Cherwell Vol.273 No.3

Friday 24th October 2014

www.cherwell.org

Inside: C+ investigates Mental Health in Oxford

Editor of The Economist John Micklethwait on the future of print

Serena Guen on getting started in fashion journalism

Cherwell Independent since 1920

Trup in trouble over Mi-Voice handling

2nd Week Vol. 273, No.3

University lecturers to strike again Georgia Latham News Editor

“Chaotic and intolerable” situation as OUSU fails to notify JCRs of Mi-Voice cancellation Tom Calver News Editor

Sam Mills News Reporter

COLLEGES HAVE BEEN LEFT in confusion after OUSU withdrew the online voting system Mi-Voice without informing JCRs, failing to get an alternative system up and running in time for the new term.

The Student Union’s failure to renew the service’s subscription — following difficulties with the system over the botched NUS referendum vote in May — also means that, for colleges whose constitution only permits an online vote, JCR elections have had to be postponed. Somerville and Oriel, who were hoping to hold JCR elections in second week, have had to opt for a paper ballot system.

Wadham’s SU, meanwhile, has had to postpone elections due to take place this week. Andrew McKay, who is currently assuming Returning Officer (RO) responsibilities following the resignation of Vice President Alex Walker, explained

that nobody on last year’s committee was informed of the fact that the Mi-Voice subscription would be cancelled. He confirmed to Cherwell that he submitted an official complaint over OUSU President Louis Trup’s handling of the situation.

He stated, “We feel particularly let down by OUSU that we weren’t properly informed of this change.

It has caused a great deal of inconvenience and means that we go into week two without being able to elect a Vice President or a Charities, EnviWadham SU Chair Andrew McKay claims that OUSU has “caused much disruption in the common rooms that they are meant to represent.”

ronment and Ethics Officer which are both important positions on our SU. We want to know why common rooms were seemingly not informed of this change.”

After making a complaint to OUSU, the Student Union suggested

that they hold no responsibility for common room elections, as each common room is independent.

In response, McKay told Cherwell, “Given OUSU do provide common rooms with the platform upon which they elect officers, they should have informed us that they were cancelling the subscription and moving to a new system. By not doing this properly, they have caused much disruption in the common rooms that they are meant to represent.”

McKay added, “Because we were not informed of the cancellation of Mi-Voice, we couldn’t complete the election for a Vice President, which means we are still Vice President-less two weeks into term.”

Wadham is not alone in their frustrations. St Edmund Hall RO, Omar Rana, commented, “It is very annoying to see that Mi-Voice, which is an essential resource used by Teddy Hall to administer our elections, has failed to work, without there being any communication with JCR returning officers, whatsoever. I hope that whatever went wrong will be

resolved as soon as possible”.

However, another JCR Returning Officer, who wished to remain anonymous was more critical: “It is just intolerable. My JCR isn’t alone in relying on the mi-voice software to conduct our elections smoothly and Louis Trup’s failure to notify us in a timely order has meant that we are having to change the rules in a needlessly rushed and chaotic way” In a statement, Trup explained, “Our mistake was in not being more transparent about the work going on to make this happen. We apologise to the colleges for any inconvenience caused and will notify you as soon as the elections module is available.”

Meanwhile, Somerville were hoping to hold an election on Thursday of second week for a new Domestic Officer, planning to run the election online.

However, after discovering the loss of Mi-Voice, Somerville’s JCR Returning Officer Joe Smith told Cherwell that the “contingency plan was to run a paper ballot”. continued, p. 3

THE UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION (UCU) has overwhelmingly backed plans for industrial action in a ballot held earlier this week. The vote by academics at 69 universities comes as part of an ongoing dispute over changes to pensions.

The result may lead to a marking boycott and a refusal to set exams.

It could stop students from being set coursework or receiving formal marks and feedback.

Margaret Watson, President of Oxford UCU, told Cherwell, “In the national UCU ballot that closed at noon on Monday this week, 78% voted for strike action and 87% for action short of a strike. The turnout was the highest that UCU has had in a national higher education ballot since 2006, and this is all the more remarkable given that the draft proposals were only announced to members of the USS pension scheme at the end of July, and the UCU consultation and ballot took place largely during what, in Oxford, is the Long Vacation. continued, p. 4

Free Education and OUSU James Elliott argues OUSU should be supporting Free Education, James Blythe responds

Comment, pages 8-9 Images from Mount Kilimanjaro George Myers’ shares his stunning photos of Africa’s tallest mountain at night

Photo, page 20 The science behind soundtracks Film and TV’s Ollie Johnson examines the film industry’s best sountracks

Film & TV, page 27

Cherwell | 24.10.14

2 | News

St Anne’s welcomes ‘Les Matriculables’ in style

ST ANNE’S CELEBR ATED Matriculation in style with a Les Miserables stunt, aptly named ‘Les Matriculables’. English fresher Fraser Davidson called it “Stunning. Inspiring. A whirlwind of revolutionary romance. It got the blood pumping and fresher passion rac-

ing.” Rudy Schulkind, a first year studying PPE, added, “It was quite unexpected, and it was unfortunate that the tree was in the way, but it was hilarious nonetheless.”

Organiser Kayleigh Tompkins was delighted with how the stunt turned out. She

explained, “Last year’s Lion King gave us a tough act to follow, but we all thought ‘Do You Hear The People Sing’ would be the perfect song to give the freshers one last expression of freedom before they inevitably succumb to essay crises, 9ams and careers fairs.

Table toppling start to term for History Society

Two legs removed from a valuable table in Merton’s MCR were returned after university-wide search Henry Shalders News Reporter

THE HISTORY SOCIETY has been left legless this week as valuable table legs were stolen from an antique table in the Merton MCR on Friday 17 October. The legs were only returned on Wednesday following a university-wide appeal, and an amnesty offered for their return.

On Friday, the History Society hosted its opening event of the academic year, marketed as a ‘free-flowing’ cocktail soirée.

A pre-event message from the History Society read, “Come on down to Merton MCR at 8.30pm tonight for our termly cocktails. Entry is only £1 for members, £4 for non-members for unlimited cocktails. Also, don’t miss out on the chance to buy lifetime for the discounted price of £12.”

Such incentives at first seemed to have paid off, with the event being packed. Some disgruntled freshers were even turned away due to the popularity of the event. The evening began smoothly, with the History Society managing to get plenty of legs through the door.

One student present told Cherwell, “It was strictly standing room only, though the event was hardly rowdy.” Only subsequently was it discovered that an antique table had been severely damaged.

History Society members were alarmed when the following afternoon they received an email informing them that “during the course of the evening, a table was broken and the legs have disappeared.” The email stressed, “It is essential we retrieve the missing table legs,” asking members to contact either Emily Ellis or Tom McPherson, the two co-presidents of the Society, if they knew anything about the whereabouts of the legs. The email also promised not to hold anyone “responsible for the damage”.

By late afternoon on Sunday, little progress had been made. Another email was sent to the Society’s mailing list, this time filled with bold type. The presidents announced the legs

of the table were still missing and stressed, “it is extremely important that we find them.” The email also revealed the Society was liable for the cost of the damage if the legs could not be found, and would have to “pay extensive financial costs.”

Although the person responsible for the breaking of the valuable antique table had by this stage come forward, it took several days for the legs to be returned. Repeated searches of the room took place, and they were nowhere to be found on the Merton MCR premises. In a statement, the two student co-presidents explained, “We can only conclude that someone else either threw them away or took them when they left the event.”

The email continued, “If you have any information about the table legs, even if they were thrown away, we would be very grateful to know what happened to them.”

Emily Ellis, meanwhile, was keen to dispel the idea that the event was out of control. She

told Cherwell, “The History Society would like to say that while there were problems with overcrowding and we had to turn many people away, the event was certainly not rowdy. During the course of the evening a small table was overly leaned on and accidentally broken.

“At a later point in the evening the two table legs that had broken off the table disappeared.

The History Society does not hold anyone who attended the event responsible but would greatly appreciate any information on the whereabouts of the table legs as we are still looking for them.”

The History Society can now, however, rest easy — on Wednesday afternoon, co-president Thomas McPherson informed Cherwell that “the table legs have now been found, so there’s no need to issue an appeal for their return”.

Merton College and the Merton MCR could not be reached for comment. For the History Society, it was quite literally a leg-breaking start to the academic year.

“Aside from a missing inflatable parrot and some dodgy timing, we thought the revolution went well. Hopefully the freshers will have some debauched plans of their own at next year’s matriculash.”

Helen Thomas

This week News in Brief OXFORD’s PORT MEADOW development has come under renewed criticism. The Save Port Meadow campaign criticized the University for a delayed release of a retrospective Environment Impact Assessment, which was promised exactly a year ago. Other critics of the project include Philip Pullman, who called it “destructive, brutal, ugly vandalism.”

However, an Oxford spokesman had said the assessment will be published next week. The full article can be found on cherwell.org MAGDALEN LGBTQ REP has resigned over a controversial article written by her for the St John’s Gender Equality Festival’s zine. The article, entitled ‘What is a woman?’, received criticism for allegedly being ‘transphobic.’

The author apologized for any offence caused but defended her opinions, saying “I feel my views have been massively misinterpreted.”

Zine Editor Ruth Mclean was not among the Festival Organisers who apologised for the article, although she was asked for comment.

THREE BROTHEL OWNERS were sentenced for running a “sophisticated operation” in Jericho, employing at least 20 prostitutes.

When police raided the property earlier this year they found bedrooms containing baby oil, but no evidence of people living there.

The three owners, all female, were given suspended jail sentences as well as unpaid work requirements.

OXFORD CITY COUNCIL has announced new police powers that could result in fines of up to £1,000 for littering. The powers would treat “breaches of public spaces protection orders”, which include littering as well as anti-social behaviour, as offences. However some councillors have criticized the move, explaining that the announcement runs the risk of giving the police too much arbitrary power.

News | 3

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Robinson swaps prosecco for porridge Missing Mi-Voice warning hits colleges EDL founder’s Union talk postponed after prison recall OUSU apologises for JCR elections inconvenience Lucy Valsamidis News Reporter

EX-LEADER AND FOUNDER of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson was this week forced to withdraw from speaking at the Union, after being recalled to prison.

In a Twitter announcement on Saturday, Robinson said that he had been recalled to custody, allegedly after responding to a threat on social media. The Union later confirmed that he would not be appearing this week, although added that the recall was for a fixed period of 28 days, meaning that they still hope to host Robinson later this term.

The Union’s invite has been criticised, with a protest planned for the event this week, while an open letter from Unite Against Fascism (UAF) has attracted more than 150 signatories.

Ian McKendrick, a spokesperson for Oxford UAF, explained, “We will continue to campaign against the Oxford Union extending an invitation to Robinson, and remain prepared to protest in the eventuality that this or any other invitation to a fascist goes ahead.”

He added, “Such an invitation can only give credibility to Robinson’s racism and boost the confidence of racists and fascists in Oxford to be more open, posing a threat to local communities.”

Among those backing the call to withdraw the invitation were councillors from several political parties.

Sam Hollick, Green Party Councillor for Holywell, agreed, saying, “We cannot accept Robinson and the EDL as mainstream. Any suggested benefit of drawing out his offensive beliefs in a debate is far outweighed by the badge of legitimacy that Robinson would

claim from speaking at such a widely known institution like the Oxford Union. The event should be cancelled as a demonstration of our rejection of racist hate.”

Students were among those planning to protest against the event. Rowan Davis, a member of the Oxford Activist Network, told Cherwell, “I was saddened to see that the Union has again failed to maintain a safe space for open debate with its inclusion of Tommy Robinson, an act which I and many others utterly deplore.”

However, in a statement, Union President Mayank Banerjee declared, “The Union stands by the invitation to Mr Robinson and we would like to reiterate that an invitation from the Union is not an endorsement of any particular agenda. The Union believes in the principle of freedom of speech and we would encourage all members who disagree with Mr Robinson to question him on his views at the event later in the term.”

Robinson’s recall into custody follows his sentencing in January for 18 months in prison for mortgage fraud. He was released in June.

A spokesperson for Robinson claimed, “Tommy has been recalled to prison following him responding to a threatening tweet to himself and also implying the person would rape his Mother [sic].”

Robinson tweeted that he believed the recall was an attempt to stop him “exposing the facts” at the Union. A press release further alleged that Robinson was being “silenced by the authorities”.

The Ministry of Justice said, “We do not comment on individuals. Offenders on Home Detention Curfew must comply with the conditions of their curfew or release licence. If they fail to do so, they can be immediately recalled to custody.”

Lack of FOMO as ticket sales drop

Colleges left with non-refundable surplus after Freshers’ Week Suzie Marshall News Reporter

HUNDREDS OF TICKETS for this year’s Freshers’ Week were left unsold, leaving several colleges with a non-refundable surplus.

College Entertainment (Entz) reps and Freshers’ Week committees found themselves unable to sell vast numbers of tickets, having prebought them all from the two main club night companies, Shuffle Nights Ltd and FOMO. Lady Margaret Hall Freshers’ rep Alessandro Venerandi admitted, “Both companies state before the sale of tickets that they can’t be refunded — unfortunately, ticket sales were down from previous Freshers’ Weeks, across all four years.”

It is not only LMH that has experienced difficulties in shifting all of the tickets purchased for sale in Freshers’ Week. Jesus, Oriel and Keble have all reportedly undersold. FOMO CEO Piers Rhys-Lodwick, told Cherwell that two colleges did not manage to sell all of the tickets they had purchased from FOMO for the night of Thursday 9th October, at The Bridge nightclub on Hythe Bridge Street.

One of these colleges was Keble, who, RhysLodwick explained, “only did one night with us, but they ended up with sixty tickets left over.

However, our policy is not to refund pre-sale tickets bought for Freshers’ Week, as the revenue from ticket sales contributes towards DJs, equipment, decor and staff. We hired Ministry of Sound DJs for some nights in Freshers’ Week, and one DJ came all the way from Manchester.

We can’t turn them away if colleges don’t sell all of their tickets.”

Rhys-Lodwick also added that Keble, and the second (anonymous) college who undersold on the Thursday of Freshers’ Week, were able to sell some tickets on the door that night. However, as most tickets are sold on a pre-sale basis, this

approach “wasn’t very successful”, according to the FOMO CEO. FOMO does not have written contracts binding a college to sell a certain number of tickets, and while they are willing to negotiate refunds if cancellations are made far enough in advance, the short length of Freshers’ Week means that JCR committees must therefore buy a number of tickets based on sales records of previous years.

Shuffle Nights Ltd reported that the company hadn’t been aware of any colleges under-selling tickets in Freshers’ Week. Shuffle C.E.O. Toby Baker said, “All of our twenty-three events hit capacity so I don’t suspect any colleges failed to sell too many tickets.”

Agreeing with Baker, Shuffle’s Hannah Robinson told Cherwell, “We had probably the highest attendance for Freshers’ Week in the last five years, with twenty three sold out events. There are always a couple of colleges which don’t sell all of their tickets, but hardly any at all that I have heard of from this year.”

One third year commented, “I know Freshers’ Week events aren’t exactly aimed at my age group, but they seem to have lost their charm. I mean, Freshers’ Flu is a phrase for a reason.”

continued from front page He explained, “Regrettably, no nominations were received for the position anyway so we’re going to be re-running the ballot in third week. I am in contact with OUSU over whether an online system will be rolled out in time. If not, we will have no choice but to run a paper ballot again.

“In terms of the delay in renewing the online system, I have been told that it is due to the University’s encountering difficulties in releasing the data to OUSU so that it can roll a new online system out to colleges.”

Oriel were also hoping to run an election for their Facilities Officer this week. RO George Wiffin told Oriel JCR, “When I went to create the Facilities Election yesterday on Mi-Voice it told me that our lease ran out in August. This lease is given to us from OUSU, but when contacted yesterday evening, they replied telling us that ‘it’s not up and running yet, but will be

by Sixth Week’, which isn’t exactly helpful.”

After looking at alternatives, Wiffin decided to “run the election using a ballot box the ol’ fashioned way”.

OUSU’s cancellation of its subscription to the e-voting service Mi-Voice — a service previously used by both colleges and OUSU for online elections — follows an incident last May when the

“

We have put all available resources into resolving the issues as soon as possible NUS referendum election result was declared void after electoral malpractice came to light.

The election, carried out using the service provided by Mi-Voice, saw over one thousand fake ballots being cast. A Proctors’ report on the alleged electoral malpractice was appar-

ently due to be released earlier this term, but as yet remians unpublished.

However, OUSU has admitted it did not intend for JCRs to be without a replacement online system at the beginning of term. OUSU President Louis Trup told Cherwell, “OUSU was working on a new and secure voting system over the long vac and had hoped to be able to launch it during Fresher’s Week.

“Unfortunately, this has not been possible due to the complexities of the data and its ownership. We have put all available resources into resolving the issues as soon as possible.”

Speaking to affected colleges, Trup assured students that a replacement system would be working “in the coming days. In the meantime, we will be discussing the issue with common room presidents this week and our Democratic Support Officer will be available to provide advice.”

A similar situation threatens to causes difficulties at Brasenose, where elections for the role of JCR President are scheduled to take place on Tuesday of Third Week. Their constitution states, “Voting will be by means of the online Mi-Voice system between 9am and 7pm on the day in question.”

Brasenose’s RO and JCR President were both however unavailable for comment.

Cherwell | 24.10.14

4 | News

Strikes and marking boycotts ahead University and College Union vote for industrial action over pension cuts

continued from front page “The ballot result indicates the strength of feeling among our members across the country and their determination to resist the threat to their retirement income: I have spoken to members in Oxford who have told me that they have never before voted for industrial action, but that the threat to their pensions is so grave that on this occasion they have done so.”

The ballot comes after the Universities UK (UUK) proposed changes to the current pension scheme for university staff. According to

“

I find it hard to justify industrial action by lecturers when it is the students who are going to lose out UCU modelling, under the proposed pension scheme changes a 40 year-old professor who joins the scheme at 25 and retires at 66 on a salary of £75,000 stands to lose £230,251.

Watson added, “Our own employer, the University of Oxford, submitted a constructive and sensible response to the consultation by UUK. If other university employers around the country take a similarly enlightened view of the situation, there is good reason to hope that the current national dispute can be resolved by negotiation rather than by the taking of industrial action. I strongly believe that industrial action should only ever be the very last resort, and I am firmly of the

Council’s tunnel-vision over transport plans

Oxford City Council reveals plans to build a tunnel under High Street to ease congestion Tom Calver News Editor OXFORD CITY COUNCIL LEADER Ian Hudspeth has unveiled drastic plans to drill a tunnel beneath the city centre for buses, in an attempt to ease congestion.

The proposed tunnel, estimated by experts to cost over £500million, would reach from St Clements to the train station and would involve digging beneath the High Street.

The proposal, according to Hudspeth, is inspired by the Metro Bus Tunnel built in Seattle in 1990, and would be used by a system of electric buses and cyclists, leaving the road above fully pedestrianised.

Another radical proposal includes building a perpendicular tunnel, running between St Giles and St Aldates.

Considering the Council’s transport strategy up to 2020, Hudspeth explained, “Given the sheer scale of the growth and change that lies ahead for Oxford, we have to approach things in a radical way. These are not detailed plans, they remain ideas and they remain uncosted.

“Some of the ideas we are looking at might seem massive in scope and cost, but other cities around the world have delivered ambitious projects to solve their transport problems. So why not Oxford?”

OUSU President Louis Trup, whose election manifesto last year pledged to push forward plans for an Oxford monorail system, said he was “glad that Councillor Ian Hudspeth is continuing to look into solutions to Oxford’s transport issues.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Trup explained, “I welcomed Councillor Hudspeth’s comments in April at the ‘Oxfordshire Connect’ event where he proposed a monorail as one solution, following on from ideas I proposed in November last year. I will be meeting with him soon to representing the student view on such projects alongside Ruth Meredith, OUSU’s Vice-President for Charities and Community.”

With a nod to The Simpsons, Trup continued, “Hopefully Oxford will soon become the UK’s

view that if other universities respond as our own has done, a negotiated settlement is still within our reach.”

UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt said, “UCU members at universities across the UK have made it quite clear today that they reject the radical changes being proposed for their pensions. We will go into talks on Wednesday hopeful that we can resolve the current impasse.

“However, we will go into that meeting with a serious mandate from members that they need to see real improvements. If the employers do not address our concerns then we will meet on Friday to determine what forms of disruptive action we take and when they would start.’

Liam Biser, a PPEist at Oriel, commented, “I support the lecturers right to vote and strike if they so choose. However I feel they have a responsibility towards the students and their decision does conflict with this, which I think is unacceptable.”

One English undergraduate from Wadham said, “I realise that this vote is over pension cuts but I find it hard to justify industrial action by lecturers when it is the students who are going to lose out most by their action. I resent paying £9000 a year for an empty lecture theatre.”

A University of Oxford spokesperson told Cherwell, “The University will always respect the right of individuals to take part in lawful industrial action.

If such action should go ahead, contingency plans will be in place aimed at minimising any disruption or inconvenience to students and staff.”

The week in figures

£3.75 Cost of Thom Yorke’s latest album

53 Number of people who follow Jack Myers, OxStu Editor, on Twitter

more successful version of Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.”

Construction would almost certainly affect the High Street colleges. Oxford Civic Society chairman Peter Thompson explained that medieval cellars and tunnels, the foundations of listed college buildings, together with pipes and wiring, would mean tunnelling would have to be deep.

