Cherwell - 3rd Week Michaelmas 2020 by Cherwell

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Vol.292 No.3 | 3rd week

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Cherwell

Friday, 30th October 2020

100 YEARS

A century of independence since 1920

OXFORD TO ENTER TIER 2 TOMORROW Amelia Horn

Oxford city will move into Tier 2 on Saturday 31st October. Tier 2 restrictions introduce the following new measures: • People cannot meet “socially” with anybody outside their household or support bubble indoors, including at home or in public places such as restaurants and bars. • People should try to reduce the number of journeys they are making, and if they need to travel should avoid public transport where possible. There were 202 cases in Oxford between the 18th and the 24th October. According to the BBC, this amounts to a 20 case increase on the previous week. Oxford has 132 cases per 100,000, which is below the average in England. However, this figure does not include some positive cases registered at the University. Data from the Oxford University Early Alert Service reported there had been 288 positive tests since August 20th, 2020. Cases were seen to have tripled in Freshers Week,

and since the week of 17th - 23rd of October, the number of new cases has increased to 208, for a total of 496 positive tests since the August start date. Responding to the news, Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, Layla Moran, said: “It’s time for everyone to come together in our city to respect the new measures and save lives.” Earlier this week, it was reported that a motion by Oxfordshire City Council to move the county into Tier 2 was rejected at a national level. Despite the change to the city’s status, the rest of Oxfordshire will remain in Tier 1. Local political leaders, business leaders, and representatives of local health trusts have expressed frustration at this government decision. Layla Moran continued: “This isn’t just a public health measure; the decision to ask to move Oxfordshire to Tier 2 was supported by our councils, public health officials, the police, universities, Care Home Association and our local enterprise partnership. However, I am disappointed that their joint recommendation to move the entire county to Tier 2 has not been

followed here - it’s a shame we could not achieve that. I will continue to press for that given the spread of the virus in our community. Any constituent who needs my help should get in touch by phone, email or via my website.” Ian Hudspeth, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said of last week’s government rejection: “We remain seriously concerned about the rise in the number of cases across the county, and not just Oxford. We are deeply disappointed that despite clear evidence showing the virus is now spreading to older and more vulnerable communities across the county, our request that Oxfordshire as a whole should move to Tier 2 was not approved. “My five fellow local authority leaders and I firmly believe this is a necessary step to stem the spread of the virus, protect our communities and the Oxfordshire economy. Our position has the full backing of the chief executives of our NHS partners and the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, and we will continue to push for a move for the rest of the county to happen as soon as possible based on the epidemiological evidence.”

Black students recreate Bullingdon photo Roheena Buckland

A group of ten black Oxford University freshers have recreated the infamous 1987 Bullingdon Club photo. The original photo featured an all-white, male group of students who were members of the exclusive, all-male ‘Bullingdon Club’, including David Cameron and Boris Johnson (both of whom later became

club presidents). The Bullingdon Club was known for its bad behaviour, wealthy members, and vandalism of restaurants and student rooms. Joshua Chima, who originally posted the replica photo on LinkedIn, told Cherwell: “We chose to replicate the photograph, as, for many, it portrays the stigma of exclusivity Continued on page 3

Oxford Polish Society holds distanced protest against Poland’s anti-abortion ruling Sofia Jones

About one hundred students gathered around the Radcliffe Camera on Sunday night to protest last week’s ruling by Poland’s highest court to ban all abortions except in cases of incest, rape, or when the mother’s health is endangered. The protest, organized by the Oxford Polish Society, began at 8 pm, as students arrived and lined the camera’s perimeter in a socially-distanced loop. Standing two meters apart per the Univer-

sity’s public health guidelines, demonstrators held glass-enclosed candles and signs in both Polish and English. “We stand united with the women in Poland whose rights are being attacked by the conservative rulers again,” event organizer and OxPolSoc co-president Igor Wasilewski told Cherwell afterwards. “The majority of Polish people supports keeping or liberalising the abortion law, so this action shows how unfair the ruling party is being towards the Polish people

and how it doesn’t care about the rule of law and the principles of democracy.” The Constitutional Tribunal’s decision is a reversal of a 1993 law allowing abortions for mothers carrying fetuses with foetal defects, which currently account for about 98 percent of pregnancy terminations in Poland. Even prior to the recent ruling, Poland was one of the strictest countries in Europe with regards to abortion regulation. Continued on page 2

2 | News

Cherwell| Friday, 30th October 2020

WHAT’S INSIDE LEADER Transforming Chile: the power of protesting

NEWS Government blocks Oxford from Tier 2 status

Residents campaign against St John’s quarry plans

IN FULL: Oxford coronavirus research and debate

COMMENT TikTok’s toxic ‘chav’ trend Society Spotlight: Oxford InterCollegiate Christian Union

10 11

FEATURES And they call it ‘puppy love’: pets in lockdown

SPORT Brooms Up! A guide to Oxford Quidditch

n his lockdown project ‘Some Good News’, John Krasinski recognised that we are all in need of something to celebrate. It’s been a shit year, after all. But for Chile, 2020 also symbolises political victory. On Sunday, the nation voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new constitution in a national plebiscite. This was the culmination of over a year of protests and a testament to the power of popular mobilisation, even in the midst of a pandemic. Under the Nixon administration, Chile became the guinea pig of the US neoliberal experiment. On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet, backed by the CIA, launched an attack on the Chilean parliament, killing socialist President Salvador Allende and forming a military junta that would rule until the transition to democracy formalised in 1990. The regime imposed a free market economy and encouraged private control of public services, enshrined in the 1980 constitution. Yet day to day life for Chileans under the dictatorship felt anything but liberal. The government imposed rigid censors, and political opponents were imprisoned, tortured, raped and killed. Hundreds are known as desaparecidos, the disappeared, whose families are still searching for justice. Despite the transition to de-

Continued from Page 1 Graduate student Joanna Wisniowska joined the protest with a red lightning bolt pinned to her sweater, a common symbol of prochoice protests across Poland. For her, the abortion ban represents a direct attack on the already vulnerable women who will now be forced to find unregulated ways of terminating their pregnancies. “Abortion will be illegal, but that doesn’t mean that it will stop,” Wisniowska said. “People will get abortions on their own... It will not decrease the number, it will only make it more dangerous for women who make this choice. Because they will make it, no matter what.” In recent days, people have taken to the streets in every major Polish city to protest the near total ban on abortions. Several Polish students in attendance praised the protesters, who are facing significant and sometimes forceful resistance from Polish authorities. “They are kicked, they are attacked by the police, they are kicked by people who are supporting [right-wing] nationalism and the Catholic church,” Wisniowska said. “These women and men are physically harmed by other people who are trying to stop them.” Aleksandra Majak, a graduate student from Krakow, has watched from afar as friends back home join local protests. She decided to attend the demonstration in Oxford in solidarity with their cause. “It’s the least we can do to show solidarity with our friends who are basically fighting on the streets,” Majak said. Another student, Marcin Bielinski, expressed his desire to stand with his fellow Poles in this moment of national reckoning. “If

we were back home, we would be out there with them,” he said. “We would be out there in the cities protesting.” Both Bielinski and Wisniowska were critical of the timing of the tribunal’s controversial ruling, which came during the largest rise in COVID-19 cases that Poland has experienced. The health risks associated with mass gatherings at this time, Bielinski said, make it more difficult for protesters to organize and could serve as a deterrent to civic participation. ““It is not a democratic discussion,” Wisniowska added. To ensure their demonstration was safe and adhered to Oxford’s public health guidelines, OxPolSoc required all attendees to fill out a safety pledge before participating, socially distance and wear face coverings. “This didn’t mean we had less energy,” Wasilewski said. “People are so determined to show the disagreement with the government’s actions that we kept chanting for over an hour.”

mocracy, Pinochet’s legacy lives fest, and it became disturbingly on in the constitution created by clear that the use of oppressive the junta. It is a document that force by the government was just facilitates the corruption, ineas legitimate as it had been durquality, and discrimination that ing the dictatorship. many in the country have borne It’s clear, then, that the fight for decades. Chile is often confor a new constitution has not sidered a successful example of been easy. Even when celebratWestern-style capitalism in Lating the victory, it is impossible in America but this is fundato forget the civilians that lost mentally misleading. The chasm their lives, or their eyesight, and between rich and poor has even all of those who were unjustly resulted in a physical separation treated by security forces. In in the capital city; those living other ways, the movement is not in affluent Vitacura rarely vennearly over: the plebiscite reture south of the centre. turned a vote not just for a new Last October, tensions boiled constitution but also a decision over, and the country erupted on how it would be drafted. Chilinto protest. Seemingly ignorant eans voted for a body made up of of the deep disillusionment felt civilians, half men and half by the Chilean people, conservawomen, with no participation tive President Sebastian Pinera from current lawmakers, in an sent the effort to military break with out onto “WHAT COULD HAVE the past. It the street will be at and imPOTENTIALLY ENDED IN A least anothposed a er two years strict curBLOODY COUP HAS FOUND A before the few in document many areDEMOCRATIC SOLUTION.” comes into as across being. the counThe power try, just as Pinochet had done. of the constitutional plebiscite And just as under Pinochet, the lies in its potential for change. Chilean police and military went The country can begin to create on to commit hundreds of hua system of governance that man rights abuses, including 31 works not for Spain, not for the deaths, over 100 reported sexual US, but for Chile, and especially assaults, and 350 eye injuries as for its marginalised communia result of the use of shotgun ties. Women and indigenous pellets. History was made manipeople were powerful forces of

Leader TRANSFORMING CHILE: THE POWER OF PROTESTING AMELIA HORN protest during the revolution, and the assertion of their rights became a fundamental goal of the movement. The chant ‘El violador eres tu’ (‘You are the rapist’) was replicated around the world, including in Oxford. In 1980, two women were at the table where the constitution was drawn; in 2020, Chile became the first ever country to mandate gender parity in the constitutional convention. The colourful flag of the Mapuche people, Chile’s largest indigenous group, was flown in Plaza Italia at every single protest. The face of Camilo Catrillanca, a Mapuche murdered at the hands of the police force, was stencilled on city walls across the capital, reminding the people that he has yet to receive justice. The neoliberal Pinochet constitution facilitated the seizure of land belonging to the Mapuche, and in it indigenous people were categorised as sec-

ondary citizens. The constitutional convention will guarantee an indigenous contingent to help draw up the new document. Chilean democracy is still new, and their parliamentary system riddled with corruption; yet what could have potentially ended in a bloody coup has found a democratic solution. The movement was from the start leaderless, bottom up, and fiercely anti-establishment. The diversity of support could be discerned from a walk among the protesters, as elderly men and women, mothers, children, and students stood side by side banging saucepans in the traditional cacerolazo. In the wake of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the movement against the unlawful killing of George Floyd, the Chilean example is one of hope. Peaceful protest is an inalienable right, and it has the power to change lives.

News | 3

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Cherwell Continued from Page 1 that deters many able students from applying to study at Oxford”. In 2019, Oxford University accepted a cohort of 22.1% black and minority ethnic students. This figure has begun to rise in recent years and is more than twice as high as the

2012 share of freshers who identified as BAME. The overall proportion of Black students admitted is up from 2.6% in 2018 to 3.1% in 2019. The replica photo aims to paint a new picture of Oxford, with Joshua continuing: “Our message is that young black men like us do not have to conform to social stereotypes; today, there is increased access to opportunity irrespective of one’s

background.” Since being posted on various forums, the photo has garnered public interest. The Peckham Peculiar posted the photo on Twitter, which they had received from Amgad Salih, one of the students in the photo. While the vast majority of reactions on social media platform have been favourable, there have been some who wished to see women included in the photograph. The Bullingdon Club and other exclusive groups are still important topics of discussion today. In February this year, the ‘P Club’, an invitation-only dining club originally

formed at Christ Church College, was banned from hosting events in the College after student criticism. As an open letter phrased it, the club “directly undermines Christ Church’s access efforts by sustaining discrimination on the basis of social class [and] neurotypicality”. Another Bullingdon replica photo has also been recently released, after Pembroke College students set up the photo in 2018 with the election of a Committee of JCR Presidents that was comprised of 41% BAME students.

CITY

STUDENTS

DPhil candidates awarded £80,000 research grants Daisy Aitchison

Three DPhil students at the University of Oxford have been granted £80,000 to fund their research. Daniella Cheang is developing a way to improve molecular synthesis by mimicking a natural process to build a library of compounds. This research could help in future drug development, as Cheang hopes to adapt this work for industry. The project also aims to be environmentally friendly, with water as the only waste product. The award was made by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which aims to support individuals with ‘exception promise’ in their research into industry based scientific projects. Of the ten Industrial Fellowships granted this year, three went to Oxford University students studying for science-based DPhils. Two of the students who have received the grant are working on engineering-based projects. Maral Bayaraa, a DPhil candidate in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, plans to research how SAR interferometry, geotechnical modelling and deep learning can be used to develop an early warning system for dam collapse. The aim to is to prevent not only the loss of lives, but also environmental damage. Tom Waddell is working on the development of a computational model which will be used to predict future health conditions of Type 2 diabetes patients. Such a model has never been created and could have sig-

nificant benefits for researchers attempting to develop and test drugs to combat the disease. Waddell said that he felt “very proud and fortunate” to have received the grant, which would allow him to “undertake valuable work in diabetes research.” As well as helping with the funding of research, the fellowship also aims to promote close collaboration with industry. The recipients of this year’s award will work in partnership with major firms including AstraZeneca, Satellite Applications Catapult, and Perspectum. The Royal Commission spends around £2 million every year funding research projects which it believes have the potential lead to industrial development. Part of the goal of the fellowships are to ensure the maintenance of Britain’s role in scientific research and development. The project also aims to promote closer ties between universities and industries. Students at Oxford University have a history of success in the programme. In 2019 three students also received the award to allow them to carry out research. Bernard Taylor, the President of the Royal Commission, said: “This year’s cohort demonstrates the potential and diversity of talent within British science’ and that their research is “promising to unlock new products and revenue across the pharmaceutical, energy, defence and infrastructure industries.” He added that: “Empowering bright scientists early in their career to do the research they want to pursue while giving companies access to that research is the best way of letting scientific curiosity impact industry.”

Both photographs have proven an important talking-point, and, as Joshua Chima told Cherwell, those involved want to “empower young people to take control of their future and to not feel restricted by their social standing.”

Oxford reacts to no holiday free school meals Ellen Hendry

Since the government voted down Labour’s proposal to provide free school meals to eligible children through the school holidays, various sources in Oxford have responded, both in favour and opposing the decision. Local government has been split. All four of Oxfordshire’s Tory MPs voted against the extension, while the Labour, Anneliese Dodds, and Liberal Democrat, Layla Moran (the two representatives for Oxford city) voted in favour. The Conservative MP Robert Courts of Witney defended his decision, saying: “The Government has provided £9.3 billion extra to help those most in need during the pandemic. An additional £63 million has also been made available to local authorities to ensure that targeted support is available to those needing help with food and other essentials. “Free school meals have always been meant for term time and the best, most sustainable way to support families outside of term time is through Universal Credit.” Victoria Prentis, MP for Banbury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Food, said: “I am not blind to the challenges many children and families are currently facing. […] Schools have worked tirelessly during the pandemic. It is neither reasonable nor sustainable to ask them to continue to provide food for pupils outside of term time.” A senior Labour councillor from Banbury, Sean Woodcock, has criticised Ms Prentice, suggesting that 2,092 children in the Bicester and Banbury constituency are at risk of going hungry.

Anneliese Dodds said: “No child should go hungry over the holidays. I am deeply disappointed that the Government blocked the action needed to prevent this.” Layla Moran shared the sentiment, saying in Parliament that the extension should have been “a no-brainer.” Oxford’s Lord Mayor, Craig Simmons, tweeted: “About 3,500 school children in Oxford are eligible for free school meals. I have asked what can be done in Oxford City to help outside of term time.” So far, Oxford City Council have announced that they are providing vouchers of up to £15 per child over half term. The City Council told Cherwell: “Support mechanisms are in place to help vulnerable families, and these have been targeted at those who need it most. Oxfordshire’s councils have a strong track record of delivery through third-sector partners and these links shone through during the lockdown period earlier this year.” Councillor Marie Tidball told Cherwell: “The brinkmanship of the Conservative government in stubbornly refusing to support the extension of free school meals over half-term and Christmas is creating fear and anxiety amongst children and families who receive them.” Over 30 councils across England including Liverpool, Greater Manchester, Rotheram, and some London boroughs have pledged to provide free school meals during the holidays. Oxfordshire County Council passed a grant of more than £500,000 to the district councils to combat the issue.

According to the House of Commons Library, 10,127 children across the county were known to be eligible for free school meals in January 2020. When asked how the vote was likely to affect these children, Oxford Mutual Aid, a local community support charity established during the pandemic, told Cherwell that the decision “is disastrous for families”. They already deliver more than 100 food parcels and over 750 cooked meals per week, and receive up to five emergency food parcel requests every day. They predict this number will rise. They added: “Although this policy will have a hugely negative impact on the community, it is also cause for people to come together and support each other.” Many local charities and businesses have stepped forward to provide aid to these children. Oxford Mutual Aid, for example, has partnered with local independent school, St Edwards, along with local restaurant, Taste Tibet, to provide free meals to those in need. Similar initiatives have opened up across the county, including the Deli-licious coffee shop, Mission Burrito, and PHO in central Oxford. Oxford Mutual Aid added: “On an individual level, we know that there is massive inequality in society, and it is very important for those in positions of privilege (like many Oxford students) to show solidarity with those who are worse off.” They encourage anyone who can to volunteer with them. Food banks are also available around Oxfordshire to provide support. Donations to the Oxford food bank can be made online or at local supermarkets.

4 | News

Speculation over OxfordCambridge expressway Daniel Morgan

After a hiatus on work behind the proposal in March, there is speculation that the Oxford-Cambridge expressway is back on the table. The release of a new prospectus last week by Arc Leadership Group has sparked this speculation. The prospectus, released by an organisation composed of local councils and businesses and chaired by Barry Wood (the Leader of North Oxfordshire District Council), calls for economic stimulus through new projects in the counties between Cambridge and Oxford. Though the prospectus speaks about many forms of stimuli, “road and rail infrastructure” and “eastwest connectivity” are referenced. According to the BBC, Arc Leadership Group has denied that it intends to construct an expressway. Across the last few years, an Oxford-Cambridge expressway has been mooted on several occa-

sions. The last time was in March when the National Infrastructure Commission stressed the need for the project to “be built as quickly as possible to unlock land for new homes.” However, work was paused and the Department for Transport announced they were looking at other projects to connect Oxford and Cambridge. Speaking to the BBC, Barry Wood emphasised that “improvements to other parts of connectivity” were necessary, stressing that communities between the two cities “may well need bypasses around them.” However, the Oxfordshire chapter of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has swiftly condemned the idea of an expressway. Speaking to Cherwell, CPRE Oxfordshire Communications Manager Julia Benning saw that a new road would cut through green-belt land, and would be the more expensive option. Mrs

CITY

Oxford Clarendon Centre to be redesigned in multi-million pound project Dania Kamal Aryf

The Oxford Clarendon Centre is expected to be redesigned following a proposal made by the Londonbased consultancy firm, Lothbury Investment Management. The main aims would be to create more dynamic public spaces in the heart of the city and to open a new link to the nearby Frewin Court building which has been largely unused over recent years. The new design proposals would also include a ground and roof level. The shopping centre owners say that the coronavirus pandemic has taken a negative toll on footfall on Oxford’s high street, and so want to diversify the centre, which would no longer be exclusively used for retail. Adam Smith, from Lothbury Investment Management, said in a comment to the Oxford Mail: “There have been dramatic changes in the retail sector since the Clarendon Centre first opened in 1984.” He suggested that a range of new uses is being proposed for the shopping centre. In addition to retail, restaurants and cafes, they are also exploring how laboratory

facilities, student accommodation and further office space can be provided with the redesign of the venue. “We want this to become a new green oasis in the heart of the city to provide an area in which people can relax, work and play in a safe, inspiring environment.” When informed that the new redesign of the Clarendon Centre will be a multi-storey building, Smith claimed that they are “excited to be providing public access to a landscape designed roof space which will showpiece the stunning Oxford skyline.” The consultancy firm will therefore look into consulting with shoppers and residents about the proposed changes, before submitting an application to the Oxford City Council by the end of this year, in preparation for future work. Hence, the project team will be organising a ‘digital drop-in’ on Wednesday 4th November, at 6pm. The event will feature a presentation from the architects, and provide an opportunity for shoppers and local residents to submit any queries. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

CITY

Benning highlighted the “need to reduce emissions” and her organisation’s support of the “more climate friendly” option of improved rail links. Apparently, residents have not been consulted about the new proposals whilst research from CPRE Oxfordshire has indicated that 75% of the county’s population “believes the Green Belt should not be developed.” Highways England declared they were “pausing further development” of the expressway project whilst working on ‘other potential road projects’ to support economic stimulus in communities between Oxford and Cambridge. With the government announcing housing reforms in August which could give an impetus to green-belt developments, it is clear that even if the Oxford-Cambridge expressway has been shelved for the moment, the debate between Westminster and local communities will continue.

