany’s past, writing his own fairytale of Germany and the Nazis. In the midst of Germany’s postwar amnesia, Grass, often described as the nation’s moral conscience, reminded Germany of her sins, and demanded her atonement – Catholic themes permeate Grass’ work. Germany’s children stood at the edge of the deep dark forest.

Reﬂective

The late Mr Salinger deserves his enduring reputation By BARNEY PITE

The appeal of the fantasy of fairytale lies not in its distance from humanity, but in its disclosing of human nature. It is this aspect drew so many 20 th century magical realists to weave fairytales into their work. The forest contains the hidden drives, wills, and neuroses of the human unconscious. The Nazis and those complicit in their crimes were, like the monsters of the Grimms’, all too human. Grass’ role was draw out the trauma of genocide repressed in Germany’s collective consciousness. Fairytale as ambiguous allegory is exemplified in The Rat , in which Grass draws on the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The Piper seduces and leads innocent children like rats into the shadowy cave. Likewise, Hitler abducted the German people – or at least that’s the story that people would have liked to tell themselves after the war. Grass reminds them they were not blind followers, but complicit perpetrators. And yet as conscience of a nation, Grass also bears his own sins, he too was a complicit perpetrator. While his fantasy and magic can penetrate into memory, it can also obscure it. Grass’ most pervasive use of fairytales comes in his Danzig trilogy, in particular The Tin Drum , a novel which, like The Flounder

. D. Salinger’s seminal The Catcher in the Rye has a bit of a reputation – beloved of all teenage boys with parental issues and bad hair, Catcher is something you’re meant to grow out of, like My Chemical Romance or nitrous oxide. This reputation is helped neither by the fact that Salinger withdrew to a house in Cornish, in upstate New Hampshire, unable to cope with the mania that people brought to his book, and that Mark Chapman presented his copy to the police after he shot John Lennon. Now, 60 years on, The Catcher in the Rye, and what the novel might imply, is as important as ever. But this is a reputation which Catcher only partly deserves. Holden Caulfield isn’t just a whiney teenage boy with a penchant for self-pity, he’s an expertly drawn character; grief struck at the death of his brother and traumatised by the harsh realities of the adult world. What makes Catcher so sad is that Holden is spectacularly unable to vocalise any of the problems that plague him. He admits

and Dog Years, takes place in a world steeped in fairytale, myth, and fable. The protagonist of The Tin Drum, the dwarf Oskar Matzerath, is a living fusion of the fairytale elements of darkness and innocence. Throughout much of the novel he remains a child and so facilitates a unique view of the events of the Nazi period. His appearance of innocence gives him a perspective which allows Grass to present the horror of the period in all its clarity. The fairytale mode of innocence as the way into the sin and savagery is manifested in Oskar’s narration. Yet Oskar captures another ambiguous role: the dual role played by Grass himself. Oskar is at once outside observer and complicit perpetrator. Grass stood and judged the nation, and at the same time judged himself. The transcendent narrator is an actor in the narrative. Germany’s memory is his memory. In writing on Germany’s sins he seeks his own atonement. Hence the unreliability of Oskar’s story-telling, Grass seeks to simultaneously reveal and conceal the past. This is the beauty of the fairytale – its allegory allows for deep ambiguity. Meaning is hidden in magic and fantasy. And so in Grass’ novels, the raw and

unspeakable brutality of the past must be mediated through symbol. Even in his biography Peeling the Onion , Grass’ presentation of his life is steeped in metaphor and uncertainty. But in that book Grass does honestly peel away the layers, and at last reveals his role in the Waffen SS.

late on in the novel the extent of the sexual abuse he’s suffered, without putting into words exactly what it is he’s had to go through: “That kind of stuff’s happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can’t stand it.” Yet he is totally unable to recognise why he does what he does. Following the death of his brother Allie, he breaks all the windows in his garage “just for the hell of it”. Complete ineptitude when it comes to honest self-expression is not a rare trait among young men. There’s something Holdenesque about the rage some people feel towards Hillary Clinton and ‘SJWs’, as if their anger at Clinton is hiding something deeper and more complex, maybe to do with women in general and power, or its absence. In a modern environment defined by economic and social uncertainty, the image of Holden, cut adrift and lost, has a kind of sad relevance. JD Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye in 1951, six years after the end of the Second World War,

in which he fought, on D Day and in the Battle of the Bulge. Salinger saw more combat than Vonnegut and Heller combined, but he writes a novel with no explicit reference to the war. Yet the war influences this novel intensely – Salinger must have felt that the consumerist and capitalist world to which he was returning had been irreparably changed and he must, like Holden, have constantly questioned his place in it. War does this to people and societies. A. J. P. Taylor wrote that the 20 th century begun not in 1900 but on the first day of the Somme. Salinger might have similarly have felt that his society had lost its innocence. Catcher is certainly a novel obsessed with childhood and its end. The Catcher in the Rye is the one root from which teen literature has sprung. But more than that, it is a novel that encapsulates something central about our modern world. We live in uncertain times, and Catcher depicts someone trying, through it all, to cope.

Fairytales use innocence as a way into sin After unveiling the secret he’d kept for over 50 years, Grass was accused of hypocrisy and dissembling self-righteousness. How, it was asked, could he have criticised and judged Germany for all those years, when he too was complicit in the crimes? But Grass was never the objective moral arbitrator. Germany’s story, Oskar’s story, was his story too. His novels allowed him to reflect on Germany’s and his own history. Grass, like Oskar, plays a dual role. In The Tin Drum Oskar’s gang call him Jesus, while he later self-titles himself Satan. Grass’ life too combines sin and atonement.

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

oxbow 15

theatre Confessions of a Drama Queen

Slightly ﬂat, with a twist of theatrical magic

The Final Showdown By KATIE SAYER

PHOTO: KEITH PATTISON/SHARED EXPERIENCE

Shared Experience’s reinterpretation of As You Like It is surprising and worth a watch, writes Harry Hatwell

★★★ As You Like It The Oxford Playhouse 18 November, 7pm

hared Experience and Theatre by the Lake’s joint production of one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies left me feeling slightly ﬂat. But it did have some great moments of true theatrical magic and acting skill. Set in the Forest of Arden, As You Like It follows the loves and dramas of a rowdy group of banished and exiled people ﬂeeing a political tyrant. Finding each other again in

Five minutes with

Audrey, the mysterious ﬁgurehead of The Oxford Revue

Arden, Rosalind (Jessica Hayles) and Orlando (Nathan Hamilton) fall even deeper in love but there is a problem: Rosalind must hide her identity… and so begins a love triangle of epic proportions. Both Jessica Hayles and Nathan Hamilton excelled in their respective roles, with Hayles giving a strong epilogue directly to the audience. Casting her as one of Shakespeare’s strongest female leads was a masterstroke. Not all was well in this production’s Forest of Arden, unfortunately. Despite the programme’s promise of “the land of evocative beauty that is Arden”, what was presented to the audience was a distressed and bare-looking tree, some white boxes, a telephone box (which was most out of place), and a blank background with some lighting effects. I did not feel at all transported to

his week, we chat to Audrey, the Oxford Revue’s mysterious icon:

Could you tell us a bit about your involvement with Oxford arts? Casual, passionate, bric-a-brac. I’m a bit of a best-kept-secret, really. A 1983 Cherwell article (they were still painted on papyrus then) called me ‘Uncontested Queen of the Oxford Night’, despite widespread misgivings’. Any more questions? Can you tell us a bit about The Oxford Revue? The Oxford Revue is a group of outcast geniuses who put on silly little sketch shows and do stand-up performances in places like the Wheatsheaf Pub and my front room. What’s your fondest memory of comedy at Oxford? In the winter of 1988, Stewart Lee and I were on a three-day tour which

a land of love and joviality by Libby Watson’s set. It lacked innovation, or any realism. The projections of birds and animals on the backdrop were insufﬁcient in making up for the bareness of the stage and the severe lack of greenery – some leaves on the tree would have been a welcome addition. The poor company had to climb up and down the thing while it shook from side to side. The play was saved by director Kate Saxon’s ability to bring to life to the sheer power and beauty of Shakespeare’s narrative. As You Like It is, in essence, a light-hearted and ﬁctitious fairy-tale of a love story: it’s set in a forest of lovers and there are multiple, direct references to the art of theatre. Yet Saxon favours a more serious and bleak approach, particularly at the start when Orlando’s quarrelling with his brother Oliver (played well by Matthew Darcy) turns violent and causes him to be banished. The dark lighting designs by Chris Davey, matched with Watson’s claustrophobic set made me feel I had the wrong ticket and was instead watching something

markedly more gothic. Luckily, Shakespeare saved the day and all was well by the close of the curtain, but many opportunities for comedy were missed. It is worth saying, however, that the darker tone led to some moments of sensitivity and real emotion – particularly when Hayles’s character is presented with Orlando’s blood-stained clothing. This production sees her distraught reaction represented through rhythmic dance and movement along to Richard Hammarton’s moving sound designs very effectively. Moreover, Hamilton exhibited stellar acting skills in the delivery of his lines, truly making Shakespeare’s verse and prose sound as if it were everyday English. If you want to be transported to a faraway land of beauty and greenery, this production is possibly not for you. While I was left wanting slightly more, the ﬁ nal song and dance from the cast, in true Shakespearean fashion, left me feeling uplifted. It is worth a watch. Produced by Shared Experiecne and Theatre by the Lake, As You Like It is touring until December 2017.

ended in The Cellar. By which I mean the dusty basement near the station where we’d all come together to bash out a sketch. Quite unexpectedly, we found a weepy David Cameron muttering something about his piglet, and how all his school friends would think him an imposter. They’d dared him to piss on the train tracks, you see, but he had a phobia of trains and he begged us to help him save face. Well we thought, “why not just really push the envelope here, then?” That summer we took our show ‘Pig In The Mirror’ up to the Fringe. It was an hour of Stewart doing his David Cameron impression, snivelling about a pig that didn’t love him back, while I danced around with a gymnastics ribbon. That’s where our logo comes from. You could say it’s when the Revue went political.

all before your time of course, and they’re all dead, sadly. Lost to the 1990s, to the danceﬂoor; to poppers. Here’s to them, really. Oh, and my mother. Mean as a hell-cat and hit the bottle hard, but the funniest woman I’ve ever known. Still alive, still notorious, and a public ﬁgure in fact, so I’ll withhold her name for now. (I’ll give you a hint: Dench.)

Who are your comedy heroes? Josie Jambles, Cobbie Claxon, Louie de Rampart-Chambleaux. These are

What advice would you give to freshers who might want to try their hand at comedy? Get involved! Not you – was calling out to my old friend Rebus Bunk over there. Ah, it’s not him. Just a possum. We’d love to have you too, though! So long as you’ve got moxie and verve. These can be quietly expressed (for now). We’ve got auditions on all the time – go to www.oxfordrevue.org and sign up for our newsletter. The more the merrier, I always say. That, and “I’ll share with you tonight, but next time bring your own”.

ue to some unfortunate pacing and the weird numeric system of recording time at Oxford, you’re just going to have to take my word for it that two weeks have passed since I was last outlawed to my room in shame. Apologies for the incompetent temporal dissonance, but let me tell you – these have possibly been the most dramatic two weeks of my existence. I successfully transformed my tragedy of a life into a ten-minute stand-up set for The Oxford Revue, complete with a dramatic power ballad, interpretive tap dance, and comedic series of Welsh accents, and it was all going brilliantly. I even made it into the new show. I thought I heard someone say “quota”, but I must have misheard. They must have said “quinoa”. There are a lot of vegans at Oxford. Lo and behold, the day of the show came, and I was just recounting the tragic tale of how thespian Jacob cruelly rejected me and initiated a restraining order. Naturally, I had added in a few comic details, mostly about him having syphilis, when I looked up at the audience, and of course, who should be in the front row? It was, of course, the treacherous exlove-of-my-life... who had phoned the police. The restraining order had technically been violated. How we women must suffer for our art. Now all I have left is my minor role as a cannibal pot plant, and my small-time position as a reviewer for Cherwell. I hear they’re recruiting for new stage editors, which is probably for the best – whoever allowed this column to run for eight weeks is clearly incompetent. Apparently the deadline is next Thursday at 12pm? I might check it out. I can think of worse ways to spend a term than editing a minor sub-section. Until the second curtain call – adieu, fair reader.

Do you have any exciting events coming up? I thought you’d never ask. Coming up we’ve got my eponymous comedy cabaret, called Audrey, upstairs at the Wheatsheaf Pub on Tuesday the 28th. £3.50 at the door – these eyelashes don’t come cheap, I’m afraid. We’ve also got extensive programming next term, and the tickets are already selling fast. Check out our social media, apparently we’re on Instagram now. What’s an Audrey? It’s the divine torch-song of a woman sat before you now, pet. It’s also my bi-weekly comedy cabaret, usually upstairs at the Wheatsheaf Pub, my old haunt. I host, I dance, I monologue – unless I’m held up in a brawl or a scandal, of course. In that event, one of my underlings ﬁlls in for me as host, presiding over a bill of sketch, stand-up, and musical comedy. But my presence is most always felt.

Satire STUDENT POLITICS

Robert Mugabe seeking new work Robert Mugabe, the feared dictator who was recently forced to resign from his presidency after a succesful military coup, has updated his LinkedIn and confirmed to Cherwell Satire that he is looking for more work. Mugabe, who has been frequently accused of suppressing the Zimbabwean opposition and committing crimes ranging from forced land seizures to genocide, confirms that he won’t be applying to any management consultancies, because he lacks the ruthlessness required to succeed. Instead, he will be looking for a career as a political advisor. “It’s clear to me that my talents make me well-equipped to tackle some of the most troubling political difficulties of our era,” his latest covering letter began. “Issues such as democracy and human rights are now obstructing even some of the most well-run states.” Speaking exclusively to Cherwell Satire, Mugabe discussed his current applications and how he was feeling about changing careers at

such a late point in his life. “I’ve applied to the DPRK gulag managment scheme, though the salary isn’t as competitive as I’d like, plus the weather in Pyongyang this time of the year is slightly inclement. President Assad’s also made me an offer, to join a start-up team trying to disguise his human rights abuses. “I think my main issue is selfconﬁdence and performance in interviews, though I’m working on this. I hope my experience is good enough for Kim and Bashir, but if not I still have that offer from Goldman on the table.” Having seen his CV, we can conﬁrm that Mugabe has a strong record as a heartless, self-enriching monster, and we wish him the best of luck in his applications. He did, however, express concern at the competitive nature of such jobs, citing second year Economics and Management students as his biggest threats. If you are interested in hiring Mr Mugabe, please contact him on 0100-ZANU-PF, or by emailing dictatorsforhire@gmail.com.

Angela Merkel seeks advice after shock coalition breakdown

FESTIVE SPIRIT

Jingle Hell – Four Survival Tips for Scrooges It is nearly Christmas time, the season of unbearable festivity and dread. Fortunately, Cherwell Satire are here to help – here are four christmassy threats and how to survive them. 1) Relatives Giant Toblerones work wonders in stopping tantrums. If seated between your partner’s parents at the dinner table, take extra caution with the Christmas crackers – you run the risk of chronic elbow injury and blinding an in-law with a rogue spinning top

or stencil set. 2) The Queen’s Speech Watch Channel 4’s ‘alternative speech’. Previous speakers have included Edward Snowden and Ebola survivor William Pooley. If you’re unsure as to who these two are, they’re people who’ve actually done stuff rather than lolled about in a pastel two-piece feeding Corgis titbits of antelope loin. 3) Christmas Trees

Feel no shame in rockin’ around your Homebase acrylic Nordic Spruce. If you do plump for the real deal though, disposing of it can be a nightmare. Either burn the bushy bastard or plant it neatly in your garden – then Rex can continue putting presents under it all year round. 4) Food Accept the fact that you’re going to end up looking like a pregnant Michelin man, and don’t buy a Christmas pudding and a cake.