He explained, “We agree that a radical solution is required and admire Mr Hudspeth for his blue sky thinking. But before any serious

money is spent on looking at this, some careful consideration needs to be given to the cost of tunnelling.”

The University itself has refused to comment until more details have been announced, with a spokesperson stating, “We are not aware of these proposals, and will be happy to look at them.”

This is not the first radical solution proposed by the Council leader — in July, Hudspeth suggested the idea of running trams or a monorail along the A40.

2

Number of emails sent by the History Society appealing for the urgent return of Merton’s chair legs

24.10.14 | Cherwell

News | 5

Colleges divided as free education debate marches on

Following OUSU Council, more JCRs debate motions on the NUS Free Education demo Ellen O'Neill News Reporter SEVER AL COLLEGES HAVE now passed motions to support student attendance at the national demonstration against tuition fees in London, following a similar move by Balliol JCR last week.

Hertford, Worcester, Regents’ Park, and Harris Manchester have passed the motion to send students to the demonstration, while Exeter, St John’s, Wadham and Somerville, amongst others, will vote on similar motions on Sunday. However, not all colleges have accepted the idea. A motion in Jesus College, which would have granted the JCR’s support to OUSU’s £200 involvement in the Free Education Demo failed, with 11 people voting against.

Alexander Proudfoot, Vice-President of Jesus JCR, said, “we discussed the motion in a fair amount of detail and the prevailing opinion, although some did disagree, was that whilst the JCR supports many sections of the [OUSU] motion and a lot of the sentiment behind it, the wording was too loaded on many issues and the motion had too much bound up in it for us to agree with it in it’s entirety.”

He added, “we made a note, and voted in support of this note, that although we do not support this OUSU motion we are critical of the current fee system, current government policy towards higher eduction, and are supportive of student activism.”

Hertford, meanwhile, will be donating £150 towards travel costs from its political campaigns fund to take students to the demonstration on November 19th, up one-third from the £100 originally requested in the motion.

The motion, proposed by second-year English student Charlie Jarvis, cites a recent decision abolishing tuition fees in Germany in comparison with speeches by several MPs

and Andrew Hamilton, the University Vice Chancellor, calling for uncapped or raised fees, arguing that that, “either our system is going to continue down the road towards an American-style model of private universities with uncapped fees, or we can take it closer to a German model of free, public and accessible education.”

The motion, which is being used in many colleges, characterises the NUS’s policy as “a campaign for a new deal for education, that is free, publicly-funded, accessible, and funded by greater progressive taxation and clamping

“

There is now a need for major change in higher education policy in this country down on tax avoidance”, and claims that, “in order to fund tuition fees, the Government can now expect to loan in excess of £10 billion per year, much of which it will never recover. Fees act as a deterrent to access, making education seem unaffordable to some.” It also points to recent successful campaigns by the NUS, such as last year’s cancelled sale of the student loan book.

Hertford JCR President Josh Platt explained, “We had a brilliant debate in our JCR meeting about free education on Sunday, in which absolutely loads of people were able to express their views. I think this shows how important it is for JCR representatives to have proper consulation with their members before going to

Thom Yorke not let down by Oxford

Star collaborated with Oxford students in release of new album Elliot Burns News Reporter

THOM YORKE USED the expertise of Oxford MBA students to mastermind the release of his latest album, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, on BitTorrent. The Oxford native, and Radiohead frontman, consulted with students Ryan Kroening, Phil Barry and Steven Lundy on “user experience, media strategy and financial analysis” when planning the unique release, which aimed to eliminate the need for a record label.

The collaboration began when the three students, all self-professed music fans, were looking for a project to carry out for their Strategic Consulting Project (SCP). Whilst most MBA students at the Said Business School work for designated companies, Kroening, Barry and Lundy decided on a unique approach by helping to assist in the release of Thom Yorke’s latest work.

Phil Barry explained to Cherwell, “We sent an message to Courtyard Management [Radiohead’s management company] entitled ‘MBAs offering brainpower’, which we think piqued their interest a bit”.

Courtyard Management were full of praise for the students, saying, “It was immensely useful to have the input of the MBA students on data analysis and new marketing strategies. They produced a thorough and insightful document.’’

Likewise, the students were enthused by working with Yorke, with Barry commenting, “Everything is driven by the music for Radiohead — our role was to adapt the business model around the music.”

This is not the first time Yorke has attempted to innovate in the way he releases his music.

The 2007 Radiohead album In Rainbows was released using a ‘pay-as-you-want’ method, whereby users could order the album for any amount they wanted, including nothing.

In announcing the latest album, Yorke said that the release was an “effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work”.

Said Business School also released a statement praising the innovation of the students, saying, “The MBA students were able to put their learning into practice on the project, analysing fan and market data, and bringing together new technologies to generate new ideas challenging conventional content distribution mechanisms.”

The £3.75 charged for Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes is understood to be split 90%/10% between Yorke and BitTorrent, giving the method a clear advantage over standard label releases.

Yorke’s approach has been met with favourable reviews from the student body, with Alexi Andriopoulos, a PPEist at Univ commenting, ‘‘I think more music should be released like this because it’s the only sure-fire way of ensuring that the artists who create the music get their fair share of the profits. It could encourage more talented musicians to enter the industry who previously were concerned about the ability to make money in music.”

Yorke’s strategy appears to have been a success. Whilst BitTorrent have not released a specific figure, they have disclosed that there have been in excess of one million downloads of ‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes’.

Although the reaction has been positive, some students noticed the irony that BitTorrent is banned at some Oxford colleges, with one student commenting, “They could have at least chosen a platform all Oxford students have access to.”

OUSU Council; I now have a much clearer idea about the stance Hertford wishes to take, and I’m looking forward to presenting those views to the rest of the student community at the University. Hertford’s JCR is very keen to send a strong message to the government; the status quo is not acceptable, and whether it be through free education or a different funding formula for higher education, there is now a need for major change in higher education policy in this country.”

Charlie Jarvis, who proposed the motion, said, “It is crucial that we join the fight against the marketisation of our education system, and I believe the NUS are the right people to lead us in this. It was fantastic to see such a huge turnout at the meeting, and the debate was really lively and inclusive. A good £150

was pledged to support students attending demo on November 19th, and two of Hertford’s three votes at OUSU will be used to support the policy when it is debated again at Council next week. Despite a difference in opinion on the details of the motion itself, what appeared unanimous was the dissatisfaction with the path down which the current government is heading with regards to higher education.”

OUSU Disability Officer James Elliot, who first put the motion to OUSU, said, “I’m delighted that several more JCRs have joined the fight for free education by pledging support.

This is a great time for Oxford students to be discussing how education should be funded, its place in society and how we fight to scrap the current system of fees, privatisation and debt.”

News | 6

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Cherwell EDITORS Ella Richards (Exeter), Samuele Volpe (Exeter) editor@cherwell.org DEPUTY EDITORS Robert Walmsley, Luke Barratt, Charlie Atkins, Helen Thomas, Alex Stronell editorial@cherwell.org NEWS Tom Calver, Stan Lalanne, Georgia Latham, Ellen Brewster (Broadcasting) news@cherwell.org NEWS REPORTERS Ellen O'Neill, Thea Slotover, Yunfei Yang, Rebecca Grant, Maria Wilczek, Lucy Valsamidis, Emilia Carslaw,

April Peake, Millie Belli, David Rischel, Sian Meaney, Jonathan Yeung, Ssuuna Golooba-Mutebi, James Warrington, Samuel Rutishauser-Mills, Jake Verter, Sam Slater, Shannon Britton, Bethan Candlin, Suzie Marshall, Daniel Ward, Michael Protheroe

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Students react to Cambridge chief’s comments Mike Sewell feared mass of “overambitious” Oxbridge applications Marianna Spring News Reporter

REACTIONS FROM OXFORD students have been mixed following the Cambridge Admission Chief’s warning over scrapping AS-levels.

Mike Sewell said last week that de-coupling AS-levels from the final grade will encourage an abundance of “overambitious” Oxbridge applications, leaving students without a “reality check” and Oxbridge without the ability to “gently deter” unsuitable applicants from applying.

His warning has been contested by those who fear it will discourage very able, but potentially hesitant students from applying to Oxbridge.

Responding to Sewell’s remarks, an Oxford University spokesperon declared, “AS-levels serve a useful purpose, particularly for candidates from backgrounds with little progression into higher education.

“AS-levels give many students the chance to try new subjects and evaluate their progression midway through a course. AS-level results can also be an important chance to build students’ confidence in their academic ability and potential, which is particularly important for students from widening participation backgrounds.”

However, the University emphasised that

AS-levels are not used in a “mechanistic way” during their own selection process, and that irrespective of changes to the exam system their focus remains on accepting “the most academically able; a small subset of everyone taking A-levels.”

French and Philosophy student Stephen Szczepanek from Pembroke told Cherwell, “I think it’s a harsh truth to acknowledge that some people applying to Oxbridge are overambitious, but it is not a misplaced term in this case. The lack of any sort of reference point is definitely more likely to increase this number [of overambitious applications].”

Fresher Jake Smales agreed that AS-levels are “an essential bench-mark in proving whether you have a realistic chance” of securing a place, and that, “without them, I wouldn’t have had an accurate sense of where I was and whether my application was a good idea.”

Other undergraduates, however, complained of the potential damage this label could cause.

Nathalie Diaz, a first year at Pembroke College, felt that they were “harsh comments”, which were far more likely to dishearten students, particularly like those from the state school that she attended.

“There were lots of people from my school who had the right grades and could have potentially achieved a place here, but the stigma of Oxford meant that they didn’t even consider applying. These comments won’t help.”

PROFILE

“

Newspapers are not necessarily dying out, just changing banker,” he says with characteristic understatement, “but I think [City experience] means you understand some element of what business is about. Coverage of business and finance is the engine room of The Economist. You can’t feign interest in it; you are either interested or you’re not.”

And looking at issues through the prism of business, finance and economics is part of the essence of how The Economist looks at the world. A recent piece, for example, looked at the business, demographics and economics of prostitution. But Micklethwait insists that The Economist is not pro-business, although it is pro-capitalist. “We don’t treat business people with the same slavish idolatry that some do; we don’t put pictures of them on the cover playing golf. On the other hand, we definitely do not look down on business and see it as somehow reprehensible.”

Nor does the paper see itself as right wing. As Geoffrey Crowther, a former Editor, said in 1955, “The extreme centre is the paper’s historical position.” Micklethwait expounds on this, “If you go back and look at the beginnings of The

Economist,, it fought against slavery, fought against capital punishment, fought for penal reform; it’s always had quite a strong socially liberal side. From that perspective it’s not that odd that we were among the first people to promote gay marriage, among the first people to campaign against Guantanamo.

Those traditions still continue.”

The rise in weekly sales by over half a million since Micklethwait became editor is widely regarded in itself as something of a triumph, given the drubbing that many print newspapers have received in recent years. And under his leadership The Economist also deserves credit for its handling the tricky transition from print to online, with digital edition sales now accounting for 11% of total circulation. “We have started to adapt”, he says. “Newspapers are not necessarily dying out, just changing form to things like blogs. Twitter is again something very brief and very different. But you’ll find there are some antecedents to all these mediums — if you look back to very very early trends, in, for example, the Roman times, people were also constrained by what you could get on to tablet.

But yes, in general some parts of online are a bit different, but the basic value of journalism is pretty much the same in both. It is to inform, to analyse and I suppose to provoke.”

Even if their aims are the same, surely, I ask, there must be some trade-off between online writing, which has less-editing and more immediacy, and the more heavily edited print edition — especially given The Economist prides itself on its editing? “When a news event happens, you feel as though you have to react to it on the web. If you put as much effort as we put on the weekly print, that would take a long time. If, on the other hand, you put something out that looks the same as the print edition but is done very quickly, you run the risk of damaging your brand by making it look as though it’s not as good as the weekly one. Online, we let people have initials and it’s much more obviously a quick update.”

He adds that readers tend to be more forgiving in online pieces than those in print, “If I did a piece about France and for some reason we missed the ‘e’ off the end of Hollande, in the print edition we would have a hundred letters by the end of the day. Online, what tends to happen is the second or third comment says ‘I disagree with you completely about this oh and by the way you’ve missed the ‘e’ off the end of ‘Holllande’.’ People know its a different medium. It’s like if one measures tea against coffee. That said, I have people inside The Economist who say we should be even tighter on quality control.”

The way in which the paper has handled the cyberspace revolution — its online product — has also helped with another of its remarkable achievements in recent years. In contrast to many papers, advertising has not just held up but flourished. It is one of the only papers for which advertising revenue has actually been steadily increasing year by year, rising to roughly 10% in 2013. How has it managed, I ask, to overcome the difficulties posed by the de-

Illustration: Sage

T

he Economist, Weekly Commercial Times, Bankers’ Gazette and Railway Monitor, was founded in 1843 by a Scottish hat maker to promote free trade and oppose the newly enacted Corn Laws. When, in 1930, its somewhat verbose title was modified to the pithier The Economist, circulation stood at less than 20,000. Now, having been described as “the most successful magazine global brand in the world on and off the web” by the former Sunday Times Editor Andrew Neil, that figure stands at 1.55 million and it is considered more influential in Washington DC than American publications such as Time and Business Week. Karl Marx, in his development of social theory, also gave The Economist a shout out when he observed, “The London Economist, the European organ of the aristocracy of finance, described most strikingly the attitude of this class.”

After a number of jobs John Micklethwait, 44, took over from Bill Emmott as the 16th Editor of this journalistic institution in 2006.

Having appeared on radio and television around the world, and co-authored with Adrian Wooldridge — also an Economist journalist — six books, as well as being named Editors’ Editor by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2010, Micklethwait is certainly no lightweight in the world of journalism. Having read history at Magdalen College, Oxford (which seems to have produced more than its fair share of Economist journalists over the years, including his predecessor) he worked first in the City, as a banker at Chase Manhattan bank from 1985-87, before joining The Economist as a finance correspondent in 1987. “I was not a terribly successful

Goodwin

John Micklethwait talks print, the internet, and the future with Emma Cookson

mocratisation of journalism? “In terms of advertising, in some ways it’s easier online because you can see exactly who’s clicked on a page. In terms of the readership, we do have a paywall, which allows us to prevent users from accessing the webpage content without a paid subscription. I’m against having a one hundred percent paywall. Our paywall at the moment is you have a certain number of stories you can get a week, and then it asks you to register and subscribe if you want more. Letting people sample is useful, but also, to be frank, drives up your traffic. Sometimes you can have strange stories, for example why hippopotamuses are better than crocodiles, and Yahoo News in America pick

“

When a news event happens, you feel as though you have to react to it on the web up on it or have read it, and suddenly there’s a surge in traffic from another site. And after that surge, some people there might be longer-term readers of The Economist and we draw them in, but also we get other people who may not want to be dedicated ‘Economist readers’ but they still read it and their eyeballs are worth at least something as they stare at it.”

It probably helped that over the years the paper has had a dizzying array of very good technology and science writers. Indeed, one of them, Nick Valery, was responsible for registering the paper’s domain name (economist. com) back in the mid-1980s. Others, including Micklethwait himself, took longer to become comfortable with the internet, but have now

wholeheartedly embraced it. “I think on the whole if you’re a journalist you have to think that more information is good. I was very paranoid about the internet when it first arrived, but it actually didn’t hurt the basic core Economist product at all: people still wanted a weekly filter to sort everything, and also it’s a fundamentally different experience. When you do something on the internet you’re leaning forward; you’re trying to do things at the same time. You’re ‘snacking’. By contrast, if you’re reading The Economist, you’re probably sitting on a sofa, you’re reading it at the weekend, you’re taking longer over it. People take two to three hours browsing through and, that’s a very different affair to the internet.”

Aside from the experience, another notable difference between the online content and the print content is the lack of bylines in the latter.

Though it has many individual columns, the magazine ensures a uniform voice through the anonymity of the writers — as well as its heavy editing. The Economist sticks to the belief that what is written is more important than who writes it. As previous Editor Crowther put it, anonymity keeps the Editor “not the master but the servant of something far greater than himself. You can call that ancestor-worship if you wish, but it gives to the paper an astonishing momentum of thought and principle.” For Micklethwait, it’s a question of the brand being stronger than the individual. “The message that The Economist stands for goes on from Editor to Editor. I think a cult of personality would be dangerous — and that extends to writers throughout the paper.”

The anonymity, however, does not seem to be a deterrent for the hordes of people clammering to write for this globally renowned newspaper. Micklethwait’s main advice for those wishing to get in line? “Just write. I know it sounds stupid, but we get a lot of clever people wanting to work for us but can they write?” And with that, I get back to those essays

COMMENT

We desperately need an open dialogue about acne Evie Ioannidi Contributor

F

or the past 12 years I’ve avoided talking about one of the most obvious things about me. Something that is literally — well, almost — written on my face. My name is Evie, and I have acne.

I decided to break the silence after I read multiple articles on how acne frequently leads to depression, and that this is “often independent of severity”. Despite living with acne, I’d never considered that my low mood over a breakout was something natural, I’d just thought it was how I dealt with it. In fact, acne has a significant, negative psychosocial effect, and we don’t

“

Acne isn’t trivial, and you’re not weak or weird for letting it get to you talk about it because pointing out our flaws is the very last thing we want to do.

Very few people realise what acne means. In all the media I’ve ever been subjected to, there has never been a protagonist with acne. If there is a character with acne at all, it’s an unsympathetic one, who is either submissive, mean, or both. There are no films about an acne-ridden girl who finds that she doesn’t need to be selfconscious but just has to ‘let herself shine’.

All other ‘negative’ images are given support;

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whether you’re overweight, short, tall, nerdy, or even all-out Ugly Betty, there is a role model for you readily available. Because of this, people without acne often throw around the word “spotty” as a synonym for “young”, in a way no other negative attribute ever is.

There is no reason ever to be “proud to have acne” — but that doesn’t mean that a disease which affects 70-87% of teenagers and frequently continues into adulthood shouldn’t be talked about, especially amongst a student population that fits neatly into the affected age group. It’s not glamorous — we don’t get to be ‘curvy’, or cute, or intelligent, or strong. Acne’s not ‘endearing’.

This isn’t a polemic, however. I’m mostly just trying to let you know that acne isn’t trivial — and you’re not weak or weird for letting it get to you. It might sound stupid, but in the same way, as a four year old, I wanted to be blonde and blueeyed because Cinderella wasn’t Mediterranean, I spent my teenage years believing that anything that’s wrong with you can be overcome — unless you have acne. If a group of girls decided to adopt me into their social group and give me a make-over, it would never be perfect — because I had acne. If I found out I was the heiress to a small country and needed an image revamp, it wouldn’t work — because I had acne. The sudden, unexpected romance with the most popular guy in school would never happen — because no matter how

great my body, or my hair, or my style was, I still had acne.

My experience was that I woke up an hour earlier than I needed to, in order to make sure I had time to deal with my face.

I wouldn’t go out with friends when they invited me, unless I knew well in advance. I’d convince my mum I was sick so I didn’t have to go to school on bad days. These are all reflected in experiences others have told me as well. In my case, I even developed the beginnings of an eating disorder simply because, if I couldn’t have the perfect face, I’d be damned if I didn’t have the perfect

b o d y.

Thankfully, I managed to escape that downward spiral early on. I’m sure there are many who didn’t.

This happens every day in the lives of people all around us, yet it is never talked about.

Yes James Elliott

Deputy Comment Editor

T

he current model of higher education funding has demonstrably failed. Privatisation, fees, cuts and debt over the last four years have all resulted in a 17% drop in the number of undergraduates, the closure of arts and humanities courses, and a collapse in the number of mature and part-time students attending university.

What’s more, this isn’t a financially sustainable system. An estimate of the portion of student loans that will never be repaid has risen to 45%; this statistic explains £2.5bn black hole in the universities budget. Clearly, the system has to change, but on who’s terms? Will it be those of students, workers, academics and society? Or will it be those of private finance?

There are two distinct visions of higher education that we must choose between. The first is the vision of the Coalition, and their wealthy backers such as Pearson, a private education company, who are seeking to roll back the public provision of education.

They envision an American-style education system. In the USA a higher proportion of university funds are spent on marketing than on teaching, and working-class, black and disabled students in particular are locked out of higher education.

We sufferers live fairly normal lives, often being told we “don’t have acne” — if it’s light — or that “it doesn’t matter” by significant others, but the dysmorphia and the insider knowledge persists. This is because the problem is ignored to such an extent that it’s not allowed to be a problem. We are constantly outraged by Photoshopped models, who go from skinny to skin-and-bones, but the fact that Miley Cyrus was bullied for her skin during her ‘flawless’ Hannah Montana years is rarely mentioned.

Chris Pike, OUSU VP for Welfare and Equal Opportunities has said, “It’s important to remember never to feel ashamed about seeking help if acne, or anything else, is making you feel depressed, isolated or uncomfortable. You absolutely have the right to support; whether that’s in terms of counselling (contact the Counselling Service); advice (from OUSU’s Student Advice Service); medical support (from your college GP); or just someone to talk to (such as Nightline, your peer supporters, Oxfordshire Mind, or anyone else).

There is no ‘wrong reason’ to seek support.”

What I hope to have achieved from this article is to give to others what I gained from the pieces I read — a feeling that this daily annoyance isn’t just mine. That I’m not overreacting. That I’m not — forgive the trite turn of phrase — alone. It scarily confirmed that people are actually staring at my face and judging me but it also reminded me that at the end of the day, it’s not “acne-depression”.

Acne is a factor, which, like anything else, can lead to depression.