Cherwell | Friday, 30th October 2020 CITY

Councillor appears to insult cyclists Grace Bartlett

Liam Walker, an Oxfordshire councillor for transport, became subject to scrutiny last week after responding to a tweet insulting cyclists. There has since been a formal complaint against Walker, which is under investigation by the Oxfordshire County Council. The tweet came in response to a suggestion from the Twitter account Build Back Better Ox, which cited superior infrastructure as the best means of improving cycling capacity in Oxfordshire and linked to a Youtube video demonstrating the efficiency of the Dutch system. A Twitter user replied to the post, suggesting that cyclists who praise the Netherlands for its attitude to cycling should simply relocate there, to which the councillor replied that it was “well put”. This tweet met was met with widespread negative reactions from local cyclists and residents,

among these being Green Party councillor Dick Wolff’s letter calling for the councillor to be dismissed. Both the tweet and Walker’s reply have since been deleted and in an article by the BBC, Walker is quoted as saying that he “implied [he] agreed with the view” that people who supported a “probicycle” outlook should move to the Netherlands, and states that it was “a tongue-in-cheek-comment”. Mr Walker has also stated that he is ‘sorry if anyone was offended’ and denied that he was attempting to discourage people from adopting more sustainable transport methods. He has also addressed the resignation of former Oxfordshire cycling champion Suzanne Bartington, calling it ‘a great shame’ and promising that active transport remains on the council’s agenda. Walker has previously used emojis to refer to a Labour candidate as a ‘b*llend’ in 2019.

COLLEGE

Local residents campaign against St John’s quarry plans Issy Kenney-Herbert

For the past five years, residents of Barford have protested a county council minerals plan that would lead to a large sand and gravel quarry to be built on the edge of their village. The land it would be constructed on is part of the assets of St John’s College. Protestors are accusing St John’s College of hypocrisy, arguing that the quarry would contradict claims that St John’s “takes every opportunity to reduce its environmental impact”, as published on their website. Matt Western, MP for Warwick and Leamington, has stated that his belief that “the proposed quarry has wide-reaching negative implications for public health and environmental protections.” He has further said that this specific quarry “is the only site in the minerals plan in such close proximity to a residential area, and it simply isn’t needed” claiming that the site was proposed on predictions of overinflated figures for housing demand. He has supported the Barford campaign for an extended period, securing a debate in parliament and presenting a petition urging the government to intervene and halt the proposals. Those protesting argue that the construction of this quarry could expose 1,500 villagers and 200 primary and nursery school children to toxic particulate dust, causing permanent damage to their lungs. Further to this, the building of the quarry will destroy the highquality agricultural land. Charlotte Morgan, Oxford University alumna and committee member of Barford Residents Association said: “The college says it

does all it can for the environment, but this is a huge site, with top grade of agricultural land, growing four different crops of vegetables a year. If the quarry goes ahead it will never be restored.” St John’s College apparently requested that Warwickshire County Council include the site in their minerals land allocation plan. The College further released a statement concerning their involvement: “As a registered charity and landowner, we have an obligation and responsibility to both the local community and county to respond to a request for sites, via our appointed agents, to be considered to provide sand and gravel for the district councils to build homes for those people needing homes in the future.” Responding to residents’ concerns, the College stated: “The College considers that siting of mineral extraction is a local issue and would urge anyone with concerns to direct these to Warwickshire County

Council, which is best placed to answer such questions.” A committee member, Malcolm Eykyn said: “We have worked tirelessly for the last five years raising awareness about the proposed quarry threat as well as raising substantial funds to help fight our cause.” The villagers raised £15,000 in vital funds in less than two weeks during March, in order to provide professional advice to prepare the best case to take to the inspector in a meeting held last Tuesday. Last Tuesday, in one of the final rounds of the decision being made, government inspector, Stephen Normington, heard both sides of the argument, attempting to resolve the ongoing dispute. While a final decision remains to be made, he has stated that “without prejudice to my eventual conclusion on the soundness of the Plan, the concerns raised by participants do appear to have some degree of basis”. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Cherwell

News | 5

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Cherwell | Friday, 30th October 2020 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

6 | News

Oxford research inFull: Professors split on lockdown Rachel Hart

Academics and epidemiologists at the University of Oxford are becoming increasingly polarised in their views on how to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, Carl Heneghan, and Dr. Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist, have been lobbing the government for a much softer COVID response following the ideas of herd immunity. In contrast, a group of Oxford scientists lead by the Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences, Trisha Greenhalgh, are staunch opponents of these ideas. The debate between the two groups has not always been civil, featuring numerous Twitter spats. A large amount of the debate centres around a document called the Great Barrington Declaration, a document co-authored by three academics, one of whom is Oxford academic Dr. Senetra Gupta. The document lays out the position for a less stringent COVID-19 response, one of which is based around herd immunity, while protecting those who are most vulnerable to its effects. Keeping the current restrictions in place would cause ‘irreparable damage’, they

argue, going on to propose that ‘young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume.’ The vulnerable should opt out of these activities, if they wish to do so. Published in early October, the Great Barrington Declaration has caused great controversy, both inside and outside of Oxford Academia. The Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, Carl Heneghan, has come out in staunch favour of the document. Recently, Heneghan has been arguing in The Spectator there is no “second spike” in cases. He comments that the governments testing capacity is too sensitive to tiny levels of the virus, creating an artificially high number of positive tests. The ‘media-fuelled hysteria’ has only compounded the problem. The article is co-authored by another Oxford academic, Tom Jefferson, who is a senior associate tutor and honorary researcher. Gupta and Heneghan have both given extensive interviews as to how COVID-19 can and should be treated as a regular coronavirus. In an interview, the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration

argued that their approach is the more ‘moral’ way to fight the pandemic, and that current responses are huge overreactions. This approach has come under severe attack from other Oxford academics, such as the Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences, Trish Greenhalgh. An open letter to the Chief Medical Officers co-signed by 22 others, they commend the efforts to ‘suppress the virus’, while arguing that ‘“herd immunity” rests on the unproven assumption that re-infection will not occur. We simply do not know whether immunity will wane over months or years in those who have had COVID-19.’ It also argues that the impacts of long COVID seem to be both unknown in scale and severe in practice. To follow an approach of herd immunity without this knowledge would be a mistake. At this stage no major scientific body in the world has recommended a pathway to herd immunity, despite some dissenting scientific voices. The conflict between the two groups has not been confined to the academic sphere, with academics discussing the debate on Twitter. Professor Greenhalgh commented in the light of the latest letter surrounding the

Great Barrington Declaration that she was not going to ‘do’ another letter in response, as it was comparable to Dawkins not ‘bother[ing]... to argue with the creationists’. In another comment, she refers to herd immunity as a ‘lie’. Meanwhile, Heneghan asks if someone can ‘explain to Nicola the law of diminishing returns’, with regard to Sturgeon’s new five-tier lockdown rules, with

further tweets explaining the tiered lockdown redundancy. He has also argues that ‘pubs and restaurants are one of the safest places to be’ during the pandemic, while referring to the ‘nonsense’ of statistical approaches taken by the media. It is clear that this debate will rage on between these Oxford academics, while and beyond COVID-19 continues to affect the daily life of us all.

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Cherwell

News | 7 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Oxford University vaccine could be ready by Christmas Charlie Hancock

Clinical trials for the COVID-19 were resumed following the death of a participant, the vaccine’s genetic programming was validated by the University of Bristol, and the Director of the Jenner Institute, Adrian Hill, expressed hope that some vulnerable groups could receive the vaccine by Christmas. Global trials were “voluntarily paused” on 6th October after a volunteer developed transverse myelitis, a condition which causes inflammation of the spinal cord. While trials resumed in Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and the United Kingdom resumed throughout December, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States refused to allow the trial to continue until they were convinced the volunteer’s illness was not caused by the vaccine. 30,000 volunteers are participating in trials for the Oxford vaccine in the United States, with a further 20,000 volunteers globally. It is hoped that the trial’s large sample size will mean that a vaccine can be developed more quickly, and that herd immunity can be induced safely within the global population. The chief investigator of the trial at Oxford University, Professor Andrew Pollard, said “We are very pleased the FDA has reached

the same conclusion as the other regulators of the clinical trial sites around the world, declaring the trial safe to proceed in the USA… We will continue to adhere to our rigorous safety processes while moving as quickly as possible so we can start protecting people around the world against this terrible virus as soon as possible.” The death of a trial volunteer in Brazil was also investigated. However, the volunteer had not received the vaccine, only the placebo, so it was not deemed to be connected to the trial. This news comes in the same week that a team at Bristol University have independently confirmed the that the Oxford vaccine genetic programming works as its developers intended. The validation goes “significantly above and beyond any regulatory requirements anywhere in the world.” The Oxford vaccine works by coopting the ability of viruses to introduce their genetic material into a cell, causing it to assemble more viruses. A harmless chimpanzee adenovirus is used to introduce a sequence of DNA from a SARSCoV-2 virus which only produces the parts of a virus recognised by the body’s immune system. Scientists hope that this reduces the risk of a person becoming ill after receiving the vaccine. The research from Bristol University

UNIVERSITY

Oxford expected to get $100m from vaccine Mark Robins

Oxford stands to make over $100 million from developing a successful COVID vaccine. The University has landed a 6% stake profits from its partnership with AstraZeneca, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal. As part of the deal with the company, the vaccine will be sold without profit during the pandemic. However, if the vaccine is needed subsequently during seasonal returns of the virus, the deal could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the University. Oxford has said that any profits will be reinvested into medical research, including the University’s new Pandemic Preparedness and Vaccine Research Centre. The centre is being developed alongside AstraZeneca. Oxford’s leadership acknowledged the importance of profiting from its scientific achievements. Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford said that if Oxford did not have a stake in the vaccine: “People are going to come back and say, ‘Oh my God, another British university inventing something worth a ton of money, and guess what, they gave it away for free’. “The University didn’t enter this discussion with the idea of making a ton of money. Let’s say [the vaccine] becomes a seasonal coronavirus vaccine, and it sells a billion dollars a year. For us to be sitting there

and making no money looks pretty dumb.” Vice-chancellor Louise Richardson added that Oxford “could have funded an awful lot of medical research since the Second World War”, if it had kept the rights to penicillin last century. The University began to look for a commercial partner after realising it may struggle to distribute and manufacture the vaccine. Professor Bell said: “We were headed into the jungle without a machete. We happen to be a rather good university, but universities don’t’ do this stuff.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Oxford closed talks with the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. after concerns that it could not provide the vaccine to poorer countries. Merck offered Oxford 1% in royalties. The University then turned to UK company AstraZeneca to help manufacture and distribute the vaccine. As part of the deal, the company committed to providing global distribution which did not favour any one country. A University statement in April, when the deal was reached, said: “Under the new agreement, as well as providing UK access as early as possible if the vaccine candidate is successful, AstraZeneca will work with global partners on the international distribution of the vaccine, particularly working to make it available and accessible for low and medium income countries.”

confirms that this process works, and that the required viral proteins are produced. Professor Adrian Hill, who is leading the development process, has expressed hope that some high risk groups, such as the elderly, could receive doses of the vaccine

by the end of the year. In a statement to members and alumni of Magdalen College he stressed that “the initial licence would be for emergency use, not full approval”. Such approval would be dependent on safety data, including that collected from trials in the United

States. The pause in the trials in the US has shown that the process of developing new vaccines is rarely straightforward, and so it is difficult to predict exactly when one may be approved for the general population. Image credit: Amir Pichhadze

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Oxford develops 5 minute test for COVID-19 Lucy Goodfellow

Scientists from Oxford University’s Department of Physics have developed a new test for COVID-19 which produces results in under five minutes. The method highly accurately identifies and distinguishes various viruses such as the virus SARSCoV-2, which causes COVID-19, from other common respiratory pathogens including seasonal coronaviruses and influenza. The capability for faster, inexpensive testing, which can be used in non-laboratory settings, is hoped to bring about an effective mass testing system. The researchers are planning to eventually produce a device which can be used in sites such as businesses, airports and music venues. Professor Achilles Kapanidis, at the Department of Physics, explained: “Unlike other technologies that detect a delayed antibody response or that require expensive, tedious and time-consuming sample preparation, our method quickly detects intact virus particles; meaning the assay is simple, extremely rapid, and costeffective.” While rapid antigen tests have been crucial to the movement to mass-testing, they are less accurate than conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests. This development of a highly accurate rapid test is hoped to manage the industry’s struggle to meet

demand. DPhil student Nicolas Shiaelis said: “Our test is much faster than other existing diagnostic technologies; viral diagnosis in less than five minutes can make mass testing a reality, providing a proactive means to control viral outbreaks.” This test uses the differences in surface chemistry, shape and size of different virus types and strains to visually identify viruses via machine learning, allowing for rapid classification. The method was validated over three days in collaboration with researchers from the John Radcliffe Hospital, taking samples from throat swabs from patients with results determined by PCR testing. The researchers plan to begin product development of the testing device in early 2021, and hope to

have an approved device within six months of then. This is expected to help manage the pandemic by next winter. Warwick Medical School’s Dr Nicole Robb said: “A significant concern for the upcoming winter months is the unpredictable effects of co-circulation of SARS-CoV-2 with other seasonal respiratory viruses; we have shown that our assay can reliably distinguish between different viruses in clinical samples, a development that offers a crucial advantage in the next phase of the pandemic.” The researchers are currently working with Oxford University Innovation (OUI), alongside two external advisors, and are looking for further investment to accelerate the process of turning the method into a fully integrated testing device.

Artwork by Arpita Chatterjee

Cherwell | Friday, 30th October 2020 UNIVERSITY

8 | News

REACH receives £22.5m to improve water security Yihang Fang The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has provided new funding to the University of Oxford’s REACH programme, which seeks to improve water security in Africa and Asia. On 20th October 2020, it was announced that the FCDO’s grant for the programme will extend to 2024 and increase funding to £22.5 million. REACH, which began in 2015, is a global research programme that focuses on using world-class science to improve policy and practice regarding water security. REACH has worked closely with partners such as UNICEF, national governments, private sector companies, and academic institutions. The programme has improved water security for over two million people since 2015 in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. According to REACH’s Global Strategy for 2020-2024, they aim to continue scaling up the project to

reach a target population of 10 million people. To do so, they will focus on addressing inequalities across different scales, such as by developing more inclusive decision-making tools. The issue of climate change will also be targeted, by enhancing climate communication and improving coordination between water supply and water management sectors. Crucially, REACH also aims to improve water quality management, such as by guiding the development of strategies to regulate environmental pollution stemming from urban and industrial growth. At the institutional level, REACH will also partner national and local governments to review and reform water security policy and regulation. These efforts work towards achieving the world’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, which were set out by the UN. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed systemic inequalities and vulnerabilities around the world. According to the University’s press

release, Professors Rob Hope and Katrina Charles, the Directors of REACH, said: “The pandemic has compounded the severity of the impacts resulting from wawter-related climate hazards, such as floods, droughts and cyclones. Building water secure institutions reduces the need for and the cost of emergency funding to avoid unnecessary hardship on the most vulnerable, and increases resilience to future risks and shocks.” Professor Richardson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: “We at Oxford are committed to supporting the next phase of the work in order to improve the lives of over 10 million people who are desperately in need of support. We are very grateful to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for funding this work and to our many partners across the globe who collaborate with us in advancing the goals of REACH.” Image credit: Department for International Development.

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief | Maya Misra

Joe Hyland Deeson | Editor-in-Chief

aving just celebrated my 21st birthday in lockdown, it seems almost impossible to think about anything other than the situation we currently find ourselves in. With colleges suffering varying levels of cases and, in keeping with its reputation, both of Merton’s Entz reps finding themselves in lockdown for the next 14 days, I still find it remarkable that we are able to fill this paper every week with articles that somehow don’t use Covid-19 as their basis. Yet my travels into the Cherwell archive this week reminded me that the issue of not being able to go to Bridge on my birthday is minor compared to the threats on free speech that we face in the world today. The American Oxford undergraduates of the 1950s, especially Rhodes Scholars, had the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee to be concerned with. In 1959, we reported on a Republican Congressman approaching McCarthyism with a new passion, threatening to monitor the actions of those studying at Oxford. The Chinese Oxford undergraduates of 1989 had their own Embassy to contend with.

Following the widely known events in Tiananmen Square, representatives of the Chinese government came to Oxford, set themselves up in a house on Abingdon Road, and proceeded to screen the “official” version of events to Chinese undergraduates and graduates. That article ended with the ominous report of a student involved in demonstrations against the government returning home: “One month in there has still been no word from him.” This was just 31 years ago next week. And today, those arriving here from Hong Kong have very real concerns regarding what they say and write in view of the recent Security Laws, which in principle can prosecute all criticism of the government regardless of where it is being said. Just last week, a friend messaged me asking to have their Cherwell article taken down, not because it was in any way embarrassing or low quality, but because they were about to apply for a visa to study in China and worried that they would not be accepted if their criticism of the Hong Kong security laws remained public for all to see. As I said to them: “Fuck. What sort of world are we living in?”

bout a decade ago, people realized they needed to save the bees. A mysterious colony collapse disorder was causing worker bees to vacate their hives, leaving the queen and larvae to die. Facing this decline, we realized how much we relied on bees for pollination of human crops and wild plants, and we invested in rebuilding hives. This prompted a wave of home beekeeping, which I was introduced to this summer when my neighbors set up beehives. It seemed great on the surface: help with local pollination, save the bees, produce homemade honey. It isn’t, however, that simple. First, the honeybee in the Americas is actually an invasive species brought over from Eurasia. Farmers and everyday people who promote their survival are doing it at the expense of wild bee populations, much like how the Midwest has seen bison replaced by cattle. Second, honeybees are not actually stellar pollinators. In the Americas, they’re likely to take nectar without picking up pollen, because they haven’t co-evolved to the plant like native bees have. Even in Eurasia, where they do well with their native plants, oversized honeybee populations still force out wild bees and

impede effective plant pollination, which leaves the ecosystem at greater risk. The answer seems to be to keep honeybees only for the purpose of farming crops, away from wilder land. The average person looking to establish a beehive should leave their garden to the native bees, who will be much better pollinators in any case. This summer, when my neighbors got their hives, I was wholly on board, until I learned my enthusiasm for “saving the bees” was misplaced. This isn’t an uncommon issue when dealing with environmental preservation. A few years ago the debate swung wildly between different milk alternatives, each getting its heyday on the grocery store aisle before being shunted aside. It’s not uncommon to jump on a trend that makes you feel good, but that doesn’t actually do good. And through it all, the major causes of environmental destruction - fertilizer runoff, plastic disposal, pesticide use, deforestation - are lost among the snapshot trends. There are, of course, basic things that help. Recycling, managing your energy and water usage, eating less meat, all do good. Often, though, it’s the simple solutions that work: let your gardens grow normally, and leave the bees be.

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Friday, 30th October 2020 | Vol.292 No.3 | 3rd Week

CulCher | Friday, 30th October 2020

CONTENTS CULCHER page 2 | Trick or Trace: Halloween in a pandemic page 3 | Eat, Sleep, Create, Repeat THE SOURCE page 4-5 | Autumn

TRICK OR TRACE?

COVER ARTIST JUSTIN LIM The brief from the team included the words “Halloween”, “UK Government”, and “2020”, and I could not turn down the opportunity to draw Boris Johnson as a clown. I found the idea of a “sad Pennywise” helpful, since the government induces feelings of disappointment. Perhaps less recognisable because of their green hue are Matt Hancock as Frankenstein, and Dominic Cummings as a witch. The former is a pitiful character while the latter has cunningly escaped scandal after scandal. I also threw in some EU stars for the observant eye. It’s been a tough year, so I hope this cheeky thing makes you smile a little. Happy Halloween everyone!

Tis the season to be spooky: Halloween 2020 SOFIA SANABRIA DE FELIPE

aying the annual trip to Tiger for some room décor ideas, about a month ago, I walked into a store full of pumpkins and skeleton fairy lights – a rather wholesome array of Halloween decorations. Nostalgia didn’t take long to sweep in; one long look at the shop and I was reminded of yet another event that wouldn’t quite be the same this year, without the usual spooky-themed bops and regrettable costume choices in Bridge. But that didn’t stop my mind from racing through COVID-safe plans that could make the spookiest of nights one to remember. With only one day till the night of all nights, here are a couple of suggestions to make sure you and your 6-people-bubble can have a (culturally celebratory) Halloween:

mental disappointment, terrified of the haunting consequences of the incoming American election? Close the news tabs on your laptop and escape into the world of supernatural phenomena, demonic possessions for some horrific escapism! For those who wish to avoid the horror and thriller genres, how about some childhood reminiscence in the form of Halloweentown or your favourite Disney Channel Halloween episodes?

As scary, daunting and unnerving as these times are, we will all look back at them in some form or other… and why not take a photo or two to make the trip down memory lane easier? Or better still, why not try and make it into a “spot the vampire in your household” game? They may be living amongst us, unknown, working through the night, typing away on their laptops… A Halloween Polaroid is bound to reveal their secret identity…

4. Carve away into the night: Selfisolating, or in desperate need for a task that doesn’t require you staring at a screen for hours on end? Get yourself / have a friend deliver a pumpkin to your room and carve out your popular culture idols! Who doesn’t want a Simba themed pumpkin in their room?

8. The Addams Family: Are Zoom calls and online games your thing? The internet is full of pop quizzes and trivia cards that can fulfil your holiday themed gaming needs. Fun for all – maybe this is the time to form strong household bonds or give your family a call!