STUDENT JOURNALISM

UK POLITICS

Dear Santa,

At a press conference outside of 10 Downing Street earlier in the day, Theresa May reported being woken up by a slightly porky ghost, whose ethereal nature and slimy essence scared her nearly to death. “I was expecting him to tell me to backtrack on Brexit, or to change my way before I led the country into ruin, but all he did was oink repeatedly before fading into nothingness.” David Cameron did not respond to Cherwell’s request for comment.

From the Archives: a Letter to Santa I’m really excited this year. I made some lovely cookies for you with mummy and she said I shouldn’t be afraid to ask you for what I wanted. So for Christmas this year I’d like a comment from you on your use of child labour, and your stance on animal rights. You have until 6pm this evening. Kind Regards, Jack Hunter (Age 4 and 3/4)

Ghost of Christmas past haunts May

by Rebecca Marks @missmarksart

We wish you a 28 Across!

45 The Beatles, for example (4) 14 Soft Italian cheeses (11) 46 Attach the wrong name (8) 15 Time of God’s assessment of 47 See 12 man (US spelling) (8,3) ACROSS 19 Firmly establish a habit (7) 11 Confectionery items (9) DOWN 21 Cigarette brand (7) 12,47 Annual winter addresses 1 3D photograph (8) 22 An example of Madame Tus(3,6,8) 2 Pitted fruit (4) sauds’ stock (7) 16 ____ Fruits, former name of 3 49th US state (6) 24 Not cool (5) Starburst (4) 4 Most ridiculous (8) 17 Seasonal plant (9) 5 Santa gets it in his sack when 25 Inclined to cry (7) 27 Mushroom, yeast, e.g. (5) 18 Aircraft brand (6) stuck up the chimney (4) 20 Inflate (4) 6 Spanish for “it’s snowy!”, sec- 29 Hanging frozen water (7) 23 Perform sum again (11) ond word is also US state (2,6) 30 Mary and Joseph’s town (8) 25 Infusion maker (6) 7 Most populous continent (4) 31 Moisturiser for sunburn (8) 26 Ending precariously (11) 8 Pen brand often used for mark- 32 Caribou (8) 33,34 ____ and ____, Boxing Day 33 Accounts of lives (11) ing (3,3) food (6,6) 35 Disney film (6) 9 Demands (4) 37 String covered in shiny foil (6) 36 Italian for “all fruits” (11) 10 Clothing with a common 39 Religious song (4) 38 Auntie ____, affectionate Christmas variety (6) nickname for UK institution (4) 13 “He ____ a ____”—may be said 41 Christmas (4) 43 Observe (4) 40 In a noisy manner (6) about a man who walks with 44 Strip of cloth (4) 42 Service leaders (9) difficulty (3,4) Last week’s crossword ACROSS 1 Bust 3 Speak 6 Fuss 10 Protein 11 Plectra 13 Angle 14 Champagne 15 Can 16 Loop the loop 17 Moonlighter 18 Pea 19 Amplifier 23 Grime 24 Improve 25 Fluster 27 Tier 28 Blues 29 Grab DOWN 1 Bop 2 Shotgun 4 Panic 5 Alpha 7 Shakespeare 8 Meme 9 Reappear 12 Tag 13 Accompanist 16 Lollipop 18 Painter 20 Pop 21 Ideal 22 Rifle 23 Glue 26 Rib

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

Opinion

Blame for our university’s blatant inequality should lie with the educational system, not with Oxford

Rachel Collett

One in ten MPs attended one single public school – Eton

t’s safe to say I don’t exactly fit in with the majority of Oxford students as the daughter of a postman, who attended a state comp in a northern industrial town near Liverpool. This constant imposter syndrome and feeling of exteriority is apparent every day in every sphere, as I make my way through my Oxford degree. Cherwell’s recent report, which gave statistics proving the Union, student journalism, and politics were dominated by the privately educated, shows that my anxieties are not imagined. There is a huge class problem at Oxford that permeates through academic work as well as extracurricular activities, and serves to exclude working class students from every area of Oxford life. The same structural inequalities that makes access to Oxford almost impenetrable for people of my background are apparent within the university itself, making access to the ‘Oxford life’ a myth for those of us who are not trained debaters or mini-politicians at school. The dominance of students with privileged educational or income backgrounds in the Union or student politics reflects the opportunities presented to them through school debating societies

and young parliament initiatives. Accompanied with the obvious academic privilege that comes with independent schooling, these opportunities inevitably give students from such backgrounds a privilege in all spheres of Oxford life, as well as after graduation when entering careers. Indeed, it is too simplistic to view the issue of private schooling simply through the lens of those who had access to better teaching: it is these societies and extracurricular activities that give the privileged a real upper hand. From my own perspective, as Women’s Officer of Oxford University Labour Club and someone actively involved in Oxford’s political scene, the dominance of posh, white, public schoolboys is felt in every space. OULC actually fared better in Cherwell’s recent report than most other societies, especially compared to Ouca (although that is hardly a surprise), yet is still ruled by men. Despite women being admitted around one hundred years ago, the atmosphere in such arenas is as though nothing has changed – liberation groups continue to be treated as exterior, and struggle to raise their voices above the noise of those taught their opinion is most valid in this space. The class problems at Oxford

are therefore simply indicative of a wider societal problem, in which such middle-upper class students attending the best g rammar and private schools are set up from a young age to be the future leaders of the country, me a n i n g every institution, not just Oxford and Cambridge, continues to also be dominated by the privately educated. Half of both the BBC top earners list and the number of MPs sitting in the House of Commons are from privileged educational backgrounds, a hugely disappointing number considering only seven per cent of the population attend private schools. For example, one in ten MPs attended one single public school – Eton. Such figures reveal undeniable disproportionate inequality in a variety of institutions. This shows that perhaps even attending university – especially the best in the world – as a working class or state comprehensiveeducated student does not neces-

The dominance of public schoolboys is felt in every space

sarily give you a leg up in such occupations and in a society which still remains to be dominated by a minority elite. Things have to change so that working class students are represented at this university. Otherwise, Oxford is simply going to die out as an out of touch, patriarchal, and elitist institution which contributes to a system built on class, gender, and racial inequalities. Through the work of campaigns such as Class Act and Decolonise Oxford, we can promote greater representation in these spaces, as well as support to gain the confidence and skills to stand for positions in such societies. Of course, it is up to the University itself to accept more state comprehensive students – which is indeed increasing every year – but it must be understood that the problems which exist here for working class students is more the fault of our country’s education system, which allows for unequal educational opportunities based on monetary income and class. While private schools still exist, and while they continue to offer the best learning as well as preparation for Oxford life compared to state comps, there will continue to be a huge disparity in the life and opportunity of students here. Something has to change.