Instead of letting it reach that stage, we should just change the first element

Should OUSU support the The battle of the Jameses: Elliott vs

The current system is bad enough to resemble that. Tuition fees are ‘a bonanza for the 1%’, as a Professor of Geography here in Oxford, Danny Dorling, referred to them. The fees system allows the wealthy to pay their £27,000 up front, while working-class students pay far more because of interest on their debt.

The second vision is that of the

“

Education is a human right, not a commodity to be sold NUS: Education that is free, well-funded, universally accessible and with high living grants and loans to end student poverty. This is to be paid for by getting the government to clamp down on tax avoidance, rather than taxing the poorest in society, which is in fact what fees themselves are.

Money for quality teaching, welfare provision, enough cash to live off and expensive access schemes to help the poorest.

Everything that students need at university, which they are currently being deprived of, can be paid for by closing in on the £120bn that is avoided in tax each year.

My chief opponents in this debate

seem to be the ex-OUCA President, Jack Matthews, and the Vice-President of OUSU, James Blythe. James made the objection in OUSU Council last week that, “free education will never happen”, forgetting that Germany abolished fees just a month ago, and even cash-strapped Greece provides higher education for free.

Just what are the objections to taking money that is avoided in tax and then ploughing it back into education? I can’t see any, unless you’re a tax avoider ripping off the public.

The essential question remains: What is education for? Or in this case, what are universities for? Education, for me, is a tool of human emancipation. It’s a social good, and a human right. It’s not a commodity to be sold, or a service to be run for profit. If our education system continues down its current path, then profit wins, but students, workers and communities lose.

We need to embrace that holistic view for what education should be like, then mobilise and campaign to win that system. Students, when they fight collectively, have won huge gains in Germany, Chile, Quebec and elsewhere in the last few years.

It’s time this country’s students followed this example. Let’s drop the toxic notion that education and politics are things that happen to us, and let’s retake the agency in this situation and set out to win the free, public education system that we know is best for all

Comment | 9

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Cherwell

Letters to the editors

editor@cherwell.org 7, St Aldates OX1 3BS @Cherwell_Online

Since 1920

Piercing the bubble

Statistics released this week by the University Counselling Service under Freedom of Information requests show that the number of students contacting the Service over mental health issues in the last ten years has near doubled, with the majority of that increase related to depression. As someone who has watched a variety of high-functioning friends struggle with personal problems over the last two years, this editor can’t help but agree with Student Minds activist Merri Leston that Oxford still has a problem.

Speaking to the University Press Office about student welfare on previous occasions, they consistently seem keen to give you the rosy side of the story — as one might expect. Thus we, both students and journalists, are repeatedly informed about the various welfare options and mental health provisions from deans to doctors, counsellors to chaplains, peer supporters to college nurses. It only takes a few bad word of mouth stories for a certain cynicism to creep in, and although this paper prides itself on basing its content on hard facts and evidence over hearsay, it is hard not to feel a certain mistrust of a system one might feel has failed close friends.

We should congratulate the Service on seeing nearly 50% of students in under five days and we should be pleased that people feel more confident coming forward with issues than they have done before, but we should also remember not to completely swallow what the system tells us and to fight for more cohesive provision in future

This week’s front page discusses an important Oxford issue, but one which pales in respect to global events: The threat to democracy as the ramifications from last term’s corrupted OUSU referendum are felt.

Meanwhile, as we prepare to go to print in our dingy little office, news of Wednesday’s Canada shooting reached the ears of this editor.

In the gunman who posed a very real threat to the Canadian parliament and who murdered a soldier on Wednesday however, we can see a far starker, and far more symbolic threat to democracy.

What is important to highlight is that the Oxford bubble so often sees us become harmfully inwardlooking. As this editor writes, the stress and strain of essays and of putting this newspaper together have blurred out much of the outside world, and this seems dangerous. This is why the distant events in Ottawa struck a chord.

How to apply this lesson — if there is one to be found in these paragraphs — to day-to-day Oxford life, though, is difficult. The short, sharp terms condition us to wear blinkers; unless you’re a PPEist, there is often little use for the traumas of far-off cities in our work. The answer is perhaps to remember to take a step back and to remember that our essays and presentations are important, but not as important as understanding the outside world. It’s worth remembering that we’re only students for three or four years; we’re humans living in a difficult and dynamic world for an awful lot longer

Followers4U Hey there, if I follow you on Twitter would you be able to follow me back? I’m trying to be a big shot journalist and having Cherwell follow me would really help boost my ego #VoxSpiro #TeamFollowZacBack

Only in dreams What’s this I hear about the History Society potentially being on the front page of the Cherwell?

Tom McPherson Concerned Party Illicit Hi, I assume your summer was good. You haven’t heard from Stitches this week, have you? Would contact him myself but the arm tattoos scare me somewhat and last time we spoke I made a sudden movement and I don’t want to repeat the experiece Love M x In the Country

I

n common rooms all over Oxford this week, students will be voting on how to mandate their representatives at OUSU Council on the issue of making OUSU education funding policy ‘free education’. Free education seems like a noble and important principle. I wish I could support it — but I can’t.

It’s my job, as your Vice-President (Access & Academic Affairs), alongside the other officers of OUSU, to represent the students of Oxford to the University, and in particular to lobby for a continuation of the generous and sector-leading package of bursaries that are targeted at the students in most need of support.

Those bursaries are having a real and crucial impact. They target support at the students who really need it, and they are thought about carefully on an annual basis, looking at the actual evidence of what works.

The bursary package is key in making sure that access to Oxford is not hindered by £9k fees.

Not only do I believe that it is vital that I am taken seriously in negotiations about something as important as bursaries, but also that if I am not, that will have direct and immediate impact on my ability to fight for improvements to that package. Tying OUSU to fighting for free higher edu-

Gabriella Somerville bar staff Not a fan I would rather not comment to be honest. Not a fan of journalism really.

Aaron Pooni A Son Thank You To all concerned, I would like to extend my gratitude to Cherwell for their intervention in explaining to the OxStu how my name is spelt.

Now that I am no longer ‘Nick Much’ on the OxStu website, I am finally able to move on with my life. I would like to thank all of those who have helped support me through this difficult time.

Nick Much Squaddie, The Oxford Student

No

Blythe on the cost of university fees James Blythe

I was just wondering if maybe please you could reconsider your comments that Somerville bar staff aren’t friendly, please?

Zachary Spiro Oriel

e idea of free education?

OUSU VP

A piece of ‘friendly’ advice

Tweet of the Week

Head space

cation, is a policy that is, in my view, utterly unfeasible in the financial situation in which the UK currently finds itself and for the foreseeable future would leave student representatives unable to fight for real spending and tangible changes that could make an actual difference to students.

“

The way forward for the students is to embrace realistic goals I am all for taking important principled stances and I will join James Elliott on any picket line he can find for us in anger at the chronic underinvestment in higher education by the UK government. It is appalling and staggering that we spend below the OECD average on higher education.

In fact, I believe that is a picket line at which the Vice-Chancellor, who recently condemned the low spending on higher education by the UK government in his beginning of year Oration, could join James and me.

I’m not in favour of taking positions just because the Vice-Chancellor agrees — far from it. When he called for £16k undergraduate fees, I worked, as the then Brasenose JCR

President, with OUSU and other JCR Presidents and we wrote a letter condemning it as well as bringing motions in JCRs and OUSU Council.

My record is clear — when necessary, I will stand up to the University and challenge them.

I do, though, believe that we have to pick our battles and pick winnable ones. It’s also a fact that if we can work with the University and bring them with us, we will achieve change for students much more easily.

The way forward for the student movement is to embrace realistic goals in order to be taken seriously at the policy-making table both nationally and here in Oxford. I would be proud of a student union and a movement that fought for an increase in public spending, a commitment to no further increase in tuition fees, and real improvements in the visa policy for international students — again something the Vice-Chancellor has called for.

All of these things are achievable — if we focus on free education, a battle the student movement, if we’re honest, lost 16 years ago, we will, in my view, look fiscally reckless and unaware of the political reality.

More importantly, we’ll compromise our ability to achieve genuine change for students. When voting in common rooms this weekend and when the issue is brought to OUSU Council, take a stand for pragmatism and for principle: vote down the objective of free education

Have your say If you would like to respond to any of the features in this week's edition, contact the Comment section at comment@ cherwell.org

10 | Comment

Cherwell | 24.10.14

Eleanor Newis speaks to Israeli OXSTEW conscripts about life in the IDF THE

Government to force Oxford tutors to take public oath

N

icky Morgan, the Conservative Secretary of State for Education, has put forward plans to make Oxford University tutors take a public oath committing themselves to the values of their profession.

It is believed that the oath would stand as a symbolic affirmation of the moral calling felt

by Oxford tutors, and also of the fact that to be one is such a noble profession.

It would not be dissimilar to the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors, she claimed, or the oath taken by Snape to protect Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

University Vice-Chancellor, Andrew Hamilton, welcomed the plans, stating that it would do wonders to cement the already strong values held by professors throughout the institution, such as putting their own academia first and ensuring that all students are treated with the same levels of disdain and belittlement, regardless of subject, race, or gender.

Hamilton was reported as saying, “Finally we can hope for consistency across the board, so it no longer matters whether you go to a traditionally well-respected establishment such as Christ Church, or a college in a deprived area, such as to the north of St Giles.

All students who are part of Oxford University can expect their tutors to occasionally write legible feedback on their essays and return their collections results before they graduate.”

“For too long have students been passing through Oxford University with their egos left intact by tutors who appear uninspired by their task of moulding the next generation,” said Morgan.

“This has inculcated in many students leaving the University and entering senior positions of power the belief that they know what they are doing and are the right person for the job. This is obviously concerning not only for these students, but for society and the future of Britain as a whole.”

Some students expressed their excitement at such an idea. Alexander Dewhirst of Mansfield said, “This would be brilliant. Last term

“

All students can expect occasionally legible feedback, and for their collections to be returned before they graduate I got my collection results back within three weeks, whilst my friend at Magdalen is still waiting on results from last Hilary. It just makes me wonder whether my tutors are really taking their job seriously. Hopefully such an oath would remind them that their first priority is to their academia.”

There have, however, been concerns voiced from tutors that such an oath would demean their positions as educators of some of the most bright and talented students in the country. Professor Luis Green of Pembroke called the whole thing a “deeply patronising and outdated notion”.

He told the Cherwell, “We get £9,000 a year from each of these students. As if I would be silly enough to allow such a pathetic sum to distract me from what I am qualified for — to destroy the hopes and dreams of dozens of young people every year.”

Troy Gambino

Eleanor Newis Contributor

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hen in Israel, it’s difficult not to notice the overwhelming presence of the Israeli Defence Force. They are everywhere: sleeping next to their guns on trains and buses, manning checkpoints, lying on the beach, wandering around tourist attractions. The IDF doesn’t disclose the exact size of its army, but as of 2004 the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London has estimated that there are about 125,000 ground soldiers.

The IDF is considered one of the best equipped and best trained armies in the world right now: these 125,000 form part of a force that has sparked international debate around the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the very existence of the country they protect. But this isn’t

“

Since May 1948, the IDF has been a conscript army what I wanted to talk about with the IDF soldiers I interviewed during my time in Israel.

Rather, I wanted to discuss what everyday life was like for first these soldiers. Perhaps the fi rst interesting thing to note is that out of 125,000 soldiers, the IISS estimates that only 40,000 are career soldiers and the remaining 85,000 are conscripts. The further 600,000 reserve soldiers are thought to be largely conscripted. Since being created by Israeli Defence Minister David Ben-Gurion in an order given on May 1948, the IDF has been a conDiffering script army. Diff ering to most military organisations internationally, the IDF conscripts pretty much everyone. It is the only army in the world that expects mandatory service from

women, and regularly places them in direct combat situations. Unless they are not eligible — very unlikely considering the range of stations and roles — men and women are drafted at the age of 18. Men are conscripted to serve for 2 years, and women for 21 months. When this is completed, each soldier is assigned to a reserve unit should they be needed in the future; reservists who have served in combat are not discharged until they are 45.

These are not just facts and figures: these are real, living, breathing people. Interviewing IDF soldiers, I did not talk to a single one for whom the army was their career path. There were soldiers who wanted to go into finance, study economics, set up charities, run businesses, but none who showed any ambition to to fight for a living.

Whilst talking to a discharged soldier one night, I walked with him through the city of Old Jaffa, an area of Tel Aviv, which is the second biggest city in Israel after Jerusalem. It is beautiful: historical, but still living and vibrant. Conducting my interview, I noticed something strange. Just across from us, there was a crowd of soldiers. They didn’t appear to be doing anything. As we watched, they peeled off in ones and twos from their group and came back with ice creams and fizzy drinks.

Gradually, they were joined by more and more, until there was a whole little unit standing under the coloured lights of the Yafo, eating sweets and drinking pop. Looking at the soldier beside me, I saw he was laughing. He pointed to the group’s uniform and said, “They’re sailors... without a boat!” I stared at him.

So what were they doing here? There is no naval base anywhere near the Yafo.

It is the one place in Israel where there are barely any soldiers.

My interviewee was still giggling. Observing the sailors, I couldn’t help but feel like they didn’t have

any more of an idea of what they were doing in the Yafo than I did. The soldier beside me explained. “They’re on a field trip; the army does field trips.” What? Like the Boy Scouts?

“They’re having a tour — want to join?” He was laughing at my incredulous expression. I mean, they’re an army. And they were in uniform, having an evening tour of the Yafo with ice-cream. This shows that most of the IDF’s soldiers are kids. They eat ice cream, they go on field trips. They just so happen to be carrying M4s at the same time.

The soldier I was interviewing that night was actually from New York. He was one of many lone soldiers who do time in the IDF,

“

They eat ice cream, they go on field trips.

They just so happen to be carrying M4s at the same time

and then return to their home country. Drafted at 18 and just discharged, he is 20. Asked whether he believed in Zionism, he replied, “Well yes, I have to.” Israeli soldiers had the same attitude. Zionism is more assumed than it is believed.

The soldiers’ stories of combat training include living in the desert for months without running water, being made to drink two litres of it before exercise so they vomit, and going on raids to arrest Palestinians.

The reality is that if you give an 18 year old kid an M4 and teach them how to aim, and if you take them away from their family and out of education for two years, they are going to have to believe in what they are doing it for.

They have no choice — how do they otherwise reconcile the idea they may have to shoot that M4 at a human being? So, what this produces is a generation of people who have fought for the Israeli state, a country itself founded on Zionist belief. It also leads to a heavily militarised country, where soldiers are just a part of everyday life as they constantly go from post to post. As one Israeli infantryman put it, “Everyone here is a soldier.” In a country surrounded conflict by confl ict zones, there is a logical argument for conscription. But with the Israel/Palestine conflict’s confl ict’s only hope of resolution being diplomacy, it cannot help to encourage this kind of fundamental belief in the Jewish state.

Israel has become a country where war is fighting normal, where fi ghting is a rite of passage, and I wish I had a solution. A start, though, would be expanding the use of the professional side of the IDF: if you want to find fi nd terrorists, send trained soldiers specifically to specifi cally target them, lessening civilian casualties. Don’t man an airstrike post with 18 year olds who have just left home. Teach Israeli soldiers Arabic so they can talk to the Palestinians they deal with; emphasise the operation as a defence of national security rather than as a furthering of Zionism.

It is hard to deny that Israel will be militarised for a long time to come, but, when you see the IDF in the news, remember that most of them are kids.

They are kids who practice army-crawling on the beach, who eat ice cream on duty, and who believe in the cause of the IDF because they feel that they have to

PUZZLES

DEFINE: ‘plash’

TRIVIUM

It’s thought that the terms ‘hip’ and ‘square’, respectively meaning ‘cool’ and ‘uncool’ derive from two different styles of saxophone playing, i.e. by one’s hip or ‘square on’. One could claim that John Coltrane personifies the idea that it can be hip to be square!

CONNECTIONS

Which of these is the correct definition of this word?

What links:

1. Ornate or elaborate 2. To interweave branches to form a hedge 3. A winter barbecue

1. Winston Churchill 2. Dorothy Hodgkin 3. Barack Obama

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD Across 1. Cars drive over this ripped car mat (6) 5. Homer takes a vow of silence inside (6) 8. Mangy rat ear leads to slips (6) 9. Already seen French review (4,2) 11. Herb, without taking drug, sees a writer giving passcode (6) 14. Closest and least outgoing (6) 15. “Cover haystack!” he said. “It’ll get watery!” (6) 16. “Rig nearly a dozen, pet!” (6) Down 2. For a proverb, write to Latin era (5) 3. Blokes in Capetown, say, are boffins (5) 4. To break free and arrive at considerable difficulty (4,7) 6. Sun god carrying supernatural instrument in African realm (6) 7. Napoleon’s place of exile: soldiers came up to fertile land (6) 9. A bit like Daniel’s breakfast (6) 10. Stuck in a sticky situation? (6) 12. Keep low in a hideaway (5) 13. Timer destroyed by hat (5) Email Aneesh Naik at puzzles@cherwell.org for clues or solutions

SUDOKU Difficulty: Hard

LIFESTYLE It’s rare here at Cringe Clubber for us to get a picture with this much potential. There’s so much going on that it’s difficult to know where to start. Whatever anyone was expecting from The Plush Lounge’s foam party, it surely can’t have been this. Wait no, what are we saying?

We don’t quite know how to describe the expression on the face of the soon-to-be-nude gentleman on the floor, but his nearby friend, also less than fullly clothed, is completely transfixed with joy.

John Evelyn

John Evelyn Got gossip? Email gossipevelyn@gmail.com with the juicy details!

Creaming Spires

Blind Date

G

reetings readers. Unfortunately there will be a slight change to my entry this week. While I would love to talk about Howe the Right in Oxford’s politics have been dominating the scene, I must instead refer to an embarrassing situation that emerged as a result of last week’s column.

The first issue that I would like to address must be a minor inaccuracy accidentally included in last week’s offering. It has been brought to my attention that I was erroneously under the impression that a dealer of a somewhat more questionable sort had received a physical rather than monetary reward, and that this payment had been near the housing of horses. It has instead transpired that the location of this sordid trade was in fact behind an office-supply store: a homophone of where I mistakenly thought the deed took place.

Moving on from that unfortunate reminder of my own fallibility, I would like to return to the various activities of the actor in that tale, for it would appear that he has had a rather busy week. One thing that sticks in the memory is his encounter with not only two or three other high profile members of the Oxford community, but a grand total of five. I have heard rumours of the Teriba-l events that went Downs that evening, but even I do not have the Tam or the Steele to convey the full tale of what took place.

However, one member of that sextet would not be Cai-ntained, and found a way to pull off a ménage-a-trois with another Will-ing participant only the next night.

Similarly, it would appear that the lawyer from Univ has found himself a father figure of the more sugary kind. Speaking to me (in the most absolute of confidence) on the matter, he explained that the difference in ages between himself and his beau weren’t the important matter, but the financial benefits certainly didn’t hurt the deal.

At last, moving on to the Union’s most recent developments, which entail the sad exit of the Dom-inating force in the chamber, and a Merchant of minutes who shall sorely be missed. However, in his absence, the vacancy has been welcomed with open arms by the Society’s most visible Brownenoser. I note that the least elected member of the Union has finally managed to eke his way onto its Standing Committee, and it is to be hoped that he manages to find it within himself to innocuously put his habit for photography to bed. That is, of course, unless this bed happens to be in St. Hughs.

Until next time,

T

Matthew McGonagle Pembroke, 2nd Year HistPol

Chloe Ingersent Regent’s, 3rd Year History

Former Lifestyle Editor seeks historic romance with a (tall) man What did you get from your Facebook stalking?

Seems short.

Is tall (phew).

First impressions?

Did he dress to impress?

We both could’ve passed for firstclass Titanic passengers (twenty-first birthdays + torrential rain).

Aspiring Professor McGonagle seeks to wow lady with his Leeds charm What did you get from your Facebook stalking?

I was methodical with my facestalk, scouring her profile for potential icebreakers.

First impressions?

Surprisingly pleasant, given that I had rocked up twenty minutes late.

Did she dress to impress?

There are red tops, and then there are lovely red tops. This, I’m happy to say, was undoubtedly the latter.

What did you talk about?

Politics and religion (oops...)

What did you talk about?

From greatest life achievements to what constitutes psychopathic behaviour.

Were there any awkward moments?

When we both realised how drunk I was.

How many times did his leg brush against yours?

Not once, I’m very chaste.

Were there any awkward moments?

I incorrectly claimed that Chloe had under-changed me buying drinks. Then she actually did.

How many times did her leg brush against yours?

No leg brushing whatsoever.

Describe Matthew in three words Late, charming and forgiven.

Describe Chloe in three words Lively. Worldly. Engaging.

Was there a goodbye kiss?

Only a goodbye lunge.

Was there a goodbye kiss?

No kissing whatsoever.

7.5

Marks out of 10?

And will there be a date number two?

Wasn’t sober enough to guess with confidence.

A classically unassuming 7.

Marks out of 10?

And will there be a date number two?

I want to avoid the potential awkwardness of one saying ‘YES OMG DEFINITELY!!! <3’ and the other flatly declining any such idea. Soz.

Sick of Tinder? Looking to be swept off your feet?

Volunteer for a Blind Date at lifestylecherwell@gmail.org

he other day I met a Judger. I was at a house party where vodka flowed, music rocked, and hot guys kept on popping up like you-know-whats when Jennifer Lawrence walks into a room. Someone had the great idea to turn a bedroom into a nightclub, so that’s where the cool kids charged, me leading the brigade. As soon as the hipsters got removed from music controls, Rihanna’s sexy beats filled the space.