1. Scooby-Doo, where’s the Crew: Disappointed about missing out on a chance to dress up, and share a killer outfit with your friends? Fear not! Arrange for you and your six-person bubble to dress up as your favourite television, literature, celebrity characters, and appreciate your favourite cultural references.

5. Wholesome soup for a wholesome evening: Want to move away, if only for a night, from the instant-noodles student life? Make sure none of your pumpkin carving shenanigan goes to waste and find yourself an easy, pumpkin themed recipe to make into a nice festive meal!

9. Ghostbusters 4: Want to live up to the Oxford stereotype and pick your friends’ brains about common facts and “street legends”? Bust those ghosts and have a go at beating Trump’s “fake news” claim record – a past time of sorts for later on in the night

2. The Shining (fairy lights): Sad the annual outing to your club of choice won’t be happening this year? Set the mood by putting up some bright and shiny fairy lights and dive into a COVIDsafe gathering featuring board games, charades and cards. 3. Scary Movie 2020: Tired of waking up to yet another govern-

6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Miss the thrill of open mic events, concerts and karaoke bars? Why not take this Covid-restricted Halloween as a chance to re-enact (for comedic effect, of course) your favourite Halloween themed musicals and songs? I’m sure your staircase neighbours will appreciate a change in tune to the silence of the last month 7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

10. The Nightmare before Christmas: Commemorate the end of the month with your favourite artists. We may not know what the future will look like, what Christmas may look like, but let’s give Halloween a chance to go beyond “just getting through the day” and pay tribute to artists old and new, engaging with their works as a way of enjoying life a bit more. Image credit: Rachel Jung

Friday, 30th October 2020 | CulCher

EAT, SLEEP, CREATE, REPEAT: AN ARTISTIC ODYSSEY

omer’s Odyssey opens with an evocation to the Muse, with varying translators rendering this opening line as “Tell me, Muse” (Lattimore, 1965) or “Sing to me of the man, Muse” (Fagles, 1996). My favourite of the (relatively) modern translations into English however is that done by Fitzgerald in 1961, in which he translates the line as “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story”. Fitzgerald’s translation here captures beautifully the idea of the poet as a human vessel for the divine voice of poetry, depicting the story as not one sung or told to the narrator by the Muse, but created in collaboration with the Muse, a symbiotic relationship forged in creativity. Yet, this translation also captures many of the problems I’ve had with my own creative process. I expect the words I write to come to me in a frenzy of godlike inspiration, the way I would imagine myself as a writer when I was a child, hunched over a desk, prose ceaselessly streaming out of pen onto the smooth surface of the first page of a new notebook with ease. But the creative process is never an easy one. The blank page, once in my mind a symbol of opportunity, is now an object of fear for me. It’s something that, in its emptiness, indicates a failure on my part, showing my lack of creativity and productivity, in all its papery nothingness. Word counts become a frustration, glaring up at me from the bottom left corner of my laptop screen whilst a little voice in the back of my head tells me that whatever I am writing will be rubbish anyway. As an emotional writer of poetry, I’ll

BY MAEBH HOWELL

only ever put pen to paper in fits of extreme feeling, using it as an outlet when I feel that I cannot turn to anyone. It seems to be the closest I’ll get to the divine inspiration, with the Muse replaced by anger or loneliness. But these emotional bursts of creativity never last long Instead, in the midst of writer’s block, whether I’m writing an essay or poetry or an article like this one, I have to force out words. Wring them from the heavy mass of a resistant mind. During lockdown, when I was writing to try and occupy the reams of time I had in isolation, a friend sent me an article about writing, and how there never is an “ideal” condition in which to write. Jacquelynn Lyon in this 2019 article captures perfectly the problem I find with the idea of a Muse – that writing is “not something special, it’s just something I always do.” Lyon posits that writing (or creating art in any form) can never be done under “ideal” conditions and that instead one should “treat it like a neutral job you show up to.” This point is interesting in the transactional quality to creating art that it suggests. If art become a “job” like any other, is the freedom of art as an outlet lost? How can we reconcile our creativity with a culture which prioritises intense productivity, and quantifiable results achieved under intense pressure? How do we treat art once it becomes a commodity, something to be bought and sold, something that has to be made to pay rent? In my mind, the constant pressure of productivity can manifest in multiple ways.

WHAT’S ON

Sometimes, I am motivated by deadlines (you’ll often find me in the library speed typing an essay at 1am, convinced that I am writing the next seminal work of English literature criticism), other times, the constant pressure to juggle productivity in every different facet of my life has led to intense burnout. The pressure to create art also seems to manifest itself like this. I’m currently editing some poetry, and in doing so have had to create “art” under a deadline. It’s something I rarely do, allotting time in my day in which I must sit down to write and not leaving it up to whatever emotional state I may be veering in and out of. It has taught me that I can, if I try hard enough, write something however uninspired I am feeling. And I think that’s the most important thing, for me, in the creation of art; that you are able to create something from nothing, whether or not it is “good” in your mind or not. I believe that the creation of anything is intrinsically beautiful, whether it’s a poem written on a scrap of paper or the next Odyssey. Creating, then, is a complicated thing. It never comes as easily as you want it to, nor are you able to (for the most part) appreciate anything you’ve made, becoming too caught up in self-doubt. I’d argue that sometimes, like Lyon suggests, treating art in a “neutral” manner, and removing it from the concepts of productivity or value which dominate the rest of the world, can be a valuable experiment in real creative expression.

CULCHER EDITORIAL It’s fine guys, Halloween is meant to be scary. You’d be forgiven for thinking the past few weeks (read: months; read: years) have been something out a cheap knockoff of The Purge, one that was somehow less believable than the actual remakes of The Purge, but, this Halloween at least, we can all rest assured that, unlike the horror movie parody going on around us, scary things are supposed to be happening. It’s always a bad sign when clowns stalking the streets in 2016 sounds like a fond memory of a more innocent time. For these next few days, the wind that blows through your room, because college haven’t renovated it since 1555, is meant to be there; the fact you haven’t left said room in two weeks can just be a quirky retelling of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’; the existential dread you’re feeling at the prospect of the collapse of society? It’s all part of the Halloween fun – promise! Halloween, it’s Christmas’ cooler cousin, the one that buys you a rated-15 movie for your Year 6 sleepover, the one that gets you tipsy at family BBQs, the one whose favourite album is A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. In a time where everything is seeming pretty creepy, embrace the spirit of Halloween. Embrace your inner Sarah Paulson, light the Black Flame Candle, marry a dead woman (then invariably leave her for someone really, really boring)! Whilst a COVID Oxford may be about as conducive to trick-or-treating as the Massachusetts Bay Colony, our cultural obsession with Halloween has left us with plenty of festive options for a socially distanced Samhain, whether you’re dressing up as Carole Baskin or Carrie. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous (read: lonely), one tradition states that, so long as you’re unmarried, you can sit in a darkened room and stare at a mirror on Halloween night; the face if your future spouse will appear in the mirror. In a less festive move, if you’re destined to die unwed, you’ll see a skull hovering in front of you. Hey, at least it’s not OxMatch. A less fun version involves baking some salty bread, eating it in three bites then going to bed, in silence, without drinking any water. Apparently, you’ll have a dream where your spouse offers you something to drink. I like to think this tradition stemmed from someone being really annoying at the medieval equivalent of Halloween party: “Haven’t you heard? If you shut up and go to bed right now, you’ll find your husband!” Try it out on that one person in your household who doesn’t get involved with the Monster Mash. In a year that’s seemed like one painfully long Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween can be one night of the year where we don’t actually need to be afraid of the dark. Ben Jureidini

limited to 6 in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines. Dress-up is encouraged. Dragprov LIVE at the Oxford Playhouse 7th November, 20:00

The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Mad Hatter 30th October, 16:00 and 19:00. Damn it, Janet! The Mad Hatter are screening The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with drinks, games and popcorn. Tickets are available for £6, and group sizes are

Christian Adore and Eaton Messe are a gloriously musical drag king and queen doubleact welcome you to a night of random music and drag. You’ll be in charge of the madness which is created in front of your eye featuring “dazzlingly vibrant cabaret from Broadway songs, to sketches, and spontaneous freestyle rap”. Expect songs, classic sketches, freestyles and much, much more. Tickets cost £15 and are available online.

Oxford Drink and Draw Meet-Up at the Cape of Good Hope 4th November, 19:00. Oxford Drink and Draw host their monthly meet up at the Cape of Good Hope. Bring your own sketchbook, but not your own booze! No booking required.

CulCher | Friday, 30th October 2020

H T E SO URC E

As the leaves begin to change their hues, The Source turns its eye towards the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

You’ll See Him Anna Stephen

Dawn and dusk are draped with mist Rain every night, daggery sunbeams Every morning. Clouds stacked in the sky like a log fire These things go unnoticed in turmoil. There’s a soft humming, a pulse that throbs underfoot

Rain cracks its whip Against the windows. The wielder: autumn. From the cottage in the cleft of the foothills You can see a flickering light, just out of sight And it stains the blackest night. Crossroads covered with leaves, mourning the absence of Sleeping drunken youths. They’re all sleeping by the fire in their blankets Because it’s already dark. Autumn’s fingers splattered with paint From his fiery palette. He thinks he’s an artist, but in fact He’s chasing a dying year, a year rolling onto its back Exhausted, too weary to perform any longer. The fire will fall away into the skeleton.

Long swallowed by the shriek of blurry Now. It’s the same autumn As watched by nobles in red silk Surrounding their virgin queen; The same autumn through which The horses of the light brigade thundered to inferno, And flat-capped men dragged the motorcar As they wrenched it into life. It’s the same autumn, a fickle painter but Not a forsaker. You’ll see him every year. Light the lamps. It will be so dark today, it will be so dark It will feel like dusk all day.

Friday, 30th October 2020 | CulCher

A Vision of Autumn

Charlie Taylor t was uncommonly sultry and dark when I arrived at the Winchester water meadows. The scene was a near stereotype, and it reminded me of those decrepit - far too embellished - landscapes you see in

many royal palaces. Dark canvases from wall to wall with a gaze rethought man by man to show a season wrapped in a bouquet, flourish and polish, sultry pastoral happiness down to the darkness of the very greens of the ancient cottage trees. You could imagine now where the grovelling artist would place those midnight blue pillars, romanesque ruins to an otherwise normal landscape. It was in this state of mind in which a variety of illusions came to me as I walked; down and down those far too trodden paths laden with leaves. They formed small pools of water from the far too recent rain.

Light cast out through the trees refracting around the long shadows of the grass, knifelike beams of pure light like dull office blinds. Bathed in light now the orange, yellow, red, fittered about in the air as it came to account within the beams of the orange light, like a bonfire on a lonely heath surrounded by the greenness of nature clinging onto remnants of summer. How they turn, and turn, and turn, softly as you look out in the early morning past the thatch eve runs, into the silence of the lost songs of spring which fill the air with the brisk sounds of leaves caught in amongst willowing wind. Every syllable speaks of springâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sadness demesne, as it turns and turns and turns. Now the noise emerges from the red shadows, the red floor of the old forest comes alive as it forms: and turns, and moves, and forms, and sees, and shakes, and moves, and turns, and turns, and turns, sand dripping through the hourglass, the rotting fruit of a Dutch still life, fortune and her wheel, orange-tinged and yellow air in the soft dying of the morning mist which begins to lift. I continue to walk.

Finally the mist lifts and the blueness of the sky becomes visible. A moon on the horizon, water still, mirrorlike, and clear. Above a noise descends, drooping and getting louder. Gathering swallows twist and move, noise fills the air as they make their way through the trees, turning and forming as the light comes together. But the shadow of melancholy still lurks in the depth of this garden. I wonder what John Keats thought when he made this walk two hundred years ago. His season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Looking up I imagined how the scene would look from below, through the midnight blue tree trunks and the floor littered with a rosy hue, and how it turns, and turns, and turns, and turns. Immortalising that perfect decrepit landscape.

Illustrations by: Charlotte Bunney, Lizzie Daly, Amir Pichadze Submit your creative writing to The Source at: culturecherwell@gmail.com

CulCher | Friday 30th October 2020

BOOKS FORGIVE ME, KATHERINE MANSFIELD, FOR I HAVE SINNED BEN JUREIDINI REMINDS US NOT TO OVER-ANALYSE LITERATURE AT THE EXPENSE OF ENJOYMENT

orgive me, Katherine Mansfield, for I have sinned. I thought I was being very clever, is all; I thought I was reinventing the wheel, re-writing the short story. Katherine Mansfield if I had not, sitting on the sofa in my great-aunt’s living room, surrounded by statuettes of frogs, read a letter from Flannery O’Connor to [English professor], I would have submitted for publication to this very paper an article suggesting your work to be a phenomenological rendering of both Einsteinian space-time and Sartre’s bad faith. I understand that this apology may require some context. Born into the New Zealand social elite of 1888, Katherine Mansfield would go on to rub shoulders with the English literary elite. Granted, this shoulder rubbing occasionally tended towards shoulder shoving – “I thought her cheap and she thought me priggish,” wrote Virginia Woolf – but Mansfield’s impact on literature is undeniable: “and yet we were both compelled to meet simply to talk about writing.” Mansfield’s “quality” was pretty much exclusively dedicated to short stories. It was her mastery of this genre that meant Mansfield was the topic of a Hilary Term essay on ‘The Modernist Short Story’ – it was either her or Dubliners and, having groped my way through Ulysses that Christmas the prospect of reading any more Joyce was offensive on a cellular level. The question I chose, priggishly, was ‘Discuss the Presentation of Space and/or Time.’ I apologise, Katherine Mansfield, I really do. The essay I would go on to write, and, reader, the article I had drafted and readied for this very publication, would, I see now, have Mansfield, alongside pretty much every other writer of fiction, willing to cross both space and time in order to beat me around the head with a copy of Crime and Punishment. Having read Bliss and Other Stories and The Garden

Party and Other Stories, I took these two seminal texts and, through some pretentious undergraduate alchemy, managed to come out with: “In light of Joseph Frank’s argument that short stories are organised through spatial form, whereby webs of patterned images construct meaning rather than logical, coherent, and temporal plot movement, and WJT Mitchell’s notion of ‘spatiality’, whereby the short story is structured around the space of the world, the space of temporal moments, and the spatial ‘map of the possible hypotheses for the structures of meaning a text might contain’, it becomes clear that Mansfield associates this sense of existential liminality with her depictions of space.” Try reading that in one breath, I dare you. It most definitely does not become clear. With a sentence as bloated as an Aldi three-bird roast dinner, and with equal literary merit, this theorisation, problematisation, and various other thumbscrew-like -isation words, sucks every ounce of emotion, every ounce of bliss, from Mansfield’s work, reducing her to academic jargon and what I’m sure is a painful misunderstanding of theoretical physics. I confess this was the main thrust of what used to be this article. I confess I went into that tutorial thinking I’d pretty much sussed the short story. I confess I stood by the phrase ‘existential liminality’. This is where Flannery O’Connor comes in. A titan of the form herself, O’Connor received a letter from an English professor who, having discussed “A Good Man is Hard to Find” with his undergraduate class, wrote to the author with some questions: “Bailey, we further believe, identifies himself with the Misfit and so plays two roles in the imaginary last half of the story. But we cannot, after great effort, determine the point at which reality fades into illusion or

reverie. Does the accident literally occur, or is it part of Bailey’s dream? Please believe me when I say we are not seeking an easy way out of our difficulty.” O’Connor, to her credit, replied: “The interpretation,” she wrote, “of your ninety students and three teachers is fantastic and about as far from my intention as it could get to be.” Her writing, she tells the professor, is not an academic exercise in abnormal psychology. She cautions against reducing fiction to a “research problem”, for which “any

“THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR IMBUING MOMENTS OF YOUR LIFE WITH THE WATERCOLOUR INTENSITY OF A SHORT STORY” answer is believable so long as it is not obvious”. “Where feeling for a story is absent,” she warns us, “theory will not supply it.” Joseph Frank’s spatial form, WJT Mitchell’s spatiality, Sartre’s existentialism, nor Einstein’s whatever are necessary to describe why Mansfield’s stories are so enchanting. Mansfield herself already has. Can you ever forgive me, Katherine Mansfield? let me try to make some kind of amends for this disfigurement of your work. There is an abundance of theory on what makes a short story a short story: it is not, apparently, by virtue of not being long. I really, really hope, however, that spatiality and spatial form are all that describe the form. The clue, I think lies in the titles of these collections: and other stories. These are not novels, cannibalistic be-

hemoths culminating, apparently, in Joyce’s Ulysses, but stories. Like a bundle of fairy stories, these brief descriptions of a journey, or a moment, or a party, are ephemeral, to be read in one sitting. Mansfield’s stories are not comforting by any means, they are often disturbing, following a character coming to terms with the realisation that the world might be a nastier place than they once thought. This process of learning, of confronting ageing, heartbreak, and death for the first time, of understanding that wolves and men lurk in the shadows of seaside villages, is a pre-cursor to Angela Carter’s bombastic The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. Whilst these tales are more overtly rooted in fairy stories, albeit it with the x-rated content magnified, they look back to Mansfield’s portrayal of a Cinderella silently terrified of the ball that marks her first step into adulthood, or two (step)sisters coming to terms with what meaning life has after the death of their father. The phrase Bliss and Other Stories reminds us to view our own experiences as just that, to look at the ephemeral moments in our lives as tiny fairy stories. Try it, as an experiment: Making Toast and Other Stories, The Trip to the GP and Other Stories, Sitting on the Sofa for Eight Hours Straight because it’s Illegal to Leave the House and Other Stories. Garden parties, train journeys, sitting in the park and being a bit sad, Mansfield turns moments into miniature fairy tales. She is, naturally, aware that this can’t always work: the heart-wrenching Miss Brill is a six-page silent breakdown as an elderly woman realises her life is not a play; there is no script, and no one is watching. But there is something to be said for imbuing moments of your life with the watercolour intensity of a short story rather than the dodgy physics of a research problem: sometimes you really can be the main character. Do it for Katherine Mansfield.

Cherwell Recommends: Social Satire

EIGHT WEEKS, EIGHT GENRES OF LITERATURE. THE BOOKS EDITORS OFFER UP THEIR TOP THREE SOCIAL SATIRE RECOMMENDATIONS.

rom Chaucer to Gossip Girl, irony, exaggeration and good old humour are the tools of trade that satirical works use to critique society. Often, owing to its long history in Western canon, the “classics” of social satire can be rooted in contexts which aren’t relatable for most readers— a few hundred years out of date, their humour referencing cultural modes now fairly uncommon. Yet this week’s recommendations belie the assumption that social satire should be forgotten as the stuff of high school English class. Asian heiresses in the 2010s, nineteenth-century New Yorkers, and good old Oxford students all find themselves the subjects of satirical discussion. Spanning time periods and the globe, these works tell us that the diversification of subjects and settings within a literary genre can only serve to increase its appeal. You can play a fly on the wall halfway around the world, and still find something relatable enough to laugh at. To paraphrase from Anna Karenina, while all normal people are normal in their own way; the ridiculous can be ridiculously alike. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Eve, Books Editor Brideshead Revisited is Evelyn Waugh’s love letter to the city of Oxford, and the nostalgia of its “centuries of youth.” The narrative follows Charles Ryder, a student befriended by the enigmatic character of Sebastian Flyte. Charles is adopted into the excess of Sebas-

tian’s world, “its toys were silk shirts and liqueurs and cigars and its naughtiness high in the catalogue of grave sins.” The Flyte’s country home becomes the center of Charles’ world; ‘Brideshead’ a magnet that he is drawn to time and time again. Waugh’s portrayal of the sheer excess of the students’ lifestyle is a recognition of the ridiculous: their privilege at once comic and deeply unsettling. Sebastian’s toy bear, for example, leads a student life most could only dream of, “I have a good mind not to take Aloysius to Venice. I don’t want him to meet a lot of horrid Italian bears and pick up bad habits.” Speaking to the disillusionment faced by a generation of young men in the postWWI years, Waugh satirises the lives of an indulgent aristocratic society, clinging onto deteriorating values and traditions. Brideshead is compulsory reading for all Oxford students; at once a celebration of the recklessness of youth and a call to examine the University’s elitist structures, yet to be confined to the past. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbon Amelia, Deputy Editor

When recently orphaned urban socialite Flora Poste arrives to stay with her distant cousins on Cold Comfort Farm, she finds rural life embroiled in an emotional, religious and sexual chaos. Being a modern woman, Flora decides it is her job to set this right - and so begins the hilarious satire of country living. Gibbons mocks the rural novel which she believed had descended into parody. The likes of Hardy and Lawrence depicted a romanticised countryside full of strong emotions and passions - but what seemed brooding and mysterious becomes farcical in Cold Comfort Farm. Gibbons introduces something intended to be profound and passionate, but renders it ridiculous with Flora’s bemused reaction. The novel is the final nail in the coffin for the so-called ‘loam and lovechild’ genre, but it remains laugh-out-loud funny even to a modern reader. Gibbons doesn’t stop at rural life either; city girl Flora, our heroine, is a perfect caricature of the urban experience, and some of her observations make for all-time favourite book quotes. Cold Comfort Farm was one of my first forays into classics, and its readability and silliness became an instant hit with me as it did when it was first

published in 1932. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Devanshika, Deputy Books Editor Adiga’s writing is taut, a stream of consciousness narrative that lays bare a rapidly changing social milieu through the eyes of a rural-urban migrant who becomes a chauffeur to the rich. No, India isn’t actually this brutal, gritty or sordidly unjust: one piece of satire can’t summarise an entire country, but this is a Booker Prize winning introduction enjoyable for its wit and Thackeray-esque character sketches. The narration is often disconcerting— taking the form of a letter from the protagonist to Chinese Premier Jiabao— at times overly frank, deeply incisive and deliciously unreliable. It races from theme to theme, with a Gatsby like critique of impossible social mobility; anti-capitalist sentiments suddenly paired with oddly right wing notions. There’s no denying that this is a dark novel, motifs of injustice and violence permeating every page, but it draws you in with the deeply human story at its heart. Good literature isn’t always fun, and not every piece of social satire can be set in a chintz furniture drawing room. White Tiger lays out its point perhaps a bit too starkly (this isn’t purple prose), but it’s still worth a read for its unique take on previously overused satirical tropes and perspectives. Illustration: Anja Segmüller