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

Opinion Race workshops exacerbate the problem they seek to eliminate Honor Brocklebank-Fowler

Compulsory sessions will not correct the issue, and are an excuse for inaction, writes Sandra Xu

e it the Civil Rights Movement, the recent conflict in Charlottesville, or the constant protest against the lack of ethnic representation in elite universities, problems of racial inequality and misrepresentation persistently plague our daily life. The creation of so-called ‘race workshops’ has become a somewhat popular trend in universities (and, in our case, individual colleges) for raising awareness about equality and diversity as well as promoting understanding between people of different races. Suggestions have even been put forward to make them mandatory, so that students could learn to reflect on their own biases and talk about race in an open and informal setting. At first blush, an idea with merit, and one which we could say would necessarily lead to transparency, understanding, and tolerance. However, on closer inspection, what does the existence of such workshops truly entail? The issue of race is a sensitive one. So prone are we to employ words and expressions that might be mistaken for discrimination and abuse that it can pervade our every thought. Students of colour are already differentiated from others in regards to their backgrounds and cultures. The mere notion of race workshops further amplifies the problem, positioning them under a magnifying glass with the following message implicitly understanding that these students are different from ‘us’. They have a special identity that makes it necessary for ‘us’ to understand them in a particular way. That’s why ‘we’ are taking the time to talk about ‘them’. Race workshops serve more to divide than unify, presupposing the differences in identities and placing an invisible label on students of colour that would later prove hard to remove. Preconceived prejudices will not be thrown away. Instead

new ones will arise. The fact that many of the workshops are set as a part of freshers’ week timetable serves to prise students apart from each other, even before the start of the course, by reminding them that they all come from different places. On the other hand, the creation of workshops sends an implicit message that the University administration is taking an active part in raising awareness of racial inequality. In other words, because of the existence of race workshops, less responsibility needs to be taken for the actual integration of students of colour. Though this is certainly far from the intention of creating such workshops, it does provide an excuse for the administration to wash its hands of the issues of racial diversity. As an international student myself, I have found it far more helpful talking to access officers such as the Junior Deans or international representatives than partaking in any official inductions on racial awareness or potential bias, when it comes to the issue of cultural integration. The latter is simply neither the correct, nor the appropriate format. The problem of racial differences is an inveterate one. Differences in culture and disparities in values acquired through the formative years of one’s lifetime will not be easily dispelled within the course of several weeks or months. Assimilation and the breaking down of cultural barriers should be a gradual process accomplished through the frequent exchange of intellectual ideas, the pursuit of similar interests and passions as well as the discussion of common dreams and aspirations, not one

Race workshops serve to divide, not unify

that could be achieved through the attendance of infrequent race workshops. The truth is, the more emphatic people are about the issue of race, the less likely it is that students of colour are treated equally. The whole concept of ‘race’ is already overly emphasised. What we need now is a de-emphasis of the issue and, in turn, a putting of everyone on the same line. A more effective alternative would be to expand the creation of societies or weekly workshops that focus on the specific cultures of a particular region, such as the origins of Hindu art. Through the universal media of art and music, students are more likely to be genuinely interested in and appreciative of the virtues of foreign cultures, and thus cultural exchanges and the increasing of diversity will be facilitated. After all, from wherever we originally come, whatever our secret passions or deep desires, we are all bound together by the ties of humanity, which transcend issues such as race. University is a good place to start breaking down barriers, as we explore the world and endeavour to carve out our path to the future. Every experience we live through alters our outlook on life, every person we encounter reveals to us the diversity of humanity. Racial diversity is one of the many things that shall shed infinite light on our perceptions of the world, contributing to the formation of even our most basic opinions. Thus, a truly efficient way that would enable us to understand the depths of other cultures should be devised in the place of race workshops.

Prejudices, years in the making, are not so easily dispelled

Applaud Dugdale for showing politicians are humans too

Attacking Kezia Dugdale for going on I’m A Celeb is simple snobbery

t was revealed last week that former Scottish Labour party leader Kezia Dugdale would be joining the line-up of so-called “celebrities” to take part in this year’s series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! The Sun reported that the politician would head to Australia immediately, during a particularly tumultuous time for her party, which in the last week alone has seen her stand-in replacement Alex Rowley forced to quit, and Corbyn ally Richard Leonard announced as the party’s new leader. It has since emerged that Dugdale sought permission from party chiefs, with MSP Neil Findlay denouncing her decision to enter the jungle as “ludicrous”, adding that: “I think it demeans politics when people get involved in that. I think we’ve a very serious job to do…” But this is categorically unfair. One would presume she will have implemented a stand-in to fulfil her responsiblities within the Scottish Parliament, in the manner many MPs do when, for example, they’re ill or taking annual leave. Neil Findlay’s draconian shaming of Dugdale’s decision to appear on the show – and raise money for charity in the process – seems to me to be a thinly-veiled act of snobbery. Findlay chose in his interview on Sunday to pick up on the perceived low-brow nature of the show, noting that the show involves “[jetting] off around the world and [sitting] around a camp fire eating a kangaroo’s appendage.” This flippant remark, although possibly rooted in concern for the adequate representation of Dugdale’s regional constituents, fails to recognise the potential value of the MSP’s appearance on the show, which in its last series averaged a staggering 10.5 million viewers. Such appearances humanise politicians, who often seem removed from the preoccupations and interests of their electorate. Former Conservative MP Edwina Currie’s decision to star on the show in 2014 was lauded by viewers and parliamentarians alike as a step towards personifying the representatives of a political system seen by many as archaic and inaccessible. Boris Johnson’s father Stanley, a prominent Conservative MEP in the 1980s, and co-chairman of pro-EU environmentalist group Environmentalists for Europe, is among the contestants appearing on the show. Singling Dugdale out as the sole political figure on this year’s series is clearly an act of outrageous finger-pointing on the part of her colleagues. As Nicola Sturgoen said, Scottish Labour has shown itself this week to be a toxic “nest of vipers” by not applauding Dugdale’s attempt to demystify politicians. If the Duchess of Cambridge can be a relative-in-law of Made in Chelsea bad-boy Spencer Matthews, surely Dugdale can eat a few wombat testicles for charity.

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

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It’s time for us to recognise the ongoing tragedies on our streets

I Jeevan Ravindran

walk into a surgery and see a man with a swollen leg sitting near the reception desk. I recognise him - I’ve seen him sleeping on the streets a few times. After a while, I hear him talking to the nurses and the doctor about his leg. “I need to get it checked out,” he says. The staff try to be patient at first but quickly become curt, criticising him for being half-asleep and telling him to go to his own GP, saying that they can’t help. I hear him mention that he needs £20 to get into the Backpacker’s hostel, where someone can come to examine his leg. I go over to him and slip him the money. As I turn to walk back to my seat, he clutches my hand and says, “Please do something for me. Don’t let anybody corrupt that heart of yours.

Please keep being kind.” I promise I will, and as I return to my seat I hear him crying, and I can’t help but cry a little too. A week later, I’m walking down the street with my friend – we’ve just been shoe shopping at the Westgate Centre. Suddenly, I hear a shout from the man begging outside St John’s – I recognise him as Simeon, a rough sleeper who I’ve often spoken to and the husband of Vikki, a street poet. “Vikki died!” he yells. For a second I’m not sure if I’ve heard him right. “I just wanted to let you know because I know you did a lot for her.” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Vikki, the incredibly talented, sarcastic and sweet woman who beamed at me whenever I ran into her, who wrote a poem about homelessness for the On Your Doorstep Campaign – dead.

“She had a heart bypass,” he says. “And then she got pneumonia because we were on the streets, and then she died.” I don’t know what to say. “Thank you for telling me. I’m so sorry – take care.” I walk away, still shell-shocked about Vikki. I’m concerned about Simeon, but optimistic that he’ll be okay – he seems okay, at least. On Sunday, I get a Facebook message from my friend, telling me that she wants to get involved in homelessness because a guy died outside St John’s that day. For a second, I stop breathing. “His wife died recently too,” she says. And that’s when I know it was Simeon. I’m at a complete loss. Vikki was 43, Simeon was 30. They shouldn’t have lost their lives at that age – let alone have lost them due to homelessness in one of the richest cities in the country, surrounded by one of the wealthiest institutions in the world. How can our government be so complacent? How can our colleges, our University not be more concerned and more involved in this issue? Oxford claims it’s a charity, and yet it can invest in offshore oil extraction – and not homelessness. I feel hopeless, but at the same time know we can’t give up hope. It’s more important than ever that we mobilise and fight for the rights of the less fortunate in this city. Let’s make our voices heard. Let’s make Vikki and Simeon proud.