After a while of intense dancing with that night’s love of my life — can anyone dance differently when ‘S&M’ is on? — I whispered an invitation. Naturally, it was accepted (and I wouldn’t tell you if it wasn’t because megalomania). And at that point she pulled me aside and delivered the blow.

“What are you doing? Isn’t that a bit slutty?” Now, as an openly promiscuous lady I’m not surprised by this stuff when it comes from narrow-minded people I don’t care about. Normally I would give her a superior look and get on with my fun. Or I would say something involving “independence”, “feminism”, and “I will beat you with a riding crop”. In my world view, people should have as much or as little sex as they want and it’s nobody’s damn business. If you have consent and condoms, do as you please. But I liked this girl, and she was someone whose good opinion I cared about.

Instantly, I started to re-evaluate the evening. Yes, he’s hot and smart and funny and oh boy doesn’t his ass look good in those jeans. Yes, he’s smiling at me in this sexy, sexy way and I want to see him naked right now and I want him to do things to me that I can’t talk about, even in a public sex column. But what about people? I suddenly realised that if we leave together, we’d be noticed by the entire party. What about reputation? Respect? Gossip? Oh god I hate gossip. No, I want no gossip. Better stay here, sip my wine and let Her see that I am a decent member of society who’s definitely not going to be orgasming tonight.

The existential crisis lasted a full five minutes. I began to doubt my entire life and started considering a convent. What saved me was his worried look and my reverence for my own libido. Do I want him? Yes. Will I lose all respect for myself if I listen to a judgemental bitch instead of my own instincts? Hell yes.

So I left with the man and didn’t regret a thing. Her good opinion no longer matters, because she’s lost mine.

Ava Gina

Lifestyle | 13

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Social democracy through the prism of Eleanor Marx

Sara Semic speaks to historian Rachel Holmes about the revival of Marx and why feminism needs to include men too

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hen I set out to write the book about eight years ago, I think some of my friends said, “Oh god, a Marx, really?’” The latest biography by cultural historian and writer Rachel Holmes has salvaged the life of Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx and socialist-feminist activist, from oblivion, drawing her into a political climate, which is becoming progressively attuned to her early ideas.

“Quite unintentionally, I found myself writing on a very popular and topical subject,” she tells me. Holmes’ biography on Eleanor Marx has been published amidst a global groundswell of interest in Marxist ideas — particularly amongst people under the age of fifty. But why is this? “Marxism survives because it’s not a dry economic philosophy,” she tell me. “It’s an idea that’s full of all the ideas of human contradiction and culture.”

Eleanor Marx, or “Tussy” to Karl, gave life to the esoteric theories espoused by her father.

She played a crucial role in the industrial struggle in late Nineteenth Century Britain, leading dock workers on strike and organizing the activity of their embryonic unions, as well as fighting for women’s rights and manifesting “the personal is political”. Holmes tells me how Eleanor would probably think the notion that you could separate the two rather strange. “I think it’s always useful to have a slogan,” she says. “But for Eleanor Marx there was no distinction between the personal and the political. The question of equality and of social democracy was about how you lived and brought up the family.” Even for the daughter of a revolutionary, these ideas seem forward-thinking in a Britain which had no electoral democracy, where neither working-class men nor women could vote, and where women were disbarred from higher education and serious political work.

On the day that we speak, Holmes is speaking at the Ruskin College, which was founded in 1899 (a year after Marx’s death) with the aim of providing university-standard education to working-class communities and trade unions,

as well as host to the first National Women’s Liberation Conference in 1970 — both causes for which Eleanor herself fought unrelentingly. But given Eleanor Marx spent a great deal of her life campaigning for the eight-hour day, and we’re now in an age of “zero hour” contracts and modern slavery, I wonder how far she would approve of society in its current state. “There is much that she would be very heartened by,” Holmes tells me.

“She would be fascinated by your student journalism and the fact that your newspa-

per is online as she was fascinated by new technology, and she would be delighted by the greater opportunity for self-fulfillment for women. But having said that, there are many things that would be familiar to Eleanor Marx.”

On gender equality, Holmes, who co-edited

Fifty Shades of Feminism last year, says how she thinks things in Britain have slid back for women in the last forty years. She also believes that without leadership and organisation, this will continue. “It isn’t just an inevitable march forward of progress. We have fewer women in parliament than we did ten, fourteen years ago and fewer women in local governments.”

Holmes goes on to tell me how if Eleanor Marx were around today, she would rally behind Emma Watson’s call for men to take up the fight for gender equality.

“Eleanor Marx, time and time again, said that men and women must stand together.

Men are as constrained by patriarchy as women are. Yes, they get a lot more of the benefits, but patriarchy is deeply disfiguring for masculinity as well as femininity.” Holmes tells me of a history in Britain of men, both working-class men but also writers, playwrights, and politicians, who were active self-identifying feminists — a history, she feels, that was lost in WWI. “There are a few lone voices now, but somehow I don’t see that active participation in the same way.”

Although perhaps this is changing, with a new generation of feminists ridding the term of lingering toxic connotations and bringing men back into the conversation.

Although Holmes builds up this dazzling visage of a fiery young woman, who stood out from other identikit reformers in acting upon every injustice around her, her personal life

T

his summer, three friends and I said goodbye to the comforts of Wi-Fi, hot showers and The Missing Bean, and set off for Mumbai in search of an adventure.

We wanted to get off the beaten track, pop the Oxford bubble and see what India is really all about. With these typical ‘gap yah’ aspirations in mind, we decided not to book any transport, accommodation or a proper route, but to wait and see where the journey took us. Below, I have compiled some of our stupid mistakes and accidental successes; the places and activities in South India that are excluded from The Lonely Planet for a good reason, as well as some amazing hidden gems that we stumbled upon.

One of our absolute best experiences in India was renting a rice barge in Kerala. This is how Oxford punting would be in heaven; you sit with your feet up like a fat cat, eating delicious freshly-caught fish while floating past villages and coconut trees in the tropical backwaters.

Goa is also a great place for backpackers on a budget, but if you’re in search of golden beaches and crystal waters, you’ll be disappointed.

Palolem, the most famous beach, feels like swimming in murky lake water, and we found a dead chicken in the sea. That said, the views and bays were stunningly picturesque; lined with palm trees, traditional fishing boats, and beachside bars. Being the generic students we are, we couldn’t resist renting a motorbike for just £2 a day, and spent an entire day zooming around the crazy Indian roads, taking selfies, and narrowly dodging cows! When I took to the handlebars, however, I skidded round a corner. crashed into the ditch, and we had to be taken to a local hospital by some friendly Indian holiday-makers.

Transport in India is as much part of the adventure as the destination itself, and we got

was clouded by dark family secrets and a foible, that happened to be a very “rotten bloke”. However, as Holmes puts it, this “makes her more human and like us”.

Until now, Eleanor Marx has been as famous for her untimely end as for her political activism. “For me, it’s her work that stands, and the importance of her pamphlet on The Woman Question, and the impact she had on the new trade union movement. She is no more overshadowed by her personal life than the greatness of Winston Churchill is overshadowed by the fact that he was an alcoholic and had manic depression.” Perhaps it’s this idea, as Holmes lays out, that we tend to think of women as more three-dimensional, so bring all of their personal baggage into the writing of histories.

“

It isn’t just inevitable progress. We have fewer women in parliament than we did ten years ago “But you can read a whole history book on Trotsky,” Holmes tells me, “and only find out that he had a dog.”

Next year, Holmes plans to emulate Eleanor Marx’s agitation tour across America, visiting the same towns and trade union organisations that she went to, and “making a comparison between the economic and social conditions then and now.”

In honouring her as an international figure, an activist in her own right and not just the ghostwriter of her father, Holmes has given Eleanor Marx the end she deserves, and us a source of inspiration and leadership for the future

used to leaping on and off moving trains, with tickets and bags of food often being left behind in the panic. Travelling overnight from Mysore to Bangalore for 30p, on the cheapest train possible, was one of the worst but most amazing parts of our trip. I’ll never forget trying to sleep

“

You sit with your feet up like a fat cat, eating delicious freshly caught fish on a bench with my face pressed against my friend’s trainers, three snoring men dangling off the luggage rack above me, and a smell of sewage so strong I felt like I was drinking it.

Finally, you can’t travel to South India without trying the street food. At first I was worried about getting ‘Delhi-belly’, but sticking to touristy restaurants means you miss out on some of the most delicious meals in India, and despite regularly eating from dirty street stalls, we all remained healthy! Gobi manchuri (spicy deep-fried cauliflower) was one of my favourites, along with dosas (thick pancakes filled with spicy curry) and bhel puri (spicy puffed rice and chopped vegetables, served in a newspaper cone). Generally, as long as the food is freshly cooked and steaming it seems to be safe, and a glass of sweet milky tea from a chai-wallah is the perfect way to finish a meal.

India is wild, loud and beautiful, which is precisely what we were seeking when we set off.

Phoebe Hunt

14 | Lifestyle

Bexistentialism

Life is tough for this second year

W

“

Have I been even more stupid?

of the nine guys and three other girls I live with.

2.30am. “What is this buzzing and knocking, anyone know?” A comment below: “Bex”. Various other housemates profess the fear of murder — pillage — as the Bexistentialist slammed her hand down on all the rooms’ buzzers before flying through the house, visiting each of the other rooms, knocking and flinging open each door without entering.

My stomach sinks. Is this true? So many questions flood my mind, framed by one singular statement: I am a twat.

Later, with chocolate in my hair, my Sorry-For-Being-A-Twat-Cornflake-Cakes are baked. I post in the group that they should help themselves. But with desperate action, comes fear. Nine guys. Nine boxing/ footballing/DJing/sarcasm-slinging men. And I’ve baked cakes. After waking them up in the middle of the night. Have I ever been more stupid?

Later, as I brainstorm ideas for my column, one of the nine appears in my doorway. A ninth who usurps both my resting bitch face, and sarcasm. I remember him in his boxers, in the early hours, with one eye open, grunting about what the fuck was going on.

But now he’s in my doorway.

“Those cakes were fantastic. Thank you very much”. On ‘much’ he has already gone slightly pink in the face?

Did I imagine it? Is this but a dream?

Sincerity. In a house where talk of wanking, pooing and fucking never leaves the air… Sincerity.

Never drinking again? Maybe I should drink more.

Tom’s Bar g of the We ain ek 15 tins of Stella for a tenner at Tesco

Fit College

’s n e e Qu

Regent’s 63

Je su s

% Pembroke 3 7

Becky Stroud and Will Stone

Amelia Brown and Jessy Parker Humphreys

%

ith soaking wet hair, twisted straps on my dungarees, and smeared mascara, I head to my morning class. Clutching a fountain pen, and any traces of dignity that I did not lose over the last 12 hours or so, I realise that I am still drunk.

This may not be an unfamiliar image to you: head down and strides long as you try to convince passersby that your eyeballs are not still slowly crying vodka.

Sadly it is not unfamiliar to me, either.

However, though evidently I drink in excess, it is infrequent that alcohol causes me to do abnormal things.

That is, abnormal on the drunk spectrum, where stealing a stranger’s bucket hat, or closing a DJ’s laptop count as ordinary.

But sometimes alcohol likes to surprise you. To pat you on the back and remind you that yes, you really are psychotic. And that’s why I stop, as I’m walking in the street. Because as I pass the Rad Cam and check my Facebook notifications I see a comment in a group, a group consisting

Cherwell | 24.10.14

Queen’s sweet smiles or Jesus’ lustrous looks? Who’s the fittest?

You decide!

WORD ON THE QUAD

Think you’ve got what it takes? Email lifestyle@cherwell.org to enter the famously fierce competition

HUMANS OF OXFORD

During Freshers’ week: “What’s UV foam? It just sounds like a type of subterranean fish.”

“How am I expected to rock up to Wahoo in dirty stash?!”

Ali, Kebab Van Owner

I’m a cheesy chips and beans girl every time. How long have you been supplying the students of Oxford with your delicious fare?

I think for over twenty-five years. My son helps me out too.

You’ve got to have your regulars. Do you have favourite students?

Naturally, some come all the time and chat, not even when they’re out or want a kebab, they just come to talk for a bit.

Which is your best night for watching drunk people make a mess of themselves?

I think it has to be Wednesday.

Booking websites crashing

3 Seco0 n

d If push came to shove, what is your favourite Inter view item on the menu?

It would have to be the lamb kofta kebab. Very tasty.

Also we have an amazing spicy sauce for our chicken. What do you like?

om o R 1

10

“You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.”

O’Brien

Every year, event organisers will make such a big fuss about the date and time that ‘booking goes live’ that you’d think it was a matter of life and death. So why is it that said organisers act so surprised when their website crashes from a huge influx of demand? The Varsity Ski Trip is the biggest (but not the only) culprit here. Website crashes cause blind panic among us poor students, many of whom will have got up at the crack of dawn to ensure their coveted place attending whichever highly priced, highly desirable event it is (College Balls take note).

This isn’t a new problem, which makes the fact that it happens so frequently even more inexcusable.

Sort it out!

Illustration: David McShane

Inve

“It feels like mental health is starting to g

In the last decade, University spending on the counselling service has more tha

Mental illness diagnoses fo over the last d

Merri Leston of Student Minds talks about alternatives to the University welfare structure

Merri Leston Student Minds

I

don’t know which one it is that’s done it, but since coming to Oxford either studying Experimental Psychology or developing depression has really given me an appreciation for the brain.

Sure, there are days when both crises, either essay or personal, seem to align in the most sadistic manner, but I view these both as equally good teachers.

I appreciate this mentality is rare though; we still belong to a society where the nuts and bolts of the brain are fair game for discussion, but so much as mention how you’re feeling and you’ve got a screw loose.

What I will never appreciate, however, is that this narrow-minded attitude exists in Oxford. Stigma here is alive. Whether this is due to poorly defined rustication rules or the English emphasis on having a stiff upper lip, I don’t know. But the outcome is the same: too many brilliant minds are left to self-destruct.

That said, we are the lucky ones. This University, does at least has a counselling service.

We have tutors prepped in supporting those struggling with mental illness and GPs available to treat us as patients rather than tenminute benchwarmers.

However, if we continue to view mental illness as a reflection of character rather than physiology, these opportunities for self-improvement will continue to go to waste. It really is up to us to make the most of these services, but that requires having the strength to admit to weakness.

The charity Student Minds appreciates that this isn’t easy in an environment that is as filled with perfectionism as Oxford. We are

working to produce a university environment where everyone has the confidence to talk and listen to each other and the skills to support one another. Stigma cannot survive when open conversation is encouraged in this way.

This week, Student Minds and Mind Your Head Oxford together launched ‘Meeting of Minds’, a new series of mental health-focused lectures. Held at the Oxford Union, each lecture combines a celebrity or academic speaker with a round-table style of audience participation. By bringing the academic spotlight to mental health, we hope to restore the legitimacy of these issues and provide a place for

“

Too many brilliant minds are left to selfdestruct students to source information from those most qualified to give it.

Feeling supported is crucial during any treatment. Student Minds provides weekly support groups for those affected by eating disorders, a pressure-free environment to share personally. Furthermore, our ‘Positive Minds’ course gives students the resources to keep depression or low mood from overly interfering with university life.

Going through a mental illness is an incredibly isolating experience, made even worse when in an environment as lonely as Oxford can be. But Student Minds is taking steps to help in creating an Oxford we can all be proud of. In this Oxford, neither academic curiosity nor the potential of each student, nor their happiness whilst in this city, will be curbed by stigma.

Average waiting times for the University’s Counselling Service 4%

19.2% Key

45.4%

0-5 working days 6-10 working days 11-15 working days

31.4%

>16 working days Data from University Counselling Service Bulletin, published in 2013 CLARIFICATION: In this space last week, C+ labelled a pie chart showing the spending of Corpus Christi JCR. The segment labelled ‘Male and Female’ should have read ‘Male and Female Welfare’. Cherwell would like to apologise for any misunderstanding caused.

250

200

150

100

50

2004/5

2005/6

THE INFORMATION that C+ has received is difficult to interpret convincingly. On the face of it, there is an alarming increase in the rates of diagnosed mental illness. On the other hand, we see the University pouring resources into the counselling service, and an encouraging increase in the number of people getting help.

If the total mental illness diagnoses for undergraduates each year are added up, it emerges that diagnosed mental illness has doubled since in the last decade, from 88 to 208. Apart from 2009/10 and 2010/11, every year has seen an increase in diagnoses from the last.

An increase in the rates of diagnosis per se does not necessarily represent a decline in the mental health of the student population. Data received in response to a Freedom of Information request from the University Counselling Service has shown that, in the past four years, uptake in counselling has increased by 23%, with over 1600 students using the counselling service in 2012/13.

In 2010, 16% of students had to wait more than 16 working days to get an appointment (over three weeks in an eight week term). Now, this figure has fallen to only four per cent.

More striking still are the results of student feedback: 79% of students, on first coming to counselling, rated their level of emotional difficulty as ‘Severe’. After counselling this figure had dropped to 9%.

That figure of 79% should be cause for con-

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cern in itself, however. The fact that the majority of students reach a severe state before seeking qualified support demonstrates that there is still work to be done in improving the accessibility of the service and reducing the stigma attached to mental health.

The number of sessions offered to students

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Diagnosed mental illness has doubled in the last decade, from 88 to 208 has remained relatively stable. In 2012/13, 48% of students had one to three sessions and 36% had four to seven; only two per cent had more than 17.

Stigmatization appears to be a recurrent concern amongst students. In an anonymous survey of Oxford undergraduates on a number of issues related to mental health, C+ found that. on a scale of one to ten reflecting the perceived severity of mental health stigmatization, over a third of respondents gave a score of seven or higher.

estigation: Mental Health

get the recognition it deserves in Oxford”

an doubled, C+ investigates how effective these changes have been for students

“

or undergraduates decade

Depression Panic attacks Eating disorder (other) Self harm Anorexia

Vox Pop: students share their experiences of University’s mental health provision

Far too many people appear to be collapsing as a result of mental health problems developing due to workload

It feels like mental health is starting to get the recognition it deserves at Oxford

Rustication is often forced upon students by academics who have no mental health expertise

Bulimia OCD

How you are treated is dependent on how well your college understands mental health problems

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You are repeatedly told there are lots and lots of options and provisions when in fact most of them appear not to work

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There continues to be a degree of ambivalence over how adequate students feel University provision for mental health is. Scores ranged widely between one and eight out of ten, with a mean of only 4.82.

This may cause us to question how representative the feedback submitted to the University Counselling Service is, which reported that 94% of students rated the service “very good” or “good” , while 91% of students reported that the wait before their first appointment was “easy to manage / manageable”. It is worth appreciating the fact that only 37% of people who received counselling filled out a feedback form, although this was a respectable sample size of 550.

The claim that the number of students reporting severe emotional difficulty dropped drastically as a result of counselling should also be challenged. In the absence of a control group, we could not reliably rule out the possibility of spontaneous recovery, although the difference is admittedly impressive.

Undergraduates and postgraduates seem to use the counselling service equally: 56.7% are undergraduates, and 41.7% are postgraduates, roughly equivalent to the proportion of undergraduate (54.4%) and graduate students (45.6%) at the University.

The data does not take into account the varied experiences of students in dealing with their college welfare systems. Many respond-

ents to the C+ survey were critical of their colleges’ handling of mental health. One respondent said of their college’s head of welfare, “He

“

94% of students rated the service “very good” or “good” clearly didn’t have a clue what to say to me when I came to him crying at the start of second year (and he ended up saying some pretty unhelpful things in the process).”

“This is especially problematic given that he’s the head of welfare.”

Others expressed frustration that the Deans at their college had welfare responsibilities, but were not required to undergo any formal training for the role.

One respondent felt that the welfare infrastructure is under strain, saying, “Oxford boasts about its expansive mental health facilities, but they are severely overstretched and not equipped to help students who have complex psychological issues.”

Quick Facts

79% / 9% £833,100 4.82 110%

Percentage of students reporting ‘severe’ emotional difficulties before and after counselling

University Counselling Service’s budget in 2012/13

Average score out of ten for mental health provision in C+’s student survey

Increase in number of reported cases of depression amongst undergraduates since 2004

C

+ “Anorexia is a quantum leap from a lifestyle choice: It’s another world”

Writer, journalist and broadcaster Emma Woolf on her experience of anorexia at Oxford

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xford is where it all kicked off for me, unfortunately. Although anorexia is often thought of as a teenage girl’s illness, I didn’t get it until I was 19, my first year at Oxford, at St Hilda’s studying English.

It literally took hold, and in those three years I went from nine and a half stone to five and a half, losing half my body weight. It was an absolutely desperate time. The funny thing is, I remember Oxford with really happy memories.

It’s strange, isn’t it, how you can be in a terrible way, really lonely and really cold and really

“

It’s not about fashion, or vanity, or anything like that hungry and really isolated. I suppose it might have been the academic pressure, but ultimately it’s a mental condition — its not about fashion, or vanity, or anything like that.

I came to Oxford from St Paul’s Girls, so I’m used to academic pressure. Oxford was a hothouse, in the way that anybody’s university can be, and already I’d had a broken heart and was beating myself up about it. I was in a new place, I was living alone, and it all came together at once.

I’d never blame Oxford, and I love Oxford, and I’m always coming back here. But it doesn’t help when you are in a very pressurised environment. When you have to work 12 hours a day, I’m sure it doesn’t help, but I wouldn’t ever say it was Oxford.