Friday, 30th October 2020 | CulCher

STAGE

WHY DO WE GET SCARED? Miqueas Lopez explores the nature of fear in different subgenres of horror theatre.

he theatre’s ability to produce feelings in us - such as fear - that are generally perceived to be negative has been a fascination in aesthetic theory for centuries, and sparked controversy ever since. Aristotle declared theatre as morally condemnable just for the ability to inspire such feelings in its audience. Others have praised it as a form of emotional catharsis; a way to explore fear in a safe environment. What is the nature of these versions of fear and the relationship between them, and why do we actively seek it out? When talking about the fear we seek out from the media we consume, it might be easier to divide fear into two ‘versions’. Firstly, there is the exciting version of fear highly sought after by the millions of people worldwide who flock to watch new horror releases at the cinema. The horror film industry has been growing steadily over the last few years, as we can see from examples such as the 473.1 million USD generated by IT Chapter II in 2019. Secondly, there is real fear, which we find is the unpleasant one, the one that keeps us up at night; the one we want to avoid. I sought out the former from an early age, begging my mum to let me watch horror films from around 11, and craved the adrenaline rush of it. This would soon come back to bite me as the ‘real’ fear gripped me once I turned off the lights to go to bed. This distinction between the different versions of fear is present if we compare different subgenres within the horror genre. Many horror buffs find watching intense gore difficult and experience revulsion – whereas they can and do experience the rush of fear-adrenaline when watching psychological horror, for example. We can show the distinction between real and artificial fear through this if we consider that gore is entirely visual and often extremely realistic; it is simply not received by the brain as artificial, so the fear that we derive from it isn’t artificial either. Although we know it’s not real, it’s easy for the brain to understand it as such, whereas much of psychological horror is left to the imagination. Gore is capable of creating the ‘real’ version in this sense, while psychological horror is more capable of capturing the artificial version. In his TED-ex talk, ‘Why Tragedies are

“

Alluring’, David E. Rivas unpicks the rules of Greek tragedy, which deals with the inspiration of negative emotions, if not specifically fear. The tragic hero, he says, has to be of elevated social standing, but must also be a character the audience can relate to. They are neither perfectly good, nor perfectly bad, and they have one particular character flaw prominent throughout the play. Tragedy is marked by a set of specific and rigid rules. We experience the tragic through a set of conventions that we have created, and that we are personally aware of; even our fictionally-created fears are tightly controlled in this sense. We can experience and explore them with an acute awareness of our own detachment, clinging to the safety of structure and control. Other genres of theatre don’t quite align with this. In his paper ‘Fear of the Unknown; one fear to rule them all?’, Nicholas Carleton argues that all of our fears and anxieties stem from one base fear of those things that we don’t know, or can’t explain. The rise of 20th century absurdism fits into this account very neatly; Beckett’s work sees characters repeatedly picking up props and immediately placing them back again, for no apparent reason; Ionesco’s La Cantatrice Chauve doesn’t have anything to do with the ‘cantatrice chauve’ referenced by the title – when she is mentioned, the characters appear uncomfortable and change the subject. The audience is never quite sure what is supposed to be going on, and this creates a deeply unsettling effect that is tangibly different to that created by Greek tragedy. If fear is divided into the artificial and the real, Greek tragedy feels more closely tied into the former, while absurdist theatre strangely feels more aligned with the latter. But perhaps this is caused by the fact that this is the intended reaction to absurdist theatre; the lack of structure or consistent interpretation deliberately creates a deep uncertainty, and the concrete structure present in Greek tragedy allows us to avoid this. The ways in which we play with fear through theatre are varied, and don’t necessarily conform to the idea that the horror genre only deals in artificial fear. Finally: why do we seek out these feelings in our theatrical consumption? What is the purpose of this in aesthetic appreciation on the whole? For some, it might be the

Fear allows us to imagine that there are wonders we haven’t discovered

adrenaline rush. A jump scare or well-done twist. For others, the unexplained may be appealing because it allows us to imagine that there is something more than what we know; it allows us to imagine that there are wonders in the world that we haven’t discovered. For me, I think the function of our love of horror is a deceptively important one. It allows us to explore uncomfortable situations and feelings in the safety and comfort of our own homes, alongside our friends and family, so that we’re better equipped at handling

them when we have to face them in real life. Greek tragedy permits us to relate to characters going through awful events and imagine how we might feel and react to them, while cushioning us in comforting rules and conventions. Absurdist theatre points us inwards, to ourselves, and presents us with a vision of our lives as entirely meaningless, a string of random actions and words that pass the time – but we’re still allowed to get up from our seats at the end, walk home to our warm houses, and step back into the comfort of the meaning that we assign to our lives.

REVIEWS/SHORTS

Student Theatre: Simulacrum Simulacrum is an original play written over lockdown this year. We had previously hoped to produce an ambitious, post-apocalyptic interpretation of The Tempest in Trinity 2020. Having spent a few months mourning the shelving of this plan once lockdown began, we set about writing Simulacrum. Set in the near future, the play chronicles a radical trial to upload human consciousnesses to the internet. It is told through the interactions of the trial’s first participant, the dead-yet-not-dead Julia, with her family, friends, and the enigmatic doctors who exercise absolute control over the Simulacrum. When Julia begins to lose her memories, it marks the start of a painful deterioration. Intense and immersive, Simulacrum aims to explore the dark consequences of unlimited access to the internet, corporate capitalism, our understandings of ourselves, and what it truly means to love someone.

Simulacrum has been written, in true 2020 fashion, to be produced over webcam technology, which is a new (and exciting!) venture for both of us. This means a number of things – people having to isolate makes our rehearsal schedules easier rather than harder, but we also had the wonderful and completely bewildering experience of conducting over eight hours of Zoom auditions (which did require a hefty pizza antidote). Luckily, we now have a wonderful cast, who we’re delighted to announce here: Cosima Aslangul, Elise Busset, Henry Calcutt, Georgina Dettmer and Gregor Roach, as well as Leo Kitay who’ll be producing some music for us. We’re very much looking forward to working with them and seeing what the next six weeks brings! Look out for Simulacrum in 8th week MT 2020, and in the meantime check Chaos Productions out on Facebook or on Instagram @chaos__productions. Riana Modi & Helena Aeberli

CulCher | Friday, 30th October 2020

FASHION

M 2 0 2 1

ILANO

FASHION

WEEK

lectable in miniature as they would have been on live models. The brilliance of the set is almost enough to distract you from the outfits Scott put out for his S/S 2021 collection, but not quite. Some of the standout pieces included a baby blue ensemble with gorgeously tailored, slightly flared trousers and a stunning asymmetrical coat with flared cuffs. All of this was matched with a ruffled rose around the collar of the blouse producing an overall effect of elegant floral femininity. The matching baby blue, quilted purse bag with silver chain was an inspired addition and the detail of the seams and fastenings was exquisite. Later on, in similar muted tones was a layered gown with a pleated and ruffled edge of khaki green net. This was in stark contrast to the whimsical mellow watercolour inspired silk, think Monet’s waterlilies, fluidly rippling around the marionette’s legs. A hint of playfulness was added with a sequined strap producing a glimmering, watery image that soothed and relaxed. Interesting silhouettes continued throughout the show. A cross between the 60s in skirt length and the 18th century in skirt shape, all set in baby pink with delicate brocade, grabbed attention. Scott combined historical and modern fancy to produce something delightfully playful. The extreme of style and oddity continued in the almost fancy dress piece which was complete with turquoise feathered hem and collar. Upon first inspection this felt out of place in what is generally a very elegant collection, however the simple tailoring of the silk dress is elevated by the pop of eccentricity that in fact underscores not just Scott’s collection but the show itself. Overall Scott’s design dream can be captured in one word; whimsical. He produced a multi textured, full of fancy, and updated vision of some classical 40s Chanel and Audrey Hepburn silhouettes, with pastels and muted baby hues offsetting what is certainly a miserable British October.

espite the trials of corona derailing most plans, Milan Fashion Week has soldiered on. Its flare for showmanship and drama are as present as ever, and possibly more welcome than ever before. Milan dazzled with dreamy spring silhouettes, whimsical floral details, contrasting pops of colour, and bold styling choices. But, in a sea of excellence, there were two shows that stood out the most for me. Capturing both the spirit of what a S/S show should be and also adapting to these peculiar times were the Moschino show, creatively directed by Jeremy Scott, and Philosophy’s show, directed by Lorenzo Serafini. In terms of pure artistry and drama, Moschino’s show is at the forefront of a new cutting age movement. There is simply no contest. Jeremy Scott managed to produce an entire collection scaled down to miniature and modelled on beautifully crafted, individually unique marionettes complete with hair and makeup, shoes and accessories. The audience too was on top form. A puppet version of Anna Wintour, complete with statement black sunglasses and a sleek bob, occupied the front row along with Vogue UK’s editor, Edward Enninful. All these marionette stars were seated socially distanced and cushioned by a classical soundtrack to add elegance and elevate what could very easily have descended into a circus performance. In terms of theatricals, Moschino reigns supreme in its ability to effectively and humorously adapt to these new times without forfeiting any detail in design or serious appreciation of fashion. These miniature outfits had no detail spared and were just as de-

Friday, 30th October 2020 | CulCher

Serafini’s shows on the other hand had none of the classical silhouettes and styling of the silver screen era. Instead, he opted for a semi-undressed ‘screw the establishment’ ambiance, with under-garments acting as outer-garments and oversized blouses fighting to be released from the constraints of corseted underwear. Layering and an overall purposeful dishevelling gave the impression of a femme fatale taking the world on, on her own terms. The entire show was presented in a garden, socially distanced. The beautiful surroundings felt refreshing and clean cut, with a dash of femininity and a large dollop of power and self-autonomy. Floppy hats, present on every model, acted as a blast from what feels like a bygone era of millennial summer festival wear. Delicately crocheted and coyly flapping around the eyes they revealed glimpses and flashes of subtle makeup and shining eyes. The festival feel was reinforced with non-intrusive grey wellies splashed with feathered paint in pastel colours to offset the overall 19th century, country retreat colour palette of creams, whites, green, and blue. Black of course was ever present, but used sparingly and stylishly in sleek tailoring beneath the more extravagant crisp white blouses which erupted from the strictures of boned undergarments. Standout pieces included a pair of cropped, embroidered light beige corduroy trousers with gentle floral patterns across the front crotch, pockets and hips. On top was a puffed sleeved, crisp white blouse with an extreme page boy collar, itself underneath a striped double breasted waistcoat with sparkling golden buttons. A clash between feminine and tomboy which landed somewhere closer to powerful sexiness. Quickly following was a paint splattered white cotton ankle length dress, open from neck to hem and fastened with a bulky, black mis-threaded corset belt. Atop, a pale yellow crocheted hat decorated by a playful blue ribbon offset the crisp monochrome of the simple black spaghetti-strapped body suit. Again, Serafini presented a full

19th century under-suit complete with strapped corset and pantalettes in a muddy green and white; the corset ripped open and hanging loosely over a white vest top. The only element to break up the seemingly neutral outfit: a splash of red with the hat, drawing attention to the face and making the whole outfit appear to be a rebellion against the institution. Even in the more elegant and ceremonial ball gowns, the Philosophy collection dazzled. Black lace and taffeta ballgowns, straps fallen off the shoulders, and outrageous side splits revealing chequered and muted undergarments: all unbuttoned. The only nod to polite society featuring in a drooping silk rose brooch in a dark mauve. Underwear as outerwear continued throughout the collection as ruffled taffeta skirts billowed out from loosely tied corsets, and billowing shirts with fairy-tale puff sleeves exploded out of constraining belts and waistcoats. The overall feel was a punk edge to what was an otherwise calm, elegant, and gentrified styling, tailoring, and colouring. The entire collection, even down to the set, felt like a ‘Brideshead Revisited’ country bumpkin, spreading her wings at a northern metropolitan university: finding her feet, her first love, and a few mistakes along the way. A masterpiece. Milan Fashion Week has provided a breath of fresh air and a silver lining to the cloud that is the drawing in of cold October nights, torrential showers and crisp autumn leaves. With bold colours and styles, we’re in for a treat as the trickle down to High Street shops begins. I look forward to what Fashion Season has to offer us as the shows continue to roll out.

ARTWORK:

M ALLIKA JOY P

WORDS:

OPPY ATKINSON GIBSON

CulCher | Friday, 30th October 2020

MUSIC

PLAYLIST “CANDELABRAS LIGHTED”

HUMAN FLY The Cramps 2006

I’LL CUT YOU DOWN Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats 2011

TRANSYLVANIAN CONCUBINE Rasputina 1996 Full playlist on Spotify by Gemma Robson

‘CHANGE IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY’ – MORE THAN JUST A SONG Fred Waine speaks to Keble’s Paddy Renehan and his friend and collaborator Jesse Francis about their new Black Lives Matter project and single.

n the 25th May 2020, George Floyd, a Black American man, was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin in an act of violence that was broadcast to millions on social media. The world proclaimed its outrage and support for the Black Lives Matter movement briefly surged. Yet Keble student and aspiring DJ/producer Paddy Renehan observed the inaction of many of his White peers. The result of Paddy’s frustration is the tion between that initial moment of checking release of a single and online resource, both social media, seeing the video, [which] I was titled Change Is Your Responsibility, created massively affected by, and then [writing] the in collaboration with, among others, schoolchords for the strings in response to that on friend and rapper Jesse Francis. The track itself the same day. That’s why it’s such a central is a hybrid of string-backed spoken word and part of the whole concept. high-tempo, uncompromising grime, Jesse C: And the lyrics came from a similar drawing from personal experience to address place too? the problems of a systemically racist society. Jesse: I had a conversation during lockdown The accompanying website is designed to with my brother about how authorities will make White people rethink and inform their sometimes twist and manipulate narratives views on movements such as Black Lives Mat– that’s how the first spoken word part came ter, and the deep issue of racism in our society. about. Then Paddy contacted me . . . and I was Cherwell spoke to Paddy thinking about how I and Jesse about the pro- “WHEN PADDY HIT ME UP AND wanted to come across, cess behind and goals SENT ME THIS, I WAS LIKE: THIS especially because as a for the project, which IS 100% SOMETHING I WANT TO Black person and somedrops on October 30th: one who’s not had the BE THE VOICE ON.” easiest upbringing . . . if Cherwell: How did the idea for Change Is I am to talk on these things, I want to do it the Your Responsibility come about? right way. When Paddy hit me up and sent me Paddy: I’d been working on some projects this, I was like: this is 100% something I want and I had the idea of bringing an artist onto a to be the voice on. track that I’d produced for Black Lives Matter. C: So this was definitely a timely colI was speaking to Jesse, we got talking about laboration: you needed each other at that BLM, and I was like: I’ve got this demo, would moment, I guess? you be down to do something with it? Jesse was P: When we actually got together and colreally keen, sent some stuff over straight away, laborated, we were so productive, it was crazy. and then we did the bulk of the recording in Me and Jesse have known each other for ages studios sessions over lockdown. – when we came together it just elevated the C: Unfortunately, a lot of the momentum game so much. We work really well together surrounding BLM came following the and that collaborative idea made the track death of George Floyd. How did that affect what it is. you guys? J: Paddy . . . was able to give me [the] ideas P: It was weird – I watched that video to be able to voice my opinion in the right way. and wrote the opening chords pretty much It was definitely an emotional process – there straight after. There’s quite a strong connecwas joy as well at the end, when we finished

REVIEW: DECLAN MCKENNA’S ZEROS Miqueas Lopez reviews McKenna’s sophomore album: an exploration of youth which does not disappoint.

eleased three years after his debut album, What Do You Think About The Car?, Declan McKenna’s second studio album, Zeros, represents the ultimate marker of his progression. McKenna rose to fame as the sixteenyear-old winner of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent award. Today, aged twenty-one, McKenna emerges on Zeros with the artistic persona he has aimed to cultivate as an adult. Despite being written and produced before the arrival of COVID-19, its slow release over the lockdown period reflected much of the emotion and discourse of that time. The album questions the nature of our future, alludes to social condemnation,

determinism, and explores some of the darker aspects of human nature. McKenna takes the old – ‘Be An Astronaut’ is heavily influenced by Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, fitting in well alongside punchy analog synth and the occasional foray into psychedelic rock – and reframes it into a set of abstract questions about our future as human beings. Zeros does all this while maintaining a buoyant and upbeat feel; often described as “good to dance to”. The opening track, ‘You Better Believe!!!’ takes us here immediately, opening with sudden and overpowering snare drum rolls and electric guitar. The social claustrophobia present in many of the tracks gives this ‘punch’ a new dimension. The first lines of the first

track are a half-shouted “You’re gonna get yourself killed / Before you can run”, followed later by “Oh I’m sorry my dear / The asteroid’s here”. Suddenly, the almost overpowering rock sections sound more frantic than upbeat and optimistic. ‘Emily’, the sixth track, takes us out of this futuristic synth-packed set and back to something reminiscent of older works, with its Fleetwood Mac inspired acoustic accompaniment. It’s a distractingly different sound compared to the rest of the album. McKenna notes that, in comparison to the rest of the record, the track is about “toxicity on a personal level – where it’s not the big world anymore, it’s actually quite direct”. This album also sees the introduction of Daniel, a character who appears in tracks ‘Be an Astronaut’ and ‘Daniel, You’re Still a Child’. Daniel’s role in the album hasn’t been explained by McKenna himself, but this character seems created by him as a means of exploring themes of youth, social determinism, and social condemna-

the track. There’s that sense of unity. I definitely hope it resonates with people. C: So how is the website designed to be used and experienced? P: The website is meant to showcase the whole concept of CIYR. It’s meant to get people to act on issues like BLM and not just show sympathy. Because we’re all inherently lazy – it’s a sad thing but unfortunately a lot of what happened, in my opinion, was that people just wanted to tick the box, post a black square. So we took things like Carrds and BLM toolkits from the well-known, reliable websites, and [brought] them together so that they’re easily accessible. We’re trying to use the site to showcase certain issues like how to use your white privilege. In the basic sense, it is just a resource, but the platform itself has massive scope to grow. C: More generally, what has your guys’ experience of the BLM movement been since it gained traction earlier this year? J: It was the right time for awareness to be brought to [BLM]. I have noticed that there definitely has been a difference. But sometimes I notice that people are doing [things] because of [the fact that I’m Black]. I’ve noticed a lot of people will feel like they have to be careful. But rather than being careful about what you say it’s about changing your mindset and changing what you’re thinking from the start. It’s not about what people see you do, it’s about your actions and your thoughts. Change Is Your Responsibility launches 30th October at www.changeisyourresponsibility.com and on all major streaming services. tion. He sings, “You were born to be an astronaut, and you’ll do that or die trying”, lamenting that “on and later on / You will tell them what went wrong / And they’ll say you’re lying”. With the album released in the middle of the pandemic, the character Daniel may now come to represent a character for young people who feel disappointed and disillusioned with current world events, and attacked for questioning them. In a world of anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, and disappointment with government reactions to Covid, he gives a name to the young; a name to the questioning; and a name to the confused and angry. Declan McKenna paints an image of youth, a time not only for questioning the ideas we’re taught about the world and the ways we should live, but also of becoming aware of the social limitations of this questioning.