CONTESTED

Should Uni Challenge teams have a quota for women? Naomi Packer

Yes

he line is always the same. When it comes to choosing people for positions, it should always be a case of ‘the best man for the job.’ But herein lies the problem, often the best man for a job is said to be, well, a man. Thus the topic of quotas rears its head again. In 2017, Jeremy Paxman said the only reason University Challenge was dominated by men was because they simply like quizzes more. Such analysis is incredibly shallow. When speaking to The Telegraph, a previous contestant, Emma Johnson, noted that: “I think it’s because women see teams of boys on there, and feel it’s not for them. It’s self-perpetuating.” Clearly the issue is not that women are less intelligent than men - to argue such would be both wrong and sexist, but it is true that a lack of representation means that there are few women for potential team members to aspire to, and the same principle applies to wider positions of power such as politics and business. Of course the onus isn’t solely on colleges like Wadham to change the status quo. If the producers invited universities to enter and added that they wouldn’t accept same-gender

teams unless there was a valid justification, then universities would push for tangible change. There is a failure by those who organise such shows to deem diversity as a desirable trait. But the truth is that University Challenge wants teams which are both entertaining and watchable, and gender diversity isn’t a producer’s primary concern. The show itself leaves universities complete discretion as to how to select their team – Paxman has said that “the students are encouraged to enter teams which broadly reflect their institution.” It would therefore appear logical that women should be included within each university team. They do of course occupy around 50% of the University (and the population.) It seems there’s an easy solution. Only quotas can adequately challenge such male privilege. Occasionally, social change requires a push in the right direction, and in certain cases it requires a shove. Of course, University Challenge is not the main areba for the fight for gender equality, but the discussion which Wadham has inspired through considering quotas is representative of a wider debate happening in workplaces and universities around the country. This is a microcosm of the age-old battle between meritocracy and representation in which women have to consistently justify their place in various environments. Unfortunately it’s a battle which they seem to consistently lose.

Q Only quotas can challenge male privilege

uizzing is a niche hobby, and for university quizzers one event shines under the spotlight – University Challenge. In what is actually not that difficult a quiz, people who usually would never be able to show their talents become beloved memes on national television. Sadly, this notoriety has downsides, and the foolish and politically motivated decision of the Wadham SU to not field an all-male meritocratic is a prime example. Wadham recently had a set of trials to see who will represent it in University Challenge. In Wadham, there were two rounds, one for everyone and for those who scored highly enough, a second and final round. Wadham decided to also hold all female events to ensure that someone who wasn’t a bloke would make it to the second round. Two women did so, and both of them didn’t make in onto the team by a hefty margin. There was no misogyny or m a le - cent r ic bias in selection of the team; it was all a matter of being the best at answering university challenge-style questions. I should know, because I took part in the process and got onto the team. Sadly however, this was not how it was viewed by certain members of Wadham SU, including two

Wadham’s idea of pointless tokenism helps no one

No Daniel Antonio Villar male members of the team, Lucas Bertholdi-Saad and the alternate Milo Thursfield. In a meeting at Wadham SU last week, the SU voted to include the top scoring woman on the team, despite the fact that she earned ten points fewer than the lowest ranking male on the team. Not only that, the SU decided that should she not want to take her place, Wadham will not field a team. As a quizzer, this is infuriating. To see people who know nothing of and have never partaken in quizzing in their life, saying that this wonderful hobby cannot be enjoyed, and its practitioners not able to showcase their talents on television, simply due to their gender. seems to be simply injecting politics where it does not belong. It is also ignorant; given the small population of a university challenge team, having a team entirely of a single sex is what you would expect to occur randomly nearly one in five times. Quizzing is a lovely pastime, and I encourage women who are currently underrepresented in it to participate. However, it doesn’t help anyone to prevent those who have done well in quizzing from going on University Challenge, while including a woman for no reason beyond tokenism. But sadly, the ever strict modernism of Wadham SU doesn’t see it that way.

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

At length

Refugees – welcome here?

Barcho (right) is a self-described activist, and has visited camps in Syria to help displaced people.PHOTO: MUSTAFA BARCHO

Seeking asylum in the UK comes with systemic barriers. Selma Stearns explores Oxford’s efforts to support new refugees

hen I attended a rally last year to support asylum seekers and to fight xenophobia in the UK, I chanted along with everyone else: “Refugees are welcome here.” Many students can talk the talk about helping refugees, but they are not just a group of people in the Calais Jungle. Indeed, there is a supportive and well-established community of refugees and people who have been granted asylum right here in Oxford. There are well-established charities who work to help make living in the UK easier, as well as student-driven groups and associations led by former asylum seekers themselves.

xford is home to thousands of former asylum seekers. Whilst there are no official statistics on the size of the refugee and asylum seeking community in Oxford, the charity Refugee Resource believes the population to be over 4,000. The community is a diverse one, with Refugee Resource supporting 250 clients of 29 different nationalities in 2016/17. I spoke to the trustees of the Oxford Kurdish and Syrian Association (Oksa) before their committee meeting last week. One of the three trustees and founding members of the society

is Mustafa Barcho, who was given asylum in the UK in 2001. Roushin Bagdash is another trustee of Oksa who did not come to the UK as a refugee, but moved from Syria because of her husband’s employment. Barcho and Bagdash said that the Oxford refugee community is close, and members support each other frequently. However, the support given by the government is very low, according to Barcho. Oxford is not a dispersal area: accommodation is not provided here by the Home Office as it is in some parts of the UK. Many refugees are assigned to Northern England when they first arrive. Many of the refugees who do come directly to Oxford pass through the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme (VPRS). Bagdash, who works with Oxford Connection Support which helps facilitate the VPRS, said that there are around 26 families coming to Oxford as part of the scheme. The people that come through schemes such as this are not necessarily Syrian, but can be Sudanese, Iraqi, or from other countries with conflict, said Bagdash.

archo, who is Kurdish, left Syria at 13, and moved between Turkey, Greece, Italy, and other countries in Europe before reaching his final destination in the

UK at the age of 21. “I was displaced, I didn’t have an identity for all of those years. I didn’t have anything to carry in my hands to say ‘this is me’,” he said. When he arrived in the UK, the Home Office sent him to Doncaster to wait for his paperwork to be done, which took five years, before he was granted residency. Barcho was refused refugee status three or four times before being accepted, going through a court case with the Home Office. He said that after many years of running and not having an identity, the Home Office still demanded more information and did not make the process easy. “If [the Home Office] accepts everyone, then there would be more people coming to England, so the Home Office will always reject applications, even if they know you need to have an identity,” said Barcho. Barcho said that things have changed for Syrian refugees since he arrived as a result of the Syrian civil war. According to Barcho, as the war rages on it becomes harder for the UK government to refuse to grant asylum.

“We need to push the government to take more refugees”

“They don’t really have a choice; it’s not because of the understanding because the UK should take more refugees, but they don’t,” said Barcho. He noted that Germany has outperformed the UK in terms of refugee support. In 2015, Germany expected to take at least 800,000 asylum seekers, according to the Guardian. Barcho said in reality Germany took far more than that figure. In contrast, the UK Home Office said that between 2011 and 2015, almost 5,000 Syrians were given asylum, but this figure included many Syrians who were already living in the UK, the Guardian reported. “We need to push the government to take more [refugees] because of their involvement in the Syrian war,” said Barcho. “The UK plays a huge role in Syria and the Middle East.” In 2016, David Cameron said that the UK would accept 20,000 Syrian refugees under the VPRS, according to the BBC. However, John said that very few qualify for the scheme – the Gov.uk information document states that the scheme is intended for people at highest risk, such as those seeking medical treatment or survivors of violence and torture. “We thought the UK would do much much better than they did, but unfortunately the Conservative government... have eliminated some support and aid for people who need it, especially in Syria and Iraq,” said Barcho.