Determination and drive feed into an eating disorder, though — that’s what you need. You need to be really driven, really controlled, really disciplined, really tough on yourself. All of those elements, aspects of your personality contribute to an eating disorder perfectly, that’s exactly what it needs. It needs one to be incredibly hard on oneself, incredibly disciplined, incredibly controlling and controlled, and a perfectionist.

But anorexia is so many things: it’s perfectionism, it’s yourself, you putting those pressures on yourself, it’s wanting to be thin, but also it’s an addiction.

It’s a very complex addiction, and everyone’s illness is individual.

There is a lot of new research about anorexia as a neurological condition, and that’s fascinating: we can finally stop blaming people for anorexia as though it’s a choice, as though an

“

I didn’t break down, yet I did — I lost half my bodyweight eating disorder is a choice. Anorexia is characterised as a lifestyle choice, but it’s not like a diet: it’s a quantum leap from that. It’s another world.

It’s massively growing among young men, too. All of those things women used to have to do, like waxing every bit of their body hair off, are now trickling down to men. The same goes for anxiety about weight: they are constantly in the gym, watching what they eat. Women have struggled with that for decades and now it’s happening to men as well. It’s another form of disordered body image and disordered eating — an extreme concern, obsession with body image and appearance.

The funny thing is that you don’t break down, you just quietly fall apart. I didn’t break down, yet I did, I lost half my body weight.

During my finals I was so ill, and yet I wouldn’t go to hospital.

That’s the funny thing about a breakdown, it happens so quietly. People could see I was clearly in a state, but I think — do you ever think it would be better to be screaming, lying on the floor, breakdown?

Most of us just cope, especially those of us at Oxford, we just cope. Because we’ve got to in this place, its how we are trained, we just carry on.

James Elliott

Deputy Comment Editor

T

here are plenty of reasons why people don’t want to speak up on mental health, and no reason they should be judged for not doing so. For me, coming to Oxford wasn’t a great time to declare to the world I had been struggling with depression and needed extra support.

But Oxford is making great strides forward among the student community, spearheaded by Mind Your Head and the work of great charities like Mind. Mental health is becoming increasingly acceptable to talk about among students, but many suffer in silence and isolation.

There’s much more we still need to do.

Tutors need to be compulsorily welfaretrained. Not giving them welfare and mental health first aid training is dangerous.

The University counselling service does a fine job, but there aren’t enough appointments or counsellors, and too many need support. They need more funding.

Mental health awareness needs to move beyond what it currently is. There is a misconception that mental health problems will just go away if we talk about them.

This is vital, and without the great friends I’ve had, I don’t know where I’d be.

But mental health funding is being eviscerated. By 2020, the NHS will require an extra £30bn just to keep services at their present level — a strangulation of funds which has seen Mental Health Trusts lose £253m. Cuts are fatal; for every great conversation we have encouraging friends to seek help, there is another person for whom help isn’t available.

Let’s fight stigma, let’s change the culture around mental health. But let’s never lose sight of the fact that austerity is a policy choice that is claiming students’ lives.

2.5%

Counselling Service in stats C+ looks at the key facts about your welfare provision at Oxford Number of first appointments made at University Counselling Service

James Elliott discusses counselling provision, stigma and cuts

Average number of sessions per student

11.9%

1 to 3 4 to 7 8 to 16 17+

48.1% 36.6%

1700

University Counselling Service budget

1600

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1400

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Lifestyle | 19

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Not much naked ambition Ching Lee finds that Jamie’s Italian isn’t as daring as you might expect

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o one has pulled off personal branding quite so well as Jamie Oliver, who has managed to make a vast sum of money without being accused of “selling out” or of not being a “proper Cockney bloke”. Grayson Perry described Jamie Oliver as “the God of Class Mobility” and looking around this restaurant, I can see why. There are people from all walks of life, looking to eat comfort food that they couldn’t make at home.

Personally, I probably wouldn’t say there was a particularly authentic “Italian” ambiance but it is very welcoming, as well as not being claustrophobic despite being situated underground. My only issues are that there is no partition wall between the pizzeria and restaurant, and they should really change the door — customers leave through a fire exit.

Those who are looking to have a romantic supper might find the tiny dining area too exposed for comfort. However, the cosy, relaxed atmosphere, with soft booth seating at the back for larger groups, makes for an enjoyable evening.

As antipasti we had olives (£2) — bright green, juicy Sicilian and purplish-brown Niçoises, which complemented each other

“

I can’t really see myself going back, it’s just too expensive brilliantly. Since there is nothing more unforgivable than a poor quality olive plate, we were off to a good start. We drank ‘tap water’ which was delivered without the usual snideness or roll of the eyes. The waitress was always near at hand, and the swift service was probably more due to the relative emptiness of the restaurant (it was a weekday) and small size of the room than wanting to shoo us out.

I opted for the ‘Oxford Hot’, the pizza with chillies (normally £10), while my friend ordered the ‘Funghi’, mushrooms with tarragon (normally £9). For an extra £1 per topping you could add more, but we had come for the £5 meal deal, and were content enough with the combinations on offer. The menu is short, but not limited and the offerings seem modern, but traditional and tasty enough to not be intimidating.

The ‘Oxford Hot’ had fresh chillies in abundance, but luckily they didn’t overpower the other ingredients; salty salami and fennel. The pizza crust was too dry for my liking, but it had just the right amount of sauce and topping to keep it moist and not too much so that it flopped and slid off when you held it with your fingers. As for the spiciness, the pizza was true to its title, with a juicy, meaty flavour simmering from the salami. My friend’s ‘Funghi’ pizza had thick mushroom paste as a base, fresh tarragon, and whole, bite-sized mushrooms.

Superb. To round off our meal, we shared an affogato (£4), which is a shot of espresso poured over a scoop of honeycomb ice cream. The cloying creaminess countered the bitterness of the coffee, and provided for a lovely post-meal cleansing of the palate.

This restaurant was the first of Jamie’s Italian restaurants in the UK, and it does very well for itself. Altogether it was a good-but-notgreat experience. The flavour combinations were interesting enough and the service was irreproachable, but without the pizza deal we got it definitely is not as cheap, and it’s not great value either. The deal runs until the 30th November, and, to be honest, I can’t really see myself going back after it’s over, it’s just too expensive.

The whole package is basically the Jamie Oliver: brand on a plate — it’s not bad, just not particularly daring. This is safe food in a safe ambiance but there is nothing that will really push a true gourmand out of their comfort zone. All in all, a nice evening out, but not one to write home about.

Recipe of the

Week

Cold Jellied Eel

L

ike Pie ‘n’ Mash, this is a Cockney classic but has unfortunately waned in popularity. The main reason is that in the past five years the eel population of the Thames has declined by 98%

2¼ lb. of silver freshwater eels, 1 large onion (peeled and chopped) 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar 1¼ pints water 2 eggs Juice of ½ lemon 3 crushed black pepper corns ¼ tsp grated nutmeg

Method: 1. Put all ingredients in a saucepan except the eggs.

2. Clean the outside of the eggshells. Then crack open the eggs, separating the white and yolks. Crush the eggshells into tiny pieces and add to the saucepan.

3. Bring the pan to a boil and allow it to boil for approximately two minutes. Then turn heat down to a simmer and leave for 15 minutes until eels are juicy and tender.

Then remove eels from pan and leave them to cool on a side plate. Continue simmering the broth until liquid is halved. During this time, cut the eels into rounds about ¾ inch thick and remove any bones.

4. Remove everything from the saucepan and strain through a sieve, separating solid and liquid. Put the liquid back in the saucepan and continue simmering for about three minutes.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until slightly frothy. Now add the whisked egg whites to the saucepan increase heat to a boil, then turn the heat down and allow the broth to simmer.

6. Strain this mixture again and allow to cool.

7. Serve in glass dishes with chili vinegar and/or a lemon wedge.

Cocktails with Cai An obscure American Colonial classic comes back in a big way this week...

After last week’s appallingly mainstream choice, this week’s cocktail is one shrouded in mystery, and its origins remain unknown.

Yet another delightful import from the days of Prohibition, the Jack Rose is said to have come from a watering-hole in the city of House of Cards itself — Washington D.C. Despite having appeared in the Hemingway novel called The Sun Also Rises,, it has fallen out of fashion and off the menus; hence why you’ll be hard pressed to find it anywhere in Oxford.

Its rarity is partly due to the scar scarcity of its main ingredient, Applejack, which is basically only found in North America and had its heyday during the Amer American Colonial Period.

Made by concentrating cider to the heady

Bar Review: St. Hilda’s

strength of around 40%, this spirit isn’t one you’ll find in your local Co-op next to its ownbrand dry white wine.

There is, in fact, only one company still trading that sells the stuff. Apple Brandy, in this case, is your best bet and I would recommend going for the more expensive stuff. You are just too old for cheap and nasty alcohol.

Regular readers of the column (shoutout to my mother and my long-suffering tutor) might recognize my predilection for sour cocktails — indeed, House Bar know to start making a Lemon and Thyme as soon as I walk in — and the Jack Rose is no exception.

You’ll struggle to find this one on even the most sophisticated of cocktail menus, but feel free to give it a go with whatever motley band of ingredients you can cobble together in Tesco, it’s well worth heading back to the ‘20s to sample this concoction.

2 measures applejack / apple brandy 1 measure lemon juice Half a measure of grenadine

33332

G

uy de Maupassant used to have lunch on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower because it was the only place in Paris where he didn’t actually have to look at the Eiffel Tower. Although Maupassant and I disagree on our opinions on the iconic tourist spot, I can most definitely relate to what he’s saying. St Hilda’s College itself looks a lot like a cross between a ‘60s cruise ship’s cabin and a set from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Even the fact that I am on the river side cannot make up for some very bad architectural planning. So I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the Hilda’s bar is, mainly since I

“

This bar easily rivals Balliol’s and it isn’t as crowded did not have to look at the rest of Hilda’s anymore, a major advantage of this subterranean bar.

The décor of the room is fairly minimal, but it retains a modern style, which makes practical sense. The space is well-designed to allow the majority of drinkers to stay in the main hall, but if you want a more intimate spot to chat, play pool or watch TV you can move into the little rooms at the back. It may feel a little like a rural community hall but that weird-guy-fromlectures-who-thinks-he’s-a-Marxist-revolutionary-despite-wearing-Ralph-Lauren is still here to remind that yes, you most definitely are in Oxford. In the main part of the bar there are a few tables and chairs, as well as leather bench seats on the sides of the bar, but most people seem to prefer standing which is actually a good idea, because, for a Tuesday night, it was fairly busy.

The bar is, I believe, one of the very few in Oxford that is student-run, and I kind of liked the well-chosen liquor selection behind the bar which was mostly still wrapped in Sainsbury’s plastic bags. The staff members were eager to please and good for chat but still professional despite being students themselves. The range of drinks is actually impressive for what is quite a small bar and the spirits they have are good quality- I didn’t feel like I was being ripped off at all. Also, as everyone always says, the prices are some of the best in Oxford and are significantly cheaper than those in some renovated “dive bar” in Cowley which your asshole friends who smoke cloves think is cool. It is, admittedly, a bit of a walk from the centre of town to Hilda’s, but if you live in Cowley I can see no real reason why you wouldn’t go for a cheap pint, a nice bar and friendly people.

If Thursday Night Bridge is your night then you probably aren’t going to come here and pay for a taxi but if you’re predrinking for the O2 then this is far better value than most of what Cowley has to offer. This bar easily rivals Balliol’s, and isn’t as crowded or claustrophobic. Just try to avoid looking at the rest of the buildings on your way out.

PHOTO

Kilimanjaro, king of a Continent

By George Myers Clockwise from top left: Mawenzi, one of Mt. Kilimanjaroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three peaks, holds tryst with the moon; a tantalising glimpse of summit glacier at Gilmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Point; and campsite at Kibo. These photos were taken on the July 2014 RAG Kilimanjaro Challenge.

FASHION Fashion Matters The Pursuit of Perfection: Jack Davies discusses the relationship between the fashion industry and body image

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he fashion industry and reading for a degree at Oxford have something in common: perfection is a fixation for both. Most of us will have felt the pressure always to improve, to strive for the perfect essay, to grasp at the elusive First. This perfection is undeniably dominant in the world of fashion; it is founded on the principles of outward appearance after all. Few models who take to the runway lack the ‘perfect’ cheekbones, the ‘perfect’ height, the ‘perfect’ size. The perfection demanded of the fashion industry in this way feeds through into modern society, projecting an image of “perfection” that young women and men cannot attain and are often damaged by. This “perfection” is far from perfect; it is poisonous.

There is an argument to be made that the reason such models are used is due to the desire to avoid distracting from the fashion, they should enhance but not outshine the artwork the designer has spent months creating. This enhancement of the clothes by the model is desirable by designers from a pure economic perspective — if their designs are not for the thin and beautiful, they might not sell as well.

In part this is driven by an internal longing to pursue perfection. As Emma Woolf suggests in her book, frequently there is an internal “Ministry of Thin” that prompts us to drive for the unobtainable figure and image, and this forms a two-way street with the fashion industry. We are more likely to purchase clothes worn by these “perfect” models as perhaps, we think, by owning these clothes we will become more like them. But this is self-perpetuating: the continuous use of such models also creates the image we want to become. The display of Cara Delevingne on Topshop walls and the super buff Chris Evans

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This perfection is far from perfect; it is poisonous advertising Gucci remind us in our everyday lives of what we ‘ought’ to look like, rather than encouraging us to be happy with who we are.

The arguments that the industry might use to defend their use of unrepresentative models diminish when we consider the impact it is having upon modern society, especially those who are still formulating a sense of their own self. The bombardment from the media of the ‘ideal’ body — the skinny yet curvaceous female; the ‘24-hour gym’ man — encourage young people to pursue often unobtainable goals in order to achieve societal goals.

It is not entirely the fault of the fashion industry, but it can certainly be part of the solution. The banning of ‘unhealthy’ models in Israel and certain Milan shows is encouraging, as is the first Evans runway show in London, which is a “plus-size” brand. It is a slow process, but the movement by the fashion industry away from such unhealthy body images towards something closer to the norm is beneficial. Only through challenging ‘perfection’ can we address the problems it creates.

Overall, it is hard for an image-centric industry not to be obsessed with pursuing an image of perfection but it should also play a role in celebrating ourselves, rather than our image.

6

7

SUITCASE magazine packs a punch

Serena Guen, editor of a new fashion mag, talks to Jack Davies about starting-up and UNICEF

F

ounder and Editor-in-Chief of SUITCASE magazine Serena Guen has been described as one of the “twenty-five under twentyfive most influential Londoners” by the Evening Standard, the “Mark Zuckerberg of publishing”, and also nominated for the 2014 ‘Women of the Future’ media award. The list of accolades don’t do Guen justice — bubbly, full of laughter and anecdotes, she is the personification of “wanderlust”.

Originally aiming to apply to Oxford, she chose instead the adventure of studying in both New York and Paris with NYU. During her time in Paris, she began to explore the city in more depth, craving more than her first year, which was an “American experience, not what I wanted it to be”. French friends “showed me a different side of the city, the best places to go but also cultural insights that I couldn’t get from anywhere else. I started to create ‘miniguides’ to send to my visiting friends, and I did the same in New York, there wasn’t anything ich represented it aconline or anywhere which curately.” ip with a fashion It was a chance friendship student, along with her own desire to ich started the create a magazine, which ways wanted my SUITCASE journey. “I always own magazine, but I didn’t have my own angle and everyone told me that I needed experience, that I needed time ily, my friend’s with a magazine. Luckily, zine project, so degree included a magazine we found an interesting way of combining my material and her editorials on gs by half, locations. I don’t do things and so after putting so much time and effort into it, we er, decided to make it bigger, ouprinting around five thousand copies for our friendss and everyone interested.””

Within eight months, the project launched.

Serena wasn’t always successful. Upon mentioning her first and only blog, she laughed at her own misadventures. “I created a blog — Culture and Cocktails — where I only posted one blog

post. But, I didn’t like it. What made my mini guides so popular was because it was other peoples experiences and it was a sharing of experiences.”

SUITCASE has come a long way from that university project. “The first few months were hectic, with a lot of time spent in my room researching the industry and speaking to everyone I met about it. Everyone has something to offer, whether it’s a cool tip about a place they’ve been or that their friend of a friend is an editor of something. It was lunch with a friend of my mother’s which got me the email of a Condé Nast Vice President, Anna Harvey.

She offered to support me as a reference, and it was the biggest help, a golden ticket. I wonder at times if she realises how impa she has had on me.” much of an impact reca Serena recalled the first edition of SUITCASE.. “We “W didn’t have a background in design particularly, and so my business partner at the time designed the whole thing on Powerpoint and over 70 pages of high resolution imwa no wonder that her ages, it was computer started to crash. Luckily, a friend who was a trained de graphic designer was flown in, quite literally, to save us.”

Desp Despite a stressful printin process, including an ing ep 72 hour all-nighter, epic sh described the whole she th thing as an “amazing experi perience”.

She also noted, “But now that we have Seb [SU SUITCASE’s Creative Director] who keeps us in check and there wasn’t a single all nighter last issue.”

In competition with the internet the print indu industry is slipping into decl decline, but Serena has capt captured both the digital fu future and the perma-

nency of print dynamically. “The way people receive media is changing, so our print editions will become more of an artistic product.

We spend months researching for each edition, trying to find the right contributors, and the result is an artistic product.

Meanwhile, all of our published content goes onto our website.

We like to cover all seasons and all countries, and the Internet allows us to be more flexible and accessible. We’re also working on the ultimate travel app. The audience for SUITCASE is rather niche, so in the app I really want to incorporate all the differences in the way people travel; whether it’s for a weekend or a month, a romantic break or a holiday with friends.”

SUITCASE isn’t Serena’s only calling. Following work with UNICEF Next Generation committees in America, she encouraged and was invited to co-chair the first Next Gen London committee. “UNICEF is an enormous charity, working in both emergency situations and on long term projects to support children the world over. Despite the backing of the UN, it still requires monetary support, and the Next Gen committees are designed to assist in that.

The aim is to raise money by engaging with and mobilising other young people. Our team members each have the target of raising money using small, frequent events, and by using events like yoga in the park and sustainable supper clubs, the campaign makes it easy to do something for charity while also adding a face and recognisable cause to the charity. And now my friends in Brazil want to set one up there, which is really incredible.”

Speaking to Serena, her accolades make complete sense. She comments that she can’t do everything, although acquiesced to the charge that she certainly is trying. From founding her own magazine to chairing a branch of UNICEF, there is no denying that Serena is a colossal force of positivity.

And her highlight of SUITCASE? “Going into the office everyday, seeing the team working, all really excited, it’s incredible. I always have to pinch myself”

How to Create a Capsule Wardrobe

If, like Serena, you find yourself travelling a lot, a capsule wardrobe is the answer. Lilli Lock explores how to create a capsule wardrobe and what it ought to contain.

A capsule wardrobe keeps everything simple, consisting of cheaper basics and additional on-trend pieces that can be added as needed. Ideally containing 10 key pieces, it needs to be flexible enough to respond to every situation: a surprise meeting, a meal with the parents, a night out with your friends, and long journeys.

Jewellery can add the finishing flourish to any ons. outfit, especially for more formal occasions. ea A piece of statement jewellery can elevate ar. blouse from causal wear to evening wear.

Crucially, you also need a piece that can be ng easily replaced if damaged or lost. Losing a treasured family heirloom on an impromptu weekend trip will likely land you in ver trouble, so settle for this gold piece from River Island (£12).

The chill of late night journeys and excessively climate co controlled bedrooms calls for extra warmth, easily fo found in the comfort of a scarf. Ideally you can pa pack two scarves, a thick woolly scarf for warm warmth and a lighter silk scarf to suit more form formal occasions. This versatile reversible scarf from New Look (£14.99) should do the trick over the coming months.

Th The rest of the wardrobe? For maximum fle flexibility you need a few well-fitting white sh shirts and a cosy jumper for a more relaxed lo look. A pair of black tailored trousers should al also be stashed away somewhere, along wi with a black textured skirt and a neutral Aline skirt. With a pair of comfortable boots for the day and a pair of block colour heels for the cocktail party you were just invited to, you are ready to go.

sential A great coat is crucial. It can provide essential protection from the elements but is also light enough not to be a burden. Leave your classic, cosy parka at home and opt for a classic trench, like this one from Zara (£79.99). The neutral beige can work with any outfit and isn’t going to weigh you down on a long journey.

Finally, do not forget a pencil dress — immortaliz mortalized in Mad Men by Christina Hendri Hendricks. Worn on formal occasions or just on the train, it adds an element of effortles effortless class that will ensure that the crowds part in front of you, regardless of any trav travel fatigue. Don’t be scared of bold block colours, such as this burgundy number from Topshop (£28.00). Pair with a belt. and a piece of statement jewelry black be evening. in the ev

Cherwell | 24.10.14

22 | Fashion

B/W

Models: James Chater and Juliet Eames Stylist & Photographer: Rebecca Borthwick Shoot Assistant: Jack Davies

Cherwell | 24.10.14

Fashion | 23

s theme... ek ’

Th

is

CULTURE

we

Death

Mortality: what will survive of us is art Clare Saxby discusses how the death of an artist has an inevitable effect on the reception of their work

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or our parents it was Lennon and Cobain, for us it is Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse or, most recently, Robin Williams.