Image: Drew de Fawkes

Friday, 30th October 2020 | CulCher

FILM

A GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE PERFECT DATE NIGHT FILM

MUST SEE IN THEATRES

Now it’s officially cuffing season, Thomas Outen lends a helping hand with the do’s and don’ts of watching films with a date

n the days before ‘Netflix and chill’ going to the cinema was undoubtedly one of the most popular activities for a first date. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be disturbed during something as light-hearted as a 90s Louis Theroux, let alone Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. However,when it comes to finding a date who’s willing to watch something as niche as a Sonny Chiba triple feature with you, things become a lot more difficult. In True Romance (written by Quentin Tarantino), the protagonist Clarence Worley eventually meets the woman of his dreams when they bump into each other at the cinema that very night. This shared interest lies at the very heartof their relationship. So, what is the best film to watch on a first date and why? It seems to be universally accepted that a thriller film constitutes the perfect pretext to move a bit closer to one’s supposedly terrified date. The film industry has arguably catered to generations of young couples with countless cheap romances and salacious scenes in order to set the mood for later on. It essentially looks a little like this: budget spent on a couple of big stars, flimsy storyline with the sole aim of arriving at the big

sex scene, commercially successful but ultimately forgettable film. It was this that Godard parodied in Le Mépris by ensuring that the nude scene withsex icon Brigitte Bardot appeared right at the beginning of the film, thus allowing the viewer to engage properly with his drama, freed from the suspense of waiting to see Bardot in the nude. Is it possible to infer things about your date from their choice in film? The most notable exampleof this on screen must surely be Cher in Clueless failing to recognise that Christian is in fact a “disco-dancin’, Oscar Wilde-readin’, Streisandticket-holdin’ friend of Dorothy” from his choice of the homoerotic Spartacus. There are also surely some red flags to watchout for. We are all far too aware of the archetypal intellectual fuckboy™ who offers to show you a Tarantino film that ‘you probably haven’t heard of before’ or explain Hitchcock’s mastery while you watch Vertigo (*definitely not* lifted directly from Andrew Sarris’ The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968). But one must always be equally vigilant (if not more so) of the self-appointed man of the people, who wholeheartedly

The Big Bat and the Big Screen Khusrau Islam considers the troubling evolution of Batman, compareing the agressive Dark Knight of modern cinema with the moderate, master detective of the early comics and cartoons

he problem with the Batman of modern cinema is that he is not true to his source material (the comics and animated media). Christopher Nolan’s trilogy (Batman Begins, the Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) and Ben Affleck’s portrayal in Zack Snyder’s films (known as Batfleck), particularly Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are praised for being gritty and realistic. However, this gritty realism stems from an emphasis on brutality and violence. There are a few fundamental truths to the standard Batman incarnation. Firstly, Batman consistently has compassion, he is always looking to protect the vulnerable, with an especially soft spot for orphans, even going so far as to adopt three children. Secondly, Batman does not aim to eliminate crime through punching alone, but has a series of social programs, and charitable foundations

which he set up in the memory of his parents. Thirdly, Batman’s detective skills are part of what make him an impressive hero: he is called “the World’s Greatest Detective”. One of the most important aspects of Batman’s character is the fact that he does not kill. In the story Under the Red Hood, Batman is asked why he does not kill the Joker, a villain who constantly tortures and murders innocents. Batman responds that he refuses to kill him because “it’d be too damned easy” – Batman does not give into his own violent, sadistic tendencies. He sees that part of himself and rejects it. These are all part of the essence of the traditional character which prevent him from just being a pair of fists. It is true that in his recent cinematic incarnations, Batman does demonstrate some of these qualities – throughout the Dark Knight trilogy, it is implied that he is a skilled detective, and he is a compassionate character. However, these films are constantly focussed on violence and anger, such as in the infamous warehouse scene in Batman V Superman where Batman kills where he very easily could incapacitate. Even in the Dark Knight trilogy,

rejects the aforementioned behaviour in order to prove his ordinariness, and no his upbringing probably wasn’t normal. Really? A children’s film? For me, nothing beats the romance of a technicolour film. Something about the gloriously hyper-saturated visuals and wonderfully delicate soundtracks just does it for me. It was a time when Hollywood films provided some of the rawest emotion ever captured on screen. There is a particular sense of escapism with technicolour. The fairy tale-like visuals heighten the sense that you are viewing a completely differentworld. My personal recommendation would be Douglas Sirk’s All that Heaven Allows, a film about a middle-class widow (Jane Wyman) who falls in love with her gardener (Rock Hudson). Despite the critics of its time dubbing it merely another ‘women’s weepie’, a trash film appealing to female sensibility, it has come to be recognised as a scathing melodrama whose themes still feel relevant today. And it is this very appeal that is why it was remade twice, once in 1971 by cult German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Fear Eats the Soul and again in 2002 by Todd Haynes in Far from Heaven. I find there’s also something special about watching a film from another era. Many of my friends speak inalmost nostalgic terms about drive-in cinemas, despite having never lived during their golden era. And in perhaps a similar way, knowing that this 50s Hollywood film has been enjoyed by countless couples in the past appeals to me. There is something about picturing others in a similar position to yourself that intensifies the romance of it. It is almost as if you’re partaking in an age-old ritual. Sharing experiences and sharing popcorn. Image credit: Pixaby he flirts with murder, leaving the villain of the first film to die on a crashing train. And in these films, while the character’s psychology is explored, there is an emphasis on violence, such as in his methods of intelligence-gathering, which mostly consist of aggressive and illegal methods of interrogation. This trend of violence and murder by Batman is worrying. To start with, we lose the essence of this character, his immense capacity for self-control which distinguishes him from his villains. Admittedly, a story about Bruce Wayne’s philanthropy would not be the most exciting piece of cinema, but in modern depictions there are a wealth of character traits that are being ignored. Moreover, a Batman who kills certain criminals willingly but refuses to kill his most evil enemies who test him the most, is simply inconsistent and illogical. Such an adaptation leans on violence without considering its implications. As films start to lean on the more brutal side of Batman, we are left with the uncomfortable image of a character extrajudicially

BORAT 2 Sacha Baron Cohen's iconic Kazakhstani emissary makes a return to America, aiming to find a suitor for his daughter. Image: Flickr / Rogelio A Galaviz

TO STREAM

ROADKILL Hugh Laurie stars as a ruthless Conservative MP dodging personal scandals in this satirical BBC drama.

CLASSIC

FREDDY VS JASON Two of cinema’s most iconic slashers are pitted against each other in this tonguein-cheek flick straddling action and teen horror. Good for those wanting the Halloween spirit without the scares. playing judge, jury, and executioner as he sees fit. This is especially unsettling given the recent police brutality protests across the world, and especially the US. This sort of Batman easily becomes the champion of an aggressive police force with little scrutiny, since Batman can get away with choosing to kill whom he wishes, such as those random thugs in a warehouse. The focus on brutality in these films creates an association between Batman and violence and, since Batman is a hero in popular culture, glorifies it. In our current climate, as outrage over the excessive violence committed by law enforcement rises, portrayals of Batman in this vein risk glorifying the very corruption Batman has fought against; they blur the essence of justice and control at the centre of his character. As we look forward to Matt Reeves’ interpretation in 2022, the future of the character hangs in the balance: Batman will either die a hero or live long enough to see himself become the villain. Image credit: Flickr / Koch Anfoly.

Life | Friday, 30th October 2020

LIFE

10PM AS THE NEW 3AM: PUBBING IN A PANDEMIC Scarlett Tommons

magine for a moment the hum of drunken chatter frequently punctuated by shouts of laughter and an occasional slurred argument as hordes of people stumble onto the streets at the end of the night. You would be forgiven for thinking I was describing 3am on a Saturday night in 2019. Of course, these days, the streets are virtually empty at that time; in 2020, 10pm is the new 3am. Imagining a night out once everything had “blown over” was a reassuring thought back in the early days of the pandemic. However, eight months later it is clear that Covid-19 won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Hospitality and entertainment

venues are inevitably some of the first casualties in the government’s attempts to curtail a virus spread via respiratory droplets and close contact, with new rules enforcing a 10pm curfew and prohibiting “loud music” introduced at the end of September. Things look particularly bleak for live music artists, with social distancing requirements rendering many events unprofitable and livestreamed concerts and DJ sets seeming to have vanished alongside Zoom quizzes at the end of the first lockdown. A night of escapism dancing to loud music on sticky floors in unventilated spaces remains a distant prospect. As with many other things, we have been forced to adapt our social lives to comply with

the ‘new normal’, one which offers very little opportunity for spontaneity. There is now virtually no chance of a table at a pub on a Friday or Saturday night unless you book a week in advance, or you are willing to spend a large proportion of your evening in a queue. We must navigate the occasional awkwardness that comes with choosing a maximum of five people to go out with, for an evening that will inevitably be filled with glaring reminders of the pandemic with each round of hand sanitiser applied and track and trace forms filled out. Arguably, this year’s cohort of freshers will suffer the most from the impact of the pandemic on nightlife. For many, nights out provide an important opportunity to meet new people, yet there is now a growing group of eighteen-year olds who will have never (legally) been clubbing. A UK study found that rates of depression and suicidal thoughts increased particularly among young adults during lockdown. It is sadly not inconceivable that this trend is currently being exacerbated by the challenges of starting university during a pandemic, with many young

people leaving home for the first time likely to feel more lonely than usual without the conventional opportunities for socialising available to them. I am not suggesting that clubbing is the key to student happiness, but it is certainly an enjoyable social activity for many which can help to combat

the Bullingdon I had never heard of a few days before. This term, nights out have largely been replaced with drinks at home with my household, the atmosphere seamlessly transitioning from something reminiscent of ‘pres’ to ‘afters’ as we enjoy each other’s company into the early hours of the morning, without the hassle of a freezing walk or expensive taxi ride home. Paradoxically with the threat of Covid-19 looming, it is possible that this new style of living and socialising is conducive to a slightly healthier, more productive university experience. Personally, I have woken up feeling well-rested and ready to work far more frequently than I would have if clubs were open as normal. This said, the monotony of this style of living is probably already beginning to wear thin for many, with motivation becoming difficult to find with a lack of definite plans to look forward to. As much as it may feel reassuring to remind ourselves of the merits of 2020 nightlife, I imagine that few who were previously partial to a night at a club will be boycotting them when we eventually return to something resembling prepandemic life.

“WE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO ADAPT OUR SOCIAL

LIVES TO COMPLY WITH THE NEW NORMAL” potential feelings of loneliness at university. It is nonetheless possible to find silver linings within this far from ideal situation. Whilst our economy has suffered with the restrictions, students may have found it sightly easier to save money this year. As much as I miss going out, it has been something of a relief not to feel obliged to pay £8 for the privilege of standing in Bridge smoking area every week, or upwards of £15 to see a DJ at

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Life

Oxford Re-opened: Temple Lounge Review

Max Mutkin

efore the coronavirus pandemic, Oxford students who wanted to catch infectious diseases had to venture into Cowley. Back in the ‘old normal’, Temple Lounge – an Oxford institution in much the same way that Man vs. Food is an American one – was a mecca for signet-ringsporting rugby players, tin-toting footballers, ever-so-slightlyawkward subject gatherings, and (bizarrely) the occasional family of four with young children – that is, if Mecca were a medium-price curry restaurant with a shisha bar attached. Surprisingly little has changed. The walk across the Magdalen Bridge and into Cowley still has all the aesthetic charms of a walking tour through the centre of Birmingham. Once we had arrived, the food was up to its usual standards: the hummus and pitta was as flavoursome as ever, while one of your correspondent’s co-diners found the umami of white wine poured into a bowl of red curry very interesting. The yellow chicken was yellow, which is, at least, better than salmonella-pink. Likewise, the drinks did not disappoint. There was a wide array of wine on offer: the Echo Falls White tasted every bit as good as it looked; the citrus and peach notes of the McGuigan Estate Sauvignon Blanc were complemented especially by its presentation in a plastic cup; and, at the more expensive end of the scale, the Yellowtail Chardonnay lived up to its promise of ‘bringing a smile to

everyone’s lips’, as well as bringing problems to their gastrointestinal tracts. For non-oenophiles, a mini-keg of Doom Bar offered a balanced and moreish alternative in sophisticated packaging. Meanwhile, one fresher, opting for a bottle of Glen’s vodka, ended the evening looking paler (and less healthy) than a vampire Matt Lucas. In other words, all the ingredients for getting up close and personal with the inside of your toilet bowl were present and correct. Indeed, the ambience – ‘the atmosphere of a Persian bazaar’, as the website improbably claims – was only slightly diminished by social distancing. Awkwardly long slightly wobbly tables have made way for weirdly small slightly wobbly ones. Distance has increased the decibel level, if not necessarily the quality, of conversation. Although pennying is now banned – those wanting to find out what it was like in Stalingrad in 1942 will have to go elsewhere – much is the same. The lighting remains surgical, the service anything but. The artwork on the walls still has all the charm and idiosyncrasy of a Premier Inn built in 1997. Lap dances are permitted (provided masks are worn). Similarly, clothes-swapping is tolerated: those wondering how a six-foot-two man looks in an Urban Outfitters tube top, New Look miniskirt and A-cup pushup bra need look no further. Fortunately, shoes continue to be among the more hygienic drinking vessels available. When I woke up the next day, it felt like my brain was being used as a hamster wheel. Oxford hasn’t seemed more ‘normal’ before or since.

cherpse Grace Baghdadi New International Relations

CORONAVIRUS OR VERONA CRSIS? THIS WEEK’S ROMEO

How were you feeling before the date? Definitely nervous! I had no clue who it was going to be and if he would even show up lol.

How were you feeling before the date? Cool, calm and collected. Federer doesn’t get nervous before the Wimbledon final, and Vith is ready and rearing before a first date. It’s an instinct you can’t teach.

First impressions? I thought he was gentlemanly, fun, and all around a very cool vibe. Did it meet up to your expectations? Exceeded expectations tbh, I have heard so many horror stories from blind dates...

Vith Ketheeswaranathan Pembroke Medicine

“CHAT WAS FLOWING LIKE A FLAMINGO”

What was the highlight? When we had to switch a different bar because someone passed out in our pub and the police kicked us all out. Just kidding, it was when we bonded over liking sports!

What was the most embarrassing moment? Getting completely drenched enroute to the other pub! Describe the date in 3 words: Fun, Chill, Wholesome

First impressions? I wasn’t disappointed – she seemed lovely. The American/Canadian accent was a bit of a curveball but nothing in this world comes easy.

Did it meet up to your expectations? It definitely surpassed my expectations! Chat was flowing like a flamingo.. Added bonus was that she had also made a viral tiktok. What was the highlight? Probably when everyone got kicked out the Kings Arms by a SWAT team as something had happened in the toilets. The Lamb and Flag beckoned though so thankfully didn’t put a spanner in the works. What was the most embarrassing moment? Getting drenched in the rain which left some rather unfortunate wet patches on my shirt – I sorry Grace!

Is a second date on the cards? I think so.

Describe the date in 3 words: Enlightening, enjoyable, exhilarating

HOROSCOPE

Is a second date on the cards? Oh go on then.

VIRGO

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

LEO

21 March- 19 April

20 April - 20 May

21 May- 20 June

21 June - 22 July

23 July - 22 August

23 August - 22 Sept

Just because Covid’s around, doesn’t mean you don’t go all out. This year is still the perfect chance to rock a sexy anything costume. If you needed a sign to go for it, this is it. Sexy virologist anyone?

Your creativity is going to shine this year. Get the JCR to buy you a pumpkin, and thrive. Bonus points if there’s a competition with a cash prize - it’s yours for the taking.

Your impulsive nature made you pay £20 for a Bridge ticket last year. This year, stick to a cute household night in.

Underprepared and panicking, you end up raiding Tesco for the last bags of sweets on the night. Enjoy your Parmaviolets!

Thinking it would be fun, you and a few friends end up drinking in Uni Parks. You manage to convince yourselves its haunted, and end up running back to college wishing you hadn’t.

Lucky for you, your household decides to throw a party. Think costumes, themed snacks and decorations. You’re set to have the best Halloween in years.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

23 Sept - 22 Oct

23 Oct - 21 Nov

22 Nov - 21 Dec

22 Dec - 19 Jan

20 Jan - 18 Feb

19 Feb - 20 March

Rocky Horror Picture Show is not a tradition that Covid is going to steal from you. Like every year, you’ll be dressed up, throwing confetti and doing the time warp in style. If you’re not a fan I’d get practising!

Halloween isn’t traditionally romantic, but there’s something about the person dressed as a devil walking down Cornmarket that makes you reconsider that…

Find your bestie, because you two are going to kill it with a duo costume. Think Shaggy and Scooby, Addams family…trust me, you’ll nail it.

You will cross paths with a mysterious stranger… If you meet someone new that night, remember them. That won’t be the last time you two interact, but only you can decide how the story pans out.

Take a risk Aquarius! You need to stop living in your comfort zone. Halloween is the perfect chance for you to transform yourself for the night. Who knows, you may end up liking it!

Every year you swear off horror movies and end up awake all night. This year, why not find someone to help you keep the monsters away?

Life | Friday, 30th October 2020

TALES FROM THE HOUSEHOLD: LOCKDOWNSonya Ribner

onday, 6:32 p.m. The email arrives saying someone in the house has tested positive and you’re going into isolation for 14 days. We lead such active lives at university that the split-second change of an imposed lockdown can feel like a whiplash after a car slams on the brakes. Something analogous to the five-stages of grief ensues (denial – but it can’t really be 14 – anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – it is what it is) as the condolence texts flood your phone. Looking out on a 14-day line of dominoes, it can seem like the goal of each day is just to knock one down, but during my time in isolation I’ve found that the people in my household and our community as a whole has shown support for each other in spectacular ways. Given Oxford’s recent rise in coronavirus cases, it’s more vital than ever that we uphold our social responsibility by isolating so that we protect the vulnerable members of our city. With that in mind, here are some suggestions to help you make the most of lockdown: 1. House Events: Let’s be honest, you weren’t going to Park End anyway, so having some planned gatherings might be a step up for your social calendar. So far, my household has had drinks nights (which, if you’re not a drinker, could work to your advantage when it comes to the board game portion of the evening), dinners together, and movie nights (the Rudy Giuliani/ Borat shock may well have brought us closer as a household). 2. Indoor Workouts: One of the hardest things about isolation is, of course, not being able to go outside. Workouts in your room can help you take back control of your fitness. Pamela Reif, MadFit, and other training YouTube channels offer free high intensity workouts that let you sweat out some of the confinement. Also, if your friends or college will deliver items to your house, dumbbells can arrive quickly and provide a nice mind-muscle connection for tapping into your strength. 3. Food: I am not embarrassed to admit that I depended upon the kindness of others and take-out meals before lockdown. While it may be overstatement to say that, by necessity, I’ve come into my own as a chef, I am now a cooking-convert. Time in the kitchen has become one of the most cherished parts of the

day as my household and I catch up while sharing recipes, eating, and washing pots. We’ve found there’s something shockingly cathartic in taking raw ingredients and turning them into a nice meal for yourself. The obvious problem is of course that it’s hard to get the items you need for the full two weeks. I’ve personally found that anyone in our community is happy to help out people in isolation by going on food runs, but if you’d rather do the shopping yourself, Sainsburys and Tesco have delivery services and, for locally-sourced produce or specialty items, Farmdrop is an excellent – albeit slightly pricier – option. (For all of these, you have to plan a couple days in advance.) Of course, there’s a place for pizza delivery nights, too. 4. Work: This can tend more toward personal preference. Though I’m not a list-maker, I’ve found that writing down in the morning the different work items I want to accomplish in the day can be helpful. Not only does it give the hours some structure but, at the end of the day – even though I almost certainly have not finished the essay or gotten to the Beckett lecture – it’s still satisfying to see my progress. 5. Distractions: A word on procrastination’s evil twin. At Oxford, we’re always focusing on the next thing. Some of the best moments during lockdown have been when my housemates and I have made impromptu visits to each other’s rooms. Whether isolating with friends or people you hardly know, lockdown presents an opportunity to get to know your household in new ways. Drop-ins not only change up the tempo of the day but allow you some healthy distraction. When I came back to Oxford in October, I felt incredibly fortunate to be able to return to university when so many of my friends in the United States could not. I still do. Despite the difficulty lockdown presents, I cherish the ability to see my friends in safe settings and work in Oxford’s inspiring environment. I appreciate the tireless work of college administrators and staff who ensure our community stays safe and healthy. This term will inevitably present challenges. We are quite literally doing Oxford as no one has ever done it before. (How often can you say that at a 900-yearold institution?) At any moment you can get “the email.” But amidst the lack of certainty, creativity emerges. Now, I like knowing the only box I have to check in the nearterm is the one to vote in US elections from abroad. Lockdown doesn’t mean a two-week freeze on the clock when at any moment your household can have a new distraction. Image credit: Isabella Lill

sex & Relationships

n Fresher’s Week, with everyone thrown together to meet an abundance of new people, there’s always bound to be a few romances. Indeed, universities are always going to be full of love, heartbreak, sex, relationships, and everything inbetween. If you sometimes find these things pretty tricky to navigate, don’t worry - everyone else feels the same! Using Protection Don’t forget to always use protection; even if you are of the same gender or one of you is using birth control, you want to protect against STIs. Condoms will most likely be handed out to you at a number of points during Fresher’s so use them wisely. Check whether your JCR delivers free condoms or the morning after pill to your pidge, as many do.

Budding Romances No doubt there will be one or two faces during Fresher’s week which catch your eye - we’re only young and human. Don’t hold back if there’s someone you want to chat to or ask out! That being said, it’s important to first figure out what you are wanting from your first year experience, whether that be a bit of fun, a relationship, or anything else for that matter. Think carefully about what you want before jumping into anything - especially if they’re at your college or studying your subject (you might have to see them quite a bit!).

STIs Don’t put off getting checked! It can seem like a drag, but its always worth it for your health, the health of others, and your own peace of mind. Visit https://www.sexualhealthoxfordshire.nhs. uk/ to find out which clinic is nearest you.

Long Distance Relationships A lot of people get to uni still in a previous relationship. This can be really hard, especially if the relationship is long distance. While it’s important to invest in this relationship, make sure you don’t sacrifice your uni experience by spending too much time with your significant other, whether that’s on the phone or IRL. There are so many new people to meet and friends to be made! Long distance relationships can definitely work if you trust each other and are happy, but you should make sure your SO is not your only priority.