PHOTO

arolynn Low, Partnership Development Manager of Refugee Resource, said that a lack of political will on the part of European governments represents a huge obstacle to resolving the refugee crisis. For example, Low said, the move towards processing asylum claims offshore, is dangerous and unethical. “Returning people to inhumane, exploitative and abusive conditions, such as in Libya where slavery and extreme abuse is widely documented, is unacceptable,” she said. “As signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention, we should be upholding our obligations, including the principle of non-refoulement.” Low urged that there need to be more legal routes into Europe for asylum seekers and refugees, so that people are not forced to make dangerous journeys.

came to Oxford from the US, and even I found the transition to a new country overwhelming at times. The process would be infinitely more stressful if someone were fleeing violence, and entering a completely different culture. I asked the Oksa trustees what the main barrier facing refugees in Oxford is, and the short answer is that there is no singular response. However, Bagdash and Barcho both said that language is one of the biggest. “It is the first step to integrate and the first step to move on, to be honest,” said Bagdash. “Especially, there are some people who come here illiterate... if they don’t know their own language it is hard to move on.” In order to address language and cultural barriers, Student Action for Refugees (Star) is trialling a new project with Jacari, so Syrian families who arrive through the UN resettlement scheme are assigned

Therapeutic Service Manager for Refugee Resou

a student to give them some extra language support. Bagdash helps coordinate these home visits and other schemes to help children and families with schoolwork and English. Barcho said that the Oksa seeks to help people integrate in the UK, and assist with education, housing, and navigating the free English courses they are provided as a refugee. Bagdash said Oksa also have two women volunteers who used to be teachers helping people, especially older individuals, learn English. Bagdash said that she has been amazed with how quickly people progress, and how strong their sense of determination is. It is much easier for young people to integrate, as it is not just language difficulties that older people struggle with, but integrating into a new society. “It is very difficult, after all those years, to go and stay in the classroom to learn English,” said Barcho. “They face a lot of issues, like mental health issues.”

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

PHOTO: ASYLUM WELCOME

O: LIZZY THOMPSON

PHOTO: MUSTAFA BARCHO (bottom right)

We have stopped being outraged at lies

urce, Sushila Dhall PHOTO: RACHEL LEBUS

Organisations in Oxford seek to address these issues. For example, Refugee Resource provides counselling and psychotherapy, especially trauma therapy and cross-cultural support. A new student-run refugee support service is Star. Lizzy Thompson, a Pembroke undergraduate, has recently Started the Oxford branch of this national charity up again to fill the gap between the university and the community. The organisation helps and supports charities run by locals, including Refugee Resource and Asylum Welcome. Thompson said that being active in communities is key for Star.

ut despite the different organisations offering support, Barcho and Bagdash highlight that there are a wide range of obstacles facing refugees, which completely differ based on individual characteristics of the families and people.

As Kate Smart, the director of Asylum Welcome, said the idea of the ‘refugee crisis’ is a bit misleading, as it suggests one single problem to be solved. “Refugee experiences have been a sad feature of societies ever since records began,” she said. “Refugees are created when human rights are threatened within states - so international activity to strengthen respect for human rights is significant.” The media can sometimes be hostile and there is a lot of misunderstanding about the ‘refugee crisis’, and what terms like ‘refugee’, ‘asylum seeker’, and ‘migrant’ even mean. If there is one thing Thompson said that Oxford students should know, it is that there is no such thing as an ‘illegal’ refugee or asylum seeker. “Terms like these are invented to project angst,” she said. “We’re all human and everyone has the right to protection and safety, basic human rights...are being neglected

and we can very easily do our bit to change that.” “Personally, I worry about the lack of empathy and humanity in Europe in general currently, and seemingly, a process of ‘othering’ of migrants and refugees,” said Low. “Having said that there are some extremely supportive and active communities and individuals who are doing all they can show to show ‘Refugees are Welcome.’”

niversity students have historically been drivers of change, but students can sometimes be unaware of issues that are happening right under their nose. “There aren’t self-made camps under train stations in Oxford, with people who have fled one heartwrenching situation to find themselves helpless in a limbo of political, legal, and cultural battles,” said Thompson. “So, it’s understandable for British attitudes to lack the same sense of urgency as elsewhere on the continent.” “I’m hoping that Star makes some steps in the right direction to make the refugee crisis seem less of an awkward taboo,” said Thompson. “We pick all our raising-awareness events carefully – we don’t want to depress people, the idea is just to get them talking and thinking.” Barcho said that before Thompson began Oxford Star, there were many other student groups and individuals who were involved with refugee support. “We work with many groups and many individual people who like to support refugees...but there is a lack of proper support and funding to put them all under one umbrella,” said Barcho. Barcho worked with Arabicspeaking students at Pembroke and Queens to do online tutoring and teaching for children in Syria. “There should be more of an awareness of the difficulties that refugees are facing here,” said Barcho. “I think students can contribute a lot.”

e as students cannot let ourselves believe that there is nothing we can do to help. Student involvement in organisations such as Asylum

Welcome has had a significant impact. Furthermore, Star has led a successful campaign for equal access that means there is no longer a legal three-year wait for refugees to be allowed to attend university. “The most valuable thing students can do is to make a promise to yourself that wherever life takes you after university you will always be a tolerant, welcoming, empathetic person,” said Smart. “The more people who have that attitude, the safer the world will be.” But we should remember the root of the problem. Assad is still the President of Syria and he has been implicated by the UN as being involved in war crimes. When Bashar al-Assad came to Downing Street to visit prime minister Tony Blair, Barcho led a protest against the dictatorial regime and was arrested for throwing eggs at Assad and Blair. Barcho was angry that after all of the deaths that Assad has caused, he was welcomed to a democratic country by the Queen and the PM. The UK granted Barcho asylum from a dictatorial country, and then hosted the leader of that very country. “The jury said ‘did you know it is against the law to hit somebody with eggs?” and I said “it is against the law for you to host a dictator

who killed hundreds of thousands of people,’” Barcho said. Clearly, the refugee crisis in the world today has many components. There is a lot of work that students can get involved with, but it should not be done with the attitude of helping those who are helpless. The refugee community in Oxford is a supportive group who have been through struggles, not least at the hands of the UK government, but many of them are settled and wellestablished in Oxford. There are day-to-day issues we as students can try to help alleviate, but we should also be conscious that we live in a country that makes the process very difficult for refugees to settle here. “The need for safety from persecution is real, but otherwise [refugees] are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, who come with bags of talent,” said Smart. For students who want to get more involved, there is information on the Star Facebook page, or email the team directly at Star.oxforduni@gmail. com. Information about Refugee Resource (refugeeresource.org.uk) and Asylum Welcome (asylum-welcome. org) is also available online.

PHOTO: MUSTAFA BARCHO

Friday, 24 November 2017 | Cherwell

Science+Tech FLAT EARTH

Plane stupid? Understanding Flat Earthers

Irteza Ishraq and Jon Stark take a closer look at the modern-day movement peddling ancient ideas

ver the last 2500 years the human race’s understanding of our planet has gone from unfounded mythology to an accurate knowledge of its exact shape and inner workings, backed up by photographic evidence amongst many other methods. And now, in the age of Facebook and YouTube, the ‘Flat Earth’ community is joining forces to fight back. In the third century BC, Eratosthenes found the radius of the Earth by measuring the shadows cast by objects in Alexandria when he knew the Sun was directly overhead in Syene. In 1522, Magellan’s ship completed the first successful trip around the globe. On August 23, 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 looked back and took the first photograph of Earth from the Moon. It showed a fuzzy, half-lit ball sitting just above the horizon. With a long and firm history of discovery backing up the current consensus on the Earth’s shape, why would ordinary people decide otherwise? Well, the main reason is because most of these experiments can’t be performed easily alone. As with most scientific knowledge, many people think that the only point of reference for the Earth’s shape comes from dusty history books or faceless governmentfunded science organizations. So, someone who doesn’t like authority really ought to take all of these round

earth ‘facts’ with a pinch of salt. If we choose to disbelieve anything except our own personal observations, the Flat Earth theory isn’t immediately problematic. There’s no curvature in the horizon normally visible to the naked eye, so it’s fairly natural to assume we’re on a ﬂat plane and work from there. As well as this, gravity always seems to work in one direction – the expression “water is always level” is something of a ﬂat earth mantra – and according to this observation, if the Earth were a globe (let alone a spinning one), the seas would surely fall off! However, it’s also possible to dispel these arguments using one’s own simple observations. For instance, the horizon’s curvature can be seen in photographs upon close inspection. And the existence of gravity in directions other than downward can be demonstrated in a high school lab if necessary, by use of Cavendish’s torsion balance setup which shows the attraction between two heavy balls. These rebuttals, however, don’t usually go far in the Flat Earth community. Camera lenses can’t be relied upon, according to most believers, and the Cavendish experiment isn’t the easiest operation to pull off. So, for the most part, once someone decides to distrust the authority of other people, they will see no good reason to believe that the Earth is round. One of the major reasons why the