Chances are, everyone remembers what they were doing when they found out that these major cultural icons had died. The sudden and cutting realisation that such well-loved public figures as these — capable of weaving their individual talents into the world’s cultural fabric — were ultimately just as vulnerable, unpredictable and, importantly, just as human (if not more so) than everyone else, never fails to leave its mark on our memories. And as it does so, it dislodges the sense of their being removed from day-to-day existence; the idea that somehow they were transcending life’s sordid realities through the beauty of their art.

It goes without saying that, even after the initial social media storm has calmed, an unexpected death like those that I have mentioned, particularly if it was by suicide, will have a permanent and inescapable effect on the reception of their living work.

From that moment on, everything they have sung or written or performed is tinged with tragedy — distorted by the filter of hindsight.

We suddenly see shreds of sadness in even the most upbeat and celebratory of their creations.

But to what extent does this occur to the detriment of what they leave behind? Is it unfair to cast the shadow of death over a life’s work?

In 2008, David Foster Wallace, author of modern American epic Infinite Jest, was discovered to have hanged himself at his Los Angeles home, the unfinished manuscript of his final novel, The Pale King, arranged neatly on his desk waiting to be found. Since then, readings of his magnus opus have either focussed on, or pointedly shied away from, addressing the facts of his passing.

In turn, this self-conscious response sparks questions as to the potential value of, or problem of, interpretation in the context of personal circumstances; of trying to understand the art through the artist, and vise-versa. Ultimately, it reveals a dangerous tendency on the audience’s part to conflate the two.

This is magnified when a premature death is

they may or may not deserve. It is painful to acknowledge the irony that some of these famous figures may not have been anywhere near as well known or appreciated had they lived, while

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The death of any kind of artist lifts them further out of our reach towards a neardeified status

involved. All at once, we cling with a peculiar kind of panic to the music, literature or films that have been made, aware that their life’s work is now in its entirety, never to be added to again. Just remember how Jackson’s album Number Ones spent a solid six weeks at the top of the charts in the wake of his death in 2009.

Is this reaction simply born of wanting what we can’t have or could it be down to a desire to keep alive the voice on the recordings, the face in the photographs, to resist the finality of their demise? Either way, it cannot solely be caused by a surge in media coverage and publicity.

Crucially, the tragedy of a talented life cut short feeds into the glamorised notion of the tortured artist — the myth of the depressive genius, unrecognised in their own lifetime. The long list of famous musical names, including Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, and Jimi Hendrix

who died mostly drug-related deaths at the same age, or ’The 27 Club’ as they are popularly known, implies that a crucial aspect of life as a musician is a struggle with that life, or a desire to escape it somehow, a suffering that should be anything but glamorised.

November 24th of this year will mark 40 years since Nick Drake’s death. Only 26 years old and still relatively unknown, Drake’s overdose in 1974 deprived the world of an infinite number of potentially incredible records in addition to the three we are fortunate that he did produce.

But his death also brought with it a mythology that has remained with his music to this day and helped to lift his soft-spoken poetic songs out of obscurity.

The death of any kind of artist is all the more poignant because it lifts them further out of our reach towards the near-deified status that

most would never know the level of prestige that awaited them after their deaths.

From Whitney Houston to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams, it is difficult to reconcile two inseparable images of these individuals. The first being the glorified, cultish and pedestalled idea conjured by their name alone; the second being the relatable and normal person who struggled their way up to the heights of their fame, and often paid the price of their freedom along the way. Their deaths have served as a reminder of the artificiality and toxicity of the culture of fame at the same time as contributing to and redefining that very fame and renown.

The inextricable relationship between death and art is both too saturated and too complicated a theme to be pinpointed, except in terms of their both being a form of escapism and both enhancing our appreciation of the world around us.

It could be said that artistic preoccupation with mortality is at odds with the timelessness of the art itself, unless you see the art, music and entertainment as the only way to defy death’s inevitability because it will — we at least hope — endure indefinitely, long after its makers have passed away

Top Pick

Ella Martini

Autumn Jamboree

Our Fathers

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

Saturday, 7pm The Bullingdon

Saturday, 8pm-Midnight Jericho Tavern

Saturday, 8pm The North Wall Theatre

Sunday, 2pm Phoenix Picturehouse

After getting to the UK Live and Unsigned final at just 15, Oxford urban singer Ella Martini began gigging around the UK, while working on her own material. She already has hundreds of gigs under her belt, and recently won London’s ‘Pardon My Talent’ competition. You are pardoned, Ella.

Organised by Oxford Mail, this annual Autumn showcase brings you The Dreaming Spires, The Knights of Memphis, and Oli Steadman, of Stornoway and Count Drachma fame. Between acts will be a fine selection of Country and Bluegrass music. Tickets are a great deal at £8.

In this production, from the award-winning ensemble Babakas, three performers share their own real-life stories. Mike has received an email asking him to be a surrogate father, Bert’s evangelical father believes dance school is to blame for his son’s sexuality. Meanwhile, Sofia needs to find a man before it’s too late.

Look out for Cherwell’s interview with the cast on our website.

Disorienting Expressionist visuals and a deeply weird atmosphere distinguish this seminal horror. A man named Francis relates a story about his best friend Alan and his fiancée Jane.

Alan takes him to a fair where they meet Dr Caligari, who exhibits a somnambulist, Cesare, who can predict the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare says he has until dawn.

Picks of the Week

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Culture | 25

Milestones Best of Mi Cherwell picks out a key moment in cultural Ch history.

This week, Joel Nelson highlights hi George Harrison’s post-Beatles escape Ge

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Cherwell etc.

To appear in this space, submit your work to our Tumblr blog ht tp://cher welletc.tumblr. com/

xfam, as the name suggests, had its origins in the very heart of the city of Oxford; the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief first met in the library of the University Church during the Second World War. Its original aim was to relieve famine in Greece, caused by the Allied blockade.

The first ever Oxfam shop was set up in 1949 on Broad Street, and thus was born the whole concept of a ‘charity shop’. Who knows why, but Oxfams throughout the country have great book sections. Fittingly, Oxford has no less than two Oxfam bookshops, but by far and away the best is the one on St Giles.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about walking into a bookshop and knowing that everything, or pretty much everything, you see will cost you £2.49 — it puts the measly, overpriced top floor of Blackwell’s (where some books seem to actually have increased in value by virtue of being second-hand) to shame.

So if you’re heading up to that way, be sure to drop in and have a browse; their stock is extensive, and, a quality getting rarer and rarer in the second hand book world, the atmosphere is completely unpretentious.

veryone wanks on about the end of The Beatles being the worst thing since the fall of Rome, but it heralded a far more important milestone; the start of George Harrison’s solo career. The most underrated, hyper-talented, technically proficient, and rhythmically and lyrically gifted guitarist of the Twentieth Century produced a run of albums, which, if one is willing to invest oneself, are endlessly gratifying and enlightening. The major musical milestone of 1970 was the release of All Things Must Pass.

George Harrison’s position in The Beatles was as undeserved underdog. His songs were ignored, if not denigrated, and afforded lesser importance than McCartney’s frothy shit like ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’. After the band’s break-up in 1970, Harrison burst onto the scene with an album that easily surpasses much of the output of his old group. Indeed, to compare it to The Beatles is moderately insulting. While McCartney will be a Beatle until his death, Harended such a description. His work rison transcended should be judged against the standards of Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, not granny music like ‘When ur’ and ‘Ob-La-Di, I’m Sixty Four’ Ob-La-Da’.

Pass, the All Things Must Pass bum released three-LP album in 1970 was compared ease to the upon its release moment when Greta Garbo first spoke onscreen.

Harrison’s liberation from the Beatles was both magnificent and triumphant. The songs, which had been wilfully side-lined and excluded for years, were, untchful der the watchful eye of Phil Specormed tor, transformed mething into something

truly uplifting. Thought provoking, lyrically complex, emotionally diverse and spiritually joyous, it set the tone for the rest of George Harrison’s solo career.

A narrative has emerged which seems to neatly sum up Harrison’s solo output: good first album and a subsequent decline in quality until a brief resurgence in 1987 with Cloud Nine. It’s an easy narrative for those who haven’t listened to the music in question. The man who penned most of the distinctive riffs that so characterise Beatles songs did not lose his virtuoso touch.

Searing guitar solos, soaring slide guitar work and innovative chord progressions would be enough for one to find interesting on his albums.

And yet Harrison’s lyrical touch is evident and unique. He may not have always lived up to the standard of Bob Dylan, whom he idolised, but each song is distinctly marked by a spiritual profundity and lyrical innovation. Many of the an songs are as overtly religious as anything to be wor ‘religious’, found on the charts. While the word ma summon when used in a chart context, may up images of Cliff Richard or, God help us, Tom comp Jones, these are not accurate comparisons. hector Spiritual without being hectoring, enlightenervating these are ening without being enervating, Harriso pulls it off. difficult lines to tread, but Harrison in the Beatles For those keen to find insight into reward this album is similarly rewarding.

‘Run Of The Mill’ features insight into the inner workings of Apple Corps, but there is nothing as vitriolic as Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep’ (which climaxes in the scream of “How do you sleep you cunt”).

This is music that encourages up thought, while uplifting the listener. The real milestone of sp 1970, musically speaking, was not The Beatles’ breakup but grea indidivual the birth of a great arti It is somesolo artist. thin truly difthing ferent, unique and sonically ma nif icent . mag List to it Listen

Girl Talk

Itchy Feet

The Pillowman

Call Mr Robeson

Tuesday, 10.30pm The Cellar

Tuesday Warehouse

Wednesday - Saturday Oxford Playhouse

Thursday, 8pm Old Fire Station

Girl Talk brings you Oxford’s finest feminist DJs, spinning some disco & house as well as general nostalgia tunes to raise money for a feminist conference, ‘Feminism in Theory and Action’ on November 1st. The conference itself will have panels on topics from ecofeminism to women and the legal system — to find out more visit feminismtheoryaction.co.uk or www.facebook. com/feminismtheoryaction.

If you’re not familiar with Itchy Feet, it’s a collective of DJs and events people who tour the UK putting on club nights with a difference, playing Funk, Soul, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rhyhthm & Blues, Reggae and Ska. As they say, “at Itchy Feet — it’s all about the old”, but also expect swing and ska remixes of modern hits. Don’t be deceived by the venue, this is a sweaty but classy affair. Tickets usually sell out, so grab yours now!

From Martin McDonagh, the writer who also gave us The Cripple of Inishmann comes a play that won Oliver and Tony awards on its original run. Under totalitarian rule, Katurian is being interrogated in a state police cell. A writer of twisted fairy tales, he is told that his stories have predicted a string of gruesome child-murders committed in his district. Don’t miss this truly dark comedy.

Written and performed by Tayo Aluko, this play is a roller coaster journey through Paul Robeson’s remarkable and eventful life, and highlights how his radical activism caused him to be disowned and disremembered, even by the leaders and descendants of the civil rights movement. It features a dramatic rendition of ‘Ol’ Man River’ and is not to be missed.

Cultural Hotspots

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Oxfam Bookshop

Extract from ‘Rowing from Isla to Uist’ The sun was low, balancing on the horizon, and the small crests made a pattern of black and gold on the water. In the harbour two men climbed into a small dory. One was young, maybe twenty at most, but already dark and weathered. The other was older and his cheeks a wind-swept purple.

‘But Euan, we shouldn’t be going now – it’ll be dark in half an hour, too dark to see the lines.’

‘We maun go,’ replied Euan uneasily. ‘Anyways, I dare say we’ll not be too long.’

The younger man grunted and shrugged his shoulders. Euan shifted the few lobster pots in the boat and sat down solidly and took up the oars. The rowlocks creaked a little as they turned in their sockets. The younger man untied her and they started to move slowly towards the harbour mouth.

‘The sun’s already disappearing, Euan, and the winds up. Leave it till tomorrow, surely?’

‘We’ll be back before it’s pitch. Nae fash ye’sel, Hamish, ye’ll get home soon enough’.

Hamish made no reply and Euan continued ‘We’ll head down Barra way; the wind should drop so and the Sound will be glassy calm’.

Isaac Goodwin

The Cherwell Review

We’re currently accepting contributions to The Cherwell Review, our termly creative supplement. Entries may be in a variety of formats: reviews, criticism, art, photography, and creative writing, and should be roughly suited to the theme of ‘Progress’.

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 5th week. For more information, email review@cherwell.org.

Picks of the Week

24.10.14 | Cherwell

26 | Arts & Books

Twelve classic books you need to read to perfect your Fresher Chat

Our Furious Contributors provide the definitive guide to impressing phony fresh friends at the pub

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War and Peace — Leo Tolstoy Another long one, is it really worth it? Even Sparknotes seems a stretch. Just pretend it’s exactly the same as Crime and Punishment and no one will know the difference.

hen you find yourself in the third inevitable pub trip of Michaelmas with people you barely know and ought to impress, there’s one traditional fail-safe that every Oxford student has fallen back on; wanking on about the books you’ve read (or heard about).

Here’s our bluffer’s guide to sounding well-read.

Law and Order - The Unofficial Companion — Courrier and Green If you’re dumb enough to have thought that three years studying law was a good idea then you’re probably dumb enough not to realise that we’re joking. The TV show is great for a binge watch though.

On The Road — Jack Kerouac An obligatory read for anyone who has taken a gap year and everyone who wished they did.

Full of Benzedrine and ‘tea’ this can make you sound worldly, beatnik and interesting without even needing to rip your trousers.

Margeret Thatcher: The Autobiography — Take a guess If you’re going to take us seriously on this then this book should remain your absolute secret shame. Again if you don’t realise that this book’s inclusion is a bitchy joke then you’re probably slly enough to believe that Thatcher saved our country and was the best thing to happen to Britain since Oswald. Hint: she wasn’t.

Das Kapital — Karl Marx You don’t actually need to read this; Sparknotes The Communist Manifesto and you’ve basically got all you need to convince your first fresher

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This can make you sound worldly, beatnik and interesting without even needing to rip your trousers friend that you’re going to spearhead the global revolution.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man — James Joyce If you’ve ever been disappointed by the incompetence of everyone around you, then this is your book. Superiority oozes out of its very name, and this handy little name-drop will elevate you (and your tortured poetry) above any non-humanities student. Beware of being overambitious and claiming to have read Ulysses.

The Bible Be careful not to talk actually about religion at any point, but instead discuss the various typographical and linguistic features of the various Gospels available. Be sure to conclude with “But the King James will always have a special place in my heart.” Watch out for talking about this too much for fear of toasties and interminable conversation.

Michael Owen: Off the Record — ????

With your first fake football-loving fresher friend chatting away about their first live Emile Heskey goal, this is gold. It doesn’t really matter what you say as long as it’s sincere and simple, like Michael. Just pretend you love watching people run quickly and put pigskin spheres in

nets and you’ll be fine.

Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky This is another optional one — simply pronouncing Dostoyevsky gets you all the cultural cred you’re looking for.

Atlas Shrugged — Ayn Rand Has your first fake fresher friend beaten you to Das Kapital? One up them on the controversystakes by bringing out this hate-filled bucket of spleen. Buck the left-wing trend that prevails in Oxford, stick up your posters of Reagan and Thatcher, and kiss goodbye to the idea of being friends with anyone who isn’t called Rupert (he swears blind he goes to Port and Policy ‘ironically’ but we all know).

The Very Hungry Caterpillar — Eric Carle For once our tongues aren’t in our cheeks, this is genuinely a great way to bond with people.

Simple, sincere (à la Michael Owen) but with cultural relevance, this will get you reminiscing from the pub to your beds (if that’s your goal).

Everyone’s read it, the plot isn’t hard to get to grips with and, unlike way too many books, it has pictures! We really, really like pictures.

How to Train Your Dragon — Cressida Cowell An essential for raising dragons. For those who think it’s funny to call Oxford ‘Hogwarts’ and bemoan its lack of these reptiles. If this tag applies to you please do us a favour: stop reading this page/newspaper/fuck off.

Now that we’ve engineered your social life for you, you can stop worrying about it. We’re sure you’ll have far more interesting things to do, like revising for prelims, you nerd

the Tate Modern Displays Loading the Review: Andrew McLean finds the curation of these exhibits confusing Canon Cherwell calls for new additions to the literary establishment

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olitical autobiographies must be one of the most uninteresting literary genres, principally populated by authors with sufficiently large egos to have believed themselves capable of fixing their country and, even more impressively, after failing to do so, to explain why they believe themselves to have been successful. Perhaps surprisingly however, John Major: The Autobiography succeeds where so many others failed.

At present, the author is enjoying something of a resurgence in his newly-found role as an elder statesman, regularly commenting upon issues as his words are gratefully received by a once vicious press. As Mance hopefully many will jor enjoys a renaissance be drawn towards his autobiography as it is g read. a genuinely absorbing pularly regarded as a Despite being popularly stopgap between the premierships of the rgaret Thatcher and variously hated Margaret jor’s was a uniquely Tony Blair, John Major’s eventful seven years. In that time New Labour emerged, the first Gulf War was ll out of the ERM, Bill fought, the pound fell Clinton was elected, the Northern Ireland Peace Process began and the Conservative Party ripped itrehensively self apart so comprehensively that the damage still shows. lm durMajor was at the helm anges ing this period of changes and his observations, critiques and analyses are fascinating.

Such works can so to often descend into vain justifications for failed policies and

spiteful attacks upon enemies. Major, to his credit, does not indulge in either of these.

His anger at those rebels who sought to derail the Maastricht Treaty in Parliament is palpable but not spiteful. This work does not read as the product of someone sharpening his knife but rather as a politician reviewing his career with a certain sense of wonder that things could have gone so spectacularly wrong.

In addition to his time as Prime Minister, Major was a leading light in Thatcher’s government and his book is invaluable to one looking to gain an insight into this most premierships controversial of premierships.

As Thatcher’s Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of Majo the Exchequer, Major was privy to much of her private decision making and, in parts, is openly critical of he her. He bemoans her heav dogmatism and heavily criticises her acts of sabotage upon government legishe lation after her fall from power.

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n the second floor of the Tate Modern can be found a collection of displays called Poetry and Dream. It’s a broad sweep of Twentieth Century visual art and how it interacts with Surrealism, with exhibits utilizing chance, free association, and entirely inscrutable symbolism.

Upon entering Room I, with works by Jannis Kounellis and Giorgio de Chirico, one is immediately struck by a sense of alienation. The Uncertainty of the Poet by de Chirico offers nothing more than it presents: a limbless and headless statue, a train in the distance, an empty courtyard, and in the harsh sunlight a bunch of bananas. Looking on, I couldn’t help but wonder what the psychological hological associations of bananas were, re, and whether I was supposed to be feeling them.

The Poetry and Dream display splay end, mostly sticks to this trend, making me doubt the actual al capacity for a rendering of the artist’s most obscure associations to convey any mue tual understanding to the onlooker. It seems almost up to chance whether or not it should spark any interesting response. Sure enough, artists such as Max Ernst explored the extent to which their works could be both random and affect an audience, however it remains mostly alien.

The greatest enjoyment I got was when a scene was both perplexing and technically proficient; Salvador Dali’s works were simultaneously complex and confusing, yet coherent. This coherence, however, is not found throughout the exhibition — though my desire to find it may be simply bourgeois.

Instead, I found it difficult to continually interact with rooms full of barely contained forms; it became frankly exhausting.

Hidden in all the surrealism, however, is the small but fascinating display of the works of

Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin. These are a set of impossible architectural designs, huge in scale and hovering between utopian social projects and satirical dystopian black and white monstrosities.

This is the most interesting room on the whole floor, filled with ominously sentient designs on which the Russian artists collaborated from 1980-90. They are vast in scope and ambition, although not intended for actualization; they still form a measure of criticism of life in a Soviet metropolis.

Unfortunately, the Brodsky and Utkin room is finite, so I am left to leave through the somewhat disappointing collection of Poetry and Dream.. Br Brodsky and Utkin manage to ma make their works eminent nently possible to engage with with, quite unlike the art in the res rest of the show.

Howe However, before leaving the Tate, it’s worth stopping by Henry Wesse Wessel’s photography display.

In the weird, soft light of San Francisc Francisco, Wessel has captured moments in the lives of strangers from the 1970s onwards. The effect is much like when you find yourself staring at someone on a train.

From these incomplete details of people people’s lives, an entirely hypothetical narrative is effortlessly pulled from the viewer. It’s an engrossing displa display, and a much more graspable exhibition than that which dominates the Tate Mode Modern’s second floor.

All three displays deal with incompleteness, whether in the lack of context of the surreal, photography, or impossible architecture.

The individual works of the Poetry and Dream exhibition are excellent, but when unified they make viewing the display a disjointed, uneasy performance of self-doubt. Brodsky and Utkin and Wessel, however, manage to make their subjects compelling despite the impossibility of interacting with them, and entirely worth a visit

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Film & TV | 27

The sweet sound of cinema

Ollie Johnson takes a look at what makes a brilliant soundtrack

Landmarks of cinema 3) Lost in Translation (2003)

Sofia Coppola’s second feature ure proved a turning point for two Hollywood stars: one novice and one veteran.

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f I were to ask you what the highest selling album of this year was so far, thoughts of Ed Sheeran, Coldplay or Sam Smith might enter your head. But no. The most successful album of 2014, so far, is the Frozen soundtrack, a film that was catapulted to being the highest-grossing animation and the fifth highest-grossing film of all time by its music and songs. Beyond just financial success, soundtracks have always played a vital role in the popularity and effectiveness of cinema. And so, inspired by this, we decided to look back on the best soundtracks from the annals of film’s history.