Love in the Time of Covid-19 It’s still a little uncertain how dating is going to work in the covid world. While going back to someone’s room on a night out might prove a little difficult, depending on college accomodation rules, there will always be pubs and restaurants, parks and cafes, for a bit of socially distanced dating to take place.

Read the full text in Keep Off The Grass, Cherwell’s freshers guide, available to read online at www.issuu.com/cherwellonline Illustrations by Rachel Jung

JOHN EVELYN

ohn Evelyn is pleasantly surprised to find himself already entering Fourth Week, and awaits rapidly the onset of the “tunnel” phase of hacking; of course, as in life, so too in politics, with hacks standing in firm opposition to the European tradition of a press blackout. News editors across the Oxford media are receiving questionably sourced anonymous envelopes on their virtual desks already, and John Evelyn can only assume this will increase in pace and desperation as we approach polling day. The Runner Up made clear his plans to jump ship since you last join us, dear reader, but rumour has it that word of his plan be-

ing read first in these esteemed pages was underappreciated by the best of Brasenose. The grass, it transpired, was not greener on the other side: perhaps because an old friend in failure, The Running Up Seccie, had already dug in . A smart political move from The Aussie to have somebody she can trust, and something The Late Etonian certainly can’t count on. John Evelyn was amused to hear The Runner Up insist he would go back to throwing “the entirety of his support” behind The Late Etonian. Perhaps some elementary maths would help both of these politics students - 100% of 0 is still 0.

John Evelyn leaves you this week with the news that the ex-Senior Access Officer has resigned her post. Yet another domino falling for an already beleaguered camp, or an odd case of a hack resigning a position from which they could further themselves before the campaign proper starts? Anyway, we hope and expect lot more gossip to report in the next edition; in the meantime, find JE on the ‘gram. You know you love me Xoxo John Evelyn

Life | Friday, 30th October 2020

FOOD SOCIETY EATS: HUNGARY

Robert Szirmai discusses Hungarian food, culture and history, and why we have to try its indulgent cuisine.

n my first few weeks in Oxford as a black pepper and horseradish, to name just fresher, I offered to make a Hungarian a few. meal for some of my friends one evenWhat accounts for this diversity is in great ing. I struggled for some time to cater to part that Hungarians are a motley group of the numerous vegetarians (often dismissed people who have been exposed to all sorts as ridiculous weirdos by many Hungarians) of other peoples over the centuries. The since the first dozen foods that came to my Hungarians (also called Magyars) were nomind were all based on rather fatty meat. I mads that came to the Carpathian Basin and eventually came up with lángos, a flat dough mixed with the locals as they founded their deep-fried and served with extra-thick sour state a millennium ago. In the tempestuous cream and cheese on top, which is a clascenturies afterwards, amidst wars, sic street food in Hungary. From the migration and changing state “HUNGA RIA N glee on their faces and the praise boundaries, Hungarians my lángos received, it was obwere influenced by GerCUISINE IS A vious that the adoration was man, Slavic, Turkish PRIME EX A MPLE OF not just exaggerated politeand Jewish cultures, ness from my friends. Yet no EXCESSIV E GLU TTON Y - making the country one asked for seconds. The a crucible of different food was so stodgy that peo- TH AT IS EX ACTLY W H Y IT peoples. This phenomple could only concentrate on enon is actually not IS WORTH TRYING” peaceful digestion. And that’s uncommon in the region, the essence of Hungarian cuisine: whose name and boundary delicious and distinctive flavours, and have always been subject to deexcess that is more suitable for feasts than bate: it’s usually called East-Central Europe, everyday meals. No wonder that according but some describe it as “In-between Europe”, to an OECD report, Hungary has the highest a territory hedged between Germans in the obesity rate in adults among its European west, Russians in the east and (formerly) the members. Ottoman Turks in the south. In this world, Put bluntly, Hungarian foods are made up the co-existence and interaction of various of grease, paprika, gravy, meat, paprika, a cultures have been the norm for centuries, bit more grease, and bread to help absorb it and Hungarian cuisine ought to be seen all – at least, that is the stereotype. At first in this light. It is particularly apparent in sight, this doesn’t seem quite enticing. But alcohol consumption: a strong beer culture while it’s certainly true that almost every came from the west (although not as strong Hungarian food is rather heavy, a more nuas in Czech lands), a wine culture from the anced view emerges on closer inspection Mediterranean (from which the internationwith a wide variety of soups, pottages, stews, ally renowned Tokaji brand emerged), and dumplings and different forms of confectionspirits from the east, with the fruity pálinka ery. Alongside paprikás and goulash (gulyás, as an example. At the same time, some foods named after cattle herders), which tick many are not distinctively Hungarian but are charof the boxes above with beef, paprika and acteristic of the region as a whole and each grease galore, there is a chilled, sweet fruit national cuisine has its own little tweak and soup with redcurrants, blackberries and name on them. Smetana (and its variants in sour cherries. Some of the recipes are just Slavic tongues) and tejföl (in Hungarian) are different variants of the ones used in other the same forms of sour cream, while ćevapi countries, such as lecsó, which is somewhat (in Croatian) and mici (in Romanian) are similar to ratatouille; crêpes in Hungary are similar minced meat rolls. filled with jam or sweet quark and raisins but What makes the Hungarian cuisine so more special recipes include chocolate and distinct to others is that it is ultimately a walnuts, or – you’d never guess – meat stew. subsistence cuisine: it developed in a time of In reality, paprika is not that dominant but food scarcity and for a body that sometimes gives room to other spices as well, like garlic, had to endure prolonged periods of time

without access to nutrition. So, the exaggerated importance of meat in the diet makes sense not just because of the nomadic past but also because Hungary was constantly ravaged by wars; keeping your calories in mobile livestock was more rational than keeping them in crops that could be easily scorched by pillaging armies. Much of what we see today as Hungarian cuisine developed from a poor man’s diet and became a national icon only later on. As a disclaimer, Hungarians don’t always eat all this heavy stuff – most of the food consumed day to day is international (or anational for that matter). But there is a persistent view in Hungarian that having a good meal involves eating until you feel your stomach explode, for which a greasy main course and creamy dessert form the fastest route. Personally, I could never in my life resist the temptation to put an unreasonably large heap of paprikás with dumplings on my plate, even when I knew that it wouldn’t end well. Pushy grannies with snide remarks about how thin you are get offended if you ask for mercy with watery eyes and your belt loosened after only the third course. True, just as everywhere else in Europe, health consciousness is rising: students are encouraged to do more exercise, while taxes on sugar, fat and salt are high in an effort to

trim waistlines; new cycling lanes are being introduced in Budapest, companies offering weight-reducing diets and food flourish. But whatever changes are taking place, they are incremental. The Hungarian obsession with getting a massive feast and feeling well-fed is borne with a sense of pride. Just recently, out of curiosity, a few friends and I embarked on a disastrous quest to consume an entire Dobos cake, a five-layer chocolate buttercream concoction topped with glazed caramel, in one sitting, leaving us, as one would expect, in a state of delirious regret. And yet there’s a reason I’m absolutely in favour of Hungarian cuisine: it is indeed ideal for feasting. Of course, this food is not meant to be eaten every day. But as every formal-loving fellow Oxonian would surely agree, we humans live to eat, not exclusively eat to live. The key to it is avoiding excess: it only becomes a sinful indulgence if you try to substitute your daily panini from Taylors for Hungarian food on a regular basis – it’s merely an earthly pleasure if you try it out once in a while to reward yourself. And pleasure it is. You just allow your palate to venture into an exciting new territory of unusual and rich tastes that drive you far from the dull and conventional impulses of your routine day. That sense of guilt coming with it only intensifies the experience. Image credit - Flickr/Dennis Jarvis

AUTUMN GOODNESS : CHICKPEA MINESTRONE Isobel Sanders shares her recipe for a comforting vegetarian minestrone.

oup. Found all over the world in a delicious diversity of forms - smooth, noodled, clear, bitty - soup is perhaps the ultimate autumn comfort food. When I was little, my mother would make us soups in various shades of red, orange, brown, and green. It was only after going to university that I truly came to appreciate it. For some mysterious reason, no soup could match that thick, burninghot homely bowl, no matter which college kitchen, no matter how many croutons were perched on top, no matter how expensive the formal hall. Now that I’m on my year abroad I find myself making soup every week automatically, trying to bring a bit of home into my white-washed student apartment. The following recipe started off as a pasta e ceci, a tasty traditional Italian dish, and ended up closer to a minestrone.

It’s flavour-packed but only requires one pan, and shockingly few fresh ingredients, making it the ultimate student kitchen fare: cheap, delicious, simple, and nutritious! It makes four portions; I usually eat one straight away, put one in the fridge for the following day, and put the remaining two in the freezer. Alternatively, make it for your flatmates on a cold autumn evening and finish it off in one sitting. Blankets and film night highly recommended.

Ingredients:

1 carrot, peeled and cut into small cubes 2 onions (one can be substituted for a stalk of celery if your fridge is super well supplied!), finely diced 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 200g frozen spinach Tin of chopped tomatoes Jar of chickpeas Any small pasta shape, though small gomiti (elbows!) work wonders Vegetable stock cube Olive oil

Method:

Heat some oil in a saucepan on medium. While this is warming up, prepare your carrot and onion. Add these to the saucepan and cook for eight minutes until soft but not burnt, adding the finely chopped garlic two minutes before the end. Crumble the stock cube into the pot and add the tin of tomatoes. Fill up the empty tin with water, swill around to collect

any tasty tomato bits hiding in the metal ridges, and pour into the saucepan. Allow to bubble on a low heat for another ten minutes with the lid on, then add in your chickpeas and frozen spinach and cook for four more minutes with the lid on. At this point, I highly recommend letting your soupy stew cool down, as you would with a ribollita, to allow the flavours to mingle and develop. If you don’t have the time, don’t worry, it will still be delicious! If you’re planning on serving it all in one go, you can add the pasta shapes directly into the pan and cook for the time stated on the packet. Smaller pasta shapes with a shorter cooking time work better. If planning on putting a couple of portions in the freezer, cook 50g pasta in a separate pan. When al dente, add to your soup brought back up to simmering. Don’t bother draining the pasta too well - a bit of pasta water is not a bad thing! Photo credit: Isobel Sanders Read the full article online at cherwell.org

Life | Friday, 30th October 2020

IN CONVERSATION WITH REBECCA BLACK

PROFILE

(her).’ They admired her resilience, the way channel], I do feel for the younger version is an edgy, sexy revenge tragedy condensed this plucky thirteen year old took death of myself that was hurt, who felt like she into four minutes. The song washes over threats and incitements to suicide on the couldn’t even say that. I wish I would have you as you witness Black transform from chin. “It felt easier to try to get myself to feel known when I was younger that it is 100% doting housewife to femme fatale teaming nothing than to feel hurt,” she says. okay to admit that you are hurt and that is up with her girl gang to murder an adulter “I was just trying to show that I could have so much better than trying to pretend you ous boyfriend. a sense of humour about it and be in on this are not, because then you start essentially Part of this musical transformation is joke,” she says. In her Rebecca Black Reacts to gaslighting yourself.” down to her self-development, though it’s ‘Friday’ video, there’s a moment around the “What I did wasn’t necessary some also due to Black’s more established ey this sucks, but you’re gonna’ be three minute mark where Black exchanges a thing that was so, so wrong. It was position in the industry. She famous. pained look with her audience as she cringes weird, and it was strange, and struggled to assert her voice “There’s not While not the worst thing at her creation, inviting herself in on the definitely not this beautiful in the immediate years after Rebecca Black would read about joke she had previously been excluded from. piece of art that I look back Friday. She recognises much to forgive herself that year, these words would come What strikes me most isn’t the vitriolic on. But I was a kid, and I that for young women to mark a turning point in her life when reaction she received from the public, but was trying something new, myself for - and that is especially “there are still she opened up her laptop one fateful day rather the way these interviewers make no and there is an innocence in people who are trying to forgiveness itself.” in March 2011. That was the day she went attempt to shield her from it. In an inter that that I think was lost at push those voices down.” from being Rebecca Black, the teenager from view with ABC, a journalist reads out one the time.” “It’s something that I’m Anaheim California, the drama nerd with an particularly nasty comment - ‘Friday is the still working on. Of course, as This self-awareness has unapologetic love of performing and Glee, worst song I’ve ever heard in my entire life, come to characterise her career a teenager, as a young person, as who had struggled with cliques and bullying even deaf people are complaining,’ - with no in the years after Friday. In 2013, she a young woman, I’ve got taken ad in the past but was starting to feel at home real understanding of the effect this might collaborated with Dave Days to produce Sat vantage of, whether people knew what they in her school’s musical theatre department, h a v e on a young Black. They framed her urday, the official sequel to Friday. Saturday were doing or not, and that’s alright. Unfor who had finally found the place where story in a very specific way; she became is more assured than its younger sibling, tunately it just happens. The best way that I she belonged, to Rebecca Black, a cautionary tale for a digital age. complete with the odd tongue-in-cheek have learned to work through that is to just that kid from the Internet. “I don’t think that the world homage. One shot shows Black eating her know my own power and that’s something I “Anyone who Black was just 13 when had as much responsibil cereal from a bowl that reads: ‘GOTTA HAVE didn’t know for a long time. And I probably Friday was released. The had this crazy, out-ofity in the way they treated MY BOWL.’ still have a lot to work on.” Black now enjoys song had been written for children,” she tells me, “it It shows an ability to self-parody lacking “100% control” of the music she produces. nowhere attention, you her by producer Patrice will still so fresh at the time in most 16 year olds. “I think that I have Her music taps into a zeitgeist I didn’t Wilson and released by his weren’t a person. You that people didn’t really know progressed much quicker in the aftermath know existed until I followed her on Spotify, production company – ARK what to do with it. Anyone who of Friday because of the severity of the deftly exploring the anxieties and dreams of were a spectacle.” had Music Factory, a short-cut this crazy, out-of-nowhere situation,” she tells me, “Saturday was in a generation that’s only just started to carve for aspiring musicians with attention, you weren’t a person. that self-aware space of not only being able a space for itself in the cultural landscape. parents willing to fork out You were a spectacle.” to have fun with it, but also take it back for “I want [my music] to represent the world $4,000 to give their kid the pop star Through the intense media coverage myself.” that we actually live in today as young peo experience. The video itself is a heavily au and the successful YouTube channel she While Saturday was a turning point, it ple, as queer people, as Gen Z, everything totuned portrayal of teenage awkwardness, launched in 2011, Black is in the unique po took a while before Black was fully free happening in our current climate,” she tells a day in the life of Black as she celebrates sition of having thoroughly documented her from Friday. “There was a time where I felt me. the end of the school week with her friends. teenage experience. At the click of a button, so much more chained to that world than I She credits the honesty of her work to her It feels like a 30 year old man’s attempt to she can revisit her life at 13 in all its pimply, do now,” she tells me, recalling years spent recent coming-out. Her aim is to provide render the complexities of the preteen years; insecure glory. I wonder if this is a bless quaking whenever somebody wished queer representation that she didn’t have the result is uncomfortable. It was supposed ing or a curse. her a happy Friday. growing up. “I’m really making that a prior to be a harmless venture that would allow “It’s pretty weird,” she ac It was during this time that ity with my platform,” she assures me. “I was a kid Black to sing inside a real recording studio knowledges, “it stays in the Black filmed a video with After years of being cast aside, Friday has and perform in her very own music video. void. It wasn’t too long ago Shane Dawson that recently earned its place on Black’s concert setlist. and I was trying And for the first month after the song’s that for some reason I was resurfaced. The video saw She recalls a recent concert playing at a col release it was harmless, racking up a few going back and having a something new, and there Black and Dawson make lege to a crowd her peers. “Every single per thousand views and a handful of comments, look at old videos on my is an innocence in that what many have deemed son knew every single word to that song and most of which had been left by supportive channel and I think what a tasteless and insensitive they screamed it louder than you ever could that I think was lost joke about the Holocaust have imagined,” she tells me, “it was fun. friends and family. But after featuring on strikes me the most is seeing Tosh.0, a popular blog ridiculing Internet the parts of myself that were during a game of charades. There was no meanness in it.” For Black, the at the time.” culture, Friday went viral. And the Internet trying to put on such an act.” Black apologised in a recent tweet, song’s “innocence has been found again.” had a lot to say about it. Ranging from the “[Watch saying she was “deeply ashamed” of her “I had this idea that I had done something concise ‘this is shit’, to the hurtful ‘she has a ing the involvement. Her fans quickly came to her so wrong for so long and that was what was horrible voice and she is ugly’, to the abusive defence, citing her visible discomfort dur hard to forgive myself for but now I have ‘kill yourself’. While some came to her de ing the interaction, as Shane, attempting been able to realise that there wasn’t really fence, these voices were quickly drowned to guess the word written on Black’s card, anything so wrong about it. I see myself as a out by the consensus of the masses – that makes a series of sexualised suggestions: 13 year old who was just trying to have fun Friday was the worst song ever written “Big vagina. Khloë Kardashian’s vagina”. and try something, born out of something and Black deserved everything she got. Black was 16 at the time, Dawson was 25. that she really, really loved. So in that case The video currently has 3.8 million Another recording of him referring to there’s not much to forgive myself for – and dislikes on YouTube. Black as the girl “with the huge tits” has also that is forgiveness itself.” Everyone had something to say come to light. The two are still friends, but Black was one of the first, and perhaps the about Friday at the time, with the she recognises that Dawson “definitely could most successful, people to come back from exception of Black herself, who have done better. And he should have done public shaming. Her refusal to fade into the recalls trying to ‘shut out that better.” background has meant that we have been part of (her) brain’, the part that While Black is able to sympathise with forced to acknowledge the way we treated fully engaged with the abuse her nine years ago. The same generation “how tough it feels to have people define she was receiving, too “fed you by something you did when you that ridiculed her is now asking for her up in (her) own little world were younger”, it’s still an uncomfort forgiveness. Is she ready to give it? “One of 13 year old insecurities” able topic for her. She struggles with hundred percent. I will always accept people to comprehend what was the comments he made. “I don’t know if reflecting in their own ways, looking back happening. there’s a lot I have to say right now,” she and learning from it, and moving forward in This reads in her inter admits, “I’m still dealing with it and still a positive direction.” views at the time: the then trying to understand.” As our conversation draws to a close, I ask 13 year old Black smiles Nine years after Friday and a lot has Black how it feels to know that Friday may opaquely as adults read changed. Now she has bangs, and always be the first thing that comes up if hurtful comments to her. a career that in no part resembles someone googles her. She pauses for a mo In one late night show, the the one the Internet would have ment, searching for the right response.“I audience cheers predicted for her in 2011. Her have made peace with that, and that’s w h e n okay.” music persona has shed all Black says And finally – kicking in the front seat, sit traces of her younger self that the ting in the back seat- is she happy with her – the self-congratulation comments of My Moment, the naivety decision? She laughs. “Always and forever, I ‘really never cared.” of Person of Interest. Her don’t bug Image credit: Bia Jurema recent single, Sweetheart,

William Foxton chats with musician Rebecca Black about trolls, forgiveness and life after Friday

Cherwell | Friday, 16th October 2020

9 CARTOON

Wes Beckett On... A Ripple Effect

Satire

THE UNLIKLEY DEATH OF BORIS JOHNSON DYLAN BARKER MEETS A MYSTERIOUS MAN WHO GIVES HIM A VERY SPECIAL MISSION: “KILL BORIS”

ummertime had been so far, so slow, and I wish it had stayed that way. A succession of studenty cocktail bars and Wetherspoons, interiors unchanged between the uniform provincial towns; the only variation, a new name for each track and trace form. Stevie Caralarms one day, Elijah Binbags the next, Dylan Barker the one after. With one eye peeled for balding Special Branch detectives, trench-coated MI5 agents, and seductress Interpol operatives, the other was free to peruse the local paper of wherever I found myself. The Collier’s Lamp, The Daily Whippet, The Humberside Eejit, all the same mish-mash of thinlyveiled racism, sickly nostalgia, and obituaries; all similarly oblivious to the geopolitical chess match unfolding across the craggy landscape of the North. All tomorrow’s chip rags. And then I saw it...Russian Doll seeks Yorkshire Pudding. Call +7**********. We were beginning to regret those codenames. *** It took me three hours to find an intact phone box, and when I did, it still smelled of piss. We hadn’t spoken since my cock-up of a gap year in Saigon, a tangled mess involving shady figures from the counterfeit-custard-cream trade and the dream machine thingy from Inception. The prospect of phoning him filled me with dread. My fear was misplaced however. Scratched in betting shop ink, on the tart card of buxom strumpet Daniella Craig, a

message: YP, meet RD, 10.30pm @ The Itching Palm *** I shouldered my way through the pub door, glimpsing back to check no one was tailing me. RD, played here in a cameo performance by Michael Caine, was sat at the bar, supping a pint of Theakston’s Old Peculier, flat cap pulled over his bloodshot eyes. A true master of disguise, though his thick Russian accent often shattered the illusion. “Awright owd chap” came his greeting, beer dribbling from his lips onto his jersey. “Could be worse” I yelled, aware two metres might be too far a distance for the distinguished actor’s hearing. I nodded the landlord over, and ordered myself “a Martini, suspended of its disbelief but still bored.”. “The Martini, as some fourth-wall teasing metaphor for your reader, in only your second published piece of writing? Always ‘ad ideas above your station, didn’t you son?”. Defeated, I cut the small talk. “What exactly do you want me for, anyway?” “Somefing very important, owders right from the top,” he pointed at the swirled Artex ceiling, “and we need someone daft enough that the West finks it could ‘av been the perpetrator’s own idea, and not ours.” “What mission?” I asked. “Kill Boris.” Report Number: 5668, Agent: “Dylan Barker”, Date: 30/09/2020, Location: Flodden Field, Northumberland. Various broadsheets had suggested that Boris would be spending

the next weeks in Northumberland, ostensibly for building-site photo ops, but the chatter in the circlesthat-know was that he was here on a false-flag operation, providing cover for an invasion of Scotland. Avoiding built-up areas, I traipsed cross-country through hedgerows, closing in on the quarry with my overdeveloped sense of smell, the stench of the Cabinet’s vacuous ideology heavy on the breeze. The hours dragged. My knees ached. I heard them before I saw them. The dim mutterings and viperous whispers floated across the misty pastures, an alarming chorus of racial slurs, U-turns, and bizarre metaphors. Then, through the fog, I saw shadows of people, their souls lost long ago up their own arseholes. Whilst the junior members felt shame, and attempted to cover themselves in the bracken, the main culprits stood around a career civil servant, preparing to trip him over onto a Scottish broadsword. Before the strong arm of the law arrived, they would plant evidence onsite that pointed northwards (haggis crumbs and three wraps of heroin, these being what the Cabinet consider key Scottish cultural items). This would be tricky. How exactly would I distract these vile creatures? Would I ever complete my mission, slaying Boris and thus simultaneously saving and destroying Western civilisation? And just what was the business in Vietnam with the biscuits? The beginning of some dull joke, without a punchline,

like life? I dashed out into the field, sending the common or garden Tories flying along with their intended sacrifice, scattered like city-centre pigeons in the path of a street-sweeper. Only Michael Kaiser-of-the-Duckpondsof-Leicestershire Gove and Matt the Cackhanded Cockhands HandCock remained by Boris. For HandCocks, a mere round of applause dispatched him, his cockhands unable to participate in the sorry excuse for appreciation, the phalluses merely flapping about until they reached a state of mild arousal. It would be trickier when it came to Gove, his tenacity in the face of his reflection each morning testifying to his sticking power. I reached into my satchel to produce a baggy of that pure Colombian shit, sprinkling the contents across the soggy grass. Gove’s nostrils immediately flared, and his head plummeted to the ground as his Dyson™ nose began to suck, swerving his head to get every last fleck of powder. Sated, he went limp, weighed down by the size of his now extra-inflated ego; a twitching, spasming wreck. Boris fell to his knees, whimpering. “But…why? Who sent you? The flag-waving piccaninnies? The tribal warriors, with watermelon smiles? The tank-topped bumboys? Drunken fans at the back of the crowd? That Japanese ten-year-old? The bank robbers? The letterboxes? Social services?”