Flat Earth movement has gained so much traction now is because believers, or people who are curious, are now able to connect across the globe on social media. YouTube is a very common source for flat earth ‘research’, and Facebook is full of Flat Earth-related groups – like the Flat Earth Society, which has over thirty thousand members, or Official Flat Earth and Globe Discussion, which has over 66,000. Common posts are allegedly ‘photoshopped’ Nasa pictures, self-taken photos of apparently level horizons, and rants against Neil Degrasse Tyson, but some groups go beyond discussion of the Earth’s shape to rant against the scientific community on other, more serious fronts. The online Flat Earth community

may seem harmless, but they represent a growing scepticism towards science found in many sections of society. Your average Flat Earther may point to perceived anomalies in science as a basis for their belief that the Earth is flat, but when confronted with images of the Earth from either the Moon, a satellite, or the space station. The usual defence is a complete disregard for anything to do with Nasa or any other space agency. Some go so far as to claim that all scientific bodies are involved in a worldwide cover-up. This ideology of mistrust towards scientific bodies is one that lies worryingly close to a trend entering the mainstream today. Grassroots anti-vaccine movements have been propagated by the endorsement of household names

like Jim Carrey, harmless till you consider that the US also reported the ﬁrst death from measles in 12 years in 2015. 97% of climate scientists believe in man-made climate change – yet, the leader of the free world believes that global warming is a concept created by the Chinese to “make US manufacturing non-competitive.” From policy makers to our awkward uncles, the accusation that scientists hold an ulterior motive against the people has paralyzed the mainstream scientiﬁc community’s ability to communicate with a growing section of society. Disconnected from science, but more connected than ever – whether you believe them or not, Flat Earthers are gaining traction all over the globe.

Ozone layer hole at smallest size in 29 years, say Nasa By BETHAN THOMAS

asa recently revealed that the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer is the smallest it has been since 1988. Each year, the hole in the ozone grows and shrinks over Antarctica and reaches its maximum size in the Southern Hemisphere. Nasa revealed that the peak this year occurred on 11 September, and measurements taken using satellite images show that the hole only reached 7.6 million square miles in size. This is compared to 8.9 million square miles in 2016, and 10.9 million square miles at its peak in 2015 – a reduction of 30.3%. The extent of the ozone hole has been monitored by both Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) since the 1970s, yet the ﬁrst measurements were taken by the British Antarctic Survey in 1957. From 1991, the ozone hole has regularly averaged ten million square miles – over half a million square miles larger than the entire North American continent. An ozone molecule consists of three oxygen molecules bonded together. The majority of the ozone layer (90%) is found between six to ten miles above the Earth’s surface in a region called the stratosphere and is on average only 3mm wide, the width

of two stacked pennies. The ozone layer protects Earth from solar radiation, specifically harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can damage the DNA in cells and lead to cancer. The Ozone layer is being degraded due to reactions with chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. When CFCs reach the stratosphere, they are degraded by UV radiation producing chlorine radicals. These chlorine free radicals rip ozone apart before being regenerated, meaning one chlorine radical can destroy multiple ozone molecules. CFCs were first used in 1928 as aerosols and as refrigerator coolants, but replaced once their harmful effects were realised. But once chlorine radicals are introduced to the ozone layer they can remain there, breaking down ozone molecules, for many years. When the hole was discovered in 1985, the nations of the world took action and signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to ban substances containing CFCs and other ozone damaging chemicals. Does this shrinking in the size of the ozone hole mean this agreement had an effect? Is the ozone layer beginning to recover after 29 years? The short answer is no. Although the ozone hole is at its smallest extent for 29 years, it is still two and

a half times larger than the United States. Scientists believe that the smaller ozone hole observed in the past two years is not a sign of healing, but simply natural variability due to warmer than normal conditions in the stratosphere. These warmer temperatures minimise stratospheric cloud formation which can assist chlorine-catalysed reactions leading to the destruction of ozone. It is believed that the ozone will not truly shrink back to pre-1980s levels until 2070, as levels of CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances remain high. Though we cannot attribute this dramatic reduction directly to international agreements such as the Montreal Protocol, we must remember such agreements have had a beneficial impact. The Montreal Protocol and the related Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer were the first universally ratified treaties in UN history and have been remarkably successful. Within 25 years of signing, the world had eliminated 98% of all ozone-depleting substances compared to 1990 levels and every country is still meeting their obligations to protect the ozone layer. This agreement has resulted in unprecedented improvements for the environment, protecting the ozone

layer by preventing further damage. It is this universal commitment to protecting the environment that should inspire further international co-operation and maintain hope that things can still improve. If the

first universally ratified treaties in UN history could have such a beneficial affect for the ozone layer, then perhaps the next could just as successfully target CO2 emissions and climate change.

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

Sport RUGBY UNION

“We’ve got lots of exciting talent in the team” Blues Rugby captains Conor Kearns and Sophie Behan speak to Thomas Browne Sitting down with Sophie Behan, Women’s Rugby Blues captain, it is immediately clear just how seriously her team is taking the match, as she hurries in straight from another session at Ifﬂey Gym. The women are certainly not resting on their laurels after last year’s 3-0 victory over Cambridge, for as Behan is keen to emphasise, every time you step out onto the pitch at Twickenham you have to be prepared: “When you prepare for a game normally it starts on the day, the pressure isn’t there on the pitch. For Varsity, I’ll be getting messages a week before wishing me luck. You stay in a hotel the night before, you’re away from your family and your housemates, there’s photographers and shirt presentations – that all makes it feel very different.” As captain, she is well aware of her role on the day, helping to keep what can be a very tense, nervous atmosphere, as relaxed as p o s s i b l e: “My job is making it the same – people perform best when it’s what they know, so you minimise what you don’t know. Just don’t let little things throw you off,” she says, “it’s a

game of minimising errors, not a game of being perfect.” Behan emphasises what a talented and hardworking squad she had the privilege of captaining, and her responsibilities are made easier by the fact the side is coached by Gary Street, who won the Women’s Rugby Union World Cup as Head Coach for England in 2014. Behan highlighted a few of the side’s star performers: “Sophie Trott is obviously one to watch. She was player of the match last year, and is a joy to watch. “Johanna Dombrowski was a visiting student from Williams College when she played her ﬁrst Varsity match and is now at Oxford for a DPhil and is going to be playing in her second Varsity, having come back incredibly strong from an ACL injury.” Pat Metcalfe-Jones is also a standout. The French and Italian student has been training with Harlequins this year as well as balancing a degree and Blues commitments. Overall, Behan couldn’t be more positive about the Blues chances against a Cambridge side who are currently playing in the division below them, and have not been tested by a top-

quality team this season. For the men, captain Conor Kearns is keen to stress the challenge the squad faces. Like Behan, he stresses the importance of trying to recreate normality in what can be a disorientating environment for any players who haven’t experienced it before: “you have to just try to stay within the process, trying to maintain consistency will get you as prepared as you possibly can be for such a big occasion.” Kearns also sings the praises of the beneﬁts the pre-season tour had for creating a great team atmos-

phere. “Getting away to America was a great opportunity, when we got back we’d begun to mould into the beginnings of a team, and with each successive game we’ve grown closer and now the team has a strong bond.” He is similarly ebullient about the pleasure of having a team with some great professional experience: “We realise how lucky we are to have these ex-pros in the team, they bring an aspect of professionalism which the younger guys really look up to.” He is keen to pick out Andy Saull,

who made over a hundred club appearances for Saracens, as well as Will Wilson who spent the summer playing with England’s Sevens team. “We’ve got some really exciting talents and our game plan is to go there and play rugby. With the quality of players we’ve got it would be a disservice not to go out there and try to play attractive rugby.” It seems like Oxford’s chances of a Varsity double this year are better than ever: the fans should be treated to a fantastic display of high-quality rugby.