The first distinction between the great soundtracks of cinema’s history is between orchestral and non-orchestral scores. Within the purely instrumental oeuvre, canonical landmarks like the haunting harmonica melody from Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather’s swelling symphony, or the piercing violin staccato of Psycho all stand out. Not only were these fantastic musical constructions themselves, but also integral to the story-telling and atmosphere creation of their respective productions. The ethereal and poetically moving use of classical music in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was, in many ways, the apogee of demonstrating the impact that these instrumental soundtracks could have.

The 2000s saw a mini ‘Golden Age’ for orchestral movie soundtracks, begun by Gladiator’s heroic musical backing. Created by music impresario Hans Zimmer, creator of the soundtrack for any film worth mentioning over the last twenty years, the score was not only Oscar-nominated, but went on to inspire the music for Pirates of the Caribbean as well.

Zimmer also wrote the score for Inception, that boomingly menacing mélange that includes the track Time, an utterly entrancing and invigorating piece. And of course, The Lord of the Rings won two Oscars for its brilliantly composed, and now iconic, music.

On the compilation side of soundtracking, Quentin Tarantino is often credited as the contemporary master of movie music. It speaks volumes that Reservoir Dogs is as well-known for its use of ‘Little Green Bag’ as anything else, just like Pulp Fiction’s opening credits can immediately be recognised by the surf-rock mania of Dick Dale’s rendition of ‘Misirlou’. Equally, Paul Thomas Anderson’s who’s who of disco classics that scored Boogie Nights is a feel-good

trip, which culminates in the truly awesome scene of Alfred Molina’s chrome bathrobeclad coke addict singing along to ‘Jessie’s Girl’.

Obviously, when talking of disco soundtracks it’s impossible not to mention Saturday Night Fever, with its Bee Gees dominated playlist, so adored that it reinvigorated the sales for disco albums.

Many of these soundtracks were so great because they were put in the hands of prodigious musical talents. The truly frightening

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Saturday Night Fever was so adored that it reinvigorated sales for disco albums and ominous tone of the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood, which perfectly complimented the demented protagonist of Daniel Plainview, was the brainchild of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. There’s also The Lion King, with a soundtrack so well known it’s hard to imagine a cinematic world without it which was famously written by Elton John. Even last year’s The Great Gatsby, though critically divisive, was roundly praised for its cracking soundtrack, which was executive produced by Jay-Z. What makes all these few examples, or any other fantastic film score, so emotive and exemplary is that they are intimately tied to the films they accompany. Far from being mere compilations of amazing music, they become integral parts of the plot development, atmosphere creation or scene-setting of their respective productions. Just imagine The Magnificent Seven without its galloping, brassy theme, or Darth Vader without the marching band drumming and horns blaring in the background. And lucky for us, as the Frozen and The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks, which went to the top of the Billboard chart in the US, attest, modern cinema clearly hasn’t lost sight of the value of a brilliant movie soundtrack

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TMNT: It’s turtle-y awful

am old enough to have hazy recollections of watching — on VHS cassette — the old cartoon episodes of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (as it was then called), and playing an equivalently named computer game on the original NES console. Neither experience recalls particularly warm memories, but they were enjoyable enough ways of procrastinating at the time. The Turtles franchise has since then been through several film iterations. The one I remember from the early ‘90s consisted of actors in rather camp-looking costume suits, which, for all their artistic foibles, had a certain charm. This review is of 2014’s effort.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) is an attempt to reboot, à la Batman Begins, an otherwise tired franchise. As with Nolan’s effort to make serious the camp crusader, this film attempts to make darker, more serious and edgier our heroes in a half-shell. In the director’s chair is Jonathan Liebesman, of whom I must confess to never having heard of before.

IMDb tells me that his previous outing was at the helm of Wrath of the Titans, which, I am assured, was insufferably awful. Before that he churned out Battle: Los Angeles, which, I can assure you, was insufferably awful. Sadly, Turtles adds to his growing canon of undistinguished output.

The plot? April O’Neil (played by Megan Fox, with zero panache) is a hungry young journalist, tired of producing puff-pieces, hungering for her big break in churnalism. Then along comes the dream story she’s always wanted — four six-foot-tall vigilantes combating crime on the streets of the city. April has the exclusive. The only caveat she faces is that these lantes are all giant mutated turtles, that vigilantes ak English” (April’s words) and their “speak ring leader is a worryingly wise giant ing rat (Splinter). Unsurprisingtalking ly, April’s editor (Whoopi Goldberg — who knew she was still acting?) bligingly refuses to broaddisobligingly cast the discovery, and April ns a personal quest begins for proof of her claims. re long, she and Before said turtles become embroiled in st terrorist a vast pirac y conspirac (with a plot unnerv-

On cherwell.org this week...

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n the website this week, Ollie Johnson examined the routes of the Top Gear empire’s dominence, in the wake of its latest international diplomatic crisis, this time in Argentina. Given it’s the BBC’s most successful programme worldwide, it clearly has a wider remit to cause offence. But ultimately, it seems strange that if tasteless humour is what Top Gear wants to sell, why it doesn’t embrace that and stop apologising.

We also had a review of ’71, a hard-hitting

and unrelenting story of Ireland during the Troubles. Unflinching in its approach, the film proves a fascinating investigation into the nature of conflict itself.

There is also a first piece from our new online column, which will take a weekly theme to suggest films to watch. This week, it’s the four best films for any occasion. Finally, Tom Barrie is impressed with David Fincher’s characteristically gritty new release, Gone Girl.

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ost in Translation was not Sofia Co Coppola’s first film. It was, however, the one th heralded the arrival of a unique that talent in Hollywood — one who would no longer be known as Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter, but as a mature filmmaker in her own right. A quiet look at the ennui of married life and the unexpected loneliness that can be found in all big cities, Lost in Translation uses the distinctly foreign and inaccessible setting of Tokyo to coax poignant performances from an unknown 17 year old named Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, who hadn’t done much of merit since 1993’s Groundhog Day. A career comeback for him and a breakthrough performance for her, Lost in Translation is still both bittersweet and thoughtful.

32222 ingly similar to that of Batman Begins) led by a martial arts expert in a titanium suit (Shredder!). Can they save the day?

One can understand how drivel like this gets made. There is a pre-existing franchise, which guarantees access to a ready-made fan base, however threadbare. There is already a plot and well-defined set of characters, so writers have to do little more than adapt an existing mythology to a screenplay. It is easy to storyboard, and producers can exercise a high level of control over the final product (historically the preserve of a director).

Chances are that box office returns will be healthy. But as artistic output, or even light entertainment fodder, Turtles is simply dreadful. The heroes themselves are completely devoid of charm or humour. The ‘banter’ between them is cringe-worthy, distinguished by its pre-eminent quality of farce. Less than twenty minutes into the running time, the film resorts to flatulence jokes. The computer generated imagery is unusually bad, so one cannot even suspend disbelief (as if the plot premise were not challenge enough). Splinter looks particularly absurd.

Can I say anything positive? The camera is held steady. The stunts are reasonably competently handled. The plot, though lacklustre, is easy enough to follow. In mitigation to Megan Fox, she appears to have spent most time on set exchanging dialogue with imaginary throug CGI in postcreatures, later inserted through production, so she had little to ‘act’ against. I have considered whether I am simply judging Turtles by the wrong standard, stan and should instead speculate on whether Pe a child would enjoy it. Perhaps so, childr but I am not aware of children matriculating at Oxford or, generUn ally, reading Cherwell. Unless exercis in you seek an exercise nostalgia, or need to tastel entertain a tasteless coup child for a couple of hours, avoid this cost film at all costs.

Dami Damien Shanno Shannon

Cherwell recommends...

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ut on DVD this week is Tom Cruises’s latest big budget action movie, Edge of Tomorrow. However, you wouldn’t actually know it was being released, as it’s been confusingly rebranded as Live, Die, Repeat on the cover, which was the advertising slogan at the time. It’s perhaps understandable, given the film tanked at the box office, making just over half of its budget back, despite receiving better than average reviews.

The story follows an alien invasion, where

Tom Cruise’s soldier is forced to relive his death over and over, in a time loop to allow him to learn what tactics are most effective against the extraterrestrial foe. As premises go, it’s certainly more interesting than your run-of-the-mill action movie, and the relationship between Cruise and Emily Blunt is actually quite engaging. But if you’re not looking for relationship nonsense, there’s also a load of explosions, guns and soldiers running around in armoured suits.

28 | Music

Cherwell | 24.10.14

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Dope Body, Lifer

hen approaching a band who have drawn the genre label of ‘noise rock’, it is often impossible to predict what sound will come out. It is a label that can sound pejorative if the noise aspect of the sound is not considered a key aesthetic of the band.

In the case of Dope Body’s new album, Lifer, the label seems to have arisen as a result of the capricious way in which the album darts between different sounds, both between and within the songs. These juxtapositions serve to give the listener a tour of the different influences on the band, whether it be the clear emulation of the opening of Hendrix’s ‘Red House’ at the start of ‘Echo’, or the verse from ‘Rare Air’, which sits somewhere between Prince and Talking Heads.

At times, this jumping around has the effect of being overly frantic and alienating, though in the most direct, intense moments of the album, such as the drum solo in ‘Intro’, the music becomes unexpectedly alluring.

In these sections, the guitar work is at its most simplistic, and while the more Captain Beefheart-like riffs on tracks such as ‘Nu Sensation’ are still striking in their angular groove, their effect seems to be diluted by the frequent cutting between styles.

It is the noise that binds this album together.

The lo-fi production and guitar tones serve to bind it in its stylistic variance and to give it energy. Perhaps Dope Body’s self-styled label is indeed the most appropriate one.

Nile Collins

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Afternoons, Say Yes

here’s an interesting story behind LAbased five piece Afternoons. The band emerged as a side project of Irving in 2008 and received accidental success when graphic artist Shepard Fairey (the guy responsible for the Obama ‘Hope’ poster) sent their demos to a indie radio station. But just as things were getting going and their reputation growing, everything collapsed completely and they fell into the shadowy abyss occupied only by artists mercilessly dropped by their record label.

Nearly six years on, the band is back with a new album, Say Yes, worthy of admiration if only because of the perseverance that must have gone into it.

The songs are fairly homogeneous, with few drawing much attention for themselves with the exception of ‘Oh Heather’, which begins with an atmospheric and sinister prologue from lead singer Steven Scott, a refreshing change from the monotonous and dare-we-sayit strained vocals and “yeah yeah”s that feature in much of the rest.

It is an inoffensive album, which, granted, does seem to get better as it goes on and finally moves away from the exhausted, noughties Americana featuring heavily in the opening tracks. ‘Said I Might’ admittedly has a certain nostalgic charm, with ‘60s perky pop echoes of The Turtles. But it’s not quite enough to prevent this album seeming just that bit too familiar.

By the end, it feels as though the band needed time to rebuild their thwarted confidence, introducing promising but uncommitted explorations of some more intriguing alternative rock.

Clare Saxby

Keeping it in the family

Clare Saxby chats to rising stars Southern about their upcoming album

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he Kinks, the Gallaghers, Jackson 5, and now, Southern. Thom and Lucy Southern of the Belfast duo join the ranks of bands made up of siblings, suggesting that music really is in their blood. As I catch up with the pair in their dressing room at the O2 Academy, you can instantly tell it makes for a durable working relationship. They talk with enthusiasm about how they began, interrupting and overlapping one another as their ideas flow together, in the same way as their music.

“We started writing together when I was fifteen and Thom was sixteen.” Lucy tells me.

“So, from there we went through folk and in the last few years we’ve gone through a lot of blues influences and it’s got to a stage now where we know where we want to be and we know what our sound is, and it is kind of…” She pauses.

“But we’re not trying to pigeon-hole ourselves into one category of music.” Thom interjects. “There are so many British bands that are releasing albums at the minute where every song just sounds like the big ‘hit’. No one actually really cares about the album anymore.

Whereas we’ve really gone out of our way to write a whole load of songs and choose the best ones so that the whole record has a theme.”

Being brother and sister clearly gives Southern an advantage when it comes to collaborative song-writing, “We used to just sit together with an acoustic guitar and write, but now we’ve grown up we follow our own styles and then ask the other what they think.”

“We’re a bit lucky in a way as writers because if something’s shit we can just ask,” adds Lucy.

“We say to each other ‘what do you think of this song?’ and she’ll be like, ‘I think you shouldn’t say that in the second verse and I’ll be like ‘really?’ And she says ‘err, yeah don’t say that…’” says Thom, laughing. “My songs are mostly fictional, I steal a scene from a movie or a book and write a song about it, while Lucy’s

are more personal.”

I ask whether commercial appeal or pressure from their label has any bearing on their

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Once you get into the music industry...

I couldn’t go back to the real world writing process. “We do think about it, because our songs get played on Radio 1, and there is a quota to fill these days,” Lucy admits. “We don’t want to be too alternative…”

Kele’s up to his old Trick(s)

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hen I heard that Kele Okereke was intending to release his second solo album, Trick, I was excited, mainly because I knew it would be better than his last album offering. That isn’t saying much — nothing could have been worse than Bloc Party’s final album Four (2012). Unless, that is, he chose to continue his dire lyrical choices to screech “we’re not good people” over and over again in a never ending verbal tumult as he did on that album’s closing track.

Firstly, the album as a whole is not bad. For Bloc Party fans, it may be a hard pill to swallow: he has completely abandoned his rock-façade.

Trick is ten tracks of electronic dance, a continuation of the route he chose with his first solo album, 2010’s The Boxer.

In comparison to the final work of his last band, his lyrics are greatly improved, but they do lack some of the magic that drew so many to Bloc Party’s indie tones in 2005. Their subject matters remain typical of Okereke: laments of loneliness and isolation, set against electronic beats and synths.

For me they don’t have that same feeling of deep emotion, rather a critique of a feeling felt in a moment. This said, in comparison to

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Laments of lonliness and isolation, set against electronic beats and synths other electronic and dance tracks, the songs are lyrically more developed. The album successfully combines affective lyrics with a great dance beat. ‘Like We Used To’ and ‘Coasting’ and ‘Closer’ particularly emphasises this fusion and are the albums highpoints, aided to by the use of some great female vocals.

It is wrong to think of music as purely a commodity to be traded, but I imagine that when

Kele Okereke

Trick 33322

“Yeah, but then once we actually started working with Mark Rankin [whose previous credits include Adele and Bombay Bicycle Club]. He’s just so amazing at what he does; he’s able to get this really lo-fi sound that’s also really modern at the same time. He’s brought a Twenty-first Century sound to our most rootsy songs. We’re lucky because our label’s been really cool about everything” Thom smiles.

Southern seem still to be in the early stages of their success, enthusiastically powering through their first headline UK tour. The excitement of this has clearly not lost its novelty. “I think once you get into that world of the music industry, I feel like I couldn’t go back into the real world,” Lucy comments.

I’m lucky to meet Southern in this point of their success, still grounded and humble, having fun at every step of the way, taking everything with a refreshing dose of humour and originality.

Where are they now?

Cherwell delves into the later careers of one-hit-wonders so you don’t have to

the end of week charts are released, the album will do well. It combines the best parts of his two careers and his experience in both indie and electronic work, attracting two audiences.

Personally, it is refreshing to be able to listen to an album that has some decent lyrics.

However, you can still whip it out at predrinks or dance along to it in a club and not get weird looks — like you might with some of the darker Bloc Party tracks.

The only downside of the album is that the sound of each song seems to blur into one. Kele and his band seem to have taken the ‘one-sizefits-all’ approach to both lyrics and music. However, the album as a whole serves well for easy listening, background music and as club music.

Kele has risen out of the ashes of the demise of Bloc Party, and presented listeners with an album that proves his electronic style has matured and he can establish himself in his own musical niche away from the band that projected him to fame.

Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull

The weight of responsibility must hang heavily on The Sugarhill Gang. Their 1979 track ‘Rapper’s Delight’ went down in history as the first comercially sucsessful hip hop track. Catchy, upbeat and downright infectious, this is no surprise. Who hasn’t gleefully bopped along to the words “Ho-tel, Motel, Holiday Inn”, or pretended to be Wonder Mike, ‘hipping’, ‘hopping’ and ‘boogieing’ to the beat?

The group’s later career, however, seems to have been somewhat less illustrious. With a smattering of minor European hits in the 1980s, the group fizzled out by 1985. Perhaps fame took its toll and stifled the creativity of this one hit wonder? We’ll probably never know.

In 1999, the group clearly got bored sitting on their piless of royalties and reunited, not to record the next great eat hip hop track, but to create eate an album of children’s en’s songs called Jump mp on It!. Riveting.

The world isn’tt ready to stop loving The Sugarhill Gang just yet: check out the cassette-boy style newsreader parody on YouTube — it’s perfect rfect essay crisis material..

Stage | 29

24.10.14 | Cherwell

Chris Evans Evan Jesus Jes

Know Your Thesp

Shakespeare down the pub Bethan Roberts reviews Frantic Assembly’s modernised Othello

When some someone considers themselves a big enough name on the Oxford drama scene that they actually ask to appear appe in this hallowed column, we at Cherwell feel honour-bound to bring you the info. Since Cuppers honou 2012, Chris Chri has appeared in Saved and NSFW, whilst taking time out to write his own play, Role Call. His ongoing collaborative relationship with director Maddie Perham has won him several roles; but despite a reportedly impressive audition for the role of Lyra, Chris has settled for playing Fra Pavel in the upcoming production of His Dark Materials.

Our Country’s bloody marvellous Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull gives us a sneak preview of Our Country’s Good

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ven without costumes, a stage, or the entire cast, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s tale of Eighteenth Century convicts staging a play in an Australian penal colony comes to life. The rehearsal space of Wadham’s “theatre” has more vibes of a school gym than a place of performance, but for a few minutes it becomes a space owned entirely by the actors. I’m sitting in on a scene near the end of the play, when rising tensions come to a head between Officer Ralph and convict Wisehammer in their fight over Mary Brenham.

It becomes evident almost instantly how sympathetic each actor is towards their character. Dom Pollard, playing Ralph, vocalised what was already evident, “the lines are not just lines, but an overriding subtext”.

The actors have clearly not just memorised the words, but allowed them to filter into their consciousness to form a character that can live outside the pages of a play script. Each runthrough of the scene uses a different approach to the characters, and it is invigorating to see theatre’s versatility of play being used to its fullest extent. Furthermore, it is refreshing to see actors who thoroughly understand their characters as people and not just textual constructs.

Playfulness aside, a conversation with director Fay Lomas on why she chose the text reveals a deeper poignancy and cultural relevance.

Despite being written thirty years ago, for her the text reflects cultural and social issues that are present in our own society.

“For both the characters in the play and prisoners in our own prison system, art and literature are important means of expression.

If such materials are taken away, as is being questioned in our own society now, people become devoid of any creative outlet and means of expression. They become more isolated than they already are.”

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It also becomes clear how ambitious, and how successfully so, Lomas’ production is. For her, the largest challenge is the sheer amount of action in the play. Actors are not only playing characters, but characters playing other characters on a stage where “people are sets; sets are people”.

Everything becomes either a prop or an actor.

Set plans reveal how the unusually laid out blocks on the stage become a representational hierarchy of the colony’s social divisions, held together by decorative ropes, and show their unified isolation at the edge of the British

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The text reflects cultural and social issues that are present in our own society Empire. The audience themselves are laid in a huddled fashion around the corner, in a sense temporarily becoming the speechless other members of the colony, gazing at the spectacle of convicts in dirty clothing and finely attired guards.

Although I only saw a snippet of the play, I can’t wait to go back to the Keble O’Reilly to see more. From the conversations that I had, I gained a sense of deep investment and involvement in the project of both cast and crew, nurturing the text into a living, breathing colony on stage that thrives off the attention of an audience. Don’t let this creative child starve — go and see it.

On cherwell.org this week...

ergus Morgan interviews Mike Tweddle and Juan Ayala, part of the creative team behind Our Fathers, a thoughtful exploration of fatherhood that incorporates stand-up comedy, domestic drama, and dance. The show arrives at The North Wall Arts Centre on Saturday, having impressed audiences across Europe.

There is also a preview of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, a “beautifully sweet, wickedly funny and heart-breakingly cruel” story of a handsome guy who just happens to fall head-over-heels for Helen, a gorgeous plus-size girl, and has to face the confused and ignorant reactions of his friends and co-workers.

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enice and Cyprus are collapsed into the space of a grimy pub in the north of England. The men wear tracksuits and wield rounders bats, and the women have sweatpants, scraped back hair and lower back tattoos. International conflict is now gang violence, and the pub’s pool table is a focal point from start to violent end.

The modernisation of this Othello, though ingenious and extensive, is far from being its only innovative feature. As you’d expect from a Frantic Assembly production, the physical theatre and dance are stunning. They give a brutal al beauty to the fights and skirmishes, and convey an erotically charged tenderness ess upon the chemistry between the play’s central couple, Othello and Desdemona. The e emphasis on physicality also makes the intrusive trusive presence in the relationship of “honest Iago” a palpable and tangible one, that runs through rough the play as deeply as the twists and turnss of his schemes and plots.

This physicality comes at a cost st which for some will be inexcusable: the play is cut extensively, and not just cut, but intercut, with the beautifully choreographed chaos aos of the physical vignettes, and with relentlessly pounding electronic tronic music. Rather than laying the charge of bardic butchery at this production’s uction’s door, instead note that as well ll as the big, famous quotations still occuring when we’d expect them to, they have a renewed vigour and impact. The words that remain hit us harder precisely isely because the play’s text has been stripped ed back to the bare bones of its dialogue.