Even in death, there would be no redemption. Here we were. My final target in sight. A look of terror pierced his flowing golden locks. I wondered if it had all been worth it. The years of HUMINT work, sleepless nights, ten-hour flights, false identities, new lives, all seemingly for nothing, a mere international pawn. He’d only be replaced with another cardboard cut-out of a human being. Fatigue weighed heavily on my jaded shoulders. And then I did it. Round after round, after round, after round. Four Nerf™ bullets to the forehead is enough to reduce anyone to a puddle of Etonian tears. And with a jolt I awoke from my Covid stress-dream, saved from efficacy and thus prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2006 by the whim of my circadian rhythm. Not that the content of dreams is governed by law. They’re only slightly more dangerous than satire, a combination of tired formats, non-sequiturs and stale cultural references, presented as something with a political point, devoid of research, shock value, or something worth saying. An accent, Scotland, penises, Michael Gove’s face, Michael Gove’s nose. The issues of the day. The only joke is Boris himself. In the shadow of the mop-topped, punchline Prime Minister, all other material nosedives into a dead, silent crowd, to no end, not that an ending is deserved. Badum. No.

Friday, 16th October 2020 | Cherwell

COMMENT

TIKTOK’S TOXIC ‘CHAV’ TREND

AMELIA HORN REFLECTS ON THE HISTORY OF WORKING CLASS STEREOTYPING AND ITS CURRENT MANIFESTATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

ritish school parodies are some of my favourite TikToks. From rating the top ten school hymns (Cauliflowers Fluffy got the top spot, if you’re wondering), to pretending to be the popular girl at school, it’s funny - and a little unnerving – to realise that my childhood was the exact same as everyone else’s. But amongst these generally harmless sketches, TikTok users are contributing to the classist ‘chav’ stereotype that has a long history of working class oppression. I thought we’d had this conversation. In fact, when I first saw one of these videos, I was confused; I checked the likes, not expecting many, and saw they numbered in the millions. In fact, the chav hashtag on the app has almost 1000 million views at the time of writing this. The tag is full of teenagers slapping foundation on, streaking bronzer across their cheekbones, and artfully letting a false eyelash hang off in their impersonation of a ‘chav.’ Hooped earrings, chewing gum, and Victoria’s Secret spray complete the look. In many of these videos, the creator acts out a scene as the ‘chav’: a dumb, loudmouthed girl with a rough accent and poor grammar. A sketch with 2.6 million likes shows a ‘nerd’ transformed into a ‘chav.’ In it, the girl asks for a shower, and is told “Chavs don’t shower.” Another, imitating a character select game screen, describes the ‘chav’ character as “late every day to school”, “bottom set”, and as having “anger issues.” In an uncomfortable display of profiling, one TikTok simply zooms in on a group of pre-teens in tracksuits with the viral sound ‘chav check’ playing in the background. One user describes Khloe Kardashian, among other celebrities,

as “looking chav-ish”, ironically hitting on a key feature of the discriminatory use of the word. ‘Chav’ trends have long been part of the mainstream, but gold hoops, scrunchies, and jogging bottoms on celebrities aren’t considered trashy or cheap. This double standard is the hallmark of appropriation; trendy on the rich and tacky on the poor. TikTok’s chav character is also undeniably gendered. The vast majority of the videos on the ‘chav’ hashtag involve users impersonating ‘chavvy’ women - coarse, gobby, and aggressive. It seems that talking back at the teacher and getting angry isn’t fitting behaviour for the educated, middle class woman. This feeds into the idea, learnt even in our schools, that a girl is quiet, patient, and polite; God forbid she play class clown or act cocky. Our society thinks aggression is reserved for the lower classes; we know this from Jeremy Kyle’s circus of a TV show in which he would bring in low-income families in order to exploit and aggravate serious issues they faced. This is a serious misrepresentation of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. It seems the ‘chav’ caricature, which depicts the working class as trashy, aggressive and antisocial, is making a sinister comeback among a generation who appear ignorant of its role in demonising the lower classes. The etymology of the word chav is unclear, but its harmful associations are obvious from the popular misconception that it is an acronym for ‘council house and violence.’ The media played a large role in legitimising use of the word; ‘chav’ was used in 946 British newspaper articles in 2005. In the same year, Boris Johnson added his unwanted

two cents in a column for the Teleof low social status to justify bengraph in which he described the efit cuts. The myth of the lazy jobUK’s poorest communities as made less masses “scrounging off the up of “chavs”, “losers”, “burglars”, state” was employed time and time “drug addicts” and “criminals.” again during the post-2008 era of The 2003 TV show Little Britain recession. It’s no coincidence that saw Matt Lucas and David Walliams in Little Britain, one of Vicky Pol- two middle-class and privately edlard’s story arcs involves her tryucated comedians - in velour tracking to get pregnant in order to be suits and hoop earrings in an imitaeligible for council housing. The tion of working-class women. Vicky cultural representation of the workPollard, played by Lucas, is a vulgar, ing classes as dirty, stupid, and lazy ineloquent woman who at various creates the ideal political climate points in the show shoplifts, has a for slashing public service funding. teenage pregnancy and swaps the Whilst instances of benefit fraud baby for a Westlife CD, and spends a exist and are of course reprehenyear in prison. Pollard is often seen sible, the effect on the economy is shouting in a broad accent littered grossly exaggerated by the media with poor pronunciation and gramand by pro-austerity politicians. In matical fact, e r r o r s . “ T H E C H AV S T E R E O T Y P E H A S c o m The TikpariTok chav s o n s A LWAY S B E E N P O L I T I C A L ; sketches b e T O P R E T E N D O T H E RW I S E I S t we e n are no m o r e J o b than a TO IGNORE AN ENTRENCHED s e e k modern e r ’ s CLASS SYSTEM day reAllowincarnaance in tion of this kind of tasteless satire. the UK and elsewhere in Europe and There are those who are quick the US show that our government to dismiss this as part and paris one of the least generous. During cel of sketch comedy. But Little Cameron’s majority government, Britain, just like the ‘chav check’ £21 billion was cut from the welfare TikToks, serves to normalise use budget; a UN report in 2019 showed of the chav stereotype. They valithat since 2010 child poverty in the date the false and damaging narUK has risen 7% and homelessness rative, started in Thatcher era, has risen by 60%. The effects of that justified cuts to the welfare austerity politics have been deadly state on the basis that an indifor some low income families, yet vidual is to blame for their poverty. the political and cultural narraThe chav stereotype has always tive offers little in the way of pity. been political; to pretend otherIt is for this reason that the rewise is to ignore an entrenched surgence of chav-bashing is so class system that permeates every dangerous. A society that is comlevel of British society. Politicians passionate and understanding of have long taken advantage of the the many factors that contribute unsympathetic portrayal of those to poverty is necessary in order to

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bridge the vast wealth gap between the rich and poor in this country. It might seem amusing to older generations to think of TikTok as a political space, but a new generation who will soon be of voting age are growing up believing that working class steretypes are acceptable forms of humour. Even accounting for the generational gap is giving them the benefit of the doubt. Teenagers on TikTok are not necessarily to blame for this; a significant proportion of the users making these videos are from the US and elsewhere, and are likely unaware of the history of working class demonisation in the UK. The creator of a ‘chav check’ Instagram filter - disturbing proof that the trend is expanding out of its original platform - is Filipino, and defended the filter by saying: “Since chav culture has become embedded in our meme and pop culture landscape, social media has helped fuel people’s interest in hopping onto trend.” The history of the word has been erased, and now, harnessing the new power of viral internet culture, ‘chav’ is going global. But the phenomenon had to have started in the UK, and there are plenty of British TikTok stars also participating in this new cycle of mocking the working classes. Just last week, over 300 Conservative MPs voted against extending provision of free school meals to children over the school holidays. In a now deleted tweet, one of these politicians, Ben Bradley, linked the provision of free school meals with “crack dens” and “brothels.” The demonisation of the working class lives on, and TikTok is only making it worse - its never been more important to educate yourself on the shameful history of ‘chav-bashing’ in British culture.

FATIMA DOESN’T WANT A JOB IN CYBER (AND SHE KNOWS IT)

CAROL JONES DISCUSSES THE GOVERNMENT’S TONE-DEAF ATTITUDE TO ARTISTS

hroughout the pandemic, the government has been repeatedly criticised for their lack of support for the arts. This was compounded last week with the government’s cyber recruitment advertisements. One of these adverts included a ballet dancer sitting next to the text, ‘Fatima’s next job could be in cyber. (She just doesn’t know it yet).’ The internet exploded at the crass advert. Many pointed out that the advert was only made possible by people in the creative industries, including ballet dancers. This was only made worse by the Culture Secretary visiting the Royal Academy of Dance the same day. At a time when thousands of performers have been unemployed for months and with no sign of being able to return to work, was the internet right in its fury? The dance industry has been one of the worst-hit sectors of the performing arts. The Royal Opera House has lost £3 of every £5. They are now selling a David Hockney painting, estimated at £18 million, to save jobs. The English Na-

tional Ballet had to furlough 85% of its ballet dancers and staff and saw its lowest box office takings since 2011, below 40%. Tours and productions have been cancelled, dancers have had to make the gutwrenching decision over whether to stay in the UK or return to their home country and social distancing rules has meant that dancers have been unable to dance with others. Ballet, indeed any performing art, is not an easy career choice. I should know. Since the age of four I have trained to become a musician and now work as a freelance composer. I studied for years to hone my craft before reaching an undergraduate and postgraduate level. I’ve put in hundreds of hours practising, rehearsing and studying to perform at the highest level possible. I’ve travelled sometimes hundreds of miles across the country to pursue my chosen career and supported the cost of my training by working, sometimes multiple jobs at a time. This is not so that I can have a hobby that I can pick up or drop whenever I fancy, but so

that I can have a career in a sector that is constantly challenging and brings a huge amount to the country, spiritually and financially. This was not the first insult that the government had made towards the creative industries since this pandemic began. At the start of the pandemic, the government stated that performers, the majority of which are freelancers, could claim some of their income through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. However, it soon became apparent that freelancers would only be able to claim 20% of their income. It took the government months before proudly announcing a £1.57 billion package for the arts in July. Unlike packages other countries were using to support those working in the arts, the government’s package meant that money could only be used to protect venues and businesses. It did not support the people who make the arts possible. The final insult was made by Rishi Sunak’s in an interview to ITV News where, when asked specifically about support for musicians and those in the arts,

Sunak suggested that only jobs that were ‘viable’ would be supported and saved and that people should retrain. All of this has occurred at a time when the arts have been in greater demand than ever before. People across the world have turned online to watch British films, television series’, plays, ballets and concerts as well as the flood of free material that our artists have poured online. At a time when people have been unable to see and support loved ones, sometimes for months at a time, the public has turned to the arts to help express their feelings and reconnect with people. For the government to repeatedly disregard the tremendous contribution the arts have made during this pandemic is thoughtless at best and at worst offensive. The idea that the natural progression from ending a ballet career should be working in cyber shows a huge lack of understanding of the industry. Many ballet dancers on ending a performance career continue in the industry in some form, whether as a teacher, choreogra-

pher, director, ballet master/mistress, community arts therapist, performance psychologist, physical physiotherapist, arts journalist, fitness trainer, studio owner. Why wouldn’t they? They’ve invested a lifetime’s work into an industry that they are highly knowledgeable and skilled in. Why would they abandon it? Fatima doesn’t need to retrain. She trained for decades and invested financially and personally to an arts industry that contributed £32.3 billion to the economy in 2018, according to the government’s own report. The thousands of students currently training in the arts don’t need to retrain. They are working in an industry that studies have proven time and again to improve children’s development and our mental and physical health. Those already in the arts don’t need to retrain. They already have a wealth of skills that, if this government is not careful, they will take abroad where they can use them and be respected. The arts are more than ‘viable’. They are vital. When will the government realise this?

11 SOCIETY SPOTLIGHT

Cherwell | Friday, 16th October 2020

THE CHURCH OF ZOOM CHERWELL TALKS TO RACHAEL MOULE, MEMBER OF THE OXFORD INTER- COLLEGIATE CHRISTIAN UNION ON THE NEW REALIT Y OF CHURCH COMMUNITIES AMIDST THE PANDEMIC

rinity term 2020 saw the loss of almost all of the social activities a typical Oxford term has to offer. The usual joys of trips to pubs, clubs, cafes, and even libraries, were gone, and societies found themselves having to adapt to virtual existences. For members of Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU) church is also usually a staple of university life. Amidst the busyness of an Oxford term, it is so wonderful to be able to leave your essay crises and problem sheets behind and venture to a place where you can find comfort and encouragement in hearing from and worshiping God in community. For many, mention of church may conjure up images of stuffy old buildings, long boring lect u r e s , and oldfa sh ioned o r g a n m u s i c . Church, for me at least, is none of those t h i n g s (though I am partial to a bit of organ music). According to the Bible, church is not a building, or even an activity, but a group of people. A people vastly different from one another and yet united by their relationship with Jesus. In his new testament letters, the

Apostle Paul again and again describes the church as a body: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ”. Each individual is like a body part, distinct, yet integral and dependent upon the others. This means that on a Sunday, going to church is an expression of something so much greater – in effect, a family. More than this, what unites these ‘body parts’ is Jesus, who Paul describes as the “head”. Church is a place where the claims of Jesus are examined, a place where the questions of life – who are we? why are we here? how can we have hope? – are explored. In the light of all the past few months have thrown at us we have, perhaps, pondered these questions even more. I n more n o r m a l t i mes, these things have their expression on a Sunday, as we meet together, worship, pray, hear from the Bible, and spend time with one another. Unsurprisingly, people coming from all over the city to speak, sing, and congregate in close quarters is not massively Covid-secure. So,

“O N A S U N D AY, G O I N G TO CHURCH IS AN EXPRESSION OF SOMETHING SO MUCH G R E AT E R – I N E F F E C T, A FA M I LY ”

back in March, Churches made the move online. This, of course, varied in how it looked. For many, Facebook or YouTube livestreams proved invaluable, with services broadcast live. For others, pre-recorded, edited videos were uploaded each Sunday. Still others took to Zoom or the equivalent for a more interactive live option. Many churches were not well equipped for this, and even those which were more tech-savvy found themselves having to dedicate time and resources to working out how best to run services in this new way. It wasn’t a breeze for churchgoers either. Watching a church service from your kitchen table (or even your bed!) is a very different experience to being in your Church community in person. Listening to sermons alone made me all the more appreciative of the usual opportunities to chat through thoughts and questions over lunch afterwards. Watching a recording of a small group of musicians doesn’t compare to the incredible atmosphere of a church family singing together, encouraging one another and praising God. A faceless viewer count simply cannot replace the joy of seeing and meeting in person. Amidst these changes, churches made every effort to maintain community. Postservice Zoom meetings provided a space to catch up with friends and even meet new people, as well as an opportunity for discussion. Throughout the week, small groups continued online, enabling students to support each other and spend time looking at the Bible together. Many churches also coordinated practical support, offering help to local church members left unable to purchase groceries and the like due to the need to selfisolate. These initiatives were an ongoing space of encouragement through a tough few months of isolation, and enabled us to share life together even when we, as students, were scattered across the country and the world. Whilst undoubtedly a strange and unprecedented thing, there have certainly been benefits to doing church online. Potential barriers, like the logistical element of being at a certain place at a certain time, or the social aspect of not knowing anyone were removed, meaning far more people were able to join in. Views on services have far exceeded the number of people churches would usually expect to walk through their doors: a recent survey found that roughly a third

of 18-34-year-olds watched or listened to a church service during lockdown. It seems, then, that churches have something to offer, something people are looking for: community and answers. Ever since they have been legally able, churches across the UK have begun to meet physic a l l y again. T h i s means f a c e masks, socially distanced seating, and restrictions on mingling. But it also means that welcoming communities of people looking at some of life’s biggest questions are up and running again. As the Christian Union, we are overjoyed to see churches back in action in a more normal way and would love to invite you to give church a try. To that end, we’re running ‘Try Church’ (https:// www.oiccu.org/trychurch): you

can sign up, with a friend if you like, to go out for a (free!) coffee with a CU member before heading along to a church service with them. Whether you have never considered church before, or you have been going your whole life, this is a chance to chat to someone who thinks it is wonderful and impor ta nt and to try it out for yourself. I, for one, am longing for a day when facemasks are no longer necessary, and we can sing and natter to our hearts’ content. For now, though, I cannot think of anything better than being able to meet physically with others and find true community centred around some life-changing claims. Churches all over Oxford are reopening their doors; why not pop in?

“CHURCHES ALL OVER OXFORD ARE REOPENING THEIR DOORS; WHY NOT POP IN?”