1988

IN NUMBERS

The Varsity match

wins in a row for the Men’s Blues since their defeat to Richmond on 3 October

Heineken Cup winner playing for Oxford, centre Dominic Waldouck

points scored in last year’s Women’s Varsity, all by Oxford

the year of the ﬁrst Women’s Varsity ﬁ xture, won by Cambridge

-116

Cambridge Men’s points diﬀerence this season – they have won just twice

Men’s JCR Football Premier Div W

Men’s captain Conor Kearns kicks for goal (above) and Women’s captain Sophie Behan (left) PHOTO: OURFC

Men’s Football Midlands 1A

wins in the ﬁ xture for Cambridge men, compared to Oxford’s 59

Women’s Football Midlands 2B Pt

points scored in Oxford’s thrashing of Gloucestershire last month

consecutive games without defeat for Cambridge’s women

Bucs Men’s Hockey South B

Bucs Women’s Hockey South A

Balliol

Cambridge 1

Oxford 1

Exeter 1

St. John’s

Oxford 1

Warwick 1

Cambridge 1

Oxford 1

Exeter

Nottingham 1

Lincoln 1

Bath 2

Bath 1

Worcester

St. Catz

Oxford Brookes 1

East Anglia 1

Exeter 2

Cardiff 1

Wadham

Loughborough 2

Bedfordshire 1

Cardiff 1

Bristol 1

Queen’s

Warwick 1

Northampton 1

Canterbury CC 1

Cambridge 1

Cherwell | Friday, 24 November 2017

Varsity preview

Sport

Oxford go into the ﬁxtures at Twickenham as favourites after a strong start to the season

FOOTBALL

Record crowd sees Blues win the Brookes Varsity Men’s Blues

Oxford Brookes

By MATT ROLLER

almost instantly to the goal, as Ellana Slade’s goal from inside the box sealed an equaliser. The game remained wide open, with both sides looking to play expansive football and put pressure on the opposition defence. Brookes scored again with an absolute worldie of a goal to put the pressure on the Blues, as their striker’s impressive lob ﬂew in to give the visiting side the lead again. Going into half-time, the Blues found themselves in the unusual position of being behind at the interval, and captain Maddie Hooper had to rally her troops. But the home side responded well to this challenge and didn’t stay down for long. A fantastic ﬁ nish from Brigid Lahiff equalled the scoreline leading

to a tense fi nale to the match. Oxford increasingly dominated the game with a number of shots coming close, as they tested the Brookes goalkeeper on multiple occasions. With only a few minutes remaining before the fi nal whistle, the Dark Blues fi nally converted a good chance to take the game away from Brookes. Lina Velcheva scored to take Oxford into the lead in the dying moments of the game. However, the Blues were not in the clear yet. A fantastic save in the fi nal minute by Blues keeper May Martin was required in order to sure up the win. It was a fantastic performance from Hooper’s side, who lifted the trophy in front of an increasingly vocal Iffley crowd.

The Blues’ opposition have not always posed such a threat this year – the 22-0 win at Nottingham Trent 4ths being the prime example – so this represented an impressive display of professionalism. They dealt with the setback of going behind twice, and managed to hold onto their small lead to take the win and the trophy. They have every reason to feel conﬁdent going into next term as they prepare to build on last year’s Varsity success against Cambridge. That ﬁ xture will prove to be another tough test, after Cambridge’s strong start to the season in the division above Oxford. However, the form book often goes out the window in rival games, and Hooper’s side will take courage from this victory moving forwards.

OUAFC’s double-header against Brookes broke records last week, as a ticketing drive saw the games at Iffley Road watched by a sell-out crowd of 785. And while a minority of supporters fought pitch-side following Jack Witt’s winning goal in the men’s game, attendees considered it successful. “It was the second time I’d been to the fixture,” one student said, “and it was miles better than last year’s both on and off the pitch.” This was the first time that Oxford had won the men’s fixture since 2013, and Alex Urwin’s side were good value for their 1-0 win. Ticket sales were also much more even this year, with Brookes fans only outnumbering the Oxford contingent by a small margin. Only around 100 Oxford students attended the game in 2016, compared to around 350 this time around. It was also the first time that the men’s and women’s fixtures have been played back-to-back, following the format of the 2017 Varsity matches against Cambridge. And after disappointing sales for those games at Barnet’s ground, the club have reason for optimism ahead of the 2018 fixture. It is understood that OUAFC has been in talks with various clubs about the possibility of playing the game at a more prestigious venue. As Cherwell reported on Saturday, there was crowd trouble towards the end of the game, with a handful of fans ejected and security separating the two sets of supporters in the final minutes of the game. One Oxford supporter said it was “a shame that a few idiots went too far. “The club has clearly worked very hard on engaging students this season, and that work was overshadowed by a small number of people at both unis.” OUAFC did not respond to Cherwell’s request for comment.

Oxford University Fencing Club was one of the big winners at the Oxford University Sports Federation annual awards evening on Friday 17 November. Following one of the club’s best seasons on both an individual and team level, the Women’s Blues Fencing Team were awarded the Team Performance of the Year Award following excellent performances during a campaign which saw them win the Bucs Southern Premier league without losing a match – beating rivals from Cambridge, UCL, Surrey, Imperial, and Cardiff. They also won their Varsity fixture against traditional rivals Cambridge. The club coach, Tomek Walicki, who is about to celebrate his 30 th

year coaching in Oxford, was also awarded the Coach of the Year Award. Given that World Cup-winning Women’s Rugby Union coach Gary Street was also nominated, the achievement is testament to the success that Walicki has had in his coaching career to date. Two of the Women’s Blues team’s standout performers, Chiara McDermott and Harriet Dixon, were both also nominated for the Sportswomen of the Year Award – however, they both lost out to Rachel Weatley following her exceptional season in both boxing and judo. This year’s awards ceremony was dominated by the exceptional performances of sportswomen in particular. All of the teams to be

nominated for the Team Performance of the Year Award (fencing, rugby union, tennis, triathlon and ultimate frisbee) were Women’s rather than Men’s. Other winners included Dan Lock of Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, who was awarded the Oxford University Sport Atalanta’s Team-mate of the Year Award, for his “selfless attitude, unabated commitment, and unwavering leadership [that] has steered the OUIHC over many years, to national success and laid the foundation for the club to become of the UK leading premier university ice hockey programmes.” This year’s awards ceremony was notable for showcasing and rewarding an extremely wide and diverse range of sports, and direct-

ing attention away from some of the big name sports that tend to dominate such evenings. Indeed, given the hockey and football Varsity double-headers, at Southgate and Barnet respectively, ended in four Oxford wins, it was something of a shock – although many would suggest a welcome surprise – to see both sports almost entirely absent from the nominations. However, the take-home message was that the level of sporting talent at Oxford remains as high as ever. With the Dark Blues successful in a majority of 2016/17 Varsity matches, and starting this season strongly in a plethora of sports, it is evident that Oxford’s athletes are in rude health.

Blues come from behind to seal Brookes win Oxford Women’s Blues raise the Brookes Varsity trophy after a closely contested ﬁ xture against Oxford Brookes. PHOTO: JESSICA KEATING

Women’s Blues

Oxford Brookes

By ANNIE AULT The Women’s Blues continued an unbeaten start to the 2017/18 season last Friday night, coming from behind to beat Oxford Brookes 3-2. Coming into the game on the back of a thrilling 4-3 win at the University of Northampton in the league, the Blues had to contend with going 1-0 down early on in the match. After only ﬁve minutes of play, Brookes scored the opening goal and caused some nerves as the hosts looked anxious in possession from the ﬁ rst whistle. However, the Blues responded

AWARDS

Fencing ﬂourishes at Oxford Awards

By TJ FITZGERALD