Likewise the show is open to accusations of having debased the love of Othello hello and Desdemona, their relationship introduced oduced not as a glamorous elopement, but rather ther as a quickie in the ladies’ loos. I see the show as having embraced wholeheartedly its concept in a way many productions would be wary of doing. It challenges its audience’s prejudices dices concerning the characters it presents and whether such individuals are fit to speak the words of Shakespeare.

Desdemona, in this production, belongs to a strata of society commonly associated ciated with sexual impropriety and promiscuousness cuousness regardless of their actual behaviour. Audience members who hold these prejudices must, st, with Othello, must come to terms with the stark ark fact of Desdemona’s fidelity, in the face of what her appearance, womanhood, and innocent friendiendliness, had led them to suspect, or to believe.

The decision to place Shakespeare’s work in this setting so firmly and with such dedicacation may be seen by some as a confrontational gesture, but it foregrounds a conflict in theatre between naturalism and elitism that needs to be examined. A desire to keep the words of Shakespeare in the mouths of the powerful

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reflects an elitist bias in our theatres, and to pretend that people who are poor in wealth are somehow also deficient in emotional intensity, whether of love or of jealousy.

The set is realistic, but deceptively so, as the walls can shift and warp, swaying woozily with Cassio’s drunkenness, and closing in on Othello and Desdemona for the play’s climactic scenes. The extensive use of the pub creates a feeling of claustrophobia that adds a tension to the tragedy that is often found lacking in other productions. Othello is always so near to discovering Iago’s plots, and yet somehow, horrifyingly, Iago always eludes him. The brief time scale of the play acquires new intensity and believability when the characters are confined to one location, in such close proximity with one another.

This Othello doesn’t replicate verbatim the text with which we are familiar; it does something far more impressive. It captures the vital and

v isceral core of Shake spea re’s play, and t ra nsfor ms it into a compelling, and compellingly modern, spectacle.

Even if you’re normally sceptical about contemporary adaptations of classics, go and see this play. It might just change your mind.

Cherwell recommends...

he Pillowman comes to the Oxford Playhouse in 3rd Week, bringing horror, suspense, and pitch-black humour.

Don Q, a re-imagining of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote is on at the The Old Fire Station until Saturday.

John Godber’s Bouncers is on at the BT Studio from Tuesday. With a cast of four, this

show gives the audience a hilarious look into the world of nightclub security.

We’ve also heard through the grapevine that tickets for the upcoming production of His Dark Materials at the Keble O’Reilly are rapidly being snapped up in anticipation of its 5th Week run. If you’re a Pullman enthusiast, book now to avoid disappointment later!

30 | Sport

Cherwell | 24.10.14

“This running malarkey was quite a lot harder than I had anticipated” Running 13 miles is no mean feat — one of the runners who took to the streets for the Oxford Half Marathon recalls her experience Sophie Taylor Contributor

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tanding a few metres back from the start line of the Oxford Half Marathon, I thought back to the optimistic moment when I had applied. This moment had come four months ago and I had most definitely changed my mind since then. I looked around me at thousands of fit-looking people — I certainly didn’t feel fit, I wasn’t prepared and I definitely wasn’t ‘in the zone’. In fact, to this day I’m not really sure what ‘the zone’ is. As the gun fired, I gritted my teeth and tried to look determined, but this attempt failed miserably

Quick Fact More than

6,000

people took part in the event and photos show a girl looking terrified and already completely exhausted as she jogs over the start line.

When I first entered the Oxford Half Marathon I had expected it to be a bit of a breeze.

I’m not a particularly good runner, but I have always liked to think that this lack of ability is a choice and that I could run well if I actually wanted to. Unfortunately, as I learnt quite early on in training, I was mistaken and, actually, this running malarkey seemed to be quite a lot harder than I had anticipated. However, instead of training hard to combat this, to break through the wall that runners always seem to talk about, I opted for denial instead. When I stumbled home after a ‘five mile’ run feeling like I was about to die, I told myself that it wasn’t because I wasn’t training hard enough,

rather it was because the route I had run was obviously far longer than Google Maps said.

Looking back now, that was a fundamental error.

So back to race day, the Oxford event attracted over 6,000 runners, some so fast that they looked like they need to be careful not to break the speed limit when running on country roads. Many runners, myself included, were running for charity, which was an excellent motivation in the tougher parts of the race.

I was running, or staggering, after about six miles, for Still the Hunger, a charity which provides incredible support for people with mental health difficulties. It was incredible to think of the amount of money being raised overall by people doing the race and I found myself feeling huge admiration for the people in front of me, behind me and all around me. Also, the route was lined from start to finish with supporters cheering on runners. This was really

important because, whilst I had earphones in and couldn’t hear anything they were saying, I was far too proud to let anyone see me walking and so was forced to keep running (although probably at a pace slower than most people’s walking speed) the whole way. Admittedly I did have a brief existential crisis when the two hour pacemaker jogged past me.

However, for the most part, it was definitely the people around me rather than my own ability that carried me through the race.

I staggered over the finish line after two hours and three minutes (nearly an hour after the first placed runner finished) feeling like I was about to collapse and hugely relieved to finally sit down. Once I let my friends know I was finished I almost immediately got a phone call from a running enthusiast friend who had promised I was going to love the run and would want to do a full marathon next. “I’m right aren’t I?” she exclaimed down the phone,

“You’ll definitely do a marathon now?” “No.” was my blunt and certain reply, “No I most certainly will not. Why on earth would anybody run a half marathon and then think that double the distance is a good idea?” This remained my opinion for the next few days as I hobbled around Oxford unable to ride a bike.

But, as the aches reduced they were replaced with a certain restlessness, a rather unsettling nagging sensation that just maybe I shouldn’t retire quite yet. I look back on the race today and whilst I remember that it was rather painful, there is a certain joy attached to it, a sense of achievement that suggests maybe the pain was worth it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I will be signing up for a marathon immediately after finishing this article (although it probably wouldn’t be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done), but in the not too distant future, watch this space…

Sport | 31

24.10.14 | Cherwell

It’s time to smash the sporting glass ceiling

Changing room chat with... ‘Lad culture’ and sexism are everywhere in sport — it’s time we made some changes Josh Ames Blackaby Contributor

I OULC Men’s Blues Team This week, we catch-up with OUMLC’s Captain Ed Smith and club Vice President James Kavanagh.

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f you have ever considered getting involved in lacrosse, now is the time. With the establishment last season of the Iroquis ‘Dev Squad’, and the prospect for new recruits of playing in the momentous hundredth varsity match in 2016, Oxford Men’s Lacrosse Club has never looked so good.

Our interviewees described their four-day preseason as “intensive”, but having spoken to the netball team last week, who spent two weeks in a gruelling preseason training programme, the Men’s Lacrosse Club is clearly usually a very relaxed place to be.

You wouldn’t have guessed it, though, from their performances early this season.

Considering a ‘normal’ lacrosse score tends to hover around the 10-point mark for each team, the Blues’ early form has been nothing short of barnstorming — they’ve seen off their opposition so far in sensational style, clocking up victories of 32-0, 30-1 and 21-3.

The Blues’ form is particularly encouraging considering the difficult season they endured last year, when they finished fourth in the league with eleven wins, fourteen losses and two draws, and crashed out of the BUCS Trophy in the quarter finals.

Nothing, however, could take the shine off OUMLC’s emphatic Varsity wins — both the Blues and the Iroquis triumphed, taking the total score to 55-39 in Oxford’s favour.

As always, there have been some personnel losses as we begin the new academic year, but both interviewees were optimistic. Only one Blue, Chris Needham, has

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As always, there have been some personnel losses moved on, whilst the traffic in the other direction has been impressive. Foremost amongst the stars joining the Oxford lacrosse squad this season include Gabe Barrie, a South Premiership player who will hopefully stick with the club throughout his four-year course, and Torhu, a former U19 Japan international. With these additions to the talent already at the club’s disposal — take, for example, Matt Beresford, scorer of nine goals in last year’s victory over the Tabs — things really are looking up for the club.

At Oxford, links between the Men’s and Women’s clubs are close. The two clubs hosted joint socials during their respective pre-seasons, whilst the ‘Lacrossmas’ Christmas social is reportedly ‘infamous’. This may or may not have something to do with the ‘cross team courtship’ alluded to by our interviewees.

It’s clear that the social aspect in general is something that’s truly central to the club. Crew dates occur like clockwork, always ending with a pilgrimage to the promised land of Park End, whilst the team hold regular ‘bulking trips’ to Mission Burrito.

If this is what being a member of the Men’s Lacrosse Club is about, then count this reporter in.

n the latest example of ‘lad culture’ and its growing prevalence in British universities, the LSE Men’s Rugby Team have been first banned in the fi rst week of term for handing leaflets out leafl ets that labelled women “trollops” and “mingers”, described other universities as “polys”, and forbade any “outright homosexual leaflet’s debauchery”. Also among the leafl et’s litany of misogynistic comments was the assertion that the women’s university teams “only play sports so they can come out with us”.

However, each statement is demonstrative of a much less discussed prejudice, namely the general disregard in mainstream society for women’s sport. Although rarely openly admitted, Western culture marginalises women’s sport at all levels. At 14, the number of girls taking part in the recommended amount of weekly sport is half the corfigure responding fi gure for boys. This trend continues throughout life, with a 2012 finding survey by Sport England fi nding that there are 1.8m fewer women than men taking part in regular athletic activity. Although most people agree that this has to change, there is far more resistance to the notion that professional sport should also achieve gender parity, a view justified fi ed on the grounds that as men are on average faster and stronger, male sports will naturally be of a higher quality — thus, more people will show an interest in them.

However, this is based upon the spurious assumption that sport’s find main aim is to fi nd the absolute

best individual (or team) at an event. The weakness of this premise is apparent if we take the example of boxing: Floyd Mayweather Jr is best paid fighter in the world and widely recognised as an all-time great, despite the fact that he would be flattened by even a mediocre heavyweight.

Clearly then, sporting fans are able to develop more complex viewing criteria than just seeing the strongest and fastest go head to head. Different categories allow stylistic variation to develop, as exemplified by men and women’s tennis. While men are frequently able to dominate with rather monotonous, unbroken serving games, women are able to hit a much higher percentage of returns, often generating a more flowing, engaging game.

Women’s sport challenges traditional gender roles, and thus there is much resistance to it. leaflet, The LSE leafl et, which described women athletes as “beast-like women”, illustrates this.

Historically, sports were an exclusively male arena in which the conventionally masculine qualities of leadership, aggression and ambition were displayed and lauded, with women thrown in for purely aesthetic value. Even now, the completely gratuitous line of women that clap F1 champions, the models that kiss stage winners in the Tour de France, and frequent shots of randomly chosen, extremely attractive women in live crowds are different all diff erent permutations of the same sexist dynamic.

Against this context, it is little surprise that women face enormous barriers when they attempt to engage in high level sport. What is particularly depressing is the fact that even when they do, how they look frequently matters more than their skill, with criticism generated when they do not conform to prescriptive standards of beauty. The description of Serena Williams as adopting a “hooker look” in 2003 was a particularly blatant case.

The picture is not entirely bleak though, as development and growth are evident. This year the RFU will issue 20 centralised contracts to women in the lead up to the rugby sevens tournament at Rio 2016, while the English Women’s Cricket team have also turned professional this summer, signing a sponsorship deal with Kia after winning back-to-back Ashes series.

What women’s sport badly needs now is more coverage. According to the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, in 2013 women’s sports received seven per cent of media coverage and just 0.4 per cent of the total value of commercial sponsorships. Broadcasters argue that there is not enough interest due to the perceived lower standard of women’s sport, but this just creates a self-perpetuating cycle; with less money going into women’s sport many athletes are part time, making it unsurprising that the standard is lower than that of financially their fi nancially bloated male peers.

Although investment and coverage may not initially be lucrative, the 1,194,221 tickets sold at the 1999 Women’s World Cup is testament to the potential of women’s sport when well marketed. flow As money begins to fl ow the quality will rise and viewing women’s sport will be normalised for the public. While it will inevitably take time, success will come when female athletes are properly understood to be just as talented as their male counterparts and are valued as masters of their discipline rather than sexual objects on the periphery of the sporting landscape

JCR Football League kicks off with some surprises

Alex Cavell takes us through the dramatic twists and turns of the first week of the JCR football season Alex Cavell Contributor

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or many, the return to Oxford in October is the beginning of a new academic year – but really, and most importantly, it’s the start of a brand new OUAFC football season and all the hopes and dreams that come with it. First Week’s fixtures gratifyingly lived up to the expectations that would have been brewing over the barren, football-deprived summer.

In the Premier Division, reigning Cuppers winners Exeter were involved in arguably the

Result

4-3

Exeter came from behind to defeat Keble match of the week, as they stunningly overturned a 3-0 half-time deficit against newly promoted Keble to win 4-3. Two goals apiece from ex-captain Rory Sullivan and George Bustin saw the Turl Street team — who have set their sights on a league and cup double this year — sneak home. That aspiration is shared by fellow heavyweights Worcester, who also got their season off to the perfect start with a 3-1 victory at home to New. Beaten Cuppers finalists St Catz only avoided relegation by one point last season, but started this campaign promisingly with a 4-2 victory over 2012 champions Wadham.

In Division One, promotion favourites Merton-Mansfield underlined their credentials with a 5-2 victory over St Anne’s. The dual college outfit have impressively only failed to win one league match since last Christmas, and saw

off an inexperienced Anne’s team which will need to cope with the departure of last season’s OUAFC top scorer, Ben Rosenbaum.

In a fierce local derby, Lincoln came from behind to record a 3-1 victory over rivals Brasenose, courtesy of goals from Centaurs winger Fergus Morgan, captain Jack Barclay and debutant Paul Sangbin Yoon.

LMH, St Hugh’s and Balliol will wait until Second Week for their opening fixture. LMH in particular will have their eyes firmly set on a second successive promotion this year, having retained the bulk of a talented and resilient side, which took the Division Two title in March.

In Division Two, Pembroke missed out on promotion last season after going neck-andneck with LMH and St Anne’s for most of the campaign, but immediately signalled their intent to go one better this year with a 3-0 win over Corpus Christi. Pembroke will be looking to continue their exciting brand of passing football, aided by university midfield duo Alex Tsaptsinos and Tom Brown.

Corpus meanwhile came up from Division Three last season along with Jesus, who were also beaten, as a brace from Blues captain Ezra Rubenstein earned Trinity a 3-1 win — their first

league victory since the opening day of last season. Finally Queen’s and St John’s played out a 1-1 draw, as Queen’s captain John Church’s strike was cancelled out by Khalil Hamadouche.

In Division Three, Hertford demolished last year’s lowest-ranked college team Christ Church by a scoreline of 8-0. Hertford will be aiming to climb out of the basement division this season for the first time since 2008, having been denied promotion controversially last campaign due to an apparent failure to complete their fixtures.

Somerville also started strongly with a 3-2 win at Oriel, while permanent strugglers Univ gained a point at home to newly relegated St Hilda’s in a 2-2 draw.

Next week, attention will now turn to Cuppers, as the first round of the 132-year-old tournament gets underway next weekend. Holders Exeter host Univ in what should be a comfortable victory for the home side, while Premier Division champions Teddy Hall have been handed an equally favourable tie against Christ Church.

Worcester, who were winners for three consecutive years between 2011 and 2013, also face Division 3 opposition in the form of Oriel.

Sport

Alex Cavell talks us through the first first week of JCR football

Swimmers about to dive in to Cuppers

Josh Ames Blackaby slams misogyny in sport

This week’s Sport in brief ATHLETICS CUPPERS is poised to be one of the highlights of the coming weekend. OUAC President Adam McBraida has his eyes peeled for fresh talent and is keen to encourage athletes of all abilities to come and try their hand. He explains, “It’s a great event for selecting competitors for the Freshers’ Varsity Match on 2nd November. We have some really talented athletes joining us this year and it promises to be a strong season.”

BOTH OUAFC SECOND TEAMS suffered defeats as the women’s Furies lost 2-1 to Warwick 2nds. Meanwhile, the men’s Centaurs lost 1-0 to Warwick’s fourths. The Furies fielded six new players in their squad, and will be pleased with a display which, despite not securing them any points, will boost their confidence for the season. The Centaurs will be disspointed though, as they dominated the second half, only to lose to a single, scrappy goal.

OXFORD BLUES RUGBY TEAM managed an impressive 24-10 victory against London Wasps on Monday night. The result will give the side with a lot of confidence after suffering a 74-10 loss to Northampton Saints a week earlier.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the Under-21s, who lost 49-17 to a strong Welsh Academicals side. On 22nd October, OUWRFC look to start their campaign with a win against the University of Gloucestershire.

Novice inter-college event set to take place tomorrow at the Iffley Road Sports centre Holly Winfield Contributor

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fter a truly successful summer for Oxford University Swimming Club, during which five members of OUSC and one member of OUMPA took part in the biennial Varsity Channel Swim, braving nine hours of the icy, jellyfish-infested depths of the Channel, the swimmers are back with a splash with what many are hailing as the sporting event of the year — Swimming Cuppers 2014.

A novice-only event (Blues swimmers are only allowed to swim in relays), Cuppers is open to competitors of all abilities — honestly, it wouldn’t be Cuppers without the annual display of a perfected doggy paddling ability. My

advice for success: go for quantity over quality; participation is key, with every student placing earning at least one point for their college.

Events include the men’s and women’s 100m Individual Medley (a combination of all four strokes), 50m races in Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle, and finally the Freestyle and Medley relays.

No doubt reigning champions Magdalen will be hoping to defend the prestigious title, after facing tough competition from Queen’s and New last year — they clinched the title by just six points. Other teams to look out for include the somewhat dubious ‘St Matthew’s College’ who placed a respectable sixth last year.

So if you’re interested be sure to contact your college or just turn up (with a swimming costume) at 5pm this Saturday (25th October).

Cuppers is just the start of a busy season for OUSC. The following week, Oxford will partake in their annual ‘Friendly Gala’ at Iffley Road, competing against Warwick, Nottingham, Southampton and London. Later on in the month, the swimmers will be heading up to Sheffield to compete at BUCS Short Course Championships, and then a select team will be in action in Norwich, facing the Tabs for the first time this season, amongst various other universities in Division One of Southern Regional Qualifying Round of BUCS Team Championships.

With a strong crop of new freshers, OUSC are hoping to retain the Varsity trophy for the fourth year running, and improve upon their impressive 7th nationally placed position at BUCS Team Championships.

THE ANNUAL SPORTS FEDERATION awards night, which celebrates Oxford’s sporting community, has been announced for the 14th November from 7pm at OURFC on Iffley Road.

Eight awards will be given out for Oxford University Blues sportspeople. Tickets for the event can be purchased at Oxford University Sports reception and nominations for individual awards can be made on their website at www. sport.ox.ac.uk/events.

OXFORD’S WOMEN’S TENNIS TEAM has started Michaelmas with a 4-2 win over Warwick 2nds. Things are looking up for the club, especially after almost 150 men and women turned up for trials in 1st week. The win puts the blues in the top three of a highly competitive league. On October 22nd the blues will attempt to continue their great start with a trip to Nottingham 2nds who lost their opening match to Warwick 1sts.

Oxford’s jockeys fall at the last against impressive Tabs The Oxford team performed admirably in an incredible day of racing at Newmarket racecourse Jacob Rabinowitz Sports Editor

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or Oxford’s rugby Blues there has always been Twickenham — and for the University’s finest horse-riders, last weekend there was, for the first time ever, Newmarket. True, the result did not go quite as planned — but the fact this event got off the ground, and in such spectacular fashion, is a victory for all involved.

The race took place as part of the Dubai Future Champions Day, a premier event on the racing calendar, which drew in over 12,000 spectators and offers £1.3m prize money — although regrettably not a penny finds its way into the hands of the Oxbridge competitors.

The varsity race being the last of the day’s events — the climax, obviously — Oxford’s jockeys had plenty of time to enjoy the day. They were joined, naturally, by their own fans, with supporters flying in from as far afield as Moscow for the event. The jockeys even managed to make some new friends, with one individual putting her Arabic skills to good use in convinc-

ing the right-hand-man of a ‘Sheikh Mohammed’ to extend a personal invitation to the races in Dubai.

There was business to be done. On arrival,

Oxford’s jockeys had walked the course with their coach John Reid, a racing legend who has ridden over 2500 winners. Little could be more valuable, than his last-minute tactical tips.

There was even time to face the press, with captain Lizzy Hamilton interviewed by Channel 4. If our jockeys didn’t win, then, at least they got the next best thing: TV celebrity status.

The stage was set for a spectacle, and that is precisely what the race offered. The jockeys set off at lightning pace. Oxford emerged in front, with Hamilton and Lindesay-Bethune leading the charge. Only at the very final furlong did two Cambridge jockeys, mounted on the two best-rated horses, fight back and overtake the Oxford duo. Ultimately, the Oxford team lost by 45 points to 56. Nevertheless, all five Oxford participants rode brilliantly, despite having lowerrated horses – spectators, having seen a day full of top-class racing, admitted they could barely distinguish the student amateurs from their professional counterparts.

After a long process gruelling and scintillating in equal measure, it’s now time for the team to take a well-earned rest. Come Trinity, however, they’ll be looking for a new team to carry this new varsity event into what will no doubt be a glorious future.

See cherwell.org for video highlights of the event.