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Cherwell

FEATURES

AND THEY CALL IT PUPPY LOVE: PETS IN LOCKDOWN YII-JEN DENG

was the kind of child that hankered after a fluffy fourlegged friend – the hopeful child that exasperated parents would try to fob off with animal plushies and Hamsterz Life DS games. I suppose my younger self would have agreed if someone said it’d take something like a global pandemic for us to get a dog. Yet it has happened: there is a yapping furball in our family kitchen. She is funny and sweet and cheerfully instructing us how the outside world is largely a choking hazard. But the process of getting her home also showed that there were more pitfalls for puppies than a few chewable-looking pebbles. Juno is a pandemic puppy – our decision in May inadvertently echoed and reinforced the spike in demand for pets during lockdown. Adoption centres announced soaring rehoming figures. Waiting lists for pets grew ever longer. In

the month after we began searching for a dog, the Kennel Club issued a press release reporting a 168% rise in people looking for puppies using its ‘Find a Puppy’ tool between 23rd March and 29th May, compared to the same period last year. Bill Lambert, its Head of Health and Welfare, warned of ‘this rather terrifying picture of a nation of people who are careless and impulsive when it comes to choosing where and how to buy a dog.’ Such trends raise questions about our relationship with domesticated animals – their uncertain paradoxical identity as both objects and lives, animals and surrogate children. This latter role, pets as family members, is further constructed by consumer goods designed to reinforce this dynamic, not only by providing harnesses in myriad shades, but also offering novelty items – a unicorn rucksack for instance, or dog-friendly popcorn, dog-friend-

ly ice cream, even doggy ‘alcohol’. From this capitalising upon affections, who profits most? It’s an important concern in our tense pandemic period, where pets’ role as consumer goods has been dramatically foregrounded. Rapid sales of dogs in particular exemplify how far they are seen as answers to human emotional needs, at times with scant consideration for their welfare. Dogs are, after all, a far cry from mere plushies and games. The speed at which advertisements came and went when we first went online certainly seemed to support fears of ‘careless and impulsive’ buyers, if not also sellers. Both Pets4homes and Gumtree saw advertisements being answered so rapidly that sales were made within minutes. Several of the breeders we

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contacted, generally on the day the advertisement was put up,

demand for puppies has increased, breeders can charge more especially as people are willing to pay. But then on the other hand, a lot of people have been made redundant, so need the extra money for cash.’ Since they breed cockapoos for a hobby, they can afford to keep the price the same – although potential buyers must now social-distance. ‘We already emphasise hand washing and antibacterial spray a lot even before the pandemic, but I think other breeders should consider anti bac when the customers get in the house, before they hold the puppies, and when they leave.’ Surprisingly, few of the breeders we met were similarly cautious, other than conforming to social distancing requirements. Fears over puppy farms were another reason against carelessness. Although Lucy’s Law – a

One in four dogs bought during lockdown may be from puppy farms apologised that every puppy had been sold. Many noted the ‘huge amount of interest’ and how the response for puppies had been ‘a bit crazy’. Speaking to a breeder selling cockapoo puppies in London, they observed how cockapoos went from highest £1,500 pre-lockdown, to £3,000 during the pandemic (as I write, the most expensive puppies on Pets4homes are miniature dachshunds, each priced at £25,000). ‘I have mixed feelings,’ they said. ‘Some people definitely see it as a money-making option and especially now the

Cherwell | Friday, 30th October 2020

regulation banning puppies from being sold by a third-party seller in an attempt to end puppy farming – came into effect this April, by August the Kennel Club was warning that one in four dogs bought during lockdown may be from puppy farms. While many of us buy our pets for love, in doing so we appropriate their lives for our own purposes, project upon them our own emotions. And like commodities, we make them easily discardable. An article published by The Guardian in August headlined ‘Love you to death: how we hurt the animals we cherish’, offers compelling evidence of how our well-intentioned attitudes to pets have caused problems from environmental damage to poor health amongst popular pedigrees. The very British obsession with pedigrees is one factor encouraging get-richquick breeders to be careless with animal welfare in their haste to meet demand. For all the emotive language around puppy farms, spotting them is not always so straightforward. One breeder we met was licensed by the council but sold various different pedigree dog breeds, as well as shorthair silver tabby kittens (all reserved). The kittens, with their mother, rested in a three-tier indoor cat cage, beside some puppy pens. We could hear noisy barking from another room, while the lady showed us a little Pomeranian, adding we could pick her up whenever. After the visit, we agreed that another breed would better suit our home – before we texted however, we were told she had decided to keep the puppy. Whether or not the breeder was connected to a puppy farm was difficult to ascertain. The RSPCA website notes how ‘normal-looking homes’ can be ‘a shop-front for unscrupulous puppy dealing rings.’ Much more troubling was another breeder who responded to our interest – Douglas Hall Kennels, in Lancashire, which offered to send us more photos by email. As it was situated far away, we researched the breeders beforehand. What we found were posts accusing them of animal abuse, several articles outlining an independent review of their licence, as well as a Change.org petition imploring for people to ‘Shut down Douglas hall kennels and rescue the puppies!’, signed by just over 10,000 people. Describing the puppies as ‘kept in wooden areas with bits of shredded paper to keep them warm’,

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the creator of the petition went on to report breeder to an animal welfare organisation and trading standards. This petition was made two years ago. The breeders are listed by the Welsh dog charity Cariad as among those which they believed would be affected as a result of Lucy’s Law, but are still operating despite continuing concerns from past buyers and local activists. We would not have known this had we simply trusted Pets4homes as a website advertising dogs from reputable breeders. Periodically we saw news articles and posts warning about this or that ‘breeder’ actually being a scammer using a false address. People could take advantage of the pandemic to encourage buyers not to visit, instead employing stock photos or using the situation to sell unhealthy dogs advertised unclearly. Further improvements to the marketplace, such as adding a feature to allow reviews of breeders, could act as preventative measures against scammers, enabling users to gauge the reliability of each advertisement.

Like commodities, we make them easily discardable Eventually, we settled on a breeder in Wales who worked as a nurse. She was lovely and helpful during the videocall, answering our questions and questioning us in turn, showing us the puppy and its mother. The breeder sent regular photos and videos updating us on the puppy until we could collect her at 10 weeks old. Somewhat unadvisedly, we paid the deposit without seeing the puppy in person – a risk we felt had to be taken knowing how quickly puppies were being secured by buyers. All of Juno’s litter of seven were reserved within 24 hours. It is a pressure that no doubt increases the number of ‘impulsive’ purchases during the pandemic. On Pets4homes alone, more than 225,000 were rehomed during June and August. Consider other online marketplaces, and how such patterns have been mirrored in Canada, America, Australia, and you conceive the immense circulation and distribution of pets, taking place at an unprecedented rate of time, and striving to operate ever more rapidly. Since September, Pets4homes has launched a Safety Deposit service that allows sellers to set the required

deposit value, which buyers then pay through Pets4Homes.The deposit is only transferred once both parties confirm they are happy. This, according to Pets4homes, means that ‘deposits for the first time can be placed with greater security and peace of mind’. A significant proportion of sellers have opted into the scheme and, as a response to the pandemic, the speed with which the service has been implemented is impressive. Nevertheless, despite a notice on the website asking buyers to ‘ALWAYS use Pets4homes safe deposit feature when placing a deposit’, many sellers have not. One breeder I contacted in the West Midlands emphasised that they ‘only do deposits as stated on the information provided, PayPal or bank transfer’. Although the service is free to sellers, the processing fee for buyers may be a disincentive. But another breeder in Manchester, advertising a litter of Yorkiepoos without the ‘safety deposit’ being activated, was still open to the idea, ‘if I can figure out how to send them my information’. For many buyers, the Safe Deposit scheme still came too late – one questions why it took a pandemic for the service to be created. Action Fraud observed how, in the first two months of lockdown, 669 people lost about £280,000 from deposits paid to scammers. Reports to Action Fraud in April were more than treble the number of reports in March. But even pre-lockdown the number of online scams were rising. This does not merely mean people losing money, but also – to meet buyers’ demands, exploited by unscrupulous profiteers – thousands of illlooked after puppies falling sick and dying, their lives worth only as much as their cute face or pure blood. We could not quite relax until Juno finally arrived home. In the warm safety of our house, we now ask questions like ‘Can dogs be vegetarian?’ and, more ridiculously, ‘Will she need a raincoat?’

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There’s something terribly farcical in worrying over these questions against the backdrop of a global pandemic, from which nearly a million people have lost their lives. But, while

the previous three months.’ While a pandemic does not feature, the novel’s claustrophobic focus on tensions among the building’s inhabitants echo themes of lockdown. It is heartening to remember how we hugged our dogs rather than devoured them; even so, animals have often been victims of human fear. Cats and dogs were commonly killed during the Great Plague of 1665-66 as they were believed to carry disease; World War II, so often invoked for the Blitz spirit today, also saw the culling of as many as 750,000 British pets by largely well-meaning owners. We love our pets, and this has been proved this year in economic terms, with people panic-buying pet food and pampering them with other treats. The pet industry has significantly benefited, with Pets at Home shares surging by 17% (as designated ‘essential retailers’, the major pet supplier’s stores remained open), with higher annual profits expected this year even as Britain faces the uncertainty of a s e c o n d wave. A n d t h e role of dogs in the coronavi-

Dogs Trust has predicted that up to 40,000 dogs may end up on the streets incongruous, the soaring demand for pets is nonetheless unexpectedly symptomatic, and not only of people’s needs for affection and companionship. Rather, it has exacerbated existing issues in the ways we treat animals. The pandemic puppy-buying boom does not end with the sound of paws scampering around new homes. As people return to work, animal welfare charities have warned of pets being abandoned – Dogs Trust has predicted that up to 40,000 dogs may end up on the streets. Others observe newly alone-at-home dogs suffering from depression; some have already been unsettled by disrupted routines, and puppies may have missed out on socialisation during lockdown. Meanwhile the momentum built up for buying pets during lockdown continues, with prices remaining high and breeders’ waiting lists increasing. S a f e guards are n e e d e d as these trends will continue with a second wave or another national lockdown. Pets4homes’s Safe Deposit service is a promising start; more can be learned from the pandemic’s consequences to address its complex effects. Few, if any, examples of literature on pandemics anticipate humans turning to their pets unless, in the case of more cynical dystopias, to destroy. The striking first sentence of J.G. Ballard’s dystopian novel High Rise begins: ‘Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during

rus pandemic is still evolving, with scientists researching the possibility of training them to detect COVID-19 in humans, potentially speeding-up screening processes. Yet there is the need to go further to protect these animals which we have bred, over the centuries, to be reliant on our care. We talk knowingly of a ‘dog eat dog’ world, but such a metaphor has always spoken more eloquently of human societal flaws than dogs themselves. How so many shall suffer, for our competition. Back home, Juno – here safe, with luck on both her side and ours – scampers out all agog and awake for the world to smile on her. As children from the local primary school spill through the gates, their faces light up behind their face masks as she passes, curious as ever, trusting every one.

Artwork by Emma Hewlett

Friday, 30th October 2020 | Cherwell

SPORT

Louise Earnshaw

know what you’re thinking - isn’t Quidditch the fictional sport where wizards fly around on broomsticks trying to catch magical balls? Yes, and no. Although Quidditch has its roots in Harry Potter, it is so much more than that. Although not recognised by Sports England (meaning Quidditch players are not eligible for a blue), Quidditch is one of the fastest growing sports, with over 800 players throughout the UK. Encompassing elements of handball, dodgeball, and rugby, Quidditch is also unique in being one of the only full-contact, mixed gender team sports in the world. Established by students at Middlebury College (USA) in 2005, Quidditch is now played in over 40 countries worldwide. As a fast-paced and competitive, Quidditch has gained popularity, with teams competing annually in local, regional, national and international tournaments. Each team consists of 7 players, divided between 4 positions. There are 3 chasers, 1 keeper, 2 beaters and a seeker, each of which have different roles whilst on pitch. To tell the positions apart, players wear headbands of varying colours, and each colour designates their position in the game. Chasers wear white, beaters wear black, keepers wear green, and seekers wear yellow. As well as a diverse range of positions, up to 5 balls of different types are on pitch at all times. All of this activity on pitch makes the game even more exciting. Like the wizarding sport, “Muggle Quidditch” is played using broomsticks. Made of roughly 1m of PVC piping, our broomsticks act as a handicap, much in the same way as not using your hands in football. Running with a broom is a little tricky at first, but is something you quickly get used to! At each end of the pitch, there are three hoops, of different sizes, which act as goals. The hoops are guarded by the keeper, while chasers try to score in the opposite hoops. Chasers and keepers can score by throwing, carrying and/or driving the Quaffle- a volleyball- through the hoops. Each hoop is worth 10 points. Beaters attempt to hit the opposing team’s players with bludgers. These are slightly deflated dodgeballs which are used to knock opposing players out of the game. If a player is hit with a bludger, they are “beat” and must dismount their broom and tap back in at their own hoops before they can re-join the game. With three bludgers and four beaters in total on pitch at any one time, competition is fierce, and teams often attempt to steal the opposing teams bludgers to gain bludger control. Beating is therefore one of the most tactical and strategic elements of the game. On both offense and defence, beaters use the bludgers to clear paths for a team’s chasers to score, and help keepers protect their own hoops. Finally, there are the seekers. One of the most common questions we get asked is how the snitch works. Whilst the snitch

Brooms Up! A Guide to Oxford Quidditch does not fly, it is much smaller than the other balls as it is in the Harry Potter world. A referee known as the snitch runner attaches a sock with a tennis ball to the back of their shorts, which the seekers then have to catch to end the game. Snitches are only released 18 minutes into the game, and attempt to evade capture by the seekers. Snitches can run, dodge, and grapple with the seekers to ensure that they are not caught. Once a seeker catches the snitch, the match is over. Another key difference, however, is that the snitch is only worth 30 points, not 150 like in the Harry Potter version. To first time viewers, the game can seem chaotic with 5 balls and 14 players on the pitch at any one time, but the complex strategy involved is what a lot of players enjoy about the game. Each game is always different - with the sheer number of tactical possibilities making it all the more exciting. Due to COVID-19, we have had to adapt the game slightly. In line with government guidance, teams must comply with social distancing restrictions, train in groups of six, with no contact permitted between players. Equipment is not shared between groups, and kit is cleaned before and after training. All teams in the UK are also required to submit a Risk Assessment to Quidditch UK in order to resume training. Most importantly, Quidditch is inclusive and diverse, and welcomes all players regardless of their background. Quidditch is for everyone, irrespective of age, experience, ability or gender- including those from an LGBTQ+ background and who identify within the trans or non-binary

community. both the University of Oxford and Oxford Quidditch is one of the most progressive Brookes University. Originally established sports for gender equality. Positions are in 2011, Oxford boasts one of the oldopen to anyone, regardless of their gender est quidditch clubs in the world. Having identity, allowing all individuals to play as dominated the early years of UK Quidthe gender they identify as within an open ditch, Oxford has recently experienced a and accepting community. resurgence in success, with the Radcliffe One of the major rules is the gender rule: Chimeras (the club’s first team) being no more than 4 players from one team who crowned Development Cup champions in identify as the same gender can be on March 2020. While we may have to wait pitch at a single time. You will frequently a while until the next tournament, the see smaller players tackle players much team is looking forward to continuing its larger than themselves- not something success, hopefully reclaiming the title of often seen in traditional single-sex sports! national champions. While many of our members come from We are lucky to train alongside the local other sporting backgrounds, including community team, the Oxford Mammoths. rugby, hockey and gymnastics, Quidditch Consisting of experienced players, the can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of Mammoths help us to develop as a team ability. Whether you’re a top athlete, or and coach us during tournaments, as a complete beginner, there is always a well as occasionally running joint socials place for you together. on the pitch! OUQC train Don’t worry “QUIDDITCH IS ONE OF THE on Wednesabout getting days and Sunconfused with MOST PROGRESSIVE SPORTS days at 2-4pm rules or makin Univering a mistake, FOR GENDER EQUALITY” sity Parks. We everyone on have regular the team is socials, curfriendly and happy to help. rently a mixture of online and face to face. As a relatively new sport, Quidditch is Quidditch is a great way to get involved constantly evolving. The rules are updated with sport at a university level, regardless on a regular basis, with new ideas, differof your previous sporting background or ent gameplay styles and greater protection experience. “Quidditch is ridiculous in for players. With opportunities to help every single way, but quite frankly who develop the sport on a team, national or cares? It’s the most fun you’ll ever have,” international level, Quidditch continusays Nadine Matough, President of OUQC. ally allows you to push yourself, no matter So if you fancy giving quidditch a go, what level you’re at. come along to one of our training sessions Here in Oxford, Oxford Universities or follow the Oxford Universities QuidQuidditch Club, welcomes students from ditch Club Facebook page.

800

Quidditch players in the UK

Number of points for catching the snitch

Number of players on each team

Number of balls in play

Cherwell | Friday, 30th October 2020

FREDDIE FLINTOFF: LIVING WITH BULIMIA Imogen Hayward

CONTENT WARNING: eating disorders, suicide, links can be found at the bottom

“T

his. This is such a hard thing, to define, or even admit.” The this which Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff refers to is his struggle with a hidden, eating disorder; one which he sceptically labels Bulimia. “Whatever his new diet consists of it seems to be working.” “Flintoff made his critics eat his words.” Both comments are disturbing affirmations from cricket commentators who did not know just how unfathomable Freddie’s relationship with food remained. The commentaries arose after England’s management had made clear they were unhappy with Freddie’s fitness and weight. The documentary shows Flintoff responding to his critics with 42 not out in a one-day game against Zimbabwe on his home ground of Old Trafford. As he collected the Man of the Match award, he remarked his performance was “not bad for a fat lad”. It is striking to me in the programme, omitting the direct discussion from Freddie, how as an athlete every aspect of his body is subconsciously characterised and defined. The persona I had taken for granted on A League of Their Own and Top Gear was one constantly forged by the strains of public criticism and the need to hide insecurities. “For me, my real name’s Andrew… I can identify the two different sides of my personality… Freddie’s that person who goes out on the cricket field or drives cars

and Andrew that’s that bloke who worries about a lot of things… he’s got his own insecurities.” Nobody has the right to know the private ongoings of a person, celebrity or otherwise but Freddie’s astonishing bravery in documenting his private life goes some way to eliminating public bias and encouraging people to get help. Freddie says when entering the Maudsley hospital, South London, which specialises in eating disorders, “Most of the patients here are women”, sat down in the consultant’s

S P O R T S

RUGBY UNION: BRISTOL BEARS Ruari Clayton

It has been an unforgettable year for Pat Lam and his men. History has been made by winning the Challenge Cup, the club’s first European silverware and the side has come third in the English Premiership, equaling their highest ever Premiership placement. Some high profile signings have been invaluable for the Bears’ success – players like Steven Luatua and Charlie Piutau, who have both capped for the All Blacks, and both rank in the top five of the world’s highest paid rugby players. Financial backing from Stephen Lansdown has allowed the Bears to sign talent such as Tonga captain Siale Piutau, England forwards Kyle Sinkler and Nathan Hughes, and most notably Fijian sensation Semi Radradra.

However, this is only half the story. After finally securing promotion to the Aviva Premiership in 2016, the wheels came straight off at the start of the new season, resulting in the sacking of Head Coach Andy Robinson. Bristol Rugby went on to be relegated from the Premiership with a humble three wins at the end of the 2016/17 season. Pat Lam replaced Robinson and the club has gone from strength to strength. Bristol Bears have emerged triumphant, with no small thanks owed to Pat Lam. The energy surrounding the team, the apparent culture of improvement and hard-work, and the emphasis on trusting the process, and each other, are qualities underpinning the remarkable success for the Bears, and are surely symptomatic of the arrival of Pat Lam.

room he states “I’ve never spoken to a male who’s suffered an eating disorder.” Dr Omara Nassem recognises despondently the sad truth that pervades society “men are supposed to be able to cope... it is stigmatised as a female illness.” Yet, intermittently the documentary transitions to some disturbing truths – 1.5 million people in the UK suffer from eating disorders and 25% of these are men. 60% of men with eating disorders do not seek professional help. The slotting of these facts felt harrowingly like different stages

in the illness. Stages were replicated when played against stories from different interviewees - one, in particular, a professional footballer, who could not tell his story as Bulimia had taken his life and so his mother was his mouthpiece. Freddie’s documentary enacts a reality: there are stages, there are different experiences and no two signs or circumstances are ever the same. Each of us is human, susceptible to criticism and life’s hardships and that these are not weaknesses. Though Freddie himself struggles to admit his illness, I do not think this subtracts from the programme. It cements the reality of a man speaking out yet still feeling restricted by the reaction he might receive. The fact he has released such a documentary speaks for him. Not even as a celebrity or as an athlete but as a very private man, going through the same struggles as many men behind closed doors. Though I recognise I am speaking as a woman, the documentary creates a space where men might feel supported or even accompanied in their struggles. The documentary, I think, will have more value for many people, than the value he held for those that were watching the Ashes in 2005. It is a testament to his character and another important step in the platforming of men’s mental health issues. Below are some helpful services if the content of this article feels relevant: ht t ps: // w w w.n h s.u k /cond it ion s/ bulimia/treatment/ https://www.mind.org.uk/informations upp or t / t y p es- of-ment a l-hea lt hproblems/eating-problems/about-eatingproblems/ Image credit: Jonathan Nalder

S H O R T S

BASEBALL: ALYSSA NAKKEN Emily Rosindell In its 151 year history, Major League Baseball has rarely been inclusive of women. Only one woman has ever been eligible to be drafted into the league, and no women have ever officially played in the league. However, at the end of 2019 the San Francisco Giants hired Alyssa Nakken, an experienced baseball coach and softball player, as the first female coach in the history of Major League Baseball. On 20th July 2020, Nakken changed the MLB forever by becoming the first woman to coach on the field during a game. Furthermore, SF Giants Head Coach Gabe Kapler has expressed that Nakken was not hired to make history, she was hired as the best person available for the job.

What does this mean for the professional baseball world? There has been significant backlash from Kapler’s decision to hire Nakken, even from former Giants players. Some have expressed anger over the fact that her professional playing experience is in softball, and not baseball, yet the professional baseball world has made opportunities for women few and far between. There is no entry point for women into playing professional baseball. It is time for a change. Alyssa Nakken has proven, with the Giants having a successful 2020 season, that capable women belong in the baseball world. Although she is the first, she is hopefully the first of many.

Cherwell | Friday, 30th October 2020

FROM THE ARCHIVE

One hundred years ago, two Balliol students had the idea for an Oxford newspaper during the long vacation of 1920. In the century since, Cherwell continues to thrive, remaining entirely independent. Each week, we look back to an article from our extensive archive. Curated by Joe Hyland Deeson

MCCARTHYISM TO TIANANMEN: GOVERNMENTS SPY ON STUDENTS Cherwell reports on the warnings given to Rhodes Scholars that the American government would monitor their actions while in Oxford for potential ‘Un-American Activites’ Vol. 85, No. 2, p.1

Cherwell reports on the threats the Chinese government made against Chinese students at Oxford, many of whom were given an ‘official’ version of the events of Tiananmen Square by representatives from the Embassy in London. Vol. 195, No. 7, p.1